DISCOVER AUGSBURG, Bavaria

The patron saint of Augsburg is Saint Afra, who was killed by the Romans at Augsburg in 304. An earlier patroness was Zisa, referenced in the 11th century, (feast day September 28), possibly an early Germanic goddess and originally the consort of Tiwaz.

The White Water Canoeing events for the 1972 Summer Olympics were held on the Lech in Augsburg. The facilities are still open to the public.

HISTORY OF AUGSBURG

The city was founded in 15 BC in the reign of Roman emperor Augustus as a garrison called Augusta Vindelicorum. It was laid to waste by the Huns in the fifth century, by Charlemagne in the eighth, and by Welf of Bavaria in the eleventh; it rose each time only to greater prosperity.

It became an Imperial Free City on March 9, 1276. Given its strategic location on the trade routes to Italy, it became a major trading centre. It produced large quantities of woven goods, cloth and textiles, and was the base for the Fugger banking empire. The Fuggerei, part of the city devoted to housing for the needy citizens of Augsburg, was founded in 1516 and is still in use today.

In 1530 the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg. Following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, after which the rights of religious minorities in imperial cities were to be protected, a mixed Catholic-Protestant city council presided over a majority Protestant population. Until the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), religious peace in the city was largely maintained despite increasing confessional tensions. In 1629 Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution resulting in the installation of an entirely Catholic city government that radically curtailed the rights of local Protestants.

This persisted until April 1632, when the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus took the city without resistance. Just over two years later, the Swedish army was routed at nearby Nordlingen, and by October 1634 Catholic troops had surrounded Augsburg. The Swedish garrison refused to surrender and a disastrous siege ensued through the winter of 1634-5, during which thousands died of hunger and disease.

These difficulties, together with the discovery of America, and of the route to India by the Cape, conspired to destroy the town's prosperity.

In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Augsburg lost its independence and became part of the kingdom of Bavaria. It increased considerably in industrial importance in the nineteenth century. It contained large cotton and woolen mills, machine shops, and manufacturers of acetylene gas, paper, chemicals, jewelry, and leather.

Out of one acetylene gas plant the company KUKA was founded (1898) as Keller und Knappich Augsburg, today one of the leading companies for industrial robots. Also it gave birth to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (Later to merge with Maschinenfabrik Nurnberg and become Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nurnberg or MAN AG) - a machine factory where Rudolf Diesel pioneered commercial production of his Diesel engine.

During World War II, various subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp were located in the city. They supplied slave labour to local industry.

In 1941 Rudolf Hess took off from a local airport and flew to Scotland to meet the Duke of Hamilton and attempt to mediate the end of the European front of World War II and join sides for the upcoming Russian Campaign.

In 1945 elements of the US Army occupied the heavily damaged city. An American Military presence in the city started with the 11th Airborne Division, moving to the 24th Infantry Division, US Army Seventh Corps Artillery, and, ending with the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which left the area in 1998.


SIGHTS OF AUGSBURG

• Town hall built in 1620 in Renaissance style
• Perlachturm, a bell tower built in 1182
• Fuggerei
• Bishop's Residence, built about 1750 in order to replace the older bishop palace; today the administrative seat of Swabia
• Cathedral, founded in the 9th century
• Augsburger Puppenkiste, a very famous marionette theater
• Eiskanal
• Dorint Hotel Tower
• Der Goldene Saal
• St. Ulrich and St. Afra - one church is Roman Catholic, the other Lutheran, the duality a result of the Peace of Augsburg concluded in 1555 between Catholics and Protestants
• Mozarthaus Augsburg (The composer's father was born there and Mozart visited on several occasions)
• Das Haus von Bertold Brecht

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