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''For other meanings for Augsburg: See Augsburg (disambiguation)''
'Augsburg' is a city in south-central Germany. It is the capital and the largest city of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria, and is located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers. The population was 276,193 in 2004.

Contents

History

Main sights

Incorporations

Historical population development:

Partner cities

Commerce and infrastructure

Transport

Public transport

Rail services

Education

Notable citizens

Miscellaneous

See also

References

External links

History

Main articles: History of Augsburg

The city was founded in 15 BC in the reign of Roman emperor Augustus as a garrison called '''Augusta Vindelicum'''. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia. 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 Nördlingen, 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 woollen mills, machine shops, and manufacturers of acetylene gas, paper, chemicals, jewellery, 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 Nürnberg and become Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg 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.^[1]
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 U.S. 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.

Main sights

★ The Town Hall, built in 1620 in Renaissance style

★ ''Perlachturm'', a bell tower built in 1182

★ Fuggerei (see above)

★ 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, Leopold Mozart was born there and Mozart visited on several occasions)

★ Childhood home of Bertolt Brecht

Incorporations

Year	Municipality	Area
July 1, 1910	Meringerau	9.5 km²
January 1, 1911	Pfersee	3.5 km²
January 1, 1911	Oberhausen	8.6 km²
January 1, 1913	Lechhausen	27.9 km²
January 1, 1913	Hochzoll	4.4 km²
April 1, 1916	Kriegshaber	59 km²
July 1, 1972	Göggingen
July 1, 1972	Haunstetten
July 1, 1972	Inningen

Historical population development:

Year	Population
1635	16,432
1645	19,960
1806	26,200
1830	29,019
December 1, 1871 ¹	51,220
December 1, 1890 ¹	75,629
December 1, 1900 ¹	89,109
December 1, 1910 ¹	102,487
June 16, 1925 ¹	165,522
June 16, 1933 ¹	176,575
May 17, 1939 ¹	185,369
September 13, 1950 ¹	185,183
June 6, 1961 ¹	208,659
May 27, 1970 ¹	211,566
June 30, 1975	252,000
June 30, 1980	246,600
June 30, 1985	244,200
May 27, 1987 ¹	242,819
June 30, 1997	257,300
December 31, 2002	259,231
December 31, 2003	259,217
December 31, 2004	260,407
December 31, 2005	263,804
December 31, 2006	269,449

¹ Census result

Partner cities

★ Inverness, Scotland, since 1956

★ Amagasaki, Japan, since 1959

★ Nagahama, Japan, since 1959

★ Bourges, France, since 1963

★ Dayton, United States, since 1964

★ Liberec, Czech Republic, since 2001

★ Jinan, People's Republic of China, since 2004
Information on the partner cities can also be found at www.augsburg.de

Commerce and infrastructure

Transport

The main road link is the autobahn A 8 towards Munich and Stuttgart

Public transport

Public transport in Augsburg is controlled by the Augsburger Verkehrsverbund (Augsburg transport union, AVV), which extends over central Swabia, and includes four tram lines, 27 city bus and six night bus lines as well as several taxi companies.
The tram network is now 35.5 km-long following the opening of new lines to the university in 1996, the northern city boundary in 2001 and to the Klinikum Augsburg (hospital) in 2002. Two more tram lines are planned to be completed in 2011.

Rail services

Augsburg has seven stations, including the Hauptbahnhof (main station), which was built from 1843 to 1846 and is Germany’s oldest main station in a large city still in service in its original building. It is currently being modernized and an underground tram station is being built under it. It is on the Ulm–München line and is connected by ICE and IC services to Munich, Berlin, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart. In addition EC and night train services connect to Amsterdam, Paris and Vienna and connections will be substantially improved by the creation of the planned Magistrale for Europe.
The AVV operates six Regionalbahn lines from the main station to:

★ Mammendorf/Schmiechen

★ Aichach/Radersdorf

★ Donauwörth

★ Dinkelscherben

★ Schwabmünchen

★ Klosterlechfeld.
Starting in 2008, the regional services are to be operated to S-Bahn frequencies and are to be developed in the long term into the Augsburg S-Bahn.

Education

Augsburg is home to the following universities and colleges:

★ University of Augsburg, founded in 1970 [1]

★ Fachhochschule Augsburg

Notable citizens

★ Paulus Hector Mair, 16th century martial artist.

★ Jakob Fugger Noted banker and financial broker (1459-1525). An area within the city, called the Fuggerei was set aside for the poor and needy. Founded in 1519.

★ Hans Holbein the Elder (ca. 1465–1524), a pioneer in the transformation of German art from the Gothic to the Renaissance style.

★ Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

★ Bertolt Brecht, famous German writer.

★ Julius Schiller, lawyer and astronomer.

Miscellaneous

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.

See also

★ List of civic divisions of Augsburg

★ League of Augsburg

★ Augsburg College A private Lutheran College in the United States that takes its name from the Augsburg Confession.

★ List of mayors of Augsburg

★ Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine, who also used biodiesel

★ Augsburg Academy A private Lutheran elementary school in Beltsville, Maryland, that takes its name from the City of Augsburg.

References

1. Edward Victor. ''Alphabetical List of Camps, Subcamps and Other Camps.'' http://www.edwardvictor.com/Holocaust/List%20of%20camps.htm


★ ''Die Chroniken der schwäbischen Städte, Augsburg'', (Leipzig, 1865-96)

★ Werner, ''Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg'', (Augsburg, 1900)

★ Lewis, "The Roman Antiquities of Augsburg and Ratisbon", in volume xlviii, ''Archæological Journal'', (London, 1891)

External links

★ Stadt Augsburg Official site (English version)

★ Augsburg Region Tourism

★ Fotosafari Augsburg An interactive set of pictures which allows you to explore Augsburg

★ Sites in German:

★
★ Augsburg City Plan

★
★ District of Augsburg