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Bamberg

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For other uses, see Bamberg (disambiguation).
Bamberg
Town
Alte Hofhaltung in Bamberg.
Alte Hofhaltung in Bamberg.
Coat of arms of Bamberg
Coat of arms
Location of Bamberg
Map
CountryGermany
StateBavaria
Admin. regionUpper Franconia
DistrictUrban district
Government
 • Lord mayorAndreas Starke (SPD)
Area
 • Total54.58 km2 (21.07 sq mi)
Highest elevation
386 m (1,266 ft)
Lowest elevation
230 m (750 ft)
Population
 (2006-06-01)
 • Total70,063
 • Density1,300/km2 (3,300/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
96001–96052
Dialling codes0951
Vehicle registrationBA
Websitewww.stadt.bamberg.de

Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main.

Geography

Bamberg is located in Frankonia, 63 km north of Nuremberg by railway, and 101 km east of Würzburg, also by rail. It situated on the Regnitz river, 3 km before it flows into the Main river.

Its geography is shaped by the Regnitz and by the foothills of the Steigerwald, part of the German uplands. From northeast to southwest, the town is divided into first the Regnitz plain, then one large and several small islands formed by two arms of the Regnitz (Inselstadt), and finally the part of town on the hills, the "Hill Town" (Bergstadt).

Like Rome, Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. This has led to Bamberg being called the "Franconian Rome" - although a running joke among Bamberg's tour guides is to refer to Rome as the "Italian Bamberg".

Population

Bamberg is home to nearly 7,000 foreign nationals, including over 4,100 members of the United States Army and their dependents.

History

Town of Bamberg
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Bamberg Cathedral
CriteriaCultural: ii, iv
Reference624
Inscription1993 (17th Session)

During the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region afterwards included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle (Babenberch) which gave its name to the Babenberg family. On their extinction it passed to the Saxon house. The area was Christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda, and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Würzburg.

In 1007, Henry II, King of the Romans, made Bamberg, a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. The emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of Franconia, east of Bamberg. In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. The new cathedral was consecrated May 6, 1012, and in 1017 Henry II founded on Mount St. Michael, near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife Cunigunde gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop. Pope Benedict VIII during his visit to Bamberg (1020) placed the diocese in direct dependence on the Holy See. For a short time Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry and Cunigunde were both buried in the cathedral.

From the middle of the 13th century onward the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, forcing the construction of monumental buildings. In 1248 and 1260 the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs. The old Bishopric of Bamberg was composed of an unbroken territory extending from Schlüsselfeld in a northeasterly direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed in addition estates in the Duchies of Carinthia and Salzburg, in the Nordgau (the present Upper Palatinate), in Thuringia, and on the Danube. By the changes resulting from the Reformation the territory of this see was reduced nearly one half in extent.

The witch trials of the 17th century claimed hundreds of victims in Bamberg and reached a climax between 1626 and 1631 under the rule of Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II. Fuchs von Dornheim. The famous Drudenhaus (witch prison), built in 1627, is no longer standing today, however, detailed accounts of some cases, like that of Johannes Junius, remain. [1]

In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded as "Academia Bambergensis".

In 1759 the possessions and jurisdictions of the diocese situated in Austria were sold to that State. When the secularization of church lands took place (1802) the diocese covered 3,305 km² and had a population of 207,000. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, and in 1803, it became a part of Bavaria.

Bamberg was first connected to the rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since.

After World War I, when a communist uprising took control over Bavaria, the government fled to Bamberg and had to stay for almost two years, before the Bavarian capital Munich was recaptured by Freikorps (see Weimar Republic). The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, thus known as "Bamberger Verfassung" (Bamberg constitution). Bamberg is one of the only cities in Germany that wasn't destroyed by World War II bombings.

In 1973, the town celebrated the 1000th anniversary of its founding.

Historical population

  • 1818: ca. 17,000
  • 1885: 31,521
  • 1905: 45,308

Settlers from Bamberg

Bambrzy (ger. Posen Bambergers) – Poles of German origin, descendants of settlers from area near Bamberg, that were settled in villages around Poznań in the years 1719 –1753.

Main sights

Bamberg Cathedral.
The Bamberger Reiter.

The Old Town of Bamberg is included in the UNESCO World Heritage, since it has retained its medieval look and was one of the few German cities that sustained virtually no damage during WWII. 2005 the city established a documentation centre to support World Heritage activities. Some of the main sights are:

  • Cathedral (1237), with the tombs of emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II
  • Alte Hofhaltung, residence of the bishops in the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Neue Residenz, residence of the bishops after the 17th century
  • Old Town Hall (1386), built in the middle of the Regnitz River, accessible by two bridges
  • Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice"), a colony of picturesque fishermen's houses from the 19th century along one side of the river Regnitz.

Cathedral

The cathedral is a late Romanesque building with four imposing towers. It was founded in 1004 by the emperor Henry II, finished in 1012 and consecrated on May 6, 1012. It was later partially destroyed by fire in 1081. The new cathedral, built by St. Otto of Bamberg, was consecrated in 1111, and in the 13th century received its present late-Romanesque form.

The cathedral is about 94 m long, 28 m broad, 26 m high, and the four towers are each about 81 m high. Of its many works of art may be mentioned the magnificent marble tomb of the founder and his wife, the empress Cunigunde, considered the masterpiece of the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, and carved between 1499 and 1513. Another treasure of the cathedral is an equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman (German: Der Bamberger Reiter). This statue, possibly belonging to the emperor Conrad III, most likely dates to approximately 1200. The statue also serves as a symbol of the city.

Neue Residenz

The Neue Residenz (New Palace) (1698-1704) was initially occupied by the prince-bishops, and from 1864 to 1867 by the deposed King Otto of Greece. The magnificent Rosengarten (Rose Garden) offers excellent views of the city.

Castle Altenburg (German-literally,"older castle")

The Altenburg is located at the highest of Bamberg's seven hills. It was mentioned for the first time in 902 BCE.[citation needed] Between 1251 and 1553 it was the residence of Bamberg's bishops. Destroyed in 1553 by Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, it was used, after scanty repairs, only as a prison, and increasingly decayed.

In 1801 doctor A. F. Marcus bought the castle and completely repaired it. His friend, the famous German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, who was very impressed by the building, lived there for a while. The next owner, Anton von Greifenstein, founded in 1818 an association to save the castle. This society still maintains the whole property today. The Altenburg serves as an expensive restaurant and a beautiful view.

Other sights

Bamberg Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall)

Other noteworthy churches are the Jakobskirche, an 11th-century Romanesque basilica; the St Martinskirche; the Marienkirche or Obere Pfarrkirche (1320-1387), which has now been restored to its original pure Gothic style. The Michaelskirche, 12th-century Romanesque (restored), on the Michaelsberg, was formerly the church of a Benedictine monastery secularized in 1803, which now contains the Burgerspital, or almshouse, and the museum and municipal art collections.

Of the bridges connecting the sections of the lower town the most interesting is the Obere Brücke, completed in 1455. Halfway across this, on an artificial island, is the Rathaus or City Hall (rebuilt 1744-1756). The royal lyceum, formerly a Jesuit college, contains notable collections and the royal library of over 300,000 volumes. The picturesque Old Palace (Alte Hofhaltung) was built in 1591 on the site of an old residence of the counts of Babenberg. Noteworthy among the monuments of the town is the Maximilian fountain (1880), with statues of Maximilian I of Bavaria, the emperor Henry II and his wife, Conrad III and St Otto, bishop of Bamberg.

Beer

The Klosterbräu brewery and the rooftops of Bamberg.

Bamberg is also known for smoked beer (or Rauchbier in German). The most famous being Schlenkerla "Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier" from the Heller brewery and which can be enjoyed fresh at the Schlenkerla tavern on the Dominikaner Strasse in the old town.

Bamberg is currently (2005) home to 9 traditional breweries (Brauerei Fässla, Brauerei Greifenklau, Brauerei Heller-Trum ("Schlenkerla"), Brauerei Kaiserdom, Keesmann Bräu, Klosterbräu, Mahrs Bräu, Maisel Bräu and Brauerei Spezial) and one modern brewpub (Ambräusianum)[2] which is unprecedented in a city of only 70,000 people.

Education

The University of Bamberg, named Otto-Friedrich University, offers higher education in the areas of social science, business studies and the humanities, and is attended by more than 9300 students. Bamberg is also home to eight secondary schools called Gymnasien:

  • Clavius-Gymnasium
  • Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium
  • Eichendorff-Gymnasium
  • E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Gymnasium
  • Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium
  • Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium
  • Maria-Ward-Gymnasium
  • Theresianum

There are also numerous other institutes for primary, secondary, technical, vocational and adult education.

Traffic

  • Railway: The InterCityExpress main line #28 (Munich - Nuremberg - Leipzig - Berlin - Hamburg) runs through Bamberg. To Munich the train journey takes about two hours. To Berlin it takes about four hours as of 2007; but construction of a new, shorter and faster connection through the Thuringian mountains has been underway for some years.
    East-west connections are poorer. Bamberg is connected to other towns in eastern Upper Franconia such as Bayreuth, Coburg, and Kronach, with usually at least an hourly regional service. Connections to the west are hourly regional trains to Würzburg, which is fully connected to the ICE network. Tourists arriving at Frankfurt International Airport will have to change trains in Würzburg to get to Bamberg or take a detour via Nuremberg.
  • Motorways: Bamberg is not near any of the major (i.e. single-digit) Autobahns. But it is neverteheless well connected to the network: the A70 from Schweinfurt (connecting to the A7 there) to Bayreuth (connecting to the A9) runs along the northern edge of the town. The A73 on the eastern side of town connects Bamberg to Nuremberg (connecting to the A9) and will, once construction is completed, extend further north into Thuringia, ending at Suhl (Anticipated completion date is 2008).
  • Water transport: the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal begins near Bamberg. With its completion in 1992, uninterrupted water transport was made possible between the North Sea and the Black Sea.
  • Local Transport: local transport within Bamberg relies exclusively on buses. More than 20 lines connect the outlying quarters and some villages in the vicinity to the Central Bus Station. In addition, there are several "Night Lines" (the last of these, though, tend to run around midnight) and some Park and Ride lines from parking lots on the periphery to the town centre.
    A short-lived tram system existed in the 1920s.

Politics

Bamberg is an independent city. Its town council (Stadtrat) and its Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) are elected every six years, though not in the same year. Thus, the last municipal election for the town council was in 2002, for the Lord Mayor in 2006.

Stadtrat (Town Council)

As of July 2006, the town council comprises 18 CSU councillors, 9 SPD councillors, 6 Green councillors, and 4 councillors of the Freie Wähler - Bamberger Realisten, a local political movement. These four parties achieved the number of councillors necessary to form a caucus. In addition, the Bamberger Bürger-Block, the far-right Republicans (Germany), and independents are represented by one councillor each, making them ineligible for caucus status. This is the result of the municipal elections of 3 March 2002 and several councillors' changes in political allegiance since then. Voter turnout in 2002 was 50.33 per cent.

Oberbürgermeister (Lord Mayor)

Lord Mayors since 1945:

The 2006 mayoral election As can be seen from the list above, Bamberg's voters elected conservative mayors in most if not all elections after World War II (independent Herbert Lauer ran on a fairly conservative ticket). The mayoral elections of 2006, in the first ballot of which Social Democrat Andreas Starke received 45.93% only to move on to trounce his CSU opponent Peter Neller in the second ballot with 71.75% of the vote were thus somewhat surprising[1].

Twin towns

Born in Bamberg

Famous denizens

See also

  • Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
  • Brose Baskets Bamberg: current German basketball champions and first German basketball team to reach the top 16 in the Euroleague.

References

  1. ^ "The Witch Persecution at Bamberg". Hanover College. Retrieved 2007-08-26. On Wednesday, June 28, 1628, was examined without torture Johannes Junius, Burgomaster at Bamberg, on the charge of witch-craft: how and in what fashion he had fallen into that vice. Is fifty-five years old, and was born at Niederwaysich in the Wetterau. Says he is wholly innocent, knows nothing of the crime has never in his life renounced God: says that he is wronged hefore God and the world, would like to hear of a single human being who has seen him at such gatherings [as the witch-sabbaths].
  2. ^ http://www.ratebeer.com/Place/germany/bamberg/ambr%C3%A4usianum/5908.htm
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