Showing posts with label Hof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hof. Show all posts

Remaining Nazi Sites in Swabia

Augsburg
Augsburg unter dem HakenkreuzAugusta Vindelicorum had been founded in 15 BCE by Drusus and Tiberius on the orders of their stepfather, the emperor Augustus. The name means "Augusta of the Vindelici". This garrison camp became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia by roughly 120 CE, enjoying growth as part of its four hundred year affiliation with the Roman Empire and due to its excellent military, economic and geographic position at the convergence of the Alpine rivers Lech and Wertach, and with direct access to most important Alpine passes. Thus, Augsburg was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages. Augsburg was sacked by the Huns in the 5th century, by Charlemagne in the 8th century, by Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, and by Anglo-American retribution in the 20th century; arising each time to greater prosperity. 
Hitler first visited Augsburg in March 1920 through contact with his patron Gottfried Grandel who, on March 13, 1920, also organised his flight from Augsburg to Berlin. In Augsburg, the Nazis commemorated October 27, 1922 as the founding date of their local party and celebrated the site of its founding at the Cafe Pelikan in the Jakobervorstadt. On January 12, 1921, Hitler gave a speech in Augsburg on the subject of "The Worker in the Germany of the Future" at the Café Mamimilian. A second speech by Hitler in the same café followed on May 10, 1921. Hitler also spoke at the Sängerhalle on May 29, 1923 and July 6, 1923. The Sängerhalle was located near the area in front of the Congress Hall today. The creation of a local SA group in Augsburg dated to November 1922 after the party had requested protection at a meeting which resulted in nearly fifty men from Munich being sent, who arrived at the station with flags and singing. It was claimed that the local SA group passed its baptism of fire in the Ludwigsbau on March 2, 1923. The Ludwigsbau at the time stood where the congress hall is today; demolished in 1965 due to the perceived danger of collapse of its dome. It was in 1923 that communists prevented the Nazi speaker from talking, leading to beer steins being thrown before a general brawl arose. The police cleared the hall and the melee continued outside spreading to Königsplatz.

Augsburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz
Königsplatz on the right after it had been renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz.  
After being banned as a result of the failed Beer Hall putsch, the local Augsburg Nazi party was reformed in March 1926 under the leadership of Karl Wahl. That year Hitler appeared in front of an Augsburg court because of a traffic accident and, on July 31, he returned to Augsburg accompanied by Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels, the latter speaking in front of about 3,000 people. On December 19, Hitler gave a speech in Saalbau Herrle. On March 12, 1927 Hitler spoke at the Sängerhalle and on December 17, in Saalbau Herrle. On May 17, 1928, he returned to the Sängerhalle and on October 23, 1928, he attended a Nazi rally at the Ludwigsbau, organised by Karl Wahl. At the start of that month Gallus Schneider was appointed leader of the Augsburg Nazi Party  who would remain Nazi Kreisleiter until 1945 and until his death in 1975 remained a convinced Nazi. The result of the Reichstag election of 1928 shows that the Nazis were still a predominantly Bavarian phenomenon until the end of the twenties. 2.6% of the votes in the Reich were a marginal result, compared to 7% in Augsburg. In the local elections in 1929, the Nazis moved for the first time were represented in the Augsburg city council: out of fifty seats, they won three- Schneider, Hans Rehm (a butcher and later chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and the administrative official Josef Mayr, later mayor of Augsburg. From 1930 until the end of 1932, the number of Nazi representatives tripled to around 1,800 to become the second largest party after the SPD. Their strongest areas of support in Augsburg was the Südend (Bismarckviertel, Hochfeld), their weakest support in Lechhausen.
Augsburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz
Adolf-Hitler-Platz and Annastraße
From 1929 an ϟϟ group was established in Augsburg under the orders of Himmler during a stay in the town. At first it consisted of ten men but by the beginning of 1933 there were almost 500. In 1931 the notorious Hans Loritz took over the ϟϟ leadership.On September 8, 1930 Hitler spoke again at the Sängerhalle. This was during a time of increased violence. Between 1930 to 1932 there were 440 public meetings and demonstrations in Augsburg. One Nazi march was disrupted when Christmas tree balls filled with gasoline were thrown into the torchlight procession leading to SA, ϟϟ and Mounted Police beating up bystanders. As flower pots flew a chant sounded: "Workers: let flowers speak." Augsburger police director Dr. Ernst Eichner on January 23 1933- exactly a week before Hitler was appointed Chancellor- declared that it was impossible for the police to protect Nazi marches, because they allegedly did not disturb public safety. Eichner did refer to the Nazi tactic during street fights in which the police had to stand and salute immediately when the national anthem was played. The report was fatal to Eichner- despite joining the Nazis in March 33 to go so far as joining the Ministry of the Interior, Hitler was informed of this report and declared how upset he was that "this honourless characterless lumpen was still in government service." Eichner was sent to Dachau in so-called protective custody, but was released after a few days. On April 16, 1932 Hitler spoke twice in Augsburg, at the Ludwigsbau and Sängerhalle, and on November 5 he again attended a Nazi demonstration. On May 1, 1933, the big May Day of the Nazis was to take place at the Sängerhalle. The hall was decorated with countless swastika flags. However, in the early morning hours the hall burned down completely. Raids and arrests in the poor quarters and communist quarters took place. Thus Augsburg had its own local version of the Reichstag fire. To this day no-one knows whether it was accidental or the act either of a single person or of Nazi opponents.  
Augsburg swastikas Nazis
Propaganda during the Reichstag elections of November 12, 1933. The sign above the clock reads "Wir wollen kein Volk minderen Rechts sein." After being appointed Chancellor, the Nazis celebrated in Augsburg as in the rest of the country with torches and parades. On February 1, the Augsburger Nationalzeitung wrote how "[t]he brown soldiers celebrated the victory of their leader by conquering the streets that were previously closed by the spell. In long rows, the brown crowd marched through Hermanstraße, Hallstraße, Maximilianstraße, Moritzplatz, Bürgermeister-Fischer-Straße, Königsplatz, Fuggerstrasse with music. For the first time the step of Hitler's battalions sounded in these streets." Due to the emergency decree for the protection of the German people, all communist events were banned and their press suppressed. Even the SPD was affected- their paper The Augsburg Swabian People's Daily was banned on March 10. Despite this, the Nazis managed only 44% nationwide support in this last election; it was even worse for the Nazis in Augsburg as they managed only 32% mostly from the brown strongholds of the Südend (Hochfeld, Bismarckviertel, Antons, Thelottsviertel) as well as in the Spickel and Hochzoll where they achieved results over 40%. The democratic parties SPD and BVP together had a clear majority. On March 9, four days after the Reichstag election, Hans Loritz hoisted the Nazi flag on the Perlachturm at four o'clock in the morning with four SA and ϟϟ men. In the morning Gauleiter Wahl then occupied the town hall, where he himself was employed as chancellery secretary, and from the balcony also had the party flag, the white-blue and the black-and-white-red raised, symbolising the Nazi revolution. Mayor Bohl and Council of Elders protested, but they left it at that. No protests made about  trespassing, no informing the police; the flags stayed. Terror began to spread to the city government. Nazi AugsburgOn March 9 the SA and ϟϟ were declared auxiliary police- in Augsburg this translated into thirty ϟϟ and seventy SA men, leading to the real start of the harassment of political opponents. Four days later at the Siegesdenkmal in Fronhof they burned the Black-Red-Gold flags of the Republic. Mayor Bohl and other representatives of the governments of Swabia and Neuburg were present as invited guests. As a result of their complicity, the Nazis, as their newspaper rejoiced, received "state sanction" at a time when the majorities in city council and city government were still in favour of democratic parties. 
In May, the SPD, which had previously been excluded from almost all municipal committees, left the city council under pressure from the national socialists, on July 5 the BVP followed. The deputies of the DNVP joined the Nazi faction. At the council meeting of April 28, the second mayor of the SPD, Friedrich Ackermann, was formally retired and Nazi Josef Mayr, who had already taken the office in advance, was elected new mayor. On July 31, the Lord Mayor Otto Bohl (BVP) was finally dismissed and replaced at the city council meeting on August 3 by Nazi Edmund Stoeckle, the mayor of Lindenberg in the Allgäu. Stoeckle, however, could not possibly gain the confidence of the party leadership and was replaced by Josef Mayr in December 1934. The takeover of power in the city was thus completed.  As early as March 9, communist officials were held in "protective". Whilst the arrests were initially directed against Communists and Social Democrats, Jews and other disobedient persons, as well as members of the BVP, quickly became targeted. The fire of the Sängerhalle (today's Wittelsbacher Park) on April 30, 1934 was also a cause of a wave of arrests. When Bavaria was then divided into six Gaue, Augsburg become the capital of the Gaues Schwaben.
Augsburg  Jakobskirche from the Jakobertor
Looking at Jakobskirche from the Jakobertor
The city of Augsburg made Hitler an honorary citizen on April 25, 1935. Up until then such honours were given only at the end of a career. On September 25 that year Hitler visited the Golden Hall of the town hall with Mayor Mayr, Mayor Kellner, Obergruppenfuehrer Brückner, Schaub and Gauleiter Karl Wahl. On November 21 and 22, 1937 Hitler arrived at the Hotel Drei Mohren where he presented himself to his supporters on the balcony. In the presence of Prof. Giesler, Prof. Speer, city councilor Sametschek, mayor Kellner, Kreisleiter Schneider, Mayor Mayr and Gauleiter Karl Wahl, building plans for Augsburg's future as Gau capital were again presented to Hitler. Hitler later that evening attended a performance in the converted and expanded Theatre Augsburg with the Lord Mayor, Lieutenant General, and Gauleiter Karl Wahl. Hitler also visited the Messerschmitt works accompanied by Messerschmitt, director Henze, Obergruppenführer Brückner, Lieutenant General Bergmann, and Lieutenant-General Udet. At night, Hitler received a "tattoo" from the Wehrmacht in front of the Hotel Drei Mohren.

Augsburg gauforum
The planned gauforum. Königsplatz was renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz; since this street was created after the demolition of the city walls after 1860, it had been created in the style of the time as a broad boulevard and was therefore suitable for the Nazis' mass marches. In Hitler's plans, this axis, which continues straight to Theodor-Heuss-Platz (then Benito-Mussolini-Platz) and running parallel to the "old" boulevard Karolinen-Maximilianstraße, would become the new deployment arena in the course of the planned Gauforums. Hitler had planned for Augsburg a monumental axis. After the Sängerhalle had burned down on May 1, 1934, the city issued an architectural competition. The first prize went to the design of the young Augsburg architect Thomas Wechs who would go on to build many Augsburg churches after the war. Wechs's plan provided for a modern construction with nineteen narrow, high windows in Wittelsbacher Park, where the hotel tower stands today. Hitler, presented with the draft, expressed his displeasure and drew his ideas in the presence of the architect with red pencil in the draft to produce a far more massive construction. In 1937 Hitler informed Wahl and Mayr that he wanted to equip the Gau capital Augsburg with a completely new large Gauforum. He commissioned his favourite architect Hermann Giesler, recently responsible for the Ordensburg Sonthofen. The planned Gauforum was to be located on a 48-metre-wide boulevard beginning at the Stadttheater and leading arross Königsplatz and today's Konrad Adenauer Allee to the Theodor Heuss platz. The actual centre would consist of a huge meeting hall for 20,000 people, a gigantic parade ground 165 metres by 140 metres surrounded by arcades, and finally a party gau house with two courtyards and four 43 metre-high corner towers. A 116 metre high bell tower was supposed to tower over all other towers of the city- Ulrich, Perlach, cathedral
Augsburg Weberhaus behind the Merkurbrunnen
In front of the Weberhaus behind the Merkurbrunnen
The monstrous structures were to be built south of the Königsplatz, west of the Konrad Adenauer Allee / Schießgrabenstraße. All of Beethovenviertel would have been demolished, including of course the synagogue. The city had to acquire nearly 100 plots, demolishing 66 buildings in the process. Although the south of Augsburg had areas available that could have been cultivated without cultural vandalism, the idea was to build a boulevard which would overshadow the historic mass and height of the past. The soil level was higher by nature, but would still be artificially raised. Kreisleiter Schneider admitted in his report to the Gauleiter that narrow-minded citizens reject all new things, and the general opinion was that the city needed more housing than monstrous palaces. Nevertheless, in the autumn of 1939 the foundation stone was to have been lain but for the outbreak of the war. Fuggerstrasse had already been cleared of its front gardens and trees along the avenue- they are missing today. It was all estimated to cost 166 million RM. At a time when a house could be built for 10,000 RM, considering the necessary relocation of the station and the district heating plant, 200 millions would not have sufficed. Nevertheless, the plans were under the special protection of Hitler; only Weimar, Hamburg and Munich were so sponsored.
Nazi flags in AugsburgThe main street in 1941, the year that Rudolf Hess flew from an aerodrome near Augsburg to the United Kingdom at 17.45 on Saturday, May 10 alone over the North Sea to Scotland to meet the Duke of Hamilton before crashing in Eaglesham in an attempt to mediate the end of the European front of the war and join sides for the upcoming Russian Campaign. Augsburg was historically a militarily important city due to its strategic location. During the German re-armament before the war, the Wehrmacht enlarged Augsburg's one original barracks to three: Somme Kaserne (housing Wehrmacht Artillerie-Regiment 27); Arras Kaserne (housing Wehrmacht Infanterie Regiment 27) and Panzerjäger Kaserne (housing Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 27 (later Panzerjäger-Abteilung 27). Wehrmacht Panzerjäger-Abteilung 27 was later moved to Füssen.  During the war, one subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp was located outside Augsburg, supplying approximately 1,300 forced labourers to local military-related industry, most especially the Messerschmitt AG military aircraft firm headquartered in Augsburg. This is also the hometown of Jakob Grimminger, famous for having been awarded the honour of carrying the blood-stained Blutfahne from the Munich putsch.  
Augsburg einst jetztIn 1941, Rudolf Hess without Hitler's permission secretly took off from a local airport. The Reichswehr Infanterie Regiment 19 was stationed in Augsburg and became the base unit for the Wehrmacht Infanterie Regiment 40, a subsection of the Wehrmacht Infanterie Division 27 (which later became the Wehrmacht Panzerdivision 17). Elements of Wehrmacht II Battalion of Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 99 (especially Wehrmacht Panzerjäger Kompanie 14) was composed of parts of the Wehrmacht Infanterie Division 27. The Infanterie Regiment 40 remained in Augsburg until the end of the war, finally surrendering to the Americans when in 1945, the American Army occupied the heavily bombed and damaged city.  Following the war, the three barracks would change hands confusingly between the American and Germans, finally ending up in American hands for the duration of the Cold War. The former Wehrmacht Kaserne became the three main American barracks in Augsburg: Reese, Sheridan and FLAK. US Base FLAK had been an anti-aircraft barracks since 1936 and US Base Sheridan "united" the former infantry barracks with a smaller Kaserne for former Luftwaffe communications units.  The American military presence in the city started with the 11th Airborne Division, followed by the 24th Infantry Division, the American Army Seventh Corps Artillery, USASA Field Station Augsburg and finally the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which returned the former Kaserne to German hands in 1998. Originally the Heeresverpflegungshauptamt Südbayern and an Officers' caisson existed on or near the location of Reese-Kaserne, but was demolished by the occupying Americans.
Augsburg Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz during Third Reich
The Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz surrounded by Nazi flags and today, and being dismantled in 1940 for safety during the war shown below on the right. The fountain was erected between 1588 and 1594 by Hubert Gerhard for the 1600th anniversary of the city. It is the oldest and most figurative of the three magnificent Augsburg fountains and is located on Rathausplatz, dominated by a 2.5 metre-high figure of Augustus. The emperor was portrayed as a man of about fifty who raises his hand in "adlocutio" as emperors traditionally did when they began a solemn address to their army. The head of the emperor wreaths a laurel wreath, which stands for fame, honour and peace, referring to the so-called Pax Augustana. Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz Augsburg removedOn the tunic that Augustus wears lion heads are depicted as a symbol for his strength, and dolphins with a trident as a symbol for quick decisions. In addition, tritons and, under the feet of the statue the pine cone- the symbol of Augsburg- are shown. Two Capricorn skulls indicate that Augustus was born in the zodiac sign of Capricorn. Art historians claim to have established that the Augustus figure in the fountain is more like the pointed nose of his successor Vespasian. The Augustus fountain is not directly opposite the Augsburg town hall but rather in front of the neighbouring Perlachturm building. The off-centre position of the fountain on the square is due to the fact that the town hall square was originally much smaller than it is today and only occupied the northern part of today's square. It was not enlarged to its current dimensions until the early 1960s, when the ruins from the air raids of the war were removed. The well was also moved a few meters to the north. The Augustus figure has become the most damaged over the centuries because it has the most unfavourable alloy of all the figures on the fountain comprising of 88% copper, four percent tin, five percent lead and 1.5% zinc. To save the statue, it was renovated in 1993 and the original was replaced by a copy. Today the original of the Augustus statue is housed in the inner courtyard of the Maximilian Museum, which is roofed with glass. The replacement copy was financed with funds from the Messerschmitt Foundation; its basins and pillars are also copies. For Augsburg's 2000th anniversary, the wrought iron grille by Georg Scheff was erected around the fountain. In addition to Augustus, there are four other figures that symbolise the four rivers of Augsburg: the Lech, Wertach, Singold and Brunnenbach. Some also assign the four seasons to the figures: the two women spring and summer, the two male deities autumn and winter.
 
The Augustus statue on the left as Augsburgers welcome Hitler on his March 17, 1937 visit
  Augsburg Zeughaus
The turn of St. Michael from the Zeughaus (armoury) to be removed, shown then and now
Augsburg Herkulesbrunnen
The Herkulesbrunnen then and now showing the repositioning of the statue postwar. The magnificent fountain was made between 1596 and 1600 by Adriaen de Vries and shows the Hercules fighting the Hydra, intended to symbolise the wealth of Augsburg being based on the use of water power. According to Greek legend, Hercules needed the club of flames to scorch the roots of the severed heads and thus prevent the hydra from sprouting new heads and thus here a depiction of the victory of man over the wild power of water and the power of fire. Others see a psychological dimension in it, interpreting it as the conquest of wild human passions only through which humans come to wealth and a good life. In 1940 the figures of the Hercules Fountain as well as those of other fountains were sent to the Ottobeuren monastery to protect them from the bombing. From there the naiads of the Hercules fountain were kept in a stairwell. In 1950 the figures of the Hercules Fountain were brought back from the monastery and returned to their original places by the well.
Margaretenstraße
The Maypole in front of St. Ulrich's and St. Afra's Abbey May 1, 1935 and at the end of Margaretenstraße
The Mercury statue on Maximilianstraße near the Catholic Church of St. Moritz at the junction with the Burgermeister-Fischer-Straße being returned July 31, 1947 and taken away sixty years later for refurbishment. The fountain on Moritzplatz is one of the three magnificent fountains in Augsburg, along with the Augustus fountain and Hercules fountain. It was created in 1596-1599 by Adriaen de Vries in the Renaissance style. Its main character is the Roman god of commerce, Mercury. As the god of trade, Mercury is supposed to draw attention to the importance of the city as a trading metropolis. The 2.5 metre high fountain group is dominated by Mercurius who holds a serpent's staff, symbol of luck and peace, in his right hand and wears a winged helmet on his head. The winged cupid, equipped with a bow, appears to be loosening or tying the winged shoe of the god Mercurius. The type of "Mercurio volante" coined by Giovanni da Bologna can be regarded as a model for the fountain figure of Mercury but the Augsburger Merkur seems to remain between hurrying and staying. The four-sided fountain stands in a decagonal marble basin. Two rocaille cartouches from 1752 are attached to the cornice of the fountain. The water flows in a thin stream from the bronzes on the pillar: two dog heads, two Medusa heads, two lion masks and four eagle heads, symbols of the dangers that threaten trade and traffic.
The St. George fountain, dating from 1565. St. George appears in a harness from the 16th century and fights a dragon. The figure's equestrian armour was probably cast from tournament armor and corresponds in detail to templates from the period between 1550 and 1560. Over time, the figure of St. George has changed location in Augsburg several times. The figure of St. George had earlier adorned a fountain on Metzgplatz between 1833 and 1945 before its restoration in 1961 when it was moved to a high fountain column in front of the St. Jakob Church in Jakobervorstadt in connection with the new construction of the east-west traffic axis through the city centre. Walther Schmidt , who was in charge of city planning at the time, agreed and placed the fountain figure on a high pillar in order to improve the effect of the delicate figure in the broad street space. An oval basin with a water feature was created below the figure. On the base of the fountain there are masks that spew water in all directions which are based on employees of the city's structural engineering department. Over the years, air pollution has caused increasing damage to the fountain figure. It wasn't until 1993 that St. George onto this newly designed fountain and is now back on Metzplatz from where it was relocated in 1833.
Augsburg  Jakoberstraße after the war and now, showing the extent of the reconstruction
Jakoberstraße after the war and now, showing the extent of the reconstruction
Augsburg suffered serious damage in the war due to air raids, as the city was a military target of allied bomber organisations with production sites of important armaments companies (including Messerschmitt AG and MAN). 
Already in October 1939 the air war reached Augsburg for the first time. But it was not until April 1942 that the British bombers managed the first heavy blow against the Augsburg armaments industry. Eight British Lancasters attack the MAN, the main production site for submarine diesel engines. In Augsburg there was amazement and shame that the birthplace of the allegedly best fighter plane in the world in the vicinity of an airfield left the city defenceless against such attacks. But then, as Brexit and covid has shown, the Germans have an innate dispensation to constantly underestimate the British to their cost. That - in conjunction with the first report of a dozen killed - was a psychological shock, which was only partially offset by the announcement a few weeks later that the MAN factory again produced as many engines as before. In all, Augsburg was bombed more than ten times, twice in attacks of greater effect: on April 17, 1942, the goal was MAN's submarine engine production. 
Augsburg  Ludwigstraße before the RAF and today
Ludwigstraße before the RAF visited and today
On Friday, February 25, 1944, 200 American bombers appeared at 14.00 and attacked the Messerschmittwerke. 110 lives were lost, including whole families in the neighbouring settlement houses and about fifty concentration camp inmates. 60% of the plant was destroyed. At 22.00 sirens howled again as 248 British bombers created a 40-minute inferno of aerial mines and incendiary bombs which additionally turned the debris field into a sea of flames. An hour later came the third wave of assault. Another 290 British bombers again created burning chaos for 45 minutes. The inner city (especially Karls-, Ludwigstraße and the area around Wertachbrucker Tor) as well as the Jakobervorstadt, Lechhausen and Haunstetten were the hardest hit. The bombs killed 730 people that night alone, including 285 women and 78 children. Amongst the victims were 27 people who had drowned in a buried cellar when the Lech Canal overflowed. 
Augsburg nach kriegAdding to the 145 Allied airmen killed and the dead of the afternoon, the totals of the dead rose to nearly a thousand. More than 80,000 Augsburgers became homeless with most fleeing their burning neighborhoods at night or the next day.  Finally on April 28, 1945, units of the 7th American Army arrived in Augsburg without any resistance and established a base with several barracks, which was only completely abandoned by the withdrawal of the last troops in 1998. In order to defuse a 1.8-tonne bomb with 1.5 tonnes of explosives found on December 20, 2016 during construction work on Jakoberwallstrasse, a mass excavation took place on Christmas day 2016, affecting 54,000 people. A two mile diametre zone evacuated around the site of discovery in the historical centre.

Augsburg Stadttheater in August, 1934
The Stadttheater in August, 1934
From 1931 to 1936 Erich Pabst was the artistic director at the theatre. Whilst pretending to be absolutely politically neutral, his management was already strongly oriented towards the Nazis who purged and censored  the theatre of those deemed enemies through the Nazi theatre law. Among those was Paul Frankenburger, a Jew who had served as Kapellmeister since 1924 before fleeing to British Palestine in 1933 under the name Paul Ben Haim. Under Pabst plans were drawn up to rebuild the theatre, equip it with a wider facade and thus give the planned monumental parade street leading to the Gauforum an appropriate face. To advance this project, Hitler himself came to the theatre on September 24, 1935. This renovation now became a top priority. In 1936 the new general manager, Nazi Party member  Leon Geer, aligned the schedule more and more to Nazi guidelines. There was no longer any freedom of art. In 1936 Geer directed Schiller's Wilhelm Tell during which performance the actors implemented the Rütli oath as a Hitler salute. In 1937 the renovation of the theatre started. Hitler at Augsburg StadttheaterThe photo on the right shows Hitler in front of the Stadttheater on March 19, 1937. On the left is the Nazi mayor, Josef Mayer. The man in the coat is Gauleiter Karl Wahl whilst that in uniform with the tresses could either be Hitler's personal adjutant or the Augsburg police chief ϟϟ Brigadefuhrer Bernhard Stark. It was in a speech at Augsburg on November 21 that year that Hitler made the demand for colonies when he declared: "What the world shuts its ears to today it will not be able to ignore in a year's time. What it will not listen to now it will have to think about in three years' time, and in five or six it will have to take into practical consideration. We shall voice our demand for living-room in colonies more and more loudly till the world cannot but recognise our claim."
Hitler at the Augsburg Stadttheater
Hitler attending a performance at its re-opening May 24, 1939

Hitler visited the construction site three times before it opened, which showed how important the renovation was to him. Hitler had Professor Paul Baumgarten extensively remodel and elegantly furnish the theatre by 1939 in time for Hitler's  visit for its reopening. By this time Leon Geer, who had been loyal to the Nazis, was fired due to a lack of artistic quality and other allegations. Willy Becker replaced him only for the war to lead the Augsburg town administration to attempt to close the theatre. This was not done specifically due to Hitler's personal orders. Even when the war led to restrictions on stage operations in other cities, “Germany's most modern stage”, as the Augsburg Theatre was advertised, continued relatively unimpeded. For the Nazis in Augsburg, "[a] visit to the theatre is a cultural service to the people!" However, the shortage of staff due to conscription led to restrictions that were not planned. As early as the 1939-1940 season, only about half of the planned performances could take place. Nazis at Hitler Augsburg stadttheaterIn 1941 Becker dared to have the comedy "Das Lebenslängliche Kind" performed by Erich Kästner who had been prohibited from writing. He simply gave the comedy writer the name Robert Neuner as a pseudonym. In the further course of the war, cheerful pieces were usually played to lighten the mood. Nazi organisations often had their own ideas which led the ensemble to perform in front of the troops or play in hospitals. With the bombing on the night of February 25, 1944, the Augsburg Theatre was completely destroyed leading the town to establish an alternative platform in the Ludwigsbau. On the instructions of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, the theatre closed in September 1944 which the director at the time, Walter Oehmichen, sought to prevent through an appeal to the mayor. My GIF on the right shows a Nazi demonstration outside the Stadttheater on March 23, 1933 and a neo-Nazi demonstration at the same site more recently on December 2, 2006.  
Bürgermeister Kellner speaking in the Goldener Saal of the rathaus in 1934 during the so-called Machtergreifung.
Bürgermeister Kellner speaking in the Goldener Saal of the rathaus in 1934 during the so-called Machtergreifung. In March 1933 the Nazis symbollicaly took the town hall for themselves despite having no majority in the city ​​council at the time. Without protest from the democratically elected city leaders, they hung the Nazi flag from its balcony. In the weeks that followed, they harassed communist and social democratic city councilors, but also those from the Bavarian People's Party (BVP). The city ​​council gradually became an acclamation organ. The British attacked the city with bombers in the night of February 25-26, 1944 and destroyed almost the entire city ​​centre. The town hall was also badly damaged in this bomb attack with only ruins left; everything was burned out inside. Looking at the reconstructed town hall in all its splendour today, one can hardly imagine such devastation as a result of the war. The facade was rebuilt soon after the war: between 1946 and 1948 the heavily destroyed town hall was secured with its second topping-out ceremony celebrated in May 1947. 
Augsburg rathaus nach kriegBetween 1950 to 1954, its external appearance was restored. Elias Holl's masterpiece was considered one of the world's most valuable town halls in terms of art history but, because it was destroyed in the war, is largely a copy which is why it is not included in the list of World Heritage Sites by Unesco. Before the war the town hall could only be seen between Philippine-Welser-Straße and Steingasse because of the dense and narrow development of the Rathausplatz. The facade renovation of the town hall was completed in 1955, when the 1000th anniversary of the battle of Lechfeld was held. When the interior work was largely completed, the somewhat restored town hall was inaugurated on April 18, 1962. Now all that was left was to restore the Golden Hall.
On the right is the same room today, showing how much has been reconstructed from so little. Up until 1944, the ornate ceiling of the hall had hung from its wooden roof structure 27 chains. The renovation after the war led to it being attached to a steel stone ceiling. The gold leaf used on the ceiling is 23 1/2 carats and whilst solid walnut boards used to form the ceiling, today it is blockboard that has been glued with three millimetre thick walnut veneers. Along with the town hall, the Golden Hall also fell victim to British bombing. For many decades after the war, the hall remained an undignified makeshift room: instead of the magnificent coffered ceiling, a simple wooden ceiling was installed, the portals were plain wooden doors, the walls were plastered white and an asphalt ceiling had been spread out on the floor. This room was used as an exhibition space until the 1960s. It wasn't until 1957 that the town launched a competition to redesign the space based on the requirements that the space would not only be a reconstruction of the past, but "as before express the character and dignity of the city." 36 designs were submitted, but fortunately none was accepted because they allegedly interfered too much with the existing room structure. It wasn't until 1996  that the Golden Hall was officially returned to the public in its original state.
Looking down at Augsburg's Rathausplatz from the Perlachturm in 1940 and today   Metzgplatz looking towards Rathausplatz
Looking down at Rathausplatz from the Perlachturm in 1940 and today; the right shows Metzgplatz looking towards Rathausplatz
Just from the train station down Prinzregentstr. is the Landratsamt (District administration office) with the reichsadler still above the door from which only the swastika has been chiseled out, state-protected by a mesh screen. The building dates from May 1938 and was used first as the Reich Railway Directorate, then until 1971 as the Federal Railway Directorate:
Nazi eagle reichsadler Augsburg
The building with an example of a vehicle registration plaque from the Landsrat during the Nazi era. Also on the façade behind me is what appears to be Nazi relief typical of the time for the German Workers' Front.
The Augsburg tax office on Peutingerstraße laid out the tax laws in paragraph 1, sentence 1 of its Tax Adjustment Act of October 1934: " The tax laws are interpreted by Nazi ideology." Citizens were asked to list the number of "Aryan" children they had whilst those seen as living outside the community- Jehovah's Witnesses, forced labourers , Sinti and Roma, Jews were targeted. In 1933 there were 126 Jewish-owned enterprises in Augsburg, including 20 of the industry and 55 wholesale companies. Their total number went back to 79 by the reprisals until 1938.  In the course of the November pogroms of 1938, on the morning of November 10, 1938, the synagogue built at Halderstraße from 1917 was set on fire. Jewish shops and private apartments were then devastated. The male Jewish fellow citizens were dragged into the concentration camp to force them to emigrate and confiscate their assets through the so-called Arisierung. The confiscation of Jewish property was initiated from the Alltagsgeschäft but later centralised with the start of the deportations in 1941. In 1985 the synagogue was reopened after a long restoration and was partly used as a Jewish museum.
Cleaning up the rubble and today
At the Jewish cemetery on Haunstetter Strasse, a memorial stone commemorates the approximately 400 murdered Augsburg victims of the Shoah. In addition to many other resistance fighters such as Bebo Wager, the SPD parliamentary deputy Clemens Högg was also killed during the Nazi period. During the war several external camps of the Dachau concentration camp were erected due to the decentralisation of the armament production of the Messerschmitt AG aircraft factory in Augsburg and the surrounding area. In the district of Kriegshaber there existed a women's camp for 500 Hungarian women in the area of today's Ulmerstrasse. In the district of Haunstetten a men's camp for 2,700 concentration camp prisoners was built in the area of a former gravel pit. After it was destroyed during the wartime bombing, a new men's camp was set up in an air-to-air barracks of Pfersee. Also in Gablingen there was a camp for a thousand prisoners as well as in Horgau. 235 of the prisoners were murdered by ϟϟ men or died of horrific, inhumane conditions and were buried at the Westfriedhof cemetery, where three memorial plaques commemorate them. In the spring of 1945, prisoners were driven out of the barracks of Pfersee to Klimmach in the spring of 1945, with many of them being killed.

The Fuggerhaus on Maximilanstrasse then and now with the building after the war on the right. After 1939 the Nazis wanted to rename Fuggerstrasse to "Strasse des Führers", but this intention was never achieved. Hitler had commissioned Hermann Giesler to deal with the design of Fuggerstrasse, which he did in the years 1939-41 after having submitted his plan for the Gauforum. This would have transformed Fuggerstrasse into a nearly fifty- metre wide parade street involving the destruction  of its six-row linden trees and the deep fronted gardens had to disappear. Nazi "tree experts" consequently declared the avenue to be "sick" without further ado. Giesler was able to have the trees cut down in 1939. Nor did he stop at the front gardens and have them removed, although some of these front gardens housed cafes . Only the outer row of avenues was planted with new linden trees which still stretch along Fuggerstrasse today.
 
The  Fuggerei - the world's oldest social housing complex still in use. The Fuggerei was donated on August 23, 1521 by Jakob Fugger as a residential settlement for needy citizens of Augsburg and built between 1516 and 1523 under the supervision of the architect Thomas Krebs. At that time, 52 apartments were built around the first six streets according to largely standardised layouts in the two-storey buildings passing through were generously planned for the conditions of the period of development. The concept of the Fuggerei was a very modern concept for self-help, intended for those who were threatened with poverty and who were day workers who could not manage their own household, for reasons such as disease. They were able to pursue their bread-making businesses and able to leave in the event of economic recovery. Until the twentieth century, Fuggerei was usually home to families with several children. Only "worthy arms" were allowed to enter the social settlement as beggars were not accepted according to the will of the founder. During the Thirty Years' War the Fuggerei was largely destroyed by the Swedes until 1642. From 1681 until his death in 1694 Franz Mozart, the great-grandfather of the composer, lived in the Fuggerei which a plaque inside commemorates. Extensions of the Fuggerei took place in the years 1880 and 1938. During the war, the settlement was destroyed by a British air raid attack during the so-called Augsburger Bombennacht of February 25-26, 1944. Already by March 1, 1944, the Fürstlich and Gräflich Fuggersche family senate decided in writing to rebuild the Fuggerei. From 1945 onwards the social settlement was rebuilt according to the plans of Raimund von Doblhoff by means of the foundation, so that in 1947 the first buildings could be reused. In the 1950s reconstruction was completed. Until 1973, the Fuggerei was extended to a total of 67 houses with 140 apartments on additional adjacent ruins.

Nazi reliefs still adorning façades
Nazi reliefs in Augsburg
Theodor Wiedemann Strasse 35 still has two Nazi reliefs- the one on the left shows a relief representing a link between the Roman Empire and the Third Reich whilst the right shows a tank and the warship below a representation of the air force bombing from above and the German army all within the ægis of the Nazi eagle. The tank and lightning are aligned towards the east whilst the eagle directs its gaze towards France. The relief found at Firnhaberstrasse 53 at the bottom-right shows a stylised representation of a Messerschmidt BF 109 - the most important fighter of the Luftwaffe.
According to 'Taff' Simon of Dark History Tours here in Munich during one of his archaeological digs in Augsburg, 
this spot is not ten minutes walk away. I'll go back and finish taking photos with a full battery. In retrospect I should have asked the old boy if he had an air raid shelter for a basement. On my walk up, I spotted an escape hatch in a hedge - this would go under the Kleingarten, and theoretically could be associated with the BDM/HJ apartments.

 

Nazi reliefs still adorning façades
Above the doors at Richthofen Strasse are reliefs representing the Deutschen Arbeitsfront, Hitlerjugend and the NS Frauenschaft; only the swastikas have been removed from the devices.
The huge Nazi eagle overlooking Reinöhlstrasse, recently repainted as seen on the GIF on the right taken during visits over several years
Nazi reliefs in Augsburg 
Reliefs celebrating the 1936 Olympic Games at Gentnerstrasse 53-59; note the Hitler hairstyle in the relief on the bottom-right.
I hadn't heard of this 'Augsburg Liberation Movement' which consisted of about a dozen men which helped the American 3rd Infantry Division 'liberate' the town from the Germans (apparently only after it became clear the war was days from being lost) until I came across this plaque. Google-searching the group in English found only one entry for it. When the 7th American Infantry Division approached Wertingen Augsburg from the west, they distributed leaflets telling the people to hoist white flags. "Save your old town and its inhabitants from the rain of steel that threatens Augsburg with destruction." City Commander General Fehn had 800 more men available and refused to surrender, building barricades on bridges and underpasses. Wertach and Lech bridges were to have been blown up but mayor Mayr did not give the order for the prepared blasts. The resistance group around Dr. Rudolf Lang, a senior physician at the main hospital in Augsburg, had prepared the delivery of the city through negotiations with the Gauleiter, Mayr and General Fehn and then made contact with the Americans.
Augsburg  Annahof in 1930
The Annahof in 1930 
Franz Hesse had cycled to Westheim and had agreed to the transfer; by the morning he led a number of tanks and jeeps into the city to the command bunker in Riedingerhaus on the hauptstrasse where the Stadtwerkehaus is. In front of the Riedingerhaus, other members of the Freiheitsaktion were waiting. A small troop of American soldiers entered the bunker, gave Fehn an ultimatum that passed, and arrested him and Mayr thus ending Augsburg's war on the morning of April 28th. The American Combat report of the day honours the initiatives of the Freedom Action, whose role Wahl played down after the war in order to make his more luminous. "Augsburg was largely preserved from the complete destruction that came from Aschaffenburg, Würzburg, Heilbronn, Nuremberg and Ulm thanks to a unique revolutionary movement that greatly facilitated the invasion of American troops." 
After the war Adolf-Hitler-Platz was renamed Königsplatz again; Benito-Mussolini-Platz became Kaiserplatz; Braunauer Strasse became Kolbergstrasse whilst Braunauer Platz became Nettelbeck-Platz and Brucknerstrasse was changed to Mendelsohn-Strasse. Schools were also renamed with Horst Wessel School now Hammerschmiedschule, Hans Schemm School becaming the Hall School and Andreas Weit School became a butcher's school.
Augsburg synagogue Standing outside the synagogue. In 1933 there were 1,033 Jews living in Augsburg comprising 0.6% of the 176 000 inhabitants. About 175 companies in the town had Jewish owners. On a plaque in the synagogue are the names of twenty four "sons of the community" who died in the Great War for their country.  In 1913 the local Jewish community had the architects Lömpel and Landauer built this synagogue in the town centre which was dedicated in 1917. Described as "possibly the most significant art nouveau synagogue in Europe" it was seriously damaged during Kristallnacht but survived before finally reopening in 1985. From the start of the Nazi era Jews were targetted- among the 600 first arrested in those opening months included four Jewish lawyers placed in "protective custody", probably because they had many Social Democrats among their clients including Dr. Ludwig Dreyfuss who had been mayor of Augsburg. Others arrested were Dr. Julius Nördlinger; Guido Nora, the secretary-general of the city theatre; and Max Gift, the the managing director of the department store Landauer and brother of the actress Therese Giese. From her we know that he fled to South America where he died. 
Before the war. On April 1, 1933 the first organised boycott of Jewish businesses took place throughout Germany. In a leaflet, Augsburg citizens were called on to enter none of the 43 listed shops. The SA made a visit to the shops, doctors' surgeries and law offices a test of courage. To prevent any critical reporting, the Neue Augsburger Zeitung was banned from March 30 to April 4. In early 1934, the Landauer department store on the Bürgermeister-Fischer-Straße, Schwabia's largest department store, was forced to fire 114 employees. Julius Landauer sold his business in the summer of 34 to Albert Golisch. A "legal" form of persecution was provided by the "Law on the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933. All officials of Jewish descent could be dismissed as well as the 'politically unreliable'. Usually having a Jewish grandparent was enough to lose one's position.
The synagogue after the war, with the signs reading "Entry Forbidden for the General Public", but also mentioning a Jewish Service on Friday and Sunday.  By early 1938, 180 Jews had left Augsburg. As mentioned above, Kristallnacht saw the synagogue set on fire. Given that in the immediate vicinity there was a petrol station and 'Aryan' houses, the fire department extinguished it, thus at least preserving one of the most magnificent synagogues in Germany; an Art Nouveau jewel. Roughly an hundred Jews were sent to Dachau and only released if they undertook to emigrate. Those in the old folks' home on Frohsinnstraße 21 had to leave their homes within a few hours before the house was confiscated. By 1941 it was forbidden for Jews to emigrate after 560 had already managed to do so. Several hundred Jewish Augsburgers were deported to the East and murdered in Auschwitz, Piasti, Riga and Theresienstadt; the figures vary between 458 and 613. In the memorial in the rathaus are the names of about 700 murdered. The last pre-war chairman of the Augsburg Jewish community, Eugen Strauss, wrote in 1956 whilst in exile in the United States on the Progromnacht: "We belonged to what was spilled in Germany, what we, the displaced Jews in us, could take with us: the classical humanistic education with which we grew up in Germany."
Hitler at Augsburg bahnhof Hitler at Augsburg bahnhof
Nearby is the main railway station- Hitler at the Augsburger Hauptbahnhof November 21, 1937 and today, remarkably unchanged

Augsburg was also the setting for Göring's surrender to the allies; here is colour footage of Göring's first day as a prisoner in the town.
May 11, 1945, he was taken out of the back door of the two-storey suburban house in Augsburg to meet fifty Allied newspapermen. Gripping a pair of matching grey suede gloves, he slumped into an easy chair and mopped at his brow as the shutters clicked. After five minutes they allowed him to move into the thin shade of a willow tree. The questioning resumed. Heaping blame for the first time in public on Martin Bormann, he insisted that it must have been Bormann and not Hitler who had nominated Dönitz as the new Führer. “Hitler,” rasped Göring, “did not leave a thing in writing saying that Dönitz was to take his place!”
He publicly revealed that he had opposed Hitler’s attack on Russia. “I pointed out to him,” said Göring, “his own words in Mein Kampf concerning a two-front war. . . . But Hitler believed that by the year’s end he could bring Russia to her knees.” He revealed to the newspapermen his unhappiest moment of the war. “The greatest surprise of the war to us was the long- range fighter bomber that could take off from England, attack Berlin, and return to its home base. I realised,” he added disarmingly, “that the war was lost shortly after the invasion of France and the subsequent breakthrough.”
Asked inevitably about the Nazi extermination camps, Göring was dismissive. “I was never so close to Hitler as to have him express himself to me on this subject,” he said. He was sure that these atrocity reports were “merely propaganda. Hitler,” he concluded, recalling that trembling right hand signing the documents, “had something wrong with his brain the last time I saw him.”
Irving (691) Göring: A Biography

Annakirche einst und jetzt  
The Annakirche einst und jetzt and the interior before and after its bombing   
Stephansplatz with what was left of the church and cloister by October 1947 and today.
Stephansplatz with what was left of the church and cloister by October 1947 and today. On the right is the Wertachbrucker Tor as it appeared before the war and after its 1998 restoration.
Günzburg
This was the hometown of Nazi politician Franz Xaver Schwarz and the infamous "angel of death" Josef Mengele, ϟϟ officer and Auschwitz physician. The town's memorial to the victims of the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele, composed of a display board around which single eyes (around 50 created by pupils from Dossenberger-Gymnasium) and pairs of eyes (around 25 by the 6th form art foundation course pupils from Maria-Ward-Gymnasium) are grouped. The single eyes and pairs of eyes were modelled from clay in lessons and baked after air drying. From the “clay eyes”, the foundry finished the final step of making silicon formed wax models, through the manufacturing of moulds. The memorial was unveiled on March 8, 2005. According to Mengele's son Rolf, his father returned to the Gunzburg area toward the end of 1948 and stayed in the nearby forests until the spring of 1949. Mengele told Irene that he expected her and Rolf to follow once he had established himself in Buenos Aires. But Irene would not agree to go with him. Mengele's flight was arranged and paid for by his family through former ϟϟ contacts in the Günzburg area.
This was a town that had driven out its 309 resident Jews after the Nazis came to power. There was a widespread readiness to believe that the allegations against Mengele were false. And broadcasts across Germany by the overseas service of the BBC claiming that the ϟϟ had engaged in monstrous acts of carnage, were viewed as Allied victory propaganda.
Günzburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz Adolf-Hitler-Platz then and now. Hitler himself had, on October 11 1932, launched a campaign comparable in magnitude to his “Flights over Germany” in the Mengele factory. Today the so-called 'Guenzburg Question' continues to be raised by the allegation that Mengele lived openly after the war here in his hometown under his own name. This claim implies at least ignorance and at worst acquiescence or complicity on the part of American authorities stationed there. 
 According to the census of May 1939, the city of Guenzburg had a population of 6,949. During the war, the population grew to about 10,500, swelled by individuals fleeing to Guenzburg from areas that had been destroyed through intensive Allied bombing, as well as by workers, including foreign labourers, assigned to local armaments firms. Guenzburg escaped significant damage until April 9, 1945, when a Messerschmitt factory located there was the target of a large Allied bombing raid. Two further air raids, on April 15 and April 19, destroyed the rail yard
Günzburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz
The Sparkasse at Brentano-Haus on Hitler-Platz and the square today
s and disrupted public utilities. Guenzburg was the seat of Landkreis Guenzburg, a county made up of 67 separate communities with a total population at the end of the war of approximately 45,000. Located in Schwaben, Guenzburg lay in the westernmost part of Bavaria. Primarily agricultural, the most significant industry in Guenzburg was the Mengele factory, producer of agricultural equipment. Although not as large as it is today, the Mengele factory prior to and during the war was a significant economic factor in Guenzburg. The Mengele family, as a result, exercised considerable influence in the town and was well known by all. As a part of the initial activity of the Military Government following Germany's surrender, the city administration was purged of active Nazis, streets were renamed, and a welfare office was established. For the first phase of the occupation, in addition to the Military Government Detachment, an American Army infantry regiment was stationed in Guenzburg.
Günzburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz Immediately following the war, and for several years, the Mengele name and power were less a factor in Guenzburg life than previously or since, a decline due in part to the fate of the Mengele family. The head of the family, Karl Mengele, was arrested by the Americans at the end of April because of his position as the Kreiswirtschaftsberater (District economic advisor) and was interned, first in Ludwigsburg, north of stuttgart, and later at Moosburg in Bavaria. Two of his three sons were far from home: Alois was a prisoner of war in Yugoslavia, and Josef was, as far as the family claimed to know, "somewhere in the east." Karl's wife "Wally," his daughter-in-law Irene (Josef's wife), and grandson, Rolf (Josef's son), had moved to the small village of Autenried, not far from Guenzburg. Karl, Jr., who had received a draft deferment because his service with the Mengele firm was considered essential war duty, stepped down from the firm because he suspected, rightly, that he would place it in jeopardy by remaining with it. Günzburg Adolf-Hitler-Platz NS-zeitHe was the subject of a prolonged denazification procedure, the result of which left him banned from the Mengele premises. Karl, Jr., handed general management over to Hans Sedlmaier, whose loyalty to the family was unquestioned. Despite the post-war absence of anyone from the Mengele family in a position of power, for those who lived in Guenzburg before the war, the Mengele name still held an almost mythic quality. Known for his philanthropy, Karl, Sr., was reputed to have placed sausages in the windows of the poor people of the town. As the major employer, the Mengele factory meant food on the table for a large number of Guenzburg families.


 Nördlingen
The town of Nördlingen was unknowingly built inside a meteorite impact crater, and now all of the buildings are composed of tiny diamonds. 
Nordlingen town hall and Zur Sonne in 1935The town hall and Zur Sonne in 1935 and standing in front today. Four days after Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, torchbearers of the SA and ϟϟ from Nördlingen, Oettingen, Wallerstein, Wemding and other nearby villages marched alongside a drum corps and the Nördlingen city band through the city centre. In the Hotel Deutsches Haus Theodor Hippler was announced the Reichsbahninspektor and Nazi Kreisleiter, proclaiming that a new chapter of German history had begun, which will be "once overwritten: dawn on Germany". The hotel itself was bombed on the night of October 12-13, 1941 when the mediæval town experienced the force of modern warfare for the first time as British airmen became aware of a light in the town centre. The main wing of the Deutschen Haus hotel with its dining rooms and guest rooms on the ground floor and the guest rooms on the upper floors located on the north side of Löpsinger Straße became the target that night. Under the rubble were four dead and four seriously injured. A second explosive bomb hit the courtyard of the restaurant "Zum Rad" that night, damaging the roof. In the spring of 1945, a total of 33 people were killed in air raids at the end of the war. The station and several dwellings were destroyed and the St. George church was heavily damaged. The almost complete rest of the historic old town remained spared.
   From 1945 Nördlingen belonged to the American occupation zone. The American military administration set up a DP camp which was run by the UNRRA and housed about five hundred DPs, most of whom coming from Latvia and Lithuania. More than 4,500 home-displaced persons settled in Nördlingen after the war.
Nordlingen rathaus Nordlingen townhall
Nordlingen Richard B. Adams
Wife and son on the stairs of the rathaus which date from 1618- the year the Thirty Years War broke out- and the same stairs as depicted in 1927 by the painter Richard B. Adams (now in the stadtmuseum). It was not until the first year of the war in 1939 that the town's population reached the level it had been at the start of the Thirty Years War in 1618. I highly recommend the animated historical documentary series created by Toutube channel Kings and Generals; this one on the Thirty Years' War concerns the Second Battle of Nordlingen in 1645 in the aftermath of the battle of Jankow. The rathaus itself has been used continuously since 1382.

Hitler spoke in Nördlingen on October 11, 1932 attacking von Papen’s Government:
Either they govern as we wish—then we will bear the responsibility—or they do not govern as we wish—then the others bear the responsibility. I do not believe in any regime which is not anchored in the Volk itself. I do not believe in an economic regime. One cannot build a house from the top, one must begin at the bottom. The foundations of the State are not the Government, but rather the Volk. And my answer to the bourgeois parties and politicians who have been sleeping since November 1918 while National Socialism has been working is this: now your time is up, now it’s our turn. When Herr von Papen says: “Herr Hitler, you are only here because there is a crisis,” my answer is, “Yes, and if good fortune were here, I would not be needed, and I would not be here, either!”
On June 18, 1940, Hitler had met in Munich with Mussolini. On the way Hitler's special train stopped briefly for roughly ten minutes at the main Nördlinger railway station. The Nazi district leadership had been informed in time, and managed to organise about a thousand people to cheers at the station with barrier posts barely able to push people away from the special train. The schoolchildren had been specially released from school to see Hitler and a BdM girl handed a bouquet of flowers to the dictator. Soon after Augsburger Straße was renamed after Mussolini. The following month an infantry regiment was quartered in the city, and the arrival of the soldiers became a local spectacle with the marketplace crowded with onlookers around the specially constructed podium. Deputies from the party, their divisions and associations took part along with wounded from the Maria Stern reserve hospital and their nurses. The regiment had marched 1,200 kilometres from France to Nördlingen.
During the war prices for basic foodstuffs increased dramatically so that eggs for some were no longer affordable. Up to 85 reichsmarks had to be paid for suckling pigs on the Nördlingen pig market an increase of fifty percent from peacetime. Not even during the hay harvest was even enough beer delivered. The increasing bottlenecks in the food supply, led the Nazis to focus on the management of fallow land. In April 1940 Nördlingen joined Hermann Göring's exhortation to provide fallow land for the use of the gas factory.
 Nordlingen Deininger Tor       Nordlingen Löpsinger Tor
Seeking refuge from the rain at the Deininger Tor and an earlier comparison of the Löpsinger Tor
Nordlingen Bergertor Nordlingen Bergertor
The Bergertor from both sides
Nordlingen Wengers Brettl Nordlingen Wengers Brettl   Nordlingen stolpersteine
The I've stayed in then and now- the Wengers Brettl. In front of the building next to it are these stoplerstein- reminders of the Jewish family who lived next door and later murdered in the Holocaust.  Jewish families had resided in Nördlingen since the Middle Ages, burying their dead in the Jewish cemetery on Nähermemminger. Jews were recorded as living in Nördlingen in the 13th century Jews, forced to leave entire 1,507 had to leave all city, only returning in 1860. The synagogue built in 1885 on Kreuzgasse was destroyed by SA men during the November pogrom of 1938, commemorated by a memorial plaque on today's Protestant parish hall. In the fall of 1945 200 of the 260 tombs were restored in work assignments by former party members on the orders of the American occupiers. A memorial stone dating from 1979 in the Jewish cemetery also commemorates the event.
Nordlingen reichsadler Nordlingen reichsadler
The reichsadler remains in situ on top of the Art Nouveau Kriegerbrunnen, created in 1902 by the Munich sculptor Georg Wrba and inaugurated on September 7 of the same year. It is located on the Rübenmarkt, in the immediate vicinity of St. George's Church.  The Kriegerbrunnen was built to commemorate the Franco-German War on the site of a former so-called Judenbrunnen. The numerous design elements include an eagle on the fountain top, water-spouting busts of Rieser farmers as well as representations of the battles of the German-French War and its protagonists, including Helmuth von Moltke and Otto von Bismarck.Nordlingen View from the Holzmarkt from a Nazi-era painting of 1936 by Friedrich Gabler
View from the Holzmarkt from a Nazi-era painting of 1936 by Friedrich Gabler and today. 
Jewish families had lived in Nördlingen since the Middle Ages. They buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery on Nahermemminger Weg and built their new synagogue in Kreuzgasse 1 in 1885 which was all but destroyed by SA thugs during the November pogrom of 1938, which is commemorated by a plaque on today's Evangelical parish hall. Since 1979, a memorial stone in the Jewish cemetery has commemorated the Jewish citizens who were victims of the Holocaust. 
It wasn't until 1939 that Nördlingen again reached the population of 1618 at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, an historical turning point of which was the siege of Nördlingen and the subsequent battle of Nördlingen in 1634, in which the Swedish-Protestant forces were decisively defeated by the imperial - Habsburg troops for the first time. The city had to open up to the victors, but was not plundered by the victorious troops after high reparation payments. However, during and after the siege, the city lost more than half of its population to starvation and disease. Also in the War of Spanish Succession , the city was affected by the effects of the nearby Battles of Höchstädtaffected. After the war, trade shifted to the seaports - another reason why Nördlingen lost its importance as a trading centre. Due to the forced standstill, the medieval townscape was well preserved.
Nordlingen Brettermarkt in 1918 Nordlingen Engelapotheke Nordlingen Altes Gerberhaus 
LEFT: The Brettermarkt in 1918 on the left and today. CENTRE: Engelapotheke. RIGHT: The Altes Gerberhaus

Donauwörth 
Battle of DonauwörthThe site of the Battle of Schellenberg (or Battle of Donauwörth) on July 2 1704, during the War of the Spanish SuccessionJohn Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was marching from Flanders to Bavaria and came to the Danube river. The French decided to make a crossing of the Danube at this spot at Donauwörth, where they were surprised by Marlborough's troops and after heavy fighting pulled back, allowing Marlborough to capture Donauwörth and cross the Danube at ease. About five thousand French troops drowned whilst trying to escape. As for the 22,000 Allied troops engaged, over 5,000 had become casualties, overwhelming the hospitals that Marlborough had set up in Nördlingen. Amongst the fatalities were six lieutenant-generals, four major-generals, and 28 brigadiers, colonels and lieutenant-colonels, reflecting the exposed positions of senior officers as they led their men forward in the assaults; no other action in the War of the Spanish Succession claimed so many lives of senior officers. Such heavy casualty figures caused consternation throughout the Grand Alliance and whilst the Dutch cast a victory medal showing Baden on the obverse and a Latin inscription on the other side, there was no mention of the Duke of Marlborough although the Emperor wrote personally to the Duke: "Nothing can be more glorious than the celerity and vigour with which ... you forced the camp of the enemy at Donauwörth".
Donauwörth unter dem hakenkreuzThe High Street then and now. During the war the American 20th Armoured Division were poised to cross the Danube River at this spot on April 26, 1945. As Rich Mintz relates, early that morning engineers from an outside Division began constructing a treadway bridge across the river. At approximately 14.30 tanks of the 27th Tank Btn., C CO., 1st Platoon, began crossing the bridge under heavy artillery fire that rained shrapnel from overhead. As it reached the final section of the bridge, the weight of the lead tank, named “Pawnee,” began pulling the first section of the bridge away from the embankment. As Pawnee's rear-end struggled into the water and the crew (but for the driver, who stayed behind) evacuated for shore, subsequent tanks were ordered upriver. Hence, “Pinto” was the 1st to cross the Danube, gleefully fording at a shallow point and thus circumventing all the hours of bridge construction which had preceded. Pinto then pulled Pawnee across the threshold, wherein Pawnee's driver, T/4 John W. Nairn, earned the Bronze Star for fortitude and presence under fire, in saving both tank and pontoon bridge. After the repair and construction of an additional bridge, the 27th continued to cross, and turned South. 
Fuggerhaus Donauwörth Farbertor
The Fuggerhaus and Färbertor during the Nazi era and today.
Donauwörth NS-zeit Hitler visited the town three times although there is little information concerning his visits to Donauwörth apart from two newspaper articles that report a rally in April 1932 and one concerning a passage he made in a special train in May 1938. The former took place at a time when Hitler was trying to persuade the conservative rural population of his policies as part of his presidential campaign, The visit to Donauwörth was scheduled for April 16, 1932 - the year before the Nazis came to power. The Donauhalle with a capacity of 4,500 people had to be closed just one hour after admission due to overcrowding, and around 8,000 visitors had come to hear him speak. The remaining visitors were accommodated in the surrounding barns, where the events were broadcast via loudspeakers. Numerous people from different social groups came to hear as Hitler kept his listeners waiting. Earlier he had given a speech in Augsburg. When Hitler finally arrived at the Donauhalle after a delay of three and a half hours, the crowd burst into applause which repeated after his short speech, which had nothing to do with the actual political topic of the evening. The 1938 visit took place after a state visit to Italy when Hitler's special train was supposed to pass Donauwörther Bahnhof on May 10, 1938. At the behest of the Nazi district leadership, the communities on the railway line were instructed to fly flags and related decorations. Schools, formations, political directors, Hitler Youth and the Association of German Girls took part as well, accompanied by a large number of onlookers which included the employees of the neighbouring machine factory, all equipped with Nazi flags and pennants. When the special train appeared, there was great jubilation, accompanied by salutes, even though Hitler never bothered to appear at the window being too tired, as it was later said in the state press.
The GIF on the right shows the view of the High Street from the town hall entrance during the Nazi era and today. Donauwörth  Third Reich Through his research Lucas Hell managed to come across a short stay by Hitler in June 1940 during which time Hitler had had direct contact with the population which had only heard about his third visit on June 18, 1940 an hour earlier. After a short-term meeting with Mussolini in Munich, his special train stopped in Donauwörth on the way back. Within a very short time several hundred people had gathered at the station square. The entrance of the train was accompanied by shouts of "Sieg Heil"; this time Hitler went to the window to greet the cheering crowd, shaking many hands and accepting bouquets of flowers. He paid special attention to the children. After he had withdrawn from the window, people began to call out: "Dear leader be so nice, show yourself on the window sill". Even weeks later, this visit to the press was celebrated as a major historical event.
 Nevertheless, Hans-Leipelt-Schule in Donauwörth commemorates one who resisted- on October 13, 1944, Hans Konrad Leipelt was sentenced to death by the People's Court in Donauwörth for "military degradation and sedition" and subsequently executed in Stadelheim prison on January 29, 1945. Leipelt was 23 years old, having studied chemistry in Munich. He received the sixth leaflet of the White Rose on February 18, 1943, the very day on which Hans and Sophie Scholl were handed over to the Gestapo. In late summer 1943, he and his girlfriend Marie-Luise Jahn raised money for the destitute family of the murdered White Rose participant Professor Kurt Huber. When Leipelt heard of the death sentences for the siblings Scholl and Christoph Probst, he continued to resist under the motto: "And their spirit still lives on!" They were eventually betrayed and arrested along with other comrades-in-arms. Leipelt, who was considered a "half-Jew", was sentenced to death. Jahn received twelve years in prison. Other friends from the chemical institute of Nobel laureate Heinrich Wieland who were involved in the resistance were sentenced to prison terms.
Donauwörth nach kriegDonauwörth suffered shortly before the end of the war on April 11 and 19, 1945 from two air raids of the 8th and 9th US airfleet resulting in nearly 300 dead. The surroundings of the train station and the city centre were almost flattened. The inner city was destroyed to about three quarters. On April 11, 1945, at 12:30 pm. American bombers reached Donauwörth resulting in what Lord Mayor Armin Neudert recently declared as Donauwörth's "blackest day in town history". The two Allied air raids claimed 285 people according to research conducted by the city archive - most of them civilians. Roughly 75% of the town was destroyed, including 258 houses with another 253 badly damaged. This left 520 families bombed out and forced to live with relatives or others in the city or in the surrounding area. About seven hundred people were left without shelter by the last days of the war. Only four days before the first attack, Donauwörth had been appointed by the leadership of Military District VII in Munich to be a key focus of the Danube Defence through the "collection of scattered soldiers" on the Danube. Together with cities such as Ingolstadt, Dillingen and Günzburg, people here spoke martially about the "Donaufront". In fact, only a few Grenadier replacement and training battalions, often comprising of child soldiers, were provided with which to stop the arriving American tanks and aircraft. ϟϟ-Führer and Donauwörther councilor Friedrich Arlt played a leading role in the organisation of students and old men of the Volkssturm. 
Donauwörth rathausplatz
The view from Rathausplatz.
The Danube was an important milestone for the Americans - after crossing the Rhine by their troops, it seemed only a matter of time before they could reach it.  The bombers flew ahead of the tanks not, according to town archivist Ottmar Seuffert, intended as a bombardment to break morale as in Dresden, but as a "strategic bombing" with the main objectives station and bridges. Whatever the motivation, the civilian population was the main target. Even after the heavy bombing, soldiers resisted in and around Donauwörth, despite apparently faced with a completely hopeless situation. However, the end of the war in the region was terrible for the citizens as well as for those who had suffered systematically under the tyranny regime for a long time - like the concentration camp inmates. Two so-called "evacuation marches" through Donauwörth are registered; in addition, there was an external camp of the Dachau concentration camp with about 300 to 600 inmates. As early as March, almost everything was in disarray.  At noon on April 25, the American tanks attacked the Donauwörth bridgehead with the so-called "Donaufront" long gone. The end of the war in Donauwörth was sealed on May 1, when the American military government in Donauwörth appointed a new district administrator and mayor. 

Hof
The Christuskirche flying the Nazi banner and today when I visited in July 1923 where it has recently courted controversy after one of its paintings was identified as showing Hitler beside Christ, shown below. Recent cleaning of the painting - first unveiled when the Christus Church in the northern Bavarian city of Hof was consecrated in 1939 - shows an uncanny likeness to the former Führer. There is the toothbrush moustache, the hair parted on one side and the staring, maniacal eyes which made him a dark Messiah to so many Germans. Evangelical pastor Martin Goelkel, who recently left after eight years at the church some call the 'Nazi Temple,' believes the likeness is just a coincidence but its discovery so long after it was painted is causing a stir among his flock.  "Some people have called this a Nazi place over the years but
I don't think this is true. It was designed and inaugurated in a severe time for Germany, no question, but if I interpret the pictures correctly they are now about the glorification of the powerful during this time. On the contrary; the individual is made aware that his life belongs to Christ no matter how powerful he feels personally - there is another power over him, a stronger power. This is no Hitler homage, in my eyes. We find people asking something of Christ, there is someone kneeling before him. God resists the proud, but the humble he gives his grace to. Hitler, however, stands imperiously at the side, alone, wearing boots, his robe somehow militaristic. Haughty and arrogant. He looks like a rabbit before slaughter. He is a man on the edge, an outsider."  He claims that in all the years that the church has been open for worship no-one has objected to the Hitler painting near the altar. But now there are rumblings of discontent with some parishioners calling for him to be erased.  "It isn't right under any circumstances that the biggest mass killer in history should be featured in a painting in a house of Christian worship," one of the flock said in a recent interview on Radio Bavaria.  Pastor Goelkel added that he thought the painting should not be removed. "This image is a central challenge to Nazism: Christ is in the middle. The powerful can stand idle as much as they want," he said.
A plaque at the site of the old synagogue commemorating the Jewish community persecuted during the Nazi era of the Jewish inhabitants in the Shoah. Dating from 1927 and built on Hallplatz near the old train station, it became the target of attacks in the years that followed before eventually being completely destroyed in the November pogrom of 1938; the inventory was burned, shown being carted away in the inset photo. These pogroms in Hof began in the early morning hours of November 10, 1938, and mainly involved officers from the Hof Police Headquarters, the Allgemeine SS and SA men. In addition to the synagogue, retailers and private homes were the main targets of the attacks. Of the approximately eighty Jews in Hof at the time, a dozen were arrested. Most of the Jews left the city, so that in 1939 only seven Jewish residents were counted. After the war, no former Hofer Jew returned, but about 1,400 Jews were stranded in Hof as a result of expulsion at the Moschendorf reception camp. After the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, only a small community of 40 to 50 people remained, growing in the 1990s to around 400 by 2010 due to the influx of Jewish quota refugees from the successor states of the Soviet Union. 

Wemding
Wemding Adolf-Hitler-StraßeAdolf-Hitler-Straße and today. A curious story happened in December 1932 when a businessman from Wemding had found out that the Nazi party chairman was in Eichstätt and travelled there with his daughter to have her present him with flowers. In the "Waldschlösschen" he made some sort of disturbance which led the police to take him into custody and later to the hospital. When the man calmed down the next day, he was allowed to return to Wemding. The war would result in 116 killed and sixty missing. In April 1945 sixteen buildings were destroyed during warfare and a further seventy were damaged. On April 24-25, 1945, American soldiers occupied Wemding and Amerbach. As a result of the admission of more than two thousand refugees and home-displaced persons in the city, the population rose to almost 5,000 people by 1950. The post-war period was characterised by housing shortages, food shortages and low employment opportunities.

Dillingen
Dillingen Adolf Hitler Straße Adolf Hitler Straße, now Königstraße, with the Mitteltorturm. The town was among many discussed in passing on this site which was involved in the witch mania. During the witch persecution from 1574 to 1745 in particular, 65 people were indicted in Dillingen, of whom most of the accused did not survive the process. In 1587 a housewife was burned alive at the stake. The last victim of the witch trials was Barbara Zielhauser in 1745. A plaque commemorating her fate was organised by the Rotary Club, which was unveiled on December 12, 1994 in the Dillingen castle courtyard against the resistance of the Episcopal Ordinariate. The plaque makes a direct reference to the Nazi persecution of Jews through the image of a shield of David with the legend '1933 to 1945' and the Novemberpogrom of 1938.
 
Aichach
A 25-minute coloured home movie recently appeared in Aichach showing a local Nazi Party conference at district level recorded between April 27 to May 1, 1938 which attracted thousands of visitors. It was filmed by a local teacher, the head of the district picture office; a third of it is in colour- representing the first colour film recordings from the town. As Christoph Lang, Director of the Aichach City Museum stated, "[w]e didn't even know this film existed. We were approached by an elderly lady, the filmmaker's daughter, asking if we could tell her where we could have this film digitised." In order to digitise the three rolls of film, each individual image was scanned in the media laboratory at the University of Jena. The University of Augsburg , where a master's thesis on the film has already been written. The GIF on the left shows the Lower Gate serving as a backdrop during the event in which the film shows Nazi flags dominating the town, even flying from the tower of the parish church, as troop after troop formations of the various Nazi groups marched through the streets from the ϟϟ Totenkopf units of the Dachau concentration camp to the Reich Labour Service, shouldering their shovels like assault rifles.  
My GIF on the right shows the town hall from the south side as it appears in the film and today. According to Aichach historian Willi Artmeier, the film represented "a stroke of luck," demonstrating how the Nazis presented themselves in the provinces, especially in an area where their successes were rather limited until 1938, such as in the Catholic Aichach. It is known that such district councils were very common, especially in Upper Bavaria according to  Lang, but there is no other documentation of this kind anywhere else.
From 1919 to 1933, Aichach was one of the district offices with the lowest percentage of Nazi Party votes; the largest party was the Bavarian People's Party (BVP).
The town hall again in another Nazi event. Kershaw quotes a report of the Kreisleiter of Aichach dated March 31, 1939 after the invasion of Bohemia and Moravia in which "[p]eople rejoiced in the great deeds of the Führer and look up to him with confidence. But the hardships and worries of everyday life are so great that the mood is soon clouded again."
 Aichach was never bombed during the war.  Aichach during the war housed the only women's prison in southern Germany as well as the largest in Bavaria, used by the Nazi state for political prisoners who had just escaped the death penalty. Opened in 1909, the number of imprisoned women more than tripled under the Nazis from 691 prisoners in 1933 to 2,000 by 1945, not including the thousand women in the satellite camps. One of the inmates at the time was the well-known Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky sentenced to fifteen years for "preparing to commit high treason". In 1939 Schütte-Lihotzky joined the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) and in December 1940 travelled back to Vienna to secretly contact the Austrian communist resistance movement, agreeing to meet a leading Resistance member nicknamed "Gerber", Erwin Puschmann, and help set up a communications line. She met him at the Cafe Viktoria where they were surprised and arrested by the Gestapo only 25 days after her arrival. She was finally liberated by the Americans April 29, 1945.
'Asocial women were forcibly sterilised- local historian Franz Josef Merkl has established at least 110- and more than 360 women from "safety detention" were sent to Auschwitz.
The Upper Gate in Aichach from a Nazi-era postcard and today, built around 1418. The tower keeper 's apartment was on the upper floor. The eastern pedestrian passage was created in 1941 during the war. 
Aichach is where Ilse Koch, the so-called Witch of Buchenwald,” killed herself on September 2 , 1967 in the women's prison. She had been the wife of the camp commander of the Buchenwald concentration camp, Karl Otto Koch. They had married at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp when Karl Koch was its commander. Ilse Koch was notorious among the concentration camp prisoners, said to have hit inmates with a riding crop whilst on horseback inside the prison camp although witnesses like the camp inmate and later author Eugen Kogonhowever testified in the Dachau court hearing that they themselves had never seen Ilse Koch enter the prisoner area, which was shielded by a barbed wire fence. What is certain is that, unlike other ϟϟ wives, she often witnessed punishments as a spectator, which is why she undoubtedly had knowledge of the atrocities committed there and "her attitude towards the human misery in the camp was [at best] cold indifference". As early as October 1948, the American occupation authorities had instructed the Bavarian state government to institute new criminal proceedings against Koch for crimes committed against German citizens. Immediately after her release from the war criminals prison in Landsberg in October 1949, Koch was taken into custody. By January 15, 1951, Koch was charged with inciting murder, attempted murder, and inciting aggravated assault and sentenced to life imprisonment; presumably her pregnancy during her incarceration saved her from the death sentence. She was the only woman in Germany who was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with Nazi crimes compared to 165 men. On September 2, 1967, she hanged herself in her cell in the Bavarian women's prison in Aichach , where she had been since 1949.
Aichach is also the birthplace of Vincenz Müller, a military officer and general who served in the Imperial German army, the Wehrmacht, and after the war in the National People's Army of the East German Democratic Republic, where he was also a politician. Müller eventually became a member of the East German parliament, the Volkskammer, and served as chief of staff of the National People's Army.
Augsburg (in the dialect Augschburg , Latin Augusta Vindelicum and Augusta Vindelicorum ) is an independent city in southwest Bavaria and one of the three Bavarian metropolises .It is a university town and the seat of the government of the Swabia district as well as the district office of the Augsburg district surrounding the city to the west .  coat of arms Germany map  augsburgMap of Germany, location of the city of Augsburg highlighted Basic data Coordinates : 48° 22′  N , 10° 54′  E Federal State : Bavaria Administrative district : Swabia Height : 494 m above sea level NHN Area : 146.85 km2 Resident: 301,033 (Dec 31, 2022) [1] Population density : 2050 inhabitants per km 2 Postcodes : 86150-86199 Phone prefix : 0821 License Plate : A Municipality key : 09 7 61 000 LOCODE : EN Terms and Conditions NUTS : DE271 City structure: 42 city districts 17 planning areas City administration address : Rathausplatz 1 86150 Augsburg Website : www.augsburg.de Mayor : Eva Weber [2] ( CSU ) Location of the city of Augsburg in Bavaria Map  Town Hall Square: Town Hall and Perlach Tower with St. Peter  Peace plaque in front of the Augsburg town hall , 2014  Chancel of Augsburg Cathedral The city became a major city in 1909 and, with around 300,000 inhabitants [5], is the third largest city in Bavaria after Munich and Nuremberg . The Augsburg metropolitan area also ranks third in Bavaria in terms of population and economic power and is part of the Augsburg planning region , in which around 885,000 people live. In 2017, Augsburg had the second lowest rate of all crimes among major German cities with over 200,000 inhabitants. [6]  Augsburg has its own public holiday limited to the city area, the Augsburg High Peace Festival on August 8th. This makes Augsburg the city with the largest number of public holidays in Germany .  Table of contents geography  Orthophoto of Augsburg  Augsburg seen from the north The city lies on the Lech , Wertach and Singold rivers . The oldest part of the city as well as the southern quarters lie on the northern foothills of a high terrace that was created between the steep hills of Friedberg in the east and the high ridges of the western edge of the hills.  To the south extends the Lechfeld , a glacial gravel plain between the two large rivers Lech and Wertach, in which rare primeval landscapes have been preserved. The Augsburg city forest and the Lechtalheiden are among the most species-rich Central European habitats.  Augsburg is bordered by the Augsburg – Western Forests Nature Park , a large forest area. In addition, the urban area itself is also heavily greened, which is why the city was the first German city to be named the greenest and most livable city in the Europe-wide Entente Florale Europe competition in 1997 . The city is the largest municipal forest owner in Bavaria and the third largest in Germany.   Panoramic picture of Augsburg, viewed from the west Neighboring communities The city is surrounded in the east by the Aichach-Friedberg district and in the west by the Augsburg district . Due to the urban area stretching in a north-south direction, many cities and communities border Augsburger Flur.  The metropolitan area , starting in the east and following clockwise , is formed by Friedberg (Aichach-Friedberg district), Königsbrunn , Stadtbergen , Neusäß and Gersthofen (all Augsburg district), all of which, with their settlement core, directly border the built-up area of ​​Augsburg.  In addition, the communities of Rehling , Affing , Kissing , Mering and Merching (all in the Aichach-Friedberg district) as well as Bobingen , Gessertshausen and Diedorf (all in the Augsburg district) border the city (clockwise from the north).  City structure  Planning areas and city districts → Main article : List of planning areas and districts of Augsburg The urban area consists of 42 urban districts , which form 17 planning areas . This type of city structure has existed since 1938. The total area is 147 square kilometers (39th place among major German cities ).  Some of the districts are formerly independent communities , some are newly founded residential areas. Some parts of the city have spatially separate settlements ( residential areas ) with their own names. Districts not mentioned in the administrative division are Augsburg's old town as part of the city center and the Augsburg textile district , which is partly in Spickel-Herrenbach and partly in the city center.  The former U.S. Army barracks and residential areas retained their names after the troop withdrawal in 1998, including Centerville , Cramerton , Reese , Sheridan , Sullivan Heights and Supply-Center . Many of these barracks are now residential areas.  Planning areas in Augsburg I: Downtown | II: Oberhausen | III: Bear Cellar | IV: Firnhaberau | V: Hammersmith | VI: Lechhausen | VII: Warlord | VIII: Pfersee | IX: Hochfeld | X: Antonsviertel | XI: Spickel-Herrenbach | XII: High tariff | XIII: Haunstetten-Siebenbrunn | XIV: Göggingen | XV: Inningen | XVI: Bergheim | XVII: University district  waters The city lies on three rivers: The Lech is the largest flowing body of water and is widened by the tributary of the Wertach , which flows north of the Wolfzahnau landscape protection area . Augsburg's third river, the Singold , rises in Ostallgäu and flows into the city's extensive artificial stream and canal system. The numerous canals in Augsburg - most of which flow through the Lechviertel in the old town - are spanned by 500 bridge structures. They are part of the “ Augsburg Water Management System ” site, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list on July 6, 2019 .   The Lech at the Hochablass weir See also : List of fountains in Augsburg Flow River length in the urban area Lech 19.9km Wertach 13.1km Singold 6.2km 29 Lech canals 77.7km 4 value channels 11.6 km 19 streams 45.6km Total length 174.1km The factory canal , into which the Singold flows, is derived from the Wertach in Göggingen, flows north as the Wertachkanal, Holzbach or Senkelbach and returns to the Wertach after the Augsburg balloon factory .  At the Hochablass, the capital stream and the Neubach are diverted from the Lech, which merge again after a few hundred meters to form briefly downstream into the Herrenbach, which flows to the north (downstream, the Proviantbach with its outflows and feeders Hanreibach and Fichtelbach ) and the Kaufbach, which flows to the west forks. The Kaufbach feeds the Schäfflerbach and the city ditches and inner city canals, which merge again to the north on the UPM-Kymmene site and flow again as the city stream in the western area of ​​the Wolfzahnau with the Proviantbach in order to reach the Lech a few meters before the mouth of the Wertach . The Mühlbach flows through the Pfersee district .  The Brunnenbach , the Reichskanal and the Lochbach (a Lech canal) flow through the city forest. They branch out into other small streams and reunite shortly before the city center.  In the riparian forest through which the Lech flows are the Kuhsee and the smaller Stempflesee . In the north of Augsburg are the Autobahnsee , the Kaisersee and the Europaweiher at the Augsburg Müllberg . In the south of Augsburg there are the Wertach reservoir, the Lautersee and the Ilsesee (local recreation area).  The nature reserves in the south of Augsburg serve Augsburg's drinking water supply . The city forest and the Lechau forest near Unterbergen are therefore designated as drinking water protection areas . The water obtained from there with a hardness of 13.5 °dH (medium hard) supplies the cities of Augsburg, Neusäß, Friedberg and Stadtbergen. [7]  nature and environment  Fly ragwort in the shooting range heath After the large-scale incorporations of the 1970s, the city is one of the greenest cities in Germany with around a third of green and forest area .  The Augsburg city forest - with around 21.5 square kilometers the largest Bavarian riparian forest - forms a closed forest area in the southeast and has a high regional importance for nature conservation and as a local recreation and leisure area. There are seven landscape protection areas , four FFH areas and two nature reserves in the city (as of May 2016).  The southwest of the city is covered by parts of the Augsburg-Western Forests Nature Park . This 1,175 square kilometer nature park is the only one in Bavarian Swabia. It is bordered in the north by the Danube , in the east by the slopes of the Wertach and Schmutter and in the west by the Mindel . In the south it extends to the edge of the Lower Allgäu .  The city is considered a model city for environmentally friendly lighting nationwide. [8] Through measures to combat light pollution in public lighting, electricity consumption and thus carbon dioxide emissions were reduced by 20 percent, resulting in annual savings of 250,000 euros. [9]  In a study by the Geers Foundation in 2011, Augsburg had the second lowest noise level after Münster of all German cities with over 250,000 inhabitants - only 17.0 percent of the city area was exposed to a daily average of more than 55 decibels . [10]  In November 2013, Augsburg was awarded the German Sustainability Prize as the “Most Sustainable Large City 2013”. [11]  climate The city lies in the transition between the humid Atlantic and the dry continental climate on the Lechfeld plain in a slight valley. Other weather-determining factors are the Alps as a Central European weather divide and the Danube as a regional weather divide . Therefore the weather is relatively changeable. In the period 1950–2010, an increase in temperature, a decrease in precipitation and an increase in the occurrence of extreme values ​​were measured for Augsburg. [12] This has increased again in the last decade. [13]  The weather periods vary between moderate, not too cold winters and warm, not excessively hot summers. Large amounts of snow, which protect the vegetation during the frost periods, usually only fall from January and last until mid-March. Larger amounts of precipitation occur in early summer, mostly when there is a westerly wind. Longer dry periods occur in mid-summer and early fall.  The Föhn brings warm and dry air currents from the Alpine foothills to Augsburg from the south all year round . This is associated with good visibility, so that the Bavarian and Allgäu Alps can often be clearly seen.  The average annual temperature is around 8.4 degrees Celsius and the annual rainfall is around 850 millimeters. During the hot summer of 2003, a temperature of 36.0 degrees was measured on August 13th, the highest value since temperature observations began is 37.1 degrees on July 27th, 1983. The lowest recorded temperature was −28.2 degrees, measured on the 12th February 1929.  Due to its location in the most thunderstorm-intensive state of Bavaria, Augsburg is often affected by violent storms, which can lead to enormous Lech and Wertach floods. This had the greatest impact in 1999, when a dam on the Wertach burst and entire parts of the city were under water.  On autumn days it is often foggy in Augsburg due to its location in the Lech and Wertach valleys. After Munich, Augsburg is the snowiest city in Germany.  augsburg Population development of Augsburg Population development  From 1400 to 2018  From 1871 to 2018 At the time of the Roman Empire, over 10,000 people lived in Augsburg. [15] The population hardly grew in the following centuries. Around 1500, Augsburg was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire, after Cologne and Prague , with a population of around 30,000 people .  With industrialization in the 19th century, Augsburg experienced strong population growth. While around 26,000 people lived in the city in 1806, there were over 80,000 in 1895 and 180,000 in 1939. In 1910 the population reached the 100,000 mark for the first time, making Augsburg a major city. [16] During the Second World War , the city lost around 20 percent of its population (38,958 people), so that in 1945 146,000 people lived in Augsburg. The population reached its pre-war level five years later, partly due to the large number of German refugees from Central and Eastern Europe .  The population entitled to housing increased from 267,121 people on January 1, 2010 to 290,743 on June 30, 2016 (+8.8%) and reached 295,895 on December 31, 2017. Since May 2011, the number has always been higher than the previous month. The 290,000 population mark was exceeded in April 2016. [17] In the 2010s, Augsburg was the 23rd largest German city . A forecast published in 2012 predicts that Augsburg's population will increase by 3.9 percent by 2025, making it the third strongest population growth of all major German cities. [18]  Between 1988 and 2018, the independent city grew by 47,404 inhabitants or by 19.1%, from 247,731 to 295,135.  Population figures (estimates for the 13th to 18th centuries based on preserved tax registers) Year population Remarks 1200 < 12,000 [19] 1250 < 10,000 [19] 1363 25,000 [19] 1386 18,000 after political and urban turmoil (united attacks by the Bavarian dukes and bishops) [19] 1424 15,000 [19] 1450 15,000 after papal disputes and the political work of Bishop Anselm von Nenningen [19] 1490 25,000 Beginning of the economic heyday, after the loss of Levantine trade, the declining importance of Venice and not least as a result of the founding of the Swabian League [19] 1516 27,000 [19] 1534 <33,000 [19] 1536 36,000 [19] 1617 50,000 Peak of the flowering period [19] 1631 36,000 Population decline as a result of the Thirty Years' War [19] 1650 25,000 after the end of the Thirty Years' War [19] 1800s <30,000 [19] 1855 27,500 in 4000 houses [20] 1861 45,389 in 13,150 families [21] 1864 49,332 in 14,645 families, with the military (253 families, 7,277 people), of which 14,078 were Protestants , 45 Reformed and 128 Israelites [21] 1871 51,220 on December 1, 1871, 5,512 buildings, 16,112 Protestants, 827 Reformed [22] 1880 61,408 [23] 1885 65,905 [23] 1890 75,629 [23] 1900 89,170 with the garrison (an infantry regiment No. 3, four squadrons of Chevaulegers No. 4, a field artillery regiment No. 4), of which 23,995 were Protestants and 1,171 Jews; [24] According to other information, 24,086 are Protestant, 63,766 are Catholic [23] 1910 102,487 of which 25,256 are Protestant, 75,601 are Catholic [23] 1925 165,522 including 33,354 Protestants, 129,319 Catholics, 175 other Christians, 1,203 Jews [23] 1933 176,575 including 33,344 Protestants, 139,552 Catholics, 84 other Christians, 1,030 Jews [23] 1939 180,039 including 34,280 Protestants, 139,595 Catholics, 1,000 other Christians, 551 Jews [23] 1950 185,183 [23] 1960 205,000 including 36,100 displaced persons [23] Demographics  Population pyramid for Augsburg (data source: 2011 census [25] ) On January 1, 2008, Augsburg had 267,836 residents with primary and secondary residences and 264,265 without secondary residences. In November 2008, 9,181 of the city's 138,300 employable citizens were without a job, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent. [26] In February 2010, the unemployment rate in Augsburg was 6.2 percent and in the Augsburg district it was 4.0 percent. For the entire region the rate was 5.4 percent. [27] Almost 500,000 people live in the Augsburg metropolitan area, which includes the directly adjacent suburbs.  At the end of 2017, the proportion of foreigners was 21.8 percent (64,627 inhabitants) rather high compared to major German cities. [28] Most citizens of non-German origin live in the planning areas of Oberhausen, Spickel-Herrenbach, Hochfeld and Lechhausen as well as the Jakobervorstadt and come primarily from Turkey , Italy and the former Yugoslavia . The Suryoye (also referred to as Aramaeans , Assyrians or Chaldeans ) make up a considerable proportion . The first Suryoye came to Augsburg from southeast Turkey ( Tur-Abdin ) as guest workers in the mid-1660s. [29] As the situation worsened for this Semitic Christian minority in their area of ​​origin in ancient Mesopotamia , many came to Augsburg as refugees. [30] [31] They come from Turkey, Syria , Iran , Iraq and Lebanon . Most of the Suryoye who came to Augsburg belong to the Syrian Orthodox Church . Recently, however, Suryoye, who belong to the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East , have also been coming to Augsburg as refugees from Iraq and Syria. [32] [33] To this day, the Suryoye speak an Aramaic language , namely New Eastern Aramaic . [34] This language is spoken in two dialects, the Surayt dialect (also known as Turoyo) and the Suret dialect.  There are also around 50,000 repatriates living in Augsburg . They are German citizens, the majority of whom were born in the former Soviet Union . Overall, around 45 percent of the city's population has a migration background (including foreigners, as of 2018). [35]  The age structure is in line with the German average, with 16.0 percent (43,213 people) of residents with their main and secondary residence being under 18 years old. 52.2 percent (140,592 people) of all residents are female and 47.8 percent (128,857 people) are male. [36]  Due to the positive migration balance, Augsburg's population is growing. The highest increases occurred in autumn due to the influx of 18 to under 25 year olds. Along with the increase in the age group of 25 to under 40, the proportion of children under 10 has also increased since 2011, with the number of births also increasing steadily since 2012. The population growth is due to an increasing external migration surplus. The number of people moving here has increased continuously since 2010 from 17,482 to 25,618 people (+45.5%) in 2015. Since the number of external migrations increased less strongly during this period (by 25.0% from 16,136 to 20,169), the annual increase in migration has increased since 2010 from 1,346 to 5,449 in 2015. The number of immigrants from EU countries more than doubled from 2,059 to 5,665. [17]  Young immigrants prefer districts close to the city center, where the highest proportion of single households can be found. The average household size is falling, primarily due to the increase in single-person households. The city of Augsburg loses the most due to the departures of 30 to under 50 year olds, most of whom (with their children) migrate to the Augsburg area. The number of deaths in the city of Augsburg has been higher than the number of births since 1968. Despite the decline in births and the negative migration balance among young families, the number of single parents rose.  The Augsburg population is aging due to increasing life expectancy and the aging of the particularly large age groups. Compared to other cities, Augsburg has a low proportion of people aged 65 and over and a low old-age dependency ratio. Due to the above-average immigration of people aged 18 to under 30, Augsburg has the highest proportion of this age group compared to other cities. Augsburg has a relatively low fertility rate, which is why the youth quotient is comparatively low. [17]  Religions In addition to the Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities, which together make up the majority of religious life in Augsburg, there are many small religious communities . In addition, there has been an ideological community with the Augsburg Association for Freedom of Thought since 1911 .  Denominational statistics Since 1999, annual data on religious affiliation has been available from the city's population register. Until 2003, an absolute majority of Augsburg residents were members of the Catholic Church: at that time, 50.2% were Catholics, 17.4% were Protestants and 32.4% were people of another or no denomination or religion living in the city . [37] [38] [39]  According to the 2011 census , 46.0% of the residents were Catholic , 16.8% were Protestant and 37.3% were non-denominational , belonged to another religious community or did not provide any information. [40] This census also collected figures for other religious communities. At that time, 4.1% of the population were Christian-Orthodox , 0.5% were Jewish , 0.5% were members of a Protestant free church and a further 6.1% belonged to other public religious communities recognized in Bavaria (including, among others, the Alt- Catholic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses ). [41] [42] According to calculations based on the figures from the 2011 census , the proportion of the Muslim population in Augsburg was 8.8%. [43]  The number of Protestants and Catholics has continued to decline since then, and members of the two 'larger' churches no longer make up the majority of the population. [44] As of December 31, 2022, Augsburg had 304,105 residents, of which 33.9% were Catholics , 12.4% were Protestants and 53.7% of residents belonged to other or no religious communities . [45] [46] [47] In 2021, 2,836 residents (1% of the total population) left the churches. [48] ​​The number of people leaving the church in Augsburg in 2022 has reached a record high. [49] [50] In 2023, almost 2862 (1% of the total population) resignations have been reported to the district court so far (as of October 1, 2023). [51]  Christianity  View from the Perlachturm to the south onto Kurze Maximilianstrasse ; on the left the town hall , on the right the church of St. Moritz and in the background the basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra The first data on the religious beliefs of the city's residents were obtained in 1833 as part of a census. 61% were Catholics, 38% were Protestants and 0.4% were people of other faiths or atheists. [37] This ratio changed in favor of Catholics, particularly through the incorporation of Catholic suburbs, so that the proportion of the Protestant population around 1950 was only around 23%. In the 1987 census, 66.5% were Catholic and 18.7% were Protestant.  Augsburg is the episcopal see of the Catholic diocese and the seat of the Protestant church district of Augsburg .  The city had probably been in existence since the 4th/5th century. Century seat of a bishop . Around 738 the diocese of Augsburg was renewed. From 1518 onwards, Martin Luther's teachings found followers in Augsburg. The teaching spread more and more and ultimately led to the official introduction of the Reformation by the city council in 1534/1537. This was followed by the city's participation in the Schmalkaldic War , and in 1548 a Reichstag was held in Augsburg that regulated the practice of religion for a transitional period ( Augsburg Interim ). Seven years later (1555), equality between the two denominations was finally achieved in the Peace of Augsburg . In memory of this and Luther's visits to Augsburg, the city is now one of the German Luther cities . [52] The Reformation Anabaptists were also able to establish a relatively strong community in the city in 1524. In 1527, the supra-regional so-called Augsburg Synod of Martyrs took place in Augsburg.  The Catholic population then continued to belong to the diocese of Augsburg, which at the time was assigned to the archdiocese of Mainz . After the city was transferred to Bavaria, the previous allocation remained. In 1821 the diocese of Augsburg and with it its parishes were assigned to the newly established archdiocese of Munich and Freising (see also the list of bishops of Augsburg ).   Evangelical Church of St. Jacob The Protestant parishioners received the churches of St. Anna , St. Ulrich , Zu den Barfüßer and St. Jakob at the latest after the Peace of Westphalia . They were subordinate to the city council. After Augsburg passed to Bavaria, the communities became part of the Protestant Church of the Kingdom of Bavaria , which initially included Lutheran and Reformed religious communities.  The city then became the seat of its own deanery , which in 1827 initially belonged to the Bayreuth consistory district , then from 1876 to the Ansbach consistory district and then from 1923 to the Munich church district . Since 1971 it has been part of the Augsburg church district . In addition to the city's parishes, the Augsburg deanery also includes communities outside the city area, especially in the districts of Augsburg and Aichach-Friedberg .  The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 confirmed the equal government and administration system introduced in Augsburg by the city constitution of 1548 (final equality and exact distribution of offices between Catholics and Protestants). This agreement was to last until mediatization in 1805 and is still celebrated today at the Augsburg High Peace Festival .  After the end of the Anabaptist movement, free church communities were re-established in Augsburg in the 19th and 20th centuries. It started with the Mennonites , who held worship meetings in Augsburg from 1870 onwards. In 1863 the United Methodist Church received the rights of a “private church company”. Around 1925 - starting from the mother church in Munich - the Baptists (in the Association of Evangelical Free Churches ) began their work. There has also been a Free Evangelical Community in Augsburg since 1968 , which now has four congregations. [53]   Evangelical Ulrichskirche and Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra The Orthodox churches of southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East also have congregations in Augsburg. The Suryoye (also known as Assyrians or Aramaeans ) [54] inaugurated their own church in Lechhausen in 1998 [55] ; the St. Mary's Church on Zusamstrasse is one of the first Syrian Orthodox buildings in Germany. [56] The approximately 6,000 [57] [58] Syrian Orthodox Christians (known locally as Suryoye) in Augsburg come primarily from southeastern Turkey ( Tur Abdin ) and Syria , speak the language of Jesus ( Syrian Aramaic ) and have their own Roots in Mesopotamia . These Christians initially came to Europe as guest workers , [59] then from 1980 mostly as asylum seekers because they were discriminated against and persecuted in Turkey. [60] After the withdrawal of American troops, the Greek Orthodox parish with over 6,000 parishioners was able to buy the Gospel Church in the former anti-aircraft barracks and renamed it after the patron saint Agios Panteleimon .  The Russian Orthodox Church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Mourner”, which belongs to the Russian Orthodox Diocese of the Orthodox Bishop of Berlin and Germany , is located in the Pfersee district. The community in Augsburg has existed since the 1930s and now has around 120 members (2011).  There are also a large number of other Christian religious communities, for example, also in Pfersee, the Apostle Junia Church of the Old Catholic Community, the New Apostolic Church , the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovah's Witnesses .  Islam Muslims form the second largest religious community in Augsburg. There are a number of prayer and club rooms in the city, which are run by different communities with their own goals and priorities.  The majority of Islamic citizens are first to third generation immigrants from Turkey (see demographics ). There are also associations and associated places of worship for Arab , Bosnian and Iraqi Muslims, as well as two Alevi cultural centers.  Judaism  Augsburg Synagogue It can be assumed that the first Jews came to Augsburg after the Jewish War in the first century and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans . There are documented mentions from the 9th century. The Jews had their own street near St. Leonhard's Chapel as early as 1241 and their own court until 1433 . [61] On November 22, 1348, two members of the influential Portner family [62] attempted a coup to gain power in the city. Since this uprising coincided with a pogrom against the Jews and the Portners had gone into debt to acquire their properties from Augsburg Jews, it has been assumed that they may have helped foment the pogrom themselves in order to take advantage of the chaos in the city and get rid of their creditors. Even if the coup failed and the ringleaders were expelled from the city forever, the incumbent council could not or did not want to prevent the murder of the Jews. The Augsburg Jewish community was the first large community in the Roman-German Empire to fall victim to the persecution of Jews at the time of the Black Death . [63] According to the city council's resolution of July 7, 1438, that the Jews should "not be left here any longer, then two years from now on," they were expelled from the city and settled outside the city gates in the village of Kriegshaber . [64] Under the protection of the Margraviate of Burgau, the Kriegshaber synagogue was the center of the Jewish community for almost three hundred years . A large Jewish cemetery has also been preserved in Kriegshaber from this period.  The history of the Jewish community in Augsburg began again in 1803, when the city first granted citizenship to three Jews (the bankers Aron Elias Seligmann , later Freiherr von Eichthal, Jakob Obermayer and Henle Ephraim Ullmann) for an annual fee and a significant loan amount, although the urban merchants had put up considerable resistance.  The number of Jewish families subsequently increased only slightly (79 people in 1840 and 128 people in 1852), as their settlement continued to be strictly controlled . The defeat of the conservative Catholics in the local council elections of 1857 brought a decisive turning point, as a result of which the first Israelite religious community was founded in Augsburg in 1861. Until then, religious instruction was given by the teacher from the then independent suburb of Pfersee , while the responsible rabbinate was the warlord.  Three years before the government approved the community, the house at Wintergasse A 13 was purchased in 1858 for 13,000 guilders and was initially converted into a pure synagogue and later expanded to include rabbi and teacher apartments; its inauguration took place in April 1865.  As a result of this development, the Jewish population in the city increased rapidly in the second half of the 19th century, so that in 1895 there were 1,156 Jews living in Augsburg. In the meantime, a Jewish cemetery (1867) and a lively club life (a men's club, a women's club and a dining club, each with charitable purposes) had already been established. The Jewish industrialists, bankers, traders and merchants played an important role in the city's economic life and almost entirely belonged to the upper middle or upper class.  Even at this time, more and more community members were demanding the construction of a new synagogue , which was also made necessary by the pressure of the city: the old building was in a dilapidated condition. In 1903, a garden property on Halderstrasse was acquired, for which an architectural competition was announced in 1912. In the years 1914 to 1917, the plans of Fritz Landauer and Heinrich Lömpel were finally realized.  When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Augsburg's Jews also suffered more and more from reprisals: within five years, almost all Jewish companies were closed or Aryanized .  The oppression of the Jews reached its peak during the November pogroms in 1938 in the early morning of November 10, 1938: around 30 NSDAP members destroyed the interior of the synagogue and set fire, which was, however, extinguished because of the surrounding residential and communal buildings and a gas station , so that the building itself was preserved and was used as a backdrop storage facility for the city theater during the Second World War. An anti-aircraft artillery observation post was set up on the dome of the synagogue.  Although many Jews had emigrated since 1933, their number in the city had not fallen significantly due to the influx of Jewish citizens from rural communities. 356 to 450 community members were deported in seven transports to Auschwitz , Piaski , Riga and Theresienstadt . Only a few Augsburg Jews survived the Shoah .  After the end of the Second World War, only a few former Augsburg Jews returned to the city, including Ludwig Dreifuß , who was appointed the first post-war mayor by the American military government. The Augsburg-Swabia Israelite Community was founded in 1946 and did not see much growth for a very long time. Hans Erich Fabian, first chairman of the Berlin community, spoke of southern German problems with regard to the conflicts that arose between a few returned German Jews and the vast majority of Eastern European Jews, especially in the south of Germany. It was feared that the German-Jewish traditions would not be able to assert themselves. The disputes were particularly vehement in Augsburg, where 32 German Jews refused to grant community membership to the 60 Jews without German citizenship. The Central Council took a clear stance on this: community membership is independent of nationality and place of birth. Only after years did these Jews receive two of nine board seats. [65] In 1987 the community had 247 members. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, this changed rapidly due to the influx of numerous quota refugees from the former Soviet Union , so that the community - which is responsible for the whole of Swabia - now includes around 1,800 people. [66]  Buddhism With the founding of the Wat Buddha Augsburg association (around 130 members) in 2002, a temple was set up in the Göggingen district that is mainly used by migrants from Thailand . Every first Sunday of the month, the ceremony is broadcast over the Internet from the Maha Dhamma Kaya Cetiya temple near Bangkok . Believers from outside also travel to this event. The club has now moved to Königsbrunn.  Since January 2000, the Zen Buddhist group in Augsburg has met every Wednesday and Sunday for regular meditation in Augsburg. Teaching and practice follow the traditional Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition. [67]  Story The name of the city, which is one of the oldest in Germany , dates back to the 15th century. Roman army camps founded in the 1st century BC and the later Roman provincial capital Augusta Vindelicum . In the 13th century, the city broke away from episcopal rule , became an imperial city by 1316 at the latest and a frequent venue for imperial diets with close connections to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire , which were financed, among others, by the Welser and Fugger merchant families (“Fuggerstadt”). After the Reformation , Augsburg, where the Peace of Augsburg was concluded in 1555, became bidenominational.  Place name Previous spellings of the city from various historical maps and documents were:  Ancient Augusta Vindelicum 14th century Uzhburk Antiquity → Main article : Augusta Vindelicum  Copy of the tomb of Aurelius Carus, employee of the provincial administration  Late Roman crested helmet ( Augsburg Roman Museum ) Augsburg was founded in 15 BC. BC, because in that year a legionary camp , which later also served as a supply depot, was built in the area of ​​today's Oberhausen district. Emperor Augustus had commissioned his two stepsons Drusus and Tiberius to do this. According to this founding date, Augsburg would be the second oldest city in Germany after Trier , although this can be assessed according to various criteria (see article Oldest Cities in Germany ). What is certain, however, is that after Augusta Treverorum , today's Trier, it was one of the largest Roman settlements north of the Alps.  In the first century, the settlement of Augusta Vindelicum (see origin of the name ) was formed around the camp, which was established before the turn of the century , and the Emperor Hadrian granted Roman city rights in 121 AD. From around 95 AD, Augsburg was the capital of the Roman province of Raetia , which extended into northern Italy. It is unknown when exactly Augsburg became the provincial capital. Archaeological findings indicate that Kempten ( Cambodunum ) continued to have this function until the late 1st century AD. Tacitus described Augsburg as the most beautiful (“splendidissima”) city in Raetia. [68]  According to new research, the Neckar-Odenwald Limes was only created in 98 AD under Emperor Trajan , at the same time as the construction of the Roman highway from Mainz via Bad Cannstatt to Augsburg, which was secured for that year . A connection between these two strategic construction projects and the relocation of the capital of the Rhaetian province from Kempten to Augsburg is obvious, but has not yet been positively proven (compare: Kinzig (Rhein) #The historic Roman road ).  In 260 AD, the Germanic Juthungs invaded Italy and Raetia and kidnapped thousands of Italians. On their return march, however, they were defeated by the Roman governor in a two-day battle and put to flight, as the Augsburg Victory Altar found in 1992 shows . In 271, after repeated advances by the Juthungs and other tribes, the city was besieged.   Augsburg saints in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages: Afra of Augsburg († 304), Bishop Simpert (left, around 750–807) and Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg (890–973) After the Roman province of Raetia was divided in 294, Augsburg became the capital of the province of Raetia Secunda, which was invaded by the Alamanni after the end of Roman rule around 450 . However, as the tradition of the 6th century suggests, the settlement continued to exist.  Augsburg may have been the seat of a bishop as early as late antiquity , although there is no written or archaeological evidence of this. [69] Traditions about a bishop Narcissus of Girona around 300, during whose time the alleged martyrdom of Afra of Augsburg occurred, are uncertain. The medievalist Bernhard Schimmelpfennig has worked out that this was most likely originally a male Roman saint named Afer, who probably became a woman named Afra through prescription. [70]  middle Ages Early development It is unclear whether Augsburg continued to exist as an administrative center without interruption between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The settlement and the Christianity of its population are attested for the 6th century, as can be seen from the mention of the veneration of the city saint Afra in the Vita sancti Martini of Venantius Fortunatus from 565 and from archaeological finds. [71]  At the time of Charlemagne, Augsburg was affected by fighting between Bavaria and Franconia. Bishop Simpert, appointed by Charles , made a great contribution to the reconstruction of the city. The importance of Augsburg grew again towards the end of the early Middle Ages , when King Otto I , with the help of Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, defeated the westward-moving Hungarians in the Battle of Lechfeld, south of the city, in 955 .  On June 21, 1156, Augsburg was given city rights again by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa , which was expanded almost a hundred years later in 1251 to include the right to keep a seal and to tax its citizens. [72] Barbarossa's Augsburg Arbitration in 1158 (two years after the city's elevation) marks the official founding day of Munich .  Elevation of Augsburg to the status of an imperial city The culmination of these developments was imperial immediacy , which was granted by King Rudolf of Habsburg on March 9, 1276 with the privilege of its own statutory law. The city law was summarized in the city book of 1276. [73] The now expanded independence of Augsburg led to violent disputes with the bishopric as the secular domain of the prince-bishop , which culminated in the relocation of the main episcopal residence to Dillingen on the Danube in the 15th century. According to Eberhard Isenmann , Augsburg's development into an imperial city was completed in 1316 when Louis the Bavarian guaranteed the city's inalienability from the empire. [74]  As a result, more and more patrician families took control of the city, but this did not always go smoothly: in 1368 there was an uprising by the city's craftsmen, which led to the introduction of a guild constitution. Eleven years later, Augsburg joined the Swabian League of Cities , which collapsed again in 1388.  As a result of the guild constitution and the associated regulation of all craft activities, the power of the guilds grew steadily and they were involved in the city government until 1547. Seven years earlier, in 1540, the Augsburg Stock Exchange had been founded. The city developed due to its central location on old highways, e.g. B. the Via Claudia Augusta , the Via Julia and the Via Imperii , an important trading city with connections to the Hanseatic cities on the North and Baltic Seas, as well as to Italy.  Early modern age → Main article : Reichstag in Augsburg  Fugger City Palace  Augsburg in the Schedel World Chronicle 1493  Plan of the city around 1550 The high point of this period was the dictatorship of Ulrich Schwarz , who took over the mayor's office in 1469 with great political visions. At the beginning he succeeded, among other things, in giving the previously underrepresented lower guilds a say in the city government and in freeing Augsburg from excessive debt. However, when the patrician class opposed him , he resorted to brutal measures and had the Vittel patrician brothers carried out the death penalty , which led to his own downfall and his execution in 1478.  With the arrival of Günther Zainer, the Augsburg printing industry began to flourish . In 1468 he printed S. Bonaventurae meditationes vite domini . In addition to spiritual literature, the typographer sold folk books in German, devotional writings, pharmacopoeias and calendars. In 1471, Zainer cut Type 3, one of the first German antiquarian fonts . Erhard Ratdolt perfected Antiqua design sourced from Venice. Additional offices that emerged ensured that the city was one of the most well-known publishing locations in Europe at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Last but not least, Johann Schönsperger contributed to this. Since the imperial city did not have a university and sales opportunities outside of the scientific or ecclesiastical sector were only open to the secular public, between 1480 and 1500 around 75 percent of the books produced in Augsburg were printed in colloquial language. The German Aesop had 22 editions at the time. Schönsperger's Theuerdank is considered one of the greatest printing products of the Renaissance . [75]  Freie Reichsstadt Augsburg, Guldentaler 1560, Vs.: Stadtpyr, Rs.: Doppeladler, Titel Kaiser Ferdinands I.[76] Freie Reichsstadt Augsburg, Guldentaler 1560, Vs.: Stadtpyr, Rs.: Doppeladler, Titel Kaiser Ferdinands I.[76] Free Imperial City of Augsburg, Guldentaler 1560, front: city pyr , back: double eagle , title of Emperor Ferdinand I. [76] After individual cities in the empire had already received the right to mint in the 13th century , the Augsburg council also tried to gain this privilege. The Augsburg city clerk Konrad Peutinger was sent as head of the city administration and as imperial councilor to the Reichstag in Worms in the spring of 1521, which was held under the reign of the young Emperor Charles V. He was not only supposed to have the old privileges renewed there, but also applied to obtain the right to mint for the city, which he succeeded in doing. On May 21, 1521, Emperor Charles V signed the relevant document granting the city of Augsburg permission to mint its own coins. Minting operations began in the same year. The imperial city influence of Augsburg ended in 1805 when Augsburg lost its imperial freedom and fell to Bavaria. [76]  Even before the final decline of guild rule in 1547, Augsburg developed from the beginning of modern times to the end of the Renaissance into one of the most important trade and economic centers in the world, which was primarily due to the influence of the Fugger and Welser merchant families . During this time, Augsburg, along with Cologne, Prague and Nuremberg, was one of the largest cities in the Holy Roman Empire. [77]   Perlachplatz (1550)  Special stamp to commemorate 450 years of the Augsburg Religious Peace  Gustav II Adolf outside the walls of Augsburg in 1632  Augsburg in 1643 Reformation period From 1500 the city belonged to the Swabian Imperial District . After the Reichstag in Augsburg , Martin Luther had to answer for his theses in the Fugger Houses in 1518 before Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, who was commissioned by the Pope . He arrived in the city on October 7th and left on the 20th of the month. Negotiations with Cardinal Cajetan took place on October 12th, 13th and 14th. During his stay, Luther lived in the Carmelite monastery of St. Anna , where the Augsburg mayor's son and Carmelite Christoph Langenmantel also stayed, who looked after him in a friendly manner and advised him. [78] When Martin Luther refused to revoke his theses, there was an urgent risk of his arrest. On the night of October 19th to 20th, Christoph Langenmantel secretly led him through a secret gate in the city wall so that he could escape. [79] [80] On November 25, 1518, Luther sent him a letter of thanks from Wittenberg . [81] Augsburg was one of the representatives of the Protestant minority at the Reichstag in Speyer in 1529 , but did not take part in the protest . Their citizens demanded the unhindered spread of the Protestant faith, which was formulated at the Reichstag in Augsburg in 1530 with the Augsburg Confession by Philipp Melanchthon . The Confessio Augustana represents the confession and founding document of the Lutheran Church .  There was an important Anabaptist community in the city of Augsburg between 1524 and 1573, which became known primarily through the Augsburg Synod of Martyrs in August 1527, an international gathering of delegates from different Anabaptist circles. Important figures of the Augsburg Anabaptists were Jakob Dachser , Hans Leupold and Pilgram Marbeck . Most of the synod members later died as martyrs for their beliefs. [82]  On July 22, 1534, the city's Grand Council decided that only preachers "installed" by it were allowed to preach in the city. Catholic worship was restricted to the eight churches of the monasteries. Smaller churches and monastery churches were closed. With this religious mandate, the council formally claimed ecclesiastical sovereignty over the city.  In 1548, Emperor Charles V initiated a new patrician city constitution and issued the Augsburg Interim . With the new city constitution, the city introduced a parity system of government and administration (equal rights and exact distribution of offices between Catholics and Protestants - see Paritätische Reichsstadt ). The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 also calmed the coexistence of citizens in the city. 28 years later – February 14th . / February 24, 1583 greg. – the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Augsburg ; this led to a heated calendar dispute , which culminated in June 1584 with the expulsion of the Lutheran theologian Georg Mylius .  Thirty Years' War During the Thirty Years' War, the Fugger city was garrisoned with eight companies of Bavarian troops in 1628, at a weekly cost of 8,950 guilders. Under the occupation, from 1629 onwards, the Edict of Restitution was forcefully enforced to the detriment of the Protestants, and Protestants were removed from the city council and the schools. [83] On April 19, 1632, the Swedish army under King Gustav Adolf stood at the gates and demanded the surrender of the city. On April 20, the city council approved the voluntary surrender against the free withdrawal of the Bavarian occupying troops. The new commander was initially the son of the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstierna and after him Johann Georg from Winckel. The Protestant citizens received their old rights back. At the beginning of 1634 there was hardly any food left in the city because the surrounding area was completely devastated and plundered by passing troops. [83] In mid-1634, two Swedish armies under Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar and Gustaf Horn again used the city and the surrounding area as a storage and starting point for their operations in the battles for Regensburg and Landshut . After the devastating defeat of the Swedes at Nördlingen , Augsburg was surrounded and cordoned off by imperial and Bavarian troops in the fall of 1634 with the intention of starving the city. All access routes were blocked and repeated attempts were made to stop the water supply. A famine arose in the city with gruesome circumstances and 5,000 deaths at the end of 1634. After that, only Protestant citizens were fed. After attempts by the Swedish commander to secretly obtain food from Ulm failed, the city surrendered on March 13, 1635. Since the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Augsburg's population had fallen by two thirds. Under the new Bavarian city commander Otto Heinrich Fugger, the religious condition was restored at the time of the Edict of Restitution, and the city had to pay compensation of 300,000 guilders. [83] In the following 12 years, Augsburg was no longer as badly affected by the war. Only towards the end of the war in September 1646 did Augsburg again become the target of a united Swedish-French army under the generals Carl Gustav Wrangel and Turenne . The city was bombarded so heavily that the citizens were once again ready to hand the city over to the Swedes. However, the Swedes gave up the siege when a Bavarian relief army arrived under the generalJohann von Werth approached. Augsburg was also marginally affected by the last major field battle of the war in mid-May 1648. After the Battle of Zusmarshausen, the Imperial Bavarian troops, fleeing from the Swedish-French troops, retreated to the walls of the city. The imperial general Melander, who was fatally wounded in the battle , died in Augsburg. [83]  Today, the Schwedenturm with the statue of Stoinernen Ma and the Schwedenstiege, both of which were parts of the Augsburg fortifications , are reminiscent of the times of the Thirty Years' War .  Augsburg in the Baroque period Freie Reichsstadt Augsburg, 12 Dukaten 1740, Vs.: Stadtpyr mit Flussgottheiten Lech, Wertach und Singold, Rs.: Doppeladler, Titel Kaiser Karls VI.[76] Freie Reichsstadt Augsburg, 12 Dukaten 1740, Vs.: Stadtpyr mit Flussgottheiten Lech, Wertach und Singold, Rs.: Doppeladler, Titel Kaiser Karls VI.[76] Free Imperial City of Augsburg, 12 ducats 1740, obverse: city pyr with river deities Lech , Wertach and Singold , back: double eagle , title of Emperor Charles VI. [76] After 1653, the election of the German king took place again in Augsburg in 1690 .  In the 18th century, the art of instrument making in Augsburg experienced a new boom. It is closely linked to the name of Georg Friedrich Brander (1713–1783), whose products were well received throughout Europe. On the music side, Johann Andreas Stein and his daughter Nannette Streicher made an important name for themselves: the former was one of the Mozart family's favorite piano makers, the latter learned this craft from her father, but moved to Vienna around 1800, where she ran her own musical salon and among others had a lively correspondence with Ludwig van Beethoven , who would probably never have written his best works without their instruments. In the 18th century, Augsburg was also one of the most important printing centers in Europe. On December 13, 1703, Augsburg was occupied by Bavarian troops under Elector Maximilian II Emanuel during the War of the Spanish Succession , but they had to vacate it again in 1704.  In 1784/1785 there were weavers' unrest, which finally culminated in the weavers' revolt on January 29, 1794 . The background to the dispute was the emerging textile industry with its calico manufacturers, which threatened the weaving craft. In 1771, Johann Heinrich Schüle built the Schülesche Kattunfabrik in Augsburg, the first factory on the European continent.  Augsburg in the Kingdom of Bavaria As a result of the Peace Treaty of Pressburg (December 26, 1805), Augsburg, which had already been occupied by Bavarian troops on December 21 , lost imperial freedom and fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria . Until then it had been ruled by seven patrician families. From 1809 the city had its own police director and was directly subordinate to the district administration. That’s why they were referred to as “circularly direct”. After the districts were renamed administrative districts and the district offices were renamed rural districts (1938), it became “district-free” because these cities outside the district associations were directly subordinate to the government.  The first railway connection between Augsburg and Munich went into operation in 1839 . As part of the Ludwig-Süd-Nord-Bahn project that began in 1843 with the Augsburg–Nuremberg and Lindau–Augsburg route, the first terminus station was abandoned and a new through station was used from 1846: the Augsburg main station , which is still in operation today . The oldest Augsburg train station hall now serves as part of a tram depot and is the oldest preserved reception building in a major German city, while the main station has the oldest reception building still in operation in a major German city.  In 1862 the Augsburg district office was created, from which the Augsburg district later emerged. During the regional reform in 1972, this was united with the former Schwabmünchen district , part of the former Wertingen district, and some places in the Donauwörth and Neuburg an der Donau districts . The Augsburg district gained its current size when the municipality of Baar was spun off into the Aichach-Friedberg district in 1994. Augsburg remained the seat of the district, and the city itself was always independent of a district.  In the 19th century, Augsburg once again gained importance as a center of the textile industry and mechanical engineering. In addition to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg , now only known under the abbreviation MAN , where Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine from 1893 to 1897 , Messerschmitt AG , for example, had its headquarters here since 1927. The Allgemeine Zeitung by Johann Friedrich Cotta was also published in Augsburg, the most important German daily newspaper of the time.  At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, technical progress also made itself felt in the Fugger city: after horse-drawn trams had been introduced on rails in 1881, the electric tram went into operation in 1898. The demolition of the medieval weaver's house led to violent protests at a time of rapid growth.  In April 1919, in connection with the Munich Soviet Republic, there was briefly a Soviet Republic in Augsburg based on the Soviets (Russian for "councillors") , but on Easter Sunday it had to give way under military pressure from the Bavarian government under Johannes Hoffmann, which had moved to Bamberg . [84] [85]  National Socialism and the Second World War In the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933, the NSDAP received 32.3 percent of the vote in Augsburg. With the beginning of the “National Revolution in Bavaria” on March 9th, terror against political opponents also began in Augsburg. At the end of March 1933, the city council elected in 1929 was dissolved and reconstituted based on the results of the Reichstag election on March 5, but without the KPD city councilors . In May, the SPD , which had already been excluded from almost all city committees, left the city council under pressure from the National Socialists, followed by the BVP on July 5th . The DNVP MPs joined the NSDAP faction.  At the city council meeting on April 28, 1933, the second mayor of the SPD, Friedrich Ackermann , was formally retired and Josef Mayr , who had previously led the office on a provisional basis, was elected as the new second mayor. On July 31, the mayor Otto Bohl (BVP) was dismissed and replaced at the city council meeting on August 3 by Edmund Stoeckle (NSDAP), the mayor of Lindenberg im Allgäu . Stoeckle was apparently unable to gain the trust of the party leadership and was replaced by Josef Mayr in December 1934. [86] The takeover of power in the city was now complete. With the reorganization of the empire in 1933, Bavaria was divided into six districts . Augsburg became the capital of the Swabian district .  Communist officials were taken into “ protective custody ” as early as March 9, 1933 . While the arrests were initially directed against communists and social democrats, Jewish-Germans and other undesirable people, as well as members of the BVP, were quickly taken into custody. The fire in the singers' hall (in today's Wittelsbacher Park ) on April 30, 1934 was also the reason for a wave of arrests.   Augsburg synagogue restored after the night of the pogrom, picture 2006 At the beginning of 1933 there were 126 Jewish-German-owned businesses in Augsburg, including 20 industrial and 55 wholesale companies. As a result of the reprisals, their total number fell to 79 by 1938. [87] During the November pogroms, the synagogue built in 1917 was set on fire on the morning of November 10, 1938. As a result, Jewish-German shops and private homes were devastated and male Jewish-German citizens were deported to concentration camps (KZ) in order to force them to emigrate and confiscate their assets ( Aryanization ). [88] In 1985 the synagogue was reopened after a long restoration and has since been partially used as a Jewish museum. In the Jewish cemetery, a memorial stone commemorates the approximately 400 murdered Augsburg Jewish-German victims of the Holocaust . In addition to many other resistance fighters such as Bebo Wager , the SPD member of the state parliament Clemens Högg was also killed during the Nazi era.  During the Second World War, several subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp were built in order to decentralize armaments production at the Messerschmitt AG aircraft factory in Augsburg and the surrounding area . The Haunstetten subcamp was built in February 1943 in this district in the area of ​​a former gravel pit, 2,700 male concentration camp prisoners were imprisoned there and, after being destroyed in bombing raids, it was re-established in an air intelligence barracks as the Augsburg -Pfersee subcamp in April 1944 , as the main camp of the Subcamp complex Swabia . There was also a camp for 1,000 prisoners in Gablingen , as well as the Horgau subcamp . 235 prisoners were murdered by SS men directly in Augsburg or died from the catastrophic living conditions and were buried in the Westfriedhof, which is commemorated by three memorial plaques. In the spring of 1945, 2,000 prisoners were driven on a death march from the Pfersee barracks to Klimmach , where many of them died. In the Kriegshaber district , 500 Hungarian Jewish women were interned to work in the Michel works . [89]  Augsburg suffered severe damage from air raids during the Second World War, as the city, with production facilities for important defense companies (including Messerschmitt and MAN), was a military target for Allied bomber units. The consequences are still felt today, firstly through the irretrievable loss of valuable cultural assets and secondly through the dangers posed by unexploded bombs still in the ground. Most recently, an unexploded bomb had to be cleared in December 2016, with 54,000 people being evacuated . Augsburg was bombed over ten times (see air raids on Augsburg ), including twice in attacks with greater impact: on April 17, 1942 the target was MAN 's submarine engine production , and on February 25 and 26, 1944 the attack took place as part of the Area Bombing Directive of the city center, [90] the Messerschmitt works and the main train station as a southern German railway junction.  On April 28, 1945, units of the 7th US Army moved into Augsburg - thanks to the successful Augsburg freedom movement without any combat operations - and thus liberated Augsburg from Nazi rule. They built a base with several barracks here, which was only completely abandoned in 1998 when the last troops withdrew (see US Garrison Augsburg ).  post war period The old town with its important buildings was largely rebuilt after the end of the war, although some work continues to this day. The renovation of the Golden Hall , which opened in 1985 on the occasion of the city's 2000th anniversary, was only completed in 1996. As the capital of the administrative district of Swabia, Augsburg integrated into the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Free State of Bavaria.  Through the construction of the Rosenau Stadium , the city gained great importance for numerous sporting events in the post-war period, including being the venue for the German Athletics Championships in 1953 and the German Athletics Championships in 1963, as well as other athletics country comparisons. The highlight of these events were the canoe and kayak competitions on the ice channel as well as some basketball , football and handball preliminary round games of the 1972 Olympic Games , which were held in Augsburg. The final meeting of the Ecumenical Pentecost Meeting was also held in the Rosenau Stadium, which took place in Augsburg in June 1971 and is considered the first joint church conference of Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians and thus a forerunner of the Ecumenical Church Conference .   Augsburg Hotel Tower (1972) In October 1970, the university was opened as the successor to several other universities and began work with the economics and social sciences department. Through the establishment of additional faculties and the construction of a campus from 1974 onwards, its importance grew steadily, so that today around 20,200 [91] students are enrolled there. [92]  After the city's health system had been very decentralized and inconsistently organized for many centuries, the inauguration of the central clinic, which is now called the Augsburg University Hospital , in 1982 marked a significant turning point: Since then, all emergencies and operations have been treated centrally in one hospital; the smaller clinics have specialized (see healthcare in Augsburg ).  The city experienced a serious natural disaster with the Pentecost flood in 1999 , when Lech and Wertach overflowed their banks after days of rainfall and the simultaneous melting of snow in the Alps. When a dam finally collapsed, entire parts of the city were flooded, causing millions in damage.  After Augsburg hosted the 5th German Fire Brigade Day in 1862 , the 27th German Fire Brigade Day also took place there from June 20th to 25th, 2000.  Recently, Augsburg has been hit by crises several times due to the insolvencies of major companies and today has an unemployment rate that is above the Bavarian average . Various setbacks such as the failed expansion of the airfield into a large regional airport and the failed establishment of a BMW factory contributed to this. Augsburg has gained attention in recent years through major cultural events such as the Mozart or Brecht Year .  In 2011, Augsburg was one of the host cities for the Women's Football World Cup .  Urban legends → Main article : Augsburg legends City goddess Cisa Supposedly Cisa (dea Ciza) was the city goddess of Augsburg. Marginal notes in the Excerptum ex Gallica Historia (around 1135) from Ursberg Abbey report in detail the unsuccessful Roman siege of the city of Cisaris, later Augsburg, built by Swabian tribes between Lech and Wertach. The city was named after a sanctuary of the goddess Cisa. In this text the local names Kriegshaber are also derived from a Greek Avar, Hafnerberg from a military prefect Habeno ( also: Hebeino) and Pfersee from a military tribune Verres ( also: Verus ) ( see also : Derivation of the name Pfersee ).  The text from the 12th century turns out to be a diffuse compilation with a clear focus on the imaginative interpretation of no longer understood, probably pre-Alemannic local names, which is not unusual for legend research . Only the goddess Cisa remained in the discussion, certainly because Jacob Grimm expressly emphasized the “value of the strange tradition” in his German Mythology .  Whether Alemannic worship can be assumed at the site of today's Kitzenberg near the Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra cannot be scientifically proven either. A provincial Roman Medusa head was known in Augsburg at least since the late Middle Ages , which was walled up in today's Ulrichskirche and is now in the Roman Museum. A representation of the Cisa can be seen on the weather vane of the Perlach Tower ; Furthermore, according to legend, some depictions on the bronze doors of the cathedral point to the goddess.  The Stoinerne Ma The “Stoinerne Ma” (“Stone Man”) is a life-size stone figure on the eastern Augsburg city wall in the area of ​​the so-called “Schwedenstiege”, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Gallus Church. It probably represents a one-armed baker with a loaf of bread and a shield. In the area of ​​the feet there is a snail-shaped pedestal .   The “Stoinerne Ma” on the eastern city wall According to legend, it is the baker “Konrad Hackher”, who is said to have baked bread from sawdust during a long siege of the city and thrown it over the city wall into the ditch, clearly visible to the besiegers. The impression that there was still so much bread in Augsburg that it could be thrown over the wall is said to have demoralized the besiegers so much that they shot at him with a crossbow out of anger. One hit took off his arm, and they soon broke off the siege. Historically, the event belongs to the Thirty Years' War , more precisely to the siege of Augsburg during the years 1634/35, when Catholic Bavarian troops under Field Marshal von Wahl wanted to recapture the city that was occupied by the Protestant Swedes. There is no reliable evidence of what the baker did.  However, there are facts beyond this legend: In his meticulously researched contribution to No. 54 of the “Magazine of the Historical Association for Swabia” published in 1941, Eduard Lampart defines the figure, which was then still standing on the corner of the house at Pulvergäßchen/Unterer Graben, as a handicraft made up of a few that originally did not belong together Split. These are probably finds during earthworks in the city that were carted to the corner house mentioned over generations because it was the seat of the incumbent “municipal building manager” until 1810. It is thanks to one of the construction supervisors that the figure was probably erected between the beginning and middle of the 18th century. It was only later attributed to her that she portrays the baker hero Hacker, who cannot be historically verified. The corner house suffered several bomb hits during the Second World War and so after the war the stone figure was moved to its current location at Schwedenstiege. [93] There it is often visited by walkers who stroll along the city wall. Since touching the nose of the stone figure is said to bring good luck, this custom is particularly popular among lovers.  The seven children  With the seven children In the house wall of the property Bei den Sieben Kindeln 3 ( ⊙) there is an embedded stone relief from Roman times depicting six naked children playing, gathered around a coffin.  According to legend, the memorial plate was commissioned by a Roman officer to commemorate the drowning of one of his children (that's why it says "seven" children, even though the plate only shows six: the seventh child drowned and lies in the coffin) . According to current knowledge, the plate represents erotes and once formed the long side of a so-called erote sarcophagus .  Incorporations The urban area had already been repeatedly expanded through the incorporation of surrounding communities, but it only took on larger dimensions in the 20th century. The incorporations can be assigned to two waves: a first before and during the First World War , a second in 1972 as part of the Bavarian municipal reform . [94] Augsburg's mayor at the time, Hans Breuer, would have liked to incorporate even more surrounding cities, but failed due to the resistance of the local population. In order to establish a postal logistics center , a corridor was swapped with the neighboring town of Gersthofen on July 1, 1999.   City map of Augsburg (1905) Date Incorporated places growth July 1, 1910 Municipality of Meringerau (today Siebenbrunn ) 953.7 ha Jan 1, 1911 Pfersee community 345.8 ha Jan 1, 1911 Community of Oberhausen 862.2 ha Jan 1, 1913 City of Lechhausen 2794.4 ha Jan 1, 1913 Hochzoll community (until 1905 Friedbergerau) 435.0 ha April 1, 1916 Warhaber community 5.9 ha July 1, 1972 City of Göggingen 1079.2 ha July 1, 1972 City of Haunstetten 1393.2 ha July 1, 1972 Municipality of Inningen (with Bergheim ) 3383.9 ha May 1, 1978 St. Anton settlement 32.0 ha July 1, 1979 Part of Gersthofen 38.1 ha July 1, 1999 Part of Gersthofen (area exchange) 1.6 ha Name origin The name of the city is first attested in the 2nd century AD as Ael[ia] Augusta (copy from the 11th century). We know it from the 3rd century as Augusta Vindelicum (copy from the 7th/8th century); Add civitas 'city', so that the place name means 'city of Augustus in the area of ​​the Vindeliker'. The current German name as Augusburuc was first encountered in 826, Augustburg in 962, and finally Augsburg in 1238 . [95]  Augsburg's name is derived from the city's Roman name, Augusta Vindelicorum . The city bears the first part of the name, Augusta, because it was founded on the orders of Emperor Augustus by his two stepsons Drusus and Tiberius in 15 BC. BC (initially as a military camp) was founded. The first documented example shows the nickname Aelius, the gentile name of Emperor Hadrian. The second part of the Latin name, Vindelicorum, is the genitive plural of the Latin name for the Vindeliker tribe , who at that time settled in the foothills of the Alps between Lake Constance and the Inn . The German basic word -burg, on the other hand, translates the Latin civitas 'city'. The final /t/ of Aug(u)st- was assimilated to the /b/ of -burg early on , resulting in the current sound. [95] [96]  politics On September 23, 2008, the city received the title of “ Place of Diversity ” awarded by the federal government .  City administration It is proven that the city of Augsburg has been headed by the city administrator since 1266 as chairman of the council , who was also occasionally referred to as mayor , which meant that both titles were sometimes used at the same time. It was not until 1548 that the title was finally set to town caretaker. These held office for several years and were then elected for life, which is why there were several city clerks at the same time.  After the transfer to Bavaria, a magistrate with two mayors was appointed in Augsburg, who from 1818 was supported by an additional council of municipal representatives. In 1919, this two-chamber system was abandoned in favor of the establishment of a "city council", which has since been headed by the "first mayor", who usually has the title of mayor (see list of mayors of Augsburg ).  On March 16, 2008, Kurt Gribl ( CSU , although independent at the time of the election) prevailed in a runoff against incumbent Paul Wengert ( SPD ) and took over the office of mayor on May 2, 2008. [97] In the local elections on March 16, 2014, incumbent Gribl ran again as mayoral candidate for the CSU. He defeated his challengers with 51.8% without a runoff vote and was thus confirmed in office. [98]  On March 29, 2020, Eva Weber (CSU) was elected mayor as the first woman in the city's history. She won the runoff election with 62.3% against Dirk Wurm (SPD), who received 37.7% of the vote. [99]  The Digital Council of the City of Augsburg was constituted on June 28, 2021. It was launched on the initiative of the mayor and now serves as an interface between administration and city society. [100]  City council City council election 2020 [101] in percent  % 40 30 20 10032.323.414.36.64.53.72.32.25.3 CSU Greens SPD AfD FW left FDP ÖDP Otherwise. Profits and losses compared to 2014  %p  12  10    8th    6    4    2   0   -2   -4   -6   -8th -10−5.4+11.0−8.1+0.7+0.9+0.5+0.7+0.3+0.4 CSU Greens SPD AfD FW left FDP ÖDP Otherwise. → Main article : Results of the local elections in Augsburg The city council is made up of 60 city councilors and the mayor.  Distribution of seats in the city council since 2020 [102]                A total of 60 seats  PARTY : 1  V-Party³ : 1  Left : 2  SPD : 9  Greens : 14  Generation AUX: 1  WSA: 1  AIB: 1  FDP : 1  FW : 3  ÖDP : 1  CSU : 20  Pro Augsburg: 1  AfD : 4 City council election results since 1972 in percent [103] Year CSU SPD FDP Greens ÖDP Left 1 REP NPD Pro Augsburg AfD Other 1972 44.9 46.5 2.3 – – 0.7 – 0.9 – – 4.7 1978 46.8 44.5 2.7 – – 0.4 – 0.6 – – 4.9 1984 32.9 44.9 1.3 4.2 – 0.2 – 0.7 – – 15.8 1990 43.1 28.4 2.5 10.8 – – 10.0 – – – 5.2 1996 44.1 29.4 1.7 10.5 – – 2.8 – – – 11.5 2002 43.5 36.4 3.5 8.7 1.8 1.2 – – – – 4.9 2008 40.1 30.1 2.7 10.3 1.5 3.5 – – 9.4 – 2.4 2014 [104] 37.7 22.4 1.6 12.4 1.9 3.2 – – 5.1 5.9 9.6 2020 32.3 14.3 2.3 23.4 2.2 3.7 –– – 1.8 6.6 13.3 Seats 2020 [105] 20 9 1 14 1 2 – – 1 4 8 2 1 2002 as PDS , until 1984 the DKP is listed. In 2017, Alexander Süßmair resigned from the party, taking his city council mandate with him. 2 Free Voters 3, Augsburg in citizen hands 1, Generation AUX 1, The PARTY 1, V-Party³ 1, WSA 1  Members of the Bundestag Augsburg is located in constituency 252 Augsburg-Stadt , which also includes Königsbrunn in the Augsburg district of the same name.  In the election for the 17th German Bundestag in September 2009, Christian Ruck from the CSU was directly elected with 42.2 percent of the vote. Miriam Gruß for the FDP , Heinz Paula for the SPD , Alexander Süßmair for the Left Party and Claudia Roth for Alliance 90/The Greens also entered the Bundestag via the state list .  After Christian Ruck and Heinz Paula no longer ran in the election for the 18th German Bundestag, only Claudia Roth from Alliance 90/The Greens was re-elected. Volker Ullrich (CSU) won the direct mandate, and Ulrike Bahr for the SPD was elected via the state list. Alexander Süßmair and Miriam Gruß were not re-elected. [106]  In the 2021 federal election, Volker Ullrich (CSU) won the direct mandate again with 28.1%. [107] With him, Ulrike Bahr for the SPD, Claudia Roth for Alliance 90/The Greens and Maximilian Funke-Kaiser for the FDP entered the Bundestag via the respective state lists. [108]  Citizens' decisions In Bavaria, Article 18a of the municipal code allows municipal citizens the right to initiate citizens' initiatives as part of direct influence at the municipal level . [109] Successful collections of signatures are voted on by means of a referendum . In Augsburg, citizens were called to the ballot box on the following issues:  In 1995, the building contractor Ignaz Walter intended to build an underground car park under Fuggerstrasse near the center. One citizens' initiative was in favor of the construction, another was negative. In January 1996, 63 percent of voters decided to reject the underground car park, while a minority of 37 percent wanted the structure to be built. The voter turnout was 36.3 percent. A few months later, the construction of the so-called “Loop Road” including the bypass at the Red Gate caused a stir. Various citizens' initiatives, which complained about noise pollution from traffic and an impairment of the living environment, collected the necessary signatures for a citizens' petition. The Augsburg city council contrasted the rejection of the initiatives with the improved concept of a “city-friendly” tangent. It received 80 percent “yes” votes in the referendum in June 1997. 32.5 percent of those eligible to vote voted on the loop road that was subsequently constructed. In 2007, concrete considerations by the Augsburg city administration and the city's transport company regarding the redesign of Königsplatz became the subject of a citizens' initiative. As part of the planning for the Augsburg mobility hub, the central bus stop system should be enlarged and modernized. The intention was to intervene in the adjacent green area, including clearing trees. The opponents first demanded an ideas competition for an overall transport concept before any renovation could be carried out. The referendum on the renovation took place on November 25, 2007. 53.2 percent of citizens who voted chose this competition. [110] The voter turnout was 24.2 percent. After the competition, the city government of CSU and Pro Augsburg decided in favor of a car-free Königsplatz, achieved by relocating the main traffic axes. Citizens mobilized against this plan and demanded the construction of a tunnel at Königsplatz. In the referendum on November 21, 2010, those eligible to vote were able to vote separately on a council request, the citizens' request and a key question. The city council alternative, which provides for a “relief road” as a precautionary measure if necessary, was preferred by voters with 73.9 percent “yes” votes. The construction of a tunnel not only failed due to the required quorum of 19,391 votes, but would also have been rejected by a majority of 68.1 percent of the valid votes counted. The voter turnout was 28.8 percent. [111] Sometimes local politicians respond to resistance from the population without a referendum if there is strong signature support from sympathizers for a project. The construction of the new Augsburg city library was completed in a short time after years of delays for financial reasons, and the intended sale of the old city pool was stopped by the will of the citizens.  Another example of this is the cycling decision , which was averted in the summer of 2021 through a contract in which essential demands were taken over by the black-green city government. [112]  badges and flags Wappen der Bibliothek zu Augsburg (Kolorierung um 1551–1600) Coat of arms of the library in Augsburg (coloring around 1551–1600)   Stadtwappen mit goldenem Kapitell von 1811 bis 1985 City coat of arms with a golden capital from 1811 to 1985   Zirbelnuss auf einem Kanaldeckel in Augsburg Pine nut on a manhole cover in Augsburg  Flag of the city of Augsburg Modernisiertes Stadtwappen seit 1985 Blazon : “In a shield split by red and silver, a green pine nut on a golden capital.” [113] [114] Reasons for the coat of arms: The official heraldic description of the Augsburg coat of arms mentions a shield split between red and silver, on which there is a green pine nut on a capital that has also been green since 1985. Accordingly, the city colors are red, green and white. The oldest verifiable city seal in Augsburg from 1237 shows a two-towered city gate with a crenellated wall and a star above it. In the archway there is a tree of life , and from 1260 there is a grape on a foot, which probably alludes to the name of the city “Augster”, which represents a type of grape.  In the 15th century, a green grape was depicted in a red and white shield, which changed with the discovery of a pine cone (probably the top of a Roman tomb) in 1467: Since then, a pine nut has been depicted instead of the grape. The head on the capital has been traceable since 1521, the wall crown only since 1811. The meaning of these symbols is not clear. The city colors have been known since 1372. On the occasion of the 2000th anniversary in 1985, the coat of arms was redesigned in keeping with contemporary taste.  As a stylized pine cone, the pine nut was the standard symbol of the Roman legion of the Roman camp and became the symbol of the later Roman capital of the province of Raetia . Even today, the stone pine nut can be found on numerous buildings and walls throughout the city as a symbol of Augsburg's dignity.  The pine nut stands in a red and white split shield , which can be traced back to the banner of the Bishop of Augsburg and the bishopric . Here, as with the old field emblems of the Duchy of Swabia , the colors red and white were worn. [114]  See also : List of coats of arms in Augsburg Town twinning Augsburg entered into its first twin town partnership with Inverness, Scotland, in 1956 at the suggestion of the British Consulate General in Munich . After the first mutual visits between official representatives in the same year, a permanent cultural exchange took place; the town twinning was never recorded in a contract.  The Augsburg city partnerships [115] Stadtwappen von Inverness Inverness United Kingdom 1956 Vereinigtes Königreich Großbritannien und Nordirland Stadtwappen von Nagahama Nagahama Japan 1959 Japan Stadtwappen von Amagasaki Amagasaki Japan 1959 Japan Stadtwappen von Dayton Dayton United States 1964 Vereinigte Staaten Stadtwappen von Bourges Bourges France 1967 Frankreich Stadtwappen von Liberec Liberec Czech Republic 2001 Tschechien Stadtwappen von Jinan Jinan People's Republic of China 2004 China The first German- Japanese sister city association goes back to the initiative of Magokichi Yamaoka , who studied in Munich before the Second World War and was interested in Rudolf Diesel , which is why he was often in Augsburg. After the war, Yamaoka was now head of the Yanmar Diesel Works, and he donated the Japanese Rudolf Diesel Memorial in Wittelsbacher Park . He then used his political and private influence to connect the cities of Amagasaki and Nagahama , where his company had factories, with Augsburg, resulting in the dual partnership in 1959.  In 1964, the connection to the American city of Dayton ( Ohio ) was established, which had its origins in the “People to People” project announced by US President Eisenhower in 1956. In addition, the Dayton-based NCR group had founded its German headquarters in Augsburg.  After signing the Élysée Treaty in 1964, the Augsburg city council expressed the desire for a partnership with a city in France. In consultation with the International Union of Mayors, the choice fell on the centrally located Bourges . The partnership agreement was signed in April 1967.  31 years later, on May 1, 2001, another partnership agreement was signed, the origins of which lie in the post-war period: in 1955, the city of Augsburg took over the sponsorship of all those displaced from the Czech city of Liberec (Reichenberg), the majority of whom were in the Fugger city had found a new place to stay. After the end of the Cold War, those previously displaced initially established cultural contact, which led to regular exchange programs.  The last partnership entered into has its roots in the provincial partnership between the Free State of Bavaria and the Chinese province of Shandong in 1987. As a result, the provincial capital Jinan was interested in starting a partnership with a Bavarian city. After initial mutual visits and contacts, the mayors signed the partnership deed on September 3, 2004. [115]  Sponsorships In 1954, at the suggestion of the German Association of Cities, the then market town of Göggingen took over a “ sponsorship for the district of Neudek ” ( Sudetenland ), which was taken over by the city of Augsburg when the city of Göggingen was incorporated in 1972 and was directed towards the “displaced people from the city and the district of Neudek”. was expanded. There have also been friendly contacts with the town of Nejdek for several years . In the same year, Augsburg itself became the godfather of the Swabian Illertissen , which was made a city that year.  Only a year later, all Germans expelled from the Reichenberg (Czech: Liberec ) region, which is now part of the Czech Republic, were sponsored, which ultimately led to an official town twinning in 2001 after the fall of the Iron Curtain (see: town twinning ).  The Fugger city is also the inspiration for a number of means of transport. As early as 1909, during the imperial era, a small cruiser bore the name Augsburg and since 1958, two frigates in the Federal Navy have been named Augsburg , the F 222 and the F 213 . In 2018, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced that one of the five planned new corvettes of the 2nd construction lot K130 would be named Augsburg. [116] Since 2008, the passenger ship MS  Augsburg in the Ammersee fleet has also borne the city's name. In addition, an ICE 3 [117] operated by Deutsche Bahn has been operating since 2002 and a LINT 41 operated by Bayerische Regiobahn since 2008 . A Lufthansa Airbus A320-211, christened Augsburg in 1990, was taken out of service in June 2020. [118]  Stamps  Stamp “2000 Years of Augsburg” Events associated with Augsburg were recorded in stamps for the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Lechfeld (1955), the Ecumenical Pentecost Meeting (1971), the Olympic competitions on the Augsburg Ice Canal (1972), the 450th anniversary of the Augustan Confession (1980), captured for the city's 2000th anniversary (1985), the 450th anniversary of the Peace of Augsburg (2005) or the 500th anniversary of the Fuggerei (2021).  On Stamp Day 1984, a stamp was issued for the 16th century Augsburg post office. For Christmas 1995, motifs from the St. Mary's window in Augsburg Cathedral were issued. In the summer of 2017, a series with motifs from the Augsburger Puppenkiste was published . The private delivery company Logistic-Mail-Factory, based in Augsburg, released several series of stamps related to the city, including motifs on the Fugger family , the Augsburg Zoo and the Puppet Box. [119]  World Heritage List The city of Augsburg, as an applicant, has succeeded in getting its progressive water management system , which goes back centuries, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The strict separation between drinking and industrial water was introduced here as early as 1545. [120]  Climate camp Klimakamp in Augsburg 2023 Climate campaign in Augsburg 2023 As an expression of protest against inadequate climate justice measures, a climate camp has existed in Augsburg at the fish market at Augsburg City Hall since July 1, 2020. The place is constantly occupied by mostly young, politically active people. In addition to information on the global climate crisis, lectures on local topics are also held here, such as the Augsburg traffic transition plan, Bobingen Auwald, clearing of the Lohwald near Meitingen, and repression against climate activists in Bavaria. [121]  Culture and sights → Main article : Culture and sights in Augsburg  City view of Augsburg on Reichstaler, minted in 1643 Augsburg has always been a cultural center throughout its history and still has supra-regional importance for art and culture in various areas.  architecture See also : List of architectural monuments in Augsburg There are currently 1,226 individual Augsburg monuments entered in the list of monuments published and maintained by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation - these make up around 1.6 percent of the city's entire building stock. In addition, Augsburg has 20 registered ensembles as well as the large old town ensemble, which in turn has 65 protected square and street scenes.  Perlachturm Perlach Tower  The Fuggerei in Augsburg's old town is the oldest social housing estate in the world and has been inhabited since 1523. Antiquity and the Middle Ages Today, only a few finds remain from the time of Roman settlement as Augusta Vindelicum , most of which are exhibited in museums. The best way to get a sense of what life used to be like is on the street along the Via Claudia Augusta , most of which still exists today.  In the Middle Ages, mainly sacred buildings were built, the most important of which are the Cathedral of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary and the Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra , which still have a decisive influence on the cityscape today. The prophet windows in the southern clerestory of the cathedral, created around 1140, are the only surviving examples of Romanesque stained glass in the world. Other important ecclesiastical works of art from this period include the bronze doors of Augsburg Cathedral from 1065, which were renovated in 2000. St. Ulrich and Afra, together with the small Protestant Ulrichskirche in front, form a magnificent group of buildings. The Romanesque church of St. Peter am Perlach is one of the oldest brick buildings in southern Germany. Of the other preserved churches from the Middle Ages, the buildings of St. Moritz , St. Jakob , Heilig Kreuz (Catholic church) and St. Georg are particularly influential on the cityscape. They date back to the Romanesque period, but have been repeatedly rebuilt since the Gothic period and were sometimes badly hit in the Second World War. This is particularly true for the Barfüsserkirche and St. Stephan . Around 1320 there was a cathedral building hut that also incorporated Gothic forms into the construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady. The choir dates from this period.  In addition, medieval Augsburg was surrounded by large defensive fortifications and the continuous city wall , many parts of which are still preserved today, including the Fünfgratturm , the Red Gate and the Wertachbrucker Gate . At the same time , gold and silversmiths settled within these walls , and over the centuries they developed an excellent reputation. Her works can now be viewed in various museums and exhibitions. The city itself is still characterized by a strikingly high number of craftsmen of this type. The Goldsmiths' Fountain on Martin-Luther-Platz bears witness to their presence.  Around 1500, Augsburg was the fourth largest city in the empire after Cologne, Prague and Nuremberg , well ahead of Vienna or even Berlin. The city therefore has a large old town with numerous medieval churches. [122]  Renaissance and Mannerism   Armory Augsburg experienced its absolute peak during the Renaissance , when artists such as Hans Holbein the Elder and Hans Burgkmair the Elder worked here and made the city one of the most important cultural centers in Central Europe. During this time, some of the most important and best-known sights were built, which were financed not least by the wealthy Fugger and Welser merchant families . In the Church of St. Anna, the Fugger family had a burial chapel built as the first German Renaissance building. The Fugger Houses on Maximilianstrasse, which is also important in terms of art history, were built between 1512 and 1515 as the residence of the Fugger family. The Fuggerei was also the oldest social settlement in the world that is still in use today. The St. Catherine's Church was built in 1516/17.  From 1574 onwards, the master builder Johannes Holl built the church for the monastery of the Franciscan Sisters of Maria Stern , whose onion dome spread widely from Augsburg. [123] Johannes Holl also built the head house . His son Elias Holl later built the town hall , which is considered the most important secular Renaissance building north of the Alps and towers over the Mannerist fountain ( Augustus Fountain , Hercules Fountain and Mercury Fountain ). The Perlach Tower also received its current appearance at that time. The Augsburg Armory , the Stadtmetzg and the Neue Bau as well as the Heilig-Geist-Spital are other important late Renaissance buildings by Elias Holl and were built at the beginning of the 17th century. Of the former Franciscan church, the current parish church of St. Maximilian , built between 1609 and 1613 , only the facade survived the last war. In contrast, the recently built Jesuit Church of St. Salvator was completely demolished in 1872. Only parts of the Kolleg , another Fugger foundation, have survived.  Baroque, Rococo and Classicism But later eras also left their mark on Augsburg. Important baroque- designed sacred buildings include the Holy Cross (Protestant Church) , St. Michael and St. Margareth . Some older buildings, such as the Reichsstädtisches Kaufhaus, were also rebuilt at that time. Above all, the Rococo style , which was also known as the Augsburg style , left its mark on the city: the Episcopal Residence and the Schaezler Palace in particular date from this period . The interiors were particularly magnificent. The Roeck House and the Martini Palace are also evidence of this time. The former cathedral custodianship of the Episcopal Palace on Hohen Weg is a wide mansard roof building from 1761 with a rococo portal. The former Schüle calico factory even has a rococo facade from 1770/72 that resembles the castle building. The Welserhaus on Philippine-Welser-Straße, whose core dates back to the 16th century, now shows an early classicist facade from the end of the 18th century. The neighboring Bothmersche Palais was also redesigned during the classicism period .   Schaezler Palace Historicism and Art Nouveau During the Industrial Revolution, after the above-mentioned Schüle calico factory, other factory complexes were built, such as the Glass Palace or the Factory Palace , which today largely serve other purposes (mostly as museums or art galleries), and industrial villas such as the Gignoux House , which dates back to the Rococo period , the Villa Haag or the Villa Silbermann . Representative buildings of historicism in Augsburg are, above all, the Great House of the City Theater and the building of the State and City Library (by Martin Dülfer , 1893). Together with the St. Anna primary school and the Palace of Justice , these form an impressive ensemble from this period.  Art Nouveau also left behind extraordinary buildings in Augsburg with the synagogue , the Kurhaus in Göggingen , the Sacred Heart Church in the Pfersee district and the Old City Baths .   Panorama of Augsburg around 1835, steel engraving by F. Höfer Modernity  Augsburg congress center “Kongress am Park”, hotel tower in the background After the Second World War, the cityscape was primarily dominated by buildings for major events. Of particular note are the Rosenau Stadium as the most modern stadium of its time and many buildings built in exposed concrete , including the Erhard-Wunderlich sports hall , the congress center with the hotel tower or the Curt Frenzel Stadium . The Haus der Moderne itself was built in 1929 as a residential and studio building by the Augsburg architect Thomas Wechs in the New Modern style. The Don Bosco Church also comes from him .  Museums and galleries → Main article : List of museums in Augsburg  Swabian Crafts Museum The Maximilian Museum was built in 1855 and was completely renovated for the first time at the turn of the millennium, giving it a historical-modern flair. The exhibition area extends over several floors and is divided into permanent exhibitions, which include sculptures, goldsmiths' art, building designs and city history collections, as well as a section for temporary exhibitions.  Since 2006, the Augsburg Swabia Jewish Museum has had a permanent exhibition documenting the history of Jews in Augsburg and Swabia from the Middle Ages to the present day. It documents “religious practice over time” and makes clear “Jewish history as an integral part” of Augsburg and Swabian history. [124]  The Swabian Crafts Museum is run by the Swabian Chamber of Crafts and shows historical workshops of old and mostly extinct crafts such as barbers , saddlers , shoemakers , watchmakers , bakers , bookbinders and trimmers . Original facilities, tools and work materials can be seen. There is also a separate exhibition dedicated to the guilds .  In the Roman Museum , which is located in the rooms of the former Dominican monastery of St. Magdalena, archaeological finds from Augsburg and the surrounding area from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age to late antiquity and the early Middle Ages can be viewed. The focus, however, is on objects from the time as a Roman provincial capital.  The Schaezler Palace, which was reopened in 2006 after extensive renovation work , is on the one hand worth seeing as a highlight of the Rococo architectural style , but on the other hand it also houses important art collections: the German Baroque Gallery , the Graphic Collection and the Karl and Magdalene Haberstock Foundation .  From there there is also access to another collection, the neighboring State Gallery in the Katharinenkirche - Old German Masters , which has been located at this location since the early 19th century. Works by Albrecht Dürer, among others, can be viewed here.   Glass Palace Augsburg (houses several art museums) For fans of modern art, the Glass Palace with the Walter Art Museum and the neighboring Noah Gallery is the right place, because the private collection of the entrepreneur Prof. Ignatz Walter is shown here on 5,500 square meters of exhibition space. The focus of the collection is contemporary art. The highlight is the glass art of Egidio Costantini, whose numerous works were created in collaboration with artists such as Picasso, Miró and Braque. The State Gallery of Modern Art , a branch of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, and the H2 Center for Contemporary Art are also housed here.  The ice hockey museum is located next to the Plärrer and exhibits various exhibits from famous ice hockey players at home and abroad, such as the estate of Gustav Jaenecke. It also runs the Hall of Fame Germany, into which players, referees, coaches, officials and journalists are inducted.  The Lutherstiege Museum Augsburg shows objects and rooms from Martin Luther's time.  The birthplaces of Bertolt Brecht and Leopold Mozart were named after them and today, as the Brecht House and Mozart House, respectively, house exhibitions about the life and work of the city's two most famous sons.  The Puppet Theater Museum The Box of the Augsburger Puppenkiste is located in the former Holy Spirit Hospital and shows the well-known “stars on strings” such as Urmel , Jim Knopf or Kalle Wirsch .  The Fuggerstadt also offers a large number of other museums and galleries with various themes and has recently received other important museums such as the Bahnpark , the Fugger and Wels Adventure Museum , the Gasworks Museum and the State Textile and Industrial Museum .  Administratively, several large museums such as the Schaezlerpalais, the Maximilian Museum and the Roman Museum were combined into the Augsburg Art Collections & Museums . [125]  Theaters and stages → Main article : List of theaters in Augsburg  Augsburg State Theater The Augsburg State Theater , the most important in the city, has a musical theater, drama and ballet ensemble that performs at several venues - in the Great House , in the Brechtbühne , in the Hoffmannkeller , on the open-air stage at the Red Gate and in the Congress Hall.  The Augsburger Puppenkiste is known throughout Germany , a puppet theater with productions such as Urmel aus dem Eis or Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine Driver .  With the Sensemble Theater, Augsburg has a nationally known experimental theater that initially played on an open-air stage and now has its own venue in the Kulturfabrik Augsburg . The S'ensemble Theater's pieces range from spoken , musical , improvisational and expressive theater to performance and installation .  Other stages and cultural centers are dedicated to various areas of theater, such as the municipal cultural center Abraxas and the university's Romanist theater .  Augsburg has hosted the Bavarian Theater Days , the largest Bavarian theater festival , twice, in 1985 and 2012 .  Cinemas  The Liliom , a cinema in Augsburg Augsburg's film theaters have a long tradition. The first recorded film screening took place on October 19, 1896 in the Mercur coffee house on Judenberg, where various short films - for example the arrival of a train at a train station - were shown by a cinematographer . In the years that followed, showmen regularly came to various folk festivals with their traveling cinematographs.  The Augsburg grocer Fridolin Widmann officially registered the first cinema building to host variety shows in November 1906: The Thalia Theater can therefore call itself the oldest cinema in the city, even if this name was only confirmed with certainty in 1909. [126]  Many early cinemas no longer exist or have different names. A turning point was marked at the turn of the millennium by the construction of two multiplex cinemas for Hollywood blockbusters , a Cinestar at the main train station and a CinemaxX in the City - Galerie , which meant the end of traditional film theaters such as Capitol , Dreimäderlhaus or Filmpalast . Some smaller cinemas remained largely as arthouse cinemas , which also offer other cultural events ( Liliom , Mephisto , Savoy and Thalia ). Every summer the Augsburger Lechflimmern takes place with a daily open-air cinema in the outdoor pool at Plärrer.  In the summer of 2006, the Bavarian film Who dies earlier is dead longer celebrated its premiere at Mephisto .  Music Bands and artists Augsburg is the hometown of some well-known music artists and bands throughout Germany. The band The Seer is well known and was founded in 1990 and plays a mixture of anthemic rock and folk elements.  The band Impotenz was founded ten years earlier and initially attracted attention primarily because of its provocative lyrics. The song Nutten an die Macht was even put on the banned list by Bayerischer Rundfunk . In 1984 they actually wanted to record a single with Roy Black, but he had to cancel due to health reasons.  Back in the 1960s, Augsburg was already a good place for bands that made a name for themselves, especially on a local level - such as The Roughroads or The Shotguns . In contrast, the pop bands Nova International and Anajo have become particularly popular recently . The latter represented the state of Bavaria at the Federal Vision Song Contest in 2007 and reached ninth place. The group Dear John Letter , whose post-rock became known primarily via the Internet, has now also achieved national fame. Above all, the song Auf uns , which ARD made the World Cup song for its coverage of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, also helped Andreas Bourani , who was born and grew up in Augsburg, to become very popular in Germany.  Roy Black , who started out as a beat singer with The Cannons but then became famous through his hits (for example, You're Not Alone ), is not a native of Augsburg, but comes from the village of Straßberg a few kilometers south. However, he spent his entire youth in the Fugger city because he completed his Abitur at the Holbein-Gymnasium there .  Many well-known Augsburg bands can be heard on the album 2000 Tones , which was recorded on the occasion of the city's 2000th birthday.  choirs The most important choir in Augsburg is the Domsingknaben , an all-boys ensemble that is under the patronage of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Visitation , which is why the singers were previously also called Marians . The choir has a long tradition: it was first mentioned in a document in 1439. In addition to regularly organizing the liturgy in the cathedral, its members constantly give concerts and travel abroad and have also become known through numerous records and CD recordings.  The Augsburg Philharmonic Choir is equally important. In 2018 he celebrated his 175th anniversary. It is a merger of the Augsburg Liedertafel (1843) and the Augsburg Oratorio Association (1866). The Albert Greiner Singing and Music School (today Mozartstadt Augsburg Singing and Music School , SuMMA for short) and the music school (today Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg (LMZ)) emerged from these two choirs . The Philharmonic Choir performs twice a year together with the Augsburg Philharmonic (which was founded at the insistence of both choirs over 100 years ago) and in return receives the Philharmonic for one choir concert per year, which usually takes place in the Kongress am Park. The choir is particularly known for its performances of Carmina Burana, but also for German premieres such as: B. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem. The Augsburg Christmas Singing (by Otto Jochum and Albert Greiner) is performed annually during Advent in the Golden Hall of the town hall. The choir has over 100 active members and has been directed by Wolfgang Reß since 1982. [127]  The Augsburg State Theater has its own mixed choir in its ensemble, which is used in major opera or musical productions, but also gives its own concerts and performances.  The Mozart Choir Augsburg received attention throughout Germany , particularly as part of the Mozart Year 2006 . It was founded in 1976 and consists of experienced amateur singers. His repertoire mainly includes oratorios , which are performed together with well-known soloists or orchestras.  There are also a number of other choirs, most of which belong to Christian communities or organizations, music schools and general education schools. The mixed choirs of the former Albert Greiner Singing and Music School , since 2010 the Mozartstadt Augsburg Singing and Music School , and the high school near St. Stephan , which are known far beyond the city limits, are particularly notable .  The Augsburg Boys' Choir Archive has existed since 2017 to maintain boys' choir history.  orchestra The Bavarian Chamber Philharmonic is the most famous orchestra in Augsburg, although it was only founded in 1990. The chamber orchestra is primarily dedicated to the interpretation of classical and contemporary music and has now established itself in the music world, which is not least due to two important awards that it received in 1996: the European Economy Promotion Prize and the European Regions Culture Prize .  The Augsburg Philharmonic is the city's largest orchestra and part of the Augsburg State Theater . In the theater it takes part in up to 120 musical theater performances a year and has its own symphony concert series in the Kongress am Park. The 70 musicians also perform independently or in collaboration with other choirs. [128]  Additional orchestras are provided by many schools, organizations and music lovers, providing a large calendar of musical events in the city.  Cultural event  Brecht House Over the centuries, Augsburg can look back on a number of important citizens whose anniversaries gave the city occasion for major events. Major events with the theme of Bertolt Brecht take place at regular intervals, including literary projects or theater performances. The Brecht Festival has taken place annually since 2010 .  At the beginning of 2006, the so-called Mozart Year , Augsburg presented itself as the German Mozart city , as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's father Leopold Mozart and his family came from the region and even WA Mozart's (alleged) childhood sweetheart Maria Anna Thekla Mozart was a citizen of the city . In this context, numerous concerts and lectures took place in cooperation with the German Mozart Society (DMG) and the Augsburg Mozart Community , which merged with the DMG in 2011 and has existed since 1937 .  Since 1985, the Augsburg International Film Days have taken place every March and can be divided into four sub-events: The Augsburg Children's Film Festival , the Independent Film Days , the Augsburg Short Film Weekend and the international Cinema of Tomorrow symposium for young filmmakers and students. The festival was canceled in 2006 due to financing problems, but these were resolved in the fall of the same year, so that the film days will continue to take place in the future. [129]  Since 2007, Augsburg has had the youth and pop culture festival Modular , which takes place annually and attracts around 30,000 visitors over three days.  From 2013 onwards, the STAC - the show festival (Stac Festival for short, or STAC) took place annually in the Reese Theater , which is located on the old barracks area of the Kulturpark West in the Kriegshaber district of Augsburg . The STAC emerged from a freelance artist group of young adults, the Street Academy . Since 2013, STAC Festival gGmbH [130] has been operating as a non-profit company . At the end of May 2019, the STAC Festival lost its original, permanent venue due to the closure and eventual demolition of the Reese Theater. [131] When looking for a new location, the variety of possible venues in the greater Augsburg area became apparent , which gave rise to a new concept idea. In order to reach new catchment areas of artists and spectators and to inspire more people with regional performing arts, several venues were now chosen throughout the entire metropolitan area. [132]  The Augsburg media art festival lab.30 has also taken place every year since it was founded in 2003. Experimental local, regional and international projects that work with digital and analogue technologies will be shown.  There are also a number of other events of every kind and genre, from concerts to art and cabaret days. The city is also the location of the Honky-Tonk festival, among other things.  other events  Easter Plärrer in 2006 With around 1.2 million visitors per year [133], the Augsburger Plärrer is the largest folk festival in Bavarian Swabia and the third largest in Bavaria. The Plärrer takes place twice a year on the so-called small parade ground near the city's outdoor swimming pools: once in spring (starting on Easter Sunday) and once in late summer (end of August/beginning of September) - it lasts around two weeks each. The showmen come mainly from southern Germany. This folk festival has a tradition that goes back more than a thousand years and attracts thousands of visitors every day. [134] Bertolt Brecht honored it in 1917 in his poem Das Plärrerlied .  A second major event is the Augsburger Dult , a former church festival. This creates an almost one kilometer long stall street between Jakobertor and Vogeltor (along the old city wall), which offers the typical goods of a fair. The Dults are visited by thousands twice a year: once around Easter (the so-called Spring or Easter Dult) and around September 29th, St. Michael's Day (the so-called Autumn or Michaelidult).   Turamichele at the Perlach Tower On this day there is also the only opportunity of the year to view the Turamichele , a mechanically moving figure of the Archangel Michael : She appears every hour on the hour in the lowest west window of the Perlach Tower and gives the devil as many stabs as the number of bells. There will also be a large children's festival on the town hall square on this day.  Since 2016, the Augsburg Summer Nights have taken place in downtown Augsburg once a year. Streets, squares and courtyards are transformed into a large festival zone with different music, exotic and regional delicacies and colorful lighting concepts. [135]  Every year during Advent, the Augsburg Christkindlesmarkt is set up on the town hall square, which is mentioned in a protocol as early as 1498 and is therefore one of the oldest Christmas markets in Germany. Since 1977, the “Angelesspiel” has taken place on Advent weekends and at the opening and closing of the market, in which 24 people in angel costumes appear on the balcony of the town hall.  As the scene of the Augsburg Imperial and Religious Peace of 1555, the first treaty for peaceful coexistence between Catholics and Protestants, Augsburg also presents itself as a “city of peace” and awards the Augsburg Peace Prize every three years, which has already been awarded by Mikhail Gorbachev and Richard von Weizsäcker, among others received.  The first and still existing “ Climate Camp Augsburg” has been located on the fish market next to the town hall since July 1, 2020 . [136]  nightlife The area around Maximilianstrasse is the center of nightlife with a wide range of bars, clubs and cafés. [137] Larger discos can be found mainly in the outskirts of the city, as can smaller bars and pubs (in the working-class districts in the north of the city mainly so-called Boizen , [138] in the south of the city mainly student-oriented bars). [139]  Culinary specialties  The plum datschi , an Augsburg specialty The most famous Augsburg specialty is the sheet cake known as Zwetschgendatschi , baked from yeast or shortcrust pastry and topped with halved plums . It was supposedly invented in the city. The cake can be found in an Augsburg recipe book from 1830. [140] The derisive name Datschiburg has been used for the city and Datschibürger for the residents since the 19th century . [141]  Another culinary specialty common in Augsburg is the Brätstrudel , a rolled-up pancake with a filling of sausage meat.  Typical side dishes for Augsburg dishes are spaetzle , sometimes served as a separate dish - Kässpatzen are served with fried onions and salad . Also popular are (herb) Schupfnudeln and roast pork , which is appreciated almost everywhere in Bavaria.  dialect It is difficult to assign Augsburg to a language group precisely because the city forms the border between different areas of dialect distribution and the language there is therefore influenced by a variety of influences. In principle, the dialect can be assigned to the East Swabian - Alemannic dialects, but is also interspersed with Central and South Bavarian dialect forms. The younger generations in particular now speak a Swabian dialect that is more influenced by High German and Bavarian .  Like all Alemannic dialects, Augsburg lies southwest of the fest-fescht line: historical /s/ is present /t/ (and less often /p, b/ and /k/ ) in all positions /ʃ/ shifted, for exampleis→ish; know→woisch; Augsburg→Augschburg; and the standard German sentence “couldn’t you even show me the best way to do this” corresponds to dialektaleskénndsch mr ned amol zoiga, wia i dés âm beschda zom dua hâb/hâo. Further features include therolled alveolar [r] and the /n/ -apocope; for example,speakingdialectschprecha,and “the stone man” in the local dialect isdr schtoinarne Mâ(ordr schtoinerne Mo), thetramis theSchtrossabô.  stumbling blocks Since May 26, 2014, so-called “ Stolpersteine ​​” have been laid in Augsburg by the artist Gunter Demnig . These square stones (10 × 10 cm) are small brass plates in the pavement that commemorate the victims of the extermination of Jews and political persecution under National Socialism .  See also : List of stumbling blocks in Augsburg zoo  Bear enclosure in the Augsburg Zoo Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Augsburg Zoo was opened in 1937. After the end of the war, it was stocked with exotic animals and, with more than 500,000 visitors annually, is now the most visited cultural institution in Bavarian Swabia.  sport and freetime sports clubs football  Match of the 2012/13 Bundesliga between FC Augsburg and Borussia Dortmund on November 9, 2012 Since the 2011/12 season, the Fuggerstadt has had a club in the Bundesliga , FC Augsburg , which qualified for participation in the Europa League for the first time in the 2015/16 season . The club, founded in 1907, had previously won the championship title in the Regionalliga Süd in 2006 and thus returned to the 2nd Bundesliga after 23 years . The FCA, whose talent factory included Helmut Haller , Christian Hochstätter , Bernd Schuster and Armin Veh , is the record champion of the Bayernliga and also had heydays in the mid-1970s, when an average of 23,000 football fans came to home games.  There is also a second traditional football club, TSV Schwaben Augsburg , which has played in the Bayernliga several times. The Swabians have become known above all for their other sports departments, especially the canoe and kayak team (see water sports ) . The women's football team of TSV Schwaben currently plays in the Regionalliga Süd , where the women of TSV Pfersee Augsburg were also at times, but have now been relegated to the Landesliga Süd.  During the Second World War, TSG Augsburg 85 played in what was then the highest division, the Gauliga Südbayern , and in 1964 was the first champion of the newly introduced Landesliga Süd . After a short time in the Bayernliga, the club increasingly sank into the lower leagues. TSV Göggingen Augsburg also experienced a similar fate , which temporarily played in the second highest German league after the Second World War, but can now be found in the Augsburg district league.  Until its dissolution in 1995, the football club FC Enikon Augsburg, founded by Croatians in the 1970s , was one of the most successful migrant clubs in Germany and played in its final season in the Bayernliga, the fourth highest league in the German football system at the time. Türkspor Augsburg is currently playing in the same, now fifth-tier league after being promoted in the 2018/19 season . [142]  ice Hockey  The Augsburg Panthers at a game in the German Ice Hockey League As the city's most consistent professional team, the first division ice hockey team Augsburger Panther plays in the DEL , in which they achieved runner-up title in 2010. As champions of the Second Ice Hockey Bundesliga in the 1993/94 season, they are one of the founding members of the DEL.  The Panthers emerged from the Augsburger EV , which was founded in 1878 as the first ice skating club in Germany and is still responsible for the youth ice skating club. The club used to provide the amateur team of the DEL team and also took part in games with the women's ice hockey team - the Icecats. There is a third ice hockey team in Augsburg, the EG Woodstocks , which currently plays in the Bavarian District League .  tennis Augsburg has two traditional and successful tennis clubs: The men's team of TC Schießgraben Augsburg already played in the Bundesliga , but in recent years has only been at the Bavarian or state league level. The women's team took part in the 2nd Bundesliga from 2011 to 2012, but was then relegated to the regional league.  The TC Augsburg Siebentisch women's team is currently playing in the regional league, but has also taken part in the Bundesliga . In 2011, the TCA was named “Bavarian Tennis Club of the Year” by the Bavarian Tennis Association . [143] The Augsburg-born Philipp Kohlschreiber began his tennis career with this club. [144]  Alpine sports The Augsburg section of the German Alpine Club is the second largest club in the city and is ranked 36th among the largest sports clubs in Germany . Within the German Alpine Club it is the eleventh largest and at the same time one of the oldest sections . [145] With the Augsburger Hütte , the Otto-Mayr-Hütte and the Otto-Schwegler-Hütte, it operates three Alpine club huts , the Augsburger bivouac and two section huts. [146] The Alpen.Net section is the first Internet section of the DAV and is also based in Augsburg. [147]  water sports With the construction of the ice channel as a whitewater course as part of the 1972 Summer Olympics, the Federal Center for Canoe Slalom and Whitewater was also set up in Augsburg , which has also been an Olympic base since 1992 . Accordingly, Augsburg has two successful canoeing clubs: Both athletes from Kanu Schwaben Augsburg , a department of TSV Schwaben Augsburg, and the Augsburg Kayak Club have won numerous national and international titles, including three Olympic gold medals from 1992 . 1996 and 2008 .  SV Augsburg was founded in 1911 as a swimming club, but was best known for its water polo department . The SV was a founding member of the German Water Polo League in 1969 and played first class from then until 1979 with short interruptions. The Augsburg Sailing Club is one of the oldest sailing clubs on Lake Ammersee and organizes several national and international regattas every year . In addition, the club can also count several internationally successful sailors among its members.  Other sports The Augsburg 1847 gymnastics club is the second largest sports club in the city and operates with great success in various sports: German championships were won in fistball , rhythmic gymnastics , the gymnastics youth group championship and inline skater hockey . In the latter sport, the Skater Union Augsburg was a founding member of the Bundesliga in 1996 and was represented there until 2001. [148]  The DJK Augsburg-Hochzoll , a 1999 merger of two previously independent clubs from the DJK sports association , has gained a high reputation , especially in the sports of handball and volleyball . Some of their teams rose to the First Bundesliga. Also a member of the DJK sports association is the DJK Augsburg-Lechhausen , which is primarily known for its softball department, which played in the Bundesliga for several years.  In athletics , TG Viktoria Augsburg has produced many internationally successful athletes, but also won the German championship , the DVV Cup and the CEV Cup , the third highest European Cup competition for club teams, with the women's volleyball team in the 1984/85 season . [149] [150] [151]  Post SV Augsburg was a founding member of the table tennis Bundesliga in 1966 and was able to stay in this class for six years. Only then did the team have to be relegated and since then they have never been able to build on their old successes. Well-known players in the team were Peter Stähle , Toni Breumair and Martin Ness . TSV Haunstetten also played some of the table tennis in the highest German league and also has a successful handball department: the women's team currently plays in the 2nd handball Bundesliga .  The Augsburg Free Balloon Club has been running balloon sports in Augsburg since 1901, making it the world's oldest active air sports club . SV Reha Augsburg is the only club in the city dedicated to sports for the disabled . The club's wheelchair basketball department played in the Bundesliga at times and currently competes in the Oberliga Süd. [152]  The BCA Augsburg competed in the Chess Bundesliga from 2018 to 2022 .  Sporting events  Augsburg Ice Canal The largest sporting event in Augsburg is the Augsburg City Run , which takes place every summer and attracted almost 5,000 professional and recreational athletes in 2008. All participants can compete against each other in four disciplines, with the top places receiving cash prizes. The city run is the largest popular sports event in Bavarian Swabia. [153]  A second major event is the RT.1 Skate Night Augsburg , which also takes place annually on several dates in the summer. It is named after the main sponsor, a local radio station. An average of 4,000 inline skating enthusiasts ride various routes over streets and squares in the city that are cordoned off for the occasion and which belong only to them for a few hours. [154]  The Canoeing World Cup stops every year in Augsburg, where the Ice Canal is the oldest and one of the best-known artificial whitewater facilities in the world and where the Federal Center for Canoe Slalom and Whitewater is also located. The World Cup, which lasts several days, attracts thousands of sports enthusiasts every year. The World Canoeing Championships also took place here in 1985 and 2003 , and are scheduled to take place again in Augsburg from July 26th to 31st, 2022. [155]  Since 2019, the “Schwaben Open”, a men’s tennis tournament and part of the ATP Challenger Tour , has been taking place in Augsburg on the grounds of the TC Augsburg .  There are also numerous other sporting events taking place at various locations in the city, which are primarily aimed at young people. The Perlachturm Run is the oldest and best-known stair run in Germany and takes place every year on German Unity Day . A curiosity is the annual Augsburg Backwards Run , which has always been held on Shrove Tuesday since 2000. He dropped out in 2007.  With the impuls arena , which opened in 2009, Augsburg was a venue for games in the 2011 Women's Football World Cup and for games in the 2010 Women's U-20 Football World Cup .  Leisure and sports facilities  Rosenau Stadium  WWK Arena during the construction phase in June 2009  Interior view of the Curt Frenzel Stadium The Rosenau Stadium , built between 1949 and 1951, is one of the most famous sports venues in Augsburg and was considered one of the most modern stadiums in Europe after its opening. Especially up until the inauguration of the Munich Olympic Stadium, it was of immense importance for sporting events in Germany and was, among other things, the venue for the German athletics championships in 1953 and 1963 , several preliminary football games at the 1972 Summer Olympics as well as some athletics country comparisons - this is how Ludwig Müller, among others, acquired his Reputation as the “Hero of Augsburg”. Nowadays it is used by some of FC Augsburg's women's and youth teams to host their home games.  The dominance of the Rosenau Stadium as Augsburg's largest sports facility came to an end after over fifty years in 2009 with the opening of a new football stadium. The stadium planned under the project title “Augsburg Arena” will be called the WWK Arena after the current sponsor . The new building serves purely as a football stadium for the Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, and major events such as games from the 2011 Women's Football World Cup and the 2010 U-20 Women's Football World Cup have already taken place here. The stadium currently holds 30,660 spectators with standing room, and 28,367 spectators for international games due to the only seats available. [156]  The Curt Frenzel Stadium, which opened on November 2, 1963, is used by the Augsburg Panthers for their home games in the DEL , the top ice hockey league in Germany. When it opened, the structure was considered a masterpiece of exposed concrete construction and served as one of the venues for the Junior Ice Hockey World Championship in 1981 . In recent years the stadium has been modernized and completely closed into a hall.  The Augsburg sports hall, today the Erhard-Wunderlich sports hall , was opened in 1965 as the first large hall building in Augsburg after the Second World War and is considered an architectural masterpiece because of its suspended roof construction made of prestressed concrete , which was recognized in 2003 by being added to the list of monuments. While it was the venue for some handball and basketball games at the 1972 Summer Olympics , it is now used primarily for concerts and performances by artists.  The third venue for competitions at the 1972 Olympic Games was the Augsburg Ice Canal , which was specially built for this purpose and in which all canoeing disciplines took place. The world's first artificial whitewater course has a grandstand for 24,000 spectators and is still in use for canoe slalom World Cups and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019 as part of the Augsburg water management system . [157] In July 2020, the groundbreaking ceremony took place for the general renovation of the facility in preparation for hosting the 2022 Canoe Slalom World Championships . [158]  After the WWK Arena and the Rosenau Stadium, the Ernst Lehner Stadium is the third large football stadium in the Fuggerstadt, where TSV Schwaben Augsburg plays its home games. It is located on the grounds of the Süd district sports facility , a large sports facility on the western edge of the Siebentischwald with many sports fields and running paths (including the Max Gutmann running path ). [159]  There are also other sports facilities such as the Haunstetten district sports facility (a stadium with a 400-meter track for athletics and a 500-meter sand track for sand track racing , where international races have taken place since the 1970s), the Paul Renz district sports facility (with the FC Augsburg youth performance center ), the Karl Mögele sports facility in Göggingen and the Anton Bezler sports hall in the same district. The 200-meter indoor velodrome run by the Augsburg e.V. cycling community has existed in the Lechhausen district since 1988 . v.  Augsburg offers five indoor swimming pools , the Altes Stadtbad , the Spickelbad and the Haunstetten and Göggingen indoor swimming pools . The Plärrerbad is currently only available to clubs. They are complemented by five outdoor pools , the family pool, the Bärenkeller and Lechhauser pools as well as the “Fribbe” and the Haunstetten natural outdoor pool .  Green areas and parks  The Japanese Garden in the Augsburg Botanical Garden Even before it was named the greenest and most livable city in Europe in 1997 , Augsburg had a reputation for having an extraordinarily high number of green spaces, parks and gardens. These loosen up the densely built-up urban spaces in many places and offer residents an opportunity for peace and relaxation.  The most famous park is the one on Königsplatz in the heart of the city. The tree-lined green area with a fountain in its center is located right next to the stop triangle of the same name, which serves as the main public transport hub for trams and buses. The park was created in 1911 as part of the redesign of the station district and today has the dubious reputation of serving as a meeting place and trading point at night, especially for alcoholics and drug addicts. With the renovation of Königsplatz in 2013, it became significantly smaller; part of the former area is now paved.  For a small entrance fee, the Botanical Garden at the northern end of the Siebentischwald offers visitors a variety of gardens such as the Japanese garden or the farmer's and pharmacist's garden over an area of ​​around ten hectares . In total, more than a million onion plants, over 1,200 types of ferns , grasses , perennials and wild herbs , 280 roses and 450 types of woody plants can be viewed on the site, as well as a further 1,200 plant species in glasshouses.  With an area of ​​20.8 hectares , Wittelsbacher Park is the largest green space in the built-up urban area and has been a landscape protection area since 1980, which, in addition to the actual park, also includes the city garden to the northeast and the slope to the Wertach Valley . The complex was only given the name of the noble Wittelsbacher family in 1906, but the forerunners existed much earlier. Until the exhibition center was built, the annual Augsburg spring exhibition took place in these open spaces. A kilometer-long air raid shelter system was dug under Wittelsbacher Park in 1944 , parts of which are still preserved.  Although the Hofgarten was laid out between 1739 and 1744, it has only been open to the public since 1965 because it is located on the grounds of the bishop's residence . After the end of the Second World War, the park served as an orchard for a long time. It was only during its renovation in the 1960s that various trees, bushes, flower beds, box hedges and pyramids were planted here, which can now be admired there as well as a water lily pond and a large fountain .  The historic city maintenance ranger is the remnant of the originally much larger Anger from around 1820 in front of the old inlet on the western edge of the old town and is now a small green area in the middle of the architectural ensemble of the Palace of Justice , State and City Library, St. Anna Elementary School and City Theater (State Theater). A “history column” from the 1970s provides information about two thousand years of the city’s history.  Furthermore, the city of Augsburg created some green spaces in the area of ​​former fortifications after the fortress properties were removed. In addition to the Jakoberwallpark, along the former city wall and past the Jakoberwallbastion, there is the Red Gate Park, which was created around the Red Gate and its ramparts.  Economy and Infrastructure Traffic Road traffic The most important long-distance road in the city is the federal highway 8 in the direction of Munich and Stuttgart , to which Augsburg is connected with two direct cloverleaf-shaped junctions (Augsburg-East and Augsburg-West ). Three further junctions are located in the suburbs of Dasing , Friedberg and Neusäß .   The B 300 in the city area (Schleifenstrasse) Augsburg is also connected to three federal highways: the B 2 and B 17 run through the city in a north-south direction and the B 300 in an east-west direction.  The “ Yellow Motorway ” B 2 reaches Augsburg from the north and, in the area of ​​the northern city limits, merges into the B 17 (West Tangente), which is also similar to a motorway. It has been expanded into several lanes in the city area, is partially lowered and only has exits without intersections. The B 17 then leaves Augsburg towards the south and is developed like a motorway up to the A 96 . The expansion of the section between Klosterlechfeld and the A 96 was completed in 2009. In the section from Stadtbergen to Oberhausen, the B 17 was given the name of Augsburg's sister city Dayton and is therefore called Dayton-Ring . The B 300 only has several lanes in the immediate city area and the suburbs, after which it narrows to one lane in each direction.  With the Schleifenstrasse, a south-east connection from Blücherstrasse in Lechhausen to the B 300 (Haunstetter Strasse in Hochfeld ) was created over a ten-year construction period from 1993 to 2004 (plans go back to the 1930s) . The route has four lanes throughout and leads from Lechhausen over a fourth, newly built Lech bridge through the Textilviertel , dives into a 480 meter long tunnel at the level of Provinostraße, appears on the surface again after passing under the B 300 (Friedberger Straße), and is bypassed the Red Gate is extensive and flows into the B 300 in Hochfeld. The name Schleifenstrasse comes from the fact that the street has created a loop-shaped bypass of the city center with an east and west connection to the motorway, with the southeastern city center around the Red Gate from Through traffic was relieved. As on the B 17, the individual streets were named after Augsburg's twin cities and the names Inverness- , Nagahama- or Amagasaki-Allee .  A8 Karlsruhe – Pforzheim – Stuttgart – Ulm – Augsburg – Munich – Rosenheim – Salzburg B2 Border/Poland – Berlin – Leipzig – Nuremberg – Augsburg – Munich – Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Border/Austria B17 Augsburg – Landsberg am Lech – Schongau – Füssen – border/Austria B300 Geisenfeld – Schrobenhausen – Aichach – Augsburg – Krumbach – Memmingen The low emission zone , which includes the inner city center, was activated on July 1, 2009. The third stage came into force on June 1, 2016. Only cars with a green sticker are allowed to enter the low emission zone. [160]  The share of bicycle traffic in the total traffic volume in Augsburg after the modal split was 16.7% in 2003. In 2008 the value was 13.4%. This corresponds to the average value of the cities examined in 2008. According to the 2008 traffic survey “Mobility in Cities”, 87.5% of all Augsburg residents own a bicycle. Augsburg is the seat of the Augsburg district association of the ADFC with the bicycle self-help workshop Bikekitchen Augsburg.  Transportation The entire urban area is part of the Augsburger Verkehrsverbund (AVV), which extends across Central Swabia, and is served by the Augsburger and Gersthofer Verkehrsgesellschaft through five tram, 27 city bus and six night bus lines as well as various taxi collection services. [161]   Tram of the Augsburg transport company In recent years, the tram network has been expanded to 49.8 kilometers with new routes to the university (1996), to the northern city limits (2001), to the university hospital (2002), to Friedberg (2010) and Königsbrunn (2021). Another tram line is also being planned. From 1943 to 1959, the Augsburg trolleybus supplemented the city's rail transport.  In addition, all seven train stations in the city are served by six AVV regional trains from Deutsche Bahn and the Bayerische Regiobahn at regular intervals, which are to be expanded to an S-Bahn- like system in the future. An eighth stop was to be set up when Hirblingerstrasse station was reopened , but these plans were abandoned.  Regional transport is carried out by a large number of bus companies on behalf of the Augsburger Verkehrsverbund (AVV), with many bus lines running to Augsburg main station and can therefore partly be used for inner-city local transport.  Königsplatz (“Kö”) serves as the main hub for the city’s tram and bus lines . After a pavilion built in 1914 east of Konrad-Adenauer-Allee , called mushroom by the local population , had reached its capacity limits, a larger stop triangle was opened on the other side of the street in 1977 after two years of construction. A further renovation should expand capacity by 2009 with additional platforms and tram tracks. On November 25, 2007 there was initially a referendum against the planned renovation, which was approved with 53.2 percent of the votes (with a voter turnout of 24.2 percent), so that the renovation was delayed and only in 2011 (after a now positive vote of the citizens) could begin. As part of the Augsburg mobility hub, the new Königsplatz was opened on December 15, 2013. In 2016, after loud criticism about smokers, a self-driving robot was introduced at Königsplatz that uses a sign to ask smokers to keep their smoke-free and to stop smoking. [162] The robot was named Swa*lly , a portmanteau of SWA and the fictional film character Wall-E . [163] The robot could be found on the 7th of every month (until around 2022). [164] The robot was controlled covertly by an swa employee via an app. Swa*lly was developed and built by members of the Open-Lab Augsburg. [162]  In April 2016, the Augsburg public utility company installed so-called bombs at the Haunstetter Straße and Von-Parsewal-Straße tram stops in a pilot project to increase traffic safety at busy stations. [165] These warn pedestrians, especially smombies , with additional LED lights embedded in the street. When a tram approaches, the light strips flash red, alerting pedestrians. There was already a similar project in Frankfurt am Main in 2010, but it received little attention. It was only the project in Augsburg that attracted worldwide interest. The international press, including the Washington Post and Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan's largest daily newspaper), reported on the project. [166] The idea was also adopted, partly in the same year, in other cities such as Sydney in Australia or San Cugat del Vallès in Spain. [166] The ground traffic lights are still installed at the two stops, but no additional ones are planned. The project came to the sober conclusion that traffic safety cannot be increased by bombarding. Jürgen Fergg, municipal utility spokesman, said in this regard: “People are more attentive, but still go when the light is red.” [167]  Since January 2020, there has been a free city zone in Augsburg, which includes 9 of 281 stops. Distances of up to three stations in the heart of the city center can be covered free of charge by bus or tram. [168] [169]  The mobility hub project The term mobility hub refers to several individual projects in the city of Augsburg that are intended to make local transport in the city more modern and attractive. The plans include the creation of new tram lines, the expansion of the most important transport hubs Königsplatz and the main station, and the establishment of an S-Bahn-like system, the Augsburg Regio-Schienen-Takt . [170]  Construction began on the first part of the major project on June 28, 2007 with the groundbreaking ceremony for the new tram line 6 between the main train station and Friedberg-West . This project was completed with the opening in December 2010. Another sub-project was the expansion of Königsplatz , which was completed in 2013.  Other coordinated individual projects include:  Renovation of the main station into a modern hub that connects all rail transport New construction of tram line 5 from the main train station to the clinic Extension of tram line 1 from the Neuer Ostfriedhof to the Augsburg-Hochzoll regional train station Due to the complexity and effects in different areas of interest, various specialist departments, committees and interest groups are involved in the project work. [171]  Augsburg region freight transport center → Main article : Augsburg freight transport center The Augsburg freight transport center (GVZ) is a logistics center in the triangle between the cities of Augsburg, Gersthofen and Neusäß. There, goods are transferred between different modes of transport, put together for loads and prepared for transport journeys. At the GVZ, different modes of transport (road transport, rail transport and air freight), transport companies ( haulage companies , warehouses ), transport-related service companies ( vehicle service , consulting services) as well as logistics-intensive industrial and commercial companies are brought together and networked. The spatial proximity promotes cooperation and division of labor between the companies located there . The Augsburg freight transport center is centrally located near rail and road connections. It has become a freight hub in the Swabia region , a distribution center for transalpine traffic, an access corridor to southern and eastern Europe and a hinterland location for seaport traffic . [172] [173]  The centerpiece is a transshipment terminal for combined transport, which links the rail and road transport modes . This transshipment terminal was planned by the Augsburger Localbahn , the Spedition Roman Mayer and the Spedition Nuber as TIA - Terminal Investitionsgesellschaft mbH in cooperation with the railway subsidiary DUSS . The terminal, which cost around 20 million euros, was ready at the turn of the year 2011/2012. [173]  Rail transport General The main train station [174] was built between 1843 and 1846 and is Germany's oldest train station in a major city that is still in operation in its original architectural condition . Under the project name Mobility Hub Augsburg, a complete modernization of the train station is currently being implemented, which includes, among other things, the construction of an underground tram stop. [170]  Augsburg is on the main route for Europe . A Europe-wide planned, continuous express train connection from Paris to Bratislava or Budapest . [175]  The city currently has seven railway systems with platforms and a number of other railway systems, including three on the infrastructure of the Augsburg Localbahn (Augsburg Ring, Augsburg West, Augsburg AL-Messe). The main station is the most important railway facility. It forms one end of the Augsburg–Munich high-speed line , the former busiest railway line in Germany (now the S-Bahn main line in Munich), and is an ICE , IC , EC and TGV station on the routes from Munich to Berlin , Dortmund , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Stuttgart , as well as to Zurich , Paris (can be reached twice daily with the TGV without having to change), Klagenfurt and Brussels .  Other important operating points in the city are Augsburg-Hochzoll , Augsburg-Oberhausen and Augsburg Haunstetterstrasse , which have half-hourly connections to interchange-free railway lines to other southern German cities such as Nuremberg , Weilheim , Ingolstadt and Ulm . The other operating locations Augsburg Morellstrasse , Augsburg Messe and Augsburg-Inningen primarily fulfill local transport functions and are only served by regional trains , rarely by regional expresses . Passenger train stations in the sense of the EBO are now only Augsburg Hochzoll and Augsburg Hbf. The main station also has Augsburg-Oberhausen, Augsburg Haunstetterstraße and Augsburg Morellstraße as station parts . The remaining stops are now managed as stopping points . Since the beginning of 2020, with the commissioning of the electronic signal box (ESTW) in Inningen, the former stop (definition according to EBO) [176] Augsburg-Inningen has been used as a train station again. [177]  Worth mentioning is the former Augsburg Hirblingerstrasse train station . The station's platforms and tracks remained intact even after it was decommissioned in the early 1990s and are used regularly. This fact has recently become important again, as the stop is to be put back into operation as part of the establishment of the Augsburg regional rail service . This would primarily require renovation work on the platforms, the construction of a modern access staircase and the installation of lighting and signage.  Railway infrastructure company (EIU) Augsburg is one of the few cities to have five independent railway infrastructure companies (EIU). The largest EIU is DB Netz . This is followed by the Augsburger Localbahn , which also operates as a railway company (EVU). At the freight transport center, which was newly founded in 2017, a consortium acts as a special-purpose freight transport center association. The DB Regio and Meridian each operate their own parking facilities and are therefore not only considered RUs, but also as EIUs in this area. At DB Regio, these are located to the left of the Augsburg – Buchloe main line ( KBS 987) between the Augsburg Messe stop and Augsburg Morellstrasse. At the meridian to the right of the track at the same level.  Railway transport companies (EVU) Augsburg is currently (as of March 2020) served by the following railway companies in local passenger transport :  DB Regio Bavaria (For example with the E-Netz Augsburg ) Bavarian Regional Railway (For example with the Allgäu I diesel network [178] ) Augsburg local railway Go Ahead (expected from 12/2022) [179] Augsburg is currently (as of March 2020) served by the following railway companies for long-distance passenger transport :  DB long-distance transport with the IC, ICE and partly the EC. ÖBB ( Austrian Federal Railways ) with EC, IC and ÖBB Nightjet . [180] SNCF ( Société Nationale des chemins de fer français / German : National Society of French Railways ), with which you can take the TGV to Paris and Munich twice a day. passenger traffic  Augsburg main station In addition, seven AVV regional train lines run in a star pattern from the main station to Mammendorf , to Aichach / Kühbach-Radersdorf , to Donauwörth , to Dinkelscherben , to Schwabmünchen , to Klosterlechfeld and to Schmiechen in the direction of Ammersee . The regional rail service in the Augsburg electric network has been operated at S-Bahn-like cycle times since 2008 and is to be expanded to the Augsburg regional rail cycle in the long term. The regional train lines are operated by DB Regio AG and, since the end of 2008, also by the Bayerische Regiobahn (BRB). It is also planned to reactivate the Gessertshausen–Türkheim railway line to Langenneufnach and to connect trains to Augsburg. The BRB is the operator on behalf of the BEG through the “ Augsburg Dieselnetz II ” contract . [181] The start of operations has been postponed to December 2022.  Freight transport Augsburg was not a hub in rail freight traffic during the closure of the marshalling yard by Deutsche Bahn between April 1, 2005 and the construction of the new freight traffic center in the Augsburg/Gersthofen/Neusäß city triangle , which opened in 2017 . This freight transport center was built between 2007 and 2017 to shift road freight transport to rail. Local partners and the Deutsche Umschlaggesellschaft Schiene-Straße mbH (DUSS) are investors . As a result, the share of rail freight transport has increased steadily again since 2017. Augsburg is now one of the main hubs for southern German rail freight transport . On the north-south axis it connects the North and Baltic Sea ports and, to the south, the New Alpine Transversale Railway (NEAT) towards Switzerland , Milan and Liguria . It offers access to the western ports in France and Spain via Stuttgart and Paris / Toulouse . It connects Italy via the Brenner Base Tunnel (BBT) and southeastern Europe and the Adriatic ports via the Tauern route . [173] There is already a bimodal transshipment terminal for combined transport to provide access to the rail network. The terminal with a capacity of 24,000 loading units per year is located in the Oberhausen district of Augsburg. The total usable area of ​​the railway system is 10 hectares . [172]  Localbahn A special feature of the Swabian metropolis is the Augsburger Localbahn , founded in 1898, a railway that runs right through the city and which large industrial companies (for example: MAN , Weltbild Verlag , AVA waste recycling , MT Aerospace , PCI , BASF , BÖWE , Premium Aerotec ) have a connection to Rail network provided. In parts the route runs directly next to Lech and Wertach. At the northern end of the route, the route forms the border with Wolfzahnau - a protected landscape area between Lech and Wertach in the middle of the city.  Another special feature is that the Localbahn acts both as a railway transport company (EVU) and as a railway infrastructure company (EIU) within the city area. In 2015, the Localbahn had a transport volume of around 1 million tons and is now also active on railway routes outside the city. [182]  air traffic → Main article : Augsburg airfield  Augsburg Airport (2021) In the northeast of the city is the Augsburg airfield ( IATA : AGB), which was reopened in 1968 because the city's other airfields were being used for other purposes. From 1980 onwards it served as a regional airport with a number of domestic German destinations until 2005 when scheduled flights were discontinued and the airfield was downgraded to a commercial airfield. The commercial airfield only has a 1594 meter long runway (07/25) in a southwest/northeast orientation. [183]  Due to the sharp increase in passenger numbers over the years, it was planned to expand the airport, but this failed due to protests from residents in the surrounding towns. Since only passenger planes with up to 100 people can land, the civilian shared use of the NATO Lechfeld Air Base was under discussion. However, this project failed due to the high additional costs that the Bundeswehr wanted to charge for relocating the ammunition depots.  Between 2003 and 2005, Denim Airways was based as a virtual airline at Augsburg airfield.  Due to the cessation of scheduled air traffic in 2005, the future of the loss-making airport was uncertain for a long time, as the city of Augsburg, as a co-shareholder, had to subsidize Augsburg Airport GmbH with one million euros annually, which bore no relation to the benefits now provided.  In April 2006 it was decided to convert the commercial airfield into a modern city airport, which will mainly be served by business aircraft. Augsburg airfield is a permanent customs airfield and is therefore also suitable for international aircraft. [184] In addition, an 80,000 square meter commercial area is being built, which will mainly be developed for companies related to aviation.  There is a flight school on site. Private, professional and helicopter pilots as well as glider pilots can receive training there. [185]  The local aviation company 'Ballonfahrten Augsburg' is unique in Augsburg and was founded to transport guests in hot air balloons . The company was approved in December 2013 by the Southern Bavaria Aviation Office and the Government of Upper Bavaria in accordance with Section 20 of the Aviation Act.  Business The Swabian university town is one of the three metropolises of the Free State of Bavaria and is located within the Munich metropolitan region . It is one of the most important industrial locations in southern Germany .  In 2016, Augsburg, within the city limits, generated a gross domestic product (GDP) of €14.060 billion, placing it in 24th place in the ranking of German cities based on economic performance . The GDP per capita in the same year was €48,824 (Bavaria: €44,215/ Germany: €38,180) and thus well above the regional and national average. In 2017, there were around 195,100 employed people in the city. [186] The unemployment rate was 4.6% in December 2018. [187]  In the 2016 Future Atlas , the independent city of Augsburg ranked 68th out of 402 districts and independent cities in Germany, making it one of the places with “high future prospects”. [188] In the 2019 edition she was ranked 49th out of 401. [189]  Large companies  Main building of the Augsburg-Nuremberg machine factory (MAN)  Premium Aerotec company building Due to its good location, Augsburg is historically an important industrial location and was also previously the world capital of the textile industry, [190] although the companies in this sector have now almost completely disappeared from the cityscape.  The city is characterized above all by the large factories of industrial companies. On the edge of the old town there are the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nuremberg (MAN) , the printing press manufacturer manroland , the gear manufacturer Renk , MT Aerospace as an aerospace company, and the lamp manufacturer Ledvance (formerly Osram ), which belongs to the Chinese lighting company MLS . , which, however, stopped its production in Augsburg at the end of 2018 and also gave up the logistics areas [192] and the UPM-Kymmene paper factory (formerly Haindl ) by the end of 2019. Walter Bau AG, once Germany's third-largest construction management and construction technology group, had its headquarters in the Textilviertel before it was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2005.  The second large industrial location is Haunstetten in the south of Augsburg, where Premium Aerotec , a subsidiary of the Airbus Group (formerly Messerschmitt AG ) and Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH in the field of computer development and manufacturing, but which moved to the Augsburg location in 2020 due to a relocation Asia will close completely, [193] and Siemens has set up its own techno park. The BMK Group , a manufacturer of electronic assemblies and devices, and PCI Augsburg GmbH, a manufacturer of dispersion and powder products for construction chemicals, are also located in Haunstetten, as is the company Weltbild , which was the largest Catholic publishing house and mail order company in the world until 2014.  The industrial robot and welding system manufacturer KUKA and NCR , which produces self-service devices for the financial sector, cash register and database systems, can be found in Lechhausen in the east of Augsburg.  There are also other large companies : Böwe Systec , which develops inserting systems and complete solutions for mailrooms, Faurecia (formerly Zeuna Starker ), which produces exhaust systems for cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles as an automotive supplier, Kontron , which produces embedded computer technology, and WashTec (formerly Kleindienst). , which produces car washes.  Traditional company  City-Galerie (largest shopping center in Swabia ) In keeping with the old age and once outstanding importance of the city, Augsburg is home to numerous businesses with traditions, some of which go back centuries.  With the Augusta brewery (since 1488), the Golden Gans brewery (since 1346), Hasen-Bräu (since 1463), Thorbräu (since 1582) and the Riegele brewery (since 1884) there are five long-established breweries alone Most of them are still produced for the local market today. The well-known mixed cola drink Spezi also comes from Riegele .  The importance in finance that arose primarily through the Fugger and Welser family is also reflected in the credit institutions that are still active in the city today: The Fürst Fugger Private Bank emerged from the Fugger trading house, which was first referred to as a “bank” in 1468. The city savings bank was founded in 1822 and the district savings bank in 1855. In 1914, Anton Hafner founded the Hafner Bank on Maximilianstrasse and, with the Augsburger Aktienbank , another important bank was not founded until the second half of the 20th century.  There are also traditional companies in the book and publishing industry: Schlosser'sche J. A. Buch- und Kunsthandlung (since 1719), Rieger & Kranzfelder (since 1731) and Anton Böhm & Sohn (since 1803).  Other traditional companies include Dierig (since 1805), the Naegele perfumery (since 1835), J. N. Eberle & Cie. GmbH (since 1836), the ironmongery Siller und Laar (since 1836), the furniture transport company H. Weissenhorn & Cie. (since 1839), the Augsburg gymnastics equipment factory Wallenreiter (since 1858 - now Wallenreiter Sportgeräte ), the Lembert hat factory (since 1861), the gear manufacturer Renk AG (since 1873), Pfister balances (since 1894), the furniture shipping and travel company Domberger (since 1897), the August Riedinger balloon factory (since 1897 - now Augsburger Ballonfabrik ) and the Hosokawa Alpine AG (since 1898). One of the oldest traditional companies, the town fisherman Schöppler (since 1650), ended its business operations in 2014. [194]  Other important companies In addition to large and traditional companies, the following companies are of great importance:  Amann Nähgarne , one of the few remaining textile companies that produces industrial yarns and remained at the location after the takeover of the former Ackermann-Göggingen AG VR Bank Augsburg-Ostallgäu eG, one of the hundred largest cooperative banks in Germany with a strong presence in the regional market Betapharm , a major generics manufacturer the Freudenberg group of companies , which produces Vileda household products in its Augsburg plant Hosokawa Alpine AG, a company active in mechanical and plant engineering Patrizia AG , a service company in the area of ​​housing management and related activities Grandel, a major cosmetics manufacturer whose founding location and headquarters is in Augsburg. PCI Augsburg GmbH, a leading manufacturer of building materials and system solutions, which has been part of the BASF Group since 2007. Infineon , a semiconductor manufacturer that operates a development center in Augsburg. [195] Synlab Holding Deutschland GmbH - The German headquarters and founding location of the laboratory service provider, whose parent company, SYNLAB AG, based in Munich, is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. tourism  Augsburg hotel tower with congress at the park in the foreground Augsburg is an attractive destination for tourists from home and abroad, especially because of the Fuggerei , the town hall and the Puppenkiste . A total of 12,500 people were employed in this sector in the city in 2010, generating a turnover of 820 million euros - which corresponds to around five percent of the city's national income. [196]  In 2010, 610,000 overnight stays were registered, which means an increase of almost 20 percent compared to the previous year - meaning Augsburg had the largest increase of all major cities in Germany this year. On average, a guest stayed in the region for 1.9 days and had 3,800 hotel beds available in the city area - 400 beds more than in 2009. Germans account for around 400,000 overnight stays, and Italians are most represented among foreigners. From 1998 to 2010, the Dutch recorded the greatest increase at 154 percent and the Austrians at 81 percent. [196]  Growth was also recorded in the surrounding region in 2010: the Augsburg district had 392,000 overnight stays (an increase of 3.6 percent), the Aichach-Friedberg district had 171,000 overnight stays (an increase of 5.9 percent). [196]  Various long-distance routes touch Augsburg. For example, the Romantic Road , the Via Claudia and the Bavarian-Swabian Way of St. James .  Trade fairs and congresses  Entrance area of ​​the Augsburg trade fair Although Augsburg has a long tradition as a trade fair city, the current Augsburg Trade Fair site was only opened in 1988. Until then, such events took place in tent halls in Wittelsbach Park .  The trade fair is now the third largest in Bavaria after Munich and Nuremberg . The exhibition center includes twelve halls with a total of 48,000 m² of exhibition space, 10,000 m² of open space and a congress and conference center with 3,500 m². The Schwabenhalle offers space for up to 8,200 visitors and regularly serves as a venue for large concerts and performances. [197]  The most important trade fairs in Augsburg are the Augsburg Spring Exhibition (afa) , the Americana (international exhibition for equestrian sports and western culture), the interlift (international trade fair for elevator technology), the Intersana (international health fair), the Jagen und Fischen (international exhibition for hunters and fishermen and nature lovers), the RENEXPO (international trade fair for renewable energies and renewable building and renovation) and the GLORIA church fair. One of the important conferences is, for example, the Mobile Commerce Technologies and Applications (MCTA) conference .  The tallest buildings in Augsburg Hotel tower (with antenna) 115m (167m) Basilica of St. Ulrich and Afra 93 m Gas boiler (Augsburg gasworks) 84 m Sacred Heart Church 79 m Schwabencenter (residential high-rise) 76 m Don Bosco Church 70 m Perlach Tower 70 m The Augsburg Congress Hall is located in the Antonsviertel district below the hotel tower and is used for concerts, cultural and congress events as well as sales exhibitions of all kinds. The exposed concrete building, which opened in 1972 , together with the hotel tower, forms the Augsburg Congress Center and offers four halls and three foyers. The congress hall, the largest room, can accommodate up to 1,400 visitors. For events with slightly larger numbers of visitors, the Erhard Wunderlich sports hall , located not far from the congress center on the edge of Wittelsbacher Park, is used. It can accommodate up to 4,000 guests when fully seated, which is why concerts and performances by well-known artists take place here.  media Newspapers The only local daily newspaper is the Augsburger Allgemeine , which is published by Presse Druck- und Verlags-GmbH . Together with its home editions (which have the same newspaper cover and only differ in their own local section), it has a daily circulation of around 217,892 copies (IVW 2015), making it the third strongest regional newspaper in Germany. [198] It is mainly read in the urban area of ​​Augsburg and in parts of Bavarian Swabia and Upper Bavaria . The newspaper was decisively influenced by the late editors Curt Frenzel and Günter Holland, as well as his wife Ellinor Holland , née Frenzel, as publisher.  Since 2008, Die Augsburger Zeitung (DAZ) has also been offering daily local news online, primarily from the areas of politics and culture. [199]  The Augsburger Sonntagspresse , which is dedicated to both local and Germany-wide news, is also published every Sunday and is available at many of the city's bus and tram stops, train stations and gas stations. Because the topics are mainly reduced to images and only short texts, it can be counted among the tabloid media .  The most widely read free weekly newspaper with editorial local reporting is the StadtZeitung , founded in 1978 , which has divided the Augsburg metropolitan area (the urban area with the surrounding districts of Augsburg, the Dillingen district and the Aichach-Friedberg district) into fifteen local editions (of which five in the urban area alone) and by the Media group Mayer & Söhne is published. [200]  The same publisher also owns the city magazine Augsburg Journal , which is mainly dedicated to the typical topics of tabloid journalism and appears once a month. In contrast to the StadtZeitung, however, it is subject to a fee.  The New Scene Augsburg is published monthly, especially for young people . It focuses primarily on lifestyle , music , nightlife and event information and reaches around 25,500 readers in the actual city area and the surrounding districts with each issue. This makes it one of the largest Bavarian city magazines . [201]  The free cultural newspaper a3kultur is published monthly . The feature section for Augsburg city/country and the Wittelsbacher Land offers news, dates and positions. The entire cultural spectrum of the region is covered. a3kultur is the successor to the magazine a-guide , which until 2011 was one of the largest magazines in Augsburg with an annual circulation of 120,000 copies (spread over six issues). [202]  The free online news portal Presse Augsburg has existed since 2014 with news for the Augsburg region, Bavarian Swabia and national reports. [203]  The colored monthly magazine Augsburger Süd-Anzeiger has been published since 1977 and is primarily dedicated to local issues in the districts of Göggingen, Bergheim, Inningen and Haunstetten, which were incorporated in 1972.  Further publications appear at the universities: The UniPress , published by the university management, the Universum , which is responsible for the student body, and the presstige , formerly published by the Catholic University Community, [204] now published by its own association , appear at the universities . [205]  radio There are two local stations in Augsburg:  Hitradio RT1 , which belongs to the Presse & Druck media group, which also publishes the Augsburger Allgemeine. RT1 is the official broadcasting partner of the Augsburger Panther and FC Augsburg . Radio Fantasy , which specializes primarily in music and comedy and tends to appeal to a slightly younger target group. Both Hitradio RT1 and Radio Fantasy can be received via FM (Hitradio RT1 over 96.7 MHz and Radio Fantasy over 93.4 MHz), DAB+, internet radio and smartphone apps.  In addition, every Monday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. (the following Tuesday ), university students volunteer their own program for their fellow students, Channel C.  Both local stations can be received via their own terrestrial frequencies as well as other cable frequencies and together account for a large proportion of the number of listeners in the city.  The Sankt-Ulrich-Verlag, the publishing house of the Diocese of Augsburg, offers another radio program with Radio Augsburg . It is only broadcast via DAB+, cable radio and a smartphone app.  The Rock Antenne, which specializes in rock music , can be heard on the frequency of the former Radio Kö (87.9 MHz). Rock Antenne is a subsidiary of Antenne Bayern .  Since the end of 2008, the egoFM station in Augsburg , which can only be received in the largest Bavarian cities, has been aimed at teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14 and 30.  The station Smart Radio on DAB+ mainly plays songs from the jazz genre, and its program is not accompanied by a radio presenter but is limited solely to the music. There are also three other local radio stations: Frozen Radio and Radio Cisaria International (RCI).  Until a few years ago, the American Forces Network (AFN) in Augsburg broadcast on the medium wave frequency 1485 kHz, among other things. When the last American troops withdrew from the city in 1998, the radio station was also abandoned and the system used for this purpose was completely dismantled.  The Augsburg entrepreneur Ulrich RJ Kubak acquired the majority shares in Klassik Radio and took it public in 2004. Klassik Radio is a private radio program for classical music . Klassik Radio GmbH & Co. KG is a subsidiary of Klassik Radio AG based in the Augsburg hotel tower . The broadcast center is currently in Hamburg . However, in September 2018 it was announced that Klassik Radio would also like to move its entire broadcast center to Augsburg at the beginning of 2020. [206]  Some music programs are also broadcast via laut.fm and other portals that can only be heard via the Internet. [207]  TV As the only local television station, augsburg.tv (a.tv for short) broadcasts for the city of Augsburg as well as for the districts of Aichach-Friedberg, Donau-Ries, Dillingen and Günzburg (from March 16, 1994 to December 31, 2006 as TV Augsburg , thereafter briefly as augsburg.tv ) a daily 24-hour program with primarily local and regional topics that are important for the residents of the Augsburg metropolitan area.  a.tv can be received unencrypted and around the clock throughout Europe as well as parts of North Africa and the Middle East via the Astra 1M satellite (19.2° East, transponder 21, 11523 MHz horizontal). [208] Other distribution channels include digital and analogue cable television on its own channel S18, as well as in RTL 's regional window (weekdays Monday to Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.), as well as via IPTV in Telekom's T-Entertain package as a continuous live stream on the Internet. [209]  The station also offers a media library on its homepage, which is currently (as of February 2015) accessed up to 150,000 times a month and contains all the programs from previous years. [210]  Augsburg also served as a playground and filming location for the ZDF series Velvet and Silk , which was about a family working in the textile industry and had typical soap opera elements . The last program for the time being was broadcast on February 10, 2005. The film Harte Jungs with Axel Stein also takes place in Augsburg and was also filmed there.  Public facilities  IHK on Stettenstrasse On the one hand, because of its historical significance and on the other hand because of its political position in Bavarian Swabia, Augsburg is the seat of numerous authorities, associations and other public bodies . A special situation also arises from the fact that two districts, the city and the district, have their offices in Augsburg.  In the south of Augsburg there is a state authority, the Bavarian State Office for the Environment , which, among other things, also operates the Bavarian Flood Intelligence Service and shares its tasks with a smaller office in Hof in northern Bavaria . The Josef Vogl Technical Center in the Lechhausen district is affiliated with the state office . In addition, an office of the State Office of Finance is located in Augsburg.  The government of Swabia, as the general supervisor of the state authorities in the Bavarian administrative district of Swabia, as well as the district of Swabia as the third municipal level of the Free State of Bavaria, has its headquarters here, as do the Augsburg city and country tax offices, the administrative center of the city of Augsburg and the Augsburg district office .  In the banking and insurance sectors, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Schwaben have established their information and advice centers. There is also a social insurance site for agriculture, forestry and horticulture (SVLFG). With the municipal loan office , the city of Augsburg has the oldest municipal loan office in Germany. Since 1603, this institution has been temporarily helping citizens in financial difficulties with cash by pawning valuable belongings. On December 31, 2018, the office will close after 415 years; it is the penultimate municipally owned office in Germany.  The Chamber of Crafts (HWK) and the Swabian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) as well as the Schwaben Nord Police Headquarters, which is responsible for the city of Augsburg, the districts of Augsburg , Aichach-Friedberg , Dillingen and Donau-Ries, also have their headquarters here as representatives for the Swabia district The responsible finance and main customs office , a correctional facility and the city youth association are also located in Augsburg .  Various associations and associations such as the Bavarian Red Cross , the Bavarian Football Association or the service union ver.di have their headquarters for all of Swabia, and in some cases even for southern Germany, in Augsburg.  Drinking water supply The extraction, treatment and distribution of drinking water is carried out by the Augsburg public utility company . The drinking water for Augsburg is obtained exclusively from groundwater. There are eight waterworks available (the year of commissioning in brackets): the new waterworks at Hochablass (2007), the waterworks at Lochbach (1912), Lochbach II, Meringerau Nord (1948), Meringerau Süd I (2003) and II ( 2007), Leitershofen (1972) and Siebenbrunn (2000). There are a total of 60 wells, mostly filter and shaft wells, which are approximately 10 m deep. Deep water has so far hardly been used to maintain an emergency reserve in the future. [211] Since July 1, 2021, the drinking water supply has been climate-neutral through the use of hydropower. [212]  The drinking water comes from the groundwater flow in the western Lech meadows south of the city. Significant drinking water protection areas are located in the Augsburg city forest and in the Lechauwald nature reserve near Unterbergen . With a total hardness of 2.41–2.48 mmol/l (13.5–13.9 °dH), the water can be assigned to the “medium” hardness range. [213]  After treatment, the drinking water enters the 1,000 km long pipe network. Four water storage tanks with a total volume of 48,300 m³ are installed here , which cover consumption peaks and also serve to maintain pressure in the network. Due to the different altitudes in the supply area, four pressure zones ranging from 2 to 7 bar were set up. [214]  The gross consumption price in 2021 is 1.86 to 2.42 euros per cubic meter, depending on consumption. [215]  Wastewater disposal The discharge and purification of the resulting wastewater is the responsibility of the city of Augsburg. The canal network is 640 kilometers long (627 kilometers of gravity pipelines ). 70% of these are vitrified clay pipes , 21% are concrete and 5% are clinker . The degree of connection to the sewer system is 99.7%. Due to the favorable topography, only nine pumping stations are necessary in the sewer network. [216] [217]  Wastewater treatment takes place in the main sewage treatment plant Welt-Icon. It was built in 1957, is designed for 800,000 inhabitants and is currently at around 81% capacity. In 1976 and 1994, additional biological purification stages were put into operation. 50 million m³ of wastewater is treated every year, 120,000 m³ daily in dry weather. The treated wastewater is fed into the Lech. The sludge is putrefied in three digestion towers, then dewatered and transported by truck to various incineration plants throughout Germany. [217] [218]  As with the drinking water supply, the Augsburg sewage treatment plant is now energy self-sufficient . In 2019, electricity consumption was 13 million kWh compared to energy production of 18 million kWh. Energy is generated on the one hand in three combined heat and power plants , which convert the resulting sewage gas into electricity and also generate heat for heating, and on the other hand through photovoltaics and through turbines in the wastewater treatment plant. [218] [219]  Healthcare  The University Hospital After extensive restructuring, Augsburg has had two maximum care hospitals (III care level) as well as a number of smaller, partly specialized clinics since 2006 . There are also two emergency practices run by the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and a district hospital for psychiatric care.  The largest hospital and the central emergency room for the metropolitan area is the Augsburg University Hospital , which has been in municipal hands since 1982, initially as a central clinic and, after the above-mentioned restructuring, as a clinic. On January 1, 2019, after years of prior planning, it was elevated to a university hospital and transferred to the ownership of the Free State of Bavaria. At the same time, it was affiliated with the newly founded medical faculty at Augsburg University. The university hospital is located in the Kriegshaber district in the west of the city and can be reached quickly via federal highways 17 and 300.   The children's clinic Right next door is the Augsburg Children's Clinic , which was already closely linked to the clinic in the Augsburg Hospital Association and is now part of the University Hospital. Through close collaboration, it was already possible, for example, for almost all pediatric emergencies to be transferred to the children's hospital that was more suitable for care after the initial treatment.  The second maximum care hospital is the Augsburg Süd Clinic , previously called “Haunstetten Hospital” , which has now also become part of the University Hospital. Through extensive restructuring and the relocation of entire departments from the previous central clinic to Haunstetten, it now meets all the requirements of the IVth care level set out in the hospital requirements plan . In addition to the existing focus on surgery and internal medicine, clinical specialties include dermatology and the ENT clinic . [220]  The Augsburg District Hospital is supported by the Swabia district and, as a clinic for psychiatry , psychotherapy and psychosomatics , ensures psychiatric care for all citizens living in the city and the Augsburg district. It is located in the Kriegshaber district not far from the university hospital and provides psychiatric training for medical students at the University of Augsburg. [221]  There are also four other hospitals: the Diakonissen Hospital , the Hessing Clinic , the Josefinum and the Vincentinum , all of which specialize in sub-areas of medical care (e.g. gynecology or orthopedics ) and some of which work with attending physicians . Further emergency care is provided by the emergency practices of the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, which are located directly at the Vincentinum and the Augsburg University Hospital.  graveyards  The blessing hall of the Westfriedhof Augsburg has a total of fourteen cemeteries, nine of which are maintained by the city: the northern cemetery, the old and new eastern cemetery, the old and new Haunstetter cemetery, the western cemetery , the Gögginger cemetery , the Inninger cemetery and the Bergheimer cemetery.  There are also three Christian cemeteries: the Kriegshaber Catholic Cemetery, the Catholic Cemetery on Hermanstrasse and the Protestant Cemetery . There are two Jewish cemeteries: the Jewish cemetery in Kriegshaber and the Jewish cemetery in the Hochfeld district .  Education and Research Universities Despite the age and historical significance of the city, Augsburg has only had a university since 1970. In addition, the University of Applied Sciences, the Leopold Mozart Center and the FOM University of Economics and Management also provide a wide range of study programs. There are currently over 25,000 students enrolled at the three universities and the music center.  University of Augsburg  University of Augsburg (campus) The University of Augsburg was founded in 1970. There is a certain connection to the University of Dillingen, which was founded in 1549 and 1551 and was abolished in 1802, via the Dillingen University of Philosophy and Theology, which was dissolved in 1971 and affiliated to the university as the Catholic Theological Faculty . In addition, the Augsburg University of Education, which emerged from the Institute for Teacher Training in 1958, was integrated into the university as an educational science department in 1972. In 2008 it took over some areas of the dissolved Nuremberg-Augsburg University of Music as the Leopold Mozart Center (LMZ). It is the only university in the administrative region of Bavarian Swabia.  The university is currently divided into a Faculty of Philology and History, Philosophy and Social Sciences, Economics, Law, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Catholic Theology as well as the recently established Faculty of Applied Computer Science. The University of Augsburg, with its approximately 20,100 students [222] , is not a traditional comprehensive university, but rather focuses primarily on cultural, social and economic sciences.  Since 1974, an extensive campus has been built in the south of the city on the site of the old airfield, which has grown into its own district (the university district) to this day. Now only smaller parts of the university are located together with the business administration department of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences in the building of the former teacher training college in Lechhausen and at the “Old University” location.  Augsburg University  Augsburg University of Applied Sciences , Campus at Roten Tor, K-Bau (headquarters of the university management)  Augsburg University of Applied Sciences , Campus at Brunnenlech, A-Building Although the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences was only founded in 1971, it can look back on an extensive history of its predecessor institutions. There was already a private art academy around 1660, which first developed into a Protestant and then in 1710 into a public imperial city art academy , from which the Augsburg art school eventually emerged over several stages. The technical branch comes from the Rudolf Diesel Polytechnic, which was founded in the 19th century . Finally, in 1971, the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences was founded through their merger. It is therefore one of the oldest technical colleges in Germany; in 2008 it was renamed the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, or Augsburg University for short.  The university has two locations, the campus at Brunnenlech and the campus at the Red Gate, which are only about 500 m apart.  Numerous courses in the areas of technology, design and economics are offered. Social work has also been offered since the WS 2018/19. [223] In the winter semester of 2017/18, around 6,200 students were enrolled at Augsburg University. [224]  Leopold Mozart Center The Nuremberg-Augsburg University of Music was created in 1998 through the merger of the Nuremberg Meistersinger Conservatory with the Augsburg Leopold Mozart Conservatory. Despite violent protests from students and lecturers, the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture decided in 2006 to close the Augsburg part of the university for cost reasons, which has since been affiliated with the university as the Leopold Mozart Center and thus as a “music college within the university”. to be led.  The offer includes music education and artistic courses (singing, orchestral instruments, keyboard instruments). You can also study guitar and music therapy. The training of brass band directors is unique in Germany.  FOM University of Economics and Management The FOM University of Economics and Management, headquartered in Essen , operates a location in Augsburg where part-time bachelor's and master's degree programs are offered with a focus on economics subjects. Among other things, “Business Administration”, “International Management” and business law as well as some master’s degrees can be studied at the FOM. The face-to-face lectures are held at the study location in Augsburg city center during the week in the evenings and on weekends. [225]  General education schools The basic general education for all Augsburg students is currently provided by ten high schools , nine secondary schools , 42 primary and secondary schools , 13 special schools and one free Waldorf school in the city area . [226]  Primary, special and comprehensive schools The basic education of the students is provided by a total of 42 primary and secondary schools throughout the city. There are also a total of 13 special needs schools that take care of children who need special education and therefore cannot or only receive insufficient support at general or vocational schools. If it can be combined with the respective funding priorities, these schools provide the same qualifications as comparable general education schools.  There are also two comprehensive schools , the Free Waldorf School and the International School Augsburg (based in the suburb of Gersthofen) , which teach all age groups in one building.  secondary schools Nine secondary schools in the city area and six in the metropolitan area provide educational opportunities for both general education and specific career preparation that lie between the offerings of high schools and secondary schools.  All three all- girls schools mentioned under grammar schools each have an attached secondary school; The Free Waldorf School also offers a secondary school leaving certificate (technical secondary school qualification/secondary school certificate). There are therefore five “pure” secondary schools in the city. Because secondary schools are rarely found, especially in rural areas, they also have an enormous appeal for students from more distant districts in Bavarian Swabia.  The secondary schools in Augsburg Evening secondary school for working people (S) Agnes Bernauer School (M, W, S) Bertolt Brecht Secondary School (M, W, S) Heinrich-von-Buz secondary school (M, W) St. Ursula Girls' Secondary School (W, S) Maria Ward Secondary School Augsburg (W, S) Stetten Institute (W, S) Maria Stern secondary school (W, S) Rudolf Diesel Secondary School (M) Legend M = mathematical-technical branch W = branch of economics S = social, musical, craft, foreign language branch high schools  Holbein High School (old building) Augsburg has a total of ten high schools , some with centuries of tradition. In addition, the Bayernkolleg Augsburg (as a second-chance high school) and the Free Waldorf School Augsburg enable students to graduate with a high school diploma .  Since all larger cities in the metropolitan area (Friedberg, Gersthofen, Königsbrunn and Neusäß) have their own high schools, the students in these places mainly attend the local high school, so that the Augsburg high schools are mainly made up of students from the city area. Because of their sometimes special educational paths (for example musical or humanistic branches), they still have catchment areas as far away as the whole of Bavarian Swabia. With the A. B. von Stetten Institute, the Maria-Stern- and the Maria-Ward-Gymnasium, there are three high schools only for girls; The high school at St. Stephan was only reserved for boys until the fall of 1995, but has since enjoyed increasing interest, especially from girls who are interested in music.  Almost all schools can look back on celebrities who graduated from high school at their institution. Among others, Napoleon III was here. , Werner Egk , Bertolt Brecht , Rudolf Diesel , Gerhard Höllerich (alias Roy Black), Andreas Bourani or the Nobel Prize winner Johann Deisenhofer pupil.  High schools in Augsburg Gymnasiums sponsored by the Free State of Bavaria: Gymnasium near Sankt Anna  | High school near Sankt Stephan  | Holbein High School  | Peutinger High School  | Rudolf Diesel High School  High schools sponsored by the city of Augsburg: Jakob-Fugger-Gymnasium  | Maria Theresia High School  Privately sponsored high schools: Anna Barbara von Stettensches Institut  | Maria Stern High School  | Maria Ward High School  Former high schools: Leonardo da Vinci High School  Vocational high schools The State Technical High School and Vocational High School and the Municipal Vocational High School in Augsburg lead students who have completed secondary school leaving certificate or completed vocational training within the framework of the Bavarian Vocational High School either to the technical college entrance qualification or to the subject-specific or general university entrance qualification . For the latter qualification, proof of knowledge of a second foreign language (in addition to English ) is required. [227]  Vocational schools and academies Because of its central importance for the Bavarian Swabia district, Augsburg has almost all types of vocational schools : there is one private, state-recognized and seven municipal vocational schools, 18 vocational schools , four technical academies and technical schools and three business schools . While most of these schools teach a profession either in cooperation with the training company or on a full-time basis, the technical schools require that you have already completed training in order to be accepted, as they train advanced professional degrees ( master craftsman , technician ).  Other schools In addition to the schools and academies mentioned, there are a number of other educational opportunities in Augsburg, ranging from the adult education center and the Kolping educational center to various singing and music schools and language schools . For many, no specific prior degree is required; Rather, they are committed to the general education of citizens. There is also the Augsburg Free Waldorf School with a kindergarten and crèche in the northeastern part of the city. It is located on a large campus.  Research The university and the college have their own institutes, which are usually assigned to a faculty and conduct research in their field. However, they also join forces for larger or interdisciplinary projects in order to be able to deal with a broader range of topics. For example, the Institute for Materials Resource Management deals with the technical development of renewable technologies.  Augsburg has important institutions, especially in the area of ​​research on the environment and environmental protection : The KUMAS - Competence Center for the Environment , created by the Free State of Bavaria as part of its high-tech offensive , is located here, a network of almost all research institutions and companies active in this sector, that coordinates their communication and collaboration. The headquarters of the Bavarian Environmental Cluster was also set up in Augsburg.  The Bavarian State Office for the Environment was located near the university in order to be able to work closely on its projects with the students and scientists of the planned “ Augsburg Innovation Park ” research center there. [228] In the Lechhausen district is the Josef Vogl Technical Center , which is affiliated with the state office and primarily collects ecological data for reports.  The Fraunhofer Institute for Foundry, Composite and Processing Technology and a project group of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology are located in Augsburg . There is a location of the German Aerospace Center on the university campus .  The Bukovina Institute is considered one of the leading institutions in the field of Eastern European studies . It is dedicated to documenting and researching culture, history and regional studies in Eastern Europe in international and interdisciplinary collaboration. It is named after the region of Bukovina (“Beech Country”), with which the institute is particularly concerned. The Swabian Research Association , founded in 1949 , is also active in the area of ​​regional studies and history.  The Cooperative Health Research in the Augsburg Region (KORA) is an internationally used research platform of the Helmholtz Research Center for Health and Environment , on which studies on population-related health research are carried out. Augsburg is also a “corporate supporting member” of the Max Planck Society . [229]  Libraries  State and city library  City library Augsburg has had an important library tradition dating back to imperial city times, which is still reflected in a large number of institutions today.  The State and City Library is a scientific library that has existed since 1537 and is now located on Schaezlerstrasse. It is one of the regional state libraries in Bavaria and has legal deposit rights for the administrative region of Bavarian Swabia . Since its beginnings it was initially run by the city, but when it was nationalized in 2012 it became an authority of the Free State of Bavaria and is organizationally subordinate to the Bavarian State Library . Its focus is on looking after the outstanding old collection (approx. 100,000 volumes) as well as supplying the population interested in scientific literature (particularly in historical subjects and on the subject of “Bavarian Swabia”). A large part of the almost 600,000 volumes of books can therefore also be borrowed. The Augsburg State and City Library is also the office of the Historical Association for Swabians, founded in 1834, which can set a tone in science and urban and regional cultural life, especially with the annual magazines of the Historical Association for Swabians (ZHVS). The municipal Brecht Research Center is also based here. The renovation of the aging library building on Schaezlerstrasse, which was already announced in the course of nationalization, was approved by the Bavarian State Parliament in 2021, which provided a total of 62.5 million euros for this and a new warehouse building. Work will begin in December 2022 and reopening is planned for 2025/26. The Augsburg State and City Library will then have one of the most modern library buildings in all of Europe. The operational library operations with part of the holdings will be maintained during the renovation in interim quarters in the former Bayernkolleg Lechhausen. [230]  The beginnings of Augsburg's second important library, the city library , date back to 1920, founded as a subdivision of today's state and city library (as the “people's library”). The public library had already become independent in 1953 and was a representative of the public library system in Augsburg. In 1978 the public library was finally renamed the city library . With the district libraries in Göggingen , Haunstetten , Kriegshaber and Lechhausen as well as the headquarters in the city center, it provides all citizens of Augsburg with access to primarily fiction literature, magazines and other media. The New Augsburg City Library is very modern in its use of print media and multimedia, for which over 14,000 signatures were collected in a citizens' petition and which was then opened in June 2009 after much planning. The 15 million euro new building on Ernst-Reuter-Platz in the city center covers an area of ​​5,000 m² and, in addition to the loan of books, audio books, CDs and DVDs, also offers plenty of space for cultural exchange.   Augsburg University Library The Augsburg University Library is located on the campus of the University of Augsburg and is divided into a central library and four branch libraries (humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, medicine). Its main task is to provide the university's students and teachers as well as the population interested in scientific research with information resources and scientific literature. Your collection mandate covers all departments taught at the University of Augsburg. This results in particular focuses in the humanities and social sciences and, since the founding of the new university medicine, also in the area of ​​medical literature. Although the library was only founded in 1970, it has a remarkable old collection, which includes numerous special collections, particularly in the Oettingen-Wallerstein Library , which was purchased by the Free State of Bavaria in 1980 with financial help from the federal government. With 2.8 million volumes, the university library is by far the largest library in the Bavarian Swabia administrative region and one of the largest libraries in Bavaria.  Other important library facilities in Augsburg include the library of the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and the pastoral and diocesan library. Near the university is the Bukovina Institute for Eastern European Research, which offers interested specialists a large library with a focus on East German and Eastern European literature, history and culture.  In the age of e-texts, the Bibliotheca Augustana , a project by a professor at the University of Applied Sciences, has gained a high reputation throughout Germany as a digital library for texts from world literature .  There are also many other small and private libraries, which, however, are only partially accessible to the public (for example monastery or school libraries).  Archives In Augsburg there are some archives owned by the state, municipality and church. The best-known archives include the Augsburg State Archives as the Bavarian State Archives responsible for the administrative region of Swabia , the Augsburg City Archives as the municipal archives of the city of Augsburg and the Augsburg University Archives . As a church archive, the archive of the Diocese of Augsburg in Augsburg-Oberhausen is responsible for the official transmission of written and documentary material from the offices and institutions of the Episcopal Ordinariate of Augsburg and also looks after the parish and deanery archives of the Diocese of Augsburg .  House of Bavarian History The House of Bavarian History inzeuggasse was founded in 1983 as an authority of the Free State of Bavaria and has been based in Augsburg since September 1993. It is intended to make Bavaria's historical and cultural diversity accessible to all sections of the population, especially the young generation, in all parts of the country and currently has an image archive containing 270,000 materials.  Personalities Only people who are clearly associated with Augsburg are listed here. For more detailed information about the names listed here and people who can be associated with the city in a broader sense, there is the main article List of personalities of the city of Augsburg .  St. Afra († 304 in Friedberg ) was an early Christian martyr who was canonized in 1064. St. Tozzo († January 16, 778 in Augsburg) was Bishop of Augsburg St. Simpert (* around 750; † probably October 13, 807 in Augsburg) was Bishop of Augsburg and is the third patron saint for the city and diocese of Augsburg (alongside St. Ulrich and St. Afra). St. Ulrich (* 890 in Wittislingen or Augsburg; † July 4, 973 in Augsburg) was bishop in Augsburg from 923 until his death and played a decisive role in the victory over the Hungarians in the Battle of Lechfeld . In 993 he was the first person ever to be personally canonized by the Pope . St. Wolfhard or St. Gualfardus (* around 1070 in Augsburg; † April 30, 1127 in Curte-Regia near Verona ) The bones of Saint Wolfhard are kept in the church of St. Sebastian . Johann I von Langenmantel (* around 1275 in Augsburg; † November 8, 1337, in Augsburg) was a patrician and Augsburg city administrator (mayor). Agnes Bernauer (* around 1410 probably in Augsburg; † October 12, 1435 near Straubing) was the lover and perhaps also the first wife of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht III. Anna Rüger , a printer, the first woman to appear in the colophon of a book in 1484. Lorenz Helmschmied (* between 1450 and 1455 in Augsburg; † 1515 in Augsburg) was an important armorer . Hans Holbein the Elder (* around 1465 in Augsburg; † around 1524 in Augsburg) was a German painter whose work marks the transition from the late Gothic to the Renaissance . He created a number of altarpieces and devotional pictures, portraits and glass paintings .  Jakob Fugger “the rich” Jakob Fugger the Rich (born March 6, 1459 in Augsburg; † December 30, 1525 in Augsburg) was Europe's richest and most important merchant and banker at the time . He came from a trading family, which he expanded into one of the first early capitalist companies within a few years, thus laying the foundation for the Fugger family's global reputation and wealth . Hans Burgkmair the Elder (* 1473 in Augsburg; † 1531 in Augsburg) was an important painter, draftsman and wood cutter at the beginning of the 16th century. Along with Hans Holbein the Elder, Burgkmair is considered the most important Augsburg artist between the late Gothic and Renaissance periods in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . Bartholomäus V. Welser (born June 25, 1484 in Memmingen ; † March 28, 1561 in Amberg in Swabia ) was head of the Welser Company, one of the largest trading, banking, shipping and mining companies of the 16th century, from 1519 to 1551. century. As the banker of Emperor Charles V and the French King Francis I , he had a decisive influence on the powerful people of his time. Ägidius Rehm (1486–1535), Bishop of Chiemsee Pilgram Marbeck (* around 1495 in Rattenberg (Tyrol) ; † December 16, 1556 in Augsburg) was an important leader of the Reformation Anabaptist movement and spiritual leader of the Marbeck Circle named after him . He worked for the city of Augsburg as a hydraulic engineer from 1544 and, among other things, created a timber rafting company that was important for the expansion of the city . Susanna Daucher (* 1495), Augsburg Anabaptist Hieronymus Sailer (1495–1559), Swiss merchant, conquistador and slave trader Hieronymus Meitting (1496–1557), Bishop of Chiemsee Hans Holbein the Younger (* 1497 or 1498 in Augsburg; † November 29, 1543 in London ) was a German painter. In a self-portrait that he painted shortly before his death, he describes himself as a Basel native. He is one of the most important artists of the Renaissance. Adolf Occo (1524–1606), physician and numismatist Johannes Nysaeus (Niss) Augustanus, master, from 1560 Baden superintendent and reformer of the Hachberg region (1527–1599) Adriaen de Vries (* around 1545 or around 1560 in The Hague ; † before December 15, 1626 in Prague ) was a Dutch sculptor , whose main work is two of Augsburg's magnificent fountains: the Merkur and Hercules fountains , both of which are characterized by the elegance of their construction and characterized by the fineness of the individual formations. Elias Holl (born February 28, 1573 in Augsburg; † January 6, 1646 in Augsburg) was the most important architect of the German early Baroque . His main work is the Augsburg Town Hall (built from 1615 to 1620) with the Golden Hall in the baroque style. Caspar Stromayr (* 16th century, most likely in Augsburg; † 1566 or 1567 in Lindau) , ophthalmologist and surgeon. Leopold Mozart (born November 14, 1719 in Augsburg; † May 28, 1787 in Salzburg ) was a composer and father of the much better known Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . He primarily created church music works and occasional compositions in which he liked to use “real sound effects” (bells ringing, dogs barking, post horn, etc.). He also wrote a considerable number of instrumental music works . Jakob Wilhelm Benedikt Langenmantel von Westheim (born March 16, 1720 in Augsburg; † April 17, 1790, in Augsburg) was a patrician and long-time city administrator (mayor); Childhood friend of Leopold Mozart  Rudolf Diesel Johann Heinrich Edler von Schüle (born December 13, 1720 in Künzelsau ; † April 17, 1811 in Augsburg) was a German merchant, inventor, technician, chemist and calico manufacturer of European importance. He was the first entrepreneur in Germany to print calico fabric with copper plates in his factory and is considered the founder of industrial textile production in this area. Johann Friedrich von Tröltsch (March 8, 1728 in Nördlingen ; September 1, 1793 in Augsburg), lawyer Johann Gottlieb Freiherr von Süßkind (born March 11, 1767 in Nürtingen ; † December 21, 1849 in Augsburg) founded his own bank in Augsburg and increased his fortune through securities speculation to such an extent that he is still the richest man in Swabia after the end of the Thirty Years' War applies. Rudolf Diesel (born March 18, 1858 in Paris ; † September 29, 1913 in the English Channel ) was a German engineer and inventor. Starting in 1893, he developed the diesel engine in the Augsburg machine factory, which became MAN in 1906 , with financial participation from Friedrich Krupp AG , and presented the first functional model of this engine to the world in 1897. Marie Louise von Larisch-Wallersee (born February 24, 1858 in Augsburg; † July 4, 1940 in Augsburg) Bertolt Brecht (born February 10, 1898 in Augsburg; † August 14, 1956 in Berlin) is considered the most influential German playwright and poet of the 20th century. He has also been internationally recognized and awarded for his works. Brecht is considered the founder of epic or “dialectical theater”. Magda Schneider (born May 17, 1909 Augsburg; † July 30, 1996), actress Anna Lang (born May 5, 1911 Lechhausen; † September 27, 2019), weaver, member of the AWO, was the second oldest Augsburg resident at 108 years old Günther Strupp (born March 6, 1912 in Johannisburg; † November 14, 1996 in Augsburg), German painter and graphic artist Werner Haas (born May 30, 1927 in Augsburg; † November 13, 1956 in a plane crash near Neuburg an der Donau) was a German motorcycle racer and three-time motorcycle world champion on NSU . Gerd von Haßler (August 28, 1928 in or near Augsburg; † January 7, 1989), author, director, radio play speaker, composer, singer, journalist and producer, created the Augsburger Kasperle . Helmut Haller (born July 21, 1939 in Augsburg; † October 11, 2012 in Augsburg), football player, runner-up in the 1966 World Cup Tilo Prückner (born October 26, 1940 in Augsburg; † July 2, 2020 in Berlin) German actor and author. Roy Black (born January 25, 1943 in Straßberg near Augsburg; † October 9, 1991 in Heldenstein ), real name Gerhard Höllerich , German pop singer Hans Henning Atrott (born January 12, 1944 in Klaipėda , Lithuania ; † 2018), initiator of euthanasia Wolf Blitzer (born March 22, 1948 in Augsburg), American journalist and television presenter Erhard Smutny (born January 12, 1949 in Aichach) - known as the magician “Hardy”. Most recently lived in the Fuggerei in Augsburg Reinhard Kammler (born December 17, 1954 in Augsburg), cathedral music director and founder of the Augsburg Cathedral Boys' Choir Erhard Wunderlich (born December 14, 1956 in Augsburg; † October 4, 2012 in Cologne), handball player Bernd Schuster (born December 22, 1959 in Augsburg), football coach and former player, 1980 European champion and 1982 European Cup Winners' Cup winner. Armin Veh (born February 1, 1961 in Augsburg), football coach, official and former player Andreas Bourani (born November 2, 1983 in Augsburg), singer Honorary citizen The city of Augsburg has granted honorary citizenship to 39 people since 1820 . Five of these people were deprived of this right because they were dignitaries of the Third Reich.  In the course of the incorporation of the city of Göggingen, the city of Haunstetten, the Oberhausen market and the municipality of Bergheim, the honorary citizenship rights granted there were transferred to the city of Augsburg by a total of nine more people.  Currently, the former mayor Peter Menacher , the former FCA president Walther Seinsch and the former Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer are the living holders of honorary citizenship.  More detailed information about the city's honorary citizens can be found in the main article List of honorary citizens of Augsburg .  See also Portal: Augsburg  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of Augsburg literature General Peter Dempf : Fabulous Augsburg. 3. Edition. Wißner, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-89639-498-3 . Ferdinand Frensdorff, Matthias Lexer, Friedrich Roth (eds.): The chronicles of the Swabian cities . Volume 1: Augsburg . Leipzig 1865; archive.org . Gunther Gottlieb , Wolfram Baer, ​​Josef Becker , Josef Bellot, Karl Filser, Pankraz Fried , Wolfgang Reinhard , Bernhard Schimmelpfennig (eds.): History of the city of Augsburg from Roman times to the present. Theiss, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8062-0283-4 . Günther Grünsteudel , Günter Hägele, Rudolf Frankenberger (eds.): Augsburger Stadtlexikon. 2nd Edition. Perlach, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-922769-28-4 . Carl Jäger: History of the city of Augsburg, from its beginnings to the most recent times . Darmstadt 1837; archive.org . Rolf Kießling (Ed.): New research on the history of the city of Augsburg. Wißner, Augsburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89639-839-0 . Martin Kluger : Augsburg. The city guide through 2000 years of history. Context, Augsburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-939645-47-4 . Wolfgang Kucera, Reinhold Forster (ed.) Augsburg on foot. 16 district tours through history and the present. VSA, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-87975-628-7 . Hans Pletz: My Augsburg - Augsburg local history for young people . Drawings by Arkad Gropper. Augsburg: Kieser 1956. [1. edition]. Bernd Roeck : History of Augsburg. Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53197-0 (preview) . Wolfgang Zorn : Augsburg - history of a European city. From the beginning to the present. Wißner, Augsburg 2001, ISBN 3-89639-319-7 . Individual aspects  Karl Ganser : Industrial culture in Augsburg. Pioneers and factory castles. context, Augsburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-939645-26-9 . Maximilian Gloor: Political action in late medieval Augsburg, Basel and Strasbourg. Winter, Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8253-5840-2 (review) . Bernhard Gotto : National Socialist local politics: Administrative normality and system stabilization by the Augsburg city administration 1933 - 1945. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57940-1 ( full text ). Herbert Jäger: Imperial city and Swabian district. Corporate urban politics in the 16th century under the leadership of Ulm and Augsburg . In: Göppingen academic contributions. Volume 95. Kümmerle, Göppingen 1975, ISBN 3-87452-299-7 (also dissertation, University of Tübingen, 1975). Anke Joisten-Pruschke : The history of the Jews in Augsburg during the emancipation period 1750-1871 . In: Recent research on the city of Augsburg. Augsburg contributions to the regional history of Bavarian Swabia. Volume 12, Wißner Augsburg 2011. pp. 279–349. Martin Kaufhold (ed.): Augsburg in the Middle Ages. Wißner, Augsburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89639-715-7 . Martin Kluger : Historical water management and water art in Augsburg. Canal landscape, water towers, fountain art and hydropower. Published by the city of Augsburg. Context, Augsburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-939645-50-4 . Martin Kluger: The Renaissance town hall and the Golden Hall in Augsburg. 1620-2020 , context, Augsburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-946917-21-2 . Frank Möller : Civil rule in Augsburg 1790–1880 . In: Lothar Gall (ed.) : City and middle class. Volume 9. Oldenbourg, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-56387-4 (also dissertation, University of Frankfurt am Main, 1993/94). Gernot Michael Müller (ed.): Humanism and Renaissance in Augsburg. Cultural history of a city between the late Middle Ages and the Thirty Years' War . In: Early Modern Times. Volume 144. De Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-023124-3 . Gregor Nagler: Romanticism, Realism, Revolution - The 19th Century . (PDF) City of Augsburg, Section 6, Building Construction Office, Building Regulations Office / Lower Monument Protection Authority (ed.), Augsburg 2011. Eberhard Pfeuffer: Nature in Augsburg. Wißner, Augsburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89639-879-6 . Markus Pöhlmann : “It was as if everything was about to burst…”. The city of Augsburg during the bombing war 1939–1945. SoSo, Augsburg 1994, ISBN 3-923914-27-X Evelien Timpener: Diplomatic strategies of the imperial city of Augsburg. A study of the management of regional conflicts in the 15th century. Böhlau: Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-412-50406-9 (also dissertation, University of Kassel 2014). Web links Commons : Augsburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files Wiktionary: Augsburg  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations Wikisource: Augsburg  - sources and full texts Wikiquote: Augsburg  – Quotes Wikibooks: Augsburg excursions  - learning and teaching materials Wikivoyage: Augsburg  – travel guide Website of the city of Augsburg Stadtlexikon-Augsburg.de , online edition from 2007 of the Augsburg city lexicon from 1985 Geographical and climatic data about Augsburg Augsburg Wiki Virtual tour through Augsburg with over 30 spherical panoramas Augsburg: Official statistics from the Bavarian State Office for Statistics Literature on Augsburg in the catalog of the German National Library Writing languages ​​in the late Middle Ages: Augsburg . Bielefeld University, catalog of characteristics. Individual evidence Genesis online database of the Bavarian State Office for Statistics Table 12411-003r Update of the population status: municipalities, reference date (population figures based on the 2011 census) ( help ). The Mayor. City of Augsburg, accessed on May 19, 2020 .  Peter Kränzle, Margit Brinke: Travel Know-How CityTrip Augsburg . Reise Know-How Verlag Peter Rump, 2022, ISBN 978-3-8317-4744-3 , p. 101 ( books.google.com ). Ordinance on the Bavarian State Development Program (LEP) of August 22, 2013 (GVBl. p. 550, BayRS 230-1-5-W), which was amended by the ordinance of February 21, 2018 (GVBl. p. 55). Bavarian State Government, February 21, 2018, accessed on July 25, 2019 (Bavarian Laws online). With one Sunday child, Augsburg reaches the 300,000 population mark. Retrieved December 11, 2019 . Crime statistics: Munich remains the safest German city. Bayerischer Rundfunk, archived from the original (no longer available online) on July 26, 2018 ; accessed July 23, 2018 . Municipal utilities drinking water. (PDF) Stadtwerke Augsburg Wasser GmbH, archived from Original (no longer available online) on March 4, 2016 ; accessed December 27, 2015 . Model city of Augsburg ( Memento from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Bavarian State Office for the Environment. Gloomy prospects for stargazers ( Memento from November 28, 2004 in the Internet Archive ). West German Radio. City noise ranking 2011: Hanover is the loudest city, Münster is the quietest city in Germany ( Memento from November 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). Geers Foundation. City of Augsburg: Germany's most sustainable city 2013. ( Memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ; PDF). German Sustainability Prize Foundation. The climate in Augsburg . In: City of Augsburg, Office for Statistics and Urban Research (ed.): Short messages from statistics and urban research . Augsburg January 22, 2014, p. 6 ( augsburg.de/statistics [PDF]). The climate in Augsburg . In: City of Augsburg, Office for Statistics and Urban Research (ed.): Short messages from statistics and urban research . Augsburg January 29, 2021, p. 6 ( augsburg.de/statistics [PDF]). Climate Augsburg, Bavaria - Weather Service , German Weather Service, on wetterdienst.de  Lothar Bakker: Settlement history and archeology in Augusta Vindelicum/Augsburg. ( Memento from July 20, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) In: Stadtlexikon Augsburg . Augsburg's population reaches six figures , augsburg.de , accessed on August 25, 2023  Population development in the city of Augsburg since 2010 (= short messages from statistics and urban research. ). City of Augsburg, Office for Statistics and Urban Research; Population development in 2016 ( Memento from November 24, 2020 in the Internet Archive ), p. 11; Population stock. ( Memento from August 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) In: Augsburg.de. June 28, 2018. Report: Augsburg is growing and growing… In: Augsburger Allgemeine . April 21, 2012.  Sunday supplement to the Augsburger Anzeigeblatt No. 18 from May 2, 1869, p. 3, left column ( books.google.de ) Augsburger Anzeiger , 1861, 1/6 ( books.google.de )  Topographical-statistical handbook of the Kingdom of Bavaria along with an alphabetical local encyclopedia . Edited from official sources by J. Heyberger, Chr. Schmitt and von Wachter. Munich 1867, col. 1247 ( books.google.de ). Complete list of localities of the Kingdom of Bavaria - with an alphabetical general locality register containing the population according to the results of the census of December 1, 1875 . Royal Bavarian Statistical Bureau, Munich 1877, column 1377; books.google.de .  Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to reunification in 1990. Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006. In: eirenicon.com. Retrieved May 10, 2023 . Meyer's large conversation lexicon . 6th edition, Volume 2, Leipzig/Vienna 1905, pp. 114–116 ([www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905/A/Augsburg+%5B2%5D?hl=augsburg Zeno.org]). Database Census 2011, Augsburg, age + gender ( Memento des Originals from September 22, 2021 in the Internet Archive )  Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Labor market and economy. ( Memento from February 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) City of Augsburg - Statistics. Hope is Amazon. In: Augsburger Allgemeine , March 26, 2011, p. 44. Population . ( Memento from August 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ; PDF) Augsburg.de, June 28, 2018. Assyrians in Augsburg. Syrian Orthodox Christians in the Diaspora. Archived from Original (no longer available online) on July 12, 2019 ; accessed July 12, 2019 . Assyrian IS hostages arrive in Augsburg. September 7, 2015, accessed July 12, 2019 . Assyrians. Retrieved July 12, 2019 (American English). A bit of the Orient in the diocese - visiting the community of Chaldean Christians in Augsburg-Oberhausen. Retrieved July 12, 2019 . Defenseless between the fronts. February 21, 2013, accessed September 29, 2019 . Šlomo Surayt. Retrieved July 12, 2019 . Many migrants live... In: augsburger- Allgemeine.de. Augsburger Allgemeine, accessed on November 9, 2019 . Population interactive. City of Augsburg – Statistics  Augsburg - Statistics: The number of Christians in Augsburg is falling significantly . In: Augsburger Allgemeine ; accessed on December 1, 2017. 500 years of Reformation - The Augsburg population according to religious affiliation Augsburg statistics (PDF; 2.2 MB)  City of Augsburg: Augsburg Yearbook 2016: Residents by denomination and proportion of the total population 2006–2015 (PDF; 1.5 MB) p. 26, accessed on December 1, 2017. City of Augsburg Religion ( Memento from June 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), 2011 census Augsburg (district-free city): Population in regional comparison by religion (detailed) in%. Archived from Original (no longer available online) on June 5, 2013 ; accessed December 21, 2018 . Relations with the churches: List of churches, religious and ideological communities with the status of a corporation under public law. Retrieved December 21, 2018 . Muslims in large cities in the 2011 census. (PDF) Archived from Original (no longer available online) on December 19, 2018 ; accessed December 21, 2018 . [1] , accessed on February 8, 2024 City of Augsburg Structural Atlas 2023 Population by Religious Affiliation Page 39 (PDF; 17 MB) accessed on November 16, 2023 City of Augsburg Yearbook 2019 (PDF; 21 MB) accessed on July 8, 2020 City of Augsburg Yearbook 2018 ( Memento des Originals from August 30, 2021 in the Internet Archive )  Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.(PDF; 1.9 MB) accessed on May 7, 2020 Goodbye church Record numbers of people leaving Augsburg's parishes are alarming Significantly more people leaving the church since the beginning of the year Leaving the Church , accessed on November 16, 2023  City of Augsburg: Lutherstadt ( Memento from August 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )  Free Protestant communities in Augsburg: Augsburg-Mitte , Augsburg-West , Augsburg-Süd and projekt_X Augsburg ( Memento des Originals from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive )  Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.– Retrieved February 3, 2011. Stefanie Schoene: A life between two worlds. Retrieved September 29, 2019 . The St. Mary's Church of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Augsburg. Retrieved September 29, 2019 . 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Geiger 1818, pp. 321–384. books.google.de  Gerhard Hetzer: Soviet Republic ( Memento from September 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Article on the Soviet Republic of 1919 in Augsburg, In: Stadtlexikon Augsburg ; accessed on September 12, 2014  Daniel Rittenauer: Revolution of 1918/19 in Augsburg ( Memento des Originals from September 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )  Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.on the website of the House of Bavarian History (hdbg.eu/revolution), accessed on September 12, 2014  Karl Filser: Augsburg in the Third Reich. In: History of the city of Augsburg from Roman times to the present. Stuttgart 1984, p. 616.  Karl Filser: Augsburg in the Third Reich. In: History of the city of Augsburg from Roman times to the present. Stuttgart 1984, p. 629. The night when the synagogues burned. 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Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.University of Augsburg; accessed on February 4, 2009.  Gertrud Seyboth: Augsburg - then and now . Presse-Druck- und Verlags-GmbH, Augsburg 1976, p. 38-39 . Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Handbook of Bavarian offices, communities and courts 1799–1980 . CH Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 , p. 600 .  German place name book. Edited by Manfred Niemeyer . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-018908-7 , p. 43. Lothar Bakker : The beginnings of the civil settlement Augusta Vindelicum. In: History of the city of Augsburg. Stuttgart 1984, pp. 34–41. Gunther Gottlieb also explains the name variants and their meanings: Legal status and administration. In: History of the city of Augsburg. Stuttgart 1984, pp. 50–56; Julius Miedel : Augsburg's name throughout its history. In: Archive for the history of the Augsburg Monastery. 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Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice., “Culture News” on deutschlandfunkkultur.de from February 2, 2020, accessed on February 3, 2020. Start. Retrieved August 10, 2023 .  Christian Kolb: Cities - Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. In: holy-römisches-reich.de, accessed on January 23, 2020 (private website).  Christiane Schillig: How did the Bavarian onion domes come about? In: Monuments , volume 25 (2015), issue 5 (October), p. 21. Website of the Jewish Cultural Museum viewed January 26, 2015. Art collections and museums Augsburg - accessed on May 11, 2013.  Franz Schreiber: On the history of Augsburg film theaters 1896–1950. In: Augen Blick mal (= series of publications by the museums of the Swabia district. Volume 11). Gessertshausen 1995, pp. 33–37 (online) .  Bernd Wißner: 175 years of the Augsburg Philharmonic Choir and its predecessors. Wißner-Verlag 2018, ISBN 978-3-95786-143-6 . 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Archived from Original (no longer available online) on December 2, 2022 ; accessed December 2, 2022 .   This article is available as an audio version:  Part 1: Geography Duration: 16 minutes and 53 seconds.16:53 | Save  | 16:52 minutes  | 7.7MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 2: Population Duration: 25 minutes and 53 seconds.25:53 | Save  | 25:52 minutes  | 11.5MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 3: History Duration: 39 minutes and 18 seconds.39:18 | Save  | 39:18 minutes  | 17.9MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 4: Politics Duration: 20 minutes and 53 seconds.20:53 | Save  | 20:52 minutes  | 9.4MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 5: Culture and sights Duration: 32 minutes and 42 seconds.32:42 | Save  | 32:41 minutes  | 14.7MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 6: Sports and leisure Duration: 22 minutes and 14 seconds.22:14 | Save  | 22:13 minutes  | 10.0MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 7: Economy and Infrastructure Duration: 44 minutes and 55 seconds.44:55 | Save  | 44:54 minutes  | 20.7MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 8: Education and Research Duration: 22 minutes and 11 seconds.22:11 | Save  | 22:10 minutes  | 10.0MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) Part 9: Personalities, Quotes and Proverbs Duration: 13 minutes and 2 seconds.13:02 | Save  | 13:01 minutes  | 5.8MB  | Text of the spoken version (July 2, 2015) More information about spoken Wikipedia  Districts and independent cities in the Free State of Bavaria Counties:  Aichach-Friedberg | Altötting | Amberg-Sulzbach | Ansbach | Aschaffenburg | Augsburg | Bad Kissingen | Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen | Bamberg | Bayreuth | Berchtesgadener Land | Cham | Coburg | Dachau | Deggendorf | Dillingen an der Donau | Dingolfing-Landau | Donau-Ries | Ebersberg | Eichstätt | Erding | Erlangen-Höchstadt | Forchheim | Freising | Freyung-Grafenau | Fürstenfeldbruck | Fürth | Garmisch-Partenkirchen | Günzburg | Haßberge | Hof | Kelheim | Kitzingen | Kronach | Kulmbach | Landsberg am Lech | Landshut | Lichtenfels | Lindau (Bodensee) | Main-Spessart | Miesbach | Miltenberg | Mühldorf am Inn | München | Neuburg-Schrobenhausen | Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz | Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim | Neustadt an der Waldnaab | Neu-Ulm | Nürnberger Land | Oberallgäu | Ostallgäu | Passau | Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm | Regen | Regensburg | Rhön-Grabfeld | Rosenheim | Roth | Rottal-Inn | Schwandorf | Schweinfurt | Starnberg | Straubing-Bogen | Tirschenreuth | Traunstein | Unterallgäu | Weilheim-Schongau | Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen | Wunsiedel im Fichtelgebirge | Würzburg    Kreisfreie Städte:  Amberg | Ansbach | Aschaffenburg | Augsburg | Bamberg | Bayreuth | Coburg | Erlangen | Fürth | Hof | Ingolstadt | Kaufbeuren | Kempten (Allgäu) | Landshut | Memmingen | München | Nürnberg | Passau | Regensburg | Rosenheim | Schwabach | Schweinfurt | Straubing | Weiden in der Oberpfalz | Würzburg  Großstädte in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ab 1.000.000 Einwohner:  Berlin | Hamburg | Köln | München    ab 500.000 Einwohner:  Bremen | Dortmund | Dresden | Duisburg | Düsseldorf | Essen | Frankfurt am Main | Hannover | Leipzig | Nürnberg | Stuttgart  ab 250.000 Einwohner:  Aachen | Augsburg | Bielefeld | Bochum | Bonn | Braunschweig | Gelsenkirchen | Karlsruhe | Mannheim | Mönchengladbach | Münster | Wiesbaden | Wuppertal  ab 100.000 Einwohner:  Bergisch Gladbach  | Bottrop  | Bremerhaven  | Chemnitz  | Darmstadt  | Erfurt  | Erlangen  | Freiburg im Breisgau  | Fürth  | Göttingen  | Gütersloh  | Hagen  | Halle (Saale)  | Hamm  | Hanau  | Heidelberg  | Heilbronn  | Herne  | Hildesheim  | Ingolstadt  | Jena  | Kaiserslautern  | Kassel  | Kiel  | Koblenz  | Krefeld  | Leverkusen  | Lübeck  | Ludwigshafen am Rhein  | Magdeburg  | Mainz  | Moers  | Mülheim an der Ruhr  | Neuss  | Oberhausen  | Offenbach am Main  | Oldenburg (Oldb)  | Osnabruck  | Paderborn  | Pforzheim  | Potsdam  | Recklinghausen  | Regensburg  | Remscheid  | Reutlingen  | Rostock  | Saarbrücken  | Salzgitter  | Win  | Solingen  | Trier  | Ulm  | Wolfsburg  | Würzburg