Encyclopedia
- For other meanings, see Bamberg .
Bamberg is a town in
Bavaria,
Germany. It is located in
Upper Franconia on the river
Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river
Main.
Geography
Bamberg lies in northern Bavaria, 63 km north of
Nuremberg by railway, and 101 km east of
Würzburg, also by rail. It lies on the Regnitz river, 3 km below its junction with the
Main river.
Its geography is shaped by the Regnitz
and by the foothills of the Steigerwald, part of the German uplands. From northeast to southwest, the town is divided into first the Regnitz plain, then one large and several small islands formed by two arms of the Regnitz , and finally the part of town on the hills, the "Hill Town" .
Like
Rome, Bamberg extends over seven hills, each crowned by a church. This has led to Bamberg being called the "Franconian Rome" - although a running joke among Bamberg's tour guides is to refer to Rome as the "Italian Bamberg".
Population
Bamberg is home to nearly 7,000 foreign nationals, including over 4,100 members of the
United States Army and their dependents.
History
During the post-
Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region afterwards included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by
Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle which gave its name to the
Babenberg family. On their extinction it passed to the
Saxon house. The area was Christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine
Abbey of Fulda, and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Würzburg.
In 1007,
Henry II, King of the Romans, made Bamberg, a family inheritance, the seat of a separate
diocese. The emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of
Franconia, east of Bamberg. In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and
Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. The new
cathedral was consecrated May 6, 1012, and in 1017 Henry II founded on Mount St. Michael, near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife Cunigunde gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop . Pope Benedict VIII during his visit to Bamberg placed the diocese in direct dependence on the
Holy See. For a short time Bamberg was the centre of the
Holy Roman Empire. Henry and his wife Cunigunde were both buried in the cathedral.
From the middle of the
13th century onward the
bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, forcing the construction of monumental buildings. In 1248 and 1260 the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs. The old Bishopric of Bamberg was composed of an unbroken territory extending from Schlusselfeld in a northeasterly direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed in addition estates in the Duchies of
Carinthia and
Salzburg, in the Nordgau , in
Thuringia, and on the
Danube. By the changes resulting from the
Reformation the territory of this see was reduced nearly one half in extent.
The
witch trials of the 17th century claimed hundreds of victims in Bamberg and reached a climax between 1626 and 1631 under the rule of
Prince-Bishop Johann Georg II. Fuchs von Dornheim. The famous Drudenhaus , built in 1627, is no longer standing today, however, detailed accounts of some cases, like that of Johannes Junius, remain.
In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded as "Academia Bambergensis".
In 1759 the possessions and jurisdictions of the diocese situated in
Austria were sold to that State. When the secularization of church lands took place the diocese covered 1276 square miles and had a population of 207,000. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, and in 1803, it became a part of
Bavaria.
Bamberg was first connected to the rail system in 1844, which has been an important part of its infrastructure ever since.
After
World War I, when a communist uprising took control over Bavaria, the government fled to Bamberg and had to stay for almost two years, before the Bavarian capital
Munich was recaptured by Freikorps . The first republican constitution of Bavaria was passed in Bamberg, thus known as "" .
In 1973, the town celebrated the 1000th anniversary of its founding.
Historical population
- 1818: ca. 17,000
- 1885: 31,521
- 1905: 45,308
Settlers from Bamberg
Bambrzy – Poles of German origin, descendants of settlers from area near Bamberg, that were settled in villages around
Poznan in the years 1719 –1753.
Main sights
The Old Town of Bamberg is included in the
UNESCO World Heritage, since it has retained its medieval look and was one of the few German cities that sustained virtually no damage during WWII. 2005 the city established a documentation centre to support World Heritage activities.
Some of the main sights are:
- Cathedral , with the tombs of emperor Henry II and Pope Clement II
- Alte Hofhaltung, residence of the bishops in the 16th and centuries
- Neue Residenz, residence of the bishops after the 17th century
- Old Town Hall , built in the middle of the Regnitz River, accessible by two bridges
- Klein-Venedig , a colony of picturesque fishermen's houses from the 19th century along one side of the river Regnitz.
Cathedral
The
cathedral is a late
Romanesque building with four imposing towers. It was founded in 1004 by the emperor Henry II, finished in 1012 and consecrated on May 6, 1012. It was later partially destroyed by fire in 1081. The new cathedral, built by St. Otto of Bamberg, was consecrated in 1111, and in the
13th century received its present late-Romanesque form.
The cathedral is about 94 m long, 28 m broad, 26 m high, and the four towers are each about 81 m high. Of its many works of art may be mentioned the magnificent marble tomb of the founder and his wife, the empress Cunigunde, considered the masterpiece of the sculptor
Tilman Riemenschneider, and carved between 1499 and 1513. Another treasure of the cathedral is an
equestrian statue known as the
Bamberg Horseman . This statue, possibly belonging to the emperor
Conrad III, most likely dates to approximately 1200.
Neue Residenz
The
Neue Residenz was initially occupied by the prince-bishops, and from 1864 to 1867 by the deposed King
Otto of Greece. The magnificent Rosengarten offers excellent views of the city.
Castle Altenburg
The castle is located at the highest of Bamberg's seven hills . It was mentioned for first time in 902 BCE. Between 1251 and 1553 it has been the residence of Bamberg's bishops. Destroyed in 1553 by Albert, margrave of Brandenburg, it was used, after scanty repairations, only as prison, and incresingly decayed.
In 1801 doctor A. F. Marcus bought the castle and completly repaired it. His friend, the famous German writer
E.T.A. Hoffmann, who was very impressed by the building, lived there for a while. The next owner, Anton von Greifenstein, founded in 1818 an association to save the castle. This society still maintains the whole property today.
Other sights
Other noteworthy churches are the Jakobskirche, an
11th-century Romanesque
basilica; the St Martinskirche; the Marienkirche or Obere Pfarrkirche , which has now been restored to its original pure
Gothic style. The Michaelskirche,
12th-century Romanesque , on the Michaelsberg, was formerly the church of a Benedictine
monastery secularized in 1803, which now contains the Burgerspital, or
almshouse, and the
museum and municipal art collections.
Of the
bridges connecting the sections of the lower town the most interesting is the Obere Brücke, completed in 1455. Halfway across this, on an artificial island, is the
Rathaus or City Hall . The royal lyceum, formerly a
Jesuit college, contains notable collections and the royal library of over 300,000 volumes. The picturesque Old Palace was built in 1591 on the site of an old residence of the counts of
Babenberg. Noteworthy among the monuments of the town is the Maximilian fountain , with statues of
Maximilian I of Bavaria, the emperor Henry II and his wife,
Conrad III and St Otto, bishop of Bamberg.
Beer
Bamberg is also known for smoked beer . The most famous being Schlenkerla "Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier" from the Heller
brewery and which can be enjoyed fresh at the Schlenkerla tavern on the Dominikaner Strasse in the old town.
Bamberg is currently home to 9 breweries and one
microbrewery which is unprecedented in a city of only 70,000 people.
Education
The University of Bamberg, named Otto-Friedrich University, offers higher education in the areas of
social science,
business studies and the
humanities, and is attended by more than 8,000 students.
Bamberg is also home to eight secondary schools called Gymnasien:
- Clavius-Gymnasium
- Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium
- Eichendorff-Gymnasium
- E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Gymnasium
- Franz-Ludwig-Gymnasium
- Kaiser-Heinrich-Gymnasium
- Maria-Ward-Gymnasium
- Theresianum
There are also numerous other institutes for primary, secondary, technical, vocational and adult education.
Traffic
...
- Nuremberg -
Leipzig -
Berlin -
Hamburg main line. From Munich, the train journey takes about two hours. From Berlin, it takes about four hours. Connections to the west are rather poorer: regional trains connect Bamberg to Würzburg, which is fully connected to the InterCity Express network. Tourists arriving at
Frankfurt International Airport will have to change trains there. Bamberg is well connected to other towns in Upper Franconia, such as
Bayreuth,
Coburg, and
Kronach with usually at least an hourly service.
- Motorways: Bamberg is not on any of the major Autobahns. But it is connected to the network: the east-west A70 from Schweinfurt to Bayreuth runs along the northern edge of the town. The A73 connects Bamberg to Nuremberg and will, once construction has been completed, extend further north into Thuringia, ending at Suhl .
- Shipping: the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal begins near Bamberg. With its completion in 1992, uninterrupted shipping was possible between the North and Black Seas.
- Public Transport: public transport within Bamberg relies exclusively on buses. More than 20 lines connect the outlying quarters and some villages in the vicinity to the Central Bus Station. In addition, there are several "Night Lines" and some Park and Ride lines from parking lots on the periphery to the town centre.
Politics
Bamberg is an independent city. Its town council and its Lord Mayor are elected every six years, though not in the same year. Thus, the last municipal election for the town council was in 2002, for the Lord Mayor in 2006.
Stadtrat
As of July 2006, the town council comprises 18 CSU councillors, 9
SPD councillors, 6 Green councillors, and 4 councillors of the Freie Wähler - Bamberger Realisten, a local political movement. These four parties achieved the number of councillors necessary to form a caucus. In addition, the Bamberger Bürger-Block, the far-right Republicans , and independents are represented by one councillor each, making them ineligible for caucus status.
This is the result of the municipal elections of 3rd March 2002 and several councillors' changes in political allegiance since then. Voter turnout in 2002 was 50.33 per cent.
Oberbürgermeister
Lords Mayor since 1945:- 1945 - 1958: Luitpold Weegmann
- 1958 - 1982: Theodor Mathieu
- 1982 - 1994: Paul Röhner
- 1994 - 2006: Herbert Lauer
- since 1st May 2006: Andreas Starke - Werner Hipelius serves as mayor and deputy.
The 2006 mayoral electionAs can be seen from the list above, Bamerg's voters elected conservative mayors in most if not all elections after
WWII . The mayoral elections of 2006, in the first ballot of which Social Democrat Andreas Starke received 45,93% only to move on to trounce his CSU opponent Peter Neller in the second ballot with 71.75% of the vote were thus somewhat surprising.
Twin Towns
! Map
|---- bgcolor="#FFFFFF"
...
,
AustriaBorn in Bamberg
- Conrad III of Germany, king of Germany
- Ulrich of Bamberg, religious historian
- Christophorus Clavius, mathematician
- Hans Pleydenwurff, painter
- Johann Lukas Schönlein, physician
- Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, theologian
- Theodor Boveri, biologist
- August von Wassermann, bacteriologist
- Hans Ehard, politician
- Karlheinz Deschner, author
- Günter Faltin, economist
- Thomas Gottschalk, TV host
- Bernd Feustel, professional chess player
- Amber Michaels, porn actress
Famous denizens
See also
- Bamberger Symphoniker – founded in 1946 by Bohemian WWII refugees, including former members of the German Philarmonic Orchestra in Prague, and promoted to a Bavarian State Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003.
- GHP Bamberg: current German Basketball Champions and first German Basketball Team to reach the Top 16 in the Euroleague.
External links
Bamberg and
Bamberger is also an
Ashkenazi Jewish surname, including:
Ludwig BambergerÁrmin VámbéryIsrael of Bamberg, Tosafist
Felix Bamberg, publicist
Samuel Bamberg
References
