History of the city of Braunschweig

The consecration certificate of the Magni Church from 1031. It is also the oldest documentary evidence of the name "Brunesguik" (2nd line, center) , which became "Braunschweig" in the 16th century.

The Brunswick Lion : originated around 1166 and has been the symbol of the city ever since.

The history of the city of Braunschweig began forecast for the year 861, however, until 1031 documented occupied. The city's history is strongly shaped by numerous interactions and overlaps with the history of political entities that also bore the name Braunschweig or still carry it today. Examples are the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1235–1806), the Duchy of Braunschweig (1814–1918), the Free State of Braunschweig and the State of Braunschweig (1918–1946), but also the District of Braunschweig , the Administrative Region of Braunschweig and the Braunschweiger Land . The city of Braunschweig was always the capital of these political entities.

A historically secure representation of the origin as well as the early development and history of what is now called the city ​​of Braunschweig proves to be difficult, because on the one hand there are no original documents from the time before 1031, and on the other hand it never was only about a single settlement, from which today's community developed, but about five soft areas , which were founded independently of each other, developed and over the course of time, but finally only in 1671, grew together to "Braunschweig". Each of them had its own town hall , its own council , its own parish church and a different population structure. These soft areas still bear their old names: Altewiek , Altstadt , Hagen , Neustadt and Sack .

Traces of early settlement

Archaeological excavations in today's district of Wenden (about 6 km north of the city center) unearthed numerous tools made of flint , which suggest that the area was settled 10,000 years ago. A bronze ax from the late Bronze Age (around 14th / 13th century BC) was found next to the local church . The urn of an early Germanic cremation of the pre-Roman Iron Age was in the 5th century BC. Dated. From around 500 AD, Saxon settlements can be detected in what is now the city area. It has not yet been clarified whether existing settlements were destroyed or taken over.

The Kohlmarkt : clearly visible in the center are the outlines of the Ulrici Church from the 10th century.

Excavations that were carried out in the 1970s and 1980s in the city center as well as at various locations near the Outer showed, based on the settlement horizon , that the beginning of continuous settlement actually dates back to the 9th century. So the 1960 demolished in 1972 during construction work on the southern grounds Braunschweig Palace on Ackerhof found a fountain whose wood remains were dated to the 10th century. Excavations on the Kohlmarkt have uncovered the remains of several churches, the oldest of which date from between 850 and 900. During excavations under the remains of the Ulrici Church, which no longer exists today, settlement remains, such as ceramics , from the early 9th century were found. Around the church there was a burial ground with 36 tree coffins which, in addition to the mortal remains, contained fibulae with enameled cross decorations as grave goods .

Settlements and their probable date of origin

Some of the settlements are in the immediate vicinity of present-day Braunschweig or some of today's city districts.

Settlement by Saxony

	before 300	before 500	before 800	after 800	First mention
Brunesguik ( Altewiek )			×		1031 MU
Caunum, see ( Riddagshausen )		×			1065 (?)
Eysenbutle ( Eisenbüttel )				×	1180 KC
Ekthi ( desolate ; on the Zuckerberg )		×			1031 MU
Everikesbutli ( desolate ; see Querum )			×		1007 StA
Fritherikesroth ( desolate ; see Mastbruch-Elmaussicht )				×	1031 MU
Glismoderoth ( Gliesmarode )				×	1031 MU
Guinitthun (turning)		×			1031 MU
Hanroth ( desert ; see Veltenhof )				×	1031 MU
Hunesheim ( desert ; see Riddagshausen )		×			1031 MU
Ibanroth ( Bienrode )				×	1031 MU
Limbeki ( desolate ; see Viewegs Garten-Bebelhof )		×	×		1031 MU
Marquarderoth ( desolate ; see Nordstadt )				×	1031 MU
Morthorp ( desolate ; see Viewegs Garten-Bebelhof )				×	1031 MU
Orheim ( Ohrum )	×				0747 FA
Ottonroth ( desolate ; on the Nussberg )				×	1031 MU
Reindageroth ( desolate ; see Rautheim )				×	1007 StA
Riudun ( Boast )		×			1007 StA
Rothna or Ruotnum ( Rautheim )	Rothna	Ruotnum			1031 MU
Scahaningi ( Schöningen )	×				0748 FA
Thuringesbutli ( desert ; s. Schunteraue )			×		1007 StA
Velituum ( Veltenhof )		×			1007 StA

MU = Magni certificate from 1031
StA = Steterburger annals from 1007
KC = list of goods of the monastery St. Cyriakus
FA = Franconian annals, there: Pippins report about his journey through the Sachsenland

middle Ages

Founding legend

Dankwarderode Castle

The founding legend of which traced back to the 13th century can (s. Braunschweigische Reimchronik ), was reportedly founded the first settlement on the territory of modern Braunschweig 861.

The rhyming chronicle reads:

"Duke Brun dher greyf an / eyn erve dhes herzichtoumes / dher was eyn zelge disses boumes / dher other dukes Otte / I hops at us icht mockery / she scrips, at which I hear / we of dear Brune words / begunnen daz nu heyzet Bruneswich / unde de borch algelich / dhe ittewenne darzo lach / dhe men Thanquarderode jach. "

“Duke Brun took over / his heir to the duchy / he was one branch of this tree / the other Duke Otto / I hope that the source does not deceive us / from which I found out / how Duke Brun started it / that is now Braunschweig is called / and also the castle / which was once there / which was called Dankwarderode. "

This legend was described in great detail by the chronicler Hermann Bote in his Middle Low German Braunschweiger Weltchronik , which he wrote around 1500. According to his account, the two Saxon brothers Bruno and Dankward , possibly from the Liudolfingian-Ottonian family, decided to leave the city of Gandersheim in favor of their brother Otto in order to settle elsewhere. At a ford on the Oker , at a point where Charlemagne is said to have destroyed an earlier village during the Saxon Wars , Dankward decided to build a church and the Dankwarderode Castle in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul . At the same time, Bruno had houses built on the spot where the Eiermarkt is today in the old town , and he also donated a church in honor of St. Jacob , the Jakobskirche . After all, it should have been Bruno who gave the place its name: Bruneswiek .

Hermann Bote's report on the founding of the city concludes with the words:

"Brunswiek is from daghe to daghe, from jaren to jaren beter, has become stronger, more powerful unde is eyne kronen unde eyn speygel des landes to Sassen unde der Fürsten to Brunswiek unde to Luneborch."

Origin and interpretation of the city name

Extract from the ordination certificate of Magnikirche of 1031: "Brunesguik" is the oldest documented mention of Braunschweig preserved.

The Magni Church

In recent times, the seriousness of the Braunschweiger Weltchronik as a source for the history of the city's foundation has been heavily questioned. In the absence of reliable historical evidence, it is now considered wishful thinking; at least no further evidence of the establishment of the settlement in 861 has been found so far.

The oldest surviving serious written record of a forerunner of today's city name dates from 1031 and comes from the consecration certificate of the Magni Church in the historical Weichbild Altewiek . In the document , the place where the church was consecrated is called Brunesguik .

The “gu” in the name of Brunesguik is irrelevant for the etymology of the city name, since it is only a Romanizing form of the Germanic bilabilal sound “w” . This “w” sound only occurred when accompanied by a preceding “g” or “k”. An example of this is the old Franconian male name "Willehalm", which is "Wilhelm" in German and "Guillaume" in French.

Over the centuries, various, often contradicting, assumptions about the origin and meaning of the city name have been made, relying on more or less reliable historical sources or drawing conclusions by analogy due to the lack of such sources . The earliest attempt at an interpretation probably comes from the beginning of the 13th century from the Halberstadt episcopal chronicles, in which the entry "Hic Bruno fundator existitit civitatis, que Brunonis vicus vocatur." Can be found for the year 912. Also in the Braunschweiger rhyming chronicle, which was created between 1279 and 1292, a "Duke Brun" is named as the namesake of the settlement "Bruneswich". Likewise, the Braunschweig town clerk Hermann Bote mentioned in his Braunschweiger Weltchronik written between 1493 and 1502 a "Bruno" together with his brother "Danchwort / Danckward" as the founder of the town.

The name of the settlement should therefore consist of the components of the male proper name Brūn [o] and the Germanic suffix wīk , whereby wik should denote a trading place.

The competing research approaches therefore assumed on the one hand that the prefix Brūn was the name of a Brunon duke. However, this is neither identifiable nor verifiable in the genealogy of the Brunones, nor can it be classified chronologically. Also, no person by that name appears in any contemporary source. According to Blume, this is one indication of several, according to which a personal name is ruled out as a component for Brunesguik .

The second part of the place name "wīk" is supposed to mean "trading place" according to the so-called "Wīk research" opinion. For a long time it was assumed that the word was borrowed from the Latin "vicus" for "courtyard, homestead , village, patch , district" , which led to the fact that the city name should originally mean something like "Brun [o] trading center" . But this is disputed by others, such as Leopold Schütte and the name researcher Jürgen Udolph .

Schütte explained the interpretation of the wīk part of the name at a symposium that took place on March 25, 2006 on the subject of "Brunswiek - Name and Beginnings of our City" :

“'Wik' appears 1. in the old Zaun meaning; as a fence, maybe a fortification, in the Heliand . 2. in the early or even at the same time developed meaning fenced , so in the settlement and field names and names Wik or with -wik as the basic word. 3. in the specialized area of special law and immunity , handed down in the compound words wikbelde , wikgreve u. a., in individual cases also in the simplex wik . It cannot be proven, neither for wik nor for vicus , is a meaning trading center . "

Udolph, Blume, et al. assume that the settlement was built on the site of a fire clearance . In 2006, Schütte and Udolph cited Indo-European roots for the word component. According to this, Brun means either "eyebrow" or something like "edge of an edge", a protruding edge, for example of a mountain, a hill or the like. An increase in Braunschweig, the Klint , as such an increase could have influenced the naming or could have been the cause for it. According to the latest research on place names from 2018, it seems likely that the original form “Brūnes-wīk” may go back to the (pre-) migration period and that the meaning “settlement above an edge, on a higher bank” (im Meaning of "on a bank section above the river Oker").

It is controversial, or still unclear, how and why the place name changed from the eastern bank of the Oker to the western bank of the Brunswiek settlement, which later became Altewiek and is now the Magniviertel of the Halberstadt diocese . On this bank there was a merchant settlement , the Kohlmarkt settlement , which in turn belonged to the Hildesheim diocese . Some scholars are of the opinion that this is the Dankwarderode settlement .

The name Braunschweig in its current form is documented for the first time in 1542 and practically became the generally valid spelling from around 1560. It is an unfortunate high German transfer of the old name Brunswiek , which came about in the course of the gradual displacement of Middle Low German from the official language . The compound that arose in this way in the early 16th century seems to consist of the noun “ brown ” and the imperative of the verb “ silent ” for laypeople , which makes it impossible to understand the original meaning of the name. Accordingly, it would be the old meaning of the term Brunesguik or Brunswiek more in line if instead of hyphenation Brown - schweig the city name in Braunsch - weig would be separated.

Urban development in the Middle Ages

Braunschweig and the Braunschweig lion on the Ebstorf world map (around 1300)

The development of the city of Braunschweig was lastingly promoted not least by favorable topographical and political circumstances: On the one hand, the settlement was located at the intersection of important medieval long-distance trade routes , for example from the west ( Lower Rhine ) via Soest and Minden to Magdeburg in the east, where an important transition crosses the Elbe was located; on the other hand, the Oker was navigable from Braunschweig (one port is occupied from the 13th century) for ships that headed for the important trading metropolis of Bremen via the Aller and then the Weser, thus allowing Braunschweig to participate in maritime trade . In addition, there were road connections from the sea in the direction of Braunschweig, most likely via Stade , Bardowick and Lüneburg , but also from Hamburg and Lübeck . Other road connections may have led into the city from Hildesheim , Gandersheim , Goslar , Halberstadt and Leipzig . Thanks to their close political ties to Friesland and the Meissen region , the Brunones succeeded in expanding and strengthening the Braunschweig trading center in this way as well. From the 10th century, the Brunons ruled, who are said to be descended from the founder of Brunswick Brun (o) . Brunone Ekbert II founded the Cyriakus Foundation , which was located on the site of the old train station , which was built in the 19th century and is now the seat of the Braunschweigische Landessparkasse, where he was buried. His sister Gertrud the Younger from Braunschweig was the founder of the Aegidienkloster ; Via her daughter Richenza von Northeim and her daughter Gertrud von Sachsen , the Duchy of Saxony and the city of Braunschweig finally passed to Heinrich the Lion .

Heinrich the Lion and the rise of Braunschweig

→ Main article : Henry the Lion

Brunswick Cathedral :
tomb of Heinrich the Lion , Mathilde and their son Otto IV
(tomb in the foreground)

The Guelph Heinrich the Lion (1129–1195), Duke of Saxony and Bavaria and cousin Friedrich Barbarossas , made Braunschweig his royal seat in the 12th century , thereby expanding both his own power and that of the city. He expanded the Brunonian castle Dankwarderode and made it his palace . He had the church there from 1030 burned down in order to have the Brunswick Cathedral built in its place from 1173 , the construction of which was largely completed shortly before his death in 1195 and concluded with the consecration on December 29, 1226. In addition to the five soft areas Altewiek, Altstadt, Hagen, Neustadt and Sack, there were also two special rights districts, the Aegidien Freedom and the Castle Freedom around Dankwarderode Castle.

Heinrich's power in the empire grew so much that around 1166, as a sign of his claim to power, he had a bronze lion, the Brunswick lion , made, which he had placed on the square in front of the castle and in front of the cathedral. This sculpture is the first free-standing bronze sculpture north of the Alps . It has been the symbol and heraldic animal of the city of Braunschweig since it was set up .

Free and Hanseatic City

Braunschweig layers

→ Main article : Braunschweig layers

Hermann Botes shift book from 1514: The coats of arms of the eight councilors killed during the “Great Shift” of 1374: (from left to right and from top to bottom ) Brun van Gustidde, Cort Doring [erroneously called Tile Doringe ], Henning Gustidde, Henning Lußke, Tile van dem Damme , Hans Himstidde, Ambrosius Sunnenberge and Hans Gottinge .

Along with Ghent and Paris, Braunschweig is considered to be one of the most restless cities in late medieval and early modern Europe. Again and again, constitutional conflicts were waged through revolutionary civil unrest, which in Braunschweig was referred to as "layers" .

The first "shift" took place in 1293/94 and became known as the "shift of the guild masters". The cause of the conflict was the pressure of the craft guilds to participate in the city government, which until then had been dominated by the patricians and wholesalers . This dominance of the merchants resulted from the increase in trade and its importance for the city as well as the membership in the Hanseatic League . On the other hand, the guilds increased their influence on the urban regiment. The trigger for the escalation of the conflict was the intervention of the dukes Albrecht II and his brother Heinrich I for the supremacy in the city. Each of the brothers supported one of the competing parties, Heinrich allied with the guild masters and Albrecht with the incumbent city government. Heinrich's attempt to conquer the old town suppressed the inhabitants by appointing Albrecht as lord of the city and paying homage to him. With his brother, he then reached an agreement on joint ownership of the city. Heinrich had the rebellious Gilderat executed and reinstated the old town council.

The second “shift” took place from 1374 to 1380 and was known as the “Great Shift”. The “big class” was triggered by dissatisfaction with the city's high level of debt. The city council was occupied in 1374 and held by revolting groups until 1376. Eight council members were killed during the riot. The escaped patricians used their influence in the Hanseatic League for a trade ban against Braunschweig. The city was also temporarily excluded from the Hanseatic League between 1375 and 1380. As a result, the city suffered severe economic problems.

After the unrest ended, a constitutional amendment was approved in 1386, which should involve the guilds in the city council.

independence

Braunschweig around 1550

Just like the city of Braunschweig, the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg goes back to Heinrich the Lion and was part of the land of the Guelphs. As a result, the duchy was divided into different states through the division of inheritance. In the 14th century, the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel emerged, to which the city of Braunschweig also belonged.

The city of Braunschweig gained urban independence around 1430, as a result of which the Guelph sovereigns had to relocate their residence to nearby Wolfenbüttel , where they stayed until the city was recaptured in 1671. Braunschweig's political position during the late Middle Ages until the loss of independence in the middle of the 17th century was equivalent to that of a free imperial city .

Hanseatic period

Braunschweig, Eternal Pfennig , minted from 1296 to 1498

The Saxon Chronicle of 1492: Illustration of the city of Braunschweig ("Brunschwig"). In the foreground two knights of the lily events .

Siege of the city in the summer of 1615 by the troops of Friedrich Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

Between 1245 and 1490, Braunschweig concluded a total of 57 alliances with various cities. The content of all these alliances was the mutual protection of trade and military assistance in the event of internal or external threats. Braunschweig belonged to the Hanseatic League since the middle of the 13th century . In 1296 the city received the Braunschweig Mint as a pledge and in 1412 it became its property through purchase. The disreputable reputation and renewal of the bracteate pennies was eliminated by the company's own coinage, the so-called Eternal Pfennig .

The comprehensive alliance policy of Braunschweig later also influenced the change of the Hanseatic League from the merchant's to the city's Hanse. Due to its favorable location and the various privileges of the Brunswick merchants, the city developed into one of the most important trading centers in Central Germany with extensive contacts throughout Northern Europe. The Hanseatic League also intervened in the internal politics of the cities if this was necessary to secure the balance of power. The unrest during the “ Great Shift ” even led to a temporary exclusion from the Hanseatic League between 1375 and 1380. Furthermore, the Hanseatic League prevented all trade in the city and supported the rulers with the resulting economic problems.

Since 1494, the city was also a “suburb”, ie the leading city, of the Saxon Hanseatic cities and represented their interests at the Hanseatic Days . In 1476 the Free City of Braunschweig strengthened its position against the princes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel through a military contract with 18 other Hanseatic cities. The treaties offered mutual military assistance to protect against the territorial rulers by the Hanseatic League. This became necessary due to the increasing intervention of the Brunswick dukes in urban autonomy.

During the many heavy sieges of the city during the 16th and 17th centuries by the Brunswick dukes, the Hanseatic League supported the city of Brunswick both financially and militarily by sending relief armies. Through its alliance agreements, including with the United Netherlands , Braunschweig was able to maintain its urban independence until 1671. After the collapse of this merchants' association in the 17th century, Braunschweig was one of the last nine remaining Hanseatic cities in 1669 and that year took part in the last Hanseatic convention in Lübeck, along with Bremen , Danzig , Hamburg , Hildesheim , Lübeck , Cologne , Osnabrück and Rostock .

Some of today's Braunschweig buildings, such as the Alte Waage , the Altstadtrathaus , the Gewandhaus , and some half-timbered houses still date from this time and bear witness to the city's wealth in the Hanseatic era.

The Reformation

The
Brunswig church order of 1528: "Der Erbarn Stadt Brunswig Christlike ordeninge / to denste dem hilgen Evangelio / ..." by Johannes Bugenhagen .

In Braunschweig, the Lutheran doctrine was spread by Gottschalk Kruse as early as 1521 . The first mass in German was celebrated in Braunschweig Cathedral at Easter 1526. In 1528 the reformer Johannes Bugenhagen arrived in the city and began to preach the new doctrine in the Brothers Church . Within three months, Bugenhagen developed the Braunschweig Church Ordinance , which was written in Low German and was immediately adopted. On September 6, 1528, the officially sealed introduction of the Reformation in Braunschweig was announced from every pulpit in the city.

Thirty Years' War

In the middle of the Thirty Years' War , Swedish King Gustav II Adolf confirmed the rights and freedoms of the city of Braunschweig in 1632.

Through skillful political action on the one hand, but also because of the very strong fortifications on the other, Braunschweig managed to emerge unscathed from the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War . In contrast to neighboring cities such as Wolfenbüttel (captured by imperial troops on December 19, 1627) or even Magdeburg , which was badly destroyed on May 20, 1631 (see Magdeburg Wedding ), Braunschweig succeeded again and again, a similar fate as the Housing foreign troops to escape. In 1619 representatives of various cities in the north met and decided that the Lower Saxon Empire , to which they belonged, would maintain neutrality . In 1632 Gustav Adolf of Sweden took Braunschweig under his protection, and in 1635 the city concluded the separate peace of Prague . In 1648 the city privileges were finally recognized in the peace treaties of Münster and Osnabrück .

From the 15th to the 17th century there were witch hunts in the city of Braunschweig . Well-known victims of the witch trials were Anna Roleffes , Geseke Albrechts and Katharina Sommermeyer .

From the bourgeois town to the princely town

Loss of urban autonomy in 1671

In 1671, Duke Rudolf August and his younger brother Anton Ulrich succeeded in occupying the city after about three weeks of siege and bombardment by 20,000 men and 75 artillery pieces. Braunschweig was weakened by the Thirty Years' War and the severe plague epidemic of 1657/58 . In 1671 it came under princely rule again after almost 250 years. The loss of urban freedom was evident in the abolition of the five old soft picture councils, the disarmament of the city, the seizure of all city assets and the installation of a new council that was completely dependent on the duke and had its seat in the new town hall . The city had to bear the costs of the ducal garrison, at times 5000 strong . The “ Graue Hof ” became the quarters of the dukes, the ducal court initially remained in Wolfenbüttel. It was not until 1753 that Duke Karl I moved the residence to the new Brunswick Palace .

Expansion for bastionary fortifications from 1692

The fortified Braunschweig in 1765

When it was disarmed in 1671, the Duke took over the city's artillery. In 1692, the fortress builder Johann Caspar von Völcker began with the bastion-like renovation of the city fortifications. He planned the fortifications based on the Dutch model , whereby one spoke of a "Völcker manner" due to independent changes. It emerged bastions and polygonal earthworks with the training of curtain walls , ravelins and Glacis . In addition to the paid workers and craftsmen, soldiers and prisoners were used in the construction for cost reasons. The work was not yet completed in 1730, the year Völcker died. His successor Johann Georg Möring continued the construction until 1740. The construction work cost the enormous amount of 601,320 thalers up to 1741 and resulted in a land consumption of 1.73 km², which resulted in extensive resettlements. Already at this point it was recognized that the fortification method was out of date. In the course of the 18th century, warfare shifted from siege warfare to open field battle. Nevertheless, the fortification was expanded again in 1762 during the Seven Years' War after a French siege. In addition to the structural reinforcement of the existing works, five wooden forts (Ferdinand, Georg, Friedrich, Karl, St. Leonhard) as well as several field entrenchments were built in the wider area of ​​the city . After the war, the then superfluous fortifications were razed from 1803 under the direction of Peter Joseph Krahe . The ramparts that still exist today were built in their place.

Ducal economic policy

Fair on the Kohlmarkt around 1840

Public lottery drawing on the Aegidienmarkt, 1771

After conquering the city, the duke sought to revive the economic strength of the formerly prosperous Hanseatic city and, in 1681, set up two annual goods fairs against the opposition of the trade fair cities of Leipzig and Frankfurt . These Brunswick trade fairs reached their heyday in the 18th century and represented an important economic factor. In the period from 1764 to 1807 they drew an average of 2034 trade visitors to the city for the winter and 2935 for the summer fair, before the fairs lost their importance during the 19th century .

In 1771 the Duke introduced a number lottery , the first drawing of which took place as a public event on August 2, 1771 on the Aegidienmarkt . In the same year there were six more draws, which increased to around 50 annual events in the following years. Duke Karl's son and heir to the throne, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand , abolished the lottery in 1786 out of moral reservations about gambling and out of concern for his subjects.

Architecture and infrastructure in the 18th century

After the court moved from Wolfenbüttel to Braunschweig in 1753, the city increasingly assumed the character of a residence and official city. The desire for princely representation was evident in the long-term conversion (around 1715 to 1790) of the “Gray Court” into a residential palace. Furthermore, between 1763 and 1765, the southern part of Dankwarderode Castle was redesigned for Duke Ferdinand into the "Ferdinandsbau". New entry and exit roads were created and the inner city streets were paved. Street lighting was introduced in 1765. To ward off epidemics, the cemeteries were relocated to the city gates under Charles I. With the ducal decree of March 9, 1802 for the city's fortification and the creation of ramparts such as the Lion Wall by Peter Joseph Krahe , the continuous expansion of the city was initiated. The grinding of the fortifications dragged on until 1831.

Spiritual-cultural life

Opera house on Hagenmarkt

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

During the Baroque , Braunschweig was influenced by Duke Anton Ulrich , who built Salzdahlum Castle near Wolfenbüttel as a baroque residence with a French pleasure garden . With the opera house on Hagenmarkt , which opened in 1690 , he created the cultural center of the city that existed until 1861. The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum with its important works can also be traced back to him. At the suggestion of the court preacher Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem , Duke Karl I founded the pre-university collegium Carolinum in 1745 , from which today's Technical University of Braunschweig emerged . The Carolinum became a center of Enlightenment in northern Germany through the appointment of important scholars such as Karl Christian Gärtner , Johann Arnold Ebert , Konrad Arnold Schmid , Justus Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae and Johann Joachim Eschenburg . The center of the scholars was Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , who, through Ebert's mediation, had managed the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel since 1770 . On March 13, 1772, his Emilia Galotti was premiered in the opera house on Hagenmarkt . Lessing died in Braunschweig in 1781 and was buried in the Magnifriedhof . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust I was also premiered in Braunschweig on January 19, 1829, in a production by Ernst August Friedrich Klingemann .

Napoleonic occupation 1806 to 1813

The department of ocher in 1809

In 1806, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand , Duke of Braunschweig, was fatally wounded as a Prussian field marshal in the battle of Jena and Auerstedt . As a result of the ensuing Peace of Tilsit , Braunschweig was occupied by Napoleonic troops and from July 1807 to October 1813, as the capital of the Oker department, it was part of the newly founded Kingdom of Westphalia , which in turn perished at the end of 1813.

The French writer Stendhal (1783–1842), who worked as an administrative clerk in Braunschweig from 1806 to 1808, provides an essayistic description of Braunschweig society in his diaries ( diary from Braunschweig ) and travel reports ( impressions from Northern Germany ) .

Residence town of the Duchy of Braunschweig from 1814 to 1918

Map of Braunschweig with the surrounding area in 1899

Braunschweig around 1900

After the Congress of Vienna , the lost Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was re-established as the Duchy of Braunschweig in 1814, which resulted in the Braunschweig Police Department being established in the same year . Here Braunschweig initially belonged to the Wolfenbüttel district directorate. However, the city of Braunschweig was given back municipal self-government in 1825. Other important developments for the city were the New Landscape Regulations for the Duchy of Braunschweig of October 12, 1832, and in 1834 the decree of the General City Regulations for the Duchy of Braunschweig.

The new landscape order of the Duchy of Braunschweig from 1832 is rated by various authors as the beginning of the Braunschweig district . In Section 66, the offices of the state are named and grouped into constituencies for the professional assembly . For the area of ​​the city and the former district, the city of Braunschweig (with six members) and the offices of Vechelde and Riddagshausen (with one member) are named. From January 1833, the city of Braunschweig, the offices of Vechelde and Riddagshausen were combined to form the Braunschweig district directorate. The total of six districts formed a regional directorate based in Braunschweig, in whose deliberations the “Board of Directors of the Magistrate of Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel had a share”.

The establishment of municipal authorities followed. First, in 1830, the house Kleine Burg 1 (former cathedral dechanei ) was acquired by the city and used as a "town house" (town hall). Since 1848 the chairman of the magistrate has been called the mayor . Heinrich Caspari was the first to hold this office (until 1879). With the city code of 1850, the city magistrate became the city administrative authority to which a city council was assigned. In the same year, administration and judiciary were consistently separated through the implementation of the Courts Constitution Act of August 21, 1849.

Simultaneously with the establishment of the city authorities , the industrialization of Braunschweig began in 1838 with the commissioning of the Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel railway line , the first state-operated German railway line .

In the German War of 1866, the Duchy of Braunschweig only joined Prussia at the last minute and thus avoided the threatened annexation that hit the neighboring Guelph Hanover after the battle of Langensalza . In 1871 the duchy became a federal state of the German Empire . After Duke Wilhelm died in 1884 as the last Guelph of the New House of Braunschweig without a legitimate descendant, Braunschweig was ruled by a regent until mid-1913 . The Welf line from Hanover with inheritance rights was out of the question for a succession to the throne for political reasons. The Federal Council passed a corresponding law under pressure from Prussia. Only when Viktoria Luise , daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II. , And Prince Ernst August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg married on May 24, 1913, a reconciliation between the Guelphs and Hohenzollern came about, and a Guelph once again became ruler of the city and country of Braunschweig.

Time of the Weimar Republic

November 1918 to May 1919: Between War and Peace

→ Main article : November Revolution in Braunschweig

November 8, 1918: Declaration of abdication by Duke Ernst August von Braunschweig

November Revolution in Braunschweig , November 8, 1918: The delegation of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council (from left to right: Friedrich Schubert, Henry Finke, August Merges , Paul Gmeiner , Hermann Schweiß and Hermann Meyer)

Revolutionary troops on a truck in the city

Towards the end of the First World War , the German Empire plunged into a profound economic, social and political crisis that ultimately led to the November Revolution. On November 9, 1918, came to Berlin to abdicate , Wilhelm II. The last German emperor, Friedrich Ebert became Chancellor, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the republic, while Karl Liebknecht in turn the "Free Socialist Republic of Germany" proclaimed .

On the afternoon of November 8, 1918, August Merges ( USPD ) forced Duke Ernst-August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg to abdicate in Braunschweig with a few others. After the abdication was completed, a workers 'and soldiers' council took over political leadership. On November 10, 1918, a sole government of the USPD was proclaimed by the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council. The “Socialist Republic of Braunschweig” was proclaimed, the first president of which was August Merges at the suggestion of Sepp Oerter . On February 22, 1919, a coalition government consisting of the USPD and the SPD was formed under the chairmanship of Sepp Oerter, and the Brunswick state parliament passed the provisional constitution, which made parliament the bearer of all state power.

Due to the politically and economically very unstable situation in the city and state of Braunschweig , the situation deteriorated dramatically at the beginning of April 1919. On April 9, the Spartakists called a general strike on Schlossplatz . As a result of the strike, passing trains were no longer dispatched, which primarily blocked the important east-west long-distance traffic and thus the supply of food and coal to large parts of Germany. The backlog caused by this triggered traffic chaos throughout Germany. Braunschweig officials and freelancers then went on a counter strike. From April 11th, public life in the city came to a standstill. Since this was an untenable situation, Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske commissioned the general of the Freikorps troops Georg Maercker to restore law and order in the Free State. On April 13th, the Reich government declared the state of Braunschweig to be under siege .

In the morning hours of April 17, 1919, around 10,000 soldiers with armored cars marched into the city without meeting any resistance. The People's Army and the People's Navy were dissolved. The Oerter government was deposed and the state workers' council dissolved. Public order was restored within a very short time . Maercker and the Brunswick politician Heinrich Jasper (MSPD) negotiated the formation of a new government. On April 30th, the Braunschweig state parliament elected a new government, which was formed by a coalition of the SPD, USPD and DDP . Heinrich Jasper became the new Prime Minister.

Due to the unexpectedly peaceful and quickly relaxed situation in the city, Maercker and his troops left again on May 10, 1919. The city and the Free State of Braunschweig were thus independent again.

Free State of Braunschweig

→ Main article : Free State of Braunschweig

The reconstructed former landscape house in Brunswick

Almost a year after the Free Corps troops were withdrawn on 10 May 1919 from the city, it came on 13 March 1920, 250 km eastern Berlin to the Kapp Putsch , a counter-revolutionary coup , which had the goal of the reigning imperial government under To overthrow Gustav Bauer and destroy the young Weimar Republic. The attempted coup failed after about 100 hours.

In Braunschweig, the state of emergency that had been imposed a few days earlier by the Reich government had been in effect again since January 28, 1920 due to various unrest in the wake of the November Revolution . Meetings, demonstrations and strikes were prohibited. The former commander of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment No. 92, Colonel Markus Stachow, who was at the same time garrison elder and commander of the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 20 and who was later subordinated to the Kapp, was entrusted with the "implementation of the [...] resulting military measures" -To sympathize with the Putschists.

Alerted by the events in Berlin, the Braunschweig USPD called for a meeting in the Konzerthaus (today Böcklerstrasse 232) on the afternoon of March 13 . a. Sepp Oerter spoke. With the consent of the SPD and the DDP , he demanded the disarming of the resident army, while the USPD demanded the arming of the workers. Prime Minister Jasper rejected both, pointing out that the state government was in control of the situation. Soon thereafter, calls for a general strike in the city followed. The military then secured the inner city area between Steinweg and Bohlweg with the State Ministry , the town hall and the police headquarters in Münzstraße . 141 factories took part in the general strike in Braunschweig.

Because the concert hall turned out to be much too small, a large crowd gathered on March 15th on Leonhardplatz . The situation in Braunschweig initially remained relatively calm, while in nearby Schöningen clashes between Spartacists , the resident and Reichswehr resulted in eight deaths (seven workers and one from the resident armed forces). Holzminden , which belongs to the Free State , was occupied by 500 members of the Reichwehr. Finally, there were bloody clashes between the strikers and the Reichswehr in Braunschweig. Two security police cars drove into a crowd of strikers and injured several people; In the afternoon two young workers were shot on Bohlweg and Steinweg. The commanding officer Stachow then wanted to take action directly against the strike leadership, but Prime Minister Jasper refused to support him. The mood in Braunschweig quickly turned towards a trial of strength between left-wing Sputschists and anti-republican Reich defense units. The resignation of the Jasper government has now been called for. The situation in the city escalated further, so that during the night near Broitzem (today a district of Braunschweig) there was a heavy firefight between putschists on the one hand and the resident and Reichswehr on the other. On the part of the Reichswehr and the Security Police, two dead and two injured were ultimately recorded. On March 18, there were three major political events. a. again the resignation of the government was called for. Jasper refused, but was ready to put the vote of confidence in the state parliament . In the afternoon of the same day, the message from Berlin arrived in Braunschweig that the Kapp Putsch had failed, whereupon the strike leadership declared the general strike to be over with 23 votes to 3. Most returned to work the next day, and from March 25th everything went back to normal. On April 21, 1920, Justice Minister August Hampe resigned, fulfilling a demand made by the strikers, who counted him among the reactionary forces.

In the elections on June 16, 1920 for the second Braunschweig Landtag, the USPD and BLWV won , MSPD and DDP suffered heavy losses. On June 22nd, the new government under Prime Minister Sepp Oerter was elected. One result of the Kapp Putsch in Braunschweig was the considerable strengthening of radical elements on both sides.

This was followed by the governments of Oerter ( USPD ), Junke (USPD), Antrick , the second Jasper government , the Marquordt cabinet (independent), the third Jasper government and the Küchenthal cabinet until the last session of the Brunswick state parliament on June 13, 1933 ( DNVP ) and finally the NSDAP- led government of Klagges , which ensured that the state parliament no longer met due to a quorum .

Economically, these 13 years in Braunschweig were characterized by labor disputes due to the waves of price increases triggered by hyperinflation , unemployment and poverty. As a result, serious unrest broke out in the city in November 1922. With the entry into force of the new city regulations of the Free State of Braunschweig on November 15, 1924, the city of Braunschweig left the Braunschweig district on April 1, 1925 and became an independent city (see Braunschweig district ). Politically, the NSDAP gained more and more influence and popularity after the first local groups were founded in Wolfenbüttel and on February 15, 1923 in Braunschweig. The party was represented for the first time in the state parliament in Brunswick from January 1924 when Sepp Oerter joined. On November 4, 1925, Adolf Hitler came to Braunschweig for the first time to give a keynote address.

After National Socialists had already been represented as ministers in the Küchenthal government from October 1, 1930, the first de facto professional bans for SPD members came from November. Shortly after anti-democratic nationalists united to form the Harzburg Front on October 11, 1931 in Bad Harzburg, about 40 km away , on October 18, 1931, in the presence of Hitler, a march of allegedly 100,000 SA men took place in front of the Braunschweig Palace, which he removed. In the vicinity of this Nazi demonstration of power there were street fights with dead and injured.

Naturalization of Adolf Hitler

Braunschweig State Civil Service Act

→ Main article : Naturalization of Adolf Hitler

The city of Braunschweig is falsely held responsible for the fact that the former Austrian citizen and since 1925 stateless Adolf Hitler through his employment as a government councilor at the Braunschweig Regional Culture and Surveying Office (dated February 25, 1932) - with compulsory service as a clerk at the Braunschweig embassy in Berlin - received German citizenship .

However, it was not the city ​​of Braunschweig that was responsible for this naturalization , but the state , the Free State of Braunschweig . In contrast to the Free State, which was mostly in favor of the NSDAP, the situation in the city of Braunschweig was completely different. Since the city was strongly characterized by industry at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the population spectrum was also strongly proletarian . Braunschweig had been mostly “red” for decades, which is why the NSDAP did not play a decisive role in the city of Braunschweig itself - in contrast to the Free State of Braunschweig - until March 1933. Hitler's guest appearance in Braunschweig was short. Even before 1932 he was only rarely and briefly in the city, for the last time on July 17, 1935, when he visited the uncovered grave of Henry the Lion in Brunswick Cathedral and the Lehndorf housing estate.

Braunschweig under National Socialism

initial situation

In contrast to other countries or states of the Weimar Republic , the National Socialists in the Free State of Braunschweig were involved in political power very early, namely as early as 1930, and above all permanently until the " seizure of power " and thus had the unique opportunity to hold important offices in administration and To gradually occupy politics in the Free State with Nazi personnel loyal to the line and thus to influence and ultimately control political decisions and political developments not only in Braunschweig, but throughout Germany in the interests of the NSDAP (see also Hitler's naturalization ).

The NSDAP in power

" Terror in Braunschweig " by Hans Reinowski from 1933

After the failure of the previous SPD government, a coalition government made up of a civil unity list (BEL) and NSDAP was formed in the Braunschweig Landtag in September 1930 , chaired by Werner Küchenthal (BEL), who led the coalition together with Anton Franzen (NSDAP), who was considered to be “moderate” . Franzen, Minister of the Interior and Culture since October 1, 1930, had to resign a few months later because of preferential treatment. His successor in office was the ambitious Dietrich Klagges (NSDAP). Klagges succeeded within a short time in removing or displacing democrats and moderates from the Brunswick judiciary, administration and politics and vacancies with NSDAP hardliners such as Friedrich Alpers (Justice and Finance Minister) and Friedrich Jeckeln ( SS police and Gestapo leader ) to occupy.

Resistance to National Socialism

Resistance against the Nazi regime began shortly after January 30, 1933. August Merges , President of the “Socialist Republic of Braunschweig”, which arose in the course of the November Revolution in Braunschweig , and Minna Faßhauer , the first female minister in Germany, gathered people to carry out actions against the National Socialist rule. Hermann Schade founded the Communist Councils Union , which also included members of the SPD , the KPD and previously unorganized young people.

In 1934/35, however, there was a first wave of arrests; Members of the various groups were imprisoned, tortured and some died as a result (e.g. August Merges, Heinrich Jasper and Matthias Theisen ). Some survived, like Minna Faßhauer in custody in Moringen concentration camp .

Repression and persecution

→ Main articles : Rieseberg murders  and Stahlhelm putsch

The trio Klagges, Alpers and Jeckeln were mainly responsible and notorious for their extremely brutal actions against political opponents, Jews , Jehovah's Witnesses and others - even in Berlin NSDAP circles, people spoke of "New Mexico" with regard to the conditions in Braunschweig. The position of power of the SS in Braunschweig at this time was stronger and stronger than in the rest of the Reich. An important part of the Nazi repression apparatus was u. a. also the Secret State Police ( Gestapo ) with the department heads: Friedrich Jeckeln, Eduard Holste , Horst Freytag and Günther Kuhl .

In this context, the incident of March 27, 1933, which the Nazi regime called the so-called “ Stahlhelm Putsch ”, deserves special attention , when approx. 1400 former members of the black-red-gold Reich banner of SS , SA and regulars, which the Nazi regime banned Police were brutally prevented from converting to the Braunschweiger Landesverband des Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten . Many were severely mistreated for up to 30 hours, with the proceedings being organized and covered by NSDAP Interior Minister Klagges. The second event was the Rieseberg murders of July 4, 1933, for which Jeckeln and Alpers were primarily responsible and which Klagges had approved. Some political opponents were persecuted to the death, others were subjected to show trials and imprisonment in a concentration camp, such as Ernst Böhme or Otto Grotewohl .

Persecution of the Jews

The New Synagogue of 1873, during the November pogroms in 1938 destroyed

In 1933, according to a report by the Gestapo, 1,100 Jews lived in Braunschweig. Other sources, which, according to the historian Bein, were not so valid, had assumed lower figures up to that point. The disenfranchisement, repression and persecution of Braunschweig Jews began earlier than in the rest of Germany due to the targeted influence and control by the NSDAP. Here, too, Klagges, who had been Prime Minister of the Free State since May 6, 1933, Alpers and Jeckeln, or the apparatus of repression they built from the “auxiliary police”, SA and SS, played a key role. On March 11, 1933, Alpers organized the first anti-Semitic riots in the city, which the Nazi propaganda referred to as the “ department store storm ”.

Jeckeln turn in Braunschweig, the organizer of the nation's launched by the Nazis called "was Kristallnacht " (s. U. Fell from 9 to 10 November 1938, the number of Jews victim and damaged in Jewish property or destroyed Jewish community ). A little later, the Braunschweig Ministry of the Interior reported that 500 of the 1,500 Jews living in the Free State were still resident there, and of those living in the city, 226 remained. As a result, many Braunschweig Jews emigrated on special transports. The last one left Braunschweig on May 14, 1941. This was followed exclusively by deportations to various concentration and extermination camps in the east. Overall, there were from Braunschweig twelve such shipments, the first took place on 21 January 1942 in the direction of Riga instead, the last on February 25, 1945. With him it was Jews from so-called " privileged mixed marriages " in the Terezin concentration camp brought were. There is evidence that 196 Braunschweig Jews were murdered. The number of unreported cases is likely to be considerably higher.

Klagges' Braunschweig plans

Former " Bernhard Rust University " (inner courtyard), today the House of Science, on the right the Natural History Museum (back)

As a result of the so-called conformity of the states and the continuous increase in power of the NSDAP districts at the expense of the state governments (as state institutions), Braunschweig lost its importance as the state capital, without - like most other German state capitals - being able to compensate for this loss as the seat of a district administration. Instead, the city of Hanover, traditionally competing with Braunschweig, benefited from this shift in power as the "Gau capital" of the Gau South Hanover-Braunschweig . NSDAP Prime Minister Klagges therefore pursued the goal from the beginning of building Braunschweig and the Free State into a National Socialist model country in order to keep it as independent as possible from the Berlin Nazi dirigism and to consolidate his own position. He strictly refused to integrate the Free State into Prussia. Hitler himself had assured Klagges that Braunschweig would be preserved as a cultural center and would not become part of a "Reichsgau Hanover". In order to develop his own power, Klagges tried to create a new Gau - the "Gau Ostfalen" with Braunschweig as the Gau capital and himself as Gau Leader. He found support for this in the Braunschweig educated bourgeoisie, in the middle class, at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and at the Protestant Church of Braunschweig.

With this goal in mind, Klagges did a number of things to strengthen Braunschweig's political and economic position. The first sign of this was brisk construction activity in the city and the surrounding area. “National Socialist model settlements” emerged, the most important of which were Lehndorf, the Mascherode (“Südstadt”) and Dietrich-Klagges-Stadt , today's “Garden City”, as well as the Schuntersiedlung and the Wabetalsiedlung.

Former academy for youth leadership , today Braunschweig-Kolleg

Furthermore, Klagges brought important National Socialist institutions to the city, such as B. the Academy for Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth (HJ), the German Research Institute for Aviation , the Driving School for German Crafts , the Area Leadership School of the Hitler Youth "Peter Frieß" , the Air Fleet Command 2 , the Reichsjägerhof "Hermann Göring" built for Hermann Göring , the SS Junker School , which used the former Brunswick Palace, the "Bernhard Rust University" and the troop leader school of the Reich Labor Service .

Economically, Braunschweig was built up and expanded into an armaments center of the “ Third Reich ”. The most important companies were: Büssing - NAG (trucks), Rollei and Voigtländer (optical precision instruments), the Wilke-Werke (steel construction), Karges & Hammer (gun barrels), the Luther-Werke (combat aircraft), MIAG (tanks), the Lower Saxony Motorenwerke ( aircraft engines ), Schmalbach-Lubeca , the Schuberth-Werke (steel helmets) and the Volkswagen Vorwerk . In addition, Braunschweig was connected to the new Reichsautobahn No. 6 (today's A2 ) from Berlin via Magdeburg to Hanover, which runs past the northern outskirts of the city .

Other important industrial centers developed in the immediate vicinity, such as the Reichswerke Hermann Göring (on whose supervisory board Klagges was from 1937) and the Volkswagen factory near Fallersleben .

War years

Destruction of the old Braunschweig

Before the war, the city center consisted of around 2,800 houses that had been built over the course of centuries and thus in different style periods. Edeltraut Hundertmark made the following list in 1941:

Braunschweig 1899 and 1944

Architectural style	Percentage ownership %
Gothic	6.7
Early renaissance	4.2
insecure types	11.1
Renaissance	8.7
Baroque	24.9
Rococo	11.5
classicism	10.7
Post-classicism	2.5
Founding and pre-war period	19.2
Present [= 1941]	0.5

During the Second World War , Braunschweig's city ​​center, which is characterized by half - timbered houses , was severely damaged by numerous air raids (degree of destruction over 90%) and the appearance of the city has been permanently changed up to the present day. Whole residential areas and streets were partially so badly destroyed that of the 800 half-timbered houses in the city before the war, only about 80 are preserved today. Examples of the destruction of the war are the streets Bäckerklint or the Nickelnkulk , which completely disappeared from the cityscape due to complete destruction.

More than 40 heavy and very serious attacks by British ( RAF ) and American ( USAAF ) bomber groups initially focused primarily on armaments factories (aircraft, tanks, optical precision instruments) and other facilities essential to the war effort. From 1943 these attacks became more and more violent and soon affected the entire city area (see “ Big Week ” in spring 1944).

Bomb raid on October 15, 1944

Burning downtown Braunschweig in the early morning hours of October 15, 1944

→ Main article : Bomb attack on Braunschweig on October 15, 1944  and bunker in Braunschweig

In the most devastating attack on Braunschweig, on the night of October 14th to Sunday, October 15th, 1944, almost the entire city center (around 150 hectares or 90% of the historic city area was destroyed) and almost all the churches were badly damaged. Hundreds of half-timbered houses went down in the 2½ days raging firestorm , as the British Bomber Command used a mixture of 200,000 phosphorus , incendiary and explosive bombs for this area bombing in order to cause the largest possible damage from hard-to-fight fires. Due to an irony of fate, the Brunswick Cathedral , which the bombers used as a target point and which the Nazis had converted into a national sanctuary , was spared from destruction. In October 1944 the city still had about 150,000 inhabitants. According to the latest estimates, around 1,000 people died in the city as a result of this attack. About 23,000 people who had saved themselves from the bombing in bunkers in the city center were trapped there because of the firestorm that developed from the fires and were rescued by the initiative of the lieutenant of the Braunschweig fire protection police , Rudolf Prescher , by creating "waterways". According to recent estimates, a total of around 3500 people fell victim to the air war in Braunschweig, more than 40% of whom were foreigners.

End of the war for Braunschweig

In the final phase of the Second World War, Braunschweig was badly destroyed, 90% of the city center and around 42% of the city as a whole had been turned to rubble by the more than 40 bombing raids by the RAF and USAAF. The infrastructure , rail and road network, supply lines and gas and water were also badly affected, the city was overcrowded with displaced persons , refugees and dispersed soldiers of all branches, the desolate housing and supply situation did the rest.

US General Leland S. Hobbs (left) and Lieutenant General Karl Veith (right), Braunschweig’s last combat commandant ; probably when Veith was captured on April 13, 1945.

1st page of the handover protocol from April 12, 1945

On their advance to Berlin, units of the 30th US Infantry Division under Major General Leland S. Hobbs reached the first villages and suburbs of Braunschweig around April 8, 1945. In the city itself, the National Socialists under Prime Minister Dietrich Klagges and NSDAP district leader Berthold Heilig tried to organize "resistance down to the last cartridge", but this failed because of the resistance of the war-weary population. On April 10, 1945, the Braunschweig combat commandant Lieutenant General Karl Veith negotiated with the Americans about the surrender of the city, but refused to formally surrender . As a result, Braunschweig continued to be bombarded with artillery and low-level planes attacked the city until the evening hours of April 11th. On the same day, the then incumbent NSDAP Lord Mayor Hans-Joachim Mertens committed suicide . Klagges then appointed Erich Bockler as Mertens' successor. Kreisleiter Heilig and other Nazi giants flee from the approaching US troops in the evening and night.

The minutes of the handover negotiations in the city of Braunschweig were signed on Thursday, April 12, 1945 at 2:59 a.m. This ended the war for the city. Then the American troops occupied the city without a fight. NSDAP Prime Minister Klagges was arrested on April 13, 1945, and the Allied military government moved into Veltheim's house on Burgplatz . On June 5, command passed to the British forces. Braunschweig had thus become part of the British zone of occupation .

post war period

reconstruction

Play media file

A US plane flies over the destroyed Braunschweig in June 1945. (For the exact flight routes, see notes.)

Johannes Göderitz : Braunschweig. Destruction and construction. In: Municipal Political Writings of the City of Braunschweig. Issue 4, May 1949.

The Brunswick Palace was demolished in 1960

The old scales

On June 17, 1946, the demolition of the city officially began. The amount of debris was estimated at 3,670,500 m³. This made Braunschweig one of the worst-damaged cities in Germany. The rubble plan from 1948 shows the city center in a largely devastated condition, accessible only through numerous small tracks of various rubble railways , with the help of which the rubble was removed.

The evacuation took 17 years - it was not until 1963 that the city officially declared the cleanup work over. In fact, however, they continued for years afterwards. Undeveloped land, known as "rubble areas" or "rubble plots", still characterize the cityscape in some places to this day. In the 1990s, work began to close the last, clearly visible gaps with new buildings. However, some vacant wastelands or ruins still exist in the inner city area.

The reconstruction of Braunschweig proceeded quickly in the 1950s and 1960s, because there was an urgent need for living space to accommodate refugees and displaced persons , and the damaged infrastructure had to be restored. Since the city center was largely a desert of rubble, new urban planners , town planners and architects , v. a. the so-called " Braunschweiger Schule " under Friedrich Wilhelm Kraemer , their chance and designed the new, modern and, above all, " car-friendly city " until the late 1970s . This in turn led to further destruction in many places through newly laid, partly oversized street aisles or the demolition of historically grown urban landscapes and thus continues to the present day. In some cases, the earlier town plan was deliberately ignored, damaged buildings were often torn down too quickly instead of being repaired, and traffic and cars were elevated to the standard of the “new Braunschweig”. This gave the impression of a second destruction of Braunschweig, especially in the city center.

The subsequent destruction of historical buildings and cultural assets, such as B. the demolition of numerous medieval , baroque and classicist buildings as well as the relocation of the Braunschweig main station from the southern city center to the former Friedrichplatz (which is now a small part of the Berliner Platz) in 1960 and the associated upgrading of the former station “Braunschweig- East ”to the new main station, the urban structure was also changed to a considerable extent. The associated construction work destroyed large areas in the south-eastern part of the city that had been very little affected by the war. So was z. B. Viewegs Garten , a park from the 19th century, has been reduced in size and a whole mountain, the "Windmühlenberg", has been removed and the course of the street at Augusttorwall (today Kennedy-Platz) has been completely changed. The closed structure between Adolfstrasse and Ottmerstrasse / Campestrasse was also destroyed by the new construction of the oversized Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse.

The demolition of the heavily damaged Brunswick Palace in 1960 against the will of many citizens led to numerous demonstrations and very controversial discussions. In the mid-1950s, the newly founded state of Lower Saxony had given the city of Braunschweig the choice of either completely rebuilding the castle or tearing it down. The political decision was made for the demolition. Similar to the Berlin City Palace and other prominent buildings in other cities, the demolition of this city landmark was perceived by large parts of the population as a further loss of identity.

The palace park was expanded to 3.5 hectares around the fallow land that had been created , and in mid-2005 the entire park was cleared except for a few trees. In that year, after long and equally controversial discussions, as in 1960, the city decided to partially reconstruct the palace facade using preserved structural and decorative elements and to integrate the whole thing into a large shopping and cultural center. This construction work was completed in spring 2007.

Another example of the reconstruction of historical buildings that were initially lost is the Alte Waage , which was completely destroyed by the bombing of the Second World War , which was reconstructed from 1991 to 1994 at its original location using old craft techniques.

Reorganization of the state of Braunschweig

After the state of Braunschweig was absorbed into the newly created federal state of Lower Saxony in 1946 , the " administrative district of Braunschweig ", comparable to an administrative district, was created, to which, among other things, the independent city and the district of Braunschweig belonged.

As part of the district reform in Lower Saxony, the Braunschweig district was dissolved on February 28, 1974 and its area was divided among the surrounding districts . The city itself remained independent. On August 1, 1977, the new administrative district of Braunschweig emerged with a new layout. The administrative districts of Lower Saxony were dissolved on January 1, 2005.

Trade, economy, science

→ Main article : Economic history of the city of Braunschweig

In the course of its history, Braunschweig went through numerous, sometimes dramatic, changes. From a medieval craftsman and merchant town to a ducal residence and garrison town in the 17th and 18th centuries, more recently to an industrial and armaments location , a town on the edge of the zone to today's research and science town (“City of Science 2007 ") .

East facade of the Gewandhaus

Earlier echoes of the former wealth can still be found today in the architecture of the city, for example in the Gewandhaus or in the old town hall , but also in numerous others, e.g. Some of the buildings rebuilt after the destruction of the city in World War II. As builders and architects, u. a. Hermann Korb , Carl Theodor Ottmer and Peter Joseph Krahe .

Handicrafts and handicraft businesses such as For example, the Beck family of copper engravers , who were represented for 81 years by Johann Georg Beck , followed by his son Anton August , or the Stobwasser family, whose manufacture of lacquer painting and luxury goods enjoyed a European reputation and were based here for 100 years. The Rautmann family of violin makers has been based in Braunschweig since 1844 and is now the oldest violin making workshop in Germany. Other instrument makers are Grotrian-Steinweg and Schimmel .

Braunschweig was also known as a financial center, with the Löbbecke bank existing since 1763; Only two years later, Duke Karl I founded the “Ducal Leyhaus” in 1765 , from which the Braunschweigische Staatsbank emerged .

The gradual industrialization around the middle of the 19th century is closely connected with the construction of the first German railway line, the Duke Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn , in 1838, the first connection of which led from Braunschweig train station to nearby Wolfenbüttel. In 1841 the Duchy of Braunschweig joined the German Customs Union , and in 1864 freedom of trade was introduced.

Roggenmühle Lehndorf from 1912 (photo from 2006)

As a result, numerous industrial companies settled in and around Braunschweig, which in turn caused an increased influx of workers. In 1890 the population exceeded the 100,000 mark. New companies emerged, such as B. in mechanical engineering , but also in the canning industry ( Schmalbach-Lubeca ) and switch and signaling technology. Today Siemens operates the Siemens plant in Braunschweig, the world's largest plant for railway signaling technology. Companies like Büssing (trucks and buses) or MIAG (industrial grain mills ) followed.

The economic growth led to the establishment or the influx of companies, some of which still exist today, such as the publishing houses Vieweg and Westermann or the camera manufacturers Voigtländer and Rollei . The first Volkswagen factory was built in Braunschweig in 1938 .

In addition to the severe destruction of the Second World War, the division of Germany was another severe blow to the city and region of Braunschweig , as the now peripheral location meant that the region was one of the structurally weak areas as a result of the division and benefited from the development of the peripheral zone from 1965 . This economically difficult period came to an end in 1989 with reunification . Since then, Braunschweig has been back in the center and no longer on the edge of Germany.

Braunschweig seen from the west

The research and science location today enjoys a worldwide reputation and has its origins u. a. to the "Collegium Carolinum" founded in 1745, from which the Technical University of Braunschweig emerged, and to scientists born in the city such as Carl Friedrich Gauß or Richard Dedekind . The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft awarded Braunschweig the title “City of Science 2007” for 2007. According to a report by Eurostat , the Statistical Office of the European Communities, from 2006, the Braunschweig region has by far the highest intensity in the field of research and development in the entire European Economic Area ; 7.1% of the gross domestic product was spent on this in the reporting period . In addition, Braunschweig, together with Stuttgart, is the region in the European Union in which the most employees work in high-tech and high-tech sectors, namely 22% each.

Web links

• History of the city of Braunschweig
• Georg Braun : Illustration of the city in 1572 in Civitates orbis terrarum
• Historical maps on the urban development of Braunschweig , on the website of the city of Braunschweig (PDF; 1.5 MB), accessed on November 4, 2012
• Institute for Comparative Urban History : Interactive Cartography - Braunschweig

Literature (selection)

→ Further references can be found in the Braunschweig literature list

• Elmar Arnhold: Medieval metropolis Braunschweig. Architecture and urban architecture from the 11th to 15th centuries. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2018, ISBN 978-3-944939-36-0 .
• Reinhard Bein : Time signals. City and State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. 2nd edition, Döring, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3- 925268-21-9.
• Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 .
• Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (Ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Supplementary volume. Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1996, ISBN 3-926701-30-7 .
• Eckart Grote: Braunschweig in the air war. Allied film, photo and operational reports from the US Air Force / British Royal Air Force from 1944/1945 as documents relating to the history of the city. Braunschweig 1983. * Institute for Comparative Urban History (Ed.): German Historical City Atlas. Volume 4: Braunschweig. Ardey-Verlag, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-87023-276-4 .
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 .
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 .
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Gerhard Schildt (ed.): The Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia . 2nd Edition. Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2001, ISBN 3-930292-28-9 .
• Jörg Leuschner , Karl Heinrich Kaufhold , Claudia Märtl (eds.): The economic and social history of the Braunschweig country from the Middle Ages to the present. Volume 1: Middle Ages. Volume 2: Early Modern Era. Volume 3: Modern Times. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-487-13599-1 .
• Jochen Luckhardt and Franz Niehoff (eds.): Heinrich the lion and his time. Rule and representation of the Guelphs 1125–1235. 3 volumes, Munich 1995.
• Cord Meckseper (Ed.): City in Transition. Art and culture of the bourgeoisie in Northern Germany 1150–1650. 4 volumes, Stuttgart 1985.
• Wolfgang Meibeyer and Hartmut Nickel (eds.): Brunswiek - Name and Beginnings of the City of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweiger workpieces. Volume 110, Hanover 2007.
• Richard Moderhack : Brunswick town history. Braunschweig 1997.
• Ernst-August Roloff : Braunschweig and the state of Weimar. Orphanage printing and publishing house, Braunschweig 1964.
• Ernst-August Roloff: Bourgeoisie and National Socialism 1930–1933. Braunschweig's way into the Third Reich. Hanover 1961.
• Gerd Spies (Ed.): Braunschweig - The image of the city in 900 years. History and views. 2 volumes, Braunschweig 1985.
• Gerd Spies (Ed.): Brunswiek 1031 - Braunschweig 1981. The city of Henry the Lion from its beginnings to the present. 2 volumes, Braunschweig 1982.
• Werner Spieß : History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages . From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. 2 volumes, Braunschweig 1966, OCLC 7495150 .
• Städtisches Museum Braunschweig (Hrsg.): The exhibition "History of the City of Braunschweig" in the old town hall . 4 parts, Braunschweig 1994.
• Henning Steinführer , Claudia Böhler (Ed.): The Braunschweiger Mayors. From the establishment of the office in the late Middle Ages to the 20th century. oeding print GmbH, Braunschweig 2013, ISBN 978-3-941737-68-6 .
• Bernhild Vögel: “Maternity home for Eastern workers”. Braunschweig, Broitzemer Straße 200. Small historical library, Volume 3, ed. from the Hamburg Foundation for Social History of the 20th Century, Hamburg, 1989. (Available online here. A contribution on the subject of forced labor in Braunschweig 1938–1945.)
• How Hitler became German , Braunschweiger Zeitung Spezial No. 1, 2007.
• Heinz Wolff: The history of the bastionary fortification of Braunschweig. Dissertation, Braunschweig 1935.

See also

History of the garrison town of Braunschweig

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wenden - a historical settlement with almost small-town qualities 975 years anniversary in 2006 , on mundlos.de (PDF; 32 kB)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Kimpflinger: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony. Volume 1.1 .: City of Braunschweig. Part 1, p. 94.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r} Wilhelm Bornstedt : On the document from 1031: The reasons for the entry of the 11th parish villages of St. Magni and their location in today's townscape. A settlement geography; in: Church council to Magni: St. Magni 1031–1981. Braunschweig 1981.
4. ↑ first mentioned in 1031; Certificate St. Magni = MU
5. ^ Ernst Gäbler: The Riddagshausen Office in Braunschweig. 1928.
6. ^ Otto Hahne : Old individual farms in the urban area of ​​Braunschweig. in: Fritz Timme (Ed.): Research on Braunschweigische history and linguistics. Braunschweig 1954.
7. ^ Hahne: individual farms in Braunschweig.
8. ↑ List of goods of the Cyriakus Monastery = KC
9. ↑ First mentioned 1007 Steterburger Annalen = StA
10. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 50
11. ↑ Herbert Blume , Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. (= Lower Saxony Place Name Book. Part 9; Publications by the Institute for Historical Research at the University of Göttingen. Volume 61). Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2018, ISBN 978-3-7395-1161-0 , p. 40.
12. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 33.
13. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 34.
14. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 37.
15. ^ Wolfgang Meibeyer : Settlement Geographical Contributions to Suburban and Early Urban Development of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweigisches Jahrbuch 1986. Volume 67, self-published by the Braunschweigisches Geschichtsverein, Braunschweig 1967, pp. 7–40.
16. ^ Wolfgang Meibeyer: Beginnings and name of the city under settlement geographic aspects. In: Wolfgang Meibeyer, Hartmut Nickel: Brunswiek - the name and beginnings of the city of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweiger workpieces. Volume 51/110. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hanover 2007, ISBN 978-3-7752-8801-9 , pp. 87-104.
17. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 35.
18. ^ Leopold Schütte: Braunschweig and the (-) wik settlements in Europe. In: Wolfgang Meibeyer, Hartmut Nickel: Brunswiek - the name and beginnings of the city of Braunschweig. Pp. 43-57.
19. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. (= Lower Saxony Place Name Book. Part 9; Publications by the Institute for Historical Research at the University of Göttingen. Volume 61). Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2018, ISBN 978-3-7395-1161-0 .
20. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 38.
21. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 40.
22. ^ Karl Steinacker : Historical cityscapes 4 - The city of Braunschweig. DVA, Stuttgart and Berlin 1924, p. 15.
23. ↑ Herbert Blume, Kristin Casemir, Uwe Ohainski: The place names of the city of Braunschweig. P. 41.
24. ↑ Gerd Spies (Ed.): Braunschweig - The image of the city in 900 years. History and views. Volume 2: Braunschweig's cityscape. Braunschweig 1985, p. 17
25. ^ Friedrich von Schrötter, N. Bauer, K. Regling, A. Suhle, R. Vasmer , J. Wilcke: Dictionary der Münzkunde , Berlin 1970 (reprint of the original edition from 1930), p. 440.
26. ↑ For example, on the siege of 1615: Gesche Meiburg
27. ↑ Negotiated and concluded for the Hanseatic cities by the second Hanseatic syndic, Johann Domann
28. ↑ Ludwig Hänselmann : Bugenhagen's church regulations for the city of Braunschweig based on the Low German print from 1528 with a historical introduction, the readings of the High German versions and a glossary. Verlag Zwißler, Wolfenbüttel 1885 ( digitized version ( memento from March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
29. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Braunschweig 1966, Volume 1, p. 48
30. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Braunschweig 1966, Volume 1, p. 52
31. ↑ Werner Spieß: History of the city of Braunschweig in the post-Middle Ages. From the end of the Middle Ages to the end of urban freedom 1491–1671. Braunschweig 1966, Volume 1, p. 59
32. ^ Stendhal: Diary from Braunschweig. In: Confessions of an I-Man . Propylaea, Berlin 1923.
33. ↑ Stendhal: Impressions from Northern Germany. In: Confessions of an I-Man. Propylaea, Berlin 1923.
34. ↑ Hans Mattauch (Ed.): Stendhal: Testimonials from and about Braunschweig (1806-1808). Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 1999, ISBN 978-3-89534-283-7 .
35. ↑ cf. New landscape regulations for the Duchy of Braunschweig from 1832 (status 1922) ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
36. ↑ see: “Law, the organization and the sphere of activity of the district directorates and the state directorates to be formed by them”, 1832
37. ↑ cf. Norman-Mathias Pingel: City expansion and municipal authorities in Braunschweig 1851-1914. Hanover 1998
38. ↑ Stefan Brüdermann (Ed.): History of Lower Saxony , Volume 4, From the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the First World War , Wallstein, Göttingen 2016, p. 256, ISBN 978-3-8353-1585-3
39. ^ Ernst-August Roloff : Braunschweig and the state of Weimar. Politics, economy and society 1918–1933. (= Braunschweiger Werkstücke. Publications from the archive, library and museum of the city. Volume 31) Waisenhaus-Druckerei, Braunschweig 1964, p. 68.
40. ↑ Markus Stachow: The events during the Kapp Putsch in Braunschweig. Braunschweig 1930.
41. ^ ^{A b} Ernst-August Roloff: Braunschweig and the state of Weimar. Politics, economy and society 1918–1933. P. 69.
42. ↑ ^{a b c} Bernd Rother : The Social Democracy in Braunschweig 1918–1933. Dietz, Bonn 1990, ISBN 978-3-8012-4016-5 , p. 105.
43. ^ ^{A b} Bernd Rother: The Social Democracy in the Land of Braunschweig 1918–1933. P. 106.
44. ^ Ernst-August Roloff: Braunschweig and the state of Weimar. Politics, economy and society 1918–1933. P. 70.
45. ^ Ernst-August Roloff: Braunschweig and the state of Weimar. Politics, economy and society 1918–1933. P. 71.
46. ^ Election results from June 16, 1920 for the second state parliament in Brunswick on gonschior.de.
47. ^ Richard Moderhack : Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte at a glance (= Braunschweigischer Geschichtsverein [Hrsg.]: Sources and researches on Braunschweigische Geschichte. Volume 23). Orphanage printing house, 3rd edition Braunschweig 1979, p. 99.
48. ^ City Chronicle, History of the City of Braunschweig, 1924, November 15, 1924
49. ↑ How brown was Braunschweig? Hitler and the Free State of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung , 2003, p. 11
50. ↑ How brown was Braunschweig? Hitler and the Free State of Braunschweig. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung , 2003, pp. 21–23
51. ↑ Andreas Berger: How brown was Braunschweig? "In: Ernst-August Roloff: How brown was Braunschweig? Hitler and the Free State of Braunschweig." Braunschweiger Zeitung Spezial, No. 3 (2003), 2nd edition, Braunschweig 2003, p. 7.
52. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1001
53. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, pp. 982-985
54. ^ Gerhard Wysocki: The Secret State Police in the state of Braunschweig. Police law and police practice under National Socialism. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / New York, 1997, ISBN 3-593-35835-2 .
55. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Zeitzeichen. City and State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. 1st edition, Döring, Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3-925268-21-9 , p. 207.
56. ^ ^{A b c d} Bert Bilzer and Richard Moderhack: Brunsvicensia Judaica - memorial book for the Jewish fellow citizens of the city of Braunschweig 1933–1945. In: Braunschweiger workpieces. Volume 35, Braunschweig 1966, pp. 148-152
57. ^ ^{A b} Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, pp. 1004-1007
58. ^ Helmut Weihsmann : Building under the swastika. Architecture of doom. Promedia Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85371-113-8 , pp. 305-324.
59. ^ Edeltraut Hundertmark: Urban geography of Braunschweig. In: Research on regional and folklore. In: Nature and Economy. Writings of the economic society for the study of Lower Saxony e. V. New Series, Volume 9, Oldenburg 1941, p. 86
60. ↑ The Bomb Night. The air war 60 years ago , Braunschweiger Zeitung , 2004, p. 8
61. ↑ Rudolf Prescher: The red rooster over Braunschweig. Air protection measures and aerial warfare events in the city of Braunschweig 1927 to 1945. Braunschweig 1955, p. 92
62. ↑ The Bomb Night. The air war 60 years ago. Braunschweiger Zeitung , 2004, p. 43
63. ↑ The Bomb Night. The air war 60 years ago , Braunschweiger Zeitung , 2004, p. 34
64. ↑ Rudolf Prescher: The red rooster over Braunschweig. Air protection measures and aerial warfare events in the city of Braunschweig 1927 to 1945. Braunschweig 1955, p. 112 ff.
65. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt (Ed.): Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte. A region looking back over the millennia. Braunschweig 2000, p. 1121
66. ↑ City portrait of Braunschweig: the time of National Socialism ( Memento of the original of February 27, 2009 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 braunschweig.de 
67. ^ Wolfgang Eilers, Dietmar Falk: Narrow-gauge steam in Braunschweig. The history of the rubble railway. In: Small series of publications by the Braunschweiger Verkehrsfreunde e. V. Heft 3, Braunschweig 1985, p. 66
68. ↑ Rudolf Prescher: The red rooster over Braunschweig. Air raid protection measures and air war events in the city of Braunschweig 1927 to 1945. Braunschweig 1955, p. 112
69. ↑ City of Braunschweig: Economy and Science ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2007 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 braunschweig.de 
70. ↑ Eurostat report: Statistics in focus , Science and Technology 06/2006, p. 5 ( Memento of the original of November 21, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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; 633 kB) 
71. ↑ Eurostat yearbook 2009 ( Memento of the original of 23 January 2012 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; 38.3 MB): … Stuttgart (DE) and Braunschweig (DE) are the only regions in which more than one in five is employed in these subsectors [cutting-edge and high-tech]; in both regions the share is 22%. In fact, the seven leading regions are all in Germany (in addition to Stuttgart and Braunschweig, these are Karlsruhe, Tübingen, Rheinhessen-Pfalz, Lower Franconia and Freiburg). , Yearbook of the Regions 2009, p. 116 

Remarks

1. ↑ the first flight route from north to south : Andreas cemetery , Hamburger Straße , Gaußbrücke , Bammelsburg , Löbbeckes Island , Island Wall , Rehn romp bunker , Nickelnkulk , Kaiserstraße , wool market , St. Andrew's Church , Liberei , Kröppelstraße , Old scales , Long Street , New Town Hall , Packhof , Meinhardshof , brethren , Kannengießer road , Schuhstraße , coal market , home to the sun , home to Rose , house of the Golden star , goat market , banking center , Oberpostdirektion , Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz
   second flight route from east to south : water tower on the Giersberg , Park street , Museum park , Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum , Magniviertel , Magnikirche , Municipal Museum , Gaußschule , Bunker Ritterstraße , Ackerhof , Ölschlägern , Klint , Kuhstraße , Auguststraße , Aegidienmarkt , Aegidienkirche , Aegidienkloster , Garrison School , Lessingplatz

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 14, 2007 .