Baltimore

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Baltimore
Nicknames : Charm City, Mob Town, Crabtown, B-more, The City of Firsts, Monument City, B-Town, Ravenstown
Downtown Baltimore
Downtown Baltimore
Seal of Baltimore
seal
Baltimore flag
flag
Location in Maryland
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore
Baltimore
Basic data
Foundation : 1729
State : United States
State : Maryland
County : Baltimore City
Coordinates : 39 ° 17 ′  N , 76 ° 37 ′  W Coordinates: 39 ° 17 ′  N , 76 ° 37 ′  W
Time zone : Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Inhabitants :
Metropolitan Area :
614,664 (as of 2016)
2,798,886 (as of 2016)
Population density : 2,936.8 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 238.5 km 2  (approx. 92 mi 2 ) of
which 209.3 km 2  (approx. 81 mi 2 ) are land
Height : 10 m
Postcodes : 21201-21298
Area code : +1 410, 443
FIPS : 24-04000
GNIS ID : 0597040
Website : www.baltimorecity.gov
Mayor : Jack Young ( D )
Baltimore districts map.png
The nine districts ( regions )

Baltimore [ bɔːltɪmɔːɹ ] ( USA ) is the largest city in the US state of Maryland and the independent city ( county-level city ) since 1851 no longer part of the adjacent Baltimore County . Baltimore has approximately 615,000 inhabitants (2016 estimate, US Census Bureau ) and is one of the most important seaports in the United States. It is the center of the Baltimore metropolitan area .

Baltimore is home to the home and grave of the writer Edgar Allan Poe and that of the writer and satirist Henry L. Mencken , who was also born there. Baltimore continues to be the birthplace of famous baseball player Babe Ruth , writer Tom Clancy, musician Frank Zappa and swimmer Michael Phelps , who is considered the most successful Olympian of all time. Baltimore was also the inspiration for the American national anthem . There are many historical buildings and nationally known monuments in the city. In addition to two major universities, Baltimore has numerous other educational institutions and museums.

geography

Neighbor Counties

  • The Baltimore County surrounds the city almost completely.
  • The Anne Arundel County has in the south only a short common border with the city.

climate

Baltimore, Maryland
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
78
 
5
-5
 
 
79
 
7th
-3
 
 
86
 
12
1
 
 
79
 
18th
6th
 
 
95
 
23
11
 
 
93
 
28
17th
 
 
94
 
31
19th
 
 
100
 
30th
19th
 
 
87
 
26th
15th
 
 
76
 
20th
8th
 
 
84
 
14th
3
 
 
87
 
7th
-2
Temperature in ° Cprecipitation in mm
Source: National Weather Service, US Dept of Commerce
Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Baltimore, Maryland
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 4.6 6.5 12.2 17.9 23.4 28.4 30.7 29.7 25.8 19.6 13.6 7.3 O 18.4
Min. Temperature (° C) −4.8 −3.4 1.2 5.8 11.4 16.6 19.3 18.7 14.7 7.7 2.8 −2.1 O 7.4
Precipitation ( mm ) 77.5 79.2 85.9 78.5 94.5 93.2 93.7 99.6 86.6 75.7 84.3 86.6 Σ 1,035.3
Rainy days ( d ) 8.1 7.5 7.9 8.1 9.0 7.2 7.3 7.8 5.5 6.0 7.1 7.3 Σ 88.8
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
4.6
−4.8
6.5
−3.4
12.2
1.2
17.9
5.8
23.4
11.4
28.4
16.6
30.7
19.3
29.7
18.7
25.8
14.7
19.6
7.7
13.6
2.8
7.3
−2.1
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g
77.5
79.2
85.9
78.5
94.5
93.2
93.7
99.6
86.6
75.7
84.3
86.6
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

history

City map around 1888

The city was founded in 1729 and named after the first and second barons Baltimore , the British founders of the Maryland colony.

The name Baltimore is of Irish origin and named after another Baltimore in the Irish county of County Longford . It is based on the Irish "Baile an Tí Mhóir" , which means "place of the big house".

Initially designed as a port for the tobacco trade , the city quickly developed into the center of trade with Europe and the Caribbean . When Philadelphia was occupied by the British in 1777, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore . In the British-American War of 1812 the British attempted to eliminate the privateers operating from Baltimore . The resulting battle at Fort McHenry in 1814 inspired Francis Scott Key to write the text of the later American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner .

On December 28, 1827, the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Company laid the foundation stone for the USA's first railway line in Baltimore , which was inaugurated on May 24, 1830. It was initially planned as a horse-drawn tram , after a race between the Tom Thumb locomotive and a horse, all the horses were taken out of service on July 31, 1831 and switched to steam operation, although the horse had won. In 1835, one of the worst civil unrest in the United States of the 19th century broke out in Baltimore after the Bank of Maryland collapsed and investors lost their savings. Twenty people were killed and around one hundred injured when the militia intervened.

From 1831 to 1835 the young Edgar Allan Poe lived in Baltimore with his aunt Maria Clemm. He began his career as an inventor and master of short stories here in great poverty, then lived in Richmond (Virginia) , Philadelphia and New York City , around 1849 to die in a manner that has not yet been fully enlightened in Washington College Hospital in Baltimore. He is buried in the graveyard of the former Presbyterian Church of Westminster (today: Westminster Hall and Burying Ground ).

Thanks to the good rail connection to the Midwest and the establishment of a regular steamship service from North German Lloyd from Bremerhaven to Baltimore, the port developed into the second largest port of immigration in the USA after New York .

Baltimore City Hall has been the seat of the mayor and city council since it was completed in 1875 .

In 1886 the German immigrant Ottmar Mergenthaler developed the Linotype typesetting machine here .

Scene from Baltimore after the great fire in 1904

On February 7, 1904, large parts of the city fell victim to a major fire. Four people were killed. The estimated property damage was around $ 150 million.

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King on May 6, 1968, violent riots broke out in Baltimore, as in over 100 other cities. In Baltimore these were particularly extensive, as the social change towards de facto racial segregation was particularly pronounced in the city. Whites moved to the suburbs while blacks stayed in the old city. The Governor of Maryland Spiro Agnew reacted with particular severity from April 11th, his policy being seen as the beginning of the military build-up of the police force in the United States. More than 10,000 National Guard and US Army men were called into the city, and over 5,000 arrests followed, most of them for violating the curfew .

24 sites in the city have the status of a National Historic Landmark due to their historical significance . 294 structures and sites in Baltimore are on the National Register of Historic Places (as of November 11, 2017).

economy

The heavy industry held in 1897 with the Sparrows Point steel mill feeder. During the city's heyday shortly after the Second World War, a steelworks owned by Bethlehem Steel , the aircraft manufacturer Glenn-Martin , the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard , a General Motors car factory and several food factories were located there. 45,000 workers were employed in the shipyards, 50,000 in the aircraft industry and 30,000 in the steel mill.

In the following decades there was a strong de-industrialization . Today the Johns Hopkins Hospital is the largest employer.

Baltimore with its extensive port and industrial facilities

Located at the confluence of the Patapsco River in the Chesapeake Bay, the port of Baltimore is one of the largest seaports in the USA; it was the starting point for the history of the town's settlement. The city is a transportation hub between Washington, DC and Philadelphia and maintains the Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI).

The Chesapeake Bay is also considered the cradle of the American canning industry . In the 1860s, several large corporations emerged that specialized in canning oysters .

At the end of the 18th century, Baltimore became known worldwide for the Baltimore clippers , mostly two-masted topsail schooners, which were designed entirely for speed and had their heyday between around 1795 and 1825. They marked the beginning of the era of the speed sailors.

Baltimore is home to many companies in the health, beauty, and medical and pharmaceutical industries. Many research institutions, both from business and government laboratories , are also based in and around Baltimore. In addition to private laboratories, the city has 61 state-level research laboratories.

Baltimore is currently the largest American city without a Fortune 500 company.

The metropolitan area of ​​Baltimore generated an economic output of 187.4 billion US dollars in 2016, making it 19th among the greater metropolitan areas of the United States. The unemployment rate was 4 percent, slightly above the national average of 3.8 percent (as of May 2018).

population

In 2014, Baltimore was about 63.3% African American, 28.3% White, 2.6% Asian, 0.4% Native American and 0.1% Hawaiian . The remaining 5.3% are of Hispanic origin or consider themselves to be of multiple ethnicities.

Population development

While the population of the city of Baltimore is declining, the population of the metropolitan area is growing.

city
year Residents
1950 949.708
1960 939.024
1970 905.787
1980 786.741
1990 736.014
2000 651.262
2010 621.143
2016 614.664
Metropolitan area
year Residents
1990 2,382,172
2000 2,553,137
2010 2,710,583
2016 2,798,886

education

The world-famous, especially in the medical outstanding Johns Hopkins University is located in Baltimore. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County , Towson University and the University of Baltimore are located in the surrounding area.

politics

flag

The flag of Baltimore depicts the Battle Monument , a local monument erected between 1815 and 1825. It was built by veterans of the war of 1812. The background is in the colors of the Calvert family (bearers of the baron Baltimore title ) - as is the flag of Maryland . The North American Vexillological Association rated the flag positive in 2004 (it ranked 18th out of 150).

Twin cities

Current problems

Baltimore is hardest hit by poverty, neglect, drug addiction and suburbanization of any major US city . The city has a high crime rate, with - among other things - almost 300 homicides per year, although this rate has leveled off again to 300 homicides per year in recent years after a brief decline. In 2008, 234 homicides were reported, but in 2018 again 309 people were victims of homicides.

This crime difficulty is familiar to many American television viewers through the series Homicide and The Wire . In the series “The Wire”, one of the city's nicknames is therefore “Body more, Murderland”, an allusion to the full mention of the name with the state (“Baltimore, Maryland “), As is customary in the USA.

The population decline in Baltimore is more pronounced than in a few other large cities in the USA. In 1950 there were 949,708 residents in Baltimore, making Baltimore one of the largest cities in the United States at the time. The population has declined steadily since 1950, while the US population has more than doubled over the same period. In 2010, there were 620,691 people in Baltimore, 4.6% fewer than in 2000.

According to the Forbes 2009 list, Baltimore is one of the top ten most dangerous cities in the United States. Furthermore, an FBI study examined the crime rates in US cities in 2010, where Baltimore was also listed as 8th among the ten most dangerous cities. While there has been a general decline in violent crime, particularly serious crimes have increased.

According to The Baltimore Sun , between June 2012 and April 2015, nearly 2,600 detainees in police custody were denied admission to the city detention center because they were badly injured. According to the documents, 123 detainees had visible head injuries. Others had broken bones, facial injuries, and high blood pressure.

In July 2019, Donald Trump described the constituency of MP Elijah Cummings in the city as "a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested chaos" in several short messages . But he drew attention to the conditions in the residential complexes of his son-in-law Jared Kushner , in which fines of $ 13,200 have been imposed since 2017 for mold, rodent infestation and other defects. Of 899 housing units owned or owned by Kushner, 200 failed annual inspections. The animal welfare organization PETA responded with a billboard on which it placed a man (Kushner) sitting on a pile of money opposite a mouse with a piece of cheese.

Culture

Founded in 1916, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is one of the great symphony orchestras in the United States of America. It gained an international reputation under the direction of music director David Zinman (1985 to 1998). During this phase he won the 1990 Grammy Awards for a recording of works for cello and orchestra by Barber and Britten with Yo-Yo Ma as "Best Solo Instrument Performance with Orchestra". In 2007/2008 Marin Alsop took over the leadership of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as the first woman in history to head a large US orchestra.

The problems of the city inspired Randy Newman to write his famous song Baltimore , which was also interpreted in a German version by Nina Simone , Nils Lofgren and Udo Lindenberg .

In the poem Incident by Countee Cullen , Baltimore is mentioned as the place where a young boy first encountered discrimination against blacks.

The plot of the musical Hairspray , of which there are also two film versions ( original from 1988; remake from 2007), takes place in Baltimore in 1962.

Baltimore was the seat of the "Baltimore Gun Club", which in Jules Verne's novel From Earth to the Moon sent the first people to the moon.

The critically acclaimed television series The Wire (2002-2008) is set in Baltimore and describes the high crime rate and social problems of Baltimore.

Baltimore has been the location for films such as Enemy of the State # 1 and Sleepless in Seattle (the Fell's Point neighborhood). In The Attack (2002) , an atomic bomb explodes here and a large part of downtown Baltimore is destroyed.

Attractions

Churches
Museums
Monuments
Historical objects

The National Park Service has 25 National Historic Landmarks for Baltimore as of December 2016, including the B&O Railroad Museum, USS Constellation , the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Assumption, and the Edgar Allen Poe House and Museum. 298 buildings and sites in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) (as of November 17, 2018).

Sports

Baltimore has been the home of the NFL team Baltimore Ravens since 1996 . The Ravens have won the Super Bowl twice so far . Previously, the Baltimore Colts were the Baltimore NFL team from 1953 and were victorious in Super Bowl V. In 1984 the franchise moved to Indianapolis , where it continues to this day. The MLB team Baltimore Orioles also plays at Camden Yards baseball stadium . In the National Basketball Association (NBA) Baltimore was represented from 1949 to 1954 by the Baltimore Bullets . In 1963, the Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore and from then on were also known as the Baltimore Bullets . In 1973 the franchise moved to Washington, DC , where it now plays under the name Washington Wizards .

see also: Newington Park , former sports facility

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Baltimore  - album containing pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Baltimore  Travel Guide
 Wikinews: Baltimore  - on the news

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Baltimore Bank Riot . University of Illinois Press. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  2. ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States . Harper Perennial, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , p. 222
  3. Citylab: Baltimore, 1968 and the Invention of the American Police State , April 30, 2015
  4. Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Maryland . National Park Service , accessed November 11, 2017.
  5. Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed November 11, 2017.
  6. ^ A b Hannes Hofbauer : Social explosion after economic decline . In: lunapark21 . Summer, 2015, p. 8-11 .
  7. ^ Oyster Town: 1800 to Now
  8. ^ Dan Primack: Baltimore is the largest American city without a single Fortune 500 company. In: fortune.com. April 28, 2015, accessed July 21, 2015 .
  9. ^ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved July 4, 2018 (American English).
  10. ^ Alan Berube, Jesus Leal Trujillo, Tao Ran, and Joseph Parilla: Global Metro Monitor . In: Brookings . January 22, 2015 ( brookings.edu [accessed July 4, 2018]).
  11. Baltimore-Towson, MD Economy at a Glance. Retrieved July 4, 2018 .
  12. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html
  13. 1990–2010: census results; 2016: US Census Bureau estimate
  14. ^ Metropolitan Statistical Area Baltimore - Columbia - Towson according to the definition of the US Census Bureau 2015: 1990-2010: census results; 2016: US Census Bureau estimate
  15. Baltimore City, Maryland (US) . In: Flags of the World . Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  16. American city flags survey results . In: NAVA . 2004. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
  17. see bestplaces.net  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bestplaces.net  
  18. FBI Crime Report 2008 ( Memento from June 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  19. Forbes List: Most Dangerous Cities in the United States
  20. The 10 most dangerous US cities in 2010 (English) ( Memento from 1 June 2011 at the Internet Archive ) /
  21. Police violence in Baltimore - thousands too injured to be arrested. In: taz . May 11, 2015, accessed August 13, 2019 .
  22. ^ Examining medical rejections at corrections facilities. In: Interactive graphic to call up each individual case of the ten most common main reasons for the medical refusal of admission to a correctional facility for a period of one year. The Baltimore Sun , May 2015, accessed on August 13, 2019 (English, all approx.2,600 cases can be downloaded from an Excel table).
  23. Those 'rat infested' places in Baltimore? They're owned by Trump's son-in-law , Associated Press, USA Today, July 31, 2019
  24. President Trump's Son-In-Law Jared Kushner Owns Baltimore-Area Properties, Some Of Them Have Mice , CBS Local Baltimore, July 29, 2019
  25. PETA's Billboard Depicting 'Rich Pest' Resembling Jared Kushner Goes Up Along I-83 , CBS Local Baltimore, August 19, 2019
  26. List of NHL by State . National Park Service , accessed November 17, 2018.
  27. Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed November 17, 2018.