History of Bratislava
This article gives a chronological overview of the events in the history of the Slovak capital Bratislava (until 1919 Slovak Prešporok , German Pressburg / Pressburg , Hungarian Pozsony ).
Prehistory and early history
The oldest primate finds in the area of today's Bratislava were made in 1957 in the Devínska Nová Ves district, when seven skeletons of the (Epi) Pliopithecus vindobonensis came to light. These are to 25 to 15 million years BC. Has been dated. More recent (14-10 million BC) are the tooth finds of a Griphopithecus suessi (formerly known as Dryopithecus darwini or Sivapithecus darwini ), which were discovered in the same area in 1902.
Finds of hand axes and other stone tools of Homo heidelbergensis (around 450,000 and 300,000 BC) as well as the Neanderthals are known from the Paleolithic Age .
In the Neolithic Age , the urban area was demonstrably settled by representatives of the linear ceramic band. Later from around 400 BC. Until 50 BC The Celts (tribe of the Boier ) settled in the area, and from around 125 BC. A major Celtic oppidum (fortified city) is occupied by a mint. As remains of it, an "acropolis" and a few settlements below have been preserved on the castle hill . Thus, for the first time in its history, there was a real city structure in today's Bratislava, but this “status” could only really be consolidated after two further attempts at “city existence” in the 9th and 11th centuries.
1st to 10th century
The Danube Limes (fortified border of the empire) established by the Roman Empire ran roughly through the center of today's city. Therefore, numerous Roman (for example Gerulata ) and Germanic settlements emerged in the area between the 1st and 5th centuries .
At the end of the Great Migration , the tribes of the Slavs reached the area around 500 in the course of migratory movements and settled here. From around 600 the Avars also occupied the western parts of today's city, while the eastern parts remained purely Slavic. As a result of the uprising of the Slavs against the Avar domination in the area of Thebes ( Devín ) in 623 Samo was elected King of the Slavs (possibly at the Thebes Castle ), who established the kingdom of Samo . This lasted at least until 658 and included the area of today's Bratislava. After this phase, no records are available for the area until the late 8th century, so the continued existence of the Samo Empire is uncertain. According to archaeological finds, however, the Avars (besides the Slavs) stayed here and in other places until around 800, when they were decimated as a result of internal conflicts, battles with Charlemagne and the Slavs.
From the late 8th century onwards, the castles of Thebes and Pressburg were important centers of the Principality of Nitra and from 833 to the end of 907 they were an integral part of the Great Moravian Empire . Around 805, so the Bavarian historian Johannes Aventinus reports in the 16th century, the Pressburg was restored under the rule of the Moravian prince Vratislav on the ruins of an old Roman settlement, which is said to have been called Pisonium , and called Wratislaburgium . Theben Castle, which is also located in the urban area, was also mentioned in 864 as "Dowina" in the Fulda annals . Around 900 the city was probably ruled by an originally Lower Pannonian prince Braslav (also Bräslav, Brazlaw) (or a "prince" of the same name with the same name) who was a vassal of Bavaria . According to older doctrines, the German name for the city of Bratislava, Pressburg / Pressburg from Brezalauspurc should have developed from his ruler's name . The assumption that today's Slovak name Bratislava also comes from this name has also been occasionally expressed, but according to recent research it comes (incorrectly) from the name of the Bohemian ruler Břetislav I (for more information see Bratislava # names ).
Around 907 the city became a part of Hungary after it had destroyed the central power of the Great Moravian Empire in the three battles near Pressburg . The city was mentioned in the Salzburg annals in connection with the battle as Brezalauspurc , the Bavarians fighting here suffered a crushing defeat against the Magyars (Hungarians). The result of the battle was the occupation of the Avarmark by the Magyars until 955. The end of the Great Moravian Empire is therefore set for 907.
After belonging to Bavaria ( Holy Roman Empire ) for a maximum of ten years , Pressburg and its surroundings were brought into marriage with the Hungarian King Stephan I as a dowry by Gisela von Bayern , daughter of Henry the Quarrel, in 1002 (?) And remained a dowry from then until 1918 Part of the Kingdom of Hungary .
1000-1241
Between the year 1000 and the early 13th century, a market settlement developed again below the castle (the later city center, mentioned for the first time in 1151) and finally became very important for the entire region in the early 13th century. In the 12th century, further settlements emerged in the vicinity and the castle also developed into one of the strongest fortifications in the Kingdom of Hungary, as the city often had to fight enemy troops due to its border location. The Hungarian kings also often stayed at the castle and held equestrian tournaments or feasts. As a result, one can speak of a certain development in living standards and comfort. From the 12th to the 13th centuries, Magyars settled in the market settlement below the castle in several waves and subsequently merged with the previously dominant Slavic population.
As early as 1000 or earlier, the later King Stephan I founded the County of Pressburg and sometime after 1001 coins with the inscription "Preslav (v) a Civ (itas)" (Pressburg Castle) were minted on his behalf.
In 1030/31 the Bohemian prince Břetislav I attacked the castle. This took part in a campaign of the German Emperor Konrad II against the Kingdom of Hungary and devastated what is now western Slovakia, but he was defeated and pushed back by the Hungarian king. In 1042 the city was briefly occupied by the troops of Emperor Heinrich III. and Břetislav I. occupied, after the reconquest of the city, Henry III undertook. In 1043 again the (this time unsuccessful) attempt to conquer. In 1052 he again besieged the city for two months, again unsuccessfully, but with considerable damage to the castle. In 1053 Heinrich and the Hungarian King Andreas I closed with the mediation of Pope Leo IX. a peace. From 1073 to 1074 the Hungarian King Solomon repaired the castle, which was destroyed in 1052 and where he resided during his fight against Géza I and Ladislaus I of Hungary .
In 1108, the German Emperor Heinrich V, together with the Bohemian Duke Svatopluk II, made a new attempt to capture the city, but this failed, as did another attack by the Bohemians in 1109. In 1146 Boris, son of the Hungarian King Stephen II , strove for the Hungarian crown; Bavarian and Austrian nobles who supported him in exchange for money undertook a night raid on Pressburg during the Easter week of 1146. King Géza II avenged the breach of peace by invading the Bavarian Ostmark, although they finally handed the fortress over to him for a ransom. In the 1160s the Hungarian King Stephan III resided . in the city and greatly improved the fortifications. In Pressburg the participants of the Third Crusade to the Holy Land gathered under the leadership of Emperor Friedrich I (called Barbarossa ).
1241-1536
In 1241/42 the invading Mongols failed to conquer the castle and the city, but devastated the surrounding villages. After the end of the Mongol invasions, numerous German colonists settled in the city and the surrounding area. The castle was also rebuilt and reinforced.
In 1271 and from 1273 to 1276 the city was captured by the Bohemian King Ottokar II in connection with the conflict between Hungary and Bohemia over Styria . For this reason, the first Peace of Pressburg was concluded in 1271 . In 1285, the nobleman and palatine Nikolaus von Güssing , who came from the Kingdom of Hungary, took the city in a revolt against the king. Nicholas burned the castle down in 1286, but was defeated by the king in the same year. From 1287 to 1291 the city was taken again by the Austrian Duke Albrecht von Habsburg , who was finally defeated by the Hungarian nobleman Matthäus Csák, who lived in Trenčín .
In the same year the settlement below the castle received the first known town charter from the Hungarian King Andreas III. Previously granted city rights are not known, but probably, since the settlement was referred to as a city as early as 1250 . After the death of King Andrew III. In 1301 the city fell to Austria until 1322 , when Andreas' widow handed the city over to the Habsburgs . In 1322 it was returned to the Kingdom of Hungary, but shortly afterwards it was reoccupied by Austria and only finally surrendered in 1338.
After 1291 the city received many other rights, especially in the 15th century through Emperor Sigismund , a Luxembourger, as King of Hungary. In 1405 Sigismund declared the city a royal free city . Not only Pressburg was granted this status, but all cities in the kingdom, because Sigismund wanted to better control the power of the Hungarian landed gentry.
In 1428 the Hussites ravaged the city. They burned the suburbs and the following year negotiations for a peace between Sigismund and the Hussites failed. These attacked the city repeatedly from 1432 to 1434 and only withdrew after they were offered a generous sum in negotiations in Pressburg in 1435 so that they could finally leave today's Slovakia. In the same year, the fortification of the castle was reinforced again after Sigismund had ordered this under the impression of the last Hussite invasion.
From 1439 to 1445 there was a permanent bridge over the Danube . It was destroyed after only six years by the strong floods of the Danube. During this time (1440–1443) there were also fights between the Bratislava Castle , which King Ladislaus III. from the Jagiellonian dynasty and supported the actual city of Pressburg at the foot of the castle, the Queen Elisabeth , the widow of the Habsburg Emperor Albrecht II .
In 1442 Ladislaus settled in the castle and conquered the city for a short time. He was quickly taken over by the troops of the Austrian sovereign and German emperor Friedrich III. who supported Elisabeth, was beaten. The castle was captured by Friedrich III. however not until Ladislaus' death in 1444.
After these difficult years, the first university in what is now Slovakia and what was then the Kingdom of Hungary was founded in Pressburg in 1467, the Universitas Istropolitana (erroneously called Academia Istropolitana from the 16th century onwards ).
During the rule of the Jagiellonian kings of Hungary (1490–1526), the city was often the scene of diplomatic negotiations: In 1491, the Roman-German King Maximilian I , who had destroyed the Kingdom of Hungary under Ladislaus II , settled here in the Second Peace of Pressburg on November 7, 1491 from Hungary confirmed that Hungary would no longer lay claim to Lower Austria and that Maximilian would receive the Hungarian royal dignity if Ladislaus died without legitimate male descendants.
The growing threat from the Ottoman Empire , which was conquering westward, reached a climax in 1529 when his troops wanted to take Pressburg and Vienna . Thousands of soldiers were brought together to defend Pressburg. The Turks therefore bypassed the city , which had been transformed into a large army camp , and attacked Vienna from the south ( First Turkish siege of Vienna ). But they were unsuccessful and withdrew at the onset of winter.
Due to the continued danger of the Turks , churches and sanatoriums outside the city walls were demolished in January 1531 so that the Turks could not see into the city over the city walls.
1536-1784
In the period from 1536 to 1784 the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary due to the occupation of most of today's Hungary by the Ottoman Empire; The Habsburg Archdukes of Austria or their sons had been kings since 1526 . The unoccupied kingdom consisted roughly of the area of today's Slovakia, today's Burgenland and the western part of Croatia .
From 1542 to 1848 the city was (with interruptions) also the meeting place of the state parliament of the Kingdom of Hungary . From 1563 to 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and eight queens (= royal wives, not rulers) were crowned in St. Martin's Cathedral: the first coronation was that of Maximilian , the last that of Ferdinand V.
In the 17th century the city had to cope with several plague epidemics , floods, further battles with the Turks and a series of anti-Habsburg uprisings in what is now Slovakia. In 1606 the area around the city was occupied by the troops of Stephan Bocskai , a Transylvanian nobleman. From 1619 to 1622 Gábor Bethlen led new revolts. His troops were able to conquer Pressburg in 1619. An imperial army under Charles von Bucquoy took Pressburg again on May 7, 1621. Bethlen besieged the city in the same year until 1622 without success. In 1626, at the end of this uprising, Gábor Bethlen and Emperor Ferdinand II concluded the Third Peace of Pressburg in Pressburg .
From 1671 to 1677 the city was the scene of a special court over Protestants and participants in anti-Habsburg uprisings. In 1671 the trial of the participants in the Wesselényi conspiracy took place here. In 1682 and 1683, Pressburg was hit again by an uprising, this time under Emmerich Thököly . As the only non-surrendering city in the area of today's Slovakia, it was conquered by Thököly's troops in July 1683 (but probably not the castle) and was only liberated by the imperial troops after the end of the second Turkish siege of Vienna in September 1683.
The last uprising that spread across the country was the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi from 1703 to 1711, also known as the "Kuruzenkrieg". Pressburg was only marginally affected. In 1704 Prince Eugene of Savoy managed to defend the city against Rákóczi's troops, but these completely devastated the area around the city.
Despite all these adversities, the city managed to develop further culturally. As early as 1607, an Evangelical Lyceum ( Evanjelické lýceum ) was established, which was a kind of Protestant grammar school and later in the 19th century also a kind of university. The national consciousness of the Slovaks also grew, and so the city has been an important center of the Slovak national and cultural movement ( National Revival of the Slovaks ) since the 18th century . The plague fell victim to 3800 inhabitants in 1710/11 .
After that, the best years began for the city: In the period up to 1780, many new baroque buildings were built. The economy and trade flourished (the first manufactory produced in 1728). The first parks and gardens emerged, for example on the site of today's Hviezdoslav Square (Hviezdoslavovo námestie) . The demolition of the fortifications in 1775 also contributed to the further expansion of the city.
1765–1780, Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen , son-in-law of Empress Maria Theresa , acted as governor of Hungary in Pressburg on her behalf. Its seat was in today's Grassalkovich Palace . In April 1766 , the wedding of Archduchess Marie Christine and Albert was celebrated there with music composed and conducted by Joseph Haydn ; the wedding had previously taken place in Schloss Hof across the March. Albert began collecting art in Pressburg, which is shown today in the Albertina in Vienna named after him .
The first permanent city theater opened its doors to visitors in 1776. Cultural and public life gained a lot of dynamism. The first magazine of the Kingdom of Hungary, Mercurius Veridicus ex Hungaria , was published in Pressburg in 1705. The first regular newspaper of the Kingdom of Hungary (however in Latin) appeared here from 1721 to 1722 under the title Nova Posoniensia . The first German newspaper in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Pressburger Zeitung , appeared in 1764 (and existed until 1929). The first Hungarian newspaper, Magyar hírmondó , appeared in 1780. In 1783 the first Slovak newspaper, Presspurske Nowiny , was published. In the same year the first novel in Slovak, Rene mladenca prihody a skusenosti (“The Adventures and Experiences of the Young Rene”) by Jozef Ignác Bajza was published in the city .
Important artists of the time such as the six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who gave a concert in the Palffypalais in 1762 , performed here. Due to this rapid development and the fact that Pressburg continued to function as the capital, the number of inhabitants rose sharply: in 1782 there were 33,000, of which 29,223 lived in the actual city below the castle. This made Pressburg the largest city in the Kingdom of Hungary at that time, as the number of inhabitants had increased by 200% between 1720 and 1780.
From 1784, under Emperor Joseph II, the administration and central authorities of the Kingdom of Hungary were relocated to Buda (then called Ofen in German , today the right bank of Budapest ). This reduced the importance of Pressburg; economic decline and dwindling population were the result. It was not until 1811 that this decline could be stopped. After 1784 the city remained for decades the coronation city of the Hungarian kings and seat of the state parliament of the Kingdom of Hungary.
1784-1900
The period from 1784 on is strongly influenced by the national rebirth of the Slovaks and the opposing Magyarization of the city. The face of the city changed as a result of the industrialization that began in 1850 .
From 1784 to 1800 there was a general seminary at the castle , a state school for Catholic clergy introduced by Joseph II . The most famous graduate of the Bratislava General Seminar was Anton Bernolák . In 1787 he published his thesis “Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum” in Pressburg , in which the written Slovak language was successfully codified for the first time. Other educational institutions also emerged during this period, for example the Royal Academy of Tyrnau ( Trnava in Slovak , founded there as a law school in 1777) was relocated to Pressburg, followed in 1801 by an "Institute for Czech-Slovak Language and Literature" and at the Evangelical Lyceum mentioned above In 1803 it received its own chair. The teaching language of the chair at that time was Czech, which was used by all Protestants in Slovakia. The school was intended for Slovaks, hence the name "Czech-Slovak".
From 1805 the city was involved in the Napoleonic Wars . In the same year, the fourth and most famous Bratislava Peace Treaty between Austria and France was concluded in the city after Napoleon's victory in the Battle of Austerlitz . But after Austria and Great Britain had again opposed France in 1809, Pressburg was besieged and bombed by Napoleon's troops in the summer of 1809. The Castle Thebes was blown up by the French, because they represented a threat to the French army. Soldiers who camped at Pressburg Castle to protect the city against Napoleon's troops caused a fire in the castle complex in 1811. It was almost completely destroyed in the process and only rebuilt in the 1950s.
After the final end of the coalition wars in 1815, a peaceful and cultural era began for the city and all of Europe. In 1820 the nine-year-old Franz Liszt performed in the Paulipalais and in 1829 the Czech-Slavic Society (also known as the Society for Czech-Slovak Language and Literature) was founded by students of the Evangelical Lyceum as part of the chair for Czech-Slovak language and literature. In the same year Ľudovít Štúr , leader of the Slovak National Movement , began studying at the Evangelical Lyceum; later he also received a professorship at this. On February 2, 1843, Štúr decided in Pressburg, together with other important representatives of the nation, to codify the "version" of the written Slovak language, which is still in existence today and is based on the central Slovak dialects.
The slow onset of industrialization can be seen in the transport and traffic system, in 1830 regular passenger and goods traffic on the Danube began, in 1840 the opening of the first railway of the then Kingdom of Hungary from Pressburg to nearby St. Georgen ( Svätý Jur ), the route was extended to Trnava in 1846. In 1848 there was a rail connection to Vienna , and in 1850 one to what is now Budapest .
During the revolution of 1848/49 the Hungarian parliament in Pressburg passed the March Acts , which abolished serfdom in the Kingdom of Hungary. King Ferdinand V signed the laws in the Primatialpalais in the old town of Bratislava. Due to the unrest in the country, the city was occupied by various armies during the revolutionary years of 1848/49 (see Slovak uprising ). During the German War of 1866 between Prussia and Austria, the last battles of this war took place near the city.
In the late 19th century, the city was rapidly modernized. In 1856 the first gas works, as well as the street lighting, and the first sewer system were built, in 1884 the first electric light and the telephone found their way into the city. The City Theater (today's Slovak National Theater ) was opened in 1886, and in the same year there was the first public water supply. The urban transport system also developed: in 1891 the first permanent bridge was built over the Danube, and from 1895 the city tram operated. In 1902 there was the first public power supply. Before that, various industrial companies, in particular today's “Istrochem” (chemical factory) in 1873 and today's “Slovnaft as” (oil refinery) in 1895, had been settled in Pressburg. Thus, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the city was the second most industrialized city in the Kingdom of Hungary after Budapest.
20th century
In the 20th century the city went through several radical changes. The historical fabric of part of the old town was preserved.
Before World War II
In 1914 the Hungarian Elisabeth University was opened, which existed until 1919 and was the predecessor of the Slovak Comenius University (Univerzita Komenského) opened in 1919 . The Pressburger Bahn was also opened in 1914, but it only ran continuously from Pressburg to Vienna until 1918; later had to change at the border.
After the end of the First World War , the city's situation was completely unclear. After the founding of Czechoslovakia had been declared in Prague on October 28, 1918 , the authorities of the city, which is 70% inhabited by Germans and Magyars, tried to evade the membership of the new state envisaged by the war winners by proclaiming the "Free City" renamed it Wilsonstadt (Hungarian Wilsonvár , Slovak Wilsonov (o) ) after the American President Woodrow Wilson , who had campaigned for the right of self-determination of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary .
On January 1, 1919, however, associations of the Czechoslovak Legions (in fact it was the 33rd sniper regiment of the Italian Legion under the leadership of Colonel Riccardo Barreca ) took the city against the protest of the local population. Shortly afterwards - on February 4, 1919 - the new 'Czechoslovak government' - coming from Sillein (sl. Žilina ) - moved into the city. The "Ministry with authority for the administration of Slovakia" (sl. " Mnisterstvo s plnou mocou pre správu Slovenska ô") under the direction of Vavro Šrobár is housed in the building of the former kk corps command on the banks of the Danube. On February 12, 1919, a demonstration against the occupiers took place, which was bloodily suppressed by Czech units (7 dead, 23 wounded). Petržalka (Eng. Engerau), which at that time did not yet belong to the city, was not occupied by CSR troops until August 14, 1919, as it lies on the right bank of the Danube. On March 6, 1919, Czechoslovakia definitely renamed the city, which until then had been called Prešporok in Slovak , to Bratislava (after it had been called Bratislava since February 22 ). Germans and Hungarians continued to use their familiar city names. On March 14, 1919, Ministerial Decree No. Z.1236 / adm. Was issued, stating that the city of Pressburg was officially given the name “Bratislava” and that this name cannot be translated.
At the same time, Bratislava became the seat of the authorities for the Slovak part of the new state and from 1928 was the capital of the Slovak country of Czechoslovakia. Many Hungarian residents left the city because they were no longer needed as civil servants or teachers and rejected the Czechoslovak state. The Royal Hungarian Elisabeth University was "relocated" to Pécs (Fünfkirchen); A Czechoslovak university was founded in its buildings. In the period that followed, many new offices, authorities and other administrative and cultural institutions were opened in Bratislava. In 1926, the first Slovak radio program was broadcast in Bratislava.
First Slovak Republic and World War II
Immediately after the Munich Agreement , the city became the seat of the government of autonomous Slovakia from October 1938 to March 1939 (see History of Czechoslovakia # Smashing 1938/39 ). Czechoslovakia, which still existed, was forced to surrender the suburbs of Petržalka and Devín , Engerau and Thebes to the German Reich on October 10 and November 1938 .
From March 14, 1939, Bratislava was the capital of the first Slovak republic , a Nazi puppet state, proclaimed on the same day at the suggestion of Germany , while Bohemia and Moravia, referred to by Nazi propaganda as " remaining Czech Republic ", were occupied by the German armed forces.
During the First Slovak Republic, the Comenius University in Bratislava (then called the Slovak University) and the "Slovak Technical University" (now the Technical University), which were relocated here in 1939, were considerably expanded and converted into real universities (first faculty of science, chemistry, electrotechnology, etc.) in Slovakia). In 1940 the first “Commercial College” (today the University of Economics) and in 1942 the “Slovak Academy of Sciences and Arts” was founded. In addition, numerous building projects were tackled. In 1943, the construction of today's tram tunnel under the castle hill began, which was opened to traffic in 1948. In addition, the construction of today's sports area began at Tehelné pole .
The Jewish Pressburgers were subjected to persecution similar to that everywhere in the German sphere of influence. The Slovak government worked very well with the Nazi apparatus in this regard, although it was under the direction of a Roman Catholic prelate.
In June 1944, the city was targeted by the Allies and their bomber units. The oil refinery and the western part of the city were hit in an attack. Although Bratislava was in close proximity to the Greater German Reich, Slovakia as a satellite state of Germany was only occupied by the Wehrmacht after the Slovak National Uprising in August 1944 .
After the occupation of the city by the Red Army on April 4, 1945 in the course of the Bratislava-Brno operation , the city again became part of the newly established Czechoslovakia. As a result of the war, the composition of the population changed dramatically. The Germans were evacuated by German authorities in March 1945, and the few German residents who remained in the city were later expelled due to the Beneš decrees . A large part of the Jewish population had already been deported to the concentration and death camps of the Hitler Empire during the war or were now leaving the city. While 20% of Germans still lived in Bratislava in 1940, it was only 0.52% in 1961, and the proportion of residents of Jewish faith also fell from 1940 to almost 9% after the war. The proportion of the Hungarian population had already shrunk considerably before the war, the rest was expelled under the Beneš decrees.
After the Second World War
In 1944 Karlova Ves was incorporated. Other incorporations decided before 1945 could only be carried out after the end of the Second World War : On April 1, 1946, Bratislava expanded to include Devín , Dúbravka , Lamač , Prievoz (today in Ružinov ), Rača , Vajnory and Petržalka (the first urban area on the right bank of the Danube). In 1947 the towns of Jarovce ( Horvátjárfalu in Hungarian ), Rusovce (Oroszvár) and Čunovo (Dunacsúny) , which were only incorporated on January 1, 1972, came from Hungary to Czechoslovakia as a result of the Paris Peace Conference , so that Czechoslovakia could expand the Bratislava bridgehead .
As a result, the strong structural and cultural modernization of the city, which had begun during the Second World War, continued: films were made in the city from 1948, the Slovak Philharmonic was established in 1949, the Slovak National Gallery in 1951, and the Slovak Academy , which was active from 1942–1946, was established in 1953 Sciences re-established; the reconstruction of the castle began. In 1959 the Bratislava Gallery was established. In 1956 the Slovak television broadcasted for the first time , from the 1970s also from the current (i.e. newer) television tower on Kamzík .
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In 1960 the Slavín , a huge monument in honor of the Soviet soldiers who died in World War II , was erected. One of the first gas pipelines from the USSR , called Družba ("Friendship"), was completed to Bratislava in 1962; the reconstruction of the castle was completed in the same year. The Bratislava Music Festival took place for the first time in 1965. A second bridge over the Danube (now Nový most ) was built in 1967–1972, with the Jewish quarter below the castle hill with its magnificent synagogue being destroyed.
In order to cope with the strong increase in population, between 1960 and 1985 the city administration built huge socialist prefabricated housing estates (for example in Rača, Dúbravka, Lamač, Podunajské Biskupice, 1961–1975 in Ružinov, 1967–1975 in Karlova Ves, 1973–1985 in Petržalka). Over 100,000 people were settled in the Petržalka district alone. In 1985 the third Danube bridge (Prístavný most) was opened there.
From January 1, 1968, the city was formally again the capital of Slovakia, but this status was only put into effect with the signing of the Federation Act on October 30, 1968 at Bratislava Castle and the two republics of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic . Thus, from 1969 to 1992, Bratislava was the capital of Slovakia within the federal Czechoslovak state.
On August 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact troops occupied Bratislava when the Prague Spring was put down . On January 1, 1972, the places Devínska Nová Ves , Podunajské Biskupice , Vrakuňa and Záhorská Bystrica on the left Danube bank and Jarovce , Rusovce and Čunovo on the right Danube bank were incorporated.
In the 1980s, due to the many investments in infrastructure and industry and its central role for Slovakia, Bratislava rose to become the second richest city in political Eastern Europe (after Prague, measured by per capita income, see also the economy of Slovakia ).
In the late 1980s, harbingers of the end of the socialist regime appeared. On March 25, 1988, the police violently broke up a peaceful demonstration by Catholics against the communists. In the autumn of 1989, the events that were later called the Velvet Revolution rolled over. On November 15, 1989, Alexander Dubček gave his first speech in Bratislava since 1970, and on the following day and a day before the big protests in Prague, students from Slovak universities protested against the communists. On November 19 the first non-communist party in Slovakia, the Verejnosť proti násiliu (Public Against Violence, VPN) was founded. The next day there was another student rally in the city, on November 22nd, 100,000 people demonstrated on the SNP square , further demonstrations followed in the weeks that followed.
The official population fell from 441,453 in 1991 to 428,672 in 2001, so there was a population decline in the city for the first time since the late 18th century . The Volkswagen plant was opened in 1991 ; until 1994 it was a joint venture with the Bratislava car plant B ratislavské a utomobilové z ávody , which had existed since 1972 and in which VW has held 80% and since 1994 100% of the shares. In 1991 the fourth bridge over the Danube (Most Lafranconi) was opened .
In 1992 the Slovak parliament passed a declaration of independence on July 17, and on July 23 the prime ministers of the Czech and Slovak republics decided to dissolve Czechoslovakia. On September 1, 1992, the Slovak Parliament passed the new Slovak Constitution, which was officially signed on September 3 at Bratislava Castle. Since January 1, 1993, Bratislava has been the capital of the newly formed state of Slovakia.
21st century
In 2003 the millionth car was produced at Volkswagen Bratislava, the Touareg , Polo , Seat Ibiza , Golf , Bora 4Motion and their variants have been produced in the factory since 2003 . In the same year the construction of a fifth bridge over the Danube began in the city area, the completion of the Apollo bridge took place in September 2005. A new opera house was built.
In 2003, Bratislava founded the European Region Centrope together with the Trnavský kraj and regional associations in the Czech Republic , Austria and Hungary . It currently includes around 6 million inhabitants in the Central European Central Area. The core of the region are the twin cities Vienna and Bratislava, which are only around 60 km apart and whose city governments cooperate in many ways and strive for coordinated development.
The planned Bratislava metro was not implemented.
Ethnic development
The ethnic composition of the urban population over the past two centuries has developed as follows:
- 1850: Germans 75%, Slovaks 18%, Hungarians 7.5% (Note: All population figures before 1869, as well as the 1910 census, are inaccurate)
- 1880: Germans 68%, Slovaks 8%, Hungarians 8%
- 1910: Germans 42%, Slovaks 17%, Hungarians 40% (Note: The period after 1848 is characterized by strong Magyarization in the Kingdom of Hungary , so many Hungarians migrated to Pressburg and many Slovaks and Germans recognized themselves as Hungarians)
- 1919 (August): Germans 36%, Slovaks 33%, Hungarians 29%, others 1.7%
- 1930: Germans 25%, Slovaks 33%, Czechs 23%, Hungarians 16%, Jews 3.833% (Note: Emigration and expulsion of many Hungarians and multiple registration of Hungarians as Czechs or Slovaks, plus strong immigration of Czech officials and teaching staff, nevertheless remained the Germans the strongest group in the old town; religious Jews had a share of around 12%, from which it can be concluded that most ethnic Jews registered as Slovaks or Germans)
- 1940: Germans 20%, Slovaks 49%, Hungarians 9.525%, Jews 8.78%
- 1961: Germans 0.52%, Slovaks 95.15%, Czechs 4.61%, Hungarians 3.44%, Jews 0% (note: expulsion of Germans and Hungarians as a result of the Benesch decrees, intensive Slovakization)
- 1970: Germans 0.5%, Slovaks 92%, Czechs 4.6%, Hungarians 3.4%
- 1991: Germans 0.29%, Slovaks 93.39%, Czechs 2.47%, Hungarians 4.6%
- 2001: Germans 0.28%, Slovaks 91.39%, Czechs and Moravians 2%, Hungarians 3.84%
literature
- Karl Benyovszky : Bratislava-Pressburg in words and pictures. A guide through the capital of Slovakia , Bratislava: Steiner 1938
- Karl Benyovszky: Walk through Old Pressburg , Bratislava-Pressburg 1943
- Karl Benyovszky: Walk through Old Pressburg : on the basis of archival records / by Karl Benyovszky. With 30 orig. Drawings by K. Frech and the oldest city map, Bratislava (new edition of the 1943 edition): Marenčin, Vyd. PT 2002 ISBN 80-88912-27-X
- Jozef Hanák: Obsadenie Bratislavy - 1918–1920 (“The Occupation of Bratislava - 1918–1920”) (2004) ISBN 8-0889-1271-7
- Marcell Jankovics : Twenty Years in Preßburg (1919-1939), Karlsruhe 2017, ISBN 978-80-8175-029-8
- Anton Klipp: Pressburg. New views on an old city. Karpatendeutsches Kulturwerk, Karlsruhe 2010, ISBN 978-3-927020-15-3 .
- Johann Mathias Korabinsky : Description of the royal. Hungarian capital, Frey and Coronation City Pressburg , Pressburg 1784
- Martin Hutter: Bratislava - Boomtown ante portas? In: Hitz H., Helmut Wohlschlägl , ed. Eastern Austria and neighboring regions. A geographical excursion guide to Dt. Geographers' day in Vienna. Pp. 408-420. (Vienna, 2002), ISBN 978-3-205-78447-0
- Theodor Ortvay : History of the City of Preßburg 7 vols., Preßburg 1892-1912
- Emil Portisch : History of the City of Pressburg-Bratislava, 2nd vol. Pressburg-Bratislava 1932/1933
- Tatiana Štefanovičová: Najstaršie dejiny Bratislavy. (Bratislava 1993), ISBN 8085331071 . {with a detailed German and English summary}
- Archív hlavného mesta SSR Bratislavy: Dejiny Bratislavy (Bratislava 1978) {with a short German, Hungarian, French, Russian and English summary; a - in some places already outdated - standard work}
For more literature on Pressburg see → article Karl Benyovszky
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ In the ADB erroneously "Son of the Hungarian King Kalmani"; correct would be grandson Kalmanis = Kolomans, Stephen's father.
- ↑ Heinrich Ritter von Zeißberg: Heinrich II. (Jasomirgott) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 11, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, pp. 554-557.
- ^ Archduchess (later Empress) Maria Theresa was crowned Rex Hungariae on June 28, 1741, not Regina. Source: Friedrich Heer: The happiness of Maria Theresa. Herold, Vienna 1966, p. 30
- ↑ Joseph von Hormayr: Taschenbuch für die vaterländische Geschichte , page 143. Berlin 1848 , queried on May 6, 2010
- ↑ Slovak gas works celebrate anniversary on Radio Slovakia International on March 21, 2011, accessed on March 30, 2011
- ^ Anton Klipp: Preßburg ... , p. 32
- ↑ ibid.
- ↑ ibid. P. 35; see also: László Szarka: Etnické zmeny v Bratislave in 'Kapitoly z dejín Bratislavy', p.423
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from 23 August 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.
