History of the city of Bruchsal

Michaelsberg (Michelsberg)

The history of the city of Bruchsal begins as early as the 4th millennium BC when there was a settlement on the Michaelsberg ( Michelsberg culture ).

Beginnings to the 15th century

The oldest settlement that can still be traced today originated in 640 near today's St. Peter's Church. Bruchsal was first mentioned in a document in 976 on the occasion of King Otto II's visit as bruhosella inter paludes (royal court - or residence - between the swamps), where Old High German means bruho , bruoc Bruch, swamp and seli residence, hall. In 966 Otto the Great had mentioned today's Belgian capital Brussels as "Bruocsella" in a document , and in 1072 the French city Broxeele was mentioned as "Brocsela" with the same meaning. The name is quoted in various ways over the course of around 900 years from Bruhosella to Bruohsele, Bruohsela, Brochsale, Broxole, Brucsel, Brusela, Bruoselle, Bruhsel, Bruchsel (16th century), Prussel to Bruchsal.

In 980 Otto II, his wife Theophanu and their entourage rested from October 8th to 11th in Bruchsal in the royal court. In 985 Duke Otto appropriated Bruchsal in the Salian church robbery .

In 1002 Heinrich II accepted the submission of his rival Herrmann von Schwaben in Bruchsal . In 1056, Heinrich III. the Bishop of Speyer ( Konrad I. ) the settlement. The city remained with the Diocese of Speyer until the secularization in 1802 and became the seat of an administrative district that initially only included the actual city area. In 1067 Heinrich IV lived temporarily in Bruchsal.

In the district of Helmsheim there was a castle on the "Schlossbuckel", the Helmsheim Castle .

In 1248 Bruchsal was first referred to as a city, in 1278 the church of St. Peter was first mentioned, in 1320 this and the royal court (castle) rebuilt after damage, in 1358 the keep was built and in 1452 the city ​​wall was completed. The first coinage took place in Bruchsal in 1460.

16th to 18th century

The Untergrombacher farmer leader Joß Fritz , woodcut by Albrecht Dürer

Baroque Bruchsal Castle

Margravine Amalie of Baden

Café Achteck , the former prison and today's Bruchsal correctional facility

Memorial plaque for Jewish victims of the Nazi rule in Untergrombach

In 1502 the first peasant uprising ( Bundschuh movement ) under Joß Fritz from Untergrombach chose Bruchsal as a target. The leaders were caught by betrayal, and ten were beheaded in the courtyard of the old castle . Joß Fritz escaped to the southern Black Forest . The peasant uprising reached its peak in 1525. Rising prices, famine and the plague also contributed to the uprising of the citizens. The uprising was put down by the troops of the Elector and Archbishop. The well-known peasant leaders Hall, Wurm and the pastor Anton Eisenhut were caught and beheaded in the castle courtyard.

During the Thirty Years War , Bruchsal was devastated in 1622 by the troops of Count Peter Ernst von Mansfeld . In 1644 the French garrison from Philippsburg plundered the city, and in 1676 Bruchsal was partially destroyed by the French and on August 10, 1689 under the orders of the French General Duras, it was fired again and completely destroyed. At that time Bruchsal still had 130 inhabitants.

On April 24, 1711, Prince Eugene of Savoy was in Bruchsal. In 1716 the Bishop of Speyer, Heinrich von Rollingen , moved his court to the Bruchsal Castle. Bruchsal thus became the residence of the Principality of Speyer. The city also became the seat of the Vizedomamt , which was the largest office on the right bank of the Rhine in the duchy. In 1719 Cardinal Damian Hugo von Schönborn became the new prince-bishop. Under his administration, the plans of Balthasar Neumann created the new baroque palace from 1722 and the Peterskirche from 1742.

Franz Christof von Hutten , Schönborn's successor, completed the extensive building work in the baroque town of Bruchsal in 1743, including Damian's Gate and barracks. At his instigation, today's Schönborn-Gymnasium was established around 1755 . In 1770 the new bishop, Count Damian August Philipp Karl von Limburg-Stirum, took office. Bruchsal then had 6,000 inhabitants.

In 1796, French troops occupied the city during the First Coalition War .

19th century

In 1803, the ecclesiastical possessions passed to Baden through secularization . The previous Vice Cathedral Office in Bruchsal within the Diocese of Speyer was divided into the two Baden offices, Stadtamt Bruchsal and Landamt Bruchsal, which were combined to form the Oberamt in 1807, again divided into a City Office, a first and a second Landamt in 1809, and reunited to form the Oberamt Bruchsal in 1819.

In 1806, Margravine Amalie von Baden (1754–1832), from the House of Hessen-Darmstadt, widowed since 1801, moved into the Bruchsal Castle (until 1823). She had eight children, including six daughters and was considered Europe's mother-in-law :

• Her son (the second son died after six months), who later became Grand Duke Charles , was married to Stéphanie de Beauharnais , a niece of his wife Joséphine , on the instructions of Napoleon . Stephanie gave birth to a son in 1812, the new-born prince died 14 days later - from this the Kaspar Hauser legend emerged. It is no legend that Margravine Amalie was not enthusiastic about this line of succession.
• Her daughter Louise was the Russian Czarina Elizabeth, with Alexander I married.
• Her daughter Friederike became Queen of Sweden (from 1807 asylum in Bruchsal) - married to Gustav IV Adolf .
• Her daughter Maria was married to Friedrich Wilhelm , Duke of Braunschweig.
• Two other daughters were married to the regents of Bavaria and Hessen-Darmstadt .

After the end of Napoleon in 1815 the Russian Tsar Alexander , the Prince of Metternich , the King Friedrich Wilhelm III stayed. von Prussia and his son, who later became Kaiser Wilhelm , with Amalie in Bruchsal Castle.

In 1841 the Heidelberg-Bruchsal-Karlsruhe railway line was completed with the first Bruchsal station .

In 1848/1849, the Baden revolution only touched Bruchsal on the edge. While the revolutionaries ( Struve , Brentano , Goegg and others) gathered and discussed in the castle, the bourgeois freed inmates from the recently completed penitentiary. On June 23, 1849, the rebels were repulsed by Crown Prince Wilhelm ( Kartätschenprinz ) in the battle near Ubstadt .

In 1856 gas lighting was introduced. Bruchsal received the Baden guillotine . 1864 Oberamt Bruchsal with the repealed was official Philippsburg for district office Bruchsal combined, the new formed to Karlsruhe district belonged. On June 1, 1869, the oldest German railway signal factory (Schnabel-Henning) was founded, which was later taken over by Siemens & Halske .

After the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/1871, Bruchsal became an important railway junction .

In 1881 the Jewish community received a new synagogue . This was artistically designed by the native Bruchsal painter Leo Kahn . The industrial revolution led to an economic boom, particularly through the railroad and tobacco and hops cultivation. The first telephone connections were laid in 1889 .

20th century and present

In 1906 the Fürst-Styrum-Hospital was built, and in 1908 the city slaughterhouse was opened. In 1914, the First World War made Bruchsal a transit station for supplies. In 1919/1920 the city was supplied with electricity.

The transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933 in Bruchsal was largely silently accepted by the population. Political opponents of the National Socialists and Jews lost their jobs in the Bruchsal city administration and were replaced by employees loyal to the regime. Lord Mayor Meister and Mayor Mehner were initially able to continue to exercise their offices before they were dismissed in July 1933 (Meister) and retired in January 1934 (Mehner).

1934 was highway Heidelberg -Bruchsal built. In 1936, the Bruchsal district office was expanded to include a few communities from the dissolved Bretten district office . In 1939 the Bruchsal district office became the Bruchsal district , to which a total of 38 independent towns and communities belonged until the beginning of the community reform in 1970.

The large synagogue was destroyed in the November pogroms in 1938 (the fire station is now located here). Since 1966 a plaque commemorates this event. On October 22, 1940, in the course of the deportation of the Jews from Baden , the Jewish population was also deported from Bruchsal to Gurs . However, many had already emigrated at this point. A total of 90 Jews still lived in Bruchsal.

Between June 22, 1944 and January 25, 1945, 55 people were executed with the guillotine at the execution site in the cable car. Another nine people were shot on March 20, 1945 in a quarry near Bruchsal. A memorial for the executed was erected in the public park of the city of Bruchsal, which also extends over the area of ​​the former execution site.

On March 1, 1945 shortly before 2 p.m., a bomb attack by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) with 116 heavy bombers killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed the entire city center just before the end of the war (the Allies were already around 20 km away on the Rhine) as well as the castle of the city, which then had 12,000 inhabitants.

On April 2, 1945, units of the 1st French Army entered Bruchsal without a fight. In the following days there were numerous rapes of Bruchsal girls and women by the French colonial troops (see Sexual violence in World War II # French and British Army ). Between November 1945 and March 1946, 13 people were executed in Bruchsal who had been sentenced to death by American military courts for their involvement in National Socialist war crimes . These included people involved in air murders as well as three employees of the Nazi killing center in Hadamar , where over 600 slave laborers were murdered.

After the population had exceeded the limit of 20,000 in 1955, Bruchsal became a major district town on April 1, 1956 . On July 1, 1971, Untergrombach and the town of Obergrombach were incorporated , exactly one year later the neighboring communities of Büchenau and Helmsheim . On 1 January 1973 Württemberg Baden-was within the district reform , the county Bruchsal canceled. Its area was assigned to the district of Karlsruhe . Bruchsal lost the property of a district town , but remained a central center within the regional center of Karlsruhe. On October 1, 1974, the city of Heidelsheim was incorporated. In 1994 Bruchsal passed the 40,000-inhabitant mark.

Today's prison ( Café Achteck ) serves as a security facility, especially for serious criminals and convicted terrorists ( RAF ).

See also

• Bruchsal Jewish community
• British at Bruchsal State Penitentiary during World War II (in English)

literature

• Thomas Adam: A short history of the city of Bruchsal . Braun, Karlsruhe 2006, ISBN 3-7650-8339-9 (series "Regional history - well-founded and compact").
• Hubert Bläsi: City in the Inferno. Bruchsal in the air war 1939-1945 . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 11). 4th revised and expanded edition, Ubstadt-Weiher 1995, ISBN 3-929366-10-X .
• Folke Damminger, Uwe Gross, Thomas Küntzel, Jonathan Scheschkewitz, Martin Thoma: Wars and Reconstruction. Bruchsal from early modern times to modern times. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 39th year 2010, issue 4, pp. 224–228. ( PDF )
• Folke Damminger: In front of the city. At the beginning of the settlement history of Bruchsal. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 39th year 2010, issue 4, pp. 208-213. ( PDF )
• Johannes M. Goldschmit: "In our otherwise quiet city ...". Revolution 1848/49 in Bruchsal . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 16). regional culture publisher: Ubstadt-Weiher 1998. ISBN 3-929366-83-5 .
• Werner Greder: Bruchsal as a garrison town . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 17). Ubstadt-Weiher 1999, ISBN 3-89735-116-1 .
• Werner Greder: Bruchsal and the railroad. Establishment of the railways in and around Bruchsal in the years 1843-1914 . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 2). Bruchsal 1983.
• Uwe Gross, Jonathan Scheschkewitz: royal court and early city. Bruchsal in the high Middle Ages. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 39th year 2010, issue 4, pp. 214–218. ( PDF )
• Alexia Kira House: Bruchsal and National Socialism. History of a north Baden city in the years 1918–1940 . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 19). regional culture publisher: Ubstadt-Weiher, 2001. ISBN 978-3-89735-190-5
• Birthe Kundrus (ed.): The deportation of Jews from Germany: plans - practice - reactions 1938–1945 . Göttingen, 2004.
• Anton Heuchemer: From Bruchsal's turbulent times. From the French Revolution to the end of the Episcopal Vicariate (1789-1827) . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, Vol. 10). Ubstadt-Weiher 1994, ISBN 3-929366-09-6 .
• Anton Heuchemer: Time of Tribulation. The Catholic parishes of Bruchsal in the Third Reich . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 6). Bruchsal 1990.
• Thomas Küntzel: Crisis or Prime Time? The 15./16. Century in Bruchsal. In: Denkmalpflege in Baden-Württemberg , 39th year 2010, issue 4, pp. 219–223. ( PDF )
• Georg Manz: The medieval chapels in Bruchsal. A source study . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 1). Bruchsal 1981.
• Robert Megerle: Heimatlexikon Bruchsal . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 13). Ubstadt-Weiher 1996, ISBN 3-929366-40-1 .
• Thomas Moos: The Bruchsal street names and their meaning . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 24). Ubstadt-Weiher, 2008. ISBN 978-3-89735-526-2 .
• Wolfgang Ossfeld: Obergrombach and Untergrombach in the Middle Ages and early modern times up to around 1600. Investigations into the older settlement, constitution and church history of the two current districts of Bruchsal . (Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg, Vol. 84). Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-17-002122-2 .
• Susanne Reiter: The two Michelsberg lifts in Bruchsal, “Aue” and “Scheelkopf”. Two unequal neighbors . Stuttgart 2005 (Heidelberg, Univ., Diss.,), ISBN 3-8062-1739-4 .
• Paul Riffel: The economic development of the city of Bruchsal from 1690 to the present . Frankfurt am Main 1930 (Frankfurt a. M., Univ., Diss.).
• Stadtarchiv Bruchsal (ed.): I will never forget this sight ... The destruction of Bruchsal on March 1, 1945 in eyewitness reports . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 12). Ubstadt-Weiher 1995, ISBN 3-929366-24-X .
• Jürgen Stude: History of the Jews in Bruchsal . (Publications on the history of the city of Bruchsal, vol. 23). regional culture publisher: Ubstadt-Weiher 2007, ISBN 978-3-89735-441-8 .
• Alfred Wiedemann: The field names of Bruchsal . Heidelberg 1937.

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of those executed by Rainer Kaufmann: Seilersbahn. One way history. ERKA-Kommunikation, Bruchsal 1989, ISBN 3-921983-18-5 , pp. 286-293.
2. ↑ Klaus Stecher: "How Bruchsal's population experienced the occupation" in: Bruchsal 1945 - end and beginning. (Publications of local history from the archive of the city of Bruchsal). Bruchsal [City of Bruchsal] 1971. There especially p. 104.
3. ↑ Peter Huber: Tragedy with role change behind high walls. Confused processes in the Bruchsal prison at the end of the war. In: Bruchsaler Rundschau , April 17, 2009, p. 13.
4. ^ Hadamar Memorial: Post-War Trials. Trial 1945. (Retrieved March 25, 2012).
5. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 473 and 482 .
6. ↑ Chronicle of Bruchsal