History of the city of Fürth

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The history of the city of Fürth is documented around the year 1000.

Middle Ages and early modern times

Memorial stone at the Kapellenruh, probably the oldest settlement area in Fürth
Trinity: split in 1717. Green: Nuremberg property. Yellow: Ansbach. Red: Provost Bamberg.

The establishment of a royal court in Fürth is believed to have been in Franconian times in the 7th or 8th century. Evidence such as the dedication of the first church, the St. Martin Chapel in the Rednitz Wiesengrund, point to the middle of the 8th century. According to a legend , the city is said to have been founded by Charlemagne in 793 .

The strategically favorable location on a Rednitzfurt on the old road from Frankfurt via Würzburg to Regensburg, which essentially corresponds to today's B 8, offered ideal conditions for a settlement. At the same time, a relatively shallow part of the Pegnitz was accessible, which enabled a connection from Bamberg to the south. The fords are now replaced by Maxbrücke and Ludwigsbrücke. It is not certain, however, whether the important Rednitzfurt was at the site of today's Maxbrücke. According to the Fürth historian and former home keeper Alexander Mayer , it was around 250 meters further north in the area of ​​the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer Bridge. Since the extension of Gustavstraße leads to the Martinskapelle as the historical main street of Fürth, Mayer suspects the nucleus of Fürth in the area of ​​the chapel. Only during the time of the Hungarian invasions was the settlement moved to the higher ground around St. Michael's Church.

Fürth is first mentioned in a document issued during the Synod of Frankfurt in 1007 by Emperor Heinrich II dated November 1, 1007 ; In this document, Heinrich gave his property "locum Furti dictum" in the north of the district to the cathedral chapter of Bamberg . In addition, there is a document dated March 19, 907 , a good 100 years older , which confirms an exchange of goods between Fulda Abbey and Echternach Abbey ; The East Franconian King Ludwig exchanged the child in front of the Reichstag in Fürth ( “actum in loco Furt dicto” ). The place of issue of this document is most likely, but by no means with absolute certainty, to be interpreted as Fürth an der Rednitz; it is therefore considered controversial.

In 1062 King Heinrich IV. Fürth again granted market rights , which his father (King Heinrich III. ) Had granted between 1039 and 1056 to Nuremberg , which was established around this time .

In 1385, the Fürth city forest was first mentioned in a document as Fürberg forest in a judgment by Heinrich Schultheiß and the aldermen of the city of Nuremberg in the process for the forest between Fürth and Zirndorf.

Burgrave Konrad II of Nuremberg (called "the Pious") returned the bailiwick of Fürth to the diocese of Bamberg in 1314, renewing the foundation letters from 1303 and 1307 . Since the burgraves of Nuremberg maintained their sovereign claims to Fürth, the rivals were initially the bishop of Bamberg and the burgraves of Nuremberg (from 1415 margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach ). Then came the imperial city of Nuremberg . This so-called “triple rule” led from the 15th to the end of the 18th century to disputes about the territorial legal bases, in particular about the high level of jurisdiction and sovereignty. This special status of Fürth also enabled the residents to have special freedoms and laid the foundation for the successful development of the Jewish community in Fürth. (see below: # Jewish community)

Modern times

Fürth in 1789
Mirror column as a reminder of the important mirror industry in the city

The Margraves of Ansbach, the Dompropstei in Bamberg and the imperial city of Nuremberg ruled until 1792, and there were often disputes. During the Thirty Years' War in 1632 Fürth and Zirndorf were the scene of the battle at the Alte Veste between the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf and the imperial general Wallenstein . On September 8, 1634, the city was burned down to a few houses.

Around 1685, many emigrants from France and the Netherlands immigrated. This created new branches of industry such as tobacco manufacture, stocking knitting, silk and braid weaving, silk dyeing and watchmaking; after 1700 the first Bamberg and Ansbach craft regulations were issued. Nevertheless, there was still a certain "freedom of trade". The following emerged as predominant: the gold / metal beater, mirror maker, glass, glasses maker as well as the carpentry and turner trade.

At the end of the 18th century, Fürth was the main base of the so-called Great Franconian Thieves and Robber Gang , some of which were also called the “Fürth Thief and Robber Gang”. With the abdication of the last Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Bayreuth, Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander , the previous "triple rule" ended in 1792 and Fürth became Prussian . In 1806 Fürth went to Bavaria and became a city , initially in 1808 as a city ​​II class and administered by state officials, from 1818 a city ​​first class with its own administration and police force.

In the 19th century, Fürth developed into an industrial city. In 1835 the first railway in Germany ran on the Ludwig Railway between Nuremberg and Fürth. The Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal between Bamberg and Nuremberg with its canal port near Poppenreuth was put into operation in 1843. In 1846 the entire line to the Danube in Kelheim was opened .

In 1862, Fürth became the seat of a district office from which the Fürth district later emerged. The city itself always remained an independent city.

A merger with Nuremberg was rejected by a large majority in a referendum in 1922 by the citizens of Fürth. Adolf Hitler postponed the incorporation of the former mayor of Nuremberg, Willy Liebel, in 1940 by Führer decree to Nuremberg due to the departure of the previous mayor of Fürth, Franz Jakob, until after the war . The position of the mayor of Fürth was no longer filled, the official business was carried out by the second mayor Karl Häupler until 1944, then on a temporary basis until the end of the war.

During the period of Nazi tyranny , the synagogue of the Jewish community in Geleitsgasse was desecrated and destroyed by SA men in the November pogrom in 1938 . A memorial sculpture by the Japanese sculptor Kunihito Kato has been a reminder of this event since 1986 .

During the Second World War , Fürth was not hit by Allied bombing attacks in the same way as many other cities of this size. About eleven percent of the building fabric was totally destroyed, many buildings were damaged, about ten percent of the city remained undamaged ( air raids on Fürth ). After the end of the war, 15,000 displaced persons were admitted to Fürth.

Jewish community

The first Jewish residents can be found in Fürth from 1440. A Jewish community did not yet exist at that time. In 1528, Margrave Georg the Pious von Ansbach allowed two Jews to settle in the city for six years for protection money. From 1556 the immigration of Jews was also approved in the area of ​​the city subordinated to the Bamberg Cathedral Monastery. Settlement was permitted in the entire city of Ansbach and Bamberg, so that, in contrast to other cities, there was no ghetto formation. Only the Nuremberg area was taboo during the period of the "triple rule", as the imperial city of Nuremberg was opposed to accepting Jewish families.

The Jews established their own cemetery around 1607 and a synagogue in 1617/18 . In 1617 the first synagogue in Fürth, the so-called Altschul, was built and in 1653 the first Jewish hospital in Germany.

From the end of the 17th century until 1824 there was also a Talmud school here , which was highly regarded. In 1670 many Jews who had been expelled by Emperor Leopold I were admitted from Vienna , so that in 1716 there were around 400 Jewish families in the city. In 1807, Jews made up 19 percent of the total population. In 1824 the Talmud school was closed by the Bavarian authorities. In 1862 a Jewish elementary school was founded and in 1882 a middle school. The highest number of Jewish citizens was reached in 1880 at around 3300.

Poland Action: On October 28, 1938, Polish Jews from Nuremberg and Fürth are waiting in Nuremberg Central Station.

On October 28, 1938, 54 Polish Jews were expelled from Fürth or deported as part of the so-called Poland Action . In 1939 the Israelite community in Fürth still had 970 members, in 1940 and 1941 more than 600. On November 29, 1941, the first deportation of 94 Fürth people to Riga, called the “evacuation of Jews”, was ordered. The departure station was the Nürnberg-Märzfeld station . In 1942 the Israelite community still had 510 members. On March 24, 1942, another 231 had to be transported to their deaths, including 33 orphans from the Jewish orphanage on the corner of Dr.-Hallemann-Strasse / Rosenstrasse 2 , who were deported to the extermination camps via the Izbica ghetto , as indicated by a plaque on the house which is now used as a synagogue. None survived. After that there were no more Jewish children in Fürth. Memorial plaques at the former Jewish secondary school at Blumenstrasse 31 , on the Israelitisches Friedhof Erlanger Strasse and on the Old Jewish Cemetery, which was used until 1880 , also commemorate the victims of the Shoah . In January 1943 the Israelite community still had 85 members. Of these, 50 were "sent" to Theresienstadt in June .

→ see also: Main article Flight and deportation of Jews from Fürth

After the end of the Second World War, a DP camp for Jewish displaced persons was set up in Fürth . The camp, which already had 850 residents at the end of 1945, was disbanded in July 1950. The present day Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Fürth has its seat in the Blumenstrasse. It has around 475 members, most of whom moved from the CIS countries after 1990 . The Jewish Museum Franconia in Fürth shows the outstanding importance of Franconia and in particular Fürth as the center of Jewish life in southern Germany.

The memorial in the funeral hall (building from 1902) of the New Jewish Cemetery in Fürth has named the Fürth victims of the Holocaust for a few years. 887 men and women of the Jewish faith are named here on stone tablets. See the web link to the memorandum (there is an illustration).

present

2007 postage stamp

The number of inhabitants exceeded the limit of 100,000 for the first time in 1950. Fürth thus became a big city . Until February 2003, Fürth was the seat of the district of the same name . The district office is now in the neighboring town of Zirndorf .

The subway to Nuremberg has been in operation since December 7, 1985 , and its provisional end point in the Hardhöhe district was opened to traffic on December 8, 2007.

After German reunification, the US Army gave up its two barracks "Monteith-Barracks" in Atzenhof (US military base from 1945 to 1992) and "Johnson Barracks" on Schwabacher Strasse and the "WO Darby Area" in Südstadt. The Darby barracks between Flößau-, Steuben- and Fronmüllerstraße with z. After preliminary work, some of the listed buildings have been converted into a multi-use area with residential quarters, a park area (“Südstadtpark”) and medium-sized businesses with a market hall (“Green Hall”) since 2003; the park has been accessible since autumn 2004.

literature

Ongoing publications

  • Fürth history sheets , formerly Alt-Fürth , then Fürther Heimatblätter :
    • Old Fuerth. Fürther Heimatblätter (Vol. 1, 1937 - Vol. 5, 1941)
    • Fürther Heimatblätter , New Series (Vol. 1, 1951 - Vol. 52, 2002)
    • Fürth history sheets , from vol. 53, 2003
    • Table of contents , accessed April 5, 2008

swell

  • Gestapo list, Stadtarchiv Fürth, Gestapo list of the Jews in Fürth (emigration, change of residence, etc. - incomplete )

Monographs and Articles

  • Hanns-Hubert Hoffmann: Historical Atlas of Bavaria, Franconia Issue 4: Nürnberg-Fürth , Munich 1954 Original edition online (the maps do not work with every browser)
  • Helmut Mahr: Places of Jewish life in the Fürth district. Fuerth 2001
  • Barbara Ohm: 1250 years of Fürth. A city today and its history. Historical thoughts on the millennium year 2000 , in: Fürther Heimatblätter, NF 50, 2000, p. 93.
  • Adolf Schwammberger, The Foundation of Fürth , in: Fürther Heimatblätter, NF 17, 1967, p. 113.
  • Adolf Schwammberger: Fürth from A to Z. A history lexicon , Fürth 1968.
  • Windsheimer Bernd: " History of the City of Fürth ", Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 2007.

References to quotations, footnotes

  1. ^ Windsheimer Bernd: "History of the City of Fürth", Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 2007, p. 12. Reading sample online (PDF; 967 kB).
  2. ↑ Alexander Mayer: Where was the ford? . Fürth 2005. Accessed: June 21, 2018.
  3. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg: Document of March 19, 907
  4. ↑ Erich Freiherr von Guttenberg: The medieval Fürth in the mirror of the imperial and territorial history , in: Journal for Bavarian State History, Volume 6, 1933, page 370, note 2
  5. ↑ Committee for the Commemoration of the Shoah Victims of Fürth (edited by Gisela Naomi Blume): Memor book for the memory of the Jews of Fürth murdered by the Nazis. Fürth 1997. p. 14.
  6. ↑ Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism. A documentation, volume 1. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89331-208-0 , pp. 139f.
  7. ^ Willie Glaser: From Fürth to Izbica. ( Online as a PDF file)

Web links