North Bavarian Industriestrasse

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The Nordbayerische Industrial Road is a 2009 launched a union of 25 museums between Nuremberg and Regensburg on industrial history . Industriestrasse runs from Burgthann b. Nbg. to Bach on the Danube over a total length of 315 km.

Historical background

When the industrial revolution reached the newly founded Kingdom of Bavaria at the beginning of the 19th century , agriculture was the predominant form of economy in old Bavaria . In contrast, pre-industrial structures had developed in Franconian Nuremberg and in Swabian Augsburg since the Middle Ages.

In the greater Nuremberg area in particular, there was an ideal starting position, even if the city had an enormous debt burden after the Napoleonic wars. Nuremberg had its heyday between the 14th and 15th centuries. The ingenuity of the urban craftsmen became legendary as the “ Nuremberg joke ” and the smaller towns and cities in the vicinity of the trading metropolis were also able to benefit. Mill after mill were lined up along the Pegnitz (river) . In the Nuremberg city area alone there were twelve mills with 131 water wheels in 1601. At the same time, the gold bats in Schwabach began to make a name for themselves. Already at this time there was intensive trade with the Upper Palatinate , because the iron ore extracted there was further processed in Nuremberg and the surrounding area.

The industrial revolution first spread in this region of Bavaria, when countless new companies were founded in Nuremberg from 1820 with the first municipal cloth factory that produced mass goods that were exported all over the world. The Middle Franconian industry continued its economic and technical pioneering position in the late Middle Ages and developed the Leonean industry from trades such as wire-drawing . Other metalworking companies, such as iron foundry and machine works Klett & Co. , which merged with machine works Augsburg to form MAN a few decades later , were founded at this time. The raw materials for these companies were extracted from the ore mines of the Upper Palatinate and received industrial forms towards the middle of the 19th century through the establishment of Maxhütte AG.

The industrial lead of Nuremberg compared to the rest of the Kingdom of Bavaria is shown above all by two structural projects that were initiated in the region from the 1930s onwards. In 1835 the Adler was the first railroad between Nuremberg and Fürth and from July 1836 work began on the Ludwig-Danube-Main Canal between Bamberg , Nuremberg and Regensburg. While the highly industrial age had already prevailed in some cities in Franconia and Swabia by 1870 , the rest of Bavaria remained largely agricultural. Only in the Upper Palatinate did the ore smelters and the first lignite mines show industrial structures.

With the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, the second wave of industrialization began in Bavaria, which was particularly noticeable in the Upper Palatinate. The porcelain and glass factories between Selb and Weiden at the beginning of the 19th century already seemed to have left the high phase of their production behind, switched their production methods to mass production after the discovery of large kaolin deposits around Selb and at times produced 90 percent of German porcelain . In addition, the mining of lignite began in the Wackersdorfer area.

The industrial dominance of Middle Franconia was initially able to hold up in the 20th century, as was the importance of Upper Palatinate as a source of raw materials for Bavaria. The motorcycle and tin toy industry in particular had made a name for itself in Nuremberg and ensured a significant increase in the population. Only with the destruction of the Second World War and the subsequent reconstruction did Munich finally overtake Nuremberg as the leading Bavarian business location. Nevertheless, the North Bavarian industry was able to recover, but never followed the economic success of the 19th century.

Participating museums

Web links