History of the city of Aachen

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The history of the city of Aachen begins as early as the Neolithic , when flint was mined in the area . The Romans built thermal baths for their soldiers in what is now the city , which the Franks continued to use after the Roman troops withdrew in the 4th century . The city certainly had its greatest importance as the de facto residence of Charlemagne and a few subsequent Carolingians, and later as the coronation site of 30 German kings. From the 17th century, Aachen was expanded into a spa and bathing city and therefore became a popular place to stay for Emperor Napoléon , who also used the Carolingian roots of France to legitimize his own rule. Even today a health resort, Aachen has also grown into a modern high-tech location thanks to the excellent technical university .

From the Stone Age to the Romans

The earliest evidence of a human settlement in the area of ​​today's city of Aachen comes from the Neolithic . During this time (around 3000-2500 BC) flint was already being mined on the Lousberg , Schneeberg and Königshügel and there was brisk trade with it. The Aachen area was also settled in the Bronze Age (around 1600 BC), and the remains of barrows , such as those found on the Klausberg, testify to this time .

Later, in the Iron Age , Celts and Teutons settled in this area, they paid homage to the water god Grannus , an ancient Celtic-Germanic god of light, of fire, in the swampy basin of Aachen, in which numerous streams discharged their water into the Wurm Springs and healing. It was not until the Gallic War that the area was subjugated by the Roman general Julius Caesar .

Around the time of the birth of Christ, the Romans built a planned settlement on what is now the city, called Aquae Granni at least since the Middle Ages . They used the hot, sulphurous springs and specifically expanded the settlement into a spa with several thermal facilities. The first plant was from the VI. Legion built at the beginning of the 1st century at Büchel, towards the end of the century the Münstertherme as well as two water pipes and possibly a sanctuary of the god Grannus were added. A forum-like square surrounded by columned halls connected the two thermal baths. There was also extensive housing development and a craftsmen's quarter. The Romans also built thermal baths in nearby Burtscheid . A temple district was built near today's Kornelimünster , called Varnenum by the Romans .

Between the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century, the Roman administration in Aachen collapsed. Rome withdrew its troops from the area, but Aachen remained settled. In the course of the Great Migration , Franks also came to the Aachen area.

Carolingian times

Aachen royal throne in the high minster of the Aachen cathedral
Statue of Charlemagne at the Karlsbrunnen in front of the Aachen City Hall

Aachen was first mentioned in writing as Aquis Villa in 765, when the Frankish King Pippin the Younger spent Christmas and the following Easter here. His son and successor, Charlemagne , had a magnificent palace built based on Roman and Byzantine models , construction of which began in 789 and of which the Granus Tower , now part of the Aachen town hall , is the oldest building in the city. Later the Palatine Chapel was added, which was built by Pope Leo III in 805 . was consecrated and forms the central building of today's Aachen Cathedral . The octagon of the Palatine Chapel was for a long time the highest domed structure on this side of the Alps. In the last two decades of his life, Karl particularly liked and often stayed in Aachen, probably because of the thermal springs, so that this Palatinate almost became something like his residence.

Charlemagne, now legitimized by the pope Roman Emperor , died on January 28, 814 in Aachen and was buried in the courtyard of the palace chapel. Ludwig the Pious , who was crowned co-emperor in Aachen in 813 as the only living son of Charles, also preferred to stay in Aachen. During the years of his reign he had the Inda monastery built about 10 km from the city, from which today's Kornelimünster arose. He wanted to be buried there, but after his death in 840 his half-brother Drogo arranged for the burial in the cathedral of Metz.

The last Carolingian resident in Aachen was Lothar I , a son of Ludwig. Crowned co-emperor in Aachen in 817, he had little luck in the struggle for the legacy of Charlemagne. In the end he only had a small empire, which at least included the cities of Aachen and Rome.

While the great empire continued to fall apart in the following decades, the Normans invaded Aachen on their raids in the Rhineland in December of 881. They pillaged the imperial palace, the thermal baths and the Inda monastery; the Palatine Chapel and other churches have even been used as horse stables.

Coronation City

It was Otto I who revived the Carolingian tradition and was crowned German king in Aachen in 936 . The city of Aachen remained the coronation site of German kings for almost 600 years and saw 31 coronations. The three Aachen imperial regalia , namely the imperial gospel , the Stephansbursa and the saber of Charlemagne, played an important role in this, without them the coronation was not legally binding. Today, however, there are only replicas of the treasures in the Aachen town hall; the originals were removed before the French in 1794 and finally ended up in the Vienna treasury .

According to the coronation reports from the 15th and 16th centuries, the coronation proceeded as follows: On the day before the anointing, the designated king entered the city solemnly through the Cologne or Königstor , followed by a visit to the Marienkirche, today's cathedral, as well afterwards visiting the hostel. The next day the coronation ceremony took place as part of a mass celebration, beginning with the king's oath of the obligations of his office and the prince's oath of allegiance to the king. Then the anointed archbishops of Cologne , Mainz and Trier to with imperial regalia -clad king. After taking the coronation oath in the coronation gospel , the ascension to the throne in the upper church, acceptance of the congratulations, admission as a canon in the cathedral monastery and award of the knighthood followed. The Mass was later continued in front of the Marien Altar. After the solemn procession to the town hall with coins being ejected for the people, the coronation meal with the electors , bishops, other princes and city representatives took place in the emperor's hall of the town hall .

The following kings were crowned in this way in Aachen:

Otto III. wanted to develop Aachen into a Roma secunda , a second Rome. For this he planned the construction of the Church of St. Adalbert , the Salvatorkirche and the Benedictine Abbey of Burtscheid . Together with Charlemagne's palatine chapel, these symbolically formed the endpoints of a cross, but were only completed under later rulers.

Imperial city

Elevation to imperial city and late Middle Ages

Carl Rhoen : Map of Aachen with the two rings of the city wall (the outer one did not exist at the time) as well as the dam and flooded area during the siege in 1248
Coat of arms of the imperial city of Aachen

Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa , who was crowned king in Aachen in 1152, had Charlemagne from the antipope Paschal III in 1165 . canonize. With the Charlemagne privilege , Friedrich granted the city market and minting rights in the following year and declared it an imperial city , whereby it acquired imperial immediacy . In return, the citizens of Aachen began building the 2.5 km long Aachen city wall , the so-called “Barbarossa Wall ”, which runs along today's moat ring in 1171 . The city now covered around 45 hectares.

In 1248 the anti-king Wilhelm of Holland , elected by the papal party, planned to be crowned in Aachen. The Aachen citizenship, loyal to their Emperor Friedrich II , resisted. During the siege of Aachen, a dam was built that dammed the water from Pau , Paunell and Johannisbach , which flooded a large part of the urban area. After six months of siege, the citizens surrendered and Wilhelm was crowned.

In the 13th century, the first town house was built with donations from Richard von Cornwall on the occasion of his coronation in Aachen. It served as a meeting place for the council and was probably completed in 1267. The facade of the grass house has been preserved to this day in a revised form.

In 1278, Count Wilhelm IV von Jülich claimed the rights to the city of Aachen. He tried to collect a special tax for King Rudolf I of Habsburg. In the absence of the king, he entered the city on Gertrudis Night with 468 armed riders through the Cologne Central Gate, which was opened by traitors. He met strong resistance from many Aacheners and was killed in battle together with his three sons and many companions. Since the 19th century, the memorial of the fortified blacksmith has been commemorating this incident, which according to legend is said to have killed the count. In an atonement contract dated September 20, 1280 at Schönau Castle , the city ​​of Aachen undertook to pay his widow Richarda a large amount of damages.

Aachen on the Ebstorf world map from 1300

Thanks to the privileges granted by Friedrich Barbarossa, the population of Aachen grew rapidly. The city began around 1270, also subsidized by Richard of Cornwall, with the construction of a new wall belt, roughly along today's "avenue ring". Up to 4,000 craftsmen worked on the 5.5 km long wall with eleven gates and numerous towers. The main gates were completed in 1320. This quadrupled the walled area to 175 hectares. This area remained the city of Aachen until the end of the 18th century and now forms the Aachen old town . The population reached its medieval high point in the middle of the 14th century at almost 20,000. Aachen was thus one of the largest German cities. In the Middle Ages only about two thirds of the walled area was built on, the rest remained grassland. Only in the 19th century was there any construction outside of the wall.

Map of the Aachen Empire

In 1336 the Aachen Empire was founded when Ludwig the Bavarian confirmed the lands and villages belonging to the municipality in a document. The old Linzenshäuschen on Eupener Straße, the Tower Beeck house on Dreiländerweg, the Adamshäuschen on Preußweg, Orsbach Castle and the Hirsch House in Laurensberg are still preserved today from the securing by a 70-kilometer-long Aachen ditch with eight watchtowers were directly or indirectly connected to the Long Tower by means of light or smoke signals .

In 1330, on the initiative of the incumbent mayor Gerhard Chorus, the construction of the new town hall began, which the Aachen citizenship built on the foundations of the Carolingian palace. From the year 1349 the use of the building for administrative purposes can be proven; In the years 1370 to 1376 the market side was decorated with statues of the emperors.

The Aachen sanctuaries were shown for the first time in 1349; thus began the tradition of the sanctuary tour . Since then, this event has taken place every seven years with few exceptions. Up to the end of the 15th century, Aachen was one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Christianity, alongside Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela .

Since the number of pilgrims far exceeded the capacity of the old Palatinate Chapel, the monastery chapter decided in 1355, supported by Mayor Chorus, to add a Gothic choir hall. The "Glass House of Aachen" with the largest Gothic windows ever built was inaugurated in 1414, on the 600th anniversary of Charlemagne's death.

From 1450 onwards, the Aachen gaff letter gave traders a seat and voting rights in the Aachen administration. This became necessary due to the strengthening of the merchants and guilds, who revolted against the city regiment in order to finally gain co-determination.

Aachen's big time as a coronation site ended in 1531 with the coronation of Ferdinand I .

In 1556 Charles V resigned from his rulership. Shortly afterwards, the Netherlands broke away from the German Empire (→ Spanish Netherlands ). Aachen thereby lost its geographically central position in the empire; henceforth Frankfurt am Main was the coronation site.

Religious unrest

Aachen town hall with market square and Karlsbrunnen

In the age of the Reformation, the city of Aachen experienced a checkered history, which is known in historical studies as the "Aachen religious unrest". At first only a few Aacheners joined the Reformation , but since the 1560s the number of Protestants has grown steadily. This was not only due to the arrival of Dutch craftsmen who helped the city to flourish, but also to the conversion of several Aachen families to the “new faith”. In 1581 the Protestant party gained a majority in the council and for the first time officially permitted the practice of the Augsburg religion, which had been practiced for many years, i.e. H. Protestant services and gatherings.

The (Catholic) Emperor disliked the denominational change in “his” imperial city, which, as the coronation city of the German kings, was particularly close to the Catholic Church. In 1593 Rudolf II declared Aachen an imperial ban, which was only enforced five years later. As a result, a city council consisting solely of Catholics faced a majority Protestant citizenship, which was excluded from any say - conflicts were predetermined under these conditions.

After the council arrested some Protestant citizens who had attended Protestant services in the surrounding area ( Stolberg and Weiden ) and wanted to withdraw their citizenship, the Protestants attacked the town hall and the Jesuit college on July 5, 1611. The two mayors and the Jesuit fathers were captured. The emperor urged the Protestants to obey, but died a few months later without settling the matter. After the death of the old emperor, the responsible imperial vicar made a decision in favor of the Protestants. They were again allowed to officially practice their religion alongside the Catholics and participate in council elections.

The new emperor Matthias did not agree with this decision, which is why an imperial embassy was supposed to restore the conditions of 1598 in August 1614. This commission received support from a Spanish army from the Netherlands under the command of the Marquis Ambrosius Spinola . Given the 16,000 soldiers in front of the city walls - and without a shot being fired - the city council gave up. Two years later, harsh sentences were passed against the Protestants. Two citizens were sentenced to death and 77 families were exiled. This weakened the economic life in Aachen considerably. A renewed strengthening of Protestantism in Aachen seemed hardly possible any more. In fact, the Roman Catholic denomination was to remain the only dominant one until the end of the Old Kingdom. The disputes between Catholics and Protestants are already contained in a first chronicle of the city , published in 1620 by Peter von Beeck in Latin, which as a source also summarizes other important events in the city's history since Charlemagne.

Thirty Years' War

Since the Thirty Years War until Sweden entered in 1630 under Gustav Adolf was mainly limited to the north-east and the center of the empire and only extended to the extreme west with France's direct intervention in 1635, Aachen was largely spared the immediate consequences of the war until 1636 . However, Aachen's sovereignty was further restricted by the Spanish garrison installed in 1614, which was responsible for supporting the position of the Catholic Church in Aachen, which was still considered to be endangered. An embassy to the Spanish Infanta Clara Eugenia , who was staying in Aachen on the occasion of the sanctuary trip in 1627, could not achieve the withdrawal of the Spanish troops. This only took place in 1632 as part of the fighting that had spread through Sweden's offensive. Aachen's situation was further impaired by roaming Dutch troops since the resurgence of the Eighty Years War and by unsuccessful expansion efforts of the emerging Netherlands in the Aachen area. Under these conditions the economy, weakened by the religious unrest, could not recover - regardless of the fact that there was no fighting in the area of ​​the Aachen Empire . In addition, there was a serious crop failure and a prolonged epidemic in 1625 .

As in numerous other cities, the general crisis intensified the anti-Jewish mood in parts of the population of the city and the surrounding area. Thereupon an Aachen delegation obtained the approval of the Jülich Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm , the holder of the protection of Jews , to establish a Mons Pietatis and expel the Jews from Aachen. Overall, however, the situation in Aachen was generally still reasonably positive until 1632. This is also documented in the most important Aachen city ​​chronicle, Aacher Chronick, by Johannes Noppius , published this year .

When the unity of the imperial estates was largely restored after the Peace of Prague in 1635 , France immediately intervened in the war to prevent the impending strengthening of the empire. As a result, Aachen was always at the center of large troop movements. In January 1636 the first acts of war broke out in Aachen when the city council rejected the imperial troops' request for winter quarters. After almost three weeks of siege, the city gave up its resistance and had to pay for the maintenance of 17 companies, some of them mounted, for almost four months. In March 1638 an army of 6,000 men under Piccolomini and de Grana also demanded quarters. This time the council asked the electors of Mainz and Cologne for help, while the citizens set up a 3,000-man city defense, reinforced by 1,500 conscripted farmers from the Aachen Empire and the regular city soldiers. This was followed by almost two weeks of fierce fighting, characterized by numerous casualties by the besieged and heavy gunfire on the city ​​fortifications by the imperial artillery . After a letter from the Electors of Cologne and Mainz recommended that the city cease the resistance, the council decided to accept part of the imperial troops. The occupation lasted for over two months until the early summer of 1638. Already at Christmas time of the same year, troops under Piccolomini's leadership were again standing in front of the city gates, this time billeted without resistance and only moved on in May 1639.

The general then left the western theaters of war, but appears to have previously released his troops into imperial care. The city was only able to negotiate this time to prevent billeting by paying a high contribution . But in the summer of the current year there was already a new hardship at the gates of the city in the form of Wallenstein's Field Marshal Melchior von Hatzfeldt . At his behest, the Count of Nassau marched against Aachen, but could already be decisively repulsed by urban troops at the imperial village of Haaren . When Hatzfeldt, who was encamped in Cologne, requested winter quarters for part of his considerable troops in December 1640, the city was only able to avert this after the intercession of General Lamboy and the promise of extensive benefits in kind and in cash. In this increasingly precarious situation, the citizens of Aachen combined great hope with the Reichstag in Regensburg, which was convened in the same year . In fact, the mayor of Schwartzenberg, as a representative of the imperial city of Aachen, succeeded in obtaining a charter from Emperor Ferdinand in Regensburg in the autumn of 1641 , which released the city from the obligation to quarter imperial troops. However, at this point in time the city's economic situation was already in ruins and solvency could only be maintained through repeated, newly created taxes and loans from wealthy citizens.

Already in the following year 1642 the local war events turned against the imperial army and Weimar troops devastated the Aachen area. In 1643 and 1644 Hessian units under von Eberstein repeatedly made problems for the city . In the last years of the war there was hardly any fighting, but marauding associations from both parties plagued the largely unprotected territory beyond the city fortifications and forced further contributions into the 1650s. The historical heyday of the old imperial city was finally history.

Baroque period

Matthäus Merian : Aachen around 1647
Aachen around 1690

On May 2, 1656, a great catastrophe broke out in the city when Peter Maw's bakery below Jakobstrasse caught fire and almost the entire city caught fire within 20 hours. According to official counts, the great city fire destroyed 4664 of the 5300 houses in Aachen, and 17 deaths were recorded. Medieval Aachen with its Gothic buildings almost completely fell victim to the flames.

In the period that followed , the bath doctor François Blondel , who came from Liège , developed Aachen into one of the most modern bathing resorts in Europe. In Aachen at that time the phrase was circulating: “What the fire has destroyed, the water builds up again.” The expansion of the spa business with opportunities for idleness and entertainment (casino, ballrooms) turned the city into a fashion bath, and Aachen regularly housed the European one Prominence. These included rulers such as Tsar Peter the Great of Russia and the Prussian King Frederick the Great as well as the composer Georg Friedrich Handel .

In 1668 a peace congress in Aachen led to the end of the war of devolution between France and Spain , today known as the " First Aachen Peace ". In 1748 the " Second Aachen Peace " ended the War of the Austrian Succession . To celebrate the Second Peace of Aachen, George Frideric Handel was commissioned by King George II (England) to compose his famous fireworks music, which finally premiered in London's Green Park in 1749.

In the meantime, at the beginning of the 18th century, the baroque age of the master builder Johann Josef Couven began in Aachen , who influenced the architecture of the Aachen area so strongly that one speaks of the " Couven style" or "Aachen-Lütticher baroque". The expansion of the Aachen town hall into a baroque city palace also dates from this time. From around 1750 Couven was supported by his son Jakob , the style changed towards Rococo .

In the so-called Aachener Mäkelei in 1786 there were unrest in the elections for the city council and mayor. Two groups faced each other: the “Old Party”, which wanted to stick to the old guild system regulated by the gaff letter, and the “New Party”, consisting of representatives of the rich citizens, whose aim was to gain more power in the town hall . To this end, the New Party was allowed to use any means of "mackling" (influencing the election), after bribery and false promises it finally came to "storming the town hall". It was only when the French marched in that the quarrels between the two parties ended.

Napoleonic Empire

The French revolutionary troops reached the city on December 15, 1792 and set up a freedom tree in the market square to express their ideas of “freedom, equality and brotherhood”. But on March 1, 1793, the French were defeated by the Austrians near Aldenhoven and the city of Aachen was liberated one day later. The citizens were delighted, there were only a few supporters of the revolution in Aachen. But on September 22nd, 1794, the French troops defeated the Austrians again and the city of Aachen was reoccupied. From then on, the French soldiers had to be offered accommodation; monastery buildings were used as magazines, horse stables or hospitals. The citizens of Aachen also had to pay compulsory taxes in the form of food and benefits in kind. With the Treaty of the Peace of Campo Formio of October 17, 1797, the city of Aachen finally fell to France.

With the second occupation of Aachen in 1794, most of the monasteries in Aachen, z. B. the imperial abbey in Kornelimünster, the Augustinian monastery Aachen in the Augustinergasse, the Capuchin monastery Aachen on the Kapuzinergraben and the Dominican monastery Aachen in the Jakobstrasse closed. With a Napoleonic consular resolution to abolish the monasteries on June 9, 1802, the monasteries in the Arrondissement d'Aix-la-Chapelle were expropriated and finally secularized.

On June 30, 1802, an ordinance passed the introduction of the French constitution in the Rhenish departments and thus also in Aachen on September 22, 1802. Aachen's citizens became legally French.

Aachen now became a prefecture and thus the administrative center of the Département Roer with four arrondissements , and got its own bishopric in 1802 after the dissolution of the Cologne archbishopric. Marc-Antoine Berdolet became the first bishop . The Londoner Hof in Aachener Kleinkölnstraße 18 served as the prefecture's administrative building. Aachen became the seat of the following prefects one after the other :

The city of Aachen in the Arrondissement d'Aix-la-Chapelle was headed by a municipal council, which consisted of seven members, divided into a lawyer, a brewer and a doctor as well as four merchants. After the introduction of the prefectural system, the municipality consisted of the mayor , three adjuncts and 30 municipal councilors. The first mayor was appointed by the prefecture, but from 1802 it was elected by the citizens. The three maires during the occupation were:

At that time, Aachen was also a popular place to stay for the successful French general and, from 1804, Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, and thanks to his sponsorship, it experienced an unexpected economic boom. The guilds were dissolved, granted freedom of trade and 1804 the Aachen Chamber of Trade, later IHK Aachen in Burtscheid founded.

Remains of the Belvedere from Napoleon's time

Aachen was also further developed into a spa and bathing resort, and Napoléon's first wife, Empress Joséphine , also received a two-month spa treatment. After Napoléon personally approved the demolition of the city walls, spacious promenades with rows of trees were laid out. Prefect Ladoucette describes the renovation work in detail: “The shape of this city is oval; their main streets are wide and fairly regular; by changing their sharp cobbles, they now get a powerful pattern. There are a large number of beautiful houses, and every day you can see Gothic facades disappear. ”The Lousberg was also included in this urban beautification and a park with many trees and the garden restaurant“ Belvedere ”were created on the previously bare mountain. The facility was completed in 1815.

In June 1811 Napoléon had his son baptized in Aachen, and at the end of the year he and his second wife visited the city of Aachen for the last time. In November 1811, all thermal springs in Aachen and Burtscheid were nationalized on the instructions of Napoléon. In January 1814 the French withdrew from Aachen.

19th century

Aachen in the 19th century

In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna , Aachen was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1816, initially in the province of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine, the seat of a Prussian district government and a district. The city itself formed its own urban district and was not subordinate to any district (district-free). From 1824 the city with the entire administrative district belonged to the Rhine Province .

In 1818 the monarchs' congress took place in Aachen . Here the representatives of the allies England, Russia, Austria and Prussia decided that France may suspend war indemnity payments and that almost all requirements will be dropped from now on. Today is reminiscent of the successful conclusion of the congress Congress monument in Farwick Park, the northern part of the city of Aachen garden .

In the course of the congress, the three monarchs of the victorious powers, i.e. King Friedrich Wilhelm III, commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig . von Prussia , Emperor Franz I of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia , at a service in front of the Adalbertstor of this historic event.

City Theatre

In November 1822, King Friedrich Wilhelm III. on the occasion of his 25th anniversary of the throne, the foundation stone for the city ​​theater and Elisenbrunnen . Both buildings were built in the classicistic style according to the designs of the city architect Johann Peter Cremer . The city theater was completed in May 1825 and the Elisenbrunnen in May 1827.

In 1830 a labor riot was bloodily suppressed by armed citizens and soldiers. The introduction of the steam engine , especially in the cloth industry, the advancing mechanization and the associated unemployment, as well as women's and child labor at low wages, had led to the unrest.

On September 1, 1841, the Cologne-Aachen railway line and two years later the connection to the Belgian railway network was inaugurated. The 277-meter-long Burtscheid Viaduct over the Wurmtal between Aachen and Burtscheid was considered an engineering masterpiece at the time and is now the oldest railway bridge in Germany that is still in use.

The Royal Rhenish-Westphalian Polytechnic School , today's RWTH Aachen University, started teaching on October 10, 1870 with 32 lecturers and 223 students. The main building on the Templergraben, which is still preserved today, was built in the Renaissance style by city architect Robert Ferdinand Cremer .

On June 29, 1883, a fire broke out in the chemical factory J. P. J. Monheim in Antoniusstraße , which quickly spread to surrounding buildings and later also set fire to the roof of the town hall. The imposing tower buildings and the large main roof fell victim to the flames, but the coronation hall with the Rethel frescoes was not damaged.

After the residential development had already exceeded the outer city ring in 1841, the population of Aachen rose to over 150,000 at the turn of the century due to the incorporation of Burtscheid (1897) and Forst (1906).

First World War and Weimar Republic

Devastation in Aachen city hall after the storming by the separatists on October 21, 1923

During the First World War , the city of Aachen played only a minor role and was occupied by Belgian and French troops in November 1918 . While the French withdrew again in 1920, the Belgian occupation lasted a total of eleven years. During this time Aachen was subordinate to the Inter-Allied High Committee for the Rhineland .

In the post-war period, which was marked by famine and economic problems, a separatist movement emerged in Aachen , which occupied Aachen city hall on October 21, 1923 during a coup . There were bloody clashes between the separatists and the Aachen population, which were only ended by the Belgian occupiers on November 2nd.

On the occasion of the millennium celebration of the Rhineland , the first international riding, jumping and driving tournament took place in Aachen in 1925. Since then, this tournament has been held every year by the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein (ALRV) on the meadows of the Kuckesrath estate in the Soers. Officially called CHIO (Concours Hippique International Officiel) since 1952 , it has developed into the world's largest equestrian tournament.

In 1930, the Diocese of Aachen , which was dissolved in 1825, was re-established and subordinated to the Archdiocese of Cologne as a suffragan .

National Socialism and World War II

Train of German prisoners of war through the ruins of Aachen, October 1944

The following decade was marked by National Socialism and war preparations . The rise of the NSDAP in Aachen was mainly driven by the clique around the brothers Rudolf and Eduard Schmeer ; but it was more sluggish than in the rest of the Reich. One of the reasons for this was the cultural dominance of Catholicism in the city, through which the Center Party was able to maintain its strong position. Another reason was the extravagant lifestyle of the group around the Schmeer brothers and their dishonest handling of party money and public money - both aspects initially made it difficult for the population to accept the National Socialists. An early supporter of the NSDAP in Aachen was the factory owner Max Mehler , who consciously employed National Socialists in his factory, including the later mayor Quirin Jansen and the later Reich inspector Rudolf Schmeer. A large part of the workforce in Mehler's factory held leading positions in the then relatively insignificant NSDAP in Aachen in 1927.

In 1933, in the course of the so-called seizure of power, the leading municipal and state officials in Aachen were replaced by members of the NSDAP and the city council was dissolved. Nevertheless, the Shrine Tour took place in 1937, which, with its 800,000 participating pilgrims, can be considered a silent protest against the Nazi regime.

During the November pogroms in 1938 , Jewish shops and apartments in Aachen were devastated or looted. The Old Synagogue was set on fire on the morning of November 10, 1938.

552 Aacheners of Jewish origin were deported and murdered in the years to come.

Refugees leave the destroyed Aachen, October 23, 1944

The Second World War followed , 40,000 soldiers were stationed in Aachen and on May 10, 1940, the German troops invaded the Netherlands at Beek and Vaals . However, the first of five major air raids took place in July 1941, and the bombing destroyed a total of around 26,000 apartments and over 5,000 buildings. Aachen was badly damaged in the Second World War, 65% of the living space was destroyed. Tens of thousands of deportation victims who had been interned in Belgium came through the border town of Aachen, only to be smuggled through Germany into the concentration camps by the “Reichsbahn”.

In 1944, Aachen was evacuated and on October 21, 1944, after six weeks of fighting ( Battle of Aachen ), it was the first major German city to be captured by the Allies . At that time the city only had 11,139 inhabitants.

The Americans installed Franz Oppenhoff as the new mayor , but five months later a Nazi allegedly shot him as a collaborator . This Nazi was part of a group of Waffen SS men, including a woman, who got behind enemy lines. Someone from the group knew Franz Oppenhoff personally and asked to be admitted to his house. When this was granted, they murdered him. Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda then spread the lie that this action was an act of the Werwolf organization . The “Kaiserallee” was later renamed Oppenhoffallee after him. This was followed by an occupation by first American, then British and later Belgian troops.

Post-war to the present

In 1946 Aachen again reached 100,000 inhabitants. On August 23, 1946, the northern part of the previous Rhine province , to which Aachen also belonged, became part of the newly founded state of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Between 1945 and 1953, 40 people died on the so-called Aachen coffee front when coffee was smuggled between Belgium and Germany .

The following years were marked by reconstruction: the town hall and the cathedral were restored, the Elisenbrunnen completely rebuilt according to old plans and the city theater, of which only the facade was preserved, was given a new building.

The University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen

The City of Aachen's International Charlemagne Prize was awarded for the first time in 1950 for outstanding services to unification and peace in Europe. In the same year, the first award of the order against the seriousness of the animal took place, which has since distinguished every year special "humor in office".

During the territorial reform of 1972, the urban area of ​​Aachen was more than doubled through the incorporation of Brand , Eilendorf , Haaren , Kornelimünster , Laurensberg , Richterich and Walheim , the number of inhabitants rose to 237,108 and the Aachen district received its current size. However, the Aachen administrative region was dissolved and incorporated into the Cologne administrative region.

In the same year, construction of the new Aachen clinic began . The construction time was more than ten years and the building was officially handed over to RWTH Aachen University in 1985 by then Prime Minister Johannes Rau .

When Henry Kissinger was awarded the Charlemagne Prize in 1987 , protests broke out. As a result, the Aachen Peace Prize was launched, which developed into one of the most prestigious prizes of the peace movement.

In 1991, the Ludwig Art Collection was relocated to the newly renovated building of the old Brauer umbrella factory in Jülicher Strasse and reopened as the Ludwig Forum for International Art .

Almost 50 years after the destruction of the old synagogue on the Night of the Reichspogrom, the new synagogue was inaugurated in 1995 .

In 2001, one of the most modern thermal baths in Europe, the Carolus Thermen Bad Aachen , opened; at the end of 2004, the 1.5 millionth visitor was counted.

In 2006 the World Equestrian Games were held in Aachen.

On May 25, 2009, the city received the title “ Place of Diversity ” awarded by the federal government .

See also

swell

  • Petri a Beeck : AQUISGRANUM, Aquisgranum sive historica Narratio de regiae SRJ et coronationis regum Rome. sedis Aquensis civitatis origine ac processu , Aachen 1620.
  • Johannes Noppius : Aacher Chronick, that is a short, historical description of all antiquities and stories worth remembering, as well as added privileges and statutes. Cologne 1632.

literature

General

  • Marianne Jungs: The history of the imperial city of Aachen from the Romans to modern times and much more. 1st edition. AC-Verlag Junge, 1995.
  • Thomas R. Kraus (Ed.): Aachen. From the beginning to the present. Volume 1: The Natural Basics. From prehistory to the Carolingians . Mayersche Buchhandlung, Aachen 2011, ISBN 978-3-87519-251-3 .
  • Michael Römling: Aachen. History of a city. Soest 2007.
  • Hans Siemons : History of Aachen in data . Part 1: until 1964, Part 2: 1965-2000. Ed .: Bernhard Poll (=  Publications of the City Archives Aachen . Volume 12 ). Reprint of the 2nd edition. Verlag JA Mayer, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-87519-214-1 .

Roman times

middle Ages

Early modern age

  • Albert Huyskens : Aachen life. In the Baroque and Rococo ages. Fritz Klopp Verlag, Bonn 1929.
  • Thomas Kirchner: Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed in Aachen 1555–1618 (= late Middle Ages, humanism, Reformation. ) Tübingen 2015.
  • Hansgeorg Molitor: Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the imperial city of Aachen. In: Journal of the Aachen History Association. 98/99, 1992/93, pp. 185-204.
  • Max Wohlhage: Aachen in the Thirty Years' War. Aachen 1911.

Modern times

Web links

Wikisource: Aachen  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Schumacher: Celtic glass and a Roman villa in the Elisengarten. an-online.de, January 23, 2009, accessed November 20, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Andreas Schaub explains the archaeological findings at the court Archeology at the court. (MP3; 1.5 MB) City of Aachen, accessed on July 3, 2009 .
  3. ↑ 3D reconstruction of the Münstertherme Münstertherme. City of Aachen, accessed on September 17, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Andreas Schaub explains the archaeological window in the Elisengarten Archeology in the Elisengarten. (MP3; 1.4 MB) City of Aachen, accessed on July 3, 2009 .
  5. ↑ This mention can be found in the Annales regni Francorum : “DCCLXV. (765) […] Et celebravit natalem Domini in Aquis villa et pascha similiter. "
  6. ↑ Hartmut Geißler: Who was Charles IV? In it: 2. Charles's policy in Italy, elections for kings and coronations, France and the [sic!] Empire. In: Historischer Verein Ingelheim eV (Hrsg.): Histvereiningelheim.de .
  7. ↑ Oliver Auge: Ruprecht (III.) Von der Pfalz. In: New German Biography. Volume 22. Berlin 2005, pp. 283–285, here p. 284.
  8. ^ Max Wohlhage: Aachen in the Thirty Years' War. Aachen 1911, p. 14ff.
  9. ^ Max Wohlhage: Aachen in the Thirty Years' War. Aachen 1911, p. 21ff.
  10. ^ Max Wohlhage: Aachen in the Thirty Years' War. Aachen 1911, p. 28ff.
  11. ^ A b Paul Fabianek: Consequences of secularization for the monasteries in the Rhineland - Using the example of the monasteries Schwarzenbroich and Kornelimünster. BoD, Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-1795-3 , p. 12 and p. 29 with the appendix consular decision Arrêté portant suppression des ordres monastiques et congrégations régulières dans les départemens de la Sarre, de la Roër, de Thin-et -Moselle et du Mont-Tonnerre .
  12. ↑ Entries in the finding aid on archive.nrw.de.
  13. ^ Jean Charles François Baron de Ladoucette: Journey in 1813 and 1814 through the country between the Meuse and the Rhine . Ed .: Birgit Gerlach. 1st edition. Antiquariat Am St. Vith, Mönchengladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028810-4 .
  14. ↑ Elmar Gasten: Aachen in the time of the National Socialist rule: 1933–1944 (= European university publications. Series 3, Volume 541). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1993 (also Diss. Cologne 1990), ISBN 3-631-45697-2 , p. 33ff.
  15. ↑ The NSDAP had a hard time in Aachen . In: Aachener Nachrichten of January 26, 2013.
  16. ↑ See E. Gasten: Aachen in the time of National Socialist rule: 1933–1944 , Frankfurt am Main 1993 (cf. Diss. Cologne 1990, Europäische Hochschulschriften , series 3, vol. 541), p. 31.