Early history Flint quarries on the
Lousberg, Schneeberg, and Königshügel, first used during
Neolithic times (3000–2500 BC), attest to the long occupation of the site of Aachen, as do recent finds under the modern city's
Elisengarten pointing to a former settlement from the same period.
Bronze Age (around 1600 BC) settlement is evidenced by the remains of barrows (burial mounds) found, for example, on the Klausberg. During the
Iron Age, the area was settled by Celtic peoples who were perhaps drawn by the marshy Aachen basin's
hot sulphur springs where they worshipped
Grannus, god of light and healing. Proofs of a
Celts settlements on Aachens territories at the beginning of the
Gallic War do not exist at the moment. The 25-hectare Roman spa resort town of Aquae Granni was, according to legend, founded by Grenus, under
Hadrian, around 124 AD. Grenus refers to the Celtic god, and it seems it was the Roman 6th Legion at the start of the 1st century AD that first channelled the hot springs into a spa at Büchel, adding at the end of the same century the
Münstertherme spa, two water pipelines, and a probable sanctuary dedicated to Grannus. A kind of forum, surrounded by colonnades, connected the two spa complexes. There was an extensive residential area. The Romans built bathhouses near
Burtscheid. A temple precinct called
Vernenum was built near the modern
Kornelimünster/Walheim. Today, remains have been found of three bathhouses, including two fountains in the
Elisenbrunnen and the Burtscheid bathhouse. Roman civil administration in Aachen eventually broke down as the baths and other public buildings (along with most of the
villae rusticae of the surrounding countryside) were destroyed around AD 375 at the start of the
migration period. The last Roman coin finds are from the time of Emperor
Gratian (AD 375–383). Rome withdrew its troops from the area, but the town remained populated. By 470, the town came to be ruled by the
Ripuarian Franks and subordinated to their capital,
Cologne. During the Roman period, Aachen was the site of a flourishing Jewish community.
Middle Ages Pepin the Short had a castle residence built in the town, due to the proximity of the hot springs and also for strategic reasons as it is located between the
Rhineland and northern France.
Einhard mentions that in 765–766 Pepin spent both Christmas and Easter at
Aquis villa () ("and [he] celebrated the birth of the Lord [Christmas] in the town Aquis, and similarly Easter"), which must have been sufficiently equipped to support the royal household for several months. In the year of his coronation as king of the
Franks, 768,
Charlemagne came to spend Christmas at Aachen for the first time. He remained there in a mansion which he may have extended, although there is no source attesting to any significant building activity at Aachen in his time, apart from the building of the
Palatine Chapel (since 1930, cathedral) and the
Palace. Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814. Aachen became the focus of his court and the political centre of his empire. During the
Carolingian empire, a Jewish community lived near the royal palace. In Jewish texts, the city of Aachen was called
Aish or
Ash (אש). In 797, Isaac, a Jewish merchant, accompanied two ambassadors of
Charlemagne to the court of
Harun al-Rashid. He returned to Aachen in July 802, bearing an elephant called
Abul-Abbas as a gift for the emperor. After Charlemagne's death, he was buried in the church which he had built; his original tomb has been lost, while his alleged remains are preserved in the
Karlsschrein, the shrine where he was reburied after being declared a saint; his saintliness, however, was never officially acknowledged by the Roman Curia as such. , after a 17th-century painting By the terms of the
Treaty of Verdun 834, Aachen became part of
Middle Francia, governed by emperor
Lothair. He was succeeded by
Lothair II as king of
Lotharingia by the terms of the
Treaty of Prüm. By the
Treaty of Meerssen 870, Aachen came to
East Francia. Within East Francia, later the
Holy Roman Empire until 1166, Aachen was part of the Duchy of
Lower Lotharingia. In 936,
Otto I was crowned king of
East Francia in the collegiate church built by Charlemagne. During the reign of
Otto II, the nobles revolted and the
West Franks under
Lothair raided Aachen in 978. Aachen was attacked again by
Odo of Champagne, who attacked the
imperial palace while
Conrad II was absent. Odo relinquished it and was
killed afterwards. The palace and town of Aachen had fortifying walls built by order of Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa between 1172 and 1176. and the
Council of 1166, a council convened by the
antipope Paschal III. Parts of Aachen belonged to
Imperial Abbey of Burtscheid,
Reichsabtei Kornelimünster,
Duchy of Juelich and the
Duchy of Limburg.
Manuscript production Aachen was an important site for the production of historical manuscripts. Under Charlemagne's purview, both the
Ada Gospels and the
Coronation Gospels may have been produced in Aachen. In addition, quantities of the other texts in the court library were also produced locally. During the reign of
Louis the Pious (814–840), substantial quantities of ancient texts were produced at Aachen, including legal manuscripts such as the leges scriptorium group,
patristic texts including the five manuscripts of the
Bamberg Pliny Group. From the early 16th century, Aachen started to lose its power and influence. First the
coronations of emperors were moved from Aachen to
Frankfurt. 1614 Aachen became theatre of the
Siege of Aachen (1614) within the
War of the Jülich Succession. Although religious changes were forced several times in Aachen and
Protestant communities were banned, hardly any fighting took place during the
Thirty Years' War. The
religious wars had been followed by the great fire of 1656. After the destruction of most of the city in 1656, the rebuilding was mostly in the
Baroque style. Traces of this hidden agenda of the city's history are found in the 18th-century guidebooks to Aachen as well as to the other spas. The main
indication for visiting patients, ironically, was
syphilis; only by the end of the 19th century had
rheumatism become the most important object of cures at Aachen and Burtscheid. Aachen was chosen as the site of several important congresses and peace treaties: the
first congress of Aachen (often referred to as the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in English) on 2 May 1668, leading to the
First Treaty of Aachen in the same year which ended the
War of Devolution. The
second congress ended with the
second treaty in 1748, ending the
War of the Austrian Succession. In 1789, there was a constitutional crisis in the Aachen government, and in 1794 Aachen lost its status as a
free imperial city.. In 1815, after the
Second Treaty of Paris, finishing the Napoleonic Wars, the
Kingdom of Prussia took over within the new
German Confederation. The city was one of its most socially and politically backward centres until the end of the 19th century. The
Kingdom of Prussia created the "Regierungsbezirk Aachen" (governmental distict) and integrated it into the Prussian province
Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine, from 1822 the
Rhine Province. By 1880 the population was 80,000. Starting in 1838, the railway from
Cologne to
Belgium passed through Aachen. By "Gesetz betreffend die Vereinigung der Stadtgemeinde Burtscheid mit der Stadtgemeinde Aachen vom 29. März 1897 nebst Vertrag" Aachen and
Burtscheid merged 1897. The city suffered extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions until 1875, when the medieval fortifications were abandoned as a limit to building and new, better housing was built in the east of the city, where sanitary drainage was easiest. In December 1880, the
Aachen tramway network was opened, and in 1895 it was electrified. In the 19th century and up to the 1930s, the city was important in the production of railway locomotives and carriages, iron, pins,
needles, buttons, tobacco, woollen goods, and silk goods.
20th century Prewar Period Aachen was enlarged 1 April 1906 by "Gesetz betreffend die Vereinigung der Gemeinde Forst mit der Stadtgemeinde Aachen vom 31. März 1906 nebst Vertrag" by incorporation of Forst.
World War I, Interwar Period, World War II The
Belgium Campaign within World War I started in Aachen . After
World War I, Aachen was occupied by the Entente until 1930, along with the rest of German territory west of the Rhine. During the interwar period, Aachen was assigned some areas of the former
district of Eupen. Also the
Western Campaign of
World War II started nearby Aachen with the
Battle of Maastricht. Aachen was heavily damaged during
World War II. Philip W. Blood mentioned more than 120 air strikes on Aachen between 1940 an 1944. According to
Jörg Friedrich in
The Fire (2002), two Allied air raids on 11 April and 24 May 1944 "radically destroyed" the city. The first killed 1,525, including 212 children, and bombed six hospitals. During the second, 442 aircraft hit two railway stations, killed 207, and left 15,000 homeless. The raids destroyed
Aachen-Eilendorf and
Aachen-Burtscheid. In autumn 1944 Aachen and its surroundings were reached by the
Western Allied Siegfried Line campaign. The city and its fortified surroundings were besieged from 12 September to 21 October 1944 by the US 1st Infantry Division with the 3rd Armored Division assisting from the south. Around 13 October the US 2nd Armored Division, coming from the north, and got as close as
Würselen, while the 30th Infantry Division completed the encirclement of Aachen on 16 October 1944. With reinforcements from the US 28th Infantry Division the battle continued involving direct assaults through the heavily defended city, which forced the German garrison to surrender on 21 October 1944. an essay of Liam Collins, Jayson Geroux, and John Spencer. Aachen was the first German city to be captured by the Western Allies, and its residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators. What remained of the city was destroyed—in some areas completely—during the fighting, mostly by American
artillery fire and demolitions carried out by the
Waffen-SS defenders. Damaged buildings included medieval churches of and the
Rathaus (city hall), although
Aachen Cathedral was largely unscathed. 4,000 inhabitants remained in the city; the rest had followed evacuation orders. Its first Allied-appointed mayor,
Franz Oppenhoff, was assassinated by an SS commando unit.
Expulsion of Aachen Jews after its destruction on
Kristallnacht, November 1938 On 16 May 1815, the
Jewish community of the city offered an homage in its synagogue to the Prussian king,
Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1862, a large synagogue was built, later called the
Old Synagogue. By 1933, 1,345 Jews lived in the city. On
Kristallnacht in 1938, the synagogue was destroyed. By the onset of
World War II in 1939, many Jews had emigrated or were arrested, and only 782 remained in the city. At the end of the war in 1945, only 62 Jews lived in the city. As of 2003, 1,434 Jews were again living in Aachen.
Postwar period Subsequent the German surrender finishing the
Battle of Aachen 21 October 1944, the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force acted as military government. Aachen within the northern part of
Rhine Province became part of
British occupation zone in Germany. Aachen also belonged to the
British zone under Belgian control. By Ordinance No. 46, British Military Government created the "Land
Nordrhein/Westfalen", including the "Regierungsbezirk Aachen", 23 August 1946. 23 May 1949 Aachen became part of the
Federal Republic of Germany. With the Aachen Law of 1971, Aachen was merged with
Kornelimünster,
Brand, Walheim,
Laurensberg,
Richterich,
Haaren,
Eilendorf. After the abolition of the Aachen governmental district, August 1972, Aachen became part of the
Cologne governmental district.
21st century The city of Aachen has developed into a technology hub as a by-product of hosting one of the leading
universities of technology in Germany with the
RWTH Aachen (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule), known especially for mechanical engineering, automotive and manufacturing technology as well as for its research and academic hospital
Klinikum Aachen, one of the largest medical facilities in Europe. == Geography ==