: 1 conventionsthaler
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, 1765
Early history The city of Augsburg was founded in 15 BC on the orders of
Emperor Augustus. Emperor Augustus conducted extensive military campaigns and established administrative settlements. The
Roman colony that became Augsburg was known as
Augusta Vindelicorum, meaning "the Augustan city of the
Vindelici". The settlement was established at the convergence of the
Alpine rivers
Lech and
Wertach. In 120 AD Augsburg became the administrative capital of the Roman province of
Raetia. Augsburg was sacked by the
Huns in the fifth century AD, by
Charlemagne in the eighth century and by
Welf I, Duke of Bavaria in the 11th century.
Augsburg Confession Augsburg was granted the status of a
Free Imperial City on 9 March 1276, and from then until 1803, it was independent of its former overlord, the
Prince-Bishop of Augsburg. Frictions between the city-state and the prince-bishops were to remain frequent, however, particularly after Augsburg became
Protestant and curtailed the rights and freedoms of
Catholics. With its strategic location at an intersection of trade routes to Italy, the Free Imperial City of Augsburg became a major trading centre. Augsburg produced large quantities of woven goods, cloth, and textiles. Augsburg became the base of two banking families that rose to great prominence, the
Fuggers and the
Welsers. The Fugger family donated the
Fuggerei part of the city devoted to housing for needy citizens in 1516, which remains in use today. In 1530, the
Augsburg Confession was presented to the
Holy Roman Emperor at the
Diet of Augsburg. Following the
Peace of Augsburg in 1555, after which the rights of religious minorities in imperial cities were to be legally protected, a mixed Catholic–Protestant city council presided over a majority Protestant population;
see Paritätische Reichsstadt.
Leading European centre of capitalism of the sixteenth century Augsburg's economic boom years occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries thanks to the
bank and
metal businesses of the merchant families
Fugger,
Welser, and
Hochstetter. These families held a near-total monopoly in important industries. Monopolies were considered criminal in contemporary laws, and these families' practices were criticised by
Martin Luther himself, but as
Emperor Charles V needed their financial assistance, he cancelled the charge in the 1530s. In the 16th century Augsburg became one of Germany's largest cities. Augsburg was a major
manufacturing centre for
textiles,
armor,
scientific instruments, as well as gold- and silver-smithing. The prolific
printers of Augsburg also made the city the largest producer of German-language
books in the
Holy Roman Empire. Like other
free imperial cities, Augsburg was an independent entity and had authority over its
tax policies. Augsburg's wealth attracted artists seeking
patrons. The city rapidly became a creative centre for
sculptors and
musicians. Augsburg became the base of the Holbein family, starting with
Hans Holbein the Elder. The composer
Leopold Mozart was born and educated in Augsburg.
Rococo became so prevalent that it became known as "the Augsburg taste" throughout Europe. Augsburg benefited greatly from the establishment and expansion of the
Kaiserliche Reichspost in the late 15th and early 16th century. This postal system, which was the first modern postal service in the world, was created through negotiations and agreements between the Taxis family represented by and the early Habsburgs monarches, notably
Maximilian I, his son
Philip the Handsome and grandson Charles V. Even when the Habsburg empire began to extend to other parts of Europe, Maximilian's loyalty to Augsburg, where he conducted a lot of his endeavours, meant that the imperial city became "the dominant centre of early capitalism" of the sixteenth century, and "the location of the most important post office within the Holy Roman Empire". From Maximilian's time, as the "terminuses of the first transcontinental post lines" began to shift from
Innsbruck to
Venice and from
Brussels to
Antwerp, in these cities, the communication system and the news market started to converge. As the Fuggers as well as other trading companies based their most important branches in these cities, these traders gained access to these systems as well (despite a widely circulated theory which holds that the Fuggers themselves operated their own communication system, in reality they relied upon the imperial posts, presumably from the 1490s onwards, as official members of the court of Maximilian I).
Witch hunts Several
witch hunts occurred in Augsburg in the late 16th century. Following the 1585–1588
plague epidemic, southeast Germany was shattered by the 1589–1591 witch hunts. Following the 1592–1593 plague epidemic, cities in southeast Germany entered a period of
inflation, marked by brutal witch hunts in urban areas.
Thirty Years' War Religious peace in the city was largely maintained despite increasing tensions up to the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). In 1629, the Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II issued the
Edict of Restitution, which restored the legal situation of 1552. However, the edict was revoked in April 1632, when
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden occupied Augsburg. In 1634, the Swedish army was defeated at the nearby
Battle of Nördlingen. By October 1634, Catholic troops had surrounded Augsburg. The Swedish army refused to surrender, and a
siege ensued through the winter of 1634/35, and thousands died from hunger and disease. During the Swedish occupation and the siege by Catholic troops, the population of the city was reduced from about 70,000 to about 16,000. Diseases such as
typhus and the plague ravaged the city.
Guilds In the first half of the 17th century, Augsburg was pivotal in the European network of
goldsmiths. Augsburg attracted goldsmith journeymen from all over Europe, and in the 18th century, a large number of
silversmiths and goldsmiths became
master craftsman in Augsburg.
Nine Years' War In 1686, the
Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I formed the
League of Augsburg, also known as the "Grand Alliance" after England joined in 1689. The
coalition consisted at various times of Austria,
Bavaria,
Brandenburg, England, the
Holy Roman Empire, the
Electorate of the Palatinate, Portugal,
Savoy,
Saxony, Spain, Sweden, and the
Dutch Republic. The coalition was formed to defend the Electorate of the Palatinate and fought against France in the
Nine Years' War.
End of Free Imperial City status The
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss or the Final Recess of 1803, saw the annexation of nearly all of the 51 Free Imperial Cities, excepting Augsburg and five others. However, when the
Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, Napoleon encouraged his German allies to annex their smaller neighbours, and Augsburg lost its independence. It was annexed to the
Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1817, the city became the administrative capital of the
Oberdonaukreis, then the administrative capital in 1837 for the district
Swabia and Neuburg.
Second World War and Cold War for the Nazis. She was liberated in Augsburg when the third-largest Bavarian city fell to the Americans (23 April 1945). Augsburg was historically a militarily important city due to its strategic location. During the German rearmament before the
Second World War, the Wehrmacht enlarged Augsburg's one original Kaserne (barracks) to three: Somme Kaserne (housing Wehrmacht Artillerie-Regiment 27); Arras Kaserne (housing Wehrmacht Infanterie Regiment 27), and Panzerjäger Kaserne (housing Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 27 (later Panzerjäger-Abteilung 27)). Wehrmacht Panzerjäger-Abteilung 27 was later moved to
Füssen. The
MAN factory at Augsburg was the largest German manufacturer of engines for U-boats in
World War II and became the target of the Augsburg Raid. When the
Avro Lancaster bomber was new in service, the
RAF sent 12 at low level to bomb the factory in daylight, on 17 April 1942. The bombers were intercepted en route and only five returned, all damaged. The factory was damaged, but production continued; the factory was repeatedly bombed later. A subcamp of the
Dachau concentration camp outside Augsburg supplied approximately 1,300 forced labourers to local military-related industry, especially the
Messerschmitt AG military aircraft firm, headquartered in Augsburg. In 1941,
Rudolf Hess, without
Adolf Hitler's permission, secretly took off from a local Augsburg airport and flew to Scotland, crashing in
Eaglesham, to the south of Glasgow. His objective was to meet the
Duke of Hamilton in an attempt to mediate the end of the European front of
World War II and join sides for the upcoming Russian Campaign. The Reichswehr Infanterie Regiment 19 was stationed in Augsburg and became the base unit for the Wehrmacht Infanterie Regiment 40, a subsection of the Wehrmacht Infanterie Division 27 (which later became the Wehrmacht Panzerdivision 17). Elements of the Wehrmacht II Battalion of Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 99 (especially Wehrmacht Panzerjäger Kompanie 14) were composed of parts of the Wehrmacht Infanterie Division 27. The Infanterie Regiment 40 remained in Augsburg until the end of the war, finally surrendering to the United States on 28 April 1945 when the
U.S. Army occupied the city. The city and its Messerschmitt works were
bombed on three occasions during the war. Collateral damage included the destruction of just under 25% of all homes in the city and the deaths of several hundred people. Following the war, the three Kasernen changed hands confusingly between the
American and Germans, finally ending up in US hands for the duration of the
Cold War. They became the three main US barracks in Augsburg: Reese, Sheridan, and FLAK. US Base FLAK had been an anti-aircraft barracks since 1936, and US Base Sheridan "united" the former infantry barracks with a smaller Kaserne for former
Luftwaffe communications units. The American military presence in the city started with the U.S. 5th Infantry Division stationed at FLAK Kaserne from 1945 to 1955, then by
11th Airborne Division, followed by the
24th Infantry Division, U.S. Army
VII Corps artillery,
USASA Field Station Augsburg and finally the
66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which returned the former Kaserne to German hands in 1998. Originally, the Heeresverpflegungshauptamt Südbayern and an Officers' caisson existed on or near the location of Reese-Kaserne, but it was demolished by the occupying Americans. ==Politics==