Middle Ages In 744
Saint Sturm, a disciple of
Saint Boniface, founded the
Benedictine monastery of Fulda as one of Boniface's outposts in the reorganization of the church in
Germany. The initial grant for the abbey was signed by
Carloman,
Mayor of the Palace in
Austrasia (in office 741–47), the son of
Charles Martel. The support of the Mayors of the Palace, and later of the early Pippinid and
Carolingian rulers, was important to Boniface's success. Fulda also received support from many of the leading families of the Carolingian world. Sturm, abbot from 747 until 779, was most likely related to the
Agilolfing dukes of
Bavaria. Fulda also received large and constant donations from the Etichonids, a leading family in
Alsace, and from the
Conradines, predecessors of the
Salian Holy Roman Emperors. Under Sturm, the donations Fulda received from these and other important families helped in the establishment of daughter-houses near Fulda. In 751, Boniface and his disciple and successor
Lullus obtained an exemption for Fulda, having it placed directly under the
Papal See and making it independent of interference by bishops or worldly princes. The monastery school became a renowned center of learning. and undergoing
martyrdomfrom the Sacramentary of Fulda After his martyrdom by the
Frisians in 754, the relics of Saint Boniface were brought back to Fulda. Because of the stature this afforded the monastery, the donations increased, and Fulda could establish daughter-houses further away, for example in
Hamelin. Meanwhile, Saint
Lullus, successor of Boniface as
archbishop of Mainz, tried to absorb the abbey into his archbishopric, but failed. Between 790 and 819 the community rebuilt the main abbey church to more fittingly house the
relics. They based their new
basilica on the original 4th-century (since demolished)
Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, using the
transept and
crypt plan of that great
pilgrimage church to frame their own saint as the "
Apostle of the Germans". The crypt of the original abbey church still holds those relics, but the church itself has been subsumed into a
Baroque renovation. A small, 9th-century chapel remains standing within walking distance of the church, as do the foundations of a later women's abbey.
Rabanus Maurus served as abbot at Fulda from 822 to 842. Fulda Abbey owned such works as the
Res Gestae by the fourth-century Roman historian
Ammianus Marcellinus and the
Codex Fuldensis, as well as works by
Cicero,
Servius,
Bede and
Sulpicius Severus.
Counter-Reformation Prince-abbot
Balthasar von Dernbach adopted a policy of
Counter-Reformation. In 1571 he called in the
Jesuits to found a school and college. He insisted the members of the chapter should return to a
monastic form of life. Whereas his predecessors had tolerated
Protestantism, resulting in most of the citizenry of Fulda and a large portion of the principality's countryside professing
Lutheranism, Balthasar ordered his subjects either to return to the
Catholic faith or leave his territories. He also ordered the
Fulda witch trials, in which hundreds of people, including a number of crypto-Protestants were arrested on charges of witchcraft alongside others.
18th and 19th centuries The foundation of the abbey of Fulda and its territory originated with an Imperial grant and the sovereign
principality therefore was subject only to the
German emperor. Fulda became a bishopric in 1752 and the
prince-abbots were given the additional title of
prince-bishop. The prince-abbots (and later prince-bishops) ruled Fulda and the surrounding region until the
bishopric was forcibly dissolved by
Napoleon I in 1802. The city went through a baroque building campaign in the 18th century, resulting in the current "Baroque City" status. This included a remodeling of
Fulda Cathedral (1704–12) and of the
Stadtschloss (Fulda Castle-Palace, 1707–12) by
Johann Dientzenhofer. The city parish church, St Blasius, was built between 1771 and 1785. In 1764 a
porcelain factory was started in Fulda under Prince-Bishop, Prince-Abbot
Heinrich von Bibra, but in 1789, shortly after his death, it was closed down by his successor, Prince-Bishop, Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Harstall. The city was given to
Prince William Frederick of Orange-Nassau (the later King
William I of the Netherlands) in 1803 (as part of the short-lived
Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda) and was annexed to the
Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806 and in 1809 to the
Principality of Frankfurt. After the
Congress of Vienna of 1814–15, most of the territory went to the
Electorate of Hesse, which the
Prussia annexed in 1866.
20th century From 1938 to 1943 Fulda was the location of a Nazi
forced labour camp for
Romani people. Fulda lends its name to the
Fulda Gap, a traditional east–west invasion route used by Napoleon I and others. During the
Cold War it was presumed to be an invasion route for any conventional war between
NATO and
Soviet forces. Downs Barracks in Fulda was the headquarters of the American
14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, later replaced by the
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The cavalry had as many as 3,000 soldiers from the end of
World War II until 1993. Not all those soldiers were in Fulda proper but scattered over observation posts and in the cities of
Bad Kissingen and
Bad Hersfeld. The strategic importance of this region, along the border between East and West Germany, led to a large
United States and Soviet military presence. ==Politics==