Nuremberg

Old fortifications of Nuremberg

The first documentary mention of the city, in 1050, mentions Nuremberg as the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau.[2] From 1050 to 1571 the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade-routes. King Conrad III (reigning as King of Germany from 1138 to 1152) established the Burgraviate of Nuremberg, with the first burgraves coming from the Austrian House of Raab. With the extinction of their male line around 1190, the last Raabs count's son-in-law, Frederick I from the House of Hohenzollern, inherited the burgraviate in 1192.

From the late 12th century to the Interregnum (1254–73), however, the power of the burgraves diminished as the Hohenstaufen emperors transferred most non-military powers to a castellan, with the city administration and the municipal courts handed over to an Imperial mayor (German: Reichsschultheiß) from 1173/74.[3][4] The strained relations between the burgraves and the castellans, with gradual transferral of powers to the latter in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, finally broke out into open enmity, which greatly influenced the history of the city.[4]

The Imperial Castle

Nuremberg is often referred to as the "unofficial capital" of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because the Imperial Diet (Reichstag) and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg played an important role in the administration of the empire. The increasing demands of the Imperial court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade and commerce in Nuremberg. In 1219 Emperor Frederick II granted the Großen Freiheitsbrief ('Great Letter of Freedom'), including town rights, Imperial immediacy (Reichsfreiheit), the privilege to mint coins, and an independent customs policy - almost wholly removing the city from the purview of the burgraves.[3][4] Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade-centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe.

In 1298 the Jews of the town were falsely accused of having desecrated the host, and 698 of them were killed in one of the many Rintfleisch massacres. Behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city,[5] which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague pandemic of the mid-14th century.

In 1349 Nuremberg's Jews suffered a pogrom.[6] They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter.[7] The plague returned to the city in 1405, 1435, 1437, 1482, 1494, 1520 and 1534.[8]

Nuremberg in 1493
(from the Nuremberg Chronicle).

The largest growth of Nuremberg occurred in the 14th century. Charles IV's Golden Bull of 1356, naming Nuremberg as the city where newly elected kings of Germany must hold their first Imperial Diet, made Nuremberg one of the three most important cities of the Empire.[3] Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362 (the architect was likely Peter Parler), where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. The royal and Imperial connection grew stronger in 1423 when the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg granted the Imperial regalia to be kept permanently in Nuremberg, where they remained until 1796, when the advance of French troops required their removal to Regensburg and thence to Vienna.[3]

In 1349 the members of the guilds unsuccessfully rebelled against the patricians in a Handwerkeraufstand ('Craftsmen's Uprising'), supported by merchants and some by councillors, leading to a ban on any self-organisation of the artisans in the city, abolishing the guilds that were customary elsewhere in Europe; the unions were then dissolved, and the oligarchs remained in power while Nuremberg was a free city (until the early-19th century).[3][4] Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, thereby placing it upon a politically equal footing with the princes of the Empire.[4] Frequent fights took place with the burgraves - without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. After fire destroyed the castle in 1420 during a feud between Frederick IV (from 1417 Margrave of Brandenburg) and the duke of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, the city purchased the ruins and the forest belonging to the castle (1427), resulting in the city's total sovereignty within its borders.

Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory.[4] The Hussite Wars (1419-1434), a recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War (1449-1450) led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century.[4] Siding with Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria-Munich, in the Landshut War of Succession of 1503-1505 led the city to gain substantial territory, resulting in lands of 25 sq mi (64.7 km²), making it one of the largest Imperial cities.[4]

During the Middle Ages, Nuremberg fostered a rich, varied, and influential literary culture.[9]

Map of Nuremberg, 1648

The cultural flowering of Nuremberg in the 15th and 16th centuries made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525 Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532 the Nuremberg Religious Peace was signed there, preventing war between Lutherans and Catholics[4][10] for 15 years. During the Princes' 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but Margrave Albert Alcibiades, one of the leaders of the revolt, attacked the city without a declaration of war and dictated a disadvantageous peace.[4] At the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, the possessions of the Protestants were confirmed by the Emperor, their religious privileges extended and their independence from the Bishop of Bamberg affirmed, while the 1520s' secularisation of the monasteries was also approved.[4] Families like the Tucher, Imhoff or Haller run trading businesses across Europe, similar to the Fugger and Welser families from Augsburg, although on a slightly smaller scale.

Wolffscher Bau of the old city hall

The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere and the ossification of the social hierarchy and legal structures contributed to the decline in trade.[4] During the Thirty Years' War, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population.[4] In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein. The city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre. Even after the Thirty Years' War, however, there was a late flowering of architecture and culture – secular Baroque architecture is exemplified in the layout of the civic gardens built outside the city walls, and in the Protestant city's rebuilding of St. Egidien church, destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 18th century, considered a significant contribution to the baroque church architecture of Middle Franconia.[3]

After the Thirty Years' War, Nuremberg attempted to remain detached from external affairs, but contributions were demanded for the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War and restrictions of imports and exports deprived the city of many markets for its manufactures.[4] The Bavarian elector, Charles Theodore, appropriated part of the land obtained by the city during the Landshut War of Succession, to which Bavaria had maintained its claim; Prussia also claimed part of the territory. Realising its weakness, the city asked to be incorporated into Prussia but Frederick William II refused, fearing to offend Austria, Russia and France.[4] At the Imperial diet in 1803, the independence of Nuremberg was affirmed, but on the signing of the Confederation of the Rhine on 12 July 1806, it was agreed to hand the city over to Bavaria from 8 September, with Bavaria guaranteeing the amortisation of the city's 12.5 million guilder public debt.[4]

Old town of Nuremberg in the 19th century

The British-built Adler was the locomotive of the first German Railway between Nuremberg and Fürth.

After the fall of Napoleon, the city's trade and commerce revived; the skill of its inhabitants together with its favourable situation soon made the city prosperous, particularly after its public debt had been acknowledged as a part of the Bavarian national debt. Having been incorporated into a Catholic country, the city was compelled to refrain from further discrimination against Catholics, who had been excluded from the rights of citizenship. Catholic services had been celebrated in the city by the priests of the Teutonic Order, often under great difficulties. After their possessions had been confiscated by the Bavarian government in 1806, they were given the Frauenkirche on the Market in 1809; in 1810 the first Catholic parish was established, which in 1818 numbered 1,010 souls.[4]

In 1817, the city was incorporated into the district of Rezatkreis (named for the river Franconian Rezat), which was renamed to Middle Franconia (German: Mittelfranken) on 1 January 1838.[4] The first German railway, the Bavarian Ludwigsbahn, from Nuremberg to nearby Fürth, was opened in 1835. The establishment of railways and the incorporation of Bavaria into Zollverein (the 19th-century German Customs Union), commerce and industry opened the way to greater prosperity.[4] In 1852, there were 53,638 inhabitants: 46,441 Protestants and 6,616 Catholics. It subsequently grew to become the more important industrial city of Southern Germany, one of the most prosperous towns of southern Germany, but after the Austro-Prussian War it was given to Prussia as part of their telegraph stations they had to give up. In 1905, its population, including several incorporated suburbs, was 291,351: 86,943 Catholics, 196,913 Protestants, 3,738 Jews and 3,766 members of other creeds.[4]

Nuremberg rally, 1935

Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany era. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions — the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held in 1927, 1929 and annually from 1933 through 1938. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events, a centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl, and made into a propaganda film called Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will).

At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews and other non-Aryans. A number of premises were constructed solely for these assemblies, some of which were not finished. Today many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city. The city was also the home of the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, the publisher of Der Stürmer.

Map of city centre with air raid destruction

Bombed-out Nuremberg, 1945

During the Second World War, Nuremberg was the headquarters of Wehrkreis (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines and tank engines. A subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located here, and extensively used slave labour.[11] The city was severely damaged in Allied strategic bombing from 1943 to 1945. On 29 March 1944, the RAF endured its heaviest losses in the bombing campaign of Germany. Out of more than 700 planes participating, 106 were shot down or crash-landed on the way home to their bases, and more than 700 men were missing, as many as 545 of them dead. More than 160 became prisoners of war.[12]

On 2 January 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in only one hour, with 1,800 residents killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. In total, about 6,000 Nuremberg residents are estimated to have been killed in air raids.

Nuremberg was a heavily fortified city that was captured in a fierce battle lasting from 17 to 21 April 1945 by the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, 42nd Infantry Division and 45th Infantry Division, which fought house-to-house and street-by-street against determined German resistance, causing further urban devastation to the already bombed and shelled buildings.[13] Despite this intense degree of destruction, the city was rebuilt after the war and was to some extent restored to its pre-war appearance, including the reconstruction of some of its medieval buildings.[14] Much of this reconstructive work and conservation was done by the organisation 'Old Town Friends Nuremberg'. However, over half of the historic look of the center, and especially the northeastern half of the old Imperial Free City was not restored.

Defendants in the dock at the Nuremberg trials

Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal in the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet Union had wanted these trials to take place in Berlin. However, Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons:

• The city had been the location of the Nazi Party's Nuremberg rallies and the laws stripping Jews of their citizenship were passed there. There was symbolic value in making it the place of Nazi demise.
• The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few that had remained largely intact despite extensive Allied bombing of Germany). The already large courtroom was reasonably easily expanded by the removal of the wall at the end opposite the bench, thereby incorporating the adjoining room. A large prison was also part of the complex.
• As a compromise, it was agreed that Berlin would become the permanent seat of the International Military Tribunal and that the first trial (several were planned) would take place in Nuremberg. Due to the Cold War, subsequent trials never took place.

Following the trials, in October 1946, several prominent German Nazi politicians and military leaders were executed in Nuremberg.

The same courtroom in Nuremberg was the venue of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, organized by the United States as occupying power in the area.

Nuremberg has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) with a certain humid continental influence (Dfb), categorized in the latter by the 0 °C isotherm.[15] The city's climate is influenced by its inland position and higher altitude. Winters are changeable, with either mild or cold weather: the average temperature is around −3 °C (27 °F) to 4 °C (39 °F), while summers are generally warm, mostly around 13 °C (55 °F) at night to 25 °C (77 °F) in the afternoon. Precipitation is evenly spread throughout the year, although February and April tend to be a bit drier whereas July tends to have more rainfall.[16]

Beyond its main attractions of the Imperial Castle, St. Lorenz Church, and Nazi Trial grounds, there are 54 different museums for arts and culture, history, science and technology, family and children, and more niche categories,[22] where visitors can see the world's oldest globe (built in 1492), a 500-year-old Madonna, and Renaissance-era German art.[23] There are several types of tours offered in the city, including historic tours, those that are Nazi-focused, underground and night tours, walking tours, sightseeing buses, self guided tours, and an old town tour on a mini train. Nuremberg also offers several parks and green areas, as well as indoor activities such as bowling, rock wall climbing, escape rooms, cart racing, and mini golf, theaters and cinemas, pools and thermal spas. There are also six nearby amusement parks.[22] The city's tourism board sells the Nurnberg Card which allows for free use of public transportation and free entry to all museums and attractions in Nuremberg for a two-day period.[22]

Nuremberg is also a destination for food lovers. Culinary tourists can taste the city's famous lebkuchen, gingerbread, local beer, and Nürnberger Rostbratwürstchen, or Nuremberg sausages. There are hundreds of restaurants for all tastes, including traditional franconian restaurants and beer gardens. Also offers 17 vegan and vegetarian restaurants, seven fully organic restaurants. Nuremberg also boasts a two Michelin Star rated restaurant, Essigbrätlein.[22]

Like many European cities, Nuremberg offers a pedestrian-only zone covering a large portion of the old town, which is a main destination for shopping and specialty retail,[24] including year-round Christmas stores where tourists and locals alike can purchase Christmas ornaments, gifts, decorations, and additions to their toy Christmas villages. The Craftsmen's Courtyard, or Handwerkerhof, is another tourist shopping destination in the style of a medieval village. It houses several local family-run businesses which sell handcrafted items from glass, wood, leather, pottery, and precious metals. The Handwerkerhof is also home to traditional German restaurants and beer gardens.[25]

The Pedestrian zones of Nuremberg host festivals and markets throughout the year, most well known being Christkindlesmarkt, Germany's largest Christmas market and the gingerbread capital of the world. Visitors to the Christmas market can peruse the hundreds of stalls and purchase local wood crafts, nutcrackers, smokers, and prune people, while sampling Christmas sweets and traditional Glühwein.[26]

In 2017, Nuremberg saw a total of 3.3 million overnight stays, a record for the town, and is expected to have surpassed that in 2018, with more growth in tourism anticipated in the coming years.[27] There are over 175 registered places of accommodation in Nuremberg, ranging from hostels to luxury hotels, bed and breakfasts, to multi-hundred room properties.[22] As of 19 April 2019, Nuremberg had 306 AirBnB listings.[28]

Documentation centre at the former Nazi party rally grounds

Documentation Centre

Neues Museum, museum of modern art and design

Neues Museum Nürnberg

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Renaissance art gallery of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum

• Germanisches Nationalmuseum
• House of Albrecht Dürer
• Kunsthalle Nürnberg
• Kunstverein Nürnberg
• Neues Museum Nürnberg (Modern Art Museum)
• Nuremberg Toy Museum
• Nuremberg Transport Museum

The Nuremberg State Theatre

Bardentreffen 2013

The Nuremberg State Theatre, founded in 1906, is dedicated to all types of opera, ballet and stage theatre. During the season 2009/2010, the theatre presented 651 performances for an audience of 240,000 persons.[30] The State Philharmonic Nuremberg (Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg) is the orchestra of the State Theatre. Its name was changed in 2011 from its previous name: The Nuremberg Philharmonic (Nürnberger Philharmoniker). It is the second-largest opera orchestra in Bavaria.[31] Besides opera performances, it also presents its own subscription concert series in the Meistersingerhalle. Christof Perick was the principal conductor of the orchestra between 2006 and 2011. Marcus Bosch heads the orchestra since September 2011 .

The Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (Nürnberger Symphoniker) performs around 100 concerts a year to a combined annual audience of more than 180,000.[32] The regular subscription concert series are mostly performed in the Meistersingerhalle but other venues are used as well, including the new concert hall of the Kongresshalle and the Serenadenhof. Alexander Shelley has been the principal conductor of the orchestra since 2009.

The Nuremberg International Chamber Music Festival (Internationales Kammermusikfestival Nürnberg) takes place in early September each year, and in 2011 celebrated its tenth anniversary. Concerts take place around the city; opening and closing events are held in the medieval Burg. The Bardentreffen, an annual folk festival in Nuremberg, has been deemed the largest world music festival in Germany and takes place since 1976. 2014 the Bardentreffen starred 368 artists from 31 nations.[33]

Nürnberger Bratwurst

Nuremberg is known for Nürnberger Bratwurst, which is shorter and thinner than other bratwurst sausages.

Another Nuremberg speciality is Nürnberger Lebkuchen, a kind of gingerbread eaten mainly around Christmas time.

Nuremberg hosts the joint university Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, two Fachhochschulen (Technische Hochschule Nürnberg and Evangelische Hochschule Nürnberg), an art school (Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg), and a music conservatoire (Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg).[35] There are also private schools such as the Akademie Deutsche POP Nürnberg offering higher education.[36]

The main railway station

An U-Bahn station in Nuremberg.

Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof is a stop for IC and ICE trains on the German long-distance railway network. The Nuremberg–Ingolstadt–Munich high-speed line with 300 km/h (186 mph) operation opened 28 May 2006, and was fully integrated into the rail schedule on 10 December 2006. Travel times to Munich have been reduced to as little as one hour. The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway opened in December 2017.

An automatic U-Bahn train on the line U3

The Nuremberg tramway network was opened in 1881. As of 2008, it extended a total length of 36 km (22 mi), had six lines, and carried 39.152 million passengers annually. The first segment of the Nuremberg U-Bahn metro system was opened in 1972. Nuremberg's trams, buses and U-Bahn are operated by the Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg (VAG; Nuremberg Transport Corporation), a member of the Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg (VGN; Greater Nuremberg Transport Network).

There is also a Nuremberg S-Bahn suburban metro railway and a regional train network, both centred on Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof. Since 2008, Nuremberg has had the first U-Bahn in Germany (U2/U21 and U3) that works without a driver. It also was the first subway system worldwide in which both driver-operated trains and computer-controlled trains shared tracks.

S-Bahn network

U-Bahn network

Tramway Network

S- and R-Bahn network

S-, U-Bahn and Tramway network

Bus map

Nightbus map

Nuremberg is located at the junction of several important Autobahn routes. The A3 (Netherlands–Frankfurt–Würzburg–Vienna) passes in a south-easterly direction along the north-east of the city. The A9 (Berlin–Munich) passes in a north–south direction on the east of the city. The A6 (France–Saarbrücken–Prague) passes in an east–west direction to the south of the city. Finally, the A73 begins in the south-east of Nuremberg and travels north-west through the city before continuing towards Fürth and Bamberg.

Nuremberg Airport has flights to major German cities and many European destinations. The largest operators are currently Eurowings and TUI fly Deutschland, while the low-cost Ryanair and Wizz Air companies connect the city to various European centres. A significant amount of the airport's traffic flies to and from mainly touristic destinations during the peak winter season. The airport (Flughafen) is the terminus of Nuremberg U-Bahn Line 2; it is the only airport in Germany served by a U-Bahn subway system.

Nuremberg is an important port on the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal.

1. FC Nürnberg, known locally as Der Club (English: "The Club"), was founded in 1900 and currently plays in the Bundesliga. The official colours of the association are red and white, but the traditional colours are red and black. They won their first regional title in the Southern German championship in 1916 closely followed by their first national title in 1920. Besides the eleven regional championships they won they were the German championship for a total of seven times. With this they held the record for the most German championship titles until 1986 when the current record holder FC Bayern München surpassed them. The current chairmen are Nils Rossow and Robert Palikuca. They play in Max-Morlock-Stadion which was refurbished for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and accommodates 50,000 spectators.

• German Champion: 1920, 1921, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1936, 1948, 1961, 1968
• German Cup: 1935, 1939, 1962, 2007

TuS Bar Kochba is a league that was founded in 1913 as a social-sport club for the Jewish community in Nürnberg. Established as the "Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Club Nuremberg", the league was dissolved by the Nazi party in 1939. It was reformed in 1966.[37] The club plays in the senior A-league of the Bavarian Football Association.[38]

The SELLBYTEL Baskets Nürnberg played in the Basketball Bundesliga from 2005 to 2007. Since then, teams from Nuremberg have attempted to return to Germany's elite league. The recently founded Nürnberg Falcons BC have already established themselves as one of the main teams in Germany's second division ProA and aim to take on the heritage of the SELLBYTEL Baskets Nürnberg. The Falcons play their home games at the Halle im Berufsbildungszentrum (BBZ).

Nuremberg is twinned with:[39]

Nuremberg also cooperates with:

• Venice, Italy; since 1954 a twin town, relations renewed in 1999 as a cooperation agreement[40]

Twin towns/sister cities and associated cities of Nuremberg

Nuremberg maintains friendly relations with:[41]

• Heinrich Stuhlfauth (1896–1966) a goalkeeper, 606 games for 1. FC Nurnberg and 21 for the national side
• Hans Nüsslein (1910–1991) a tennis player and coach
• Olga Jensch-Jordan (1913–2000) a springboard diver, competed at the 1932 and 1936 Summer Olympics
• Max Morlock (1925-1994) a footballer, 944 club caps with 1. FC Nurnberg and 26 for the national side
• Günther Meier (born 1941) an amateur boxer, bronze medallist at the 1968 Summer Olympics
• Norbert Schramm (born 1960) a former competitive figure skater
• Alex Wright (born 1975) a British-German former professional wrestler
• Deniz Aytekin (born 1978) a football referee
• Hannah Stockbauer (born 1982) a swimmer, bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics
• Florian Just (born 1982) a former competitive pair skater
• Maximilian Müller (born 1987) a field hockey player, gold medallist at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics