1.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
2.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
3.
States of Germany
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Germany is a federal republic consisting of sixteen federal states. Since todays Germany was formed from a collection of several states, it has a federal constitution. The remaining 13 states are called Flächenländer, the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 was through the unification of the western states created in the aftermath of World War II. West Berlin, while not part of the Federal Republic, was largely integrated and considered as a de facto state. In 1952, following a referendum, Baden, Württemberg-Baden, in 1957, the Saar Protectorate rejoined the Federal Republic as the Saarland. Federalism is one of the constitutional principles of Germany. After 1945, new states were constituted in all four zones of occupation, in 1949, the states in the three western zones formed the Federal Republic of Germany. This is in contrast to the development in Austria, where the Bund was constituted first. The use of the term Länder dates back to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, before this time, the constituent states of the German Empire were called Staaten. Today, it is common to use the term Bundesland. However, this term is not used officially, neither by the constitution of 1919 nor by the Basic Law of 1949, three Länder call themselves Freistaaten, Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia. He summarizes the arguments for boundary reform in Germany. The German system of dual federalism requires strong Länder that have the administrative and fiscal capacity to implement legislation, too many Länder also make coordination among them and with the federation more complicated. But several proposals have failed so far, territorial reform remains a topic in German politics. Federalism has a tradition in German history. The Holy Roman Empire comprised many petty states numbering more than 300 around 1796, the number of territories was greatly reduced during the Napoleonic Wars. After the Congress of Vienna,39 states formed the German Confederation, the new German Empire included 25 states and the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The empire was dominated by Prussia, which controlled 65% of the territory, after the territorial losses of the Treaty of Versailles, the remaining states continued as republics of a new German federation
4.
Augsburg
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Augsburg is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City for over 500 years and it is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is a district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is the third-largest city in Bavaria with a population of 286,000 citizens, after Neuss and Trier, Augsburg is Germanys third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as Augusta Vindelicorum, named after the Roman emperor Augustus. Augsburg is the only German city with its own legal holiday and this gives Augsburg more legal holidays than any other region or city in Germany. Augsburg was the home of two families that rose to great prominence internationally, replacing the Medicis as Europes leading bankers, the Fugger. Augsburg lies at the convergence of the Alpine rivers Lech and Wertach, in the south extends the Lechfeld, an Outwash plain of the post ice age between the rivers Lech and Wertach, where rare primeval landscapes were preserved. The Augsburg city forest and the Lech valley heaths today rank among the most species-rich middle European habitats, on Augsburg borders the nature park Augsburg Western Woods - a large forestland. The city itself is also heavily greened, as a result, in 1997 Augsburg was the first German city to win the Europe-wide contest Entente Florale for Europes greenest and most livable city. Augsburg is surrounded by the counties Landkreis Augsburg in the west, the neighboring towns and cities are Friedberg, Königsbrunn, Stadtbergen, Neusäß, Gersthofen, Rehling, Affing, Kissing, Mering, Merching, Bobingen, Gessertshausen und Diedorf. Augsburg has a continental climate. The city was founded in 15 BC by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, the name means Augusta of the Vindelici. This garrison camp soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia, thus, Augsburg was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia, Augsburg was sacked by the Huns in the 5th century AD, by Charlemagne in the 8th century, and by Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, but arose each time to greater prosperity. Augsburg was granted the status of a Free Imperial City on March 9,1276 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, with a strategic location as intersection of trade routes to Italy, the Free Imperial City became a major trading center. Augsburg produced large quantities of goods, cloth and textiles. Augsburg became the base of two banking families that rose to prominence, the Fuggers and the Welsers
5.
Hohenstaufen
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The Hohenstaufen, also called the Staufer or Staufen, were a dynasty of German kings during the Middle Ages. Besides Germany, they ruled the Kingdom of Sicily. In Italian historiography, they are known as the Svevi, since they were dukes of Swabia from 1079, three members of the dynasty—Frederick I, Henry VI and Frederick II—were crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The name Staufen derives from Stauf, meaning chalice, and was applied to conical hills in Swabia in the Middle Ages. The family derives its name from the castle which the first Swabian duke of the lineage built there in the half of the 11th century. Staufen castle was finally called Hohenstaufen by historians in the 19th century. The name of the dynasty followed, but in recent decades the trend in German historiography has been to prefer the name Staufer, the noble family first appeared in the late 10th century in the Swabian Riesgau region around the former Carolingian court of Nördlingen. A local count Frederick is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at the behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine, his son Frederick of Buren married Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg and their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079. At the same time, Duke Frederick I was engaged to the kings approximately seventeen-year-old daughter, Fredericks brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. Upon Fredericks death, he was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II, Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother Conrad were named the kings representatives in Germany when the king was in Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of Welf, when the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V, died without heirs in 1125, a controversy arose about the succession. A civil war between Fredericks dynasty and Lothairs ended with Fredericks submission in 1134, after Lothairs death in 1137, Fredericks brother Conrad was elected King as Conrad III. In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second Crusade at Speyer, conrads brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke Frederick III. When King Conrad III died without heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced and he was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on the peninsula yielded scant results. The Papacy and the prosperous city-states of the Lombard League in northern Italy were traditional enemies, under the skilled leadership of Pope Alexander III, the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. During Fredericks long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger, offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the Ostsiedlung
6.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
7.
Kaufbeuren
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Kaufbeuren is an independent town in the Regierungsbezirk of Swabia, Bavaria. The town is enclaved within the district of Ostallgäu. Kaufbeuren Hirschzell Kemnat Neugablonz Oberbeuren Stefan Bosse is the Lord Mayor of Kaufbeuren since November 2004 and he was reelected in March 2014 with 57,48 % of the votes. Townhall Crescentiakloster Historic Old Town with partially conserved, historic city wall St. -Martins-Kirche Fünfknopfturm St. When seized by the United States Army in May 1945 at the end of World War II it was discovered to be the location of Nazi Partys top secret FA signals intelligence. After serving as a U. S. airbase during the period, the field was ultimately returned to the town. The Tänzelfest is a festival, which takes place usually at the end of June, children re-enact the history of the town in traditional costume. There are a lot of events at this time, ferrara, Italy Szombathely, Hungary Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic Kaufbeuren. Official website kunsthaus kaufbeuren Tänzelfest in Kaufbeuren Details zur Stadtgeschichte Kaufbeurens
8.
Kempten
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Kempten is the largest town of Allgäu, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The population was approximately 64,000 in 2012, the area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later taken over by the Romans, who called the town Cambodunum. Kempten is the oldest urban settlement in Germany, the Greek geographer Strabon mentions in 50 BC a town of the Celtic Estiones named Kambodunon. This is considered the oldest written reference of any German city, so far no archaeological evidence could be found that this Celtic settlement really existed. In 15 BC Roman troops led by Nero Claudius Drusus and his brother Tiberius conquered and destroyed an existing Celtic settlement, later the settlement was named Cambodunum. In the following years the city was rebuilt on a classical Roman city plan with baths, forum, initially in wood, the city was later rebuilt in stone after a devastating fire that destroyed almost the entire city in the year 69 AD. The city possibly served as capital of Raetia during the first century before Augsburg took over this role. Extensive archaeological excavations at the end of the 19th century and again during the 1950s at what were then the outskirts of Kempten unearthed the extensive structural foundations, the city was again destroyed in 233 AD by the Alemanni, a Suebic tribe. The original site of Cambodunum was then abandoned and the settlement moved to a safer location on the Burghalde hill overlooking the river Iller. In the middle of the 5th century the last Roman troops had left the area, after the Romans abandoned the settlement, it was moved from the hill down to the plains located next to the river Iller. In written sources, the town appears as Cambidano, being still predominantly Alemannic, the town once more was destroyed by the Franks in 683 as a consequence of the citys support of an uprising against the Frankish kingdom. Around 700 a monastery — Kempten Abbey — was built, the first in the Allgäu region, audogar was the first abbot of the new Benedictine monastery. Through the financial and lobbyist support of Charlemagne’s wife Hildegard, an Allemannic princess, after several ravages by the Magyars, Ulrich of Augsburg, bishop of Augsburg and also abbot of Kempten, began the rebuilding of the monastery and the city in 941. In 1213, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declared the members of the Reichstag. However in 1289, King Rudolf I of Germany also granted privileges to the urban settlement in the river valley. More conflict arose after the Imperial City converted to Protestantism in direct opposition to the Catholic monastery in 1527, during the turmoil of the Thirty Years War, both cities were destroyed by the imperial forces and the Swedish troops respectively. This is acknowledged as the first large church built in Germany after the end of the Thirty Years War, during the Napoleonic Wars the Duke-Abbey and Imperial City came under Bavarian rule. Finally, in 1819, the two cities were united into a single communal entity
9.
Memmingen
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Memmingen is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region, to the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the river that marks the Baden-Württemberg border. To the north, east and south the town is surrounded by the district of Unterallgäu, with about 42,000 inhabitants, Memmingen is the 5th biggest town in the administrative region of Swabia. The origins of the town go back to the Roman Empire, the old town, with its many courtyards, castles and patricians houses, palaces and fortifications is one of the best preserved in southern Germany. With good transport links by road, rail and air, it is the hub for Upper and Central Swabia. Due to its proximity to the Allgäu region, Memmingen is often called the Gateway to the Allgäu, the town motto is Memmingen – Stadt mit Perspektiven. In recent times it has frequently referred to as Memmingen – Stadt der Menschenrechte. This alludes to the Twelve Articles, considered to be the first written set of rights in Europe. Every four years there is the Wallensteinfestspiel, with about 4,500 participants and it commemorates the invasion of Wallenstein and his troops in 1630. It is believed that on the site of present-day Memmingen in Roman times there was a military town. In the 5th century an Alemanic settlement was established and in the 7th century there was here a palace belonging to the king of the Franks, Memmingen was linked to Bohemia, Austria and Munich by the salt road to Lindau. Another important route through Memmingen was the Italian road from Northern Germany to Switzerland, both roads helped Memmingen gain importance as a trading centre. In the Middle Ages, the place was known as Mammingin, in 1158 the Welfian Duke Welf VI founded the town of Memmingen, in 1286 it became an Imperial City, responsible only to the Kaiser. Christoph Schappeler, the preacher at St. Martins in Memmingen during the early 16th century, was an important figure during the Protestant Reformation and his support for peasant rights helped to draw peasants to Memmingen. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession, the Twelve Articles, The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed was written in early 1525. This was a religious petition borrowing from Luthers ideas to appeal for peasant rights, within two months of its publication in Memmingen,25,000 copies of the tract were in circulation around Europe. These are the first known set of human rights documents in the world, in the 1630s Memmingen was at centre stage during the Thirty Years War, and the Imperial generalissimo Wallenstein was quartered in the town when he was dramatically dismissed from service. From 1632 Memmingen was briefly garrisoned by the Swedish army, in September 1647 the Imperialists besieged the Swedish garrison, under Colonel Sigismund Przyemski
10.
Swabian Jura
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The Swabian Jura, sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia, the Swabian Jura occupies the region bounded by the Danube in the southeast and the upper Neckar in the northwest. In the southwest it rises to the mountains of the Black Forest. The highest mountain of the region is the Lemberg, the areas profile resembles a high plateau, which slowly falls away to the southeast. The northwestern edge is an escarpment, while the top is flat or gently rolling. In economic and cultural terms, the Swabian Jura includes regions just around the mountain range and it is a popular recreation area. The geology of the Swabian Jura is mostly limestone, which formed the seabed during the Jurassic period, the sea receded 50 million years ago. Three layers of different limestones are stacked over each other to form the range, Black Jurassic, Brown Jurassic, White Jurassic may be as pure as 99% calcium carbonate. Since limestone is soluble in water, rain seeps through cracks everywhere, thus there are hardly any rivers, lakes or other forms of surface water on the plateau. In some places, former volcanic activity has left traces, such as maars, in the west, the Zollerngraben sometimes causes mild earthquakes. The Nördlinger Ries is a meteorite crater. Tertiary relicts can be found at the part of Swabian Jura. Famous locations are known in the Ulm area, constant rain and other weather influences are slowly dissolving the entire range. Each year, it recedes approximately 2 mm, some millions of years ago, the mountains reached as far as Stuttgart. In some places, the limestone was more resistant to decay, the omnipresent caves are great tourist spots, beautiful and not very crowded. Many different types can be found, from dry dripstone caves to caves that can only be entered by boat, sometimes the discharge of the water from subterranean rivers can be spectacular, too, e. g. the Blautopf, a source for a tributary of the Danube. Also because of the limestone, the Danube nearly disappears near Immendingen. Most of the water lost by the Danube resurfaces in the Aachtopf, the soil is not very fertile, the humus is often as thin as 10 cm
