History of Aachen, Germany
The city of Aachen (pronounced "AH-ken" and also known as Aix-la-Chapelle), in western Germany, is best known for its association with Charlemagne and subsequent Holy Roman emperors. And thanks to the well-preserved Aachen Cathedral with its treasury of relics, the city remains a popular destination for Christian pilgrims and tourists alike.
The Romans who first settled the site of modern Aachen named the hot springs there Aquisgranum. The name probably derives from the Celtic god of water and health. After Roman times, the area was mostly abandoned.
In 768 AD, Emperor Charlemange visited and was impressed with the springs. In 788, he began construction on his imperial palace, and in 790 work began on the Aachen Cathedral.
Charlemagne made Aachen his second home, and the city quickly became an important cultural center. During his lifetime, Charlemagne collected relics to store in the cathedral's treasury, and upon his death in 814 he was himself buried within its walls. From 936 AD to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the coronation site of the Holy Roman emperors, and, especially after Charlemagne was canonized in 1165, Aachen became an important destination for pilgrims.
Aachen's importance began to decline in the 16th century, primarily because its location became an inconvenient as the German capital. In the 1560s, the coronation site was moved to Frankfurt am Main.
The Reformation was also a time of tension between Catholics and Protestants in the city. Protestant ideas were first preached in Aachen in 1524 by Albrecht von Muenster, but he was soon forbidden to preach and executed on two counts of murder. A Protestant community was gradually established in the city, however, and an uprising in 1581 led to the election of a Protestant governor in defiance of the empire.
The city fell under imperial ban in 1597 and Catholicism was restored in 1600. Another Protestant uprising in 1611 drove out the Catholic officials, the city was put under imperial ban once again, and many Protestants were exiled. In 1656, Aachen suffered a devastating fire that destroyed over 4000 houses and added to the city's troubles.
Despite its decline, Aachen was the site of several important peace conferences, including those ending the War of Devolution (1668) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1748). Both the treaties, negotiated primarily between France and Britain, are known as the "Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle" (using the French name for Aachen).
Aachen was annexed by France in 1801 and given to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna (1814–15). In 1821, a papal bull dissolved the bishopric of Aachen and transferred most of its territory to the archdiocese of Cologne. In 1825, a collegiate chapter of one provost and six canons replaced the bishopric, which is why Aachen's Palatine Chapel is sometimes known as the Collegiate Church.
Aachen was briefly occupied by its Belgian neighbors after World War I and it suffered extensive damage in World War II. On October 20, 1944, Aachen became the first large German city to fall to the Allies.
Today, Aachen is a major railway junction, an industrial center, and a significant tourist destination. It has a population of about 257,000 people. Aachen is known in French (and to many English speakers) as Aix-la-Chapelle and in Italian as Aquisgrana (reflecting its earlier Latin name).
- Aachen - Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
- Aachen Cathedral - Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. This article incorporates some public domain text from this source.
- About the City of Aachen - RWTH Aachen Information
- Palatine Chapel - Encyclopædia Britannica
- Aachen - Encyclopædia Britannica
- Aachen - Catholic Encyclopedia
More Information
- City Map – Detailed and zoom-able, (in German only)
- Official Web Site of Aachen – in German only
- Aachen - TripAdvisor
- Richard E. Sullivan, Aix-La-Chapelle in the Age of Charlemagne (1975).
- Charles Whiting, Bloody Aachen (UK edition, 2000).
- Alessandro Barbero, Charlemagne: Father of a Continent (2004).
- Rodney Leach, Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union: From Aachen to Zollverein (2000).
