Augsburg (redirected from Augusta Vindelicorum)

Augsburg (ouks`brk), city (1994 pop. 264,764), capital of Swabia, Bavaria, S central Germany, a major industrial center on the Lech River. The major industries include the manufacture of textiles, clothing, machinery, computers, electronic equipment, motor vehicles, and airplanes. The city is an important rail junction.

Augsburg was founded (c.14 B.C.) by Augustus as a Roman garrison called Augusta Vindelicorum. In early medieval times it was controlled by the Frankish kings. It was made a free imperial city in 1276 and was later a powerful member of various Swabian leagues, including the Swabian League of 1488–1534.

Augsburg was one of Europe's most important commercial and banking centers in the 15th and 16th cent. and was a rallying point of German science and art. The city was the home of the Fugger and Welser families and was the birthplace of Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Hans Burgkmair. Several important agreements, including the Augsburg Confession (1530), were concluded there during the Reformation. Augsburg suffered greatly in the Thirty Years War (1618–48). In 1806 it became part of Bavaria.

Augsburg's many noteworthy structures include the cathedral (begun in the 9th cent.); the 16th-century Fuggerei, an enclosed settlement for poor persons founded by the Fugger family; and the 17th-century town hall. Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg.

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Augsburg

City (pop., 2002 est.: 257,800), Bavaria, southern Germany. Founded as a Roman colony by Augustus c. 14 BC, it was the seat of a bishopric by AD 739. It became an imperial free city in 1276 and joined the Swabian League in 1331. The Fugger and Welser families made the city a major banking and commercial centre in the 15th–16th centuries. The Augsburg Confession was read at the Diet of 1530; the Peace of Augsburg was concluded in 1555; and the League of Augsburg was formed in 1686. The city became part of Bavaria in 1806. It was heavily bombed during World War II. Sites of interest include the Fuggerei (1519), the world's oldest housing settlement for the poor.

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Augsburg

a city in S Germany, in Bavaria: founded by the Romans in 14 bc; site of the diet that produced the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which ended the struggles between Lutherans and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire and established the principle that each ruler should determine the form of worship in his lands. Pop.: 259 217 (2003 est.)

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Augsburg 

city in the Federal Republic of Germany, in the Land of Bavaria, in the foothills of the Alps, at the confluence of the Lech and Wertach rivers (Danube Basin), in the direction of the alpine passes. The population in 1968 was 210,500.

It is an important transportation hub and an ancient center of the textile (mainly cotton) industry, which has retained its prime importance in the city’s economy. The city’s industries include the machine-building (Heinkel aviation plants; production of engines, printing and office machines, reactor equipment), metalworking, and pig iron and steel casting industries. In the Augsburg area there are big hydroelectric power plants, synthetic fiber plants (Bobingen), atomic fuel plants (Meitingen), and others. There is a conservatory in Augsburg.

Augsburg arose on the site of a Roman military camp (in Latin, Augusta Vindelicorum, founded in 15 B.C) and was the center of the Roman province of Raetia. Augsburg became the residence of a bishop in the early Middle Ages and was an important trade and artisan center as early as the tenth and 11th centuries. In 1276 it was raised to the rank of a free imperial city. In 1368 power passed from the patricians to the artisan guilds. In the 15th and 16th centuries Augsburg was one of the trade and financial centers of Europe (the big trade and banking houses of the Fugger, Welser, and other families arose here) and an important center of the German Renaissance. In 1806 it was annexed by Bavaria, which also took over the lands of the secularized bishopric. The development of capitalist industry in the 19th century brought a new economic upswing to Augsburg. Under the fascist regime, Augsburg became a big center of the war industry (Messerschmitt plants, etc.). From 1945 to 1949 it was in the American occupation zone of Germany.

Architectural monuments include the Romanesque cathedral (11th century; Gothic reconstructions, 1326–1431; bronze doors with reliefs, 11th century); the late Gothic Church of St. Ulrich (nave, 1466–1500); Renaissance buildings, such as the chapel of the Fugger bankers (1509–17), the J. Fugger House (1512–15), the artisan settlement known as the Fuggerei (1516–23, architect I. Krebs), which consists of 53 standard two-storied houses, with two apartments per house, placed according to a regular plan; early Baroque buildings of the architect Elias Holl, such as the Zeughaus (1602–07) and the Rathaus (1615–20, the Golden Hall of which burned down in 1944). The city’s museums include the City Gallery and a branch of the Old Pinakothek of Munich.

REFERENCES

Epshtein, A. D. “Iz ekonomicheskoii i sotsial’noi istorii Augsburga ν XV-nach. XVI vv.” In Srednie veka, issue 10. Moscow, 1957.
Zorn, W. Augsburg, Munich, 1956.
Breuer, T. Die Stadt Augsburg, Munich, 1958.