a city in Bavaria, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Population, 478,200 (1971). Nuremberg is situated on the unnavigable Pegnitz River, along the obsolete Ludwigs Canal and the Rhine-Main-Danube shipping canal, which is now under construction. An important railroad and highway junction, the city also has an airport. Nuremberg is one of the major industrial centers of the FRG. It has industries producing electrotechnic equipment (33 percent of all industrial workers are in this sector), machine tools, precision instruments, metal products, motorcycles, bicycles, pencils, and toys. There also are chemical, textile, garment, shoe, food and condiment, wood-products, and printing industries. Handicraft industries and small and medium-size industrial enterprises play a significant role. Educational institutions in Nuremberg include the Academy of Applied Technology, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Pedagogical Hochschule, and the departments of economics and social sciences of the University of Erlangen. The city has an opera house and a dramatic theater and is the site of the German National Museum and museums of transport, crafts, and toys.
The earliest record of Nuremberg dates to 1050. In 1219 the city was made a free imperial city. In the 14th and 15th centuries it was a major artisan and trade center and played an important role in the trade between southern Germany and Italy. In the 16th century, Nuremberg was one of the centers of German humanism. It was the birthplace of A. Dürer and H. Sachs; the humanists W. Pirkheimer and P. Melanchthon worked in the city. Nuremberg was the first imperial city to be affected by the Reformation (in 1524). In the 16th century, economic decline set in with the changing of trade routes. In 1806, Nuremberg became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In the 19th century, especially after the building of the Nuremberg-Furth railroad line, Germany’s first railroad, the city became one of the principal economic centers of Bavaria. During the fascist period, the congresses of the Nazi Party were held in Nuremberg. In 1945 and 1946, after the defeat of fascism, the city was the site of the trial of a group of leading Nazi war criminals.
The center of the city has narrow, winding streets and many noteworthy centuries-old architectural monuments, including the castle (begun in the 11th century), the late Gothic Church of St. Sebaldus (c. 1240–73; hall choir, 1361–72), the Church of St. Lorenz (finished after 1350; choir, 1439–77), the Church of Our Lady (1352–61), City Hall (14th to 17th centuries), residential buildings from the 15th to 17th centuries with high pointed facades and abundant decoration (including A. Dürer’s house), and the Gothic “Beautiful Fountain” (14th century). All the churches mentioned above are adorned with sculptures by A. Kraft, P. Vischer, and V. Stoss. Around the center there are new residential districts with a regular layout (Sankt-Johannis, Galgenhof, Sankt-Jobst). In the 1950’s and 1960’s the satellite town of Langwasser was constructed.