| Name | Aachen |
|---|
| German name | Aix-la-Chapelle |
|---|
| Latin/italian name | Aquinsgrana |
|---|
| Art | Stadt |
|---|
| Image photo | KaiserKarlsGymnasium.jpg |
|---|
| Wappen | Stadtwappen der kreisfreien Stadt Aachen.svg |
|---|
| Lat deg | 50 | lat_min = 46 | lat_sec = 31 |
|---|
| Lon deg | 6 | lon_min = 4 | lon_sec = 58 |
|---|
| Lageplan | Aachen in AC (2009).svg |
|---|
| Bundesland | North Rhine-Westphalia |
|---|
| Regierungsbezirk | Köln |
|---|
| District | Aachen |
|---|
| Höhe | 266 |
|---|
| Fläche | 160.83 |
|---|
| Einwohner | 257935 |
|---|
| Stand | 2008-06-30 |
|---|
| Plz | 52062–52080 |
|---|
| Gemeindeschlüssel | 05334002 |
|---|
| Vorwahl | 0241 / 02405 / 02407 / 02408 |
|---|
| Kfz | AC |
|---|
| Website | www.aachen.de |
|---|
| Bürgermeister | Marcel Philipp |
|---|
| Bürgermeistertitel | Oberbürgermeister |
|---|
| Partei | CDU |
|---|
| Ruling party1 | CDU |
|---|
| Ruling party2 | Bündnis 90/Die Grünen |
|---|
| Native name | Reichsstadt Aachen |
|---|
| Conventional long name | Imperial City of Aachen / Aix-la-Chapelle |
|---|
| Common name | Aachen |
|---|
| Continent | Europe |
|---|
| Region | Rhine |
|---|
| Country | Germany |
|---|
| Era | Middle Ages |
|---|
| Status | City-state |
|---|
| Empire | Holy Roman Empire |
|---|
| Government type | Republic |
|---|
| Year start | 1306 |
|---|
| Year end | 1801 |
|---|
| Event pre | Settlement founded |
|---|
| Date pre | ca sixth millennium BC |
|---|
| Event start | Gained Reichsfreiheit |
|---|
| Event1 | Otto I crowned Emperor |
|---|
| Date event1 | 936 |
|---|
| Event2 | Fire devastated city |
|---|
| Date event2 | 1656 |
|---|
| Event3 | First Treaty endedWar of Devolution |
|---|
| Date event3 | 2 May 1668 |
|---|
| Event4 | Second Treaty ended Warof Austrian Succession |
|---|
| Date event4 | April – May 1748 |
|---|
| Event end | Annexed by France |
|---|
| Date end | |
|---|
| Event post | Third Treaty handlespost-Napoleonic France |
|---|
| Date post | October – November 1818 |
|---|
| P1 | |
|---|
| Image p1 | |
|---|
| S1 | Roer (department) |
|---|
| Flag s1 | Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor (after 1400).svg |
|---|
| Capital | Aachen |
|---|
Aachen (, also known in English by its French name Aix-la-Chapelle) has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, west of Cologne.Note: The term "FH Aachen" does not refer to the RWTH but to the Fachhochschule Aachen, a university of applied sciences, which is also located in Aachen. There are currently two places to "take the waters", at the Carolus Thermen complex and the bathhouse in Burtscheid.
In 936, Otto I was crowned king of the kingdom in the collegiate church built by Charlemagne. Over the next 500 years, most kings of Germany destined to reign over the Holy Roman Empire were crowned "King of the Germans" in Aachen. The last king to be crowned here was Ferdinand I in 1531. During the Middle Ages, Aachen remained a city of regional importance, due to its proximity to Flanders, achieving a modest position in the trade in woollen cloths, favoured by imperial privilege. The city remained a Free Imperial City, subject to the Emperor only, but was politically far too weak to influence the policies of any of its neighbors. The only dominion it had was over Burtscheid, a neighboring territory ruled by a Benedictine abbess and forced to accept that all of its traffic must pass through the "Aachener Reich". Even in the late eighteenth century, the Abbess of Burtscheid was prevented from building a road linking her territory to the neighbouring estates of the duke of Jülich; the city of Aachen even deployed its handful of soldiers to chase away the road-diggers.
From the early sixteenth century, Aachen lost power. A fire devastated the city in 1656. The third congress took place in 1818 to decide the fate of occupied Napoleonic France.
The nineteenth century
By the middle of the nineteenth century, industrialization swept away most of the city's medieval rules of production and commerce, although the entirely corrupt remains of the city's mediæval constitution was kept in place (compare the famous remarks of Georg Forster in his
Ansichten vom Niederrhein) until 1801, when Aachen became the "
chef-lieu du
département de la Roer" in Napoléon's
First French Empire. In 1815 after the
Napoleonic Wars, the
Kingdom of Prussia took over and the city became one of its most socially and politically backward centres until the end of the nineteenth century. Administered within the
Rhine Province, by 1880 the population was 80,000. Starting in 1840, the
railway from
Cologne to
Belgium passed through Aachen. The city suffered extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions up to 1875 when the mediæval fortifications were finally abandoned as a limit to building operations and new, less miserable quarters were built to the eastern part of the city where drainage of waste liquids was the easiest. In the nineteenth century and up to the 1930s, the city was important for the production of railway locomotives and carriages,
iron,
pins,
needles,
buttons,
tobacco, woollen goods, and
silk goods.
The twentieth century
Aachen was heavily damaged during
World War II. It was taken by the Allies on 21 October 1944; the first German city to be captured by Allies. It was taken by captain Purcell, who fought in both WWII and WWI. Aachen was destroyed partially — and in some parts completely — during the
fighting, mostly by
American artillery fire and demolitions by
Waffen-SS defenders. Damaged buildings included the medieval churches of
St. Foillan,
St. Paul and
St. Nicholas, and the
Rathaus (city hall), although the
Aachen Cathedral was largely unscathed. Only 4,000 inhabitants remained in the city; the rest had followed evacuation orders. Its first Allied-appointed mayor,
Franz Oppenhoff, was murdered by an SS commando unit.
While the emperor's palace no longer exists, the church built by Charlemagne is still the main attraction of the city. In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Main sights
–
Dutch–
Belgian border as seen from the town area]]
The
Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of
Charlemagne in 786 AD and was on completion the largest dome north of the
Alps. On his death Charlemagne's remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this date. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a curious and unique mixture of building styles.
The fourteenth-century city hall lies between two central places, the Markt (market place) and the Katschhof (between city hall and cathedral). The coronation hall is on the first floor of the building. Inside you can find five frescoes by the Aachen artist Alfre Rethel which show legendary scenes from the life of Charlemagne, as well as Charlemagne's signature.
The Grashaus, a late medieval house at the Markt, is one of the oldest non-religious buildings in downtown Aachen. It hosts the city archive. The Grashaus was the former city hall before the present building took over this function.
The Elisenbrunnen is one of the most famous sights of Aachen. It is a neoclassical hall covering one of the city's famous fountains. It is just a minute away from the cathedral. Just a few steps in southeastern direction lies the nineteenth century theatre.
Also well known and well worth seeing are the two remaining city gates, the Ponttor, one half mile northwest of the cathedral, and the Kleinmarschiertor, close to the central railway station. There are also a few parts of both medieval city walls left, most of them integrated in more recent buildings, some others visible. There are even five towers left, some of which are used for housing.
There are many other places and objects worth seeing, for example a notable number of churches and monasteries, a few remarkable seventeenth- and eighteenth-century buildings in the particular Baroque style typical of the region, a collection of statues and monuments, park areas, cemeteries, amongst others. The area's industrial history is reflected in dozens of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century manufacturing sites in the city.
In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, Frederick, by favor of divine clemency, Emperor Augustus of the Romans.
Since the royal palace of Aachen excels all provinces and cities in dignity and honor, both for the praise given there to the body of the most blessed Emperor Charlemagne, which that city alone is known to have, and because it is a royal seat at which the Emperors of the Romans were first crowned, it is fitting and reasonable that we, following the example of the holy lord Charlemagne and of other predecessors of ours, should fortify that same place, which is a pillar of support to the empire, with lavish gifts of liberty and privileges, as if with walls and towers. We have therefore decreed that there should be held twice a year the solemn and universal fairs of Aachen. And this we have done on the advice of the merchants. Moreover, we have preserved the rights of neighboring cities, so that these fairs may not only not be a hindrance to their fairs but may rather increase their profits. And so, on the advice of our nobles, we have given, out of respect for the most holy lord, the Emperor Charlemagne, this liberty to all merchants-that they may be quit and free of all toll throughout the year at these fairs in this royal place, and they may buy and sell goods freely just as they wish.
No merchant, nor any other person, may take a merchant to court for the payment of any debt during these fairs, nor take him there for any business that was conducted before the fairs began; but if anything be done amiss during the fairs, let it be made good according to justice during the fairs. Moreover, the first fair shall begin on Quadragesima Sunday, which is six weeks before Easter, and it shall last for fifteen days. The second fair shall begin eight days before the feast of St. Michael and shall continue for eight days after that feast. And all people coming to, staying at, or going from the fairs shall have peace for their persons and goods. And lest the frequent changing of coins, which are sometimes light and sometimes heavy, should redound to the hurt of so glorious a place at any time in the future, on the advice of our court, we have ordered money to be struck there of the same purity, weight, and form, and in the same quantity, and to be kept to the same standard. Twenty-four solidi shall be struck from a mark, always having the value of twelve solidi of Cologne, so that twelve Cologne solidi may always be made from twenty-four of these solidi, just as twenty-four solidi may always be struck from twelve solidi of Cologne. The form of the coins will be such that on one side will be the image of St. Charles the Great and his superscription, and on the obverse our own image with the superscription of our own name.
And a certain abuse has prevailed for a long time in the courts of Aachen so that if he, who was impleaded for calumny or for any other thing, could not offer satisfaction by compensation for his offense, except he flee from the country at once, he incurred the full penalty of composition; therefore, we, condemning this bad law forever, have decreed that any one may offer in this our royal town of Aachen, for any cause for which he has been impleaded, compensation by whatever small thing he is able to take off with his hands while standing upright, without bending his body, such thing as a cloak, tunic, hat, shirt, or other garment. And because the taking and exchanging of money, other than the money of Aachen, has been condemned by an unjust law, we have decreed to the contrary, that all money shall be current in our city according to its quality, and it shall be accepted by everyone according to what it has been declared to be worth. Moreover, we grant and confirm to the merchants of that city that they may have a mint and a house for exchanging their silver and money whenever they decide to go away on business. Whoever out of boldness decides to oppose our decree, or by temerity to break it, shall be in our mercy and will pay a hundred pounds of gold to our court. And in order that all the things we have decreed may be accepted as genuine and be faithfully observed we have ordered this charter to be written and to be sealed by the impression of our seal.
Economy
Research Center, Aachen.]]
Aachen has a large number of spin-offs from the university's IT-technology department and is a major centre of IT development in Germany. Due to the low level of investment in cross-border railway projects, the city has preserved a slot within the
Thalys high-speed train network which uses existing tracks on its last 70 km from Belgium to Cologne.
The airport that serves Aachen,
Maastricht Aachen Airport, is located about 40 km away in Dutch territory, close to the town of Beek.
Aachen was the administrative centre for the coal-mining industries in neighbouring places to the northeast; it never played any role in
brown coal mining, however, neither in administrative or industrial terms.
Products manufactured in or around Aachen include electronics, chemicals, plastics, textiles, glass, cosmetics, and needles and pins. Its most important source of revenue, the textile industries, have been dead for almost half a century now.
Transport
Aachen's
railway station, the
Hauptbahnhof, was constructed in 1841 at the
Cologne-Aachen railway line and replaced in 1905, moving it significantly closer to the city centre. It serves main lines to Cologne,
Mönchengladbach and
Liège as well as branch lines to
Heerlen,
Alsdorf,
Stolberg and
Eschweiler.
ICE high speed trains from
Brussels via
Cologne to
Frankfurt am Main and
Thalys trains from
Paris to Cologne also stop at Aachen Hauptbahnhof. Four
RE lines and one
RB line connect Aachen with the
Ruhrgebiet, Mönchengladbach, Liège,
Düsseldorf and the
Siegerland. The
euregiobahn, a regional railway system, reaches several minor cities in the Aachen region.
There are four smaller stations in Aachen:
Aachen West,
Aachen-Schanz,
Aachen-Rothe Erde and
Eilendorf. Only slower trains stop at these, but Aachen-West has developed enormous importance due to the expanding
RWTH Aachen university.
Aachen is connected to the Autobahn A4 (West-East), A44 (North-South) and A544 (a smaller motorway from the A4 to the Europaplatz near the city centre). Due to the enormous amount of traffic at the Aachen road interchange, there is often serious traffic accumulation, which is why there are plans to expand the interchange in the coming years.
The nearest airports are Düsseldorf International Airport (80 km), Cologne Bonn Airport (90 km) and Maastricht Aachen Airport (40 km).
Sports
The annual CHIO (short for the French term
Concours Hippique International Officiel) is the biggest
equestrian meeting of the world and among horsemen considered to be as prestigious for equitation as the tournament of
Wimbledon for tennis. Aachen was also the host of the
2006 FEI World Equestrian Games.
The local football team Alemannia Aachen had a short run-out in Germany's first division, after its promotion in 2006. However, the team could not sustain its status and is now back in the second division.
The stadium "Tivoli", opened in 1928, served as the venue for the team's home games and was well known for its incomparable atmosphere throughout the whole of the second division. Today, the stadium is used by the amateurs, whilst the Bundesliga Club holds its games in the new stadium "Neuer Tivoli" - meaning New Tivoli- a couple of metres down the road. The building work for the stadium which has a capacity of 32.960, began in May 2008 and was completed by the beginning of 2009.
In the South of the city you can find Aachen's biggest tennis club "TC Grün Weiss", which hosts the famous ATP Tournament once a year.
Awards
Since 1950, a committee of Aachen citizens annually awards the
Karlspreis (German for ‘Charlemagne Award’) to personalities of outstanding service to the unification of Europe. The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen was awarded in the year 2000 to the President of the United States,
Bill Clinton, for his special personal contribution to cooperation with the states of Europe, for the preservation of peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in Europe, and for his support of the enlargement of the European Union. In 2003 the medal was awarded to
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. In 2004,
Pope John Paul II's efforts to unite Europe were honoured with an ‘Extraordinary Charlemagne Medal’, which was awarded for the first time ever.
Miscellaneous
.]]
For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens.
(Karneval, Fasching), in which families dress in colorful costumes.]]
In 1372, Aachen became the first coin-minting city in the world to regularly place an
Anno Domini date on a general circulation
coin, a
groschen. It was written MCCCLXXII. None with this date are known to exist any longer. The earliest date for which an Aachen coin still exists is dated 1373.
.]]
King
Ethelwulf of Wessex, father of
Alfred the Great was born in Aachen.
Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe, one of the founders of
modern architecture and the last director of the
Bauhaus during its period in
Dessau and
Berlin was born in Aachen as well.
Aachen has the hottest springs of Central Europe with water temperatures of 74°C(165°F). The water contains a considerable percentage of common salt and other sodium salts and sulphur.
In 1850 Paul Julius Reuter founded the Reuters News Agency in Aachen which transferred messages between Brussels and Aachen using carrier pigeons.
The Scotch-Club in Aachen was the first discothèque since October 19, 1959. Klaus Quirini as DJ Heinrich was the first DJ ever.
The local specialty of Aachen is an originally stonehard type of sweet bread, baked in large flat loaves, called Aachener Printen. Unlike gingerbread (), which is sweetened with honey, Printen are sweetened with sugar. Today, a soft version is sold under the same name which follows an entirely different recipe.
Aachen is at the western end of the Benrath line that divides High German to the south from the rest of the West Germanic speech area to the north.
As a spa city, Aachen could use the title Bad Aachen, however as the town then would not appear on first place in alphabetically ordered lists, it declined to do so.
Education
houses|right]]
RWTH Aachen University, established as Polytechnicum in 1870, is one of the
Germany's Universities of Excellence with strong emphasis on technological research, especially for electrical and mechanical engineering, computer sciences, physics, and chemistry. The university clinics attached to the RWTH, the
Klinikum Aachen, is the biggest single-building hospital in Europe. Over time, a host of software and computer industries have developed around the university. It also maintains a
botanical garden (the
Botanischer Garten Aachen).
FH Aachen, Aachen University of Applied Sciences (AcUAS) was founded in 1971. The AcUAS offers a classic engineering education in professions like Mechatronics, Construction Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering. German and international students are educated in more than 20 international or foreign-oriented programs and can acquire German as well as international degrees (Bachelor/Master) or Doppeldiplome (double degrees). Foreign students accounts for more than 21% of the student body.
The German Army's Technical School (Technische Schule des Heeres und Fachschule des Heeres für Technik) is in Aachen.
International relations
Aachen is twinned with:
Liège, Belgium; since 1955.
Reims, France; since 1967.
Halifax, England, United Kingdom; since 1979.
Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain; since 1985.
Ningbo, China; since 1986.
Naumburg, Germany; since 1988.
Arlington County, Virginia, United States; since 1993.
Cape Town, South Africa; since 1999.
Kostroma, Russia; since 2005.
Rosh HaAyin, Israel; since 2007.
Baltimore, Ireland; since 2010.
See also
Aachen (district)
Aachen tram
Aachener
Aachener Bachverein
List of mayors of Aachen
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
Notes
External links
City of Aachen (partly available in English)
Aachen-emotion.com - photos, interviews, stories, audio files and video clips featuring Aachen - presented by Aachen City Council. (in German and English)
ASEAG (public bus transport) (in German)
RWTH Aachen University (in German and English)
Fachhochschule Aachen (Aachen University of Applied Sciences)
Google Earth placemark with official image overlays
Panorama pictures of landmarks and places of interest
The Spirit of Aachen - documentary film by SportsQuest International
Einhard's Annals: first mention of Aquis villa, 765
Aachen Zoo at Zoo-Infos.de
Article on Aachen's historic buildings
Map of the Aachen Area in 1789
Category:Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia
Category:Matter of France
Category:Spa towns in Germany
Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations (German)
Category:Belgium–Germany border crossings
![Eurobot 2010 final, first match (second run), Roboterclub Aachen (RCA) [Germany] - RCVA [France]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110408124021im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/h-jfEaIuqjY/0.jpg "Eurobot 2010 final, first match (second run), Roboterclub Aachen (RCA) [Germany] - RCVA [France]")
![Eurobot 2010 final, second match, Roboterclub Aachen (RCA) [Germany] - RCVA [France]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110408124021im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XdxCTZq3z-Y/0.jpg "Eurobot 2010 final, second match, Roboterclub Aachen (RCA) [Germany] - RCVA [France]")
