Nördlingen (German:[ˈnœʁtlɪŋən]ⓘ;Alemannic German:Nearle orNerle) is atown in theDonau-Ries district, inSwabia,Bavaria,Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately 115 km (71 mi) east ofStuttgart, and 145 km (90 mi) northwest ofMunich. It was built in an impact crater 15 million years old and 25 km (16 mi) in diameter—theNördlinger Ries—of a meteorite which hit with an estimated speed of 70,000 km/h, and left the area riddled with an estimated 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds.[3]
Nördlingen was first mentioned inrecorded history in 898. The town was the location of two battles during theThirty Years' War, which took place between 1618 and 1648. Today it is one of very few towns in Germany that still have completely intactcity walls—joining the ranks ofRothenburg ob der Tauber,Dinkelsbühl andBerching, all of them in Bavaria.
Another attraction in the town is Saint George's Church's 90-metre (300 ft) steeple, called "Daniel," which is made of asueviteimpact breccia that containsshocked quartz. Other notable buildings are the town hall (which dates to the 13th century), St. Salvator church and theSpital, a former medieval hospital. TheRies crater museum is located in the well-preserved medieval tanners' quarter.
The city is home to several other museums, such as theBavarian Railway Museum, the Nördlingen city museum (Stadtmuseum), the city wall museum (Stadtmauermuseum) andAugenblick museum. The latter has panoramas, magic lanterns, silent films, barrel organs, pianolas, music boxes and gramophones.
The Large Ofnet, one of the earliest sites with evidence of human habitation in the Nördlingen area
Finds in theOfnet Caves near the city show that the site of present-day Nördlingen was already inhabited in the latePalaeolithic. In the Large Ofnet, in 1908 archaeologistR. R. Schmidt found two dish-shaped pits in which human skulls were lying "like eggs in flat baskets".[4] In the larger pit were 27 skulls and in the other there were 6 skulls.[5] The skulls were arranged concentrically with their faces turned towards the setting sun.[5] They were all covered with a thick layer ofred ochre.[5] The skulls have been dated to the7th millennium BC.[6] In the area around Nördlingen, additional sites dating to almost all of the subsequent prehistoric epochs have been discovered. Particularly important was an area on the eastern edge of the district Baldingen, where settlements have been found belonging to theNeolithicLinear Pottery culture, theBronze AgeUrnfield culture, and theCelticIron AgeHallstatt andLa Tène cultures.
The area which includes present-day Nördlingen was part of theRoman province ofRaetia,[7] but little research has been conducted on the city's Roman period. A Roman villa has been excavated in the district of Holheim, and can be visited today. Another villa with an adjoining burial ground has been identified in the Baldingen district. A settlement (vicus), built in 85 C.E., occupied the southern part of the city until 259–260 C.E., when it was destroyed during the conquest of what is now southern Germany by the Germanic-speakingAlemanni tribes. The Roman settlement may have been the one known asSeptemiacum, which is supposed to have been built between 80–300 C.E.,[8] although it is possible that this particular settlement was actually located at a different site such asOberdorf,[9] leaving the name of the settlement at Nördlingen uncertain.
TheAlemannic people occupied the Nördlingen area during the 6th and 7th centuries, during which time the region was graduallyChristianized under theMerovingian dynasty, and several burial grounds from this period have been discovered. The name "Nordilinga" is first found in documents of theCarolingian royal court dating from 898, and the city today celebrates this as the date of its "foundation". Under the rule of theBishops of Regensburg, Nördlingen grew into an important market town.
In 1215, Nördlingen was granted city rights byEmperor Frederick II and became imperial city of theHoly Roman Empire. In that year, the first city wall was built, the footprint of which is still visible today. In a document dating to 1219, theNördlinger Pfingstmesse ("Nördlingen Pentecost fair") was first mentioned, an event which continues as a folk festival in the city to the present day. Thanks to Nördlingen's location at the crossroads of two major trade routes (Frankfurt / Würzburg-Augsburg and Nuremberg-Ulm), it became an important trading center for grain, livestock, textiles, furs, and metal goods. Besides Frankfurt am Main, Nördlingen was one of the most important long-distance trade fairs in the region.
In 1238, a fire destroyed much of Nördlingen, but the city quickly recovered. Three generations later, a large number of craftsmen, especially tanners and weavers, settled outside the city walls. In 1327 the present-day circular wall was built, which increased the size of the walled portion of the city fourfold. 1427 saw the start of construction on St. George's Church.
In the year 1472 the court case against the brothel owners Linhardt Freiermuth and his wife Barbara Taschenfeind is recorded in the city's court records. The starting point of the trial was the charge offorced abortion on the prostitute Els von Eystett. The court convicted the owners and banished the husband from the city. His wife was branded on the forehead and pilloried. The associated 40 parchment pages in the Nördlingen city archives give unique insight into the conditions of a brothel in this time period.
1744 map of theCounty of Oettingen, with Nördlingen and its exclaves in the middle, coloured violetThe fortress walls of Nördlingen are well preserved.
In 1529, the city was part of theProtestation at Speyer, which sought to allow the unimpeded spread of theProtestant Reformation. In 1555, the Reformation in Nördlingen was finally completed. In 1579, Mayor Peter Seng (1512–1589) signed the LutheranFormula of Concord.
Thewitch trials in the early modern period in Nördlingen have been well documented. Between 1589 and 1598, 34 women and one man were burned at the stake for the crime of witchcraft, and one co-defendant midwife, Barbara Lierheimer, died while in custody. The trials of Maria Holl and Rebecca Lemp became especially well-known.[10] In 1589, Pastor Wilhelm Friedrich Lutz delivered sermons against the radical witch persecution of Nördlingen City Council, prior to the Council's execution of the first alleged witches in May 1590. One of the three women executed in that year was a carter's daughter, Ursula Haider, who was arrested on 8 November 1589 and burned on 15 May 1590. The trial of Ursula Haider was by described by Ulrike Haß in her bookTeufelstanz.
It is often said that in 1604 a shortened and simplified version ofWilliam Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet was performed in Nördlingen and that this was one of the first performances of any Shakespearean play outside England.[11] In fact, the players applied to perform but were denied by the local authorities and were compensated for their efforts.[12]
Nördlingen served as the site of two historic battles, and marked a turning point in theThirty Years' War. In thefirst Battle of Nördlingen in 1634, the Swedish Protestant forces were decisively defeated for the first time by the imperialHabsburg troops. The city was compelled to open its gates to the victors, but was not plundered by the victorious troops after high reparations payments. However, during and after the siege, the city lost more than half of its population due to hunger and illness. This was exacerbated by thesecond Battle of Nördlingen in 1645, and it would not be until 1939 that Nördlingen regained the population it had in 1618. In the early 18th century, during theWar of the Spanish Succession, the city was further affected by the impact of nearbybattles of Höchstädt. The wars forced trade to shift to the seaports, and as a result, Nördlingen lost its importance as a trading center. In part due to this forced economic standstill, Nördlingen's medieval cityscape remained well preserved.
As a result of theGerman mediatization, in 1803 Nördlingen lost its status as an imperial city and became part of theElectorate of Bavaria, which had occupied the city in September 1802 in anticipation of the decree. On January 1, 1806, Bavaria's Elector declared himself king, officially changing the Electorate of Bavaria into theKingdom of Bavaria, which seceded from the Holy Roman Empire the following August.
On May 15, 1849, Nördlingen was connected to the network of the Royal Bavarian State Railways. In that same year, the first rail lines opened toNuremberg. A third railway connection, under the leadership of the Royal Württemberg State Railways, was opened on 3 October 1863 toAalen.
During theSecond World War, a total of 33 people were killed in and around Nördlingen by air raids conducted in the spring of 1945. The train station and several houses were destroyed, and St. George's Church was severely damaged. However, most of the historic district of the city was spared. In 1945, Nördlingen became part of the American occupation zone ofAllied-occupied Germany. The United States military set up adisplaced persons camp in the city. It was overseen byUNRRA and housed approximately 500DPs, mostly fromLatvia andLithuania. More than 4,500 people settled permanently in Nördlingen after the war.
Since the Middle Ages,Jewish families have resided in Nördlingen. They buried their dead in the Jewish cemetery on Nähermemminger Way, and a synagogue was built in 1885. The synagogue was destroyed by theNazis during the November pogrom of 1938, and this is commemorated by a plaque on today's Protestant parish hall. In 1979, a memorial stone was erected in the Jewish cemetery commemorating Jewish victims of theHolocaust.
In the course of the municipal reorganization of Bavaria, Nördlingen lost its status as a city on July 1, 1972 and was incorporated into the newly formed district Nördlingen-Donauwörth, which received its current name,Donau-Ries, on May 1, 1973.
The local sports club, theTSV 1861 Nördlingen, has a very successfulbasketball department with the men's and the women's team both in the Basketball Bundesliga. The clubs football team is traditionally the strongest side in northern Swabia. Its most successful former player isGerd Müller, who was born and raised in Nördlingen. Its stadium was renamed in his honour in 2008.
Nördlingen is also known for theScharlachrennen (Scarlet Race), a horse race tournament that was first mentioned in 1463. Since World War II, it has expanded to include eventing, jumping and dressage.
Stone buildings in the town contain millions of tinydiamonds, all less than 0.2 mm (0.008 in) across. Themeteorite impact—from a 1 km-wide (0.6 mi) asteroid—that caused theNördlinger Ries crater created an estimated 72,000 tons of these tiny diamonds when it impacted a local graphite deposit. Stone from this area was later quarried and used to build the stone buildings.[3]
Nördlingen bears a resemblance to the town of Shiganshina fromAttack on Titan, though there is no official link between the two. After being featured on a Japanese variety show in 2013, Nördlingen became a tourist destination for fans of the series.[15]
^Dawson, Anthony B. (2002). "International Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah.The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–193.ISBN978-0-521-79711-5, p. 176
^Oppitz-Trotman, George. (2015).Romeo and Juliet in German, 1603-1604"Notes and Queries 260: 96–98.
Baier, Johannes (2007):Die Ausfwurfprodukte des Ries-Impakts, Deutschland, 'inDocumenta Naturae, Vol. 162, München.ISBN978-3-86544-162-1
Baier, Johannes (2008):Zur Herkunft der Suevit-Grundmasse des Ries-Impakt Kraters, inDocumenta Naturae, Vol. 172, München.ISSN0723-8428
Theodor Heuss:Reiz biedermeierhafter Idylle. Besuch in Nördlingen. In:Die romantische Straße. Merian, 7. Jg., Heft 12/1954, S. 34–41.
Wolfgang Kootz (Text), Willi Sauer, Ulrich Strauch u. a. (Fotos):Nördlingen im Ries an der Romantischen Straße, Stadtführer mit 90 Farbbildern, Kraichgau Verlag, 2007,ISBN978-3-929228-47-2.
Dietlof Reiche:Der Bleisiegelfälscher. Beltz & Gelberg, 1998,ISBN978-3-407-78781-1 (Historischer Roman, ausgezeichnet mit dem Kinder- und Jugendbuchpreis der Stadt Oldenburg 1977 und mit dem Deutschen Jugendbuchpreis 1978. In diesem Jugendbuch wird die mittelalterliche Situation der Nördlinger Lodenweber sehr eingehend beschrieben.)
Dietlof Reiche:Die Hexenakte. Carl Hanser, 2007,ISBN978-3-446-20860-5; dtv, 2009,ISBN978-3-423-62387-2 (Historischer Roman (Jugendroman) zur Hexenverbrennung und -verfolgung in Nördlingen; beruht auf der Geschichte Reiches eigener Vorfahrin).
VII. 90/2: Bernd Vollmar, Georg Paula, Catharina Kociumaka:Stadt Nördlingen, mit Beiträgen vonWolfgang Czysz, Hanns Dietrich, Gerhard Ongyerth und Dietmar-H. Voges und Aufnahmen von Vera Sohnle. Photohaus Finck, Dieter Komma, 1998,ISBN3-87490-578-0.
Wolfgang Wüst:Wider Gotteslästerung, Unkeuschheit, Ehebruch, Neid, Hass und Aufruhr – Policey und Zucht in Nördlingen im Jahre 1542/43. In:Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben (=ZHVS) 109 (2017),ISBN978-3-95786-110-8, S. 167–187.
Gustav Adolf Zipperer:Wege durchs Ries. Ein Wanderführer. Fränkisch-Schwäbischer Heimatverlag, Donauwörth 1975.
