Some Places in Germany Associated With Important Historical Events
(we also include Prague in the Czech Republic here)
Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in English) the first German city liberated by Allied forces in WW II, home of Charlemagne, King of the
Franks and crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800. Charlemagne is buried in the church he built there, and which
part of the Aachen Cathedral. His conquests are credited with providing western Europe with a unifying identity and his reign
is associated with the so-called Carolingian Renaissance, a rebirth of art and culture under Catholicism.
Cologne, always a vibrant
commercial center since before Roman times, was the target of the first so-called millenium air raid in WW II, in which more than
1000 British bombers left 59,000 people homeless and the city a pile of rubble. It is now a newly rebuilt modern
city in which its history is largely contained only within many museums. Of course there is also its magnificent cathedral in
which there is a reliquary purportedly containing the bones of the Three Magi.
Frankfurt-on-Main's history is similar to Cologne's.
It, too is ancient, named for the ford (furt) over the river Main used by the Franks. And it also was destroyed by Allied
bombing in WW II and rebuilt after the war. Another of Frankfurt's claims to important history is that it was the seat of the
first German democratically elected parliament in 1848. This experiment in democracy was short-lived, however. Its
task was to write the first German Democratic Constitution, but the kings of Prussia and Austria objected and sent troops in 1849
to end the parliament by force of arms.
Mainz, on the Rhine River, is very close to Frankfurt, and shares with it and with Cologne
most of their ancient history from pre-Roman times as well as their WWII experiences. But a very important additional claim
to historical importance is that this is the city where Johannes Gutenburg developed the western world's first moveable type printing
press. You can see a replica of this press and several Bibles printed on the original in the Gutenburg Museum there.
Leipzig, in
the former East German zone, is the location of St. Thomas church where the composer Johann Sebastian Bach worked and composed for
many years. It is also the location of Auerbach's cellar, made famous in Goethe's opera "Faust. And it is where the first
protests against the government of the German Democratic Republic led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the reunification
of Germany.
