Braunschweig

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For the historical administrative region, see Braunschweig (region).

Braunschweig


Country	Germany
State	Lower Saxony
District	urban district
Population	245,895 source (2005)
Area	192.09 km²
Population density	1,280 /km²
Elevation	75 m
Coordinates	52°16′ N 10°31′ E
Postal code	38100-38126
Area code	0531, 05307, 05309
Licence plate code	BS
Mayor	Gert Hoffmann (CDU)
Website	braunschweig.de

Braunschweig [ˈbraunʃvaik] is a city of 245,500 people (as of December 31, 2004), located in Lower Saxony, Germany (or 'Niedersachsen, Bundesrepublik Deutschland' in German). It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser.

The historic English name for Braunschweig is Brunswick, or Brunswiek, Low Saxon.

Braunschweig around 1900.

1 History
2 Sights
3 Twin Towns
4 Miscellaneous
5 External links

[edit] History

The date and circumstances of the town's foundation are unknown. Tradition maintains that Braunschweig was created through the merger of two settlements, one founded by Bruno II, a Saxon count who died before 1017 on one side of the river Oker - the legend gives the year 861 for the foundation - and the other the settlement of Count Dankward, after whom the still surviving Castle Dankwarderode (Dankward's clearing) is named. The town's original name of Brunswik is a combination of the name Bruno and wik, a place where merchants rested and stored their goods. The town's name therefore indicates an ideal resting-place, as it lay by a ford across the Oker River. Documents from the St. Magni Church from 1031 give the city's name as Brunesguik. Another explanation of the city's name is that it comes from Brand, or burning, indicating a place which developed after the landscape was cleared through burning.

Dankwarderode Castle

Brunswick Cathedral, with Lion statue.

In the 12th century Duke Henry the Lion made Braunschweig the capital of his state and built Brunswick Cathedral. He became so powerful that he dared to refuse military aid to emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, which led to his condemnation and fall.

Braunschweig was a member of the Hanseatic League from the 13th century to the middle of the 17th century. In the 18th century Braunschweig was not only a political, but also a cultural centre. Emilia Galotti by Lessing and Goethe's Faust were played for the first time in Braunschweig.

Most of the times Braunschweig was the residence of a duchy of the same name (Herzogtum Braunschweig) which was a state within the German Reich since 1871. After World War I it received a republican constitution (Freistaat Braunschweig) being a state within the Weimar Republic. After World War II the state of Braunschweig was dissolved and integrated in the newly formed state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen).

Braunschweig achieved an inglorious fame by making Adolf Hitler a German citizen, which allowed him to become a candidate for the German Reichstag and become Head of Government (Reichskanzler). Hitler was employed by the Braunschweig State Government in February 1932 and thereby obtained German citizenship. The later site selection of the Volkswagen plant in nearby Wolfsburg (Fallersleben) was likely a thank-you gift for this granting of citizenship.

During World War II, Braunschweig was a Sub-area Headquarters (Untergebiet Hauptquartier) of Military District (Wehrkreis) XI. It was also the Garrison Town of the 31st Infanterie Division, which took part in the invasions of Poland, Belgium, France, and Russia. It was one of the units that was destroyed during the withdrawal from Russia at the end of the war. As a result, it was severely damaged by Anglo-American aerial attacks. The air raid on October 15, 1944 destroyed most of the Altstadt (old town), which was the largest ensemble of half-timbered framework houses in Germany, as well as most of the churches. Only the Cathedral, which was changed into a National shrine (German: Nationale Weihestätte) by the Nazi-Government, withstood the bombs. After the war, the Cathedral was turned into a Protestant church again. A small section of the old centre of town did survive the bombing and remains quite distinctive. Much of the remainder, including the historic "Alte Waage" have been restored and now appear again in their pre-war glory.

Demographic evolution of Braunschweig between 1811 and 2004
1811	1830	1849	1880	1890	1900	1925	1939	1950	1975	1989	2004
27,600	35,300	39,000	75,000	100,000	128,200	146,900	196,068	223,767	269,900	253,794	239,921

[edit] Sights

Happy Rizzi House

Saint Andrew

Richmond Palace

Theatre

Car-free zone in downtown

Coal Market

The beautiful Burgplatz (Castle Square), comprised of a group of buildings of great historical and cultural significance: the Cathedral (built at the end of the 12th century), the Burg Dankwarderode (a 19th-century reconstruction of the old castle of Henry the Lion), the Neo-Gothic Town Hall (built in 1893-1900), as well as some picturesque half-timbered houses, such as the Gildehaus (Guild House), today the seat of the Craftsman's Association. On the centre of the square stands a copy of the Burglöwe, a Romanesque statue of a Lion, cast in bronze in 1166. The original statue can be seen in the museum of the Castle Dankwarderode. Today the lion has become the true symbol of Braunschweig.
The Altstadtmarkt ("old town market"), surrounded by old town hall (built between the 13th and the 15th centuries in Gothic style), and the Martinikirche (church of Saint Martin, from 1195).
The Kohlmarkt ("cabbage market"), a very nice market with many beautiful historical houses and and a fountain from 1869.
The Magniviertel (St Magnus' Quarter), a remainder of ancient Braunschweig, lined with cobblestoned streets, little shops and cafés, centered around the 13th-century Magnikirche (St Magnus' Church). Here is also the Rizzi-Haus, a highly distinctive, cartoonish office building designed by architect James Rizzi for the Expo 2000.
The Gothic Aegidienkirche (church of Saint Giles), built in the 13th century, with an adjoining monastery, which is today a museum.
The "Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum", a world-wide important art museum and the oldest public museum in Germany (founded 1754).
The Staatstheater (State Theater), newly built in the 19th century, goes back to the first standing public theater in Germany, founded in 1690 by Duke Anton Ulrich.
The Palace of Braunschweig is in a kind of state of reconstruction. The original had been partly destroyed in World War II and demolished in 1960. At the same place is a shopping-mall in construction which resemble the cladding of the former Palace at the front-side.

Recommended Day Trips:

Celle: a beautiful town with old half-timbered houses and a castle.
Hildesheim: a beautiful medieval town famous for its UNESCO-cultural heritage cathedrals, market place and old half-timbered houses.
Hameln: a town famous for the folk tale of the Pied Piper of Hameln
Wolfenbüttel: the Residenzstadt (residential city) of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg for several centuries, Wolfenbüttel is home to a Wasserburg (castle surrounded by a moat) and the Bibliotheca Augusta (Herzog-August Bibliothek, or the Duke August library) housing the largest collection of medieval manuscripts in Europe. The city is historically important also for its numerous half-timber houses, many of which date back several centuries since Wolfenbüttel was left largely untouched by WWII.

[edit] Twin Towns

[edit] Miscellaneous

Braunschweig has been an important industrial area. Today it is known for its University and research institutes, mainly the Federal Agricultural Research Centre (English website) and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The PTB Braunschweig maintains the atomic clock responsible for the DCF77 time signal and the official German time.

Also located in Braunschweig is the "Martino-Katharineum" (website), a secondary school founded in 1415. It had such famous pupils as Carl Friedrich Gauss, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Richard Dedekind and Louis Spohr.

Brunswick is the home of two piano companies, both known worldwide for the high quality of their instruments: Schimmel and Grotrian-Steinweg (cf. Steinway). Both companies were founded in the 19th century.

Braunschweig is famous for Till Eulenspiegel, a medieval jester who played many practical jokes on its citizens. It also had - and still has - many breweries, and still a very peculiar kind of beer is made called Mumme (see de:Braunschweiger Mumme), first quoted in 1390, a malt-extract that was shipped all over the world.

Near Braunschweig at Cremlingen-Abbenrode, there is a large medium wave transmitter, which transmits the program of "Deutschlandfunk" on 756 kHz, the Cremlingen transmitter.

The Braunschweig-Wolfsburg Regional Airport (BWE / EDVE) is located north of the city at 52.19. 09N - 10.33.22E, elev. 295 ft.

Braunschweiger liverwurst is named after the city.

Many other geographical names are named after Braunschweig such as New Brunswick in Canada due to the Personal Union of the Duchy of Hanover with Great Britain and the United Kingdom from 1714 to 1837 (see House of Hanover a.k.a. House of Brunswick, Hanover line). For a list of places named after Braunschweig see Brunswick.