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Braunschweig (historic English name Brunswick, Low Saxon Brunswiek) is a city of 245,500 people (as of December 31, 2004), located in Lower Saxony, Germany. 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.

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 and the other the settlement of Count Dankward, after whom the still surviving Castle 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.

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.

Braunschweig was a duchy until 1918, and afterwards a state within the Weimar Republic. It 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 consisted of half-timbered houses, 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.

Sights

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Braunschweig".

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