Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in south-central Germany. It is the capital of the Swabia administrative region of Bavaria, and is located at the confluence of the Wertach and Lech rivers. The population was 276,193 in 2004.

History

The city was founded in 15 BC in the reign of Roman emperor Augustus as a garrison called Augusta Vindelicorum. It was laid waste by the Huns in the fifth century, by Charlemagne in the eighth, and by Welf of Bavaria in the eleventh; it rose each time only to greater prosperity.

It became an Imperial Free City on March 9, 1276. Given its strategic location on the trade routes to Italy, it became a major trading centre. It produced large quantities of woven goods, cloth and textiles, and was the base for the Fugger banking empire. The Fuggerei, part of the city devoted to housing for the needy citizens of Augsburg, was founded in 1516 and is still in use today.

In 1530 the Augsburg confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg. The discovery of America, and of the road to India by the Cape, together with the sufferings due to the Thirty Years War destroyed the town's prosperity. In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Augsburg lost its independence and became part of the kingdom of Bavaria. It increased considerably in industrial importance in the nineteenth century. It contained large cotton and woolen mills, machine shops, and manufactories of acetylene gas, paper, chemicals, jewelry, and leather.

In 1941 Rudolf Hess took off from a local airport and flew to Scotland to meet the Duke of Hamilton and attempt to mediate the end of the European front of World War 2 and join sides for the upcoming Russian Campaign.

In 1945 elements of the US Army liberated the heavily damaged city. An American Military presence in the city started with the 11th Airborne division, moving to the 24th Infantry Division, US Army Seventh Corps Artillery, and, ending with the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which left the area in 1998

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augsburg