AACHEN
History
History I
Aachen Cathedral (Dom) I
Sightseeing I
Practical I Hotels in Aachen
The name Aachen derives from the Frankish word AHHA, meaning
water.
The city owes its origin to its
salubrious springs
which were already known in the time of the Romans.In prehistoric
times when Aachen was marshland, there were hot springs on some
slopes and even the Celts worshipped their God of Healing and Water,
GRANNUS, here.
There appears to have been a royal court in Aachen
under the
Merovingians, but it rose to greater importance under
Charlemagne
who
chose it as his favourite place of residence, adorned it with a
noble-imperial palace and chapel, and gave orders that he should be
buried there.
The precious relics obtained by Charlemagne and Otho III for the
imperial chapel were the objects of great
pilgrimages
in the Middle Ages
(the so-called "Shrine Pilgrimages") which drew countless swarms of
pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, Sweden, and other
countries. From the middle of the fourteenth century onwards, however it
became customary to expose the four great relics only once in every
seven years, a custom which still holds. These pilgrimages, the
coronations of the German emperors
(thirty-seven of whom were crowned
there between 813 and 1531), the flourishing industries and the
privileges conferred by the various emperors combined to make Aachen one
of the first cities of the Empire.
The decay of Aachen dates from the religious strife of the
German
Reformation. Albrecht von Muenster first preached Protestantism there in
the year 1524 but was afterwards forbidden to preach the new views and
executed on account of two murders committed during his stay in the
cities of Maastricht and Wesel. A new Protestant community was soon,
however formed in Aachen, which gradually attained such strength as to
provoke a rising in
1581, force the election of a Protestant
burgomaster, and defy the Emperor for several years. The Ban of the
empire was, therefore, pronounced against the city in 1597 and put in
force by the Duke of Julich, the Catholic overlord of the city. The
Catholics were restored to their rights, and the Jesuits invited to
Aachen, in 1600. In 1611, however, the Protestants rose afresh,
plundered the Jesuit college, drove out the Catholic officials in 1612,
and opened their gates to troops from Brandenburg. The Ban of the Empire
was again laid on the city, and executed by the Spanish general,
Spinola. The Protestant ringleaders were tried or exiled, and many other
Protestants banished. These troubles, together with
a great fire
which
destroyed 4,000 houses, put an end to the prosperity of the city.
Two
treaties of peace
were concluded at Aachen during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. By the first, dated 2 May 1668, Louis XIV was compelled, by
the Triple Aliiance between England, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to
abandon the war against the Spanish Netherlands, to restore the Franche
Comte, which he had conquered, and to content himself with twelve
Flemish fortresses. The second treaty, dated 18 October, 1748, put an
end to the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1793 and 1794, Aachen was
occupied by the French, incorporated with the French Republic in 1798
and 1802, and made the capital of the Department of the Roer. In 1815
Aachen became Prussian territory.
The
Congress of Aachen
sat there from 30 September to 11 November, 1818, and was attended
by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and by
plenipotentiaries from France and England, to determine the relations
between France and the Powers. France obtained a reduction of the war
indemnity and the early departure of the army of occupation, and joined
the Holy Alliance; the other four Powers guaranteed the throne of France
to the Bourbons, against any revolution that might occur. Aachen, under
Prussian government, returned to prosperity, chiefly through the
development of the coal mines in the neighborhood, which facilitated
several extensive industries (such as the manufacture of linen, needles,
machinery, glass, woolen, and half-woollen stuffs, etc.), but also in
consequence of the large number of visitors to its hot springs
