Halberstadt
Halberstadt is an ancient town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
History
Halberstadt on the Holtemme River in the foreland of the northern Harz mountains, southwest of Magdeburg, became a bishopric of the Frankish Empire about 814 and was granted market rights in 989 by the Roman-German Emperor. In 1068, there was already an emerging merchant community in Halberstadt, under which the city began to emancipate itself from the control of the bishopric around 1105. In 1134, the Reichstag took place in Halberstadt, at which Albrecht the Bear was enfeoffed with the Nordmark. In 1189, the Third Crusade reached the city. The first episcopal letter of protection for them is documented in 1261.
In 1179, as part of a feud, Henry the Lion, from 1142 to 1180 Duke of Saxony, destroyed the city, cathedral and cathedral castle by setting a major fire. In 1192, the Templars came to Halberstadt and founded a community in the Burchardi monastery. The construction of the city wall was first mentioned in 1199 and lasted until 1236. In 1223, the Siechenhof was established, the first facility for sick people in the city, although the building was more of a quarantine station than a hospital. Between 1236 and 1239, construction began on the new cathedral, which was consecrated in 1491. A town hall for the city is mentioned for the first time in 1241; In addition, the city already had its own seal at this point. A few years before 1297, the Servite mendicant order came to Halberstadt and founded a monastery in the New City in front of the Water Gate. In 1353, the new so-called Jewish village was built, the first closed Jewish settlement in the city.
It was one of the most important German trading cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th–14th century. The bishopric was secularized and the town granted to Brandenburg by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Halberstadt was occupied and plundered several times; The worst was in 1758. Complete destruction was only narrowly averted. Immediately after peace was concluded, Ernst Ludwig Christoph von Spiegel acquired the Spiegelsberge and converted it into a landscape park.
In 1778, Friedrich Eberhard von Rochow founded Germany's first rural school teachers' seminar in Halberstadt. From 18 October 1806, Halberstadt was occupied by French troops. It would become part of the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 to 1814 under the yoke of Napoleon. In the Fifth Coalition War, it was not until 5 May 1809 that a raiding party of Ferdinand von Schill's Jäger (Freikorps) passed through; Three months later, in a bloody battle on 29 July 1809, the Duke of Braunschweig's Black Brunswickers (de) conquered the city and moved on with 2,000 prisoners. In fact, the French retained the upper hand in the long term.
After the Wars of Liberation and the Congress of Vienna, Halberstadt was reverted once again to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815 within the Province of Saxony, German Confederation. With the opening of the railway line to Magdeburg by the Magdeburg-Halberstadt Railway in 1843, Halberstadt was connected to the constantly expanding railway network. Friedrich Heine founded the Halberstadt sausage factory in 1883. The bathing establishment was built in 1890. The first German trade union congress took place in Halberstadt in 1892. In 1891, Halberstadt left the state district and formed its own city district again.
By 1900, the city already had more than 42,000 inhabitants. Because of the many beautiful half-timbered houses, Halberstadt was considered the “Rothenburg of the North” (something, not even the GDR could destroy). In 1903, Halberstadt received an electric tram. The city theater and the city museum were founded in 1905. One of the first bourgeois theaters in Germany had existed in the former Nicolaik Monastery since 1812.
From 1912 onwards, the German Bristol Works in Halberstadt built aircraft. During the First World War, the former German-British joint venture, renamed Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke, produced aircraft for the Fliegertruppe of the Imperial German Army. After the end of the war in November 1918, aircraft construction in the German Reich of the Weimar Republic had to be stopped completely due to the terms of the Versailles Treaty; The former aircraft factory, which now belongs to Berlin-Halberstädter Industriewerke AG, went bankrupt at the beginning of 1926.
WWII
Halberstadt, which had around 57,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the war, was completely overcrowded in April 1945 with around 65,000 people, including 4,000 wounded in 15 clinics and hospitals. On 8 April 1945, with American troops just a few miles away, and, therefore, the end of the war for this quaint half-timbered town of Halberstadt, it was vindictively destroyed in a daytime air attack by the US Army Air Forces heavy bombers. Between 2,500 and 3,000 people were killed[1][2] by the 'werewolf' bombs, and around 25,000 were made homeless. Over 82% of Halberstadt was destroyed in the air raid.[3]
Of the 19,000 previously existing apartments, 8,000 were completely destroyed and 1,500 were severely damaged. Of the 5,400 residential buildings, 2,200 were destroyed and 800 were damaged. 900 craft and commercial businesses were destroyed.[4] When American soldiers occupied the town two days later, the beautiful thriving community that existed just 48 hours earlier was nothing but smoking ruins.
Notable persons
- Adolf Stoecker, court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I
- Georg Stumme, General der Panzertruppe in WWII
Sources
- Werner Hartmann: Halberstadt brennt – Eine Dokumentation über Halberstadt im Luftkrieg 1944–1945, Halberstadt 1990 (2nd Edition)
- written in the 1950s (completed 1960) by soldier, later teacher Hartmann (b. 5 March 1923 in Bibra; d. 4 December 2022 in Halberstadt ) who experienced the bombing; 1st published edition 1980, 3rd revised edition 2015
