The city of Fulda on the river of the same name is the regional
center of the East Hesse region and the ninth largest city in Hesse.
It is the district town of the Fulda district and one of seven
special status towns in Hesse. Fulda is the largest city in the East
Hesse region and its political and cultural center. The city belongs
to the Rhine-Main area, one of the eleven European metropolitan
regions in Germany.
Fulda was the seat of the Fulda Monastery
and is a university, baroque and episcopal city with the episcopal
seat of the diocese of the same name. The city's landmark is St.
Salvator's Cathedral.
The origin of the name Fulda is unclear. The following names are
documented: from the year 750 Uulta and Uulthaha, from 751 Fulda,
from 752 Uuldaha, before the year 769 Fulde, and in the 16th century
Fuld, Fult and Fuldt.
The most likely origin is a so-called
hydronymy (naming of waters) from Old Saxon folda "earth, soil" and
the basic word -aha, which is related to the Latin aqua "water" and
occurs in many German river names (cf. Ache, -a); the underlying
reconstructed Germanic words are * fuldō "Earth, earth; Field; World
”and * ahwō“ river ”.
Due to the fact that there are a large
number of words in Indo-European with the root * pel- / pol-, there
is also the possibility that Fulda would be a variant of
Indo-European polota. For the name Fulda, certain kinship
relationships can be found in Eastern Central Europe: In Latvian
there is palts, palte "puddle, pool", but also the river Pelta or
Peltew.
Fulda area until the city was founded
After the
eventful geological history of the Fulda area, Stone Age evidence
can also be found here. The first settlements are around 5000 BC.
Demonstrable (see timeline). Cultures developed, the migration of
peoples brought new settlers to the region. A Celtic city was built
on the Milseburg. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Frankish
Empire developed into the center of power in Central Europe. The
Frankish king Clovis I secured the support of Rome with his baptism,
and a wide-ranging Christianization began. Boniface was commissioned
by the Pope to proselytize the Germanic tribes in this area and to
subordinate them to the Roman Catholic Church.
The
development of the place began in 744 through Sturmius. In 754
Boniface was buried in this monastery. Charlemagne gave the
monastery immunity in 774 and thus became an imperial monastery. The
Ratgar basilica (named after the abbot Ratgar) was built between 791
and 819, at that time the largest church building north of the Alps.
At the same time, the first farmers and craftsmen settled around the
monastery.
Abbot, citizen and peasant (11th - 16th centuries)
The abbey and the settlement received coinage, market and customs
rights in 1019 through Heinrich II. In 1020 Pope Benedict VIII
visited Fulda: an indication of the importance of the monastery.
1114 Fulda was first mentioned as a city (civitas). Under Abbot
Markward I (1150–1165) the city experienced a boom, many estranged
goods were restituted. The abbot was helped by one of the most
famous forgers of the Middle Ages, the Fulda monk Eberhard. Abbot
Markward had to drive out robber barons, he built castles and
fortified the city in 1162 with a city wall, around twelve towers
and five city gates (Heertor, Peterstor, Florentor, Kohlhäusertor
and Frauentörlein).
The abbots of the monastery were raised
to the rank of imperial prince by King Friedrich II. Prince Abbot
Heinrich von Weilnau had an abbey castle built between 1294 and
1312, in which he resided outside the monastery. This castle was
converted into a Renaissance palace in the 17th century by Prince
Abbot Johann Friedrich von Schwalbach.
Uprising of the
citizens
In 1208 Fulda was raised to the rank of town and guarded
its rights against the claims of the abbots, who already owned a
castle next to the monastery. As Prince Abbot Heinrich VI. von
Hohenberg built a second castle within the city in 1319/20, the
citizens, with the help of the monastery bailiff, Count Johann I von
Ziegenhain, stormed both of the abbot's castles and destroyed the
new castle, including the tower and curtain walls. At the complaint
of the refugee abbot to the emperor, the imperial ban was imposed on
the city and the count.
In 1326 Heinrich von Hohenberg used
his strengthened power as city lord to increase the city's annual
tax from 100 to 800 pounds Heller for seven years. When he wanted to
raise taxes again in 1330, renewed resistance formed in the city.
When he then imprisoned some wealthy citizens and demanded bail of
9,500 pounds Heller for their release, the citizens rose against him
in 1331. They again allied themselves with Count Johann von
Ziegenhain, stormed the Abtsburg, the monastery, the Frauenberg and
the Petersberg. Again the city was punished with imperial ban. The
abbot's ministerials put down the uprising. Archbishop Balduin von
Trier brokered an atonement, according to which the citizens had to
restore the tower and the curtain walls of the new castle and had to
pay significant compensation. The city of Fulda received a council
and mayor under the supervision of a princely mayor.
Peasant
wars in the Fulda region
The situation of the townspeople and the farmers in the
surrounding area was very deplorable due to the high taxes and
compulsory labor. The monastery plundered the rural people and built
ever more magnificent buildings. So the farmers in the Fuldaer Land
rose up against the authorities together with the citizens of the
city and took part in the German Peasants' War in the spring of
1525.
In the peasant wars in Fulda and in the Fuldaer Land
the Pfaff of Dipperz Hans Dahlhopf was important, who gathered
10,000 farmers around him. Landgrave Philipp von Hessen came to the
aid of the monastery with a strong army and put down the uprising in
the battle of Frauenberg.
Witch hunt in Fulda
In 1603,
during the time of the witch hunts, Balthasar Nuss was appointed to
Fulda as a cengrave. Balthasar von Dernbach also entrusted him with
carrying out the witch trials in the entire Hochstift. In three
years, Balthasar Nuss had around 300 alleged witches and warlocks
tortured and then executed. He confiscated the property of the
victims for himself. Ms. Merga Bien was a particularly well-known
victim of the witch persecution in 1603. (For more information on
the witch trials, see Balthasar von Dernbach).
Fulda as a
baroque city
During the Thirty Years' War, the city was hard
pressed on June 20, 1640 by Swedish patrol corps.
During his
tenure (1678–1700) as abbot, Prince Abbot Placidus von Droste
fundamentally restructured the finances of Fulda Abbey. His
successor, Prince Abbot Adalbert von Schleifras, was able to appoint
Johann Dientzenhofer as master builder in Fulda in 1700 and
commission him to build today's Fulda Cathedral and a city palace in
the Baroque style on the site of the Romanesque Ratgar basilica.
In 1752 the prince abbots were raised to the status of
prince-bishops. During the Seven Years' War, Fulda was taken by a
Hanoverian corps under Luckner in 1762.
The road between
Frankfurt and Fulda was developed into a road in 1764 by order of
the Fulda prince-bishop Heinrich von Bibra as one of the first roads
in Hesse.
During the tenure of Prince Abbot Adolf von
Dalberg, Fulda became a university town. The Catholic University of
Fulda existed from 1734 to 1805. The institution had four faculties:
theology, philosophy, medicine and law. The baroque building of the
court architect Andreas Gallasini was built between 1731 and 1734.
Today it houses the Adolf von Dalberg elementary school.
19th
century
The secularization of 1802 disempowered the
prince-bishops. The Fulda possessions went as the "Principality of
Nassau-Oranien-Fulda" to Friedrich Wilhelm von Oranien-Nassau until
Napoleon annexed the province of Fulda in 1806. The furnishings in
the castles and numerous baroque town houses were looted or
confiscated and auctioned off. In 1810 Fulda became part of the
Grand Duchy of Frankfurt and the capital of the Fulda department. At
the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the province was dissolved and, after
a year of Prussian administration, handed over to the Electorate of
Hesse. After the German War of 1866, Fulda and Kurhessen became part
of the Kingdom of Prussia.
On November 2, 1850, Fulda was
occupied by Prussian troops, but after the clash of their outposts
with Austrians near Bronnzell, it was evacuated on November 9 and
then briefly occupied by the Bavarians. In the war of 1866, the
Prussians occupied it again on July 6th.
During the
Kulturkampf, the city of Fulda was a major bulwark of ultramontanism
in the German Empire. The number of inhabitants was in 1885 with the
garrison (a mounted division of field artillery No. 11) 12,226
(including in 1880: 3347 Evangelicals and 602 Jews). Fulda was the
seat of a bishop, a cathedral chapter, a district court and a tax
office.
Fulda emigrants founded a. a. the Fulda health
support association.
Weimar Republic and National Socialism
In 1927 Fulda became an independent city.
In Fulda, the NSDAP
could not win more than a quarter of the votes in the Reichstag
election in March 1933, and it also played a subordinate role in the
city council. In the course of the Gleichschaltung, the Fuldaer
Actiendruckerei was destroyed in 1933, and the historic Jewish
cemetery and synagogue in the former Judengasse were destroyed
during the Reichspogromnacht on 9 November 1938. The former mayor of
Fulda, Karl Ehser, later said that the Gau propaganda administration
in Kassel had asked him to ensure that there were also attacks in
Fulda. He had received orders to have the synagogue destroyed. In
1940 the Franciscans were expelled from the Frauenberg monastery.
During the Second World War, Fulda was repeatedly targeted by air
raids. The first major attack, in which the cathedral was also
damaged, took place on July 20, 1944 and claimed 80 deaths. On
August 5, Fulda was hit by 30 incendiary bombs in a minor attack. On
September 11th and 12th, and especially on December 27th, 1944, the
highest number of victims occurred. During the air raid on December
27, 1944, around 1,000 people sought refuge in a canalised underpass
under the railroad tracks and the marshalling yard, which had been
provisionally converted into an aerial warfare tunnel, the Krätzbach
bunker. When both tunnel entrances were buried, more than 700
people, including 451 Mehler employees, lost their lives. The Allied
forces aimed to destroy the still intact train station as a traffic
junction in the Third Reich and a supply route for the Ardennes
offensive. A memorial stone inaugurated in 1981 on Mehlerstrasse
commemorates the victims, as does a manhole cover in the sidewalk on
Heidelsteinstrasse.
A total of 1595 war deaths were counted
in Fulda; there were also a number of wounded and missing persons.
About a third of the city was destroyed, and transportation and
industry were badly hit. The historic buildings in the old town,
especially around the vegetable market and in the baroque quarter,
were also damaged.
Post-war and present
After the Second
World War, Fulda belonged to the American zone of occupation and was
thus part of the later federal state of Hesse, but no longer located
in the center of Germany, but geographically and economically on the
edge of the FRG. The inner-German border with the GDR ran only about
35 km from the city center. As a result, Fulda was cut off from its
eastern hinterland until 1989, as the traditional transport and
economic relations with Thuringia in particular were interrupted.
During the German division, Fulda was part of the so-called border
area.
During the Cold War, Fulda had a special strategic
importance, which is illustrated by the term Fulda Gap. The term
coined by NATO came from the idea that in the event of an attack by
the Warsaw Pact, it would attempt to penetrate through the Fulda
valley via Frankfurt am Main, about 100 km away, into southwest
Germany. In this scenario, Fulda would probably have become one of
the first theaters of war in a possible third world war. In Fulda
there was therefore also a large US garrison in the Downs Barracks
with the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which was reflagged in 1972
to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment ("Blackhorse Regiment"). In
1994 the stationing of US forces in Fulda ended. Various authorities
and companies settled on the site of the former barracks and the new
Fulda-Galerie and exhibition grounds were built on the area of the
airfield belonging to this unit in the Sickels district.
Fulda developed into a modern industrial location after 1945 despite
its peripheral location. In 1972, as part of the regional reform in
Hesse, on August 1, state law incorporated 24 municipalities around
the city. In addition to the core city, they now form the 24
districts of Fulda. In 1974 the city lost the district freedom it
had had since 1927, but a functional special status has been in
effect since 1980, with which various tasks of the district level
are connected.
On November 17 and 18, 1980, Pope John Paul II
was greeted with enthusiasm by more than 100,000 believers in the
city center and at an open-air service on Cathedral Square.
On September 29, 1984 there was a peaceful demonstration in Fulda.
Around 30,000 supporters of the peace movement demonstrated against
military policy in East and West. With the fall of the Berlin Wall
and the opening of the inner-German border on November 9, 1989,
several thousand citizens of the GDR visited the baroque city every
day.
In 1990 the 30th Hessentag was held in Fulda. In 1994
the city celebrated its 1250th anniversary and hosted the first
Hessian horticultural show. In 2002 the anniversary "250 years of
the Diocese of Fulda" was celebrated.
In 2004 the 1250th
anniversary of the death of the Holy Bishop Boniface was
commemorated. On this occasion, the Bonifatius musical was premiered
in the Fulda Castle Theater. In February 2019 Fulda was awarded the
title “City of Stars” by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Fulda's 1275 anniversary
There were four anniversaries to celebrate in 2019: On March 12, 744, Sturmius and seven companions founded the Fulda Monastery and thus laid the nucleus for 1275 years of settlement in the entire East Hesse region. The construction of the Ratgar basilica, built 1200 years ago, and the consecration of the Ratgar basilica on November 1, 819 by Archbishop Haistulf of Mainz, the burial of King Conrad I in Fulda Cathedral 1100 years ago and the granting of market and coinage rights by Emperor Heinrich II 1000 years ago on July 1, 1019 were further milestones in the history of the city of Fulda, which had to be celebrated in 2019. During the city's anniversary, seven gigantic new productions of the “Bonifatius” musical took place on the huge stage in front of the cathedral as a backdrop. In a summery, Mediterranean atmosphere, 35,000 people visited the play and the accompanying offers.