Passau, Germany

Passau (Latin: Batavium, Batava or Passavia, etc.) is an independent university town in the administrative district of Lower Bavaria in Eastern Bavaria. It lies on the border with Austria and at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers and is therefore also called the “three-river city”. With around 53,000 inhabitants, Passau is the second largest city in the administrative district after Landshut.

 

In ancient times the Celtic place Bojodurum was located on the site of Passau, opposite which the border fortress Castra Batava, the actual Passau, grew out of the camp of a Batavian legion of the Romans. At the beginning of the 8th century it became the residence of the Bavarian Duke Theobald and in 739 the seat of the diocese newly established by Boniface. In 999 Bishop Christian acquired the jurisdiction and the regalia in the city. It was only almost completely destroyed in 978 during the war between Emperor Otto II for the construction of the St. Georgsburg, the current fortress Oberhaus on the northern bank of the Danube. His successor Gebhard gave the town its first written town charter in 1225. During an uprising by the townspeople in 1250, Duke Otto of Bavaria betrayed Ort Castle in Passau, but was driven out by Bishop Berthold. Only his successor Otto knew how to calm the city down again (1254). He happily resisted a coup d'état that Duke Heinrich von Niederbayern undertook against her in 1266; but part of the city went up in flames. Passau made the bishops much to create with outrages, like Albrecht III. von Winkel (1362-1380), Georg von Hohenlohe (1387-1423) and Leonhard von Layming (1424-51). In 1803 Passau came to Bavaria.

 

Sights

Churches

Of the churches in Passau, the following are particularly noteworthy:

St. Stephen's Cathedral (originally from the 14th century, but almost completely burned down at the end of the 17th century, rebuilt in its current form since 1680), with a beautiful old German portal, excellent organ, a 90.5 quintal bell and numerous relics. Open: 6:30 a.m. - 7 p.m. or 6 p.m. in the winter months. In summer (except Sun.) closed from 10:45 a.m. - 11:20 a.m. for the preparation of the organ concert, then admission, 12:00 - 12:30 p.m. concert. Admission €5.
Jesuit Church of St. Michael, Schustergasse. Tel.: +49 (0)851 955980 edit info
The parish church of St. Paul, the oldest parish church in Passau.
The small evangelical church of St. Matthäus, completed in Gothic style in 1859.
At the end of the Marienbrücke over the Inn is the parish church of St. Gertraud, built in 1809.
On the south side of the Inn there is also the Mariahilf pilgrimage church on a hill above the Inn town. The pilgrimage staircase has 321 steps.
The St. Salvator Church (built in 1479), which consists of two superimposed departments, is located on the Ilz below the Veste Oberhaus.

 

Castles

The Veste Oberhaus, 135m above the Danube on the St. Georgsberg, built by Ulrich II, Count of Dissen, 1215-19, often witnessed the bloody feuds of the bishops with the citizens. Bishop Johann Philipp Lamberg (1689-1712) enlarged the fortifications and built the so-called. Philippswerk. In 1741, the Bavarians occupied the fortress and held it until January 25, 1742, when the Austrian general Bernklau forced the surrender, for which the Bavarian commander had to pay the price with his life. The castle remained occupied by the Austrians for three years. On October 24, 1805, the garrison had to surrender to the Austrians. In 1806 the fortifications were expanded and given strategic importance, as the fortress was recognized as the key to the Danube river.

 

Museums

Passau Glass Museum, Am Rathausplatz. Tel.: +49 (0)851 35071, Fax: (0)851 31712, E-Mail: info@wilder-mann.com Open: Daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Price: Admission: adults €5, concessions €4.
Passau Dachshund Museum, Große Messergasse 1, 94032 Passau. Tel.: +49 (0)851 30349. The museum, which opened on April 2, 2018, shows around 2000 exhibits in two rooms on the topic of dachshunds.
Museum of Modern Art

 

Additional

Old Town Hall, Bahnhofstraße 28. Tel.: +49 (0)851 955980, e-mail: tourist-info@passau.de
Pillory. The pillory is incorporated into a corner of the house on the market square in the Hals district.

Public toilets
In the Stadtgalerie (Sanifair, chargeable)
On the banks of the Danube, near the bus parking lot (free)

 

Getting here

By plane
Munich Airport (IATA: MUC) (journey time on the motorway approx. 90 minutes) and Linz Airport (IATA: LNZ) are easily accessible by car, bus and train. Munich has a lot more connections, Linz is a little closer.

The nearest airport for small private aircraft is in the town of Vilshofen an der Donau in the district of Passau.

By train
The Passau main station is very centrally located and you can reach the pedestrian zone and the old town on foot in about 10 minutes. Passau is on the ICE line Frankfurt am Main - Vienna, which is served every 2 hours. There are direct RE lines to Regensburg, Mühldorf am Inn, Munich and to Wels or Linz in Austria, sometimes every hour. The reactivated Ilztalbahn runs to Freyung via Waldkirchen and the special trains of the Granitbahn in the direction of Passau-Lindau/Hauzenberg. not barrier-free All platforms are now barrier-free.

By bus
The Passau long-distance bus stop is located on Bahnhofstraße, directly in front of the train station. There are connections within Germany as well as connections to Austria and Eastern Europe.

On the street
The A3 motorway leads to Passau via Regensburg or from the direction of Pocking/Linz. Passau can be reached from Munich via the A94 motorway, which, however, is interrupted by a long stretch of federal road (B 12), which makes the journey longer. The expansion of the motorway is planned. Currently, as an alternative to the A94 from Munich, the fastest route towards Passau is via the A 9 motorway (up to the Neufahrn motorway junction), then the A 92A92 (towards Deggendorf) and the A3.

The following federal roads lead to/via Passau:
B 8 Regensburg-Passau-Schärding (A)
B 12 Mühldorf-Passau-Freyung-CZ
B 85 Cham-Regen-Passau
B 388 Freistadt (A)–Wegscheid–Passau

By bicycle
Danube cycle path
Section: source, Donaueschingen - Passau
Section: Passau - Vienna
Via Danubia - alternative Danube route
Inn Cycle Path - Bavarian side
Tauernradweg - Austrian side of the cycle path at the lower Inn

By boat
Passau is the starting point for short and long river cruises on the Danube to Austria (Linz, Vienna, Wachau...), Hungary (Esztergom, Budapest...), Slovakia (Bratislava), Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and the Black Sea. Due to the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, many cruise ships from the Netherlands and Switzerland can also be found in Passau.

There is also regular scheduled shipping traffic on the Danube. The only shipping company with scheduled services in the Bavarian-Austrian Danube Valley Wurm+Köck offers regular services to Engelhartszell, Schlögener Schlinge, Linz and Vienna from April to October. But also in winter there are special trips, such as St. Nicholas trips, gala evenings, winter trips and New Year's Eve trips.

A three-river city tour (actually only on the Inn and the Danube) can also be undertaken on board daily from March to the beginning of November. From the ship you have one of the most beautiful views of the old town, which moves like a huge ship in the waters of the Inn and the Danube.

The berths for the ships are distributed over a distance of about 1.5 km along the banks of the Danube between the Schanzlbrücke and the three-river corner. There is also another port for cruise ships in Passau-Lindau on the opposite bank of the Danube about 2.5 km downstream. Which cruise ship docks where can be viewed online.

 

Around the city

As Passau lies between three rivers, space in the city is limited and the streets narrow. Due to construction work, traffic jams are common, especially in recent times. Most parking lots and multi-storey car parks are chargeable.

 

History

The origins

A first Celtic settlement was in the La Tène period on the old town hill with a Danube port at the height of today's old town hall.

The Roman Batavis Castle (Castra Batava) was built on the site of today's cathedral as part of the Limes fortifications. The name "Batavis" is probably derived from the Germanic mercenaries from the Batavian tribe who were initially stationed there. The current name “Passau” probably developed from Batavis.

In the first century AD, the Boiodurum fort was built as part of the Roman province of Raetia on the right bank of the Inn, which lasted until after a German invasion in the second half of the 3rd century. Its tasks were taken over by the Boiotro castle, which was built upstream in the Roman province of Noricum in late antiquity and which lasted until the Romanians withdrew. In the Vita Severini it is described that the garrison there initially persevered longer than elsewhere, when in the second half of the 5th century the pay was increasingly missing. The Roman troops then left the region between 476 and 490.

The Bavarians, who took possession of the area in the 6th century, built a ducal castle on the peninsula. As early as 739 Passau was the seat of a bishopric, at which time the Niedernburg monastery was founded, which had large estates in the catchment area of ​​the Ilz. In the 11th century Gisela, sister of Emperor Heinrich II and widow of the King of Hungary, Stefan I, was abbess. When the emperor transferred secular rule over the city to Bishop Christian of Passau in 999, the predominance of the monastery ended. Between 1078 and 1099 the Passau bishops temporarily lost the power of rule over the city to the newly created Burgraviate of Passau and the Count Ulrich appointed by King Heinrich IV. After his death, the rights reverted to the bishops. There is evidence that Walther von der Vogelweide was also at the court of the Passau bishop and patron Wolfger von Erla, who bought a fur coat from him on November 12, 1203 for a sum that was actually far too high. The entry in the bishop's travel bills is the only documentary evidence of the poet outside of the mentions by contemporary poet colleagues.

In the first half of the 12th century, the Passau blacksmith trade was significant. In 1217 Passau became a prince-bishopric. The monastery Niedernburg, which was given to the bishop in 1161 by Friedrich I. Barbarossa, became the seat of the prince-bishopric. Passau received city rights in 1225. There were several uprisings of the citizens against the rule of the prince-bishops, most recently in 1367/1368, but all of them failed. On the other hand, the diocese developed considerable prosperity and repeatedly aroused desires among its neighbors Bavaria and Austria.

The Liebfrauen Schiffleut and Salzfertiger Brotherhood, the oldest still existing German civil association, was first mentioned in a document in 1306.

 

Passau in modern times

In 1477 the Christian Christoph Eysengreißheimer was accused of having sold eight stolen hosts to the "Jewish enemies of the Savior", which they then allegedly desecrated. The accused were arrested, tortured and beheaded after confession, provided they had been baptized beforehand, otherwise they were torn to pieces with red-hot tongs and burned.

Passau is the place of origin of the auspices, the oldest hymn book of Protestantism, still used by the Amish today. Its core collection was created between 1535 and 1540 in the dungeon of Passau Castle. The authors were incarcerated Anabaptists. Some of them died while in captivity. Most of the captive Anabaptists were martyred after their prison term. The first printed edition bears the title: Quite a few beautiful Christian chants as they are poems and sung by the Swiss brothers through God's grace in the prison in Passau in the castle. Ps. 139.

In 1552 the Passau Treaty was signed in the city, which paved the way for the toleration of the Lutheran denomination in the Peace of Augsburg. In the treaty, Lutheranism was formally recognized by the emperor for the first time. The Philosophical-Theological College was founded from 1622 to 1633, which, with a few interruptions, existed until 1978, when it was incorporated into the university. In 1676 the so-called imperial wedding of Leopold I and Eleonore von Pfalz-Neuburg took place in Passau.

 

The city was hit several times by floods and large fires. In 1662 a fire set the entire city to rubble and ashes. Italian builders (Carlone and Lurago) then rebuilt the city and gave the city its current Mediterranean-style baroque appearance. The first Passau newspaper appeared in 1689. Passau's time as an independent principality ended with the secularization in December 1802, through which it came to the electorate of Salzburg for three years and to Bavaria in 1805. In 1821 the city became a bishopric again. From 1806 to 1839 Passau was the capital of the Lower Danube District. In 1860 the railway line to Straubing was opened. St. Nikola was incorporated in 1870, Haidenhof in 1909 and Beiderwies in 1923. On November 8, 1918, a workers 'and soldiers' council was formed. In the course of this, a 200-strong vigilante group was set up to maintain public order in the urban area. The situation after the revolution was generally peaceful. It was only the murder of Kurt Eisner in Munich on February 21, 1919 that led to the destabilization of the situation, so the conservative Donauzeitung was censored and public meetings were prohibited. On April 7, 1919, the Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Passau. Finally, a general strike by dissatisfied Passau residents led to the Soviet republic being dissolved again eight days later. In 1927, the Kachlet power station on the Danube, which was the largest power station in Germany at the time, went online. The construction work began in 1922. It is said to have been the largest construction site in Europe, which employed around 3,000 workers at peak times.

 

Time of the nationalsocialism

In 1921 a local branch of the NSDAP was founded in Passau. The founding pub was the Altdeutsche Bierstube. From 1934 to 1935 the Nibelungenhalle was built, which housed a unit of the Austrian Legion in 1935. In 1940 the city made the building at Bräugasse 13 available to the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle.

A satellite camp of the Dachau concentration camp was located in Passau since 1942. The prisoners were deployed in the Passau I branch to build an underwater power station at what is now the Oberilzmühle reservoir. From November 1942, this subcamp was subordinate to the Mauthausen concentration camp, which also opened the Passau II branch in March 1944 and the Passau III branch (Jandelsbrunn) in March 1945. The prisoners were thereby in the forest works Passau-Ilzstadt and with the Bayer. Lloyd used to unload ships. At the end of April 1945 there was an end-stage crime in the Neuburg Forest, south of Passau. On the orders of the Landshut SS-Standartenführer Paul Kröger, a total of around 340 Soviet prisoners of war were brought to the edge of the Neuburg Forest. Three of the prisoners got away with their lives. 107 were later found in the forest. They were shot dead in the neck and buried. Contemporary witnesses reported that many perished in the Inn. Since October 30, 2020, a stele in Ingling with German and Cyrillic text has been commemorating this crime.

In the final phase of World War II, the city was bombed three times within a few months, with a total of around 200 fatalities and the destruction of almost 250 buildings. The main target of the attacks was the station area. After the US Army advanced further and further east through Bavaria in the spring of 1945, the German armed forces planned a major defense operation for the city of Passau. However, only minor fighting occurred and finally, on May 2, 1945, the city was handed over by former Mayor Carl Sittler to an infantry regiment of the US armed forces under the command of Stanley Eric Reinhart.

 

Post war until 1989

As early as January 1945, the city and the surrounding area of ​​Passau were the destination of refugees from Silesia who reached Passau in horse-drawn vehicles and in overcrowded trains. Towards the end of the Second World War and in the immediate post-war period, refugees of German origin from Bohemia also arrived. In September 1945 there were over 28,000 refugees and displaced persons in the city. The shortage of housing made it necessary to build numerous temporary barracks in the city.

In the fall of 1952, the European Weeks Festival took place in Passau for the first time, the first festival in post-war Germany to be dedicated to the idea of ​​Europe.

 

In 1954, a devastating flood hit the city. A pronounced Vb weather situation caused heavy rain in Bavaria. This flood, also known colloquially as the flood of the century, was the largest flood disaster in Passau in the 20th century. The Danube peaked at 12.2 meters on July 10, 1954, 10.1 meters on the Inn and 12.15 meters on the Ilz. The Ilzstadt district was hit hardest by this flood event, so several buildings were under water for several days up to the first floor.

In 1963, a Bundeswehr base was set up in the Kohlbruck district of Passau. The first pioneers arrived on September 15, 1963 in the newly built Ritter-von-Scheuring barracks. As a result of the urban and economic growth in the post-war period, the energy demand rose continuously. In 1965 the Passau-Ingling run-of-river power plant was completed and the Oberilzmühle power plant expanded.

On the initiative of the German Youth Hostel Association, the Passau observatory was built in 1962 on the site of the Veste Oberhaus, right next to the youth hostel.

In response to the massive damage caused by the flood of the century in 1954, the first major closed measure of this type in Germany was flood protection in the Ilzstadt district, because this was where the greatest damage occurred. In the process, all buildings at risk of flooding were demolished and 28 of 60 properties were rebuilt on a filled-in level. In addition, a concrete fortification to the Ilz and the Danube was built, which acts as a substructure for a four-lane road. For the remaining properties, replacement buildings were created in the higher Grubweg. Around half of the district's population had to change accommodation.

In 1970 Passau received the flag of honor of the Council of Europe, which is a prerequisite for the later award of the honor plaque and the actual European price. In the same year, on October 14th, the largest bridge in Passau, the Schanzlbrücke, was inaugurated.

The incorporation in 1972 as part of the municipal reform led to the growth of the urban area from 20 to 70 square kilometers and the population rose by 40 percent to almost 50,000.

Passau has been a university town since 1978. The university focuses on law, business administration and computer science.

In 1980 the city of Passau was the first Bavarian city to be awarded the European Prize for its efforts to promote European integration.

 

After the turn

In 1989 a large number of refugees from the GDR came to Passau via Hungary. In August 1989 there were first GDR refugees from Hungary, later, after the opening of the Iron Curtain on September 11, 1989, thousands of GDR citizens reached the city and were then accommodated in various tent camps and accommodations in the Passau district. For example, a reception camp for several hundred people was set up in Passau's Nibelungenhalle.

In 1993 Passau exceeded the 50,000 mark and was elevated to the status of the regional center of the Danube Forest planning region. It has one of the highest centrality indicators in Germany. In the mid-1990s, an extensive urban redevelopment project was initiated which, in addition to a shopping center, included an office tower, the “Central Bus Station” (ZOB) and a park. After several drafts had been discussed, construction work to create the New Center finally began.

 

21st century

After the Dreiländerhalle was put into operation at the turn of 2003/2004, the Nibelungenhalle was demolished in the spring of 2004 and construction of the New Center began. This urban redevelopment measure represented a significant change in the cityscape. At the end of the 2000s, the last construction work was finished.

 

Millennium flood 2013

In the months of May and June 2013, the city suffered the worst floods in five hundred years when the historic mark of 12.89 m was reached at the Passau / Danube gauge. The drinking water supply had to be temporarily stopped, and teaching was canceled at schools and the university. During and especially after the flood disaster, Passau university students gave dedicated help. The Facebook initiative Passau cleans up, founded and managed by students, was awarded the German Citizens Prize in 2013.

 

2015 refugee crisis

In 2015 Passau was so badly affected by the refugee crisis that it was given the title Lampedusa Germany. Since the city is at the end of the extended Balkan route, it is the arrival point for many refugees in Germany. During the Munich Oktoberfest, up to 10,000 people came to Passau every day. The city reported on October 19 that within three weeks alone more than 100,000 refugees had crossed the Austrian border, i.e. more than 4,750 people per day.

 

Geography

The specialty of Passau is the location of the old town on an elongated peninsula between the Danube and Inn. The Bavarian Forest runs out north of the Danube, but south of the Inn the landscape is undulating.

Until the reunification of Germany in 1990, the city of Passau was the easternmost medium-sized town in the federal territory. Today it is the easternmost regional center of the Free State of Bavaria.

 

Geomorphology and geology

From a natural point of view, the urban area of ​​Passau belongs to the main natural area unit Upper Palatinate and Bavarian Forest, in particular to the natural area unit Passau Abteiland and Neuburg Forest, which is located in the south of this low mountain range.

The city lies at the confluence of the three rivers Danube, Inn and Ilz. The rivers Danube and Inn cut into the crystalline basement here during the uplift of the Bavarian Forest in the Late Tertiary and Quaternary. The result was the formation of an antecedent breakthrough valley. Here the river cuts actively, keeping pace with the tectonic uplift, into the rising mountain body. Characteristic here is the high relief energy in places.

Petrographically, the Passau area - typical for the Moldanubic - is dominated by metamorphic rocks such as gneisses and diatexites, which are interspersed in many places with paleozoic plutonites. These are mostly granites (Hauzenberg, Haidmühle, Schärding, Peuerbach granite), while diorites are only found sporadically. Two significant tectonic fault zones, the Bavarian Stake and the Passau Stake, run north of the urban area. To the south of Passau, the Molasse basin borders the Alpine foothills (Lower Bavarian hill country). This alpine "rubble trough" is filled with tertiary sediments of freshwater and marine molasses and has a continuous slope towards the Danube and the lower Inn. The shallow wave appearance of this area is due to solifluction and fluvial erosion during the last glacial periods. The tertiary sediments are also “interspersed” in places with Pleistocene loose sediments, such as gravel, which were deposited by the Inn River, which drained the Alps. The aeolian sediment loess or the loess derivative loess clay is also found here in isolated cases.

 

Climate

Passau lies at 48 ° north and is therefore mainly influenced by air currents from the west. As can be seen from the climate diagram, the Passau area can be assigned to the cool, temperate climate. In addition, there is a continental impact, characterized by sometimes very cold and snowy winters and hot and dry summers. Heat thunderstorms also occur in summer.

On average there are 36 summer days with a maximum temperature of over 25 ° C. In contrast, there are 115 days of frost with a minimum temperature of below 0 ° C. The wettest months are October and November. Every year the Indian summer leads to mild temperatures in the late year.

Due to the confluence of the water-rich rivers Danube and Inn, fog often occurs in the river plains.

The climate diagram shows the data from a measuring point in Fürstenzell (bordering on the southwest of Passau). However, this measuring point is almost 100 meters higher than Passau itself.

 

Districts

The division of Passau into districts is more of a statistical nature. There are no official or political districts. By 2013 at the latest, there were eight statistical city districts, which essentially reflect district or former municipality boundaries: Altstadt, Grubweg, Hals, Hacklberg, Heining, Haidenhof Nord, Haidenhof Süd and Innstadt. In 2013 there was a reallocation into 16 citizens' assembly areas. Despite the changed name, these are most likely to have the character of a district and have therefore been called districts in everyday language since then.

The 16 citizens' assembly areas are: Old Town / Inner City, Auerbach, Grubweg, Hacklberg, Haidenhof North, Haidenhof South, Hals, Heining, Innstadt, Kohlbruck, Neustift, Patriching, Rittsteig, Schalding on the left of the Danube, Schalding on the right of the Danube and St. Nikola.

 

Religion

Passau is the seat of the Passau diocese of the same name and a predominantly Catholic city. In addition to St. Stephen's Cathedral, there are numerous Catholic churches in various parishes. The Deanery of Passau consists of seven parish associations, thirteen parishes and two branch offices with a total of 33,326 Catholics (as of May 9, 2011). In 1987 there were still 40,717 Roman Catholic Christians in Passau. This corresponds to a decrease of 18.2% compared to 2011.

The city of Passau is the seat of the Evangelical-Lutheran deanery district of Passau, which occupies a total area of 384,026 km² in eastern Lower Bavaria. Almost 32,000 evangelical Christians live in this district in 16 parishes. There are two parishes in the urban area, namely the parishes of St. Matthew and St. John, which have a total of 5,385 Evangelical Lutheran Christians (as of May 9, 2011). Between 1987 and 2011, the number of believers fell by 0.3%.

As of December 31, 2019, of the 52,803 residents, 59.3% were Roman Catholic, 9.8% were Protestant and 30.9% were non-denominational or belonged to another faith community.

The Association of Evangelical Free Churches is represented in Passau with five congregations. The churches of the two evangelical free church communities are located at Leonhard-Paminger-Straße 35-37 and in Ries 18a. The Adventist Church also has its domicile at Ries 18. The community center of the Free Christian Community Meeting Point Life is at Innstrasse 77H. A free evangelical congregation is in the founding phase. She meets at Höllgasse 14.

After 1945, a Jewish community of former camp prisoners / displaced persons formed in the city. In January 1946 a Jewish community was founded. In August 1946, 150 Jews lived in the city, most of whom emigrated after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Since the 1990s, there has been a somewhat greater influx of Jewish people and families from the CIS countries (“quota refugees”).

There are two Muslim religious communities in Passau, on the one hand the comparatively larger Islamic Community e. V. Passau and the Islamic Center Passau (IZP), which are organized independently of each other and have their own prayer rooms. Since a radical Salafist repeatedly preached on the premises of the IZP, it has been observed by the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2015, even if the IZP distanced itself a little later, referring to the guest sermon, "from any kind of extremism and terrorism worldwide".

 

Politics

City council

The city council consists of 44 city councilors and the mayor. In the 2014 local elections, the SPD managed to overtake the CSU in terms of votes for the first time since 1945. However, the number of mandates was the same. In the 2020 elections, the SPD won one seat more than the Union.

 

Coat of arms

Coat of arms of the city of Passau Blazon: "In silver, a rising red wolf."

Justification for the coat of arms: The origin of the heraldic animal has not been clarified with certainty. According to tradition, it goes back to Bishop Wolfger von Ellenbrechtskirchen (Wolfger von Erla for short, 1191-1204). However, the wolf can only be traced back to 1259/1264 as a (princely) episcopal heraldic animal.
The red wolf has been the city's official coat of arms since 1432. However, from 1300 it was already in use as an official trademark of Passau's knives and bladers. The oldest surviving seal from 1368, which shows the patron saint of the city, St. Stephen, also bears the red wolf on the small shield.

 

Political life

Every year, the Political Ash Wednesday takes place in Passau and the surrounding area. In 1975 the CSU moved its event from the Wolferstetterkeller in Vilshofen to the Nibelungenhalle due to a lack of space. Since 2003 the Dreiländerhalle on the outskirts of Passau has been used.

In 1998, some residents of Passau founded the so-called Passau Action Civil Courage (PAZ) in protest against a conference of the NPD. The aim of this action was not to leave the resistance against the right-wing extremist NPD events in Passau exclusively to Antifa, but to gain broad popular support for these goals in order to disrupt the NPD conference with blockades and the like. The cabaret artists Bruno Jonas and Sigi Zimmerschied, some city council members, union secretaries, innkeepers, students and church representatives, the vicar general of the diocese, the manager of the Passau public utility company and the manager of the slaughterhouse signed a corresponding appeal to the citizens of Passau. Ultimately, however, the NPD event was protected by the Basic Law's right of assembly. The consistent long-term resistance of the population (even before 1998), high hall rents, the planned demolition of the Nibelungenhalle and also the refusal of the hall restaurant leaseholder to provide catering meant that the NPD or DVU events have not been held in Passau since 2000 or 2001.

The Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination Passau was founded in 2019, partly because it is not possible to carry out abortions at the city clinic in Passau due to political decisions by the city council. Several groups came together to obtain a political resolution that would allow abortions at the Passau Clinic and to legalize and destigmatize abortions in general. Since the 1990s there have been protests against the lack of medical care for unintentionally pregnant women in Passau. In 2020, there was no opportunity to have an abortion under the counseling regime for several months. The alliance for sexual self-determination also regularly organizes counter-protests against an abortion opponent who is holding a vigil in front of the profamilia counseling center as part of the "40 days for life" campaign.

 

Citizens' initiative

Since the introduction of municipal citizens' petitions, the people of Passau have been able to make decisions six times. So far, all votes have reached the quorum for approval or rejection of 15% of those entitled to vote, which is necessary in Bavaria for validity.

On February 11, 1996, the Passau citizens decided with 57% against the maintenance of the swimming pools in Bschütt and Neustift, as well as the preservation of the indoor pool and thus for the construction of a new year-round pool in the Kohlbruck district.
On November 12, 2000, 66% voted to move the Maidult and Herbstdult festivals to the Kohlbruck district.
On July 18, 2004, two requests from the city council and a citizens' initiative on the extent of the new building project Passauer Neue Mitte were put to the vote. The request of the city council prevailed in a ballot with 51%.
On October 22, 2007, a vote was taken on the so-called European House, a concert hall in the new center. 55% of the citizens who took part in the voting opposed the construction of the house.
On September 27, 2009, voters rejected a partial opening of pedestrian zones to cyclists with 51%. The citizens' initiative "Promotion of cycling" received only 49%.
On April 28, 2013, the citizens of Passau rejected a cyclist and pedestrian tunnel under the Georgsberg with 73% of the votes cast. The council's request for construction received 33% yes votes.

 

Culture

Trade fair location Passau

Shortly after the Second World War, in 1948, the first fair took place on the small parade ground and in the Nibelungenhalle in Passau under the name "Passau Spring Exhibition". Since the demolition of the Nibelungenhalle in 2004 and the conversion to the new center, the Kohlbruck exhibition center has been used for the exhibition. As part of the move, the name was changed to Passauer Frühling - DreiländerMesse. Accordingly, exhibitors from Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, who give the fair its name, are mainly represented. The fair takes place every two years in March/April. The 7th edition at the beginning of March 2016 recorded around 450 exhibitor participations and 70,000 trade fair visitors. It is considered one of the largest consumer exhibitions in Bavaria. The trade volume, which was created purely through purchase contracts, for example at the trade fair in 2014, was almost 24 million euros. The trade fair planned for 2020 (period: March 21, 2020 to March 29, 2020) was prohibited by the authorities on March 10, 2020 due to the corona pandemic. In mid-April, the organizer of the fair, Kinold-Ausstellungsgesellschaft mbH, announced that it had to file for insolvency.

The Passau Prefabricated House Fair has been held annually since 1996, which was supplemented in 1998 by the Passau Construction and Energy Saving Fair, which also takes place annually. The focal points of the fairs are energy saving (solar systems, solar collectors, photovoltaic systems, thermal insulation, heat pumps), prefabricated and solid house construction and the renovation and modernization of old buildings.

An annual training fair has been held at the exhibition center since 2007, which is intended to act as an information and communication platform for young people and companies and to provide information about training positions and jobs in the region. With several thousand visitors and up to 100 exhibitors, the Passau training fair is the third largest fair of its kind in Bavaria.

 

Sports

One of the clubs with the most members in Passau is 1. FC Passau. The club's men's football team played in the sixth-rate state league in 2019/20, and in the 2022/2023 season the club will compete in the seventh-rate district league east. The home games will be played in the three-river stadium. The same stadium also hosted four preliminary rounds and two intermediate rounds of the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Founded in 1946, SV Schalding-Heining was promoted to the fourth-tier football regional league in Bavaria in 2013 and was able to stay there until the 2021/22 season. In the 2022/2023 season, the club will compete in the fifth-tier Bayernliga.
The Passau rowing club from 1874 e. V. is the oldest Bavarian rowing club and, with over 600 members, has been one of the five largest rowing clubs in Germany for years. He has produced many successful rowers, including world champions and Olympic participants. One of the most famous athletes is Felix Wimberger.
The former art toboggan run in the district of Hacklberg was an 800 meter long natural toboggan run that was inaugurated on January 21, 1967. It was in operation until 1980, but persistently high temperatures in the winter months meant that the railway was no longer able to operate. It was largely dismantled and the remains are left to decay. The Passau toboggan club, which produced the Olympic participants Gisela Otto and Monika Scheftschik, among others, also dissolved.
With the EHF Passau Black Hawks, there has been an ice hockey club in the city since 1997. He plays in the ice hockey league. With minimal changes, the indoor stadium can also be made available for inline hockey in summer. In 2007, the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championships took place in the cities of Landshut and Passau. This event represents the first World Championship to be held in Passau.
The largest athletics club in the city is the Athletics Association of Passau, whose members have already won several German championship titles.
With the TTC Fortuna Passau, a table tennis club in the city has been playing in the 2nd Bundesliga South since the 2001/02 season.
SK Passau 1869 plays chess in the 2nd Bundesliga East.
Passau is a stage in the international three-country cycle race Linz-Budweis-Prague.
The largest running event is the DJK Domlauf over 7.4 km.
The 1. PBC Passau is one of the billiard clubs with the most members in Bavaria and is represented at national level in the regional league south-east.

 

Education and Research

Schools

Passau is an important school location in the region. Some of the Passau schools have a catchment area that extends far beyond the city limits into the neighboring regions of Rottal, Bavarian Forest and Upper Austria.

 

Elementary and middle schools

In Passau, there are eight state elementary schools and one private Montessori elementary school, spread across the districts. In addition, there are two secondary schools, the Sankt Nikola elementary school and the Neustift elementary school, where the M-branch offers the possibility of acquiring the middle school certificate. In addition, there are support centers for mentally and learning-disabled children that are affiliated with mainstream schools and work closely with them.

 

Further training

Passau as a school town can look back on a long tradition. The Jesuit College in Passau was founded as early as 1612 and still exists today as the Leopoldinum Gymnasium, making it one of the oldest schools in Germany. There are also three other high schools: the Auersperg High School (Freudenhain), which is run by the Maria Ward School Foundation, the Gisela High School for girls, which is also run by the church, and the Adalbert Stifter High School (ASG).

In Passau, there has been the Berufsliche Oberschule Passau since 1970, a state school for the upper vocational level under the sponsorship of the city of Passau. It consists of the Fachoberschule (FOS) and the Berufsoberschule (BOS) and is abbreviated to FosBos Passau. School leavers with the intermediate school leaving certificate and adults with completed vocational training can acquire the technical college entrance qualification (Facbitur), the subject-related university entrance qualification and the general university entrance qualification (Abitur).

With the state Drei-Flüsse-Realschule and the church-run Gisela-Realschule, which is affiliated with the Gisela-Gymnasium (Niedernburg) and like this is a girls' school, there are two Realschulen in Passau. There is also the Passau State Business School. The private business school Pindl ceased operations at its location on Passau Cathedral Square at the end of the 2015/2016 school year. The reason for this was the consequences of the negative development in student numbers.

 

Vocational schools

Numerous vocational schools are based in Passau, including the Karl Peter Obermeier School (vocational school 1), the vocational school 2 and the PTA school. The catchment area of these schools includes the entire district of Passau and extends into the Bavarian Forest.

 

Professional academy

Since 2014, the private Athanor Academy, a state-recognized academy for the performing arts, has been based in the Grubweg district (previously Burghausen and before that Munich).

 

University of Passau

The University of Passau was founded on October 9, 1978, but its history can be traced back to 1622. With around 13,000 students (as of September 30, 2017), it is now one of the comparatively smaller Bavarian universities. With a total of five faculties, more than 30 different courses are offered with the degrees Bachelor, Master and state examination. These include, for example, law, political science, business administration and economics, mathematics, computer science and teaching. In 2009, the university campus was voted the most beautiful campus in Germany by the magazine Unicum.

Due to the high number of students compared to the total population, the city of Passau has one of the highest student densities in Germany (approx. 24%).

 

Other educational institutions and libraries

There are numerous other educational opportunities in Passau. The adult education center (VHS), which is run jointly by the city and district, offers a wide range of courses, including numerous language and art courses. The city's music school in Passau, which offers classes for both children and adults, is managed purely by the city. Pupils from the municipal music school regularly win prizes at national and international music competitions.

The educational offer of the city is rounded off by several libraries. The city of Passau maintains the Europa-Bücherei with a branch in the district of Neustift, which mainly offers popular literature. The largest library in Passau is the university library, which offers a large selection of specialist literature. The university library is also available to people who are not enrolled at the university and is one of the largest libraries in Bavaria. The Passau State Library (popularly known as "Stabi"), which is based in Passau's old town, works closely with the University Library, but is organizationally separate from it. It can itself look back on a long history and is one of the oldest libraries in Bavaria.

 

Economy and Infrastructure

In 2016, Passau, within the city limits, had a gross domestic product (GDP) of €3.236 billion. In the same year, GDP per capita was €63,668 (Bavaria: €44,215 / Germany €38,180) and thus well above the regional and national average. In 2017 there were around 52,100 employed people in the city. The unemployment rate was 4.0% in December 2018 (in the district of Passau it was 2.8%).

In the 2016 Atlas of the Future, the independent city of Passau was ranked 83rd out of 402 districts, municipal associations and independent cities in Germany, making it one of the places with “great prospects for the future”. The city and district of Passau present themselves as a business location on the "Passau Economic Region" portal.

 

Companies

The three branches (Passau-Grubweg, -Patriching and Thyrnau) of ZF Friedrichshafen AG, formerly ZF Passau GmbH, had a total of 4000 employees in 2022 and are the second largest employer in Lower Bavaria after BMW AG. The site's turnover in 2021 was around 1.4 billion euros. With 200,000 transmissions, axles and drive components manufactured at the site, ZF claims to be the world's leading manufacturer of drive technology.
Paul Nutzfahrzeuge is a mechanical engineering company specializing in the construction of special vehicles. Own models are also developed and produced, for example the heavy-duty truck Paul Heavy Mover.
The IT consulting and system integration company Msg Systems has an office in Passau with over 600 employees.
The food producer Wieninger Hefe has its headquarters and its production facilities in the Rittsteig district.
Eterna Mode GmbH is a textile company (since 1927) in the city area with around 800 employees.
The Passau publishing group, publisher of the local daily newspaper Passauer Neue Presse, has 6,500 employees across Europe.
There are three breweries in Passau (as of 2019):
Hacklberg brewery
Löwenbrauerei Passau
Andorf wheat beer brewery
The Peschl brewery ended its activities on October 31, 2008, the Innstadt brewery was taken over by the Hacklberg brewery in early 2013 and only exists as a brand.
The bell foundry Rudolf Perner operates nationwide.
The company Orgelbau Eisenbarth GmbH built, among other things, the organs of the Passau Cathedral.
The furniture store XXXL Hiendl is based in Passau (suffix XXXL after the sale to XXXLutz in 2007).
Mymuesli is an individualized online muesli delivery service in town; awarded the German Founder's Prize 2013.
The software company One Data, which specializes in data science and artificial intelligence, is headquartered in Passau and has over 300 employees nationwide.
The Geins beverage wholesaler, one of the ten largest in Germany, has its headquarters in the Heining district.

 

Tourism

The sights and shopping opportunities in the city and in the Passau region attract numerous tourists from Germany and abroad. The number of guest arrivals has been rising continuously for decades, so in 2014 a total of 283,938 holidaymakers (excluding day and cruise guests) from Germany and abroad were counted. The number of overnight stays increased to 467,310 people, of which 375,967 were from Germany and 91,343 from abroad (as of 2014). The average length of stay of guests in 2014 was 1.6 days, while the value for domestic and foreign tourists differed by only 0.3. In June 2014, 40 accommodation facilities with almost 3000 beds were open. In addition to overnight guests, around 1.5 million day and cruise guests visited the city of Passau in 2014.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, the city reported a record 599,922 overnight stays. On average, tourists stay in Passau for 1.7 days.

The river cruise industry is now of particular importance. In the port of Passau there are 17 ship piers along the Danube with a total of 29 berths for passenger ships. In 2014, more than 2,700 cruise ships docked in the city of three rivers.

Several cycle paths run through Passau, of which the Inn and Danube Cycle Paths are the best known. The city is often the starting point for cyclists who, for example, have the Austrian capital Vienna as their destination.

 

Media

In Passau there is a local newspaper, the Passauer Neue Presse (PNP), which has been published since 1946. It is published six times a week, Monday to Saturday. ' Since October 1, 2000, the free magazine Am Sonntag has been delivered to households on Sundays. The tabloid advertising paper has over 100,000 readers a week and is published in color throughout. The publisher is Alle Tage Verlags-GmbH, which is a 100 percent subsidiary of Neue Presse Verlags-GmbH (Passauer Neue Presse). At the beginning of the 2000s, the editor-in-chief was Sebastian Daiminger from the Upper Palatinate.

In addition, there is the Passau Week, published by the Wochenblatt Verlagsgruppe since 1973, which appears on Tuesdays and is available free of charge in shops. PR-aktiv has been published since 2004, initially monthly and since 2007 every 14 days. It is also available free of charge and has a circulation of 43,000. It is published by the newspaper production and sales GmbH & Co. KG (ZPV).

The Bürgerblick Passau has been published irregularly since October 2005 and monthly since June 2007.

In Passau, we have two local radio stations, UnserRadio and Radio Galaxy, and a local television station, TRP1 (Tele Regional Passau).

TRP1 was one of the first regional broadcasters in Bavaria to be founded in 1984 by Passau entrepreneurs Andreas Werner and Christian Repa and went on the air on March 14, 1985. The transmission area extends in the cable network from Freyung (Bavarian Forest) via Passau, Vilshofen, Pocking to Eggenfelden. Since 2003, the TRP1 program can also be received digitally via Astra 1F throughout Europe. The focus of the program is daily reporting.

For Passau, there was an online newspaper, lokalnews.de, from February 2011 to April 2012. The Campus Crew Passau student radio station of the University of Passau is available online.

 

Public facilities

Drinking water supply and sanitation
Stadtwerke Passau is responsible for the extraction, treatment and distribution of the drinking water. The drinking water for Passau is obtained exclusively from groundwater, which is pumped on the island of Soldatenau. In order to avoid contamination of the groundwater, entering the island is prohibited. Approx. 4.1 million m³ of water are discharged annually. The overall hardness of 11.0 °dH is in the "medium" hardness range. The gross consumption price is 1.67 euros per cubic metre.

The city of Passau is responsible for discharging and cleaning the waste water. 99% of the population is connected to the sewage system. However, around 450 residents treat their waste water decentrally in a small sewage treatment plant. The public sewage system transports the waste water to the central sewage treatment plant in Passau-Haibach Welt-Icon. The facility was expanded in 1986 to a size of 110,000 population equivalents.

On the grounds of the sewage treatment plant are the remains of a Roman sentinel, which was added to the Danube Limes World Heritage Site on July 30, 2021.

 

Telecommunications

On November 4, 2009, digital radio reception via antenna (DVB-T) was introduced in the Passau area. The transmitter is mounted on the Passau (Kühberg) transmitter, from which some VHF and DAB programs of Bavarian radio and mobile communications are also transmitted. There is also the telecommunications tower Passau-Haidenhof of Deutsche Telekom, which transmits the stations UnserRadio and Radio Galaxy, among others.

South of the city area, in the district of Passau, there is the Passau-Dommelstadl telecommunications tower, which transmits national DAB programs to Antenne Bayern. In addition, various Austrian analogue and digital TV and radio programs can be received via the nearby Schardenberg transmitter in Upper Austria.

 

Garrison

In the past, Passau was the location of the Bavarian Army, Reichswehr, Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr. The old Nikola barracks near the city center (referred to as Somme barracks from 1938) were no longer used after 1945. The city's garrison history ended in 1993 with the abandonment of the Ritter von Scheuring barracks, which had been rebuilt near Kohlbruck on the western outskirts of the city in the early 1960s. The 240th Pioneer Battalion and the 250th Airborne Pioneer Company were stationed there.

The approximately three meter high artificial stone sculpture of the beam girder by the Passau sculptor Otto Zirnbauer, which has been standing in front of the entrance to the barracks since 1966, was moved after the barracks were closed and severely damaged in the process; After restoration by the sculptor Christian Zeitler, it has been on Pioneer Street near the Dreiländerhalle in Passau-Kohlbruck since 2006.

After the Second World War, there were two US military properties in Passau. The United States Constabulary's 51st CON Squadron unit was stationed at the Maybach Air Strip until it was transferred to Landshut in 1947. The 237th Engineer Battalion of the Seventh United States Army (USAREUR) was represented at the Kohlbruck Ammo Storage Facility until 1957.