Braunschweig - Brunswick. 800 years history of a famous town. by Gerd Biegel, Director of the Landesmuseum. The early beginnings of the town of Brunswick are only described by a legend: There it is said that two Saxon dukes, the brothers Bruno and Dankward, have founded Brunswick in 861. The legend tells that Duke Dankward had built Dankward Castle and Duke Bruno founded a so-called „Wiek" on the right bank of the Oker river, which was called Brunswiek, today named Altewiek. Later merchants settled down in the area of the Eiermarkt. Written references explaining the town`s early beginnings started with sources of the 11th. century. About 1030 the Brunonian countess Gertrud founded St. Blasius`Cathredral, which was consecrated by Bishop Godehard of Hildesheim, on an peninsula in the Oker River, and in the Altewiek Bishog Branthag of Halberstadt consecrated St. Magnus`Church. The document of this consecration in 1031 still exists and here we find the name of Brunswick mentioned for the first time, then called „Brunesguik". An important development of the town started during the regency of Lothar of Süpplingenburg, who had been Duke of Saxony since 1106, and under the name Lothar III., ruled from 1125 to 1137 as emperor. He wanted the town to be extended and so the municipal area of the Altstadt with the centre Altstadtmarkt was built. Supposingly the Altstadt received the town charter by Lothar III. after 1117. A much more decisive epoch for the town became that of his grandson, Henry the Lion (about 1130 -1195). Brunswick extended during his government, because he put up his permanent residence here. Together with the courts of England and France, Brunswick belonged to the most powerful capitals in Europe. It was also the political and cultural centre of Saxony. Henry the Lion founded the new municipal area of the Hagen and started planning the Neustadt. The outstanding buildings erected during his government are the then newly constructed Dankwarderode Castle and the imposant new St. Blasius Cathredral. Henry the Lion started to build this Cathedral after his pilgrimage to the Holy Land 1172/1173. This church was provided with rich art treasures. In 1168 the lion-monument was the erected. It was the first large bronze sculpture created in Nothern Europe, that was standing solitary; a speciality of medieval art. A lion also can be seen on coins, the town seal and on the map of the world of Ebstorf cloister, where it stands as a symbol for the town itself. Brunswick gave the stimulans for important town foundations as Lübeck or Munich.From Brunswick.  Henry the Lion started his colonization of the East and so he became nearly just as powerful as a king or even the emperor. This ,of course, led to a conflict with his cousin, emperor Frederick I. Barbarossa. At the end, in 1180, Henry had lost both his dukedoms Saxony and Bavaria. Henry the Lion died in his Brunswick castle Dankwarderode on August, 6th. 1195, but as a symbol for his town and in many stories and legends he is still alive. The politics of Henry the Lion stimulated economical and cultural life and the early community flourished. After his death Brunswick became one of the biggest and most important town in the empire. This fast development was due to the merchants and their sovereign`s patronage. During the regency of emperor Otto IV. Brunswick for a short time became an imperial town. About 1200 the people of Brunswick installed a self-government and formed a council, which turned out to be extremely important for the town`s future. This process was different in the five municipal areas and took place from 1231 (Altstadt) to 1300 (Sack). So in the beginnings Brunswick was a pentapolis, a town constisting of five independant municipal areas. Soon there was a common government and a common council was formed.  Brunswick then took over the leading position in politics and economy in northern Germany. In 1235, as a historical event, the new Dukedom Braunschweig-Lüneburg was formed. The Capital was Brunswick. The fast upswing also had negatives consequences. Social troubles, revolts of the not so prosperous giulds against the rich merchants of the Altstadt and the patrician-dominated council as well as rebellions against the sovereign determined the time between the 13. and 15. century. By being economically sucessfull the town struggled to become more independent of the dukes, who finally transferred their residence to Wolfenbüttel in 1432. Brunswick wanted to become a free town of the empire, but did not reach that aim because of not receiving the necessary constitutional legitimation. After all, in many political and economical sectors the council acted independently. With the permanent disputes with the dukes, which became most severe when the people of Brunswick town became Protestants in 1528 and when the town joined the „Schmalkaldischen Bund" in 1531, the economic potential of the town started to decrease. Beside this, the growing debts and the terrible consequences of the Thirty-Years- War had weakened the town`s autonomy. The outstanding historical event during the era of absolutism was conquest of Brunswick by Duke Rudolf August in 1671, that had only been possible because of the town`s fading political and economical power. At first this conquest seemed to be the lowest point in the town`s history, but then the duke`s policy turned out to be quite positve for commerce. In 1681 two trade fairs were installed and promoted trade, especially because Brunswick trade fairs soon became the third-largest in the German Empire after the fairs at Leipzig and Frankfurt. Guests and visitors revived city life and cultural needs had to be met. In 1690 the Ducal Theatre at the Hagenmarkt was opened. The first performances of Lessing`s „Emilia Galotti" in 1772 and Goethe`s Faust in 1829 were given there. In political and economical view, the small and torn dukedom was only of regional importance. The princesses became the most valuable treasure of the dukedom, because they were married in a way that fitted best into their family`s policy all through the centuries. Duke Anton Ulrich, who was a famous baroque writer and art-collector also, recommended his granddaughter Elisabeth Christine as wife for King Charles III. of Spain. Of course, she had to converse to Roman-Catholic faith, but that was no problem: The professors of Helmstedt University declared the Lutherian catechism to be a shorter form of the Roman-Catholic bible. When Charles became Emporer Charles VI. in Vienna , his wife was said to be the most beautiful empress ever reigned in the Hofburg [famous before »Sissi«!]. Elisabeth Christine was described as having white skin, being rather corpulent and leading a cultivated life. Beside this, she was the mother of empress Maria Theresia. Princesses of Brunswick were also married to rulers in Russia and Danmark as well as the wife of Frederick II. of Prussia was of Brunswick origin. The founder of the famous „Court of the Muses" in Weimar was Anna Amalia, also a Princess of Brunswick. The marriage of another princess, Caroline, turned out much more dramatically. Becoming the wife of George, Prince of Wales, in 1794, her married life led to a catastrophe in the early 19. century. The Prince of Wales was heavily drinking, liked to gamble and had many mistresses even though he was married. His wife acted just as he did, but we still do not know if her Groom of the Chamber also was her lover. She stood up for women`s right and the people called her „Queen of their hearts". You see, history is repeating itself and still the English monarchy exsists. I could tell you much more about the fate of Brunswick princesses, but there is not enough time. Especially Duke Carl I., ruling since 1735, promoted culture and economy in his residential city. His most important achievement was the foundation of the „Collegium Carolinum", a precursor of nowadays Technical University, the oldest Technical University in Germany? His son Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand also supported the town. He was married to the english princess Augusta, sister of King George III. For that reason You can visit our Richmond Castle in Brunswick. As being very interested in the ideas of the Enlightment, he strengthened mercantilism by supporting factories as e.g. Stobwasser. He also supported Carl Friedrich Gauß, promoted Louis Spohr and hired Gotthold Ephraim Lessing as a librarian at the ducal library in Wolfenbüttel and also persuated Johann Heinrich Campe and Friedrich Vieweg to work in Brunswick. The regency of Carl Wilhelm Ferdinand was certainly one of the most significant epochs in Brunswick`s history since the Middle Ages. Until today the changes in the townscape can still be seen. By 1831 the fortifications were demolished and the architect Peter Joseph Krahe finally turned them into promenades surrounding the whole city. From 1806 to 1813 the French had occupied Brunswick, which then belonged to the Kingdom of Westfalia. This was a rather complicated situation for the city`s development, so that the new beginning after the Napoleonic era in 1815 became difficult. Commerce and industry suffered heavy losses, the trade fairs had to deal with set-backs and because of unemployment und crop failure many people suffered poverty and hardship. Mainly this social conflicts led to the ousting of Carl II., who had intended to install a kind of absolutistic regime. At the 7th of September 1830 the castle was burned down and looted. The only revolution in Europe in 19th century which ousted an regent. In 1831 the new residential castle in classicistic style was build. The architect of this great building was Carl Theodor Ottmer, who also made the plans for the first railway station, because since 1838 there was the first State-Railway from Brunswick to Wolfenbüttel. Brunswick received the complete self-government by the so-called „Allgemeine Städteordnung" in 1834. After the foundation of the German Reich in 1871, Brunswick developed very fast. In the period from 1850 to 1880 the number of inhabitants grew from 39.000 to 75.000. By 1890 there were more than 100.000 people living in the city of Brunswick. Industrialisation and technical progress reached their heyday .In 1892 the first calculating machines were produce by "Brunsviga", which soon were sold all over the world. The industrialist Heinrich Büssing , who started his career by building bicycles, established his factory for motorvans and motorbuses (which is now MAN) in 1904 and only one year later a regular busline between Braunschweig and the village of Wendeburg started. When the only daughter of Emperor Wilhelm II., Victoria Louise, married Duke Ernst August, the Welfs reigned in Brunswick again, but only for a short while. The beginning of Word War I. abruptly stopped Brunswick`s further development. When in November 1918 the revolution started, Duke Ernst August abdicated. The Dukedom of Brunswick ceased to exist. In the 1920s, though there were political problems and the great inflation, economy began to recover. In 1920 the Rollei factory Franke and Heidecke started .Flats, that still exists, were built in the so-called Siegfriedviertel and the Bebelhof. In the Weimar Republic a rich cultural life flourished. People were happy that the had overcome the terrible war - and could hardly imagine that it would get even worse in near future. After the National Socialists had come to power on the 30th of January 1933 several acts of terror against the regime`s opponents occurred. On the 8th of March the city hall was attacked by the SA. They arrested mayor Ernst Böhme, forced him to resign and maltreated him. The former Brunswick prime-minister Heinrich Jasper also was arrested several times. He died in the concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in 1945. Important institutions of national socialist power structure became established in Brunswick. The castle was turned into a SS-Junkerschule. Brunswick Cathredral was declared "Staatsdom" and was changed into some kind of national socalistic place of pilgrimage. In 1935 the vault of Henry the Lion was opened, for his person had been declared the pioneer of a policy conquering Poland and Russia. This was also the preparation for World War II. During heavy air-raids, especially in the bombing raid of 14./15th of October 1944, 90% of Brunswick city was destroyed; nearly 3000 people died. Historical Brunswick was lost. Since the end of World War II. the townscape had changed. The town`s reconstruction was difficult, there were not enough flats or houses and 50% of all the factories were destroyed. Nearly 80.000 refugees and expellees came to Brunswick. Commerce and industry of the town suffered from the nearby East German border, which made trade with the former eastern surroundings impossible. Brunswick became "City of research", when scientific institutes as for example the DLR were established here. In the 50s the townscaped was changed into a modern city fit for traffic; the streets were broadened and parts of the famous old town quarters completely disappeared. 0n 1st of October 1960 the new railway station opened and in the same year the ruin of the castle was torn down. Of course, there had been lots of other events in Brunswick history on way from a medieval to a modern town. Nowadays science and culture, research and trade are equal partners in our city. After the fall of the East German border in autunm 1989 Brunswick now is again located in the middle of Germany. It really is a town worth visiting as well as living in it.