Nuremberg

The medieval German city of Nuremberg (Nürnberg), in Bavaria. A place of great historical and architectural interest, it is probably best known as the site of the Nazi Nuremberg Rally of 1934, and for the trials of Nazi war criminals that began in 1945.

City in Bavaria, Germany, on the River Pegnitz, 149 km/92 mi northwest of Munich; population (2003 est) 486,700, urban agglomeration 1,007,800. Industries include electrical and other machinery, motor vehicles, optical products, precision instruments, textiles, printed materials, and food processing; homemade toys and fine gingerbread (Lebkuchen) are traditional export items. From 1933 the Nuremberg rallies were held here, and in 1945 the Nuremberg trials of war criminals.

Created an imperial city in 1219, it has an 11th–16th-century fortress and many medieval buildings (restored after destruction of 75% of the city in World War II), including the home of the 16th-century composer Hans Sachs, where he and other Meistersinger met and competed in concerts. The artist Albrecht Dürer was born in Nuremberg; the house where he lived from 1509 to 1528 is now a museum. There is an annual toy fair, and song and organ festivals.

Features On a rock above the river stand the rambling buildings of the old fortress (11th–16th centuries), and the massive city walls, with their gates and watchtowers, still exist. The city has ancient houses and Gothic churches and public buildings which were restored after 1945. The 13th-century Sebalduskirche contains fine statues and the bronze shrine of St Sebald, which is the work of Peter Vischer the Elder; the 14th-century Marthakirche was the meeting-place of the Meistersinger , made famous by Hans Sachs; the 14th-century Frauenkirche contains work by Adam Kraft, and has, over its west door, a 16th-century clock with moving figures of the seven Electors paying homage to Charles IV; the Lorenzkirche (13th–14th centuries) has one of the finest rose-windows in Germany, and a remarkable tabernacle by Adam Kraft. In the Germanic National Museum there is a notable collection of German art. There is a university at Erlangen-Nuremberg.

History The earliest settlement grew up around a royal fortress. Nuremberg, first mentioned in 1050, rose rapidly to importance owing to its position at a junction of two great trade routes. In 1219 it was declared a free imperial city and it became the finest city in Germany; an imperial edict, the ‘Golden Bull’ of 1356, ordained that every German emperor should convoke his first diet there. Nuremberg became a centre of the German Renaissance during the 15th–16th centuries, and was also an early centre of humanism, science, printing, and mechanical invention. It was the first of the imperial cities to embrace Protestantism (1534). After the Thirty Years' War the prosperity of the city declined, and its importance was only recovered in the late 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre. In 1806 it was incorporated into the kingdom of Bavaria. The first railway in Germany was built from here to Fürth, and was opened in 1835. During the Nazi regime the annual party rallies took place in the Dutzendteich district to the southeast of the city; at the 1935 congress the violently anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws were promulgated. As Nuremberg was the site of roughly half the total German production of airplane, submarine, and tank engines, the city consequently suffered severe damage from bombing attacks during World War II and was largely destroyed.