Bamberg

Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the Regnitz River, close to its confluence with the Main River.

History

During the post-Roman centuries of Germanic migration and settlement, the region afterwards included in the Diocese of Bamberg was inhabited for the most part by Slavs. The town, first mentioned in 902, grew up by the castle (Babenberch) which gave its name to the Babenberg family. On their extinction it passed to the Saxon house. The area was christianized chiefly by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda, and the land was under the spiritual authority of the Diocese of Würzburg.

Related Topics:
Roman - Slavs - 902 - Babenberg - Saxon - Benedictine - Fulda - Würzburg

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In 1007, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II made Bamberg, a family inheritance, the seat of a separate diocese. The emperor's purpose in this was to make the Diocese of Würzburg less unwieldy in size and to give Christianity a firmer footing in the districts of Franconia, east of Bamberg. In 1008, after long negotiations with the Bishops of Würzburg and Eichstätt, who were to cede portions of their dioceses, the boundaries of the new diocese were defined, and Pope John XVIII granted the papal confirmation in the same year. The new cathedral was consecrated May 6, 1012, and in 1017 Henry II founded on Mount St. Michael, near Bamberg, a Benedictine abbey for the training of the clergy. The emperor and his wife Cunigunde gave large temporal possessions to the new diocese, and it received many privileges out of which grew the secular power of the bishop (cf. Weber in Historisches Jahrbuch der Gorresgesellschaft for 1899, 326-345 and 617-639). Pope Benedict VIII during his visit to Bamberg (1020) placed the diocese in direct dependence on the Holy See. For a short time Bamberg was the centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry and his wife Cunigunde were both buried in the cathedral.

Related Topics:
1007 - Henry II - Diocese - Franconia - 1008 - Eichstätt - Pope John XVIII - Cathedral - May 6 - 1012 - 1017 - Cunigunde - 1020 - Holy See - Holy Roman Empire

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From the middle of the 13th century onward the bishops were princes of the Empire and ruled Bamberg, forcing the construction of monumental buildings. In 1248 and 1260 the see obtained large portions of the estates of the Counts of Meran, partly through purchase and partly through the appropriation of extinguished fiefs. The old Bishopric of Bamberg was composed of an unbroken territory extending from Schlusselfeld in a north-easterly direction to the Franconian Forest, and possessed in addition estates in the Duchies of Carinthia and Salzburg, in the Nordgau (the present Upper Palatinate), in Thuringia, and on the Danube. By the changes resulting from the Reformation the territory of this see was reduced nearly one half in extent.

Related Topics:
13th century - Bishop - 1248 - 1260 - Counts of Meran - Schlusselfeld - Franconian Forest - Carinthia - Salzburg - Nordgau - Upper Palatinate - Thuringia - Danube - Reformation

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In 1647, the University of Bamberg was founded as "Academia Bambergensis".

Related Topics:
1647 - University of Bamberg

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In 1759 the possessions and jurisdictions of the diocese situated in Austria were sold to that State. When the secularization of church lands took place (1802) the diocese covered 1276 square miles (3,305 km²) and had a population of 207,000. Bamberg thus lost its independence in 1802, and in 1803, it became a part of Bavaria.

Related Topics:
1759 - Austria - 1802 - 1803 - Bavaria

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After World War I, when a communist uprising took control over Bavaria, the government fled to Bamberg and had to stay for almost two years, before the Bavarian capital Munich was recaptured by Freikorps (see Weimar Republic).

Related Topics:
World War I - Munich - Freikorps - Weimar Republic

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