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Albert, Duke of Prussia | Duke in Prussia | Duke in Prussia
350px|thumb|Prussian Homage: Albert and his brothers receive the Duchy of Prussia as a fief from Polish King Sigismund I the Old, 1525. Painting by Matejko, 1882.
After some delay Sigismund assented to the offer, with the provision that Prussia should be treated as a Polish fiefdom; and after this arrangement had been confirmed by a treaty concluded at Kraków, Albert pledged a personal oath to Sigismund I and was invested with the duchy for himself and his heirs on 10 February 1525.
The Estates of the land then met at Königsberg and took the oath of allegiance to the new duke, who used his full powers to promote the doctrines of Luther. This transition did not, however, take place without protest. Summoned before the imperial court of justice, Albert refused to appear and was proscribed, while the order elected a new grand master, Walter von Cronberg, who received Prussia as a fief at the imperial Diet of Augsburg. As the German princes were experiencing the tumult of the Reformation, the German Peasants' War, and the wars against the Ottoman Turks, they did not enforce the ban on the duke, and agitation against him soon died away.
In imperial politics, Albert was fairly active. Joining the League of Torgau in 1526, he acted in unison with the Protestants, and was among the princes who banded and plotted together to overthrow Charles V after the issue of the Augsburg Interim in May 1548. For various reasons, however, poverty and personal inclination among others, he did not take a prominent part in the military operations of this period.
thumb|upright|left|One Groschen coin, 1534, Iustus ex fide vivit — The Just lives on Faith
The early years of Albert's rule in Prussia were fairly prosperous. Although he had some trouble with the peasantry, the lands and treasures of the church enabled him to propitiate the nobles and for a time to provide for the expenses of the court. He did something for the furtherance of learning by establishing schools in every town and by freeing serfs who adopted a scholastic life. In 1544, in spite of some opposition, he founded Königsberg University, where he appointed his friend Andreas Osiander to a professorship in 1549. Albert also paid for the printing of the Astronomical "Prutenic Tables" compiled by Erasmus Reinhold and the first maps of Prussia by Caspar Hennenberger.
Osiander's appointment was the beginning of the troubles which clouded the closing years of Albert's reign. Osiander's divergence from Luther's doctrine of justification by faith involved him in a violent quarrel with Philip Melanchthon, who had adherents in Königsberg, and these theological disputes soon created an uproar in the town. The duke strenuously supported Osiander, and the area of the quarrel soon broadened. There were no longer church lands available with which to conciliate the nobles, the burden of taxation was heavy, and Albert's rule became unpopular.
After Osiander's death in 1552, Albert favoured a preacher named Johann Funck, who, with an adventurer named Paul Skalić, exercised great influence over him and obtained considerable wealth at public expense. The state of turmoil caused by these religious and political disputes was increased by the possibility of Albert's early death and the need, should that happen, to appoint a regent, as his only son, Albert Frederick was still a mere youth. The duke was forced to consent to a condemnation of the teaching of Osiander, and the climax came in 1566 when the Estates appealed to King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Albert's cousin, who sent a commission to Königsberg. Skalić saved his life by flight, but Funck was executed. The question of the regency was settled, and a form of Lutheranism was adopted and declared binding on all teachers and preachers.
thumb|170px|Portrait of Pavao Skalić, an encyclopedist, Renaissance humanist and adventurer from Croatia, who strongly influenced the Duke in the closing years of his reign
Virtually deprived of power, the duke lived for two more years, and died at Tapiau on 20 March 1568 of the plague, along with his wife. Cornelis Floris de Vriendt designed his tomb within Königsberg Cathedral.Mühlpfordt, p. 73
Albert was a voluminous letter writer, and corresponded with many of the leading personages of the time. |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | Legacy | Legacy
thumb|Tomb of Albert by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt in Königsberg Cathedral
thumb|"Albertus" with sword from the Silberbibliothek
Albert was the first German noble to support Luther's ideas and in 1544 founded the University of Königsberg, the Albertina, as a rival to the Roman Catholic Krakow Academy. It was the second Lutheran university in the German states, after the University of Marburg.
A relief of Albert over the Renaissance-era portal of Königsberg Castle's southern wing was created by Andreas Hess in 1551 according to plans by Christoph Römer.Mühlpfordt, p. 90 Another relief by an unknown artist was included in the wall of the Albertina's original campus. This depiction, which showed the duke with his sword over his shoulder, was the popular "Albertus", the symbol of the university. The original was moved to Königsberg Public Library to protect it from the elements, while the sculptor Paul Kimritz created a duplicate for the wall. Another version of the "Albertus" by Lothar Sauer was included at the entrance of the Königsberg State and Royal Library.
In 1880 Friedrich Reusch created a sandstone bust of Albert at the Regierungsgebäude, the administrative building for Regierungsbezirk Königsberg. On 19 May 1891 Reusch premiered a famous statue of Albert at Königsberg Castle with the inscription: "Albert of Brandenburg, Last Grand Master, First Duke in Prussia".Mühlpfordt, p. 82 Albert Wolff also designed an equestrian statue of Albert located at the new campus of the Albertina. King's Gate contains a statue of Albert.
Albert was oft-honored in the quarter Maraunenhof in northern Königsberg. Its main street was named Herzog-Albrecht-Allee in 1906. Its town square, König-Ottokar-Platz, was renamed Herzog-Albrecht-Platz in 1934 to match its church, the Herzog-Albrecht-Gedächtniskirche.Mühlpfordt, p. 133 |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | Spouse and issue | Spouse and issue
thumb|Dorothea of Denmark, Duchess of Prussia by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
Albert married first, to Dorothea (1 August 150411 April 1547), daughter of King Frederick I of Denmark, in 1526. They had six children:
Anna Sophia (11 June 15276 February 1591), married John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.
Katharina (b. and d. 24 February 1528) died at birth.
Frederick Albert (5 December 15291 January 1530). died young.
Lucia Dorothea (8 April 15311 February 1532) died in infancy.
Lucia (3 February 1537 1 May 1539) died young.
Albert (b. and d. 1 March 1539) died at birth.
He married secondly to Anna Maria (1532–20 March 1568), daughter of Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in 1550. The couple had two children:
Elisabeth (20 May 155119 February 1596) died unmarried and without issue.
Albert Frederick (29 April 155318 August 1618), Duke of Prussia. |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | Ancestors | Ancestors |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | Notes | Notes |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | References | References
|
Albert, Duke of Prussia | External links | External links
William Urban on the situation in Prussia
K. P. Faber: Briefe Luthers an Herzog Albrecht (1811) letters of Martin Luther to Albrecht
|-
Category:Dukes of Prussia
Category:Protestant monarchs
Category:1490 births
Category:1568 deaths
Category:16th-century dukes of Prussia
Category:Converts to Lutheranism from Roman Catholicism
Category:German people of Polish descent
Category:German Lutherans
Category:Grand masters of the Teutonic Order
Category:House of Hohenzollern
Category:People excommunicated by the Catholic Church
Category:People from Ansbach
Category:People from the Principality of Ansbach
Category:People from the Duchy of Prussia
Category:People of the Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521)
Category:University of Königsberg
Category:Duchy of Prussia
Category:People of the Count's Feud
Category:16th-century Lutheran theologians
Category:German Lutheran hymnwriters
Category:German people of Lithuanian descent |
Albert, Duke of Prussia | Table of Content | Short description, Early life, Grand Master, Duke in Prussia, Legacy, Spouse and issue, Ancestors, Notes, References, External links |
August 25 | pp-move | |
August 25 | Events | Events |
August 25 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
766 – Emperor Constantine V humiliates nineteen high-ranking officials, after discovering a plot against him. He executes the leaders, Constantine Podopagouros and his brother Strategios.
1248 – The Dutch city of Ommen receives city rights and fortification rights from Otto III, the Archbishop of Utrecht.
1258 – Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers are killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction under Michael VIII Palaiologos, paving the way for its leader to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.
1270 – Philip III, although suffering from dysentery, becomes King of France following the death of his father Louis IX, during the Eighth Crusade. His uncle, Charles I of Naples, is forced to begin peace negotiations with Muhammad I al-Mustansir, Hafsid Sultan of Tunis.
1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
1543 – António Mota and a few companions become the first Europeans to visit Japan.
1580 – War of the Portuguese Succession: Spanish victory at the Battle of Alcântara brings about the Iberian Union. |
August 25 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
1630 – Portuguese forces are defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy at the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka.
1758 – Seven Years' War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
1814 – War of 1812: On the second day of the Burning of Washington, British troops torch the Library of Congress, United States Treasury, Department of War, and other public buildings.
1823 – American fur trapper Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly bear while on an expedition in South Dakota.
1825 – The Thirty-Three Orientals declare the independence of Uruguay from Brazil.
1830 – The Belgian Revolution begins.
1835 – The first Great Moon Hoax article is published in The New York Sun, announcing the discovery of life and civilization on the Moon.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 21 hours and 45 minutes.
1883 – France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Huế, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin.
1894 – Kitasato Shibasaburō discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet. |
August 25 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Liaoyang begins.
1912 – The Kuomintang is founded for the first time in Peking.
1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1914 – World War I: The library of the Catholic University of Leuven is deliberately destroyed by the German Army. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts are lost.
1916 – The United States National Park Service is created.
1920 – Polish–Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, which began on August 13, ends with the Red Army's defeat.
1933 – The Diexi earthquake strikes Mao County, Sichuan, China and kills 9,000 people.
1933 – Nazi Germany and the Zionist Federation of Germany signed the Haavara Agreement. The agreement was a major factor in breaking the anti-Nazi boycott of 1933 and facilitated Jewish emigration from Germany and into Palestine.
1939 – The Irish Republican Army carries out the 1939 Coventry bombing in which five civilians were killed.
1939 – The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power.
1940 – World War II: The first Bombing of Berlin by the British Royal Air Force.
1941 – World War II: Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran: The United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly stage an invasion of the Imperial State of Iran.
1942 – World War II: Second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons; a Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned back by an Allied air attack.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Milne Bay: Japanese marines assault Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea, initiating the Battle of Milne Bay.
1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
1945 – Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill U.S. intelligence officer John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
1945 – The August Revolution ends as Emperor Bảo Đại abdicates, ending the Nguyễn dynasty.
1948 – The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
1950 – To avert a threatened strike during the Korean War, President Truman orders Secretary of the Army Frank Pace to seize control of the nation's railroads.
1958 – The world's first publicly marketed instant noodles, Chikin Ramen, are introduced by Taiwanese-Japanese businessman Momofuku Ando.
1960 – The Games of the XVII Olympiad commence in Rome, Italy.
1961 – President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power, initiating a political crisis that culminates in a military coup in 1964.
1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party, is assassinated by a former member of his group.
1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations.
1981 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn.
1985 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes near Auburn/Lewiston Municipal Airport in Auburn, Maine, killing all eight people on board including peace activist and child actress Samantha Smith.
1989 – Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Neptune, the last planet in the Solar System at the time, due to Pluto being within Neptune's orbit from 1979 to 1999. Is Pluto or Neptune farthest from the Sun? StarChild Question of the Month for January 1999. NASA.
1989 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 404, carrying 54 people, disappears over the Himalayas after takeoff from Gilgit Airport in Pakistan. The aircraft was never found.
1991 – Belarus gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 – The Battle of Vukovar begins. An 87-day siege of Vukovar by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), supported by various Serb paramilitary forces, between August and November 1991 (during the Croatian War of Independence).
1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux.
1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall.
2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her entourage are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.
2003 – NASA successfully launches the Spitzer Space Telescope into space.
2005 – Hurricane Katrina makes landfall in Florida.
2006 – Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Lazarenko is sentenced to nine years imprisonment for money laundering, wire fraud, and extortion.
2010 – A Filair Let L-410 Turbolet crashes on approach to Bandundu Airport, killing 20.
2011 – Fifty-two people are killed during an arson attack caused by members of the drug cartel Los Zetas.
2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.
2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004.
2017 – Conflict in Rakhine State (2016–present): One hundred seventy people are killed in at least 26 separate attacks carried out by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, leading to the governments of Myanmar and Malaysia designating the group as a terrorist organisation. |
August 25 | Births | Births |
August 25 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
1467 – Francisco Fernández de la Cueva, 2nd Duke of Alburquerque, Spanish duke (d. 1526)
1491 – Innocenzo Cybo, Italian cardinal (d. 1550)
1509 – Ippolito II d'Este, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1572)
1530 – Ivan the Terrible, Russian ruler (d. 1584)
1540 – Lady Catherine Grey, English noblewoman (d. 1568)
1561 – Philippe van Lansberge, Dutch astronomer and mathematician (d. 1632) |
August 25 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1605 – Philipp Moritz, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg, German noble (d. 1638)
1624 – François de la Chaise, French priest (d. 1709)
1662 – John Leverett the Younger, American lawyer, academic, and politician (d. 1724)
1707 – Louis I of Spain (d. 1724)
1724 – George Stubbs, English painter and academic (d. 1806)
1741 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and author (d. 1792)
1744 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German poet, philosopher, and critic (d. 1803)
1758 – Franz Teyber, Austrian organist and composer (d. 1810)
1767 – Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French soldier and politician (d. 1794)
1776 – Thomas Bladen Capel, English admiral (d. 1853)
1786 – Ludwig I of Bavaria, King of Bavaria (d. 1868)
1793 – John Neal, American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist (d. 1876)
1796 – James Lick, American carpenter and piano builder (d. 1876)
1802 – Nikolaus Lenau, Romanian-Austrian poet and author (d. 1850)
1803 – Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (d. 1880)
1812 – Nikolay Zinin, Russian organic chemist (d. 1880)
1817 – Marie-Eugénie de Jésus, French nun and saint, founded the Religious of the Assumption (d. 1898)
1829 – Carlo Acton, Italian pianist and composer (d. 1909)
1836 – Bret Harte, American short story writer and poet (d. 1902)
1840 – George C. Magoun, American businessman (d. 1893)
1841 – Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss physician and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1917)
1845 – Ludwig II of Bavaria, King of Bavaria (d. 1886)
1850 – Charles Richet, French physiologist and occultist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
1867 – James W. Gerard, American lawyer and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Germany (d. 1951)
1869 – Tom Kiely, British-Irish decathlete (d. 1951)
1875 – Agnes Mowinckel, Norwegian actress (d. 1963)
1877 – Joshua Lionel Cowen, American businessman, co-founded the Lionel Corporation (d. 1965)
1878 – Ted Birnie, English footballer and manager (d. 1935)
1882 – Seán T. O'Kelly, Irish journalist and politician, 2nd President of Ireland (d. 1966)
1889 – Alexander Mair, Australian politician, 26th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1969)
1891 – David Shimoni, Belarusian-Israeli poet and translator (d. 1956)
1893 – Henry Trendley Dean, American dentist (d. 1962)
1898 – Helmut Hasse, German mathematician and academic (d. 1975)
1898 – Arthur Wood, English cricketer (d. 1973)
1899 – Paul Herman Buck, American historian and author (d. 1978)
1900 – Isobel Hogg Kerr Beattie, Scottish architect (d. 1970)
1900 – Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981) |
August 25 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1902 – Stefan Wolpe, German-American composer and educator (d. 1972)
1903 – Arpad Elo, Hungarian-American chess player, created the Elo rating system (d. 1992)
1905 – Faustina Kowalska, Polish nun and saint (d. 1938)
1906 – Jim Smith, English cricketer (d. 1979)
1909 – Ruby Keeler, Canadian-American actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1993)
1909 – Michael Rennie, English actor and producer (d. 1971)
1910 – George Cisar, American baseball player (d. 2010)
1910 – Dorothea Tanning, American painter, sculptor, and poet (d. 2012)
1911 – Võ Nguyên Giáp, Vietnamese general and politician, 3rd Minister of Defence for Vietnam (d. 2013)
1912 – Erich Honecker, German politician (d. 1994)
1913 – Don DeFore, American actor (d. 1993)
1913 – Walt Kelly, American illustrator and animator (d. 1973)
1916 – Van Johnson, American actor (d. 2008)
1916 – Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
1916 – Saburō Sakai, Japanese lieutenant and pilot (d. 2000)
1917 – Mel Ferrer, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2008)
1918 – Leonard Bernstein, American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990)
1918 – Richard Greene, English actor (d. 1985)
1919 – William P. Foster, American bandleader and educator (d. 2010)
1919 – George Wallace, American lawyer, and politician, 45th Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
1919 – Jaap Rijks, Dutch Olympic medalist (d. 2017)
1921 – Monty Hall, Canadian television personality and game show host (d. 2017)
1921 – Bryce Mackasey, Canadian businessman and politician, 20th Canadian Minister of Labour (d. 1999)
1921 – Brian Moore, Northern Irish-Canadian author and screenwriter (d. 1999)
1923 – Álvaro Mutis, Colombian-Mexican author and poet (d. 2013)
1923 – Allyre Sirois, Canadian lawyer and judge (d. 2012)
1924 – Zsuzsa Körmöczy, Hungarian tennis player and coach (d. 2006)
1925 – Thea Astley, Australian journalist and author (d. 2004)
1925 – Hilmar Hoffmann, German film and culture academic (d. 2018)
1925 – Stepas Butautas, Lithuanian basketball player and coach (d. 2001)
1927 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player and golfer (d. 2003)
1927 – Des Renford, Australian swimmer (d. 1999)
1928 – John "Kayo" Dottley, American football player (d. 2018)
1928 – Darrell Johnson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2004)
1928 – Karl Korte, American composer and academic (d. 2022)
1928 – Herbert Kroemer, German-American physicist, engineer, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2024)
1930 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor and producer (d. 2020)
1930 – György Enyedi, Hungarian economist and geographer (d. 2012)
1930 – Graham Jarvis, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
1930 – Crispin Tickell, English academic and diplomat, British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (d. 2022)
1931 – Regis Philbin, American actor and television host (d. 2020)
1932 – Anatoly Kartashov, Soviet aviator and cosmonaut (d. 2005)
1933 – Patrick F. McManus, American journalist and author (d. 2018)
1933 – Wayne Shorter, American saxophonist and composer (d. 2023)
1933 – Tom Skerritt, American actor
1934 – Lise Bacon, Canadian judge and politician, Deputy Premier of Quebec
1934 – Eddie Ilarde, Filipino journalist and politician (d. 2020)
1935 – Charles Wright, American poet
1936 – Giridharilal Kedia, Indian businessman, founded the Image Institute of Technology & Management (d. 2009)
1937 – Jimmy Hannan, Australian television host and singer (d. 2019)
1937 – Virginia Euwer Wolff, American author
1938 – David Canary, American actor (d. 2015)
1938 – Frederick Forsyth, English journalist and author
1939 – John Badham, English-American actor, director, and producer
1939 – Marshall Brickman, Brazilian-American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2024)
1940 – Wilhelm von Homburg, German boxer and actor (d. 2004)
1941 – Mario Corso, Italian footballer and coach (d. 2020)
1941 – Ludwig Müller, German footballer (d. 2021)
1942 – Nathan Deal, American lawyer, and politician, 82nd Governor of Georgia
1942 – Pat Ingoldsby, Irish poet and television presenter (d. 2025)
1942 – Ivan Koloff, Canadian wrestler (d. 2017)
1944 – Conrad Black, Canadian historian and author
1944 – Jacques Demers, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and politician
1944 – Anthony Heald, American actor
1944 – Andrew Longmore, British lawyer and judge
1945 – Daniel Hulet, Belgian cartoonist (d. 2011)
1945 – Hannah Louise Shearer, American screenwriter and producer
1946 – Rollie Fingers, American baseball player
1946 – Charles Ghigna, American poet and author
1946 – Charlie Sanders, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2015)
1947 – Michael Kaluta, American author and illustrator
1947 – Keith Tippett, British jazz pianist and composer (d. 2020)
1948 – Ledward Kaapana, American singer and guitarist
1948 – Nicholas A. Peppas, Greek chemist and biologist
1949 – Martin Amis, British novelist (d. 2023)
1949 – Rijkman Groenink, Dutch banker and academic
1949 – John Savage, American actor and producer
1949 – Gene Simmons, Israeli-American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
1950 – Willy DeVille, American singer and songwriter (d. 2009)
1950 – Charles Fambrough, American bassist, composer, and producer (d. 2011)
1951 – Rob Halford, English heavy metal singer-songwriter
1951 – Bill Handel, Brazilian-American lawyer and radio host
1952 – Kurban Berdyev, Turkmen footballer and manager
1952 – Geoff Downes, English keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
1952 – Duleep Mendis, Sri Lankan cricketer and coach
1954 – Elvis Costello, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1954 – Jim Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness, Scottish lawyer and politician, First Minister of Scotland
1955 – John McGeoch, Scottish guitarist (d. 2004)
1955 – Gerd Müller, German businessman and politician
1956 – Matt Aitken, English songwriter and record producer
1956 – Takeshi Okada, Japanese footballer, coach, and manager
1956 – Henri Toivonen, Finnish race car driver (d. 1986)
1957 – Sikander Bakht, Pakistani cricketer and sportscaster
1957 – Simon McBurney, English actor and director
1957 – Frank Serratore, American ice hockey player and coach
1958 – Tim Burton, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1958 – Christian LeBlanc, American actor
1959 – Ian Falconer, American author and illustrator (d. 2023)
1959 – Steve Levy, American lawyer and politician
1959 – Bernardo Rezende, Brazilian volleyball coach and player
1959 – Lane Smith, American author and illustrator
1959 – Ruth Ann Swenson, American soprano and actress
1960 – Ashley Crow, American actress
1960 – Georg Zellhofer, Austrian footballer and manager
1961 – Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1961 – Dave Tippett, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Ally Walker, American actress
1961 – Joanne Whalley, English actress
1962 – Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi author
1962 – Theresa Andrews, American competition swimmer and Olympic champion
1962 – Vivian Campbell, Northern Irish rock guitarist and songwriter
1962 – Michael Zorc, German footballer
1963 – Miro Cerar, Slovenian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Slovenia
1963 – Shock G, American rapper and producer (d. 2021)
1963 – Tiina Intelmann, Estonian lawyer and diplomat
1964 – Azmin Ali, Malaysian mathematician and politician
1964 – Maxim Kontsevich, Russian-American mathematician and academic
1964 – Blair Underwood, American actor
1965 – Cornelius Bennett, American football player
1965 – Tim Cain, American video game designer
1965 – Sanjeev Sharma, Indian cricketer and coach
1965 – Mia Zapata, American singer (d. 1993)
1966 – Albert Belle, American baseball player
1966 – Robert Maschio, American actor
1966 – Derek Sherinian, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
1966 – Terminator X, American hip-hop DJ
1967 – Tom Hollander, English actor
1967 – Jeff Tweedy, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1968 – David Alan Basche, American actor
1968 – Yuri Mitsui, Japanese actress, model, and race car driver
1968 – Stuart Murdoch, Scottish singer-songwriter
1968 – Spider One, American singer-songwriter and producer
1968 – Rachael Ray, American chef, author, and television host
1968 – Takeshi Ueda, Japanese singer-songwriter and bass player
1969 – Olga Konkova, Norwegian-Russian pianist and composer
1969 – Cameron Mathison, Canadian actor and television personality
1969 – Catriona Matthew, Scottish golfer
1969 – Vivek Razdan, Indian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
1970 – Doug Glanville, American baseball player and sportscaster
1970 – Debbie Graham, American tennis player
1970 – Robert Horry, American basketball player and sportscaster
1970 – Adrian Lam, Papua New Guinean-Australian rugby league player and coach
1970 – Jo Dee Messina, American singer-songwriter
1970 – Claudia Schiffer, German model and fashion designer
1971 – Jason Death, Australian rugby league player
1971 – Nathan Page, Australian actor
1972 – Marvin Harrison, American football player
1973 – Fatih Akın, German director, producer, and screenwriter
1974 – Eric Millegan, American actor
1974 – Pablo Ozuna, Dominican baseball player
1975 – Brad Drew, Australian rugby league player
1975 – Petria Thomas, Australian swimmer and coach
1976 – Damon Jones, American basketball player and coach
1976 – Javed Qadeer, Pakistani cricketer and coach
1976 – Alexander Skarsgård, Swedish actor
1977 – Masumi Asano, Japanese voice actress and producer
1977 – Andy McDonald, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Jonathan Togo, American actor
1978 – Kel Mitchell, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1978 – Robert Mohr, German rugby player
1979 – Marlon Harewood, English footballer
1979 – Philipp Mißfelder, German historian and politician (d. 2015)
1979 – Deanna Nolan, American basketball player
1981 – Rachel Bilson, American actress
1981 – Jan-Berrie Burger, Namibian cricketer
1981 – Camille Pin, French tennis player
1982 – Jung Jung-suk, South Korean footballer (d. 2011)
1982 – Nick Schultz, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – James Rossiter, English race car driver
1984 – Florian Mohr, German footballer
1984 – Anya Monzikova, Russian-American model and actress
1986 – Rodney Ferguson, American footballer
1987 – Stacey Farber, Canadian actress
1987 – Velimir Jovanović, Serbian footballer
1987 – Blake Lively, American model and actress
1987 – Amy Macdonald, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1987 – Justin Upton, American baseball player
1987 – Adam Warren, American baseball player
1987 – James Wesolowski, Australian footballer
1988 – Angela Park, Brazilian-American golfer
1988 – Giga Chikadze, Georgian mixed martial artist and kickboxer
1989 – Hiram Mier, Mexican footballer
1990 – Max Muncy, American baseball player
1992 – Miyabi Natsuyaki, Japanese singer and actress
1992 – Ricardo Rodriguez, Swiss footballer
1994 – Edmunds Augstkalns, Latvian ice hockey player
1994 – Caris LeVert, American basketball player
1995 – Ong Seong-wu, South Korean singer and actor
1995 – Dowoon, South Korean musician
1998 – China Anne McClain, American actress and singer
2000 – Nicki Nicole, Argentine rapper and singer-songwriter
2003 – Rebeka Jančová, Slovak alpine ski racer
2004 – Evann Girault, French-Nigerien sabre fencer |
August 25 | Deaths | Deaths |
August 25 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
AD 79 – Pliny the Elder, Roman commander and philosopher (b. 23)
274 – Yang Yan, Jin Dynasty empress (b. 238)
306 – Saint Maginus, Christian hermit and martyr from Tarragona
383 – Gratian, Roman emperor (b. 359)
471 – Gennadius I, patriarch of Constantinople
766 – Constantine Podopagouros, Byzantine official
766 – Strategios Podopagouros, Byzantine general
985 – Dietrich of Haldensleben, German margrave
1091 – Sisnando Davides, military leader
1192 – Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1142)
1258 – George Mouzalon, regent of the Empire of Nicaea
1270 – Louis IX of France (b. 1214)
1270 – Alphonso of Brienne (b. c. 1225)
1271 – Joan, Countess of Toulouse (b. 1220)
1282 – Thomas de Cantilupe, English bishop and saint (b. 1218)
1322 – Beatrice of Silesia, queen consort of Germany (b. c. 1292)
1327 – Demasq Kaja, Chobanid
1330 – Sir James Douglas, Scottish guerrilla leader (b. 1286)
1339 – Henry de Cobham, 1st Baron Cobham (b. 1260)
1368 – Andrea Orcagna, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect
1482 – Margaret of Anjou wife of Henry VI and Queen of England (b. 1429)
1485 – William Catesby, supporter of Richard III (b. 1450)
1554 – Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1473)
1592 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (b. 1532)
1600 – Hosokawa Gracia, Japanese aristocrat and Catholic convert (b. 1563) |
August 25 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1603 – Ahmad al-Mansur, Sultan of the Saadi dynasty (b. 1549)
1631 – Nicholas Hyde, Lord Chief Justice of England (b.c. 1572)
1632 – Thomas Dekker, English author and playwright (b. 1572)
1688 – Henry Morgan, Welsh admiral and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica (b. 1635)
1699 – Christian V of Denmark (b. 1646)
1711 – Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1656)
1742 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese organist and composer (b. 1704)
1774 – Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer and educator (b. 1714)
1776 – David Hume, Scottish economist, historian, and philosopher (b. 1711)
1794 – Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, Belgian-Austrian diplomat (b. 1727)
1797 – Thomas Chittenden, Governor of the Vermont Republic, and first Governor of the State of Vermont (b. 1730)
1815 – Stephen Badlam, American artisan and military officer (b. 1815)
1819 – James Watt, Scottish engineer and instrument maker (b. 1736)
1822 – William Herschel, German-English astronomer and composer (b. 1738)
1867 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (b. 1791)
1882 – Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Estonian physician and author (b. 1803)
1886 – Zinovios Valvis, Greek lawyer and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1791)
1892 – William Champ, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Tasmania (b. 1808)
1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philologist, philosopher, and critic (b. 1844) |
August 25 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1904 – Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter and lithographer (b. 1836)
1908 – Henri Becquerel, French physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
1916 – Mary Tappan Wright, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1851)
1921 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet and critic (b. 1886)
1924 – Mariano Álvarez, Filipino general and politician (b. 1818)
1924 – Velma Caldwell Melville, American editor, and writer of prose and poetry (b. 1858)
1925 – Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austrian field marshal (b. 1852)
1930 – Frankie Campbell, American boxer (b. 1904)
1931 – Dorothea Fairbridge, South African author and co-founder of Guild of Loyal Women (b. 1862)
1936 – Juliette Adam, French author (b. 1836)
1938 – Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian pilot, explorer, and author (b. 1870)
1939 – Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1904)
1940 – Prince Jean, Duke of Guise (b. 1874)
1942 – Prince George, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
1945 – John Birch, American soldier and missionary (b. 1918)
1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American biologist and academic (b. 1894)
1965 – Moonlight Graham, American baseball player and physician (b. 1879)
1966 – Lao She, Chinese novelist and dramatist (b. 1899)
1967 – Stanley Bruce, Australian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1883)
1967 – Oscar Cabalén, Argentine race car driver (b. 1928)
1967 – Paul Muni, Ukrainian-born American actor (b. 1895)
1967 – George Lincoln Rockwell, American commander, politician, and activist, founded the American Nazi Party (b. 1918)
1968 – Stan McCabe, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1910)
1969 – Robert Cosgrove, Australian politician, 30th Premier of Tasmania (b. 1884)
1970 – Tachū Naitō, Japanese architect and engineer, designed the Tokyo Tower (b. 1886)
1971 – Ted Lewis, American singer and clarinet player (b. 1890)
1973 – Dezső Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Hungarian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1875)
1976 – Eyvind Johnson, Swedish novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
1977 – Károly Kós, Hungarian architect, ethnologist, and politician (b. 1883)
1979 – Stan Kenton, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1911)
1980 – Gower Champion, American dancer and choreographer (b. 1919)
1981 – Nassos Kedrakas, Greek actor and cinematographer (b. 1915)
1982 – Anna German, Polish singer (b. 1936)
1984 – Truman Capote, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
1984 – Viktor Chukarin, Ukrainian gymnast and coach (b. 1921)
1984 – Waite Hoyt, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1899)
1988 – Art Rooney, American businessman, founded the Pittsburgh Steelers (b. 1901)
1990 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian author and playwright (b. 1903)
1995 – Doug Stegmeyer, American bass player and producer (b. 1951)
1998 – Lewis F. Powell, Jr., American lawyer and Supreme Court justice (b. 1907)
1999 – Rob Fisher, English keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1956)
2000 – Carl Barks, American author and illustrator (b. 1901)
2000 – Frederick C. Bock, American soldier and pilot (b. 1918)
2000 – Jack Nitzsche, American pianist, composer, and producer (b. 1937)
2000 – Allen Woody, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1955)
2001 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (b. 1979)
2001 – Carl Brewer, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1938)
2001 – Üzeyir Garih, Turkish engineer and businessman, co-founded Alarko Holding (b. 1929)
2001 – Ken Tyrrell, English race car driver and businessman, founded Tyrrell Racing (b. 1924)
2002 – Dorothy Hewett, Australian author and poet (b. 1923)
2003 – Tom Feelings, American author and illustrator (b. 1933)
2005 – Peter Glotz, Czech-German academic and politician (b. 1939)
2006 – Noor Hassanali, Trinidadian-Tobagonian lawyer and politician, 2nd President of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1918)
2007 – Benjamin Aaron, American lawyer and scholar (b. 1915)
2007 – Ray Jones, English footballer (b. 1988)
2008 – Ahmad Faraz, Pakistani poet (b. 1931)
2008 – Kevin Duckworth, American basketball player (b. 1964)
2009 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (b. 1932)
2009 – Mandé Sidibé, Malian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Mali (b. 1940)
2011 – Lazar Mojsov, Macedonian politician (b. 1920)
2012 – Florencio Amarilla, Paraguayan footballer, coach, and actor (b. 1935)
2012 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
2012 – Roberto González Barrera, Mexican banker and businessman (b. 1930)
2012 – Donald Gorrie, Scottish politician (b. 1933)
2013 – Ciril Bergles, Slovene poet and translator (b. 1934)
2013 – António Borges, Portuguese economist and banker (b. 1949)
2013 – William Froug, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1922)
2013 – Liu Fuzhi, Chinese academic and politician, 3rd Minister of Justice for China (b. 1917)
2013 – Raghunath Panigrahi, Indian singer-songwriter (b. 1932)
2013 – Gylmar dos Santos Neves, Brazilian footballer (b. 1930)
2014 – William Greaves, American director and producer (b. 1926)
2014 – Marcel Masse, Canadian educator and politician, 29th Canadian Minister of National Defence (b. 1936)
2014 – Nico M. M. Nibbering, Dutch chemist and academic (b. 1938)
2014 – Uziah Thompson, Jamaican-American drummer and producer (b. 1936)
2014 – Enrique Zileri, Peruvian journalist and publisher (b. 1931)
2015 – José María Benegas, Spanish lawyer and politician (b. 1948)
2015 – Francis Sejersted, Norwegian historian and academic (b. 1936)
2016 – Marvin Kaplan, American actor (b. 1927)
2017 – Rich Piana, American bodybuilder (b. 1971)
2018 – John McCain, American politician (b. 1936)
2019 – Ferdinand Piëch, Austrian business magnate and engineer (b. 1937)
2022 – Mable John, American blues vocalist (b. 1930)
2024 – Salim Al-Huss, Lebanese statesman, 34th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1929) |
August 25 | Holidays and observances | Holidays and observances
Christian feast day:
Æbbe of Coldingham
Aredius
Genesius of Arles
Genesius of Rome
Ginés de la Jara (or Genesius of Cartagena)
Gregory of Utrecht
Joseph Calasanz
Louis IX of France
Blessed Ludovicus Baba
Blessed Ludovicus Sasada
Blessed Luis Sotelo
Menas of Constantinople
Blessed Miguel de Carvalho
Patricia of Naples
Blessed Pedro Vásquez
Thomas de Cantilupe (or of Hereford)
August 25 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Songun (North Korea)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Uruguay from Brazil in 1825.
Soldier's Day (Brazil) |
August 25 | References | References |
August 25 | External links | External links
Category:Days of August |
August 25 | Table of Content | pp-move, Events, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Births, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Deaths, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Holidays and observances, References, External links |
Aachen | Short description | thumb|290px|location of Aachen in the Meuse (Dutch and German: Maas) river system ()
Aachen is the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is located at the northern foothills of the High Fens and the Eifel Mountains. It sits on the Wurm River, a tributary of the Rur, and together with Mönchengladbach, it is the only larger German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. It is the westernmost larger city in Germany, lying approximately west of Cologne and Bonn, directly bordering Belgium in the southwest, and the Netherlands in the northwest. The city lies in the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion and is the seat of the district of Aachen (Städteregion Aachen).
The once Celtic settlement was equipped with several in the course of colonization by Roman pioneers settling at the warm Aachen thermal springs around the 1st century. After the withdrawal of the Roman troops, the vicus Aquae Granni was Frankized around the 5th century. This was followed by a period of sedentism under first Merovingian and then Carolingian rule. With the completion of the Carolingian Palace of Aachen at the transition to the 9th century, Aachen was constituted as the main royal residence of the Frankish Empire ruled by Charlemagne. Because of that the city is sometimes called "cradle of Europe". After the Treaty of Verdun, the city was within the borders of Middle Francia, until it became part of East Francia after the Treaty of Meerssen (870). It subsequently was part of the Holy Roman Empire and was granted city rights in 1166 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, becoming an imperial city. It served as the coronation site where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans from 936 to 1531, until Frankfurt am Main became the preferred place of coronation.
One of Germany's leading institutes of higher education in technology, the RWTH Aachen University , is located in the city. Its university hospital Uniklinikum Aachen is Europe's largest single-building hospital. Aachen's industries include science, engineering and information technology. In 2009, Aachen was ranked eighth among cities in Germany for innovation.
The regional dialect spoken in the city is a Central Franconian, Ripuarian variant with strong Limburgish influences from the dialects in the neighbouring Netherlands. As a Rhenish city, Aachen is one of the main centres of carnival celebrations in Germany, along with Cologne and Mainz. The culinary specialty for which the city is best known is Aachener Printen, a type of gingerbread. |
Aachen | Etymology | Etymology
The name Aachen is a modern descendant, like southern German , , meaning "river" or "stream", from Old High German , meaning "water" or "stream", which directly translates (and etymologically corresponds) to Latin , referring to the springs. The location has been inhabited by humans since the Neolithic era, about 5,000 years ago, attracted to its warm mineral springs. Latin figures in Aachen's Roman name , which meant "waters of Grannus", referring to the Celtic god of healing who was worshipped at the springs.. This word became in Walloon and in French, and subsequently to distinguish it from Aix-en-Provence, after Charlemagne had his palatine chapel built there in the late 8th century and then made the city his empire's capital.
The city is known by a variety of different names in other languages:
Language Name Pronunciation in IPA Aachen dialect Catalan , Czech Dutch / Low German French Greek () Italian Latin , , Limburgish Luxembourgish Polish Portuguese , , Russian (Akhen) Spanish Walloon |
Aachen | History | History |
Aachen | Early history | Early history
Flint quarries on the Lousberg, Schneeberg, and Königshügel, first used during Neolithic times (3000–2500 BC), attest to the long occupation of the site of Aachen, as do recent finds under the modern city's Elisengarten pointing to a former settlement from the same period. Bronze Age (around 1600 BC) settlement is evidenced by the remains of barrows (burial mounds) found, for example, on the Klausberg. During the Iron Age, the area was settled by Celtic peoples. who were perhaps drawn by the marshy Aachen basin's hot sulphur springs where they worshipped Grannus, god of light and healing.
The 25-hectare Roman spa resort town of Aquae Granni was, according to legend, founded by Grenus, under Hadrian, around 124 AD. Grenus refers to the Celtic god, and it seems it was the Roman 6th Legion at the start of the 1st century AD that first channelled the hot springs into a spa at Büchel, adding at the end of the same century the Münstertherme spa,. two water pipelines, and a probable sanctuary dedicated to Grannus. A kind of forum, surrounded by colonnades, connected the two spa complexes. There was an extensive residential area. The Romans built bathhouses near Burtscheid. A temple precinct called Vernenum was built near the modern Kornelimünster/Walheim. Today, remains have been found of three bathhouses,. including two fountains in the Elisenbrunnen and the Burtscheid bathhouse.
Roman civil administration in Aachen eventually broke down as the baths and other public buildings (along with most of the villae rusticae of the surrounding countryside) were destroyed around AD 375 at the start of the migration period. The last Roman coin finds are from the time of Emperor Gratian (AD 375–383). Rome withdrew its troops from the area, but the town remained populated. By 470, the town came to be ruled by the Ripuarian Franks. and subordinated to their capital, Cologne. During the Roman period, Aachen was the site of a flourishing Jewish community.. |
Aachen | Middle Ages | Middle Ages
Pepin the Short had a castle residence built in the town, due to the proximity of the hot springs and also for strategic reasons as it is located between the Rhineland and northern France.. Einhard mentions that in 765–766 Pepin spent both Christmas and Easter at Aquis villa (). ("and [he] celebrated the birth of the Lord [Christmas] in the town Aquis, and similarly Easter"), which must have been sufficiently equipped to support the royal household for several months. In the year of his coronation as king of the Franks, 768, Charlemagne came to spend Christmas at Aachen for the first time. He remained there in a mansion which he may have extended, although there is no source attesting to any significant building activity at Aachen in his time, apart from the building of the Palatine Chapel (since 1930, cathedral) and the Palace.
Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and his death in 814. Aachen became the focus of his court and the political centre of his empire. During the Carolingian empire, a Jewish community lived near the royal palace. In Jewish texts, the city of Aachen was called Aish or Ash (אש). In 797, Isaac, a Jewish merchant, accompanied two ambassadors of Charlemagne to the court of Harun al-Rashid. He returned to Aachen in July 802, bearing an elephant called Abul-Abbas as a gift for the emperor. After Charlemagne's death, he was buried in the church which he had built;. his original tomb has been lost, while his alleged remains are preserved in the Karlsschrein, the shrine where he was reburied after being declared a saint; his saintliness, however, was never officially acknowledged by the Roman Curia as such.
thumb|right|Construction of Aix-la-Chapelle, by Jean Fouquet
thumb|150px|Presentation of the four "Great Relics" during the Aachen pilgrimage, after a 17th-century painting
In 936, Otto I was crowned king of East Francia in the collegiate church built by Charlemagne. During the reign of Otto II, the nobles revolted and the West Franks under Lothair. raided Aachen in 978.. Aachen was attacked again by Odo of Champagne, who attacked the imperial palace while Conrad II was absent. Odo relinquished it and was killed afterwards.. The palace and town of Aachen had fortifying walls built by order of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa between 1172 and 1176. Over the next 500 years, most kings of Germany who ruled the Holy Roman Empire were crowned in Aachen. The original audience hall built by Charlemagne was torn down and replaced by the current city hall in 1330. During the 13th century, many Jews converted to Christianity, as shown in the records of the Aachen Minster (today's Cathedral). In 1486, the Jews of Aachen offered gifts to Maximilian I during his coronation ceremony. The last king to be crowned here was Ferdinand I in 1531.
During the Middle Ages, Aachen remained a city of regional importance, due to its proximity to Flanders; it achieved a modest position in the trade in woollen cloths, favoured by imperial privilege. The city remained a free imperial city, subject to the emperor only, but was politically far too weak to influence the policies of any of its neighbours. The only dominion it had was over Burtscheid, a neighbouring territory ruled by a Benedictine abbess, which was forced to accept that all of its traffic must pass through the "Aachener Reich".
As an imperial city, Aachen held certain political privileges that allowed it to remain independent of the troubles of Europe for many years. It remained a direct vassal of the Holy Roman Empire throughout most of the Middle Ages. It was also the site of many important church councils, including the Council of 837 and the Council of 1166, a council convened by the antipope Paschal III. |
Aachen | Manuscript production | Manuscript production
Aachen was an important site for the production of historical manuscripts. Under Charlemagne's purview, both the Ada Gospels and the Coronation Gospels may have been produced in Aachen.. In addition, quantities of the other texts in the court library were also produced locally. During the reign of Louis the Pious (814–840), substantial quantities of ancient texts were produced at Aachen, including legal manuscripts such as the leges scriptorium group, patristic texts including the five manuscripts of the Bamberg Pliny Group. Finally, under Lothair I (840–855), texts of outstanding quality were still being produced. This however marked the end of the period of manuscript production at Aachen. |
Aachen | 16th–18th centuries | 16th–18th centuries
thumb|upright=1.2|The siege of Aachen by the Spanish Army of Flanders under Ambrogio Spinola in 1614
thumb|upright=1.2|View of Aachen in 1690
In 1598, following the invasion of Spanish troops from the Netherlands, Rudolf deposed all Protestant office holders in Aachen and went as far as expelling them from the city.. From the early 16th century, Aachen started to lose its power and influence. First the coronations of emperors were moved from Aachen to Frankfurt. This was followed by the religious wars and the great fire of 1656.. After the destruction of most of the city in 1656, the rebuilding was mostly in the Baroque style. The decline of Aachen culminated in 1794, when the French, led by General Charles Dumouriez, occupied Aachen.
In 1542, the Dutch humanist and physician Francis Fabricius published his study of the health benefits of the hot springs in Aachen. By the middle of the 17th century, the city had developed a considerable reputation as a spa, although this was in part because Aachen was then – and remained well into the 19th and early 20th century – a place of high-level prostitution. Traces of this hidden agenda of the city's history are found in the 18th-century guidebooks to Aachen as well as to the other spas.
The main indication for visiting patients, ironically, was syphilis; only by the end of the 19th century had rheumatism become the most important object of cures at Aachen and Burtscheid.
Aachen was chosen as the site of several important congresses and peace treaties: the first congress of Aachen (often referred to as the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in English) on 2 May 1668,. leading to the First Treaty of Aachen in the same year which ended the War of Devolution.. The second congress ended with the second treaty in 1748, ending the War of the Austrian Succession.. In 1789, there was a constitutional crisis in the Aachen government,. and in 1794 Aachen lost its status as a free imperial city.
In 1629, the Aachen Jewish community was expelled from the city. In 1667, six Jews were allowed to return. Most of the Aachen Jewish community settled in Burtscheid. As recently as the late 18th century the Abbess of Burtscheid was still prevented from building a road linking her territory to the neighbouring estates of the duke of Jülich; the city of Aachen deployed its handful of soldiers to chase away road-diggers. |
Aachen | 19th century | 19th century
thumb|The modern Elisabethhalle pool
On 9 February 1801, the Peace of Lunéville removed the ownership of Aachen and the entire "left bank" of the Rhine from Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) and granted it to France. In 1815, control of the town was passed to the Kingdom of Prussia through an agreement reached by the Congress of Vienna. The third congress took place in 1818, to decide the fate of occupied Napoleonic France.
By the middle of the 19th century, industrialisation had swept away most of the city's medieval rules of production and commerce, although the remains of the city's medieval constitution were kept in place until 1801, when Aachen became the "chef-lieu du département de la Roer" in Napoleon's First French Empire. In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Prussia took over within the new German Confederation. The city was one of its most socially and politically backward centres until the end of the 19th century. Administered within the Rhine Province, by 1880 the population was 80,000. Starting in 1838, the railway from Cologne to Belgium passed through Aachen.. The city suffered extreme overcrowding and deplorable sanitary conditions until 1875, when the medieval fortifications were abandoned as a limit to building and new, better housing was built in the east of the city, where sanitary drainage was easiest. In December 1880, the Aachen tramway network was opened, and in 1895 it was electrified.. In the 19th century and up to the 1930s, the city was important in the production of railway locomotives and carriages, iron, pins, needles, buttons, tobacco, woollen goods, and silk goods. |
Aachen | 20th century | 20th century |
Aachen | World War II | World War II
thumb|upright=1.2|thumbtime=06:42|start=00:08|Films shot on 13, 14 and 15 October 1944 in Aachen by US forces
After World War I, Aachen was occupied by the Entente until 1930, along with the rest of German territory west of the Rhine. Aachen was one of the locations involved in the Rhenish Republic. On 21 October 1923, an armed mob took over the city hall. Similar actions took place in Mönchengladbach, Duisburg, and Krefeld. This republic lasted about a year..
Aachen was heavily damaged during World War II. According to Jörg Friedrich in The Fire (2008), two Allied air raids on 11 April and 24 May 1944 "radically destroyed" the city. The first killed 1,525, including 212 children, and bombed six hospitals. During the second, 442 aircraft hit two railway stations, killed 207, and left 15,000 homeless. The raids destroyed Aachen-Eilendorf and Aachen-Burtscheid..
The city and its fortified surroundings were besieged from 12 September to 21 October 1944 by the US 1st Infantry Division. with the 3rd Armored Division assisting from the south.. Around 13 October the US 2nd Armored Division, coming from the north, and got as close as Würselen,. while the 30th Infantry Division completed the encirclement of Aachen on 16 October 1944.. With reinforcements from the US 28th Infantry Division. the battle continued involving direct assaults through the heavily defended city, which forced the German garrison to surrender on 21 October 1944.
Aachen was the first German city to be captured by the Western Allies, and its residents welcomed the soldiers as liberators.. What remained of the city was destroyed—in some areas completely—during the fighting, mostly by American artillery fire and demolitions carried out by the Waffen-SS defenders. Damaged buildings included medieval churches of and the Rathaus (city hall), although Aachen Cathedral was largely unscathed. 4,000 inhabitants remained in the city; the rest had followed evacuation orders. Its first Allied-appointed mayor, Franz Oppenhoff, was assassinated by an SS commando unit. |
Aachen | Expulsion of Aachen Jews | Expulsion of Aachen Jews
thumb|View of the after its destruction on Kristallnacht, November 1938
On 16 May 1815, the Jewish community of the city offered an homage in its synagogue to the Prussian king, Friedrich Wilhelm III. In 1862, a large synagogue was built, later called the . By 1933, 1,345 Jews lived in the city. On Kristallnacht in 1938, the synagogue was destroyed. By the onset of World War II in 1939, many Jews had emigrated or were arrested, and only 782 remained in the city. At the end of the war in 1945, only 62 Jews lived in the city. As of 2003, 1,434 Jews were again living in Aachen. |
Aachen | 21st century | 21st century
The city of Aachen has developed into a technology hub as a by-product of hosting one of the leading universities of technology in Germany with the RWTH Aachen (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule), known especially for mechanical engineering, automotive and manufacturing technology as well as for its research and academic hospital Klinikum Aachen, one of the largest medical facilities in Europe. |
Aachen | Geography | Geography
thumb|View towards Aachen at the foothills of the High Fens, with the university hospital visible, from the Vaalserberg, the highest elevation in Aachen and of the European part of the Netherlands.
thumb|Physiogeographical location of Aachen
Aachen is located in the middle of the Meuse–Rhine Euroregion, close to the border tripoint of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The town of Vaals in the Netherlands lies nearby at about from Aachen's city centre, while the Dutch city of Heerlen and Eupen, the capital of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, are both located about from Aachen city centre. Aachen lies near the head of the open valley of the Wurm (which today flows through the city in canalised form), part of the larger basin of the Meuse, and about north of the High Fens, which form the northern edge of the Eifel uplands of the Rhenish Massif.
The maximum dimensions of the city's territory are from north to south, and from east to west. The city limits are long, of which border Belgium and the Netherlands. The highest point in Aachen, located in the far southeast of the city, lies at an elevation of above sea level. The lowest point, in the north, and on the border with the Netherlands, is at . |
Aachen | Climate | Climate
As the westernmost city in Germany. (and close to the Low Countries), Aachen and the surrounding area belongs to a temperate climate zone (Cfb), with humid weather, mild winters, and warm summers. Because of its location north of the Eifel and the High Fens and its subsequent prevailing westerly weather patterns, rainfall in Aachen (on average 805 mm/year) is comparatively higher than, for example, in Bonn (with 669 mm/year). Another factor in the local weather forces of Aachen is the occurrence of Foehn winds on the southerly air currents, which results from the city's geographic location on the northern edge of the Eifel.
Because the city is surrounded by hills, it suffers from inversion-related smog. Some areas of the city have become urban heat islands as a result of poor heat exchange, both because of the area's natural geography and from human activity. The city's numerous cold air corridors, which are slated to remain as free as possible from new construction, therefore play an important role in the urban climate of Aachen..
The January average is
, while the July average is . Precipitation is almost evenly spread throughout the year.
The city's oceanic climate provides comparably mild winters: While Aachen falls within the coldest extents covered by USDA plant hardiness zone 8b in the 1991–2020 period, having an average yearly minimum of -9.22 °C (15.4 °F), the Canadian city of Regina, Saskatchewan which is located at a similar latitude but at the heart of the North American landmass, far away from the sea's moderating effects, is classified as being in zone 3a.
In the 1991–2020 period, the last freeze (at 2 m above ground) of spring occurred on April 28th and the first fall freeze on October 13th, on average.
The Aachen weather station has recorded the following extreme values:
Highest Temperature on 25 July 2019.
Warmest Minimum on 29 July 1947.
Coldest Maximum on 22 January 1940.
Lowest Temperature on 11 January 1945.
Highest Daily Precipitation on 14 July 2021.
Wettest Month in July 2021.
Wettest Year in 1966.
Driest Year in 1959.
Earliest Snowfall: 4 November 1941.
Latest Snowfall: 30 April 1938.
Longest annual sunshine: 2,128.4 hours in 2003.
Shortest annual sunshine: 1,277.4 hours in 1981. |
Aachen | Geology | Geology
thumb|Layered sandstone and claystone formation from the Devonian period below St. Adalbert Church in Aachen
The geology of Aachen is very structurally heterogeneous. The oldest occurring rocks in the area surrounding the city originate from the Devonian period and include carboniferous sandstone, greywacke, claystone and limestone. These formations are part of the Rhenish Massif, north of the High Fens. In the Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous geological period, these rock layers were narrowed and folded as a result of the Variscan orogeny. After this event, and over the course of the following 200 million years, this area has been continuously flattened.
During the Cretaceous period, the ocean penetrated the continent from the direction of the North Sea up to the mountainous area near Aachen, bringing with it clay, sand, and chalk deposits. While the clay (which was the basis for a major pottery industry in nearby Raeren) is mostly found in the lower areas of Aachen, the hills of the Aachen Forest and the Lousberg were formed from upper Cretaceous sand and chalk deposits. More recent sedimentation is mainly located in the north and east of Aachen and was formed through tertiary and quaternary river and wind activities.
Along the major thrust fault of the Variscan orogeny, there are over 30 thermal springs in Aachen and Burtscheid. Additionally, the subsurface of Aachen is traversed by numerous active faults that belong to the Rurgraben fault system, which has been responsible for numerous earthquakes in the past, including the 1756 Düren earthquake. and the 1992 Roermond earthquake,. which was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the Netherlands. |
Aachen | Demographics | Demographics
+ Largest groups of foreign residents Nationality Population (30.06.2024) 6,745 4,365 3,998 3,751 3,662 2,369 1,786 1,836 1,745 1,542 1,495
Aachen had 245,885 inhabitants as of 31 December 2015, of whom 118,272 were female, and 127,613 were male.
At the end of 2009, the foreign-born residents of Aachen made up 13.6 percent of the total population.. A significant portion of foreign residents are students at the RWTH Aachen University.
Year Population 1994 246,570. 2007 247,740 2011 238,665 2014 243,336 2015 245,885
thumb|120px|Age distribution of Aachen's population next to Germany's (2014) |
Aachen | Dialect | Dialect
Aachen is at the western end of the Benrath line that divides High German to the south from the rest of the West Germanic speech area to the north. Aachen's local dialect is called Öcher Platt and belongs to Ripuarian. |
Aachen | Boroughs | Boroughs
The city is divided into seven administrative districts, or boroughs, each with its own district council, district leader, and district authority. The councils are elected locally by those who live within the district, and these districts are further subdivided into smaller sections for statistical purposes, with each sub-district named by a two-digit number.
The districts of Aachen, including their constituent statistical districts, are:
Aachen-Mitte: 10 Markt, 13 Theater, 14 Lindenplatz, 15 St. Jakob, 16 Westpark, 17 Hanbruch, 18 Hörn, 21 Ponttor, 22 Hansemannplatz, 23 Soers, 24 Jülicher Straße, 25 Kalkofen, 31 Kaiserplatz, 32 Adalbertsteinweg, 33 Panneschopp, 34 Rothe Erde, 35 Trierer Straße, 36 Frankenberg, 37 Forst, 41 Beverau, 42 Burtscheid Kurgarten, 43 Burtscheid Abbey, 46 Burtscheid Steinebrück, 47 Marschiertor, 48 Hangeweiher
Brand: 51 Brand
Eilendorf: 52 Eilendorf
Haaren: 53 Haaren (including Verlautenheide)
Kornelimünster/Walheim: 61 Kornelimünster, 62 Oberforstbach, 63 Walheim
Laurensberg: 64 Vaalserquartier, 65 Laurensberg
Richterich: 88 Richterich
Regardless of official statistical designations, there are 50 neighbourhoods and communities within Aachen, here arranged by district:
thumb|Aachen districts and quarters
Aachen-Mitte: Beverau, Bildchen, Burtscheid, Forst, Frankenberg, Grüne Eiche, Hörn, Lintert, Pontviertel, Preuswald, Ronheide, Rosviertel, Rothe Erde, Stadtmitte, Steinebrück, West
Brand: Brand, Eich, Freund, Hitfeld, Niederforstbach
Eilendorf: Eilendorf, Nirm
Haaren: Haaren, Hüls, Verlautenheide
Kornelimünster/Walheim: Friesenrath, Hahn, Kitzenhaus, Kornelimünster, Krauthausen, Lichtenbusch, Nütheim, Oberforstbach, Sief, Schleckheim, Schmithof, Walheim
Laurensberg: Gut Kullen, Kronenberg, Laurensberg, Lemiers, Melaten, Orsbach, Seffent, Soers, Steppenberg, Vaalserquartier, Vetschau
Richterich: Horbach, Huf, Richterich |
Aachen | Neighbouring communities | Neighbouring communities
The following cities and communities border Aachen, clockwise from the northwest:
Herzogenrath, Würselen, Eschweiler, Stolberg and Roetgen (which are all in the district of Aachen); Raeren, Kelmis and Plombières (Liège Province in Belgium) as well as Vaals, Gulpen-Wittem, Simpelveld, Heerlen and Kerkrade (all in Limburg Province in the Netherlands). |
Aachen | Politics | Politics |
Aachen | Mayor | Mayor
The current mayor of Aachen is Sibylle Keupen, an independent endorsed by Alliance 90/The Greens, since 2020. The most recent mayoral election was held on 13 September 2020, with a runoff held on 27 September, and the results were as follows:
! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate
! rowspan=2| Party
! colspan=2| First round
! colspan=2| Second round
|-
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Sibylle Keupen
| align=left| Independent (Green)
| 39,662
| 38.9
| 53,685
| 67.4
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Harald Baal
| align=left| Christian Democratic Union
| 25,253
| 24.8
| 26,003
| 32.6
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Mathias Dopatka
| align=left| Social Democratic Party
| 23,031
| 22.6
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Markus Mohr
| align=left| Alternative for Germany
| 3,387
| 3.3
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Wilhelm Helg
| align=left| Free Democratic Party
| 3,122
| 3.1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Leo Deumens
| align=left| The Left
| 2,397
| 2.4
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Hubert vom Venn
| align=left| Die PARTEI
| 2,112
| 2.1
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Jörg Polzin
| align=left| Independent
| 938
| 0.9
|-
|
| align=left| Ralf Haupts
| align=left| Independent Voters' Association Aachen
| 932
| 0.9
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Matthias Achilles
| align=left| Pirate Party Germany
| 848
| 0.8
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Adonis Böving
| align=left| Independent
| 317
| 0.3
|-
! colspan=3| Valid votes
! 101,999
! 99.2
! 79,688
! 99.3
|-
! colspan=3| Invalid votes
! 819
! 0.8
! 532
! 0.7
|-
! colspan=3| Total
! 102,818
! 100.0
! 80,220
! 100.0
|-
! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout
! 192,502
! 53.4
! 192,435
! 41.7
|-
| colspan=7| Source: State Returning Officer
|} |
Aachen | City council | City council
thumb|upright 1.2|Results of the 2020 city council election
The Aachen city council governs the city alongside the mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 13 September 2020, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne)
| 34,712
| 34.1
| 17.5
| 20
| 7
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
| 25,268
| 24.8
| 11.5
| 14
| 14
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD)
| 18,676
| 18.3
| 7.7
| 11
| 9
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP)
| 5,042
| 4.9
| 0.5
| 3
| ±0
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| The Left (Die Linke)
| 4,694
| 4.6
| 1.5
| 3
| 2
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD)
| 3,816
| 3.7
| 1.2
| 2
| ±0
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Volt Germany (Volt)
| 3,784
| 3.7
| New
| 2
| New
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Die PARTEI (PARTEI)
| 2,295
| 2.3
| 1.8
| 1
| 1
|-
|
| align=left| Independent Voters' Association Aachen (UWG)
| 1,632
| 1.6
| 0.2
| 1
| ±0
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Pirate Party Germany (Piraten)
| 1,226
| 1.2
| 2.2
| 1
| 2
|-
| colspan=7 bgcolor=lightgrey|
|-
| bgcolor=|
| align=left| Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP)
| 673
| 0.7
| New
| 0
| New
|-
|
| align=left| Voter Group
| 45
| 0.0
| New
| 0
| New
|-
! colspan=2| Valid votes
! 101,863
! 99.1
!
!
!
|-
! colspan=2| Invalid votes
! 918
! 0.9
!
!
!
|-
! colspan=2| Total
! 102,781
! 100.0
!
! 58
! 18
|-
! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout
! 192,502
! 53.4
! 0.7
!
!
|-
| colspan=7| Source: State Returning Officer
|} |
Aachen | Main sights | Main sights |
Aachen | Cathedral | Cathedral
thumb|upright=1.2|Aachen Cathedral
Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne. Construction began c. AD 796, and it was, on completion c. 798,. the largest cathedral north of the Alps. It was modelled after the Basilica of San Vitale, in Ravenna, Italy, and was built by Odo of Metz. Charlemagne also desired for the chapel to compete with the Lateran Palace, both in quality and authority. It was originally built in the Carolingian style, including marble covered walls, and mosaic inlay on the dome.. On his death, Charlemagne's remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a curious and unique mixture of building styles. The throne and gallery portion date from the Ottonian, with portions of the original opus sectile floor still visible. The 13th century saw gables being added to the roof, and after the fire of 1656, the dome was rebuilt. Finally, a choir was added around the start of the 15th century.
After Frederick Barbarossa canonised Charlemagne in 1165 the chapel became a destination for pilgrims. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens. The church built by Charlemagne is still the main attraction of the city.. In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. In the upper chamber of the gallery, Charlemagne's marble throne is housed.. Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Most of the marble and columns used in the construction of the cathedral were brought from Rome and Ravenna, including the sarcophagus in which Charlemagne was eventually laid to rest.. A bronze bear from Gaul was placed inside, along with an equestrian statue from Ravenna, believed to be Theodric, in contrast to a wolf and a statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Capitoline. Bronze pieces such as the doors and railings, some of which have survived to present day, were cast in a local foundry. Finally, there is uncertainty surrounding the bronze pine cone in the chapel, and where it was created. Wherever it was made, it was also a parallel to a piece in Rome, this in Old St. Peter's Basilica. |
Aachen | Cathedral Treasury | Cathedral Treasury
thumb|upright|Cross of Lothair, Aachen Cathedral Treasury
Aachen Cathedral Treasury has housed, throughout its history, a collection of liturgical objects. The origin of this church treasure is in dispute as some say Charlemagne himself endowed his chapel with the original collection, while the rest were collected over time. Others say all of the objects were collected over time, from such places as Jerusalem and Constantinople. The location of this treasury has moved over time and was unknown until the 15th century when it was located in the Matthiaskapelle (St. Matthew's Chapel) until 1873, when it was moved to the Karlskapelle (Charles' Chapel). From there it was moved to the Hungarian Chapel in 1881 and in 1931 to its present location next to the Allerseelenkapelle (Poor Souls' Chapel). Only six of the original Carolingian objects have remained, and of those only three are left in Aachen: the Aachen Gospels, a diptych of Christ, and an early Byzantine silk. The Coronation Gospels and a reliquary burse of St. Stephen were moved to Vienna in 1798 and the Talisman of Charlemagne was given as a gift in 1804 to Josephine Bonaparte and subsequently to Rheims Cathedral. 210 documented pieces have been added to the treasury since its inception, typically to receive in return legitimisation of linkage to the heritage of Charlemagne. The Lothar Cross, the Gospels of Otto III and multiple additional Byzantine silks were donated by Otto III. Part of the Pala d'Oro and a covering for the Aachen Gospels were made of gold donated by Henry II. Frederick Barbarossa donated the candelabrum that adorns the dome and also once "crowned" the Shrine of Charlemagne, which was placed underneath in 1215. Charles IV donated a pair of reliquaries. Louis XI gave, in 1475, the crown of Margaret of York, and, in 1481, another arm reliquary of Charlemagne. Maximilian I and Charles V both gave numerous works of art by Hans von Reutlingen. Continuing the tradition, objects continued to be donated until the present, each indicative of the period of its gifting, with the last documented gift being a chalice from 1960 made by Ewald Mataré. |
Aachen | Rathaus | Rathaus
thumb|Aachen Rathaus seen from the south
The Aachen Rathaus, (English: Aachen City Hall or Aachen Town Hall) dated from 1330, lies between two central squares, the Markt (marketplace) and the Katschhof (between city hall and cathedral). The coronation hall is on the first floor of the building. Inside one can find five frescoes by the Aachen artist Alfred Rethel which show legendary scenes from the life of Charlemagne, as well as Charlemagne's signature. Also, precious replicas of the Imperial Regalia are kept here.
Since 2009, the city hall has been a station on the Route Charlemagne, a tour programme by which historical sights of Aachen are presented to visitors. At the city hall, a museum exhibition explains the history and art of the building and gives a sense of the historical coronation banquets that took place there. A portrait of Napoleon from 1807 by Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet and one of his wife Joséphine from 1805 by Robert Lefèvre are viewable as part of the tour.
As before, the city hall is the seat of the mayor of Aachen and of the city council, and annually the Charlemagne Prize is awarded there. |
Aachen | Other sights | Other sights
The Grashaus, a late medieval house at the Fischmarkt, is one of the oldest non-religious buildings in central Aachen. It hosted the city archive, and before that, the Grashaus was the city hall until the present building took over this function.
The Elisenbrunnen is one of the most famous sights of Aachen. It is a neo-classical hall covering one of the city's famous fountains. It is just a minute away from the cathedral. Just a few steps in a south-easterly direction lies the 19th-century theatre.
Also of note are two remaining city gates, the Ponttor (Pont gate), northwest of the cathedral, and the Marschiertor (marching gate), close to the central railway station. There are also a few parts of both medieval city walls left, most of them integrated into more recent buildings, but some others still visible. There are even five towers left, some of which are used for housing.
St. Michael's Church, Aachen was built as a church of the Aachen Jesuit Collegium in 1628. It is attributed to the Rhine mannerism, and a sample of a local Renaissance architecture. The rich façade remained unfinished until 1891, when the architect Peter Friedrich Peters added to it. The church is a Greek Orthodox church today, but the building is used also for concerts because of its good acoustics.
The synagogue in Aachen, which was destroyed on the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht), 9 November 1938, was reinaugurated on 18 May 1995... One of the contributors to the reconstructions of the synagogue was Jürgen Linden, the Lord Mayor of Aachen from 1989 to 2009.
There are numerous other notable churches and monasteries, a few remarkable 17th- and 18th-century buildings in the particular Baroque style typical of the region, a synagogue, a collection of statues and monuments, park areas, cemeteries, among others. Among the museums in the town are the Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, which has a fine sculpture collection and the Aachen Museum of the International Press, which is dedicated to newspapers from the 16th century to the present.. The area's industrial history is reflected in dozens of 19th- and early 20th-century manufacturing sites in the city. |
Aachen | Economy | Economy
thumb|Ford Research Center, Aachen
Aachen is the administrative centre for the coal-mining industries in neighbouring places to the northeast.
Products manufactured in Aachen include electrical goods, fine woolen textiles, foodstuffs (chocolate and candy), glass, machinery, rubber products, furniture, metal products. Also in and around Aachen chemicals, plastics, cosmetics, and needles and pins are produced.. Though once a major player in Aachen's economy, today glassware and textile production make up only 10% of total manufacturing jobs in the city. There have been a number of spin-offs from the university's IT technology department. |
Aachen | Electric vehicle manufacturing | Electric vehicle manufacturing
thumb|StreetScooter Work as DHL delivery van (2016)
In June 2010, Achim Kampker, together with Günther Schuh, founded a small company to develop electric powered light utility vehicles; in August 2014, it was renamed StreetScooter GmbH. This started as a privately organised research initiative at the RWTH Aachen University, before becoming the independent company in Aachen. Kampker was also the founder and chairman of the European Network for Affordable and Sustainable Electromobility. In May 2014, the company announced that the city of Aachen, the city council Aachen and the savings bank Aachen had ordered electric vehicles from the company. In late 2014, approximately 70 employees were manufacturing 200 vehicles annually in the premises of the Waggonfabrik Talbot, the former Talbot/Bombardier plant in Aachen.
In December 2014 DHL Group purchased the StreetScooter company from Günther, operating it as a wholly owned subsidiary.Deutsche Post DHL übernimmt StreetScooter GmbH 9.
In 2015, Günther founded a new electric vehicle company, e.GO Mobile, which started producing the e.GO Life electric passenger car and other vehicles in April 2019.
By April 2016, StreetScooter announced that it would produce 2000 of its electric vans, branded the Work, in Aachen by the end of the year, and would be scaling up to manufacture approximately 10,000 Works annually, starting in 2017, also in Aachen. At the time, this target would make it the largest electric light utility vehicle manufacturer in Europe, surpassing Renault's smaller Kangoo Z.E. |
Aachen | Culture | Culture
thumb|Aachen is also famous for its carnival (Karneval, Fasching), in which families dress in colourful costumes.
In 1372, Aachen became the first coin-minting city in the world to regularly place an Anno Domini date on a general circulation coin, a groschen.
The Scotch Club in Aachen was the first discothèque in Germany, opened from 19 October 1959 until 1992. Klaus Quirini as DJ Heinrich was the first DJ ever.
The thriving Aachen black metal scene is among the most notable in Germany, with such bands as Nagelfar, The Ruins of Beverast, Graupel and Verdunkeln.
The local speciality of Aachen is an originally hard type of sweet bread, baked in large flat loaves, called Aachener Printen. Unlike Lebkuchen, a German form of gingerbread sweetened with honey, Printen use a syrup made from sugar. Today, a soft version is sold under the same name which follows an entirely different recipe.
Asteroid 274835 Aachen, discovered by amateur astronomer Erwin Schwab in 2009, was named after the city. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 8 November 2019 ().
Kammerchor Carmina Mundi, a professional chamber choir |
Aachen | Education | Education
thumb|left|The main building of RWTH Aachen University
thumb|right|Typical Aachen street with early 20th-century Gründerzeit houses
thumb|Another example of Aachen early 20th-century Gründerzeit houses
RWTH Aachen University, established as Polytechnicum in 1870, is one of Germany's Universities of Excellence with strong emphasis on technological research, especially for electrical and mechanical engineering, computer sciences, physics, and chemistry. The university clinic attached to the RWTH, the Klinikum Aachen, is the biggest single-building hospital in Europe.. Over time, a host of software and computer industries have developed around the university. It also maintains a botanical garden (the Botanischer Garten Aachen).
FH Aachen, Aachen University of Applied Sciences (AcUAS) was founded in 1971. The AcUAS offers a classic engineering education in professions such as mechatronics, construction engineering, mechanical engineering or electrical engineering. German and international students are educated in more than 20 international or foreign-oriented programmes and can acquire German as well as international degrees (Bachelor/Master) or Doppelabschlüsse (double degrees). Foreign students account for more than 21% of the student body.
The Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen – Abteilung Aachen (Catholic University of Applied Sciences Northrhine-Westphalia – Aachen department). offers its some 750 students a variety of degree programmes: social work, childhood education, nursing, and co-operative management. It also has the only programme of study in Germany especially designed for mothers..
The (Cologne University of Music) is one of the world's foremost performing arts schools and one of the largest music institutions for higher education in Europe. with one of its three campuses in Aachen.. The Aachen campus substantially contributes to the Opera/Musical Theatre master's programme by collaborating with the Theater Aachen and the recently established musical theatre chair through the Rheinische Opernakademie.
The German Army's technical school (Ausbildungszentrum Technik Landsysteme) is located in Aachen.. |
Aachen | Sports | Sports
thumb|left|New Tivoli, home ground of Alemannia Aachen
The annual CHIO (short for the French term Concours Hippique International Officiel) is the biggest equestrian meeting of the world and among horsemen is considered to be as prestigious for equitation as the tournament of Wimbledon for tennis. Aachen hosted the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games.
The local football team Alemannia Aachen had a short run in Germany's first division, after its promotion in 2006. However, the team could not sustain its status and is now back in the third division. The stadium "Tivoli", opened in 1928, served as the venue for the team's home games and was well known for its incomparable atmosphere throughout the whole of the second division.. Before the old stadium's demolition in 2011, it was used by amateurs, whilst the Bundesliga Club held its games in the new stadium "Neuer Tivoli" – meaning New Tivoli—a couple of metres down the road. The building work for the stadium which has a capacity of 32,960, began in May 2008 and was completed by the beginning of 2009.
The Ladies in Black women's volleyball team (part of the "PTSV Aachen" sports club since 2013) has played in the first German volleyball league (DVL) since 2008.
In June 2022, the local basketball club BG Aachen e.V. was promoted to the 1st regional league. |
Aachen | Transport | Transport
thumb|Aachen Central Station |
Aachen | Rail | Rail
Aachen's railway station, the Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), was constructed in 1841 for the Cologne–Aachen railway line. In 1905, it was moved closer to the city centre. It serves main lines to Cologne, Mönchengladbach and Liège as well as branch lines to Heerlen, Alsdorf, Stolberg and Eschweiler. ICE high speed trains from Brussels via Cologne to Frankfurt am Main and Eurostar trains from Paris to Cologne also stop at Aachen Central Station. Four RE lines and two RB lines connect Aachen with the Ruhrgebiet, Mönchengladbach, Spa (Belgium), Düsseldorf and the Siegerland. The Euregiobahn, a regional railway system, reaches several minor cities in the Aachen region.
There are four smaller stations in Aachen: Aachen West, Aachen Schanz, Aachen-Rothe Erde and Eilendorf. Slower trains stop at these. Aachen West has gained in importance with the expansion of RWTH Aachen University. |
Aachen | Intercity bus stations | Intercity bus stations
There are two stations for intercity bus services in Aachen: Aachen West station, in the north-west of the city, and Aachen Wilmersdorfer Straße, in the north-east. |
Aachen | Public transport | Public transport
thumb|right|Bi-articulated bus of the city's transit authority ASEAG, at the university hospital bus stop
The first horse tram line in Aachen opened in December 1880. After electrification in 1895, it attained a maximum length of in 1915, thus becoming the fourth-longest tram network in Germany. Many tram lines extended to the surrounding towns of Herzogenrath, Stolberg, Alsdorf as well as the Belgian and Dutch communes of Vaals, Kelmis (then Altenberg) and Eupen. The Aachen tram system was linked with the Belgian national interurban tram system. Like many tram systems in Western Europe, the Aachen tram suffered from poorly-maintained infrastructure and was so deemed unnecessary and disrupting for car drivers by local politics. On 28 September 1974, the last line 15 (Vaals–Brand) operated for one last day and was then replaced by buses. A proposal to reinstate a tram/light rail system under the name Campusbahn was dropped after a referendum.
Today, the ASEAG (Aachener Straßenbahn und Energieversorgungs-AG, literally "Aachen Tram and Power Supply Company") operates a bus network with 68 bus routes. Because of the location at the border, many bus routes extend to Belgium and the Netherlands. Lines 14 to Eupen, Belgium and 44 to Heerlen, Netherlands are jointly operated with Transport en Commun and Veolia Transport Nederland, respectively. ASEAG is one of the main participants in the Aachener Verkehrsverbund (AVV), a tariff association in the region. Along with ASEAG, city bus routes of Aachen are served by private contractors such as Sadar, Taeter, Schlömer, or DB Regio Bus. Line 350, which runs from Maastricht, also enters Aachen. |
Aachen | Roads | Roads
Aachen is connected to the Autobahn A4 (west-east), A44 (north-south) and A544 (a smaller motorway from the A4 to the Europaplatz near the city centre). There are plans to eliminate traffic jams at the Aachen road interchange. |
Aachen | Airport | Airport
Maastricht Aachen Airport is the main airport of Aachen and Maastricht. It is located around northwest of Aachen. There is a shuttle-service between Aachen and the airport.
Recreational aviation is served by the (formerly military) Aachen Merzbrück Airfield. |
Aachen | Charlemagne Prize | Charlemagne Prize
thumb|right|upright=0.8|Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, wearing the Charlemagne Prize awarded to her in 2008
Since 1950, a committee of Aachen citizens annually awards the Charlemagne Prize () to personalities of outstanding service to the unification of Europe. It is traditionally awarded on Ascension Day at the City Hall. In 2016, the Charlemagne Award was awarded to Pope Francis.
The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen was awarded in the year 2000 to US president Bill Clinton, for his special personal contribution to co-operation with the states of Europe, for the preservation of peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in Europe, and for his support of the enlargement of the European Union. In 2004, Pope John Paul II's efforts to unite Europe were honoured with an "Extraordinary Charlemagne Medal", which was awarded for the only time ever. |
Aachen | Literature | Literature
Aix is the destination in Robert Browning's poem "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", which was published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845.James F. Loucks, and Andrew M. Satuffer, eds. Robert Browning's Poetry: Authoritative Texts. Criticism. Norton, 2nd ed. 1979. The poem is a first-person narrative told, in breathless galloping meter, by one of three riders; an urgent midnight errand to deliver "the news which alone could save Aix from her fate". |
Aachen | Notable people | Notable people |
Aachen | Twin towns – sister cities | Twin towns – sister cities
Aachen is twinned with:
Montebourg, France (1960)
Reims, France (1967)
Halifax, England (1979)
Toledo, Spain (1985)
Ningbo, China (1986)
Naumburg, Germany (1988)
Arlington County, United States (1993)
Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey (2013)
Cape Town, South Africa (2017)
Chernihiv, Ukraine (2023) |
Aachen | Former twin towns | Former twin towns
Kostroma, Russia (2005, suspended since March 2022) |
Aachen | See also | See also
Aachen (district)
Aachen Prison
Aachen tram
Aachener
Aachener Chronik
Aachener Bachverein
List of mayors of Aachen
Council of Aachen
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (disambiguation)
Maastricht Aachen Airport
Computer museum Aachen
|
Aachen | Notes | Notes |
Aachen | References | References
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Aachen | Sources | Sources
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Aachen | Further reading | Further reading
Rice, Eric, Music and Ritual at Charlemagne's Marienkirche in Aachen. Kassel: Merseburger, 2009. |
Aachen | External links | External links
Category:Aachen (district)
Category:Belgium–Germany border crossings
Category:Catholic pilgrimage sites
Category:Cities in North Rhine-Westphalia
Category:1st century
Category:Free imperial cities
Category:Jewish German history
Category:Matter of France
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Aachen | Table of Content | Short description, Etymology, History, Early history, Middle Ages, Manuscript production, 16th–18th centuries, 19th century, 20th century, World War II, Expulsion of Aachen Jews, 21st century, Geography, Climate, Geology, Demographics, Dialect, Boroughs, Neighbouring communities, Politics, Mayor, City council, Main sights, Cathedral, Cathedral Treasury, Rathaus, Other sights, Economy, Electric vehicle manufacturing, Culture, Education, Sports, Transport, Rail, Intercity bus stations, Public transport, Roads, Airport, Charlemagne Prize, Literature, Notable people, Twin towns – sister cities, Former twin towns, See also, Notes, References, Sources, Further reading, External links |
Agate | short description | Agate ( ) is a banded variety of chalcedony. Agate stones are characterized by alternating bands of different colored chalcedony and sometimes include macroscopic quartz. They are common in nature and can be found globally in a large number of different varieties. There are some varieties of chalcedony without bands that are commonly called agate (moss agate, fire agate, etc.); however, these are more properly classified solely as varieties of chalcedony. Agates are primarily formed as nodules within volcanic rock, but they can also form in veins or in sedimentary rock. Agate has been popular as a gemstone in jewelry for thousands of years, and today it is also popular as a collector's stone. Some duller agates sold commercially are artificially dyed to enhance their color. |
Agate | Etymology | Etymology
Agate was given its name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist. He discovered the stone c. 350 BCE along the shoreline of the River Achates (), now the Dirillo River, on the Italian island of Sicily, which at the time was a Greek territory. |
Agate | Formation and properties | Formation and properties
thumb|Geode agate
Agates are most commonly found as nodules within the cavities of volcanic rocks such as basalt, andesite, and rhyolite. These cavities, called vesicles (amygdaloids when filled), are gas bubbles that were trapped inside the lava when it cooled. The vesicles are later filled with hot, silica-rich water from the surrounding environment, forming a silica gel. This gel crystallizes through a complex process to form agates. Since agates usually form in lavas poor in free silica, there are multiple theories of where the silica originates from, including micro-shards of silica glass from volcanic ash or tuff deposits and decomposing plant or animal matter. Agates are much harder than the rocks they form in, so they are frequently found detached from their host rock.
Geologists generally understand the early stages of agate formation, but the specific processes that result in band development are still widely debated. Since they form in cavities within host rock, agate formation cannot be directly observed, and unlike most other crystals, agates have never been successfully lab-grown.
Agate is composed of multiple bands, or layers, of chalcedony fibers, specifically length-fast chalcedony fibers and sometimes quartzine (length-slow chalcedony fibers). Agate can also contain opal, an amorphous, hydrated form of silica. In wall-banded agates, the fibers grow radially from the vesicle walls inward, perpendicular to the direction of the bands. The vesicle walls are often coated with thin layers of celadonite or chlorite, soft, green phyllosilicate minerals that form from the reaction of hot, silica-rich water with the rock. This coating provides a rough surface for the chalcedony fibers to form on, initially as radial spherulites. The rough surface also causes agate husks to have a pitted appearance once the coating has been weathered away or removed. Sometimes, the spherulites grow around mineral inclusions, resulting in eyes, tubes, and sagenitic agates. The first layer of spherulitic chalcedony is typically clear, followed by successive growth bands of chalcedony alternated with chemically precipitated color bands, primarily iron oxides. The center is often macrocrystalline quartz (quartz with visible crystals), which can also occur in bands and forms when there is not enough water in the silica gel to promote chalcedony polymerization. When the silica concentration of the gel is too low, a hollow center forms, called an agate geode.
Quartz forms crystals around the cavity, with the apex of each crystal pointing towards the center. Occasionally, the quartz may be colored, such as amethyst or smoky quartz. Level-banded agates form when chalcedony precipitates out of solution in the direction of gravity, resulting in horizontal layers of microscopic chalcedony spherulites. Enhydro agates, or enhydros, form when water becomes trapped within an agate (or chalcedony) nodule or geode, often long after its formation.
Agates can also form within rock fissures, called veins. Vein agates form in a manner similar to nodular agates, and they include most lace agates, such as blue lace agate and crazy lace agate.
Less commonly, agates can form as nodules within sedimentary rock, such as limestone, dolomite or tuff. These agates form when silica replaces another mineral, or silica-rich water fills cavities left by decomposed plant or animal matter. Sedimentary agates also include fossil agates, which form when silica replaces the original composition of an organic material. This process is called silicification, a form of petrification. Examples include petrified wood, agatized coral, and Turritella agate (Elimia tenera). Although these fossils are often referred to as being "agatized", they are only true agates when they are banded. |
Agate | Varieties (by structure) | Varieties (by structure)
Agates are broadly separated into two categories based the type of banding they exhibit. Wall banding, also called concentric banding or adhesional banding, occurs when agate bands follow the shape of the cavity they formed in. Level banding, also called water-level banding, gravitational banding, horizontal banding, parallel banding, or Uruguay-type banding, occurs when agate bands form in straight, parallel lines. Level banding is less common and usually occurs together with wall banding. |
Agate | Wall-banded agates | Wall-banded agates
Fortification agates have very tight, well-defined bands. They get their name from their appearance resembling the walls of a fort. Fortification agates are one the most common varieties, and they are what most people think of when they hear the word "agate".
Lace agates exhibit a lace-like pattern of bands with many swirls, eyes, bends, and zigzags. Unlike most agates, they usually form in veins instead of nodules.
Faulted agates occur when agate bands are broken and slightly shifted by rock movement and then re-cemented together by chalcedony. They have the appearance of rock layers with fault lines running through them. Brecciated agates have also had their bands broken apart and re-cemented with chalcedony, but they consist of disjointed band fragments at random angles. They are a form of breccia, which is a textural term for any rock composed of angular fragments.
Eye agates have one or more circular, concentric rings on their surface. These "eyes" are actually hemispheres that form on the husk of the agate and extend inward like a bowl. Tube agates contain tunnel-like structures that extend all the way through the agate. These "tubes" may sometimes be banded or hollow, or both. Both tube and eye agates form when chalcedony grows around a needle-shaped crystal of another mineral embedded within the agate, forming stalactitic structures. Visible "eyes" can also appear on the surface of tube agates if a cut is made (or the agate is weathered) perpendicular to the stalactitic structure.
Dendritic agates have dark-colored, fern-like patterns (dendrites) on the surface or the spaces between bands. They are composed of manganese or iron oxides. Moss agates exhibit a moss-like pattern and are usually green or brown in color. They form when dendritic structures on the surface of an agate are pushed inward with the silica gel during their formation. Moss agate was once believed to be petrified moss, until it was discovered the moss-like formations are actually composed of celadonite, hornblende, or a chlorite mineral. Plume agates are a type of moss agate, but the dendritic "plumes" form tree-like structures within the agate. They are often bright red (from inclusions of hematite) or bright yellow (from inclusions of goethite). While dendrites frequently occur in banded agates, moss and plume agates usually lack bands altogether. Therefore, they are not true agates according to the mineralogical definition.
Iris agates have bands that are so microscopically fine that when thinly sliced, they cause white light to be diffracted into its spectral colors. This "iris effect" usually occurs in colorless agates, but it can also occur in brightly colored ones.
Sagenitic agates, or sagenites, have acicular (needle-shaped) inclusions of another mineral, usually anhydrite, aragonite, goethite, rutile, or a zeolite. Chalcedony often forms tubes around these crystals and may eventually replace the original mineral, resulting in a pseudomorph. The term "sagenite" was originally a name for a type of rutile, and later rutilated quartz. It has since been used to describe any quartz variety with acicular inclusions of any mineral. |
Agate | Level-banded agates | Level-banded agates
Agates with level banding are traditionally called onyx, although the formal definition of the term onyx refers to color pattern, not the shape of the bands. Accordingly, the name "onyx" is also used for wall-banded agates. Onyx is also frequently misused as a name for banded calcite. The name originates from the Greek word for the human nail, which has parallel ridges. Typically, onyx bands alternate between black and white or other light and dark colors. Sardonyx is a variety with red-to-brown bands alternated with either white or black bands.
Thunder eggs are frequently level-banded, however they may also have wall banding. Level banding is also common in Lake Superior agates. |
Agate | Varieties (by locality) | Varieties (by locality)
Agates are very common, and they have been found on every continent, including Antarctica. In addition to names used to describe their structure, numerous geological, local, and trade names are applied to agates from different localities. Below is a list of known agate localities and the names of the agates that are found there. This list is not exhaustive. |
Agate | Africa | Africa
Blue lace agate is a pale blue and white lace agate found primarily in Namibia. These agates formed in dolomite associated with igneous rock.
Botswana agates are found in basaltic rocks of the Permian age in Botswana. They feature contrasting bands of purple, pink, black, grey, and white. Like Lake Superior agates, they are typically small, averaging in diameter.
Malawi agates are typically bright red or orange with contrasting white bands, but some are pink and blue. They can be found in Malawi, and they likely formed in volcanic rock of Permian age.
Agates have also been found in Egypt, Madagascar, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. |
Agate | Antarctica | Antarctica
White and clear banded agates have been found by scientists at Bellingshausen Station, a Russian outpost on King George Island.
thumb|center|215px|Agate from King George Island, Antarctica |
Agate | Asia | Asia
India has produced agates since as early as the 11th century. These include carnelian agates, moss agates, and dendritic agates.
Yemen is home to a variety of agate called mocha stone, named after the port city of Mocha (also spelled Mokha or Mukha) on the Red Sea. These agates likely formed in tuff deposits of Late Oligocene and Early Miocene age.
Agates have also been found in Iran, Mongolia, China, and Russia.
thumb|center|180px|Rough agates from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia |
Agate | Australia | Australia
Queensland agates, found in the State of Queensland, often occur in colors that are rarely found in agates from other regions, such as green and yellow-green. They formed in basaltic lava flows of the Late Permian period. Level banding is common in Queensland agates, while inclusions are uncommon. Queensland is also home to several kinds of thunder egg, which are thought to date from the Early Cretaceous period.
Agates have also been found in Tasmania and other regions of Australia.
thumb|center|215px|Queensland agate with level banding |
Agate | Europe | Europe
Agate was discovered in Sicily by the Greek scholar Theophrastus in 350 BC. At the time, Sicily was a colony of ancient Greece. The name "agate" comes from the Achates River, the Greek name for what is now known as the Dirillo River. Agates in Sicily formed in balsaltic lavas and pyroclastic rocks of the Pilocene epoch.
Germany is a well-known historic source of agate. Agates mined from volcanic rock of the Permian period have been processed in Idar-Oberstein since at least 1375, but possibly as early as the Roman Empire. Agates from the Idar-Oberstein area are often red and pink, but other colors have also been observed. Many museum specimens include features such as eyes, tubes, moss, plumes, and sagenite.
Scotland is an abundant source of a wide variety of agates. There are at least 50 main agate localities in Scotland. Scottish agates have been popular in jewelry for several hundred years, particularly during the Victorian era. They formed in two types of rock: andesite from the Early Devonian period and basalt from the Tertiary period. The andesite deposits are more significant and extend from Stonehaven in the northeast to just south of Ayr in the southwest. The basaltic agates are confined to the islands off the west coast of Scotland and are collectively called the Small Isles agates. The colors of Scottish agates vary, and bands may be different shades of blue, grey, purple, pink, brown, orange, or red.
Pot stones or potato stones are irregular agate nodules or geodes found in Bristol and Somerset, England. They typically consist of a reddish, banded agate surrounding a hollow cavity lined with macroscopic quartz, although some are completely filled with agate. Other varieties of agate have also been found elsewhere in England.
Agates can also be found in Wales, the Czech Republic, Poland, France, and many other European countries. |
Agate | North America | North America
Coldwater agates, such as the Lake Michigan cloud agate, are sedimentary agates that formed within limestone and dolomite strata of marine origin. Like volcanic agates, Coldwater agates formed from silica gels that lined pockets and seams within the bedrock. These agates are typically less colorful, with banded lines of grey and white chalcedony.
Crazy lace agate is a brightly colored lace agate from Mexico with a complex pattern, demonstrating randomized distribution of contour lines and circular droplets, scattered throughout the rock. The stone is typically colored red and white but is also seen to exhibit yellow and grey combinations as well. Crazy lace agate is a vein agate that formed in sedimentary rock of the late Cretaceous period.
Dugway geodes are a type of thunder egg found in Utah. They are typically light grey to blue and often contain hollow cavities lined with drusy quartz.
Fairburn agates are rare fortification agates named for Fairburn, South Dakota. They are sedimentary agates that originated during the Pennsylvanian period, and then weathered from their host rock and redeposited during the Oligocene epoch in parts of South Dakota and Nebraska.
Laguna agate is a brightly colored agate variety that was first discovered in Ojo Laguna, Chihuahua, Mexico. It features vibrant bands in shades of red, orange, pink, or purple. Laguna agates formed in andesite and are geologically young. They frequently contain inclusions and many exhibit parallax or shadow banding.
Lake Superior agates are believed to be the world's oldest agates; they formed as nodules in basalt up to 1.2 billion years ago during the Late Precambrian. These agates are primarily found near the shores of Lake Superior in the U.S. states of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and in the Canadian province of Ontario. They are not named after the lake, but rather the Lake Superior Till, the Pleistocene glacial deposit in which they are found. This deposit also extends into portions of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, and Lake Superior agates have been carried south by the Mississippi River into Arkansas and Louisiana. Lake Superior agates have bands in shades of red, orange, yellow, brown, white, and grey. They can contain a variety of structural features, including eyes, tubes, sagenite, dendrites, faults, and geodes.
Lysite agate is a vein agate named after Lysite Mountain, Wyoming. It is frequently colorful and may contain moss and plumes in addition to bands.
Nebraska blue agate is a sedimentary agate with dendritic patterns that formed during the Oligocene epoch. It can be found throughout northwestern Nebraska and southwestern South Dakota.
Oregon is known for several different varieties of agate. It is probably best known for its thunder eggs, which form in rhyolitic ash and have a brown rhyolite shell that is usually filled with blue and white agate. Holley blue agate (also spelled "Holly blue agate") is a rare lavender to blue agate found only near Holley, Oregon.
Patuxent River stone is a red and yellow form of agate only found in Maryland, where it is the state gem.
Sweetwater agates are small moss agates found in Miocene age sandstone near Sweetwater River, Wyoming. They also contain brown or black dendrites and fluoresce under UV light.
Turritella agate is a brown fossil agate formed from the remains of an extinct species of freshwater snail (Elimia tenera) with an elongated spiral shell. The name is a misnomer; it was originally thought to be the fossil of a different genus of gastropods, Turritella. It is found in the Green River Formation of Wyoming.
Other varieties of agate have also been found in nearly every U.S. state, northern Mexico, and in the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and British Columbia. |
Agate | South America | South America
Brazilian agate is probably one of the largest agates. They can reach in diameter and weigh over . Brazilian agate is found primarily as nodules and geodes in decomposed volcanic ash and basalt of Late Permian age. The largest deposits are in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, but significant amounts can also be found throughout southeastern Brazil. Some specimens can be very colorful and include features such as eyes, tubes, dendrites, and sagentite. However, most Brazilian agate that is mined is naturally pale yellow, gray, or colorless and artificially dyed before being brought to market.
Condor agates are found in the Mendoza province of Argentina. They typically have bright red and yellow fortification banding and may contain mossy or sagenitic inclusions. Other varieties of agate can also be found in the Patagonia area of Argentina, including crater agate (typically hollow nodules with black and red bands) and puma agate (agatized coral).
Uruguay was the first major source of agates in South America. Agates were discovered there in 1830, but sources in neighboring Brazil became more popular in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Agates have also been found in Chile and Peru. |
Agate | Uses | Uses
Agate has long been popular as a gemstone in jewelery such as pins, brooches, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Agates have also historically been used in the art of hardstone carving to make knives, inkstands, seals, marbles, and other objects. Today, they are still used to make beads, decorative displays, carvings, and cabochons, as well as face-polished and tumble-polished specimens of varying size and origin. Agate collecting is a popular hobby, and agate specimens can be found in numerous gift shops, museums, galleries, and private collections.
Industrial uses of agate exploit its hardness, ability to retain a highly polished surface finish and resistance to chemical attack. Historically, it was used to make bearings for highly accurate laboratory balances and mortars and pestles to crush and mix chemicals. During the Second World War, black agate beads mined from Queensland, Australia were used in the turn and bank indicators of military aircraft.
Agates, particularly moss agates, were first used during the Stone Age to make tools such as arrow and spear points, needles, and hide scrapers. Artefacts from as early as 7000 BCE have been found in Mongolia, and the Natufian people of the Levant are known to have made knives and arrowheads from moss agate as early as 10000 BCE. Agate jewelry from Sumeria has been dated to c. 2500 BCE, and the Ancient Egyptians, Mycenaeans, and Romans all used agate in their jewelry. Archaeological recovery at the Knossos site on Crete illustrates the role of agates in Bronze Age Minoan culture.C. Michael Hogan. 2007. Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian The ornamental use of agate was common in ancient Greece, in assorted jewelry and in the seal stones of Greek warriors.
Idar-Oberstein was a historically important location in Germany that made use of agate on an industrial scale, dating back to c. 1375 CE. Originally, locally found agates were used to make all types of objects for the European market, but it became a globalized business around the turn of the 20th century. Idar-Oberstein began to import large quantities of agate from Brazil, as ship's ballast. Making use of a variety of proprietary chemical processes, they produced colored beads that were sold around the globe. |
Agate | Health impact | Health impact
Respiratory diseases such as silicosis, and a higher incidence of tuberculosis among workers involved in the agate industry, have been studied in India and China. |
Agate | See also | See also
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Agate | References | References |
Agate | External links | External links
"Agates", School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (retrieved 27 December 2014).
Category:Gemstones
Category:Hardstone carving
Category:Silicate minerals
Category:Symbols of Florida
Category:Provincial symbols of Nova Scotia |
Agate | Table of Content | short description, Etymology, Formation and properties, Varieties (by structure), Wall-banded agates, Level-banded agates, Varieties (by locality), Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, Uses, Health impact, See also, References, External links |
Aspirin | Short description | Aspirin ("aspirin". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.) is the genericized trademark for acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions that aspirin is used to treat include Kawasaki disease, pericarditis, and rheumatic fever.
Aspirin is also used long-term to help prevent further heart attacks, ischaemic strokes, and blood clots in people at high risk. For pain or fever, effects typically begin within 30 minutes. Aspirin works similarly to other NSAIDs but also suppresses the normal functioning of platelets.
One common adverse effect is an upset stomach. More significant side effects include stomach ulcers, stomach bleeding, and worsening asthma. Bleeding risk is greater among those who are older, drink alcohol, take other NSAIDs, or are on other blood thinners. Aspirin is not recommended in the last part of pregnancy. It is not generally recommended in children with infections because of the risk of Reye syndrome. High doses may result in ringing in the ears.
A precursor to aspirin found in the bark of the willow tree (genus Salix) has been used for its health effects for at least 2,400 years. In 1853, chemist Charles Frédéric Gerhardt treated the medicine sodium salicylate with acetyl chloride to produce acetylsalicylic acid for the first time. Over the next 50 years, other chemists, mostly of the German company Bayer, established the chemical structure and devised more efficient production methods. Felix Hoffmann (or Arthur Eichengrün) of Bayer was the first to produce acetylsalicylic acid in a pure, stable form in 1897. By 1899, Bayer had dubbed this drug Aspirin and was selling it globally.
Aspirin is available without medical prescription as a proprietary or generic medication in most jurisdictions. It is one of the most widely used medications globally, with an estimated (50 to 120 billion pills) consumed each year, and is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2022, it was the 36th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 16million prescriptions. |
Aspirin | Brand vs. generic name | Brand vs. generic name
In 1897, scientists at the Bayer company began studying acetylsalicylic acid as a less-irritating replacement medication for common salicylate medicines. By 1899, Bayer had named it "Aspirin" and was selling it around the world.
Aspirin's popularity grew over the first half of the 20th century, leading to competition between many brands and formulations. The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name; however, its rights to the trademark were lost or sold in many countries. The name is ultimately a blend of the prefix a(cetyl) + spir Spiraea, the meadowsweet plant genus from which the acetylsalicylic acid was originally derived at Bayer + -in, the common suffix for drugs in the end of the 19th century. |
Aspirin | Chemical properties | Chemical properties
Aspirin decomposes rapidly in solutions of ammonium acetate or the acetates, carbonates, citrates, or hydroxides of the alkali metals. It is stable in dry air, but gradually hydrolyses in contact with moisture to acetic and salicylic acids. In a solution with alkalis, the hydrolysis proceeds rapidly and the clear solutions formed may consist entirely of acetate and salicylate.
Like flour mills, factories producing aspirin tablets must control the amount of the powder that becomes airborne inside the building, because the powder-air mixture can be explosive. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit in the United States of 5mg/m3 (time-weighted average). In 1989, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) set a legal permissible exposure limit for aspirin of 5mg/m3, but this was vacated by the AFL-CIO v. OSHA decision in 1993. |
Aspirin | Synthesis | Synthesis
The synthesis of aspirin is classified as an esterification reaction. Salicylic acid is treated with acetic anhydride, an acid derivative, causing a chemical reaction that turns salicylic acid's hydroxyl group into an ester group (R-OH → R-OCOCH3). This process yields aspirin and acetic acid, which is considered a byproduct of this reaction. Small amounts of sulfuric acid (and occasionally phosphoric acid) are almost always used as a catalyst. This method is commonly demonstrated in undergraduate teaching labs.
class=skin-invert-image|thumb|Aspirin synthesis|center|490pxReaction between acetic acid and salicylic acid can also form aspirin but this esterification reaction is reversible and the presence of water can lead to hydrolysis of the aspirin. So, an anhydrous reagent is preferred.
Reaction mechanism
class=skin-invert-image|thumb|center|Acetylation of salicylic acid, mechanism|800px
Formulations containing high concentrations of aspirin often smell like vinegar because aspirin can decompose through hydrolysis in moist conditions, yielding salicylic and acetic acids. |
Aspirin | Physical properties | Physical properties
Aspirin, an acetyl derivative of salicylic acid, is a white, crystalline, weakly acidic substance that melts at , and decomposes around . Its acid dissociation constant (pKa) is 3.5 at . |
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