Memmingen: Encyclopedia II - Memmingen - History

Memmingen - History

At the place of Memmingen, probably even in the time of the Romans there was a small military town, maybe called cassiliacum. In the 5th century an Alemanic settlement was established, in the 7th century a palace of the Franks' king.

Memmingen was connected to Bohemia, Austria and Munich trough the salt road to Lindau. Another important road going through Memmingen was the Italian road from Northern Germany to Switzerland and Italy. Both roads helped Memmingen to earn importance as trading place. In the middle ages, the place was known as Mammingin; in 1158 the Welfian Duke Welf VI founded the town Memmingen. In 1286 it became a free town of the Empire, only responsible to the Kaiser.

Christoph Schappeler, the preacher at St. Martin's during the early 1500's, was an important figure for Memmingen during the Protestant Reformation and the Peasants' War. His support for peasants' rights helped draw peasants to Memmingen.

The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed was written (probably by Schappeler and Sebastian Lotzer) in early 1525. Within two months of its initial publication in Memmingen, there were twenty-five thousand copies of the Twelve Articles throughout Europe. The Twelve Articles was a religious petition that utilized Luther's ideas to appeal for peasants' rights.

1630 the town was of world politics' importance, as Wallenstein went to Memmingen in the Thirty Years War, where he was dismissed.

In the new ordering of Germany in 1802, Memmingen became part of Bavaria. The 19th century can be seen as a century of slow economic deterioration, coming to a halt only with the newly built railroad following the river Iller. Since World War II Memmingen is a prospering town with a rate of economic growth above the average for Bavaria.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki