Aachen, Germany: The charm of Charlemagne - Telegraph Germany Aachen, Germany: The charm of Charlemagne Max Davidson explores the delights of Aachen, one of the most beautiful and historic medieval cities in northern Europe. Here in the middle, in the rabbit warren of streets around the famous cathedral, there is hardly an ugly vista or boring street Photo: GETTY By Max Davidson Comments If atlases were arranged according to the same principles as the Yellow Pages, Aachen would head the list of Great Small European Cities to Visit. Like Aardvark & Aardvark Solicitors or Aasvogel Estate Agents, it would steal a march on the competition. As it is, the city attracts fewer visitors than you feel it deserves. Perhaps the problem is geographical. Where is Aachen? Belgium? No, Germany, just across the border from Belgium. Or perhaps it is historical. Is Aachen the same as Aix-la-Chapelle? Got it in one. Since 794, when Charlemagne established the city as his seat of government, its identity has become steadily more fuzzy: part of that sloppy Franco-German blancmange that so baffles Euro-sceptics.

Aachen/Aix-la-Chapelle was, rightly, one of the first batch of World Heritage Sites recognised by Unesco. But it doesn't feel like a World Heritage Site – that is, you don't have to fend off thousands of other tourists as you head for the city centre. As I sip a Glühwein in a café in the main square, the only accents around me are German. I can tell I am going to enjoy myself. "The key to Aachen is its size," says one local, who moved there from the Netherlands 20 years ago. "Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg… They are big cities, not very welcoming. This is smaller, more intimate. There is a real feeling of community." As if to illustrate the point, he waves at a woman on the other side of the square, who waves back, then wanders across with her dog, Otto, to whom I am introduced as if I were the Duke of Edinburgh. Related Articles Rügen, Germany: Brighton for Berliners 04 Jun 2008 It is the buzz of the past – dead but not dead, if that makes sense – that first grabs the imagination in Aachen.

How many English cities – even our great cathedral cities – have such an architecturally satisfying city centre? The outskirts of Aachen have little to recommend them. You have to drive a bit out of town – to Monschau, for example, one of the prettiest old towns in Germany – to find charm and atmosphere. But here in the middle, in the rabbit warren of streets around the famous Dom (cathedral), there is hardly an ugly vista or boring street. In Worcester or Norwich, there would probably be a McDonald's where Aachen has a second-hand bookshop, a medieval Bierkeller or a lovely old church: weather-worn; timeless; its spire pointing crookedly skywards. The cobbles underfoot ring true as a bell and, as you emerge from a narrow alley, to see the Dom looming above you like a giant, you get a real sense of the excitement that Charlemagne and his heirs must have experienced. The Dom, where Charlemagne is buried, would not match, say, Cologne cathedral in terms of size, but in the period it was built, around AD 800, must have been one of the most astounding buildings in Europe.

The centrepiece, the palace chapel, is a soaring octagonal church, designed in the Byzantine style, but on a sumptuous scale. It is one of those buildings where you gasp as soon you walk into it: there is a boldness of vision, combined with geometrical simplicity, that is the hallmark of all great religious buildings. Later additions – the beautiful 11th-century altar, decorated with scenes from the Passion, the vast 12th-century chandelier, the gilded shrine of Charlemagne, with its portraits of other Holy Roman Emperors – only augment the impression of power wielded with supreme self-confidence. The neighbouring Rathaus (town hall) – if you can cope with a photograph of Ted Heath on the stairs, where champions of European unity are commemorated – is another splendid building. It is an architectural mishmash, with some parts dating back to the 14th century and the basic Gothic structure complicated by Baroque embellishments. But the great hall, with its frescoes portraying scenes from the life of Charlemagne, gives a real flavour of the city in its pomp. Pomp, but not pomposity. That is another key to the charm of Aachen.

In between the great, monumental buildings, you come across little statues and fountains – some centuries old, some contemporary – that would be downright frivolous if they were anywhere else. A naked boy holding a fish. A puppet knight on a puppet horse. Three ridiculously skinny women clutching umbrellas. A poacher with a cockerel sticking out of his rucksack. A girl with pigtails holding what looks like a surfboard. They are not all great works of art, but they have an exuberant, ludic quality that seems to sum up a friendly city, comfortable in its own skin. Great cities tend to have great restaurants and, in that respect, Aachen does not disappoint. German provincial cooking can be pretty stodgy, but there is something here for all tastes. For traditional food in a traditional setting – one of those wonderful timbered buildings where every floor seems to slope at a crazy angle – the Zum Postwagen is hard to beat. I can taste its black pudding still. But then just around the corner, you come across the delightful Ratskeller, offering modern, lighter food – sea bass, cappuccino of wild mushrooms – in a sophisticated setting.

Aachen does not have a huge number of museums, although two that can be recommended with confidence are the Couven-Museum, an 18th-century merchant house which gives a flavour of the city in its Baroque pomp, and the Internationales Zeitungsmuseum, which commemorates the news agency founded by Paul Julius von Reuter, a great son of Aachen. There is no signage in English, unfortunately, but the display of old newspapers – particularly from the Nazi period – is fascinating. Non-German speakers will also need to tread carefully at the Carolus Thermen, a spanking new spa complex opened in 2000. Aachen used to be a celebrated spa town – one of the reasons Charlemagne established his court here was that there were hot springs, going back to Roman times – but gradually lost ground to Baden Baden. The Carolus Thermen is its attempt to raise its game. It is certainly an impressive facility although, as I say, non-German speakers will need to tread carefully.

You queue up, go through a turnstile, are given a blue token, use it to get a key, use the key to open a locker, change into your swimming costume, lock the door, making sure to keep the token AND the key… Vorsprung durch Technik! Then the fun starts. Downstairs is just a bog-standard municipal swimming baths: a bit bigger than average and with an outdoor as well as an indoor pool. Upstairs – follow the signs marked SAUNA – is a large separate area, arranged on two floors, where the dress code… well, basically, there is no dress code. Or, rather, I suddenly realise, there is a no-dress code. I do not know the German for "naked", but I can deconstruct the large sign with a swimming costume with a red line through it. A man has to do what a man has to do – so, five minutes later, I find myself sauntering around sauna-land in the buff, then swimming in the buff, with about 150 locals, not all of them male, not all of them over 80, and not all of them the worse for their lunchtime Bratwurst and Sauerkraut.

It is like a scene from German mythology, with Rhine maidens sitting on the rocks combing their hair. What's not to like? The concept wouldn't work in Leamington Spa. Or Harrogate Spa. Not in 2009. Not in 2059. The British don't do nudity. We never have. We never will. But it shows such an unexpectedly frolicsome side of German life – a gift for spontaneous relaxation that is not always evident in town centres – that it is hard not to warm to the place. If the fun-loving Charlemagne – 19 children and the greatest swimmer of his age – had visited Aachen in 2009, he would have been first in the sauna. A three-night stay at the Mercure am Grab Hotel in Aachen costs from £280 per person with the German Travel Centre (020 8429 2900; ) Price is based on two sharing and includes breakfast, flights from Heathrow to Cologne and Düsseldorf, but not transfers. The German Travel Centre can arrange three-day car rental starting from £99. Aachen is also easily accessible by rail from Cologne and Düsseldorf.

Charlemagne's Bones and Aachen Cathedral - Jaunting Jen Jaunting Jen Written by Jen Brown on February 3, 2014 in Germany , History & Archaeology , Travel In light of the recently released news that “ Charlemagne’s Bones are Probably Real ” I thought this would be a good time to share my experience visiting Charlemagne’s Palace of Aachen, Germany. The first time I visited Aachen, it was the early spring of 2008, and there were few tourists in sight. When I returned, two days before Christmas in 2013, there was barely room to walk. I had two vastly different experiences at the Cathedral. However, the crowds were worth the trouble because I had only been to Aachen once before. Usually on the first visit to a place of such significance, it is hard to take it all in, and even harder to remember it all afterwards. During the second visit I was able to see a lot of things that didn’t catch my attention the first time. In order to get the full experience of Charlemagne and his palace, it’s a good idea to visit the treasury next door, and go on the guided tour.

In order to view Charlemagne’s throne and sarcophagus, it is necessary to go on the tour. When you go upstairs to view the throne you can also see beautiful marble panels and Corinthian columns, most likely taken from Ravenna and Rome. There is usually an an English tour in the afternoon, but even if you go on the German tour, you will get to see things that are normally off-limits. What is it exactly that draws so many visitors to Aachen and Charlemagne’s Cathedral? The city alone is worthy of a trip in its own right with a beautiful mix of cultures, food, and people. Aachen is ideally situated right on the border of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. It’s not the city that draws millions of tourists though, its the man, and by the man I mean Charlemagne. Also known as Charles the Great, Charlemagne truly was a great man is every aspect of the word. He was a great man in size (as recent studies of his bones have concluded), he was a great man in thought, and a great man in deed. His nickname, “Father of Europe” was not lightly given.

I can’t possibly convey the significance of Charlemagne in one post, or even touch on all of the history behind the man. However I can tell you that Aachen is one of my favorite places in all of Germany. I will tell you that next to Trier, Aachen is one of the most historically significant places in Germany, and the Aachen Cathedral is the oldest in northern Europe. Charlemagne’s Palantine Chapel, was once part of an entire palace complex. Today, only the chapel survives, and it is incorporated into the Aachen Cathedral. The Cathedral is unique in its own right. There is no uniformity in its later additions, and that is one of the most charming and interesting features of the cathedral. You can clearly see the evolution of more than a thousand years of architecture at one glance. Charles the Great began construction on his palace and what was then called the Palatine chapel in 796 CE, and modeled it after the basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna . History records that Charlemagne visited Ravenna on several occasions, and formally requested building material from Ravenna from the Pope. Of notable interest in the cathedral are the two bronze doors at the entrance.

The bronze doors were cast in 800 CE at the direction of Charlemagne himself, and still remain in place today. It’s said to be good luck to put your hand inside the mouth of the wolf that stands guard over the Cathedral at Aachen. By the time of Charlemagne’s birth in the late 740’s CE, the Roman Empire was a distant memory and the so called “Dark Ages” were in full swing. Imagine living there during that time and looking all around you at the remnants of a once great civilization. Roman monuments, Roman Aqueducts, and Roman roads still existed in the late eight century CE. Imagine living in such poverty and ignorance, seeing the greatness of a civilization long past all around you, but having now idea where it came from. Only legends and inscriptions, read by a few learned monks gave a hint at what had passed into legend long ago. The era before Charlemagne was characterized by constant warfare, illiteracy, and poverty. Charlemagne was by no means perfect, and calls for his canonization have gone unanswered, in no small part due to his personal life.

Charlemagne is known to have had four legitimate wives, one common law wife, and at least five concubines, producing eighteen children that we know of. During Charlemagne’s era, especially for someone of his status, this was expected behavior. However, it did not sit will with the church in Rome, and thus he is not a saint. What Charlemagne did do after his coronation in the year 800 was embark upon a program of economic, military, religious, and educational reforms that changed Europe. Charlemagne’s era is often referred to as the “ Carolingian Renaissance ,” due to his extensive literary reforms, creation of schools, and insistence on bringing the brightest scholars from all over Europe to his court. His extensive reforms are why he is remembered as a great man today, a hero of Germany, and the man who brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. I have not kept track of how many UNESCO World Heritage Sites I have visited over the years, but Aachen makes one more. This is definitely a place I would visit again, and again, preferably when it’s not packed with the Christmas Market crowd, however sometimes you just have to deal with a crowd in order to see something of importance.

There are two things at the Cathedral at Aachen that you cannot see on your own, you must sign up for the guided tour. Charlemagne’s marble throne, and Charlemagne’s sarcophagus. Charlemagne’s throne is definitely the highlight of the tour. Charlemagne’s throne was constructed in the 790’s CE from much older marble, and has been the site of the coronation of thirty-one kings of Europe. Charlemagne himself however, was not crowned at his throne. What will strike you most about this throne is its smallness, and its absolute simplicity. For a man who was reputed to be over six feet tall, this throne seems especially small. The marble from the throne was acquired in the East, maybe from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, or perhaps the palace of Pontius Pilate. Although the place of origin is disputed, what is not in dispute is the Roman antiquity of the marble. In addition to several spots of Roman graffiti on the throne, on the side of the throne you can still see the lines of a Roman game called Nine Men’s Morris .

Although we don’t know exactly where this marble came from, we do know that bored Roman soldiers once scratched a game board into the marble. (a game which will be the subject of a future post). The second thing you will see up close on the tour is Charlemagne’s sarcophagus. Charlemagne was not actually buried in this sarcophagus. Charlemagne was supposedly buried in the beautiful and ornate Persephone Sarcophagus , constructed sometime in the third century CE. Even Charlemagne’s burial in this sarcophagus is disputed by historians, as they do not think such a great work of art would have been buried at the time. Charlemagne’s remains were exhumed in 1165 CE by Frederick Barbarossa. A later legend states that the Emperor Otto opened Charlemagne’s tomb and found, “the emperor, seated upon a throne, wearing a crown and holding a sceptre, his flesh almost entirely incorrupt.” Legends aside, when Charlemagne’s tomb was again opened in 1215 CE, Frederick II re-interred his remains in the gold and silver sarcophagus that still lies in the apse of the Aachen Cathedral today.

More Information: The Holy Roman Empire: from Charlemagne to Napoleon | British Museum blog 13 October 2014 • 10:09 am The Holy Roman Empire: from Charlemagne to Napoleon Joachim Whaley, Professor of German History and Thought, University of Cambridge Replica crown of the Holy Roman Empire, 1913. © Anne Gold, Städtische Museen for the City Hall, Aachen The object labelled Charlemagne’s crown in the British Museum’s exhibition Germany: memories of a nation reminds us of a long history that ended over a century before the Third Reich began, but which nonetheless continues to shape Germany and German-speaking Europe even today. Like the polity which it recalls, the crown has a complex history. The object itself is a replica made in 1913 of the imperial crown which was once kept in Nuremberg and has been in Vienna since 1796. This crown almost certainly originated around AD 960, made by a Lower Rhineland workshop, perhaps in Cologne.

Whether Charlemagne himself was actually crowned is unclear and while we know that he crowned his son at Aachen in 813 we do not know what crown was used. Gold solidus of Emperor Charlemagne. France, AD 768-814 Even so, the crown has come to stand for the Holy Roman Empire which originated in Charlemagne’s Frankish realm, which comprised much of what we know as France and Germany. It was in the eastern part of this kingdom that a German monarchy became established in the 9th and 10th centuries. The legitimacy and special status of this monarchy derived substantially from its presumed descent from Charlemagne and from the inheritance of his role as protector of the papacy and guardian of the Church. This was implicit in the title Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, as the German polity formally became known around 1500. The special nature of the empire was also reflected in its election and coronation procedures. German rulers were elected as kings by their German peers. They were crowned at Aachen and then again at Rome by the pope. The first made them German kings; the second made them Roman emperors.

The place of coronation moved to Frankfurt in the sixteenth century and the Roman coronation was discontinued. The German king now assumed the title of ‘elected Roman emperor’ when he was crowned at Frankfurt, which reflected a more distant relationship with the papacy in the early modern period. From the outset the German monarchy inherited the interest in Italy that Charlemagne had developed by virtue of his protectorate over the papacy. In the time of the Hohenstaufen dynasty from 1138 to 1254 this became an overriding obsession and Frederick II even lived exclusively in Sicily and southern Italy. Thereafter, however, the significance of Italy for the empire declined, though Tuscany, Modena, Parma, Milan and Savoy remained fiefdoms of the emperors until the nineteenth century. The main territories of the empire were German, and these were the only ones that came to have votes in the assemblies of prince and cities, known as the Reichstag or imperial diet from the fifteenth century. They included bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, secular princes and free cities, all of whom enjoyed significant independence in the regulation of their domestic affairs within the framework of the empire.

At first they were subject only to their feudal obligations to the emperor, and later to legislation agreed by them at the diet. The most important fiefs were those ecclesiastical and secular princes who actually elected the kings and emperors. In 1356 the Golden Bull, which codified the election arrangements in a fundamental law that remained valid until 1806, formally designated seven princes as electors. They enjoyed particular prestige but their rights were otherwise identical to those of the other princes and by the imperial cities. The elective system and the retention of significant rights by the German princes and towns, often referred to as the ‘old German liberty’, meant that the German polity developed as a vast decentralised federation. Despite having a designated place of coronation, it never had a capital city. The imperial diet came to be held at the free city of Regensburg and other key institutions were located at Wetzlar, Vienna and elsewhere. This ensured the survival of a proliferation of courts and cities which each sponsored culture and the arts; first the visual arts, architecture and literature, then music as well. But in the later Middle Ages it also led to disorder and lawlessness.

Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of Emperor Maximilian I, wearing the collar of the Golden Fleece over a brocaded mantle, and a fur-trimmed hat with an oval medallion of the Virgin and Child attached to the brim. Woodcut, 1518. The solution to the inner instability of the empire in the fifteenth century came in the form of a series of agreements reached in the reign of Maximilian I (1493-1519). These set up a supreme court to resolve disputes and a series of regional organisations to implement its decisions. The assemblies of the princes and cities now also formally became the Reichstag (diet), which was designated co-ruler of the empire alongside the emperor. No sooner established, this system was challenged by the Reformation. The church reform movement which swept through the empire following Luther’s rejection of papal authority in 1517 represented an acute threat to stability. Charles V (1519-1556) wanted to stamp out Lutheranism, but many princes saw this as an infringement of their rights. Indeed many viewed the Lutheran reform movement as a welcome opportunity to reform the church in their lands and to extend their authority over them.

Since the Reichstag could not agree, it was decided in 1526 that each prince or city should have the right to determine whether they embraced reform or remained loyal to the Catholic Church. Despite many subsequent disputes, some of them escalating into military conflict, this principle remained fundamental to the empire until 1806. The last attempt by an emperor – Ferdinand II (1619-37) – to reassert Catholicism in the empire precipitated the Thirty Years War. He failed to achieve his ambition and in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia reaffirmed the rights of the princes and cities and affirmed Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism as the three equally privileged confessions of the empire. It also added safeguards for the rights of subjects who did not share the official faith of the territory in which they lived. Bronze medal with portraits of Charlemagne and Napoleon, designed by Bertrand Andrieu, 1806 As a system which both guaranteed the liberties of the princes and cities and secured the rights of their subjects the Holy Roman Empire existed until it was destroyed by Napoleon. It remains the longest lived political system in German history. And it was unquestionably better than many that succeeded it.

The exhibition Germany: memories of a nation is at the British Museum from 16 October 2014 to 25 January 2015. Sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan, with support from Salomon Oppenheimer Philanthropic Foundation. Accompanying the exhibition is a 30-part BBC Radio 4 series written and presented by Neil MacGregor. In the episode Fragments of Power , Neil MacGregor discovers how coins reveal the range and diversity of the Holy Roman Empire, with around 200 different currencies struck in the different territories of Germany.

Share this: Charlemagne's bones identified: 1,200-year-old remains in a German cathedral belong to 'Europe's father', claim scientists | Daily Mail Online show ad Charlemagne's bones identified: 1,200-year-old remains in a German cathedral belong to 'Europe's father', claim scientists After 26 years of research, German scientists are satisfied that bones held for centuries at Aachen Cathedral, are those of the king of the Franks A total of 94 bones and fragments were analysed Researchers studied the thigh, shin and arm bones to get an idea of the skeleton's height and build – which match descriptions of the emperor The Battle for Aachen "Taking Aachen" The German city of Aachen, located near the Belgian border, was a pivotal battleground for American soldiers breaching the fortified Siegfried Line in the fall of 1944. Before the war, Aachen was home to some 165,000 Germans, but in October 1944 the city lay in ruins from repeated bombardment, and less than 20,000 civilians still lived there, defended by 5,000 troops. U.S.

command decided to take a page from Germany's blitzkrieg tactics: instead of seeing the city as an objective to be overcome, it was obstacle to be bypassed. The assumption was that surrounding the city and cutting it off from support would force its surrender. Adolf Hitler and the defenders of Aachen, made up of elements of the 3rd Panzer Division and a couple Waffen SS kampfgrouppen, had different ideas, however. The ancient city was hallowed ground for Germany. As the birthplace and site of the coronation of Charlemagne, Aachen was the home of the Holy Roman Empire, which was cited by Hitler as the "First" Reich. Thus, as the first major city on German soil to face invasion of the Allies, Hitler personally directed that Aachen be held  at all costs. The German garrison was reinforced. Consequently, the Aachen defenders became more of a threat than nuisance to the elements of the U.S. Ninth Army forces moving north and south of the town. This forced the American command to reconsider their strategy. Aachen, they concluded, would have to be taken after all  directly.

As the American soldiers encircled the city, they pulverized it with aerial and artillery bombardments. Urban warfare is perhaps the most difficult kind of fighting  block-by-block, building-by-building, floor-by-floor, room-by-room. Defenders can be easily concealed in fortified buildings and debris. They usually know the city well and can fall back to previously designated positions. Control of taller structures or central intersections gives the defender a significant advantage in tracking the enemy and impeding his progress. Control of the sewer system enables defenders to come up behind their foe. The attackers are forced to inch their way through deadly mazes of unfamiliar streets and alleys. Dangerous reconnaissance is necessary to accurately map the defenders' shifting positions. Communications are vital to coordinating advancing infantry and armored support. Tanks are effective at dislodging nests of defenders, but are hampered by debris filled streets and the ever-present threat of handheld anti-tank weapons. Tires of jeeps and ambulances are shredded by shards of shattered glass. In the thickest of the fighting were the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, supported by the 745th Tank Battalion.

They attacked from the southern suburbs, with the 30th Infantry Division moving into the city from the north. But resistance was fierce; in a matter of days the 30th Infantry Division sustained more than 2,000 casualties. Elements of the 29th Infantry Division had to be called in for help. When the last remaining defenders surrendered on Oct 21, the Germans had lost over 5,000 casualties and 5,600 prisoners. U.S. losses were put at 5,000 killed, wounded or missing. In spite of more than 170 tons of bombs and nearly 10,000 rounds of artillery shells fired into the city, the great catherdral that housed the tomb of Emperor Charlemagne emerged intact. Aachen | Germany | Britannica.com Germany Alternative Titles: Aix-la-Chapelle, Aken, Aquisgranum Related Topics Ludwig Pastor, baron von Campersfelden Aachen, French Aix-la-Chapelle, Dutch Aken , city, North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), western Germany . Its municipal boundaries coincide on the west with the frontiers of Belgium and the Netherlands .

It was a royal residence of the emperor Charlemagne , and it served as the principal coronation site of Holy Roman emperors and of German kings from the Middle Ages to the Reformation. The Palatine Chapel , a masterpiece of Carolingian architecture, is incorporated within Aachen Cathedral , which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1978. Palatine Chapel (Aachen Cathedral), Aachen, Germany. Vanni/Art Resource, New York Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Originally a Roman spa called Aquisgranum, Aachen rose to prominence in the late 8th century during the rule of Charlemagne, becoming his favourite residence and a centre of Western culture and learning. From the coronation of Otto I in 936 until the 16th century, more than 30 German emperors and kings were crowned at Aachen. Aachen was fortified in the late 12th century and granted municipal rights in 1166 and 1215, and it became a free imperial city about 1250. Aachen began to decline in the 16th century.

It was too remote from the centre of Germany to be convenient as a capital, and in the 1560s the coronation site was changed to Frankfurt am Main . Aachen was frequently at odds with the emperors during the Protestant Reformation. In 1656 the city was devastated by a great fire. Aachen hosted several peace conferences, including those ending the War of Devolution (1668) and the War of the Austrian Succession (1748). Occupied by Napoleon’s army in 1794 and annexed by France in 1801, it was given to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna (1814–15). The city was briefly occupied by the Belgians after World War I . It was severely damaged in World War II , and it became the first large German city to fall to the Allies (October 20, 1944). Similar Topics Hamburg The noteworthy medieval churches of St. Foillan, St. Paul, and St. Nicholas were destroyed or heavily damaged during World War II, but their reconstruction began almost immediately afterward.

The Rathaus (town hall), built about 1530 on the ruins of Charlemagne’s palace and containing the magnificent Hall of the Emperors, was also damaged and restored. Aachen Cathedral suffered relatively little damage in the war. It incorporates the distinctive Carolingian and Gothic styles. The Palatine Chapel (built 790–805) of Charlemagne, modeled on San Vitale (in Ravenna , Italy), is Carolingian in style, and the choir (c. 1355) and subsidiary chapels are Gothic. In the gallery of the chapel is the marble throne thought to have been Charlemagne’s; it was long used for coronations. Charlemagne’s tomb is marked by a stone slab over which hangs a bronze chandelier presented by Frederick I Barbarossa in 1168. The cathedral treasury contains examples of fine medieval workmanship and sacred relics (including the supposed swaddling clothes of Jesus, as well as his crucifixion loin cloth) that are displayed to pilgrims every seven years (see Palatine Chapel ). Aachen Cathedral in Aachen, Ger.

© Huber/Press and Information Office of the Federal Government of Germany Other notable landmarks are the Suermondt Ludwig Museum and the fountain, surmounted by a statue of Charlemagne, in the market square. The International Newspaper Museum has exhibits of newspapers from the 16th century to the present. There are numerous educational institutions, including the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University, founded in 1870, the earliest in Prussia. The nearby hot springs are much frequented; Schwertbad-Quelle, in the suburb of Burtscheid, is the warmest spring in Germany, with an average high water temperature of 169 °F (76 °C). Aachen is a rail hub and the industrial and commercial centre of a brown-coal-mining region; almost every type of heavy industry functions in the vicinity. Manufactured products include machinery, electronics, chemicals, plastics, textiles, glass, cosmetics, and needles and pins. Pop. (2003 est.) 256,605.

Learn More in these related articles: Germany - Charlemagne | history - geography | Britannica.com Charlemagne Gerd von Rundstedt Charlemagne built on the foundations laid by Boniface, Charles Martel, and Pippin. Contemporary writers were vastly impressed by Charlemagne’s political campaigns to destroy the autonomy of Bavaria and his equally determined efforts against the Saxons. Under their Agilolfing dukes, who had at times led the opposition to the rising Carolingians, the Bavarians had developed an independent, southward-looking state that had close contacts with Lombard Italy and peaceful relations with the Avar kingdom to the east. Charlemagne’s conquest of the Lombards in 774 left Bavaria isolated, and in 788 Charlemagne succeeded in deposing the last Agilolfing duke, Tassilo III, and replacing him with a trusted agent. Thereafter Charlemagne used Bavaria as the staging ground for a series of campaigns in 791, 795, and 796 that destroyed the Avar kingdom. The subjugation of the north proved much more difficult than that of the south.

In the wake of the missionaries, Frankish counts and other officials moved into northeastern Frisia, raising contingents for the royal host and doing the other business of secular government. As for the Rhineland, the richer it grew, the more necessary it became to protect its hinterland, Franconia (including present-day Hessen ) and Thuringia, from Saxon raids. Because there was no natural barrier behind which to hold the Saxons, this was a difficult task. Unlike the Bavarians, the Saxons were not politically united. Their independent edhelingi (nobles) lived on estates among forest clearings, dominating the frilingi (freemen), lazzi (half-free), and unfree members of Saxon society and leading raids into the rich Frankish kingdom. Thus each of Charlemagne’s punitive expeditions, which began in 772 and lasted until 804, bit deeper into the heart of Saxony , leaving behind bitter memories of forced conversions, deportations, and massacres. These raids were inspired by religious as well as political zeal; with fire and sword, Charlemagne tried to break Saxon resistance both to Christianity and to Frankish dominance.

Still, the decentralized nature of Saxon society made ultimate conquest extremely difficult. Whenever the Frankish army was occupied elsewhere, the Saxons could be counted on to revolt, to slaughter Frankish officials and priests , and to raid as far westward as they could. Charlemagne in turn would punish the offending tribes, as he did when he executed 4,500 Saxons at Verden, and garrison the defense points abandoned by the Saxons. In time, resistance to the Franks gave the Saxons a kind of unity under the leadership of Widukind , who succeeded longer than any other leader in holding together a majority of chieftains in armed resistance to the Franks. Ultimately, internal feuding led to the capitulation even of Widukind. He surrendered, was baptized, and, like Tassilo, was imprisoned in a monastery for the remainder of his life. Despite this victory, it would take another 20 years before Saxony would be finally subdued. Learn about the Saxon leader Widukind. Contunico © ZDF Enterprises GmbH, Mainz Related Places Hildesheim Charlemagne’s efforts were not limited to military repression, however.

He also issued two edicts concerning the pacification and conversion of Saxony, which reveal the brutality of the process as well as its gradual success. The Capitulatio de Partibus Saxoniae (c. 785; “Capitulary for the Saxon Regions”) was intended to force the submission of the Saxons to the Franks and to Christianity, imposing the death penalty for destruction of churches, refusal of baptism , and violating the Lenten fast. The Capitulare Saxonicum (797; “Saxon Capitulary”), although not necessarily abrogating the earlier decree, replaced the harsher measures of the earlier capitulary with conversion through less brutal methods. Moreover, Frankish churchmen and aristocrats loyal to Charlemagne were introduced to secure and pacify the region. Although the northern regions that enjoyed Danish support remained outside of Frankish control, most of Saxony gradually moved into the united Frankish realm and would become a great centre of political, cultural, and religious life in the 10th century.

The emergence of Germany Germany from 911 to 1250 The 10th and 11th centuries Conrad I When in 911 Louis the Child, last of the East Frankish Carolingians, died without leaving a male heir, it seemed quite possible that his kingdom would break into pieces. In at least three of the duchies—Bavaria, Saxony, and Franconia—the ducal families were established in the leadership of their regions; in Swabia (Alemannia) two houses were still fighting for hegemony . Only the church, fearing for its endowments, had an obvious interest in the survival of the monarchy , its ancient protector. Against the growing authority of the dukes and the deep differences in dialect, customs, and social structure among the tribal duchies there stood only the Carolingian tradition of kingship; but, with Charles III (Charles the Simple) as ruler of the West Frankish kingdom, its future was uncertain and not very hopeful. Only the Lotharingians put their faith in the ancient line and did homage to Charles, its sole reigning representative. The other component parts of the East Frankish kingdom did not follow suit.

Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. On November 10, 911, Saxon and Frankish leaders ended Carolingian rule in Germany when they met at Forchheim in Franconia to elect Conrad , duke of the Franks, as their king. The rejection of the Carolingian dynasty was motivated by the dynasty’s inability to protect the kingdom from invaders and related internal political matters. In the early 10th century, the Germanic peoples in the lands east of the Rhine and west of the Elbe and Saale rivers and the Bohemian Forest—as rudimentary and as thinly spread as their settlements were—had to face even more primitive and pagan races pressing in from farther east, especially the Magyars . The Saxons, headed by the Liudolfing duke Otto—who refused to be considered a candidate for the royal crown—were threatened by more enemies on their frontiers than any other tribe; Danes, Slavs, and Magyars simultaneously harassed their homeland. A king who commanded resources farther west, in Franconia, might therefore prove to be of help to Saxony.

The Rhenish Franks, on the other hand, did not wish to abdicate from their position as the leading and kingmaking people, which gave them many material advantages. Conrad of Franconia, elected by Franks and Saxons, was soon recognized also by Arnulf, duke of Bavaria, and by the Swabian clans. In descent, honours, and wealth, however, Conrad was no more than the equal of the dukes who had accepted him as king. To surmount them, to found a new royal house, and to acquire those wonder-working attributes that the Germans venerated in their rulers long after they had been converted to Christianity, he had yet to prove himself able, lucky, and successful. In this period, political affairs became the monopoly of the German kings and a few score families of great magnates. The reason for this concentration of power was that, at the very foundation of the German kingdom, circumstances had long favoured those men whom birth, wealth, and military success had raised well above the ranks of the ordinary free members of their tribe. Their estates were cultivated in the main by half-free peasants —slaves who had risen or freemen who had sunk.

The holdings of these dependents fell under the power of the lord to whom they owed service and obedience. Already they were tied to the lands on which they laboured and were dependent on their protectors for justice. For many reasons ordinary freemen tended generally to lose their independence and had to seek aid from their more fortunate and powerful neighbours; thus, they lost their standing in the assemblies of their tribe. Everywhere, except in Friesland and parts of Saxony, the nobles wedged themselves between king or duke and the rank and file. They alone could become prelates of the church, and they alone could compete for the possession and enjoyment of political power. At the level below the dukes, the bulk of administrative authority, jurisdiction, and command in war lay with the margraves and counts, whose hold on their charges developed gradually into a hereditary right. The commended men and the half-free disappeared from the important functions of public life. In the local assemblies they came only to pay dues and to receive orders, justice, and penalties. Their political role was passive. Those lords whose protection was most worth having also had the largest throng of dependents and thus became more formidable to their enemies and to the remaining freemen.

Lordship and vassalage were hereditary, and thus the horizon of the dependent classes narrowed until eventually the lord and his officials held all secular authority and power over their lives. Military strength, the possession of arms and horses, and tactical training in their use were decisive. Most dependent men were disarmed, and this became part of their degradation . The accession of the Saxons Conrad I was quite unequal to the situation in Germany. According to the beliefs of contemporaries, his failure meant that his house was luckless and lacked the prosperity-bringing virtues that belonged to true kingship. He also had no heir. On his deathbed in 918, he therefore proposed that the crown, which in 911 had remained with the Franks, should now pass to the leading man in Saxony, the Liudolfing Henry (later called the Fowler). Henry I was elected by the Saxons and Franks at Fritzlar, their ancient meeting place, in 919. With a monarch of their own ethnicity , the Saxons now took over the burden and the rewards of being the kingmaking people. The centre of gravity shifted to eastern Saxony, where the Liudolfing lands lay.

Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The transition of the crown from the Franks to the Saxons for a time enhanced the self-sufficiency of the southern German tribes. The Swabians had kept away from the Fritzlar election. The Bavarians believed that they had a better right to the Carolingian inheritance than the Saxons (who had been remote outsiders in the 9th century) and in 919 elected their own duke Arnulf as king. They, too, wanted to be the royal and kingmaking people. Henry I’s regime rested in the main on his own position and family demesne in Saxony and on certain ancient royal seats in Franconia. His kingship was purely military. He hoped to win authority by waging successful frontier wars and to gain recognition through concessions rather than to insist on the sacred and priestlike status of the royal office that the church had built up in the 9th century. At his election he refused to be anointed and consecrated by the archbishop of Mainz.

In settling with the Bavarians, he abandoned the policy of supporting the internal opposition that the clergy offered to Duke Arnulf, a plank to which Conrad had clung. To end Arnulf’s rival kingship, Henry formally surrendered to him the most characteristic privilege and honour of the crown: the right to dispose of the region’s bishoprics and abbeys. Arnulf’s homage and friendship entailed no obligations to Henry, and the Bavarian duke pursued his own regional interests—peace with the Hungarians and expansion across the Alps—as long as he lived. From these unpromising beginnings the Saxon dynasty not only found its way back to Carolingian traditions of government but soon got far better terms in its relations with the autonomous powers of the duchies, which had gained such a start on it. Nonetheless, the governing structures that it bequeathed to its Salian successors were self-contradictory; while seeking to overcome the princely aristocracies of the duchies by leaving them to themselves, the Saxon kings came to rely more and more, both for the inspiration and for the practice of government, on the prelates of the church, who were themselves recruited from the ranks of the same great families.

They loaded bishoprics and abbeys with endowments and privileges and thus gradually turned the bishops and abbots into princes with interests not unlike those of their lay kinsmen. These weaknesses, however, lay concealed behind the personal ascendancy of an exceptionally tough and commanding set of rulers up to the middle of the 11th century. Thereafter the ambiguous system could not take the strain of the changes fermenting within German society and even less the attack on its values that came from without—from the reformed papacy. The Liudolfing kings won military success, and with it they gained the respect for their personal authority that counted for so much at a time when the great followed only those whose star they trusted and who could reward services with the spoils of victory. In 925 Henry I brought Lotharingia (the region between the upper Meuse and Schelde rivers in the west and the Rhine River in the east that contained Charlemagne’s capital Aachen) back to the East Frankish realm. Whoever had authority in that region could treat the neighbouring kingdom of the West Franks as a dependent.

The young Saxon dynasty thus won for itself and its successors a hegemony over the west and the southwest that lasted at least until the mid-11th century. The Carolingian kings of France , as well as the great feudatories who sought to dominate if not to ruin them, became, in turn, petitioners to the German court during the reign of the Ottos. The kings of Burgundy —whose suzerainty lay over the valleys of the Saône and the Rhône, the western Alps, and Provence—fell under the virtual tutelage of the masters of Lotharingia. Rich in ancient towns, this region, once the homeland of the Carolingians, was more thickly populated and wealthier than the lands east of the Rhine. Lotharingian merchants controlled the slave trade from the Saxon marches to Córdoba. The eastern policy of the Saxons Greater prestige still and a claim to imperial hegemony fell to the Saxon rulers when they broke the impetus of the Hungarian (Magyar) invasions, against which the military resources and methods of western European society had almost wholly failed for several decades.

In 933, after long preparations, Henry routed a Hungarian attack on Saxony and Thuringia. In 955 Otto I (Otto the Great; reigned 936–973), at the head of a force to which nearly all the duchies had sent mounted contingents, annihilated a great Hungarian army on the Lech River near Augsburg. The battle again vindicated the efficiency of the heavily armed man skilled in fighting on horseback. With a Saxon dynasty on the throne, Saxon nobles gained office and power, with opportunities for conquest along the eastern river frontiers and marches of their homeland. Otto I implemented an eastern policy that aimed at getting more than slaves, loot, and tribute. Between 955 and 972 he founded and richly endowed an archbishopric at Magdeburg , which he intended to be the metropolis of a large missionary province among the Slavic Wends beyond the Elbe, who remained faithful to their traditional polytheistic religion. This would have brought their tribes under German control and exploitation in the long run, but the ruthless methods of the Saxon lay lords led to a rebellion that forced Otto to scale back his plans.

In the 10th century there was little or no German agricultural settlement beyond the Elbe. Far too much forested land remained available for clearing and colonization in western and southern Germany. The Saxons attempted to secure their tenuous military victories in the region between the Elbe and Oder rivers by building and garrisoning forts. Beyond the Wends of Brandenburg and Lusatia, meanwhile, new Slavic powers rose; the Poles under Mieszko I and, to the south, the Czechs under the Přemyslids received missionaries from Magdeburg and Passau without falling permanently under the political and ecclesiastical domination of Saxons and Bavarians. The Wends, who had been subjugated by the Saxon margraves, resisted conversion to Christianity. They rebelled in 983 against the German military occupation, which collapsed along with the missionary bishoprics that had been founded at Oldenburg , Brandenburg, and Havelberg. Farther south the defenses of the Thuringian marches between the Saale and the middle Elbe remained in German hands, but only after a long and fierce struggle against Polish invaders early in the 11th century.

The northern part of the frontier reverted to its position before Otto’s trustees, Hermann Billung and Gero, had begun their wars. Missionary enterprises directed into Wendish territory from Bremen and Magdeburg achieved little before the 12th century. The Saxon ruling class and margraves must bear the responsibility for the fiasco of eastward expansion in the 10th century. The prelates, too, saw their missions as means to found ecclesiastical empires of subject dioceses that would exact tribute from the conquered Wends. The Slavic tribes across the Elbe remained unconverted and implacable foes, a standing menace to the nearby churches. The wars also left a legacy of savagery on both sides, so that from about 1140 onward the colonization of conquered Slavic lands by German settlers became the common policy of both the church and the princes. Dukes, counts, and advocates Conrad I’s and Henry I’s kingships rested on the election by the tribal duchies’ leaders and higher aristocracy.

It was in the first place an arrangement between the Franks and the Saxons that the Bavarian and Swabian dukes recognized at a price by acts of personal homage, but the German kings, of whatever dynasty, had to live under Frankish law. After the death of Conrad I’s brother Eberhard in 939, Otto I kept the Franconian dukedom vacant, and the Franconian counts henceforth stood under the immediate authority of the crown. In Saxony, too, Otto kept in his hands the dukedom of his ancestors, even though the beginning of the Billung line of dukes is traditionally dated to 936. The march-duchy of the Billungs , a bulwark raised against the Danes and the northern Slav tribes, gave the Billung family military command but did not give it authority over all the other Saxon princes. Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. In the south the Ottonians sought to turn the tribal duchies into royal lands and to supplant native dynasties with aliens and members of their own clan.

When even that policy did not stop rebellions under the banner of tribal self-interest, the Ottonians began to break up the ancient Bavarian tribal land by carving out a new duchy in Carinthia where the Bavarian expansion southward had opened up new lands and sources of revenue. The first two members of the Rhine-Frankish Salian dynasty , Conrad II (reigned 1024–39) and Henry III (reigned alone 1039–56), also bestowed vacant duchies quite freely on their own kin and on men from outside the duchies. They competed against ducal power but could neither abolish nor replace it. In the 11th century, as before, the dukes held assemblies of their freemen and nobility, led the tribal army in war, and enforced peace. The counts , who were the ordinary officers of justice in serious criminal cases, obeyed the ducal summons; but, for the most part, they received their “ban,” the power to do blood justice, from the king himself.

The lands and the customary rights attached to their office, and indeed the office itself, not only became hereditary but also came to be treated more and more as a patrimony to which they had an inherent right against all men, king and duke included. Even so, however, a good many lines died out, and their counties fell back into the king’s hands. From Otto III ’s reign (983–1002) onward, kings often bestowed these counties on bishoprics and great abbeys rather than granting them again to lay magnates. The bishops, however, could not perform all the functions of the counts; in particular, their holy orders forbade them to pass judgments of blood. They often subinfeudated their countships, and they needed officials called advocates (Vögte; singular Vogt) to take charge of the higher jurisdiction in the territories that their churches possessed by royal grant. In the 10th and 11th centuries these advocates had to be recruited from the aristocracy, the very class whose greed for hereditary office was to be checked, because ordinary freemen could not enforce severe sentences or defend the privileges of the church against armed intrusion.

Ostensibly advocates and protectors of ecclesiastical possessions, the nobles were in fact anything but reliable servants of their ecclesiastical overlords and instead posed great danger for the bishoprics and abbeys. Thus there arose in nearly all German lands, whether the ducal office survived or not, powerful lines of margraves, counts, and hereditary advocates who enriched themselves at the expense of the church (which meant also the crown) and in competition with one another. From the abler, more fortunate, and long-lived of these dynasties sprang the territorial princes of the later 12th and 13th centuries, absorbing and finally inheriting most of the rights of government. The king was the personal overlord of all the great. His court was the seat of government, and it went with him on his long journeys. The German kings, even more than other medieval rulers, could make their authority respected in the far-flung regions of their kingdom only by traveling ceaselessly from duchy to duchy, from frontier to frontier.

Wherever they stayed, their jurisdiction superseded the standing power of dukes, counts, and advocates, and they could collect the profits of local justice and wield some control over it. As they came into each region, they summoned its leaders to attend their solemn crown wearings, deliberated with them on the affairs of the kingdom and the locality, presided over pleas, granted privileges, and made war against peacemakers at home and enemies abroad. The promotion of the German church The royal revenues came from the king’s demesne and from his share of the tributes that Poles, Czechs, Wends, and Danes paid whenever he could enforce his claims of overlordship. There were also profits from tolls and mints that had not yet been granted away. The king’s demesne was his working capital. He and his household lived on its produce during their wanderings through the Reich, and he used its revenue to provide for his family, to found churches, and to reward faithful services done to him, especially in war. To swell his army, the king needed to add new vassals, and he inevitably had to grant land to some of them from his own demesne.

Although the Salians inherited the remains of Ottonian wealth as an imperial demesne, they brought little of their own to make up for its diminution. The last Ottonian, Henry II (1002–24), and after him Conrad II, accordingly took to enfeoffing vassals with lands taken from the monasteries. Since the beneficiaries were often already powerful and wealthy men in their own right, no class of freeborn, mounted warriors linked permanently with the crown resulted from the loyalties established and rewards granted during but one or two reigns. In any case, the lion’s share of grants went to the German church. From the Carolingians the German kings inherited their one and only institution of central government: the royal chapel , with the chancery that does not seem to have been distinct from it. Service there became a recognized avenue of promotion to the episcopate for highborn clerics. In the 11th century bishops and abbots conducted the affairs of the Reich much more than the lay lords, even in war. They were its habitual diplomats and ambassadors.

Unlike Henry I, Otto I and his successors sought to free the prelates from all forms of subjection to the dukes. The king appointed most of them, and to him alone, as to one sent by God, they owed obedience. Thus there arose beside the loose association of tribal duchies in the German kingdom a more compact and uniform body with a far greater vested interest in the Reich: the German church . By ancient Germanic custom, moreover, the founder of a church did not lose his estate in the endowment that he had made; he remained its proprietor and protecting lord. Still, the bishoprics and certain ancient abbeys, such as Sankt Gallen , Reichenau , Fulda , and Hersfeld, did not belong to the king; they were members of the kingdom, but he served only as their guardian. The greater churches therefore had to provide the rulers with mounted men, money, and free quarters. Gifts of royal demesne to found or to enrich bishoprics and convents were not really losses of land but pious reinvestments, as long as the crown controlled the appointments of bishops and abbots.

The church did not merely receive grants of land, often uncultivated, to settle, develop, and make profitable; it was also given jurisdiction over its dependents. Nor did the kings stint the prelates in other regalian rights, such as mints, markets, and tolls. These grants broke up counties and to some extent even duchies, and that was their purpose: to disrupt the secular lords’ jurisdictions that had escaped royal control. This policy of fastening the church, a universal institution, into the Reich, with its well-defined frontiers, is usually associated with Otto I, but it gathered momentum only in the reigns of his successors. The policy reached a climax under Henry II , the founder of the see of Bamberg in the upper Main valley; nonetheless, Conrad II, though less generous with his grants, and his son Henry III continued it. Bishops and abbots became the competitors of lay princes in the formation of territories, a rivalry that more than any other was the fuel and substance of the ceaseless feuds—the smoldering internal wars in all the regions of Germany for many centuries.

The welter and the confused mosaic of the political map of Germany until 1803 is the not-so-remote outcome of these 10th- and 11th-century grants and of the incompatible ambitions that they aroused. The Ottonian conquest of Italy and the imperial crown Otto first entered Italy in 951 and, according to some accounts, was already interested in securing the imperial crown. He campaigned in Italy at the request of Adelaide (Adelheid), the daughter of Rudolph II of Burgundy and widow of the king of Italy , who had been jailed by Berengar II , the king of Italy. Otto defeated Berengar, secured Adelaide’s release, and then married her. His first Italian campaign was also motivated by political developments in Germany, including the competing ambitions in Italy of his son Liudolf, duke of Swabia, and Otto’s brother Henry I, duke of Bavaria. Although he would be called back to Germany by a revolt in 953, Otto accomplished his primary goals during his first trip to Italy. He gained legitimate rights to govern in Italy as a result of his marriage, and securing his southern flanks guaranteed access to the pope.

Moreover, after 951, expeditions into Italy were a matter for the whole Reich under the leadership of its ruler and no longer just expansion efforts by the southern German tribes. For the Saxon military class, too, the south was more tempting than the forests and swamps beyond the Elbe. With superior forces at their back, the German kings gained possession of the Lombard kingdom in Italy. There, too, their overlordship in the 10th and the 11th centuries came to rest on the bishoprics and a handful of great abbeys. Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. After Otto I’s victory over the Magyars in 955, his hegemony in the West was indisputable. Indeed, he was hailed in traditional fashion as emperor (imperator) by his troops after the victory, which was seen as divine sanction for Otto’s ascendant position by his contemporaries. Furthermore, according to one chronicler, the Saxon Widukind, he had already become emperor because he had subjected other peoples and enjoyed authority in more than one kingdom.

But the right to confer the imperial crown, to raise a king to the higher rank of emperor, belonged to the papacy , which had crowned Charlemagne and most of his successors. The Carolingian order was still the model and something like a political ideal for all Western ruling families in the 10th century. Otto had measured himself against the political tasks that had faced his East Frankish predecessors and more or less mastered them. To be like Charlemagne, therefore, and to clothe his newly won position in a traditional and time-honoured dignity, he accepted the imperial crown and anointment from Pope John XII in Rome in 962. The substance of his empire was military power and success in war; but Christian and Roman ideas were woven round the Saxon’s throne by the writers of his own and the next generation. Although the German kings as emperors did not legislate matters of doctrine and ritual, they became the political masters of the Roman church for nearly a century. The imperial crown enhanced their standing even among the nobles and knights who followed them to Italy and can hardly have understood or wanted all its outlandish associations.

Not only the king but also the German bishops and lay lords thus entered into a permanent connection with an empire won on the way to Rome and bestowed by the papacy. Otto I successfully revived the empire in the West on Carolingian precedents and secured Ottonian rule in Germany, but his greatest triumph may have come near the end of his reign when he secured both recognition from the Byzantine emperor and a marriage arrangement between his son, Otto II , and the Byzantine princess Theophano. In 973 Otto II succeeded his father as emperor. His attention, perhaps under his wife’s influence, was drawn to Italy and the Mediterranean, and he campaigned in southern Italy with disastrous results, suffering a terrible defeat at the hands of Muslim armies. When Otto II died in 983, his heir, Otto III , was only three years old, and a period of regency preceded a reign of great promise unfulfilled. Inheriting the traditions of both the Western and Eastern empires, the third Otto sought to revive the Christian Roman empire of Charlemagne and Constantine and planned a great capital in Rome.

Otto’s grand ambition is reflected in the appointment of Gerbert of Aurillac as pope, who took the name Sylvester II in imitation of Constantine’s pope; in Otto’s efforts to expand the empire (see Researcher’s Note: Holy Roman Empire ) and Christendom to the east; and in his discovery, with its apocalyptic overtones, of the tomb of Charlemagne in the year 1000. His premature death two years later, followed by that of Sylvester in 1003, ended this promising chapter of German history. His successor, Henry II, returned the imperial focus to Germany and contented himself with three brief Italian expeditions. The Salians, the papacy, and the princes, 1024–1125 During the reign of Conrad II (1024–39), the first Salian emperor, the kingdom of Burgundy fell finally under the overlordship of the German crown, and this tough and formidable emperor also renewed German authority in Italy.

His son and successor, Henry III (1039–56), treated the empire as a mission that imposed on him the tasks of reforming the papacy and of preaching peace to his lay vassals. Without possessing any very significant new resources of power, he nevertheless lent his authority an exalted and strained theocratic complexion. Yet, under Henry, the last German ruler to maintain his hegemony in western Europe, the popes themselves seemed to become mere imperial bishops. He deposed three of them, and four Germans held the Holy See at his command; but lay opposition to the emperor in Germany and criticism of his control over the church were on the increase during the last years of his reign. Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Germany - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) One of the great powers of Europe and of the industrial world, Germany rose from a collection of small states, principalities, and dukedoms to become a unified empire in 1871. The German empire was strategically located between France and Russia, and it clashed with both countries as it attempted to expand its borders.

This conflict resulted in World War I, in which Germany was defeated. Germany, however, emerged again as a major force in Europe in the 1930s under the leadership of the dictator Adolf Hitler, and German aggression set off World War II. Area 137,879 square miles (357,104 square kilometers). Population (2016 est.) 81,762,000. Article Contributors

Question: In which German city, is the tomb of Charlemagne?
Answer: Aachen