Speyer

Speyer, historically known in English as Spires, is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in the western part of the Federal Republic of Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer lies south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim, and south-west of Heidelberg. Founded by the ancient Romans as a fortified town on the northeast frontiers of their Roman Empire, it is one of Germany's oldest cities. Speyer Cathedral, a number of other churches, and the Altpörtel dominate the Speyer landscape. In the cathedral, beneath the high altar, are the tombs of eight Roman Emperor">Ancient Rome">Roman Emperors and German kings.
The city is famous for the 1529 Protestation at Speyer. One of the ShUM-cities which formed the cultural center of Jewish life in Europe during the Medieval / Middle Ages, Speyer and its Jewish courtyard was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021.

History

The first known names were Noviomagus and Civitas Nemetum, after the Teutonic tribe, Nemetes, settled in the area. The name Spira is first recorded in the 7th century, taken from villa Spira, a Frankish settlement situated outside of Civitas Nemetum.

Timeline

In 10 BC, the first Roman military camp is established, guarding the northeast frontier of the Roman Empire against Germanic barbarian tribes across the river to the east in Germania
In AD 150, the town appears as Noviomagus on the world map of the Greek geographer Ptolemy.
In 346, a Western Christian / Roman Catholic bishop for the town is mentioned for the first time.
4th century, Civitas Nemetum appears on the Peutinger Map.
5th century, Civitas Nemetum is destroyed.
7th century, the town is re-established, and named Spira after a nearby Frankish settlement.
In 1030, emperor Conrad II starts the construction of Speyer Cathedral, today one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Also in the 11th century, the first city wall is built.
In 1076, emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire embarks from Speyer, his favourite town, for Canossa.
In 1084, establishment of the first Jewish community in Speyer.
In 1096, as Count Emicho's Crusader army on their journey in the First Crusade to the Muslim-occupied Holy Land, rages across the Rhineland slaughtering innocent Jewish communities in the Rhineland massacres. Speyer's Bishop John, with the local leader Yekutiel ben Moses, manages to secure the community's members inside the episcopal palace and later leads them to even stronger fortifications outside the town. It was ruled that anyone harming a Jew would have his hands chopped off.
In 1294, the Roman Catholic bishop loses most of his previous rights, and from now on Speyer is a Free Imperial Town of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1349, the Jewish community of Speyer is wiped out in a persecution pogrom.
Between 1527 and 1689, Speyer is the seat of the Imperial Chamber Court.
During the 16th century Protestant Reformation era in 1526, at the first Diet of Speyer (1526) interim toleration of Lutheran teaching and worship is decreed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
In 1529, at the second Diet of Speyer (1529) the Evangelical Lutheran states and supporting princes / electors of the Holy Roman Empire protest against the anti-Reformation resolutions.
In 1635, Marshal of France Urbain de Maillé-Brézé, together with Jacques Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, conquers Heidelberg and Speyer at the head of the Army of Germany.
In 1689, the town is heavily damaged by invading Royal French troops.
Between 1792 and 1814, Speyer during the long period of the French Revolutionary Wars and subsequent Napoleonic Wars is under French occupation and jurisdiction under the First French Republic and following First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte, continuing earlier during the 18th century, by Royal French troops of the Kingdom of France, after the Battle of Speyerbach, a century before in 1703 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
In 1816,, Speyer becomes the seat of administration of the Palatinate and of the government of the Rhine District of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and remains so for 129 years until the end of World War II in 1945.
In 1861, at the Speyer Cathedral, Edward VII was introduced to his future wife Alexandra by Crown Princess Victoria.
Between 1883 and 1904, the Memorial Church is built in remembrance of the Protestation of 1529 at the Diet of Speyer
In 1947, during post-World War II western Allied Powers-occupied Germany, the State Academy of Administrative Science is founded.
In 1990, Speyer celebrates its 2000th anniversary, on the eve of a reunified Federal Republic of Germany, following the ebbing close of the Cold War.

Main sights

Cathedral
Altpörtel – Old Town Gate
Gedächtniskirche – Memorial church
Dreifaltigkeitskirche – Trinity church
Jewish courtyard – remnants of medieval synagogue and intact mikve, UNESCO World Heritage Site
Technikmuseum Speyer – Transportation Museum
Historical Museum of the Palatinate

Transportation

Speyer lies on the Schifferstadt-Wörth railway and offers hourly connections to Karlsruhe and cities in the Rhine-Neckar area
Speyer Airfield is a general aviation airfield located 4 km south of the central business district of the city of Speyer.

Mayors

Since 1923 the mayor was a Lord Mayor.

Philipp Lichtenberger
Ernst Hertrich
Otto Moericke
Karl Leiling
Rudolf Trampler
Karl Leiling
Hans Hettinger
Paul Schaefer
Paulus Skopp
Christian Roßkopf
Werner Schineller
Hansjörg Eger
Stefanie Seiler

Twin towns – sister cities

Speyer is twinned with:

Spalding, United Kingdom, since 1956; discontinued 2021
Chartres, France, since 1959
Kursk, Russia, since 1989
Ravenna, Italy, since 1989
Gniezno, Poland, since 1992
Yavne, Israel, since 1998
Rusizi District, Rwanda, since 1982/2001
Ningde, China, since 2013
Chichester, United Kingdom, since 2023

Notable people

Born before 1900

Samuel of Speyer, Exeget of Torah and Midrash
Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg, scribe and philosopher
Julian of Speyer, medieval choir master, composer and poet from the Roman Catholic Order of the Franciscans
Gabriel Biel, scholastic philosopher
Dietrich Gresemund, author
Georg von Speyer, conquistador/ explorer for the Kingdom of Spain / Spanish Empire in the Americas
Egon VIII of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, Reichsgraf of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg
Johann Joachim Becher, German physician, alchemist, precursor of chemistry, scholar and adventurer
Moritz Georg Weidmann, publisher and bookseller
Adolf von Dalberg, Prince of Fulda
Simha of Speyer German rabbi and tosafist. He was one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum.
Philipp Hieronymus Brinckmann, landscape and historical painters as well as copper cutters
Johann Martin Bernatz, landscape painter
Anselm Feuerbach, German painter
Carl Jakob Adolf Christian Gerhardt, German physician
Henry Villard, German-American journalist, and in Europe during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, then publisher of the New York Evening Post newspaper and The Nation magazine and finally President for the trans-continental Northern Pacific Railroad.
Hermann von Stengel, Kingdom of Bavaria Administrative Officer in the German Empire
Wilhelm Meyer (philologist), classical philologist, mediavist and librarian
Karl Heinrich Emil Becker, general of the artillery, ballist and defense scientist, in the German Empire (Second Reich) / Republic of Germany (Weimar Republic) / Nazi Germany (Third Reich)
Hans Purrmann, painter, graphic artist, art writer and collector
Hermann Detzner, leader of the German Schutztruppe in the German Empire overseas colony German New Guinea in the southwest Pacific Ocean
Karl-Adolf Hollidt, Army officer and war criminal
Margarete Freudenthal-Sallis, German-Jewish sociologist of the changing role of women in home economics
George Waldbott, German-American physician

Born after 1900 (20th century)

George John Dasch, World War II spy who foiled terrorist attacks in the United States by Nazi Germany
Jakob Brendel, wrestler
Karl Haas, German American music educator and radio presenter
Helmut Bantz, gymnast
Alfred Cahn, German musician and composer
Edgar E. Stern, clinical social worker and author of The Peppermint Train: Journey to a German-Jewish Childhood
Gabriel Kney, Canadian pipe organ builder
Karl Hochreither, German organist and musicologist
Volker Straus German tonmeister
Jürgen Brecht, fencer
Wolf Frobenius, musicologist
Gerhard Vollmer, physicist and philosopher
Jürgen Creutzmann, politician
Hans-Joachim Lang, journalist, Germanist, historian and honorary professor
Axel Schimpf, Vice Admiral of the German Navy of the Federal Republic of Germany
Eberhard Bosslet, artist
Kay Friedmann, footballer
Markus Kranz, football player
Christoph Bechmann, German field-hockey player
Anke Vondung, opera singer
Daniel Born, politician
Ralf Schmitt, football player
Simone Weiler, swimmer
Jochen Kühner, rower
Martin Kühner, rower
Matthias Langkamp, football player
Christian Reif, long jumper
David McCray, basketball player
Florian Krebs, football player
Sebastian Langkamp, footballer
Lars Stindl, German footballer
Elias Harris, German international basketball player
Jonas Marz, footballer
Gianluca Korte, footballer
Raffael Korte, footballer
David Jahn, racing driver