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Bayreuth

Bayreuth (German: [baɪˈʁɔʏt] , Upper Franconian: [ba(ː)ˈɾaɪ̯t]; Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72,148 (2015). It hosts the annual Bayreuth Festival, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented.

Bayreuth
Town square
Location of Bayreuth
Bayreuth
Bayreuth
Coordinates: 49°56′53″N 11°34′42″E / 49.94806°N 11.57833°E / 49.94806; 11.57833
CountryGermany
StateBavaria
Admin. regionUpper Franconia
DistrictUrban district
Government
 • Lord mayor (2020–26) Thomas Ebersberger[1] (CSU)
Area
 • Total66.92 km2 (25.84 sq mi)
Elevation
340 m (1,120 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
 • Total74,506
 • Density1,100/km2 (2,900/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
95401–95448
Dialling codes0921, 09201, 09209
Vehicle registrationBT
Websitewww.bayreuth.de

History edit

Middle Ages and Early Modern Period edit

 
Bayreuth around 1900

The town is believed to have been founded by the counts of Andechs probably around the mid-12th century,[3] but was first mentioned in 1194 as Baierrute in a document by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg. The syllable -rute may mean Rodung or "clearing", whilst Baier- indicates immigrants from the Bavarian region.

Already documented earlier, were villages later merged into Bayreuth: Seulbitz (in 1035 as the royal Salian estate of Silewize in a document by Emperor Conrad II) and St. Johannis (possibly 1149 as Altentrebgast). Even the district of Altstadt (formerly Altenstadt) west of the town centre must be older than the town of Bayreuth itself. Even older traces of human presence were found in the hamlets of Meyernberg: pieces of pottery and wooden crockery were dated to the 9th century based on their decoration.[4]

While Bayreuth was previously (1199) referred to as a villa ("village"), the term civitas ("town") appeared for the first time in a document published in 1231. One can therefore assume that Bayreuth was awarded its town charter between 1200 and 1230. The town was ruled until 1248 by the counts of Andechs-Merania. After they died out in 1260 the burgraves of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern took over the inheritance.

As early as 1361 Emperor Charles IV conferred on Burgrave Frederick V the right to mint coins for the towns of Bayreuth and Kulmbach.

In 1398 Bayreuth was partitioned from Nuremberg, becoming the Principality of Bayreuth (German: Fürstentum Bayreuth). Until 1604, however, the princely residence and the centre of the territory was the castle of Plassenburg in Kulmbach and as such the territory was officially known as the Principality of Kulmbach. The town of Bayreuth developed slowly and was affected time and again by disasters.

Bayreuth was first published on a map in 1421.

In February 1430, the Hussites devastated Bayreuth and the town hall and churches were razed. Matthäus Merian described this event in 1642 as follows: "In 1430 the Hussites from Bohemia attacked / Culmbach and Barreut / and committed great acts of cruelty / like wild animals / against the common people / and certain individuals. / The priests / monks and nuns they either burnt at the stake / or took them onto the ice of lakes and rivers / (in Franconia and Bavaria) and doused them with cold water / and killed them in a deplorable way / as Boreck reported in the Bohemian Chronicle, page 450".[5]

By 1528, less than ten years after the start of the Reformation, the lords of the Frankish margrave territories switched to the Lutheran faith.

In 1605 a great fire, caused by negligence, destroyed 137 of the town's 251 houses. In 1620 plague broke out and, in 1621, there was another big fire in the town. The town also suffered during the Thirty Years War.

 
The Old Castle

A turning point in the town's history came in 1603 when Margrave Christian, the son of the elector, John George of Brandenburg, moved the aristocratic residence from the castle of Plassenburg above Kulmbach to Bayreuth. The first Hohenzollern palace was built in 1440–1457 under Margrave John the Alchemist. It was the forerunner of today's Old Palace (Altes Schloss) and was expanded and renovated many times. The development of the new capital stagnated due to the Thirty Years' War, but afterwards many baroque buildings were added to the town. After Christian's death in 1655 his grandson, Christian Ernest, followed him, ruling from 1661 until 1712. He was an educated and well-travelled man, whose tutor had been the statesman Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal. He founded the Christian-Ernestinum Grammar School and, in 1683, participated in the liberation of Vienna which had been besieged by the Turks. To commemorate this feat, he had the Margrave Fountain built as a monument on which he is depicted as the victor of the Turks; it now stands outside the New Palace (Neues Schloss). During this time, the outer ring of the town wall and the castle chapel (Schlosskirche) were built.

18th century edit

 
The New Castle
 
The Margravial Opera House (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
 
Margravial Opera House, Interior

Christian Ernest's successor, the Crown Prince and later Margrave, George William, began in 1701 to establish the then independent town of St Georgen am See (today, the district of St Georgen) with its castle, the so-called Ordensschloss, a town hall, a prison and a small barracks. In 1705 he founded the Order of Sincerity (Ordre de la Sincérité), which was renamed in 1734 to the Order of the Red Eagle and had the monastery church built, which was completed in 1711. In 1716 a princely porcelain factory was established in St. Georgen.

The first 'castle' in the park of the Hermitage was built at this time by Margrave George William (1715–1719).

In 1721, the town council acquired the palace of Baroness Sponheim (today's Old Town Hall or Altes Rathaus) as a replacement for the town hall built in 1440 in the middle of the market place and destroyed by fire.

In 1735, a nursing home, the so-called Gravenreuth Stift, was founded by a private foundation in St. Georgen. The cost of the building exceeded the funds of the foundation, but Margrave Frederick came to their aid.

Bayreuth experienced its Golden Age during the reign (1735–1763) of Margrave Frederick and Margravine Wilhelmina of Bayreuth, the favourite sister of Frederick the Great. During this time, under the direction of court architects, Joseph Saint-Pierre and Carl von Gontard, numerous courtly buildings and attractions were created: the Margravial Opera House with its richly furnished baroque theatre (1744–1748), the New 'Castle' and Sun Temple (1749–1753) at the Hermitage, the New Palace with its courtyard garden (1754 ff) to replace the Old Palace which had burned down through the carelessness of the margrave, and the magnificent row of buildings in today's Friedrichstraße. There was even a unique version of the rococo architectural style, the so-called Bayreuth Rococo which characterised the aforementioned buildings, especially their interior design.

The old, sombre gatehouses were demolished because they impeded transport and were an outmoded form of defence. The walls were built over in places. Margrave Frederick successfully kept his principality out of the wars being waged by his brother-in-law, Frederick the Great, at this time, and, as a result, brought a time of peace to the Frankish kingdom.

 
Friedrichstraße

1742 saw the founding of the Frederick Academy, which became a university in 1743, but was moved that same year to Erlangen after serious riots because of the adverse reaction of the population. The university has remained there to the present today. From 1756 to 1763 there was also an Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Roman Catholics were given the right to set up a prayer room and Jewish families settled here again. In 1760 the synagogue was opened and in 1787 the Jewish cemetery was dedicated.

Countess Wilhelmina died in 1758, and although Margrave Frederick married again, the marriage was short-lived and without issue. After his death in 1763, many artists and craftsmen migrated to Berlin and Potsdam, to work for King Frederick the Great, because Frederick's successor, Margrave Frederick Christian had little understanding of art. He also lacked the means due to the elaborate lifestyle of his predecessor, because the buildings and the salaries of the mainly foreign artists had swallowed up a lot of money. For example, the court – which under George Frederick Charles had comprised around 140 people – had grown to about 600 employees by the end of the reign of Margrave Frederick.[6] By 1769 the principality was close to bankruptcy.

In 1769, Margrave Charles Alexander, from the Ansbach line of Frankish Hohenzollerns, followed the childless Frederick Christian, and Bayreuth was reduced to a secondary residence. Charles Alexander continued to live in Ansbach and rarely came to Bayreuth.

In 1775, the Brandenburg Pond (Brandenburger Weiher) in St.Georgen was drained.

Following the abdication of the last Margrave, Charles Alexander, from the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth on 2 December 1791 its territories became part of a Prussian province. The Prussian Minister Karl August von Hardenberg took over its administration at the beginning of 1792.

The town centre still possesses the typical structure of a Bavarian street market: the settlement is grouped around a road widening into a square; the Town Hall was located in the middle. The church stood apart from it and on a small hill stood the castle. Some sixty years later the town (at that time a tiny village) became subordinate to the Hohenzollern state, and when this state was divided, Bayreuth ended up in the County of Kulmbach.

19th century edit

In 1804, the author Jean Paul Richter moved from Coburg to Bayreuth, where he lived until his death in 1825.

The rule of the Hohenzollerns over the Principality of Kulmbach-Bayreuth ended in 1806 after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleonic France. During the French occupation from 1806 to 1810 Bayreuth was treated as a province of the French Empire and had to pay high war contributions. It was placed under the administration of Comte Camille de Tournon, who wrote a detailed inventory of the former Principality of Bayreuth. On 30 June 1810 the French army handed over the former principality to what was now the Kingdom of Bavaria, which it had bought from Napoleon for 15 million francs. Bayreuth became the capital of the Bavarian district of Mainkreis, which later transferred into Obermainkreis and was finally renamed as the province of Upper Franconia.

As Bavaria was opened up by the railways, the main line from Nuremberg to Hof went past Bayreuth, running via Lichtenfels, Kulmbach and Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg to Hof. Bayreuth was first given a railway connexion in 1853, when the Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg railway was built at the town's expense. It was followed in 1863 by the line to Weiden, in 1877 by the railway to Schnabelwaid, in 1896 by the branch line to Warmensteinach, in 1904 by the branch to Hollfeld and in 1909 by the branch via Thurnau to Kulmbach, known as the Thurnauer Bockala (which means something like "Thurnau Goat").

 
The Bayreuth Festspielhaus, as seen in 1882

On 17 April 1870 Richard Wagner visited Bayreuth, because he had read about the Margrave Opera House, whose great stage seemed fitting for his works. However, the orchestra pit could not accommodate the large number of musicians required, for example, for the Ring of the Nibelung and the ambience of the auditorium seemed inappropriate for his piece.[7] So, he toyed with the idea of building his own festival hall (the Festspielhaus) in Bayreuth. The town supported him in this project and made a piece of land available to him, an undeveloped area outside the town between the railway station and Hohe Warte, the Grüner Hügel [de] ("Green Hill"). At the same time Wagner acquired a property at Hofgarten to build his own house, Wahnfried. On 22 May 1872 the cornerstone for the Festival Hall was laid and, on 13 August 1876, it was officially opened (see Bayreuth Festival). Planning and construction were in the hands of the Leipzig architect, Otto Brückwald, who had already made a name for himself in the building of theatres in Leipzig and Altenburg.

In 1886, the composer Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth while visiting his daughter Cosima Liszt, Wagner's widow. Both Liszt and Wagner are buried in Bayreuth; however, Wagner did not die there. Rather, he died in Venice in 1883, but his family had his body brought to Bayreuth for burial.

20th century edit

To the end of the Weimar Republic (1900–1933) edit

 
1920 emergency money: voucher for 25 pfennigs
 
1923 emergency money: voucher for a million marks

The new century also brought several innovations of modern technology: in 1892, the first electric street lights; in 1908 a municipal electricity station, and, in the same year, the first cinema.

In 1914–15, one section of the northern arm of the Red Main was straightened and widened after areas along the river had been flooded during a period of high water in 1909.

After the First World War had ended in 1918, the Workers' and Soldiers' Council took power briefly in Bayreuth. On 17 February 1919, there was a three-day coup, the so-called Speckputsch, a brief interlude of excitement in the otherwise rather staid town.

In a series of völkisch and nationalist "Deutscher Tag" (German Days), the NSDAP organised the event in Bayreuth on 30 September 1923. More than 3,300 military and civilian people gathered (equivalent to 15% of the inhabitants), although Minister of Defence Otto Gessler had forbidden the participation of Reichswehr units.[8] Among the guests were mayor Albert Preu as well as Siegfried and Winifred Wagner, who invited keynote speaker Adolf Hitler to Wahnfried house. There he met writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain, son-in-law of Richard Wagner and anti-semitic race theorist. Also on that day, Hans Schemm met Hitler for the first time.

In 1932, the provinces of Upper and Middle Franconia were merged and Ansbach was chosen as the seat of government. As a small compensation, Bayreuth was given the merged state insurance agency for Upper and Middle Franconia. Unlike the provincial merger, the merger of those institutions was never reversed.

Nazi era (1933–1945) edit

A stronghold of right-wing parties since the 1920s, Bayreuth became a center of Nazi ideology. In 1933, it was made capital of the Nazi Gau Bavarian Eastern March (Bayerische Ostmark, in 1942 Gau Bayreuth). Nazi leaders often visited the Wagner festival and tried to turn Bayreuth into a Nazi model town. It was one of several places in which town planning was administered directly from Berlin, due to Hitler's special interest in the town and in the festival. Hitler loved the music of Richard Wagner, and he became a close friend of Winifred Wagner after she took over the festival. Hitler frequently attended Wagner performances in the Bayreuth Festival Hall.

Bayreuth was to have received a so-called Gauforum, a combined government building and marching square built to symbolise the centre of power in the town. Bayreuth's first Gauleiter was Hans Schemm, who was also the head (Reichswalter) of the National Socialist Teachers League, NSLB, which was located in Bayreuth. In 1937 the town was connected to the new Reichsautobahn.

Under Nazi dictatorship the synagogue of the Jewish Community in Münzgasse was desecrated and looted on Kristallnacht but, due to its proximity to the Opera House it was not razed. Inside the building, which is once again used by a Jewish community as a synagogue, a plaque next to the Torah Shrine recalls the persecution and murder of Jews in the Shoah, which took the lives of at least 145 Jews in Bayreuth.[9][10]

During the Second World War, a subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp was based in the town,[11] in which prisoners had to participate in physical experiments for the V-2. Wieland Wagner, the grandson of the composer, Richard Wagner, was the deputy civilian director there in late 1944 and early April 1945.[12][13] Shortly before the war's end branches of the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) were to have been set up in Bayreuth.[14]

On 5, 8 and 11 April 1945 about one third of the town, including many public buildings and industrial installations were destroyed by heavy air strikes, along with 4,500 houses. 741 people were also killed. On 14 April, the U.S. Army occupied the town.

Post-war era (1945–2000) edit

After the war Bayreuth tried to part with its ill-fated past. It became part of the American Zone. The American military government set up a DP camp to accommodate displaced persons (DP), many of whom were Ukrainian.[15] The camp was supervised by the UNRRA.

The housing situation was very difficult at first: there were about 53,300 inhabitants in the town, many more than before the war began. This increase was primarily due to the high number of refugees and expellees. Even in 1948 more than 11,000 refugees were counted. In addition, because many homes had been destroyed due to the war, thousands of people were living in temporary shelters, even the festival restaurant next to the Festival Hall housed some 500 people.[16]

In 1945, 1,400 men were conscripted by the town council for "essential work" (clean-up work on damaged buildings and the clearing of roads). A significant number of historic buildings were demolished post-war but cultural life was soon back on track: in 1947 Mozart festival weeks were held in the Opera House, from which the Franconian Festival Weeks developed. In 1949 the Festival Hall was used for the first time again and there was a gala concert with the Vienna Philharmonic led by Hans Knappertsbusch. In 1951, the first post-war Richard Wagner Festival took place under the leadership of Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner. Wieland Wagner's fresh and non-traditional stagings "restored credibility to a theater that had been totally ruined by Nazi ideology."[17]

In 1949, Bayreuth became the seat of the government of Upper Franconia again.

In 1971, the Bavarian State Parliament decided to establish the University of Bayreuth and, on 3 November 1975, it opened for lectures and research. There are now about 10,000 students in the town.

In May 1972, a serious accident occurred at the folk festival in the town, when an overcrowded carriage derailed and several people were thrown out. Four died and five were injured, some seriously. At that time, it was the worst disaster on a roller coaster since the Second World War.

In 1979, US Army serviceman Roy Chung disappeared from the area and allegedly defected to North Korea via East Germany.

In 1999, the world gliding championship took place at Bayreuth municipal airport.

21st century edit

In 2006, Bayreuth chose its first CSU member and mayor, the lawyer, Michael Hohl, and, in 2007, a Youth Parliament, consisting of 12 young people, aged 14–17 years, was elected for the first time. The end of October saw the opening of the long-planned bus station and its associated office building on the newly created Hohenzollernplatz.

Largest groups of foreign residents[18]
Nationality Population (2013)
  Turkey 938
  Russia 434
  Italy 364
  China 336
  Poland 291

Richard Wagner and Bayreuth edit

 
Wagner family home, Haus Wahnfried

The town is best known for its association with the composer Richard Wagner, who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883. Wagner's villa, "Wahnfried", was constructed in Bayreuth under the sponsorship of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was converted after World War II into a Wagner Museum. In the northern part of Bayreuth is the Festival Hall, an opera house specially constructed for and exclusively devoted to the performance of Wagner's operas. The premieres of the final two works of Wagner's Ring Cycle ("Siegfried" and "Götterdämmerung"); the cycle as a whole; and of Parsifal took place here.

Every summer, Wagner's operas are performed at the Festspielhaus during the month-long Richard Wagner Festival, commonly known as the Bayreuth Festival. The Festival draws thousands each year and has persistently been sold out since its inauguration in 1876. Currently, waiting lists for tickets can stretch for 10 years or more.

Owing to Wagner's relationship with the then unknown philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the first Bayreuth festival is cited as a key turning point in Nietzsche's philosophical development. Though at first an enthusiastic champion of Wagner's music, Nietzsche ultimately became hostile, viewing the festival and its revellers as symptom of cultural decay and bourgeois decadence – an event which led him to turn his eye upon the moral values esteemed by society as a whole – "Nietzsche clearly preferred to see Bayreuth fail than succeed by mirroring a society gone wrong."[19]

Geography edit

 
The Red Main in Bayreuth

Location edit

Bayreuth lies on the Red Main river, the southern of the two headstreams of the river Main, between the Fichtelgebirge Mountains and Franconian Switzerland. The town is also part of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region.

Town divisions edit

The borough of Bayreuth is divided into 39 districts:

  • 1: Westliche Innenstadt (Western town centre)
  • 2: Östliche Innenstadt/Obere Röth (Eastern town centre)
  • 3: Cosima-Wagner-Straße/ Nürnberger Straße/Universitätsstraße
  • 4: Südöstliche Innenstadt (Southeastern town centre)
  • 5: Südwestliche Innenstadt (Southwestern town centre)
  • 6: Birken
  • 7: Justus-Liebig-Straße/Quellhöfe/Rückertweg
  • 8: Leuschnerstraße/Ludwig-Thoma-Straße
  • 9: Saas, originated from the parish village Saas, which was mentioned as early as 1528 in connection with the Baptists[20]
  • 10: Bismarckstraße/Friedrichstraße/Moritzhöfen
  • 11: Freiheitsplatz/Malerviertel
  • 12. Erlanger Straße/Wolfsgasse
  • 13: Jakobshof
  • 14: Hetzennest/Braunhof/Fantaisiestraße
  • 15: Meyernberg
  • 16: Nördlicher Roter Hügel
  • 17: Grüner Hügel/Wendelhöfen
  • 18: Kreuz
  • 19: Herzoghöhe/Am Bauhof
  • 20: Nördliche Innenstadt
  • 21: Carl-Schüller-Straße/Bürgerreuther Straße/Gutenbergstraße
  • 22: Gartenstadt
  • 23: Bürgerreuth/Gravenreutherstraße
  • 24: Sankt Georgen (Bayreuth)/Grüner Baum/Burg
  • 25: Östliche Hammerstatt
  • 26: Westliche Hammerstatt
  • 27: Bernecker Straße/Insel/Riedelsberg
  • 28: Industriegebiete St. Georgen
  • 29: St. Johannis
  • 30: Neue Heimat
  • 31: Oberkonnersreuth
  • 32: Laineck
  • 33: Westlicher Roter Hügel
  • 34: Eubener Straße/Furtwänglerstraße/Schupfenschlag/Hohe Warte
  • 35: Seulbitz
  • 36: Aichig/Grunau
  • 37: Thiergarten/Destuben
  • 38: Oberpreuschwitz
  • 39: Wolfsbach

Climate edit

Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Dfb" (Humid continental climate) using the 0 °C isotherm and "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate) using the −3 °C isotherm.

Climate data for Bayreuth
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 1
(34)
3
(38)
8
(46)
13
(55)
19
(67)
23
(73)
25
(77)
24
(76)
21
(69)
14
(57)
6
(42)
2
(36)
12
(54)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −4
(24)
−4
(25)
−1
(30)
2
(35)
6
(43)
9
(49)
11
(52)
11
(52)
8
(46)
4
(39)
0
(32)
−3
(27)
3
(38)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 46
(1.8)
33
(1.3)
36
(1.4)
43
(1.7)
56
(2.2)
61
(2.4)
71
(2.8)
69
(2.7)
46
(1.8)
46
(1.8)
43
(1.7)
48
(1.9)
590
(23.4)
Source: Weatherbase[21]

Politics edit

The current Member of the German Bundestag for Bayreuth is Silke Launert from the Christian Social Union in Bavaria.

Town council edit

 
The town hall

The results of the 2020 local elections in Bavaria were as follows (in brackets the change from the 2014 elections):

  • CSU: 24.1% (−5.8), 10 seats (−3)
  • Alliance 90/The Greens: 18.0% (+6.3), 8 seats (+3)
  • SPD: 17.7% (−3.5), 8 seats (−1)
  • BG – FW: 15,3% (−1.9), 7 seats (−1)
  • Young Bayreuth: 6.5% (−0,4), 3 seats (=)
  • FDP: 5.3% (−0.5), 2 seats (−1)
  • The Independents: 5.0% (+0.2), 2 seats (=)
  • AfD: 3.9% (+3.9), 2 seats (+2)
  • Women's Party: 2.4% (+2.4), 1 seat (+1)
  • The Left: 1.7% (+1.7), 1 seat (+1)

(Lord) Mayors of Bayreuth since 1818 edit

  • 1818–1848: Erhard Christian Hagen von Hagenfels (First legally trained mayor)
  • 1851–1863: Friedrich Karl Dilchert (civic mayor)
  • 1863–1900: Theodor von Muncker (legally trained mayor)
  • 1900–1918: Leopold von Casselmann (legally trained mayor, lord mayor from 1907)
  • 1919–30 April 1933: Albert Preu (lord mayor)
  • 1 May 1933 – June 1937: Karl Schlumprecht (lord mayor; NSDAP)
  • 21 July 1937 – April 1938: Otto Schmidt (lord mayor; NSDAP)
  • 3 May 1938 – 30 June 1938: Fritz Wächtler (Gauleiter, self-proclaimed commissarial lord mayor; NSDAP)
  • 1 July 1938 – April 1945: Fritz Kempfler (lord mayor; NSDAP)
  • 24 April 1945 – November 1945: Joseph Kauper (lord mayor)
  • November 1945–30 June 1948: Oscar Meyer (lord mayor)
  • 1 July 1948 – 30 April 1958: Hans Rollwagen (lord mayor; SPD)
  • 1 May 1958 – 30 April 1988: Hans Walter Wild (lord mayor; SPD)
  • 1 May 1988 – 30 April 2006: Dieter Mronz (lord mayor; SPD)
  • 1 May 2006 – 30 April 2012: Michael Hohl (lord mayor; CSU)
  • 1 May 2012 – 30 April 2020: Brigitte Merk-Erbe (lord mayor; BG)
  • since 1 May 2020: Thomas Ebersberger (lord mayor; CSU)

Sponsorship edit

In 1955 Bayreuth took on sponsorship for displaced Sudeten Germans from the town of Franzensbad in Okres Cheb.

Coat of arms edit

Margrave Albert Achilles, who was also Elector of Brandenburg, presented the town of Bayreuth in December 1457 with the coat of arms that it still bears today. Two fields show the black and white coat of arms of the Hohenzollerns. The black lion on gold with a red and white border was the municipal coat of arms of the burgraves of Nuremberg. Along the two diagonals are two Reuten, small triangular shovels with a slightly bent shaft. They represent the ending -reuth in the town's name."[22]

Culture and places of interest edit

Theatre edit

 
The Margravial Opera House
 
The Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the Green Hill in Bayreuth

The Margravial Opera House was opened in 1748 and is one of the finest Baroque theatres in Europe. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is both a museum and the oldest working tableau in Bayreuth.

The Festival Hall dates to the 19th century and is now used solely for the Bayreuth Festival. Only works by Richard Wagner are performed.

The former Stadthalle (lit.: city hall) did not have its own ensemble but was regularly used by the Theater Hof as well as various travelling theatres. It has been under reconstruction since 2017 and is supposed to be re-opened under the new name Friedrichsforum in 2023.[23]

The only two theatres with their own ensemble are the Studiobühne Bayreuth and amateur dramatic society, Brandenburg Kulturstadt. The venues of the Studiobühne are the domicile of the theatre in the Röntgenstraße, the artificial ruins of the Hermitage and the courtyard of piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne.

Museums edit

  • The Richard Wagner Museum at Wahnfried House was the residence of Richard Wagner and his family's home until 1966. Since 1976 it has been a museum with attached national archives and a research centre for the Richard Wagner Foundation in Bayreuth.
  • The Jean Paul Museum in the former residence of Richard Wagner's daughter, Eva Chamberlain, with autographs, first editions of works, portraits and other pictorial material.
  • The Franz Liszt Museum in the house where Franz Liszt died, with about 300 photographs, scripts and printed papers from the collection of the Munich pianist, Ernst Burger, which were bought by the town of Bayreuth. In addition there is a Stummklavier, made by the Ibach company of Haus Wahnfried, letters and first editions of Franz Liszt. Biographic information boards, a mould of the font from Liszt's birthplace Raiding, Austria and Liszt busts by Antonio Galli enhance the collection. Visits are accompanied by the music of Franz Liszt.
  • The Historical Museum in the Old Latin School on Kirchplatz. On the ground floor it portrays the history and development of Bayreuth from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century with a model of the town in the year 1763. On the first floor are divisions covering the art and cultural history of Bayreuth's margravial period (17th and 18th centuries). Another division portrays arts and crafts in Bayreuth and the surrounding area with examples of faience pottery, glass products from the Fichtelgebirge and stone pottery from Creußen. Painting, crafts, and early industrial artefacts from the Biedermeier period and the late 19th century round off a visit to the museum.
  • The Museum of Art in the Old Town Hall which contains the Helmut and Constanze Meyer Art Foundation, the Georg Tappert collection and the archives and collection of Caspar Walter Rauh. The collections contain key works from the 20th century. They also include the Little Poster Museum (formerly a museum on its own, the collection was integrated into the Museum of Art in 2012[24]) and the British American Tobacco's Historical Collection.
  • The German Typewriter Museum with a collection of over 400 historic typewriters from the Research and Training Centre for Shorthand and Word Processing in Bayreuth.
  • A branch of the Bavarian State Painting Collection was opened in the New Palace in August 2007. 80 works from Dutch and German painters of the late 17th century and 18th century are displayed.
  • The Archaeological Museum in the Italian Building of the New Palace was founded in 1827 by the Historic Society. Its eight exhibition rooms include artefacts such as New Stone Age stone axes, 80 pottery jars from the Hallstatt era and Celtic bronze jewellery. The discoveries on display, which all come from eastern Upper Franconia, especially Franconian Switzerland and the region around Bayreuth, date from the Old Stone Age to the Middle Ages. In the experimental field there is a reconstructed loom, a rock drill and an original Schiebemühle.
  • Maisel's Brewery and Cooper's Museum teaches everything about the production of Weizen beer on a 2,400 m2 (25,833 sq ft) layout, making it the largest brewery in the world,[25][26] not least due to its collection of over 5,500 beer glasses and mugs.
  • The Upper Franconia Prehistory Museum portrays the history of life in Upper Franconia since the beginning of the world. Exhibitions are constantly changing; currently the life-size dinosaurs attract especial interest.
  • Bayreuth Football Museum (Altstadt-Kult-Museum of SpVgg Bayreuth)
  • The Bayreuth of Wilhelmina Museum in the New Castle
  • Fire Brigade Museum
  • Iwalewa House, the Africa Centre of the University of Bayreuth
  • Johann Baptist Graser School Museum
  • Catacombs of the Bayreuth Aktien Brewery
  • Margravial state rooms and collection of Bayreuth faiences in the New Castle
  • Museum of Agricultural Tools and Equipment
  • Lindenhof Natural History Museum
  • Richard Wagner Gymnasium School Museum
  • Wilhelm Leuschner Memorial
  • Wo Sarazen Art

Buildings edit

 
The Spitalkirche
  • The Hermitage (Eremitage)
  • Thiergarten Hunting Lodge (Jagdschloss Thiergarten)
  • New Palace (Neues Schloss) and court garden, seat of the margraves from 1753
  • St. Georgen Castle (Ordensschloss St. Georgen)
  • St. Georgen Church (Ordenskirche St. Georgen)
  • St. John's Parish Church (St. Johannis)
  • Colmdorf Castle
  • Rollwenzelei with Jean Paul's study (Dichterstube)
  • Old Palace and castle chapel of Our Dear Lady (Altes Schloss)
  • Victory Tower (Siegesturm)
  • Spital Church (Spitalkirche)
  • Church of the Holy Spirit (Stadtkirche Heilig Dreifaltigkeit)
  • Stift church (Stiftskirche)
  • Birken Castle
  • The Goldener Anker hotel
  • Baroque parks:
    • Hermitage Park, former seat of the margraves, outside the inner town
    • Castle and park of Fantaisie, in Eckersdorf (vicinity of Bayreuth. 7 km (4 mi) west)
    • Sanspareil Park, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Bayreuth
  • University Botanical Gardens
  • Old building of the Klinikum Bayreuth, now used as the "load-balancing" branch of the Bundesarchiv („Lastenausgleichsarchiv Bayreuth“) mainly dealing with post-World War II Lastenausgleich compensation records

Public parks and cemeteries edit

 
The Eremitage with its sun temple

In the town centre is the Court Garden (Hofgarten) of the New Palace. Near the Festival Hall is the Festival Park. On the southern edge of the town lie the Ecological-Botanical Garden of the University of Bayreuth. On the Königsallee, east of the town centre, is the relatively small Miedel Garden.

The best known park in Bayreuth is that of the Eremitage (Hermitage) in the district of St. Johannis. With a total area of almost 50 hectares, it is the largest park in Bayreuth.

Bayreuth has been chosen to host the Bavarian Country Garden Show in 2016.[27][28] For this reason another park called Wilhelminenaue was built on the Main water meadows between the Volksfestplatz and the A9 motorway.[29][30]

The oldest surviving cemetery is the Town Cemetery (Stadtfriedhof) with a large number of gravestones of famous people. On the southern edge of the town is the Southern Cemetery (Südfriedhof) and crematorium. The districts of St. Johannis and St. Georgen have their own cemeteries. On Nürnberger Straße, in the east of the town, is a Jewish cemetery.

Sport edit

Over 60 clubs offer just under one hundred sports. The most successful club in the town presently is the Bayreuth Air Sports Community with its gliding team: in 2002 and 2015 the pilots won the Federal Gliding League, and they also won the IGC-World League in 2015.[31] The street hockey team of the Hurricans Bayreuth have been German runners-up three times (1998/2004/2006) and champions five times (1996/1997/2001/2005/2007). The basketball team of Medi Bayreuth plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (division 1), the HaSpo Bayreuth handball team, the footballers of SpVgg Bayreuth and the volleyball players of BSV Bayreuth each play in their respective Bavarian League. The ice hockey team, EHC Bayreuth, plays in the DEL2, the second highest ice hockey league in Germany.

Bayreuth had its sporting heyday in the late 1980s and early 90s. The basketball team, Steiner Bayreuth, were twice German Cup winners (1987/1988 and 1988/1989) and in the 1988/1989 season they also won the German championship. The hockey team of Bayreuth's swimming club (SCC) was twice champions of Second Division South and also played for a year in the Hockey League. At the time that the table tennis team of Steiner Bayreuth was also first class[32] (since 1983 2nd Division, in 1984/85, 1986/87 and 1987/88 1st Division,[33] 1988 relegated[34] and the team has played for many years in the 2nd Football Division. The table tennis players of the 1. Bayreuth FC played in the 1st Division from 1994 to 1997.

In 1999 the World Glider Championships took place in Bayreuth.

Regular events edit

  • In January, May, June, July, November and December: Young master pianists (concert series for young pianists from various music academies in the rooms of piano makers, Steingraeber & Söhne)
  • April: Bayreuth Easter Festival (charity concerts for children with cancer)
  • May: Musica Bayreuth
  • June: Uniopenair
  • June: Time for New Music
  • June: Bayreuth Folk Festival
  • July: Bayreuth Town Festival (on the first weekend in July)
  • July: Bayreuth Piano Festival
  • July–August: Bayreuth Festival, Midsummer Night Festival
  • September: Rock in Bayreuth
  • September: Bayreuth Baroque (opera performances in the Margravial Opera House)
  • October: Bayreuth Kneipen Festival
  • October: Bayreuth Museum Night (the day before the clocks go back)
  • October: Since 2008 the town had awarded annually the Margravine Wilhelmina Prize of the Town of Bayreuth as part of the Bayreuth Future Forum symposium of the University of Bayreuth

Economy and infrastructure edit

Transport edit

Long-distance roads edit

Motorways (Autobahnen):

Federal roads (Bundesstraßen):

Railways edit

From Bayreuth Central Station (Hauptbahnhof) railway lines run north to Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg, and from there to Bamberg and over the Schiefe Ebene to Hof, east to Weidenberg, southeast to Weiden and south to Schnabelwaid with connections to Nuremberg on the Pegnitz Valley Railway. The lines around Bayreuth are all single-tracked and non-electrified.

Since 23 May 1992 tilting Class 610 diesel multiple units have worked the Pegnitz Valley route. These were bought by the former Deutsche Bundesbahn specifically for the winding track.

Since a 2006/2007 timetable change, Bayreuth has no longer been connected to the DB's long-distance network. However, the Franken-Sachsen-Express still provides a direct connection to Dresden (since December 2007, every two hours). This service is worked by Class 612 diesel multiple units. There are also Regional-Express links via Lichtenfels to Bamberg and Würzburg, and via Lichtenfels and Kronach to Saalfeld.

Local public transport edit

 
The central bus station (ZOH) at the Hohenzollernplatz

The town bus routes are operated by Bayreuth Transport and Public Baths (BVB) (Bayreuther Verkehrs- und Bäder GmbH). Sometimes private bus operators run services on behalf of the transport companies. The 15 routes (lines 301–315) operate from Monday to Friday at 20 or 30-minute intervals; on Saturday and Sunday the interval is extended to 30 minutes. Late evening services (from about 20 to 12 pm during the week and to 1 am at weekends), on Sunday mornings a simplified network of six lines (lines 321–326) runs buses at 30-minute intervals. Some lines then operate like an on-call taxi service. The network is star-shaped. Originally, the central station was at the market square in Maximilianstrasse. Since 27 October 2007 the Central Bus Station (ZOH) has been at Hohenzollernplatz at the junction of Kanalstraße on the Hohenzollernring. At this stop there are also bus stops for local buses to facilitate transfers.

Regional rail is operated by the Omnibusverkehr Franken. From 1 January 2010 public transport from the town and district of Bayreuth was integrated into the Nuremberg Regional Transport Network (Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg).

Cycling edit

In most places there is a signed cycle path network. In the centre of Bayreuth itself, cycling is fairly straightforward due to the relatively flat topography, something which encourages the use bicycles as an everyday means of transport. Because of the proximity of the 600 kilometre long Main Cycleway, Bayreuth is also a destination for many tourist cycle routes. Because of the long service intervals of the Bayreuth town bus system and its long overnight pause, students use bicycles as their everyday mode of transport. Bicycles may be carried for a fee on DB Regio trains leaving Bayreuth and in the VGN's buses.[35]

Air transport edit

The local airport supports Bayreuth's commercial aviation traffic, individual business travel, general aviation and air sports. There is no commercial service any more: In 2001, the service which used to operate three times a day from Frankfurt via Bayreuth to Hof, stopped service.

The airfield at Bindlacher Berg is also one of the most important bases for gliding in Germany. For example, the World Championships took place here in 1999. For the air sports community in Bayreuth, the airport is a departure point for glider flights taking part in the national Bundesliga competition league. The local gliding club also provides instruction in flying gliders and light aircraft.

Important firms edit

  • Basell Bayreuth Chemie (Producer of polyolefins)
  • Brauerei Gebrüder Maisel (wheat beer specialist)
  • British American Tobacco (Germany) GmbH (cigarette production)
  • Cherry (Data entry devices, switches and sensors, car motifs)
  • Cybex
  • Grundig Business Systems (world market leader for professional dictaphone systems)
  • W. Markgraf (construction)
  • medi (medical aids)
  • Stäubli (textile machines, technical couplings and robot arms)
  • Steingraeber & Söhne piano manufacturers
  • TenneT TSO system operator
  • Zapf (manufacturer of ready-made garages and houses)
  • Trans Space Travels (Private space plane development firm)

Former important firms edit

  • F. C. Bayerlein 1809–1979 (textile company: weaving, spinning, cotton-spinning and dying)

Media edit

 
Radio Mainwelle
  • Nordbayerischer Kurier (daily paper)
  • Fränkische Zeitung (FZ); formerly the Bayreuther Anzeiger, renamed in October 2008 (advertising paper)
  • Bayreuther Sonntag (advertising paper)
  • Bayreuth4U (town magazine)
  • Bayerischer Rundfunk (North Upper Franconia correspondent office). In the 1950s/1960s Bayerische Rundfunk operated a radio station in Bayreuth on medium wave with a frequency of 520 kHz and a transmitter power of 200 watts using a 60-metre high transmission mast.
  • Campus TV (University of Bayreuth media project in media science)
  • Der Tip (University of Bayreuth student paper)
  • Oberfränkische Wirtschaft, (trade magazine for Upper Franconia)
  • Radio Galaxy (local radio station for the Bavaria-wide youth radio)
  • Radio Mainwelle (local radio)
  • Schalltwerk (University of Bayreuth internet radio)

Garrison edit

For centuries Bayreuth was also a garrison town for the Prussian Army, Royal Bavarian Army, Reichswehr, Wehrmacht, US Army, German Army (Bundeswehr) and the German Border Police (Bundesgrenzschutz). In the early 1990s, following the end of the Cold War the garrison tradition of the town came to an end when the Bundeswehr's Margrave Barracks (Markgrafenkaserne) and the Röhrensee Barracks (Röhrenseekaserne), used by the US Army and the BGS (Grenzschutzabteilung Süd 3), were closed.

Twin towns – sister cities edit

 
Bayreuth's twin towns

Bayreuth is twinned with:[36]

Since 1990, there is also a cultural partnership with the state of Burgenland, Austria, and a university partnership between the University of Bayreuth and the Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

Notable people edit

1600–1700 edit

 
Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

1701–1800 edit

 
Rudolf Wagner

1801–1900 edit

1901–1950 edit

From 1951 edit

Gallery edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Liste der Oberbürgermeister in den kreisfreien Städten, accessed 4 October 2022.
  2. ^ Genesis Online-Datenbank des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Statistik Tabelle 12411-003r Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes: Gemeinden, Stichtag (Einwohnerzahlen auf Grundlage des Zensus 2011) (Hilfe dazu).
  3. ^ Mayer, Bernd and Rückel, Gert (2009). Bayreuth – Tours on Foot, Heinrichs-Verlag, Bamberg, p.5, ISBN 978-3-89889-147-9.
  4. ^ Stuhlfauth, Adam (1991). Fundberichte zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte im Gebiet der Fränkischen Alb in the Archives for History of Upper Franconia, 35th volume, 3rd section, Bayreuth 1991
  5. ^ Frühwald (Hg.): Fränkische Städte und Burgen um 1650 based on texts and engravings by Merian, Sennfeld 1991.
  6. ^ Hübschmann, E. et al. (1992). Bayreuth – umgeguckt und hinterfragt, Bumerang Verlag, Bayreuth
  7. ^ The Artwork of the Future (Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft)
  8. ^ Martin Schramm: "Deutscher Tag, Bayreuth, 30. September 1923 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine", in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  9. ^ Gedenkstätten für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Eine Dokumentation, Vol. 1. Federal Office for Political Education, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89331-208-0, p. 119 f.
  10. ^ A list of the victims' names is found in "Denk / Steine setzen", published by the Bayreuth History Working Group (Geschichtswerkstatt Bayreuth), Bumerang Verlag, Bayreuth 2003. Bayreuth's Jews are considered to be those people who had lived for some time in Bayreuth, were born in Bayreuth or who were deported from Bayreuth.
  11. ^ "O'Keefe, Christine, Concentration Camps".
  12. ^ "How Wieland Wagner, once Hitler's friend, lifted the Nazi shadow from Bayreuth". Deutsche Welle. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  13. ^ Cleaver, Hannah (2 August 2003). "Wagner's son 'was in charge of Nazi slaves'". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  14. ^ Source and details → People's Court
  15. ^ Maruniak, Volodymyr (1984). "Displaced persons camps". Encyclopedia of Ukraine. 1. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
  16. ^ Bernd Mayer, Wo jeder Zehnte einen Stuhl besaß. In: Heimat-Kurier das historische Magazin des Nordbayerischen Kuriers. No. 3/2004
  17. ^ "How Wieland Wagner, once Hitler's friend, lifted the Nazi shadow from Bayreuth | DW | 27.07.2017". Deutsche Welle.
  18. ^ . Stadt Bayreuth. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  19. ^ Bergmann, Peter. Nietzsche: the Last Antipolitical German, Indiana University press, 1987, p. 102. ISBN 0-253-34061-6.
  20. ^ Holle, J.W. (1901). Geschichte der Stadt Bayreuth. Bayreuth
  21. ^ "Weatherbase.com". Weatherbase. 2013. Retrieved on 6 July 2013.
  22. ^ . Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. ^ . BR24 (in German). 4 September 2020. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  24. ^ "Kunstmuseum Bayreuth: 2012 – Plakatmuseum im Kunstmuseum Bayreuth". www.kunstmuseum-bayreuth.de. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  25. ^ 1988 Guinness Book of Records
  26. ^ Museums in Bayreuth 23 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine at www.bayreuth.de. Accessed on 18 September 2010.
  27. ^ Bayerischer Rundfunk: Bayreuth bekommt die Landesgartenschau 2016[permanent dead link]
  28. ^ "Landesgartenschau". Bayreuth.de (in German). Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  29. ^ Bayreuth Stadtnachrichten – Amtsblatt der Stadt Bayreuth, Nr. 2, 30. Januar 2009.
  30. ^ "Wilhelminenaue". Bayreuth.de (in German). Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  31. ^ "Final result IGC-World League 2015".
  32. ^ founded in 1970 by Horst Steiner (*1949) Zeitschrift DTS, 1989/6 dts regional/Süd p.5
  33. ^ Zeitschrift DTS, 1984/6 p.32
  34. ^ Zeitschrift DTS, 1988/5 p.12
  35. ^ Fahrradmitnahme 6 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine, vgn.de.
  36. ^ "Partnerstädte, Kooperationen". bayreuth.de (in German). Bayreuth. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

External links edit

  • Official website   (in German)
  • University of Bayreuth website (in German)
  • Bayreuther Festspiele website
  • Images from Bayreuth (in English and German)

bayreuth, district, district, lebanese, capital, city, beirut, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news,. For the district see Bayreuth district For the Lebanese capital city see Beirut This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Bayreuth news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Bayreuth German baɪˈʁɔʏt Upper Franconian ba ː ˈɾaɪ t Bareid is a town in northern Bavaria Germany on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains The town s roots date back to 1194 In the 21st century it is the capital of Upper Franconia and has a population of 72 148 2015 It hosts the annual Bayreuth Festival at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented BayreuthTownTown squareFlagCoat of armsLocation of BayreuthBayreuthShow map of GermanyBayreuthShow map of BavariaCoordinates 49 56 53 N 11 34 42 E 49 94806 N 11 57833 E 49 94806 11 57833CountryGermanyStateBavariaAdmin regionUpper FranconiaDistrictUrban districtGovernment Lord mayor 2020 26 Thomas Ebersberger 1 CSU Area Total66 92 km2 25 84 sq mi Elevation340 m 1 120 ft Population 2022 12 31 2 Total74 506 Density1 100 km2 2 900 sq mi Time zoneUTC 01 00 CET Summer DST UTC 02 00 CEST Postal codes95401 95448Dialling codes0921 09201 09209Vehicle registrationBTWebsitewww bayreuth de Contents 1 History 1 1 Middle Ages and Early Modern Period 1 2 18th century 1 3 19th century 1 4 20th century 1 4 1 To the end of the Weimar Republic 1900 1933 1 4 2 Nazi era 1933 1945 1 4 3 Post war era 1945 2000 1 5 21st century 1 6 Richard Wagner and Bayreuth 2 Geography 2 1 Location 2 2 Town divisions 2 3 Climate 3 Politics 3 1 Town council 3 2 Lord Mayors of Bayreuth since 1818 3 3 Sponsorship 3 4 Coat of arms 4 Culture and places of interest 4 1 Theatre 4 2 Museums 4 3 Buildings 4 4 Public parks and cemeteries 4 5 Sport 4 6 Regular events 5 Economy and infrastructure 5 1 Transport 5 1 1 Long distance roads 5 1 2 Railways 5 1 3 Local public transport 5 1 4 Cycling 5 1 5 Air transport 5 2 Important firms 5 3 Former important firms 5 4 Media 5 5 Garrison 6 Twin towns sister cities 7 Notable people 7 1 1600 1700 7 2 1701 1800 7 3 1801 1900 7 4 1901 1950 7 5 From 1951 8 Gallery 9 See also 10 References 11 External linksHistory editMiddle Ages and Early Modern Period edit nbsp Bayreuth around 1900 The town is believed to have been founded by the counts of Andechs probably around the mid 12th century 3 but was first mentioned in 1194 as Baierrute in a document by Bishop Otto II of Bamberg The syllable rute may mean Rodung or clearing whilst Baier indicates immigrants from the Bavarian region Already documented earlier were villages later merged into Bayreuth Seulbitz in 1035 as the royal Salian estate of Silewize in a document by Emperor Conrad II and St Johannis possibly 1149 as Altentrebgast Even the district of Altstadt formerly Altenstadt west of the town centre must be older than the town of Bayreuth itself Even older traces of human presence were found in the hamlets of Meyernberg pieces of pottery and wooden crockery were dated to the 9th century based on their decoration 4 While Bayreuth was previously 1199 referred to as a villa village the term civitas town appeared for the first time in a document published in 1231 One can therefore assume that Bayreuth was awarded its town charter between 1200 and 1230 The town was ruled until 1248 by the counts of Andechs Merania After they died out in 1260 the burgraves of Nuremberg from the House of Hohenzollern took over the inheritance As early as 1361 Emperor Charles IV conferred on Burgrave Frederick V the right to mint coins for the towns of Bayreuth and Kulmbach In 1398 Bayreuth was partitioned from Nuremberg becoming the Principality of Bayreuth German Furstentum Bayreuth Until 1604 however the princely residence and the centre of the territory was the castle of Plassenburg in Kulmbach and as such the territory was officially known as the Principality of Kulmbach The town of Bayreuth developed slowly and was affected time and again by disasters Bayreuth was first published on a map in 1421 In February 1430 the Hussites devastated Bayreuth and the town hall and churches were razed Matthaus Merian described this event in 1642 as follows In 1430 the Hussites from Bohemia attacked Culmbach and Barreut and committed great acts of cruelty like wild animals against the common people and certain individuals The priests monks and nuns they either burnt at the stake or took them onto the ice of lakes and rivers in Franconia and Bavaria and doused them with cold water and killed them in a deplorable way as Boreck reported in the Bohemian Chronicle page 450 5 By 1528 less than ten years after the start of the Reformation the lords of the Frankish margrave territories switched to the Lutheran faith In 1605 a great fire caused by negligence destroyed 137 of the town s 251 houses In 1620 plague broke out and in 1621 there was another big fire in the town The town also suffered during the Thirty Years War nbsp The Old Castle A turning point in the town s history came in 1603 when Margrave Christian the son of the elector John George of Brandenburg moved the aristocratic residence from the castle of Plassenburg above Kulmbach to Bayreuth The first Hohenzollern palace was built in 1440 1457 under Margrave John the Alchemist It was the forerunner of today s Old Palace Altes Schloss and was expanded and renovated many times The development of the new capital stagnated due to the Thirty Years War but afterwards many baroque buildings were added to the town After Christian s death in 1655 his grandson Christian Ernest followed him ruling from 1661 until 1712 He was an educated and well travelled man whose tutor had been the statesman Joachim Friedrich von Blumenthal He founded the Christian Ernestinum Grammar School and in 1683 participated in the liberation of Vienna which had been besieged by the Turks To commemorate this feat he had the Margrave Fountain built as a monument on which he is depicted as the victor of the Turks it now stands outside the New Palace Neues Schloss During this time the outer ring of the town wall and the castle chapel Schlosskirche were built 18th century edit nbsp The New Castle nbsp The Margravial Opera House UNESCO World Heritage Site nbsp Margravial Opera House Interior Christian Ernest s successor the Crown Prince and later Margrave George William began in 1701 to establish the then independent town of St Georgen am See today the district of St Georgen with its castle the so called Ordensschloss a town hall a prison and a small barracks In 1705 he founded the Order of Sincerity Ordre de la Sincerite which was renamed in 1734 to the Order of the Red Eagle and had the monastery church built which was completed in 1711 In 1716 a princely porcelain factory was established in St Georgen The first castle in the park of the Hermitage was built at this time by Margrave George William 1715 1719 In 1721 the town council acquired the palace of Baroness Sponheim today s Old Town Hall or Altes Rathaus as a replacement for the town hall built in 1440 in the middle of the market place and destroyed by fire In 1735 a nursing home the so called Gravenreuth Stift was founded by a private foundation in St Georgen The cost of the building exceeded the funds of the foundation but Margrave Frederick came to their aid Bayreuth experienced its Golden Age during the reign 1735 1763 of Margrave Frederick and Margravine Wilhelmina of Bayreuth the favourite sister of Frederick the Great During this time under the direction of court architects Joseph Saint Pierre and Carl von Gontard numerous courtly buildings and attractions were created the Margravial Opera House with its richly furnished baroque theatre 1744 1748 the New Castle and Sun Temple 1749 1753 at the Hermitage the New Palace with its courtyard garden 1754 ff to replace the Old Palace which had burned down through the carelessness of the margrave and the magnificent row of buildings in today s Friedrichstrasse There was even a unique version of the rococo architectural style the so called Bayreuth Rococo which characterised the aforementioned buildings especially their interior design The old sombre gatehouses were demolished because they impeded transport and were an outmoded form of defence The walls were built over in places Margrave Frederick successfully kept his principality out of the wars being waged by his brother in law Frederick the Great at this time and as a result brought a time of peace to the Frankish kingdom nbsp Friedrichstrasse 1742 saw the founding of the Frederick Academy which became a university in 1743 but was moved that same year to Erlangen after serious riots because of the adverse reaction of the population The university has remained there to the present today From 1756 to 1763 there was also an Academy of Arts and Sciences Roman Catholics were given the right to set up a prayer room and Jewish families settled here again In 1760 the synagogue was opened and in 1787 the Jewish cemetery was dedicated Countess Wilhelmina died in 1758 and although Margrave Frederick married again the marriage was short lived and without issue After his death in 1763 many artists and craftsmen migrated to Berlin and Potsdam to work for King Frederick the Great because Frederick s successor Margrave Frederick Christian had little understanding of art He also lacked the means due to the elaborate lifestyle of his predecessor because the buildings and the salaries of the mainly foreign artists had swallowed up a lot of money For example the court which under George Frederick Charles had comprised around 140 people had grown to about 600 employees by the end of the reign of Margrave Frederick 6 By 1769 the principality was close to bankruptcy In 1769 Margrave Charles Alexander from the Ansbach line of Frankish Hohenzollerns followed the childless Frederick Christian and Bayreuth was reduced to a secondary residence Charles Alexander continued to live in Ansbach and rarely came to Bayreuth In 1775 the Brandenburg Pond Brandenburger Weiher in St Georgen was drained Following the abdication of the last Margrave Charles Alexander from the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth on 2 December 1791 its territories became part of a Prussian province The Prussian Minister Karl August von Hardenberg took over its administration at the beginning of 1792 The town centre still possesses the typical structure of a Bavarian street market the settlement is grouped around a road widening into a square the Town Hall was located in the middle The church stood apart from it and on a small hill stood the castle Some sixty years later the town at that time a tiny village became subordinate to the Hohenzollern state and when this state was divided Bayreuth ended up in the County of Kulmbach 19th century edit In 1804 the author Jean Paul Richter moved from Coburg to Bayreuth where he lived until his death in 1825 The rule of the Hohenzollerns over the Principality of Kulmbach Bayreuth ended in 1806 after the defeat of Prussia by Napoleonic France During the French occupation from 1806 to 1810 Bayreuth was treated as a province of the French Empire and had to pay high war contributions It was placed under the administration of Comte Camille de Tournon who wrote a detailed inventory of the former Principality of Bayreuth On 30 June 1810 the French army handed over the former principality to what was now the Kingdom of Bavaria which it had bought from Napoleon for 15 million francs Bayreuth became the capital of the Bavarian district of Mainkreis which later transferred into Obermainkreis and was finally renamed as the province of Upper Franconia As Bavaria was opened up by the railways the main line from Nuremberg to Hof went past Bayreuth running via Lichtenfels Kulmbach and Neuenmarkt Wirsberg to Hof Bayreuth was first given a railway connexion in 1853 when the Bayreuth Neuenmarkt Wirsberg railway was built at the town s expense It was followed in 1863 by the line to Weiden in 1877 by the railway to Schnabelwaid in 1896 by the branch line to Warmensteinach in 1904 by the branch to Hollfeld and in 1909 by the branch via Thurnau to Kulmbach known as the Thurnauer Bockala which means something like Thurnau Goat nbsp The Bayreuth Festspielhaus as seen in 1882 On 17 April 1870 Richard Wagner visited Bayreuth because he had read about the Margrave Opera House whose great stage seemed fitting for his works However the orchestra pit could not accommodate the large number of musicians required for example for the Ring of the Nibelung and the ambience of the auditorium seemed inappropriate for his piece 7 So he toyed with the idea of building his own festival hall the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth The town supported him in this project and made a piece of land available to him an undeveloped area outside the town between the railway station and Hohe Warte the Gruner Hugel de Green Hill At the same time Wagner acquired a property at Hofgarten to build his own house Wahnfried On 22 May 1872 the cornerstone for the Festival Hall was laid and on 13 August 1876 it was officially opened see Bayreuth Festival Planning and construction were in the hands of the Leipzig architect Otto Bruckwald who had already made a name for himself in the building of theatres in Leipzig and Altenburg In 1886 the composer Franz Liszt died in Bayreuth while visiting his daughter Cosima Liszt Wagner s widow Both Liszt and Wagner are buried in Bayreuth however Wagner did not die there Rather he died in Venice in 1883 but his family had his body brought to Bayreuth for burial 20th century edit To the end of the Weimar Republic 1900 1933 edit nbsp 1920 emergency money voucher for 25 pfennigs nbsp 1923 emergency money voucher for a million marks The new century also brought several innovations of modern technology in 1892 the first electric street lights in 1908 a municipal electricity station and in the same year the first cinema In 1914 15 one section of the northern arm of the Red Main was straightened and widened after areas along the river had been flooded during a period of high water in 1909 After the First World War had ended in 1918 the Workers and Soldiers Council took power briefly in Bayreuth On 17 February 1919 there was a three day coup the so called Speckputsch a brief interlude of excitement in the otherwise rather staid town In a series of volkisch and nationalist Deutscher Tag German Days the NSDAP organised the event in Bayreuth on 30 September 1923 More than 3 300 military and civilian people gathered equivalent to 15 of the inhabitants although Minister of Defence Otto Gessler had forbidden the participation of Reichswehr units 8 Among the guests were mayor Albert Preu as well as Siegfried and Winifred Wagner who invited keynote speaker Adolf Hitler to Wahnfried house There he met writer Houston Stewart Chamberlain son in law of Richard Wagner and anti semitic race theorist Also on that day Hans Schemm met Hitler for the first time In 1932 the provinces of Upper and Middle Franconia were merged and Ansbach was chosen as the seat of government As a small compensation Bayreuth was given the merged state insurance agency for Upper and Middle Franconia Unlike the provincial merger the merger of those institutions was never reversed Nazi era 1933 1945 edit A stronghold of right wing parties since the 1920s Bayreuth became a center of Nazi ideology In 1933 it was made capital of the Nazi Gau Bavarian Eastern March Bayerische Ostmark in 1942 Gau Bayreuth Nazi leaders often visited the Wagner festival and tried to turn Bayreuth into a Nazi model town It was one of several places in which town planning was administered directly from Berlin due to Hitler s special interest in the town and in the festival Hitler loved the music of Richard Wagner and he became a close friend of Winifred Wagner after she took over the festival Hitler frequently attended Wagner performances in the Bayreuth Festival Hall Bayreuth was to have received a so called Gauforum a combined government building and marching square built to symbolise the centre of power in the town Bayreuth s first Gauleiter was Hans Schemm who was also the head Reichswalter of the National Socialist Teachers League NSLB which was located in Bayreuth In 1937 the town was connected to the new Reichsautobahn Under Nazi dictatorship the synagogue of the Jewish Community in Munzgasse was desecrated and looted on Kristallnacht but due to its proximity to the Opera House it was not razed Inside the building which is once again used by a Jewish community as a synagogue a plaque next to the Torah Shrine recalls the persecution and murder of Jews in the Shoah which took the lives of at least 145 Jews in Bayreuth 9 10 During the Second World War a subcamp of the Flossenburg concentration camp was based in the town 11 in which prisoners had to participate in physical experiments for the V 2 Wieland Wagner the grandson of the composer Richard Wagner was the deputy civilian director there in late 1944 and early April 1945 12 13 Shortly before the war s end branches of the People s Court Volksgerichtshof were to have been set up in Bayreuth 14 On 5 8 and 11 April 1945 about one third of the town including many public buildings and industrial installations were destroyed by heavy air strikes along with 4 500 houses 741 people were also killed On 14 April the U S Army occupied the town Post war era 1945 2000 edit After the war Bayreuth tried to part with its ill fated past It became part of the American Zone The American military government set up a DP camp to accommodate displaced persons DP many of whom were Ukrainian 15 The camp was supervised by the UNRRA The housing situation was very difficult at first there were about 53 300 inhabitants in the town many more than before the war began This increase was primarily due to the high number of refugees and expellees Even in 1948 more than 11 000 refugees were counted In addition because many homes had been destroyed due to the war thousands of people were living in temporary shelters even the festival restaurant next to the Festival Hall housed some 500 people 16 In 1945 1 400 men were conscripted by the town council for essential work clean up work on damaged buildings and the clearing of roads A significant number of historic buildings were demolished post war but cultural life was soon back on track in 1947 Mozart festival weeks were held in the Opera House from which the Franconian Festival Weeks developed In 1949 the Festival Hall was used for the first time again and there was a gala concert with the Vienna Philharmonic led by Hans Knappertsbusch In 1951 the first post war Richard Wagner Festival took place under the leadership of Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner Wieland Wagner s fresh and non traditional stagings restored credibility to a theater that had been totally ruined by Nazi ideology 17 In 1949 Bayreuth became the seat of the government of Upper Franconia again In 1971 the Bavarian State Parliament decided to establish the University of Bayreuth and on 3 November 1975 it opened for lectures and research There are now about 10 000 students in the town In May 1972 a serious accident occurred at the folk festival in the town when an overcrowded carriage derailed and several people were thrown out Four died and five were injured some seriously At that time it was the worst disaster on a roller coaster since the Second World War In 1979 US Army serviceman Roy Chung disappeared from the area and allegedly defected to North Korea via East Germany In 1999 the world gliding championship took place at Bayreuth municipal airport 21st century edit In 2006 Bayreuth chose its first CSU member and mayor the lawyer Michael Hohl and in 2007 a Youth Parliament consisting of 12 young people aged 14 17 years was elected for the first time The end of October saw the opening of the long planned bus station and its associated office building on the newly created Hohenzollernplatz See also The Hohenzollern Margraves of Brandenburg Kulmbach Bayreuth Largest groups of foreign residents 18 Nationality Population 2013 nbsp Turkey 938 nbsp Russia 434 nbsp Italy 364 nbsp China 336 nbsp Poland 291 Richard Wagner and Bayreuth edit nbsp Wagner family home Haus Wahnfried The town is best known for its association with the composer Richard Wagner who lived in Bayreuth from 1872 until his death in 1883 Wagner s villa Wahnfried was constructed in Bayreuth under the sponsorship of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was converted after World War II into a Wagner Museum In the northern part of Bayreuth is the Festival Hall an opera house specially constructed for and exclusively devoted to the performance of Wagner s operas The premieres of the final two works of Wagner s Ring Cycle Siegfried and Gotterdammerung the cycle as a whole and of Parsifal took place here Every summer Wagner s operas are performed at the Festspielhaus during the month long Richard Wagner Festival commonly known as the Bayreuth Festival The Festival draws thousands each year and has persistently been sold out since its inauguration in 1876 Currently waiting lists for tickets can stretch for 10 years or more Owing to Wagner s relationship with the then unknown philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche the first Bayreuth festival is cited as a key turning point in Nietzsche s philosophical development Though at first an enthusiastic champion of Wagner s music Nietzsche ultimately became hostile viewing the festival and its revellers as symptom of cultural decay and bourgeois decadence an event which led him to turn his eye upon the moral values esteemed by society as a whole Nietzsche clearly preferred to see Bayreuth fail than succeed by mirroring a society gone wrong 19 Geography edit nbsp The Red Main in Bayreuth Location edit Bayreuth lies on the Red Main river the southern of the two headstreams of the river Main between the Fichtelgebirge Mountains and Franconian Switzerland The town is also part of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region Town divisions edit The borough of Bayreuth is divided into 39 districts 1 Westliche Innenstadt Western town centre 2 Ostliche Innenstadt Obere Roth Eastern town centre 3 Cosima Wagner Strasse Nurnberger Strasse Universitatsstrasse 4 Sudostliche Innenstadt Southeastern town centre 5 Sudwestliche Innenstadt Southwestern town centre 6 Birken 7 Justus Liebig Strasse Quellhofe Ruckertweg 8 Leuschnerstrasse Ludwig Thoma Strasse 9 Saas originated from the parish village Saas which was mentioned as early as 1528 in connection with the Baptists 20 10 Bismarckstrasse Friedrichstrasse Moritzhofen 11 Freiheitsplatz Malerviertel 12 Erlanger Strasse Wolfsgasse 13 Jakobshof 14 Hetzennest Braunhof Fantaisiestrasse 15 Meyernberg 16 Nordlicher Roter Hugel 17 Gruner Hugel Wendelhofen 18 Kreuz 19 Herzoghohe Am Bauhof 20 Nordliche Innenstadt 21 Carl Schuller Strasse Burgerreuther Strasse Gutenbergstrasse 22 Gartenstadt 23 Burgerreuth Gravenreutherstrasse 24 Sankt Georgen Bayreuth Gruner Baum Burg 25 Ostliche Hammerstatt 26 Westliche Hammerstatt 27 Bernecker Strasse Insel Riedelsberg 28 Industriegebiete St Georgen 29 St Johannis 30 Neue Heimat 31 Oberkonnersreuth 32 Laineck 33 Westlicher Roter Hugel 34 Eubener Strasse Furtwanglerstrasse Schupfenschlag Hohe Warte 35 Seulbitz 36 Aichig Grunau 37 Thiergarten Destuben 38 Oberpreuschwitz 39 Wolfsbach Climate edit Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows and there is adequate rainfall year round The Koppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is Dfb Humid continental climate using the 0 C isotherm and Cfb Marine West Coast Climate Oceanic climate using the 3 C isotherm Climate data for Bayreuth Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Mean daily maximum C F 1 34 3 38 8 46 13 55 19 67 23 73 25 77 24 76 21 69 14 57 6 42 2 36 12 54 Mean daily minimum C F 4 24 4 25 1 30 2 35 6 43 9 49 11 52 11 52 8 46 4 39 0 32 3 27 3 38 Average precipitation mm inches 46 1 8 33 1 3 36 1 4 43 1 7 56 2 2 61 2 4 71 2 8 69 2 7 46 1 8 46 1 8 43 1 7 48 1 9 590 23 4 Source Weatherbase 21 Politics editThe current Member of the German Bundestag for Bayreuth is Silke Launert from the Christian Social Union in Bavaria Town council edit nbsp The town hall The results of the 2020 local elections in Bavaria were as follows in brackets the change from the 2014 elections CSU 24 1 5 8 10 seats 3 Alliance 90 The Greens 18 0 6 3 8 seats 3 SPD 17 7 3 5 8 seats 1 BG FW 15 3 1 9 7 seats 1 Young Bayreuth 6 5 0 4 3 seats FDP 5 3 0 5 2 seats 1 The Independents 5 0 0 2 2 seats AfD 3 9 3 9 2 seats 2 Women s Party 2 4 2 4 1 seat 1 The Left 1 7 1 7 1 seat 1 Lord Mayors of Bayreuth since 1818 edit 1818 1848 Erhard Christian Hagen von Hagenfels First legally trained mayor 1851 1863 Friedrich Karl Dilchert civic mayor 1863 1900 Theodor von Muncker legally trained mayor 1900 1918 Leopold von Casselmann legally trained mayor lord mayor from 1907 1919 30 April 1933 Albert Preu lord mayor 1 May 1933 June 1937 Karl Schlumprecht lord mayor NSDAP 21 July 1937 April 1938 Otto Schmidt lord mayor NSDAP 3 May 1938 30 June 1938 Fritz Wachtler Gauleiter self proclaimed commissarial lord mayor NSDAP 1 July 1938 April 1945 Fritz Kempfler lord mayor NSDAP 24 April 1945 November 1945 Joseph Kauper lord mayor November 1945 30 June 1948 Oscar Meyer lord mayor 1 July 1948 30 April 1958 Hans Rollwagen lord mayor SPD 1 May 1958 30 April 1988 Hans Walter Wild lord mayor SPD 1 May 1988 30 April 2006 Dieter Mronz lord mayor SPD 1 May 2006 30 April 2012 Michael Hohl lord mayor CSU 1 May 2012 30 April 2020 Brigitte Merk Erbe lord mayor BG since 1 May 2020 Thomas Ebersberger lord mayor CSU Sponsorship edit In 1955 Bayreuth took on sponsorship for displaced Sudeten Germans from the town of Franzensbad in Okres Cheb Coat of arms edit Margrave Albert Achilles who was also Elector of Brandenburg presented the town of Bayreuth in December 1457 with the coat of arms that it still bears today Two fields show the black and white coat of arms of the Hohenzollerns The black lion on gold with a red and white border was the municipal coat of arms of the burgraves of Nuremberg Along the two diagonals are two Reuten small triangular shovels with a slightly bent shaft They represent the ending reuth in the town s name 22 Culture and places of interest editTheatre edit nbsp The Margravial Opera House nbsp The Richard Wagner Festival Hall on the Green Hill in Bayreuth The Margravial Opera House was opened in 1748 and is one of the finest Baroque theatres in Europe The UNESCO World Heritage Site is both a museum and the oldest working tableau in Bayreuth The Festival Hall dates to the 19th century and is now used solely for the Bayreuth Festival Only works by Richard Wagner are performed The former Stadthalle lit city hall did not have its own ensemble but was regularly used by the Theater Hof as well as various travelling theatres It has been under reconstruction since 2017 and is supposed to be re opened under the new name Friedrichsforum in 2023 23 The only two theatres with their own ensemble are the Studiobuhne Bayreuth and amateur dramatic society Brandenburg Kulturstadt The venues of the Studiobuhne are the domicile of the theatre in the Rontgenstrasse the artificial ruins of the Hermitage and the courtyard of piano manufacturer Steingraeber amp Sohne Museums edit The Richard Wagner Museum at Wahnfried House was the residence of Richard Wagner and his family s home until 1966 Since 1976 it has been a museum with attached national archives and a research centre for the Richard Wagner Foundation in Bayreuth The Jean Paul Museum in the former residence of Richard Wagner s daughter Eva Chamberlain with autographs first editions of works portraits and other pictorial material The Franz Liszt Museum in the house where Franz Liszt died with about 300 photographs scripts and printed papers from the collection of the Munich pianist Ernst Burger which were bought by the town of Bayreuth In addition there is a Stummklavier made by the Ibach company of Haus Wahnfried letters and first editions of Franz Liszt Biographic information boards a mould of the font from Liszt s birthplace Raiding Austria and Liszt busts by Antonio Galli enhance the collection Visits are accompanied by the music of Franz Liszt The Historical Museum in the Old Latin School on Kirchplatz On the ground floor it portrays the history and development of Bayreuth from the late Middle Ages to the 20th century with a model of the town in the year 1763 On the first floor are divisions covering the art and cultural history of Bayreuth s margravial period 17th and 18th centuries Another division portrays arts and crafts in Bayreuth and the surrounding area with examples of faience pottery glass products from the Fichtelgebirge and stone pottery from Creussen Painting crafts and early industrial artefacts from the Biedermeier period and the late 19th century round off a visit to the museum The Museum of Art in the Old Town Hall which contains the Helmut and Constanze Meyer Art Foundation the Georg Tappert collection and the archives and collection of Caspar Walter Rauh The collections contain key works from the 20th century They also include the Little Poster Museum formerly a museum on its own the collection was integrated into the Museum of Art in 2012 24 and the British American Tobacco s Historical Collection The German Typewriter Museum with a collection of over 400 historic typewriters from the Research and Training Centre for Shorthand and Word Processing in Bayreuth A branch of the Bavarian State Painting Collection was opened in the New Palace in August 2007 80 works from Dutch and German painters of the late 17th century and 18th century are displayed The Archaeological Museum in the Italian Building of the New Palace was founded in 1827 by the Historic Society Its eight exhibition rooms include artefacts such as New Stone Age stone axes 80 pottery jars from the Hallstatt era and Celtic bronze jewellery The discoveries on display which all come from eastern Upper Franconia especially Franconian Switzerland and the region around Bayreuth date from the Old Stone Age to the Middle Ages In the experimental field there is a reconstructed loom a rock drill and an original Schiebemuhle Maisel s Brewery and Cooper s Museum teaches everything about the production of Weizen beer on a 2 400 m2 25 833 sq ft layout making it the largest brewery in the world 25 26 not least due to its collection of over 5 500 beer glasses and mugs The Upper Franconia Prehistory Museum portrays the history of life in Upper Franconia since the beginning of the world Exhibitions are constantly changing currently the life size dinosaurs attract especial interest Bayreuth Football Museum Altstadt Kult Museum of SpVgg Bayreuth The Bayreuth of Wilhelmina Museum in the New Castle Fire Brigade Museum Iwalewa House the Africa Centre of the University of Bayreuth Johann Baptist Graser School Museum Catacombs of the Bayreuth Aktien Brewery Margravial state rooms and collection of Bayreuth faiences in the New Castle Museum of Agricultural Tools and Equipment Lindenhof Natural History Museum Richard Wagner Gymnasium School Museum Wilhelm Leuschner Memorial Wo Sarazen Art Buildings edit nbsp The Spitalkirche The Hermitage Eremitage Thiergarten Hunting Lodge Jagdschloss Thiergarten New Palace Neues Schloss and court garden seat of the margraves from 1753 St Georgen Castle Ordensschloss St Georgen St Georgen Church Ordenskirche St Georgen St John s Parish Church St Johannis Colmdorf Castle Rollwenzelei with Jean Paul s study Dichterstube Old Palace and castle chapel of Our Dear Lady Altes Schloss Victory Tower Siegesturm Spital Church Spitalkirche Church of the Holy Spirit Stadtkirche Heilig Dreifaltigkeit Stift church Stiftskirche Birken Castle The Goldener Anker hotel Baroque parks Hermitage Park former seat of the margraves outside the inner town Castle and park of Fantaisie in Eckersdorf vicinity of Bayreuth 7 km 4 mi west Sanspareil Park about 30 kilometres 19 miles west of Bayreuth University Botanical Gardens Old building of the Klinikum Bayreuth now used as the load balancing branch of the Bundesarchiv Lastenausgleichsarchiv Bayreuth mainly dealing with post World War II Lastenausgleich compensation records Public parks and cemeteries edit nbsp The Eremitage with its sun temple In the town centre is the Court Garden Hofgarten of the New Palace Near the Festival Hall is the Festival Park On the southern edge of the town lie the Ecological Botanical Garden of the University of Bayreuth On the Konigsallee east of the town centre is the relatively small Miedel Garden The best known park in Bayreuth is that of the Eremitage Hermitage in the district of St Johannis With a total area of almost 50 hectares it is the largest park in Bayreuth Bayreuth has been chosen to host the Bavarian Country Garden Show in 2016 27 28 For this reason another park called Wilhelminenaue was built on the Main water meadows between the Volksfestplatz and the A9 motorway 29 30 The oldest surviving cemetery is the Town Cemetery Stadtfriedhof with a large number of gravestones of famous people On the southern edge of the town is the Southern Cemetery Sudfriedhof and crematorium The districts of St Johannis and St Georgen have their own cemeteries On Nurnberger Strasse in the east of the town is a Jewish cemetery Sport edit Over 60 clubs offer just under one hundred sports The most successful club in the town presently is the Bayreuth Air Sports Community with its gliding team in 2002 and 2015 the pilots won the Federal Gliding League and they also won the IGC World League in 2015 31 The street hockey team of the Hurricans Bayreuth have been German runners up three times 1998 2004 2006 and champions five times 1996 1997 2001 2005 2007 The basketball team of Medi Bayreuth plays in the Basketball Bundesliga division 1 the HaSpo Bayreuth handball team the footballers of SpVgg Bayreuth and the volleyball players of BSV Bayreuth each play in their respective Bavarian League The ice hockey team EHC Bayreuth plays in the DEL2 the second highest ice hockey league in Germany Bayreuth had its sporting heyday in the late 1980s and early 90s The basketball team Steiner Bayreuth were twice German Cup winners 1987 1988 and 1988 1989 and in the 1988 1989 season they also won the German championship The hockey team of Bayreuth s swimming club SCC was twice champions of Second Division South and also played for a year in the Hockey League At the time that the table tennis team of Steiner Bayreuth was also first class 32 since 1983 2nd Division in 1984 85 1986 87 and 1987 88 1st Division 33 1988 relegated 34 and the team has played for many years in the 2nd Football Division The table tennis players of the 1 Bayreuth FC played in the 1st Division from 1994 to 1997 In 1999 the World Glider Championships took place in Bayreuth Regular events edit In January May June July November and December Young master pianists concert series for young pianists from various music academies in the rooms of piano makers Steingraeber amp Sohne April Bayreuth Easter Festival charity concerts for children with cancer May Musica Bayreuth June Uniopenair June Time for New Music June Bayreuth Folk Festival July Bayreuth Town Festival on the first weekend in July July Bayreuth Piano Festival July August Bayreuth Festival Midsummer Night Festival September Rock in Bayreuth September Bayreuth Baroque opera performances in the Margravial Opera House October Bayreuth Kneipen Festival October Bayreuth Museum Night the day before the clocks go back October Since 2008 the town had awarded annually the Margravine Wilhelmina Prize of the Town of Bayreuth as part of the Bayreuth Future Forum symposium of the University of BayreuthEconomy and infrastructure editTransport edit Long distance roads edit Motorways Autobahnen A 9 Berlin Leipzig Bayreuth Nuremberg Ingolstadt Munich A 70 Schweinfurt Bamberg Bayreuth Federal roads Bundesstrassen B 2 Rosow Berlin Lutherstadt Wittenberg Leipzig Gera Hof Bayreuth Nuremberg Donauworth Augsburg Munich Mittenwald B 22 Wurzburg Bamberg Hollfeld Bayreuth Weiden Cham B 85 Berga Weimar Ludwigsstadt Kulmbach Bayreuth Amberg Schwandorf Cham Neukirchen vorm Wald Passau Railways edit From Bayreuth Central Station Hauptbahnhof railway lines run north to Neuenmarkt Wirsberg and from there to Bamberg and over the Schiefe Ebene to Hof east to Weidenberg southeast to Weiden and south to Schnabelwaid with connections to Nuremberg on the Pegnitz Valley Railway The lines around Bayreuth are all single tracked and non electrified Since 23 May 1992 tilting Class 610 diesel multiple units have worked the Pegnitz Valley route These were bought by the former Deutsche Bundesbahn specifically for the winding track Since a 2006 2007 timetable change Bayreuth has no longer been connected to the DB s long distance network However the Franken Sachsen Express still provides a direct connection to Dresden since December 2007 every two hours This service is worked by Class 612 diesel multiple units There are also Regional Express links via Lichtenfels to Bamberg and Wurzburg and via Lichtenfels and Kronach to Saalfeld Local public transport edit nbsp The central bus station ZOH at the Hohenzollernplatz The town bus routes are operated by Bayreuth Transport and Public Baths BVB Bayreuther Verkehrs und Bader GmbH Sometimes private bus operators run services on behalf of the transport companies The 15 routes lines 301 315 operate from Monday to Friday at 20 or 30 minute intervals on Saturday and Sunday the interval is extended to 30 minutes Late evening services from about 20 to 12 pm during the week and to 1 am at weekends on Sunday mornings a simplified network of six lines lines 321 326 runs buses at 30 minute intervals Some lines then operate like an on call taxi service The network is star shaped Originally the central station was at the market square in Maximilianstrasse Since 27 October 2007 the Central Bus Station ZOH has been at Hohenzollernplatz at the junction of Kanalstrasse on the Hohenzollernring At this stop there are also bus stops for local buses to facilitate transfers Regional rail is operated by the Omnibusverkehr Franken From 1 January 2010 public transport from the town and district of Bayreuth was integrated into the Nuremberg Regional Transport Network Verkehrsverbund Grossraum Nurnberg Cycling edit In most places there is a signed cycle path network In the centre of Bayreuth itself cycling is fairly straightforward due to the relatively flat topography something which encourages the use bicycles as an everyday means of transport Because of the proximity of the 600 kilometre long Main Cycleway Bayreuth is also a destination for many tourist cycle routes Because of the long service intervals of the Bayreuth town bus system and its long overnight pause students use bicycles as their everyday mode of transport Bicycles may be carried for a fee on DB Regio trains leaving Bayreuth and in the VGN s buses 35 Air transport edit The local airport supports Bayreuth s commercial aviation traffic individual business travel general aviation and air sports There is no commercial service any more In 2001 the service which used to operate three times a day from Frankfurt via Bayreuth to Hof stopped service The airfield at Bindlacher Berg is also one of the most important bases for gliding in Germany For example the World Championships took place here in 1999 For the air sports community in Bayreuth the airport is a departure point for glider flights taking part in the national Bundesliga competition league The local gliding club also provides instruction in flying gliders and light aircraft See also Bayreuth Airport Important firms edit Basell Bayreuth Chemie Producer of polyolefins Brauerei Gebruder Maisel wheat beer specialist British American Tobacco Germany GmbH cigarette production Cherry Data entry devices switches and sensors car motifs Cybex Grundig Business Systems world market leader for professional dictaphone systems W Markgraf construction medi medical aids Staubli textile machines technical couplings and robot arms Steingraeber amp Sohne piano manufacturers TenneT TSO system operator Zapf manufacturer of ready made garages and houses Trans Space Travels Private space plane development firm Former important firms edit F C Bayerlein 1809 1979 textile company weaving spinning cotton spinning and dying Media edit nbsp Radio Mainwelle Nordbayerischer Kurier daily paper Frankische Zeitung FZ formerly the Bayreuther Anzeiger renamed in October 2008 advertising paper Bayreuther Sonntag advertising paper Bayreuth4U town magazine Bayerischer Rundfunk North Upper Franconia correspondent office In the 1950s 1960s Bayerische Rundfunk operated a radio station in Bayreuth on medium wave with a frequency of 520 kHz and a transmitter power of 200 watts using a 60 metre high transmission mast Campus TV University of Bayreuth media project in media science Der Tip University of Bayreuth student paper Oberfrankische Wirtschaft trade magazine for Upper Franconia Radio Galaxy local radio station for the Bavaria wide youth radio Radio Mainwelle local radio Schalltwerk University of Bayreuth internet radio Garrison edit For centuries Bayreuth was also a garrison town for the Prussian Army Royal Bavarian Army Reichswehr Wehrmacht US Army German Army Bundeswehr and the German Border Police Bundesgrenzschutz In the early 1990s following the end of the Cold War the garrison tradition of the town came to an end when the Bundeswehr s Margrave Barracks Markgrafenkaserne and the Rohrensee Barracks Rohrenseekaserne used by the US Army and the BGS Grenzschutzabteilung Sud 3 were closed Twin towns sister cities edit nbsp Bayreuth s twin towns See also List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany Bayreuth is twinned with 36 nbsp Annecy France 1966 nbsp Rudolstadt Germany 1990 nbsp La Spezia Italy 1999 nbsp Prague 6 Czech Republic 2008 nbsp Tekirdag Turkey 2012 Since 1990 there is also a cultural partnership with the state of Burgenland Austria and a university partnership between the University of Bayreuth and the Washington and Lee University in Lexington Virginia Notable people edit1600 1700 edit nbsp Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg Bayreuth Anna Maria von Eggenberg nee Brandenburg Bayreuth 1609 1680 Princess of Brandenburg Bayreuth Erdmann August of Brandenburg Bayreuth 1615 1651 Prince of Brandenburg Bayreuth Georg Albrecht Margrave of Brandenburg Bayreuth Kulmbach 1619 1666 founder of the Kulmbach subline Christian Ernst Margrave of Brandenburg Bayreuth 1644 1712 Margrave of the Frankish Principality of Bayreuth Christian Heinrich Margrave of Brandenburg Bayreuth Kulmbach 1661 1708 nobleman Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg Bayreuth 1671 1727 Electress of Saxony George William Margrave of Brandenburg Bayreuth 1678 1726 Margrave of the Frankish Principality of Bayreuth 1701 1800 edit Princess Wilhelmine of Bayreuth 1709 1758 monarch Casimir Christoph Schmidel 1718 1791 physician and botanist Johann David Schoepf 1752 1800 surgeon botanist zoologist and naturalist Anna Heinel 1753 1808 dancer Johann Christian Ritter 1755 1810 first printer in South Africa Johann Georg Wunderlich 1755 1819 flutist university teacher and composer nbsp Rudolf Wagner Ludwig Abeille 1761 1838 pianist and composer Jean Paul 1763 1825 German romantic writer Ludwig Forster 1797 1863 Austrian German architect Heinrich von Gagern 1799 1880 politician first president of the Frankfurt National Assembly on 19 May 1848 August Riedel 1799 1883 painter 1801 1900 edit Karl Burger 1805 1884 Lutheran theologian Rudolf Wagner 1805 1864 anatomist and physiologist Max Stirner 1806 1856 philosopher and journalist Franz Liszt 1811 1886 Hungarian composer Eduard Riedel 1813 1885 architect Moritz Wagner 1813 1887 traveler geographer and naturalist Richard Wagner 1813 1883 composer Wilhelm von Diez 1839 1907 painter and illustrator Oskar Panizza 1853 1921 psychiatrist dissident author Franz Muncker 1855 1926 literary historian Max Schroeder 1862 1922 architect Richard Engelmann 1868 1966 sculptor Theodor von der Pfordten 1873 1923 High Court Judge at the Bavarian Supreme Court and participant killed in the Beer Hall Putsch Fritz Neuland 1889 1969 lawyer Wilhelm Leuschner 1890 1944 trade unionist and politician SPD Fritz Rasp 1891 1976 film and stage actor Hans Schemm 1891 1935 teacher politician and Gauleiter NSDAP Robert Ritter von Greim 1892 1945 Army and Air Force officer 1945 Field Marshal 1901 1950 edit Ludwig Kirschner 1904 1945 German officer Major General last in World War II Ludwig Ruckdeschel 1907 1968 politician NSDAP and Gauleiter Wieland Wagner 1917 1966 opera director and designer Friedelind Wagner 1918 1991 eldest daughter of Siegfried Wagner Wolfgang Wagner 1919 2010 opera director and designer Max von der Grun 1926 2005 writer Wolfgang Wild born 1930 nuclear physicist and politician Walter Demel born 1935 cross country skier Peter Schmidt born 1937 designer Udo Steiner born 1939 Judge of the Constitutional Court Gottfried Wagner born 1947 opera director multimedia director and publicist From 1951 edit Horst Knorrer born 1953 mathematician Klaus Schilling born 1956 Professor of Robotics and Telematics Gudrun Brendel Fischer born 1959 politician CSU Stefan Rauh born 1963 musician composer and music publisher Michael Schober born 1966 illustrator and author Klay Shroedel born 1966 music producer film producer Oscar winner 1998 Best Music Titanic in the team of James Horner Saskia Marka born 1975 German film title designer Katharina Wagner born 1978 opera director Maya Karin born 1979 Malaysian actress television personality and singer Thomas Reiser born 1979 philologist and translator Anne Haug born 1983 triathlete Florian Mayer born 1983 tennis player Philipp Petzschner born 1984 tennis playerGallery edit nbsp View of Bayreuth from the Stadtkirche nbsp The Stadtkirche nbsp The New Palace nbsp Rollwenzelei with Jean Paul s study Dichterstube nbsp The Mohren Apothecary on the town squareSee also editBayreuth coffee maker manufactured by Walkure Porzellan now by Friesland PorzellanReferences edit Liste der Oberburgermeister in den kreisfreien Stadten accessed 4 October 2022 Genesis Online Datenbank des Bayerischen Landesamtes fur Statistik Tabelle 12411 003r Fortschreibung des Bevolkerungsstandes Gemeinden Stichtag Einwohnerzahlen auf Grundlage des Zensus 2011 Hilfe dazu Mayer Bernd and Ruckel Gert 2009 Bayreuth Tours on Foot Heinrichs Verlag Bamberg p 5 ISBN 978 3 89889 147 9 Stuhlfauth Adam 1991 Fundberichte zur Vor und Fruhgeschichte im Gebiet der Frankischen Alb in the Archives for History of Upper Franconia 35th volume 3rd section Bayreuth 1991 Fruhwald Hg Frankische Stadte und Burgen um 1650 based on texts and engravings by Merian Sennfeld 1991 Hubschmann E et al 1992 Bayreuth umgeguckt und hinterfragt Bumerang Verlag Bayreuth The Artwork of the Future Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft Martin Schramm Deutscher Tag Bayreuth 30 September 1923 Archived 12 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine in Historisches Lexikon Bayerns Gedenkstatten fur die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus Eine Dokumentation Vol 1 Federal Office for Political Education Bonn 1995 ISBN 3 89331 208 0 p 119 f A list of the victims names is found in Denk Steine setzen published by the Bayreuth History Working Group Geschichtswerkstatt Bayreuth Bumerang Verlag Bayreuth 2003 Bayreuth s Jews are considered to be those people who had lived for some time in Bayreuth were born in Bayreuth or who were deported from Bayreuth O Keefe Christine Concentration Camps How Wieland Wagner once Hitler s friend lifted the Nazi shadow from Bayreuth Deutsche Welle 20 July 2017 Retrieved 23 August 2017 Cleaver Hannah 2 August 2003 Wagner s son was in charge of Nazi slaves The Telegraph Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 Retrieved 23 August 2017 Source and details People s Court Maruniak Volodymyr 1984 Displaced persons camps Encyclopedia of Ukraine 1 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Bernd Mayer Wo jeder Zehnte einen Stuhl besass In Heimat Kurier das historische Magazin des Nordbayerischen Kuriers No 3 2004 How Wieland Wagner once Hitler s friend lifted the Nazi shadow from Bayreuth DW 27 07 2017 Deutsche Welle Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Bayreuth Stadt Bayreuth Archived from the original on 5 September 2015 Retrieved 3 September 2015 Bergmann Peter Nietzsche the Last Antipolitical German Indiana University press 1987 p 102 ISBN 0 253 34061 6 Holle J W 1901 Geschichte der Stadt Bayreuth Bayreuth Weatherbase com Weatherbase 2013 Retrieved on 6 July 2013 Archived copy Archived from the original on 6 December 2010 Retrieved 18 September 2010 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Friedrichsforum Bayreuths Grossbaustelle feiert Richtfest BR24 in German 4 September 2020 Archived from the original on 10 November 2020 Retrieved 9 November 2020 Kunstmuseum Bayreuth 2012 Plakatmuseum im Kunstmuseum Bayreuth www kunstmuseum bayreuth de Retrieved 9 November 2020 1988 Guinness Book of Records Museums in Bayreuth Archived 23 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine at www bayreuth de Accessed on 18 September 2010 Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayreuth bekommt die Landesgartenschau 2016 permanent dead link Landesgartenschau Bayreuth de in German Retrieved 21 May 2018 Bayreuth Stadtnachrichten Amtsblatt der Stadt Bayreuth Nr 2 30 Januar 2009 Wilhelminenaue Bayreuth de in German Retrieved 21 May 2018 Final result IGC World League 2015 founded in 1970 by Horst Steiner 1949 Zeitschrift DTS 1989 6 dts regional Sud p 5 Zeitschrift DTS 1984 6 p 32 Zeitschrift DTS 1988 5 p 12 Fahrradmitnahme Archived 6 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine vgn de Partnerstadte Kooperationen bayreuth de in German Bayreuth Retrieved 7 February 2021 External links edit nbsp Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bayreuth Official website nbsp in German University of Bayreuth website in German Bayreuther Festspiele website Images from Bayreuth in English and German Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bayreuth amp oldid 1219743352, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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