History of Franconia

Franconia (German: Franken) is a region that is not precisely defined, but which lies in the north of the Free State of Bavaria, parts of Baden-Württemberg and South Thuringia and Hesse in Germany.

Archaeological finds of artifacts in Kronach and on the Schalksberg in Würzburg show that the region had already been settled by the middle ice age (the Pleistocene), about 600,000 years ago, by primitive man (Homo erectus).

However, in the late Bronze Age, a warrior elite of the so-called Urnfield culture (1200-800 BC) began to establish themselves on hilltops like the Ehrenbürg, the Hesselberg or the Marienberg above Würzburg.

This area was populated by the Marcomanni until, following their defeat by Rome roughly between 7 and 3 BC, they moved away further to the east into present-day Bohemia and were replaced by other Elbe Germanic tribes such as the Hermunduri.

Initially Rome tried to extend its immediate influence far to the northeast, as witnessed by the legion camp at Marktbreit that was discovered in 1986 at the top of the River Main triangle.

The exact reasons for this are not clear, but they could have fallen prey to invasions by the Huns and the resulting mass migration of Vandals and Suebi that crossed southern Germany.

[2] He apparently obtained this information from older sources, which makes the periodic expansion of Thuringian influence in the 5th and early 6th centuries, at least into Upper Franconia, probable.

Typical linear burial grounds from this period have been discovered in Westheim, Dittenheim, Gnotzheim, Hellmitzheim, Hettstadt, Kleinlangheim, Klepsau, Neubrunn, Niedernberg, Sulzheim, Weißenburg and Zeuzleben.

Under Charlemagne, attempts were made to build a navigable channel between the River Altmühl and the Swabian Rezat and thus between the Rhine and the Danube near the present site of Graben at Treuchtlingen.

In the 9th century, the so-called older Babenberg family, also called the Popponids, had a significant position of power in the Main region until a rift developed with the Carolingian kings.

The last Carolingian, Louis the Child, finally seized a number of their estates and granted it to members of the Conradine clan, a wealthy family from Rhenish Franconia.

Otto the Great often stayed in Franconia, including the time in 957 when he met with his rebellious son, Liudolf of Swabia, in Zenna (today Langenzenn) in the Palatinate near Nuremberg.

[4] The most important areas in the present day region of Franconia were, apart from bishoprics and Hohenstaufen allodial estates, the Meranian lands and the counties of Henneberg, Greifenstein, Wiltberg, Rieneck, Wertheim, Castell, Hohenlohe, Truhendingen and Abenberg.

In the Late Middle Ages members of the princely family of Hohenzollern became electors of Brandenburg, in the Modern Era kings of Prussia and from 1871, emperors of the newly founded German Empire.

[5] Franconia played an important role for the monarchy as early as the reign of Rudolf of Habsburg and the Itinerariesof the kings that followed him demonstrated a preference for the Rhine-Main area.

In First Margrave War (1449-1450) the Zollern, Albert Achilles of Brandenburg-Ansbach, tried to gain supremacy over Franconia and unsuccessfully besieged the free imperial city of Nuremberg.

Most other Franconian imperial cities such as Rothenburg, Schweinfurt and Dinkelsbühl, followed soon after and held masses in German, established evangelical preachers or approved Protestant communion services.

A combination of discontent due to increasing taxation and socage, new ideas of social liberty and the religious attractions of the Reformation movement, unleashed the German Peasants' War in 1525.

However, the rebellious peasants were unable to persuade any of the senior princes to make decisive changes and so they went on the rampage, attacking and plundering official buildings, stately homes and monasteries.

As the princely mercenary army advanced with 3,000 horsemen and 9,000 Landsknecht infantry, the farmers under Götz von Berlichingen positioned themselves for battle at Lauda-Königshofen, but their situation in the face of well-equipped troops was hopeless.

In the wake of the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, Julius Echter in Würzburg and Neidhardt von Thüngen in Bamberg acted ruthlessly against the Protestant Circle of the two bishoprics.

The Franconian estates had to pay huge sums of money to Sweden as war compensation which, due to the depopulation and devastation of the region was scarcely possible.

For example, the various states were divided into Roman Catholic or Protestant territories based on the Imperial legal principle of cuius regio, eius religio ("whose land, his religion").

This fragmentation and its status as a classical imperial landscape made Franconia in the early 19th century a bankruptcy asset and centre of disposal for the Old Empire following the Treaty of Lunéville.

But because Prussia retained possession of the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth it also had a large territorial presence in Franconia and sought to broadening its local power base.

Würzburg, with its capital city, was a short-lived electorate and, from 1806, formed the Grand Duchy of Wurzburg under Ferdinand III of Tuscany, which as a member of the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) – like Bavaria – was one of Napoleon's allies.

In the spring of 1849 tensions escalated as the democratic opposition in Franconia demanded recognition of the decisions of the Constitution of St. Paul's Church and openly threatened the secession from Bavaria.

To protect cultural artefacts, the Historic Art Bunker was built below Nuremberg Castle where, among other things, the Imperial Regalia, the Cracow altarpiece, the Erdapfel and the Codex Manesse were kept.

In the closing stages of the Second World War, at the end of March and April 1945, the Franconian towns and cities were captured by units of the US Army that had advanced from the west after the failure of the Battle of the Bulge and Operation Nordwind.

This becomes clear, for example, in the close cooperation between the districts of Sonneberg and Hildburghausen with Coburg after Die Wende, in the fields of culture and tourism, and even by Sonnenberg's membership of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region.