In the city of Nürnberg (also known as Nuremberg), southern Gerrmany

 "Nuremberg shines throughout Germany like a sun among the moon and stars."

-- Martin Luther
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(in southern Germany} The city of Nürnberg (also known as Nuremberg) is Bavaria’s second largest city (after Munich). Located on the Pegnitz River where it emerges from the uplands of Franconia, south of Erlangen, the city was first mentioned in 1050 in official records as Noremberg. It had its origin in a castle (now known as Kaiserburg [imperial castle]) built about 10 years earlier by the German king Henry III, duke of Bavaria, who became Holy Roman emperor in 1046. A settlement developed around the castle, and in 1219 the city was granted its first charter. It soon gained full independence, becoming a free imperial city. By the latter part of the 13th century, Nürnberg was no longer just a fortified settlement; it had developed into a city of craftsmen and patricians -- and manufacturing and commerce had become the main sources of income.

+ In 1471 the painter Albrecht Dürer was born in Nürnberg. During the period of Dürer and his contemporaries, the arts flourished in Nürnberg as never before or since. In 1525 the tenets of the Reformation were adopted by the city, and in 1526 the scholar and Protestant leader Philipp Melanchthon founded a Gymnasium here (one of Germany’s first), which continues to bear his name. Together with the humanist Willibald Pirkheimer, the astronomer Regiomontanus, and the cosmographer Martin Behaim, the designer of the first globe, Melanchthon laid the foundation for Nürnberg’s reputation as a center of learning in the developing Western world.

+ Not until the beginning of the industrial age, when the first German railway was opened (in December, 1835) linking Nürnberg and Fürth, did the city begin to flourish as an industrial center. In the 1930s Nürnberg became a center of the Nazi Party and in 1935 gave its name to the anti-Semitic Nürnberg decrees. The city was severely damaged during World War II. It was captured by U.S. troops and was the scene of the Nürnberg trials, the Allied trials of German war criminals. (After World War II much of the city was redeveloped.)

+ Nürnberg is now a major administrative and commercial center, with specialized services. It is also an important producer of fine mechanical and optical goods, and electrical apparatuses. It is a focal point for numerous highways and is connected to the Munich-Berlin and Frankfurt-Cologne autobahns (federal motorways). The city is also connected to the German high-speed passenger rail system. Situated on the old Ludwigs-Danube-Main Canal, there is a modern harbor linked with the Main-Danube Canal, which joins the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers.

+ Nuremberg, now the unofficial capital of Franconia, is quite an energetic place where the nightlife is intense and the beer is as dark as coffee. As one of Bavaria’s biggest draws, it is alive with visitors year-round but especially during the spectacular Christmas market.