At the Aachen Cathedral, in the city of Aachen, Germany

 "Wir leben alle unter dem gleichen Himmel, aber wir haben nicht alle den gleichen Horizont." ("We all live under the same sky, but we don’t all have the same horizon.") -- Konrad Adenauer

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(in Germany's westernmost city) Aachen, best known as the capital of Charlemagne's Frankish empire, sits at the juncture where Germany meets the Netherlands (the Dutch know it as Aken, and in Belgium "Walloons" call it Aix-la-Chapelle). Aachen's history goes back even further than 8th-century Charlemagne. Roman soldiers dating back to the 1st century CE cherished its hot springs (as did Charlemagne). Aachen Cathedral, northern Europe's oldest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the city's main attraction.

 + In North Rhine-Westphalia, bordering the Netherlands and Belgium, Aachen is located between Maastricht and Liège in the west, and Bonn and Cologne in the east. The Wurm River flows through the city, and together with Mönchengladbach, Aachen is the only large German city in the drainage basin of the Meuse. Aachen is also the seat of the City Region of Aachen (German: Städteregion Aachen).

+ Aachen developed from a Roman settlement and thermae (bath complex), subsequently becoming the preferred medieval Imperial residence of Emperor Charlemagne of the Frankish Empire, and, from 936 to 1531, the place where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans. Aachen was fortified in the late 12th century and granted municipal rights in 1166 and 1215, and it became a free imperial city about 1250. Aachen was frequently at odds with the emperors during the Protestant Reformation. (In 1656 the city was devastated by a great fire.)

+ Aachen hosted several peace conferences, including those ending the War of Devolution and the War of the Austrian Succession. Occupied by Napoleon’s army in 1794 and annexed by France in 1801, it was given to Prussia after the Congress of Vienna (1814–15). The city was briefly occupied by the Belgians after World War I. It was severely damaged in World War II, and it became the first large German city to fall to the Allies.

+ The noteworthy medieval churches of St. Foillan, St. Paul, and St. Nicholas were destroyed or heavily damaged during World War II, but their reconstruction began almost immediately afterward. The Rathaus (Town Hall), built about 1530 on the ruins of Charlemagne’s palace and containing the magnificent Hall of the Emperors, was also damaged and restored. Aachen Cathedral suffered relatively little damage in the war. It incorporates the distinctive Carolingian and Gothic styles. The Palatine Chapel (built 790–805) of Charlemagne, modeled on San Vitale (in Ravenna, Italy), is Carolingian in style, and the choir (and subsidiary chapels) are Gothic.

+ As a Rhenish city, Aachen is one of the main centers of carnival celebrations in Germany, along with Cologne, Mainz, and Düsseldorf. (The culinary specialty for which the city is best known is Aachener Printen, a type of gingerbread.)