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–

(

September 2022

)

(

)

Bayreuth

Town square

Flag

Coat of arms

Location of Bayreuth

Bayreuth

Coordinates:

Country

Government

•

(2026–32)

Andreas Zippel

(

)

Area

• Total

66.89 km

(25.83 sq mi)

Elevation

340 m (1,120 ft)

Population

(2024-12-31)

• Total

72,940

• Density

1,090/km

(2,824/sq mi)

(

)

• Summer (

)

(

)

95401–95448

0921, 09201, 09209

Website

Bayreuth

(

German pronunciation:

;

: Bareid,

pronounced

) is a

in northern

Germany, on the

river in a valley between the

and

the

. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st

century, it is the capital of

and has a population of 72,148

(2015). It hosts the annual

, at which performances of

operas by the 19th-century German composer

are presented.

History

[

]

Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

[

]

Bayreuth around 1900

The town is believed to have been founded by the counts of

probably

around the mid-12th century,

but was first mentioned in 1194 as

Baierrute

in a document by Bishop

. 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:

(in 1035 as the royal

estate of Silewize in a document by

Emperor

) and St. Johannis (possibly 1149 as

Altentrebgast

). Even

the district of

(formerly

) 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

: pieces of pottery and

wooden crockery were dated to the 9th century based on their decoration.

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

between 1200 and 1230. The town was ruled until 1248 by the

. After they died out in 1260 the burgraves of

from

the

took over the inheritance.

As early as 1361 Emperor

conferred on Burgrave

the

right to mint coins for the towns of Bayreuth and Kulmbach.

In 1398 Bayreuth was partitioned from Nuremberg, becoming the

(

Fürstentum Bayreuth

). Until 1604, however, the princely

residence and the centre of the territory was the castle of

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

devastated Bayreuth and the town hall and

churches were razed.

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"

By 1528, less than ten years after the start of

, the lords

of the

switched to the

faith.

In 1605 a great fire, caused by negligence, destroyed 137 of the town's 251

houses. In 1620

broke out and, in 1621, there was another big fire in

the town. The town also suffered during the

The Old Castle

A turning point in the town's history came in 1603 when Margrave

the son of the elector,

, moved the aristocratic

residence from the castle of

above

to Bayreuth. The

first Hohenzollern palace was built in 1440–1457 under Margrave

. 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

, but afterwards many

buildings

were added to the town. After Christian's death in 1655 his grandson,

, followed him, ruling from 1661 until 1712. He was an

educated and well-travelled man, whose tutor had been the statesman

. He founded the Christian-Ernestinum Grammar School

and, in 1683, participated in the liberation of

which had been

besieged by the Turks. To commemorate this feat, he had the

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

[

]

The New Castle

The

(UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Margravial Opera House, interior

Christian Ernest's successor, the Crown Prince and later Margrave,

began in 1701 to establish the then independent town of

(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

(

), which was renamed in 1734 to the

and had the monastery church built, which was completed in 1711. In 1716 a princely

factory was established in St. Georgen.

The first 'castle' in the park of the

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

, 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

and Margravine

, the favourite sister of

. During this time, under the direction of court architects,

Joseph Saint-Pierre and

, numerous courtly buildings and attractions were created: the

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

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

, which became a university in 1743,

but was moved that same year to

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

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.

By 1769 the principality was close to bankruptcy.

In 1769, Margrave

, 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

and

on 2

December 1791 its territories became part of a Prussian province. The Prussian Minister

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

state, and when this state was divided, Bayreuth ended up in the

19th century

[

]

In 1804, the author

moved from

to Bayreuth, where he lived until his death in 1825.

The rule of the Hohenzollerns over the

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

, 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

, which it had bought from

for 15 million francs.

Bayreuth became the capital of the Bavarian district of

, which later transferred into Obermainkreis and was

finally renamed as the province of

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 connection in 1853, when the

was built at the town's expense. It was followed in 1863 by the

, in

1877 by the

, in 1896 by the

, in 1904 by the

and in 1909 by the

, known as the

Thurnauer Bockala

(which means something like "Thurnau

Goat").

The

, as

seen in 1882

On 17 April 1870

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

and the ambience of the auditorium seemed

inappropriate for his piece.

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

[

]

("Green Hill"). At the same time Wagner acquired a property at

Hofgarten

to build his own house,

. On 22 May

1872 the cornerstone for the Festival Hall was laid and, on 13 August 1876, it was officially opened (see

). Planning and construction were in the hands of the Leipzig architect,

, who had already made

a name for himself in the building of theatres in Leipzig and Altenburg.

In 1886, the composer

died in Bayreuth while visiting his daughter

, Wagner's widow. Both Liszt

and Wagner are buried in Bayreuth; however, Wagner did not die there. Rather, he died in

in 1883, but his family

had his body brought to Bayreuth for burial.

20th century

[

]

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

[

]

1920

: 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

had ended in 1918, the

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

and

"Deutscher Tag" (German Days), the

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

had forbidden the participation of

units.

Among the guests were mayor

Albert Preu as well as

and

, who invited keynote speaker

house.

There he met writer

, son-in-law of

and

. Also on

that day,

met Hitler for the first time.

In 1932, the provinces of Upper and Middle Franconia were merged and

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)

[

]

A stronghold of right-wing parties since the 1920s, Bayreuth became a center of

ideology. In 1933, it was made

capital of the Nazi

(

Bayerische Ostmark

, in 1942

Gau Bayreuth

). Nazi leaders often visited

the

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

after she took over the

festival. Hitler frequently attended Wagner performances in the

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

was

, who was also the head

(

Reichswalter

) of the

, NSLB, which was located in Bayreuth. In 1937 the town was

connected to the new

Under

the

of the

Münzgasse

was desecrated and looted on

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

recalls the persecution and murder of Jews in the

, which took the lives of at least 145 Jews in Bayreuth.

During the Second World War, a

of the

was based in the town,

in which

prisoners had to participate in physical experiments for the

, the grandson of the composer,

, was the deputy civilian director there in late 1944 and early April 1945.

Shortly before the

war's end branches of the

(

Volksgerichtshof

) were to have been set up in Bayreuth.

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)

[

]

After the war Bayreuth tried to part with its ill-fated past. It became part of the

. The American

military government set up a

to accommodate

(DP), many of whom were

The camp

was supervised by the

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.

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

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

led by

. In 1951, the first post-war Richard Wagner Festival took place under the

leadership of

and

. Wieland Wagner's fresh and non-traditional stagings "restored credibility

to a theater that had been totally ruined by Nazi ideology."

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

In 1971, the

decided to establish the

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

disappeared from the area and allegedly defected to

via

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

21st century

[

]

In 2006, Bayreuth chose its first

member and mayor, the lawyer, Michael Hohl, and, in 2007, a

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