scubish.com: Scuba diving Nürnberg - Germany

Nuremberg (Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal. It is located about 105 miles north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. Population (as of 01/2006) is 500,132.

History

Middle Ages
From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes. It is often referred to as having been the 'unofficial capital' of the Holy Roman Emperor, particularly because Reichstage (Imperial Diets) and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the administrative structure of the empire. In 1219 Nuremberg became an Imperial Free City under Emperor Frederick II. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. Nuremberg is known as the home of the Iron Maiden, a notorious torture device of the Middle Ages. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host and 698 were slain in one of the many Rintfleisch Massacres. Behind the massacre in 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz River. Jews had been settled in that flood-prone area, but as the city leaders realized, this center of town was crucial to its future development. Hence, the Jewish population had to be removed. This area is now the place of the City Market, Frauenkirche and Rathaus (City Hall).

Early modern age

The cultural flowering of Nuremberg in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made it the center of the German Renaissance.

In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Reformation, and in 1532, the religious Peace of Nuremberg, by which the Lutherans gained important concessions, was signed there. In 1632 during the Thirty Years' War, the Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein besieged King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in the Siege of Nuremberg. The city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the nineteenth century, when it grew as an industrial center. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Nuremberg was practically bankrupt. In 1806 with the Holy Roman Empire formally being dissolved, Nuremberg passed to Bavaria. The Bavarian state took over the city's debts and guaranteed their amortization. The first German railway, from Nuremberg to nearby Fürth, was opened in 1835.

Nazi period

Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany period. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the center of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions–the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held annually from 1927 to 1938 in Nuremberg. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge state propaganda events, a center of anti-Semitism and Nazi rhetoric. At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws which revoked German...