History of Trier

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Coat of arms of Trier

Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, whose history dates to the Roman Empire, is the oldest city in Germany. Traditionally it was known in English by its French name of Treves.

Prehistory

Main article: Treveri

The first traces of human settlement in the area of the city show evidence of

Celtic tribe of the Treveri settled in the area of today's Trier.[1]

Roman Empire

Map showing the Roman city plan of Augusta Treverorum
The Porta Nigra built 160-180 AD
Constantine I
(306-337 AD)
The Roman Bridge across the Moselle River

The

a Roman circus
, had reached truly monumental proportions.

Trier rose in importance during the

Alamanni. Diocletian recognized the urgency of maintaining an imperial presence in the Gauls, and established first Maximian, then Constantius Chlorus as caesars at Trier; from 293 to 395, Trier was one of the residences of the Western Roman Emperor,[6]
and its position required the monumental settings that betokened imperial government.

A

Constantine the Great (306–337), the city was rebuilt and buildings such as the Palastaula[7] (known today as the Constantine Basilica) and the Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen), the largest surviving Roman baths outside Rome, were begun under Constantius and completed c 314,[8] constructed[9] by his son Constantine, who left Trier in the hands of his son Crispus. In 326, sections of the imperial family's private residential palaces were extended and converted to a large double basilica, the remains of which are still partly recognisable in the area of the Trier Cathedral (Trierer Dom) and the church "Liebfrauenkirche".[10] A demolished imperial palace has left shattered sections of painted ceiling, which scholars believe once belonged to Constantine's young wife, Fausta, whom he later put to death.[11]

From 318 onwards Trier was the seat of the

Athanasius
was first exiled by Constantine in 336.

From 367 under

Rhône
.

The Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen) built in the 4th century AD

Roman Trier had been subjected to attacks by

Arbogast.[12] As a result of the conflicts of this period, Trier's population decreased from an estimated 80,000 in the 4th century to 5,000 at the beginning of the 6th century.[13]

Middle Ages

See also: Electorate of Trier

By the end of the 5th century, Trier was under

East Frankish Empire, later called Germany, under Henry I.[15]

Place of pilgrimage: St. Matthias benedictine abbey.

Many

Great Danish Army, who burnt most churches and abbeys.[18] This was the end of the systematically built Roman Trier.[19]

Medieval legend, recorded in 1105 in the Gesta Treverorum, makes Trebeta son of Ninus the founder of Trier.[20] Also of medieval date is the inscription at the facade of the Red House of Trier market,

ANTE ROMAM TREVIRIS STETIT ANNIS MILLE TRECENTIS.
PERSTET ET ÆTERNA PACE FRVATVR. AMEN.
("Thirteen hundred years before Rome, Trier stood / may it stand on and enjoy eternal peace, amen.")

being mentioned in the Codex Udalrici of 1125.

The Trier Cathedral (Trierer Dom) and the Church of our Lady (Liebfrauenkirche) to the right of the cathedral

From 902, when power passed into the hands of the archbishops, Trier was administered by the

Burgundy, one of the seven Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, a right which originated in the 12th or 13th century, and which continued until the French Revolution. From the 10th century and throughout the Middle Ages, Trier made several attempts to achieve autonomy from the Archbishopric of Trier, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1212, the city received a charter from Emperor Otto IV, which was confirmed by Conrad IV. In 1309, however, it was forced to once again recognise the authority of the Archbishop, who was at that time the imposing Baldwin of Luxembourg, son of the Count of Luxemburg.[21]

Elected in 1307 when he was only 22 years old, Baldwin was the most important Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Trier in the Middle Ages. He was the brother of the German King and Emperor Henry VII and his grandnephew Charles would later become German King and Emperor as Charles IV. He used his family connections to add considerable territories to the Electorate of Trier and is also known to have built many castles in the region. When he died in 1354, Trier was a prospering city.[22]

The status of Trier as an archbishopric city was confirmed in 1364 by Emperor Charles IV and by the Reichskammergericht; the city's dream of self-rule came definitively to an end in 1583. Until the demise of the old empire, Trier remained the capital of the electoral Archbishopric of Trier, although not the residence of its head of state, the Prince-Elector. At its head was a court of lay assessors, which was expanded in 1443 by Archbishop Jacob I to include bipartisan mayors.[23]

The Dombering (curtain wall of the cathedral) having been secured at the end of the 10th century, Archbishop

Arnold II later set about surrounding the city by walls.[24]
This curtain wall, which followed the path now taken by the Alleenring, enclosed 1.38 square kilometres.

Modern age

Historical view of Trier by Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg: Civitates Orbis Terrarum, vol. 1, 1572.
Engraving of Trier by Eberhard Kieser, from the Thesaurus philopoliticus (1625) by Daniel Meisner

In 1473, Emperor

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy convened in Trier. In this same year, the University of Trier was founded in the city.[25]

From 1581 until 1593, intense witch persecutions, involving nobility as well as commoners, abounded throughout this region, leading to mass executions of hundreds of people.

In the 17th century, the Archbishops and Prince-Electors of Trier relocated their residences to

Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz
. A session of the
Imperial Circles
was definitively established.

The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) did initially not touch Trier. Warfare reached the city as part of the French–Habsburg rivalry and the conflict between townspeople and the archbishop Philipp Christoph von Sötern. The city asked the Spanish government in Luxemburg for help against the bishop's absolutist tendencies in 1630. While Spain sent troops and installed a garrison, the bishop used the aid of French troops to regain Trier two times in 1632 and 1645, interrupted by a surprise Spanish attack in 1635 and 10 years of Spanish occupation and imprisonment of the bishop, an event that served as a pretext to start the Franco-Spanish War. The cathedral chapter finally disempowered the bishop in 1649 using mercenaries and Lorrain troops against the bishop's French auxiliary forces.[26]

Trier experienced peace until 1673 when

Louis XIV of France
personally issued the order for these acts of destruction but also gave the command to spare the city of Trier. As the French Army retreated in 1698, it left a starving city without walls and only 2,500 inhabitants.

During the

Clement Wenceslaus of Saxony, relocated to Koblenz in 1786. In August 1794, French Republican troops took Trier. This date marked the end of the era of the old electorate. Churches, abbeys and clerical possessions were sold or the buildings put to practical use, such as stables.[28]

With the peace treaties of

Cathedral of Trier
. Emperor Napoleon visited Trier in 1804. In this time, French Trier began to prosper.

In 1814, the French era ended suddenly as Trier was taken by

customs frontiers in the West, the economy of Trier began a steady decline that was to last until 1840. The Province of the Lower Rhine was merged into the Rhine Province
in 1822.

The influential philosopher and revolutionary

Karl-Marx-Haus
, was opened in 1947 and renovated in 1983.

The Constantine Basilika and the Electoral Palace

From 1840 on, the situation of Trier began to improve as the neighbouring state of

trade fairs
in modern Trier in 1840 and 1842.

During the

revolutions of 1848 in the German states, Trier also saw protests and conflicts. The city council sent a letter to King Frederick William IV of Prussia, demanding more civic liberties. The lawyer Ludwig Simon was elected to represent Trier in the first German parliament in Frankfurt. After Prussian soldiers killed one citizen and wounded others in a melée, the situation escalated. The people of Trier hoisted black-red-gold flags as democratic symbols, rang the church bells, organized a militia and took away the signs of Prussian rule. A second melée between demonstrators and soldiers, which left two citizens dead, led to a collective outburst of fury. The people began to build barricades and wave the red flag. There were even reports that a statue of the Prussian king was smashed into pieces. Trier was on the eve of a civil war when the commander of the VIII Prussian army corps arrived and threatened to shell Trier. After being confronted with superior Prussian military power, the citizens gave up and removed the barricades. Some citizens were jailed for their democratic attitude; Ludwig Simon emigrated like many others and died in Switzerland. Trier became part of the German Empire during the Prussian-led unification of Germany
in 1871.

Second World War

The railroad bridge in Trier-Pfalzel under attack, 1944

In September 1944 during the

incendiary and napalm bombs). Another two days after that, 700 tonnes of bombs were released over the city.[29]

According to research by the historian Adolf Welter, at least 420 people were killed in the December 1944 attacks on Trier. Numerous buildings were damaged. During the entire war, 1,600 houses in the city were completely destroyed.

On March 2, 1945, the city surrendered to the

U.S. 10th Armored Division with minimal resistance.[30]

Postwar period

Hochbunker
) built in 1942

At the end of April 1969, the old Roman road at the Porta Nigra was uncovered. Shortly afterward, on May 12, 1969, the open-air wildlife enclosure in the Weisshaus forest was opened. The University of Trier was reestablished in 1970, initially as part of the combined university of Trier-Kaiserslautern. The evolution of Trier as a university city took a further step forward with the opening on April 1, 1974, of the Martinskloster student residence halls. In 1975, the university once more became independent.[31]

Other significant events of the 1970s include the discontinuation of the 99-year-old "Trierische Landeszeitung" newspaper on March 31, 1974, and the reopening of the restored

Cathedral of Trier
on May 1 of that same year.

From May 24 to 27 1984, Trier officially celebrated its 2,000th anniversary. In 1986, Roman Trier (the

St. Paulinus' Church, designed by Balthasar Neumann. During construction of an underground parking lot in October 1988, remnants of Roman fresco paintings were discovered beneath the Viehmarkt. On November 5, the Trier Observatory was officially inaugurated. In the course of excavation work on a further subterranean garage near the Roman bridge, a collection of 2,558 Roman gold coins was discovered on September 9, 1993. The coins have an estimated value of 2.5 million Euro.[32]

From April 22 to October 24, 2004, the State Garden Show was held on the Petrisberg heights and attracted 724,000 visitors.[33]

A new discovery of Roman remains was made in April 2006, when traces of building walls were unearthed during demolition works in the city centre.

A large exhibition on the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great was the largest exhibition in Trier up to date. It ran from the 2nd of June to the 4th of November 2007. Some 1,600 pieces lend by 160 museums in 20 countries were on exhibit in three museums in Trier. In all 353,974 tickets were sold and all three museums counted 799,034 visitors, making it one of the most successful exhibitions in Germany.[34] The Ehrang/Quint district of Trier was heavily damaged and flooded during the July 16, 2021 floods of Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Incorporation of municipalities

Formerly autonomous municipalities and territories that have been incorporated into the city of Trier. Some localities had already formed part of the urban area between 1798 and 1851. In 1798, the city area covered a total of 8.9 square kilometres.[35]

Year Localities
1888 St. Paulin, Maar, Zurlauben, Löwenbrücken, St. Barbara
1888 Separation of Heiligkreuz and Olewig
1912 Pallien (southern part), Heiligkreuz, St. Matthias, St. Medard, Feyen (with Weismark)
1930 Euren, Biewer, Pallien (northern part), Kürenz, Olewig
June 7, 1969 Ehrang-Pfalzel (formed on March 1, 1968, through unification of the two previously autonomous municipalities)
June 7, 1969 Eitelsbach, Filsch, Irsch, Kernscheid, Ruwer, Tarforst, Zewen

Population development

Scale model Roman city
Scale model around 1800

At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Trier was the residence of the Roman Emperor and, with an estimated 80,000 inhabitants, the largest city north of the

Modern Age, numerous wars, epidemics and famines caused the city's population to drop to only 2,677 in 1697. The population began to increase once more in the course of the 18th century, reaching 8,829 in 1801. The onset of industrialisation
in the 19th century accelerated this growth. In 1900, the city was home to over 43,000 people. By 1939, this figure had doubled to over 88,000.

The Second World War cost Trier roughly 35% of its population (30,551 people) and the number of inhabitants had dropped to 57,000 by 1945. Only through the incorporation of several surrounding localities into the city on June 7, 1969, did the population once more reach its prewar level. This reorganisation in fact pushed the number of inhabitants beyond the 100,000 mark, which accorded the city of Trier Großstadt status. On June 30, 2005, the population of Trier according to official records of the Rhineland-Palatinate state authorities was 99,685 (registered only by Hauptwohnsitz and after comparison with other regional authorities).

The following overview illustrates the city's different population levels, according to the current size of the city area. Up until 1801, these figures are mostly estimates; after this date they have been sourced from census results or official records of state authorities. From 1871 onwards, these statistics correspond to the "present population", from 1925 to the "resident population" and from 1987 to the "population resident at main domicile". Prior to 1871, the population was recorded using inconsistent survey methods.

Year Population
100 20,000
300 80,000
400 70,000
1363 10,000
1542 8,500
1613 6,000
1697 2,677
1702 4,200
1801 8,829
December 1, 1831 ¹ 14,723
December 1, 1840 ¹ 15,717
December 3, 1855 ¹ 20,172
December 1, 1858 ¹ 20,060
December 1, 1871 ¹ 21,442
December 1, 1875 ¹ 22,100
Year Population
December 1, 1880 ¹ 24,200
December 1, 1885 ¹ 26,126
December 1, 1890 ¹ 36,166
December 2, 1895 ¹ 40,026
December 1, 1900 ¹ 43,506
December 1, 1905 ¹ 46,709
December 1, 1910 ¹ 49,112
December 1, 1916 ¹ 47,107
December 5, 1917 ¹ 45,709
October 8, 1919 ¹ 53,248
June 16, 1925 ¹ 57,341
June 16, 1933 ¹ 76,692
May 17, 1939 ¹ 88,150
December 31, 1945 57,599
October 29, 1946 ¹ 63,420
Year Population
September 13, 1950 ¹ 75,526
September 25, 1956 ¹ 84,869
June 6, 1961 ¹ 87,141
December 31, 1965 86,808
May 27, 1970 ¹ 103,724
December 31, 1975 100,338
December 31, 1980 95,536
December 31, 1985 93,472
May 25, 1987 ¹ 94,118
December 31, 1990 97,835
December 31, 1995 99,428
December 31, 2000 99,410
June 30, 2005 99,685
December 19, 2006 101,685
December 31, 2020 110,674

¹ Census figure[36]

Notes

  1. ^ See: Heinen, pp. 1-12.
  2. ^ See: Heinen, pp. 30-55.
  3. ^ Paul Stephenson, Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Victor 2010: :"Trier" 124ff.
  4. ^ a b Stephenson 2010:124.
  5. ^ See: Heinen, pp. 327-347.
  6. ^ See: Heinen, pp. 211-265.
  7. ^ See: Kuhnen, pp. 135-142.
  8. ^ A coin of 314 was found in a construction trench (Stephenson 2010:125).
  9. ^ See: Dehio, p. 1031.
  10. ^ See: Kuhnen, pp. 114-121. See also: Dehio, pp. 1033-1051.
  11. ^ Preserved in Trier's Diocesan Museum; Stephenson 2010:125 and fig. 25.
  12. ^
    ISBN 9789077922736
    . Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  13. ^ See: Heinen, pp. 366-384.
  14. ^ Romance speakers in Mosella valley & Trier; p.14 (in Italian)
  15. ^ See: Anton / Haverkamp, pp. 22-67.
  16. ^ See: Dehio, pp. 1054-1057.
  17. ^ See: Dehio, pp. 1057-1063.
  18. ISBN 978-1-349-61839-2
    .
  19. ^ See: Petzold, pp. 36-39.
  20. ^ See: Petzold, p. 82.
  21. ^ See: Anton / Haverkamp, pp. 239-293.
  22. ^ See: Anton / Haverkamp, pp. 295-315.
  23. ^ See: Anton / Haverkamp, pp. 570-579.
  24. ^ See: Petzold, p. 43.
  25. ^ See: Anton / Haverkamp, pp. 531-552.
  26. ^ Wagner, Paul (1888), "Philipp Christoph v. Sötern", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 26, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 50–69
  27. ^ See: Petzold, pp. 101-103.
  28. ^ See: Petzold, pp. 73-96.
  29. ^ See: Petzold, pp. 128-131; See also: Welter, 1939-1945 pp. 115-119 and the site on historicum.net listed under external links
  30. ^ See: Christoffel, pp. 468-511; See also: Welter, Neue Forschungsergebnisse, pp. 41-83 and the site on historicum.net listed under external links
  31. ^ See: Heise, pp. 107-192.
  32. ^ Stadt Trier - City of Trier - La Ville de Trèves Archived 2012-07-13 at archive.today
  33. ^ Landesgartenschau Trier 2004
  34. ^ Konstantin-Ausstellung
  35. ^ See: Petzold, pp. 137-157.
  36. ^ StLA RLP - Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz Archived 2010-02-10 at the Wayback Machine

Literature

There is not much literature in English on Trier. The three volumes on Trier's history published by the history department of the University of Trier between 1985 and 1996 represent a complete history including all researches up to the time when they were published. Clemens' 2007 book (Clemens is a history professor of Trier University, earlier he worked at the Roman Museum in Trier) can be viewed as an update.

External links
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