History and Civilization
The city’s exquisite geographical position justifies its existence ever since the Bronze age and as its present name also suggests, it is “the city of roads”.
From Roman times to Renaissance
- At the site of Strasbourg, the Romans established in 12 BC a military outpost named Argentoratum (silver fort), belonging to the Germania Superior (Upper Germany) Roman province. While the center of Argentoratum proper was situated on the Grande Île, most Roman artifacts have been found along the current Route des Romains in the suburb of Koenigshoffen, on the road that lead to it.
- From the 4th century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Strasbourg. The town was occupied successively in the 5th century by Alemanni, Huns, and Franks.
- A major commercial center, the town came under control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I.
- A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic.
- The murderous bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on February 14, 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: several hundred Jews were publicly burnt to death and the rest of them expelled of the city. Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm.
- In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city, under the political guidance of Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck and the spiritual guidance of Martin Bucer embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther, whose adherents established a Gymnasium, headed by Johannes Sturm, made into a University in the following century. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession.
- Strasbourg was a center of humanist scholarship and early book-printing in the Holy Roman Empire and its intellectual and political influence contributed much to the establishment of Protestantism as an accepted denomination in the southwest of Germany.
- After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early 16th century and the establishment of Imperial Circles, Strasbourg was part of the Upper Rhenish Circle, a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of Holy Roman Empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
From Thirty Years’ War to First World War
- The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years’ War. In September 1681 it was seized by King Louis XIV of France, whose unprovoked annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). Strasbourg Cathedral was handed over from the Lutherans to the Catholics. The German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students were Goethe and Herder.
- Strasbourg’s status as a free city was revoked by the French Revolution. Fanatical Jacobins ruled the city with an iron hand before being overthrown after the downfall of Maximilien Robespierre. During their reign, many churches and cloisters were either destroyed or severely damaged.
- With the growth of industry and commerce, the city’s population tripled in the 19th century to 150,000.
- During the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Strasbourg, the city was heavily bombarded by the Prussian army. On August 24, 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican Church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts, rare Renaissance books and Roman artifacts. In 1871 after the war’s end, the city was annexed to the newly-established German Empire as part of the Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen.
- As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale (the Neue Stadt, or "new city") and included a new museum and a new library. A belt of massive fortifications was established around the city, most of which still stand today : Fort Roon (now Desaix) and Podbielski (now Ducrot) in Mundolsheim, Fort von Moltke (now Rapp) in Reichstett, Fort Bismarck (now Kléber) in Wolfisheim, Fort Kronprinz (now Foch) in Niederhausbergen, and Fort Grossherzog von Baden (now Frère) in Oberhausbergen. Those forts subsequently served the French army, and were used as POW-camps in 1918 and 1945.
- Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the city was restored to France.
Twentieth century and now
- Following the Fall of France in 1940 during World War II, the city was annexed by Nazi Germany. After the war, Strasbourg was returned to France, and while the First World War did not notably damage the city, Anglo-American bombers caused extensive destruction in 1944.
- In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the very first European institutions. In 1949, the city was chosen to be the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights and European Pharmacopoeia.
- Since 1952, Strasbourg has been the official seat of the European Parliament, although only plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg each month, while all other business is being conducted in Brussels and Luxembourg.
Source: Wikipedia