STADT
BEFREIT
Wittelsbacher
Gründerstädte
Urbanization in the Duchy of Bavaria from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
The 2020 Bavarian State Exhibition in Aichach and Friedberg related how and when Bavaria became an urban realm.
The system of Bavarian cities and market towns so familiar to us today emerged in a historically relatively short period from approximately 1200 to 1300. Bavarian upper nobility, especially the young ducal Wittelsbach dynasty, consolidated their economic, military and political power as they systematically founded and patronized cities and market towns. Life in the new cities offered people many opportunities: personal security, protection of property and free trade. A legal principle still popular today affirms, “Urban air is liberating!”
We have made some contents available to you for reading, listening (from the audio guide of the Bavarian State Exhibition 2020 and from the archive of the Bayerischer Rundfunk) and viewing on these pages:
Wittelsbach Founders of Cities
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