Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town, once a stronghold of the Principality of Bayreuth, is renowned for its massive Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or Bratwürste.
Geography
Location
Kulmbach is located in the middle of the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia, about northwest of the city of Bayreuth. To the south of Kulmbach, the River Main begins at the confluence of its headstreams, the White Main and Red Main.
Town districts
Kulmbach is divided into the following districts (with population in brackets):
History
From about 900 AD there was a small settlement in what is now the district of Spiegel, which consisted of a forest lodge and a fortified tenant farm (Fronhof) to protect the river Main crossing at Grünwehr. The area later passed into the hands of the Count of Schweinfurt, whose power was usually exercised through the office of the .
Kulmbach was first mentioned as Kulma in a deed of gift in the Alcuin Bible between 1028 and 1040. The name comes from a stream that comes descends the mountain (Culmin-aha, Culmna). This stream was later renamed Kohlenbach due to a misunderstanding.
When the male line of the Schweinfurt counts died out, Kulmbach passed to the Dießen line of the Andechs family through the marriage of the Schweinfurts' daughter and heiress, Gisela, to Count Arnold of Dießen.
The counts acquired other lands around Kulmbach, built the first fort, the Plassenburg, in the first third of the twelfth century and founded a market town and a church in today's upper town (Obere Stadt). In 1180 the House of Andechs was elevated to an imperial princedom by the Emperor Barbarossa and given the title of Duke of Merania after the town of Marano between Venice and Trieste (now Marano Lagunare).
Around 1231 Kulmbach was granted town rights. In place of the old Plassenburg, the site of which is unclear, the dukes built a new castle on a hill spur above Kulmbach. The rule of the Meranian family ended with the last Duke of Merania, Otto II, who died childless in 1248.
After years of inheritance disputes the castle of Plassenburg and hence rule over Kulmbach went in 1260 to the Thuringian counts of Orlamünde. The Orlamündes finished the new Plassenburg castle and founded the monastery of Himmelkron. Later, they pledged the castle and town. In 1340, after the death of the last Orlamünde, pursuant to an agreement, the burggraves of Nuremberg, members of the Hohenzollern family, took over Kulmbach and Plassenburg.
Until the 17th century, Plassenburg was the residence of the burggrave office or Amt. Later it was the Amt for the Hohenzollern Principality of Kulmbach (also: Brandenburg-Kulmbach or, after 1604, Brandenburg-Bayreuth). As a result of its favourable location on the historic and 'escorted' roads to Bamberg, Nuremberg, Eger, Hof and Leipzig trade in the town flourished - guilds were formed for the weavers, dyers and silk embroiderers. In 1398, 1500 to 2000 inhabitants lived in Kulmbach; this can be seen from a burggraviate inventory of land, houses and taxes. The town was ruled by a lordly Vogt or sheriff, the mayor and a council of prominent citizens.
As a result of the transfer of the princely privilege in 1363, and the electorate and the March of Brandenburg in 1415, all subsequent Franconian Hohenzollerns called themselves Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. From 1411 to 1529 Kulmbach townsfolk stood as chancellors at the head of the administration for the March of Brandenburg (Dr. Frederick Sesselmann, Sigismund Zehrer and Sebastian Stublinger).
On 31 January 1430 the Hussites sacked the town.
In the course of rebuilding the town, which had been largely destroyed, St. Peter's Church was rebuilt in late Gothic style. It was here that the first Protestant church service was celebrated under Margrave George the Pious in 1528.