Firnhaberau is the 28th ''Stadtbezirk,'' or city district, of
Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. It currently makes up the entire
4th ''Planungsraum'', or planning district, of Augsburg. The district has a population of approximately 5,500 and an area of .
Location
Firnhaberau is the northernmost district of Augsburg, and is bordered on the east by
Hammerschmiede, the fifth ''Planungsraum'' of Augsburg, in the south by
Lechhausen, the 6th ''Planungsraum,'' and in the north by the municipal boundary of Augsburg and the
Bundesautobahn 8
is an autobahn in southern Germany that runs 497 km (309 mi) from the Luxembourg A13 motorway at Schengen via Neunkirchen, Pirmasens, Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg and Munich to the Austrian West Autobahn near Salzb ...
.
History
Firnhaberau is named after wealthy industrialist Friedrich August Firnhaber, who died in 1887. Firnhaber was one of the proprietors of Augburg's largest textile factories, the Augsburger Kammgarn-Spinnerei. The land, considered to be a
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
, was acquired by the forest administration of Augsburg, which offered the land to Lechhausen, which refused, considering the assessed price to be too high. When Firnhaber's widow died in 1904, the land passed as an endowment to the city of Augsburg, which put it in trust in case of a housing emergency in the future.
Firnhaberau was officially installed as a division of Augsburg on July 15, 1920, at 9:00 AM. The land was not immediately usable, and the work of clearing the land and preparing it for settlement did not begin until January 30, 1921. On February 6 of the same year, a wooden military
barracks
Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
was constructed in the Hubertusplatz, the main public area of the new division. On March 13, 1921, groundbreaking for the first new residences took place on the ''Siedlerweg'' (Settler Way). These residences were completed on May 15, and on July 1, 1921, nearly one year after the incorporation of the district, the first settlers began to occupy Firnhaberau. In 1927 a
school
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...
was constructed in the Hubertusplatz, which still stands today and contains four grade levels. Between 1928 and 1929, a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
church honoring
Saint Francis of Assisi
Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...
was built. In 1934, a portion of eastern Firnhaberau was transferred to Hammerschmiede. The population was 1,900 in 1939, 1,800 in 1946, and 4,345 in 1976.
{{coord, 48.406, N, 10.894, E, display=title, source:dewiki
Districts of Augsburg