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Nördlingen
Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was built in an impact crater 15 million years old and in diameter—the Nördlinger Ries—of a meteorite which hit with an estimated speed of 70,000 km/h, and left the area riddled with an estimated 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds. Nördlingen was first mentioned in recorded history in 898. The town was the location of two battles during the Thirty Years' War, which took place between 1618 and 1648. Today it is one of very few towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls—joining the ranks of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Berching, all of them in Bavaria. Another attraction in the town is Saint George's Church's steeple, called "Daniel," which is made of a suevite impact breccia that contains shocked ...
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Nördlingen - Ofnethöhle Auf Dem Riegelberg 02
Nördlingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a Town#Germany, town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was built in an impact crater 15 million years old and in diameter—the Nördlinger Ries—of a meteorite which hit with an estimated speed of 70,000 km/h, and left the area riddled with an estimated 72,000 tons of micro-diamonds. Nördlingen was first mentioned in recorded history in 898. The town was the location of two battles during the Thirty Years' War, which took place between 1618 and 1648. Today it is one of very few towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls—joining the ranks of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Berching, all of them in Bavaria. Another attraction in the town is Saint George's Church's steeple, called "Daniel," which is made of ...
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Bavarian Railway Museum
The Bavarian Railway Museum (''Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum'' or BEM) is a railway museum based in the old locomotive sheds at Nördlingen station in Bavaria, Germany. It is home to more than 100 original railway vehicles and has been located in the depot (''Bahnbetriebswerk'' or ''Bw'') at Nördlingen since 1985. History of the locomotive shed The shed, itself, has a long history. As early as 1849, with the construction of the Ludwig South-North Railway from Lindau to Hof, a workshop appeared for the maintenance of steam locomotives and wagons. Wings 2 and 3 of the roundhouse date from this time; since then they have just been extended. The workshop building, too, dates from the 1800s, as well as the floor plan of the first recorded engine shed. The facility was regularly expanded and its use adapted in the course of time up to 1937. The last expansion was carried out from 1935 to 1937, when the locomotive shed was lengthened and a 20-metre turntable installed. A majo ...
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Rieskrater Museum
The Rieskrater Museum, sometimes known in English as the Ries Crater Museum, focuses on meteors and their collisions with Earth. The museum is housed in a 16th-century barn in Nördlingen, Germany which was part of the medieval city's center. The area (Nördlinger Ries) is the location of a meteor's impact with Earth c. 15 million years ago. This might have been a double impact, as the Steinheim crater is nearby and has the same estimated age. The Ries Crater has been recognized as an impact crater since the early 1960s. The museum's collection includes a genuine Moon rock from the 1972 Apollo 16 mission, on loan from NASA in return for using the Nördlingen crater for training the Apollo 14 astronauts due to its similarities to a Moon crater. The museum is affiliated with the nearby Geopark Ries ( UNESCO - International Network of Geoparks), whose mission is to protect the crater. The museum opened in May 1990 and received its millionth visitor on 15 December 2012. File:Neus ...
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Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years' War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659), Franco-Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch-Portuguese War, and the Portuguese Restoration War. The war had its origins in the 16th-century Reformation, which led to religious conflict within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Catholic and Lutheran states, but the settlement was destabilised by the subsequent expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries. Combined with differences over the limits of imperial authority, religion was thus an important factor in star ...
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Donau-Ries
Donau-Ries (''Danube- Ries'') is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Ansbach, Weißenburg-Gunzenhausen, Eichstätt, Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, Aichach-Friedberg, Augsburg and Dillingen, and by the state of Baden-Württemberg (districts of Heidenheim and Ostalbkreis). History From Palaeolithic times on the Nördlinger Ries was a very attractive site for human settlement. The valley of the Danube was abounding with game, and many caves in the slopes of the crater provided shelter for Neanderthals and their successors. The Ries was always densely populated. From 450 to 15 BC Celtic peoples built their settlements on the tops of the hills. Remains of Celtic circular forts and sanctuaries can be found all over the region. They were replaced about 90 AD by the Romans, who secured the region by building forts and the Limes (which was some km north of the present district). The Romans were drive ...
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Ofnet Caves
The Ofnet Caves () are the remains of an underground karst system on the edge of the Nördlinger Ries in Germany. They are located on a limestone hill near Nördlingen, Bavaria. The caves became famous in 1908 when 33 prehistoric human skulls were discovered. The skulls were dated to the Mesolithic period. Description There are two caves (or rock shelters) called the Grosse and Kleine Ofnet (Large and Small Ofnet). Skull remains In the Grosse Ofnet in 1908 archaeologist R. R. Schmidt found two dish-shaped pits in which human skulls were lying "like eggs in flat baskets". In the larger pit were 27 skulls and in the other there were 6 skulls. The skulls were arranged concentrically with their faces turned towards the setting sun. They were all covered with a thick layer of red ochre Ochre ( ; , ), iron ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to dee ...
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Nördlinger Ries
The Nördlinger Ries is an impact crater and large circular depression in western Bavaria and eastern Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of the Danube in the district of Donau-Ries. The city of Nördlingen is located within the depression, about south-west of its centre. Etymology "Ries" is derived from Raetia, since the tribe of Raetians lived in the area in pre- Roman times. Description The depression is a meteorite impact crater formed 14.808 ± 0.038 million years ago in the Miocene. The crater is most commonly referred to simply as the ''Ries crater'' or ''the Ries''. The original crater rim had an estimated diameter of . The present floor of the depression is about below the eroded remains of the rim. It was originally assumed that the Ries was of volcanic, glacial or tectonic origin. Oliver Sachs introduced, in this context, the term "pioneer era" (up to 1870) and marked the beginning of early modern research on the Ries (from 1870), meaning the perio ...
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Swabia (Bavaria)
Swabia (, Swabian German, Swabian: ''Schwaabe'', ) is one of the seven Regierungsbezirk, administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. It consists of ten districts and 340 municipalities (including four cities) with Augsburg being the administrative capital. Governance The county of Swabia is located in southwest Bavaria. It was annexed by Bavaria in 1803, is part of the historic region of Swabia and was formerly ruled by dukes of the House of Hohenstaufen, Hohenstaufen dynasty. During the Nazi Germany, Nazi period, the area was separated from the rest of Bavaria to become the Gau Swabia. It was re-incorporated into Bavaria after the war. The Regierungsbezirk is subdivided into 3 regions (''Planungsregionen''): Allgäu, Augsburg, and Donau-Iller. Donau-Iller also includes two districts and one city of Baden-Württemberg. * Part of the Swabian Keuper Land Districts and district-free towns before the regional reorganization in 1972 Population Historical population of Swabia: * ...
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Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl () is a historic town in Central Franconia, a region of Germany that is now part of the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Dinkelsbühl is a former free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. In local government terms, Dinkelsbühl lies near the western edge of the (or local government district) of Ansbach, north of Aalen. Dinkelsbühl lies on the northern part of the Romantic Road, and is one of three particularly striking historic towns on the northern part of the route, the others being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen. These three, along with Berching, are today the only towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls. All four are in Bavaria. The town lies on the southern edge of the Franconian Heights and on the River Wörnitz, which rises in the town of Schillingsfürst. The population in 2013 was 11,315. History Fortified by Emperor Henry V, in 1305 Dinkelsbühl received the same municipal rights as Ulm, and in 1351 was raised ...
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City Wall
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or Earthworks (military), earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain wall (fortification), curtain walls with Fortified tower, towers, bastions and gates for access to the city. From ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements. Generally, these are referred to as city walls or town walls, although there were also walls, such as the Great Wall of China, Walls of Benin, Hadrian's Wall, Anastasian Wall, and the Atlantic Wall, which extended far beyond the borders of a city and were used to enclose regions or mark territorial boundaries. In mountainous terrain, defensive walls such as ''letzis'' were used in combination with castles to seal valleys from potential attack. Beyond their defensive utility, many walls also had important symbolic functions representing the status and indepen ...
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Suevite
Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments, formed during an impact event. It forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as impactites. Name The word "suevite" is derived from "Suevia", Latin name of Swabia. The geologist Oliver Sachs was able to show that, over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, this type of rock was recognized as something special and, in 1919, was formally introduced into petrographic science by Adolf Sauer under the name "suevite".J. O. Sachs: ''Wie der Schwabenstein zu seinem Namen kam.'' In: W. Rosendahl, M. Schieber (Hrsg.): ''Der Stein der Schwaben. Natur- und Kulturgeschichte des Suevits.'' Band 4, Staatsanzeiger-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009. Formation Suevite is thought to form in and around impact craters by the sintering of molten fragments together with unmelted clasts of the country rock. Rocks formed from more completely melted mat ...
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Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town located in the district of Ansbach (district), Ansbach of Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia), the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It is well known for its well-preserved Middle Ages, medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the world. It is part of the popular Romantic Road through southern Germany. Today it is one of only four towns in Germany that still have completely intact city walls, the other three being Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Berching, all in Bavaria. Rothenburg was a free imperial city (German: Reichsstadt) from the late Middle Ages to 1803. In 1884 Johann Friedrich (von) Hessing (1838–1918) built ''Wildbad Rothenburg o.d.T.'' 1884–1903. Name The name "Rothenburg ob der Tauber" is German language, German for "Red castle above the Tauber", describing the town's location on a plateau overlooking the Tauber River. Rothenburg Castle, in close vicinity to the village and also called ''Alte Burg'' (old cas ...
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