Memmingen

Sister cities

• Glendale
• Silvi
• Teramo
• Bruntál
• Eisleben
• Karataş
• Litzelsdorf
• Kiryat Shmona
• Auch
• Chernihiv
• Colmar

History

It is believed that on the site of present-day Memmingen in Roman times there was a small military town, probably called Cassiliacum. In the 5th century an Alemannic settlement was established and in the 7th century there was a palace belonging to the king of the Franks. Memmingen was linked to Bohemia, Austria and Munich by the salt road to Lindau. This road helped Memmingen gain importance as a trading centre. In the Middle Ages, the place was known as Mammingin; in 1158 the Welfian Duke Welf VI founded the town of Memmingen. In 1286 it became an Imperial City, responsible only to the Holy Roman Emperor. Christoph Schappeler, the preacher at St. Martin's in Memmingen during the early 16th century, was an important figure during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War. His support for peasant rights helped to draw peasants to Memmingen. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession. The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed was written (probably by Schappeler and Sebastian Lotzer) in early 1525. This was a religious petition borrowing from Luther's ideas to appeal for peasant rights. Within two months of its publication in Memmingen, 25,000 copies of the tract were in circulation around Europe. These are the first known set of human rights documents in the world (if one ignores Magna Carta in England in 1215). In the 1630s Memmingen was at centre stage during the Thirty Years' War, and the Imperial generalissimo Wallenstein was quartered in the town when he was dramatically dismissed from service. From 1632 Memmingen was briefly garrisoned by the Swedish army, and became a base of operations…

Geography

Memmingen is located at the western border of Bavaria at the river Iller, 50 km south of Ulm, and 100 km west of Munich. The landscape or region beginning with Memmingen is called Unterallgäu and forms a part of the region Mittelschwaben who is next to Oberschwaben and Allgäu. Memmingen is also sometimes called the Gate to the Allgäu.

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  606
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  606
• Red Kite

  Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  570
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  547
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  532
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  517
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  380
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  367

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 3.6 — 2020-08-08
  5 km SE of Gramais, Austria
• M 3.8 — 2018-02-01
  4 km N of Innerbraz, Austria
• M 4 — 2018-01-17
  2 km NE of Innerbraz, Austria
• M 3.6 — 2013-07-20
  3 km ESE of Andwil, Switzerland
• M 3.1 — 2008-12-25
  3 km NNW of Saulgau, Germany