AUGSBURG

Augsburg was founded in 15 BC in the reign of Roman emperor Augustus as a garrison called Augusta Vindelicorum. It was laid to waste by the Huns in the fifth century, by Charlemagne in the eighth, and by Welf of Bavaria in the eleventh; it rose each time only to greater prosperity. It became an Imperial Free City on March 9, 1276. Given its strategic location on the trade routes to Italy, it became a major trading centre. It produced large quantities of woven goods, cloth and textiles, and was the base for the Fugger banking empire. The Fuggerei, part of the city devoted to housing for the needy citizens of Augsburg, was founded in 1516 and is still in use today.

In 1530 the Augsburg Confession was presented to the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg. Following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, after which the rights of religious minorities in imperial cities were to be protected, a mixed Catholic-Protestant city council presided over a majority Protestant population. Until the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), religious peace in the city was largely maintained despite increasing confessional tensions. In 1629 Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Edict of Restitution resulting in the installation of an entirely Catholic city government that radically curtailed the rights of local Protestants. This persisted until April 1632, when the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus took the city without resistance. Just over two years later, the Swedish army was routed at nearby Nördlingen, and by October 1634 Catholic troops had surrounded Augsburg. The Swedish garrison refused to surrender and a disastrous siege ensued through the winter of 1634–5, during which thousands died of hunger and disease.

These difficulties, together with the discovery of America, and of the route to India by the Cape, conspired to destroy the town's prosperity. In 1806, when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Augsburg lost its independence and became part of the kingdom of Bavaria. It increased considerably in industrial importance in the nineteenth century. It contained large cotton and woollen mills, machine shops, and manufacturers of acetylene gas, paper, chemicals, jewellery, and leather. Out of one acetylene gas plant the company KUKA was founded (1898) as Keller und Knappich Augsburg, today one of the leading companies for industrial robots. Also it gave birth to the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg (Later to merge with Maschinenfabrik Nürnberg and become Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg or MAN AG) - a machine factory where Rudolf Diesel pioneered commercial production of his Diesel engine.

IMPERIAL FREE CITY COINAGE (see below for Bishopric)
Key identification notes: Pine cone, Augusta Vindelicorum

Thaler

20 Kreuzer

10 Kreuzer

4 Kreuzer

2 Kreuzer

1 Kreuzer

2 Pfennig

1 Pfennig

1 Heller

AUGSBURG BISHOPRIC
Key identification notes: oval arms divided per pale, sword and crook, cross on crown or miter, "aug" or "august" in legend.
See this page on Wikipedia for the full history of the Augsburg diocese.

Clement Wenceslaus
A Prince of Saxony and Poland (1768-1812), Clement created a great number of excellent disciplinary regulations, and took measures for their execution; after the suppression of the Society of Jesus he afforded its members protection and employment in his diocese; he made a vigorous resistance to the rapidly spreading Rationalism and infidelity, and was honored by a visit from Pope Pius VI (1782).

1 Kreuzer