HILDESHEIM

City arms

The town became the seat of the Bishopric of Hildesheim in 815. For four centuries the clergy ruled Hildesheim, before a town hall was built and the citizens gained some influence. In 1367 Hildesheim became a member of the Hanseatic League.

The city was heavily damaged by air raids in 1945, especially on March 22. The centre, which had retained its medieval character until then, simply ceased to exist. After the war, it was rebuilt in a completely different style and concrete structures took the place of the destroyed buildings. Fortunately, in the late 1970s reconstruction of the historic centre began. The unattractive concrete buildings were torn down and replaced by replicas of the original buildings.

Also in the 1970s, the University of Hildesheim was founded.

Bishopric's arms, 1765

The Bishopric of Hildesheim is a Roman Catholic diocese in Lower Saxony; it was founded in 815. The Bishopric of Hildesheim was also a state of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages until 1803. It is named after its capital, Hildesheim.

After the Duchy of Saxony had been conquered by the Frankish Kingdom, Hildesheim was founded as a missionary diocese by King Louis the Pious in 815. His son Louis the German appointed the famous former archbishop of Rheims, Ebbo, as bishop between 845 and 847.

In the 16th century, most of the diocese as well as most of the state of Hildesheim switched to protestantism. But the Bishopric managed to retain its independence from the surrounding Protestant states of Brunswick-Lüneburg, mostly because its bishops were members of the powerful House of Wittelsbach from 1573 until 1761. Among them was Klemens August of Bavaria, who was bishop from 1723 until 1761.

During the German Mediatisation of 1803, Hildesheim lost its statehood, and the territory was given to Prussia. Prussia lost it soon thereafter to the Kingdom of Westphalia. The Congress of Vienna of 1815 gave the territory to the Kingdom of Hanover.

The Diocese of Hildesheim continues to exist; today, it covers those parts of the State of Lower Saxony that are east of the River Weser. Only 11% of the population of this area are members of the Roman Catholic Church, however. Norbert Trelle is since 2006 the bishop of the Diocese. The diocese is subordinate to the Archdiocese of Hamburg.

Key identification notes: The arms on the civic issues are very distinctive, those on the the bishopric issues vary. For a possible bishopric coin, check for the diamond-shaped Bavarian pattern in the upper left or right shield quarter with a small central escutcheon divided per pale, or for the arms shown above.

4 Pfennig, a common coin from Hildesheim