43 Facts About Aalen

Aalen is a former Free Imperial City located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, about 70 kilometres east of Stuttgart and 48 kilometres north of Ulm.

Aalen is situated on the upper reaches of the river Kocher, at the foot of the Swabian Jura which lies to the south and south-east, and close to the hilly landscapes of the Ellwangen Hills to the north and the Welland to the north-west.

West of Aalen's territory is on the foreland of the eastern Swabian Jura, and the north and north-west is on the Swabian-Franconian Forest, both being part of the Swabian Keuper-Lias Plains.

Rivers originating near Aalen are the Rems and the Jagst, both being tributaries of the Neckar, just like the Kocher.

Aalen itself was first mentioned in an inventory list of Ellwangen Abbey, dated ca.

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Documents, from the Middle Ages, indicate that the town of Aalen was founded by the Hohenstaufen some time between 1241 and 1246, but at a different location than the earlier village, which was supposedly destroyed in 1388 during the war between the Alliance of Swabian Cities and the Dukes of Bavaria.

On 3 December 1360, he declared Aalen an Imperial City, that is, a city or town responsible only to the emperor, a status that made it a quasi-sovereign city-state and that it kept until 1803.

In 1377, Aalen joined the Alliance of Swabian Cities, and in 1385, the term civitas appears in the town's seal for the first time.

In 1398, Aalen was granted the right to hold markets, and in 1401 Aalen obtained proper jurisdiction.

However, after victories of the imperial armies at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen, which still held the right of patronage in Aalen, were able to temporarily bring Catholicism back to Aalen; however after the military successes of the Protestant Union, Protestant church practices were instituted again.

Aalen had been chosen because of its neutral status as a Free Imperial City.

Aalen was assigned to the Electorate of Wurttemberg, which later became the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, and became seat of the District of Aalen.

Fortunately, Aalen avoided most of the combat activity during World War II.

Aalen became part of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg, upon its creation in 1952.

Subsequently, Aalen became seat of that district, and in 1975, the town's borough attained its present size.

Population of Aalen exceeded the limit of 20,000, which was the requirement for to gain the status of Große Kreisstadt in 1946.

On 1 August 1947, Aalen was declared Unmittelbare Kreisstadt, and with the creation of the Gemeindeordnung of Baden-Wurttemberg on 1 April 1956, it was declared Große Kreisstadt.

Subsequently, Aalen has been a predominantly Protestant town for centuries, with the exception of the years from 1628 until 1632.

The other districts of present-day Aalen remained mostly catholic after the reformation, however Wasseralfingen established a Lutheran parish in 1891 and a church, St Magdalene's Church, in 1893.

However, in 1872 Aalen got its proper parish again, and in 1913, a second Catholic church, Salvator's Church, was completed, and in 1969 the Holy Cross Church was finished.

All Catholic parishes within Aalen are today incorporated into four pastoral care units within the Ostalb Deanery of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart; however these units comprise some parishes outside of Aalen.

On 31 December 2008, Aalen had precisely 66,058 inhabitants, of which 33,579 were female and 32,479 were male.

Aalen has arranged a municipal association with Essingen and Huttlingen.

Aalen has one deputy with the official title of Erster Burgermeister and one with the official title of Burgermeister.

Aalen's flag is striped in red and white and contains the coat of arms.

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Theater der Stadt Aalen theatre was founded in 1991 and stages 400 to 500 performances a year.

Kunstverein Aalen was founded in 1983 as a non-profit art association and today is located in the Old Town Hall.

The church, in its present shape being built between 1765 and 1767, is the only major Late Baroque building in Aalen and is the main church of the Evangelical-Lutheran parish of Aalen.

Imperial City of Aalen once was were in quarrel with the emperor, and his army was shortly before the gates to take the town.

The people of Aalen got scared and thus dispatched their “most cunning” one out into the enemy's camp to spy out the strength of their troops.

About 10 metres in front of the Reichsstadter Brunnen fountain at the town hall, the coats of arms of Aalen, its twinned cities and of the Wischau linguistic enclave are paved into the street as mosaic.

Aalen Observatory was built in 1969 as school observatory for the Schubart Gymnasium.

Football team, VfR Aalen, was founded in 1921 and played in the 2nd German League between 2012 and 2015, after which they were relegated to 3.

Altogether in Aalen there are about 4,700 business enterprises, 1,100 of them being registered in the trade register.

Aalen station is a regional railway hub on the Rems Railway from Stuttgart, the Brenz Railway from Ulm, the Upper Jagst Railway to Crailsheim and the Ries Railway to Donauworth.

The Aalen-Erlau stop situated in the south is no longer operational.

Aalen station is served at two-hour intervals by trains of Intercity line 61 Karlsruhe–Stuttgart–Aalen–Nuremberg.

For regional rail travel, Aalen is served by various lines of the Interregio-Express, Regional-Express and Regionalbahn categories.

Aalen is a regional hub in the bus network of OstalbMobil, the transport network of the district Aalen is in.

The Omnibus-Verkehr Aalen company is one of the few in Germany that use double-decker buses, it has done so since 1966.

Bicycle routes stretching through Aalen are the Deutscher Limes-Radweg and the Kocher-Jagst Bicycle Route.

Aalen had a civic hospital, which resided in the Burgerspital building until 1873, then in a building at Alte Heidenheimer Straße.

Biggest educational institution in the town is the Hochschule Aalen, which was founded in 1962 and focuses on engineering and economics.