Augsburg, Bayern, Deutschland

It was an extra special privilege to visit Augsburg because it’s been Dayton’s sister city since 1964. You can read more about that from the Dayton Daily News.

You can find this plaque behind Dayton’s Old Courthouse on the Courthouse Square (39.759693, -84.192764). So, it was an honor to represent Dayton as we visited Rathaus Augsburg (Courthouse of Augsburg). Again, it was bombed in 1944. So, many parts of the courthouse are now replicas of the original since so much was destroyed. Today, there’s a memorial within not only to the victims of the bombings, but also victims of the Holocaust.

My professors mentioned that Angelica Merkel has visited Augsburg before to negotiate peace talks. Augsburg is a symbol of peace because besides Dayton, it has seven other sister-cities of peace: Inverness, Scotland, Amagasaki, Japan, since 1959, Nagahama, Japan, since 1959, Bourges, France, since 1963, Liberec, Czech Republic, since 2001, and Jinan, Shandong.

They’re all represented in a room within the courthouse’s Golden Hall. Yes, they have a golden hall. The ceilings are incredibly high and impressive with vast windows, which let in so much light that the whole room seems to glow.

After walking through the Golden Hall, we switched gears from the lavish hall to a more humble setting. “Die Fuggerei.” Jakob Fugger the Younger (known as "Jakob Fugger the Rich") founded this place in 1516. It was given his family name. It was created as a place for the needy, for those who had no wealth and no place to stay. Very generous, right? Well, it wasn’t all selfish. As Jakob’s name was associated with wealth, he was worried about what would happen when he met the Heavenly Father. Holding onto his wealth weighed on his conscious, so he created this place to help those in need and to, hopefully, show God that he wasn’t greedy with his wealth.

You could only stay in the Fuggerei if you were catholic, though, and say Hail Marys for Jakob. Today, refugees of all religions or non-religions may stay. And for a few extra Euros, you can even buy a T.V. for your little flat. As far as I’ve heard, the Fuggerei gives priority to single mothers now a days, which is amazing.

As you can see in the second picture, each apartment was given a unique handle so that they could identify their house in the dark and/or if they were blind. In the last picture, you can see the chapel where you were expected to say the Hail Marys for Herr Fugger. he was really concerned about his heavenly fate, wasn’t he?

Interestingly enough, a bunker was added underneath the Fuggerei during WWII. One would think that the most destitute would be safe. They weren’t. The Fuggerei was terribly bombed in WWII (again, what’s the military advantage to that? There wasn’t one). It was rebuilt and the bunker is now a museum. What I’ve noticed about any and practically every WWII memorial/museum in Germany today that I’ve seen always mentions the plights of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Today, they use these museums and memorials to teach youths about the horrors of that time. So, if anything positive came from the destruction of WWII, hopefully it’s that we learn from its horrors.

After this, the professors asked if we wanted to visit the Bertolt Brecht museum, the playwright, poet, and theater practitioner. I was surprised to find out that he was actually born in Augsburg. It was fascinating to visit his museum because as you saw his work and ideas, you realized that he was definitely interested in dark themes. A little bit stereotypically German, I suppose.

As you can see, Bertolt Brecht was an avid Hitler and Nazi critic. He apparently wrote satires about Hitler and the Nazis. Thus, he was living in exile during Nazi reign. He first fled to Scandinavia and then made his way to the U.S. The bottom right photo shows a postcard I received. It was a gift for helping one of the workers at the museum. The worker was attempting to close the old, sticky doors in the background and I helped her. They were no laughing matter to yank shut.

And this leads us to Ehron’s Takeaways

• A Must-See: The city square is fantastic to visit. You don’t have to go into the Augsburg Courthouse, but you’d regret it if you didn’t. Those golden halls are gorgeous and getting the chance to see Augsburg’s sister-cities reminds us of the importance of connecting to other cultures through peace and well-being.

• What I Recommend: I would say go to the Fuggerei. It’s free to go in and walk around and if you want, you can pay for a guided tour. But this is a great way to see something very specific and unique to Augsburg, I’d say.

• My Favorite Place: I loved the city square of Augsburg (first picture). It’s also the location of their Christkindlesmarkt, which I’d love to see. But while I was there, I tried a delicious “Eis Kaffee” from an Italian restaurant called Aposto Augsburg. We sat outside underneath an umbrella and watched the life of the square. It was stunning. I’m proud to call Augsburg “Dayton’s Sister City.”

Thanks for reading.

Until next time, lovelies,

Ehron