Speyer

Name

Speyer was known in the pre-Roman period as Noviomagus, a toponym of Celtic origin meaning "new field". The Romans called it Civitas Nemetum in reference to the Nemetes, a Germanic tribe who lived in the vicinity. The present name first appeared in the 7th century, as Spira. It referred originally to the Speyerbach, a tributary of the Rhine that has its mouth at Speyer, and likely represents a suffixed form of a Germanic verb meaning "spew, spit" (cf. German speien). The modern, diphthongised form is attested from the 14th century onwards.

History

Timeline

In 10 BC, the first Roman military camp is established (situated between the town hall and the episcopal palace), guarding the northeast frontier of the Roman Empire against Germanic barbarian tribes across the river to the east in Germania.

In AD 150, the town appears as Noviomagus on the world map of the Greek geographer Ptolemy.

In 346, a Western Christian / Roman Catholic bishop for the town is mentioned for the first time.

4th century, Civitas Nemetum appears on the Peutinger Map.

5th century, Civitas Nemetum is destroyed.

7th century, the town is re-established, and named Spira after a nearby Frankish settlement.

In 1030, emperor Conrad II starts the construction of Speyer Cathedral, today one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Also in the 11th century, the first city wall was built.

In 1076, emperor Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire embarks from Speyer, his favourite town, for Canossa.

In 1084, establishment of the first Jewish community in Speyer.

In 1096, as Count Emicho's Crusader army on their journey in the First Crusade (also known as the People's Crusade) to the Muslim-occupied Holy Land, raged across the Rhineland slaughtering innocent Jewish communities in the Rhineland massacres. Speyer's Bishop John, with the local leader Yekutiel ben Moses, manages to secure the community's members inside the episcopal palace and later leads them to even stronger fortifications outside the town. It was ruled that anyone harming a Jew would have his hands chopped off.

In 1294, the Roman Catholic bishop lost most of his previous rights, and from now on Speyer is a Free Imperial Town of the Holy Roman Empire.

Main sights

Cathedral

Altpörtel – Old Town Gate

Gedächtniskirche – Memorial church

Dreifaltigkeitskirche – Trinity church

Jewish courtyard (Judenhof Speyer) – remnants of medieval synagogue and intact mikve, UNESCO World Heritage Site

Technikmuseum Speyer – Transportation Museum

Historical Museum of the Palatinate

Transportation

Speyer lies on the Schifferstadt-Wörth railway and offers hourly connections to Karlsruhe and cities in the Rhine-Neckar area (of which Speyer is also a part).

Speyer Airfield (German: Flugplatz Speyer) (ICAO: EDRY) is a general aviation airfield located 4 km south of the central business district of the city of Speyer.

Mayors

Since 1923 the mayor was a Lord mayor.

Philipp Lichtenberger (1855–1918) (1904–1911)

Ernst Hertrich (1911–1914) (first full-time mayor)

Otto Moericke (1880–1965) (1917–1919)

Karl Leiling (?–?) (1919–1943)

Rudolf Trampler (1898–1974) (1943–1945)

Karl Leiling (?–?) (1945–1946)

Hans Hettinger (?–?) (1946)

Paul Schaefer (?–?) (1946–1949)

Paulus Skopp (1905–1999) (1949–1969)

Christian Roßkopf (born 1930) (1969–1995)

Werner Schineller (born 1948) (1995–2010)

Hansjörg Eger (born 1964) (2011–2018)

Stefanie Seiler (born 1983) (since 2018)

Twin towns – sister cities

Speyer is twinned with:

Spalding, United Kingdom, since 1956; discontinued 2021

Chartres, France, since 1959

Kursk, Russia, since 1989

Ravenna, Italy, since 1989

Gniezno, Poland, since 1992

Yavne, Israel, since 1998

Rusizi District, Rwanda, since 1982/2001

Ningde, China, since 2013

Chichester, United Kingdom, since 2023

Notable people

Born before 1900

Samuel of Speyer (after 1096–death unknown), Exeget of Torah and Midrash

Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (1140–1217), scribe and philosopher

Julian of Speyer (before 1225– ~ 1250), medieval choir master, composer and poet from the Roman Catholic Order of the Franciscans

Gabriel Biel (~ 1415–1495), scholastic philosopher

Dietrich Gresemund (1477–1512), author

Georg von Speyer (1500–1540), conquistador/ explorer for the Kingdom of Spain / Spanish Empire in the Americas

Egon VIII of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (1588–1635), Reichsgraf of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg

Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), German physician, alchemist, precursor of chemistry, scholar and adventurer

Moritz Georg Weidmann (1658–1693), publisher and bookseller

Adolf von Dalberg (1678–1737), Prince of Fulda

Simha of Speyer (13th century) German rabbi and tosafist. He was one of the leading signatories of the Takkanot Shum.

Philipp Hieronymus Brinckmann (1709–1760), landscape and historical painters as well as copper cutters

Johann Martin Bernatz (1802–1878), landscape painter

Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880), German painter

Born after 1900 (20th century)

George John Dasch (1903–1992), World War II spy who foiled terrorist attacks in the United States by Nazi Germany

Jakob Brendel (1907–1964), wrestler

Karl Haas (1913–2005), German American music educator and radio presenter

Helmut Bantz (1921–2004), gymnast

Alfred Cahn (1922–2016), German musician and composer

Edgar E. Stern (born 1926), clinical social worker and author of The Peppermint Train: Journey to a German-Jewish Childhood

Gabriel Kney (born 1929), Canadian pipe organ builder

Karl Hochreither (1933–2018), German organist and musicologist

Volker Straus (1936–2002) German tonmeister

Jürgen Brecht (born 1940), fencer

Wolf Frobenius (1940–2011), musicologist

Gerhard Vollmer (born 1943), physicist and philosopher

Jürgen Creutzmann (born 1945), politician (FDP)

Hans-Joachim Lang (born 1951), journalist, Germanist, historian and honorary professor

Axel Schimpf (born 1952), Vice Admiral of the German Navy of the Federal Republic of Germany

Eberhard Bosslet (born 1953), artist