Burghausen, Altötting

Infobox German Location
type = Stadt
Name = Burghausen
Wappen = WappenBurghausen.pnglat_deg = 48 |lat_min = 10
lon_deg = 12 |lon_min = 50
Lageplan = Karte burghausen in aoe.pngBundesland = Bayern
Regierungsbezirk = Oberbayern
Landkreis = Altötting
Höhe = 421
Fläche = 19.85
Einwohner = 18108
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 84489 8263
Vorwahl = 08677
Kfz = AÖ
Gemeindeschlüssel = 09 1 71 112
Gliederung = 33 Ortsteile
Adresse = Stadtplatz 112
84489 Burghausen
Website = [http://www.burghausen.de/ www.burghausen.de]
Bürgermeister = Hans Steindl
Partei = SPD

Burghausen is the largest city in the Altötting district of Oberbayern in Germany. It is situated on the Salzach river, near the border with Austria. Its castle, atop a ridge, is the longest castle in Europe (1,043 m).

History

The oldest mention of Burghausen is documented in the year 1025 as Imperial real property. Emperor Conrad II would later appoint the Counts of Burghausen as the financial administrators of the locality. But, as latest excavations have shown, the area around the main court of Burghausen's castle has at least been inhabited since the Bronze Age. With Archaeologists finding as well remnants of the Iron Age, Celtic and Roman Times, it is hard to pinpoint a "founding" date. The town has obviously delevolped over thousands of years, but it is not possible to say if there has been a permament settlement.

In 1164, Duke Henry the Lion took possession of the castle. The Wittelsbachs took possession of the castle in 1180 and the surrounding valley settlements in 1229. The conferral of town status was presumed at some point, but is not supported by sources. Starting in 1255, after the first division of Bavaria, Burghausen gained political and economic prominence as the second residence of the Lower Bavarian dukes. Burghausen's main source of income was the trade in salt from Hallein, (modern-day Austria). The salt was brought ashore in Burghausen and transported further overland. The landing spot was at the Mautner castle, which now houses the city's education and cultural centre, hosting adult education classes in photography and jazz as well as crafts and jazz events.

In 1307, the pre-existing local law was codified as municipal law, and in the first half of the 14th century, Emperor Louis IV granted the town further important privileges. By the end of the 14th century, Burghausen had become an administrative center as the site of the area's revenue office.

Under the last three Lower Bavarian dukes, Henry XVI the Rich (1393-1450), Louis IX the Rich (1450-1479) and George the Rich, (1479-1503), Burghausen experienced an expansion and golden age as the second capital of Bavaria. In 1505, after the Landshut War of Succession, Burghausen was one of the four revenue offices in reorganized Bavaria.

The income from the salt trade was lost in 1594 because of the establishment of the ducal salt monopoly.

Following this, Burghausen experienced more than 300 years of administrative and commercial decline:

* Heavy casualties and losses in the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) and the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79).
* The transfer of the Innviertel in the Treaty of Teschen at the end of the War of the Bavarian Succession, and the consequent loss of business from the border region.
* The crisis caused by the French Revolutionary Wars and dissolution of government in 1802.
* In 1807, the loss of the title of "capital" which had been granted in 1688.
* The establishmen of river shipping and the loss of the garrison in 1891.

By the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, Burghausen had become an impoverished provincial town with barely 2,500 inhabitants. However, an economic upturn began in 1915 with the establishment of Wacker Chemical Enterprises, Inc:

* The new city has developed alongside the old town, with a coherence of design, reorganization and increased security from the construction of the flood control dam and the Uferstraße from 1969-71.

* Expansion of Wacker Chemical Enterprises, Inc. In 1966, the then Deutsche Marathon built a refinery (now OMV).

* The population has increased from 2,500 in 1910 and 5,000 in 1946 to 19,000 (2005).

* Burghausen gained regional fame through the SV Wacker Burghausen Soccer Sports Association and the annual international jazz festival.

* In 2004, the National Horticultural Show received approximately one million visitors.

* In the winter of 2005-2006, the town gave Christmas benefits to all of its unemployment benefit recipients, gaining nationwide attention in all news media, including the Bild tabloid newspaper.

Images of the castle