I had gulaschsuppe for lunch in Munich and am on an ICE train to Nuremberg.
Here are ten things I didn’t know about Nuremberg.
1. The first successful commercial train service in Germany started in 1835. The Bavarian Ludwigsbahn ran a train between Nuremberg and Fürth pulled by an Adler (German for Eagle) engine designed by George and Robert Stephenson and built in Newcastle.
2. Nuremberg was the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire because the Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle.
3. Today it is the fourteenth largest city in Germany and the second largest in Bavaria, after Munich.
4. In the first half of the 14th century there were massacres of the Jews.
5. In 1935 the Reichstag met in Nuremberg and passed the Nuremberg Laws revoking German citizenship for Jews and all non-Aryans.
6. The first documentary mention of the city was in 1050.
7. The river Pegnitz flows through the city.
8. It has a population of just over 500,000.
9. In one hour in January 1945 Allied bombs destroyed 90% of the medieval centre, killing 1,800 people.
10. During WWII Nuremberg was an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines and tank engines.
