... in details - Andernach - the lovely town in the rhine valley

Evidence of settlement activity as far back as primeval times can be found on Andernach`s soil. The oldes prehistoric site was discovered in Miesenheim, a district of Andernach. It is one of the oldest settlement sites in Europe. During the excavations stone tools made by Homo Erectus, an early form of man, were uncovered, as well as bones of hunted animals including rhinoceros.
Just as impressive as this are the archaeological objects which were excavated on Martinsberg in Andernach. During the Ice Age hunters established a base camp of tent-like huts here approximately 14.000 years ago. Numerous tools made of stone and bone were found as well as animal bones and Stone Age works of art. The slate engravings of animals and humans can be compared to the well-known cave paintings in France an Spain. Other finds on Martinsberg were statues of female figures carved out of ivory and highly imaginative birds shaped out of reindeer antlers. There are also many other settlement and grave finds in Andernach from the Early Stone Age (5000 - 2000 B.C.) and the Bronze Age (2000-650 B.C.). These periods were characterized by a settled way of life, agriculture, farming, trade and an early form of metallurgy.

THE CELTIC PERIOD

From 500 B.C. onwards the Celts developed as a people Central Europe and also settled in the area of Andernach. The Celtic settlement of ANTUNNACUM was founded on the banks of the Rhine at the foot of Krahnenberg during the Celtic Period which lasted until 12/10 B.C. The location was well-chosen because at this point the Rhine forms a natural cove which is extremely suitable as a harbour. A stream flowed through the settlement and the location was protected by the Rhine itself as well as a marshy branch of the Rhine. Basalt stones or querns, forerunners of the millstone, were quarried in the hinterland of Andernach by open-cast mining. They were used for trading downriver from Andernach harbour even in pre-Roman times. This is suggested by the distribution of the basalt stones, „Napoleonshut“, along the Rhine and the Maas rivers.
The name ANTUNNACUM is undoubtedly of Celtic origin although it was first found written on a milestone in Tongern, Belgium and probably means „Property of Antunnus“. Caesar had his sappers build bridges across the Rhine directly further up from Andernach in 55 and 53 B.C., thereby causing a sensation. According to Caesar the area of the Neuwied basin on the left of the Rhine was a part of the sprawling tribal territory of the Celtic Treverer.

THE ROMAN PERIOD

An new period in Rhineland history, and therefore in Andernach’s history, begins with the attemp of the Roman Empire to subjugate the Germanic tribes between the Rhine and the Elbe. The massive Roman military presense on the Rhine not only consolidated the integration of the area into the Empire but also caused a gradual convergence with Roman standards in technical and cultural fields by the native population. After the defeat of Varus in 9 A.D. a small fort made of wood and earth was built in Andernach to safeguard the Rhine boundary. Now and again troops belonging to a Raeter Cohort were stationed there. This fort existed until about 100 A.D. The construction of the Limes, a fortified boundary on the right site of the Rhine made the forts of the central Rhine unnecessary.
The Celtic civilian settlement with its harbour continued to exist in the Roman Period and was even enlarged and consolidated. Andernach developed into a central point for the stone trade. Not only basalt millstones but also tuff stones from Pellenz were transported on the Rhine by ships from Andernach. The Roman vicus Antunnacum, protected by the Limes, was able to develope into a significant centre of trade.
In the middle of the third century A.D. this period of peace and prosperity was brought to an end by the invasions of Germanic tribes into Roman Empire territory in the Rhineland. The Limes was destroyed and the centre of the civilian settlement of Antunnacum was fortified with walls, gates and towers. There is evidence that around the middle of the fourth century A.D. the fort in Andernach still had a Roman garrison. But the length of the occupation is not known. Roman rule of the Rhineland officially ended in the middle of the fifth century A.D., it was superseded by a tribe of Germanic Franks.

THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES

The Franks seized Andernach at about 450 A.D., supposedly without any resistance by the inhabitants. Large parts of the native Roman population remained living within the ancient Roman fortifications which were still partially preserved. The Romans ensured as far as they were able, a continous transition from ancient times to the Early Middle Ages by handing on their techniques and abilities to their new masters whose background was agricultural.
The Franks also recognised the strategically and economically convenient location of the settlement at the Rhine. The Merowingian ruling dynasty of the Franks set up a royal court in the former Roman buildings within the old fort walls. The existence of a royal court in Andernach encouraged the establishment of craftsmen who produced high quality jewellery, as well as other objects, which spread beyond the area of the central Rhine.

THE MIDDLE AGES

From the eighth to the twelfth century A.D. Andernach developed from a trading centre with a harbour into a settlement with a more urban character. It had only a local marketplace but also traded with distant places. Millstones from Andernach are even to be found in Southern England and on the German North Sea coast. Tuff stones transported from Andernach’s harbour were used in building Romanesque churches in the Netherlands, in Denmark and in Northern Germany. Even some barrels of wine from the Central Rhine found their way to the north by ship from Andernach. After all, in the eleventh century A.D. Andernach’s coinage and mint were the thirteenth most important in the German Empire. The year 1167 marks a decisive point in the history of Andernach. The Emperor Friedrich I (Barbarossa) gave the imperial court of Andernach, along with its coinage and customs duty to the Archbishop of Cologne, Rainald von Dassel. From then on Andernach was the southernmost cornerstone of the Cologne Electorate until the end of the old Empire. In the thirteenth century the suburb to the east of the old fort was fortified with walls, gates and towers. Since the Early Middle Ages Andernach had belonged to the Archbishopric of Trier.
Apart from the castle and the town fortifications, the other outstanding constructions from the Middle Ages are the Late Romanesque Church of Our Lady and the Chapel of St. Michael, the Gothic church of the former Franciscan monastery - today called Christchurch - and the Jewish Mikwa from the thirteenth century.

THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

With the advent of the sixteenth century the principles of the Renaissance reached Andernach. The new town hall with a covered market was erected in the High Street.
At the beginning of the century the Guilds were given the chance of participating in local government by means of a board of eight guildsmen. New regulations for the police and town defence came into force. The flourishing of trade and business in Andernach can be verified by the regional taxes paid. Apart from Bonn and Neuß, Andernach was the third largest taxpayer in the Electorate of Cologne and held the chair of the town boards of the diocese.
A stone crane for loading and unloading goods was built in the harbour area and the first municipal water system which provided water for ornamental wells.
As a result of several military incidents in the seventeenth century the town was destroyed, onty the Round Tower survived plunder, fire and attempts to blow it up. Again in the eighteenth century there is repeated mention of foreign troops billeted in Andernach at the expense of the citizens. The destruction and debts of Andernach led to its impoverishment which put an end to any further development of the town.

THE MODERN PERIOD

In October 1794 French Revolutionary troops occupied Andernach. Thereafter the system of estates from the Middle Ages and the old institutions disappeared. From 1798 on Andernach received a new municipal administration but, however, lost its town character. Secularisation led to the dissolving of the monasteries and church property was put under state control. Only the parish church and the thirteenth century hospital remained as institutions. The occupation by the French ended with the defeat of Napoleon. In 1815 the Rhineland passed to the Prussians. Not until the middle of the nineteenth century did Andernach awake from its slumber. The timber and malt industries settled in the town because the convenient means of transport by rail and ship. The population rose from about 2.000 inhabitants in 1800 to over 10.000 inhabitants in 1912. New building land was developed outside the medieval walls and a new harbour on the Rhine was constructed. The emergence into the twentieth century was very promising.

This development was brought to an abrupt stop by the First World War, inflation and the world-wide economic crisis. Altough the town acquired valuable industrial and building land and a steel works was established, the cirumstances of the time prevented a continuation of the successful work of the pre-war years.
Five hundred men, women and children lost their lives during the Second World War. The town itself was partially destroyed by air raids at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, but the centre of the old town was almost completely spared.
After the war a new, but difficult start, was made which proved to be succesful. The pumice industry has boomed since the 1950s and the economy has flourished. New building land has been developed and completely new suburbs have come into being. Andernach has developed, despite economic set-backs, into a centre in the Rhineland with several schools, a Central Rhine Theater and Concert Hall, a pedestriation zone in the historic town centre, a new town library, a museum, an attractive programme of cultural events, a wide range of services, a new hospital, highly competitive businesses and a creative retail trade.