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Augsburg: Where Lutherans Took a Stand

© John L. Hoh, Jr.

Of the confessions of the Lutheran church, two bear the name of the city where the great Reformer watched from afar as his followers defended the Scriptural truths of salvation by grace alone. The Augsburg Confession set down what Lutherans believed and what Lutherans didn’t believe. After the Papists answered, Philip Melanchthon answered with the Apology to the Augsburg Confession. What city is Augsburg, why was it the site of this debate, and why are the creeds that come forth from that debate important to Lutherans?

Today Augsburg has a population of 256,782, making it a decent sized city. It has always been a major city in Germany dating back to its founding by the Roman armies. Augsburg is the third largest city in Bavaria, a university city, the seat of the Swabian government and an important economic center. Augsburg, shaped by its 2000-plus-year history, contains within it the styles of all the major architectural periods and has spacious streets, monumental fountains, and distinctive public buildings. The ancestors of Holbein and Mozart lived for centuries in the city and its hinterland.

Caesar Augustus is credited with founding the city of Augsburg in 15 BC. In the process he followed good imperial custom by naming the settlement after himself (Augsburg = Augustus' City, or Augusta Vindelicum in the Latin).

In 5 AD the Germanic Alamanni tribe arrive in Swabia, the region around Augsburg. By 300 AD the Alamanni would drive the Romans out of Augsburg and Swabia. Interestingly they retain the town’s name, albeit in Germanic fashion.

St. Afra is martyred in 304 AD. Christianity still comes to Augsburg shortly thereafter.

Bishop Ulrich and Kaiser Otto defeat the Hungarians in the Battle of the LechFeld in 955.

In 1156 Augsburg receives its first town charter from Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossa. In the 13th century Augsburg attains the status of a free city in the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsstadt). It was this status that elevated Augsburg as an imperial city to host imperial diets such as the one the Lutheran princes defended their faith at in 1530.

In the next centuries Augsburg faced troubles. In 1368 was the Craftsmen´s uprising. In 1420 the Black Plague would claim 16,000 victims in the town.

In 1514 the Fuggerei was founded. Augsburg soon becomes a high point of the financial and mercantile power of the Fuggers, Welsers, and other Augsburg dynasties. Augsburg now becomes a city of international importance. Augsburg stands as a city of emperors and a venue for imperial diets. Culturally Augsburg also finds itself the home and workplace of famous artists, sculptors, and composers.