Yes, Aachen existed before the Frankish emperor. A look at the archaeological display case in the Elisengarten proves it: The Celts and Romans already appreciated the local hot springs. However, it was Charlemagne who helped the city achieve historical significance. He made Aachen his favorite palace, the first capital of his European empire. It took more than 1,000 years to complete the cathedral, the city's landmark and Germany's first ever UNESCO World Heritage Site. And construction work is still ongoing to preserve this magnificent building.
Charlemagne is also the namesake of the most important and oldest prize awarded to personalities and institutions that have rendered outstanding services to Europe and European unification: the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen. Since 1950, this prize has been awarded in the Coronation Hall of Aachen Town Hall. The German border city of Aachen is therefore not only geographically located in the middle of Europe, but also in terms of its general attitude. The locals still like to say "I'm cold", ever since the French ("J'ai froid") occupied the Rhineland under Napoleon. In addition to the Charlemagne Prize, this attitude is also expressed politically with the award of the "Médaille Charlemagne pour les Médias Européens" media prize or the Aachen Peace Prize.
Excellent research and teaching
City of Aachen / Wilhelm Leisten-Lorent
At the four universities in Aachen, more than 70,000 people learn and teach in around 300 faculties and institutes: at the world-renowned RWTH Aachen University, the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, the Catholic University of Applied Sciences North Rhine-Westphalia (KatHO NRW) and the University of Music and Dance Cologne, Aachen Department.
RWTH Aachen University is one of Europe's leading science and research institutions and a university of excellence in research and teaching. It is both the largest employer and the largest educator in the Aachen region. Exchange programs between the universities in Aachen, Liège, Maastricht and Hasselt (ALMA) as well as between Aachen, Delft, Zurich and Paris (IDEA League) promote international research and teaching. At the University Hospital Aachen (UKA), patient care, research and teaching take place under one roof in one of the largest hospital buildings in Europe. The large number of students in Aachen has a pleasant side effect: many young people enliven Aachen's cityscape, shape its flair and keep the city young and vibrant.
High-tech region Aachen
City of Aachen / Jonas Hellmann
The RWTH Aachen Campus is an ambitious and forward-looking project. It offers companies a completely new form of cooperation with university institutes. On a total area of around 2.5 square kilometers, 16 competence clusters will be added to the existing and planned university facilities.
The RWTH Aachen Campus will secure the competitiveness and future viability of RWTH Aachen University as a university of excellence in international comparison and strengthen the regional economy. 300 national and international companies have already settled on the RWTH Aachen Campus. Around 10,000 jobs are to be created in the key research areas and in the service sector. In order to make the importance of science in Aachen visible, the city of Aachen and its universities launched "Future Lab Aachen. Art of Progress", an umbrella brand that makes large and small campaigns and events on the topic of science visible:
Aachen's culture crosses borders
City of Aachen / Andreas Herrmann
In order to attract and retain economic power in a city, the focus is increasingly on so-called soft location factors. Aachen certainly doesn't have to hide this fact: In the 1960s and 1970s, the collector couple Peter and Irene Ludwig brought contemporary art from the USA to Germany via Aachen and made it accessible to a broad public. Today, numerous museums in Germany and around the world bear the Ludwig name. Many contemporary works from the Ludwig Collection can be seen in the Ludwig Forum Aachen. The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum also owns many works from the collection.
The International Newspaper Museum (IZM) is unique. After two years of renovation and a complete redesign of the museum, it now shines as a modern media museum within sight of Aachen City Hall. Everything to do with newspapers and the press, from the origins of writing to visions of the future, can be experienced there interactively. In its archive, the IZM keeps an invaluable collection of first, last, anniversary and special editions as well as numerous curiosities of all genres. And while we're on the subject of newspapers, two more facts for press enthusiasts: the first newspaper to be published in Germany after the Second World War was the Aachener Nachrichten. And the Reuters news agency was founded by Paul Julius Reuter in Aachen in 1850.
The Route Charlemagne
Charlemagne is omnipresent in Aachen, and not just because of his statue on the market square. The new Charlemagne Route also refers to Charlemagne and his significance for Aachen and Europe. It leads to important places in the city of Aachen and tells the history and stories of Aachen as a European city and as a city of science. Nine stations, including the IZM, bring you closer to Aachen's past, present and future. The central starting point of the Route Charlemagne, the "Centre Charlemagne - Neues Stadtmuseum Aachen", was opened in 2014 as part of the major Charlemagne exhibitions. It is located at Katschhof between the cathedral and the town hall and brings Aachen's city history and Charlemagne's work to life in exhibitions with historical, artistic and interactive elements. The town hall with the coronation hall as the seat of power and the cathedral as a symbol of religion are also part of the Route Charlemagne.
Where people know how to live
Andreas Herrmann
If you want to enjoy yourself during a visit to Aachen, you will quickly find what you are looking for. Numerous cafés, bistros, pubs and restaurants invite you to linger. You can still guess why, in the 1980s, Aachen was known as the student city with the highest density of pubs and bars (!)...
And if you don't try Aachen's culinary landmark, it's your own fault: the Printe. Almost every bakery and confectionery offers its own productions, and the traditional Aachener Printen- und Schokoladenfabrik Henry Lambertz GmbH & Co. KG, an internationally active confectionery group has its headquarters in Aachen.
But Aachen is also cosmopolitan when it comes to food and drink. It goes without saying that Belgian rice cakes and Dutch fritters are also available in the imperial city. It's only a stone's throw away - after all, you live in the border triangle.
Those who prefer the enjoyment of nature to purely physical well-being will get their money's worth in Aachen. Numerous inner-city parks offer space to stroll and relax. The Aachen Forest, certified with the FSC seal since 2003 for its environmentally and socially responsible use, offers around 100 kilometers of hiking trails and stretches along a large part of the German-Belgian border.
The Lousberg in Aachen, where flint was mined as early as the Neolithic Age, is home to Europe's first landscape park founded by citizens (and not nobles).
Aachen typical
City of Aachen
Aachen owes much to the water, including its foundation. Numerous hot springs were an incentive for the Celts, and later the Romans, to settle in the valley basin. There is evidence of a Roman spa in the 1st century AD. Emperor Charlemagne and King Pippin the Younger before him also used the hot springs in the town, which was still called Aquis villa at the time.
Even the name of the city of Aachen is derived from water: the old Germanic Ahha means water. The springs bring sulphurous water up to 74 degrees to the surface and are among the hottest in Central Europe. The Carolus Thermen Bad Aachen, a popular thermal spa, uses the mineral thermal water from the Rosenquelle spring. It is recognized by the state as a healing spring and brings 47-degree water to the thermal baths.
The town of Bad Aachen can call itself a spa town with three spa clinics.
Mecca of equestrian sport
The CHIO Aachen (Concours Hippique International Officiel), the International Equestrian Festival, has been the Mecca of equestrian sport in Aachen's Soers since 1924. Over 350,000 spectators watch the competitions and show events over the ten days of the show. In terms of the number of paying spectators, this makes the CHIO Aachen the largest regular equestrian event in Germany.
Of the 230 or so sports clubs in Aachen, Alemannia Aachen is certainly the best known. Alemannia fans stick with their club through thick and thin. In the 2006/07 season, Alemannia was even in the first division.
Every year, Aachen's diverse attractions draw visitors from all regions of Germany as well as from near and far abroad. The Eurogress conference and congress center had around 170,000 guests in 2014, 75,000 of whom were conference and congress guests. Aachen Cathedral attracts around 1,000,000 visitors, while the Aachen Christmas Market attracts around 1.5 million.