Weilheim in Oberbayern

Geography & Geomorphology

Geography

The town is located in the landscape of the Alpine Foreland between Munich to the north and Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the south. The Ammer flows through the town.

Weilheim lies in a basin that was carved out by repeated advances of the Isar-Loisach Glacier over the past 2.6 million years. The glacier was also responsible for the formation of the Ammersee, which was once significantly larger and extended southward as far as Weilheim.

Geomorphology

In particular, the glacial advance during the Würm glaciation, which began 115,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago, has strongly shaped the current landscape of the region. For example, the “Gögerl” south of Weilheim was formed when the glacier, during its retreat about 18,000 years ago near Weilheim, deposited debris and rocks along its flanks for several hundred years (lateral moraine).

The Weilheimer Moos (the "Weilheim wetland"), was formed (similar to the Murnau wetland) by sand and clay particles that were deposited by the Ur-Ammer River into the eroded, water-filled basin after the glacier melted. While the Ammersee became increasingly silted up as a result of this deposition, the lake sediments still prevent surface water from seeping away today, thus creating the foundation for the lowland bog area known as the Weilheimer Moos.

Local history

Up to the 18th century

The oldest traces of human settlement date back to the Bronze Age and there were grave finds from the Late Roman era. The name Weilheim is interpreted as a home to the Roman villas (land estates). There are, however, several other theories for the roots of the name. Upper Bavaria came in Roman hands through commander Drusus. The Romans built "Via Raetia" in 200 AD, which led over the Brenner Pass to Augsburg. This Roman road ran through the Weilheim area. Around 476 AD, the Romans withdrew southwards and the Bavarians came into the region.

The first documentary mention of the village "Wilhain" dates from 16 April 1010 of the king and later Emperor Heinrich II of Bamberg, who granted the monastery of Polling the property of a farm in Weilheim in 1010. From about 1080 onwards nobleman of Weilheim appeared, they were vassals from Andechs-Meranier and disappeared around 1312. From 1236, there was a palisade fence as a precursor to the town wall. Around 1328, the Munich patrician Ludwig Pütrich enabled the establishment of the Heiliggeistspital (lit.: Holy Spirit Hospital) outside the town walls through donations. An award of the town is named after him. In the Middle Ages, there were several big fires in Weilheim. When a plague epidemic broke out in Munich in 1521, the Bavarian dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig temporarily resided in Weilheim. Early in the 17th century, artwork flourished in Weilheim, especially the Weilheimer sculpture school. Well-known representatives from this time were Georg Petel, Hans Krumpper, and Johann Sebastian Degler. In 1611, the so-called Trifthof was set up at the Ammer for log drifting, where tree trunks were bond together as rafts to carry them along the waterway down to the Amper. In 1639, the Franciscan monastery of St. Joseph was founded at the Schmied Gate because of a lack of priests .

19th and 20th century

The Franciscan monastery in Weilheim was abolished as a result of the secularisation in 1802. 120 houses burnt down and two people were killed in a severe fire disaster in the Oberen Stadt (lit.: upper town) on 3 May 1810. The former Franciscan monastery burnt down in 1825, after which a Heiliggeistspital was built and a hospital on today's Münchner Straße in 1826. On 1 October 1869, the first daily newspaper was published, the "Weilheimer Tagblatt". Between 1872 and 1874, three city gates were demolished, the Obere Tor in 1872, the Schmied Gate in 1873, and the Pöltner Gate in 1874. 24 people were killed and the train station was destroyed by an air raid in the Second World War on 19 April 1945.

Economy

Weilheim has low unemployment thanks to several medium-sized companies headquartered there. Among them is Bremicker Verkehrstechnik, a major manufacturer of traffic signs. WTW Wissenschaftlich-Technische Werkstätten GmbH is also based in Weilheim and is a global manufacturer of water analysis products. The company now belongs to Xylem Inc.. Zarges is a light-metal engineering company that specializes in manufacturing aluminum products for access technology (ladders and scaffolding), logistics, and custom packaging. While Zarges was founded in Stuttgart in 1933, the company relocated to Weilheim in 1939. The Dachsbräu, founded 1879, is Weilheim's last brewery.

In Lichtenau, 3.5 km southwest of the Raisting Earth Station, lies the Weilheim satellite ground station of the German Aerospace Center.

Sport

The aeroclub Weilheim-Peißenberg flying at Paterzell airfield is rather successful in glider aerobatics: 2006 German National Champion Markus Feyerabend and Hans-Georg Resch are members of the German national glider aerobatics team.

Transport

The Weilheim (Oberbay) station has five platform tracks and is served by about 100 trains daily. It is a crossing station on the Munich–Garmisch-Partenkirchen railway, the Ammersee Railway from Augsburg and the Weilheim–Peißenberg railway. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.

Notable people

Markus Acher (born 1967), singer, guitarist and composer

John Aelbl (born 1552), theologian

Dominik Bittner (born 1995), ice hockey player

Franz von Hipper (1863–1932), naval officer, last admiral in the Imperial German Navy in World War I

Michael Holm (born 1943), lives and works in Weilheim; musician and singer

Hans Krumpper (c. 1570–1634), Sculptor, plasterer

Thomas Müller (born 1989), footballer for Vancouver Whitecaps, Bayern Munich and Germany, was born in Weilheim

Max Nagl (born 1987), motocross biker

Georg Petel (died 1635), sculptor who became known as German Michelangelo in the 18th century, was born in 1601 or 1602 in Weilheim

Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923), had a mansion in Weilheim and is an honorary citizen

Willi Schmid (1893–1934), music critic and poet, as well as victim of confusion of the so-called Night of the long knives (Röhm-Putsch 1934)

International relations

Weilheim in Oberbayern is twinned with:

Narbonne, France