City of Munich: 1158 founding on the Isar

 City of Munich founding on the Isar

866th city birthday of Munich: On June 14, 1158, Henry the Lion demanded coinage, customs and market rights for Munich.

The city's 866th birthday will be celebrated on Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th, 2024 with a long adventure mile in the middle of the old town

 

Munich - city founding festival. It all started 860 years ago! This June 14, 1158 went down in history as the day on which the coinage, customs and market rights for a settlement “apud munichen” were confirmed by Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa. That was 860 years ago now. Like every year, the city founding festival will be celebrated again this year in Munich's old town. But: What exactly was it like 857 years ago? Before we celebrate the 866th Munich city birthday on Saturday, June 8th and Sunday, June 9th, 2024 to celebrate, let's take a look back at the founding history of the city:

Image example: Another example of documents from the Middle Ages,
Photo: Helga Waess
 

The Munich founding document “Augsburger Schied” mentions “munichen” for the first time

The state capital's main state archives preserve historical documents, including the official founding document of the city of Munich, the "Augsburger Schied" - in which "Munichen" is mentioned as a place for the first time.

Knight's armor and weapons, at the knight's tent on the Marienhof, press archive photo: Helga Waess

The founding of the city of Munich as a criminal case in history

Scholars still argue about what exactly happened in 1158.
 
Freimut Scholz's "The founding of the city of Munich: A spectacular story put to the test" (2007 - Canaletto Verlag - ISBN 978-3000229916)) reads as a criminal case in history. Is it all misinterpretations, misunderstood texts and twisted traditions?

A document confirms the customs, coinage and market rights with an imperial seal. Henry the Lion referred to this document from Emperor Friedrich I, known as Emperor Barbarossa, when he asserted his claims on the newly founded “Munichen” market on the Isarfurt.

Previously he is said to have destroyed the episcopal market and the important bridge over the Isar near Föhring in order to improve his own trading center. That's why the Freising bishop described him as a "highway robber" in a document. Everything is wrong, Scholz refutes after a thorough examination of all sources.

 

A Saxon duke demands market rights on the Isar

Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony since 1142, was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Bavaria in 1154. Not that unusual, as the Bavarian duke's hat was previously worn by his father, Henry the Proud (since 1126) and also by the lion's grandfather, Henry the Black (since 1120).
As a noble family, the Guelphs had held the Bavarian ducal dignity since Welf IV, i.e. since 1070.

Knights on the Marienhof behind Munich City Hall, press archive photo: Helga Waess

Hostile takeover on the Isar?

The lion administered his fiefs and lands. He thought economically when - according to older historiography - he had the Isar bridge near “feringa” (Oberföhring) destroyed in the autumn of 1157. Although he violated the Freising bishop's legal area, the new salt trade route took precedence. And he wanted to collect customs duties and market taxes for the transport of the white gold in his area. He wanted market, mint and customs rights.

From then on, all trade was to pass over just one bridge at the ford “apud munichen” (Latin for “with the monks”).

The monks' settlement mentioned has probably been in this location for a long time and can be seen as the founding of the Tegernsee monastery. (see Karl Jorhan's book "Heinrich the Lion", p. 153 f.

Augsburg arbitration versus Regensburg arbitration

Two of the most important sources are the Augsburg Arbitration of 1158 and the Regensburg Judgment of 1180. For a long time, historians were unanimous in their opinion that these two sources were directly related to each other. And that the founding of the Munich market was based on the destruction of the Föhringen market. However, this is not the case - says the author Freimut Scholz. However, other historians are still skeptical here.
 
"It's all just interpretation!?" May the reader devote themselves to reading Scholz's book and form their own opinion.

The Loisach in Wolfratshausen flows into the Isar shortly behind the town, press archive photo: Helga Waess

Salt trade route from Salzburg and Berchtesgarden to Swabia

The crossing with the monks on the Isar gave the salt trade route from Salzburg and Berchtesgaden to Swabia a new route. Thanks to the customs duties, it gave Heinrich a source of income that should not be underestimated.
But that wasn't enough. Almost in the same breath, “the lion” abolished the traditional market, coinage and customs rights of the Freising bishops. After all, he had received the fiefdom from the emperor.

Bishop Otto of Freising must have been furious. He filed a lawsuit against the Guelph. And that was with the highest secular authority at the time: the emperor.

Otto, Bishop of Freising, against Henry, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria

It was the Pentecost festival of 1158, Barbarossa was preparing for the second invasion of Italy, and a Reichstag was being held in Augsburg. The “Augsburg Arbitration” recorded the arbitration award of June 14th once and for all:

    The forced reconstruction of the salt trade route through Munich was declared legal. In return, the Föhring market's rights were revoked. This confirmed the new crossing over the Isar.
    The Bishop of Freising was appeased with a compromise. According to the document, from then on he received 1/3 of the customs duties and also the mint of the place aput munich.
    Duke Henry the Lion also received something else: 1/3 of the Freising coin, also as a fief.
    And the administration of the new rights? It was shared. Control over the Isar crossing was the responsibility of an episcopal and a ducal accounting official.

Henry the Lion fortifies the Munich market and is overthrown

The market town of Munich was under Henry the Lion. He had jurisdiction in his fiefdoms and appointed ducal judges. In this early period, there was no civil self-government.
Then came the fateful year 1180 and the lion was overthrown.

After 1158, the surrender of market rights remained an ongoing issue in the dispute between the diocese of Freising and the ducal fortification of Munich.

Example of a document from the Middle Ages, press archive photo: Helga Waess

The Regensburg judgment of July 13, 1180

In the so-called Regensburg Arbitration, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa withdrew the market rights previously granted to the Guelph Henry the Lion from 1158.
 

Munich remained.

 
The original document from the Regensburg judgment, with the sign and seal of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, is now kept in the main state archives of the state capital Munich.

Otto's successor, Albert von Freising, received market and customs rights for the salt trade through Munich. The Freising bishops were to retain these rights until the 13th century.

She then gave it to the dukes of the House of Wittelsbach. But this is another story. And it was only under the dukes of the House of Wittelsbach that Munich came under new administration. Munich received a written city charter at the end of the 12th century.

The place and its residents became very prosperous because the important salt trade route via Salzburg, Reichenhall, Wasserburg and Munich to Memmingen in Swabia was very lucrative. So it didn't take long until a castle complex and of course the city fortifications followed.

The city wall and the old town of Munich

Only a few remains of the city wall have been preserved. The city gates and the old town ring encompass the old town of Munich, where every year on June 14th the city's founding festival is celebrated with dance, games and theater.

Under bourgeois rule, the city of Munich on the Isar continues to grow to this day.

It has been 860 years since the city of Munich was founded

Whether through the use of force or peacefully, we will not clarify it here.

In any case, it was founded, because the city still stands, celebrates and grows today:

MUNICH

Marienplatz in Munich with a view of the town hall corner towers and the Towers of the Frauenkirche, photo: Helga Waess

Stage on Marienplatz in front of the town hall, Munich city founding festival, Press photo archive photo: Helga Waess

Photos/Text: Helga Waess - Munich