Welcome to the Ancient City of Augsburg, the home from home for our ERASMUS clan and the scene of one of the best years of our lives !! The above picture shows a view of the Perlach Turm beside the Rathaus in Rathausplatz. It was the original site of the Alte Rathaus but this longstanding structure was destroyed in the second World War, but like many aspects of Augsburg life came back to thrive. The city of Augsburg has about 300,000 inhabitants - 35% of whom are non-German nationals.

The city itself lies about 45km to the north-northeast of Munich (oh how we love Munich!!) and about 60km to the south east of Stuttgart.

The town itself was founded in the year dot by Emperor Augustine and all his mates and hence the name - the legendary emperor's statue dominates the city's picturesque Rathausplatz to this day. It grew gradually in size incorporating the surrounding baronies of Altmuehl, Goeggingen and Lechausen (where we lived, for the uneducated among us) By the middle of the 3rd century it was the main base for Roman empirical western European "exploits" and became a city of great historical and monetary importance. The Familie Fugger had a palace here and part of their famous Fuggerei residences remain despite 2 world wars. Straight, long and wide streets are a feature of the towns Roman style planning and the best example of these are Maximilianstrasse (see previous page) and Konrad Adenauer Allee.

Augsburg was an important town in Nazi Germany, being quite central to many areas, and the Fuehrer himself visited on a number of occasions. There was a square in Augsburg originally called Adolf Hitler Platz but details about its whereabouts are not clear. It seems to have been either Koenigsplatz or the more southerly Theodor Heuss Platz IHK.

After the schackles of the war had been thrown off Augsburg began to slowly grow and then began to thrive in the 50s and 60s until it grew to the modern West European city that it is today. Tourism, industires like car manufacturing and beer brewing (we love that!) are among the most important industries today.

It has become a thriving student town with both a modern University and a large Fachhochschule. The ERASMUS programme was set up in the early 1980s to enhance interEuropean understanding and education at the start of the modern European era. And thats where we come in !! Over 30 foreign students lived in the Lechausen tower alone last year with numbers in the programme increasing all the time. Students come from all over Europe to this wonderful city and many end up wishing they never left.

AND SO SAY ALL OF US...................................

The above picture shows one of Augsburg's showpiece streets,
Maximilianstrasse.  
Totally destroyed in the second World War, Maximilianstrasse was
completely rebuilt to resemble as closely as possible the pre-war era.
Home to the Fugger palace and extensive Fugger family 
museum (although none of us ever went in glaub' ich!)
the street today is one of the finest examples of German engineering
and reconstruction.

But besides all that history lark its home to several great clubs,
pubs and watering holes.
Remember names like NACHT CAFE, PEACHES, CAFE MAX and BODEGA ??  
Aw we just love remembering those hey.
A wide variety of entertainment is available in these various places
for example, the Ilac centre lift music in the bomb shelter of 
Cafe Max (always crowded with trendies but we always stayed to try
and get a seat even though there was no more chance of that than
Liverpool winning a European tie ! 

Then on to the biggest dive this side of the Lech - Nacht Cafe - which 
Audrey always found rather interesting - surprising given the amount 
of hair the DJs always had !!
Peaches was always full of Yanks but did when the other places were 
full.
Lets not forget "Uebernacht" of course - a favourite frequent of the
Portuguese and Audrey Mary !   But my favuorite has to be BODEGA and
getting thrown out of it was definetely a highlight !!

It was all Colm's fault of course (cleptomaniac) how dare he not want 
to pay for the broken glass !  This also saw the pissup debut of the
sick bin, although reports of its actual inaugeration for its planned
use are sketchy at best.  It hides wine well though.

All complaints to  Herrn A. Herzmann
                   "BODEGA"  Spanish Bar,
                   Maximilianstrasse 145,
                   86142    Augsburg

and this is the real address believe it or not !! We love that hey !



LEST WE SHOULD FORGET ..............................