Karlstadt am Main

From the late 6th to the mid-13th century, the settlement of Karlburg with its monastery and harbor was located on the west bank of the Main. It grew up around the Karlsburg, a castle perched high over the community, that was destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525. In 1202, Karlstadt itself was founded by Konrad von Querfurt, Bishop of Würzburg. The exact founding date is unknown. However, given that the founder's time in office was only four years (1198-1202), the time can be reckoned fairly easily.

The town was methodically laid out with a nearly rectangular plan to defend Würzburg territory against the Counts of Rieneck. The plan is still well preserved today. The streets in the old town are laid out much like a chessboard, but for military reasons they are not quite straight.

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  Karlsburg, Karlstadt, on the west bank of the Main
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  Main gate with flood gauge, Karlstadt
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  Main gate tower and main gate, Karlstadt
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  Bond of the town of Karlstadt am Main, issued 1 September 1888

In 1225, Karlstadt had its first documentary mention. In 1236, the castle and the village of Karlburg were destroyed in the Rieneck Feud. In 1244, winegrowing in Karlstadt was mentioned for the first time. From 1277 comes the earliest evidence of the town seal. In 1304, the town fortifications were finished. The parish of Karlstadt was first named in 1339. In 1369 a hospital was founded. Between 1370 and 1515, radical remodelling work was being done on the first, Romanesque parish church to turn it into a Gothic hall church. About 1400, Karlstadt became for a short time the seat of an episcopal mint. The former Oberamt of the Princely Electorate (Hochstift) of Würzburg was, after Secularization, in Bavaria's favour, passed in 1805 to Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Tuscany to form the Grand Duchy of Würzburg, and passed with this to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

The town's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938) by SA men, an event recalled by a plaque at the synagogue's former site.[2]

In 1999 the following institutions existed in Karlstadt:

• Kindergartens: 549 places with 548 children
• Primary schools: 5 with 63 teachers and 1,147 pupils
• Gymnasium: 1 with 60 teachers and 923 students
• Realschule with just under 600 students (in 2004)
• “Piranha” youth cultural centre: with some 1,000 visitors each year

• Johannes Schöner (b. 16 January 1477, d. 16 January 1547 in Nuremberg), mathematician, geographer, cartographer, astronomer and astrologist
• Andreas Bodenstein (b. about 1482, d. 24 December 1541 in Basel), also named after his birthplace Karlstadt, or in Latinized form Carolstadius, reformer
• Johann Draconites (b. about 1494, d. 18 April 1566 in Wittenberg), theologian, humanistic philosopher and reformer
• Michael Beuther (b. 18 October 1522, d. 27 October 1587 in Strasbourg), historian, poet, jurist and official
• Johann Rudolph Glauber (b. 10 March 1604 in Karlstadt; d. 16 March 1670 in Amsterdam), apothecary and chemist
• Franz Sperr (b. 12 February 1878, d. 23 January 1945 executed in Berlin-Plötzensee), jurist and member of the Widerstand in the Third Reich
• Bernhard Fech (b. 1887, d. 1915 near Soldau in Masuria), painter
• Hermann Sendelbach (b. 1894 in Wiesenfeld-Erlenbach, d. 1971), writer, poet
• Detlef Wagenthaler (b. 1 August 1948 in Aschaffenburg, d. 23 September 2007 in Karlstadt), carnevalist
• Roland Büchner (b. 1954), Regensburg cathedral choirmaster, conductor, leader of the Regensburger Domspatzen
• Ruth Westheimer (b. 4 June 1928 im Wiesenfeld), sexual therapist, later U.S. citizen.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Karlstadt.

• Town’s official webpage (in German)
• am Main Karlstadt am Main. article in: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Aufl. 1888–1890, Bd. 9, S. 546 f.