Ingolstadt

Ingolstadt is a city in the Federal State of Bavaria, Germany. It is located at , along the banks of the Danube River in the center of Bavaria. As of December 31, 2005 it had 121.801 residents registered, making it the sixth largest city in Bavaria.

The headquarters of the German automobile manufacturer Audi are located in Ingolstadt, as well as the headquarters of the electronic stores MediaMarkt and Saturn.Ingolstadt is connected to Nuremberg via a 300 km/h high speed railway line. Service started on 28 May 2006.

See also: University of Ingolstadt

History and culture

Ingolstadt was first mentioned in a document of Charlemagne on 6th of February 806 as "Ingoldes stat", the place of Ingold.About 1250 Ingolstadt was granted city status.

Ingolstadt was the capital of the duchy Bavaria-Ingolstadt between 1392 and 1447. Then Ingolstadt was united with Bavaria-Landshut. Louis VII, Duke of Bavaria ordered to build the New Castle, which was strongly influenced by French Gothic.In 1472 Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria founded the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Ingolstadt, which was moved to Landshut in 1800 and finally to Munich.

Originally a fortress city, Ingolstadt is enclosed in a medieval defensive wall. The Bavarian fortress (1537-1930) nowadays holds the museum of the Bavarian army. During World War I, future France president Charles de Gaulle was detained there as a prisoner of war. A sapper's drill ground is still crossing the river, two military air bases are nearby, one used for testing airplanes. The long military tradition of the city is reflected in today's civil and cultural life. Former "off limit" grounds are now well used public parks, the famous writer Marieluise Fleißer wrote Pioniere in Ingolstadt in 1928.

Ingolstadt was the city where William IV, Duke of Bavaria wrote and signed the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot in 1516, the eldest food law still in use. Adolf Scherzer composed the Bayerischen Defiliermarsch, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is related to the Ingolstädter alte Anatomie, now museum for medical history. In 1748, Adam Weishaupt was born in Ingolstadt.

[Ingolstadt Basilica:[1]]

Literary references

Ingolstadt is the setting for Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel Frankenstein and is a pivotal location in The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

Dr. Faust is mentioned in an old and short local Tale.

The X-Files episode, "The Post-Modern Prometheus," makes a reference to the University of Ingolstadt. This was possibly a Frankenstein reference, as the episode was filled with them.