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Saarbrücken: A city full of history, bridges and famous people!
Learn about the history, culture and important personalities of Saarbrücken - the only major city in Saarland.
Saarbrücken: A city full of history, bridges and famous people!
Saarbrücken, the lively capital of the Saarland, has a multi-faceted history and originally developed around a rock on the Saar on which a castle once stood. This region became known by the Celtic name “Sarabrucca,” which means “chunk.” Bridges over the Saar were only built later. The city name itself was first mentioned in documents in 999, when Emperor Otto III. Saarbrücken Castle was left to Bishop Adalbero II of Metz. Today Saarbrücken has around 182,500 inhabitants and is considered a modern center for services, industry and culture in the region. According to saarbruecker-zeitung.de, the city is divided into four districts, each of which includes different parts of the city.
Around 97,000 people live in the middle, while Dudweiler has around 27,500 residents. Halberg and West are the other important districts with around 25,700 and 32,400 inhabitants. In 843, Saarland fell to the Middle Kingdom of Emperor Lothar and the first royal castle was built on the banks of the Saar in the 9th century. This castle was the starting point for the growth of the Saarbrücken settlement.
Historical developments
The city experienced an economic boom in the High Middle Ages, especially between the 10th and 13th centuries. This led to the development of Saarbrücken into a city. Saarbrücken and St. Johann received city rights in 1321. The Reformation was introduced in the 16th century under the House of Nassau-Weilburg. In the 18th century, under Prince Wilhelm Heinrich, the city became a center of economic growth that developed with industrialization.
The French Revolution left its mark on Saarbrücken by severely damaging the city. Between 1680 and 1697, Saarland was a “Province de la Sarre” of France. Ultimately, Saarland returned to Germany after the Second World War in 1956, after having been under different rulers for several centuries.
Famous people
The city has produced several famous personalities over the years. This includes the director Max Ophüls, who was born in St. Johann and the Max Ophüls Prize is named after him. The singer Nicole, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1982 with “A Bit of Peace,” and the politician Peter Altmeier, who served as Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, also come from Saarbrücken. In addition, presenter Jessica Libbertz, who has hosted the FIFA magazine “Living Football” since 2020, is making the city known.
In addition, the time of day is mentioned by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who visited Saarbrücken in 1770 and described the city as pleasant. At that time, according to Louis Zégowitz, Saarbrücken had around 5000 inhabitants and was the second largest city in the department, which underlines the historical importance of the city. Despite the challenges, such as a 2014 survey in which 53% of 18- to 40-year-olds in Saarland perceived the city as “faceless and profileless,” Saarbrücken remains an important economic and cultural location in Germany.
The history of Saarbrücken is not only marked by political upheavals, but also by a rich cultural heritage that has grown over the past centuries. Finds from the earliest human history demonstrate the continuous settlement of this area since the Middle Pleistocene.