The first documentary mention of Coburg occurs in 1056, in a gift by Richeza of Lotharingia to the Archbishop of Cologne, to allow the creation of Saalfeld Abbey. In 1075, a chapel dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul is mentioned at the Coburg fortress. This document also refers to a Vogt named Gerhart, implying that the local possessions of the Saalfeld Benedictines were administered from the hill.
In the 13th century, the hill overlooked the important trade route from Nuremberg via Erfurt to Leipzig. At the time, the town was controlled by the Dukes of Merania (or Meran). They were followed in 1248 by the Counts of Henneberg who ruled Coburg until 1353, save for a period from 1292-1312, when the House of Ascania (Askanien) was in charge.
In 1353, Coburg fell to Friedrich, Markgraf von Meißen of the House of Wettin. His successor, Friedrich der Streitbare was awarded the status of Elector of Saxony in 1423. Coburg was now referred to as “Saxony”. The fortifications of the Veste were expanded in 1430 as a result of the Hussite Wars.
In 1485, in the Partition of Leipzig, Veste Coburg fell to the Ernestine branch of the family. A year later, Elector Friedrich der Weise took over the rule of Coburg.
Johann der Beständige used the Veste as a residence from 1499. From April to October 1530, during the Diet of Augsburg, Martin Luther sought protection at the Veste, as he was under an Imperial ban at the time. Whilst he stayed at the fortress, Luther continued with his work translating the Bible into German.
The medieval historian Lambert of Hersfeld, held that Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter and Paul in 1074 with religious independence and a bequest of land and assets. Pope Honorius II in 1124 confirmed the founding, as did the Archbishop of Mainz the following year.
Saalfeld Abbey set up houses of prayer (Propsteien) at Coburg from 1075 and at Probstzella. The monastery became a centre of ecclesiastical power in Thuringia.
The town grew after the Counts of Schwarzburg received Saalfeld in 1208 from Otto IV. Saalfeld was purchased in 1389 by the Counts of Thuringia remained a possession of the House of Wettin. At the end of the 14th century, Saalfeld was on the trade route leading north from Nuremberg to Leipzig.
The abbey was severely damaged during the German Peasants’ War in 1525, secularised in 1526 during the Reformation and sold in 1532 to the House of Wettin. The surviving buildings were used as offices for the Electoral administration.
Ducal palace built on the site of the former Benedictine abbey, the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Saalfeld from 1680 to 1735.
The Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Ernest the Pious, died on 26 March 1675. The Principality was divided on 24 February 1680 among his seven surviving sons. The lands of Saxe-Saalfeld went to the youngest of them, who became John Ernest IV (1658–1729), the Duke of Saxe-Saalfeld and were united with Coburg in 1699
Francis succeeded his father as reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1800. Emperor Francis II dissolved the Holy Roman Empire on 6 August 1806, after its defeat by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz. Duke Francis died 9 December 1806. On 15 December 1806, Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, along with the other Ernestine duchies, entered the Confederation of the Rhine as the Duke and his ministers planned
Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg died in 1825 without an heir. This resulted in a rearrangement of the Ernestine duchies. Ernest received Gotha on 12 November 1826, but had to cede Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen.
I always loved being here, I believe it comes from the harmony of everything around here … (Goethe to Schiller, Ilmenau, August 29th, 1795)
A village may have been founded on this floodplain of the Ilm river by St. Peter’s monastery of Saalfeld, which coordinated the settlement of this part of Thuringia.
First recorded in 1273 as a village belonging to the Counts of Käfernburg, Ilmenau passed in 1302 to the Counts of Schwarzburg.
A castle was built here in 1320 by the Counts of Schwarzburg, after an important trade route from Nuremberg in the south to Erfurt in the north was relocated near Ilmenau.
The Schwarzburgs founded a planned town (relatively similar to Königsee) and Ilmenau got its municipal rights in 1341. The name comes from the German words Ulmen (i.e. Elms) and Aue (i.e. floodplain), in reference to the floodplain of the Ilm river, which was covered with elms before the foundation of the town.
The Schwarzburgs sold their new town in 1343 to the Counts of Henneberg, who mortgaged Ilmenau often to other houses like the Schwarzburgs (1351–1420 and 1445–1464), the Witzlebens (1420–1434) and the Schaumbergs (1476–1498).
The Duke Saxe Weimar appointed Johann Wolfgang Goethe in 1776 to look after the finances of the town and the revival of silver and copper mining.
Nothing compares to having a place at the table, influencing changes that will shape the future.
Diversity is one of the fundamental properties for survival of species, populations and organizations. Diversity affects what products get built, who they are designed to serve, and who benefits from their development.
Contributions from creative men and women of all backgrounds are crucial to realise our goals and encourage a more diverse future. Discriminating by race and gender to limit access to employment and education is suboptimal for a society that wants to achieve greatness.
AI algorithms recapitulate biases contained in the data on which they are trained.
Training datasets may contain historical traces of intentional systemic discrimination, biased decisions due to unjust differences in human capital among groups and unintentional discrimination, or they may be sampled from populations that do not represent everyone.
Systems that use physical appearance as a proxy for character or interior states are deeply suspect, including AI tools that claim to detect sexuality from headshots, predict ‘criminality’ based on facial features, or assess worker competence via ‘micro-expressions.’ Such systems are replicating patterns of racial and gender bias in ways that can deepen and justify historical inequality.
The commercial deployment of these tools is cause for deep concern.
This report is the culmination of a year long pilot study examining the scale of AI’s current diversity crisis and possible paths forward. This report draws on a thorough review of existing literature and current research working on issues of gender, race, class, and artificial intelligence.
The review was purposefully scoped to encompass a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, incorporating literature from computer science, the social sciences, and humanities.
It represents the first stage of a multi-year project examining the intersection of gender, race, and power in AI, and will be followed by further studies and research articles on related issues.
The Diocese of Bamberg was established at the 1007 synod in Frankfurt, at the behest of Henry II, to further expand the spread of Christianity in the Franconian lands. Henry became king of Germany in 1002 and Holy Roman emperor in 1014. He wanted the celebrated monkish rigour and studiousness of the Hildesheim cathedral chapter, where Henry himself was educated, linked together with the churches under his control, including his favourite bishopric of Bamberg.
The next seven bishops were appointed by the Holy Roman Emperors, after which election by the cathedral chapter became the rule, as in all the German prince-bishoprics.
Bishop Suidger of Morsleben, became pope in 1046 as Clement II. He was the only pope to be interred north of the Alps at the Bamberg Cathedral.
Bishop Otto of Bamberg (d. 1139) became known as the “Apostle of the Pomeranians”.
The bishops obtained the status of Imperial immediacy about 1245 and ruled their estates as Prince-bishops until they were subsumed to the Kingdom of Bavaria in the course of the German Mediatisation in 1802.
In the course of the German Mediatisation of 1802/3 the prince-bishopric of Bamberg with an area of 3,580 km² and a population of 207,000 was annexed to Bavaria.
The 39th bishop, Georg Schenk von Limpurg had a procedure for the judgment of capital crimes (Halsgerichtsordnung) drawn up by Johann of Schwarzenberg in 1507, which later became a model for the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina agreed at the 1530 Diet of Augsburg. Bishop Georg, though a confidant of Emperor Maximilian I, was inclined toward the Reformation movement of Martin Luther.
During the Peasants’ War over 70 manors and several monasteries were destroyed. When the troubles began, the chapter had more rights than ever before, but now existential questions about their position were being posed. Although some of the canons may have sympathized with the Protestant faith, the demands of the peasant, which implied disempowering the canons, met with fierce resistance.
The city suffered severely in the Second Margrave War (1552–54), when large parts of the bishopric were occupied. After the war, the bishop had the Forchheim Fortress erected.
From 1609 onwards Prince-Bishop Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen, also elected Bishop of Würzuburg in 1617, and his successor Johann Georg Fuchs von Dornheim enacted stern Counter-Reformation measures.
The Bamberg estates were devastated in the Thirty Years’ War. Bishop Johann Georg fled to his remote Carinthian esates in 1631. His successor Franz von Hatzfeld was likewise expelled, when the Bamberg and Würzburg bishoprics was placed under the jurisdiction of Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who obtained the title of a “Duke of Franconia” from the hands of the Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna in 1633.
At the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the prince-bishops recovered their possessions.
From 1500 onwards, the Bamberg territory was bordered, among others, by the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg to the west, by the Hohenzollern margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach and the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg to the south, by the margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth to the east and by the Wettin duchy of Saxe-Coburg to the north. During the 18th century, it was often held in conjunction with the neighbouring Diocese of Würzburg, whose rulers since 1168 claimed the archaic title of a “Duke of Franconia”.
The Prince-bishopric was also vested with large possessions within the Duchy of Carinthia that were strategically important for crossing the Eastern Alps, including the towns of Villach, Feldkirchen, Wolfsberg and Tarvis, located at the trade route to Venice, as well as Kirchdorf an der Krems in the Archduchy of Austria. Highly indebted by the burdens of the Seven Years’ War, the prince-bishops sold the Carinthian estates to their Habsburg allies in 1759.
In 765, the first documented mention of the Frankish village was recorded in the Lorsch Codex, in connection with an endowment by Charlemagne to the Lorsch Abbey. Further portions of Oppenheim were added to the endowment in 774. In 1008, Oppenheim was granted market rights.
In October 1076 Oppenheim gained special importance in the Investiture Controversy. At the princely session of Trebur and Oppenheim, the princes called on King Henry IV to undertake the “Walk to Canossa”. After Oppenheim was returned to the Empire in 1147, it became a Free Imperial City in 1225, during the Staufer Emperor Frederick II’s. At this time, the town was important for its imperial castle and the Burgmannen who lived there.
In the 14th century, the town was pledged to the Electorate of Mainz and beginning in 1398, it belonged to the territory of the Electoral Palatinate.
In 1621, the Oppenheim town chronicle reports a great fire in which the Oppenheim Town Hall was almost completely destroyed.
Restoration of St. Catherine’s Church to its Gothic form was in three building phases: 1836-1846, 1879-1889 and 1934-1937.
The Katharinenkirche (St. Catherine’s church) in Oppenheim is regarded as an important Gothic church building on the Rhine, along with the cathedrals of Cologne and Strasbourg. Construction began probably in 1225, when Oppenheim was granted Town privileges.
Bartholomäus Fröwein was born in the Free City of Nürnberg and entered the Cistercian monastery of Ebrach between 1360 and 1370. He was chosen in 1426 by the Ebrach monks as their new Abbot. He was consecrated by the prelate of the daughter monastery of Heilsbronn.
Epitaph des Abtes Bartholomäus Fröwein von Kloster Ebrach, Klosterkirche Ebrach, Amtszeit 1426-1430
The first Cistercian monastery in Germany was founded in 1127 by the Brothers Berno and Richwin (fränkische Edelfreie) in the wooded Ebrach valley of Upper Franconia between Bamberg and Würzburg.
Extensive donations of the Franconian nobility established the prosperity of the monastery. The Burggraf zu Nürnberg Friedrich III. and his son Johann I presented the monastery with various estates, as did Grafen Heinrich and Friedrich von Castell. Ludwig von Windheim gave his possessions at Burgwindheim to this monastery.
Most of the benefactors of the monastery found their final resting place within its walls. Other Houses of this monastery were in Schweinfurt, Rödelsee, Bamberg and Mainstockheim.
Crisp white wines from vines in the heart of Franconian wine country.
Southeast of Frankfurt, the Main River flows the particularly verdant Franconian wine country. And one of the best places to experience the bounty of the vines is in the medieval village of Iphofen with its baroque town hall, turreted walls, gabled houses and surrounding vineyards.
Iphofen has approximately 716 acres under cultivation for wine production. The ancestral tradition of wine making and production has turned the town into a premier destination for wine tourism.
The two leading grape varietals are riesling and silvaner, and the majority of the wines come in distinctly shaped, rounded bottles, known as Franken “Bocksbeutel” bottles. This style of bottle dates back to the 16th century and may only be used for winemaking in this region.
The name of this family from Lennep and Elberfeld derives from Frowin, an Old High German first name.
Wappen Frowein: On Silver, a beamed red Grape branch with three Leaves up and three Grapes down. On the Helmet with red and silver Blankets an open silver Flight.
The oldest known ancestor is Hermann Frowin, 1470-1540 at Lennep, (Ratsverwandter und Hospitalmeister). During the Middle Ages, hospitals offered hospitality for travellers: pilgrims, strangers or foreigners. The foundation of the prosperity of Lennep was an influx of Cologne Weavers during the 14th century. Lennep was one of the four capitals of the County of Berg and the residence of the counts from 1226 to 1300.
A junior line of the dynasty of the Ezzonen, a dynasty of Lotharingian stock dating back as far as the ninth century, emerged in 1101 as the Counts of Berg. In 1160, the territory split into two portions, one of them later becoming the County of the Mark, which returned to the possession of the family line in the 16th century
Jaspar (Kaspar) Frowein (1575-1631) moved in 1600 to Elberfeld, where he became Kirchmeister, Ratsverwandter and Bürgermeister.
The County of Jülich united with the County of Berg in 1348 and in 1380 the Emperor Wenceslaus elevated the counts of Berg to the rank of dukes, thus originating the Duchy of Jülich-Berg. In 1509, John III, Duke of Cleves, made a strategic marriage to Maria von Geldern, daughter of William IV, Duke of Jülich-Berg, who became heiress to her father’s estates: Jülich, Berg and the County of Ravensberg. With the death of her father in 1521 his estates came under the rule of John III, Duke of Cleves — along with his personal territories, the County of the Mark and the Duchy of Cleves (Kleve) in a personal union.
The United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was a combination of states of the Holy Roman Empire. The duchies of Jülich and Berg united in 1423.
John represented a compensatory attitude, which strove for a via media, a middle way, between the two confessions during the Reformation. The real influence at the court of Cleves was Erasmus. Many of his men were friends and followers of this well-educated Dutch scholar and theologian. When Duke John decided to write up a list of church regulations, Erasmus was the first person the Duke went to personally for consultation and approval. The court of John of Cleves was fundamentally liberal, but serious-minded, theologically inclined, and profoundly Erasmian.
While the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555 reserved the right of the ruler to determine the confession of his subjects, the Duke of Jülich-Kleve-Berg/Count of Mark-Ravensberg did not use that option; in his territories Catholicism and Lutheran Protestantism coexisted (Berg remained predominantly Catholic).
When Pfalz-Neuburg and Brandenburg succeeded in 1609, they declared they did not to want to interfere with the faith of its citizens. The Pfalz-Neuburgers reneged on their original proclamation and in 1627 forbade the eucharist being distributed in any non-Catholic manner.
Kaspar Frowein (1640-1679) married Anna Margareta von Carnap (1650-1667) and Abraham Frowein (1734-1813) married Anna Christine von Carnap (1748-1799).
Abraham Frowein (29.1.1766-16.3.1829) and his wife Charlotta Luisa Weber (30.9.1770-27.12.1833), daughter of Daniel Adolf Weber, Bürgermeister von Elberfeld 1788.
August Frowein (10.10.1805-25.3.1850)
August Frowein / von Frowein (19.5.1839-10.10.1912), Associate of the City of Elberfeld, was elevated to the Peerage (Potsdam 17.6.1910).
Wappen von Frowein: On the occasion of this Elevation, the red Lion with the Grape in its right paw was added to the helmet..
Julius August von Frowein (14.7.1869-18.10.1931) married Elisabeth Furmans (16.8.1877-24.4.1967), daughter of Heinrich Wilhelm Furmans (26.3.1835-12.4.1893) and Maria Luise Pferdmenges (5.10.1840-4.4.1907).
In Silver on green Ground a red tin Tower with Gate opening and three (1:2) Window Openings. On the red-silver, a natural Owl sitting between a right silver and a left red Ostrich Feather with red and silver Blankets. The Family could be identical to Fuhrmann of Hermannsmühle near Lennep, of which an equally Seal print is described, but Buffalo Horns are interpreted instead of the Feathers.
These Wappen in Glasfenstern are located in Katharinenkirche (St. Catherine’s church) in Oppenheim, which is regarded as an important Gothic church building on the Rhine, along with the cathedrals of Cologne and Strasbourg. Construction began probably in 1225, when Oppenheim was granted Town privileges. Since the merger of the Lutheran and Reformed congregation in 1822, it is a United Protestant church and its congregation forms part of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau.
Engraving by Simon de Bellomonte (1526-1615) of city scene before the siege of 1579. Farmers in the foreground and female figure in the clouds between emblems of the Prince-Bishop of Liège and the Duke of Brabant.
Maastricht was a condominium for five centuries until 1794. It was shared between the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the Duchy of Brabant, the latter replaced by the Dutch Republic in 1632.
