Aichach-Friedberg is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is bounded by (from the northwest and clockwise) the districts of

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

, Donau-Ries, Neuburg-Schrobenhausen, Pfaffenhofen, Dachau,

Fürstenfeldbruck Fürstenfeldbruck () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, 32 kilometres west of Munich. It is the capital of the district of Fürstenfeldbruck. it had a population of 35,494. Since the 1930s Fürstenfeldbruck has had an air force base. Geography F ...

and Landsberg, as well as by the city of

History

Aichach-Friedberg was settled by Bavarian tribes from the seventh century on. The region is sometimes called the cradle of Bavaria, since the castle of Wittelsbach was located close to the present city of Aichach. It was the ancestral castle of the Wittelsbach family, who were rulers of Bavaria for thousand years. The castle was razed to the ground in 1208, and today there is nothing else left than a memorial stone at the place. The town of Friedberg was founded in the 13th century in order to collect a toll from people using the bridge across the Lech River. Aichach became a town about hundred years later. In 1862 the two districts of Aichach and Friedberg were founded. They were merged in 1972 and became part of the administrative region of

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

. Anyhow, historically Aichach-Friedberg does not belong to Swabia, but to Old Bavaria. The name of the new district was originally ''Augsburg-Ost'' ("Augsburg East"), but it was changed to Aichach-Friedberg in 1973.

Geography

The district is located to the east of the city of

and comprises a rural area with few major towns. The Lech River forms the western border of the district. Another river, the Paar (an affluent of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

), enters the district in the southwest, runs through Aichach and leaves to the northeast. The territory is also known as Wittelsbacher Land, due to the castle of

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a former Bavarian dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including the Electorate of Bavaria, the Electoral Palatinate, the Electorate of Cologne, County of Holland, Holland, County of Zeeland, ...

near Aichach.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms displays: * top: the white and blue checkered pattern of

* bottom left: the oak leaf from the old coat of arms of Aichach * bottom right: the ''Ulrich's Cross'', used by the bishops of

Towns and municipalities

Town twinning

* Affing: Lobez (Poland) * Aichach: Brixlegg (Austria), Gödöllö (Hungary), Schifferstadt (Germany) * Aindling: Avord (France) * Dasing:

Siedlce Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...

(Poland) * Friedberg: Bressuire (France),

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

(England), Friedberg (Austria), La Crosse (USA),

Völs am Schlern Völs am Schlern (; ; or ), often abbreviated to Völs, is a municipality in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is located at the foot of the Schlern mountain, about east of Bolzano. Geography As of November 30, 2010, it had a population of 3,4 ...

(Italy) * Hollenbach:

Contest CONTEST is the United Kingdom's counter-terrorism strategy, first developed by Sir David Omand and the Home Office in early 2003 as the immediate response to 9/11, and a revised version was made public in 2006. Further revisions were publish ...

(France) * Kühbach: intended with Balatonföldvár (Hungary) * Mering: Ambérieu-en-Bugey (France) * Obergriesbach: Eltendorf (Austria) * Pöttmes: La Haye-Pesnel (France) * Schiltberg: Schwertberg (Austria) * Sielenbach: Saint-Fraimbault-de-Prières (France)

References

External links

Official website
(German)
tourist website
(German) {{Coord, 48.42, 11.08, display=title, format=dms Districts of Bavaria Swabia (Bavaria)