Ingolstadt (;

Austro-Bavarian Bavarian (; ), alternately Austro-Bavarian, is a group of Upper German varieties spoken in the south-east of the German language area, including the German state of Bavaria, most of Austria, and South Tyrol in Italy. Prior to 1945, Bavaria ...

: ) is an

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

on 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 ...

, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bavaria after

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and the fifth largest city in Bavaria after Munich,

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

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 ...

and

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

. The city passed the mark of 100,000 inhabitants in 1989 and has since been one of the major cities in Germany. After Regensburg, Ingolstadt is the second largest German city on the Danube. The city was first mentioned in 806. In the late Middle Ages, the city was one of the capitals of the Bavarian duchies alongside Munich, Landshut and

Straubing Straubing (; Central Bavarian: ''Strauwing'') is an independent city in Lower Bavaria, southern Germany. It is seat of the Districts of Germany, district of Straubing-Bogen. Annually in August the Gäubodenvolksfest, the second largest fair in Ba ...

, which is reflected in the architecture. On 13 March 1472 Ingolstadt became the seat of the first university in Bavaria, which later distinguished itself as the center of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

. The freethinking Illuminati order was also founded here in 1776. The city was also a Bavarian state fortress for more than 400 years. The historic old town has been preserved. There are two colleges in the city. The place is one of the three regional centers in Bavaria. The city is mainly characterized by the manufacturing industry, such as automobile and mechanical engineering. The unemployment rate was 3.3% in February 2022.

Geography

Covering an urban area of , Ingolstadt is geographically Bavaria's fourth-largest city after Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg. At its largest point, the city is about from east to west and from north to south about . The city boundary has a length of . The city boundary is about away from the geographic centre of Bavaria in Kipfenberg. The old town is approximately

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

and the highest point, located in the district of Pettenhofen, is . The lowest point of the Schutter confluence with the Danube is at

. Ingolstadt uses Central European Time throughout Germany; the average time lag is 14 minutes. The city is expanding at the northern and southern banks of the Danube in a wide, flat bowl. The Ingolstadt basin borders the Jura foothills, located south and to the north of the Donau-Isar-Hügelland. In the southwest is the Donaumoos, while in the east, the lowland forests of the Danube reach into the urban area. It is the second-largest hardwood floodplain on the Danube. The Sandrach, the former southern main branch of the Danube, partly forms the southern city border. In the north, the Schutter flows through from the west, reaching the Danube near the Altstadt.

History and culture

Ingolstadt was first mentioned in a document of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

on 6 February 806 as "Ingoldes stat", the place of Ingold. , Ingolstadt was granted city status. Ingolstadt was the capital of the Duchy of Bavaria-Ingolstadt between 1392 and 1447. Ingolstadt was then united with Bavaria-Landshut. Louis VII, Duke of Bavaria ordered the building of the New Castle as well as the Church of Our Lady (Münster zur Schönen Unseren Lieben Frau), also known as "Upper Parish" (Obere Pfarr), whose form was strongly influenced by French Gothic architecture. In 1472, Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria founded the University of Ingolstadt, which became the Ludwig-Maximilians-University. In 1800 it was moved to Landshut and in 1826 eventually to

. The University of Ingolstadt was an influential defender of the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation era, led by such notable scholars as Johann Eck. Ingolstadt is where William IV, Duke of Bavaria wrote and signed the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot in 1516. On 30 April 1632, the German

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly died at Ingolstadt during a Swedish siege of the city. The field marshal had been badly wounded in a previous engagement with the Swedes under King

Gustavus Adolphus Gustavus Adolphus (9 December N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December15946 November Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as ...

. Ingolstadt proved to be the first fortress in Catholic League (German), Germany that held out for the entire length of the Swedish siege, and the Swedes eventually withdrew. Gustavus Adolphus' horse remains can be seen in the City Museum. The horse was shot from under the king by one of the cannons inside the fortress, a cannon known as "The Fig". When the Swedes withdrew, the city preserved the remains of the king's horse, eventually putting the on display. It has remained thus for almost 400 years. In 1748,

Adam Weishaupt Johann Adam Weishaupt (; 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830)''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'Vol. 41, p. 539van Dülmen, Richard. ''Der Geheimbund der Illuminaten''. Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1975.Stauffer, Vernon. '' ew Englandand the B ...

, the founder of the Order of Illuminati, was born in Ingolstadt. After the French invasion in 1799, the fortress was demolished, and the university was relocated to Landshut. Originally a fortress city, Ingolstadt is enclosed by a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

defensive wall. The Bavarian fortress (1537–1930) now holds the museum of the Bavarian army. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, future French president

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...

was detained there as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. A

sapper A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses ...

s' drill ground lies next to the river. Two military air bases are located nearby, one used for testing aircraft. The long military tradition of the city is reflected in today's civil and cultural life. Former "off-limit" military training areas have been converted into well-used public parks. Adolf Scherzer composed the " Bayerischen Defiliermarsch". Mary Shelley's ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'' was set at the ''Ingolstädter Alte Anatomie'' (Old Anatomy Building), now a museum for medical history. Marieluise Fleißer set her play '' Pioneers in Ingolstadt'' (1928) in the city.

Economy

In 1945, the car manufacturer Auto Union first arrived in the city. The company's original factories in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

and Zwickau (both then in Soviet-controlled

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

) were shattered during the war, and were seized by the Soviets as reparations. Auto Union executives initially started a spare parts operation in Ingolstadt in the immediate post-war period, with a view to relocating the entire company to the region. With the help of Marshall Plan aid, Auto Union was formally re-founded in Ingolstadt in 1949, ultimately evolving into the modern-era Audi company, after it was taken over by

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

in 1964. Today, Audi is the region's largest employer and now dominates the economy of the city.

Demographics

Population development since 1450:

Cityscape

Main sights

As one of five ducal residences of medieval Bavaria—besides Landshut,

and Burghausen—the city of Ingolstadt features many Gothic buildings, such as the ('old ducal castle', ) and the New Castle, which was built from 1418 onwards. The largest church is the Gothic hall church of Our Lady (Liebfrauenmunster), which was begun in 1425. The church was built to serve as a second parish church beside Saint Maurice as well as the burial place for Louis and his family and intended to be the official burial place for the future Dukes of Bavaria-Ingolstadt. Its peculiar and rare angle of footprint was emulated in the 20th century built Cathedral of Newark. Also, the churches of Saint Maurice (1235) and of the Gnadenthal and Franciscan monasteries date from the Gothic era. The Kreuztor (1385) is one of the remaining gates of the old city wall and to this day the key landmark of the city. The Gothic Old City Hall was constructed in the 14th century and later altered several times. The Baroque era is represented by the Old Anatomy Building of the university (1723–1736, designed by Gabriel de Gabrieli) and the church St. Maria de Victoria, which was built by the Asam brothers (1732–1736). The church of the Augustinians of Johann Michael Fischer (1736) was completely destroyed in World War II. Ingolstadt town hall

Many buildings of the neo-classical fortification of Leo von Klenze have been preserved, such as the ''Reduit Tilly'' and the towers ''Baur'' and ''Triva''. As well as being the home of the headquarters of the car manufacturer

Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

, the town is also home to Audi's museum mobile, which is open to the public and presents historic exhibits and offers guided tours.

Parks and natural areas

Ingolstadt is a green city with numerous parks, green spaces and forests. The most prominent of these is the " Glacis", formerly an open space in front of the city walls, now surrounding the historic city centre. It functions as a "green belt" and a buffer area between traffic, residential areas and schools. It is possible to traverse it using spacious paths for pedestrians and cyclists, with a good view of the site of the former fortifications, including a well-preserved section of the ditch. Spanning about of the Glacis is , the biggest park in the city. It contained the former and was the site of the Landesgartenschau in 1992. Klenzepark is south of the Danube, opposite the Ingolstadt old town. In the warm seasons, about 100,000 visitors use the park every month, mostly young people. While about 75% of the park visitors come from Ingolstadt and the surrounding area, the remaining approximately 25% travel from more distant places. The biggest forest in Ingolstadt is the Auwald ("riverside forest", also called "Schüttel"). It is found on both the northern and southern banks of the Danube, and is one of the biggest well-preserved river forests in Germany, extending mainly from Neuburg to Ingolstadt with extensions to the city centre. The forest serves as a natural reserve, with parts containing unique vegetation or acting as a wildlife reserve. The river Danube runs through Ingolstadt, flowing west to east. In the area of Ingolstadt, the Danube is between 80 and 100 metres wide and flows past Ingolstadt's old town.

Schools

Ingolstadt School of Management

Ingolstadt is home to the Ingolstadt School of Management, which is the department of business administration and economics of the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. In national rankings, the business school regularly scores among the top ten. The faculty maintains a large network of partner universities for international educational exchange. The Ingolstadt School of management offers

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

s in business administration. Among the academic programs offered are also executive MBA and doctoral degrees.

Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt

Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI) is a university for technology, computer sciences and business administration. With approximately 6,000 students, it is the biggest educational institution in Ingolstadt. Several scholarship programmes supported by companies such as Siemens and Conti Temic (Continental AG) provide gifted students with financial assistance during their studies. These students deepen their practical experience by working at these organizations. THI offers several undergraduate and graduate programmes.

Sports

The sports life of the city is based on the 83 registered sports clubs. The biggest sports club is the MTV 1881 Ingolstadt, with over 3000 registered members in 16 branches. In total, the sports clubs in Ingolstadt have more than 41,000 members. Ingolstadt is especially known for

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. ERC Ingolstadt, founded in 1964, plays in the German Ice Hockey League since the 2002–03 season. With the exception of its season of debut and 2007–08, the club has reached the national playoffs every year , and has reached the semi-finals three times. They won the German Ice Hockey League Championship in 2014. The football club FC Ingolstadt 04 came into existence in 2004 after the merger of the football branches of MTV Ingolstadt and ESV Ingolstadt. In the 2007–08 season, it was promoted from the third-highest division at the time, Regionalliga Süd to 2. Bundesliga. In the 2008–09 season, it was relegated to the penultimate place, but was promoted again in 2010-11 and remained in 2. Bundesliga till 2015. In 2015, Ingolstadt won the 2. Bundesliga and were promoted to the country's highest league, the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

. During their first season in the Bundesliga, Ingolstadt finished in 11th place. They were relegated to 2. Bundesliga by the end of the 2016–17 season.

Literary references

Ingolstadt is one of the many settings in Mary Shelley's novel ''

''. Primarily, Victor Frankenstein attends university in Ingolstadt. It is also widely regarded as the place where the unnamed monster was created. The Illuminati was founded in Ingolstadt and Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was sympathetic to the radical group's aim of freeing society from Christian influence. In 1810 as a student at Oxford he wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg: “I burn with impatience for the moment of Xtianity’s dissolution” and signed off with the Illuminati's catchphrase “écrasez l'infâme”. The musical version of the novel, '' Frankenstein – A New Musical'' has many scenes set in Ingolstadt. Ingolstadt is also a pivotal location in '' The Illuminatus! Trilogy'' by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. The sixth scene of " Mother Courage and Her Children" by "

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

" is set in Ingolstadt, when count Tilly died in 1632, during the "

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

". Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1971 film Pioneers in Ingolstadt is set in the town. ''

The X-Files ''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...

'' episode "The Post-Modern Prometheus" makes a reference to the University of Ingolstadt. This was an allusion to ''Frankenstein'', as the episode contained numerous Frankenstein references, and the full title of ''Frankenstein'' is ''"Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus"''. In the Terra Ignota series, Ingolstadt is the capital of Gordian, one of the world's seven Hives. In the Warhammer 40,000 universe Fabius Bile, a renegade Space Marine was born in Ingolstadt in the 30th Millenium.

Twin towns – sister cities

Ingolstadt is twinned with:Ingolstadt und seine Partnerstädte - Ingolstadt.de
/ref> * Carrara, Italy * Central AO (Moscow), Russia *

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia *

Foshan Foshan (, ; Chinese: 佛山) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the Pearl River Delta m ...

, China * Grasse, France *

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

, Hungary *

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

, Scotland, United Kingdom *

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the List of cities in Serbia, fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Se ...

, Serbia * Manisa, Turkey * Murska Sobota, Slovenia * Opole, Poland

Organizations and clubs

* MTV 1881 Ingolstadt, Ingolstadt's major sports club * FC Ingolstadt 04, Footballclub in 2. Bundesliga (II) *Grün-Weiß Ingolstadt, Footballclub in Kreisklasse (IX) *Ingolstadt Schanzer, Baseball team in 2. Bundesliga (II) * ERC Ingolstadt,

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team in

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

(I) *The Bavarian Illuminati * Ingolstadt Dukes

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

in GFL (I)

Notable people

* Philipp Apian (1531–1589), mathematician *

(1748–1830), philosopher * Marieluise Fleißer (1901–1974), author and playwright * Michael Heltau (born 1933), German-Austrian actor * Erich Kellerhals (1939–2017), businessman * Horst Seehofer (born 1949), politician * Eva Bulling-Schröter (born 1956), politician * Stefan Klingele (born 1967), conductor * Reinhard Brandl (born 1977), politician * Christian Engelhart (born 1986), racing driver * Patrick Schranner (born 1991), racing driver