Water Management System of Augsburg

I wasn’t terribly interested in the Water Management System of Augsburg, but I did feel an urgent need to make my German WHS score ‘complete’ again! So last Saturday I ventured out to this Bavarian city on a day trip from my home – flying Amsterdam-Munich and then taking a train to Augsburg. Even for an experienced traveler and German speaker, buying a train ticket from a vending machine proved to be like finishing a moderately difficult exam, having to answer question after question – resulting in a final bill of 50.90 EUR for the return trip to Munich Airport - Augsburg. Ouch!

So this day consisted of a lot of sitting in planes and trains. The stay was to be so short that I did not even bring a bag and only kept my iPhone in a coat pocket. No passport as well; for a few months, I am using only a credit card-sized ID card for travels within the EU (which feels a bit like having a second passport, so the real one can be safely sent to some embassy for a visa). The iPhone fortunately gave me access to some good podcasts. I recently started listening to the Counting Countries series, so while I was physically in Germany my mind wandered off to Tajikistan and Niger.

From Augsburg railway station you can walk to the historic city center in 15 minutes. You pass through shopping streets, where it was pleasantly busy and perhaps only the …

I visited this WHS in Summer 2019 as a stopover on my way back from Czechia. Overall, I quite enjoyed what this quaint Bavarian town has on offer even though I felt its water features have nothing particularly unique or outstanding. Even in Bavaria there are similar towns with equally lovely fountains and water features, let alone in Germany as a whole or on a European or worldwide level. Strangely enough it reminded me of Regensburg which I had rated similarly.

I'm very glad I visited mainly for the Fuggerei apart from the extra tick after completing Czechia. Had it not been for its inscription, I would have missed out by not visiting as I wasn't aware of its existence. Unfortunately, Augsburg's inscription does not add any substance or fill in any gap in Germany's quite saturated WH list, but I suspect that those who drafted its nomination knew that this was precisely the case yet headed on to attract more tourists. For those of you who haven't visited the Ice Age Caves yet though, I'd recommend sleeping over in Ulm rather than in Augsburg as there's much more to see and do there.

I spent few days in Augsburg in September 2019, and I must say it is very nice and very interesting place of Southern Germany. Despite a demage during WWII and modern (re)constructions, the historical core has its charm and refined character. It is relatively large town with several distinct districts: (1) the main axis with the highest concentration of monuments and museums goes from the Augsburger Dom, through Rathausplatz with huge Municipal Hall and Perlach Tower (+ the district adjacent to Rathausplatz in direction the railwaystation), alongside Maximilian street to the area around the monumental church of SS Ulrich and Afra; (2) The Lech District with a net of water canals, towers and other water works; (3) The area around Fuggerei. All together, it took me one full day to explore the most interesting places and museums.

As the main monuments of Augsburg are of national importance and would have no chance to become WHS, the many-kilometers-long system of water canals and other water-works were proposed - and it worked (somehow). This issue reminds me Bologna, where instead of the historical center many kilometers of porticoes are proposed as TWHS, and I will not be surprised if it (sadly) works also in that case.

From the inscribed properties I explored the Lech canals (the entire Lech district is a buffer zone) which are not very spectacular. The most interesting area is probably the ensamble of water-towers around the Red Gate, and also the Butchers Hall is nice building. …

Augsburg is a great historic city with many interesting features and one would have expected a nomination of the historic centre and/or the Fuggerei (the social housing complex built by the world's wealthiest family at the time). The nomination of the water management system came as a bit of a surprise to me, but I guess this is a way to stand out from the crowd of medieval cities and to put a more unique angle on their historic heritage. It's of course not the only WH site focussing on water management, but it does give a rare overview of its historic development from Roman and medieval to modern times. Basically any visit to Augsburg will bring you in contact with this site, and it is very pleasant to walk through this historic city and admire its many beautiful buildings. First, though, I took a taxi out to the Hochablass weir on the Lech River, one of the most important sites which originally dates from the Middle Ages (the current construction is early 20th century, though). You can walk across the weir to the canoe course built for the 1972 Olympics. From there, my taxi took me back into town to the Rotes Tor (Red Gate), the oldest existing waterworks in Central Europe. From then on, it was easy to explore the city on foot. There are many canals and millwheels (at the Vogeltor) to see, plus several interesting buildings like the Stadtmetzig (17th century), which used the canal for …

Always trying to stay ahead of the curve, i.e. the upcoming German nominations, and using a Deutsche Bahn free travel reward earned by countless commutes to Berlin I stayed for a night in Augsburg. I had passed through Augsburg often before when traveling between Stuttgart and Munich, but never made the effort of visiting. So it came as a pleasant surprise to find a lovely Southern German city.

I did most of my site seeing in the morning walking first in the direction of the Lech river and visiting the locations there. And then I headed back into town. I can confirm there is plenty of canals and water management in the city, but I did not see an outstanding component worthwhile mentioning.

Augsburg overall, though, holds plenty of interesting churches and other buildings, many due to the patron of the town, Jakob Fugger. Once (15-/16-century) dubbed the richest man in the world, he ruled from Augsburg a banking and trading empire with some mining operations thrown into the mix for good measure. To this day, the Fugger Bank continues to operate a private bank in Augsburg. The most notable structure of Fugger is the Fuggerei, the first social housing complex that operates to this day. For 0.90 EUR per year and daily prayers for the Fugger family, a Catholic in need can reside in the complex.

Unfortunately, Augsburg was heavily bombed in the Second World War as several German weapon factories were located …

Augsburg must be aggrieved at not being on the WH list. It is one of many 2** Michelin cities in Germany with a fine historic pedigree but, unlike others which got in earlier with palaces and cathedrals, it would seem to have “missed out”. Its overall historic ensemble isn’t perhaps “special” enough and, whilst it possesses many important buildings (The Rathaus has been described as the "most significant Renaissance secular building north of the Alps" - though Michelin grants it not a single star!), none would seem to justify individual UNESCO recognition (Though the “Fuggerei” claim to be the World’s first “social housing” complex still in use - there are many existing WHS which gained their inscription with rather less “significance” than that!). What to do??? Clearly something was needed which, as the Turismus Augsburg Web site comments - “fallen sie nicht in die Kategorie jener Kulturstätten, die auf der Welterbeliste bereits überrepräsentiert sind und damit geringere Aussichten auf Aufnahme haben.” (“is not in the category of cultural sites that are already over-represented on the World Heritage List and therefore have less chance of admission.”)

It appears that Augsburg has, across at least 6 centuries, been a “Cluster Wasserwissen” (“Water knowledge Cluster”), and even the “Silicon Valley der Wassertechnologie” (Genuine quotes!) - and has constructed its nomination for 2019 around that aspect of its history. Now, my Michelin guidebook seemed to know nothing of this beyond a very …

I am pretty sure most people in Augsburg did not realize that the historic water management has the potential for a WHS until it was proposed for the new German tentative list. Other sites in Augsburg were discussed in the past, the Town Hall or the Fuggerei, the world's oldest social housing estate. But after the proposal was submitted, a lot has been done to promote this idea. Since 2013 so-called "Wassertage" (water days) are organized every first Sunday of the month in summer. Several free guided tours to otherwise inaccessible historic water towers and hydropower plants are offered. In June 2013 I had a business meeting in Munich and I took the opportunity to spend the following weekend in Augsburg. I visited the main sites of the nomination: the historic water towers at the Red Gate, the waterworks at the Hochablass and the hydroelectric power plant at the Wolfzahnau.

Augsburg is located on a plateau at the confluence of the rivers Lech and Wertach. The water management in Augsburg began in the Middle Ages. Water from the two rivers and from small streams was conducted through the old town via a network of canals. The water was used for tanneries and dyeing mills, to drive water wheels, to supply the ditches of the city fortification, and to drain off the waste water. Most of the medieval canals have been preserved and make up the charm of the old town, especially in the Lech quarter, the former tanners and craftsmen's …