Weilheim in Oberbayern (, ; officially Weilheim i.OB) is a town in Germany, the capital of the district Weilheim-Schongau in the south of Bavaria. Weilheim has an old city-wall, historic houses and a museum.

Geography & Geomorphology Geography The town is located in the landscape of the Alpine Foreland between Munich to the north and Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the south. The Ammer flows through the town.

Weilheim lies in a basin that was carved out by repeated advances of the Isar-Loisach Glacier over the past 2.6 million years. The glacier was also responsible for the formation of the Ammersee, which was once significantly larger and extended southward as far as Weilheim.

Geomorphology In particular, the glacial advance during the Würm glaciation, which began 115,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago, has strongly shaped the current landscape of the region. For example, the “Gögerl” south of Weilheim was formed when the glacier, during its retreat about 18,000 years ago near Weilheim, deposited debris and rocks along its flanks for several hundred years (lateral moraine).

The Weilheimer Moos (the "Weilheim wetland"), was formed (similar to the Murnau wetland) by sand and clay particles that were deposited by the Ur-Ammer River into the eroded, water-filled basin after the glacier melted. While the Ammersee became increasingly silted up as a result of this deposition, the lake sediments still prevent surface water from seeping away today, thus creating the foundation for the lowland bog area known as the Weilheimer Moos.

Local history Up to the 18th century The oldest traces of human settlement date back to the Bronze AgeBernhard Wöll (Stadtarchiv Weilheim i. OB): Jubiläums-Chronik der Stadt Weilheim, anlässlich der 1000-jährigen erstmaligen urkundlichen Erwähnung im Jahr 1010 von Weilheim und Polling, Herausgeber: Stadt Weilheim i. OB 2010. and there were grave finds from the Late Roman era.Karl Schmotz: Bemerkungen zur frühen Geschichte Weilheims. In: Lech-Isar-Land 1980, p. 138 The name Weilheim is interpreted as a home to the Roman villas (land estates). There are, however, several other theories for the roots of the name.Bernhard Wöll (Stadtarchiv Weilheim i. OB): Jubiläums-Chronik der Stadt Weilheim, anlässlich der 1000-jährigen erstmaligen urkundlichen Erwähnung im Jahr 1010 von Weilheim und Polling, Herausgeber: Stadt Weilheim i. OB 2010, in der Einleitung Upper Bavaria came in Roman hands through commander Drusus.Sonderbeilage des Weilheimer Tagblattes anlässlich der 1000-jährigen erstmaligen urkundlichen Erwähnung der Orte Polling und Weilheim 16 April 2010, page 4. The Romans built "Via Raetia" in 200 AD, which led over the Brenner Pass to Augsburg.Via Raetia, Websitebetreiber: Karl Ludwig Wilhelm, retrieved 2 October 2010. This Roman road ran through the Weilheim area. Around 476 AD, the Romans withdrew southwards and the Bavarians came into the region.Geschichte. In: Der Landkreis Weilheim-Schongau. Herausgeber: Landratsamt Weilheim-Schongau 2010, Texte: Max Biller (Kreisarchivpfleger), Helmut Schmidbauer (Kreisheimatpfleger), Seite 8 f

The first documentary mention of the village "Wilhain" dates from 16 April 1010 of the king and later Emperor Heinrich II of Bamberg, who granted the monastery of Polling the property of a farm in Weilheim in 1010.Theobald Wirth: Weilheimer Heimatbuch. Geschichte – Kunst und Wissenswertes aus der Stadt an der Ammer. Selbstverlag 1977, p. 18 f, mit deutscher Übersetzung des Textes dieser Urkunde aus dem Lateinischen. From about 1080 onwards nobleman of Weilheim appeared, they were vassals from Andechs-Meranier and disappeared around 1312.Georg Paula, Stefanie Berg-Hobohm: Landkreis Weilheim-Schongau: Denkmäler in Bayern. Karl M. Lipp, München 2003, Band 2, p. 528 From 1236, there was a palisade fence as a precursor to the town wall.Klaus Gast: Die Weilheimer Stadtmauer (Teil 1). In: Lech-Isar-Land 2016, S. 9–24 Around 1328, the Munich patrician Ludwig Pütrich enabled the establishment of the Heiliggeistspital (lit.: Holy Spirit Hospital) outside the town walls through donations.Christian Buck (Hrsg.), Hans Rid: Aus Weilheims Vergangenheit. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Stadt Weilheim vom Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stöppel, Weilheim 1984, p. 29 An award of the town is named after him. In the Middle Ages, there were several big fires in Weilheim. When a plague epidemic broke out in Munich in 1521, the Bavarian dukes Wilhelm IV and Ludwig temporarily resided in Weilheim.Christian Buck (Hrsg.), Hans Rid: Aus Weilheims Vergangenheit. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Stadt Weilheim vom Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stöppel, Weilheim 1984, p. 47 f. Early in the 17th century, artwork flourished in Weilheim, especially the Weilheimer sculpture school.Vgl. Heinz-Jürgen Sauermost: Die Weilheimer – Große Künstler aus dem Zentrum des Pfaffenwinkels. Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1988. Well-known representatives from this time were Georg Petel, Hans Krumpper, and Johann Sebastian Degler. In 1611, the so-called Trifthof was set up at the Ammer for log drifting,Weilheim Chronik: Frühe Neuzeit, retrieved: 29 October 2009. where tree trunks were bond together as rafts to carry them along the waterway down to the Amper.Flößerei und Holztrift. In: Georg Paula, Stefanie Berg-Hobohm: Landkreis Weilheim-Schongau: Denkmäler in Bayern. Karl M. Lipp, München 2003, Band 1, Seite XXIII In 1639, the Franciscan monastery of St. Joseph was founded at the Schmied Gate because of a lack of priests .Joachim Heberlein: Weil Priester fehten, kamen Mönche. In: Weilheimer Tagblatt, 23/24 October 2010, page 3, Lokales

19th and 20th century The Franciscan monastery in Weilheim was abolished as a result of the secularisation in 1802.Weilheim Chronik: Jüngere Geschichte, retrieved: 29 October 2009. 120 houses burnt down and two people were killed in a severe fire disaster in the Oberen Stadt (lit.: upper town) on 3 May 1810.Joachim Heberlein: Feuer vernichtet 120 Häuser. In: Weilheimer Tagblatt, 12/13 May 2010, p. 4, LokalesTheobald Wirth: Weilheimer Heimatbuch. Geschichte – Kunst und Wissenswertes aus der Stadt an der Ammer. 2. Auflage. Selbstverlag, 1978, p. 59 The former Franciscan monastery burnt down in 1825, after which a Heiliggeistspital was built and a hospital on today's Münchner Straße in 1826.Christian Buck (Hrsg.), Hans Rid: Aus Weilheims Vergangenheit. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Stadt Weilheim vom Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stöppel, Weilheim 1984, p. 133 On 1 October 1869, the first daily newspaper was published, the "Weilheimer Tagblatt". Between 1872 and 1874, three city gates were demolished, the Obere Tor in 1872, the Schmied Gate in 1873, and the Pöltner Gate in 1874.Christian Buck (Hrsg.), Hans Rid: Aus Weilheims Vergangenheit. Entwicklungsgeschichte der Stadt Weilheim vom Mittelalter bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts. Stöppel, Weilheim 1984, Seite 211 ff 24 people were killed and the train station was destroyed by an air raid in the Second World War on 19 April 1945.Joachim Heberlein: Weilheims schwarzer Donnerstag kurz vor Kriegsende. In: Weilheimer Tagblatt, 19 April 2010, p. 3, Lokales

Economy Weilheim has low unemployment thanks to several medium-sized companies headquartered there. Among them is Bremicker Verkehrstechnik, a major manufacturer of traffic signs. WTW Wissenschaftlich-Technische Werkstätten GmbH is also based in Weilheim and is a global manufacturer of water analysis products. The company now belongs to Xylem Inc.. Zarges is a light-metal engineering company that specializes in manufacturing aluminum products for access technology (ladders and scaffolding), logistics, and custom packaging. While Zarges was founded in Stuttgart in 1933, the company relocated to Weilheim in 1939. The Dachsbräu, founded 1879, is Weilheim's last brewery.

In Lichtenau, 3.5 km southwest of the Raisting Earth Station, lies the Weilheim satellite ground station of the German Aerospace Center.

Sport The aeroclub Weilheim-Peißenberg flying at Paterzell airfield is rather successful in glider aerobatics: 2006 German National Champion Markus FeyerabendDAeC: German National Team member Markus Feyerabend – accessed 2008-02-09 and Hans-Georg ReschDAeC: German National Team member Hans-Georg Resch – accessed 2008-02-09 are members of the German national glider aerobatics team.

Transport The Weilheim (Oberbay) station has five platform tracks and is served by about 100 trains daily. It is a crossing station on the Munich–Garmisch-Partenkirchen railway, the Ammersee Railway from Augsburg and the Weilheim–Peißenberg railway. It is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station.

Notable people

Markus Acher (born 1967), singer, guitarist and composer John Aelbl (born 1552), theologian Dominik Bittner (born 1995), ice hockey player Franz von Hipper (1863–1932), naval officer, last admiral in the Imperial German Navy in World War I Michael Holm (born 1943), lives and works in Weilheim; musician and singer Hans Krumpper (c. 1570–1634), Sculptor, plasterer Thomas Müller (born 1989), footballer for Vancouver Whitecaps, Bayern Munich and Germany, was born in Weilheim Max Nagl (born 1987), motocross biker Georg Petel (died 1635), sculptor who became known as German Michelangelo in the 18th century, was born in 1601 or 1602 in Weilheim Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923), had a mansion in Weilheim and is an honorary citizen Willi Schmid (1893–1934), music critic and poet, as well as victim of the Night of the long knives (Röhm-Putsch 1934)

International relations

Weilheim in Oberbayern is twinned with: Narbonne, France

References