FKK Kings Schweinfurt (D)

Schweinfurt

Name origin

swin (Old Franconian/Old Saxon = shallow water; the second part of the word -furt stands for ford or shoal) --> Suuinfurtero, Swinfurthe, Swinvorde, Sweynfurt

First documented mention

791 AD

Population

54,000

Area

35.70 km²

Federal state

Bayern

Administrative region

Unterfranken

District

/

Vehicle registration

SW

River

Main; Wern

The Club FKK Kings is located in Schweinfurt/Gewerbegebiet Hainig.

The Main winds its way for around 500 kilometres from the Franconian uplands, past Bayreuth, Bamberg, Schweinfurt, Würzburg, Aschaffenburg, Hanau and Frankfurt, until it finally flows into the Rhine near Wiesbaden. Like the other cities mentioned, especially the Franconian ones, Schweinfurt is a residence city with a proud tradition dating back to the early Middle Ages, and similar to Bamberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the city survived World War II relatively unscathed. The cityscape retains architectural styles from numerous eras, starting with the historic city wall, the market square with its proud town hall, the Schrotturm, the Zeughaus, the former monastery courtyard Ebrachter Hof, Schloss Peterstirn, important church buildings such as the 13th-century St. Johannis and St. Salvador, the Main bridges, the Altstadt-Entrée and the Fischerrain on the Main. From more recent times, particularly notable are the intact Bauhaus style of the 1930s as well as, alongside the comprehensive renovation of the old town, new city districts such as Bellevue and Carus-Park. Schweinfurt is also home to the Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften; newly established in the Wissenschaftsareal Carus-Park are the i-Campus/i-Factory in connection with the Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionstechnik und Automatisierung. Schweinfurt is regarded as the city where the first bicycle was built in 1853 by Philipp Moritz Fischer.

Schweinfurt is one of the oldest cities in Bayern. From the 12th century until the end of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss), the city was a Free Imperial City; it later became part of Bayern. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) the city was among the supporters of the Reformation; in 1632 the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf and his Field Marshal Wrangel took up quarters there and massively expanded the city's fortifications. Still in that same century, Schweinfurt began its rise to become a centre of humanism and science. In 1652 the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina was founded (today the National Academy of Sciences, based in Halle).

Schweinfurt is through and through steeped in Franconian tradition and yet a multicultural city. Apart from Wolfsburg and Ingolstadt, GDP per capita is nowhere higher in Germany than in Schweinfurt. Traditional companies - especially in the field of ball bearings - such as Schaeffler (FAG Kugelfischer), SKF (Svenska Kullagerfabriken), ZF Friedrichshafen (Fichtel & Sachs), SRAM Fahrradkomponenten (Fichtel & Sachs), Winora-Staiger Fahrräder, Fresenius Medical Care, SenerTec, Carl Kühne KG and Bosch-Rexroth have important branches or even their headquarters here, giving the city the largest contiguous industrial area in the whole of Bayern, complete with its own Main harbour. Nevertheless, not least because of its location close to nature amid the ranges of the Rhön, Haßberge, Steigerwald and Spessart, with many parks and bodies of water, Schweinfurt proves to be a city with high leisure value, numerous traditional Franconian festivals and church fairs, the Stadttheater, museums such as the Museum Georg Schäfer, Schloss Mainberg, but also modern institutions such as the Honky Tonk pub festival, numerous trendy clubs, a distinct hip-hop scene, as well as the Unterfrankenschau. From 1945 to 2014, Schweinfurt was one of the most significant US garrison towns in Europe (USAG Schweinfurt). The American Harry Gelbfarb opened the first bodybuilding studio in Germany right there in Schweinfurt in 1956, after completing his military service.

Among Schweinfurt's famous sons and daughters are Judith von Schweinfurt, Otto III. (Schwaben), Johann Elias Bach, Johann Lorenz Bach, Friedrich Rückert, Theodor Fischer, Philipp Moritz Fischer, Friedrich Fischer, Willy Sachs, Andreas Kupfer, Albin Kitzinger, Stefan Marquard, Jürgen Höller and Bernie Paul, as well as Gunter Sachs, who was born at Schloss Mainberg.