History of Marburg

Few German towns show their past as openly as Marburg: the castle of the Landgraves on the hill, the pilgrimage church of St Elizabeth below, and between them an Oberstadt whose Gothic character survived partly because the town was neglected for centuries.

Origins

A small castle built by the Giso family in the 9th or 10th century protected the settlement and its customs post on the Lahn. Around 1140 the Gisos’ possessions passed to the Landgraves of Thuringia.

1. 1138/39First documentary mention of Marburg.
2. Around 1140Coins show that Marburg is already considered a town.
3. 1222A citizenry of the town is recorded and Marburg holds town privileges; St Mary’s parish church is mentioned for the first time.

St Elizabeth

Elisabeth of Hungary, the young widow of the Landgrave of Thuringia, chose Marburg as her dowager seat and devoted herself to the sick. Her tomb made the town one of the great pilgrimage destinations of the Middle Ages.

1. 1228Elisabeth settles in Marburg and founds a hospital.
2. 1231She dies in Marburg, aged 24.
3. 1235She is canonised; the same year the Teutonic Order begins St Elizabeth’s Church over her tomb, one of the earliest purely Gothic churches in Germany.
4. 1270The Teutonic Order consecrates the small pilgrims’ and cemetery chapel of St Michael, the “Michelchen”.

The Landgraves of Hesse

Elisabeth’s daughter, Sophie of Brabant, won the new Landgraviate of Hesse for her son Henry. The castle above Marburg became the first residence of the Landgraves, and until about 1540 Marburg was, alongside Kassel, one of the capitals of Hesse.

1. Around 1250Frauenberg Castle, south of Marburg, is built for Sophie of Brabant.
2. 1264Sophie secures the Landgraviate of Hesse for her son Henry.
3. 1303The Dominicans consecrate their church on the Lahnfels, today’s University Church.
4. 1473St Mary’s receives its wooden spire, which now leans visibly.
5. 1485–1500Marburg is the capital of Hesse-Marburg.

Town hall, university and Reformation

Under Landgrave Philip I, Marburg became a centre of the Reformation. He founded the first Protestant university here and, in 1529, brought Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli to his castle in an attempt to reconcile their views on the Eucharist.

1. 1512–1527The late Gothic sandstone town hall is built on the market square.
2. 1527Philip I founds the Philipps University, today the oldest still-operating Protestant university in the world.
3. 1529The Marburg Colloquy between Luther and Zwingli takes place at the castle.
4. 1567–1605Marburg is again the capital of Hesse-Marburg.
5. 1581The Renaissance gable clock of the town hall, with Justice, Death and the copper rooster, is added.
6. 1596The Elisabethbrunnen well-house is built for Landgrave Louis IV on the pilgrims’ way near Marburg.

Provincial town and Romanticism

After 1605 Marburg was a provincial town, known mainly for its university. Around 1800 it regained cultural importance with the Romantics: the jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny, the Brothers Grimm and the Arnims are associated with the town.

1. 1605Marburg becomes a provincial town.
2. 1618–1648In the Thirty Years’ War the town is fought over by Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel; the surrounding Hessian territory loses more than two-thirds of its population.
3. 18th centuryNeglect leaves the Gothic town largely unchanged.
4. 1802–1803Jacob and then Wilhelm Grimm come to study law under Savigny.
5. 1810The Old Botanical Garden is laid out in the town centre.

The Prussian era and the early 20th century

When Prussia annexed the Electorate of Hesse in 1866, Marburg began its rise as an administrative and university city. Its most famous citizen of the period was Emil von Behring, the first winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, who founded the Behringwerke in Marburg.

1. 1866After the Austro-Prussian War, Prussia annexes the Electorate of Hesse.
2. 1873–1891The neo-Gothic Old University is built on the site of the Dominican friary.
3. 1890The Spiegelslust Tower (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm) is inaugurated on the Lahnberge.
4. 1901Emil von Behring receives the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
5. 1927The university celebrates its 400th anniversary; the Kunstmuseum and the Religious Studies Collection open.
6. 17 June 1934Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen gives a speech critical of the Nazi regime at the university.

Second World War and after

Marburg was bombed 13 times, mainly by the United States Army Air Forces; the worst damage was on the north side and along the marshalling yards, while the inner city was largely spared.

1. 1942–1945The town is turned into a hospital city; by spring 1945 it holds over 20,000 patients, most of them wounded soldiers.
2. May 1945The “Monuments Men” set up a Central Collecting Point for looted art in the State Archives; it closes over a year later.
3. August 1946The sarcophagus of Paul von Hindenburg is moved to St Elizabeth’s Church.
4. 1961Twinning with Poitiers in France.

Marburg today

Today Marburg is a university town of 73,544 inhabitants (31 December 2024) in the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf, with seven twin towns, from Poitiers to Moshi in Tanzania.

1. 1967The Marburg virus is identified here after laboratory workers at the Behringwerke are infected; it is named after the town.
2. From 1972The careful renewal of the Oberstadt begins; it has since received many awards.
3. 1977The New Botanical Garden opens on the Lahnberge.
4. 1992Twinning with Northampton.
5. 2023Moshi in Tanzania becomes Marburg’s seventh twin town.
6. 2024/25The Philipps University counts 21,162 students.

Sources: Wikipedia (Marburg, en) · Wikipedia (Marburg, de) · Wikipedia (Elisabethkirche) · Wikipedia (Marburg Castle) · Wikipedia (Rathaus) · Wikipedia (University of Marburg) · Wikipedia (Marburg virus) · marburg.de (twin towns). Checked 9 October 2026.