Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, within the Thuringian Forest, to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north.
The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide valley surrounded by woods. Rudolstadt was founded in 776 and has had municipal law since 1326. The town's landmark is the Castle Heidecksburg which is enthroned on a hill above the old town. The former municipality Remda-Teichel was merged into Rudolstadt in January 2019.
There is archeological evidence of a hill fort on the Weinberg in Oberpreilipp from the time of the late Urnfield culture and the early Iron Age.[3] A Celtic settlement followed the Germanic one and the affiliation with the Duchy of Thuringia. From the 6th century onwards, archeological records suggest Slavic settlement in the area.
The first documented mention of the place-name was in 776 as Rudolfestat (Rudolf's settlement) as a gift from Charlemagne to Hersfeld Abbey[4]
After 1990
In 1994 the Neonazi and police-informant Tino Brandt (NPD) founded the Neonazi-Gang „Thüringer Heimatschutz“ (THS, Thuringian homeland protection) in Rudolstadt. The structure of 170 right-wing extremists was an SA-style street gang. The THS gave rise to the Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground (NSU), which murdered a total of ten people over a period of 10 years.[5][6]
Historical population
Population graph of Rudolstadt from 1834 to 2016
Number of Inhabitants (from 1960 as of 31 December, unless otherwise indicated):
^Michael Köhler: Thüringer Burgen und befestigte vor- und frühgeschichtliche Wohnplätze. Jenzig-Verlag Köhler, Jena 2001, ISBN3-910141-43-9. p. 270.
^Wolfgang Kahl, Hansjürgen Müllerott (2002), Die Vor- und Frühgeschichte Rudolstadts mit den Annalen von 775–786 bis 1503 und einem Exkurs aus der Geschichte Saalfelds (in German), Arnstadt: Thüringer-Chronik-Verlag H. E. Müllerott, p. 128, ISBN3-910132-73-1
