Cham
Church in Cham
Church in Cham
Coat of arms of Cham
Location of Cham within Cham district
Cham  is located in Germany
Cham
Cham
Cham  is located in Bavaria
Cham
Cham
Coordinates: 49°13′N 12°39′E / 49.217°N 12.650°E / 49.217; 12.650
CountryGermany
StateBavaria
Admin. regionOberpfalz
DistrictCham
Subdivisions53 Stadtteile
Government
  Mayor (202026) Martin Stoiber[1] (CSU)
Area
  Total80.67 km2 (31.15 sq mi)
Elevation
370 m (1,210 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
  Total17,421
  Density220/km2 (560/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
  Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
93413
Dialling codes0 99 71
Vehicle registrationCHA
Websitewww.cham.de

Cham (German pronunciation: [kaːm] ; Czech: Kouba) is the capital of the district of Cham in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria in Germany.

Location

Cham lies within the Cham-Furth lowland, which is bordered on the south by the Bavarian Forest and on the north by the Oberpfälzer Wald. The city lies on the Regen River, which joins the Danube at Regensburg.

Etymology

The name Cham is of Celtic origin and probably means "bend" or "curvature". In fact, a few kilometers from the city, a winding stream called the Chamb flows into the Regen; it probably gave its name to Cham, the first settlement at the bend of the larger river. Alternatively, the name may have derived from Kamm (comb). The city's coat of arms contains a comb. A partner city, also named "Cham" in Switzerland, is actually pronounced with an initial "ch" sound (Ach-Laut), whereas Bavarian Cham is pronounced with a /k/.

History

Monks from Regensburg founded the Marienmünster, the first and oldest church in the Bavarian forest, at Chammünster in the 8th century. The first reference to Cham as a city appears in 976. An imperial castle of the Holy Roman Empire stood on the Galgenberg (German: "gallows hill"), providing protection for the trade route into Bohemia. Cham was granted its own currency in around 1000, the so-called Cham Denar. The 12th century saw the town's location shifted to its current place. The Hussite Wars of the 15th century inflicted great hardships on the townspeople. In 1742, the Pandur troops of Franz Freiherr von der Trenck overran and destroyed the city.

Cham's first railway connection came in 1861. On April 18, 1945, a British air raid on the western part of Cham caused 63 deaths. The arrival of numerous German war refugees from Silesia and the Sudetenland swelled Cham's population from 5,860 to over 10,000.

The father of the French resistance fighter Jeannette Guyot, Jean-Marie Guyot, who likewise was a member of the resistance, was arrested in early 1944 and transported to Cham, where he died.[3][4]

International relations

Cham, Germany, is twinned with:

Notable people

Nicolas Luckner

References

  1. Liste der ersten Bürgermeister/Oberbürgermeister in kreisangehörigen Gemeinden, Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik, 15 July 2021.
  2. Genesis Online-Datenbank des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Statistik Tabelle 12411-003r Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes: Gemeinden, Stichtag (Einwohnerzahlen auf Grundlage des Zensus 2011)
  3. "Obituary: Jeannette Guyot, French Resistance fighter".
  4. "Jeannette Guyot, Free French agent – obituary". The Telegraph. 26 April 2016.
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