Current Time in Aachen, Germany

Aachen is a historic city in the far west of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, situated where the borders of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands converge at the western tip of Germany. The city is internationally known as the capital of Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire, the most powerful political entity in post-Roman Europe, and the palatial chapel that Charlemagne built here in the late 8th century, now the center of Aachen Cathedral, was inscribed as the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in Germany in 1978.

With a population of approximately 250,000, Aachen is a major university city and regional economic center. RWTH Aachen University, one of Germany's leading technical universities with over 45,000 students, is one of the most important engineering schools in Europe and gives the city a strongly technological and research-oriented character. The city's proximity to the Belgian and Dutch borders has made it a center of cross-border commerce and cultural exchange throughout its history.

The history of Aachen as a great city centers on the reign of Charlemagne, King of the Franks, who chose the city as his permanent capital around 794 AD and made it the center of the Carolingian Renaissance, a deliberate program of cultural and intellectual revival modeled on ancient Rome. The thermal springs of Aachen, used since Roman times, may have been one reason for Charlemagne's choice. After his death in 814, Aachen remained the coronation city of the Holy Roman Empire, with 30 German kings crowned here from Otto I in 936 to Ferdinand I in 1531, making the city the most important coronation center of the medieval German world.

Aachen Cathedral, built around the original Carolingian palatine chapel from 796 to 805, is one of the oldest and most historically significant churches in Germany. The octagonal core of Charlemagne's original chapel, inspired by the Byzantine churches of Ravenna, rises within a ring of later Gothic additions and contains the magnificent 14th-century golden shrine of Charlemagne, the throne of Charlemagne (actually used for coronations until the 16th century), and the remarkable treasure of Carolingian goldwork and relics in the adjacent treasury. The combination of the original Carolingian architecture and the later medieval additions creates a building of extraordinary complexity and historical resonance.

The Aachen Charlemagne Prize, awarded annually since 1950 to individuals or institutions that have made outstanding contributions to European unity, is one of the most prestigious European honors and reflects the city's self-understanding as a birthplace and symbol of European unity rooted in the Carolingian political achievement. The prize has been awarded to major European political figures including Winston Churchill, Konrad Adenauer, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Helmut Kohl, and Tony Blair.

The thermal springs that attracted the Romans and Charlemagne continue to flow in Aachen, and the city has several thermal bathing establishments where visitors can experience the hot sulfurous waters that have been used therapeutically for two millennia. The Old Town of Aachen, surrounding the cathedral, offers attractive pedestrian streets, the elegant Elisenbrunnen pavilion over the main thermal spring, the remarkable Carolus Thermen spa complex, and excellent restaurants serving the regional cuisine including the famous Aachener Printen, a spiced gingerbread cookie unique to the city.

Aachen is connected by rail to Cologne (approximately one hour), Brussels, and the wider European network. As a triple-border city at the meeting point of three cultures and the historic heart of the Carolingian legacy, Aachen offers a uniquely European experience of history, culture, and thermal pleasure that makes it one of western Germany's most historically significant and welcoming destinations.