Bamberg's construction boom in the Wilhelminian era

Bamberg's historic city center is characterized by impressive Renaissance and Baroque facades. However, not every one of these buildings was created within these art epochs. In the 17th century, large part of today's island city not yet had been built or, at best, there were rural farms.

The connection to the railway network in 1844 and the completion of the Main-Danube Canal in 1846, however, made the cathedral city an attractive business location and in the second half of the 19th century it created its industrial center - the demand for housing therefore increased drastically. Especially in transition from the 19th to the 20th century, many buildings were built. During this period, builders liked to draw on elements from bygone eras such as Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. This architectural phase is today called historicism. It went into the so-called Art Nouveau style, which tried through its strong ornamental components to overcome the historicism.