Historical Aachen
September 14th 2008 08:41
Aachen is a salutory lesson to all who deride tax breaks, earmarking and low level government bribes to attract or retain business in their region.
In Roman times while Paris was still just a stinky little island Aachen was a spa town chic and hip before Spa (just down the road) was the spa town to be seen in.
Then in 768 the Charlemagne king of the Franks – that’s right, Franks as in France – their king set up camp in Aachen building a palace and the Palatine Chapel. While he was here he united the entirety of western europe and expanded the Holy Roman Empire. His political and economic influence spread throughout the what is now the European Union. His power was vast and when it was challenged he waged wide ranging wars through surrogates. He was the Haliburton of the 8th Century.
By the time Charlemagne died in 814 he had made the city the centre of the Holy Roman Empire that stretched (notionally at least) from the Caucasus to the Atlantic.
Yet 10 centuries later, while its erstwhile Frankish rival Paris had become the City of Lights, Aachen was known for not much more than its considerable quantities of prositutes and its spas mainly attended to attempt to rid the bathers of syphilis, a classic chicken and egg situation. Why? It had everything going for it: the city is a stone’s throw from Belgium and France; it’s kind of pretty and Charlemagne built some impressive buildings.
The Palatine Chappel still stands. It was the site of Frankish and Germanic coronations for around 600 years and still the home of Charlemagne's body. In the cathedral treasury you can see and absolute shed load of bling and Charlemagne‘s bones contained in various gold appendages to shape of the specific bone. Clever.
And on the old foundations of Charlemagne’s Palace, the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, is the neo-classical town hall, the Grashaus. It has frescoes and crown jewels and all that other impressive stuff.
But what fascinates me about Aachen is how it could go from the centre of an empire to an also ran. It’s lovely and historical and easy to visit but it’s not Paris or Rome or Istanbul. It’s not even Berlin.
Then I was watching some guys on television talking about fallen empires and corrupt decadent imperialists collapsing under their own weight and it all became clear. The immutable truth: with a generous off-set, the ploughing of tax payer money into capital works to produce private profits and some governmental underwriting of corporate risks, Aachen could’ve been the next Paris. Instead, it is abundantly clear, some communists, or worse socialists, or worse Democrats, or worse neophyte who didn’t subscribe a particular pundocracy point of view, spent money on things other than growing the corporations who could've made themselves money.
When Incorporated Armoury Limited complained of a contraction in profits in the great depression of 1143, the muncipality of Aachen did nothing. When Looms R Us couldn’t refinance its debt in the Flemmish credit crunch of the late 1600s, those paper pushers in the mayor’s office sat on their hands. When Carbolic Smoke Balls and AAMAT (Aachen Asbestos Mines and Tar) issued profit downgrades in the 19th century the city hall cheque book was nowhere to be seen. And where did those fine companies go? That commercial slut Paris of course, who had her legs open offering up the Louvre for the Armoury, the café industry to Carbolic, and some suspiciously extravagent boulevard redevelopment projects to AAMAT.
Do you want to be Paris or do you want to be Aachen? Exactly. This is what you become when you don’t spent public money for private profits.
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