N�rnberg, Mittelfranken, 2005-06-04 - 3:38 a.m.

I live in Franken (Franconia), by the Romans once called Francia. In Germany France is called Frankreich - that means empire of the Franks (Reich = Empire).

The Franks came in the 2nd century from the Middle Rhine & Under Rhine, where now Cologne (K�ln) & Aachen lies & went west, conquered Burgundy, later also Aquitania, that's now the South of France.
In about 500 p.Chr. King Chlodwig also went to East of the Rhein along the river Main where Allemans lived & added this regions to the Franken Reich, they were francisized, but still Allamans lived here under Franken rule

King Charlemagne
(he didn't look that stony in real life)

Under 'Karl dem Gro�en (Charlemagne 742-814) the Franken Empire had it's biggest extension - see this card:

you see this wedge of the Frankenreich between Bayern (Bavaria) to the South & Sachsen (Saxonia) to the north.

Charlemagne had also a lot of very bloody wars against the saxons, & the Eastern Franks (you see on the map as Austrasien (sounds like Australia)) were the borderline to the Saxons & as often he conquered the Saxons, who were a lot of different tribes, they revolted against him, as soon he was on other places & there was a lot of bloodshed in Eastern Franken, that a lot of the villages layed devastated - Charlemagne, in the tradition of Roman Christian Emperors, also christianized those he conquered & he settled a lot of Saxon & Slawish prisoners here in Franken, to fill it up again. So a lot of different tribes mixed here, not to mention, that in the Romans time Celtic tribes lived here, who could never got quite conquered by the Romans.

Charlemagne's heirs later divided the empire to the western Neustrien (Neustria) now Frankreich (France) & the eastern Austrasien (now Franken), the Carolingers (the line of Charlemagne) continued for some centuries to rule this Franken & even Bavaria was reigned bei Franken kings then - the independence of meanwhile German Franken lastet till the beginning of the 19th century (1803) - then Franken was added to Bavaria (but still on some walls you can see graffity "Free Franken!")

My hometown Nuremberg (N�rnberg) lies a bit north to the 'a' of Austrasien on the map above, but was grounded about the year 1000 A.D.
(1050 it is first mentioned in an old document) so after the time of Charlemagne (even I wasn't born yet). By the way the ending 'heim' (home) was very typical vor early frankish settlements. See this funny village names: "Nenzenheim, Mergentheim, Gelchsheim, Hellmitzheim und Kleinlangheim" -

As my name is Heimo, it sounds also typical frankish, but comes more from Austria - means the Lord of his home, same language root as Hamlet - we see 'Ham' is the anglosaxon synonym for the frankish heim.

Franken has 3 parts, Oberfranken, Mittelfranken & Unterfranken.

By the way: "During the reign of Charlemagne & under his protection, his Jewish subjects were granted equal rights as citizens, enabling them to devote themselves to their religious, cultural, and economic life." (Nachum T. Gidal)

It was very recently, so in the last 2 centuries, that the Prussians, formerly the Saxons, Frankonia, Bavaria & all these other Germanic kingdoms had united to the now Deutschland, which the english call Germany, the French Allemagne.

& also what the persish (Iran) call 'Farangi' (Europeans) means originally 'Franken', 'Francs'.

So this small part of Germany, Franken is the today totally diminuished small rest of German Franconia, that even lost it's border connection to Frankreich (France). If Charlemagne would return, he would be very dissapointed. What was he fighting for? - Ah yes the Saxons could never got quite under control.

So why not, brotherly King of France, come over here & rescue Franken from the reign of Bavaria - oh I forgot - the last French King was beheaded in 1793 - so well it be - some old traditions, historic places still tell of old Franken history & the empire of Charlemagne - & that's just enough. & sure the history of the western part of his empire became later much more interessant, than this dead end of history, dreamy old Franken on the river Main.

But enough today of historical stuff - may in one of my future entries I will tell you the history of Nuremberg, a very contraversical story indeed.