Town chronical

3rd millenium BC	Oldest known traces of human settling activities in the Wittlich Valley.
1st century BC	Pre-Roman, Treveric fortification Tempelkopf.
2nd half of the 2nd century AD	Construction of a Roman manor with a length of 140 m and a depth of 28 m along the brook Lieser. With its winding form it is one of the largest villas north of the Alps.
around 350 AD	Destruction of the Roman villa by invading Teutons. The middle part has now been partly restored and is visible again.
1st third 7th century	The Merovingian King Dagobert I. donates the Lieser revenue with the “villa witerlira” to the Church of Trier. As a result, Wittlich remains continuously under the dominion of the Archbishops of Trier until the abolition of the Electoral state in 1794.
1065	Earliest written mention of Wittlich with its viticulture in a document of Trier's Archbishop Eberhard.
Autumn 1142	First recorded destruction of the village of Wittlich in a dispute between Trier's Archbishop Albero and Count Heinrich von Namur.
around 1220:	A market is mentioned for Wittlich for the first time.
8. November 1300	Archbishop Dieter von Nassau confirms in a charter the rights and freedom of the village of Wittlich which has now become a town and of its citizens.
1306	Beginning of the construction of the town wall, which was probably finished in 1317 as simple ring wall.
1348/1350	In the Nuremberg Martyrologium, Wittlich was mentioned as pogrom town where probably all Jews fell victim to a bloody persecution. Their renewed settlement did not take place before under Archbishop Lothar von Metternich around 1620. Until the persecution, banishment and murder of their members in Nazi times , the Jewish community in Wittlich grew to become one of the largest in Germany, compared to the total population of the town
1397	During a feud between the knight, Friedrich v. Ehrenberg with Archbishop Werner von Falkenstein, Wittlich was completely burned down. In order to induce the citizens to stay, the Trier territorial lord grants them 25 years exemption from tax.
1630	The plague rages in Wittlich. With 145 dead about one fifth of the town population is victim.
1647	Owing to the explosion of the powder mill, two thirds of the town is destroyed.
1689	In the course of the War of the League of Augsburg, the town is burned to the ground at command of Duke Bouffler. Some 250 houses already with slate roofs are consumed by the flames.
1707	Another fire in the town made the construction of a new parish church necessary, which was solemnly consecrated on 7 May 1727.
1762	Beginning of the construction of the Palace Philippsfreude as a replacement for Ottenstein Castle built between 1402 and 1424. In the course of secularisation the palace was sold at auction in 1804 and demolished in 1806. A cattle market is established at its location.
1794	Invasion by French revolutionary troops in Wittlich. The town remains part of the French state for 20 years until it becomes Prussian in 1815.
1857	After its withdrawal from the associations of mayoralities, Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia grants Wittlich a town charter on 20 April 1857 in accordance with the town ordinance for the Rhine Province of 15 May 1856.
1879/85	Wengerohr is connected to the railway network via the Koblenz-Trier line. In 1885 the railway line is extended to Wittlich, in 1910 to Daun. The passenger service Wittlich-Daun was withdrawn in 1981, and to Wengerohr on 25 September 1988. Today the former railway line is part of the supraregionally accepted Maare-Moselle cycle trail.
1897-1921	The settlement of large enterprises breaks through Wittlich's mainly agriculturally dominated earning and social structure of Wittlich and has an exemplary effect for the later business planning. (1897: Wittlich Steam clay-tile works, 1898: Wine press construction Merrem & Knötgen; 1913/1914: Plywood factory Kümmel & Co.; 1921: Shoe polish factory Ermann-Bach); at the same time the move of viticulture families from the middle Moselle to Wittlich around the turn of the century marked a new beginning of a quality-oriented and thus competitive viticulture.
1938	Wittlich becomes a garrison town with an infantry and a tank destroyer troops barracks. After the end of the War the buildings were used to accommodate two French battalions. In the course of the general reduction of troops in the summer of 1993 the Artillery battalion 51 left Wittlich with 1,500 soldiers and their families. The 8th Light Infantry Battalion “Sidi Brahim” (the “Blue Fighters”) remains at the base with about 2,000 soldiers and family members until 1999 as part of the Euro-Corps until they too leave Wittlich.
1944/45	In Wittlich, the bombing war had destroyed about 30 percent of all dwellings completely or rendered them only partially usable. Just under 70 people of Wittlich became victims of this war and also 34 prisoners of war lost their lives. The number of dead must also include 322 soldiers who fell in war and at least 86 Jews from Wittlich who were murdered in the Nazis' concentration camps.
1950	As an expression of a feeling of municipal self-confidence which was developing again, the Säubrenner Parish-fair was established by Mayor Matthias Joseph Mehs. If in the beginning two two-hundredweight pigs were roasted on the spit, their number has risen to over a hundred nowadays. The Säubrenner Parish-fair is the festival of the people of Wittlich and an attraction for about one hundred thousand visitors a year.
1969	Incorporation of the previously independent villages of Bombogen, Dorf, Lüxem, Neuerburg and Wengerohr. The extended town now has 14,456 inhabitants and 4,131 jobs
1970/75	The completion of the motorway A 48 from Koblenz to Wittlich in 1970 and to Trier in 1975 has been the decisive change in course for the town towards an industrially attractive and prospering economic centre between Koblenz and Trier. The construction of the motorway A 60 coming from Belgium to connect with the A 1/ A 48 near Wittlich and its continuation via the new B 50 towards the Rhine-Main area opens completely new perspectives for Wittlich with respect to an improved transport link to major business conurbations.
1993/94	The so-called “south tangent road” (today: Gerberstrasse), an important inner-town bypass, was opened for traffic. In 1994 the existing pedestrian precinct was extended by the Neustrasse and the market place.
1994	The Rhineland-Palatinate Day took place in Wittlich.
2004	Companies known throughout the world decide in favour of Wittlich as an industrial location with future. Ideal Standard (1964), Franklin Electric (1965), Dunlop (1971) and Dr. Oetker (1980), the last even changing its company name into “Dr. Oetker Tiefkühlprodukte GmbH Wittlich”. With a little more than 19,000 inhabitants the Town of Wittlich has approximately 14,500 jobs for employees obliged to pay social-security contributions. Including the self-employed and civil servants the number of jobs is over 16,000, which corresponds to a job density of approximately 780 jobs per thousand inhabitants. The Town buys the barracks area from the Federal government. After the demolition of both military and even the largest part of civilian used buildings a new district is emerging here mainly for dwelling purposes.

Dr. Klaus Petry, Wittlich