He was of noble Frankish parentage, and educated at the palace school in Aquae Grani ( Aachen ) under Alcuin.

Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and later the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany.

In 2009, Aachen was ranked 8th among cities in Germany for innovation.

A quarry on the Lousberg, which was first used in Neolithic times, attests to the long occupation of the site of Aachen.

Even in the late 18th century the Abbess of Burtscheid was prevented from building a road linking her territory to the neighbouring estates of the duke of Jülich ; the city of Aachen even deployed its handful of soldiers to chase away the road-diggers.

Aachen became attractive as a spa by the middle of the 17th century, not so much because of the effects of the hot springs on the health of its visitors but because Aachen was then — and remained well into the 19th century — a place of high-level prostitution in Europe.

Traces of this hidden agenda of the city's history is found in the 18th century guidebooks to Aachen as well as to the other spas ; the main indication for visiting patients, ironically, was syphilis ; only by the end of the 19th century had rheuma become the most important object of cures at Aachen and Burtscheid.

By the middle of the 19th century, industrialisation swept away most of the city's medieval rules of production and commerce, although the entirely corrupt remains of the city's mediæval constitution was kept in place ( compare the famous remarks of Georg Forster in his Ansichten vom Niederrhein ) until 1801, when Aachen became the " chef-lieu du département de la Roer " in Napoléon's First French Empire.

In 1880, the Aachen tramway network was opened, and in 1895 it was electrified.

Aachen was heavily damaged during World War II.

Aachen was the first German city to be captured by the Allies.

Damaged buildings included the medieval churches of St. Foillan, St. Paul and St. Nicholas, and the Rathaus ( city hall ), although Aachen Cathedral was largely unscathed.

Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne in AD 786 and was on completion the largest cathedral north of the Alps.

For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens.

Aachen was the administrative centre for the coal-mining industries in neighbouring places to the northeast ; it never played any role in brown coal mining, however, neither in administrative or industrial terms.

The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen was awarded in the year 2000 to the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, for his special personal contribution to cooperation with the states of Europe, for the preservation of peace, freedom, democracy and human rights in Europe, and for his support of the enlargement of the European Union.

The Scotch-Club in Aachen was the first discothèque since 19 October 1959.

King Ethelwulf of Wessex, father of Alfred the Great was born in Aachen.

Submitting to a new election but securing the support of several influential princes by making extensive promises, he was chosen at the Imperial City of Frankfurt on 27 July 1298, and crowned at Aachen Cathedral on 24 August.

In 2007, in the line of the excellence initiative, RWTH Aachen was chosen by DFG as one of nine German Universities of Excellence for its future concept RWTH 2020: Meeting Global Challenges and additionally won funding for one graduate school and three clusters of excellence.

In 2007, RWTH Aachen was chosen as one of nine German Universities of Excellence for its future concept RWTH 2020: Meeting Global Challenges, earning it the connotation of being an elite university.

When the assembly was concluded, Otto III and his mother Theophanu travelled across the Alps in order for Otto III to receive his coronation at Aachen, the traditional site for the coronation of the German kings.

His election secured, Otto III and his mother, the Empress Theophanu, traveled north across the Alps heading for Aachen, the traditional coronation site for the Ottonians, in order for Otto III to be official crown as king.

A modern legend identifies as Brie de Meaux a certain cheese, " rich and creamy ", with an edible white rind that in the eighth century French Emperor Charlemagne first tasted in the company of a bishop and approved, requiring two cartloads to be sent to Aachen annually ; the site, not mentioned in the anecdotal but unreliable ninth-century life of Charlemagne, De Carolo Magno by Notker the Stammerer, has become associated with the monastery traditionally founded by Rado in Reuil-en-Brie.

The Euregiobahn, a regional railway system, reaches several minor cities in the Aachen region.

Einhard evidently was a talented builder and construction manager, because Charlemagne put him in charge of the completion of several palace complexes including Aachen and Ingelheim.

He was crowned King of the Romans at Aachen several days later, on 9 March 1152.

Conrad was crowned at Aachen six days later ( 13 March ) and was acknowledged in Bamberg by several princes of southern Germany.

RWTH Aachen has achieved recognition in several fields of engineering and science, especially mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, computer science, physics and chemistry.

While the ( then no more royal ) TH Aachen flourished in the 1920s with the introduction of the more independent faculties, several new institutes and the general students ' committee, first signs of nationalist radicalization were also visible within the university.

Aachen and its sector of the front were protected by the Siegfried Line, consisting of several belts of inter-connected pillboxes, forts, and bunkers protected by extensive minefields, ' dragon's teeth ' anti-tank obstacles, and barbed wire entanglements.

In any case Justinian ( died in 565 ) is stated to have given a thorn to St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, which was long preserved at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, while the Empress Irene, in 798 or 802, sent Charlemagne several thorns which were deposited by him at Aachen.

Horn has received several awards for his achievements in foreign relations, among others the Charlemagne Award of the city of Aachen in 1990.

In 812 Bera also travelled to the Imperial Court in Aachen with several other of the regions Counts: Adhemar of Narbonne, Gaucelm of Roussillon, Odilo of Girona, Guiscafred of Carcassonne, Ermengar of Empúries, Laibulf of Provence, and Erlin of Béziers.

Following its near-destruction at Falaise, the division remained in the German Siegfried Line where it fought several engagements, most notably the Battle of Aachen.

Air Exel was an airline based in Maastricht in the Netherlands, operating scheduled and chartered flights out of Eindhoven Airport and Maastricht Aachen Airport to several domestic and international destinations.

* Limburg of the States ( Staats-Limburg or Staats-Overmaas ): several small territories between Maastricht, Liège and Aachen, e. g. Dalhem, Valkenburg and Hertogenrade.

The pros and cons of the boycott were further discussed in several interventions at the 1980 Bilderberg meeting held towards the end of April in Aachen.

The source of the Wurm are several brooks in the forests southwest of Aachen, which form the Wurm after the Diepenbenden reservoir.

Several interested parties competed over a period of several months until it was announced in December 2006 that the brand rights had been sold to the perfume company Mäurer & Wirtz in Aachen, a subsidiary of the Dalli Group.

Perhaps, not able to attend properly to his medical duties through ill health-he visited the spa town of Bad Aachen in 1817-Wiedemann changed employment ( to Pharmacology ) and had several semi-honorary positions.

In addition to its customizing business with 55 employees, the firm ’ s new buildings in Aachen are home to several car firms, boutiques and a luxury restaurant.