Middle Ages

In 744 Saint Sturm, a disciple of Saint Boniface, founded the Benedictine monastery of Fulda as one of Boniface's outposts in the reorganization of the church in Germany.^[3] The initial grant for the abbey was signed by Carloman, Mayor of the Palace in Austrasia (in office 741–47), the son of Charles Martel.^[4] The support of the Mayors of the Palace, and later of the early Pippinid and Carolingian rulers, was important to Boniface's success. Fulda also received support from many of the leading families of the Carolingian world. Sturm, whose tenure as abbot lasted from 747 until 779, was most likely related to the Agilolfing dukes of Bavaria.

Fulda also received large and constant donations from the Etichonids, a leading family in Alsace, and from the Conradines, predecessors of the Salian Holy Roman Emperors. Under Sturm, the donations Fulda received from these and other important families helped in the establishment of daughter-houses near Fulda. In 751, Boniface and his disciple and successor Lullus obtained an exemption for Fulda, having it placed directly under the Papal See and making it independent of interference by bishops or worldly princes. The monastery school became a renowned center of learning.^[5]

St Boniface baptizing and undergoing martyrdom – from the Sacramentary of Fulda

After his martyrdom by the Frisians in 754, the relics of Saint Boniface were brought back to Fulda. Because of the stature this afforded the monastery, the donations increased, and Fulda could establish daughter-houses further away, for example in Hamelin. Meanwhile, Saint Lullus, successor of Boniface as archbishop of Mainz, tried to absorb the abbey into his archbishopric, but failed.

Between 790 and 819 the community rebuilt the main abbey church to more fittingly house the relics. They based their new basilica on the original 4th-century (since demolished) Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, using the transept and crypt plan of that great pilgrimage church to frame their own saint as the "Apostle to the Germans".

The crypt of the original abbey church still holds those relics, but the church itself has been subsumed into a Baroque renovation. A small, 9th-century chapel remains standing within walking distance of the church, as do the foundations of a later women's abbey. Rabanus Maurus served as abbot at Fulda from 822 to 842.^[6] Fulda Abbey owned such works as the Res Gestae by the fourth-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus and the Codex Fuldensis, as well as works by Cicero, Servius, Bede and Sulpicius Severus.

Counter-Reformation

Fulda in the 16th century

Prince-abbot Balthasar von Dernbach adopted a policy of counter-reformation. In 1571 he called in the Jesuits to found a school and college. He insisted the members of the chapter should return to a monastic form of life. Whereas his predecessors had tolerated Protestantism, resulting in most of the citizenry of Fulda and a large portion of the principality's countryside professing Lutheranism, Balthasar ordered his subjects either to return to the Catholic faith or leave his territories.^[7] He also ordered the Fulda witch trials, in which hundreds of people, including a number of crypto-protestants were arrested on charges of witchcraft alongside others.^[8]

18th and 19th centuries

The foundation of the abbey of Fulda and its territory originated with an Imperial grant, and the sovereign principality therefore was subject only to the German emperor. Fulda became a bishopric in 1752 and the prince-abbots were given the additional title of prince-bishop. The prince-abbots (and later prince-bishops) ruled Fulda and the surrounding region until the bishopric was forcibly dissolved by Napoleon I in 1802.

The city went through a baroque building campaign in the 18th century, resulting in the current "Baroque City" status. This included a remodeling of Fulda Cathedral (1704–12)^[9] and of the Stadtschloss (Fulda Castle-Palace, 1707–12) by Johann Dientzenhofer. The city parish church, St. Blasius, was built between 1771 and 1785. In 1764 a porcelain factory was started in Fulda under Prince-Bishop, Prince-Abbot Heinrich von Bibra, but shortly after his death it was closed down in 1789 by his successor, Prince-Bishop, Prince-Abbot Adalbert von Harstall.^[10]

The city was given to Prince William Frederick of Orange-Nassau (the later King William I of the Netherlands) in 1803 (as part of the short-lived Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda), was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806, and in 1809 to the Principality of Frankfurt. After the Congress of Vienna of 1814–15, most of the territory went to the Electorate of Hesse, which Prussia annexed in 1866.^[11]

20th century

From 1938 to 1943, Fulda was the location of a Nazi forced labour camp for Romani people.^[12]

Fulda lends its name to the Fulda Gap, a traditional east–west invasion route used by Napoleon I and others. During the Cold War, it was presumed to be an invasion route for any conventional war between NATO and Soviet forces. Downs Barracks in Fulda was the headquarters of the American 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, later replaced by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The cavalry had as many as 3,000 soldiers from the end of World War II until 1993. Not all those soldiers were in Fulda proper, but scattered over observation posts and in the cities of Bad Kissingen and Bad Hersfeld. The strategic importance of this region, along the border between East and West Germany, led to a large United States and Soviet military presence.^[13]

Pre-1800

Anton Storch

• Adam of Fulda (c. 1445–1505), composer and music theorist
• Adam Krafft (1493–1558), Protestant church reformer
• Justus Menius (1499–1558), theologian
• Franz Kaspar Lieblein (1744–1810), botanist
• Heinrich von Bibra Prince-Bishop, Prince-Abbot and of Fulda from 1759 to 1788

1801–1850

Ferdinand Braun

• Georg von Adelmann (1811–1888), physician and surgeon
• Otto Bähr (1817–1895), lawyer and politician
• Hugo Staehle (1826–1848), composer
• Ferdinand Braun (1850–1918), physicist, electrical engineer and Nobel laureate in physics

1851–1900

• Adalbert Ricken (1851–1921), mycologist and priest
• Ludwig Hupfeld (1864–1949), instrument maker and industrialist
• Wilhelm Heye (1869–1947), officer
• Clara Harnack (1877–1962), painter, teacher and mother of the resistance fighters Arvid and Falk Harnack
• Angela Zigahl (1885–1955), politician
• Anton Storch (1892–1975), politician
• Wilm Hosenfeld (1895–1952), officer and Righteous Among the Nations
• Paul Deichmann (1898–1981), officer of the Luftwaffe
• Max Stern (1898–1982), businessman, investor and philanthropist

1901–1950

• Karl Storch (1913–1992), athlete (hammer thrower)
• Wilhelm Balthasar (1914–1941), Luftwaffe military aviator and wing commander during Spanish Civil War and WWII
• Martin Hohmann (born 1948), politician (CDU, now AfD)
• Winfried Michel (born 1948), composer, recorder player and music publisher

1951–present

• Markus Oestreich (born 1963), racing driver
• Immanuel Bloch (born 1972), physicist
• Tobias Sammet (born 1977), musician
• Sebastian Kehl (born 1980), football player
• Patrik Sinkewitz (born 1980), professional cyclist
• Tobias Wolf (born 1988), football player