Town council

The last local elections were on March 2, 2008, with following results:^[7]

¹ Christlicher Rathausblock Memmingen ("Christian Townhall-Party")

Lord Mayors

• 1884–1909: Karl Scherer
• 1910–1931: Fritz Braun
• 1932–1945: Heinrich Berndl, NSDAP
• 1945–1948: Georg Fey, CSU
• 1948–1952: Lorenz Riedmiller, SPD
• 1952–1966: Heinrich Berndl, without party
• 1966–1968: Rudolf Machnig, SPD
• 1968–1980: Johannes Bauer, SPD
• 1980–2016: Ivo Holzinger, SPD
• 2016: Markus Kennerknecht, SPD
• 2017–today: Manfred Schilder, CSU

Town finances

With €512 per capita, Memmingen is one of the cities in Germany with the lowest level of debt^[8] (The German average is more than €1,300). The town had 2007 a management budget (Verwaltungshaushalt) of €94,925,160 and an asset budget (Vermögenshaushalt) of €19,490,860. The income from trade taxes amounted to about €40 million, the income tax assignment to about €20 million. The local rates were last changed in 2003. The town has many charitable foundations, with roots partly going back to the Middle Ages (such as the Unterhospitalstiftung).

Coat of arms and flag

Blazon: Split from gold and silver, in front a half, reinforced in red, black eagle. Backward a red pawcross

The town's colours, handed down since 1488, are Black, Red, White. The flag is a banner flag with cross bar.

Amendingen and Eisenburg have their own historical coats of arms.

Historic festivals

Every year Memmingen celebrates the Fischertag (Fisherman's day), recreating medieval traditions. The town brook is fished out to be completely drained and cleaned, and at the same time a "Fisherman's King" (the one that caught the heaviest trout) is appointed among almost 1,200 fishermen. Every year up to 40,000 people come to this festival as participants or spectators.

Every four years Memmingen re-enacts the events around the visit of Wallenstein in the year 1630 with Europe's biggest historic festival: the Wallensteinfestspiele (Memmingen).

Theatre

The Landestheater Schwaben in Memmingen

The theatre has a long tradition in Memmingen. By the Middle Ages some chroniclers were already recording different theatre performances. In 1937 the Landestheater Schwaben (State Theatre of Swabia) or LTS was founded in the town. In 1945, after World War II, the LTS was one of the first theatres in West Germany to begin putting on performances again. The performances take place in the Rooms of the Town Theatre, the theatre at the Schweizerberg (cabaret stage), in the Kaminwerk cultural centre or in rooms at the boroughs of Memmingen. The Schweizerberg Theatre will be closed at the end of 2010. It will move to new premises in the Elsbethen area, behind the Town Theatre, where a new cabaret stage, rehearsing rooms, workshops, depots, management rooms, the foyer and some guest rooms will be built.^[9] Another theatre was founded by Helmut Wolfseher and members of the Alternative Kleinkunst e.V. (Alternative Cabaret Society), Parterretheater im Künerhaus (PIK). This theatre is specifically for amateur actors and young talented musicians. The Kaminwerk also puts on major plays by amateur actors. The municipal hall is for Volksschauspieler or other artists.

The following works featuring Memmingen have been produced:

• Stage play Memmingen from Bettina Fless (1989)
• Book Mohr of Memmingen from Utz Benkel
• Song Memmingen by Blackmore’s Night, see also Shadow of the Moon

Stage plays and operas that have had world premières in Memmingen are:

• 1995: The Jewbank
• Metal-Operas by David DeFeis:
  • 1999: Klytaimnestra
  • 2001: Hel
  • 2005: Lilith
• 2005: Mohr of Memmingen
• 2007: Green Organes
• 2008: Katharina and Till (10 January 2009)

Museums

MeWo-Kunsthalle (art hall)

The biggest museum in Memmingen is the Town Museum at the Hermannsbau.^[10] The town's history is described in its historical rooms. There is also a section covering the history of the Jewish community in Memmingen, whose members were killed or forced into exile in 1939. Part of the Torah from the destroyed synagogue is on display there. The Freudenthal/Altvater Homeland Museum for refugees who have settled in Memmingen is also part of the town museum. It is one of 43 homeland museums recognised by the Ministry of the Interior. A foundation, founded and administered by the town, takes responsibility for the museum. The Strigel- and Antoniter-Museum at the Antonierkloster present wood carvings and paintings by the Strigel family of artists as well as a permanent exhibition on the work of the Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony.^[11] The museum was established in 1996. With donations from the Memminger Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft (MeWo) the MEWO-Kunsthalle was opened in 2005 in the old post office next to the station. The museum holds the estates of the Memmingen artists Max Unold and Josef Madlener and presents a wide selection of contemporary art exhibitions.^[12] The size and scope of this art gallery is unique in region. The former Kreuzherren monastery is used for changing exhibitions.^[13]

Music

The organ concerts in the churches of St. Martins and St. Josef are famous in the region. Chamber music would be performed in the former Kreuzherren monastery and also in some other buildings in Memmingen.

There are several pubs, restaurants, wine taverns and cafés and also some discothèques in and around the town. The cultural centre Kaminwerk (Chimney factory) is for concerts, theatre, program cinema, readings and special parties.

Buildings

The Ulmer gate

Memmingen has considerable tourist interest, mainly because large areas of the medieval old town survived World War II. There are ten town gates and towers and about two kilometres of the town wall. The old town contains many interesting houses of patricians, some in the baroque style. They are picturesque Streets with the Stadtbach (town river) beside. The medieval market place, surrounded by the town hall, which is built in renaissance style, the Großzunft (Guildhouse) and the painted Steuerhaus (tax house). Also famous is St. Martin's church, built in gothic style with its more-than-500-year-old Choir and the 1996 restored Hospital Brothers of St. Anthony monastery (Antonierkloster), the oldest, best conserved and biggest of these kind. The probably oldest church in town Unser Frauen (Church of Our Lady) or also called Frauenkirche with significant frescos of the 15th and 16th centuries. Also the Seven Roof House, the baroque Kreuzherren monastery, the renovated whorehouse of the town, the Salzstadel (salt barn), the Kramerzunft (shopkeepers guild, also called the Twelve-Article-House are sights in Memmingen). Not so well known is the Bismarck tower in the west of Memmingen. Beside the tower is the 2007 build new soccer stadium.^[14]

Parks

Green areas were created all along the town wall. The old ditches where filled up and replaced with green areas or parks with partially over 150-year-old trees. The name of the parks are (starting clockwise at the Ulmer Gate): Hubergarten, Zollergarten, Ratzengraben/Zollergraben, Kohlschanze, Reichshain, Kaisergraben, Hohe Wacht, Westertorplatz, Grimmelschanze. Nearby every residential area has its own smaller parks. There is also the town park in the New World, the old Landesgartenschau place. Also the old and the forest cemetery, which are both used as parks.

Cemeteries

Old cemetery

There were four cemeteries in Memmingen in the Middle Ages. They were around the St. Martin's Church and the Church of Our Lady, also at the Kreuzherren monastery and the Scottish monastery.^[15] They were abandoned in 1530. The replacement was the Old cemetery at the former Scottish monastery. This cemetery was abandoned in 1930. The closing of the Old Cemetery has involved a new Cemetery. It was founded in the east of Memmingen as a Forest Cemetery. More cemeteries are in the districts Amendingen, Steinheim, Buxach, Volkratshofen, Ferthofen and Dickenreishausen. In the east of the town is also a Jewish cemetery.

Friendly cities

Memmingen also has friendly relations with:^[16]

• Colmar, France (1965)