Hof is a city located on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconia region, hard by the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge upland region.

The city of Hof is enclosed by, but does not belong to the Bavarian district of Hof; it is nonetheless the district's administrative seat.

Hof was originally called Rekkenze and established around the year 1080. The settlement was first mentioned 1214 and became a town in 1319. After a rather uneventful history, the town became Prussian in 1792, French in 1806 and finally Bavarian in 1810. In 1823, the town was virtually destroyed by a fire. In 1945, it suffered minor destruction due to aerial attacks. From 1945 to 1990 Hof lay very close to the border between East Germany and West Germany. In 1989 thousands of East German citizens, who had demanded the right to travel or emigrate to West Germany and had been allowed to do so, first arrived on western soil at Hof's railroad station, having been placed on a special train and officially "expelled" by the East German government.

The city's most important work of art, the Hofer altar , dates from about 1465 and is exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich today. The Heidenreich organ in the parish church of St. Michaelis, completed in 1834, is considered one of Bavaria's finest.

Hof is known for two local "delicacies", namely Schnitz, a kind of hotpot, and sausages boiled in a portable, coal-fired brass cauldron, which are sold in the streets by the sausage man (Wärtschlamo http://www.stadt-hof.de/hof_img/13_seh/waerscht_gr.jpg in the local dialect). There is also a particularly strong beer (Schlappenbier), which is available only on the first Monday after Trinity Sunday (Schlappentag). This tradition dates back to the establishment of the town militia, whose members wore wooden clogs (Schlappen), in 1432.

Trivia

Hof is also known as Bavarian Siberia because temperatures are usually several degrees lower than in most other parts of Bavaria, particularly in winter, and because civil servants were often transferred to Hof as a punishment.

Wargamers might know Hof from the game Hof Gap published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1980. The game, which simulates the early stages of WWIII in Germany, was not well received in Hof itself.

External links

• Official homepage of the city (in German) http://www.stadt-hof.de/
• A history of the Heidenreich organ (in German) http://www.dekanat-hof.de/kirchenmusik/historie.htm