From the Wilhelmine Era

Between 1906 and 1910, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate was built; together with the contemporaneous construction of the municipal archive, Protestant Konsistorium, Humanistic Secondary School, and Episcopal Ordinariate, it has defined Cathedral Square to this very day.

With Germany's loss of World War I, a French army of occupation once again moved into the city. Calls for a free Palatinate were heard, loud and clear, even in the Speyer of the 1920s. They are not sufficiently supported by the populace, however, and therefor remain unfulfilled. Still, under French occupation, the city celebrated the 400th anniversary of the protest in 1929; by the time the 900th anniversary of the founding of the cathedral arrives in the following year, Speyer is once again under Bavarian rule.

The power grab by the National Socialists in 1933 leads to forced political conformity in Speyer. It ends more than 800 years of Jewish history in Speyer, signalled by the burning of the synagogue on Crystal Night in 1938. At the end of the war, the French came back into the city again and Charles de Gaulle reviewed a parade of troops from in front of the Cathedral.

 The economic upturn of the '50s and '60s allowed Speyer to grow considerably. New residential neighborhoods, industrial parks, schools and hospitals emerged. Since the 2000th anniversary of the city in 1990, tourism started playing an ever more significant role. The Technology Museum of Speyer and the Sea Life Aquarium have emerged as tourist magnets that, together with the Cathedral and the Historical Museum of the Palatinate, lure hundreds of thousands of visitors into the city year-round.

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