Feuchtwangen
Encyclopedia
Feuchtwangen is a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 in Ansbach district
Ansbach (district)
Ansbach is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is surrounding, but not including the city of Ansbach; nonetheless the administrative seat of the district is Ansbach. It is the district with the biggest area in Bavaria...

 in the administrative region of Middle Franconia
Middle Franconia
Middle Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is in the west of Bavaria and adjoins the state of Baden-Württemberg...

 in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Geography

Geographically and geologically
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 the land around Feuchtwangen comprises the eastern part of the Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

n-Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...

n Escarpment
Escarpment
An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.-Description and variants:...

 Land (Schichtstufenland), also sometimes called the gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...

-keuper
Keuper
The Keuper is a lithostratigraphic unit in the subsurface of large parts of west and central Europe. The Keuper consists of dolostone, shales or claystones and evaporites that were deposited during the Middle and Late Triassic epochs...

 landscape. Characteristic of this landform is the quick change from deep hollows to mostly wooded mountain ranges, which were formed as the result of keuper strata not being well able to withstand erosion. This also meant that streams in the region could carve broad valleys. The city of Feuchtwangen lies in the Sulzach
Sulzach
Sulzach is a river of Bavaria, Germany....

 valley. The city's sprawling area also takes in parts of the Wörnitz valley.

Neighbouring communities

Neighbouring Feuchtwangen are Schnelldorf, Wörnitz, Dombühl, Aurach, Herrieden, Wieseth, Dentlein am Forst, Dürrwangen, Schopfloch, Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl
Dinkelsbühl is a historic city in Bavaria, Germany and a former Free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire. Now it belongs to the district of Ansbach, north of Aalen.-History:...

 (all in Ansbach district, Bavaria) and Kreßberg (in Schwäbisch Hall district
Schwäbisch Hall (district)
Schwäbisch Hall is a district in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Main-Tauber, the Bavarian district Ansbach, Ostalbkreis, Rems-Murr and Hohenlohe.-History:...

, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

).

Parts of the city

Feuchtwangen has 87 divisions within the city, determined by formerly independent communities. Among them are:

Aichau: Aichau, Jakobsmühle, Löschenmühle, Oberahorn, Thürnhofen, Unterahorn

Aichenzell: Aichenzell, Esbach, Hammerschmiede, Herrnschallbach, Höfstetten, Kaltenbronn, Mögersbronn, Sommerau, Überschlagmühle, Walkmühle, Winterhallen, Zehdorf

Banzenweiler: Banzenweiler, Bieberbach, Georgenhof, Jungenhof, Krebshof, Krobshausen, Leiperzell, Oberransbach, Oberrothmühle, Poppenweiler, Unterransbach, Unterrothmühle, Weiler am See

Breitenau: Breitenau, Gehrenberg, Ratzendorf, Sperbersbach, Ungetsheim, Zischendorf, Zumhaus

Dorfgütingen: Archshofen, Bonlanden, Bölhof, Bühl, Dorfgütingen, Dornberg, Krobshäuser Mühle, Neidlingen, Rödenweiler

Heilbronn: Heilbronn, Herbstmühle, Lichtenau, Metzlesberg, Rißmannschallbach, Wüstenweiler, Zumberg

Krapfenau: Bernau, Eschenlach, Hainmühle, Koppenschallbach, Krapfenau, Krapfenau-Mühle, Lotterhof, Oberlottermühle, Schönmühle, St. Ulrich, Unterlottermühle, Volkertsweiler, Wehlmäusel, Weikersdorf

Larrieden: Heiligenkreuz, Larriden, Oberhinterhof, Unterhinterhof

Mosbach: Bergnerzell, Kühnhardt a. Schlegel, Mosbach, Reichenbach, Seiderzell, Tribur

Vorderbreitenthann: Charhof, Charmühle, Glashofen, Hinterbreitenthann, Oberdallersbach, Steinbach, Tauberschallbach, Unterdallersbach, Voderbreitenthann, Wolfsmühle

History

Feuchtwangen's origins can be traced back to the Benedictine monastery, which was mentioned in a document in 818 or 819 as being "fairly well off". The state of affairs at the monastery was described in 16 letters by the learned monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 Froumund and the abbot Wigo in the years 991 to 995. By no later than 1197, however, Feuchtwangen had become a house of secular canons (Chorherrenstift). The canons were not monks and lived in their own houses, but said their canonical prayers together at the monastery church.

Besides the monastery, there was already, since the earliest times, a village. With the help of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...

 came the establishment of a town sometime between 1150 and 1178. In 1241, Feuchtwangen became an imperial free city. From that time forth, Feuchtwangen consisted of two independent communities: the free city south of the line along Untere Torstraße ("Lower Gate Street") and Postgasse, and the monastery lands to the north. Together with other imperial free cities like Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a town in the district of Ansbach of Mittelfranken , the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany, well known for its well-preserved medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the world. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City...

 or Dinkelsbühl, the town tried to assert its interests to the princes through the Swabian League
Swabian League
The Swabian League was an association of Imperial States - cities, prelates, principalities and knights - principally in the territory of the Early medieval stem duchy of Swabia, established in 1488 at the behest of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg and supported as well by Bertold von...

 (founded in 1376 by 14 free cities). Feuchtwangen had become wealthy owing to its fortunate location on travel routes, and was many times given in pledge by the kings. In the end, in 1376, both the town and the monastery were pledged, or transferred, to the Burgravate of Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, which later became the Margravate of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The townsfolk could no longer buy their town's freedom, thus leading to a relatively early end to Feuchtwangen's status as an imperial free city.

About 1400, after the city was destroyed in 1388 by the Swabian League, both parts of Feuchtwangen were surrounded by a common wall, which helped to meld the two formerly separate communities into one. The margravate town, seat of a higher administrative office and place of many markets grew in importance and in the 15th and 16th centuries blossomed once again. The troubles in the German Peasants' War
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

 afforded an opportunity to introduce the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

, which happened throughout the margravate in 1533. The monastery was confiscated in 1563, with its possessions going to the margrave. The Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 brought woe and hardship to Feuchtwangen, especially with the plundering of the city wrought by Tilly's unruly men. In 1632 and 1634, Swedish
Swedish Empire
The Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Sweden between 1561 and 1721 . During this time, Sweden was one of the great European powers. In Swedish, the period is called Stormaktstiden, literally meaning "the Great Power Era"...

 and Imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

 forces took away what was left, and so it went on for decades before the town and its surrounding area recovered.

Until 1791, Feuchtwangen remained an administrative town of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The last Margrave, who was childless, ceded his land to the Kingdom of Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

. Only 14 years later, the French
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

 briefly took over control of the city, losing it once more only a year later, in 1806, to the Kingdom of Bavaria. Feuchtwangen became the seat of a regional court set up by the regional office and the local court.

In the long era of peace in the 19th century, the city's face was changed. The lower gate tower, along with great parts of the city defences were demolished. The Spitaltor burnt down in 1811. The city was connected by a railway branchline to the Nuremberg-Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 mainline. Nevertheless, development stagnated in the 19th and 20th centuries until the Second World War. Although some of the communities that were later incorporated into Feuchtwangen were destroyed in the world wars, Feuchtwangen itself was left unscathed.

A renewed upswing took root after the Second World War, spurred on by the arrival of people driven out of their lands in the east
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...

. Feuchtwangen became a Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...

 garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....

 town. The town did lose its status as an administrative centre, but won itself a place among the ten largest cities in Bavaria (by land area) once Bavarian municipal reform had amalgamated ten other communities with it. The barracks were closed in 1997, but the lands came into use again only two years later when the Bavarian Building Academy (Bayerische Bauakademie) came to town to establish a continuing education institution. In 2000, the Feuchtwangen Casino opened, which in 2005 was once again the most visited and highest earning of all Bavarian casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

s.

Worship

  • 68.3% Evangelical
    Evangelical Church in Germany
    The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...

  • 20.0% Catholic
    Roman Catholic Church
    The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

  • 11.7% other

Amalgamations

In 1972, ten communities were amalgamated into Feuchtwangen: Aichau mit Thürnhofen, Aichenzell, Banzenweiler, Breitenau, Dorfgütingen, Heilbronn, Krapfenau, Larrieden, Mosbach and Vorderbreitenthann.

Coat of arms

The spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

 tree coat of arms was originally the city's second arms. Since 1819, however, it has been the only arms.

City partnerships

The city maintains partnerships with: Lana, South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Morhange
Morhange
Morhange is a commune in the Moselle department in Lorraine in north-eastern France....

, Lorraine
Moselle
Moselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...


Roads

Feuchtwangen lies on Bundesstraße (Federal Highway) B 25, as well as on the A 6
Bundesautobahn 6
, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west and end at the Czech border near Waidhaus in the east....

 und A 7 Autobahnen.

Railways

Feuchtwangen lies on the railway line running between Nördlingen
Nördlingen
Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Bavaria, Germany, with a population of 20,000. It is located in the middle of a complex meteorite crater, called the Nördlinger Ries. The town was also the place of two battles during the Thirty Years' War...

 and Dombühl
Dombühl
Dombühl is a municipality in the district of Ansbach in Bavaria in Germany....

, which was opened in sections from 1876 to 1881, and on which there has been no regular passenger service since 1985. The Bavarian Railway Museum (Bayerisches Eisenbahnmuseum) runs museum trains, including ones from Feuchtwangen as of 2006.

Healthcare

Feuchtwangen has a hospital with 80 beds. Since 1 January 2003, this has belonged to the Ansbach District Network Clinic, which is made up of hospitals in Rothenburg and Dinkelsbühl. The hospital in Feuchtwangen has the rheumatology
Rheumatology
Rheumatology is a sub-specialty in internal medicine and pediatrics, devoted to diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic diseases. Clinicians who specialize in rheumatology are called rheumatologists...

 and internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

 departments. There are also a nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

 and many pharmacies
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...

 in town.

Companies

Within Feuchtwangen's industrial area, many firms, some quite large, have offices. The following companies can be found in Feuchtwangen:
  • Rehau AG & Co
  • VP (Vereinigte Papierwarenfabriken GmbH)
  • Ernst Hähnlein Bau-GmbH
  • Fa. Arcon GmbH
  • Preform GmbH
  • Weltron Elektronik GmbH
  • Bohnacker GmbH Umformtechnik
  • handik beauty & sports products e.K.
  • Fa. Greisel GmbH

Church kindergartens

Evangelical kindergarten, Sandweg 7
Evangelical kindergarten Wannenbad, Lauerhecke 4
Evangelical kindergarten, Wohlgemutstr. 10
Catholic kindergarten, Am Schwalbennest 2

Schools

There are 2 primary schools, 2 Hauptschule
Hauptschule
A Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...

n, 1 Realschule
Realschule
The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...

, 1 Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

 and 1 special preschool in Feuchtwangen. For further education, there is the possibility, through a bus link, of going to the Fachoberschule/Berufsoberschule (technical or professional college) in Ansbach.

Culture and sightseeing

Museums

  • Fränkisches Museum Feuchtwangen (Franconian Museum)
  • Sängermuseum des Deutschen Sängerbundes (Museum dedicated to singers of the German Singers' League)
  • Craftsmen's workshops in the Romanesque
    Romanesque architecture
    Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

     cloister (see photo)


Regular events

  • The Historic Town Festival (Altstadtfest) is held every year at the Feuchtwangen market place.
  • Every year from mid-June to mid-August, the Kreuzgangspiele Feuchtwangen ( "Cloister theatre festival Feuchtwangen") play professional openair theatre with a broad range of pieces by classical and modern playwrights.
  • Late in September, the Mooswiese (literally "moss meadow") takes place at the Mooswiesenfestplatz.

Sights

Worth seeing is the historic old town with its marketplace that the Handbuch der Deutschen Kunstdenkmäler (Handbook of German Artistic Memorials), published originally by Georg Dehio
Georg Dehio
Georg Gottfried Julius Dehio , was a Baltic German art historian ....

, described as "Franconia's ballroom". Also worthy of note is the former Benedictine monastery church with its Romanesque cloister, in which the craftsmen's workshops are housed. Also, a fair amount of the town's old wall still stands, dating from about 1400. Of the town's original three gates, only one, the Upper Gate, is still maintained. The Lower Gate had to make way for traffic in the 19th century, and the Spitaltor, or Hospital Gate, fell down after a fire. The following sights are also to be seen in Feuchtwangen:
  • The Röhrenbrunnen fountain with a statue of Minerva, the Protectress of Commerce.
  • The cloister, assumed to date from the second half of the 12th century.
  • The craftsmen's workshops, housed in the cloister.
  • The monastery church, which formerly actually served as such.
  • The Johanneskirche, former parish church, now a baptistery.
  • The little gallery, in which changing exhibitions from a great variety of amateur artists are seen.
  • The Upper Gate, the only one still standing of the original three.
  • The half-timbered building that was originally Peter's and Paul's Chapel, later a barn for the taxes from the former monastery's goods, and since 1982, the city hall.
  • The Taubenbrünnlein ("Little Dove Fountain") in which the legend about the city's founding is immortalized.
  • The Cereal Market, where a collection of old firefighting equipment may be seen.
  • The Franconian Museum, one of southern Germany's finest folk art museums.
  • The Singers' Museum (Sängermuseum), Germany's only choral museum.

Notable residents

  • Monk Froumund and Abbot Wigo (16 letters from the Benedictine Monastery 991 - 995)
  • Walther von der Vogelweide
    Walther von der Vogelweide
    Walther von der Vogelweide is the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets.-Life history:For all his fame, Walther's name is not found in contemporary records, with the exception of a solitary mention in the travelling accounts of Bishop Wolfger of Erla of the Passau diocese:...

     (ca. 1170-ca. 1230), medieval lyric poet (origin disputed)
  • Konrad von Feuchtwangen
    Konrad von Feuchtwangen
    Konrad von Feuchtwangen was the 13th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1291-96. He was a relative of the later Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen....

    , 13th century Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
  • Siegfried von Feuchtwangen
    Siegfried von Feuchtwangen
    Siegfried von Feuchtwangen was the 15th Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, serving from 1303 to 1311.Von Feuchtwangen was born in Feuchtwangen in Middle Franconia, and was a relative of the earlier Grand Master Konrad von Feuchtwangen. He took the office after his predecessor, Gottfried von...

    , 14th century Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
  • The ancestors of writer Lion Feuchtwanger
    Lion Feuchtwanger
    Lion Feuchtwanger was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht....

     (before 1555)
  • Adalbert Schnitzlein (1814–1868), German botanist
  • Johann Georg von Soldner
    Johann Georg von Soldner
    Johann Georg von Soldner was a German physicist, mathematician and astronomer, first in Berlin and later in 1808 in Munich.-Life:...

     (1776–1833), geodesist ("I have surveyed the luminaries and the land of Bavaria")
  • Cornelia Dumler
    Cornelia Dumler
    Cornelia Dumler is a female volleyball player from Germany, who represented her native country in at the 2004 Summer Olympics, finishing in ninth place...

     (born 1982), volleyball player for the German national team
  • Lion Feuchtwanger
    Lion Feuchtwanger
    Lion Feuchtwanger was a German-Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht....

    (1884–1958), his ancestors originated from the city which, following a pogrom in 1555, expelled all its resident Jews.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK