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143-518: Schiltach lies on the eastern side of the Black Forest , at the confluence of the Schiltach and Kinzig rivers. It lies at an altitude of 330 metres (1,083 ft). Like most of Germany, Schiltach has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ). The borough of Schiltach consists of the parishes of Schiltach and Lehengericht. The two districts are geographically identical to

286-485: A Ortsschaftsrat with eight members. Schiltach holds a partnership with Geising in Saxony . Despite its rural location the town possesses an industrial base with several internationally known companies. Already in the time of Industrialization there were industrial areas. Schiltach had several textile mills, which took advantage of the soft water from the two rivers; also there were multiple saw mills and tanneries for

429-508: A continental climate at high altitude. There is fairly low precipitation because the Vosges protect it from the west. The city of Colmar has a sunny microclimate ; it is the second driest city in France, with an annual precipitation of around 700 mm (28 in), making it ideal for vin d'Alsace ( Alsatian wine ). Since 2021, Alsace has been a territorial collectivity called

572-538: A territorial collectivity in eastern France , on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,919,745. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of German and French influences. Until 1871, Alsace included the area now known as the Territoire de Belfort , which formed its southernmost part. From 1982 to 2016, Alsace was the smallest administrative région in metropolitan France , consisting of

715-620: A Celtic tribe allied to Rome, appealed to the Roman Senate and Julius Caesar for aid. In 58 BCE, after negotiations with Ariovistus failed, Julius Caesar routed the Suebi at the foot of the Vosges near what became Cernay in southern Alsace. There followed a "long period of security ... for the Gauls along the middle and upper Rhine." From the time of Augustus to the early fifth century AD,

858-536: A castle above the town. They did not build a church because Schiltach already had one. The town was intended to act as a stop for travellers and as a trading post before the road descended to Rottweil. From about 1250, the castle and town took over the function of the Willenburg, which had guarded the road before the founding of Schiltach. In 1371 Schiltach was transferred to the Dukes of Urslingen . After ten years,

1001-516: A few decades of regulated forestry had ensured the regrowth of the raw material wood and when the forest-destroying potash extraction had become unnecessary due to the new glass flux soda, some glass huts ( Glashütten ) revived. Some glassblowing factories still testify to this today, for example in Höllental , near Todtnau and in Wolfach . Black Forest ham originated from this region, as did

1144-700: A lack of work for young people. Thus, it is not surprising that people left Alsace, not only for Paris – where the Alsatian community grew in numbers, with famous members such as Georges-Eugène Haussmann – but also for more distant places like Russia and the Austrian Empire , to take advantage of the new opportunities offered there: Austria had conquered lands in Eastern Europe from the Ottoman Empire and offered generous terms to colonists as

1287-423: A length of 160 kilometres (100 miles) and breadth of up to 50 km (30 mi), it has an area of about 6,009 km (2,320 sq mi). Historically, the area was known for forestry and the mining of ore deposits, but tourism has now become the primary industry, accounting for around 300,000 jobs. There are several ruined military fortifications dating back to the 17th century. In ancient times,

1430-736: A modified tripartite division, which combined natural and cultural regional approaches and was widely used. His Central Black Forest is bounded in the north by the watershed between the Acher and Rench and subsequently between the Murg and Kinzig or Forbach and Kinzig, in the south by the Bonndorf Graben zone, which restricts the Black Forest in the east as does the Freudenstadt Graben further north by its transition into

1573-614: A natural region perspective, also includes the low chain of foothills); in the east it transitions to the Gäu , Baar and hill country west of the Klettgau . From north to south, the Black Forest extends for over 160 km (100 mi), attaining a width of up to 50 km (30 mi) in the south and 30 km (20 mi) in the north. The Black Forest is the highest part of the South German Scarplands , and much of it

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1716-667: A number of granitic bodies during the Carboniferous period. Among the bigger ones are the Triberg Granite and the Forbach Granite , the youngest is the Bärhalde Granite. In the south lies the zone of Badenweiler-Lenzkirch, in which Palaeozoic rocks have been preserved (volcanite and sedimentary rocks), which are interpreted as the intercalated remains of a microcontinental collision. Still further in

1859-527: A port on the Rhine route linking southern Germany and Switzerland to the Netherlands, England and Scandinavia , it became the political and economic center of the region. Cities such as Colmar and Hagenau also began to grow in economic importance and gained a kind of autonomy within the " Décapole " (or "Zehnstädtebund"), a federation of ten free towns. Though little is known about the early history of

2002-497: A province (a procuratio , not a provincia ) to be ruled by ministeriales , a non-noble class of civil servants. The idea was that such men would be more tractable and less likely to alienate the fief from the crown out of their own greed. The province had a single provincial court ( Landgericht ) and a central administration with its seat at Hagenau . Frederick II designated the Bishop of Strasbourg to administer Alsace, but

2145-512: A result of the anthropogenic elevation of the low-side lip of the cirque, such as the Mummelsee , Wildsee , Schurmsee , Glaswaldsee , Buhlbachsee , Nonnenmattweiher , and Feldsee . The Titisee formed as glacial lake behind a glacial moraine . The Black Forest is mainly rural, with many scattered villages and a few large towns. Tradition and custom are celebrated in many places in the form of annual festivities. The main dialect spoken in

2288-656: A special legal oath for Jews was discontinued. Antisemitic local riots occasionally occurred, especially during the Revolution of 1848. The merger of Alsace into Germany in 1871–1918 lessened antisemitic violence. The constitution of the Reichsland of 1911 reserved one seat in the first chamber of the Landtag for a representative of the Jewish Consistory of Alsace–Lorraine (besides two seats respectively for

2431-581: A third of the mortgages in Alsace. Official tolerance grew during the French Revolution, with full emancipation in 1791. However, local antisemitism also increased and Napoleon turned hostile in 1806, imposing a one-year moratorium on all debts owed to Jews. In the 1830–1870 era, most Jews moved to the cities, where they integrated and acculturated, as antisemitism sharply declined. By 1831, the state began paying salaries to official rabbis, and in 1846

2574-929: A way of consolidating its hold on the new territories. Many Alsatians also began to sail to the United States, settling in many areas from 1820 to 1850. In 1843 and 1844, sailing ships bringing immigrant families from Alsace arrived at the port of New York. Some settled in Texas and Illinois, many to farm or to seek success in commercial ventures: for example, the sailing ships Sully (in May 1843) and Iowa (in June 1844) brought families who set up homes in northern Illinois and northern Indiana. Some Alsatian immigrants were noted for their roles in 19th-century American economic development. Others ventured to Canada to settle in southwestern Ontario , notably Waterloo County . In contrast to

2717-570: Is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany , bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland . It is the source of the Danube and Neckar rivers. Its highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres (4,898 ft) above sea level . Roughly oblong in shape, with

2860-653: Is a permanent feature of Alemannic Week, held annually in the Black Forest at the end of September. There are two nature parks and one national park named after the Black Forest that cover the region: the Southern Black Forest Nature Park , the Central/North Black Forest and the Black Forest National Park . The difference between a nature park and a national park is that a nature park's aim

3003-526: Is a traditional cottage industry in the region, and carved ornaments now are produced in substantial numbers as souvenirs for tourists. Cuckoo clocks are a popular example. Glassblowing is another notable craft of the Black Forest region. At the beginning of the 15th century, the art of glassmaking took hold in the Bavarian-Bohemian border mountains, especially since the necessary raw materials such as quartz and wood were abundant here. With

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3146-623: Is also taught as a foreign language in local kindergartens and schools. There is a growing network of schools proposing full immersion in Alsatian dialect and in Standard German, called ABCM-Zweisprachigkeit (ABCM -> French acronym for "Association for Bilingualism in the Classroom from Kindergarten onwards", Zweisprachigkeit -> German for "Bilingualism"). However, the Constitution of France still requires that French be

3289-635: Is covered in the east and northeast by Bunter Sandstone slabs, the so-called platforms. On the western edge a descending, step-fault -like, foothill zone borders the Upper Rhine Graben consisting of rocks of the Triassic and Jurassic periods. The dominant rocks of the basement are gneiss (ortho- and paragneisses, in the south also migmatites and diatexites, for example on the Schauinsland and Kandel). These gneisses were penetrated by

3432-579: Is densely wooded, a fragment of the Hercynian Forest of antiquity. Administratively, the Black Forest belongs completely to the state of Baden-Württemberg and comprises the cities of Freiburg , Pforzheim and Baden-Baden as well as the following districts ( Kreise ). In the north: Enz , Rastatt and Calw ; in the middle: Freudenstadt , Ortenaukreis and Rottweil ; in the south: Emmendingen , Schwarzwald-Baar , Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald , Lörrach and Waldshut . The natural regions of

3575-676: Is divided into six so-called major units (level 4 landscapes). This division was refined and modified in several successor publications (1:200,000 individual map sheets) up to 1967, each covering individual sections of the map. The mountain range was also divided into three regions. The northern boundary of the Central Black Forest in this classification runs south of the Rench Valley and the Kniebis to near Freudenstadt. Its southern boundary varied with each edition. In 1998,

3718-401: Is here, in the west, where the highest mountains and the greatest local differences in height (of up to 1000 metres) are found. The valleys are often narrow and ravine-like. The summits are rounded, and there are remnants of plateaux and arête -like landforms. Geologically the clearest division is also between east and west. Large areas of the eastern Black Forest, the lowest layer of

3861-426: Is kept alive by an active rafter group to keep the once important industry of Schiltach in mind. There are still some companies which were established at the turn of the twentieth century like Hansgrohe (1901), and ( BBS ; VEGA Grieshaber KG etc.) was established later. The industry of Schiltach provides approximately 3350 jobs, which is extraordinary because Schiltach has only roughly 4000 citizens. Also, Schiltach

4004-599: Is known in the Black Forest region, occurs in the time leading up to Lent . On Fasnetmendig , or the Monday before Ash Wednesday , crowds of people line the streets, wearing wooden, mostly hand-carved masks. One prominent style of mask is called the Black Forest Style, originating from the Black Forest Region. The Black Forest is home to an unusual tarot card game called Cego , that is part of

4147-522: Is the seat of several international organizations and bodies . The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz , meaning "foreign domain". An alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass , meaning "seated on the Ill ", a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters. Part of the province of Germania Superior in

4290-432: Is to strive for environmentally sustainable land use , to preserve the countryside as a cultural landscape, to market local produce more effectively, to make the area more suitable for sustainable tourism and to practice environmental education . A national park's aims are to protect the country's natural heritage, to practice environmental education, to serve purposes of scientific environmental observation and to prevent

4433-559: Is topographically disadvantaged because it is in the narrowest place in the Kinzig valley and the Autobahn 81 and Autobahn 5 motorways are far away. Schiltach's local political leaders are willing to support the companies in order to encourage them to stay in the town. The town of Schiltach has one elementary school and had a Hauptschule ( Nachbarschaftsschule Schiltach/ Schenkenzell ) with Werkrealschule . Secondary Schools are in

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4576-646: The "hundred day" restoration of Napoleon I of France in 1815, Alsace along with other frontier provinces of France was occupied by foreign forces from 1815 to 1818, including over 280,000 soldiers and 90,000 horses in Bas-Rhin alone. This had grave effects on trade and the economy of the region since former overland trade routes were switched to newly opened Mediterranean and Atlantic seaports. The population grew rapidly, from 800,000 in 1814 to 914,000 in 1830 and 1,067,000 in 1846. The combination of economic and demographic factors led to hunger, housing shortages and

4719-639: The Alexanderschanze (Alexander's Redoubt), the Röschenschanze and the Schwedenschanze ( Swedish Redoubt ). Originally, the Black Forest was a mixed forest of deciduous trees and firs. At the higher elevations spruce also grew. In the middle of the 19th century, the Black Forest was almost completely deforested by intensive forestry and was subsequently replanted, mostly with spruce monocultures . In 1990, extensive damage to

4862-708: The Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments . Territorial reform passed by the French Parliament in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est . On 1 January 2021, the departments of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged into the new European Collectivity of Alsace but remained part of the region Grand Est. Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect closely related to Swabian , although since World War II most Alsatians primarily speak French. Internal and international migration since 1945 has also changed

5005-967: The Belchen (1,414 m). In general the mountains of the Southern or High Black Forest are higher than those in the Northern Black Forest. The highest Black Forest peak north of the Freiburg–Höllental–Neustadt line is the Kandel (1,241.4 m). Like the highest point of the Northern Black Forest, the Hornisgrinde (1,163 m), or the Southern Black Forest lookout mountains, the Schauinsland (1,284.4 m) and Blauen (1,164.7 m ) it lies near

5148-504: The Black Forest gâteau , which is also known as "Black Forest Cherry Cake" or "Black Forest Cake" and is made with chocolate cake, cream, sour cherries and Kirsch . The Black Forest variety of Flammekueche is a Baden specialty made with ham, cheese and cream. Pfannkuchen , a crêpe or crêpe-like ( Eierkuchen or Palatschinken ) pastry, is also common. The Black Forest is known for its long tradition in gourmet cuisine. No fewer than 17 Michelin starred restaurants are located in

5291-733: The Black Sea drainage basin (drained by the Danube). The longest Black Forest rivers are (length includes stretches outside the Black Forest): Important lakes of natural, glacial origin in the Black Forest include the Titisee , the Mummelsee and the Feldsee . Especially in the Northern Black Forest are a number of other, smaller tarns . Numerous reservoirs like the – formerly natural but much smaller – Schluchsee with

5434-699: The Central/North Black Forest Nature Park between the cities of Freudenstadt and Baden-Baden and covers an area of 10,062 ha. Its motto is "Natur Natur sein lassen" (let nature be nature). In addition to the characteristic range of fauna found in Central European forests, the following less common animals may be observed in the Black Forest: The mountain range has lower temperatures and higher rainfall than its surrounding countryside. The highlands of

5577-836: The EPCAAL (a Lutheran church) is France's second largest Protestant church, also forming an administrative union ( UEPAL ) with the much smaller Calvinist EPRAL . Unlike the rest of France, the Local law in Alsace–Moselle still provides for the Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 and the organic articles , which provides public subsidies to the Roman Catholic, Lutheran , and Calvinist churches, as well as to Jewish synagogues; religion classes in one of these faiths are compulsory in public schools. The divergence in policy from

5720-571: The Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685 that abolished their privileges in the rest of France. After the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War , Alsace was annexed by Germany and became a part of the 1871 unified German Empire as a formal "Emperor's Land". After World War I the victorious Allies detached it from Germany and the province became part of the Third French Republic . Having been occupied and annexed by Germany during World War II , it

5863-560: The European Collectivity of Alsace ( collectivité européenne d'Alsace ). The European Collectivity of Alsace is divided into 2 departmental constituencies ( circonscriptions départementales ), 9 departmental arrondissements , 40 cantons , and 880 communes . Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace's population increased to 1,919,745 in 2021. It has regularly increased over time, except in wartime and shortly after

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6006-599: The Gutach . A pragmatic division, which is oriented not just on natural and cultural regions, uses the most important transverse valleys. Based on that, the Central Black Forest is bounded by the Kinzig in the north and the line from Dreisam to Gutach in the south, corresponding to the Bonndorf Graben zone and the course of the present day B 31 . In 1959, Rudolf Metz combined the earlier divisions and proposed

6149-440: The Jews of Alsace , there is a lot of information from the 12th century onwards. They were successful as moneylenders and had the favor of the Emperor. As in much of Europe, the prosperity of Alsace was brought to an end in the 14th century by a series of harsh winters, bad harvests, and the Black Death . These hardships were blamed on Jews, leading to the pogroms of 1336 and 1339. In 1349, Jews of Alsace were accused of poisoning

6292-437: The Kingdom of Württemberg and Grand Duchy of Baden ), which was negotiated in Paris on October 2, 1810, several areas of the Oberamt Hornberg , besides Schiltach also the town of Hornberg and the communities Gutach and Kirnbach, got to the Grand Duchy of Baden. Wolfach became the new Amststadt of Schiltach and later the county town. The surrounding farm became as Lehengericht, an own community. In 1952, Schiltach went to

6435-483: The Oos to Baden-Baden , the middle reaches of the Bühlot above Bühls and the upper reaches of the Rench around Oppenau . Their exit valleys from the mountain range are all oriented towards the northwest. The Central Black Forest (153) is mainly restricted to the catchment area of the River Kinzig above Offenburg as well as the Schutter and the low hills north of the Elz . The Southeastern Black Forest ( Südöstliche Schwarzwald , 154) consists mainly of

6578-399: The South German Scarplands composed of Bunter Sandstone, are covered by seemingly endless coniferous forest with their island clearings. The exposed basement in the west, predominantly made up of metamorphic rocks and granites , was, despite its rugged topography, easier to settle and appears much more open and inviting today with its varied meadow valleys. The most common way of dividing

6721-445: The Treaty of St. Omer  [ fr ] , Upper Alsace was sold by Archduke Sigismund of Austria to Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy. Although Charles was the nominal landlord, taxes were paid to Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor . The latter was able to use this tax and a dynastic marriage to his advantage to gain back full control of Upper Alsace (apart from the free towns, but including Belfort) in 1477 when it became part of

6864-431: The Treaty of Versailles . Policies forbidding the use of German and requiring French were promptly introduced. In order not to antagonize the Alsatians, the region was not subjected to some legal changes that had occurred in the rest of France between 1871 and 1919, such as the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State . Alsace–Lorraine was occupied by Germany in 1940 during the Second World War. Although it

7007-423: The Vosges mountains where it had been, leaving Alsace more economically oriented to neighbouring German-speaking lands. The German language remained in use in local administration, in schools, and at the (Lutheran) University of Strasbourg , which continued to draw students from other German-speaking lands. The 1685 Edict of Fontainebleau , by which the French king ordered the suppression of French Protestantism ,

7150-399: The Waffen SS ., although they were outnumbered by conscripts of the 1926–1927 classes. Thirty of said Waffen SS were involved in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre (29 conscripts, one volunteer). A third of the malgré-nous perished on the Eastern front. In July 1944, 1500 malgré-nous were released from Soviet captivity and sent to Algiers , where they joined the Free French Forces . Today,

7293-399: The région was self-ruling by legal status, as its constitution had stated it was bound to the sole authority of the Kaiser and not to the German state, France would allow no plebiscite, as granted by the League of Nations to some eastern German territories at this time, because the French regarded the Alsatians as Frenchmen liberated from German rule. Germany ceded the region to France under

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7436-406: The " Republic of Alsace–Lorraine ". French troops entered Alsace less than two weeks later to quash the worker strikes and remove the newly established Soviets and revolutionaries from power. With the arrival of the French soldiers, many Alsatians and local Prussian/German administrators and bureaucrats cheered the re-establishment of order. Although U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had insisted that

7579-467: The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick that ended the War of the Grand Alliance . But Alsace still contained islands of territory nominally under the sovereignty of German princes and an independent city-state at Mulhouse. These enclaves were established by law, prescription and international consensus. The year 1789 brought the French Revolution and with it the first division of Alsace into the départements of Haut- and Bas-Rhin . Alsatians played an active role in

7722-480: The 16th century German Peasants' War , originated in the Black Forest. Further peasant unrest, in the shape of the saltpetre uprisings, took place over the next two centuries in Hotzenwald . Remnants of military fortifications dating from the 17th and 18th centuries can be found in the Black Forest, especially on the mountain passes. Examples include the multiple baroque fieldworks of Margrave Louis William of Baden-Baden or individual defensive positions such as

7865-463: The 2018 census, 69.9% of the inhabitants of Alsace were natives of Alsace, 16.0% were born in the rest of Metropolitan France , 0.5% were born in Overseas France , and 13.7% were born in foreign countries. Nearly 44% of the immigrants come from Europe, in particular from Germany (natives of Germany residing in Alsace where housing is cheaper), Italy, Portugal and Serbia. Since 2008, the number of Turkish immigrants living in Alsace has declined, whereas

8008-483: The Baden-Württemberg State Department for Environmental Protection (today the Baden-Württemberg State Department for the Environment, Survey and Nature Conservation) published a reworked Natural Region Division of Baden-Württemberg. It is restricted to the level of the natural regional major units and has been used since for the state's administration of nature conservation: The Black Forest Foothills ( Schwarzwald-Randplatten , 150) geomorphologically form plateaux on

8151-411: The Belchen and Feldberg in the south, where annual rainfall reaches 1,800–2,100 mm. Moisture-laden Atlantic westerlies dump about as much rain in the Northern Black Forest, despite its lower elevation, than in the higher area of the Southern Black Forest. There, the Vosges act as a rain shield in the face of the prevailing winds. On the exposed east side of the Central Black Forest, it is much drier;

8294-414: The Black Forest are characterized by regular rainfall throughout the year. However, temperatures do not fall evenly with increasing elevation, nor does the rainfall increase uniformly. Rather, the precipitation rises quickly even in the lower regions and is disproportionately heavy on the rainier western side of the mountains. The wettest areas are the highlands around the Hornisgrinde in the north and around

8437-473: The Black Forest are separated by various features. Geomorphologically , the main division is between the gentle eastern slopes with their mostly rounded hills and broad plateaux (so-called Danubian relief , especially prominent in the north and east on the Bunter Sandstone) and the deeply incised, steeply falling terrain in the west that drops into the Upper Rhine Graben ; the so-called Valley Black Forest ( Talschwarzwald ) with its Rhenanian relief. It

8580-427: The Black Forest area is Alemannic . The forest is best known for its typical farmhouses with their sweeping half-hipped roofs , its Black Forest gâteaus , Black Forest ham , Black Forest gnomes , Kirschwasser and the cuckoo clock . Traditional costume or Tracht is still sometimes worn today, usually at festive occasions. The appearance of such costume varies from region to region, sometimes markedly. One of

8723-442: The Black Forest to paint his landscapes. The works of the Gutach artist colony around Wilhelm Hasemann were widely admired, their landscape and genre motifs capturing the character of the Black Forest. Like local author Heinrich Hansjakob, they were part of a Baden folk costume movement. In the field of handicrafts, wood carving produces folk art like the Longinus crosses along with sculptors like Matthias Faller . Wood carving

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8866-404: The Black Forest to the east and the Vosges to the west. In the centre lies the Kaiserstuhl volcano , which dates to the Miocene . In the times that followed, the Mesozoic platform on the uplands was largely eroded, apart from remains of Bunter Sandstone and Rotliegend Group , but it has survived within the graben itself. During the Pliocene a pronounced but uneven bulge especially affected

9009-461: The Black Forest was known as Abnoba mons , after the Celtic deity, Abnoba . In Roman times ( Late antiquity ), it was given the name Silva Marciana ("Marcynian Forest", from the Germanic word marka , "border"). The Black Forest probably represented the border area of the Marcomanni ("border people") who were settled east of the Roman limes . They, in turn, were part of the Germanic tribe of Suebi , who subsequently gave their name to

9152-401: The Black Forest; morphologically, geologically and climatically it is separate from the other parts of the Southern Black Forest and, in this classification, is also counted as part of the High Black Forest. At 1,493 m above  sea level (NHN) the Feldberg in the Southern Black Forest is the range's highest summit. Also in the same area are the Herzogenhorn (1,415 m) and

9295-429: The French Revolution. On 21 July 1789, after receiving news of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris, a crowd of people stormed the Strasbourg city hall, forcing the city administrators to flee and putting symbolically an end to the feudal system in Alsace. In 1792, Rouget de Lisle composed in Strasbourg the Revolutionary marching song " La Marseillaise " (as Marching song for the Army of the Rhine ), which later became

9438-419: The German annexation of 1871 (when many Alsatians who had opted to keep their French citizenship emigrated to France), by both natural growth and immigration . High population growth during the post-WW2 economic boom of the Trente Glorieuses ended after the 1973 oil crisis . Demographic growth picked up again in the 1990s and 2000s, but by the 2010s Alsace entered a new period of slow demographic growth. At

9581-421: The High Black Forest as well as the main ridge of the Northern Black Forest. Apart from that, it is only discernible from a large number of cirques mainly facing northeast. Especially in this direction snow accumulated on the shaded and leeward slopes of the summit plateau to form short cirque glaciers that made the sides of these funnel-shaped depressions. There are still tarns in some of these old cirques, partly

9724-444: The Kaiser in November 1918, which left Alsace–Lorraine without a nominal head of state. The sailors returned home and tried to found an independent republic. While Jacques Peirotes , at this time deputy at the Landrat Elsass–Lothringen and just elected mayor of Strasbourg , proclaimed the forfeiture of the German Empire and the advent of the French Republic , a self-proclaimed government of Alsace–Lorraine declared its independence as

9867-403: The Middle Eocene a rifting period affected the area and caused formation of the Upper Rhine Plain . During the last glacial period of the Würm glaciation , the Black Forest was covered by glaciers; several tarns (or lakes) such as the Mummelsee are remains of this period. The geological foundation of the Black Forest is formed by the crystalline bedrock of the Variscan basement. This

10010-414: The Northern Black Forest. The Handbook of the Natural Region Divisions of Germany published by the Federal Office of Regional Geography ( Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde ) since the early 1950s names the Black Forest as one of six tertiary-level major landscape regions within the secondary-level region of the South German Scarplands and, at the same time, one of nine new major landscape unit groups. It

10153-497: The Rhine was victorious, tens of thousands fled east before it. When they were later permitted to return (in some cases not until 1799), it was often to find that their lands and homes had been confiscated. These conditions led to emigration by hundreds of families to newly vacant lands in the Russian Empire in 1803–4 and again in 1808. A poignant retelling of this event based on what Goethe had personally witnessed can be found in his long poem Hermann and Dorothea . In response to

10296-594: The Roman Catholic Habsburgs who tried to eradicate heresy in Upper Alsace. As a result, Alsace was transformed into a mosaic of Catholic and Protestant territories. On the other hand, Mömpelgard (Montbéliard) to the southwest of Alsace, belonging to the Counts of Württemberg since 1397, remained a Protestant enclave in France until 1793. This situation prevailed until 1639, when most of Alsace

10439-720: The Roman Empire, the area went on to become a diffuse border region between the French and the German cultures and languages. Long a center of the German-speaking world, after the end of the Thirty Years' War , southern Alsace was annexed by France in 1648, with most of the remainder conquered later in the century. In contrast to other parts of France, Protestants were permitted to practise their faith in Alsace even after

10582-779: The Southern Black Forest Plateau, is oriented towards the Danube, but drained over the Wutach and the Alb into the Rhine. The southern crest of the Black Forest in the west is deeply incised by the Rhine into numerous ridges. Immediately right of the Wiese above Lörrach rises the relatively small Bunter Sandstone- Rotliegendes table of the Weintenau Uplands ( Weitenauer Bergland ) in the extreme southwest of

10725-401: The annual rainfall there is about 750 L/m . Alsace Alsace ( / æ l ˈ s æ s / , US also / æ l ˈ s eɪ s , ˈ æ l s æ s / ; French: [alzas] ; Low Alemannic German / Alsatian : Elsàss [ˈɛlsɑs] ; German : Elsass ( German spelling before 1996 : Elsaß ) [ˈɛlzas] ; Latin : Alsatia ) is a cultural region and

10868-742: The anthem of France. "La Marseillaise" was played for the first time in April of that year in front of the mayor of Strasbourg Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich . Some of the most famous generals of the French Revolution also came from Alsace, notably Kellermann , the victor of Valmy , Kléber , who led the armies of the French Republic in Vendée , and Westermann , who also fought in the Vendée. Mulhouse (a city in southern Alsace), which had been part of Switzerland since 1466, joined France in 1798. At

11011-417: The area from being commercially exploited. The Southern Black Forest Nature Park ( Naturpark Südschwarzwald ) was founded in 1999. It comprises 394,000 ha and is therefore Germany's largest nature park (as of 2020). It encloses the southern part of the Central Black Forest, the Southern Black Forest and adjacent areas. The Central/North Black Forest Nature Park ( Naturpark Schwarzwald Mitte/Nord )

11154-506: The area of Alsace was incorporated into the Roman province of Germania Superior . As a border province, the Romans built fortifications and military camps, many of which, including Argentoratum (Strasbourg), evolved into modern towns and cities. In 357 CE, Germanic tribes attempted to conquer Alsace but they were rebuffed by the Romans. With the decline of the Roman Empire , Alsace became

11297-463: The authority of the bishop was challenged by Count Rudolf of Habsburg , who received his rights from Frederick II's son Conrad IV . Strasbourg began to grow to become the most populous and commercially important town in the region. In 1262, after a long struggle with the ruling bishops, its citizens gained the status of free imperial city . A stop on the Paris - Vienna - Orient trade route, as well as

11440-460: The best-known Black Forest costumes is that of the villages of Kirnbach , Reichenbach and Gutach im Kinzigtal with the characteristic Bollenhut headdress. Unmarried women wear the hats with red bobbles or Bollen ; married women wear black. Engaged women sometimes wear a bridal crown ( Schäppel ) before and on the day of their wedding, whose largest examples from the town of St. Georgen weigh up to 5 kilograms. Its rural beauty as well as

11583-599: The catchment areas of the upper reaches of the Danube headstreams, the Brigach and Breg as well as the left side valleys of the Wutach north of Neustadt – and thus draining from the northeast of the Southern Black Forest. To the south and west it is adjoined by the High Black Forest ( Hochschwarzwald , 155) with the highest summits in the whole range around the Feldberg and the Belchen . Its eastern part,

11726-429: The citizens walk through the streets with lanterns from the marketplace to the town church and sing hymms of Pietistic origins. During the procession, the street lights of the city are turned off and replaced with pitch torches; the only electric lights to be seen are those of Christmas trees shone through the windows of private households. The local pastor gives a speech from the window of the town rectory, accompanied by

11869-478: The county town Rottweil complete the traffic. There is also a handicapped accessible bus which drives almost to all town districts at regular intervals. The whole medieval inner city is under monument protection . The marketplace includes the town hall , which was designed by architect Heinrich Schickhardt and built during the Kingdom of Württemberg . There are many half-timber houses scattered throughout

12012-521: The crystalline basement of the Northern Black Forest and the adjacent parts of the Central Black Forest, the bunter sandstone platforms rise in prominent steps. The most resistant surface strata on the stepped terrain of the grinden uplands and the heights around the upper reaches of the Enz , which have been heavily eroded by the tributaries of the Murg, is the silicified main conglomerate (Middle Bunter). To

12155-675: The demesne of the Habsburg family, who were also rulers of the empire. The town of Mulhouse joined the Swiss Confederation in 1515, where it was to remain until 1798. By the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Strasbourg was a prosperous community, and its inhabitants accepted Protestantism in 1523. Martin Bucer was a prominent Protestant reformer in the region. His efforts were countered by

12298-597: The east and north are the nappes of the Upper Bunter (platten sandstones and red clays). South of the Kinzig the Bunter Sandstone zone narrows to a fringe in the east of the mountain range. It is considered proven that the Black Forest was heavily glaciated during the peak periods of at least the Riss and Würm glaciations (up to about 10,000 years ago). This glacial geomorphology characterizes almost all of

12441-400: The ethnolinguistic composition of Alsace. For more than 300 years, from the Thirty Years' War to World War II , the political status of Alsace was heavily contested between France and various German states in wars and diplomatic conferences. The economic and cultural capital of Alsace, as well as its largest city, is Strasbourg , which sits on the present German international border. The city

12584-486: The forest was caused by a series of windstorms . On 26 December 1999, Cyclone Lothar raged across the Black Forest and caused even greater damage, especially to the spruce monocultures. As had happened following the 1990 storms, large quantities of fallen logs were kept in provisional wet-storage areas for years. The effects of the storm are demonstrated by the Lothar Path , a forest educational and adventure trail at

12727-557: The forest" for their crops and animals." By 100 BCE Germanic peoples, including eventually the Suebi and other tribes under Ariovistus , had begun to intrude into areas along the upper Rhine and Danube long settled by Celtic Gauls. Alsace itself had come to be occupied by the Triboci , a Germanic tribe allied with Ariovistus. In response to the threat posted by Ariovistus , the Aedui ,

12870-436: The gap between the motorways A 81 and A 5 . Traffic through Schiltach has been relieved by a bypass. The Bundesstraße 294 runs through the 1,830-metre-long Kirchberg Tunnel and the 830-metre-long Schloßberg Tunnel through which the B 462 also runs. The town has two railway stations, Schiltach and Schiltach Mitte . Both have hourly service to Offenburg and Freudenstadt . The Schiltach-Schramberg railway opened in 1892

13013-519: The historic state of Swabia . With the exception of Roman settlements on the perimeter (e.g. the baths in Badenweiler, and mines near Badenweiler and Sulzburg ) and the construction of the Roman road of Kinzigtalstraße , the colonization of the Black Forest was not carried out by the Romans but by the Alemanni . They settled and first colonized the valleys, crossing the old settlement boundary,

13156-475: The impoverished dukes of Urslingen sold the castle and town to the Dukes of Württemberg . Württemberg retained Schiltach until 1810 except the years from 1519 to 1534, when Schiltach was occupied by the free imperial city of Rottweil and later (like the whole Duchy of Württemberg ) by Further Austria . In the " Gränzvertrag zwischen dem Königreich Württemberg und dem Großherzogthum Baden " (border treaty between

13299-627: The inhabitants were Christianized. Alsace remained under Frankish control until the Frankish realm , following the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, was formally dissolved in 843 at the Treaty of Verdun ; the grandsons of Charlemagne divided the realm into three parts. Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia , which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I . Lothar died early in 855 and his realm

13442-482: The much higher Southern Black Forest with its distinctive highland economy and ice age glacial relief. The term High Black Forest referred to the highest areas of the South and southern Central Black Forest. The boundaries drawn were, however, quite varied. In 1931, Robert Gradmann called the Central Black Forest the catchment area of the Kinzig and in the west the section up to the lower Elz and Kinzig tributary of

13585-408: The national game of Baden and Hohenzollern , and these are the only regions of Germany where tarot cards are still used for playing games. The game has grown organically, and there are many regional variations, but in recent years the establishment of a Cego Black Forest Championship has led to official tournament rules being defined. In addition, regular courses and local tournaments are held and it

13728-649: The nature centre in Ruhestein on a highland timber forest of about 10 hectares that was destroyed by a hurricane. Several areas of storm damage, both large and small, were left to nature and have developed today into a natural mixed forest again. The Black Forest stretches from the High Rhine in the south to the Kraichgau in the north. In the west it is bounded by the Upper Rhine Plain (which, from

13871-621: The new Imperial territory of Alsace–Lorraine was under the sole authority of the Kaiser , administered directly by the imperial government in Berlin. Between 100,000 and 130,000 Alsatians (of a total population of about a million and a half) chose to remain French citizens and leave Reichsland Elsaß–Lothringen , many of them resettling in French Algeria as Pieds-Noirs . Only in 1911 was Alsace–Lorraine granted some measure of autonomy, which

14014-546: The north and northeast periphery of the mountain range that descend to the Kraichgau in the north and the Heckengäu landscapes in the east. They are incised by valleys, especially those of the Nagold river system, into individual interfluves ; a narrow northwestern finger extends to beyond the Enz near Neuenbürg and also borders the middle reaches of the Alb to the west as far as a point immediately above Ettlingen . To

14157-568: The north and the east, Switzerland and Franche-Comté on the south and Lorraine on the west. Several valleys are also found in the région . Its highest point is the Grand Ballon in Haut-Rhin , which reaches a height of 1,424 m (4,672 ft). It contains many forests, primarily in the Vosges and in Bas-Rhin (Haguenau Forest). The ried lies along the Rhine . Alsace is

14300-427: The number of Maghreban immigrants has risen less than the number of European immigrants. The fastest growing groups of immigrants are those from Asia and from sub-Saharan Africa. Alsace is generally seen as the most religious of all the French regions. Most of the Alsatian population is Roman Catholic , but, largely because of the region's German heritage, a significant Protestant community also exists: today,

14443-484: The only official language of the Republic. Alsace has an area of 8,283 km , making it the smallest région of metropolitan France . It is almost four times longer than it is wide, corresponding to a plain between the Rhine in the east and the Vosges mountains in the west. It includes the départements of Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin (known previously as Sundgau and Nordgau ). It borders Germany on

14586-678: The other lakes of the Schluchseewerk , the Schwarzenbach Reservoir , the Kleine Kinzig Reservoir or the Nagold Reservoir are used for electricity generation , flood protection or drinking water supply. The Black Forest consists of a cover of sandstone on top of a core of gneiss and granite . Formerly it shared tectonic evolution with the nearby Vosges Mountains . Later during

14729-538: The part of the plain of the Rhine located at the west of the Rhine , on its left bank. It is a rift or graben , from the Oligocene epoch , associated with its horsts : the Vosges and the Black Forest . The Jura Mountains , formed by slip (induced by the alpine uplift) of the Mesozoic cover on the Triassic formations, goes through the area of Belfort . Alsace has an oceanic climate at low altitude and

14872-703: The performance of a choir and trombone ensemble. Afterwards, the citizens gather at the town hall, where the mayor also gives a speech. Schiltach holds several markets over the year, e.g. a farmer's market on the third Sunday in October or an artisans' market on the last Sunday in April. Besides the Schiltacher Advent and the Silvesterzug every year Fastnacht is celebrated at the time of Fasching. Black Forest The Black Forest ( German : Schwarzwald [ˈʃvaʁt͡svalt] )

15015-451: The permission of the manor, glassblowers operated simple glass production facilities as "wandering huts" ( Wanderhütten ), the locations of which were relocated when the local resources were available. They needed huge amounts of firewood and wood for potash . In the second half of the 18th century, the huts had to close due to a shortage of wood and sales difficulties. Only after 1800, when the demand for luxury glass increased enormously, when

15158-503: The previously independent municipalities of the same name. The district Schiltach includes the town of Schiltach, the villages of Grumpenbächle and Vorderheubach and the settlements of Auf der Staig, Blattenhäuserwiese, Grumpen and Kuhbacherhof (Vor Kuhbach). The ruined castle of Willenburg is also located within the borough of Schiltach. The village of Lehengericht has its own council, a mayor as its chairman and its own village administration. The district of Lehengericht also consists of

15301-525: The region's cultural heritage. After the defeat of Further Austria in 1805, much of its territory was allocated to the Grand Duchy of Baden . During the ensuing Napoleonic Wars , soldiers from Baden deployed with Napoleon's troops to Spain where, among other things, they learned a new card game, Ombre . They took this back to Baden and adapted it to be played with Tarot cards which were then in common use in southern Germany. Cego soon developed into

15444-710: The region, among them two restaurants with three stars (Restaurants Bareiss and Schwarzwaldstube in Baiersbronn ) as well as the only restaurant in Germany that has been awarded a Michelin star every year since 1966. At Schwarzwald Hotel Adler in Häusern , three generations of chefs from the same family have defended the award from the first year the Michelin Guide selected restaurants in Germany until today. The German holiday of Fastnacht , or Fasnet , as it

15587-535: The regions of the Black Forest is, however, from north to south. Until the 1930s, the Black Forest was divided into the Northern and Southern Black Forest, the boundary being the line of the Kinzig valley . Later the Black Forest was divided into the heavily forested Northern Black Forest , the lower, central section, predominantly used for agriculture in the valleys, was the Central Black Forest and

15730-715: The rest of France, the Jews in Alsace had not been expelled during the Middle Ages. By 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. They were highly segregated and subject to long-standing antisemitic regulations. They maintained their own customs, Yiddish language, and historic traditions within the tightly knit ghettos; they adhered to Jewish law. Jews were barred from most cities and instead lived in villages. They concentrated in trade, services, and banking. They financed about

15873-413: The rivers Rhône and Meuse , and when those borders were reached, aiming for the Rhine. In 1299 the French proposed a marriage alliance between Blanche (sister of Philip IV of France ) and Rudolf (son of Albert I of Germany ), with Alsace to be the dowry; however, the deal never came off. In 1307, the town of Belfort was first chartered by the Counts of Montbéliard . During the next century, France

16016-815: The rock massif of Battert near Baden-Baden). Thick rotliegendes rock, covered by bunter, also occurs in the north of the Dinkelberg block (several hundred metres thick in the Basel geothermal borehole). Even further to the southeast, under the Jura, lies the North Swiss Permocarboniferous Basin. Since the downfaulting of the Upper Rhine Graben during the Eocene epoch, the two shoulders on either side have been uplifted:

16159-490: The same reason. Until the Kinzig Valley Railway was built there was a timber rafting, which had to close because of the railway. The wood from Schiltach and surroundings was partly shipped to the Netherlands on the Rhine , where it was used for ship building. Today these branches of industries have vanished except for the famous tannery Trautwein and some small saw mills. The earlier privileged timber rafting

16302-722: The same time, some Alsatians were in opposition to the Jacobins and sympathetic to the restoration of the monarchy pursued by the invading forces of Austria and Prussia who sought to crush the nascent revolutionary republic . Many of the residents of the Sundgau made "pilgrimages" to places like Mariastein Abbey , near Basel , in Switzerland, for baptisms and weddings. When the French Revolutionary Army of

16445-485: The sense of tradition of its inhabitants attracted many artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries, whose works made the Black Forest famous the world over. Notable were Hans Thoma from Bernau and his fellow student, Rudolf Epp, who was sponsored by the Grand Duke of Baden, Frederick I . Both artists painted motifs from the Black Forest throughout their lives. Artist J. Metzler from Düsseldorf travelled through

16588-530: The settlements and hamlets of Herdweg, Auf dem Hof, Schmelzle, Vor dem unteren Erdlinsbach, Vor Reichenbächle, Welschdorf, Höllgraben, Im Eulersbach, Im hinteren Erdlinsbach, Kienbronn, Rohrbach, Rubstock, Deisenbauernhof and several isolated farms. Even in Roman times the road through the Kinzig valley was already part of a link through the Black Forest from the Strasbourg area towards Rottweil . Schiltach

16731-478: The so-called "red sandstone border", for example, from the region of Baar . Soon afterwards, increasingly higher areas and adjacent forests were colonized, so that by the end of the 10th century, the first settlements could be found in the red (bunter) sandstone region. These include, for example, Rötenbach , which was first mentioned in 819. Some of the uprisings (including the Bundschuh movement ) that preceded

16874-614: The southeast (around Todtmoos) is a range of exotic inclusions: gabbro from Ehrsberg , serpentinites and pyroxenites near Todtmoos, norite near Horbach ), which are possibly the remnants of an accretionary wedge from a continental collision. Also noteworthy are the basins in the Rotliegend , for example the Schramberg or the Baden-Baden Basin with thick quartz-porphyry and tuff plates (exposed, for example, on

17017-557: The southern Black Forest, including the Feldberg. As a result, the upper surface of the basement in the northern part of the forest around the Hornisgrinde is considerably lower. In the central Black Forest, the tectonic syncline of the Kinzig and Murg emerged. Geomorphologist Walther Penck regarded the Black Forest as an uplifted geologic dome and modeled his theory of piedmonttreppen (piedmont benchlands) on it. Above

17160-614: The southwest it is adjoined by the Black Forest Grinden and Enz Hills ( Grindenschwarzwald und Enzhöhen , 151), along the upper reaches of the Enz and Murg, forming the heart of the Northern Black Forest. The west of the Northern Black Forest is formed by the Northern Black Forest Valleys ( Nördliche Talschwarzwald , 152) with the middle reaches of the Murg around Gernsbach , the middle course of

17303-415: The state Baden-Württemberg . The county of Wolfach was dissolved in 1973 and Schiltach was allocated to Rottweil . The community of Lehengericht was reincorporated into the town of Schiltach in 1974. In 1979 the exclave of Sulzbächle/Fischbach went to the town of Wolfach , in return the area of Vor Heubach went to Schiltach. During the Protestant Reformation , Schiltach was a part of Württemberg so it

17446-427: The sum of 1.2 million Thalers . When hostilities were concluded in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia , most of Alsace was recognized as part of France, although some towns remained independent. The treaty stipulations regarding Alsace were complex. Although the French king gained sovereignty, existing rights and customs of the inhabitants were largely preserved. France continued to maintain its customs border along

17589-416: The surrounding towns, e.g. in Schramberg , Wolfach , Alpirsbach and Hausach . There also is an evangelic and catholic kindergarten, a Waldorfkindergarten and a private day care centre . The Folk High School Schiltach/Schenkenzell is an outpost of the Folk High School Schramberg. Schiltach is connected with the B 294 and B 462 federal highways , which close the gap between Rhine and Neckar, thus also

17732-405: The territory is in certain areas subject to some laws that are significantly different from the rest of France, which is known as the local law . In more recent years, the Alsatian language is again being promoted by local, national and European authorities as an element of the region's identity. Alsatian is taught in schools (but is not mandatory) as one of the regional languages of France. German

17875-429: The territory of the Germanic Alemanni . The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine ( Alsatian , Alemannian, Swabian, Swiss). Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac , and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia . Under Clovis' Merovingian successors

18018-459: The town that date back to anywhere between the 16th and 19th centuries. Schiltach is part of the German Half-Timbered House Road tourist route. A long-distance walking trail known as the Mittelweg spans the Black Forest from north to south (between Pforzheim and Waldshut ), and passes through Schiltach as one stage of the trail. The Silvesterzug is a procession that takes place in Schiltach on New Year's Eve . As part of an old tradition,

18161-401: The two main Christian denominations). We Germans who know Germany and France know better what is good for the Alsatians than the unfortunates themselves. In the perversion of their French life they have no exact idea of what concerns Germany. The Franco-Prussian War , which started in July 1870, saw France defeated in May 1871 by the Kingdom of Prussia and other German states. The end of

18304-408: The war led to the unification of Germany . Otto von Bismarck annexed Alsace and northern Lorraine to the new German Empire in 1871. France ceded more than 90% of Alsace and one-fourth of Lorraine, as stipulated in the treaty of Frankfurt ; Belfort , the largest Alsatian town south of Mulhouse, remained French. Unlike other member states of the German federation, which had governments of their own,

18447-638: The wells with plague , leading to the massacre of thousands of Jews during the Strasbourg pogrom . Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town. An additional natural disaster was the Rhine rift earthquake of 1356, one of Europe's worst which made ruins of Basel . Prosperity returned to Alsace under Habsburg administration during the Renaissance . Holy Roman Empire central power had begun to decline following years of imperial adventures in Italian lands, often ceding hegemony in Western Europe to France, which had long since centralized power. France began an aggressive policy of expanding eastward, first to

18590-401: The western rim of the range. Rivers in the Black Forest include the Danube (which originates in the Black Forest as the confluence of the Brigach and Breg rivers), the Enz , the Kinzig , the Murg , the Nagold , the Neckar , the Rench , and the Wiese . The Black Forest occupies part of the continental divide between the Atlantic Ocean drainage basin (drained by the Rhine ) and

18733-467: Was Protestant, like the territorial lords. It did not change until the 19th century when, because of industrialisation, more and more Catholics moved in. Today in Schiltach there are Protestant and Catholic communities as well as a New Apostolic community and various minor religious communities. Today's town emblem was adopted of the Dukes of Urslingen. The emblem became free to use as the last Urlinger, Duke Reinhold IV. of Urslingen died in 1442. Probably it

18876-411: Was closed in 1959 for passenger trains and 1989 for cargo trains, too. Since that time, the tracks have been removed. The route is now a cycle route from Schiltach to Schramberg. Furthermore, there is a very recommendable cycle route through the whole Kinzig valley from Haslach to Alpirsbach . Various bus connections in direction of Offenburg and Freudenstadt as well as a strong connection via bus to

19019-408: Was conquered by France to keep it out of the hands of the Spanish Habsburgs , who by secret treaty in 1617 had gained a clear road to their valuable and rebellious possessions in the Spanish Netherlands , the Spanish Road . Beset by enemies and seeking to gain a free hand in Hungary , the Habsburgs sold their Sundgau territory (mostly in Upper Alsace) to France in 1646, which had occupied it, for

19162-510: Was conveyed by the Count Ludwig of Württemberg, which was a patron of the town. The emblem shows three red shields in a white field. Almost the same emblem can be found in Alsace at the house of the Rappolstein, which castle stands above Ribeauvillé . A member of the Ursling family married into Rappolstein family. The local council has besides the mayor 14 members, including three women. The local election took place on 7 June 2009 and had following results: The town district Lehengericht has

19305-423: Was divided into three parts. The part known as Lotharingia , or Lorraine, was given to Lothar's son. The rest was shared between Lothar's brothers Charles the Bald (ruler of the West Frankish realm) and Louis the German (ruler of the East Frankish realm). The Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace

19448-405: Was founded in 2000. It covers 375,000 ha and is thus the second-largest in Germany (as of 2020). It begins in the southern part of the Central Black Forest, bordering on the Southern Black Forest Nature Park and covers the rest of the Black Forest to the north. The Black Forest National Park , established in 2014, is the first national park in Baden-Württemberg. It lies completely within

19591-422: Was founded in the 11th century as a parish for the surrounding farms, which are older than Schiltach. Around the town church, which today stands in the town district Vorstädtle and is evangelic, rose a settlement named after the River Schiltach. The Dukes of Teck probably founded the town of Schiltach in the middle of the 13th century to secure their territories. They built a surrounding town wall with gates and

19734-407: Was manifested also in a flag and an anthem ( Elsässisches Fahnenlied ). In 1913, however, the Saverne Affair ( French : Incident de Saverne) showed the limits of this new tolerance of the Alsatian identity. During the First World War, to avoid ground fights between brothers, many Alsatians served as sailors in the Kaiserliche Marine and took part in the Naval mutinies that led to the abdication of

19877-412: Was never formally annexed, Alsace–Lorraine was incorporated into the Greater German Reich , which had been restructured into Reichsgaue . Alsace was merged with Baden , and Lorraine with the Saarland , to become part of a planned Westmark . During the war, 130,000 young men from Alsace and Lorraine were conscripted into the German armies against their will ( malgré-nous ). There were some volunteers for

20020-506: Was not applied in Alsace. France did endeavour to promote Catholicism. Strasbourg Cathedral , for example, which had been Lutheran from 1524 to 1681, was returned to the Catholic Church. However, compared to the rest of France, Alsace enjoyed a climate of religious tolerance . France consolidated its hold with the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen , which brought most remaining towns under its control. France seized Strasbourg in 1681 in an unprovoked action. These territorial changes were recognised in

20163-445: Was returned to France by the Allies at the end of World War II . The presence of hominids in Alsace can be traced back 600,000 years. By 4000 BCE farming, in the form of Linear Pottery culture , arrived in the region from the Danube and the Hungarian plain. The culture was characterized by "timber longhouse settlements and incised pottery ... favoring floodplain edge situations for their permanent villages ... [and] small clearings in

20306-417: Was to be militarily shattered by the Hundred Years' War , which prevented for a time any further tendencies in this direction. After the conclusion of the war, France was again free to pursue its desire to reach the Rhine and in 1444 a French army appeared in Lorraine and Alsace. It took up winter quarters, demanded the submission of Metz and Strasbourg and launched an attack on Basel . In 1469, following

20449-431: Was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the stem duchy of Swabia . At about this time, the surrounding areas experienced recurring fragmentation and reincorporations among a number of feudal secular and ecclesiastical lordships, a common process in the Holy Roman Empire . Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors . Frederick I set up Alsace as

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