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52-662: This territory would include all of the Alemannic German area, but the modern concept of Swabia is more restricted, due to the collapse of the duchy of Swabia in the thirteenth century. Swabia as understood in modern ethnography roughly coincides with the Swabian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire as it stood during the early modern period , now divided between the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg . Swabians ( Schwaben , singular Schwabe ) are

104-671: A "Prince of Swabia" and integrated the Shrievalty of Swabia in the realm of Further Austria . The Swabian League of Cities was first formed on 20 November 1331, when twenty-two imperial cities of the former Duchy of Swabia banded together in support of the Emperor Louis IV , who in return promised not to mortgage any of them to any imperial vassal . Among the founding cities were Augsburg , Heilbronn , Reutlingen , and Ulm . The counts of Württemberg , Oettingen , and Hohenberg were induced to join in 1340. The defeat of

156-623: A precise phonological notation, and proximity to the familiar Standard German orthography (in particular for loanwords). Johann Peter Hebel published his Allemannische Gedichte in 1803. Swiss authors often consciously employ Helvetisms within Standard German, notably Jeremias Gotthelf in his novels set in the Emmental , Friedrich Glauser in his crime stories , and more recently Tim Krohn in his Quatemberkinder . The poet Ida Ospelt-Amann wrote and published exclusively in

208-538: A relative of Duke Hermann I, until 997. Hermann II , possibly a son of Conrad, succeeded, and, dying in 1003, was followed by his son Hermann III . During these years the Swabians were loyal to the kings of the Saxon house, probably owing to the influence of the bishops. Hermann III had no children, and the succession passed to Ernest II , son of his eldest sister Gisela and Ernest I , Margrave of Austria. Ernest I held

260-551: Is a group of High German dialects . The name derives from the ancient Germanic tribal confederation known as the Alemanni ("all men"). Alemannic dialects are spoken by approximately ten million people in several countries: Alemannic comprises a dialect continuum from the Highest Alemannic spoken in the mountainous south to Swabian in the relatively flat north and more of the characteristics of Standard German

312-536: Is less prominent, in spite of the Codex Manesse compiled by Johannes Hadlaub of Zürich . The rise of the Old Swiss Confederacy from the fourteenth century led to the creation of Alemannic Swiss chronicles . Huldrych Zwingli 's Bible translation of the 1520s (the 1531 Froschauer Bible ) was in an Alemannic variant of Early Modern High German . From the seventeenth century, written Alemannic

364-1082: Is traditionally spoken in the upper Neckar basin (upstream of Heilbronn ), along the upper Danube between Tuttlingen and Donauwörth , in Upper Swabia , and on the left bank of the Lech , in an area centered on the Swabian Alps roughly stretching from Stuttgart to Augsburg . Many Swabian surnames end with the suffixes -le , -(l)er , -el , -ehl , and -lin , typically from the Middle High German diminutive suffix -elîn (Modern Standard German -lein ). Examples would be: Schäuble , Egeler , Rommel , and Gmelin . The popular German surname Schwab as well as Svevo in Italy are derived from this area, both meaning literally "Swabian". Alemannic German Alemannic , or rarely Alemannish ( Alemannisch , [alɛˈman(ː)ɪʃ] ),

416-688: Is used in writing and in Germany orally in formal contexts throughout the Alemannic-speaking regions (with the exception of Alsace , where French or the Alsatian dialect of Alemannic is used instead). Alemannic in the broad sense comprises the following variants: The Alemannic dialects of Switzerland are often called Swiss German or Schwiizerdütsch . The oldest known texts in Alemannic are brief Elder Futhark inscriptions dating to

468-1002: The Baltic Sea the Mare Suevicum ("Suebian Sea") after the Suiones , and ends his description of the Suiones and Sitones with "Here Suebia ends" ( Hic Suebiae finis ). By the mid-3rd century, groups of the Suebi form the core element of the new tribal alliance known as the Alamanni , who expanded towards the Roman Limes east of the Rhine and south of the Main. The Alamanni were sometimes referred to as Suebi even at this time, and their new area of settlement came to be known as Suebia. In

520-674: The British Royal Family that has ruled since 1714. Smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however; for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous free cities , ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser counts and knights . A new Swabian League ( Schwäbischer Bund )

572-769: The Carolingian Empire the counts became almost independent, and a struggle for supremacy took place between them and the Bishops of Constance. From about 900, two chief dynasties emerged: the Hunfriding counts in Raetia Curiensis ( Churrätien ) and the Ahalolfings ruling the Baar estates around the upper Neckar and Danube rivers. Their members were sometimes called margraves and sometimes, as in

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624-585: The Franconian War . The Reformation caused the league to be disbanded in 1534. The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the early modern period. It corresponds to the Swabian Circle established in 1512. The Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War , while the Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since

676-764: The Franconian stem duchy During the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire the southeastern territories of the Swabian Circle fell to the Kingdom of Bavaria ( Bavarian Swabia ), while the rest were mostly divided between the Kingdom of Württemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden , with only the Hohenzollern principalities ( Sigmaringen and Hechingen ) remaining separate. Since shortly after

728-543: The Great Interregnum . In the following years, the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units. Rudolf I of Habsburg , elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. Instead, he confiscated the former estates of the Hohenstaufen as imperial property of the Holy Roman Empire, and declared most of

780-651: The High Middle Ages , until about the 11th century, when the form Swabia began to prevail. The Duchy of Swabia was proclaimed by the Ahalolfing count palatine Erchanger in 915. He had allied himself with his Hunfriding rival Burchard II and defeated King Conrad I of Germany in a battle at Wahlwies . The most notable family to hold Swabia were the Hohenstaufen , who held it, with a brief interruption, from 1079 until 1268. For much of this period,

832-699: The Holy Roman Empire into Imperial Circles . The Swabian Circle was largely coterminous with the stem duchy; however, it excluded Alsace (which was part of the Upper Rhenish Circle ), those areas controlled by the Old Swiss Confederacy and Three Leagues (which were unencircled) and the Habsburgs ' Further Austrian possessions (originally unencircled; part of the Austrian Circle from 1512). It also included some territory, mostly held by Baden and Württemberg , which had been part of

884-682: The Kingdom of Württemberg , the Grand Duchy of Baden , and the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as sovereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of Bavaria , forming what is now the Swabian administrative region of Bavaria. The Kings of Bavaria assumed the title Duke in Swabia , with the in indicating that only parts of the Swabian territory was ruled by them, unlike their other title Duke of Franconia which made clear that

936-697: The Upper Rhine , Lake Constance , up the High Rhine , and down the Danube to the Lech tributary. The Lech, separating Alamannia from the Duchy of Bavaria in the east, did not form, either ethnologically or geographically, a very strong boundary, and there was a good deal of intercommunion between the two peoples. By the 843 Treaty of Verdun , Alamannia fell to East Francia . During the later and weaker years of

988-702: The Vosges Mountains in the west to the broad Lech river in the east: Like all of Southern Germany , what is now Swabia was part of the La Tène culture , and as such has a Celtic (Gaulish) substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the Raetia province. The name Suebia is derived from that of the Suebi . It is used already by Tacitus in the 1st century, albeit in a different geographical sense: He calls

1040-567: The migration period , the Suebi (Alamanni) crossed the Rhine in 406 and some of them established the Kingdom of the Suebi in Galicia. Another group settled in parts of Pannonia , after the Huns were defeated in 454 in the Battle of Nedao . The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the 4th to 5th centuries but fell under Frankish domination in the 6th ( Battle of Tolbiac 496). By

1092-622: The palace at Zürich and marched into the Thurgau from there. He was defeated by Burchard near Winterthur and was forced to abandon Zürich , retreating beyond the Reuss . Duke Burchard's rule subsequently was acknowledged as such by the newly elected king Henry the Fowler . Burchard's position was virtually independent, and when he died in 926 he was succeeded by Hermann , a Franconian noble, who married his widow. When Hermann died in 948 Otto

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1144-402: The 8th century notable abbeys at Reichenau Island and Saint Gall . The Alamanni in the 7th century retained much of their former independence, Frankish rule being mostly nominal, but in 709, Pepin of Herstal conquered the territory and in 730 his son Charles Martel again reduced them to dependence. The so-called Blood Court at Cannstatt in 746 marked the end of the old stem duchy, and

1196-697: The Alamanni now came fully under Frankish administration. Charles' son Pepin the Short abolished the tribal duke and ruled Alamannia by counts palatine , or Kammerboten . King Charlemagne married the Alamannian princess Hildegard in 771. At this time the duchy, which was divided into numerous Gaue (counties), took the shape which it retained throughout the Middle Ages . It stretched south of Frankish Austrasia (the later Duchy of Franconia ) along

1248-646: The Duke of Württemberg was soon restored. The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes such as the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach , as well as most of the Free Cities, became Protestant , the ecclesiastical territories (including the bishoprics of Augsburg , Konstanz and the numerous Imperial abbeys ) remained Catholic , as did the territories belonging to

1300-479: The Great gave the duchy to his own son Liudolf , who had married Hermann's daughter Ida; but he reduced the ducal privileges and appointed counts palatine to watch the royal interests. Liudolf revolted, and was deposed, and other dukes followed in quick succession. Burchard III , son of Burchard II, ruled from 954 to 973, when he was succeeded by Liudolf's son, Otto , afterwards duke of Bavaria, to 982, and Conrad I ,

1352-685: The Habsburgs ( Further Austria ), the Sigmaringen branch of the House of Hohenzollern , and the Margrave of Baden-Baden . In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiastical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and almost all of the free cities, were mediatized , leaving only

1404-509: The Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors . After a centuries-long struggle with the House of Zähringen , the Margraviate of Baden detached itself from the Swabian duchy in the 12th century. The remaining duchy persisted until 1268, ending with the execution of the last Hohenstaufen duke Conradin . Count Rudolf of Habsburg , elected King of the Romans in 1273, attempted to revive the Swabian ducal title, bestowing it on his youngest son,

1456-573: The ancient Suebi , dwelling in the angle formed by the Rhine and the Danube , the stem duchy comprised a much larger territory, stretching from the Alsatian Vosges mountain range in the west to the right bank of the river Lech in the east and up to Chiavenna ( Kleven ) and Gotthard Pass in the south. The name of the larger stem duchy was often used interchangeably with Alamannia during

1508-456: The case of Rudolf of Rhaetia , dukes. Finally, the Hunfriding count Burchard I was called dux of Alamannia. However, he was killed in 911, for which two Swabian counts palatine , Bertold and Erchanger, were accused of treason. Erchanger proclaimed himself duke in 915, but was put to death by order of the German king Conrad I two years later. Upon Erchanger's execution, Burchard II , son of

1560-471: The cities formerly belonging to Hohenstaufen to be Free Imperial Cities , and the more powerful abbeys within the former duchy to be Imperial Abbeys. The rural regions were merged into the Imperial Shrievalty ( Reichslandvogtei ) of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to Sigismund, Archduke of Austria in 1473/1486. He took the title of

1612-494: The city league by Count Eberhard II of Württemberg in 1372 led to the formation of a new league of fourteen Swabian cities on 4 July 1376. The emperor refused to recognise the newly revitalised Swabian League, seeing it as a rebellion, and this led to an " imperial war " against the league. The renewed league defeated an imperial army at the Battle of Reutlingen on 14 May 1377. Burgrave Frederick V of Hohenzollern finally defeated

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1664-462: The dialect of Vaduz . Duchy of Swabia The Duchy of Swabia ( Middle High German : Herzogtuom Swaben ; Latin : Ducatus Allemaniæ ) was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German Kingdom . It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity . While the historic region of Swabia takes its name from

1716-517: The duchy for his son until his own death in 1015, when Gisela undertook the government, and was married a second time, to Conrad, duke of Franconia, who was afterwards the German king Conrad II . When Ernest came of age he quarrelled with his step-father, who deposed him and, in 1030, gave the duchy to Gisela's second son, Hermann IV and then, on the death of Hermann IV in 1038, to Henry , his own son by Gisela. In 1045 Henry, who had become German king as Henry III, granted Alamannia to Otto , grandson of

1768-561: The duke's son-in-law, Bertold II, duke of Zahringen, to whom he ceded the Breisgau in 1096. Frederick II succeeded his father in 1105, and was followed by Frederick III , afterwards the emperor Frederick I. The earlier Hohenstaufen increased the imperial domain in Swabia, where they received steady support, although ecclesiastical influences were very strong. In 1152 Frederick I gave the duchy to his kinsman, Frederick , count of Rothenburg and duke of Franconia , after whose death in 1167 it

1820-489: The emperor Otto II and count palatine of the Rhine , and, in 1048, to Otto III , count of Schweinfurt  [ de ] . Rudolph , count of Rheinfelden  [ de ] , was the next duke, and in 1077 he was chosen German king in opposition to the emperor Henry IV, but found little support in Swabia, which was given by Henry to his faithful adherent, Frederick I , count of Hohenstaufen. Frederick had to fight for his position with Bertold, son of Duke Rudolph, and

1872-647: The farther north one goes. In Germany and other European countries, the abstand and ausbau language framework is used to decide what is a language and what is a dialect. According to this framework, Alemannic varieties of German form a dialect continuum and are clearly dialects. Some linguists and organisations that differentiate between languages and dialects primarily on the grounds of mutual intelligibility , such as SIL International and UNESCO , describe Alemannic as one of several independent languages. While ISO 639-2 does not distinguish between dialects, ISO 639-3 distinguishes four of them: Standard German

1924-614: The former state of Württemberg (with the Prussian Hohenzollern Province ), or the modern districts of Tübingen (excluding the former Baden regions of the Bodenseekreis district), Stuttgart , and the administrative region of Bavarian Swabia . In the Middle Ages , the term Swabia indicated a larger area, covering all the lands associated with the Frankish stem duchy of Alamannia stretching from

1976-434: The late 5th century, the area settled by the Alemanni extended to Alsace and the Swiss Plateau , bordering on the Bavarii to the east, the Franks to the north, the remnants of Roman Gaul to the west, and the Lombards and Goths , united in the Kingdom of Odoacer , to the south. The name Alamannia was used by the 8th century, and from the 9th century, Suebia was occasionally used for Alamannia , while Alamannia

2028-399: The late Burchard I and count in Raetia Curiensis, took the title of duke. Burchard secured his rule by defending the Thurgau region against the claims of King Rudolph II of Burgundy in the 919 Battle of Winterthur . Rudolph II had attempted to expand his Upper Burgundian territory up to Lake Constance by capitalising on the feud between the Ahalolfing and Hunfriding dynasties. He occupied

2080-425: The later Carolingian period , Swabia became once again de facto independent, by the early 10th century mostly ruled by two dynasties, the Hunfriding counts in Raetia Curiensis and the Ahalolfings ruling the Baar estates around the upper Neckar and Danube rivers. The conflict between the two dynasties was decided in favour of Hunfriding Burchard II at the Battle of Winterthur (919). Burchard's rule as duke

2132-456: The later Duke Rudolf II of Austria , who passed it to his son John Parricida . John died without an heir, in 1312 or 1313, marking the end of the "revived" title. In 496 the Alamanni tribes were defeated by King Clovis I , incorporated into Francia , and governed by several duces who were dependent on the Frankish kings. In the 7th century the people converted to Christianity , bishoprics were founded at Augsburg and Constance , and in

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2184-474: The league in 1388 at Döffingen . The next year the city league disbanded according to the resolutions of the Reichstag at Eger . The major dynasties that arose out of medieval Swabia were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns , who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the local dynasties of the dukes of Württemberg and the margraves of Baden . The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover , and are ancestral to

2236-431: The natives of Swabia and speakers of Swabian German . Their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of Tübingen , Stuttgart and Bavarian Swabia . Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined. However, today it is normally thought of as comprising the former Swabian Circle , or equivalently

2288-409: The sixth century ( Bülach fibula , Pforzen buckle , Nordendorf fibula ). In the Old High German period, the first coherent texts are recorded in the St. Gall Abbey , among them the eighth-century Paternoster : Due to the importance of the Carolingian abbeys of St. Gall and Reichenau Island , a considerable part of the Old High German corpus has Alemannic traits. Alemannic Middle High German

2340-478: The term. Baden's residents mostly refer to themselves as Alemanni (versus the Swabians ). SIL Ethnologue cites an estimate of 819,000 Swabian speakers as of 2006. This corresponds to roughly 10% of the total population of the Swabian region, or roughly 1% of the total population of Germany. As an ethno-linguistic group, Swabians are closely related to other speakers of Alemannic German , i.e. Badeners , Alsatians , and German-speaking Swiss . Swabian German

2392-409: The twelfth century. Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The League was quite successful, notably expelling the Duke of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by the Reformation , and

2444-408: The whole of Franconia had become part of their kingdom. In contemporary usage, Schwaben is sometimes taken to refer to Bavarian Swabia exclusively, correctly however it includes the larger Württemberg part of Swabia. Its inhabitants attach great importance to calling themselves Swabians. Baden, historically part of the duchy of Swabia and also of the Swabian Circle, is no longer commonly included in

2496-419: Was acknowledged as such by the newly elected king Henry the Fowler , and in the 960s the duchy under Burchard III was incorporated in the Holy Roman Empire under Otto I . The Hohenstaufen dynasty, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose out of Swabia, but following the execution of Conradin , the last Hohenstaufen, on 29 October 1268, the duchy was not reappointed during

2548-434: Was displaced by Standard German , which emerged from sixteenth century Early Modern High German, in particular in the wake of Martin Luther 's Bible translation of the 1520s. The 1665 revision of the Froschauer Bible removed the Alemannic elements, approaching the language used by Luther. For this reason, no binding orthographical standard for writing modern Alemannic emerged, and orthographies in use usually compromise between

2600-468: Was formed in 1488, opposing the expansionist Bavarian dukes from the House of Wittelsbach and the revolutionary threat from the south in the form of the Swiss . In 1519, the League conquered Württemberg and sold it to Charles V after its duke Ulrich seized the Free Imperial City of Reutlingen during the interregnum that followed the death of Maximilian I. It helped to suppress the Peasants' Revolt in 1524–26 and defeat an alliance of robber barons in

2652-667: Was held successively by three sons of the emperor, the youngest of whom, Philip , was chosen German king in 1198. During his struggle for the throne Philip purchased support by large cessions of Swabian lands, and the duchy remained in the royal hands during the reign of Otto IV , and came to Frederick II in 1214. Frederick granted Swabia to his son Henry , and, after his rebellion in 1235, to his son Conrad , whose son Conradin , setting out in 1266 to take possession of Sicily, pledged his Swabian inheritance to Ulrich II , count of Württemberg . The duchy fell into abeyance after Conradin's death in 1268. In 1500 emperor Maximilian I divided

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2704-497: Was increasingly used to refer to Alsace specifically. By the 12th century, Suebia rather than Alamannia was used consistently for the territory of the Duchy of Swabia . Swabia was one of the original stem duchies of East Francia , the later Holy Roman Empire , as it developed in the 9th and 10th centuries. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of St. Gallen and Reichenau , Swabia became an important center of Old High German literary culture during this period. In

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