Schwäbisch Gmünd

Schwäbisch Gmünd
Schwäbisch Gmünd viewed from the Kings Tower (Königsturm)
Schwäbisch Gmünd
Location of the town of Schwäbisch Gmünd within Ostalbkreis district
Coordinates	48°48′N 9°48′E
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Baden-Württemberg
Admin. region	Stuttgart
District	Ostalbkreis
Lord Mayor	Richard Arnold
Basic statistics
Area	113.78 km2 (43.93 sq mi)
Elevation	321 m  (1053 ft)
Population	59,749 (31 December 2011)
- Density	525 /km2 (1,360 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	AA
Postal codes	73525–73529
Area code	07171
Website	www.schwaebisch-gmuend.de

Imperial City of [Swabian] Gmünd Reichsstadt [Schwäbisch] Gmünd
Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire
← 1268–1802 →
Capital		Schwäbisch Gmünd
Government		Republic
Historical era		Middle Ages
-	Founded	mid-12th century
-	Gained Reichsfreiheit	1268
-	Mediatised to     Württemberg	1802 1802

Schwäbisch Gmünd (German pronunciation: [ˈʃvɛːbɪʃ ˈɡmʏnd̥]) is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 60,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen. The town is a Große Kreisstadt, a chief town under district administration; it was the chief town of its own rural district until the district reform on 1 January 1973.

Marktplatz on a Spring day.

Geography

Schwäbisch Gmünd lies on the Rems river about 50 kilometers east of Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. It also lies at the northern foot of the Swabian Jura Mountains.

History

From 85 AD, the Neckar-Odenwald line was the frontier of the Roman Empire. The Romans built the Limes Germanicus to secure this border. Along the border they built fortifications in regular distances, which included a small castrum on the site of the Schirenhof farm in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

The first major settlement in this area was around the 2nd century AD, when Roman soldiers settled nearby the Limes. In the 3rd century the border lines were assaulted and taken by the Alemans, who settled down in the areas abandoned by the Romans.

In the 8th century a false document in the name of Charlemagne, in the Monastery of St Denis near Paris mentioned a monk's cell called Gamundias built by Abbot Fulrad of St Denis. Whether or not this refers to Gmünd is uncertain. There are no archaeological indications for a cell of this type in Gmünd.

Schwäbisch Gmünd, ca. 1750.

Schwäbisch Gmünd was founded in the mid-12th century. It was a Free Imperial City from 1268 until 1803, when it passed to Württemberg.

By the end of the 14th century, the name "Etzel castle" was used for the remains of the Roman fort, which had been built to protect the Neckar-Odenwald border of the Roman Empire. In a baroque chronicle of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd, written by the councillor Friedrich Vogt (1623–1674), the "Castle" was mentioned in ancient writings as "Etzel castle". Even at the time of Vogt, the Roman remains were cheaper than stones from quarry, and these were thus removed to the ground. Only parts of the moat would still be visible.

The demesne officer, wine expert and archaeologist Carl Friedrich Christoph Gok (1776–1849), a half brother of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, suspected in 1847, that the alleged castle on the Schirenhof farm had probably once been a Roman fort. The first modern and scientific excavations took place under the guidance of retired army chief of staff of the Württemberg army, General Eduard von Kallee and by Major Heinrich Steimle in the years 1886 to 1888, i.e. before the Empire-Limes-Commission (Reichslimeskommision) had been set up. The so-called Schirenhof Castrum is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Limes Germanicus.

Institutions

Former Hardt Kaserne, 2008

From 1963 to May 1991, the United States Army's 56th Field Artillery Brigade, equipped with Pershing missiles, was headquartered at the Bismarck Kaserne with housing at the Hardt Kaserne on an overlooking hill. The Hardt Kaserne was home to the 1st Battalion, 41st Field Artillery (Pershing), Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 56th Arty, and also housed the base's school, the commissary and dependent housing. After the closure of the base, which often attracted protests, the University of Maryland University College opened a four-year German campus on the Bismarck Kaserne in 1992, which closed in 2002 due to financial difficulties and a lack of students. Festival Europäische Kirchenmusik was established in 1989.

In 2004, the state of Baden-Württemberg opened the Landesgymnasium für Hochbegabte (State Grammar School for the Highly Gifted) in some of the renovated buildings of the Bismarck Kaserne.

Local industry

Since the 17th century, Schwäbisch Gmünd has been home to producers of gold and silver handicrafts. The town is also home to the Forschungsinstitut für Edelmetalle und Metallchemie, an institute for precious metal work and surface technology. Other important industries include automotive suppliers, manufacturers of machinery and glass, and a large subsidiary of the Swiss toiletries and medicine producer Weleda.

Notable residents

• Peter Parler (1330–1399), architect and builder
• Hans Ratgeb (circa 1480–1526), painter
• Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485–1545), painter
• Hans Judenkönig (died 1526)
• Emanuel Leutze (born in Schwäbisch Gmünd 1816; died in Washington, D.C. 1868)
• Lina Haag (*1907) and Alfred Haag (1904–1982), local Communists & Nazi Concentration Camp survivors both born in Schwäbisch Gmünd
• Aron Strobel (*1958), band member of Münchener Freiheit
• Emil Holzhauer (1887–1973),painter

Twin towns – sister cities

Schwäbisch Gmünd is twinned with:

• Barnsley, United Kingdom, since 1971
• Antibes, France, since 1976
• Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States, since 1991
• Székesfehérvár, Hungary, since 1991
• Faenza, Italy, since 2001

External links

• Official website
• Schwäbisch Gmünd Live Webcam
• Schwäbisch Gmünd — The oldest Staufertown (English)
• Schwäbisch Gmünd portal, links, image gallery, artists (English) (German)
• Wikisource (German) - some hundred of PD texts