Albstadt () is the largest city in the
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
of
Zollernalbkreis in
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
. It is located on the
Swabian Jura
The Swabian Jura (german: Schwäbische Alb , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of ...
mountains, about halfway between
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...
and
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lak ...
.
Geography
Albstadt is spread across a variety of hills and valleys, its elevation ranges between above sea level and . One valley is the river
Schmiecha
Schmiecha (in its lower course: ''Schmeie'') is a river of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It runs from the Raichberg through the town of Albstadt and through a valley of the Swabian Jura. It flows into the Danube near Inzigkofen.
See also
* List ...
, a left-hand tributary of the
Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
, a second valley is the river of upper
Eyach, a tributary of the
Neckar
The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwen ...
.
To Albstadt belongs also the
Raichberg
Raichberg is a mountain of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with an elevation of above sea level. It is located in Zollernalbkreis close to the northwestern edge of the Schwäbische 'Alb'.
Situated on the summit is Nägelehaus, a guesthouse, as we ...
hill in the north, on which there is the
Raichberg Transmitter left, The mast of Raichberg Transmitter until 2007
Raichberg transmitter is a broadcast facility for various FM radio and television programs operated by the Südwestrundfunk (SWR, "Southwest Broadcasting") on the Raichberg mountain (elevation ) i ...
and an observation tower located. South of Albstadt is the
Heuberg Military Training Area.
History
Settlement in the region dates back to at least the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...
. A
Hallstatt
Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut ...
cemetery in Albstadt was excavated by amateur archaeologists in the late nineteenth century and revealed a wide range of pottery and metal artefacts. Known as the 'Degerfeld Barrow'
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a bu ...
, a substantial collection was built up by the local antiquary Hyronimus Edelmann that was eventually deposited in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
Religion
The following religions are present in Albstadt:
*
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
*
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
Tailfingen
*
Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg
*
New Apostolic Church
The New Apostolic Church (NAC) is a Christian denomination, Christian church that split from the Catholic Apostolic Church during an 1863 schism in Hamburg, Germany.
The church has existed since 1863 in Germany and since 1897 in the Ne ...
in Tailfingen
* Gospel Forum in Ebingen
* Pauluskirche,
United Methodist Church
The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelica ...
parish in
Ebingen
Ebingen is a town in the large district of Albstadt, district Zollernalbkreis, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the river Schmiecha, a left-hand tributary of the Danube, south of Tübingen and west of Ulm.
History
E ...
* Versammlung of the
Brüderbewegung in the Johanneskirche,
John Nelson Darby
John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882) was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren and the founder of the Exclusive Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern ...
Tailfingen
* Gemeinschaftsstunde Süddeutsche Gemeinschaft,
Liebenzell Mission,
Evangelischer Gnadauer Gemeinschaftsverband not allowed in the protestant church in Truchtelfingen and Tailfingen
* Russian Orthodox Church in Tailfingen Schlossstaße Tailfingen. Servie in Balingen Siechenkirche and Meßstetten Lamprechtskirche
*TOS
* Gemeinde Gottes
* Adventisten
Economy and Infrastructure
Most of the textiles industry (among them
Hasana J. Hakenmüller) is gone today, leaving some monuments, like
Villa Haux
Villa Haux is a villa in the Art Nouveau style built in 1908 by architects Richard Böklen and Carl Feil in the southern German town of Ebingen.
It was built for Kommerzienrat Friedrich Haux (1860–1929), entrepreneur in the local textile ind ...
. However, one of the world's biggest makers of industrial needles,
Groz-Beckert, is still based in the town. Other prominent local companies include Mey (knitwear),
Mettler Toledo
Mettler Toledo () is a multinational manufacturer of scales and analytical instruments. It is the largest provider of weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial, and food retailing applications. The company also provides various ana ...
(weighing systems) and a major part of
Assa Abloy
Assa Abloy AB is a Swedish conglomerate whose offerings include products and services related to locks, doors, gates, and entrance automation. Related products and services include controlling access and confirming identities with keys, cards, ...
security systems (Eff-Eff Brand). Ebingen also hosts the technical and computer science faculties of
Albstadt-Sigmaringen University with about 3,000 students (2014).
Education
Albstadt presides over its own modern school system, with elementary through high school provided all within the same city, including
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
s and boarding schools for the mentally and physically challenged. Also, the city library offers free internet access to residents.
University
The university was founded in 1971 and has two campus locations, Albstadt and Sigmaringen.
On Albstadt campus you will find our Faculty of Engineering and our Faculty of Computing, while our Faculty of Business Administration and the Faculty of Life Science are located on Sigmaringen campus
Sport School
In Baden Württemberg training of a sports team or athlete, called Übungsleiter C, is in Tailfingen,Landessportschule Langenwand.As well a hotel with 120 beds.
Coach (sport)
A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete.
History
The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the H ...
Mining
In former times iron ore was produced in Albstadt. Fidel Eppler was the name of the mine-inspector. The buttress wood was bought in Truchtelfingen and used from Lautlinger Knappen at the Hörnle area . From an old 3,5 km mine in a Doggererzflöz in
Weilheim is wood in the Tuttlinger Fruchtkasten .
[Fruchtkasten: ]
Abteilung Ludwigsthal
'' In: ''Pressemiteilungen.'' 21 November 2016.
Steel was produced in
Tuttlingen
Tuttlingen ( Alemannic: ''Duttlinga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Tuttlingen. Nendingen, ''Möhringen'' and ''Eßlingen'' are three former municipalities that belong to Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen is located in Swabia ea ...
by the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke in Ludwigstal, today iron brakes.
Sports
In the city of Ebingen and Tailfingen, there is a
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
stadium complex.
The
YMCA
YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
do
Handball,
indiaca
Indiaca is a form of the Brazilian game peteca popular in Europe. It is played on court across a net with similar rules to volleyball but instead of a ball, a large shuttlecock, sometimes also called an ''indiaca'', or ''featherball'' is used; th ...
,
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
, and
natural sports in Halls and the Sportgelände Markenberg YMCA.
Districts
The districts Ebingen, Laufen, Lautlingen, Pfeffingen und Tailfingen were first mentioned in 793 in a document of the abbey St. Gallen.
Ebingen
Ebingen is a town in the large district of Albstadt, district Zollernalbkreis, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the river Schmiecha, a left-hand tributary of the Danube, south of Tübingen and west of Ulm.
History
E ...
received city rights around 1250 from the
Hohenberg ducal family.
Albstadt consists of the following urban districts, which had been independent towns and merged to form Albstadt in 1975:
Population
* 1975: 50,772
* 1987: 46,369
* 1995: 49,463
* 2005: 46,505
* 2015: 44,431
Lord Mayors of Albstadt
* 1975–1991: Hans Pfarr (CDU)
* 1991–1999: Hans-Martin Haller (SPD)
* 1999–2015: Jürgen Gneveckow (CDU)
* since 2015: Klaus Konzelmann (Free voters Baden-Württemberg)
Notable people
* Walther Groz (1903–2000), producer, mayor of Ebingen
*
Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1904–1988), lawyer and politician (CDU), Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg (1958–1966) and Chancellor (1966–1969)
*
Gregor Dorfmeister (also known as Manfred Gregor; born 1929), journalist and writer
* Jürgen Gneveckow (born 1952), mayor of Albstadt in 1999–2015
* Klaus Konzelmann (born 1963), police official and mayor of Albstadt
*
Monika Herzig
Monika Herzig (born 1964) is a German-born jazz pianist.
After receiving a scholarship in 1987 from the pedagogical institute in Weingarten, Germany for a one-year exchange program at the University of Alabama, she moved to the United States in A ...
(born 1964), jazz musician and musicologist
Personalities who have worked on the ground
*
Philipp Matthäus Hahn
Philipp Matthäus Hahn (25 November 1739 in Scharnhausen (today part of Ostfildern), Duchy of Württemberg – 2 May 1790 in Echterdingen (today part of Leinfelden-Echterdingen)) was a German pastor, astronomer and inventor.
In about 1763 he ...
(1739–1790), pastor, designer and inventor, lived in Onstmettingen in 1764–1770
*
Ignaz Anton Demeter (1773–1842), 1802–1808 first Parish Councilor in Lautlingen, 1836–1842 Archbishop of Freiburg.
*
Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner ...
(1879–1968), chemist, nuclear scientist, Nobel laureate. After the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute was bombed out in Berlin in the spring of 1944, he researched from June 1944 to April 1945 in
Tailfingen.
*
Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Berthold Alfred Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15 March 1905, Stuttgart – 10 August 1944, Berlin-Plötzensee) was a German aristocrat and lawyer who was a key conspirator in the 20 July plot, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 19 ...
(1905–1944), jurist, participant in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler; spent parts of his youth in Lautlingen
*
Claus von Stauffenberg
Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (; 15 November 1907 – 21 July 1944) was a German army officer best known for his failed attempt on 20 July 1944 to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the Wolf's Lair.
Despite ...
(1907–1944), officer, assassin on Adolf Hitler; spent parts of his youth in Lautlingen
*
Martin Schaudt
Martin Schaudt (born 7 December 1958 in Balingen, Baden-Württemberg) is a German equestrian and Olympic champion. He won a gold medal in ''team dressage'' at
the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and ...
(born 1958), dressage rider
Twin towns – sister cities
Albstadt is
twinned with:
*
Chambéry
Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chamb ...
, France
See also
*
Kern & Sohn (1844)
References
External links
Sammlung Hieronymus Edelmann (1853–1921), Hyronimus EdelmannBritish Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
{{Authority control
Towns in Baden-Württemberg
Württemberg