Birkenfeld is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the

Enz The Enz is a river flowing north from the Black Forest to the Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. It is 106 km long. Its headstreams – the Little Enz (german: Kleine Enz) and the Great Enz or Big Enz (''Große Enz'') – rise in the Northern B ...

district, 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 betwe ...

. It is situated in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest (german: Nordschwarzwald) refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north b ...

, 6 km southwest of

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the nickname "Goldstadt" ("Golden City") ...

. The town is located on the top plain, the area extends down to the river

valley. Birkenfeld has a stop on route S6 of the

Karlsruhe Stadtbahn The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connections to neighbou ...

, which operates over the '' Enztalbahn'' railway.

Geography

Birkenfeld is located about from

in the

river valley at an elevation of to meters above sea level ( NHN). Birkenfeld borders Pforzeim and the

Enzkreis Enzkreis is a Districts of Germany, ''Landkreis'' (district) in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Karlsruhe (district), Karlsruhe, Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg (district), ...

municipalities of

Keltern Keltren is a municipality in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. History The oldest documentary records for the constituent towns of Keltern are from 827 or 830 for Dietenhausen, 919 for Ellmendingen, sometime in the 11th centu ...

Straubenhardt Straubenhardt is a municipality in the Enz district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 21 km southeast of Karlsruhe, and 14 km west of Pforzheim. Municipality arrangement The municipality Straubenhardt consists of the form ...

Neuenbürg Neuenbürg is a town in the Enz district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Enz, 10 km southwest of Pforzheim. History Neuenbürg originated as a village around a castle built by the in the 12th century. Between 1 ...

and

Engelsbrand Engelsbrand is a municipality in the district of Enz (district), Enz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is home to the luxury watchmaker Stowa. It contains the villages of Engelsbrand, Salmbach, and Grunbach. History The three villages of Engels ...

. The former municipality of Gräfenhausen falls within Birkenfeld, therefore placing the villages Gräfenhausen and Obernhausen within Birkenfeld.

History

The earliest known history in Birkenfeld is to be found in grave finds in a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

settlement in the municipality dated to 400 BC. Around 100 AD, the area came under the control of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

and a Roman estate was built nearby. Birkenfeld was inhabited from 500 AD by the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...

and then the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

. Birkenfeld is first mentioned in a 1302 document. Twenty years it came under the control of the

County of Württemberg The County of Württemberg was a historical territory with origins in the realm of the House of Württemberg, the heart of the old Duchy of Swabia. Its capital was Stuttgart. From the 12th century until 1495, it was a county within the Holy Rom ...

, at which time a mill was documented for the first time. The first school in the village was constructed in 1566. Though not destroyed during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

, Birkenfeld was still plundered. When the

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which exist ...

reorganized its in 1810, the township was placed under

. Birkenfeld was connected to the traffic of

when the

Royal Württemberg State Railways The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Please ...

opened the

Enz Valley Railway The Enz Valley Railway (''Enztalbahn'' or ''Enzbahn'') is a long railway line in the northern part of the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The line runs from Pforzheim to Bad Wildbad and for its course runs close to the R ...

in 1836. Its first industrial enterprise, a branch of Neuenbürg's scythe factory, opened in 1856. THe district reform of 1938 under the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

placed Birkenfeld under the administration of

Calw District Calw is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Karlsruhe, Enz, the district-free city Pforzheim, Böblingen, Freudenstadt and Rastatt. History The district w ...

. It then became part of the with the defeat of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Two years later, it was assigned to the state of

Württemberg-Hohenzollern Württemberg-Hohenzollern (french: Wurtemberg-Hohenzollern ) was a West German state created in 1945 as part of the French post-World War II occupation zone. Its capital was Tübingen. In 1952, it was merged into the newly founded state of Bad ...

which then joined the state of

with the formation of

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

in 1952. Birkenfeld became part of

with the .

Economy

Stratec Biomedical Systems STRATEC SE is a company with worldwide operations that develops and produces analyzer systems and automation systems in the field of in-vitro-diagnostics. As a classic OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) supplier, STRATEC produces its systems a ...

has their headquarters in Birkenfeld, as well as ''Müller Group'' slaughterhouses.

Citations

References

* * {{Authority control Enzkreis Württemberg