Diessenhofen

Diessenhofen is a village and a municipality in Frauenfeld District in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. The village is situated on the south shore of the High Rhine just opposite the German town of Gailingen am Hochrhein.

History

Diessenhofen is first mentioned in 757 as ''Deozincova''. In 2000, the village of Willisdorf was incorporated into the municipality. The earliest traces of a settlement are Stone and Bronze Age scattered objects found in the shallow valleys of the district and on the banks of the Rhine. A hoard of coins from the Roman era (251-270), and the remains of three towers of the Danube-Iller-Rhein limes (4th century) show Roman settlements in the area. The reference in a deed of the Abbey of St. Gall from 757 mention an Alamanni village, which was probably on the plateau south of the church. In 1178 Count Hartmann III of Kyburg, raised the village to town and probably appointed a Ministerialis (unfree knights in the service of a feudal overlord) family as the Stewards of Diessenhofen. By 1245, at the latest, it was the center of a bailiwick and a castle was built in town. Compared to Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein, Diessenhofen was a modest market town. Hartmann granted the town a measure of freedom and self-government. He used the castle and bridge over the Rhine to secure and defend his possessions on both sides of the Rhine. After the extinction of the Kyburgs and the transition of sovereignty to the Habsburgs in 1264, the city developed as one of the cornerstones of the region. The Stewards, who sat at Unterhof Castle, temporarily united both the Vogt and '' Schultheiss'' offices into a single person. By 1320 the citizens chose a Town Council of 8-12 members, and during the 15th Century this evolved into a 24-28 member Grand Town Council. In 1349, the Duke of Austria wrestled the Vogt office away from the Stewards and granted it to another Ministerialis. These two developments made citizenship rights in Diessenhofen increasingly important.

The loss of Habsburg influence and the decline of the Habsburg supported Stewards gradually transformed the city between 1415 and 1442. Diessenhofen was captured in 1460 during the conquest of Thurgau by the Swiss Confederation. The town was besieged for ten days before it was captured, but, much like Frauenfeld, it retained certain privileges in the new Thurgau. These included both the high and low courts and the recently acquired customs, tax and ''Vogt'' rights, as well as the castle. After 1574 they also acquired the rights over the left bank of the Rhine and the possessions of Paradise Monastery. During the 16th Century, the town gained the low court rights over most of the modern Diessenhofen District. Diessenhofen's court decisions did not have to be approved by the Governor in Frauenfeld, but went directly to the Confederation Council, in contrast to the rest of Thurgau. The city only had to pay homage to the Governor every two years.

The patronage of the church of St. Dionysius is mentioned in 1468. The advowson right in the 12th Century was included in the possession of the Count of Thurgau. By 1230 it was held by the Kyburgs. In 1264, the city government through the Habsburgs had the right. Practically, the citizens exercised the right after 1383 and it was legally confirmed in 1415. When the Protestant Reformation entered the town in 1524, many citizens converted to the new religion. The Mass was abolished in 1529 by the Protestant pastor, who also ordered the confiscation of Catholic Church property. Diessenhofen supported the city of Zurich in the Second war of Kappel in 1531, which ended in a Protestant defeat. After the defeat, the Catholic cantons reintroduced the Mass in 1532. The church remained a shared church until the construction of the Catholic Church in 1966–67. In 1349 the Jewish community of Diessenhofen was driven out of town. In 1401 a Jewish man was successfully prosecuted for ritual murder, which led to further persecution in Winterthur and Schaffhausen. During the 13th Century, two Nunneries were built between Diessenhofen and Schaffhausen, St. Katharinental and Paradise, which remained in operation until their dissolution in the 19th Century.

Since the Early Middle Ages the district has been known as the granary of the Thurgau due to its extensive and productive grain fields. Additionally, already in the 9th Century widespread viticulture is mentioned in the Upper Rhine region. Until the 19th Century, the city was largely self-supplied for food and served as a collection point for food heading from the farms to the surrounding cities (especially Schaffhausen and Zurich). In the 12th Century are a weekly markets in town. Starting in 1387 two yearly markets opened and by the 19th Century that it had increased to eight yearly markets. The local industry covered only the simplest needs of the city and its limited market area. The limited industry and area provided too little money to support the formation of trade-oriented guilds. Diessenhofen was never dominated by a single industry or a special craft. It never was involved in the international Lake Constance trade industry. The town's location on the Rhine favored the development of fisheries, and it benefited from the salt trade. Bridge and transit tariffs provided the majority of the town's income until the abolition of internal tariffs in 1848.

Geography

Diessenhofen has an area, , of . Of this area, or 41.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 36.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 16.0% is settled (buildings or roads), or 5.0% is either rivers or lakes.Swiss Federal Statistical Office-Land Use Statistics
2009 data accessed 25 March 2010

Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 5.3% of the total area while housing and buildings made up 1.8% and transportation infrastructure made up 1.8%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 1.3% of the area while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 5.8%. Out of the forested land, 33.9% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 40.9% is used for growing crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The municipality borders on north with Germany and the canton of Schaffhausen. On the east is the district of Steckborn, on the west the municipality of Schlatt, and on the south the municipality of Basadingen-Schlattingen

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