Dornstetten is a town in the district of Freudenstadt 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 ...

in southern

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 situated in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

, 7 km east of

Freudenstadt Freudenstadt (Swabian: ''Fraidestadt'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is capital of the district Freudenstadt. The closest population centres are Offenburg to the west (approx. 36 km away) and Tübingen to the eas ...

. It was founded in the early Middle Ages and is well known for its half-timbered houses (German: ''Fachwerkhäuser'').

Geography

Dornstetten is located in the northern

. The Glatt arises in the outlying village of Aach, at the confluence of the streams Ettenbach, Stockerbach, and Kübelbach.

Constituent communities

The current municipality of Dornstetten was created in 1975 as part of a major reorganization of communities in Baden-Württemberg. It consists of the original town of Dornstetten (which included Dornstetten and the farmstead Lattenberg), the former municipality of Aach (included the village of Aach and the farmstead Benzinger Hof), and the former municipality of Hallwangen (simply the village of Hallwangen).
The area around Dornstetten also included the former settlements of Brennenweiler, Bühlerhof, and Diffenthal or Niedertall, which no longer exist.

History

Dornstetten is first documented in the year 767 in the Lorsch Codex, as part of the ''Waldgeding'' of the Upper Glatt Valley, a loose confederation of settlements roughly corresponding to the modern municipal area. The town received

city rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

sometime between 1267 and 1276. At that time, Dornstetten belonged to the Counts of Urach-Fürstenberg. After passing through the hands of the Counts of Hohenberg, it was acquired by

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

in 1320. A school is first mentioned in the town in 1461. In 1755, Dornstetten was made seat of the ''Oberamt'' of Dornstetten, an administrative district that was nevertheless dissolved in 1807 and incorporated in the ''Oberamt'' of Freudenstadt. On January 1, 1975, Dornstetten was merged with Aach and Hallwangen to make up the municipality of Dornstetten, as part of Baden-Württemberg's major communal reforms in the early 1970s.

Religions

Since the time of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, Dornstetten has been heavily

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. A

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

church is in the town, but Catholics in Dornstetten technically belong to the parochial community of Freudenstadt. A New Apostolic church, as well as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

community, can also be found in Dornstetten.

Coat of arms

The arms of Dornstetten consist of a black five-pointed antler (representing Württemberg) above a black thornbush (

canting arms Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name (or, less often, some attribute or function) in a visual pun or rebus. French heralds used the term (), as they would sound out the name of the armiger. Many armorial all ...

based on the town's name, as ''Dorn'' means "thorn" in German)

Sister cities

Dornstetten enjoys a partnership with

Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin (, literally ''Scey on Saône and Saint-Albin'') is a commune in the Haute-Saône department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. History Murder victim Céline Figard is buried in the co ...

in the ''department'' of Haute Saône in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where students from Dornstetten Gymnasium participate yearly in a student exchange program.

Economy and infrastructure

Transportation

The city maintains a bus line and belongs to the Transport Association of the District of Freudenstadt, the VGF (''Verkehrs-Gemeinschaft Landkreis Freudenstadt''). Dornstetten also has a stop along the Eutingen-Freudenstadt railroad line (the ''Gäubahn''). Every two hours, one can catch a direct train to

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

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 ...

Education

Dornstetten has a ''Gymnasium'', a '' Realschule'', and a ''

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

'' in one building, three elementary schools (one each in Dornstetten, Aach, and Hallwangen), and seven ''

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''. The Neckar-Alb Region School for the Physically Disabled operates a branch in Dornstetten, and the area has a special school for the mentally disabled, the Wilhelm-Hofman Schule.

Culture and attractions

Museums

Like most towns in the area, Dornstetten has a Heimatmuseum which documents the history of the local area. The Doll and Toy Museum is housed in the Hegel Department Store building (''Kaufhaus Hegel''). Himmlisch Heer is a historic copper, silver and barite mine open to the public in Hallwangen.

Buildings

The historic ''

Altstadt ''Altstadt'' is the German language word for "old town", and generally refers to the historical town or city centre within the old town or city wall, in contrast to younger suburbs outside. '' Neustadt'' (new town), the logical opposite of ''Al ...

'' with its half-timbered ''Fachwerkhäuser'', is well known throughout the area, and a popular destination for day-trippers. Dornstetten lies along the southern part of the German Half-Timbered House Road (''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße''), which runs from

Mosbach Mosbach (; South Franconian: ''Mossbach'') is a town in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the seat of the Neckar-Odenwald district and has a population of approximately 25,000 distributed in six boroughs: Mosbach Town, Lohrbach, N ...

to Haslach im Kinzigtal and includes several historic attractions.

Barefoot park

The Barefoot Park Dornstetten in Hallwangen offers a 2.4 km (1.5-mi) path and several stations along the way to learn about nature, play, or experience walking barefoot for its medicinal value.

Famous residents

* Jacob Beurlin (ca. 1520; † October 28, 1561 in Paris), Protestant theologian and Reformer * Wolfram Graf (*1965), composer, pianist, and organist

External links

Official website of the municipality

References

{{Authority control Freudenstadt (district) Württemberg