Horben is a village in the

Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (french: Arrondissement de Brisgau-Haute-Forêt-Noire) is a (district) in the southwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Fifty towns and municipalities with 133 settlements lie within the district. The district itself belon ...

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 ...

Geography

Horben is located to the south of the city of

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

and east of the Hexental valley on the western slope of the

Schauinsland The Schauinsland (literally "look-into-the-country"; near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) is a mountain in the Black Forest with an elevation of 1,284 m (4,213 ft) above sea level. It is a popular destination for day trips. Due to the h ...

mountain range. It lies between the mountains of "Illenberg" () and "Eduardshöhe" (). The area is the source of the Bohrer and Selzenbach creeks. Horben lies at an altitude above and is within the

Southern Black Forest The Southern Black Forest (german: Südschwarzwald) is the highest part of the Black Forest, an area heavily transformed by ice age glaciation south of a line roughly from Freiburg im Breisgau to Donaueschingen. The term High Black Forest is no ...

Nature park A nature park, or sometimes natural park, is a designation for a protected natural area by means of long-term land planning, sustainable resource management and limitation of agricultural and real estate developments. These valuable landscape ...

. Because of its proximity to the city of Freiburg new housing areas have been developed in the districts Langackern and Bohrer.

Climate

The average annual temperature at the foothills of 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 t ...

is just over , the rainfalls reach annual average values between , in the higher areas up to .

Administration

The municipality of Horben includes the village itself and the hamlets of Bohrer, Katzental, Langackern, Münzenried, and Gerstenhalm. The neighbouring municipalities are the city of

(in particular its suburb

Günterstal The village Günterstal is the southernmost district of Freiburg im Breisgau. It is located in the so-called ''Bohrer-Tal'' area (where the craft of "Deichel-Bohrer", preindustrial wooden water pipes used for the distribution of water, took pla ...

) and the municipalities of Au,

Wittnau Wittnau is a municipality in the district of Laufenburg in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. Geography Wittnau has an area, , of . Of this area, or 39.3% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 53.8% is forested. Of the rest of ...

Sölden Sölden is a municipality in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Austria. Geography At c. , it is the largest municipality in the country. The population of 3,449 (as of 2003) is outnumbered by tourists, of which 15,000 can be accommodated. With tou ...

and St. Ulrich in the Black Forest. Horben is part of the

Municipal association Municipal associations (german: Verwaltungsgemeinschaften) are statutory corporations or public bodies created by statute in the German federal states of Bavaria, Saxony, Thuringia, and Schleswig-Holstein. In Baden-Württemberg the term ''stipul ...

of Hexental of Hexental ( de).

Municipal council

The

local election In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

s on 7 June 2009 with a

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...

of 72.7% had the following result:

History

Horben originally belonged to the

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...

district of

parish, which was ruled the

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot w ...

in Switzerland. Feudal landlords associated with the abbey, the "Lords of Horwen", are mentioned in 12th century documents and were reported as having a castle on "Horben Mountain". The feudal rights over the village were held by various landlords before being acquired by the city of Freiburg in 1582. However the village was not incorporated into the city then, or since. In 1525 Horben consisted of 24 farms in scattered locations, three houses of widows and an orphanage. Chief activities during the Middle Ages were

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

and

forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...

. 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 ...

Horben was pillaged by marauding soldiers. It was reported that not one head of cattle was left in Horben in 1645. The village was later re-settled by farmers from the Bohrer Valley. In January 1814, during the wars against Napoleon, Russian troops passed through Horben on their way from Freiburg to the Wiese valley. During the 1848

Baden Revolution The Baden Revolution (german: Badische Revolution) of 1848/1849 was a regional uprising in the Grand Duchy of Baden which was part of the revolutionary unrest that gripped almost all of Central Europe at that time. As part of the popular libera ...

Horben was the base of operations of revolutionaries

Franz Sigel Franz Sigel (November 18, 1824 – August 21, 1902) was a German American military officer, revolutionary and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union major general in the American Civil W ...

and

Gustav Struve Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title (11 October 1805 in Munich, Bavaria – 21 August 1870 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary), was a German surgeon, politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the Germa ...

. The village expanded in the early 20th century, and 1930 saw the construction of the valley station of the

Schauinslandbahn The Schauinslandbahn is a gondola lift in the Black Forest area of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It links a lower station in the municipality of Horben, near the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, with an upper station near the summit of the Schauinsl ...

gondola lift system. Horben was untouched by bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, though nearby Freiburg was devastated, and at the end of the war the area was occupied by French troops. After the war many

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

found a new home in the village. Since then development pressure from Freiburg increased and in Horben village, Bohrer and Langackern large areas have had new houses built.

Landmarks

Local landmarks include the ''Althäusle''

dower house A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish or Welsh estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family h ...

, pre-dating 1600, the ''Zum Raben'' guesthouse, dating from 1604, and the parish church of St Agatha, from 1792.

Economy

The main economic activities are

, part-time agriculture ( de) and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

; in 2009 Horben recorded 25,000 overnight stays.

Infrastructure and traffic

Horben holds the base station for the

gondola lift system.

References

External links

*
Horben:Ortsinfos und Bilder

{{Authority control Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald Baden