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 betwe ...

. 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 t ...

, 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 Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timber ...

(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Lorsch Codex The Lorsch Codex (Chronicon Laureshamense, Lorscher Codex, Codex Laureshamensis) is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. The codex is handwritten in Carol ...

, 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 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 branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. 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 The New Apostolic Church (NAC) is a 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 Netherlands. It came abo ...

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 com ...

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 regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

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

Economy and infrastructure

Transportation

The city maintains a

bus line A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

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. ...

or Stuttgart.

Education

Dornstetten has a ''Gymnasium'', a ''

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

'', 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 ce ...

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'' 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 The German Timber-Frame Road (German: ''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße'') is a German tourist route leading from the river Elbe in the north to the Black Forest and Lake Constance in the south. Numerous cities and towns each with examples of the vernacu ...

(''Deutsche Fachwerkstraße''), which runs from Mosbach to

Haslach im Kinzigtal Haslach im Kinzigtal (literally ''Haslach in the Kinzig (Rhine), Kinzig valley''; gsw, label=Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic, Haaslä) is a small city in the Black Forest in the district Ortenaukreis, Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germa ...

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 Jakob Beurlin (1520 – 28 October 1561) was a German Lutheran theologian and Protestant reformer. Life Beurlin was born in Dornstetten. In November 1533, he entered the University of Tübingen. When the Protestant Reformation was introduce ...

(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