The Ortenau, originally called Mortenau, is a historic region in the present-day German state of

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 ...

. It is located on the right bank of the river

Rhine The Rhine ; french: Rhin ; nl, Rijn ; wa, Rén ; li, Rien; rm, label=Sursilvan, Rein, rm, label=Sutsilvan and Surmiran, Ragn, rm, label=Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader and Puter, Rain; it, Reno ; gsw, Rhi(n), including in Alsatian dialect, Al ...

, stretching from the Upper Rhine Plain to the foothill zone 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 ...

. In the south, it borders on the Breisgau region, covering approximately the same area as the Ortenaukreis, a present-day administrative district with its centre at Offenburg.

History

The region was first mentioned as ''Mordunouva'' in a 763 deed. Then an early medieval county (''

Gau Gau or GAU may refer to: People * Gaugericus (–626), Bishop of Cambrai * Gau Ming-Ho (born 1949), Chinese mountaineer * Franz Christian Gau (1790–1854), German architect and archaeologist * James Gau (born 1957), Papua New Guinean politi ...

'') in the German

stem duchy A stem duchy (german: Stammesherzogtum, from ''Stamm'', meaning "tribe", in reference to the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians and Swabians) was a constituent duchy of the German Empire at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (death ...

of Swabia, it received its name from a fortification near Ortenberg at the site of later Ortenberg Castle. In 1007, King Henry II enfeoffed the Bishops of Bamberg with the Ortenau estates. However, as the bishops were not able to control their remote Swabian lands themselves, they entrusted the rule to the local noble House of Zähringen. When the Zähringen dukes became extinct in 1218, quarrels broke out over their succession between their

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden ...

heirs, the Bishops of Straßburg, and the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

emperor Frederick II. As a result, the former county disintegrated, and several smaller states formed in its place. Parts fell to the Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg; the territories that remained in the possession of the emperor formed a '' Landvogtei'', the Landvogtei Ortenau. Between 1803 and 1819, the Ortenau became part of the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden (german: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918. It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and sub ...

. {{Coord missing, Baden-Württemberg Carolingian counties Former states and territories of Baden-Württemberg