Ortenburg ( bar, label=

Central Bavarian Central Bavarian form a subgroup of Bavarian dialects in large parts of Austria and the German state of Bavaria along the Danube river, on the northern side of the Eastern Alps. They are spoken in the ' Old Bavarian' regions of Upper Bavaria ( ...

, Otnbuag) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

and old market town in the district of Passau in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

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

Geographical location

Ortenburg is situated in the forested area south of the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , p ...

and north of the Rott. It is one of the main centres of population in the Lower Bavarian Upland. The majority of the municipality is located in the Wolfach Valley and the

Wolfach Wolfach ( gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Wolfä) is a town in the Black Forest and part of the Ortenaukreis in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). It is a well-known spa town. Geography Geographical Position Wolfach lies where the two rivers Wolf and ...

itself runs directly through Ortenburg. The market town lies 20 km west of Passau, 10 km south of

Vilshofen an der Donau Vilshofen an der Donau is a town in the German district of Passau. Demographics Religion The population of Vilshofen is predominantly Christian. In Vilshofen there is a Catholic Church, a Protestant Church and a new Apostolic Church. 78.3 ...

, 12 km northwest of Bad Griesbach and 20 km north of

Pocking Pocking (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Bocking) is a town in the district of Passau, in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is situated about 30 km south-west of Passau, close to the Austrian border. History A Roman settlement was founded in the a ...

Neighbouring municipalities

The closest municipalities are Haarbach, Beutelsbach, Vilshofen an der Donau, Fürstenzell, and Bad Griesbach im Rottal. The cities of Passau and Pocking are somewhat farther away.

Administrative division

The municipality of Ortenburg includes 112 districts.

History

Set in the Wolfach River valley, Ortenburg can look back over a 900-year history. In about 1120 it was established by the

Counts of Ortenburg The Counts of Ortenburg (german: Grafen von Ortenburg) were a comital family in the mediaeval Duchy of Carinthia. Though they had roots in Bavarian nobility, an affiliation with the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Fra ...

. At the same time the upwardly mobile von Kamm family appeared on the scene. However, during the thirteenth century the von Kamms relocated to Hals (now a quarter of Passau). The Ortenburg counts, whose own origins lay with the Spanheimer dynasty, were keen to establish their own separate dynastic centre and such the

Imperial County of Ortenburg The Imperial County of Ortenburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in present-day Lower Bavaria, Germany. It was located on the lands around Ortenburg Castle, about west of Passau. Though the Counts of Ortenburg—formerly ''Ortenberg''—e ...

kept its

Imperial immediacy Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...

until 1806. The Ortenburgs were among the most powerful of the

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...

, competing in terms of power and position with the

Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

dynasty. During the height of their power, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Ortenburgs held lands from as far south as the

Brixen Brixen (, ; it, Bressanone ; lld, Porsenù or ) is a town in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano. Geography First mentioned in 901, Brixen is the third largest city and oldest town in the province, and the artistic an ...

valley, that extended also far into the

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

Smuggling

Smuggling across the border Bibles (Martin Luther) to Habsburg: Hans Ungnad von Weißenwolff, Freiherr von Sonneck, Hans III (1493–1564), famous Bible printer and smuggler in

Bad Urach Bad Urach () is a town in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km east of Reutlingen, at the foot of the Swabian ''Alb'' (or Swabian Alps in English), and is known for its spa and therapeutic bath. N ...

Smuggler in German
/ref> Smuggler, translator and Slovene refugee Protestant preacher

Primož Trubar Primož Trubar or Primus Truber () (1508 – 28 June 1586) was a Slovene Protestant Reformer of the Lutheran tradition, mostly known as the author of the first Slovene language printed book, the founder and the first superintendent of the Pro ...

, who published the first books in Slovene and is regarded as the key consolidator of the Slovene identity, lived in Tübingen Derendingen. In The

Free Imperial City In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

(German: Freie Reichsstadt) bibles and the Ortenburger Ratschlag was produced.

Krypto Protestants

The original chalice in the protestant worship is still in use in Ortenburg. In this time the church of Ortemburg was the only reachable protestant church outside the border

Crypto-Protestantism Crypto-Protestantism is a historical phenomenon that first arose on the territory of the Habsburg Empire but also elsewhere in Europe and Latin America, at a time when Catholic rulers tried, after the Protestant Reformation, to reestablish Catho ...

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

Mostbauern

The Mostbauern of Ortenburg (orchard meadow farmers) came as grower and cellar master protestant refugees from Austria.

Notable residents

* Heinrich Deubel (1890–1962), Nazi SS Dachau concentration camp commandant

References

Passau (district) {{Passaudistrict-geo-stub