Swabia
[ ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia] is a cultural,
historic
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and linguistic region in southwestern
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 ...
.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval
Duchy of Swabia, one of the German
stem duchies, representing the territory of
Alemannia, whose inhabitants interchangeably were called ''
Alemanni'' or ''
Suebi
The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own name ...
''.
This territory would include all of the
Alemannic German area, but the modern concept of Swabia is more restricted, due to the collapse of the duchy of Swabia in the thirteenth century. Swabia as understood in modern ethnography roughly coincides with the
Swabian Circle of the
Holy Roman Empire as it stood during the
Early Modern period, now divided between the states of
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 l ...
and
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 ...
.
Swabians (''Schwaben'', singular ''Schwabe'') are the natives of Swabia and speakers of
Swabian German. Their number was estimated at close to 0.8 million by
SIL Ethnologue as of 2006, compared to a total population of 7.5 million in the regions of
Tübingen,
Stuttgart and
Bavarian Swabia.
Geography
Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined. However, today it is normally thought of as comprising the former
Swabian Circle, or equivalently the former state of
Württemberg (with the Prussian
Hohenzollern Province), or the modern districts of
Tübingen (excluding the former Baden regions of the
Bodenseekreis district),
Stuttgart, and the administrative region of
Bavarian Swabia.
In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, the term Swabia indicated a larger area, covering all the lands associated with the
Frankish stem duchy of
Alamannia stretching from the
Vosges Mountains in the west to the broad
Lech river in the east: This also included the region of
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and the later
Margraviate of Baden on both sides of the
Upper Rhine Valley, as well as modern German-speaking Switzerland, the Austrian state of
Vorarlberg and the principality of
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...
in the south.
History
Early history
Like all of
Southern Germany, what is now Swabia was part of the
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defi ...
, and as such has a
Celtic (Gaulish) substrate. In the Roman era, it was part of the
Raetia province.
The name ''Suebia'' is derived from that of the ''
Suebi
The Suebi (or Suebians, also spelled Suevi, Suavi) were a large group of Germanic peoples originally from the Elbe river region in what is now Germany and the Czech Republic. In the early Roman era they included many peoples with their own name ...
''.
It is used already by
Tacitus in the 1st century, albeit in a different geographical sense:
He calls the
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...
the ''Mare Suevicum'' ("Suebian Sea") after the
Suiones, and ends his description of the Suiones and
Sitones
The Sitones were a Germanic people living somewhere in Northern Europe in the first century CE. They are mentioned only by Cornelius Tacitus in 97 CE in Germania. Tacitus considered them similar to Suiones (ancestors of modern Swedes) apart from o ...
with "Here Suebia ends" (''Hic Suebiae finis'').
[''Germania']
Section 45
By the mid-3rd century, groups of the Suebi form the core element of the new tribal alliance known as the
Alamanni, who expanded towards the
Roman Limes east of the Rhine and south of the Main.
The Alamanni were sometimes referred to as Suebi even at this time, and their new area of settlement came to be known as Suebia.
In the
migration period, the Suebi (Alamanni)
crossed the Rhine in 406 and some of them established the
Kingdom of the Suebi in Galicia. Another group settled in parts of
Pannonia, after the
Huns were defeated in 454 in the
Battle of Nedao.
The Alemanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the 4th to 5th century centuries but fell under
Frankish domination in the 6th (
Battle of Tolbiac
The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks, who were fighting under Clovis I, and the Alamanni, whose leader is not known. The date of the battle has traditionally been given as 496, though other accounts suggest it may either have been ...
496).
By the late 5th century, the area settled by the Alemanni extended to
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
and the
Swiss Plateau, bordering on the
Bavarii
The Baiuvarii or Bavarians (german: Bajuwaren) were a Germanic people. The Baiuvarii had settled modern-day Bavaria (which is named after them), Austria, and South Tyrol by the 6th century AD, and are considered the ancestors of modern-day Bavar ...
to the east, the
Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools ...
to the north, the remnants of
Roman Gaul to the west, and the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
and
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Euro ...
, united in the
Kingdom of Odoacer, to the south.
The name ''Alamannia'' was used by the 8th century, and from the 9th century, ''Suebia'' was occasionally used for ''Alamannia'', while ''Alamannia'' was increasingly used to refer to
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
specifically. By the 12th century, ''Suebia'' rather than ''Alamannia'' was used consistently for the territory of the
Duchy of Swabia.
Duchy of Swabia
Swabia was one of the original
stem duchies of
East Francia, the later
Holy Roman Empire, as it developed in the 9th and 10th centuries. Due to the foundation of the important abbeys of
St. Gallen and
Reichenau, Swabia became an important center of
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...
literary culture during this period.
In the later
Carolingian period, Swabia became once again de facto independent, by the early 10th century mostly ruled by two dynasties, the
Hunfriding counts in
Raetia Curiensis and the
Ahalolfings ruling the
Baar estates around the upper
Neckar and Danube rivers.
The conflict between the two dynasties was decided in favour of Hunfriding
Burchard II at the
Battle of Winterthur
The Battle of Winterthur (27 May 1799) was an important action between elements of the Army of the Danube and elements of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg army, commanded by Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze, during the War of the Second Coalition, p ...
(919). Burchard's rule as duke was acknowledged as such by the newly elected king
Henry the Fowler, and in the 960s the duchy under
Burchard III was incorporated in the
Holy Roman Empire under
Otto I
Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the oldest son of He ...
.
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 dynas ...
dynasty, which ruled the
Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries, arose out of Swabia, but following the execution of
Conradin
Conrad III (25 March 1252 – 29 October 1268), called ''the Younger'' or ''the Boy'', but usually known by the diminutive Conradin (german: link=no, Konradin, it, Corradino), was the last direct heir of the House of Hohenstaufen. He was Duke ...
, the last Hohenstaufen, on October 29, 1268, the duchy was not reappointed during the
Great Interregnum. In the following years the original duchy gradually broke up into many smaller units.
Rudolf I of Habsburg, elected in 1273 as emperor, tried to restore the duchy, but met the opposition of the higher nobility who aimed to limit the power of the emperor. Instead, he confiscated the former estates of the Hohenstaufen as imperial property of the Holy Roman Empire, and declared most of the cities formerly belonging to Hohenstaufen to be
Free Imperial Cities, and the more powerful abbeys within the former duchy to be Imperial Abbeys.
The rural regions were merged into the
Imperial Shrievalty (''Reichslandvogtei'') of Swabia, which was given as Imperial Pawn to Duke
Leopold III of Austria in 1379 and again to
Sigismund, Archduke of Austria in 1473/1486. He took the title of a "Prince of Swabia" and integrated the Shrievalty of Swabia in the realm of
Further Austria.
Later medieval period
The
Swabian League of Cities was first formed on 20 November 1331, when twenty-two
imperial cities
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 ...
of the former Duchy of Swabia banded together in support of the
Emperor Louis IV, who in return promised not to mortgage any of them to any imperial
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...
. Among the founding cities were
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
,
Heilbronn,
Reutlingen, and
Ulm. The counts of
Württemberg,
Oettingen, and
Hohenberg were induced to join in 1340.
The defeat of the city league by Count
Eberhard II of Württemberg in 1372
led to the formation of a new league of fourteen Swabian cities on 4 July 1376.
The emperor refused to recognise the newly revitalised Swabian League, seeing it as a rebellion, and this led to an "
imperial war
A ''Reichskrieg'' ("Imperial War", pl. ''Reichskriege'') was a war fought by the Holy Roman Empire as a whole against a common enemy. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, a ''Reichskrieg'' was a formal state of war that could only be declare ...
" against the league. The renewed league defeated an imperial army at the Battle of
Reutlingen on 14 May 1377.
Burgrave
Frederick V of Hohenzollern finally defeated the league in 1388 at
Döffingen. The next year the city league disbanded according to the resolutions of the
Reichstag at
Eger.
The major dynasties that arose out of medieval Swabia were the
Habsburgs and the
Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the local dynasties of the dukes of
Württemberg and the
margrave
Margrave was originally the medieval title for the military commander assigned to maintain the defence of one of the border provinces of the Holy Roman Empire or of a kingdom. That position became hereditary in certain feudal families in the ...
s of
Baden. The
Welf family went on to rule 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 l ...
and
Hanover, and are ancestral to the
British Royal Family that has ruled since 1714. Smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however; for example, branches of the
Montforts and
Hohenems lived until modern times, and the
Fürstenberg survive still. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous
free cities, ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York ...
s and
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
s.
Early modern history
A new
Swabian League (''Schwäbischer Bund'') was formed in 1488, opposing the expansionist
Bavarian dukes from the
House of Wittelsbach and the revolutionary threat from the south in the form of the
Swiss.
In 1519, the League conquered Württemberg and sold it to
Charles V after its duke
Ulrich seized the Free Imperial City of Reutlingen during the interregnum that followed the death of Maximilian I. It helped to suppress the
Peasants' Revolt in 1524–26 and defeat an alliance of
robber barons in the
Franconian War. 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 ...
caused the league to be disbanded in 1534.
The territory of Swabia as understood today emerges in the early modern period. It corresponds to the
Swabian Circle established in 1512.
The
Old Swiss Confederacy was ''de facto'' independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the
Swabian War, while the
Margraviate of Baden had been detached from Swabia since the twelfth century.
Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the
Swabian League in the fifteenth century. The League was quite successful, notably expelling the
Duke of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by 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 ...
, and the Duke of Württemberg was soon restored.
The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes such as the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of
Baden-Durlach, as well as most of the Free Cities, became
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 ...
, the ecclesiastical territories (including the
bishoprics of
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
,
Konstanz and the numerous
Imperial abbeys) remained
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, as did the territories belonging to the Habsburgs (
Further Austria), the
Sigmaringen
Sigmaringen ( Swabian: ''Semmerenga'') is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district.
Sigmaringen is renowned for its castle, Schloss Sigmaring ...
branch of the
House of Hohenzollern, and the Margrave of
Baden-Baden.
Modern history
In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the empire of 1803 by the ''
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss'', the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiastical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and almost all of the free cities, were
mediatized, leaving only the
Kingdom of Württemberg, the
Grand Duchy of Baden, and the Principality of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as sovereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of
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 l ...
, forming what is now the
Swabian administrative region of Bavaria. The
Kings of Bavaria
Kings or King's may refer to:
*Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings
*One of several works known as the "Book of Kings":
**The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts
**The ''Shahnameh'' ...
assumed the title ''Duke in Swabia'', with the ''in'' indicating that only parts of the Swabian territory was ruled by them, unlike their other title ''
Duke of Franconia'' which made clear that the whole of Franconia had become part of their kingdom.
In contemporary usage, ''Schwaben'' is sometimes taken to refer to Bavarian Swabia exclusively, correctly however it includes the larger Württemberg part of Swabia. Its inhabitants attach great importance to calling themselves Swabians. Baden, historically part of the duchy of Swabia but not of the Swabian Circle, is no longer commonly included in the term. Baden's residents mostly refer to themselves as
Alemanni (versus the
Swabians).
Swabian people
Language
SIL Ethnologue cites an estimate of 819,000 Swabian speakers as of 2006. This corresponds to roughly 10% of the total population of the Swabian region, or roughly 1% of the total population of Germany.
As an ethno-linguistic group, Swabians are closely related to other speakers of
Alemannic German, i.e.
Badeners,
Alsatians, and
German-speaking Swiss
The Swiss people (german: die Schweizer, french: les Suisses, it, gli Svizzeri, rm, ils Svizzers) are the citizens of Switzerland or people of Swiss ancestry.
The number of Swiss nationals has grown from 1.7 million in 1815 to 8.7 millio ...
.
[Minahan, p. 650.]
Swabian German or German is traditionally spoken in the upper
Neckar basin (upstream of
Heilbronn), along the upper
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 , pa ...
between
Tuttlingen and
Donauwörth, and on the left bank of the
Lech, in an area centered on the
Swabian Alps roughly stretching from
Stuttgart to
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
.
Many Swabian surnames end with the suffixes ''-le'', ''-(l)er'', ''-el'', ''-ehl'', and ''-lin'', typically from the
Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hig ...
diminutive suffix ''-elîn'' (Modern Standard German ''-lein''). Examples would be: ''Schäuble'', ''Egeler'', ''Rommel'', and ''Gmelin''. The popular German surname ''Schwab'' as well as ''Svevo'' in Italy are derived from this area, both meaning literally "Swabian".
See also
*
Danube Swabians (''Donauschwaben''):
**
Banat Swabians
The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in the former Kingdom of Hungary in Central-Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Empire's Banat of Temeswar province, ...
**
Germans of Hungary
**
Germans of Romania
**
Germans of Serbia
**
Satu Mare Swabians
**
Swabian Turkey
The term Swabian Turkey (german: Schwäbische Türkei, hu, Sváb-Törökország) describes a region in southeastern in Hungary delimited by the Danube (''Donau''), the Drava (''Drau''), inhabited by an ethnic German minority, the Germans of Hung ...
*
Duke of Swabia
*
Swabian children
*
New Swabia
*
Swabian cuisine
*
Swabian League
*
Schwaben Redoubt (World War I)
*''
Schwabenhass
''Schwabenhass'' (German for ''hatred against Swabians'') is a neologism referring to the aversion to the approximately 300,000-strong Swabian diaspora in Berlin and elsewhere in Germany outside of Swabia. In 2013, the so-called ''Spätzle-stre ...
'' ("Suabophobia")
Notes
References
Sources
*
External links
*
D'alemannisch Wikipedia
*
*
{{Authority control
Geography of Baden-Württemberg
Geography of Bavaria
History of the Holy Roman Empire by location