Zell-Weierbach is a district of

Offenburg Offenburg ("open borough" - coat of arms showing open gates; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemmanic: ''Offäburg'') is a city located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With nearly 60,000 inhabitants (2019), it is the largest city and the ad ...

Geography

Zell-Weierbach is located in 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 ...

, at a distance of 1 km from downtown Offenburg, in between the two wine villages Rammersweier and Fessenbach. The 7.79 km² big neighborhood are subdivided into 3.55 km² woodland, 1.21 km² fields and meadows, and 1.01 km² wine country. 1.83 km² are built on, while 0.37 km² are taken up by waters, sports fields, and leisure facilities.

History

''Weyerbach'' was first mentioned in a document in 1235. Later names of the place were ''Wygerbach'' (1289) and ''Wigerbach'' (1447). In 1241, ''Celle'' was first mentioned in documents. Later spellings would be Zell (1367) and Zelle (1400). In 1551, Zell, Weierbach, and Riedle, together with

Ortenau The Ortenau, originally called Mortenau, is a historic region in the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the right bank of the river Rhine, stretching from the Upper Rhine Plain to the foothill zone of the Black Fore ...

, became part of the Further Austria. The three localities became part of Baden in 1805. In 1811, the so-called Zeller Stab (consolidation of villages) was broken up. The communities Zell, Weierbach, Riedle, Fessenbach and Oberrammersweier were all part of the Zeller Stab. The disbanding of the consolidation was the consequence of a request of Oberrammersweier to separate from the Zeller Stab. Consequently, on July 15, 1820, the three communities, Zell, Weierbach, and Riedle upon request were combined to become known under the name of ''Zell-Weierbach''. In 1850, some citizens of Zell emigrated to

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

in the U.S., to the

Ste. Genevieve County Sainte Genevieve County, often abbreviated Ste. Genevieve County (French: Ste-Geneviève), is a county located in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,479. The largest city and county ...

of today, because of an economical crisis in Zell.

is located around 60 miles south of St. Louis. On January 1, 1971, Zell-Weierbach was suburbanized in the city of Offenburg during the local government reorganization.

Viticulture

Zell-Weierbach's vintner's cooperative, which was founded in 1923 is famous for its wines, in particular the Zeller Abtsberg, a Spätburgunder (engl.

pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...

) red wine. Other types of vines are: Riesling (white grape variety with flowery aromas and high acidity),

Müller-Thurgau Müller-Thurgau is a white grape variety (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine R ...

(white grape variety; crossing of Riesling and Madeleine Royale), and Ruländer (engl. pinot gris; white wine grape, mutant of the pinot noir variety). The Badische Weinstraße (tourist itinerary of around 500 km in the south-west of Germany) runs through the locality.

Sights

The Schulmuseum Zell-Weierbach (engl. school museum) was founded in 1996. The exhibition is based on a collection by the school inspector Jupp Wunderle, which was started in the 1970s. Among the rooms that can be visited are a former teacher's flat in the school building, a sewing room with numerous handcrafts, as well as a library with about 13 000 school books from the past three centuries. In 2005 the museum was renamed the Museum for the ''former Grand Ducal Baden Schools''. The Zeller Barefoot Path is a hiking trail that aims to motivate people to walk barefoot in the forest. The so-called ''Wolfsgrube''{{Cite web, title=Wolfsgrube, url=https://zell-weierbach.de/freizeit-kultur/sehenswuerdigkeiten/wolfsgrube, access-date=10 June 2021, website=zell-weierbach.de, language=German has an outdoor enclosure with a petting zoo. The Brandeckturm is a lookout tower on the summit of the 686 meter high Brandeckkopf in the middle of the Brandeck landscape protection area. Today nothing remains of Bielenstein Castle, which was destroyed in the 16th century.

References

Offenburg Wine grape varieties