Rötenbach is a formerly independent village 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 ...

that has belonged to the municipality of Friedenweiler since 1 January 1975. About 1,400 of the 2,100 inhabitants of Friedenweiler live in Rötenbach.

Geography

Rötenbach lies about 7 km east of

Titisee-Neustadt Titisee-Neustadt () is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is made up of the six communities of Neustadt, Langenordnach, Rudenberg, Titisee, Schwärzenbach and Waldau. The town ...

in the southeast of the Black Forest where it transitions to the Baar, at a height of 780 to 950 metres above sea level. The Rötenbach flows through the village from north to south and continues through the Rötenbach Gorge (''Rötenbachschlucht'') before emptying into the Wutach.

History

The village was first mentioned under the name of ''Rotinbah'' on 19 January 819. The deed was preserved in

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

. A local nobleman called ''Ruadger'' gave a gift to St Martin's Church in

Löffingen Löffingen is a town in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 14 km southwest of Donaueschingen, and 40 km southeast of Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. ...

. Since 1563 the parish was in the sole ownership of the

House of Fürstenberg A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

. Previously there is evidence of ownership by the following ecclesiastical bodies: * The church in Löffingen * Friedenweiler Abbey * Maria Abbey, Neudingen * Freiburg Charterhouse * St. Blaise Abbey Following the dissolution of the Principality of Fürstenberg, Rötenbach went in 1806 to 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 subs ...

. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Rötenbach was home to a

cottage industry The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the project via remote ...

, mainly involved in the following activities: From 1770, clock and

watchmaking A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

expanded. For example, since 1782 Rötenbach families ran a clock business in London. In Rötenbach clockface painting (''Uhrenschildermalerei'') developed into verre églomisé (''Hinterglasmalerei''). The Winterhalder family of artists were particularly famous for this, especially Benedikt Winterhalder, who was born on 20 March 1813.

Luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers of ...

s worked in Rötenbach, presumably coming to the Black Forest from the

Tyrol Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Famous Rötenbacher violin makers were Franz Straub and Josef Bier.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

The Höllental Railway (from

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

via

Titisee The Titisee is a lake in the southern Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. It covers an area of and is an average of deep. It owes its formation to the Feldberg glacier, the moraines of which were formed in the Pleistocene epoch and nowadays for ...

Donaueschingen Donaueschingen (; Low Alemannic: ''Eschinge'') is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar '' Kreis''. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river D ...

) runs through the village. The section from Neustadt to

was built from 1898 to 1901. In the vicinity is the B 31 federal highway from Freiburg to

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...

Culture and sights

Structures

The

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

(''Rathaus'') was built in 1867 and serves today as the municipal hall for Friedenweiler.

People linked to the village

The father of Padre Rupert Mayer from Rötenbach. Padre Rupert Mayer was a priest in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

who opposed

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

and was imprisoned as a result. He died shortly after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their n ...

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 3 May 1987 in Munich.

External links

www.friedenweiler.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotenbach (Baden) Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald Baden Former municipalities in Baden-Württemberg Villages in Baden-Württemberg