Wolfach ( gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Wolfä) is a town 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 ...

and part of the

Ortenaukreis Ortenaukreis ( gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Ortenaukrais; french: Arrondissement de l'Ortenau) is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (clockwise from north) Rastatt, Freudenstadt, Rottw ...

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 ...

(

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 ...

). It is a well-known spa town.

Geography

Geographical Position

Wolfach lies where the two rivers

Wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

and Kinzig meet in the Kinzig valley. The mixture of valleys and mountains is a characteristic of the town, which stretches between 250 and 880 m above sea level. Wolfach

Villages within the borough of Wolfach include Kirnbach and

Kinzigtal The Kinzig is a river in southwestern Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine. It runs for 93 km from the Black Forest through the Upper Rhine River Plains. The Kinzig valley and secondary valleys constitute the largest system of valleys in ...

History

The exact foundation year of Wolfach is not known. The history of the town Wolfach can be traced back to the year 1084, although some finding even point back to the Roman times. On April 21, 1945, before fleeing the city, the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

took the French

resistants The Resistants, also known as Mutant Force, are a supervillain group appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were originally the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants, but have become completely independent ...

and political prisoners held in the prison of Wolfach to a forest outside of the town, forced them to dig their own graves, and shot them on the spot, just three hours before the arrival of the French 2nd Armored Division commanded by General Leclerc. Floesser wolfach

Tourism

Wolfach hotels and bed & breakfast places have an occupancy rate of 128,000 nights each year (year 2000).

Government

City Council

In the past years the city council consisted of:

Mayors

* 1811–1820: Johann Georg Neef * 1820–1829: Xavery Duppele * 1829–1834: Dr. Duttlinger * 1834–1839: Johann Baptist Baur * 1839–1861: Joseph Bührer * 1861–1874: Johann Georg Armbruster * 1874–1880: Hermann Vogt * 1880–1900: Friedrich Armbruster, (son of J. G. Armbruster) * 1900–1909: Bruno Burger * 1909–1918: Karl Friedrich Armbruster, (son of F. Armbruster) * 1918–1925: Gustav Bulacher * 1925–1936: August Hämmerle, (from 1933 NSDAP) * 1937–1941: Adolf Oehler (NSDAP), Oehler was since 1929 NSDAP-member, joined in 1940 the Waffen-SS and died in 1941 as a soldier * 1941–1945: Alfred Albanus * 1945: Max Vivell, (gave the town to the commander of the marching in French troops) * 1945–1946: Johannes Faißt (temporarily) * 1946–1951: Hans Allgeier (1891–1951) * 1951–1978: Arthur Martin (1911–1999) * 1978–1991: Hans-Peter Züfle * 1992–2014: Gottfried Moser * since 2015: Thomas Geppert

Coat of Arms

The coat of arms of the town of Wolfach displays a golden wolf's hook rod on a blue background and is based on the "

Wolfsangel (, translation "wolf's hook") or () is a heraldic charge from Germany and eastern France, which was inspired by medieval European wolf traps that consisted of a Z-shaped metal hook (called the ''Wolfsangel'', or the ''Crampon'' in French) th ...

" banner from the "Herren von Wolfach" (Lords of Wolfach) who established their control on the town in 1260. It is believed that they adopted the wolf trap sign as their banner having cleared the area of wolves to establish the town.

International relations

Wolfach is twinned with: * Cavalaire-sur-Mer, France * Richfield,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

* Kreuzlingen, Switzerland

Culture and Sights

Swabian-Alemannic Carnival

Wolfach is said to be one of the towns rich in tradition of the

Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht The Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, Fasnacht (in Switzerland) or Fasnat/Faschnat (in Vorarlberg) is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and Vorarlberg. Etymology Popular etymology often links ' ...

Buildings

* ''Fürstenberg'' castle * Fortress ruin ''Alt-Wolfach'' * Town Hall * Catholic church ''St. Laurentius''

Parks

* ''Kurgarten'' * ''Flößerpark'' * ''Kinziganlagen''

Regular Events

Swabian-Alemannic Carnival The Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, Fasnacht (in Switzerland) or Fasnat/Faschnat (in Vorarlberg) is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alamanni, Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and Vorarlberg. Etymology Popular etymology ofte ...

'' (‘Fastnacht’)'' * City Fountain Festival ''(‘Stadtbrunnenfest’)'' * Biker-Weekend * Long Table ''(‘Lange Tafel’)'' * Flößerfest * Open-Air Rockfest Moosenmättle * Butchers Festival of the Fire Department ''(‘Schlachtfest der Freiwilligen Feuerwehr’)'' * Wolfach Autumn ''(‘Wolfacher Herbst’)''

Notable people

Sons and daughters of the town

* Hans Klumbach (1904–1992), archaeologist and scholar of classical and provincial Roman studies * Sylvia Wetzel (born 1949), Buddhist feminist * Marco Horácio (born 1974), popular comedian on Portuguese television * Thomas Dold (born 1984), athlete * Markus Steuerwald (born 1989), volleyball player

People who are connected to the town

Gustav Trunk Gustav Trunk (24 July 1871 in Waldprechtsweier - 23 April 1936 in Karlsruhe) was a three-time President of Baden. He was a lawyer by occupation and was a member of the German Centre Party. In 1897, Gustav Trunk married Emma Eppel in Baden-Ba ...

(1871–1936), politician, member of the German Centre Party; lived in Wolfach from 1897 to 1900 as beadle * Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer (1896–1969), racial hygienist in the Third Reich; lived in Wolfach between 1898 and 1909, where he visited school

References

Notes

Book References

* Disch Franz: ''Chronik der Stadt Wolfach.'' Wolfach, Karlsruhe 1920. * Harter Hans: ''Adel und Burgen im oberen Kinziggebiet. Studien zur Besiedelung und hochmittelalterlichen Herrschaftsbildung im mittleren Schwarzwald.'' München 1992. * Krausbeck Josef, Knauss Frieder: ''Masken unserer Stadt.'' Stuttgart 1974. * Stadt Wolfach (Hrsg.): ''Schwarzwaldstadt mit Tradition. Wolfach, Kirnbach, Kinzigtal.'' Freiburg 1988.

External links

Administration and Authorities

City of Wolfach

District Oberwolfach

Associations

Historic Association Wolfach

Carnival club Wolfach

Bike-Park Wolfach

Places of Interest, Sights

Vogtbauernhöfe

Mineral and mathematics museum Oberwolfach
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Information about and images
{{Authority control Towns in Baden-Württemberg Ortenaukreis Baden