Abtsgmünd is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
state of
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...
, in
Ostalbkreis
The Ostalbkreis is a Districts of Germany, ''Landkreis'' (district) in the east of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on the border to Bavaria. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Schwäbisch Hall (district), Schwäbisch Hall, Ansbach ( ...
district. Abtsgmünd is located at the confluence of two streams, the
Lein and the
Kocher
The Kocher () is a -longincluding its source river Schwarzer Kocher right tributary of the Neckar in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The name "Kocher" originates from its Celtic name "cochan" and probably means winding, m ...
. The large area municipality consists of the main town of Abtsgmünd as well as the five districts of Neubronn, Laubach, Untergröningen, Hohenstadt and Pommertsweiler and their associated villages and hamlets. The municipality is a state-recognized recreation area in the Swabian-Franconian Forest Nature Park.
Until 2006, Abtsgmünd was host to the
Summer Breeze Open Air
Summer Breeze Open Air is an annual German heavy metal music festival. It was first held in 1997. The festival had been held in Abtsgmünd until 2006 when it was moved to its new location of Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria. The festival draws around 40,00 ...
metal festival.
Geography
Geographic Location
Abtsgmünd has a share in the natural regions of the Eastern Alb Foreland and the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains, both of which belong to the Swabian Keuper-Lias Lands. With 71.6 km² and 7,456 inhabitants, the municipality of Abtsgmünd is the largest municipality in the Ostalbkreis district after the towns, both in area and population.
The main town of Abtsgmünd lies at the confluence of the Lein river into the Kocher (confluence elevation 367.4 m above sea level), predominantly on the left bank of the Kocher and left bank of the Lein. The furthest district of Untergröningen lies over 8 km west-northwest as the crow flies along two river bends on both sides of the Kocher, which there runs at about 355 meters above sea level after about 14 km of waterway.
Neighboring Municipalities
Clockwise from the north, Abtsgmünd borders
Adelmannsfelden,
Neuler and a small exclave of
Hüttlingen,
Aalen
Aalen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Oole'') is a town located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is ...
,
Heuchlingen,
Schechingen and
Obergröningen,
Eschach (all in the
Ostalbkreis district), and
Sulzbach-Laufen (
Schwäbisch Hall district).
Municipal Division

The present-day municipality of Abtsgmünd includes the formerly independent municipalities of Abtsgmünd,
Hohenstadt,
Laubach
Laubach () is a town of approximately 10,000 people in the Gießen (region), Gießen region of Hesse, Germany. Laubach is known as a ', a climatic health resort. It is situated east of Gießen. Surrounding Laubach are the towns of Hungen, Grünbe ...
,
Neubronn,
Pommertsweiler and
Untergröningen with a total of almost 80 villages, hamlets, farms and houses.
In the Abtsgmünd district there is the village of Abtsgmünd, the hamlets of Altschmiede, Hangendenbuch, Neuschmiede, Schäufele, Vorderbüchelberg, Wilflingen and Wöllstein, the farmstead Birkholz and the residential areas Ausägmühle, Fischbach, Öl- und Sägmühle and Pulvermühle.
In the Hohenstadt district there is the village of Hohenstadt, the hamlets of Börrat, Butzenberg, Christhäuser, Kocherhof, Köhrhof, Maisenhäuser, Reichertshofen, Rötenbach, Schafhäuser and Steinreute and the farms Bernhardshof, Brastelhof, Fischhaus, Frauenhof and Sandhof.
In the Laubach district there is the village of Laubach, the hamlets of Berg, Haag and Leinroden (with Evangelical Church), the town of Roßnagel, the farms Blumenhof, Eichhornhof, Kauhof and Schneiderhaus and the residential area Lustenau.
In the Neubronn district there is the village of Neubronn and the farms Eiderhalden, Kellerhaus and Spatzenmühle.
In the Pommertsweiler district there is the village of Pommertsweiler, the hamlets of Hinterbüchelberg, Höfenhölzle, Hohenhöfen, Lutstrut, Seelach, Straßdorf, Wildenhäusle, Wildenhof and Zimmerberg, the farms Altweiher, Hammerschmiede, Herrenwald, Mittelhohlenbach (partly also in the Untergröningen district), Neumühle and Ziegelhütte and the residential area Oberhohlenbach (partly also in the Untergröningen district).
In the Untergröningen district there is the village of Untergröningen, the hamlets of Billingshalden (Schweizerhof), Burren, Dinkbühl, Letten, Öchsenhof, Rötenbach, Rötenberg and Wegstetten and the residential areas Amselhöfle, Bach, Gschwendhof, Herrenfeld, Märzenhäusle, Mittelhohlenbach (partly also in the Pommertsweiler district), Oberhohlenbach (partly also in the Pommertsweiler district) and Tyrol.
Defunct, no longer existing settlements include
Wisemberg (Bisems?),
Bläsihof and a castle in the Abtsgmünd district,
Langenhalde in the Neubronn district,
Buelenberg,
Otolfsweiler,
Deschental and
Unterhohlenbach in the
Pommertsweiler district as well as
Hurrenhof or
Steinhöfle, mill, sawmill on the
Ochsenbach,
Beim Gschwendhof,
Steinhalden and
Spitz
A spitz (; , in reference to the pointed muzzle) is a Dog type, type of domestic dog consisting of between 50 and 70 breeds depending on classification. There is no precise definition of 'spitz' but typically most spitz breeds have pricked ears ...
in the
Untergröningen district.
History
Until the 18th Century
Abtsgmünd was likely founded from Ellwangen. The town gets its name from the confluence of the Lein into the Kocher river and its affiliation with
Ellwangen Monastery (The Gemunden of the Abbot, as distinct from other Gemunden places). Thus, Abtsgmünd is likely an Ellwangen foundation after the 7th century, though the exact time is unknown.
The Ellwangen Monastery established the town to secure its forested area to the southwest. In a property directory of Ellwangen Monastery from 1136, Abtsgmünd is mentioned by the name Gemunden. In the 13th century, the name was changed to Abtzgemunde to avoid confusion with the later Imperial City of
Gmünd. This name first appeared in a document by
King Conrad IV in 1251.
The late Romanesque ground floor of the parish church tower, built around 1200, shows that the settlement existed earlier.
The Wöllstein Castle was built from Abtsgmünd to secure the rule against the
Schenken von Limpurg. The owners changed frequently, but the feudal lordship of the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen remained intact. An official was appointed to administer it, residing in
Wöllstein
Wöllstein is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
The mu ...
. In 1609,
Heuchlingen, Abtsgmünd and Wöllstein formed the Ellwangen district of Heuchlingen, with the district administrator's seat in Abtsgmünd.
Due to its affiliation with the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen, Abtsgmünd remained Catholic during the Reformation, while the Kocher valley from Schwäbisch Hall up to Untergröningen became Protestant in 1544.
In the 17th century, the Prince-Provosts founded ironworks. In 1611, a blast furnace was established in Altschmiede in Abtsgmünd, later followed by a forging works. It was destroyed in the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
but rebuilt as a forging works in 1667. In 1699, the works were relocated from the Altschmiede district to Neuschmiede.
19th and 20th Centuries
During the secularization in 1803, Abtsgmünd fell to the territories of
New Württemberg and became part of the
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806.
Geogr ...
in 1806. The Abtsgmünd ironworks became part of the Swabian Ironworks based in
Wasseralfingen. From 1803 to 1934, Abtsgmünd belonged to the
Oberamt of Aalen. During administrative reforms in Nazi-era Württemberg, Abtsgmünd was reassigned in 1934 to the
Aalen district and in 1938 to the newly structured
Aalen county. In 1945, the town became part of the American occupation zone and thus part of the newly founded state of Württemberg-Baden, which merged into the present state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952. Through the district reform in Baden-Württemberg in 1973, Abtsgmünd became part of the Ostalbkreis district.
Incorporation of Municipalities
As part of the municipal reform in Baden-Württemberg, five formerly independent municipalities were incorporated into Abtsgmünd. The municipal area and population more than doubled compared to the original municipality of Abtsgmünd.
Politics
Municipal Council

The municipal council was last elected in the Baden-Württemberg municipal elections on 26 May 2019 with a semi-direct district vote. It consists of 22 members with a five-year term. The seats are distributed among the individual parties and groups as follows. Voter turnout was 59.5% (2014: 53.8%).
Coat of Arms
Blazon: A divided escutcheon, in front gules an argent abbot's staff issuant from the base and turned with the crook to the line of division, in back argent three gules balls one above the other.
The abbot's staff refers to both the town's name and the Ellwangen Monastery and Prince-Provostry. The three red balls originate from the coat of arms of the Hack von Wöllstein family, who had their castle seat in Abtsgmünd.
The municipal flag is white-red.
Between 1911 and 1917, Abtsgmünd adopted a seal image showing, above a town view on a divided shield, an abbot's staff and a sword crossed diagonally, overlaid by a small shield with the Württemberg stag antlers. A continuous inverted chevron represented the Kocher and Lein rivers.
On 26 November 1956, the municipality was granted the current coat of arms and flag by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior.
[Heinz Bardua: ''Kreis- und Gemeindewappen in Baden-Württemberg.'' volume 1: ''Die Kreis- und Gemeindewappen im Regierungsbezirk Stuttgart''. Landesarchivdirektion Baden-Württemberg (editor), Konrad Theiss Verlag Stuttgart, 1987, .]
Municipal Logo
Since the mid-1990s, the municipality has had a municipal logo. It features a green A for Abtsgmünd and, as the crossbar of the letter A, the Lein and Kocher rivers in blue, at whose confluence Abtsgmünd was once founded.
Twin Towns
Since 2007, Abtsgmünd has had an official partnership with the Italian municipality of
Castel Bolognese
Castel Bolognese () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ravenna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna and about southwest of Ravenna. As of 2006, it has a population of about 9,000 inhabitants.
Ca ...
in the
Emilia-Romagna region,
Province of Ravenna
The province of Ravenna (; ) is a province in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ravenna. As of 2015, it has a population of 391,997 inhabitants over an area of , giving it a population density of 210.81 inhabitants pe ...
. An exchange takes place with the Italian twin town every year.
Judiciary
Abtsgmünd falls under the
district court of Aalen; within the ordinary jurisdiction, the
Ellwangen regional court and the
Stuttgart higher regional court are superior. The responsible court for labor jurisdiction is the
Stuttgart labor court, and for social jurisdiction the
Ulm social court. Furthermore, the
Stuttgart administrative court is locally responsible for public law disputes from Abtsgmünd.
Economy and Infrastructure
Transportation
Abtsgmünd lies on Federal Highway 19 between Aalen and Schwäbisch Hall. The connection to Federal Autobahn 7 at Westhausen is about 15 kilometers away. The district of Untergröningen was the terminus of the Upper Kochertalbahn railway line from Gaildorf, discontinued in 2005 and largely dismantled in 2009.
Companies
The defining company in the main town of Abtsgmünd is Kessler + Co. GmbH & Co. KG, a specialty factory established in 1950 with over 400 employees for the production of axles and gearboxes for specialty vehicles.
In the district of Untergröningen, Holopack Verpackungstechnik GmbH manufactures and packages products for the pharmaceutical industry.
Educational Institutions
With the
Friedrich-von-Keller-Schule, Abtsgmünd has an elementary, secondary modern and secondary school, to which the
Wasenschule, a pure elementary school, also belongs as a branch. In addition, the
St. Jakobus-Gymnasium has been in operation since 2010. There are also elementary schools in Hohenstadt, Pommertsweiler and Untergröningen. For the youngest residents of Abtsgmünd, there is a Roman Catholic kindergarten (St. Josef Kindergarten), two Protestant kindergartens, and a forest kindergarten that opened in 2016.
Social Institutions
*Hallgarten Senior Center of the Haus Lindenhof Foundation - Nursing Home
*Sozialstation Abtsgmünd gGmbH - Home Care Service
Gallery
Abtsgmuend Pfarrkirche.jpg, Saint Michael's church, Abtsgmünd
Schlosskirche und Schloss Hohenstadt.jpg, Schloss
''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house.
Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...
and church Hohenstadt
Abtsgmünd - Untergröningen - Schloss - Auffahrt und Nordflügel - Ansicht von Westen.jpg, Schloss
''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house.
Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cogn ...
Untergröningen
Dam-across-Kocher.JPG, Kocher dam
Wasserturm Hohenstadt 2013-1.jpg, Hohenstadt water tower
A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
Born in Abtsgmünd
*
Karl Allmendinger (1891-1965), General of the Wehrmacht
*
Albert Schnez (1911-2007), General of the Bundeswehr
*
Patrick Benedict Zimmer who was born in the town
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abstgmund
Ostalbkreis