Argenbühl is a municipality in the district of Ravensburg,

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 ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. No actual town or urban settlement is called Argenbühl; rather, the municipality is an administrative amalgamation of several neighbouring villages with different names. The municipal administrative headquarters are located in the village of Eisenharz, with local branch offices also in the villages of Christazhofen, Eglofs, and Ratzenried. Geographically, it lies in the western part of the

Prealpine The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (; ; ; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bavarian Alpine Foreland in the north, as well ...

region of the

Allgäu The Allgäu (Standard ) is a region in Swabia in southern Germany. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia, southeastern Baden-Württemberg, and parts of Austria. The region stretches from the pre-alpine lands up to the Alps. The main rivers flo ...

, which in turn is part of the larger geographical region of

Swabia Swabia ; , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of Swabia, one of ...

in southern Germany. Argenbühl borders the municipalities of

Kißlegg Kißlegg (''Kisslegg'') is a town in the district of Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Kißlegg is not far from the village of Vogt. Notable people * Jakob Miller Jakob Miller (also spelled ''Jacob Myller'' or ''Müller''; 1550 - 1 ...

and Leutkirch im Allgäu to the north,

Wangen im Allgäu Wangen im Allgäu (, ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Wãnge'') is a historic city in southeast Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies north-east of Lake Constance in the Westallgäu. It is the second-largest city (population: 26,927 in 2020) ...

to the west,

Isny im Allgäu Isny im Allgäu (, ; Low Alemannic: ''Isny im Allgai'') is a town in south-eastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is part of the district of Ravensburg, in the western, Württembergish part of the Allgäu region. Isny was a Free Imperial Ci ...

to the east, and the

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n municipalities of

Hergatz Hergatz is a municipality in the district of Lindau in Bavaria, Germany. The contemporary town was formed from the former municipalities of Wohmbrechts and Maria-Thann in the course of the municipal reform at the end of the 1970s. Geography Herga ...

Heimenkirch Heimenkirch is a municipality in the district of Lindau in Bavaria in Germany. Geography Heimenkirch is located in the Allgäu region. It consists of the subdivisions of Aspach, Berg, Biesenberg, Dreiheiligen, Engenberg, Geigersthal, Hofs, Kapp ...

Röthenbach (Allgäu) Röthenbach (Allgäu) is a municipality in the administrative region of Swabia Lindau district and seat of the municipal association Röthenbach. Geography Röthenbach (Allgäu) is located in the Allgäu region. The municipality lies between th ...

, and

Gestratz Gestratz is a municipality in the district of Lindau in Bavaria in Germany. Geography Gestratz is located in the Allgäu region. Smaller hamlets like Brugg, Thalendorf, Altensberg, Horben, Kenners, Zwirkenberg, Altenburg, Rutzen, Rauen, Ried, S ...

to the south. The name comes from the

Argen The Argen is a river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It flows into Lake Constance between Kressbronn am Bodensee and Langenargen as the third largest tributary to the lake. It is long; if one includes the Obere Argen and its source river Seele ...

River, whose two main constituent streams delimit part of the municipality's borders, and ''Bühl'', which is a Southern German word for "hill", reflecting the municipality's hilly landscape.

Geography

Argenbühl lies at an altitude from 662 to 761 m (2172 to 2497 ft)

AMSL Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level v ...

, between the cities of Wangen and Isny. The municipality includes the following settlements (2006 population data): * Christazhofen (943 inhabitants, 15.44 km² / 5.96 mi²) * Eglofs (1496 inhabitants, 23.40 km² / 9.03 mi²) * Eisenharz (1446 inhabitants, 13.38 km² / 5.17 mi²) * Göttlishofen (490 inhabitants, 7.22 km² / 2.79 mi²) * Ratzenried (1171 inhabitants, 13.77 km² / 5.32 mi²) * Siggen (171 inhabitants, 3.17 km² / 1.22 mi²)

History

The municipality of Argenbühl has existed since 1 January 1972, when the previously independent municipalities of Christazhofen, Eglofs, Eisenharz, Göttlishofen, Ratzenried, and Siggen were merged into the present one. Their history is told in great detail in the ''Description of the Wangen Administrative District (Beschreibung des Oberamts Wangen)'', published in 1841. In 1810, all the above-mentioned communities came under the jurisdiction of the Wangen district, which in 1973 became part of the Ravensburg district. File:Eglofa 2.jpg, Eglofs File:Christazhofen.jpg, Christazhofen File:Eisenharz.jpg, Eisenharz File:Ratzenried.jpg, Ratzenried File:Siggen Argenbühl.JPG, Siggen File:St. Georg Ratzenried 2.jpg,

Saint George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...

's church, Ratzenried File:Rundkapelle Eisenharz.jpg, Round Chapel of Eisenharz

Religion

Argenbühl has six

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parishes. The region's few

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

followers attend their church in nearby

Politics

Municipal council

The election for the municipal council (''Gemeinderat'') on 7 June 2009 had the following results: # CDU 68.6% - 12 seats (-1) #Independent 31.4% - 5 seats (+2)

Sister towns

Capannoli Capannoli is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Pisa in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence and about southeast of Pisa. Capannoli borders the following municipalities: Casciana Terme Lari, Palaia, Pecc ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Cieszanów Cieszanów (, ''Tishaniv ''or'' Tsishaniv ''or'' Chesaniv''; ''Tsyeshanov'') is a town in Lubaczów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland. As of December 2021, it has a population of 1,906. Cieszanów is located on the boundary of southern R ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

* Berbisdorf (part of

Radeburg Radeburg () is a town in the district of Meißen, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of Meißen, and 18 km north of Dresden. The main tourist attraction is the narrow-gauge Radebeul-Radeburg railway line that connects Radebu ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

The municipality is linked by bus lines to neighbouring cities, such as Leutkirch, Isny, and Wangen. The lines are operated by the

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

Local Transport Administration (''Bodensee-Oberschwaben Verkehrsverbund''), popularly known a
''bodo''
In the past, a stop of the

–

railway branch was in Ratzenried.

Education

Eglofs and Ratzenried have each an elementary and a general secondary school (''

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

'') that also works as a ''

Werkrealschule Werkrealschule is a relatively young branch of German secondary education (e.g. in Baden-Württemberg), which offers pupils additional lessons in grades 8 and 9 and allows them to qualify after ten years with a final exam which is equal to graduatio ...

''. In Christazhofen and Eisenharz are only elementary schools. Four kindergartens also are in the municipality.

Culture and sights

Museums

The village of Ratzenried has a local history museum, while Eglofs hosts the Allgäu-Swabian Music Archive (''Allgäu-Schwäbische Musikarchiv''). In 2009, a museum was also opened in Eisenharz, with exhibits about the history of the place and the local dairy industry of the Wunderlich and

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. ( ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. It has been the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since 20 ...

companies.

Notable buildings

* The Eglofs

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

church is part of the

Upper Swabian Baroque Route The Upper Swabian Baroque Route (''Oberschwäbische Barockstraße'') is a tourist theme route through Upper Swabia, following the themes of "nature, culture, baroque". The route has a length of about 500 km (approximately 310 miles). It was ...

(''Oberschwäbische Barockstraße''). * The castle at Ratzenried is the administrative headquarters of th
Humboldt-Institut
language school conglomerate. * The Round Chapel of Eisenharz is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

that is the destination of a yearly

Boxing Day Boxing Day, also called as Offering Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part ...

Catholic

procession A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner. History Processions have in all peoples and at all times been a natural form of public celebration, as forming an orderly and impressive ceremony. Religious ...

Notable people

* Gebhard of Razenried (1583–1652),

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest, and rector of the

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

Jesuit College from 1621–1631 and 1637 of the Augsburg collegeFranz Sales Romstöck: ''Zur Statistik des Jesuiten-Collegiums in Eichstätt''. Eichstätt, 1902, S. 8; Bernhard Duhr: ''Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge''. 2. Bd., 1. Teil, Freiburg i. Br. 1913, S. 228, 239, 610. * Konstantin Rösch (1869–1944),

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

* Anton Kulmus (1900-1989), developer and manufacturer of agricultural vehicles * Anton Morent (1924–2006), transportation entrepreneur * Helmut Maucher (1927-2018), former CEO of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Argenbuhl Ravensburg (district)