Birkenfeld () 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 Enz district, in

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 ...

. It is situated in the

Northern Black Forest The Northern Black Forest () refers to the northern third of the Black Forest in Germany or, less commonly today, to the northern half of this mountain region. Geography The Northern Black Forest is bounded in the north by a line from Karlsruh ...

, 6 km southwest of

Pforzheim Pforzheim () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city of over 125,000 inhabitants in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, in the southwest of Germany. It is known for its jewelry and watch-making industry, and as such has gained the ...

. The town is located on the top plain, the area extends down to the river Enz valley. Birkenfeld has a stop on route S6 of the

Karlsruhe Stadtbahn The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining Karlsruhe trams, tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connec ...

, which operates over the '' Enztalbahn'' railway.

Geography

Birkenfeld is located about from

in the Enz river valley at an elevation of to meters above sea level ( NHN). Birkenfeld borders Pforzeim and the

Enzkreis Enzkreis is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from west clockwise) Karlsruhe, Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg, Böblingen and Calw. The district-free Pforzheim area in the south is ne ...

municipalities of

Keltern Keltern is a municipality in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. History The oldest documentary records for the constituent towns of Keltern are from 827 or 830 for Dietenhausen, 919 for Ellmendingen, sometime in the 11th cent ...

Straubenhardt Straubenhardt is a municipality in the Enz district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 21 km southeast of Karlsruhe, and 14 km west of Pforzheim. Municipality arrangement The municipality Straubenhardt consists of the for ...

Neuenbürg Neuenbürg is a town in the Enz district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Enz, 10 km southwest of Pforzheim. History Neuenbürg originated as a village around a castle built by the in the 12th century. Between ...

and

Engelsbrand Engelsbrand is a municipality in the district of Enz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is home to the luxury watchmaker Stowa. It contains the villages of Engelsbrand, Salmbach, and Grunbach. History The three villages of Engelsbrand, Salmbac ...

. The former municipality of Gräfenhausen falls within Birkenfeld, therefore placing the villages Gräfenhausen and Obernhausen within Birkenfeld.

History

The earliest known history in Birkenfeld is to be found in grave finds in a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

settlement in the municipality dated to 400 BC. Around 100 AD, the area came under the control of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

and a Roman estate was built nearby. Birkenfeld was inhabited from 500 AD by the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

and then the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

. Birkenfeld is first mentioned in a 1302 document. Twenty years it came under the control of the

County of Württemberg The County of Württemberg was a historical territory with origins in the realm of the House of Württemberg, the heart of the old Duchy of Swabia. Its capital was Stuttgart. From the 12th century until 1495, it was a county within the Holy Roman ...

, at which time a mill was documented for the first time. The first school in the village was constructed in 1566. Though not destroyed during 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 ...

, Birkenfeld was still plundered. When 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 ...

reorganized its in 1810, the township was placed under

. Birkenfeld was connected to the traffic of

when the

Royal Württemberg State Railways The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Early ...

opened the

Enz Valley Railway The Enz Valley Railway (''Enztalbahn'' or ''Enzbahn'') is a long railway line in the northern part of the Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The line runs from Pforzheim to Bad Wildbad and for its course runs close to the R ...

in 1836. Its first industrial enterprise, a branch of Neuenbürg's scythe factory, opened in 1856. The district reform of 1938 under the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

placed Birkenfeld under the administration of

Calw District Calw is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Karlsruhe, Enz, the district-free city Pforzheim, Böblingen, Freudenstadt and Rastatt. History The district ...

. It then became part of the with the defeat of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. Two years later, it was assigned to the state of

Württemberg-Hohenzollern Württemberg-Hohenzollern was a West Germany, West German state created in 1945 as part of the French Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, post-World War II occupation zone. Its capital was Tübingen. In 1952, it was merged into the newly founded ...

which then joined the state of

with the formation of

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

in 1952. Birkenfeld became part of

with the .

Economy

Stratec Biomedical Systems STRATEC SE (formerly STRATEC Biomedical AG) is a company with worldwide operations that designs and manufactures fully automated analyzer systems for partners in clinical diagnostics and biotechnology - particularly in the field of in-vitro-diagn ...

has their headquarters in Birkenfeld, as well as ''Müller Group'' slaughterhouses.

Citations

References

* * {{Authority control Enzkreis