Kuchen is a municipality of the district of Göppingen 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 ...

History

The earliest historical documentation of Kuchen, from between 1304 and 1315, refers to it as a "town" (''stadt''), implying that it received town rights from the Count of Helfenstein in the first half of the 13th century. Kuchen was made a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

in 1356. At some point between the years 1382 and 1396, Kuchen became a possession of the Free Imperial City of Ulm. Ulm and by extension Kuchen was annexed by the Electorate of Bavaria in 1802, but was ceded in 1810 to 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 ...

and then assigned to . The

Fils Valley Railway The Fils Valley Railway (, historically ''Filsbahn'' or ''Württembergische Ostbahn''—Württemberg Eastern Railway) designates the Württemberg line from Stuttgart via Göppingen to Ulm. It runs from Plochingen to Geislingen an der Steige thr ...

was constructed through Kuchen in 1845. Kuchen was reassigned in 1938 to the newly-reorganized district of

Göppingen Göppingen (; or ) is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the Goeppingen (district), district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the birthplace ...

. The town grew in every direction after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and then again in the 1970s to the northeast.

Geography

The municipality ('' Gemeinde'') of Kuchen is situated in

the district ''The District'' is an American crime drama and police procedural television series that aired on CBS from October 7, 2000, to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s police department. P ...

, in

, one of the 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany. Kuchen is physically located in the valley of the Fils, in the of the

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura ( , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of th ...

. Elevation above sea level in the municipal area ranges from a high of

Normalnull ("standard zero") or (short N. N. or NN) is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany. Elevations using this reference system were to be marked (“meters above standard zero”). has been replaced by (NHN). History In 187 ...

(NN) to a low of NN.

Politics

Kuchen has one borough (''Ortsteil''), Kuchen, and one minor administrative area, Süddeutsche Baumwolleindustrie. There are three abandoned villages in the municipal area: Böldlinshof, Seelhofen, and Spitzenberg.

Demographics

Population development:

Coat of arms

Kuchen's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is divided ''party per fess'' into an upper, red half and a lower,

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

half. In the upper half is a white elephant standing upon a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

, four-pointed hill, which is a reference to the House of Helfenstein. The lower half contains a red, five-petaled rose with

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

sepals, taken from the arms of

Geislingen an der Steige Geislingen an der Steige () is surrounded by the heights of the Swabian Jura, Swabian Alb and embedded in 5 valleys. It is a town in the Göppingen (district), district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The name relates ...

, a town Kuchen has centuries of shared history with. This coat of arms first appeared in town seals created after 1930. It was approved by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and a corresponding municipal flag issued on 16 February 1959.

Transportation

Kuchen is connected to Germany's network of roadways by Bundesstraße 10 and its system of railroads by

. Local public transportation is provided by the .

References

External links

* (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuchen, Baden-Wurttemberg Towns in Baden-Württemberg Göppingen (district)