Unterreichenbach is a town in the district of

Calw Calw (; previously pronounced and sometimes spelled Kalb accordingly; ) is a Landstadt, town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany, capital and largest town of the Calw (district), district Calw. It is located in the North ...

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 ...

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 ...

Geography

Unterreichenbach is in the

Nagold River The Nagold () is a river in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. A tributary of the Enz, it gave its name to the town of Nagold. It merges with the smaller Enz in the town centre of Pforzheim. Physical geography General The Nagold is 90. ...

Valley between

and

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 ...

, at an altitude of between 292 und 633 metres.

Subdivisions

Unterreichenbach includes the settlement of Dennjächt as well as Kapfenhardt, which until 1971 was a distinct locality comprising the village of Kapfenhardt and the hamlet of Obere Mühle around the upper mill, which has been in operation since the 14th century. Jagdhütte was delisted as a hamlet in 1971.''Das Land Baden-Württemberg: Amtliche Beschreibung nach Kreisen und Gemeinden''. Volume V ''Regierungsbezirk Karlsruhe Kohlhammer'', Stuttgart:

Kohlhammer Verlag W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-la ...

, 1976, . pp. 485–486

History

The first preserved mention of Unterreichenbach dates to 1375, but there is evidence of a church as early as 1250, and there may have been a settlement as early as 800."Aus der Geschichte des Dorfes", "Unterreichenbach stellt sich vor", Gemeinde
Official town site
The locality was formerly a possession of the Counts of Calw, but in 1603 passed to

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. The first preserved mention of Kapfenhardt, today part of Unterreichenbach, dates to 1260, and it had passed to Württemberg in the early 14th century. Unterreichenbach became an important centre of

timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mea ...

on the Enz, Nagold and

Würm Wurm or Würm may refer to: Places * Wurm (Rur), a river in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany * Würm (Amper), a river in Bavaria, southeastern Germany ** Würm glaciation, an Alpine ice age, named after the Bavarian river * Würm (Nagold ...

after the Pforzheim rafting colony of Au burnt down in the 14th century and many families moved to Unterreichenbach. Felled trees floated down from the Kohler Valley upstream of Calw were reassembled while the men overnighted in inns at the mills in Kapfenhardt and then floated them on, usually to Bietigheim or

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

but sometimes as far as

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, before returning overland with their pay. The rafting era came to an end in the early 20th century, replaced by the railways. The community has a museum and a monument to the industry. Beginning in the 14th century, the area was an increasingly popular

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

, but this ended with a mid-19th-century avalanche which shut off the ''Gutenbrunnen'' hot spring. However, the area continued to attract tourists, and the mill inns had developed into internationally famous hotels by the Second World War.

Religion

Reichenbach became a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

in 1527. The

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

reached it in 1596, since when it has been primarily

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Incorporations

* 1924: Dennjächt * 1 June 1972: Kapfenhardt Unterreichenbachbahnhof

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Unterreichenbach is served by the

Nagold Valley Railway The Nagold Valley Railway (German: ''Nagoldtalbahn'') is a railway line in the northern part of the Black Forest in Germany which links Pforzheim with Horb am Neckar and, for most of its route, follows the valley of the River Nagold. Trains on ...

, which runs from Pforzheim to

Horb am Neckar Horb am Neckar is a town in the southwest of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river, between Offenburg to the west (about away) and Tübingen to the east (about away). It has aroun ...

Education

Unterreichenbach has a kindergarten and a ''Grundschule'' (elementary school); older children attend schools in neighbouring localities.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Calw (district)