Weinsberg

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Panoramic view from the south

Coordinates: 49°09′N 9°17′E

Weinsberg
Country	Germany
State	Baden-Württemberg
Administrative region	Stuttgart
District	Heilbronn
Population	11,852 source (Dec. 31, 2004)
Area	22.22 km²
Population density	532 /km²
Elevation	219 m
Coordinates	49°09′ N 9°17′ E
Postal code	74183-74189
Area code	07134
Licence plate code	HN
Mayor	Stefan Thoma
Website	weinsberg.de

Weinsberg is a small town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It is situated in the district Heilbronn. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine. The town's name itself is derived from the German word "Weinberg", which means "vineyard".

[edit] History

The area was first settled by Romans about 150 AD. About 1000 AD, a castle was built (now in ruins). On December 21, 1140, the castle had to surrender to king Conrad III after a long siege. The king ordered all men in the castle executed, but the women were free to go, carrying their most beloved possessions on their backs with them. The women chose to carry their husbands out of the castle on their backs and so saved the men's lives. The king allowed it because, he said, a king's word should not be altered. The women came to be known as the Treue Weiber von Weinsberg (Faithful Wives of Weinsberg), and the castle is nowadays known as Weibertreu (Women's Faithfulness).

The town itself was founded about 1200. The German religious reformer Johannes Oecolampadius was born here in 1482 and was a preacher at the local church from 1510 to 1518, the year in which he went to Basel, where he introduced the reformation.

On April 16, 1525 (Easter Sunday), during the great German Peasants' War, the peasants attacked and destroyed the castle, which was already damaged from an earlier attack in 1504. They then proceeded to execute the nobleman who had been in command of both town and castle and who had treated the peasants very badly several times before. The execution was an unprecedented move and shocked and outraged the German nobility and clergy. They had the town destroyed several weeks later, on May 21, even if the townspeople had had nothing to do with the execution.

From 1819 until his death in 1862, the poet and physician Justinus Kerner lived in Weinsberg. His circle of friends, all of them poets, often met at his house, giving Weinsberg the reputation of being a "Swabian Weimar".

During the Second World War, Weinsberg was the site of a prison camp for Allied officers (French and British). On April 12, 1945, the town was destroyed by aerial bombings, gunfire and the fires which resulted from this.

[edit] Institutions

Weinsberg has a big psychiatric and neurological hospital, founded in 1903. Named "Klinikum am Weissenhof" (since 2002), it is the town's biggest employer. There also is a state institution for teaching and research in winemaking, called the Staatliche Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Wein- und Obstbau. Several new grape varieties were bred there since it was founded in 1868.

[edit] Town twinnings

Weinsberg has official partnerships with the French town of Carignan (département Ardennes) and the Italian town of Costigliole d'Asti (Province of Asti). There are informal relations with Cossebaude (now a part of Dresden) in Germany, Keyworth (Nottinghamshire) in the UK and Lake Crystal, Minnesota in the US. The latter two came about because of student exchange programs between schools in Weinsberg and schools there.

The American town of Winesburg, Ohio was originally named after Weinsberg in the early 19th century and had the spelling changed only in 1833.