Schwäbisch Hall

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The title of this article contains the character ä. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Schwaebisch Hall.

Coordinates: 49°7′N 9°44′E

Schwäbisch Hall


Country	Germany
State	Baden-Württemberg
Administrative region	Stuttgart
District	Schwäbisch Hall
Population	36,556 (2004)
Area	104.24 km²
Population density	351 /km²
Elevation	301 m
Coordinates	49°7′ N 9°44′ E
Postal code	74501-74523
Area code	0791
Licence plate code	SHA
Mayor	Hermann-Josef Pelgrim (SPD)
Website	schwaebischhall.de

Schwäbisch Hall (or Hall for short) is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg; it is the capital of the district of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is located in the valley of the river Kocher in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg. Today, about 36,000 people live in Hall.

Houses in the centre of Schwäbisch Hall, next to the river Kocher

1 Name
2 History
3 Industry
4 Sister cities
5 External links

[edit] Name

Literally translated, the name means Swabian fountain of salt, referring to a place where salty water was distilled to produce salt.

[edit] History

Salt was distilled by the Celts at the site of Schwäbisch Hall as early as the fifth century BC. The first time it was mentioned in a treaty was in 1156, connection with the establishment of St. Michael's Church in Hall. The village probably belonged first to the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg and went from them to the imperial house of Hohenstaufen (ca 1116). It was probably Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa who founded the imperial mint and started the coining of the so-called Heller. Schwäbisch Hall flourished through the production of salt and coins. Since 1204 it has been called a town.

After the fall of the house of Hohenstaufen, Hall defended itself successfully against the claims of a noble family in the neighbourhood (the Schenken von Limpurg). The conflict was finally settled in 1280 by King Rudolph I of Habsburg; this allowed the undisturbed development into an Imperial Free City (Reichsstadt) of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian granted a constitution that settled internal conflicts (the so-called Erste Zwietracht) in 1340. After this, the city was governed by the inner council (Innerer Rat) which was composed by twelve noblemen, six "middle burghers" and eight craftsmen. The head of the council was the Stättmeister (mayor). A second phase of internal conflicts 1510–1512 (Zweite Zwietracht) brought the dominating role of the nobility to an end. The confrontation with the noble families was started by Stättmeister Hermann Büschler, whose daughter Anna Büschler is the subject of a popular book by Harvard professor Steven Ozment ("The Bürgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a sixteenth-century German town"). The leading role was taken over by a group of families who turned into a new ruling class. Amongst them where the Bonhöffers, the ancestors of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

From the 14th to the 16th century Schwäbisch Hall systematically acquired a large territory in the surrounding area, mostly from noble families and the Comburg monastery. The wealth of this era can still be seen in some gothic buildings like St. Michael's Church (rebuilt 1427–1526) with its impressive stairway (1507). The town joined the Protestant Reformation very early. Johannes Brenz, a follower of Martin Luther, was made pastor of St. Michael's Church in 1522 and quickly began to reform the church and the school system along Lutheran lines.

Schwäbisch Hall

Schwäbisch Hall suffered severely during the Thirty Years' War, though it was never besieged or scene of a battle. However, it was forced to pay enormous sums to the armies of the various parties, especially to the imperial and Swedish troops, who also committed numerous atrocities and plundered the town and the surrounding area. Between 1634 and 1638 every fifth inhabitant died of hunger and diseases, especially from the plague. Swedish troops occupied the town until 1650 and then left an impoverished and economically ruined place. But with the help of reorganizations of salt production and trade and a growing wine trade, there was an astonishingly fast recovery.

Fires were a constant threat to the mostly wooden houses of the town. The great fires of 1680 and especially of 1728 destroyed much of the city, which led to new buildings in the Baroque style, such as the city hall.

The Napoleonic wars brought the history of Schwäbisch Hall as an Imperial Free City to an end. Following the Treaty of Lunéville (1801), the duke of Württemberg was allowed by Napoleon to occupy the town and several other minor states as a compensation for territories on the left side of the Rhine that fell to France. This took place in 1802 - Hall lost its territory and its political independence and became a Oberamtsstadt (seat of an Oberamt, comparable to a county). Ownership of the salt works was handed over to the state. A long economic crisis during the 19th century forced many citizens to move to other places in Germany or to emigrate overseas, mostly to the USA. While other towns like Heilbronn grew steadily due to the Industrial Revolution, the population of Schwäbisch Hall stagnated. The economic situation improved during the second half of the 19th century - a main factor was the railway line to Heilbronn (1862) - but was not followed by a significant growth of the town. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that new settlements were built on the heights surrounding the old town. Schwäbisch Hall also grew through the incorporation of Steinbach (1930) and Hessental (1936).

1827, a health spa was founded on one of the islands in the Kocher river. Especially after the building of the railway (1862) it became a considerable economical factor. The well-preserved old town also brought a rising number of tourists. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Hall has developed many festivities. Especially well known are the theatre productions which are performed every year in the centre of the city on the steps of St. Michael.

In 1934, Hall was officially named Schwäbisch Hall. During the Third Reich a Luftwaffe air base was built at Hessental. In 1944 a concentration camp was established next to the train station Hall-Hessental. The train station at Hall was targeted by an American air raid on February 23, 1945, but the devastations were mostly limited to the suburbs of St. Katharina and Unterlimpurg. The town was occupied by US Army troops on April 17, 1945 without serious resistance; though several buildings were destroyed or damaged, the historical old town suffered comparatively little.

The city administration was an early mover in the migration from Microsoft Windows to GNU/Linux and open source software in the early years of the 21st century.

[edit] Industry

With the dwindling importance of salt, Hall looked for new industries. Today it is known for Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG, a housing credit company, founded in 1944, as well as a local centre for service industries.

In the 1970s Schwäbisch Hall expanded when some agricultural villages became part of the municipality.