Weinsberg

History

Prehistory and antiquity

The earliest known settlement trace in Weinsberg is a group of tumuli. They're situated in the forest near the boundary to Heilbronn and haven't been investigated so far. It is assumed that the tumuli are to be assigned to the Hallstatt culture.

In the 19th century there was found a Celtic silver coin from the 2nd century BC. Its inscription "V, O, L, C" can be assigned to the Celtic tribe of the Volcae, which lived (among other places) in Southern Germany at that time. So it can be assumed that Celts lived at least occasionally in the area of today's Weinsberg.

However, the first solidly attested settlers in the area of Weinsberg were the Romans. In the 2nd century, a Roman road led through today's town, running from the Böckingen castellet (belonging to the Neckar Limes) to the Öhringen castellet (belonging to the Limes Germanicus). Between 148 and 161 AD, a Roman villa rustica was established on this road, which existed until its destruction by the Alamanni in 234 or 259/260. The bath house of this manor (known in Weinsberg as Römerbad, i.e. "Roman bath") was excavated and conserved in 1906; parts of the remaining manor followed in 1977.

Middle Ages

Around 500 AD, the Alamanni were displaced by the Franks, who settled on Weinsberg's communal land between Erlenbach and Gellmersbach in the 7th century. In 778 the area around Weinsberg was first mentioned as "Sulmanachgowe" in a deed of donation of Charlemagne to the Lorsch Abbey. In the area of today's Weinsberg several medieval settlements (Bodelshofen, Burchardeswiesen, Lyndach) were established, continuing even after the town foundation, but finally given up.

Presumably around 1000, the Weinsberg castle was established on a mountain at the trade route running from Heilbronn to Schwäbisch Hall.

In 1140 the castle was besieged by Konrad III in the course of the struggles between the Staufers and the Welfs. Finally it had to surrender on December 21, 1140, since the army of Welf VI to release the castle had been defeated by the Staufers in a battle. According to the report of the Chronica regia Coloniensis, the women of the castle were granted free departure and allowed to take what they could carry on their backs. They carried down their men, and so saved their lives, since the king adhered to his word. The women became known as treue Weiber ("loyal women"). The castle (today's ruin) is called Weibertreu due to this occurrence.

The Staufers used a family of ministerialis from Gmünd as managers of the castle, which soon called itself after its seat "von Weinsberg" (Masters of Weinsberg) and who possessed the castle as a fiefdom until 1450. A settlement developed at the tendencies of the Burgberg. A settlement at the trade route in the valley served the supply of the castle and the surrounding localities. Around 1200 the building of the Johanneskirche began at instigation of the Masters of Weinsberg between these two settlements.

Presumably Weinsberg was created at the same time and surrounded with a city wall. In 1241 the town was first mentioned in one Staufish income list, where Weinsberg ranked at 29 equal with Donauwörth, Wiesbaden, Offenburg and Konstanz. The date of when Weinsberg attained its town privileges is unknown. However, it must have been before 1283, since Rudolf I had lent its town privileges to Löwenstein in this year – after the model of the city right, which its predecessors of the town Weinsberg had lent. At the beginning one half of Weinsberg was a free imperial city, the other half belonged to the Masters of Weinsberg. The town persisted on its status as a free imperial city and affirmed it by entering different city federations, what led to numerous quarrels between the town and the masters.

The city wall around the town established in early 13th century originally also included the castle in the northwest by linking walls. In the area between these linking walls, directly underneath the castle, there were houses for priests, ministerialis and serfs of the masters. Presumably in 1332 Weinsberg's citizens destroyed this quarter and locked the city in the west in opposite to the castle, as documents state from 1375. While two of the three castle masters were absent and against the resistance of the third one they established a wall between castle and town with a moat. Probably the linking walls were broken off at the same time.

The quarrels with the masters persisted. Finally, on May 22, 1417, Sigismund gave Weinsberg to his treasurer Konrad IX. So the town had been devalued by losing its status as a free imperial city to the subordinated status of the Masters of Weinsberg's rule. The town looked for protection in a further city federation called the Weinsberg Federation. On November 27, 1420, 33 free imperial cities united for the protection of Weinsberg.

The town refused to acknowledge Konrad's rule and did not want to pay its taxes any longer. That is why Konrad IX achieved the Reichsacht at the royal court imposing on all citizens of age on 10 February 1422. Since it had caused nothing the Aberacht followed in 1425. In addition the Pope – presumably Martin V – imposed the anathema on them in 1424. However, all this had not caused anything, and Konrad took drastic steps. Weakening the Swabian towns allied with Weinsberg, he acquired the town Sinsheim, where one of the arteries led to the Frankfurt Trade Fair. In August 1428 he attacked businessmen in Sinsheim travelling to the fair and detained 149 people from 20 cities, so the Frankfurt fair had to fail. The king took it as a personal offense and withdrew his favour from Konrad. In October 1428 the cities agreed with Konrad in Heidelberg, however the king forbade this agreement. Two years later, the parties reached an agreement on the basis of the obtained agreement two years before. According to the corresponding treaty Konrad had to recognize Weinsberg as a (undivided) free imperial city.

16th until 19th century

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 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 though 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".

World War II

During the Second World War, Weinsberg was the site of a prison camp (Oflag Va) for Allied officers (French and British Commonwealth). One famous prisoner was Charles Hazlitt Upham. On April 12, 1945, the town was largely destroyed by aerial bombings, gunfire and fires.

Politics

Twin Towns

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.

Mayors

Before 1930 the title was Schultheiß/Stadtschultheiß

• 1820-1845 Heinrich Pfaff
• 1845-1853: Franz Fraas
• 1853-1862: Johann Jakob Haug,
• 1862-1875: Johann Franz Käpplinger,
• 1875-1914: Carl Seufferheld
• 1914-1924: Adolf Strehles
• 1924-1945: Karl Weinbrenner
• 1945 Ludwig Mayer
• 1945 Rudolf Ilg
• 1946-1948: Gustav Zimmermann
• 1948-1972 Erwin Heim
• 1972-1996: Jürgen Klatte
• 1996-2004: Walter Kuhn
• since 2004: Stefan Thoma

Economy and infrastructure

Wine growing

In earlier times viticulture has been the basis of Weinsberg's economy and plays still an important role. In 1271 viticulture in Weinsberg was mentioned for the first time, there are proven 28 wine presses in the town from 1636. With a cultivated area of 430 ha (conditions: 2005, with districts), two thirds of it are red wine sorts, standing the town in fifth place of the viticulture municipalities in Württemberg. In 1868 the winemaking cooperative Weinsberg was created, getting combined with Erlenbach's and Heilbronn's cooperatives to the Genossenschaftskellerei Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg e. G., still attaching the most wine-growers of Weinsberg. In addition there are some estates removing and marketing their wine by themselves. Besides there's the Staatliche Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Wein- und Obstbau Weinsberg (LVWO or briefly viticulture school) created in 1868, educating people and marketing their wine as Staatsweingut Weinsberg. Since January 19, 1957, there is also the technical school of cooper business providing courses each year to a mastership examination in this profession. Finally since 1972 also the viticulture association of Württemberg has resided in Weinsberg.

Traffic

In 1966, a motorway interchange was built in the area of Weinsberg and named after the town. The A 6 (Mannheim–Nuremberg) and A 81 (Würzburg–Stuttgart) cross there. The A 81 to Würzburg is less busy than the other three directions. Due to the opening of the Eastern Bloc, the A 6 leading in east–west direction is often a gridlock. In 2001, the daily traffic volume reached 102,000 vehicles. 30% of it are HGV, so it is one of the highest portions in the German motorway net. For a long time, the extension to six lanes of the four-lane A 6 is an urgent desire of the whole Heilbronn region. It has paid the costs of the expansion plan from Weinsberg interchange up to the Bavarian border. The extension is assured but not scheduled yet, so as a remedy the shoulders of the motorway became provisional driving strips.

Formerly the Bundesstraße 39 (Heilbronn–Schwäbisch Hall) leading in west–east direction had been running right through the town, dividing Weinsberg into a northern and southern part. Crossing the B 39 apart from traffic lights was nearly impossible, so the desire of a bypass grew, which was finally inaugurated on July 13, 1990. Running from Heilbronn it passes the Schemelsberg in a tunnel, then it leads around Weinsberg parallel to the A 6 and finally meets the old B 39 in the east. The old route of the B 39 through the town received less traffic. At the border to Ellhofen the motorway feeder B 39a branches to the south, which leads to the A 81's motorway junction Weinsberg/Ellhofen.

Public transport is provided by tram-trains operated by the Heilbronn and Karlsruhe Stadtbahns and buses co-ordinated with it by the HNV. Weinsberg is situated on the Hohenlohebahn rail track built from 1860 to 1862 running from Heilbronn via Öhringen to Schwäbisch Hall. Apart from Regional-Express trains of the Deutsche Bahn, the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft runs its tram-trains there to Öhringen since December 2005. Nothing had been invested to this previous non-electrified distance for a long time, still being on technical conditions of 1900. For this purpose the track became modernized until Öhringen from 2003 to 2005 providing an overhead line for the first time. In addition new train stops were opened. In Weinsberg they're called Weinsberg-West (planned start February 2009) and Weinsberg/Ellhofen Industriegebiet (since December 2006), so that Weinsberg will have three stops at its disposal.

Public 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.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Hans Schweiner (c. 1473 – 1534), builder, builder of the western tower of the Heilbronner Kilianskirche
• Johannes Oekolampadius (1482–1531), theologian, reformer of Basel
• Carl Krayl (1890–1947), architect