Free Imperial City of Gengenbach

Origins

Gengenbach grew around a Benedictine abbey founded in the 8th century. The town received its rights under the Hohenstaufen and in the 14th century became a free imperial city, recognised by Charles IV in 1360. With Zell am Harmersbach and Offenburg it lay within the imperial bailiwick of the Ortenau, which emperors often pledged to neighbouring princes.

Rule and society

A council of burghers governed the town, whose economy rested on wine, timber, crafts and traffic along the Kinzig valley route through the Black Forest. Relations with the abbey were often tense. Gengenbach briefly accepted the Reformation but returned to Catholicism. French troops burned it in 1689 during the Nine Years' War, and it was rebuilt in Baroque style.

Decline and legacy

In 1803 the mediatisation gave Gengenbach and its neighbours to Baden, which became the Grand Duchy of Baden in 1806. Its half-timbered old town, walls and town hall survive.