Freudenstadt is a climatic health resort and Kneipp health resort and
is located in the center of the northern Black Forest.
Freudenstadt is a baroque planned city that Duke Friedrich I of
Württemberg had built in the early 17th century. The reasons for this
were ore finds in the region and the near border to the Archbishopric of
Strasbourg at Kniebis. The old town is laid out with a rectangular floor
plan around an almost square marketplace, based on the game board of the
mill game. However, outbreaks of the plague, the Thirty Years' War with
destruction and the absence of major ore finds hampered subsequent
development, which was only to be changed somewhat by the railways in
the second half of the 19th century and the onset of tourism.
Just three weeks before the German capitulation in World War II,
Freudenstadt was largely destroyed on April 16, 1945 by artillery fire
and massive bombing. Today's cityscape is the result of reconstruction
in the 1950s, which was largely based on the historical model.
In
addition to the main town, Freudenstadt consists of the districts of
Dietersweiler, Grüntal-Frutenhof, Igelsberg, Kniebis, Musbach,
Wittlensweiler and Zwieselberg, including a number of hamlets and farms.
Neighboring communities are Baiersbronn, Seewald, Pfalzgrafenweiler,
Dornstetten, Glatten, Lossburg, Alpirsbach and Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach.
By plane
The nearest airports are Stuttgart Airport (IATA: STR) ,
about 70km to the north-east, and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport (IATA:
FKB) , about 40km to the west.
By train
Three lines of the
Freudenstädter Stern meet in the main station:
Freudenstadt can
be reached from the Rhine plain (Rastatt) on the Murg Valley Railway,
operated by AVG, line 31. Journey time approx. 1.5 hours. Further stops:
Freudenstadt city, school center and industrial area
The Kinzig
Valley Railway runs from Hausach im Kinzig Valley to Freudenstadt,
journey time around 45 minutes.
There are also direct train
connections from Stuttgart several times a day, from Eutingen im Gäu the
trains of the Gäubahn take about 30 minutes. Another stop on this route
is Grüntal Wittlensweier.
The main train station offers travelers
ample service times in the station hall. It is open daily as a spacious
waiting room, Monday to Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 8
a.m. to 8 p.m. The "Eckert" shop, which is attached to the station hall,
opens at the same times. It offers newspapers, books, fresh baked goods,
coffee, confectionery, ice cream, snacks, drinks, tobacco products,
lottery, acceptance point for one-way deposit, prepaid cell phone cards.
Telephone 07441/951202. (Status 9/1/18). In the station hall, some
partition walls provide information about the history of the railway in
and around Freudenstadt, with many historical photos and explanatory
texts.
By bus
The long-distance bus stop is at the bus station
near the city train station (Dammstrasse).
In the street
The
B28 comes from the Rhine plain near Oberkirch and continues to
Herrenberg
The B294 comes from Pforzheim through the Enztal and goes
to Schiltach in the Kinzigtal
The B462 Schwarzwaldtälerstraße comes
from Rastatt through the Murg valley and goes together with the B294
into the Kinzig valley.
Freudenstadt is 51 km from Offenburg, 92
km from Freiburg and 175 km from Basel.
Marketplace
Freudenstadt is best known for having the largest
built-up market place in Germany, where there should actually be a
castle (see the history section). It is considered the symbol of the
city and is about 4.5 hectares in size and almost square with the
dimensions 219 × 216 meters. The surrounding arcades, called arcades,
are characteristic. Three ornamental fountains on the market square
survived the Second World War unscathed. After being destroyed in World
War II, the market was rebuilt in 1950 in Heimatschutz style.
Town church
The Evangelical town church Freudenstadt from 1608 stands
on the south-west corner of the square. It is one of the rare angle
churches, its ground plan is L-shaped. Badly damaged in 1945, it was
rebuilt on the outside and restored on the inside in a simplified
manner. She has a number of valuable pieces of equipment.
City
hall
On the opposite northern corner of the market square is the town
hall, which houses parts of the city administration and offers two
viewing platforms. In the center of the square is the town hall, which
houses the local history museum with the departments of folklore, town
history, handicrafts and tourism, as well as the town library. A
memorial column next to it commemorates the reconstruction of the city
after its destruction in World War II. In reference to the financing of
the reconstruction, the monument is popularly called Mortgage Venus.
Friedrich Tower
The Friedrichsturm is a 25 m high observation
tower built in 1899 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the city
on the Kienberg. It was planned by the Black Forest Association and the
Beautification Association and named the Herzog-Friedrich-Turm at its
inauguration in honor of the city's founder.
Additional
A
cultural and historical sight is the Freudenstadt visitor mine.
The Schwarzwaldhochstraße, part of the Bundesstraße 500, is the oldest
holiday route in Germany and connects Freudenstadt with hiking and
skiing areas in the northern Black Forest and the city of Baden-Baden.
Freudenstadt is located on the Deutsche Alleenstraße, which leads from
Rügen to Constance. The Black Forest long-distance hiking trails
Mittelweg and Ostweg run through the town.
Leisure time
There
has been a golf club since 1929. The plant is one of the oldest in
Germany.
The Panoramabad in Nordstadt is well known beyond the
district with a wellness area and a “sauna landscape”. The pool can also
be reached by tram (bus stop Schulzentrum/Panoramabad). For team sports
there are three gyms, a stadium and several ball sports fields in the
town centre. There are several tennis courts on the Schierenberg. There
is also a riding club in Nordstadt. A football school has its
headquarters at the stadium facilities. The largest sports club is TSV
Freudenstadt. There are numerous well-developed and signposted hiking
trails available for hiking and Nordic walking. If there is enough snow,
there are cross-country ski runs or the ski lift on the Stokinger slope
in the Lauterbad district. The winter sports opportunities are even
better in the higher-lying district of Kniebis.
The city has two
cinemas. The Subiaco in the Kurhaus is non-commercial and geared towards
alternative films. The Central at the district court covers current
cinema films. Numerous pubs on Loßburger and Straßburger Strasse, on the
market square and at the city train station provide entertainment in the
evenings. The Freudenstadt pub night is popular. A nightclub is located
outside the center near the main train station.
Regular events
The parades of the Freudenstadt fools' guild, especially the big
carnival parade, which takes place the day after the torchlight parade,
attracts thousands of Hästräger and spectators to the city. In March and
October, the Central Association of Physicians for Naturopathic
Treatment and Regulatory Medicine (ZAEN) organizes the ZAEN Congress in
the Congress Center. With its seminars, the event is a forum for further
training and the exchange of experiences. The opening concert of the
Black Forest Music Festival traditionally takes place in the town church
from the end of April to the beginning of May. The series of events
lasts until August and is also a guest in city districts.
At the
beginning of July, the city festival transforms the entire market square
into the scene of a folk festival over a weekend, culminating in a large
fireworks display on Saturday evening. Since 2002, local clubs have been
entertaining the public with music and art at the fountain magic in
mid-July in front of the backdrop of the Freudenstadt fountains. The
Africa Festival, which usually lasts several days, usually takes place
in the last week of July on the Upper Market Square. The performances
range from dance and music performances to artistry, cinema, ball games,
workshops, exhibitions and bazaars to church services.
The
Freudenstadt Summer Theater, an annually changing open-air performance
by local amateur actors, is extremely popular in July and August. The
audience follows the actors to various natural stages in the city area.
For tennis fans, the Black Forest Open was a fixture on the ATP
calendar, held annually from 1999 to 2009 alongside the US Open. Players
like Magnus Norman, Gustavo Kuerten and Marat Safin have already fought
for world ranking points on the Schierenberg.
From spring to
autumn, changing events take place on the market square. On the first
weekend in October, the arts and crafts market of the Freudenstadt trade
and commerce association (HGV) takes place on the upper market square
parallel to a Sunday shopping. The end of November marks the end of the
year with the HGV's ten-day Christmas market in Freudenstadt. Numerous
handicraft shops and retailers offer their goods in a village of around
100 huts. The performance of the tower horns on the town hall tower is
one of the highlights of the market.
Herzog Friedrich Tower. The viewing tower in Kienberg, southwest of
the city, was built in 1899. It is a nice destination for a walk. From
the market place you walk about 1.3 km at 70 meters in altitude. From
the building you have an attractive view over Freudenstadt. Opening
hours daily between May and October. Admission free. The "Am
Friedrichsturm" cafe at the tower also invites you to stop by.
Cafe
Restaurant am Friedrichsturm
Panorama-Bad Freudenstadt,
Ludwig-Jahn-Straße 60. Adventure and wellness pool with various indoor
and outdoor pools as well as a large water slide and a diving board.
Feel-good area with sea climate sauna, steam bath, brine grotto and
more. Open: Mon-Sat 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun, Holiday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Price: Adult day ticket for the swimming pool, adventure area and sauna
€16. Last change: Jun. 2015 (information may be out of date) edit info
Healing climate hiking trails
The market square is almost entirely surrounded by colonnades, which
allow for a largely weather-protected, relaxed stroll. In the shops
around the market square and the adjacent side streets you will find a
varied range of boutiques, souvenirs, specialist shops and also
cafes/restaurants.
For everyday goods there are many supermarkets
in and around Freudenstadt and the relevant chains, such as E.g.
Kaufland, Müller, Peters,...
On the marketplace there are often
actions like a pottery market, flea markets; Dates can be found online
Berghütte Lauterbad, Am Zollernblick 1. Tel.: (0)7441 950990.
Regional cuisine in a hearty atmosphere.
Adler, Forststr. 15-17 Tel.:
(0)7441 91520. Many Black Forest specialties, including tarte flambée.
Warteck, Stuttgarter Str. 14. Tel.: (0)7441 91920. Upscale cuisine with
an extensive wine list.
Hotel Restaurant Bären (Black Forest cuisine,
also very tasty Kaiserschmarrn), Langestr. 33
1 Enchilada, Lauterbadstrasse 5, 72250 Freudenstadt. Phone: +49 7441
8605921, fax: +49 7441 8605918, email: freudenstadt@enchilada.de. Open:
daily from 4 p.m.
2 Martinique, Glashüttenweg 58, 72250 Freudenstadt.
Tel: +40 7441 3013. Open: Fri, Sat 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Hotel Lauterbad, Amselweg 5.
Waldhotel Zollernblick, Am
Zollernblick 1.
Hotel Grüner Wald, Kinzigtalstrasse 23.
Hotel
Restaurant Baeren, Langestr. 33
Freudenstadt Hospital, Karl-Von-Hahn-Strasse 120, 72250 Freudenstadt. Tel.: (0)7441 54-0, fax: (0)7441 54-2452, e-mail: info@klf-net.de. Hospital with 24/7 emergency room.
Tourist Information Freudenstadt, Marktpl. 64
Today's Grüntal-Frutenhof district was first mentioned in 1100 as
Grindelen. The Frutenhof farm, on the other hand, was first mentioned in
writing in 1470. In 1583 Grüntal got its own parish. The existence of
Igelsberg is secured as Illigsberg around the year 1230, when Count
Palatine Rudolf von Tübingen gave it to the diocese of Strasbourg as a
fief. Since 1381 Igelsberg belonged to the Benedictine monastery of
Reichenbach and only became part of Württemberg in 1595.
In
today's Kniebis there was a chapel of a Herrenalb monk around 1250,
which was converted into a Franciscan monastery in 1278, which came to
Württemberg in 1320. In order to protect himself against possible
attacks by the Habsburg Bishop of Strasbourg, Count Eberhard, who
defected from the Habsburgs under Frederick the Handsome to Emperor
Ludwig the Bavarian, had Schanzen built on Kniebis. The district of
Musbach, namely the current Untermusbach, found its way into documents
as Muosbach in 1274 and was part of Württemberg right from the start.
Probably in 1291 today's Untermusbach came from the Count Palatine of
Tübingen to the monastery of Reichenbach. Only in 1595 did it become
part of Württemberg. Dietersweiler was first mentioned in a document in
1347 as Dietrichsweiler. Together with the Wittlensweiler district,
which already existed as Witelineswilare at the beginning of the 12th
century, it was sold by the Lords of Lichtenfels to the Lords of
Neuneck. Wittlensweiler went to Württemberg in 1473, Dietersweiler
followed in 1511.
From 1520 to 1534, under Austrian rule, there
was ore mining near the former Schöllkopf farm. In 1544 the monastery on
the Kniebis was dissolved. Many small mines, whose tunnels led
horizontally into the mountain, were created, including the "St.
Christoph-Erbstollen" named after Duke Christoph or his patron saint
around 1560, the name of which also passed to the valley section and the
settlement that arose shortly afterwards. The steep valley slopes of the
Christophstal favored the construction of tunnels, vertical shafts were
clearly inferior in number and importance. But pits were not only dug in
the Christophstal. The Charlottengrube was built near Lauterbad, the
Georgsstollen on the Kienberg and the "Schweitzer Treu" mine. Mining was
also carried out in the later districts: in Wittlensweiler, a pit was
operated between 1812 and 1824 in Pfarrgasse ("Friedrich and Wilhelmina
Fundgrube in Kirchgaß"), which extracted barite and brown iron.
Miners were granted special privileges as early as 1536. In 1598, 87
tons of ore were mined, containing up to 1,800 grams of silver and 140
kilograms of copper per ton. The silver smelter was heated with charcoal
from the surrounding forests. In 1603 the production was 94 kilograms of
silver. This resulted in the so-called Christophstaler. Later mining
focused on copper and iron.
On January 23, 1572, Duke Ludwig
ordered the construction of a steel works. His successor, Frederick I,
saw to it that further processing plants were established in order to
ensure that the duchy was largely self-sufficient in terms of raw
materials. In 1595 master builder Heinrich Schickhardt planned an iron
forge, which later became the upper large hammer. 1606-1610 a brass
factory with kilns and smithy was added. In 1616 the upper wire was set
up, in 1621 the lower. A copper hammer, a pan hammer, another large
hammer, which later became the Wilhelmshammer, emerged. A second smelter
was set up between the copper hammer and the (lower) pan hammer. There
was also a bell foundry in a place that is unknown today. Between 1622
and 1628, one of the four different Württemberg mints was operated in
the Christophstal, in which coins from the Kipper and Wipper period,
such as the Hirschgulden with the mint mark “CT” or “C”, were first
minted and later regular coins.
As a representative of early absolutism, Duke Friedrich I pursued an
active power and economic policy. The promotion of mining in
Christophstal and the settlement of exiles were intended to secure the
income of the sovereign in a mercantilist sense. The existing state
fortresses were expanded. On the west flank, near the strategically
important Kniebis Pass, a new fortified residence, Freudenstadt, was
intended to secure further planned acquisitions of territory in the west
as a bridge to the West Rhine possessions. In 1595 the duke acquired
Besigheim and Mundelsheim from Baden. In the same year he enforced his
claims to Reichenbach by force. His further goal was the acquisition of
the Bishopric of Strasbourg. In 1604 he obtained the pledge of Oberkirch
from this bishopric for a period of at least thirty years. Friedrich
commissioned his builder Heinrich Schickhardt around 1598 to investigate
the area around today's Freudenstadt. In retrospect, Schickhardt
reported in 1632 in the summary of his life's work ("Inventory"):
"There, when there was still a forest, I took the first glimpse of
it, had the ground searched quite deeply in many hidden places, but
found few good things, because of which I was allowed to keep in
underthonigkhait, which nit Rhatsam to build a state there [...]"
Nevertheless, the duke insisted on building the city. Schickhardt's
square ground plan for Freudenstadt probably goes back to drawings by
Albrecht Dürer in his Fortifications Theory. Schickhardt designed
Freudenstadt at the behest of Frederick I on the drawing board. First,
he presented the duke with what is known as the building block plan, in
which several houses are laid out in rows or rectangularly, some with
inner courtyards. In this first plan, the massive fortress with the
castle was planned in a corner of the complex, the market square in the
center of the city was planned to be relatively small. Schickhardt's
second design is a further development of the building block plan. There
are already clear signs of the rows of houses that were built later. The
castle, built in the style customary at the time, was again embedded in
the fortress walls in a corner of the complex. In fact, Freudenstadt was
then built according to the three-row plan, with the palace and fortress
now planned in the center of the town only being built later. This
decision allowed the city to expand flexibly until a constant population
was reached. In the three-line plan, the castle was planned to be
centered on the market square and turned by 45° to the geometric city.
The planned massive construction of the fortress was scaled back and
resembles more of a city wall, which indicates that even at this point
the duke was no longer so interested in the military function of his
city. Nevertheless, a plan by Schickhardt is known, which expanded the
three-line plan to include a mighty fortress. However, it is not known
whether this was more of a "gimmick" or real planning. The center is
surrounded on the plan by three rows of houses reminiscent of a mill
board. Even the names of the first inhabitants, mainly craftsmen who
wanted to profit from the construction of the new city, are entered.
These comments are likely to have come from Elias Gunzenhäuser, the
local site manager.
March 22, 1599, when the first houses and streets of Schickhardt were
marked out in the presence of the duke, is considered the founding date
of the city. The houses on the market square had roof gables facing the
square and were therefore called gabled houses. These were typical
half-timbered houses. A scaffolding of beams erected by the carpenter
was filled in with masonry and plastered light-colored, while the beams,
some of which remained visible, were painted dark. Today, no such houses
are preserved in the city center. In Dornstetten, a short distance away,
this type of construction is still visible in the historic town centre.
On May 1, 1601, the foundation stone was laid for the town church,
which was probably designed by Elias Gunzenhäuser and built as a corner
church on the market square. From 1602 the department store was built in
the north-west corner - also by Gunzenhäuser - and the town hall in the
1660s in the north-east corner, both also as angular buildings. On May
6, 1601, the "Stadt ob Christophstal" was first mentioned as
"Freudenstadt". It is not clear how this naming came about. Then, on
November 3rd, an invitation to tender was issued, specifically
addressing those willing to settle, who were promised building sites,
wood and fields.[24] In this way, Protestant religious refugees from the
Austrian crown lands of Styria, Carinthia and Krain, who were
particularly affected by the Habsburg Counter-Reformation, were directed
to the young city. Since many refugees from Carniola only spoke
Slovenian, a Slovenian pastor soon began preaching. In 1603 the young
town received a coat of arms and the first mayor, two years later its
district. For this purpose, parts of the Dornstetter Walddings and the
neighboring municipality of Baiersbronn were separated. Freudenstadt
became the seat of a small office.
Since the number of
inhabitants developed well, Duke Friedrich I ordered the expansion of
the city complex. Schickhardt then created the five-line plan. Two
additional rows of houses should offer living space for around 2,500
residents together with the three existing ones. In 1608 Duke Friedrich
I of Württemberg died. Since the previous parcels of the now four-line
city were not yet fully developed at that time, the citizens asked his
son and successor, Johann Friedrich von Württemberg, to at least give up
the expansion by a fifth line of houses; the request was granted. After
the death of Duke Friedrich, the plans for the palace in "Friedrich's
City" were no longer considered. The free area in the center thus
remained a huge square, which is now regarded as the 'largest built-up
market place' in Germany (see below: City relations to Heide with the
'largest undeveloped market place' in Germany). In addition, the city
had no city wall for a long time. There were always plans for this (e.g.
Schickhardt's plan of 1612, see above); some work was also started, but
it was not actually completed.
In 1619, the mayor of Freudenstadt
asked Duke Johann Friedrich for a city wall in vain. The city was too
poor to finance a fortification itself, so a wooden fence was built
around the city in the following years. This fence is clearly visible on
the Merian engraving of 1643. In 1616 the hamlet of St. Christophstal
was incorporated into the young town.
Just a few years after it was founded, when Freudenstadt is said to
have had almost 3,000 inhabitants, the plague broke out in 1610/11; it
is said to have swept away 800 people, and another 900 then left.
Livestock diseases and crop failures made the situation worse. In 1632 a
fire broke out in the Zum Güldenen Barben inn on the lower market
square, which spread quickly due to the arrangement of the half-timbered
houses in rows of houses. Heinrich Schickhardt notes the extent of the
damage:
“On May 24, 1632, a terrible heat broke out in
Fredenstatt, [3 people died and 144 houses burned down. The fire broke
out in the Golden Barb Inn, which was the first house ever in this town.
An estimate has been made that for the construction of the burnt down
houses they need 8 barns of oak and fir timber: 18,577 logs, planks
44,125 and slats 44,350."
After the lost battle of Nördlingen in
the Thirty Years' War, buildings were again set on fire by imperial
Habsburg troops and the few remaining inhabitants were almost entirely
murdered and looted. The number of inhabitants in those days must have
been in the lower double-digit range. The plague broke out again in 1635
and again destroyed almost all life. Freudenstadt remained largely
deserted for years. Even in 1652, almost twenty years after the tragic
events, only about 300 citizens are mentioned in records.
The course of the Thirty Years' War prompted Duke Eberhard III to
look again at urban development and the plans for the fortress. Eberhard
III. was considered to be very fond of the people of Freudenstadt, he
helped the population in many ways. In order for the residents to stay
in the city, they were promised six years of tax exemption. New citizens
did not have to pay taxes for twelve years. There were cheap building
sites, the timber was given away. For the first time after the long war,
the offices were filled again. The Latin school, a corner building
behind the town church, was also reopened. In Freudenstadt life began to
thrive again.
In 1667 Duke Eberhard III. finally start building a
mighty fortress according to the ideas of the engineer d'Avila. Matthias
Weiß (1636–1707) was in charge of construction, supported by Georg
Ludwig Stäbenhaber, who later became known as a cartographer. Until 1674
was built. The fortress now covered an area twice as large as the
inhabited city. It consisted of eight bastions with curtain walls
(connecting walls) and four city gates. Due to the steep drop in terrain
to Christophstal, the three western bastions were much smaller than the
other five bastions.
The Royal Statistical-Topographical Bureau[28] describes the four "massive, very solid, vault-like" city gates built at that time in 1858 in more detail. The Stuttgart gate in the east was "decorated with cannon and mortar barrels hewn from stone" and bore the ducal inscription E.H.Z.W. 1668 (for Eberhard Herzog zu Württemberg) as well as the coat of arms of Württemberg and Dettingen. It also housed high court prisons. The Strasbourg Gate in the south was "less ornate" and received the same coat of arms and the inscription 1678. Above the archway was a rented apartment and a prison each of the Oberamt and the Oberamtsgericht. The Murgthal-Thor in the west included the apartment of the Oberamt servant and two prisons of the Freudenstadt Oberamt. The inscriptions read E.H.Z.W. 1631 on the outside and F.C.H.Z.W. 1681 on the inside. This corresponds to the initials of Friedrich Carl, the guardian of Duke Eberhard Ludwig. The Hirschkopf-Tor in the north, inscribed with the year 1622, was the oldest city gate. The apartment of the Oberamtsgericht clerk and three prisons of the Oberamtsgericht were housed there.
Except for the citadel on the Kienberg shown on the left - it was not built - the plan corresponds to the state of the fortress at the end of the construction work in 1674.
In 1674 - the fortress was not yet completely finished - Duke
Eberhard III died; construction stopped immediately. His successor, Duke
Wilhelm Ludwig, had Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Kieser prepare an expert
opinion on the fortress. This report contains only arguments that spoke
against the fortress; this made it easy for Duke Wilhelm Ludwig to end
the unloved, expensive project.
The population took advantage of
the authorities' lack of interest in the fortifications and, for
decades, supplied themselves with building material from the
fortifications. The hewn stones were found in private buildings, ditches
and ramparts became gardens and pastures for small livestock. The city
took this into account and leased individual parts of the fortress to
the citizens. Agricultural use and later the building over changed the
appearance of the fortress.
In 1820 plans were made to expand the
remains of Freudenstadt Fortress into a federal fortress. The Federal
Assembly, on the other hand, decided to build federal fortresses in Ulm
and Rastatt. From 1870 the city gates were sold for demolition and the
fortress was finally abandoned to decay. In 1880 only the fortifications
in the area of today's city train station and to the east of it were
well preserved.
Today there are only very few remains of the
fortress, e.g..:
Between Blaicherstraße and Musbacher Straße, behind
the Friedenskirche, there is a short, fairly well-preserved part of the
"eastern bulwark", which is still around five meters high today.
Remains of the wall can still be seen near the city train station, at
the corner of Dammstrasse and Wallstrasse.
A coat of arms with a
grimace as the only remnant of the former Lossburg Gate (torn down in
1865) is set into the wall of the Kurhaus. It shows the coat of arms of
Duke Eberhardt on the left (Württemberg deer rods, lozenges from Teck,
Reichssturm flag and the barbs of Mömpelgard), on the right the coat of
arms of his wife, Maria Dorothea Sofie, née Countess of Öttingen.
In
Stuttgarter Strasse, at the gateway to the former tax office, there are
two pillars with ornamental stones and peepholes that come from the
Lossburg Gate.
Fortification ramparts were built on the Kniebis
between 1674 and 1675 for the imperial war against Louis XIV, the Sun
King. Duke Karl Alexander had this expanded into Fort Alexander,
commonly known today as Alexanderschanze. From 1799 to 1801 it was the
scene of hostilities between the Austrians and the French during the
Napoleonic Wars. The Kniebis monastery building also fell victim to a
fire.
In 1721, Gut Lauterbad, founded and named after Christoph Wilhelm
Dietrich, was one of the first buildings in the hamlet of Lauterbad,
which today belongs to the Dietersweiler district.
In 1737
Freudenstadt became the site of a small garrison. In 1759 the office of
Freudenstadt was elevated to the position of senior office. In 1784
mining was completely stopped with the closure of the Dorothea tunnel in
the Christophstal. The Oberamt Freudenstadt was one of the smallest
offices in Altwuerttemberg. In 1807, one year after the founding of the
Kingdom of Württemberg and the associated upheavals in the
administrative structure, the Freudenstadt administrative district
increased significantly in size. In 1833, the urban area was enlarged by
about 2,300 hectares of forest from the former forest thing. In 1837 a
"sick station" with four beds opened. Freudenstadt increasingly became a
town of crafts, which was favored by the connection to the route network
of the Württemberg railway with the Gäubahn in 1879. In 1864 the
Freudenstadt city gates were demolished. In 1876, the then mayor of
Hartranft announced his intention to turn Freudenstadt into a health
resort with its clean air. The project was successful, and towards the
end of the 19th century a steadily growing spa business began. The most
well-known hotels of that time included the Hotel Rappen, the Hotel
Waldlust owned by the hotelier family Luz and the Kurhaus Palmenwald
owned by the Stuttgart entrepreneur Paul Lechler. In total there were
around 20 hotels in the small town around 1930, five of which were in
the highest category. Freudenstadt was known worldwide as a health
resort and attracted guests such as the English King George V, the
Swedish Queen, John D. Rockefeller, Mark Twain and the Sultan of
Selangor.
In 1888 the district hospital in Herrenfelderstraße was
opened. Two town doctors and two deaconesses began their service. The
city became a popular vacation spot for city dwellers. In 1899, on the
occasion of the city's 300th anniversary, an observation tower was
opened on Freudenstadt's local mountain, the Kienberg, and baptized with
the name Herzog-Friedrich-Thurm (after Duke Friedrich I).
"Notable sons of the city" from this period were:
Theodor Bauder
(1888–1945), civil engineer and SA leader (among other things, until
1945 General Plenipotentiary for Construction in the General Government
of Poland and liaison to Governor General Hans Frank)
Theo-Helmut
"Theobald" Lieb (1889-1981), lieutenant general in World War II
(including recipient of the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the
Iron Cross in 1944)
Gerhard Pfahler (1897-1976), psychologist and
educationalist, involved in the racial psychology of National Socialism
(including anti-Semitic editor; Professor at the University of Göttingen
and Tübingen)
Albert Schmierer (1899–1974), Reich Pharmacy Leader
(including founder of the Reich Pharmacy Register and the Institute for
Drug Testing and an academy for pharmaceutical training)
Helmut Kunz
(1910-1976), dentist, member of the NSDAP and member of the Waffen-SS
(among other things assigned as SS Untersturmfuhrer to the engineer
battalion of the third SS Totenkopf Division in the Dachau concentration
camp and involved in the murder of the six Goebbels children).
Lieb, Pfahler, Schmierer and Kunz were either denazified after a short
period of imprisonment or imprisonment or acquitted in court and
continued to work unmolested until their deaths.
In 1938 the
Oberamt became the district of Freudenstadt. During the Second World War
arose on the up to 971 m above sea level. NN high Kniebis, not far from
the Alexanderschanze, a command center of the Wehrmacht for the defense
of the western front: the leader's headquarters in Tannenberg (near the
district boundary in the area of the municipality of Baiersbronn). In
the area, especially on the Schliffkopf and the Hornisgrinde, heavy
anti-aircraft positions with the associated supply and accommodation
buildings were built as part of the LVZ West (Air Defense Zone West).
Many wounded were treated in the Freudenstadt hospital. Hitler's
one-week visit to Tannenberg and Freudenstadt in 1940 (after the French
campaign) to mark the inauguration of the headquarters was propaganda in
newsreel reports. This made Freudenstadt and the surrounding area in
France a symbol of the Nazi regime and the French defeat, which was to
play an important role in 1945.
Little is known about the
situation of the Jews in Freudenstadt in the “Third Reich”. Known by
name:
Paul Pick, born in Freudenstadt in 1894, owner of a small
department store, murdered in Riga concentration camp in June 1944, Emma
Pick née Baum, born in Stuttgart in 1896, murdered in Stutthof
concentration camp in December 1944. Richard L. Pick, their son, was
able to emigrate in July 1941.
Carl Beer (born February 19, 1885,
married to Fanny née Reichert from Freudenstadt). The two lived in
Freudenstadt at Lauterbadstraße 73. After the November pogrom in 1938,
he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he was held until
mid-December 1938. In 1944/45, Beer worked as a "medical practitioner"
for the Jewish residents still living in Nuremberg and Fürth. A heavy
air raid on Nuremberg in February 1945 prevented Carl Beer and the other
"Nuremberg Jews living in mixed marriages" from being deported to
Theresienstadt. After the US Army invaded Nuremberg, Beer was the first
internist for Nuremberg and Fürth in Nuremberg. He then returned to
Freudenstadt and was able to work as a doctor for a few more years. The
population elected him to the municipal council in 1946 with the second
highest number of votes on the SPD list. Fanny Beer died in 1964, Carl
Beer in 1969. A street in Freudenstadt is named after him. Statements
from the public: “Dr. In Freudenstadt, Beer always treated the less
well-off free of charge, and even brought food to the needy..."
Stumbling blocks are not relocated.
On April 16, 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war, the
city was unexpectedly attacked by troops of the French 1st Army under
General de Lattre, causing widespread destruction by bombs and artillery
fire. Freudenstadt was the hub of the French advance in the direction of
Stuttgart and the High Rhine, while the Americans advanced eastwards in
the Rhine-Main area. Four hours before the French marched into
Freudenstadt, the Wehrmacht had blown up one of the three half-timbered
viaducts on the Eutingen im Gäu–Freudenstadt railway line, because the
railway line was not to fall into enemy hands. The French army report
names a detachment of the SS (according to German sources, a dozen
so-called werewolves) who had set up a barrier in front of the city.
Freudenstadt came under intermittent artillery fire for about 16 hours.
No inhabitant dared to meet the French troops to surrender the city;
Conversely, they expected considerable military resistance. Since the
water main had been destroyed by US air raids and the most important
fire engines by artillery fire, fires were able to spread almost
unhindered. Some liquid manure was used for extinguishing. A handover
only took place when the French troops had advanced to the town hall.
There were a few dozen civilian casualties; about 600 buildings, 95
percent of the entire city center, were directly or indirectly destroyed
during the night of April 16/17, leaving 1,400 families homeless. When
the French troops marched in and in the following three days, there were
numerous, violent attacks by Moroccan units. According to the doctor
Renate Lutz, she alone treated over 600 raped women. According to
reports from eyewitnesses, the civilian population also received the
answer to reproaches that war was on and Freudenstadt would have to burn
for three days.
Many of the buildings that had been spared were
then claimed by the French occupation. Numerous families lived in poorly
roofed cellars. Overall, the average living space per inhabitant fell to
less than eight square meters. The need was great and the clearing up of
the rubble was slow at first.
"The new city plan is based on the historical and natural events and
develops the old plan [Schickhardt's] further with modern means. It has,
of course, become a new plan. But he takes into account the tradition
that has become dear to him, above all by not only keeping the large
market square, but also the unique arcades that are famous throughout
Germany. The city will acquire a new face and atmosphere after the old
has been irretrievably lost to us. But it is not just a new development,
it is a further development.”
– Ludwig Schweizer
A long
discussion began about the reconstruction of the city (see beginning of
article for aerial photo). For this purpose, models by local architects
and renowned urban planners of the time were examined. The aim was to
find a balanced mix of tradition and modernity. The living space should
be adapted to the changed lifestyle during the reconstruction. As early
as 1945, a large number of different plans were presented by Paul Heim,
Hermann Gabler, Adolf Abel, Paul Schmitthenner and others.
In
some concepts, the reduction of the marketplace, which was perceived as
oversized, was intended. The reconstruction of the eaves or gable on the
market square was also questionable. The “burned down” people demanded
that their houses be rebuilt on the old plot boundaries. On the other
hand, increasing traffic and modern urban planning had to be taken into
account. Carlo Schmid, among others, mediated in the conflicts. In the
end, the traditional minority around Ludwig Schweizer and his teacher
Schmitthenner was able to assert itself against the otherwise prevailing
modernist professional opinion. Both were representatives of the design
language of the Stuttgart School with its homeland security
architecture. Schweizer was appointed city master builder. Together with
the city administration under Mayor Hermann Saam, a detailed and
uniformly planned concept for the reconstruction was created.
Freudenstadt was once again a planned city within just five years.
The rapid reconstruction was favored by the fact that Freudenstadt
was the only city next to Friedrichshafen in Württemberg-Hohenzollern
with such severe damage and therefore received generous support. The
type and extent of the holistic reconstruction of Freudenstadt and the
associated enormous civil commitment brought the city a lot of attention
and recognition. In particular, voices from the German Democratic
Republic (GDR) praised the use of "national traditions" as exemplary,
whereas the local Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was the only party in
the city council to vote against the traditional reconstruction with
gabled houses in 1949. The “Miracle of Freudenstadt” is also referred to
in connection with the finally successful reconstruction. It is still
considered a total work of art that (as in only a few other cities)
expresses the zeitgeist of the 1950s. In order to maintain the uniform
appearance, a very strict design statute applies to the city center to
this day.
Württemberg-Hohenzollern became part of the federal state of
Baden-Württemberg in 1952. the ninth The International Mayors' Congress
of the International Union of Mayors in Freudenstadt in 1958 initiated a
change in Franco-German relations at the municipal level and led to a
large number of town twinnings. Freudenstadt entered into a partnership
with the city of Courbevoie in the greater Paris area in 1961. With the
district reform on January 1, 1973, the district of Freudenstadt
acquired its present size, Freudenstadt remained the official seat of
the enlarged district. At the same time, this became part of the newly
founded Northern Black Forest region, which was then assigned to the
newly defined administrative district of Karlsruhe. This meant that
Freudenstadt, which was formerly in Württemberg, was now administered
from Karlsruhe, the former capital of Baden.
In 1965, the
district council decided to build a new Freudenstadt hospital in the
area of Zehnmorgen in Nordstadt. Construction was completed in 1976. The
renovated building of the old hospital has been the seat of the district
office since 1977. In the 1980s, many Freudenstadt residents opposed
federal and state plans to banish the escalating traffic on the
east-west axis Strasbourg-Freudenstadt-Tübingen from the city center
with the help of a tunnel, thereby paving new avenues for urban
development. Retailers in particular feared a drop in sales due to the
reduced through traffic. The citizens' protest was successful, but is
now regarded as the biggest mistake of the post-war period. In 1983 the
municipal indoor swimming pool Panoramabad was opened. Also in the
1980s, the existing Kurhaus was expanded to include a congress center
(see Kurhaus and Kongresszentrum Freudenstadt, it was inaugurated in
1989). In 1986 the population exceeded the limit of 20,000. At the
request of the city, the state government of Baden-Württemberg decided
to designate Freudenstadt as a large district town with effect from
January 1, 1988. In 1989, a spacious underground car park was built
under the upper market square, so that the market square was largely
car-free and declared a pedestrian zone.
A parade was held to
mark the city's 400th anniversary in 1999. The conversion of the lower
market square into the city park was completed with fifty illuminated
fountains and a newly discovered former mine in the immediate vicinity
of today's medical center was opened to the public as a visitor mine. In
2003, Freudenstadt was connected to the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn network with
lines S31 and S41. The yellow vehicles gave day tourism a strong boost
and have shaped the cityscape ever since. In October 2008, work began on
the four-lane expansion of Stuttgarter Strasse (Bundesstrasse 28 in
town) as the city's main artery.
Freudenstadt is located in the north-east of the Black Forest. It is located 66 kilometers (as the crow flies) southwest of Stuttgart and 61 kilometers south of Karlsruhe on a high plateau on the eastern edge of the northern Black Forest at 591 to 968 m above sea level. NN in the Northern Black Forest region. The high plateau lies on the edge of a flat, sloping plain to the east. This is the catchment area of the Glatt, which then flows into the Neckar. Just west of the city center, the site drops steeply to the deep valley of the Forbach, which flows to the Murg. Six kilometers to the south, in the climatic health resort of Lossburg, the Kinzig rises and flows into the Rhine near Kehl. The mostly forest-covered western part of the city rises to the Kniebis pass and from there further up to 968 m above sea level. NN at the Alexanderschanze. The Wolf River has its source south of the Kniebis district.
The following towns and communities border the city of Freudenstadt clockwise, starting in the north: Baiersbronn, Seewald, Grömbach, Pfalzgrafenweiler, Dornstetten, Glatten, Loßburg and Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach (all in the district of Freudenstadt).
The city is located in a Triassic overburden that overlies an older
basement. The prevailing Buntsandstein deposits were disturbed during
the Tertiary by the Freudenstädter Graben, a 12 km long and 7 km wide
graben with faults up to 140 m high. As in the Gäu to the east, the
bottom of the ditch consists of shell limestone. Especially at the edges
of the graben, for example in the Christophstal not far from today's
city center, hydrothermal solutions have formed quartz-heavy spar veins.
A document from 1267 contains a first, albeit weak, reference to
historical mining in the Freudenstadt mining area. There are no further
references from the Middle Ages, the main phase of mining was in the
period from the 16th to the 18th century. As was the rule in the Black
Forest in Württemberg, this encountered great economic difficulties and
was frequently interrupted. Silver, copper and iron ores were mainly
mined. Limonite, which occurs in abundance close to the surface, was
mined for iron extraction and arsenic-rich fahl ore was mined for silver
and later also copper extraction. The sallow ores of the areas in the
overburden show an increased bismuth content.[3] The dismantling led to
the first settlement of the Christophstal around 30 years before the
founding of Freudenstadt.
In 2008, the State Office for Geology,
Raw Materials and Mining identified a "considerable" potential for
barite in comparison to other German vein areas. Test mining is
currently taking place at the Dorothea test tunnel near the valley road
in the Forbachtal.
The urban area of Freudenstadt is divided into the core city of
Freudenstadt with Christophstal and Zwieselberg (together 16,159
inhabitants) and the districts of Dietersweiler and Lauterbad (2256
inhabitants), Grüntal and Frutenhof (1027 inhabitants), Igelsberg (254
inhabitants), Kniebis (947 inhabitants), Musbach (761 inhabitants) and
Wittlensweiler (2186 inhabitants). The districts are in turn subdivided
into villages, hamlets, farms and houses.
See also: List of
places in the district of Freudenstadt
The official naming of the
districts is in the form "Freudenstadt, district ..." With the exception
of Kniebis, the districts are formerly independent communities. In
Freudenstadt, the spurious partial location selection has been
introduced, which means that the urban area is divided into six
residential districts in accordance with the Baden-Württemberg municipal
code. The core city and the Igelsberg district are combined into one
residential district, the remaining residential districts are identical
to the districts. In the districts there are localities within the
meaning of the Baden-Württemberg municipal code with their own local
council and a local mayor as its chairman. In the villages there are
administrative offices of the mayor's office.
Villages and
castles that no longer exist are Hofstätten Castle and the Burgberg
settlement on the Black Forest in the Dietersweiler district,
Schöllkopf, a farmstead that burned down in the Thirty Years' War, the
Wolfhaus settlements and individual farmsteads in the Grüntal district,
Slunwag in the Igelsberg district, and Gallushütte and Hilpertshöfle in
the Musbach district.
Freudenstadt is a medium-sized center within the Northern Black Forest region, in which Pforzheim is designated as a regional center. The towns and communities of Alpirsbach, Bad Rippoldsau-Schapbach, Baiersbronn, Dornstetten, Glatten, Grömbach, Loßburg, Pfalzgrafenweiler, Schopfloch, Seewald, Waldachtal and Wörnersberg belong to the middle center of Freudenstadt.
Already at the beginning of the 20th century there were regular
measurements of the amount of rain, the duration of sunshine and other
climate values. In 1925 an advertisement said: "The city of Freudenstadt
in Württemberg has the highest average number of annual sunny days in
Germany with 64.2 days (determination of the Prussian Meteorological
Institute)".
The average annual temperature between 1990 and 2007
was 7.9 °C. The highest average maximum temperature was 21.2 °C in
August, the lowest average minimum temperature in January at −2.2 °C.
The highest and lowest daily average temperatures are distributed
analogously. The annual amount of precipitation measured between 1961
and 1990 is above average for Germany at 1681.4 millimeters due to the
mountainous location of the city. Quite constant values were recorded
over the year, with the maximum of 189.9 millimeters being recorded in
December. A similar picture emerges for the rainy days, with a fairly
homogeneous distribution of 15.2 days in June and July and 19.7 days in
December. There were an average of 205.6 rainy days per year. With the
average daily hours of sunshine between 1990 and 2007, Freudenstadt
achieved a high value of 4.6, which can probably be attributed to the
fact that there was almost no fog. Most hours of sunshine were recorded
in June (7.1 hours), the least in December with 1.8 hours. Weather data
for Freudenstadt is collected from the German Weather Service's control
room on the elevated Kienberg. The Meteomedia company maintains weather
stations on the market square and in Freudenstadt-Langenwald.
Christophstal, which originally belonged to Dornstetten, was incorporated shortly after the town was founded. The next incorporation followed in 1926 with Zwieselberg (previously the municipality of Reinerzau). The most drastic change came with the regional reform of the state of Baden-Württemberg in the 1970s, according to which Igelsberg was incorporated on July 1, 1971 and Grüntal (with Frutenhof) on January 1, 1972.[50] On January 1, 1975, Dietersweiler (with Lauterbad), Untermusbach (with Obermusbach) and Wittlensweiler followed, as well as the parts of the hamlet of Kniebis that previously belonged to Baiersbronn and Bad Rippoldsau, most of which already belonged to Freudenstadt.
After it was founded in 1599, the city's population grew to between 2,000 and 3,000 by the beginning of 1610, making it part of the group of Swabian cities. After the plague, a town fire, famine and the Thirty Years' War, hardly any people lived in the town in 1652. It took over 200 years for the city to recover in terms of population. In 1849, a census recorded 5,154 inhabitants, around 1930 the ten thousand mark was exceeded, which since then has only been undercut in the war years 1939 to 1945. In 1970, 14,375 citizens were registered as having their main residence in Freudenstadt. Due to the Baden-Württemberg regional reform in the early 1970s, the number of inhabitants grew to 19,454 through incorporations. In 1986, the 20,000-resident threshold was exceeded. Since 1995, the population has remained fairly constant at just under 24,000.
After its founding, the city of Freudenstadt was administered
according to the Württemberg model, i.e. there was a magistrate with
several mayors, who initially bore the name Stadtschultheiss (the term
mayor was introduced in Württemberg in 1930). Since being elevated to
the status of a major district town in 1988, the mayor has held the
official title of Lord Mayor.
On April 13, 2008, Julian Osswald
(CDU) from Erolzheim, former director of the regional association
Donau-Iller, was elected the new mayor with 82.48 percent of the votes
in the first ballot. He had two opponents. He was sworn in on July 2,
2008. On April 24, 2016, he was confirmed in office unopposed with 92.7
percent of the votes.
Former mayors of Freudenstadt are:
from
1605: David Dreher
1608–1612: Jakob Kronabätter
around 1681:
Balthasar (elder) Münster (* 1648; † 1728)
unknown: Johann David
Wölpper (* 1671; † 1741)
1877-1919: Alfred Hartranft
1919-1944:
Ernest Blaicher
1945-1948: Friedrich Rothfuss
1948-1955: Hermann
Saam (FDP/DVP)
1956-1963: Walter Barlin
1964-1983: Gerhard Wolf
1983-1991: Hans H. Pfeifer (SPD)
1991-2008: Erwin Reichert (SPD)
The city of Freudenstadt has an official seal, a coat of arms and a
flag as its national emblem. The city also uses a logo.
Blazon:
"In red under a golden shield head, in it a black deer rod, a golden
'F', accompanied by two pole-wise, turned away silver fish (barbs)."
Justification for the coat of arms: The coat of arms has been used
since 1603. The deer rod symbolizes the Duchy of Württemberg, the barbs
are taken from the coat of arms of the County of Mömpelgard, which at
the time belonged to Württemberg, and the "F" refers to the city's
founder, Duke Friedrich I of Württemberg. Today's blazon of the coat of
arms - originally it had a red field color - was probably only fixed
around 1926.
The city flag has the colors red and white and was
awarded in 1950 by the State Ministry of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
The partnership with the French city of Courbevoie marked the
beginning of the expansion of the German-French city twinning in the
early 1960s and has been pursued intensively since 1961. School
exchanges as well as cultural and local political visits take place
regularly.
In addition, Freudenstadt maintains three city
partnerships.
The friendship with Männedorf in Switzerland has
existed since 1959.
The friendship with Heide in Schleswig-Holstein
has existed since 1989. It is based on the fact that Heide also claims
to own the largest market place in Germany. The cities have now agreed
that both market squares are the same size, with Heide having the
largest undeveloped market square in Germany and Freudenstadt having the
largest built-up market square.
Another city partnership has existed
since 1990 with Schöneck in the Saxon Vogtland.
Some Freudenstadt
schools and clubs maintain a lively exchange with the Polish partner
district Tomaszów Lubelski. There is also a regular student exchange
with the foreign language high school in Lowetsch/Bulgaria.
Among other things, the following networked social institutions are present in the city: The children and youth workshop Eigen-Sinn is intended to promote and develop the personal, social and school skills of children and young people in social group work, so that they can develop their own new strategies for action and conflict resolution and ultimately their own future-oriented life strategy. The Erlacher Höhe, which is also represented in six other districts in Baden-Württemberg, is committed to ensuring that people in social hardship are respected and respected and that social exclusion is reduced. Diakonie supports the poor, marginalized and socially disadvantaged. The multi-generation house Familien-Zentrum-Freudenstadt e. V. provides “social space” in which people, v. a. Mothers and older people can (again) see themselves as part of a community. In the Freudenstadt (KiJuz) children and youth center, open child and youth work is offered for primary school children and young people. Furthermore, the Catholic Young Community (KjG) Freudenstadt offers campaigns in the field of children and youth work. FrauenHilfe Freudenstadt runs a counseling center for women who are affected by violence or fear violence and are urgently looking for help.
Freudenstadt lies on the language border between the Swabian and Alemannic dialects. Within the spatial division of the Swabian dialect, the city is located in the Freudenstadt area, which extends from Alpirsbach via Freudenstadt to the Altensteiger area. The Baiersbronner area borders on the west, the Upper Enz area on the north and the Upper Neckar area on the east. Upper Rhine-Alemannic follows in the south. As in the entire Swabian region, the use of the dialect is still very much alive. The dialect is usually spoken and accepted both in leisure time and at work, in public offices and in schools. However, the trend, especially in the core city and among younger people, is towards a kind of regiolect, a high-level language shaped by dialect.
The Kniebis monastery had a monastery church that had not been used
since 1535 and was burned down by the French in 1799. As a result of the
Württemberg founding, Freudenstadt was for a long time an almost
entirely Protestant town with a so-called Winkelhaken church (see the
section on sights) adapted to the new town plan. Initially, the young
congregation belonged to the deanery or church district of Herrenberg
within the Evangelical Church in Württemberg. In 1672 Freudenstadt
became the seat of its own deanery, which encompassed the entire
Freudenstadt area. At first there was only the evangelical town parish,
in 1960 the Martinskirche was built. Together with the community of
Kniebis, both churches form the overall community of Freudenstadt. There
are also Protestant churches or parishes in the other parts of the city.
In 1901, a separate parish was set up in Dietersweiler, which was
initially a branch parish of Glatten. The church there is of Gothic
origin and was rebuilt in 1745. Grüntal was initially a subsidiary
parish of Dornstetten, but became a parish in its own right as early as
1583. The parish church with a Romanesque tower was built in 1592 by
Heinrich Schickhardt and renovated in 1871. In Igelsberg there is a
Protestant church in the walled cemetery. The municipality of
Untermusbach is a branch municipality of Grüntal. Wittlensweiler has
been a parish since 1899. The old church was renovated in 1968.
In the 19th century a Christian community emerged in Freudenstadt, which
later called itself the Old Pietist Community. Its members call
themselves Apis and belong to the Evangelical Church of Württemberg.
In the 19th century, more and more Catholics moved to Freudenstadt. Already in 1859 they founded their own parish. However, your Church of the Transfiguration of Christ (called the Tabor Church) is a new building from 1931. The parish of the Transfiguration of Christ in Freudenstadt is also responsible for the Catholics in the surrounding area and, together with the Catholic parish of Alpirsbach, forms a pastoral care unit within the Deanery of Freudenstadt in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
Freikirchen are also two congregations and parts of the Social Work South (including the Hohenfreudenstadt Clinic) of the United Methodist Church, the people's mission of committed Christians, the Salvation Army, the Seventh-day Adventists, the Christ Church belonging to the Mülheim Association, the Vineyard Church and the Crossroads International Church, which belongs to the Church of God Germany. A free Christian community has given itself the name GOTOP.
The New Apostolic Church, which belongs to the Apostle area of
Tübingen, is also represented with three congregations. These are
located in Freudenstadt and in the districts of Dietersweiler and
Wittlensweiler.
A Jewish community could never really establish
itself. Around 1870 there were only two Jews living in the city, in 1910
there were 13. It was more common for spa guests of the Jewish faith to
stay in kosher hotels, such as the Villa Germania, which opened in 1907,
or the Hotel Teuchelwald, which opened in 1911. The few local Jews
joined the nearest Jewish community in Horb.
The Turkish-Islamic
Cultural Association e. V. maintains the Fatih Mosque. There is also a
building for Alevi religious ceremonies.
In 2006, the service sector accounted for 54.2 percent of the value
added, and the manufacturing sector for 45.0 percent. Agriculture played
a small role with 0.8 percent. The city ties up an above-average
purchasing power in the northern Black Forest region. In 2005, the total
income per inhabitant was 25,785 euros, the free income amounted to
16,730 euros, 4 percent above the national average. The city had a
commuter surplus of 1,653 workers in 2007. In 1993 there were 205 shops
in Freudenstadt. In 2007, 2,832 guest beds were available in the city
area. The number of overnight stays was 339,292.
Most of the
manufacturing industry is located in the industrial areas. Particularly
worth mentioning are Gebr. Schmid GmbH + Co. (photovoltaics, printed
circuit boards, flat screens), Robert Bürkle GmbH (machines for surface
refinement), Georg Oest Mineralölwerk GmbH & Co. KG (mineral oil works,
petrol stations, mechanical engineering) and Hermann Wein GmbH & Co. KG
(Black Forest ham). The Kreissparkasse Freudenstadt is also one of the
largest employers. The former largest employer in the city, Schlott
Gruppe AG (printed matter), filed for bankruptcy in 2011. The
Freudenstadt plant was shut down and almost all employees were laid off.
Four main roads lead through Freudenstadt.
The federal roads B
28 (Kehl–Ulm) and B 462 (Rastatt–Rottweil) meet at the market square; In
addition, the B 500 (Baden-Baden-Freudenstadt), which runs congruently
with the B 28, ends here. These streets then lead in a west-east
direction on a common route through the city area.
Since 1985,
the north-south B 294 (Bretten–Gundelfingen) has bypassed Freudenstadt
to the east.
After the plans for the A 84 “Schwarzwaldautobahn”
finally failed in the early 1980s, other solutions were planned to
counteract the high volume of traffic, and these are currently being
implemented. This includes the four-lane expansion of the B 28 in the
city center with construction beginning at the end of 2008, as well as
undercutting the city center in a V-shaped tunnel (priority requirement
in the federal traffic route plan).
In 1879, the city was connected to the railroad with the construction
of the Gäubahn, which ran from Stuttgart via Herrenberg and Eutingen im
Gäu to Freudenstadt. Since its continuation into the Kinzig valley was
already planned at that time (and was completed in 1886), the main
station was built in the south-east of the city, relatively far from the
center. In 1901 the Württemberg part of the Murg Valley Railway was
built to Klosterreichenbach. This resulted in the 60 meters higher city
station north of the center, a type IIIb standard station. A continuous
connection to Rastatt (Baden) was established in 1928. Thus,
Freudenstadt is the starting point for three railway lines.
The
Murg Valley Railway is used by the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. The S8 and S81
lines of the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG) connect Freudenstadt
with Karlsruhe via Rastatt. The S8 runs hourly to the center of
Karlsruhe, while the S81 line only runs on the off-peak hours, but
directly to Karlsruhe Central Station. The stations within Freudenstadt
are the main train station, the city train station and the stops at the
Schulzentrum-Panoramabad and the industrial area. All are served by
Stadtbahn trains every half hour during the day. The S8 runs until the
early hours of the morning.
The state capital of Stuttgart can be
reached via the Eutingen im Gäu–Schiltach railway line and further on
the Stuttgart–Horb railway line. Both are also known as Gäubahn. There
is an hourly cycle with increased school traffic. The S8 coming from
Karlsruhe runs every two hours along the route to Eutingen, which has
been electrified since 2006; there is a connection to the
Regional-Express (RE) Stuttgart-Singen. In between there is a direct
connection with the RE from Freudenstadt to Stuttgart Central Station.
As on the Murg Valley Railway, the S8 runs here until the early morning.
Trains run by Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-AG (SWEG) in the
direction of Kinzigtal connect Freudenstadt with Offenburg every hour
via Alpirsbach, Schiltach and Hausach.
Long-distance traffic has
not existed in Freudenstadt since the turn of the millennium. In
Hausach, Horb, Karlsruhe, Offenburg and Rastatt there are options to
change to Intercity (IC) or Intercity-Express (ICE).
The central
bus station (ZOB) with more than 40 bus lines is one of the main traffic
junctions in the Black Forest together with the directly adjacent city
station with the S81 and S8 light rail lines. City buses go to
destinations in the core city. Most communities in the district can be
reached without changing trains or via the Horb junction. Tourist
destinations such as the Mummelsee and the Schliffkopf are also served,
and there are seasonal offers such as ski buses. There are public
transport connections to towns in the neighboring districts, such as
Oberndorf, Wolfach, Altensteig or Dornhan; however, many bus lines,
especially in smaller communities, do not have a dense timetable. In the
nights leading up to Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, the
Nachtexpress night bus service runs in addition to the night-time rail
service.
The network tariff of the Verkehrs-Gemeinschaft
Landkreis Freudenstadt (VGF) and the RegioX ticket offer of the
Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) apply throughout the district.
As regional daily newspapers, both the Schwarzwälder Bote and the
Neckar Chronik of the Südwest Presse report on what is happening on
site. Free weekly newspapers are the WOM of the Black Forest Bote media
company and the indicator. The radio station Freies Radio Freudenstadt
(FRF) is also based there.
The Hotel Palmenwald and various
objects such as the town hall are locations for the ARD television
series Der Schwarzwaldhof, which has been broadcast since 2008.
Freudenstadt is the seat of the District Court, which belongs to the
districts of the Rottweil Regional Court and the Stuttgart Higher
Regional Court. The city is the seat of the district office of the
district of the same name and houses the majority of its administrative
authorities. There is also a tax office.
The city is the seat of
the Freudenstadt church district of the Evangelical Church in
Württemberg. The Protestant school dean for the church districts of
Freudenstadt and Sulz am Neckar has his office in Freudenstadt, but the
Roman Catholic deanery in Freudenstadt is in Horb am Neckar. The
Northern Black Forest Chamber of Commerce and Industry maintains an
office in the Freudenstadt-Wittlensweiler industrial area.
The schools sponsored by the city are the Kepler-Gymnasium and the
Kepler-Hauptschule, both of which are housed in a building complex north
of the center and not far from the sports facilities. South-east towards
the main station is the Falken-Realschule, not far from there is the
Hartranft-Grundschule, an open all-day school with a branch in the
Kniebis district. The Theodor-Gerhard elementary school with integrated
Werkrealschule as the second elementary school in the core city is
located opposite the Kepler schools mentioned above. The districts of
Dietersweiler and Wittlensweiler each have their own primary school.
The schools sponsored by the district include the Eduard Spranger
School, a business school with an economics grammar school, the Heinrich
Schickhardt School as a commercial and technical school with a technical
grammar school, and the Luise Büchner School as a home economics school
with a nutritional grammar school. All three schools are housed in a
building complex in the northeast of the center near the main cemetery
and have their own S-Bahn station. The Christophorus School, a special
needs school, is to the north near the Black Forest Center.
Since
January 1, 2009, the Rastatt State Education Authority has been the
lower school supervisory authority for elementary, secondary, (factory)
secondary schools and special schools in Freudenstadt. The grammar
schools are initially subordinate to the Regional Council of Karlsruhe.
In Freudenstadt there are two private schools, the Oberlinhaus
Protestant vocational school for child care to the north-west and the
free Waldorf school not far from the main train station.
After
the city was unable to continue running its youth music school in 2005
for financial reasons, a sponsoring association was formed consisting of
music teachers from the Kepler high school, church musicians from the
two large churches and other committed citizens, who founded the
Freudenstadt Region Music and Art School in 2006. V. brought into being.
Her work has meanwhile won numerous prizes at Jugend musiziert and other
competitions.
In the city there is also a state seminar for
didactics and teacher training (primary, practical and secondary
schools). The Eduard von Hallberger Institute offers prospective foreign
students at German-speaking universities language and study preparation
courses. Freudenstadt is also the seat of the University Institute for
Psychology and Pastoral Care (IPS) of the Gustav Siewerth Academy. The
European Theological Seminary in the Kniebis district offers study
opportunities in theology.
Johannes Ettwein (1721–1802), bishop of the Moravian Church in
Pennsylvania
Johann Gottfried Küstner (1803–1864), lithographer
Julius Schmidlin (1811–1881), Württemberg chief magistrate
Ferdinand
Thrän (1811–1870), master builder at Ulm Minster
Heinrich Stahl
(1834–1906), senior magistrate of Württemberg
Heinrich Georgii
(1842–1926), classical philologist and high school teacher
Emil
Noellner (1847–?), architect and decorative painter in Breslau
Max
Bauder (1877–after 1935), architect
Wilhelm Baessler (1878–1975),
hotelier and politician (CDU)
Theodor Bauder (1888–1945), civil
engineer and SA leader
Theo-Helmut "Theobald" Lieb (1889–1981),
Lieutenant General in World War II
Otto Steurer (1893-1959), doctor,
university lecturer and rector of the University of Rostock
Friedrich
Eberhardt (1895–1971), painter, graphic artist and craftsman
David
Fahrner (1895–1962), sculptor and draftsman
Gerhard Pfahler
(1897-1976), psychologist and educationalist, involved in the "race
psychology" of National Socialism
Albert Schmierer (1899–1974), Reich
Pharmacy Guide
Paul Kollsman (1900–1982), inventor
Kurt Walter
Merz (1900–1967), chemist and pharmacologist
Helmut Kunz (1910–1976),
dentist, NSDAP member and member of the Waffen SS
Gustav Memminger
(1913–1991) National Socialist functionary, entrepreneur
Friedrich
Stock (1913–1978), MdL and parliamentary group leader of the
Baden-Württemberg FDP/DVP
Rolf E. Straub (1920–2011), Professor of
Painting Technology at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart
Franz Lazi (1922–1998), industrial and advertising photographer and
documentary filmmaker
Gerhard Hertel (1924-2007), tax official, local
politician and local researcher
Eugen Mahler (1927–2019), internist,
artist and professor emeritus at the University of Kassel for
psychoanalysis and group dynamics
Arno Votteler (1929–2020),
industrial designer
Hermann Braun (* 1932), philosopher and
university lecturer
Hans-Martin Gauger (born 1935), Romance
philologist, linguist and author
Karl-August Schaal (1935–2017),
politician (The Republicans)
Hermann Wagner (born 1941), physician
Waltraud Monika Fischer (1944–1991), painter and graphic artist
Günter Mahler (1945–2016), physicist
Gerhard Walter (born 1949),
legal scholar
Klaus Fischer (born 1950), entrepreneur
Ludwig
Duncker (* 1951) educational scientist and university lecturer
Michael Schultz (1951–2021), gallery owner and art dealer
Hartmut
Volle (born 1953), actor
Johannes Schweikle (born 1960), journalist
and author
Michael Volle (born 1960), opera singer (baritone)
Christine Walde (born 1960), classical philologist
Hardy Hermann
(born 1961), professional dancer, dance coach and dance sport official
Jörg Frey (* 1962), Protestant New Testament scholar
Birgit Bergmann
(* 1963), politician (FDP), member of the Bremen Parliament
Klaus N.
Frick (born 1963), editor-in-chief of the science fiction series Perry
Rhodan
Carl Finkbeiner (born 1964), cinematographer
Harald Schmid
(born 1964), political scientist and contemporary historian
Manfred
Bischoff (born 1968), civil engineer
Detlef Roth (born 1970), opera
and concert singer
Rainer Rothfuss (* 1971), geographer and
politician (CSU, AfD)
Roland Braun (born 1972), Nordic Combined
Henriette Gaertner (born 1975), pianist
Dunja Dogmani (* 1977),
actress, dubbing and radio play speaker and director
Mario Glaser
(born 1978), independent politician
Benjamin Stoll (born 1979),
actor, director and author
Robert Marijanović (born 1980), darts
player
Jens Kaufmann (born 1984), Nordic Combined
Petra Lammert (*
1984), track and field athlete in the shot put discipline
Simone
Hirth (born 1985), writer
Benjamin Huber (born 1985), soccer
goalkeeper
Marcel Schuon (born 1985), soccer player
Sebastian
Schwarz (born 1985), volleyball player
Selene Kapsaski (born 1986),
German-English writer, film director and producer, actress and
cinematographer
Katrin Schindele (* 1987), politician (CDU)
Andreas Günter (* 1988), Nordic Combined
Andrea Rothfuss (born 1989),
alpine skier
Rahel Kapsaski (born 1991), German-English actress, film
producer and model
Sinan Tekerci (born 1993), soccer player
Frederick I (1557–1608), founder of Freudenstadt
Heinrich
Schickhardt (1558–1635), architect of Freudenstadt
Eberhard Gmelin
(1751-1809), founder of Heilbronn hypnosis
Karl Burger (1883–1959),
national soccer player
Georg Lindemann (1884–1963), Colonel General
in World War II
Wolfgang Kohlrausch (1888-1980), founder of German
physiotherapy and head of the Hohenfreudenstadt sanatorium
Hans
Rommel (1890-1979), senior teacher, city archivist and founder of the
"Freudenstadt homeland sheets"
Martin Haug (1895-1983), Bishop of the
Evangelical Church in Württemberg
Hanns Vogts (1900–1976), writer
Klaus Mehnert (1906–1984), political journalist, publicist and author
Ludwig Schweizer (1910–1989), architect, city planning officer
Margret Hofheinz-Döring (1910–1994), painter, apartment in Freudenstadt
from 1953 to 1974
Friedrich Schlott (born June 10, 1914 in Kirchbach,
† December 21, 1997 in Freudenstadt), entrepreneur, patron and
benefactor of the city
Joseph Abileah (originally Wilhelm Niswiszki)
(1915–1994), Israeli violinist and peace activist, 1948 first convicted
Israeli conscientious objector, died in Freudenstadt
Wolfgang
Altendorf (1921–2007), writer, publisher and painter
Werner J. Egli
(born 1943), Swiss writer
Wolfgang Tzschupke (* 1945), forest
scientist, municipal councilor
Costa Cordalis (1944–2019),
German-speaking pop singer; lived in the Kniebis district
Jürgen
Klopp (* 1967), soccer player and coach, graduated from the Eduard
Spranger School in Freudenstadt
Kevin Kurányi (born 1982), soccer
player; completed his school education at the Kepler secondary school
from 1997