Schwäbisch Hall (or Hall for short) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg; it is the capital of the district
Schwäbisch Hall. The town is placed in
the valley of the river Kocher in the
north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg. Today, about 36,000 people live in Hall.
Name
Literally translated, the name means Swabian fountain of salt, referring to a
place where salty water was distilled to produce salt.
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, in connection with the
establishment of St. Michaels Church in Hall. The village probably belonged first to the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg and
fell 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 is 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 a Imperial Free City
(Reichsstadt) of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian granted a constitution that
settled inner 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. Head of the council was the Stättmeister (mayor). A second phase of inner 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 civic 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 acquired systematically a big 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. Michaels Church (rebuilt 1427-1526) with it's impressive stairway (1507). The town turned very early to the
Protestant Reformation. Johannes Brenz, a follower of Martin Luther, was made pastor of St. Michaels Church in 1522 and quickly began to reform the church and the school system in a Lutheran sense.
In 1680 and especially in 1728 fires destroyed
much of the city, which lead to baroque new buildings, such as the city hall.
Hall lost its Imperial Free City status in 1802, becoming an Oberamtsstadt in
Württemberg. Ownership of the saltworks was handed over to the state.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Hall 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, in 1944 a
concentration camp was established next to the train station
Hall-Hessental.
Industry
With the dwindling importance of salt, Hall was looking for new industries. Today it is known for the Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG, a housing credit company, founded 1944, as well as a
local center for service industries.
In the 1970s, Hall was enlarged by some agricultural villages which then became part
of the municipality.
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