Ettlingen is situated at the northern edge of the Black Forest on the Upper Rhine Plain. The Alb River arises in the hills of the Black Forest and flows through Ettlingen before emptying into the Rhine at Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, making Ettlingen a central feature of the Albtal, the Alb Valley. Central Ettlingen and its largest constituent communities (Bruchhausen, Ettlingenweier, Oberweier) lie on the plain itself, but some of the villages (Spessart, Schöllbronn, and Schluttenbach) are nestled among the northernmost foothills of the Black Forest.
Since the major communal reforms enacted by Baden-Württemberg in the early 1970s, the municipality of Ettlingen has consisted of the town of Ettlingen itself and the communities of Bruchhausen, Ettlingenweier, Oberweier, Schluttenbach, Schöllbronn, and Spessart.
History
Ettlingen was an important crossroads during Roman times, when the region was part of the province of Germania Superior. This is demonstrated by the many artifacts found in the area, including the "Neptune Stone," which commemorates a flood of the Rhine, and the remains of a Roman bath excavated beneath St. Martin's Church. The town was first mentioned in 788 as "Ediningom" in a deed of donation belonging to Weissenburg Abbey in Alsace (now in France). In 965, the village of Ettlingen ("Ediningom") received market rights (Marktrecht) from Emperor Otto the Great. In 1192, Emperor Henry VI, one of Frederick Barbarossa's sons. Margrave Herman V of Baden-Baden became Ettlingen's feudal lord in 1219. In the following centuries, Ettlingen developed into an important administrative centre within the Margraviate of Baden-Baden.
Ettlingen remained an independent town until 1937, when it was incorporated into the administrative unit that would become the district of Karlsruhe in 1939. Ettlingen and its surrounding villages and land continue to be part of this district.
In 1966, Ettlingen passed the 20,000 population mark and raised to the status of Große Kreisstadt by the state government of Baden-Württemberg. During the communal reforms of the early 1970s, several smaller communities were incorporated into Ettlingen, raising the population to over 30,000. Ettlingen's renowned open-air theater series, the Schlossfestspiele first took the stage in the Baroque inner courtyard of Ettlingen Palace in 1979.
Religions
Ettlingen was originally a part of the ancient Diocese of Speyer and was under the pastoral care of the Archdeacon of St. German and Moritz in Speyer. The town originally belonged to the deanery of Durlach but was itself made archdeaconate in the 16th century. The Protestant Reformation made gains in Ettlingen as early as 1520, but the town remained mostly Catholic, and the town's Catholic majority was supported by the Catholic line of Baden-Baden; later, starting in 1624, the Jesuits played an active role in converting many of the town's inhabitants back to the Catholic faith. By the beginning of the 19th century, Protestants were a small minority.
St. Martin's Church
During the period of secularization following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Ettlingen was part of the ordinariate of Bruchsal. In 1821, it became part of the newly founded Archdiocese of Freiburg, and the town was made the seat of a deanery, which included not only the parishes within Ettlingen proper, but also those in surrounding villages and neighboring municipalities. Today, Ettlingen belongs to the deanery of Karlsruhe, with the various parishes organized into pastoral units (Seelsorgeeinheiten). These include Ettlingen Stadt, with the parishes Herz Jesu (Sacred Heart), Liebfrauen (Our Lady), and St. Martin's, the town's oldest church; Ettlingen South, with St. Dionysius' in Ettlingenweier, St. Wendelin's in Oberweier, and St. Joseph's in Bruchhausen; and Ettlingen Heights, with St. George's in Völkersbach, St. Boniface's in Schöllbronn, and St. Anthony's in Spessart, although Völkersbach belongs politically to the municipality of Malsch.
Jewish families lived in Ettlingen since at least the 14th century.[4] They lived primarily in Färbergasse ('Dyers' Alley), which was formerly known as "Judengasse" (Jews' Alley). The Jews of Ettlingen paid a protection tax of 16 florins in the 18th century, which was reduced to 8 florins in 1812. Ettlingen's first synagogue was built on Albstraße in 1849, only to be torn down again when a new synagogue was built on Pforzheimerstraße and dedicated in 1889. The "New Synagogue" was itself destroyed during the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938. About two thirds of the remaining Jewish citizens of Ettlingen emigrated during the Nazi era and the rest were deported to concentration camps.[5]
Protestants (Lutherans), most of whom had moved to Ettlingen since the early 19th century, were first administered from Rüppurr, but in 1848 they received their own clergyman, and in 1869 their own parish (Johannesgemeinde - Congregation of St. John), which soon got its own church, the oldest Protestant church in Ettlingen. The Johannesgemeinde belonged to the city deanery of Karlsruhe at first, but was later transferred over to the deanery of Alb-Pfinz with its seat in Pfinztal. The congregation continued to grow and was eventually divided in 1951, creating the Paulusgemeinde (Congregation of St. Paul). The Paulusgemeinde had a parish hall built in 1953, adding a bell tower in 1965. The Paulusgemeinde was split up in 1972 to create the Luthergemeinde (Luther Congregation), which caters to the Protestants of Ettlingen West, Bruchhausen, Ettlingenweier, and Oberweier. From 1969 to 2003, Ettlingen was the seat of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Baden's district of Central Baden. However, in the wake of efforts to save money, this district was dissolved and Ettlingen incorporated into the district of North Baden.
Ettlingen is the location of Rheinland Kaserne. Formerly a German Army base, for many years after World War II Rheinland Kaserne was the home of several U.S. Army units and many Americans. In the mid-nineties, the U.S. Army handed the barracks back to Germany. It is now home to a private school, medical offices, a vehicle registration centre, new housing and the Kulisse movie theatre.
Among the U.S. Army units based in Rheinland Kaserne were the 78th Engineer Battalion and 44th Signal Battalion.
Public transport
Trains on lines S1 and S11 of the Stadtbahn Karlsruhe call at the stops Ettlingen Erbprinz/Schloss, Ettlingen Wasen and Ettlingen Stadt. These lines operate over the Alb Valley Railway, an electric railway that links Karlsruhe to Bad Herrenalb (S1) and Ittersbach (S11).[6] The town is also served by several buses run by the Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund, with routes serving various neighbourhoods of Ettlingen, as well as more distant destinations like Durlach.
^Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. p. 111. ISBN1-85367-276-9.
^Fuehrer durch die juedische Wohlfahrtspflege (1932/33), 348; Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 232–3; F.M. Hundsnurscher and G. Taddey, Die juedischen Gemeinden in Baden (1967), index.
^Fuehrer durch die juedische Wohlfahrtspflege (1932/33), 348; Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 232–3; F.M. Hundsnurscher and G. Taddey, Die juedischen Gemeinden in Baden (1967), index.
