Schwäbisch Hall
| Schwäbisch Hall | ||
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Marktplatz in Christmas time
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 Schwäbisch Hall
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Location of Schwäbisch Hall within Schwäbisch Hall district
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| Coordinates: 49°6′44″N 9°44′15″E / 49.11222°N 9.73750°ECoordinates: 49°6′44″N 9°44′15″E / 49.11222°N 9.73750°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Baden-Württemberg | |
| Admin. region | Stuttgart | |
| District | Schwäbisch Hall | |
| Government | ||
| • Lord Mayor | Hermann-Josef Pelgrim (SPD) | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 104.23 km2 (40.24 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 304 m (997 ft) | |
| Population (2015-12-31) | ||
| • Total | 38,827 | |
| • Density | 370/km2 (960/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 74523 | |
| Dialling codes | 0791, 07907 (Sulzdorf, Tüngental), 07977 (Sittenhardt, Wielandsweiler) | |
| Vehicle registration | SHA, CR | |
| Website | www.schwaebischhall.de | |
| Imperial City of [Swabian] Hall | ||||||||||
| Reichsstadt [Schwäbisch] Hall | ||||||||||
| Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Schwäbisch Hall | |||||||||
| Government | Republic | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Founded | Uncertain | ||||||||
| • | Gained Reichsfreiheit | 1280 | ||||||||
| • | Erste Zwietracht | 1340 | ||||||||
| • | Zweite Zwietracht | 1510–12 | ||||||||
| • | End of Swedish occupation | 1650 | ||||||||
| • | Mediatised to Württemberg | 1802 1802 | ||||||||
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Schwäbisch Hall (German pronunciation: [ˈʃvɛːbɪʃ ˈhal]), or Hall for short is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and capital of the district of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is located in the valley of the Kocher river in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg.
Hall was a Free Imperial City for five centuries until it was annexed by Württemberg in 1802.
"Schwäbisch" refers to the Swabian League (German: Schwäbischer Bund). The origin of the second part of the name, "Hall", is unclear. It might be derived from a West Germanic word family that means "drying something by heating it", possibly referring to the open-pan salt making method used there until the saltworks closed down in 1925.
Salt was produced from brine by the Celts at the site of Schwäbisch Hall as early as the fifth century. The town was first mentioned in a document called Öhringer Stiftungsbrief dating from 1063. The village probably belonged first to the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg and went 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. Hall flourished through the production of salt and coins. Since 1204 it has been 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 Rudolph I of Habsburg; this allowed the undisturbed development into an Free Imperial City (Reichsstadt) of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian granted a constitution that settled internal conflicts (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. The head of the council was the Stättmeister (mayor). A second phase of internal conflicts 1510–12 (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 families who turned into a new ruling class. Amongst them where the Bonhöffers, the ancestors of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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