Ebringen

This article is about Ebringen near Freiburg im Breisgau. There is also a village named Ebringen near Lake Constance, part of the municipality Gottmadingen and a village Ebring (German: Ebringen), part of the municipality Tenteling in Lorraine, France.

Ebringen
Coat of arms of Ebringen Coat of arms
Ebringen
Location of Ebringen within Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district
Coordinates:
Country	Germany
State	Baden-Württemberg
Admin. region	Freiburg
District	Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald
Government
• Mayor	Rainer Mosbach
Area
• Total	8.18 km2 (3.16 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)
• Total	2,773
• Density	340/km2 (880/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	79285
Dialling codes	07664
Vehicle registration	FR
Website	www.ebringen.de

Ebringen (Breisgau) is a municipality in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.

Geography

Ebringen is located about 5 km (3 mi) south of Freiburg at the Schoenberg and belongs to the Freiburg metropolitan area.

The entire area of the municipality is located in the Schoenberg range, foothills of the Black Forest, which is geologically a part of the Rhine Rift Valley. The Schoenberg is characterized by a very diverse surface geology from all periods of the Mesozoic, Paleogene volcanism and glacial loess deposits.

Politics

Local ordinance is the Gemeindeordnung of Baden-Wuerttemberg. The elected mayor is both chairman of the parish council and head of the local administration.

Council

List	% 2014	Seats 2014	% 2009	Seats 2009	% 2004	Seats 2004	% 1999	Seats 1999	Seats 1994	Notes
CDU (Christ-Democratic Union of Germany)	21,3	3	27,1	3	27,5	3	31,0	4	4
Bürgerliste (Citizens' List)	18,9	2	23,5	3	24,7	3	29,5	4	4
Bürger für Ebringen (Citizens for Ebringen)	26,3	3	23,3	3	21,6	3	17,6	2	2
Frauenliste (Women's List)	21,6	3	17,2	2	18,2	2	14,6	2	1
Perspektive für Ebringen (Perspective for Ebringen)	12,0	1	8,9	1	8,0	1	-	-	-	A
SPD (Socialdemocratic Party of Germany)	-	-	-	-	-	-	7,3	0	1

Notes

A: In the election of 2004 and 2009 as FDP/DVP

After the election in 2014 women's share in the council is again at five councillors (42%), like in the election of 2009. Between 2013 and 2014 women's share climbed at 6 (50%), as a woman succeeded a retired male councillor. After the election of 1989 there's been only one woman in a council with ten seats. In the current legislature, the councillors are born between 1948 and 1968.

Mayors

• since 2006 Rainer Mosbach
• 1990–2006 Hans-Joerg Thoma
• 1963–1990 Eugen Schueler
• 1947–1962 Otto Missbach
• 1945-1947 Max Alfons Zimmermann (again)
• 1933–1942 Josef Franz
• 19??-1933 Max Alfons Zimmermann
• 1904-19?? Josef Bechtold
• 1892–1904 Julius Schueler
• 18??-1892 Alois Linsenmeier
• 1877-1880 Johann Maenner
• 1860-18?? Sebastian Schueler
• 1825–1860 Aloys Mayer (title up to 1832 Vogt, German pronunciation: [foːkt])
• ~1780-1794 Joseph Linsenmeier

History

Ebringen is known for the oldest recorded viticulture between Freiburg and Basel. Although there is archaeological evidence for viticulture having been introduced in the region by the Romans sometime in the first century AD, Ebringen is mentioned next to an Openwilare in a donation of vineyards and farmland to the Monastery of St Gall: "Propterea vernacula terra juris mei in loco qui dicitur Openwilare, Tradimus sancto Galloni viginti juchos, et in Eberingen unum Juchum de vinea." The document dates from a 16 January in the reign of the Frankish king Chilperic II, who reigned from June 715 to February 721. No year is given and only a ruling king Chilperic is mentioned. The reign of Chilperic I (561-584) can be ruled out, since at that time the monastery of St Gall did not exist. There have not been any more Chilperics, so the date can be limited to the period between 716 and 721. The political situation in Francia makes the assumption of an origin in the years 717/718 most likely.

The neighbouring villages Pfaffenweiler and Wolfenweiler both claim to be identical with Openwilare. That's not likely and current scientific consensus sees in Openwilare an abandoned hamlet in northern Schneckental half way between Wolfenweiler and Pfaffenweiler.

The donation of 716/721 is the first recorded donation of land to the Monastery of St Gall. So Ebringen marks both the beginning and the end of the Monastery of St Gall, as it was in 1805 also the abbey's last territory.

8th century - 1349: first St Gall rule

From the first mention until 1349 Ebringen was under the direct rule of the abbey of Saint Gall in today's Switzerland.

In a record of 817 Talhausen is mentioned for the first time.

In a record of 968 Berghausen is mentioned for the first time.

In 1207 St. Gall became an independent (immediate) principality, over which the abbots ruled as territorial sovereigns ranking as Princes (prince-abbots) of the Holy Roman Empire.

In the first half of the 13th century Ebringen became the centre of the St Gall administration in the Breisgau region. Before then, St Gall's administration of its Breisgau possessions had been located in Wittnau, 5 km (3 miles) east of Ebringen in the Hexental between Schoenberg and the Black Forest. But in the 13th century the influence of the abbey in the Breisgau declined. Direct rule was replaced by fiefs in the hands of aristocrats, leaving only Ebringen under the direct rule of the abbey in the 14th century.

In 1312 the Schneeburg (Schneeberg Castle) on the western summit of the Schoenberg is mentioned for the first time, owned by the Lords of Hornberg. At this time the castle's territory on the Schoenberg was independent from Ebringen.

1349 - 1621: aristocratic rule, Ebringen as a fief of St Gall

Today's Ebringen territory was split before 1349 into the villages of Ebringen, Talhausen, Berghausen and the (Mount) Schoenberg with the Schneeburg Castle, all with unclear borders. During the aristocratic rule those territories became united and the borders were defined.

In the summer of 1349 - when the Black Death reached both St Gall and the Breisgau - about 25 - 50% of all people died. The casualties in Ebringen were not reported or the records were lost. As in the middle of the 14th century the financial situation of the abbey St Gall was strained, from time to time abbot Hermann von Bonstetten sold estates, benefices and properties of the abbey. In this context on November 9, 1349 the provostship of Ebringen was transformed into a fief of St Gall, ruled by an aristocrat. Werner von Hornberg donated his property Schneeburg Castle and Schoenberg to the abbey St Gall. In return, the abbey gave it back to him as a fief, together with direct rule over Ebringen, Talhausen and Berghausen. So the main part of the Schoenberg became part of Ebringen's territory. The fief also included the abbey's other easements and properties in the Breisgau, so the contract with Werner von Hornberg marks the end of St Gall's direct rule in the Breisgau. It was a contract to their mutual benefit. Werner von Hornberg needed an ally against the claims of Freiburg's nobility on the Schoenberg. St Gall wasn't able to maintain direct rule in a distant territory any longer and needed the support of a local noble family.

In 1430 the municipal border between Wolfenweiler and Ebringen was decided by arbitration, except for the (Mount) Hohfirst. However, only very few landmarks have been set, so the exact boundary remained disputed in many places.

About 1450 the hamlet Berghausen was abandoned except for some isolated dwellings which may have existed there until the Thirty Years' War.

In the first decade of the 15th century, the House of Habsburg, the Austrian dynasty originating in the region, appeared as territorial suzerain in the Breisgau. In 1469 Ebringen's Lord Hans von Em(b)s is mentioned as a knight of the Austrian Breisgau. This means that sometime in the early 15th century Ebringen became a mediate Austrian territory.

Since the exact borderline between Wolfenweiler and Ebringen was more and more disputed, after arbitration in 1563 the demarcation was defined exactly by more landmarks, including the Hohfirst

In 1565 Ebringen's borders with Bollschweil and Soelden were also determined. So the Ebringen area mainly acquired its present shape.

In 1582 Austria adopted the Gregorian calendar like most other catholic territories in the Holy Roman Empire, so the calendar was introduced in Ebringen. The protestant territories still used the Julian calendar. So from then on the official date differed by ten days between Ebringen and its neighbouring village Wolfenweiler.

In 1584 Ebringen suffered an outbreak of the plague.

Ruling aristocrats and noble families

von Hornberg 1349-1458

1349 - ~1370 Werner von Hornberg

~1370 - bef. 1402 Ulrich von Hornberg, son of Werner von Hornberg

bef. 1402 - 1408 Brun Werner von Hornberg, son of Ulrich von Hornberg

1408 - 1419 Bertold S(ch)newlin, brother-in-law of Brun Werner von Hornberg

1419 - 1426 Konrad Dietrich von Katzenhausen, father of Beningosa von Katzenhausen

1426 - 1458 Konrad von Hornberg, son of Brun Werner, married with Beningosa von Katzenhausen

1458 Beningosa von Katzenhausen, widow of Konrad von Hornberg, died about 1469

von Ems 1458-1499

1458 - ~1490 Hans von Ems, second husband of Beningosa von Katzenhausen

~1490 - 1499 Joerg von Ebenstein, son-in-law of Hans von Ems and his widow

von Falkenstein 1499-1559

1499 - ~1533 Sigmund von Falkenstein, second husband of Joerg von Ebenstein's widow Helena von Hohenems

~1533 - 1559 Christoph von Falkenstein

von Bodman 1559-1580

1559 - 1561 Hans Wolf von Bodman

1561 - 1580 Ludwig von Bodman zu Bodman

von Hohenlandenberg 1580-1621

1580 - 1588 Hugo Gerwig von Hohenlandenberg

1588 - 1621 Hans Dietrich von Hohenlandenberg

1621 - 1807: second St Gall rule

Also during the second St Gall rule Ebringen was a part of Anterior Austria and thus a mediate St Gall territory in the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the abbey's Swiss territories were immediate and associated with the Old Swiss Confederacy. The first half of the second St Gall rule was characterized by frequent French attacks on the Breisgau. During the French invasions and the French occupations of Freiburg, Ebringen was regularly sacked by French troops. The second St Gall rule was an age of immigration of new families and especially after 1713, when French interventions in the Breisgau became rare, also of continuous population growth. The population doubled from about 500 after the end of the Thirty years' War in 1648 at exactly 1000 in the census of 17 February 1792.

As a consequence of the Thirty Years' War and its high civilian losses, warfare in Central Europe became much more regulated in the following century. In the era of the cabinet wars between 1648 and 1789 the opponents tried to spare the civilian population. Plundering was often a kind of confiscation, as the people got the opportunity to redeem their property from the looters. Excesses against civilians and destructions of buildings became rare or at least less brutal. Nevertheless, less brutal is a relative term. Ebringen has been sacked quite often in the century after the Thirty Years' War, mostly by French mercenaries, but also by Austrian troops.

Local political system

In the Holy Roman Empire the respective rights and duties of the nobility, clergy and commoners were strict and regulated in detail. The rights and the duties of the municipality of Ebringen were defined by treaties between the municipality and the ruling nobility or clergy, court decisions, traditional rights and duties and Austrian and St Gall law. This system had the character of a local constitution. The revised version of 1560 was valid until the end of the St Gall rule and in some parts up to the introduction of the Badische Gemeindeordnung in 1832.

During the second St Gall rule Ebringen was a domain of the Princely Abbey and was integrated into its political system. But unlike the abbey's Swiss territories, Ebringen remained part of Anterior Austria under Austrian supremacy. Austria was among other things responsible for the legislative, the high courts and for defence and had the right to levy taxes.

The local St Gall authorities, headed by the governor, were the supreme local executive, representing both the ecclesiastical and secular power. They were appointed directly by the Abbey of St Gall, independently from the Austrian government. The citizens were de jure serfs of St Gall. During the second St Gall rule this meant, that the people had to pay local taxes instead of a corvée of three days per year, as corvée labour wasn't very efficient. Other forms of socage were still in use. In official documents the term Leibeigener (serf) was more and more replaced by Burger (citizen).

The citizens were organized in the municipality of Ebringen, headed by a vogt (German pronunciation: [foːkt], derived from Latin advocatus). All municipal officials including the vogt were appointed by the governor in his own right. The municipality had self-government in matters that concerned the citizens themselves. This included both administration and civil jurisdiction. The court was the supreme municipal institution. The court consisted of twelve judges and the vogt as its chairman. The court also had some functions of a municipal council.

During the aristocratic rule the ruling noble families changed quite often, so the municipality tried with some success to expand the rights of the commoners and the municipality and to reduce the rights of the nobility and clergy. When St Gall took over Ebringen in 1621, the local ordinance of 1560 remained valid.

Between 1760 and 1785 Emperor Joseph II attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state. The josephinism with compulsory schooling, end of villeinage, reform of justice etc also affected Ebringen as a mediate Austrian territory under direct St Gall rule. Furthermore Emperor Joseph also tried to reduce the influence of the pope as he tried to establish an Austrian State Church. He secularized ecclesiastical properties and dissolved half of all the Austrian monasteries, especially those of contemplative orders. The rule of St Gall in Ebringen was both secular and ecclesiastical, and Anterior Austria was far away from Vienna, so the impact of the reforms was not so drastic as in central Austria. More importantly, the Princely Abbey of St Gall was the only Austrian ally in the Swiss Confederacy, so it was not in Austria's interest to weaken St Gall as its only Swiss ally.

Religious and Social Life

In the second St Gall rule Ebringen was a catholic village, no other cult was allowed, unlike in the Princely Abbey's Swiss territories, where the abbey also had to allow the protestant cult.

In family law it was common at least until the end of the St. Gall rule, that wives kept their maiden name for life, but legitimate children received the family name of their father. Deeds of ownership, church records, the census of 1792 and also Ildefons von Arx in his chronicle mention wives and widows always with their birth name, sometimes referring to their husbands with wife of.

Chronology

On 21 November 1621 the Abbey of St Gall bought back the undivided rule over Ebringen for 71,800 guilders from Hans Dietrich von Hohenlandenberg. The very next day the first St Gall officials arrived. Norsingen, 5 km (3 mi) southwest of Ebringen, had been under direct St Gall rule again since 1607. Ebringen again became the centre of the St Gall administration in the Breisgau. The abbey's possessions consisted of the direct rule over Ebringen and Norsingen and easements and properties in other locations in the Breisgau. Ebringen was next to St Gall, Wil, Rohrschach and Neu St. Johann residence of a governor of the Princely Abbey.

In 1622 bailiff Georg Buol got the right to hold the blood court by the Prince-Abbot. The self-administration of the blood court inflicting corporal punishment, including the death penalty, was an important factor of imperial immediacy. So this act indicates a highly independent status of Ebringen from the Austrian suzerain.

In 1629 Ebringen was hit by the later so called Italian plague.

In 1630 Sweden intervened in the Thirty Years' War and soon after, the fighting also reached the Breisgau. Towards the end of 1632 Swedish troops occupied Freiburg. In 1633 Friedrich Ludwig Kanoffsky (1592-1645) from Bohemia became commander of the Swedish garrison. Sweden was allied with the Margravate of Baden-Durlach, the predecessor of the later Grand-Duchy of Baden, which ruled over Ebringen's neighbouring villages Wolfenweiler and Schallstadt.

In early June 1633 Austrian troops from Breisach had devastated some villages of the Margravate between Freiburg and Basel. In return on 19 June 1633 allied Swedish-Baden troops, commanded by Margrave Frederick of Baden-Durlach, massacred more than 300 people of Ebringen's neighbouring Austrian villages Pfaffenweiler, Oehlinsweiler, Kirchhofen and Ehrenstetten at Kirchhofen's manor house. In October 1633 Spanish troops ousted the Swedish occupants and returned Freiburg to Austria.

In 1637 the St Gall administration left Ebringen due to the very insecure situation in the war. Also most of Ebringen's people left the village and fled to the Sundgau, to Switzerland and to villages in the Black Forest. Most of the buildings in Talhausen - 30 houses were reported for the time before 1630 - and the last dwellings of Berghausen had been destroyed in the Swedish War. The Schoenberger Hof, a farmyard, with its fields was abandoned. In the following decades, a forest grew up there.

In 1638 Freiburg was occupied by a coalition of France and Saxe-Weimar. Freiburg got a system of fortifications which included parts of Ebringen's territory on the Schoenberg. Friedrich Kanoffsky, who served now for Weimar, again became commander of the garrison. Bernard of Saxe-Weimar established a Saxe-Weimar Duchy in the Breisgau, making Breisach its capital. After Bernard of Saxe-Weimar died in 1639, France took control over the territory of its former ally. Commander Kanoffsky didn't accept the French claim for sovereignty over Freiburg at first.

In 1640 Commander Kanoffsky took control over Ebringen, claiming it as personal property, ignoring all appeals of St Gall to return Ebringen to the abbey. Appeals of the Swiss Confederacy to the French court to reinstate St Gall rule remained fruitless until 1646.

In 1642 Kanoffsky eventually had to accept French sovereignty over Freiburg.

In summer 1644 Bavarian troops regained Freiburg for the Holy Roman Empire. Kanoffsky and his garrison were permitted to withdraw to Breisach. France tried to recapture the city soon after. While French troops set up camp on the Batzenberg, 3 km (2 mi) south west of Ebringen, waiting for additional troops, Bavarian troops fortified the Bohl, the western foothill of the Schoenberg, just about 0,5 km (0,3 mi) above Ebringen.

On 3 August 1644 French troops captured Bohl hill in an uphill battle, despite high casualties (about 1000 losses on the French side, 200 on the Bavarian side). Heavy rain interrupted the French attack on Freiburg, so the Bavarian defenders had time enough to reallocate their troops at the Schlierberg (now Lorettoberg) on the other side of the Schoenberg, where the Battle of Freiburg was continued on 5 and 9 August. The French troops did not manage to recapture Freiburg. The remains of the fallen soldiers were buried around the battlefield in makeshift mass graves close beneath the surface. Today a cross, the Schlachtenkreuz, commemorates the battle.

In 1646, two years after the Bohl battle and one year after Kanoffsky's death, the St Gall administration returned to Ebringen. In the following years many of the refugees returned also to Ebringen.

In 1648, shortly before the war ended, Ebringen was sacked by the French garrison of Breisach. The manor house was not sacked, as it was protected by a salva guardia for 264 guilders, which was respected. The people fled to Todtnau in the Black Forest and so they were not harmed. The damage was moderate.

In 1649 Prince-Abbot Pius of St Gall visited Ebringen.

In 1661 Prince-Abbot Gallus Alt, 1646/47 Governor of Ebringen, visited the village.

Because the mass graves on the Bohl battlefield were very close to the surface, human remains were uncovered over and over again by erosion. Finally about 1674 the bones of the soldiers, fallen in the Bohl battle of 1644, were collected by Peter Jenne. They were buried all together in an ossuary near the present-day Schlachtenkreuz. The ossuary became a place of pilgrimage, where over and over again bones were stolen as relics.

During the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678) in 1674 the Princely Abbey St Gall allied with France against Austria. Several thousand St Gall citizens became mercenaries in the French army. As a consequence, Emperor Leopold ordered Ebringen - which was surrounded by the emperor's Austrian territories - to be treated like enemy territory. After Governor Leodegar Buergisser ignored the summons to Freiburg by the Austrian administration, Ebringen was sacked by Austrian troops from 16 to 18 October 1676. The soldiers confiscated wine, cereals, fruits and livestock. They damaged the houses, the mill, the manor house and the church. The estimated damage amounted to about 20,000 guilders. Moreover, women were raped, one of them died. The abbey was also faced to be stripped of its prestigious status as immediate imperial abbey, while consequently the abbot would lose his title as prince-abbot. In consequence, the abbey gave up its alliance with France, called home its mercenaries in the French army and allied with Austria - unlike the rest of the Swiss Confederacy, which stayed allied with France. So the abbey was politically isolated in Switzerland, one of the causes of the Toggenburg War of 1712.

The new alliance did not improve the situation of St Gall's Breisgau possessions, as France occupied Freiburg in 1677 and the region was from then on de facto French controlled. Most of Ebringen's people left the village between November 1677 and summer 1678 and returned in 1679 after the Treaties of Nijmegen. The church records for 1678/79 listed only nine baptisms, no marriages and no deaths. In 1678 the forest at the Herrenbuck, south of the Schoenberg summit, was felled for the French fortification of Freiburg by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. Allegedly 20,000 oak logs were taken. The vintage of 1678 was robbed by French mercenaries. In 1679 the vineyards lay fallow.

In 1689 the new forest around the Schoenberger Hof was cut down, the yard rebuilt, the area became farmland again.

In 1697 France had to make restitution of Freiburg to Austria in the Treaty of Ryswick.

In 1700 the protestant territories in the Holy Roman Empire finally adopted the Gregorian calendar, so the date confusion between Ebringen and its protestant neighbour villages ended.

In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) France attacked the Austrian Breisgau. Ebringen's old manor house was sacked on 8 April 1703 by French mercenaries despite a salva guardia. The plunderers killed two men from Ebringen, who tried to resist them. So the people fled into the Schoenberg forest. From 1705 to 1709 the war was fought in other areas all over Europe, but then the fighting returned to the Breisgau.

In 1705 Lukas Grass became St Gall governor of Ebringen. Grass visited Naples in 1700 noting in his diary the famous sentence Vedi Napoli e poi muori (I've seen Naples, now I can die), 87 years before Goethe noted the same in his Italian Journey. During his rule, Grass strengthened the power of the local St. Gall authorities against both the political community and the Austrian suzerain.

In 1710 the Schoenberger Hof was sold for 1,500 guilders and an annual interest payment to Matthias Zimmermann from Horben as hereditary fief.

Since Ebringen was often sacked since its return to St Gall, it was obviously a loss-making business for the abbey. So the Abbot and former Ebringen Governor Leodegar Buergisser, who reigned over the abbey 1696 - 1717, considered selling it, but Governor Grass convinced him instead to strengthen St Gall's presence in the Breisgau.

So in spite of the war going on, between 1711 and 1713 a new manor house - the Schloss, today's Town Hall - was built as a representative office of the St Gall governor, which replaced the old one. The area of the manor house was relatively safe from being plundered by a salva guardia, and because of the war, labour was cheap. In the words of Ildefons von Arx the project is described like a modern economic recovery programme, while the people of Ebringen and Norsingen saw it more like an exploitation of distress and poverty.

In September 1713 French troops besieged Freiburg again and plundered the surrounding area, including Ebringen. Many valuables had been brought into the Ebringer Hof, the St Gall office in Freiburg, for presumed safety. Fortified by Vauban, Freiburg was thought to be safe from being occupied. But after a siege of three weeks Freiburg surrendered and was sacked, also the Ebringer Hof. In Ebringen houses - inter alia the Schoenberger Hof - were burnt down. Almost all metal was looted by the French mercenaries. So in the autumn of 1713 many people left the village and fled to the French Sundgau. Most of them returned in 1714 after the Treaty of Rastatt.

There was not only war. Confrontation also arose in Ebringen between the St Gall administration and the citizens. The construction of the manor house in a time of war upset many people. Worse still, Governor Lukas Grass ruled in many respects in an absolutist manner. But meanwhile, in 1712 the Abbey had lost all of its Swiss territory in the Toggenburg War. In May 1712 Abbot Buergisser was exiled to Neuravensburg, the abbey's territory north of Lake Constance in the Holy Roman Empire, where he died in 1717. So the abbey's position in Ebringen was also very weak, but Governor Grass' position in the abbey's hierarchy was very powerful, as he now ruled the only area controlled by the abbey besides Neuravensburg. The abbot sent Lukas Grass to Vienna in July 1712 for negotiations with the Austrian government to help the abbey regain its possessions. Grass returned soon after without substantial success. But 25 citizens of Ebringen took advantage of the abbey's disastrous situation in Switzerland and Grass' absence. They sued the St Gall administration in the court for provincial estates of Anterior Austria against the rights of local authorities towards the people. Governor Grass was not willing to compromise and eventually won the case. In 1714 the citizens of Ebringen had to accept villeinage in a declaration of submission under St Gall rule. Governor Lukas Grass had also expanded the jurisdiction of the abbey, as the declaration states St Gall as jurisdiction in all matters between citizens and local authorities. As in future a lawsuit like the one of 1712 would have to be held in St Gall, not in an Austrian court, the submission drastically reduced Austrian control over Ebringen. The court for provincial estates in Anterior Austria confirmed the declaration of submission on 24 January 1715.

In 1718 the rule of the Princely Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland was restored after the Peace of Baden and the new Prince-Abbot Joseph von Rudolphi returned from Neuravensburg to St Gall.

Around 1740 the cultivation of Chasselas, a white wine originating from western Switzerland, is noted for Ebringen's vineyards. This type of wine brought significantly higher quantitative yields than traditional varieties like Elbling. So Chasselas soon became the preferred cultivated variety in the vineyards.

In 1743 parish priest Benedikt Müller tried to introduce compulsory schooling. He established a school foundation to allow free school attendance. Before, the parents had to pay the teacher, so children of poor parents often received no school education.

In 1744 French troops, commanded by King Louis XV himself, captured Freiburg after a siege of six weeks in the War of the Austrian Succession. French cavalry occupied Ebringen during the siege. Unlike previous occupations there were no excesses against civilians and no rape is reported. So the people didn't leave the village. Although the people were not harmed by the troops, this was not the case for their property. The vineyards were vandalized, as the troops used the wooden sticks in the vineyards for heating. Also two houses were destroyed by infantry before the cavalry reached the village. The troops quartered themselves in the houses of the village. The inhabitants had to move to the attics of their houses. The Duke of Chartres stayed in the manor house. Unlike Freiburg, which suffered a famine during the siege, food supply in Ebringen was good all the time.

In 1745 the municipality planned to sell its Biezighofen Forest in the Black Forest for 21,000 guilders to repay debts. The sale only failed because of disagreement on some secondary points. About 250 years later, the municipality tried again for the same reasons, and again the sale failed. On July 11 of the same year Prince-Abbot Coelestin Gugger von Staudach visited Ebringen.

In 1748 the Hohbannstein was erected, a landmark with five neighbouring municipalities south of the Hohfirst summit.

In 1749 the diocese of Constance and the Abbey of St. Gall made a comparison of their respective rights. The abbey was granted the right to appoint the parish priests in its territories, which included Ebringen. Formally St Gall belonged to the diocese of Constance, so the appointment of parish priests was normally the right of the bishop.

In the same year a chapel, the Berghauser Kapelle, was built in the area of the former village Berghausen.

In 1751 eight little chapels were built along the Steinweg, the pilgrim way between the churches of Ebringen and Berghausen. Before, there were 14 steles or crosses.

In 1770 the Austrian Princess Maria Antonia married the later French King Louis XVI. Her journey from Vienna to Paris led via Freiburg, where she stayed from 4 to 6 May 1770. For this, the road from Donaueschingen through the Black Forest to Freiburg had been significantly improved. This opened new markets for Ebringen's wine and led to a higher income for Ebringen's winegrowers.

In 1777 the Austrian government introduced compulsory schooling in Anterior Austria and its dependent territories, also in Ebringen.

On 20 December 1782 villeinage was abolished in Anterior Austria. The St Gall authorities in Ebringen tried to ignore these special decrees from Vienna as well as they could. As in 1782 most forms of socage had been long transformed into monetary and natural levies, the local administration defined them now as local taxes, levies and compulsory service, so the effect of the reform was more psychological.

File:Tetradelphion-ebringen.jpg

Tetradelphion Fountain at Ebringen's presbytery with the abbreviated names of the four exiled monks

1788/89 Prince-Abbot Beda Anghern sent four leading opponents - Ildefons von Arx, Gerald Brandenberg, Ambrosius Epp and Pankraz Vorster - to Ebringen. This act was formerly only a relocation, as Ebringen was the seat of a governor, but because of Ebringen's distance from St Gall it was in fact an exile. Gerald Brandenberg became governor. Pankraz Vorster bought back the Schoenberger Hof from the Zimmermann family and built a new dairy farm in the meadows above Ebringen. Ildefons von Arx became parish priest. In 1792 he wrote the first book on the history of Ebringen - a main source of this article.

In 1795 Gerold Brandenberg became Governor of Rohrschach and Beatus Schuhmacher became the new - and last - St Gall Governor of Ebringen. Schuhmacher was previously Governor of St Gall and lost this position through mismanagement. Although he retained his title, this was a relegation. As Governor of St Gall he was the most important governor, in Ebringen he only represented the abbot in a distant outpost and did not really rule, as he also lost the responsibility for economic affairs.

In 1796 Pankraz Vorster was reconciled with Beda Anghern and returned to St Gall. After Anghern's death Vorster succeeded him as Prince-Abbot in June 1796. In September 1796 Ildefons von Arx also returned to St Gall.

In 1798 the rule of the Princely Abbey of St Gall collapsed in Switzerland. On its former territory the new canton of Saentis was established. Although the abbey lost its political power, it kept its possessions. Ebringen with Norsingen and Neuravensburg, located in the Holy Roman Empire, remained as the sole dominions. Prince-Abbot Vorster left St Gall and went into exile. In 1801 Ebringen's manor house became his main residence in exile.

In the German mediatisation of 1803 the abbey lost Neuravensburg, so Ebringen and Norsingen were its last dominions. In Switzerland the canton of Saentis was dissolved in March 1803. Parts of it formed the new canton of St Gall. On 8 May 1805 the new canton dissolved the monastery of St Gall and confiscated its possessions. As Ebringen was situated in an Austrian controlled area, the canton wasn't able to do so in Ebringen. But in October 1805 Vorster left Ebringen when a French army threatened to invade the Breisgau. The canton of St Gall took control over Ebringen, when in the Peace of Pressburg of December 1805 Austria lost control over the Breisgau. It was decided that the whole region should become part of the new Grand Duchy of Baden. Baden took over the rule on 15 April 1806. But the territorial status of some dominions in the Breisgau was disputed. Although Baden saw itself as suzerain, it respected St Gall's possession of Ebringen, while most other mediate territories were dissolved. So from his new exile in Vienna Pankraz Vorster tried to negotiate with the canton of St Gall, not with Baden, about his future, claiming a lifelong dominion over Ebringen. But the canton ignored this and sold Ebringen and Norsingen to members of the Grand Duke's family - not to the Grand Duchy - for 140,000 guilders. The dominion was handed over in March 1807.

St Gall administrators

St. Gall Prince Abbot in exile

• 1801-1805 Pankraz Vorster (Ebringen was residence in exile and together with Norsingen from 1803 the last territory of the Princely Abbey)

St. Gall Governors

• 1795–1806 Beatus Schuhmacher
• 1789–1795 Gerold Brandenberg
• 1778–1789 Anton Gerwig
• 1775–1778 Coelestin Schiess
• 1769–1775 Ignaz Moesl
• 1762–1769 Othmar Walser
• 1741–1762 Pirmin Widle
• 1731–1741 Augustin Hauser von Gleichenstein
• 1725–1731 Roman Schertlin
• 1704–1725 Lukas Grass
• 1698–1704 Hermann Schenk
• 1681–1698 Augustin Zagot
• 1675–1681 Leodegar Buergisser
• 1662–1675 Tutilo Gebel
• 1656–1662 Othmar Kessler
• 1654–1656 Simon von Freiburg
• 1648–1654 Ambrosius Negeli
• 1647–1648 Basilius Renner
• 1646–1647 Gallus Alt
• 1644-1646 without local authorities
• 1640-1644 rule of Friedrich Kanoffsky
• 1637–1640 without local authorities
• 1634–1637 Robert Bloed (again)
• 1633–1634 Hans Dietrich Mueller (only administrator, not governor)
• 1624–1633 Jakob Schepeli (only administrator, not governor)
• 1621–1624 Robert Bloed

1807/09 - 1918: Ebringen in the Grand Duchy of Baden

While the 18th century was an age of population growth and immigration, the 19th century was the opposite: an age of massive emigration and stagnating or decreasing population.

Between 1807 and 1809 Ebringen together with Norsingen was an own dominion under the suzerainty of the Grand Duchy of Baden, in the possession of members of the Grand Duke's family. In 1809 the dominion was sold to the Grand Duchy and was fully integrated into the state of Baden.

Although the secular rule of the abbey St Gall ended in 1805, the parish priest and the vicar in Ebringen were still from the former abbey of St Gall. So in 1814 Aemilian Hafner, once a close advisor of Pankraz Vorster and since 1805 vicar of Ebringen, was appointed as parish priest. This was the last appointment of a St Gall parish priest. After Hafner was promoted to vicar general of the new diocese Chur-St Gall in 1824, in Ebringen the era of religious influence of St Gall also ended.

Demographics

Population

In 1574 a population of 560 people is recorded. Although outbreaks of the plague in 1584 and 1629 reduced the number of inhabitants, there was a remarkable population growth in the decades after the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648 due to a birth surplus and immigration. Until 1800 there was a continuous population growth, between 1800 and 1930 stagnation, between 1930 and 2005 again growth, since 2005 stagnation.

Vertical bar chart demographic of Ebringen between 1574 and 2013

Sources: 1574-1792 Ildefons von Arx, Geschichte der Herrschaft Ebringen, 1852-2013, Stat. Landesamt BW

Census of 1792

In the census of 17 February 1792, 1000 people are listed, 2 churches, 149 houses, 208 families. 60 people lived in the hamlet Talhausen. The table below shows the demographics. 32,5% of the inhabitants were below 15 years old, only 8.1% older than 60. 49 people are registered in Ebringen, but work and live outside. On the other hand 25 people from outside work and live in Ebringen, who are not listed in the census. The ratio male to female is nearly equal. The table also reflects the high infant mortality as reported in the church records: 41 babies younger than one year, while in the group 1-4 only 73 children are listed.

population structure 1792 / 2011
Age Group	year		%	change
≥65	1792		4.3%	+12.0%
	2011		16.3%
50-64	1792		14.4%	+7.8%
	2011		22.2%
25-49	1792		30.7%	+4.8%
	2011		35.6%
18-24	1792		11.4%	-3.1%
	2011		8.2%
6-17	1792		24.6%	-12.6%
	2011		12.0%
0-5	1792		13.6%	-8.0%
	2011		5.6%
2011 and 1792 age structure in Ebringen compared.

Census of February 17, 1792

Age	all	male	female
total	1000	492	508
80-84	3	3	0
75-79	5	1	4
70-74	13	5	8
65-69	24	16	8
60-64	36	20	16
55-59	53	23	30
50-54	55	21	34
45-49	44	25	19
40-44	63	30	33
35-39	60	32	28
30-34	68	37	31
25-29	72	31	41
20-24	79	37	42
15-19	89	47	42
10-14	107	52	55
5-9	104	57	47
1-4	73	29	44
0	41	22	19
unknown	11	5	7

Religion

Between the reformation and the end of the rule of the Princely Abbey of St Gall in 1806 Ebringen's population was at least de jure all Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic confession stayed dominant until the 1970s. Population growth due to immigration into new quarters and fewer religious ties decreased the Catholic share of the population to 55% at the end of 2014.

Economy

Viticulture

Viticulture has most likely been present since the Roman era in the first century AD, as ruins of a Roman grange were found in the Ebringen area. As mentioned above, the earliest written record for viticulture dates from the early 8th century. In 1770 an area is reported of 110 ha covered with vineyards, which shrank from the end of the century. In the first decade of the 21st century an area of 90 ha was covered with vineyards, which is slightly less than during the last three decades of the 20th century.

Gallery

• Ebringen-bohl.jpg

  Bohl hill above Ebringen in February 2006: Place of the first day of the Battle of Freiburg in the Thirty Years' War on August 3, 1644

• Ebringen-breisgau-1900.jpg

  Ebringen in 1900

Points of interest

Nature reserves

• Jennetal

Bibliography

• Ebringen, Herrschaft und Gemeinde, Volume 1 - Claus-Dieter Schott and Edmund Weeger (Hrsg.), Rombach-Verlag Freiburg, ISBN 3-9802758-0-9 (in German)
• Helge Koerner: Der Schoenberg – Natur- und Kulturgeschichte eines Schwarzwald-Vorberges, Freiburg 2006. ISBN 3-935737-53-X. (in German)

External links

• Official Web site (German)