Abtsgmünd

Sister cities

• Castel Bolognese

History

Abtsgmünd was likely founded from Ellwangen. The town gets its name from the confluence of the Lein into the Kocher river and its affiliation with Ellwangen Monastery (The Gemunden of the Abbot, as distinct from other Gemunden places). Thus, Abtsgmünd is likely an Ellwangen foundation after the 7th century, though the exact time is unknown. The Ellwangen Monastery established the town to secure its forested area to the southwest. In a property directory of Ellwangen Monastery from 1136, Abtsgmünd is mentioned by the name Gemunden. In the 13th century, the name was changed to Abtzgemunde to avoid confusion with the later Imperial City of Gmünd. This name first appeared in a document by King Conrad IV in 1251. The late Romanesque ground floor of the parish church tower, built around 1200, shows that the settlement existed earlier. The Wöllstein Castle was built from Abtsgmünd to secure the rule against the Schenken von Limpurg. The owners changed frequently, but the feudal lordship of the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen remained intact. An official was appointed to administer it, residing in Wöllstein. In 1609, Heuchlingen, Abtsgmünd and Wöllstein formed the Ellwangen district of Heuchlingen, with the district administrator's seat in Abtsgmünd. Due to its affiliation with the Prince-Provostry of Ellwangen, Abtsgmünd remained Catholic during the Reformation, while the Kocher valley from Schwäbisch Hall up to Untergröningen became Protestant in 1544. In the 17th century, the Prince-Provosts founded ironworks. In 1611, a blast furnace was established in Altschmiede in Abtsgmünd, later followed by a forging works. It was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War but rebuilt as a forging works in 1667. In 1699, the works were relocated from the Altschmiede district to…

Geography

Abtsgmünd has a share in the natural regions of the Eastern Alb Foreland and the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains, both of which belong to the Swabian Keuper-Lias Lands. With 71.6 km² and 7,456 inhabitants, the municipality of Abtsgmünd is the largest municipality in the Ostalbkreis district after the towns, both in area and population. The main town of Abtsgmünd lies at the confluence of the Lein river into the Kocher (confluence elevation 367.4 m above sea level), predominantly on the left bank of the Kocher and left bank of the Lein. The furthest district of Untergröningen lies over 8 km west-northwest as the crow flies along two river bends on both sides of the Kocher, which there runs at about 355 meters above sea level after about 14 km of waterway. Clockwise from the north, Abtsgmünd borders Adelmannsfelden, Neuler and a small exclave of Hüttlingen, Aalen, Heuchlingen, Schechingen and Obergröningen, Eschach (all in the Ostalbkreis district), and Sulzbach-Laufen (Schwäbisch Hall district). The present-day municipality of Abtsgmünd includes the formerly independent municipalities of Abtsgmünd, Hohenstadt, Laubach, Neubronn, Pommertsweiler and Untergröningen with a total of almost 80 villages, hamlets, farms and houses. In the Abtsgmünd district there is the village of Abtsgmünd, the hamlets of Altschmiede, Hangendenbuch, Neuschmiede, Schäufele, Vorderbüchelberg, Wilflingen and Wöllstein, the farmstead Birkholz and the residential areas Ausägmühle, Fischbach, Öl- und Sägmühle and Pulvermühle. In the Hohenstadt district there is the village of Hohenstadt, the hamlets of Börrat, Butzenberg, Christhäuser, Kocherhof, Köhrhof, Maisenhäuser, Reichertshofen, Rötenbach, Schafhäuser and Steinreute and the farms Bernhardshof, Brastelhof, Fischhaus,…

Most-observed species

• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,743
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,416
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,851
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,692
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

  Passer montanus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,470
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,458
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,216
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,121

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-12-12
  2 km ESE of Nehren, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2008-07-09
  1 km WSW of Dußlingen, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-07-03
  2 km W of Dußlingen, Germany
• M 2.6 — 2008-06-15
  2 km S of Langenenslingen, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2008-06-14
  3 km S of Diedorf, Germany