Dornstetten

Sister cities

• Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin

History

Dornstetten is first documented in the year in the Lorsch Codex, as part of the Waldgeding of the Upper Glatt Valley, a loose confederation of settlements roughly corresponding to the modern municipal area. The town received city rights sometime between 1267 and 1276. At that time, Dornstetten belonged to the Counts of Urach-Fürstenberg. After passing through the hands of the Counts of Hohenberg, it was acquired by Württemberg in 1320. A school is first mentioned in the town in 1461. In 1755, Dornstetten was made seat of the Oberamt of Dornstetten, an administrative district that was nevertheless dissolved in 1807 and incorporated in the Oberamt of Freudenstadt. On January 1, 1975, Dornstetten was merged with Aach and Hallwangen to make up the municipality of Dornstetten, as part of Baden-Württemberg's major communal reforms in the early 1970s. Since the time of the Reformation, Dornstetten has been heavily Protestant. A Roman Catholic church is in the town, but Catholics in Dornstetten technically belong to the parochial community of Freudenstadt. A New Apostolic church, as well as a Methodist community, can also be found in Dornstetten. The arms of Dornstetten consist of a black five-pointed antler (representing Württemberg) above a black thornbush (canting arms based on the town's name, as Dorn means "thorn" in German) Dornstetten enjoys a partnership with Scey-sur-Saône-et-Saint-Albin in the department of Haute Saône in France, where students from Dornstetten Gymnasium participate yearly in a student exchange program.

Geography

Dornstetten is located in the northern Black Forest. The Glatt arises in the outlying village of Aach, at the confluence of the streams Ettenbach, Stockerbach, and Kübelbach. The municipality of Dornstetten was created in 1975 as part of a major reorganization of communities in Baden-Württemberg. It consists of the original town of Dornstetten (which included Dornstetten and the farmstead Lattenberg), the former municipality of Aach (included the village of Aach and the farmstead Benzinger Hof), and the former municipality of Hallwangen (simply the village of Hallwangen). The area around Dornstetten also included the former settlements of Brennenweiler, Bühlerhof, and Diffenthal or Niedertall, which no longer exist.

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  602
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  544
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  540
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  482
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  420
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  389
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  368
• Great Spotted Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  345

Most recent

• M 3.5 — 2024-06-27
  1 km SSW of Todtmoos, Germany
• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 4 — 2022-07-09
  2 km NNE of Grosselfingen, Germany
• M 4.1 — 2021-06-26
  2 km SE of Hœrdt, France
• M 3.1 — 2008-12-25
  3 km NNW of Saulgau, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2008-12-25
  1 km NNW of Blodelsheim, France