Meßstetten

Meßstetten is a town in the Zollernalbkreis district, in Baden Württemberg, Germany, which is situated in the Swabian Jura, 24 km southeast of Balingen. At an altitude of , Meßstetten is the highest city (of more than 10,000 inhabitants) in Germany. It is close to the Heuberg Training Area with the Lager Heuberg. Within the Heuberg Training Area there is the legendary Dreibannmarke, also called the "Bahn", a 17th century border, which today marks the border between three different municipalities, formerly in the three states of Württemberg, Baden, and Hohenzollern. The meadow at the Dreibannmarke served as a stopping place for traveling merchants, wagons and craftsmen. With care it is possible to identify traces of the border. After the inauguration of the firing ranges, a meadow in Meßstetten was allocated as a camping site at the edge of the restricted area. Until 1835 merchandise was smuggled over the customs borders guarded by local hunters. Coffee smuggler Haux had was killed on 21 July 1831 in Pfaffental. Between 1934 and 1942, many men were sterilized because of "hereditary diseases". Under the program known as Aktion T4, the Nazis murdered mentally handicapped and mentally ill patients. These men and women were deported to the Grafeneck Killing Facility, where they were killed as "life unworthy of life". After the closure of Grafeneck in December 1940, a further deportation to the Hadamar Killing Facility occurred on 1941. After war a new city called Ostlandsiedlung was built.

The local economy mixes agriculture with services and small scale industry. Most of the textiles industry (among them Göla, Sauter, branches and many Löhnnähereien) is gone today, Most of Meßstetten today has a residential character with many citizens working in the highly industrial areas near the railway of Albstadt or in Balingen. Only in Tieringen is an industrial area. A blacksmith developed to an industrial character, also a textile firm.

Meßstetten lies in the Swabian Jura on the Heuberg mountain at an elevation of 737 to 988 metres. Lying within the borough of Meßstetten, (917 m) Heinstetten is the highest village in the Swabian Alb. Measured by the elevation of the parish churches, the town is higher than Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, which claims to be the "highest town in Baden Württemberg". Meßstetten is content with the statement, "one of the highest cities in the Federal Republic of Germany".

The formerly independent municipalities of Hartheim, Heinstetten, Hossingen, Oberdigisheim, Tieringen and Unterdigisheim and Meßstetten itself were merged to form the municipal subdivisions of the town. The urban centre of Meßstetten and 19 other villages, hamlets, farms and (individual) houses are divided among the seven districts. The former military base of Bueloch for example has a primary school, gym, kindergarten and a church house, As such the former quartering patch, however, is not an official district, but only one of the city's 18 residential areas. With the exception of the district of Meßstetten, all six other districts have the status of Ortschaften ("civil parishes") within the meaning of the Baden Württemberg Gemeindeordnung each with their own local council (Ortschaftsrat) and council chair (Ortsvorsteher) as its chairman. With the town borough there are several abandoned, now non existent, villages. In the east of the district of Hossingen was the Riedhof, built around 1800 and demolished in 1918. In the district of Meßstetten there was a castle with a farmyard in the military training area on the Schlossberg. In the military training area there is an historical storage area for travelling traders, carters and craftsmen at the Dreibannmarke. With finesse it was possible to profit from the customs borders that existed until 1835. After the firing range was established, a meadow on the edge of the restricted area was allocated as a storage area until the Porajmos. The plot of land named in 1600 Freithof and the Kirchlesfels witness to an abandoned village, as does Immishofen, a farm in the Eichhalde, which presumably existed until the 15th century and is documented as a field name in 1496. In the Oberdigisheim district are the deserted villages of Ägelkofen and the hamlet of Geyerbad (Schwefelbad). Ägelkofen was named in 1253 and ceased to exist in the 14th century. North of Wolfenhof in the Unterdigisheim district, there was Beuren, mentioned in 1654 as Beyrental. Unterdigisheim is located southwest of Meßstetten and has about 650 inhabitants.

There is a total of five nature reserves in the borough of Meßstetten. The nature reserve of Heimberg lies on a slope above Unterdigisheim, the Scheibhalden reserve is east of Oberdigisheim. In the far north of Tieringen lie the Hülenbuchwiesen and immediately adjacent to it the nature reserve of Untereck. The nature reserve of Stromelsberg Hessenbühl is also in the Tieringen parish, but to the west. Almost the entire area of the borough is part of the protected landscape of the Großer Heuberg. Only the populated areas, nature reserves and the military training area are excluded from this. Meßstetten shares two Special Areas of Conservation: the Eastern Großer Heuberg and Heuberg Military Training Area. The town also shares the bird reserve of the Southwestern Jura and Upper Danube Valley. The entire borough minus the area of the military training area also belongs to the Upper Danube Nature Park.

The area of today's Meßstetten was already settled in the Neolithic era. There are finds from the hohlen Fels ("hollow rock" in the Heuberg Training Area. The reason for this could be the very old trade route, the Bschorner Weg ("Bschorn Road"), which led from the Schmiecha valley via Meßstetten Castle into the Danube valley. The earliest of the established settlements was on the Lochen and dates from the 9th century BC, when Celts increasingly populated the Swabian Jura. Celtic burial mounds have been excavated on the terrain of Weichenwang, Wangen, Frankenreis and Hofen.

As a result of the Roman conquests in the south of today's Germany, which began in 15 BC, the Celts were subjugated by the Romans. Several finds are documented from this period, including the Celtic Gräbelesberg Castle and road structures. Meßstetten was part of the Roman Empire in the hinterland of the Alb Limes protected by Lautlingen Castle. In the area of the town of Meßstetten, pastor Alfred Ludwig Oetinger (from 1856 to 1868 pastor in Meßstetten and Hossingen) initially had extensive excavations carried out on his own account and later on behalf of the State Collection of Patriotic Antiquities. The extensive finds of grave goods indicate an early settlement of the region by the Celts. According to this, there was a settlement of wooden houses that were terraced on the rocks. Such a settlement could have been near Schreifels. Also the Heuneburg and a source in Egesheim provide rich finds. A Hunnish metal mirror was made from an unusual metal alloy (59% copper, 40% tin, 1% lead). Corresponding workshops have been found on the Gräbelesberg and the Meßstetter Talbach in Lautlingen.

Meßstetten was first mentioned in AD 854 in a deed of gift from a high Franconian nobleman named Adelhard. Meßstetten was a transit area and settlement area for Celts and Romans,

From an ecclesiastical point of view, the Heuberg belonged to the St. Martin's parish in Ebingen and to the cemetery church in Nusplingen until Meßstetten received a church. St. Lambert's Church was first mentioned in 1275. In 1360, the Tierbergs instituted a Jahrzeit in the church of St. Lambert at Meßstetten, in whose crypt a number of Tierbergs are buried. In the 14th century, three more altars, each with a chaplain, were donated. The parish was also endowed with the patronage rights of Meßstetten and Frohnstetten and formed a small collegiate church with its four clergy in 1354. George of Werenwag ceded the tithe in Meßstetten to Beuron Abbey on 14 October 1477. Count Henry of Hohenberg sold the village to Henry of Tierberg in 1347, who acquired Hossingen at the same time. Together with Tieringen, which he had also bought from Hohenberg in 1345, and his possession of other places he was able to form his own lordship in Meßstetten. In 1370, the Barony of Meßstetten was transferred to the Wildentierberger line.

In former times iron ore was mined on the Heuberg. Fidel Eppler was the name of the mine inspector. The buttress wood was bought in Truchtelfingen and used by Lautlingen miners at the Hörnle area. In Oberdigisheim Geppert in 1738 SHW Ludwigsthal produced iron ore.
From an old 3.5 km mine in an ooidal iron ore seam (Doggererzflöz) in Weilheim is wood in the Tuttlinger Fruchtkasten. Steel was produced in Tuttlingen by the Schwäbische Hüttenwerke in Ludwigstal, which produces now iron brakes. In Meßstetten Michelfeld sand was found in an old arm of Danube. Christian Kiesinger (1876 1969) father of Kurt Georg Kiesinger had a factory. Ooidal iron ore (Bohnerz aus Eisenroggenstein) was found. After the Franco Prussian War the mining was stopped. Jet work (to make black jewellery which was very fashionable), was called Beinschnitzen.

Smuggling across the border (Württemberg, Baden, Province of Hohenzollern) in Meßstetten to, from Meßsteten Heinstetten, Straßberg. 30,000 Bibles (Martin Luther) to Habsburg: Hans Ungnad von Weißenwolff, Freiherr von Sonneck, Hans III (1493–1564), famous Bible printer and smuggler in Bad Urach Smuggler, translator and Slovene refugee Protestant preacher Primož Trubar, who published the first books in Slovene and is regarded as the key consolidator of the Slovene identity, lived in Tübingen Derendingen. The smuggler was called Schwärzer in the local dialect due to the black camouflage color on his face.

Brenntar, was a Swabian staple foodstuff, of the old Meßstetten. It is made of a specially roasted flour called Musmehl. Roggensuppe (breakfast) is made of rye flour. Alb Leisa, traditional lentil varieties of this region. Most traditional production of perry. Dubaknudeln, sweet bread.

The mountain range is protected as Upper Danube Nature Park, and is a popular tourist destination, especially for hiking, camping, mountaineering, horse back riding, mountain biking, skiing and snowboarding. The Schwäbischer Albverein and the Naturschutzbund Deutschland Alb Guides made many tours.

The Schwäbische Alb Nordrand Weg is a long distance way. The most famous is the Hossinger Leiter. It is an old way to the Tübingen–Sigmaringen railway from Hossingen and Oberdigisheim.

Only for bikes without engine drive mechanisms. Hill on the Blumersberg Sport und Freizeitgelände Blumersberg no taxes.

legal trail, no taxes, for mountainbike from Meßstetten Tieringen down the Albtrauf to Balingen Weilstetten Lochenpass 4,7 km car road bike trail shorten the hairpin bend down to 1,9 km by downhill single trail.

Places now lost are remembered in legend. A town called "Wangen" between Hossingen and Meßstetten has now disappeared. An as yet undiscovered Celtic town of Pyrene was mentioned in ancient sources. The identification of Pyrene would bring special honor to researchers, since it is the oldest town in the Upper Danube region known from written sources. In 2010 more vague evidence occurs in old blood in the region of the Upper Danube: a virus of Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, CCHF which mostly led to death in earlier times. The locality "Neu Wangenhausen" (Nüwenghausen), mentioned in a document from 1477, could be no other place in the district. The microtoponyms (flurnamen) of the mountaintop "Weng" in the Heuberg Training Area and "Wangen" by the radar installation Weichenwang are in common use.

During the construction of a drainage ditch Alfred Ludwig Oetinger, pastor in Meßstetten und Hossingen from 1856 to 1868, discovered a bronze cauldron and potsherds near the Weichenwang. To the great derision of the workmen he secured the finds and forwarded them for scientific evaluation. Around 1850 the area was a frequent target of grave robbers. The pastor then carried out systematic excavations, first on his own, and later on behalf of the "Staatssammlung vaterländischer Alterthümer" (State Collection of Patriotic Antiquities).

Another old tale tells of a spectral rider on a white horse (Schimmelreiter), who secretly visited his lover on the Weichenwang. Many times in stormy autumn weather a Schimmelreiter is said to be seen riding toward the Weichenwang (Heiligenwang) from the old castle of Burtel near Hossingen, the remains of which are visible today. More vague evidence occurs in an old document: the noble knight Kunz acquired a castle in Meßstetten on July 14, 1327, from the Lord of Bubenhofen. It may be that lord of Castle Hossingen in financial difficulties so that he had to pawn his fiefdom to the rich lord of Bubenhofen. Perhaps the Schimmelreitier was Kunz, from Neuentierberg Castle, and had he acquired for his beloved her father's castle in Hossingen. In the Herrschaft Werenwag(Unterdigisheim, Hartheim) old tale tells of a spectral rider on a withe horse. His name is Doctor Schroff.

There are links with Savigné sur Lathan and Luynes, both in France.