Ravensburg History, Germany

Ravensburg is one of the oldest medieval towns in the area of the so called "Schussental", a valley of an river called "Schussen".

The origin of the city can be traced back to the celts who already settled upon the later castle hill of Ravensburg with an castle, for war times.

The city was first mentioned by documents on 1088 A.C. and the name derives by the castle, the dynasty of the Welfen built there on 1050.

The last Welf, living on the Ravensburg, was Welf IV, duke of Spoleto. He gave the castle and the area to his nephew Friedrich I. Barbarossa., not to Henry thge Lion, duke of Bavaria and Saxony, who was maybe born on the Ravensburg in 1129. But it´s also said for Barbarossa. Ravensburg now belonged to the dynasty of the Staufer.

After the fall of that dynasty Ravensburg started to reign itself. These right were confirmed in 1278 by Rudolf I., the habsburgian emperor. Ravensburg was from this times a free city, with only the emperor above it. The castle Ravensburg was still owned by the emperor and from this times seat of the Landvogt, an official of Rudolf I. The citizens of Ravensburg built an tower about 50 meters high, to be able to look at the offical of the emperor. This tower was later on called "Mehlsack", because of its white color, similar to flour.

In late medieval times, Ravensburg was the seat of a well known german trading company, the Humpis, that had trading post all over europe, even before the famous fugger family. The trading company disappeared in 1530, perhaps because they didnt react on the new market in America.

During the reformation Ravensburg got an proportional system of reign, confirmed by the so called peace of Westphalia in 1648, end of the 30 years war in Europe. That was valid till the 19th century. At the end of the 30 years war the swedish army destroyed the castle, that was now called Veitsburg, to make a differnce to the city called Ravensburg. Because of that the Landvogt moved to Weingarten in 1647, a neighbouring town of Ravensburg.

In 1803 Ravensburg lost its independence and was put to the area of Bavaria. That was a consequence of the napoleonic wars. In 1815 it was assigned to the kingdom of Württemberg.

In the 19th centurty Ravensburg particpated on the industrial revolution and prospered because of its paper mills and machine industries.

From that times it grew up, associating all the small villages around it. On 1954 it was declared "große Kreisstadt" (district town) by law.