Blaustein is a municipality

Municipalities of Germany

Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

 in the district of Alb-Donau

Alb-Donau (district)

Alb-Donau-Kreis is a district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Biberach, Reutlingen, Göppingen and Heidenheim, the two Bavarian districts Günzburg and Neu-Ulm, and the city of Ulm.- History :...

 Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg

Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated on the Blau River

Blau (Danube)

The Blau is a 15 km long river in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany, and a left tributary of the Danube. The source of the Blau is the karst spring of Blautopf, in the town Blaubeuren, in the Swabian Jura. It flows east through Blaustein to the city of Ulm, where it empties into the...

, 6 km west of Ulm

Ulm

Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...

 and has about 15,000 inhabitants.

It was created in 1968 after the union of Ehrenstein and Klingenstein. During the 1970s, the municipalities of Arnegg, Bermaringen, Dietingen, Herrlingen, Lautern, Markbronn, Weidach and Wippingen became part of the new municipality of Blaustein. Herrlingen was the home of Anna Essinger

Anna Essinger

Anna Essinger was a German-Jewish educator. At the age of 20, she went to finish her education in the United States, where she encountered Quakers and was greatly influenced by their attitudes, adopting them for her own...

's boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen, founded in 1926. In 1933, with the rise of Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

, Essinger moved the school and with their parents' permission, the school's 66 Jewish pupils to safety in England.

Blaustein is also the final resting place of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....

.

World heritage site

It is home to one or more prehistoric pile-dwelling

Stilt house

Stilt houses or pile dwellings or palafitte are houses raised on piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding, but also serve to keep out vermin...

 (or stilt house) settlements that are part of the Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps

Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps

Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps is a series of prehistoric pile-dwelling settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands...

 UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 World Heritage Site.