Westerstetten is a village 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 :...

 in 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...

.

Geography

Westerstetten is situated in the Lone

Lone (river)

The Lone is a river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-See also:*List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg...

 valley (Lonetal) on the Swabian Alb

Swabian Alb

The Swabian Alps or Swabian Jura is a low mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending 220 km from southwest to northeast and 40 to 70 km in width. It is named after the region of Swabia....

 roughly 10 km (6 mi) north 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...

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Neighbouring Villages

The neighbouring villages are, to the east, Holzkirch

Holzkirch

Holzkirch is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

 and Breitingen

Breitingen

Breitingen is a municipality in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

; to the south, Beimerstetten

Beimerstetten

Beimerstetten is a municipality in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

; to the southwest, Dornstadt

Dornstadt

Dornstadt is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....

; and to the northwest, Lonsee

Lonsee

Lonsee is a town in the Alb-Donau district in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.The population of Lonsee in 2008 is 4.758; the town consists of 7 villages - Ettlenschiess, Halzhausen, Sinabronn, Lonsee, Luizhausen and Urspring...

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Structure

Villages incorporated in Westerstetten are Birkhof, Hinterdenkental and Vorderdenkental.

Early history

The Lone valley with its caves was a popular settlement area in the Stone Age

Stone Age

The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

. Westerstetten itself however has no caves, and there have been no significant finds of this period.

Roman period

Since 75 AD a Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 road connected the Ad Lunam castle in Lonsee-Urspring with Aquilea at Heidenheim. As part of the Alblimes

Limes Germanicus

The Limes Germanicus was a line of frontier fortifications that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes from the years 83 to about 260 AD...

, this road marked for some time the external border for the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

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1414 onwards

From 1414 to 1803, Westerstetten was part of the territory of Elchingen Abbey

Elchingen Abbey

Elchingen Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Oberelchingen in Bavaria, Germany, in the diocese of Augsburg.- History :Dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saints Peter and Paul, the monastery was founded by the Counts of Dillingen...

. When the abbey was dissolved in 1803 as part of the German Mediatisation

German Mediatisation

The German Mediatisation was the series of mediatisations and secularisations that occurred in Germany between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the French Revolution and then the Napoleonic Era....

, the village became part of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 along with Elchingen. In 1810 the border between Bavaria and Württemberg

Württemberg

Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

 was re-negotiated and Westerstetten became part of Württemberg.

At the end of the Second World War, Westerstetten was liberated by American troops in April 1945, after a few die-hards tried to stop the allies at the entrance to the village. According to local lore, the Jewish graves in the cemetery hold the bodies of eight Nazi concentration camp victims that were hastily buried in the Gurgelhaus forest, shortly before the end of the war.

The local government reform of 1975 allowed Westerstetten to retain its independence. The designation of new building zones and its vicinity to Ulm helped it grow to over 2,000 inhabitants.