Wissembourg
Encyclopedia
Wissembourg is a commune
in the Bas-Rhin
department in Alsace
in northeastern France
.
It is situated on the little River Lauter
close to the border between France
and Germany
approximately 60 km (37.3 mi) north of Strasbourg
and 35 km (21.7 mi) west of Karlsruhe
. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department. The name Wissembourg is a Gallicized
version of Weißenburg (Weissenburg) in German
meaning, "white castle".
The Benedictine abbey around which the town has grown was founded in the 7th century, perhaps under the patronage of Dagobert I
. The abbey was supported by vast territories. Of the 11th century buildings constructed under the direction of Abbot Samuel, only the Schartenturm and some moats remain. The town was fortified in the 13th century. The abbey church of Saint-Pierre et Paul
, erected in the same century under the direction of Abbot Edelin was secularized in the French Revolution and despoiled of its treasures; in 1803 it became the parish church, resulting in the largest parish church of Alsace, only exceeded in size by the cathedral of Strasbourg. At the Abbey in the late 9th century, the monk Otfried
composed a gospel harmony
, the first substantial work of verse in German
.
In 1354 Charles IV
made it one of the grouping of ten towns called the Décapole
that survived annexation by France under Louis XIV
in 1678 and was extinguished with the French Revolution
. On 25 January 1677 a great fire destroyed many houses and the Hôtel de Ville; its replacement dates from 1741–52. Many early structures were spared: the Maison du Sel (1448), under its Alsatian pitched roof was the first hospital of the town. There are many 15th and 16th-century timber-frame
houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. The Maison de Stanislas was the retreat of Stanislas Leszczinski, ex-king of Poland, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived, 3 April 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage to Louis XV
. The first Battle of Wissembourg
took place near the town in 1793.
The “Lines of Wissembourg,” originally made by Villars
in 1706, were famous. They were a line of works extending to Lauterburg nine miles to the southeast. Like the fortifications of the town, only vestiges remain, although the city wall is still intact for stretches. Austrian General von Wurmser
succeeded in briefly capturing the lines in October 1793, but was defeated two months later by General Pichegru
of the French Army and forced to retreat, along with the Prussians, across the Rhine River.
Wissembourg formed the setting for the Romantic novel L’ami Fritz (1869) co-written by the team of Erckmann and Chatrian, which provided the material for Mascagni
's opera L'Amico Fritz.
Another Battle of Wissembourg took place on 4 August 1870. It was the first battle of the Franco-Prussian War
. The Prussians were nominally commanded by the Crown Prince Frederick, but ably directed by his Chief of Staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal
. The French
defeat allowed the Prussian
army to move into France. The Geisburg monument commemorates the battle; the town's cemetery holds large numbers of soldiers, including the stately tomb of French general Abel Douay
who was killed in combat.
church, now the parish
of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul
; other medieval churches are the Église Saint-Jean, and the Église Saint-Ulrich. Its Grenier aux Dîmes (tithe barn
) belonging to the Abbey is 18th century but an ancient foundation. Noteworthy houses are the medieval "Salt house", the Renaissance "House of l'Ami Fritz" and the imposing classicist
City Hall, a work by Joseph Massol.
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...
in the Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin
Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...
department in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
in northeastern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
It is situated on the little River Lauter
Lauter (Rhine)
The Lauter is a river in Germany and France, left tributary of the Rhine. Its length is 55 km. It is formed by the confluence of two headstreams north of Hinterweidenthal in the Pfälzerwald, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
close to the border between France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and 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...
approximately 60 km (37.3 mi) north of Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
and 35 km (21.7 mi) west of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department. The name Wissembourg is a Gallicized
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version of Weißenburg (Weissenburg) in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
meaning, "white castle".
History
Dagobert I
Dagobert I was the king of Austrasia , king of all the Franks , and king of Neustria and Burgundy . He was the last Merovingian dynast to wield any real royal power...
. The abbey was supported by vast territories. Of the 11th century buildings constructed under the direction of Abbot Samuel, only the Schartenturm and some moats remain. The town was fortified in the 13th century. The abbey church of Saint-Pierre et Paul
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Wissembourg
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church of Wissembourg is frequently, but incorrectly, referred to as the second largest Gothic church of Alsace after Strasbourg Cathedral. However, the building, with its interior ground surface area of 1320 m² most probably is the second largest Gothic church in...
, erected in the same century under the direction of Abbot Edelin was secularized in the French Revolution and despoiled of its treasures; in 1803 it became the parish church, resulting in the largest parish church of Alsace, only exceeded in size by the cathedral of Strasbourg. At the Abbey in the late 9th century, the monk Otfried
Otfrid of Weissenburg
Otfrid of Weissenburg was a monk at the abbey of Weissenburg and the author of a gospel harmony in rhyming couplets now called the Evangelienbuch. It is written in the South Rhine Franconian dialect of Old High German. The poem is thought to have been completed between 863 and 871...
composed a gospel harmony
Diatessaron
The Diatessaron is the most prominent Gospel harmony created by Tatian, an early Christian apologist and ascetic. The term "diatessaron" is from Middle English by way of Latin, diatessarōn , and ultimately Greek, διὰ τεσσάρων The Diatessaron (c 160 - 175) is the most prominent Gospel harmony...
, the first substantial work of verse in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
In 1354 Charles IV
Charles IV of France
Charles IV, known as the Fair , was the King of France and of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1322 to his death: he was the last French king of the senior Capetian lineage....
made it one of the grouping of ten towns called the Décapole
Décapole
The Décapole was an alliance formed in 1354 by ten Imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the Alsace region to maintain their rights, it was disbanded in 1679....
that survived annexation by France under Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
in 1678 and was extinguished with the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. On 25 January 1677 a great fire destroyed many houses and the Hôtel de Ville; its replacement dates from 1741–52. Many early structures were spared: the Maison du Sel (1448), under its Alsatian pitched roof was the first hospital of the town. There are many 15th and 16th-century timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. The Maison de Stanislas was the retreat of Stanislas Leszczinski, ex-king of Poland, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived, 3 April 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage to Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
. The first Battle of Wissembourg
Battle of Wissembourg (1793)
The Second Battle of Wissembourg from 6 December 1793 to 9 February 1794 saw an army of the First French Republic under General Lazare Hoche fight a series of clashes against an army of Austrians, Prussians, Bavarians, and Hessians led by General Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser. There were significant...
took place near the town in 1793.
The “Lines of Wissembourg,” originally made by Villars
Claude Louis Hector de Villars
Claude Louis Hector de Villars, Prince de Martigues, Marquis then Duc de Villars, Vicomte de Melun was the last great general of Louis XIV of France and one of the most brilliant commanders in French military history, one of only six Marshals who have been promoted to Marshal General of...
in 1706, were famous. They were a line of works extending to Lauterburg nine miles to the southeast. Like the fortifications of the town, only vestiges remain, although the city wall is still intact for stretches. Austrian General von Wurmser
Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser
Dagobert Sigismund, Count Wurmser was an Austrian field marshal during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although he fought in the Seven Years War, the War of the Bavarian Succession, and mounted several successful campaigns in the Rhineland in the initial years of the French Revolutionary Wars, he...
succeeded in briefly capturing the lines in October 1793, but was defeated two months later by General Pichegru
Charles Pichegru
Jean-Charles Pichegru was a French general and political figure of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars.-Early life and career:...
of the French Army and forced to retreat, along with the Prussians, across the Rhine River.
Wissembourg formed the setting for the Romantic novel L’ami Fritz (1869) co-written by the team of Erckmann and Chatrian, which provided the material for Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's opera L'Amico Fritz.
Another Battle of Wissembourg took place on 4 August 1870. It was the first battle of the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
. The Prussians were nominally commanded by the Crown Prince Frederick, but ably directed by his Chief of Staff, General Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal
Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal
Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall. He was a member of the von Blumenthal family.-Biography:Blumenthal was born in Schwedt, Brandenburg on July 20, 1810...
. The French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
defeat allowed the Prussian
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
army to move into France. The Geisburg monument commemorates the battle; the town's cemetery holds large numbers of soldiers, including the stately tomb of French general Abel Douay
Abel Douay
Charles Abel Douay was a general in the French army during the reign of the Emperor Napoleon III. He commanded troops in numerous French campaigns in Europe and overseas. He was killed in battle at the age of sixty-one, near Wissembourg during the Franco-Prussian War.-Early life and career:Charles...
who was killed in combat.
Notable people
- Otfrid of WeissenburgOtfrid of WeissenburgOtfrid of Weissenburg was a monk at the abbey of Weissenburg and the author of a gospel harmony in rhyming couplets now called the Evangelienbuch. It is written in the South Rhine Franconian dialect of Old High German. The poem is thought to have been completed between 863 and 871...
- Jean-Gotthard Grimmer, (1749–1820), pastor at Wissembourg then deputy to the National Convention on 10 ventôse year III (28 February 1795) to replace Philibert Simond.
- Louis Moll, agronomist, born in Wissembourg in 1809 and died in 1880.
- Joseph Guerber
- Stanisław Leszczyński, king of Poland from 1704 to 1709, exiled in Wissembourg and lived from 1719 to 1725. The school in the city now bears his name.
- Charles de FoucauldCharles de FoucauldCharles Eugène de Foucauld was a French Catholic religious and priest living among the Tuareg in the Sahara in Algeria. He was assassinated in 1916 outside the door of the fort he built for protection of the Tuareg and is considered by the Catholic Church to be a martyr...
- Auguste Dreyfus
- Jean Frédéric Wentzel, famous photos of Wissembourg
- Jean-François KornetzkyJean-François KornetzkyJean-François Kornetzky is a French football goalkeeper.-External links:* * *...
, football goalkeeper - Martin BucerMartin BucerMartin Bucer was a Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled...
(1491–1551) was a Protestant reformer based in Wissembourg/Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices.
Sights
The picturesque town, set in a landscape of rolling wheat fields, retains a former Augustinian convent (1279) with its large-scale GothicGothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
church, now the parish
Parish (Catholic Church)
In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...
of Saints-Pierre-et-Paul
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Wissembourg
St. Peter and St. Paul's Church of Wissembourg is frequently, but incorrectly, referred to as the second largest Gothic church of Alsace after Strasbourg Cathedral. However, the building, with its interior ground surface area of 1320 m² most probably is the second largest Gothic church in...
; other medieval churches are the Église Saint-Jean, and the Église Saint-Ulrich. Its Grenier aux Dîmes (tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....
) belonging to the Abbey is 18th century but an ancient foundation. Noteworthy houses are the medieval "Salt house", the Renaissance "House of l'Ami Fritz" and the imposing classicist
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
City Hall, a work by Joseph Massol.
External links
- Virtual tour picture gallery
- Interactive map of the property of abbey Wissembourg, based on Liber donationum and Liber possessionum, in Traditiones possessionesque Wizenburgenses, edited by Zeuss, Johann Caspar, Speyer 1842