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".Thomas Stöckle, Grafeneck 1940. The euthanasia crimes in East Germany. 2nd Edition. Silberburg-Verlag, Tübingen 2005, . Thomas Stöckle, head of Memorial in Grafeneck emphasizes that these are preliminary. Basis of the figures are statistical material from the Grafeneck process of 1949 and reports of the individual dispensing stations 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.Lena Müssigmann: taz.de. In: Die Tageszeitung. Berlin, 22. September 2014.
Economy and Infrastructure The local economy mixes agriculture with services and small-scale industry. Most of the textiles industry (among them Göla,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.Walter Koch: "Marlene" kommt nach Hause. In: Schwarzwälder Bote, Meßstetten, 1. September 2013.Walter Koch: "Blacksmith" Interstuhl. In: Schwarzwälder Bote, Meßstetten, 8 November 2016.Karina Eyrich: "Marlene" kommt nach Hause. In: Schwarzwälder Bote, Meßstetten, 14 September 2017.
Geography Location 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". Town of Meßstetten: at up to 989 metres above sea level, Meßstetten is one of the highest towns in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Administrative structure 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 BuelochBueloch leo-bw.de for example has a primary school, gym, kindergarten and a church house,"Da ist Psychologie im Spiel", article about the church house in Bueloch by Karina Eyrich in the Schwarzwälder Bote dated 6 August 2019 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.Das Land Baden-Württemberg. Amtliche Beschreibung nach Kreisen und Gemeinden. Volume VII: Administrative region of Tübingen. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1978, , pp. 231–235. Unterdigisheim is located southwest of Meßstetten and has about 650 inhabitants.
Protected areas
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.
History Prehistory 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.Jürgen Scheff: Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Ebinger Alb. Ebingen 1987. 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.
Ancient history 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.Inventory E258 VI Bü 689 of the B-W State Archives 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.Alfred Ludwig Oetinger: Mittheilungen über die Untersuchung …. In Digi UB Uni Heidelberg of 1875, Volume 2, pp. 38–52. 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.Illicit Excavation
Middle Ages 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, until the Alamanni invaded the area after 260.
The suffix "-stetten" indicates an Alemannic settlement. The "stetten" places on the Heuberg - such as Meßstetten, Heinstetten, Stetten am kalten Markt and Frohnstetten - were probably founded from Ebingen as shepherds' settlements in the 4th century. In the centre of Meßstetten, local pastor Oetinger investigated three Alemanni cemeteries between 1864 and 1867.
In the early Middle Ages, Meßstetten belonged to the Scherragau, the name Scherra meaning rock. In the 12th century most of it was owned by the Counts of Hohenberg, who were also local lords of Meßstetten and some of today's districts. The gentlemen of Meßstetten were a noble Dienstmannen family and had their seat in a castle. There used to be several castles and tower houses in Meßstetten. Four larger castle sites are located on the historic Bschorner Weg into the Danube Valley in the restricted area: these are the castles of Meßstetten, Oberdigisheim, Tieringen and on the mountain path in the direction of Unterdigisheim, Hossingen.
The current district of Unterdigisheim was part of the Lordship of Werenwag, which also belonged to the County of Hohenberg.
Just like the lords of Hohenstetten (Heinstetten), the lords of Meßstetten emigrated to Ebingen in the 13th century to form a military upper class in the young town. Their coat of arms, a silver cup on a red background, is now the coat of arms of Meßstetten. It was adopyted in 1376 by the Ebingen Schultheiß John of Meßstetten.Bestand A602 Nr6601 = WR 6601 at Landesarchiv-BW.de
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.Bestand Ho156 Nr18 at Landesarchiv-BW.de
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. Bestand A 602. Balingen G. V. Bestellsignatur: A 602 Nr 6747 = WR 6747
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.-32420 Bestand A 602 6741 = WR 6741 at Landesarchiv-BW.de George of Werenwag ceded the tithe in Meßstetten to Beuron Abbey on 14 October 1477. In 1557, separate churches were built in the Nusplingen parish villages of Hartheim and Unterdigisheim.
Around 1300, Count Frederick of Zollern owned land and serfs in Meßstetten.Bestand Ho156 T1 Nr3 at Landesarchiv-BW.de
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.
Mining