Crailsheim is a town in the German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of

Schwäbisch Hall Schwäbisch Hall (; "Swabian Hall"; from 1802 until 1934 and colloquially: ''Hall'' ) is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg located in the valley of the Kocher river, the longest tributary (together with its headwater Lein) of the ...

and southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The city's main attractions include two Evangelical churches, a Catholic church, and the 67 metre tower of its town hall.

History

Crailsheim is famed for withstanding a siege by forces of three

imperial cities In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

, Dinkelsbühl, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber - lasting from 1379 until 1380, a feat which it celebrates annually. Crailsheim became a possession of the Burgrave of Nuremberg following the siege. In 1791 it became part of the Prussian administrative region, before returning to Bavaria in 1806 and becoming a part of Württemberg in 1810. Crailsheim's railroad and airfield were heavily defended by the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

during World War II. Following an American assault in mid-April 1945, the town was occupied briefly by US forces before being lost to a German counter-offensive. Intense US bombing and artillery shelling destroyed much of the city, with subsequent fires consuming its historic inner city. Only the Johanneskirche (St. John's Church) escaped unharmed. Crailsheim became the postwar home to the U.S. Army's McKee Barracks until the facility closed in January 1994. Major employers in the Crailsheim area include: * Voith * Syntegon Technology GmbH * Gerhard Schubert GmbH The following boroughs comprise the Crailsheim municipality: Altenmünster, Erkenbrechtshausen, Tiefenbach, Onolzheim, Roßfeld,

Jagstheim Crailsheim is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of Schwäbisch Hall and southwest of Ansbach in the Schwäbisch Hall district. The city's main attractions include two Evangelical churches, a ...

, Westgartshausen, Goldbach, Triensbach and Beuerlbach.

Transportation

Crailsheim is served by the Upper Jagst Railway.

Twin towns – sister cities

Crailsheim is twinned with: * Biłgoraj, Poland * Jurbarkas, Lithuania *

Pamiers Pamiers (; oc, Pàmias ) is a commune and largest city in the Ariège department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is the most populous commune in the Ariège department, although it ...

, France * Worthington, United States

Crailsheim Merlins

The Crailsheim Merlins are the city's basketball team. Founded in 1986, they originally played in lower leagues. In 1995 they moved into a new sports hall, improved, and were promoted in 2001 to the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

, the second division of German basketball. In 2015 they were first promoted to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

but relegated after two seasons. They achieved promotion again in 2018
www.crailsheim-merlins.de

Notable people

* Hans Sachs (1874–1947), member of Reichstag *

Kurt Schneider Kurt Schneider (7 January 1887 – 27 October 1967) was a German psychiatrist known largely for his writing on the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia, as well as personality disorders then known as psychopathic personalities. Bi ...

(1887–1967), psychiatrist *Karl Waldmann (1889–1969), NSDAP-politician *

Eugen Grimminger Franz Eugen Grimminger (29 July 1892 – 10 April 1986) was a member of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany. Early life Eugen Grimminger, son of a train driver, participated as a volunteer in the First World War and then worked as a c ...

(1892–1986), Member of

White Rose The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, ...

*Inge Aicher-Scholl (1917–1998), author *

Hans Scholl Hans Fritz Scholl (; 22 September 1918 – 22 February 1943) was, along with Alexander Schmorell, one of the two founding members of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The principal author of the resistance movement's ...

(1918–1943), founding member of the

resistance movement in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

*Werner Utter (1921–2006), one of the first flight captains of the Lufthansa after World War II * Eva Schorr (1927–2016), painter and composer * Wolfgang Meyer (1954–2019), clarinetist *

Sabine Meyer Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959) is a German classical clarinetist. Biography Born in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto ...

(born 1959),

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

ist *Susanne Bay (born 1965), politician (The Greens), member of Landtag * Philipp Gottfried Alexander (born 1970), 10th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg *Alexander Neidlein (born 1975), politician (NPD)

References

External links

Official website

History about Crailsheim
{{Authority control Schwäbisch Hall (district) Württemberg