Obernai ( Alsatian: ''Owernah''; german: Oberehnheim)

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Bas-Rhin Bas-Rhin (; Alsatian: ''Unterelsàss'', ' or '; traditional german: links=no, Niederrhein; en, Lower Rhine) is a department in Alsace which is a part of the Grand Est super-region of France. The name means 'Lower Rhine', referring to its low ...

department in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

in north-eastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It lies on the eastern slopes of the

Vosges mountains The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

. Obernai is a rapidly growing city, its number of inhabitants having gone up from 6,304 in 1968 to 11,279 in 2017.

History

neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

necropole has been uncovered dating between 5,000 and 4,600 BC; 27 individuals were buried there in wooden coffins. This appears to be a continuation of groups from the Linear Pottery culture who were located also on the eastern side of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

. The Obernai region, which was the property of the dukes of

in the 7th century, is the birthplace of St. Odile, daughter of the Duke, who would become the Patron Saint of Alsace. The Obernai name first appears in 1240, when the village acquires the status of town under the tutelage of the Hohenstaufen family. The town then prospered. It became a member of the Décapole in 1354, an alliance of ten towns of the Holy Roman Empire in Alsace. Obernai's status reaches its apex in the 15th and 16th century. In 1562, Emperor Ferdinand I visited the prosperous town of Obernai. The

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

(1618–48) damaged the town, which was occupied by the Imperial troops, then by the Swedes. The town was ransomed and ceded to France in 1679, and started to recover some of its prosperity, without totally recapturing its former glory. The town was annexed by Germany in 1871 with the rest of Alsace, then returned to France after World War I in 1918. During the German occupation in the Second World War, the Nazi authorities set up the ''Reichsschule für SS Helferinnen Oberenheim'', a Waffen-SS women's training centre, which opened in May 1942 upon the order of Heinrich Himmler.

Population

Economy

Obernai is an important center of wine and beer production, as well as a touristic destination. The industrial activity features the following companies: Hager,

Kronenbourg Kronenbourg Brewery (french: Brasseries Kronenbourg, German: ''Kronenbourg Brauerei'', ) is a brewery founded in 1664 by Geronimus Hatt in the Free Imperial City of Straßburg, Holy Roman Empire (today Strasbourg, France). The name comes from th ...

, Triumph, Sobovia, Supra and Stoeffler. The historical wine of the city is called the Vin du Pistolet in reference to a local legend.

Education

During the mid-1800s, Obernai was home to a

Marianist The Society of Mary ( la, Societas Mariae) abbreviated SM is a clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (brothers and priests) commonly called the Marianists or Marianist Brothers and Priests. Its members add the nominal ...

primary school.

Sights

Domaine de la Léonardsau Domaine de la Léonardsau is a château in the commune of Obernai, in the department of Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France. It is a listed historical monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or ...

(19th century – early 20th century): current museum of the horse and the horse carriage. * Truttenhausen abbey (in ruin): old monastery of the regular canons of St-Augustin (15th century). * Gail Castle (1826–27): Currently the Freppel High School * Oberkirch Castle: rebuilt between 1843 and 1846 with the characteristics of an older fortified castle of the 16th or 17th century. * El Biar Castle: Built between 1864 and 1865 on the site of an old flour mill, by General de Vives (1802, 1884); it is named after a residential section of Algiers. * Old six-bucket well (1579) * Clocktower (Kappelturm) * Wheat Market (Halle aux Blés) * Romanesque house in the rue des Pèlerins * Old Synagogue Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Gemeinde und der Synagogen in Oberehnheim
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Notable people

Born in Obernai

Nicolas Léonard Beker Nicolas Léonard Beker or Nicolas Léonard Becker or Nicolas Léonard Bagert, born 18 January 1770 – died 18 November 1840, joined the French army as a dragoon before the French Revolutionary Wars and rose in rank to become a general office ...

Jean-Victor Hocquard Marie-Joseph Antoine Jean-Victor Hocquard (17 January 1910 – 21 December 1995) was a French musicologist, and a specialist of Mozart. Biography Hocquard was born in Obernai. He graduated from Metz high school and obtained his philosophy degre ...

(1910–1995), musicologist *

Charles-Émile Freppel Charles-Émile Freppel (1 June 1827 – 12 December 1891), French bishop and politician, was born at Obernai (Alsace). He was ordained priest in 1849 and for a short time taught history at the seminary of Strasbourg, where he had previously rece ...

Thomas Murner Thomas Murner, OFM (24 December 1475c. 1537) was an Alsatian satirist, poet and translator. He was born at Oberehnheim ( Obernai) near Strasbourg. In 1490 he entered the Franciscan order, and in 1495 began travelling, studying and then teaching ...

André Neher André Neher (22 October 1914 – 23 October 1988) was a French Jewish scholar and philosopher. Biography Neher was born in Obernai, Bas-Rhin. He was a student at the Collège Freppel in Obernai, then at the Lycée Fustel de Coulange in Strasbou ...

Charles Pisot Charles Pisot (2 March 1910 – 7 March 1984) was a French mathematician. He is chiefly recognized as one of the primary investigators of the numerical set associated with his name, the Pisot–Vijayaraghavan numbers. He followed the classical p ...

René Schickele René Schickele (4 August 1883 – 31 January 1940) was a German-French writer, essayist and translator. Biography Schickele was born in Obernai, Alsace, the son of a German vineyard owner and police officer and a French mother. He studied literat ...

Morgan Schneiderlin Morgan Fernand Gérard Schneiderlin (; born 8 November 1989) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League on loan from Nice. Schneiderlin began his career with Strasbour ...

Active in Obernai

* John Stintzi,

brother and academic, taught in the village during the 1840s