Bermatingen is a commune in the district of

Bodensee Lake Constance (, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhei ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, 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 i ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. __TOC__

Geography

Bermatingen is located 4 km west of

Markdorf Markdorf () is a town in the Bodenseekreis district, in Baden-Württemberg, Southern Germany. It is situated near Lake Constance, 10 km northwest of Friedrichshafen Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is ...

in the valley of the

Seefelder Aach The Seefelder Aach is a river in the districts of Sigmaringen and Bodenseekreis, Tübingen region, southern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is approximately 55 kilometres long and flows into Lake Constance. It has a catchment area of 279 km ...

. It is bordered to the north by

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, the east by

Deggenhausertal Deggenhausertal is a municipality in the district of Bodensee in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. __TOC__ Geography Deggenhausertal is located in two hilly valleys between the mountains of Gehrenberg and Höchsten. It is bordered to the west by ...

, the south by

, and the west by

Meersburg Meersburg () is a town in Baden-Württemberg in the southwest of Germany. It is on Lake Constance. It is known for its medieval city. The lower town ("Unterstadt") and upper town ("Oberstadt") are reserved for pedestrians only, and connected by t ...

. The commune comprises two municipalities: Bermatingen (with the villages of Autenweiler and Wiggenweiler), and

Ahausen Ahausen is a village in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Ahausen is administratively part of the collective community of Sottrum. History The first record of the village was in 1226 as "Ouhusen". Then Ahausen belonged to the ...

. The two municipalities were joined into the same commune on 1 January 1973.

History

Bermatingen

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

an farmers settled in the region in the 5th-7th Centuries. The first mention of Bermatingen is in 779 as ''Permodingas'', in which Ato and his wife Herosta donated the village to St Gall's Abbey in modern

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. A family of knights of Bermatingen are mentioned beginning in 1166, and they constructed a castle at Burg Bermatingen to the northeast of the town. The last mention of the family is in 1303. The village later passed to the ministerialis family of the

Schenk von Ittendorf Schenk is a Ashkenazi Jews, Jewish (Ashkenazic) and Germans, German occupational surname derived from ''schenken'' (to pour out or serve) referring to the medieval profession of cup-bearer or wine server (later also to tavern keeper). At one time, o ...

, who sold their rights to the town to

Salem Abbey Salem Abbey () was a very prominent Cistercian monastery at Salem in the district of Bodensee, about ten miles from Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The buildings are now owned by the State of Baden-Württemberg and are open for tours a ...

in 1390. In 1525 during the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt () was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising befor ...

, Eitelhans Ziegelmüller, one of the peasant commanders, took Bermatingen and used it as a base to attack towns, castles and monasteries in the surrounding region as far as

Buchhorn Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''Kr ...

(modern Friedrichshafen). The peasants marched to battle at

Weingarten Weingarten may refer to: Places * Weingarten, Württemberg, Germany, a town ** Weingarten Abbey * Weingarten (Baden), Germany, a municipality * Weingarten, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a municipality * Weingarten, Thuringia, Germany, a village an ...

by late April where they made peace with the forces of the Swabian League under George III Truchsess of Waldburg-Zeil, agreeing to end the insurrection and returning property to its feudal owners in exchange for improved conditions and right to arbitration in disputes. Bermatingen was devastated by a fire in 1590 and the Salem abbot Peter Müller directed the effort to reconstruct the town. In the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

of 1803, in which the principalities of the ecclesiastic rulers were dispersed to the counts and princes of the empire, Bermatingen with the rest of the territory of Salem Abbey was disbursed to the

Electorate of Baden The Electorate of Baden () was a State of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806. In 1803, the Imperial diet bestowed the office of Prince-elector to Charles Frederick, but in 1806, Francis II dissolved the Empire. Baden then achieved sovere ...

Ahausen

Ahausen was first mentioned in a donation on 10 May 752 as ''Hahahusir'' to St Galls' Abbey. The village later passed to the Schenks von Ittendorf, Lindau Abbey, the Free City of

Überlingen Überlingen (; ) is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second-largest city in the Bodenseek ...

in 1434,

Fahr Abbey Fahr Convent () is a Benedictine convent located in an exclave of the canton of Aargau, surrounded by the municipality of Unterengstringen (canton of Zürich). It is located 8 km to the north of Zürich's city centre. Located in different ca ...

in 1651, temporarily to

Weingarten Abbey Weingarten Abbey or St. Martin's Abbey ( until 1803, then merely ) is a Benedictine monastery on the Martinsberg (''St. Martin's Mount'') in Weingarten near Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). First foundation Originally founded as a n ...

in 1693, and finally to the

Prince-Bishopric of Constance The Prince-Bishopric of Constance () was a small ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire from the mid-12th century until its secularisation in 1802–1803. In his dual capacity as prince and as bishop, the prince-bishop also admini ...

later that year. The Prince-Bishopric administered Ahausen with neighbouring town Ittendorf (in

commune). Ahausen passed to the Electorate of Baden in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803. Ahausen was subject to the heavy flooding of the Seefelder Aach for much of its history. The last catastrophic flood was in 1906 before the construction of a dam and corrective works for the flow of the river.

Coat of arms

References

{{Authority control Bodenseekreis