Bisingen () is a municipality in the Zollernalbkreis district of

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 ...

History

Bisingen is one of the oldest settlements of the area, verified by several findings of the Neolithic Age, the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, the early

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and the La Téne time period. The founding of Bisingen and Wessingen is ascribed to the

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 ...

around 300 A.D., and Steinhofen, Thanheim & Zimmern being founded around 500 A.D. The first recorded mention of Bisingen and Wessingen was in 786 A.D.: the Franconian Count Gerold in der Baar gifted goods from ''Pisinguin'' (Bisingen) and ''Uassingun'' (Wessingen) to the St. Gallen monastery. The towns of Bisingen, , , and were part of , a of the Principality of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and, from 1850, the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. The Oberamt was dissolved in 1925 and mixed with into the new . Over the 1930s, the population of Romani that had grown up in Steinhof to escape persecution in Württemberg was, despite the efforts of local lawyer Julius Klink, expelled. During the later part of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, from August 1944 to March 1945, operated at Bisingen. After the war, Bisingen began expanding dramatically. The town itself grew until the 1970s to the north and east, and politically over the same decade with the merging of Wessingen and Zimmern into Bisingen in 1972, followed by Thanheim in 1974. When , Hechingen's district was as a consequence dissolved, and Bisingen was assigned to the new Zollernalb district. Bisingen's industrial capacity began expanding in the 1980s, and this growth continued well into the 1990s.

Geography

Bisingen is physically located along the northern edge of the Swabian Jura, between the Hundsrücken and the Hohenzollern mountains. Elevation above sea level in the municipal area ranges from a low of

Normalnull ("standard zero") or (short N. N. or NN) is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany. Elevations using this reference system were to be marked (“meters above standard zero”). has been replaced by (NHN). History In 187 ...

(NN) on the Klingenbach to a high of NN at the top of the Zeller Horn. Portions of the Federally-protected , , and nature reserves are located in Bisingen.

Political geography

The municipality ('' Gemeinde'') of Bisingen covers of the Zollernalb district of

, a

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

of the Federal Republic of Germany. The abandoned villages of Hofen and Weiler are located within Bisingen. Weiler was first mentioned in 1328 as "Wiler hinter Zollern" and vanished by the 15th century; it likely belonged to the pilgrimage church.

Coat of arms

Bisingen's municipal

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

is divided ''party per pale'' into a red field on the left and a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

one on the right. Inside the red portion is a yellow miter while in the yellow half is half of a red gear wheel. These are, respectively, references to the Lords of Bisingen and to Bisingen's industry. This pattern was first approved by the provisional government of Württemberg-Hohenzollern on 14 September 1953. The Zollernalb district office reapproved the pattern for municipal use on 30 June 1982.

Transportation

Bisingen is connected to Germany's network of highways by Bundesstraße 27 and to its railways by the Tübingen–Sigmaringen railway. Public transport is provided by the .

References

External links

* (in German) {{Authority control Bisingen