The Breisgau () is an

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

in southwest

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 ...

extending along the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

River and enveloping portions of the

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

. Part of the state 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 ...

, it centers on the city of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. The district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, which partly consists of the Breisgau, is named after the Black Forest area. Parts of the Breisgau are also situated in the political districts of Freiburg im Breisgau and Emmendingen.

History

The earliest historically attested inhabitants were

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. In Roman times, the area was part of the province of

Germania Superior Germania Superior ("Upper Germania") was an imperial province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were Besançon ('' Vesont ...

, but after the rupture of the in 260, the area was settled by 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 ...

. It remained a part of Alemannia throughout the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

and was a buffer zone between the central Alemannic lands and

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

, which was less strongly colonized by the Alemanni. The name of the region goes back to Carolingian times, when most of modern Germany was divided into , territorial divisions similar to

shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

s or

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

. The Breisgau was then known as ''Breisachgau'', meaning the around the town of Breisach on the east bank of the

. In the mid-9th century, it was a

march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 2 ...

-like territory guarding the frontier with southern Lotharingia and Alsace. In 859, it was bestowed on

Charles the Fat Charles the Fat (839 – 13 January 888) was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was t ...

, the son of King Louis I, a sign of its importance. In the 10th century, the Breisgau was within the

Duchy of Swabia The Duchy of Swabia (; ) was one of the five stem duchy, stem duchies of the medieval Kingdom of Germany, German Kingdom. It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity. While th ...

and ruled by the Zähringen family. In 1092 the Zähringer Berthold II claimed the Swabian ducal title but had to relinquish it to the Staufer Frederick I in 1098; Berthold and his heirs would instead be known as the Dukes of Zähringen. In the Breisgau, the dukes of Zähringen founded

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, which became their chief city. In 1218 the ducal Zähringen line died out and the Breisgau passed to the House of Baden, another Zähringer line (descended from Berthold II's brother Herman) who had also detached themselves from Swabia in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden. Within Baden Freiburg was ruled by the Counts of Freiburg from the mid-13th century until 1368. From the 13th/14th century, the area was part of Further Austria (the ), the area in southwest Germany ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. In 1797 the Breisgau, along with the rest of the , was ceded to Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, as compensation for his losses to the French Cispadane Republic ( Cisalpine Republic from 1797); it passed to his heir Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este following his death in 1803. In 1805, by the Treaty of Pressburg, the area was ceded to the Electorate of Baden (the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

from 1806).

Borders and area

The Breisgau includes the flat area around river Rhine, the foothills of the Black Forest and the western faces of the southern Black Forest mountains and the Kaiserstuhl hills. In the south, the Breisgau borders onto the Markgräflerland, in the west onto the Sundgau (

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

), in the east onto the

, and in the north onto the Ortenau area.

Climate

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

of the Breisgau is warm; in fact, it is the warmest region in Germany. The average annual temperature is 11 degrees Celsius (52 degrees Fahrenheit), the average rainfall is 900 mm (36").

Agriculture

The Breisgau is known for its

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

and used for fruit tree

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

s and

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

Places in the Breisgau

The biggest city by far in the Breisgau region is

. Other notable cities and towns are Bad Krozingen, Breisach, Emmendingen, Endingen, Kenzingen, Neuenburg, Staufen and Waldkirch. A prominent mountain is the Schauinsland (1,284 m).

External links

Breisgau
(www.britannica.com)
Breisgau — Soaring Mountains, Splendid Lakes, Delicious Wine
(www.mygermancity.com)
Breisgau Wine Region
(www.winetourism.com)

References

{{Coord, 47, 56, N, 7, 49, E, region:DE_source:frwiki, display=title Regions of Baden-Württemberg Austrian Circle Carolingian counties Former states and territories of Baden-Württemberg Further Austria Territories of the Valois dukes of Burgundy