Crailsheim () is a town in the German 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 ...

. Incorporated in 1338, it lies east of Schwäbisch Hall and southwest of

Ansbach Ansbach ( , ; ) is a city in the Germany, German state of Bavaria. It is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk, administrative region of Mittelfranken, Middle Franconia. Ansbach is southwest of Nuremberg and north of Munich, on the river Fränk ...

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 - Schwäbisch Hall, Dinkelsbühl, and

Rothenburg ob der Tauber Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town located in the district of Ansbach (district), Ansbach of Mittelfranken (Middle Franconia), the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It is well known for its well-preserved Middle Ages, medieval old town, a d ...

- 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 (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

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, Westgartshausen, Goldbach, Triensbach and Beuerlbach.

Transportation

Crailsheim is served by the Upper Jagst Railway.

Twin towns – sister cities

Crailsheim is twinned with: *

Biłgoraj Biłgoraj (, ''Bilgoray'', ) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 25,838 inhabitants as of December 2021. Since 1999 it has been situated in Lublin Voivodeship; it was previously located in Zamość Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located sou ...

, Poland * Jurbarkas, Lithuania * Pamiers, 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 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 and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

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

Notable people

Hans Krell Hans Krell (c. 1490–1565 or 1586), also Krehl ou Kreil, was a German painterBiographical sketch in Helen A Dickinson German Masters of Art p. 96 of the Renaissance, mainly known as a portrait painter. He is thought to have been born in Crailshe ...

(ca. 1490–1565 or 1586), portrait painter of the Renaissance. *

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. ...

(1887–1967), psychiatrist, worked on the understanding of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

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 ...

(1892–1986), Member of

White Rose The White 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, University of Munich ...

resistance group in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. * Inge Aicher-Scholl (1917–1998), author and core member of the

resistance movement * Hans Scholl (1918–1943), founding member of the

resistance movement in

* Eva Schorr (1927–2016), painter and composer * Wolfgang Meyer (1954–2019),

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

ist * Sabine Meyer (born 1959),

ist * Philipp, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (born 1970), 10th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

References

External links

Official website

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