Dautmergen is a municipality in the

Zollernalbkreis The Zollernalbkreis () is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The district is located in the Swabian Alb, and contains the second highest elevation of this range, the high '' Oberhohenberg''. In the south-e ...

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

Dautmergen was a possession of the County of Hohenberg until 1381, when it became part of the

Duchy of Austria The Duchy of Austria (; ) was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the '' Privilegium Minus'', when the Margraviate of Austria ('' Ostarrîchi'') was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own ri ...

's territory in Swabia. The town was given to the

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg ( ) was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Electorate of Württemberg, which existed from 1803 to 1806. Geogr ...

in 1805 during the process of

German mediatization German mediatisation (; ) was the major redistribution and reshaping of territorial holdings that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany by means of the subsumption and Secularization (church property), secularisation of a large number of ...

. The town was assigned to when that district was organized in 1806. Around 1812, the town was reassigned to and remained in that district when it was reorganized in 1934 as a

Landkreis In 13 German states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a '' Gemeinde'' (municipality) is the () or (). Most major cities in Germany are not part of any ''Kreis'', but instead combine the functions of a municipality and a ''K ...

. This was dissolved in 1938 and Dautmergen was again reassigned, this time to . A subcamp of the

Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp Natzweiler-Struthof was a Nazi concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the villages of Natzwiller, Natzweiler and Struthof in the Gau Baden-Alsace of Nazi Germany, Germany, on territory Annexation, annexed from France on a b ...

was constructed at Dautmergen during the

Second World War 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 ...

. After the war, Dautmergen developed into a

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

and expanded to the north.

Geography

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

German state The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

. It is physically located in the foothills of the

Swabian Jura The Swabian Jura ( , more rarely ), sometimes also named Swabian Alps in English, is a mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, extending from southwest to northeast and in width. It is named after the region of Swabia. It is part of th ...

, specifically towards the center of the . The valley marks the lowest elevation above sea level in the municipal area at

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). The highest elevation, NN, is found to the southwest of Dautmergen itself. Dautmergen itself is located near the .

Coat of arms

Dautmergen's

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 into thirds, with a

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

chief,

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...

fess In heraldry, a fess or fesse (from Middle English ', Old French ', and -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ', and charge on a coat of arms">Latin ' ...

, and

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 ...

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

, which contains a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

rendered in

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

with red claws. The

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

and pattern of the coat of arms reference the historical owners of Dautmergen: the red-white blazon are for the County of Hohenberg and for Austria and the yellow field and lion are for Württemberg. This pattern was first approved by the Post-war provisional

Württemberg-Hohenzollern Württemberg-Hohenzollern was a West Germany, West German state created in 1945 as part of the French Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, post-World War II occupation zone. Its capital was Tübingen. In 1952, it was merged into the newly founded ...

government on 11 January 1949, and then by the Zollernalb district office on 7 December 1987.

Transportation

Dautmergen is connected to the German system of highways by

Bundesstraße 27 Bundesstraße 27 or B27 is a German federal road. It connects Blankenburg am Harz with Rafz in Switzerland. Route The Bundesstraße 27 crosses the following states and towns (north to south): * Saxony-Anhalt: Blankenburg am Harz * Lower S ...

. Public transportation is provided by the .

References

External links

* (in German) {{Authority control Municipalities in Baden-Württemberg Zollernalbkreis