Gingen an der Fils is a municipality in the district of

Göppingen Göppingen (; or ) is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the Goeppingen (district), district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the birthplace ...

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 ...

Geography

The municipality ('' Gemeinde'') of Gingen an der Fils is found in

the district ''The District'' is an American crime drama and police procedural television series that aired on CBS from October 7, 2000, to May 1, 2004. The show followed the work and personal life of the chief of Washington, D.C.'s police department. P ...

, in

, one of the 16 States of the

Federal Republic of 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 constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

. Gingen is physically located in the valley of the Fils, up to the hills of the , in the 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 ...

. Elevation above sea level in the municipal area ranges from a high 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Normalnull ("standard zero") or (short N. N. or NN) is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany.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 has been replaced by (NHN).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) to a low of NN. Gingen an der Fils includes the hamlet of Grünenberg as well as the

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Marrbach.

Geological demographics

Source:

History

Some time between 1382 and 1396, Gingen was sold by the County of Helfenstein to the Free Imperial City of

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, whose bailiff resided in the town until 1750. Gingen became a possession of the

Electorate of Bavaria The Electorate of Bavaria () was a quasi-independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Bavaria was the younger ...

in 1802, but was ceded in 1810 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 ...

. Gingen was assigned to . In 1845, the town was connected to the growing network of railways in Europe by the construction of the

Fils Valley Railway The Fils Valley Railway (, historically ''Filsbahn'' or ''Württembergische Ostbahn''—Württemberg Eastern Railway) designates the Württemberg line from Stuttgart via Göppingen to Ulm. It runs from Plochingen to Geislingen an der Steige thr ...

. Gingen was reassigned in 1938 to the district of Göppingen and entered a period of

urban growth Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

after

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 ...

, nearly doubling in physical size. Since the turn of the millennium,

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

has primarily been to Gingen's west.

Politics

Gingen has one borough (''Ortsteil''), Gingen an der Fils, and three villages: Grünenberg, Hämmelplatz, and Marren. The

abandoned villages An abandoned village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. In many countries, and throughout history, thousands of villages have been deserted for a variety of causes. Abandonment of villages is often related to epidemic, ...

of Ferrenbronn, Liebenweiler, Marchbach, and Weschenbeuren are also found in the municipal area.

Council

The municipal council in Gingen has 14 members. The municipal elections on May 26, 2019 led to the most recent council members.

Mayors

* 1945–1948: Kaleb Fetzer * 1948–1954: Karl Schmid * 1954–1986: Heinz Nagel * 1986–2010: Lothar Schober (parteilos) * since 2010: Marius Hick (CDU) Source:

Insignia

Coat of arms

Gingen an der Fils'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 ...

displays a

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 ...

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 ...

crossed by a

bend sinister In heraldry, a bend is a band or strap running from the upper dexter (the bearer's right side and the viewer's left) corner of the shield to the lower sinister (the bearer's left side, and the viewer's right). Authorities differ as to how m ...

, in

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

, with a

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 ...

in the top left corner of the

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

. This pattern was devised and adopted for use by the municipal council in 1922 and refers to the river Fils and to a local church where, supposedly, the oldest surviving written document in Germany was written. The Federal Ministry of the Interior approved the coat of arms and issued a corresponding municipal flag on 5 December 1958.

Transportation

Gingen is connected to Germany's network of roadways by

Bundesstraße 10 The Bundesstraße 10 (abbr. B10) is a German federal highway. It leads from Eppelborn, near the city of Lebach in Saarland, eastward to Neusäß near Augsburg in Bavaria. The Bundesautobahn 8 mostly runs in parallel to the Bundesstraße 10. Aft ...

and to its system of railways by the

. Local public transportation is provided by the .

Notes

References

External links

* (in German) {{Authority control Towns in Baden-Württemberg Göppingen (district)