Sigmaringen is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the south 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 ...

. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise)

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...

, Biberach,

Ravensburg Ravensburg ( or ; Swabian: ''Raveschburg'') is a city in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg. Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and ...

Bodensee Lake Constance (, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhei ...

Constance Constance may refer to: Places * Constance, Kentucky, United States, an unincorporated community * Constance, Minnesota, United States, an unincorporated community * Mount Constance, Washington State, United States * Lake Constance (disambiguat ...

Tuttlingen Tuttlingen (; Alemannic: ''Duttlinga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Tuttlingen. Nendingen, ''Möhringen'' and ''Eßlingen'' are three former municipalities that belong to Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen is located in Swabia ...

, and

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 ...

History

The area of the district was owned by several different states historically. It was split between many minor rulers before the

German Mediatisation 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 ...

of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By 1806 it had become a border area between 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 ...

, 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 ...

, and the much smaller principality of

Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen () was a principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the junior House of Hohenzollern#Swabian branch, Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Swabian Hohenzollerns were elevated to princes in 162 ...

embedded between them. In 1849 Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen became part of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

Province of Hohenzollern The Province of Hohenzollern (, ''Hohenzollern Lands'') was a district of Prussia from 1850 to 1946. It was located in Swabia, the region of southern Germany that was the ancestral home of the House of Hohenzollern, to which the kings of Prussia ...

(along with the principality of

Hohenzollern-Hechingen Hohenzollern-Hechingen () was a small principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the House of Hohenzollern#Swabian branch, Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern dynasty. History The County of Hohenzollern- ...

). At that time it had the of Sigmaringen and Gammertingen, which were merged into the of Sigmaringen in 1925. After WWII it became part of the French-controlled state of

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 ...

until 1952 when it became part of the modern of Baden-Württemberg. In 1973 the district was enlarged by adding municipalities from the neighboring districts: Saulgau, Stockach, Überlingen and Reutlingen. A roughly equal portion of the district's area came from each of the three historic states.

Geography

''Landkreis'' Sigmaringen is located in the

Swabian Alb 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 ...

mountains, which represent an old glacially-shaped landscape formed by prehistoric

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

s. In the south of the district, a line running from

Bad Saulgau Bad Saulgau is a town in the Sigmaringen (district), district of Sigmaringen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 23 km east of Sigmaringen, and 27 km north of Ravensburg between the Danube and Lake Constance. Geography Bad ...

Ostrach Ostrach is a municipality in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Ostrach lies between the Danube and Lake Constance, about halfway between Sigmaringen and Ravensburg. It lies on the brook of the same name ...

Pfullendorf Pfullendorf is a small town of about 13,000 inhabitants located north of Lake Constance in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire for nearly 600 years. The town is in the district of Sigmaringen south o ...

roughly marks the southernmost extent of this prehistoric moraine. This line also marks the Rhine-Danube

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

: north of this line, water drains to the Danube; south of it, water drains to Lake Constance and the Rhine. The Danube flows through the district from west to east for about 60 km. About 30 km of this distance, between

Fridingen Fridingen an der Donau (, ), commonly known as Fridingen (), is a town in the district of Tuttlingen, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the Danube, 10 km east of Tuttlingen, and 23 km west of Sigmaringen. A large hoard ...

and

Inzigkofen Inzigkofen is a municipality in the district of Sigmaringen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Historically, it is part of the Swabian north Alpine foreland basin. It consists of three districts: Within Engelswies is the now-abandoned Talsb ...

, takes the form of a dramatic canyon through the Swabian Alb. The highest points in the district are the 921 m-tall Schnaitkapf, near Schwenningen in the Alb, and the 837 m-tall Höchsten in the southeast of the district. The district is also located in

Linzgau Linzgau is a historic region in Southern Germany, Southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located north of Lake Constance and south of the Danube valley. Geography The region is bounded by the shore of Lake Constance on the sou ...

and

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

Coat of arms

The deer in the coat of arms is the symbol of the duchy of Sigmaringen as well as that of the city of Sigmaringen. This symbol probably is from the Counts of Peutengau-Hirschberg who were the Lords of Sigmaringen until 1253. ''Hirsch'' is the German word for deer. The red color with the white bar below the deer derives from the

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n coat of arms, as part of the district belonged to Austria historically.

Towns and municipalities

References

External links

Official website
(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sigmaringen (District) Tübingen (region) Districts of Baden-Württemberg Districts of Prussia