Wertach is a small town in the

Oberallgäu Oberallgäu is a Districts of Germany, ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Unterallgäu and Ostallgäu, the Austrian states State of Tyrol, Tyrol a ...

district, southern

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

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 ...

. It is located in the German

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, situated on the river Wertach, southeast of

Kempten Kempten (; ) is the largest town of Allgäu, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The population was about 68,000 in 2016. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later taken over by the Romans, who called the town ''Cambodunum''. K ...

. The town was the childhood home of the writer W. G. Sebald.

History

Wertach was first mentioned in 955 and received in 1423 the town privileges. The market Wertach belonged to the

Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg The Prince-Bishopric of Augsburg () was one of the Prince-bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, and belonged to the Swabian Circle. It should not be confused with the larger diocese of Augsburg, over which the prince-bishop exercised only spirit ...

. Since the

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 ...

and the secularization of 1803 the place belongs to

. As part of the administrative reforms in the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

and the the current municipality was formed. In 1893 a fire destroyed most of the town, with only a few houses surviving.

Coat of arms

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 ...

(description): "In green an obliquely left silver wave beam which is occupied by three black mill wheels."

Population development

Politics

Result of the local elections in March 2014Ergebnis der Kommunalwahl 2008
/ref> * Mayor Eberhard Jehle (independent) * Deputy Mayor: Norbert Gebhart (Free electorate Wertach) * Third Mayor Alex Wittwer (Christian Social Union in Bavaria, CSU) The council of Wertach has 14 members. *

Christian Social Union in Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria ( German: , CSU) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democra ...

(CSU): 32.45%, 5 seats * Independents electorate and tourism: 21.49%, 3 seats * Electorate of employees: 17.90%, 2 seats * Independent Women's Group Wertach: 14.39%, 2 seats * Free electorate Wertach: 13.77%, 2 seats

Buildings

* St. Sebastian Chapel: The St. Sebastian Chapel was designed according to the plans of the famous Wieskirche in 1763 by Dominikus Zimmermann. *Local History Museum: The museum was founded in 1931. Besides crafting equipment, weapons and animals is an art gallery of the painter Franz Sales Lochbihler. * In 1874 the brothers Kramer produced worldwide for the first time the Weisslacker – Cheese.

References

Oberallgäu {{Oberallgäu-geo-stub