Willstätt () is a town in the district of

Ortenau The Ortenau (), originally called Mortenau, is a historic region in the present-day German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the right bank of the river Rhine, stretching from the Upper Rhine Plain to the foothill zone of the Black F ...

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 ...

in Germany, with a population of 9,787 as at December 31, 2017. It is around east of

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

's city centre.

Demographics

History

Medieval

The earliest known mention to the town is from 1232.

Early Modern

In September 1634, three weeks after their biggest victory of the war at

Nördlingen Nördlingen (; Swabian: ''Nearle'' or ''Nearleng'') is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 20,674. It is located approximately east of Stuttgart, and northwest of Munich. It was ...

, Willstätt was burned as a result of a skirmish between Catholics under

Jan von Werth Johann von Werth (1591 – 16 January 1652), also ''Jan von Werth'' or in French ''Jean de Werth'', was a German general of cavalry in the Thirty Years' War. Biography Werth was born in 1591 most likely at Büttgen in the Duchy of Jülich a ...

and Swedes under Rheingrave Otto Louis.
In August 1643 Imperialist forces took the town's castle.Helfferich, Tryntje, The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History (Cambridge, 2009), p. 298. On 1 August 1675, during the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

campaign of the 1672-1678 Franco-Dutch War, a French army under Comte de Lorges and an Imperial force led by

Raimondo Montecuccoli Raimondo Montecuccoli (; 21 February 1609 – 16 October 1680) was an Italian-born professional soldier, military theorist, and diplomat, who served the Habsburg monarchy. Experiencing the Thirty Years' War from scratch as a simple footsoldier, ...

fought a battle nearby at Altenheim, Neuried. On October 30, 1754, the tower of the Lutheran church, which was to be planned to be inaugurated on this day collapsed and destroyed many parts of the church as result of a bad foundation. It was later rebuilt with a foundation consisting of oak pillars and the inauguration of the church took then place on November 11, 1756.

References

Ortenaukreis {{Ortenaukreis-geo-stub