Stühlingen

Stühlingen is a town in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the border with Switzerland, with a border crossing to the village of Oberwiesen in Schleitheim municipality, 15 km northwest of Schaffhausen town. Stühlingen is a climatic resort that lies on the Wutach on the southern edge of the Black Forest at an altitude between 449 and 601 metres, directly on the Swiss border near the community of Schleitheim. Towns in the neighbourhood of Stühlingen are Schaffhausen (Switzerland), Bonndorf, Blumberg, Stein am Rhein (Switzerland), Waldshut-Tiengen, Singen and Donaueschingen. The separate communities of Bettmaringen, Blumegg, Eberfingen, Grimmelshofen, Lausheim, Mauchen, Oberwangen, Schwaningen, Unterwangen and Weizen belong to Stühlingen together with 32 further small villages. The Abandoned villages of Ottwangen and Tandlekofen are in the Bettmaringen area. In the Blumegg district there is the ruined Castle of Blumegg and in front of the castle there are abandoned houses. Near Lausheim there are the remains of an undocumented and unnamed Burg. By Roman times the valley floor in the immediate neighbourhood of Stühlingen had been long settled. In Grimmelshofen graves have been found dating from the late Merovingian period. The foundations of Schloss Hohenlupfen date from this time since they are built on the foundations of a Roman signal Tower. The year 1262 was significant in that the Count of Lupfen enclosed an oval area on a mountain spur above the Wutach valley. He obtained a town charter and today this is the town of Stühlingen. The town obtained a market charter and was the seat of justice. The oval area formed by the town walls and the Upper Gate is known today as the „Marktplatz“. During the Swabian War the territory of the Lupfener Counts became the target of the peasants, who conquered and burnt the town in 1499. In 1524 the Stühlinger peasant insurrection took the overlordship from the Hohenlupfens. There exists a legend, that this insurrection formed the initial spark of the German Peasants' War.