Schelklingen


Schelklingen is a town in the district of Alb-Donau in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is situated 10 km north of Ehingen, and 20 km west of Ulm. Schelklingen and 82% of its territory form part of the Swabian Jura Biosphere Reserve.

Geography

The town centre of Schelklingen is located in the prehistoric valley of the Danube at the feet of the Swabian Alb or Swabian Jura. The villages of Hausen ob Urspring, Justingen, and Ingstetten are located on the table land of the Swabian Alb. In the Schmiech valley are located the villages of Schmiechen, Hütten, Gundershofen, and Sondernach.

Neighbouring municipalities

To the north of Schelkingen is the town of Heroldstatt, to the east the town of Blaubeuren, to the south-east the town of Erbach, to the south are Altheim and Allmendingen, and to the west are Mehrstetten and the town of Münsingen, the latter both belonging to the county of Reutlingen.

Municipal structure

The borough of Schelklingen has the following municipal subdivisions: the villages of Schmiechen, Hausen ob Urspring, Justingen, Ingstetten, Hütten, Gundershofen and Sondernach. Within the borough are the municipalities of Schmiechen, Hausen ob Urspring, Justingen, Ingstetten, Hütten, Gundershofen and Sondernach. Also within the borough are smaller hamlets, individual farms, old corn mills, castles and an old monastery: Muschenwang Farm, Oberschelklingen Farm, the hamlet of Sotzenhausen, the corn mill hamlet of Springen, the Riedmühle mill, the hamlet of Talsteußlingen and Neusteußlingen Castle, the hamlet of Teuringshofen and the old monastery of Urspring.

Rivers and lakes

Middle Ages and early modern times

Castro et villae Schälkalingen were first mentioned in an 1127 deed. The first owners were the Swabian edelfrei Lords of Schelklingen, three brothers: Rüdiger, Adalbert and Walter, who donated property to the newly established Benedicitne abbey of Urspring nearby. In the early 13th century, by the way of purchase, marriage or inheritance, the Schelklingen territory was acquired by the Swabian counts of Berg. Descending from Berg Castle near Ehingen, Count Henry III, also Margrave of Burgau, appeared as the holder of Schelklingen from 1234 onwards, at the time when for the first time the settlement was called a town. His son and heir Ulrich II adopted the title of a Count of Berg-Schelklingen in 1248. In 1343, the last Count of Berg-Schelklingen, Conrad, sold the estates to the Habsburg dukes of Austria and received it back as fief. When he died three years later, the territory of Schelklingen fell to the Austrian dukes as a reverted fief.
Schelklingen was later administered within Further Austria and remained with the Habsburg Monarchy until 1806. The Peace of Pressburg of 1805 brought Schelklingen to the Electorate of Württemberg as reward for the military help given to Napoleon by the Württemberg rulers.
The permanent shortage of money on the side of the Dukes of Austria and the high prestige connected with an own dominion on the side of the landed gentry were the reasons why the territory of Schelklingen most the time was mortgaged and given away as a fief. While during the period from 1346 to the end of the 15th century the masters of the mortgage changed fast, the situation became more stable afterwards. Up to 1568 the territories of Ehingen, Schelklingen and Berg were possessed by the following persons respectively families:
In 1568, the town of Ehingen was able to free herself from a new mortgage, while paying a large sum of money to the Austrian rulers residing in Innsbruck. This way, the direct aristocratic rule ended, and the territories of Ehingen, Schelklingen and Berg in future were administered by Austrian governors, most the time noblemen. In 1680 the Count of the Empire and bishop of Eichstätt Marquard Schenk von Castell reminded the German Emperor of his merits and services. Thus, thanks to his efforts, the family Schenk von Castell first received the territories of Schelklingen and Berg first as a mortgage and finally in 1732 as a personal fief. The feudal rule of this family over Schelklingen and Berg lasted until the middle of the 19th century when the last obligations were abolished. Franz Ludwig Schenk von Castell, a prosecutor of criminals, was the most influential owner of the two territories during the 18th century.
In 1806, Schelkingen was acquired by Württemberg, and the King of Württemberg was busy to end feudal rule in his new Kingdom. Mediatization ended the rule of the Schenk von Castell family in Schelklingen, and the counts step-by-step sold their properties there.

19th and 20th century

During the 19th century Schelklingen evolved from a town of artisans and peasants towards an industrial town. In 1806 the monastery of Urspring was secularized. High costs of maintaining the many buildings finally caused Württemberg to sell the former monastery. In 1832 most of the buildings were bought by the cotton manufacturer Georg Reichenbach with the intention to build up a cotton weaving factory. This factory later adopted the name of Mechanical Weaving Factory Urspring. In 1907, the factory was transferred to Schelklingen into a new building along the Ehingerstraße. In Urspring, most of the factory buildings were removed. Caused by international competition from low-wage countries, the MWU in the 1950s got financial problems and was closed.
In Urspring in 1912, after the grain mill at the Ach spring was changed into the municipal electricity and water factory, a new grain mill was built which is today used as a school building. From 1907 to 1930 the buildings in Urspring were not inhabited except for a tavern. Only in 1930 the former monastery found a new utilization by the foundation of the Urspring School, a Protestant country boarding school and gymnasium.
A second industry branch which developed during the 1830s, was the production of matches. This innovation was based on the invention of the phosphor match. Three factories were founded employing many women and children in home work. These factories were closed at the beginning of the 20th century.
During the late 19th century in the valleys of the rivers Blau, Ach and Schmiech evolved the cement industry, based on the invention of the Portland cement. In 1889, the first Barbey factory was built, later called Hammerstein cement factory, and shortly after 1900 the large plant of the Stuttgarter Immobilien- und Baugeschäft. The Hammerstein factory was closed and changed into dwellings for cement workers. This new factory attracted many external workers, especially also many Italian migrant workers: some of them remained in Schelklingen. Later, this cement factory was bought by the Portland-Cement-Fabrik AG Heidelberg und Mannheim AG, today HeidelbergCement.
During the 1870s a Catholic institution for boys living in bad social conditions was founded, the St.-Konradihaus. During World War II the town was a place of internment for POWs from Poland. In 1941 the St.-Konradihaus was requisitioned by the government and until 1945 was used as a relocation camp in order to reeducate people from Alsace.
After the end of the World War II, Schelklingen was being part of the French occupation zone and in 1947, it was assigned to the newly founded state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern, which was incorporated in the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

Territorial development of the town

According to the administrative reorganization of the municipalities the following communes have been incorporated into the town of Schelklingen:
Before the district reform, Schelklingen, Hausen ob Urspring and Schmiechen belonged to the district of Ehingen, the other municipalities to the district of Münsingen. During the Baden-Württemberg district reform in 1973, all of Schelklingen's towns came to the Alb-Donau district.

Religions

Schelklingen is predominantly Catholic. The territory of the former dominion of Schelklingen, conististing of the town of Schelklingen, Hausen ob Urspring and Schmiechen and the territory of the former Urspring monastery until 1806 belonged to Further Austria. During the 16th century until the end of the 30 Years War, the villages of the former territory of Justingen adhered to the belief of Caspar Schwenckfeld, promoted by the lords of Freyberg. When the territory of Justingen was newly acquired again by the prince bishop of Augsburg Johann Christoph von Freyberg, Catholicism was reintroduced. The village of Sondernach was part of the territory of Neusteußlingen; under the rule of the lords of Freyberg residing in the castle Neusteußlingen it was Catholic. When this territory went back to the Dukes of Württemberg in the late 16th century, the Reformation was introduced there.
In Schelklingen at the moment exist each one Roman Catholic, Lutheran Protestant and New-Apostolic community. In addition, Muslim inhabitants live in Schelklingen. The Islamic citizens came to Schelklingen since the early 1960s by the way of labour migration, mainly from the Republic of Turkey. Some years ago, the Muslim inhabitants built a small mosque at the outskirts of the town.

Politics

Mayors

During Austrian times the town was administered by the governing official mayor and his predecessor, the lower mayor. These were supported by an internal and external council with four members each, called councilors or deputies. The town offices like town, church, and hospital accountancy, etc. were distributed among the councilors. The mayors were elected for one year, but reelections were possible, proved by the mayors' partly long years in office. After 1806 Württemberg introduced the position of the Schultheiß, elected for life. Later for towns the title Stadtschultheiß was introduced. In 1930 in Württemberg the title Bürgermeister was adopted which is used until the present day. The mayor is currently elected for a term of eight years.
As of the municipal election of 2009, the following was the distribution of seats on the town council:
The coat of arms of Schelklingen is the coat of arms of the former Counts of Berg-Schelklingen except that the red and white strips are organized in the opposite way. They are not running from left to right, but from the right upper side to the lower left side. The municipal colours are white and red.

Gundershofen
Hausen ob Urspring
Hütten
Ingstetten
Justingen
Schmiechen
Sondernach

Economy and infrastructure

Traffic

Schelklingen is a small regional railway junction. At this place the Ulm–Sigmaringen railway meets the Swabian Alb Railway which comes from Kleinengstingen over Münsingen to Schelklingen. While traffic on the Swabian Alb Railway is quite low, departures and arrivals are frequent on the Ulm–Sigmaringen railway. Schelklingen is a stop for both Regional-Express and Regionalbahn trains. Therefore, at least two trains per hour leave for Ulm. In the opposite direction for Sigmaringen, a train leaves every hour; and trains leave every two hours for the much more remote town of Titisee-Neustadt. Every hour, via Ulm station, regional trains leave for Memmingen. Schelklingen is a member of the Donau-Iller regional transport association Donau-Iller-Nahverkehrsverbund.
Schelklingen is connecteed to the supraregional road network via Federal Road 492 . Schelklingen has access to the Federal motorway system via the Federal Motorway A 8 – exit Merklingen respectively Federal Motorway A 7 – exit Ulm/Langenau.

Local enterprises

Larger plants of the HeidelbergCement AG and Cooper Standard Automotive are located in the town.

Education

Schelklingen has an elementary school, an extended elementary school with a practical secondary school, all included in the Heinrich-Kaim-school, as well as four additional elementary schools in the parts of the town, all supervised by the municipality.
In addition, the Urspring School offers high school studies accompanied by a boarding school, under the supervision of the Protestant Church. In addition to the Abitur, practical studies can be finished as well.
The St. Konradihaus is an institution for youth assistance with a boarding school, where young people from the age of 12 years onwards may obtain general schooling and occupational education.
Furthermore, four Roman Catholic, two municipal and one Protestant kindergarten exist in the town.

Culture and things to see

Library

The municipal public library is located in the Old Townhall. Its holdings are stored in an online library catalogue.

Theatres

A theatre club exists, presenting popular performances. There is no theatre in the strict sense of the word any more.

Museums

Castles and manor houses

Typical Swabian dishes are served by different restaurants and taverns.

Personalities

Honorary citizens

Schelklingen has awarded the rights of honorary citizenship to the following persons:
The following list contains important personalities, born in Schelklingen, arranged by year of birth. Persons are included in this list irrelevant of the fact if they lived and worked in Schelklingen later in their life or not.
In this place well-known personalities are listed which in Schelklingen have spent parts of their life or have died there.