Biberach

Biberach stands on the Riß in Upper Swabia. A market settlement founded around 1170, it became an imperial city under Rudolf I in 1281 or 1282. Cotton introduced in the fourteenth century helped make Biberach a town of weavers, whose linen and fustian were exported across Europe. The city hospital, founded around 1239, held lands beyond the walls even though Biberach itself did not establish a large surrounding territory.

The Reformation divided the city. Supporters destroyed the high altar of St Martin's church in 1531, and Catholic Mass was prohibited until 1548. During the Thirty Years' War Swedish and imperial troops took the city in turn. The Peace of Westphalia established a government in which Catholic and Protestant offices were distributed equally, one of four such arrangements among the imperial cities. Biberach's independence ended in 1802, when it passed to Baden; in 1806 it was transferred to Württemberg.