Schwäbisch Hall

Schwäbisch Hall rose in the valley of the Kocher around a salt spring. Brine was boiled here for centuries, providing the basis of the town's wealth, while a ford brought trade through the settlement. Hall was securely recorded in 1156 and became an imperial city in 1280. Its mint produced the small silver coin known as the Heller, which circulated widely throughout the Empire.

In 1396 the city itself acquired the right to mint coins. Disputes with the court of Würzburg prompted its council to assert that Hall belonged to Swabia; in 1489 it formally adopted the name Schwäbisch Hall. Its saltworks remained central to the economy, and in the early eighteenth century new methods of concentrating brine reduced the fuel needed for boiling. Imperial independence ended in 1802, when the city and its saltworks passed to Württemberg.