Oettingen

Oettingen lies in the Ries, a fertile basin in southern Germany. Mentioned in a royal document in the eighth century, it became the centre of the county of Oettingen and the residence of its ruling family. The town's main street bears the marks of a divided lordship: its eastern side has Baroque façades, while timber-framed houses line the western side.

From 1522 to 1731 the town was shared between two branches of the ruling house, Protestant Oettingen-Oettingen and Catholic Oettingen-Wallerstein. Their division reached into daily life: the two sides of the street followed different confessions and even different calendars. At the end of the seventeenth century Oettingen also became a centre of Pietism, encouraged by Maria Barbara von Neuhaus, who founded a widows' house and an orphanage. The family's imperial rule ended when the town passed to Bavaria in 1806.