The territory around Burgau was originally part of the
stem duchy of
Swabia. The death of
Conradin and the resulting extinction of the
Hohenstaufen line in 1268 led to the collapse of the integrity of the duchy and its division into lands, after local nobles resisted the
Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph's attempts to annex the duchy. The Lords of Burgau are first found in documentary mention in 1147, as . Burgau was raised to a
margraviate in 1212. With the death of
Margrave Henry III in 1301, the margravial line fell extinct and the
Empire claimed the fief.
Albert I of Germany transferred the
feudal rights to his two sons, thereby permanently adding the territory to the Habsburg dominions, with Henry III's widow purchasing the
allodial rights. Four different
titles were awarded: that of allodial rights, Imperial feudal rights (),
manorial rights () and guardianship (, usually translated as
bailiwick). The location of the castle produced latent tensions with the
Bavarian Wittelsbachs, who coveted the margraviate to round off their territories. Their attempted purchase of the territory in 1418 was resisted by the
Imperial Cities of
Augsburg and
Ulm, with the support of other Swabian cities. Burgau came to rely on the support of the Imperial Cities, along with the
Bishopric of Augsburg and the
Fugger lands to stem the Wittelsbachs' acquisitive desires, particularly after they won the land west of the
Lech;
see Swabian League. Throughout the 14th century, the Habsburgs were compelled to mortgage the margraviate or its parts; the last such mortgage being to the
Bishopric of Augsburg, ending in 1559.
Further Austria fell to
Emperor Ferdinand I in 1522, passing to his second son
Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, on his death. In the
German Peasants' War in 1525, Burgau supported the against Ulm, but was defeated by the
Swabian League. The city suffered badly during both the
Thirty Years' War and the
War of the Spanish Succession. Ferdinand II's successor, his nephew
Emperor Rudolph II, entrusted the margraviate to
Charles von Österreich, Ferdinand II's second son by his
morganatic wife
Philippine Welser, daughter of a wealthy Augsburg burgher. Charles was the last holder of the margraviate, from 1609 to 1618; on his death, the land returned to the senior Austrian Habsburg line. When that archducal line expired, with the death of
Sigismund Francis, the
Viennese court took responsibility for the margraviate. A significant
Jewish community existed in Burgau from early medieval times to the beginning of the 17th century and reached its pinnacle in the 1500s. In 1617, after being accused of "excessive
usury," the Jewish community was officially expelled. In 1805, by the
Peace of Pressburg,
Napoléon forced a defeated
Emperor Francis II to cede
Further Austria to French allies on his abdication and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, with Burgau passing to the new
kingdom of Bavaria. In September 1853, the
Ulm–Augsburg railway was built as part of the
Bavarian Maximilian's Railway () through Burgau, with the station officially opening on 1 May 1854. Bavarian administrative reforms in 1862 established a court, a notary, and a tax office; the following year, a large fire resulted in the creation of a volunteer fire service. Towards the end of
World War II, two subcamps of
Dachau concentration camp — one for men, and one for women — were established in Burgau. More than 1000 prisoners, including 500
Jewish women and girls from Poland and Hungary, were transported from Dachau,
Bergen-Belsen, and
Ravensbrück. They were
forced to work in miserable conditions in an
aircraft hangar in
Scheppach Forest; 18 died and were buried in the
Jewish cemetery in
Ichenhausen. After the war, some 1600 were resettled in Burgau.
Bavarian regional reforms in 1978 merged the previously independent municipalities of Oberknöringen, Unterknöringen, Großanhausen, Kleinanhausen and Limbach into Burgau. == Politics ==