Common The earliest permanent settlement traces are from the
Hallstatt culture (
Tumulus in the area of Haid). The area belonged from the first to the third century to the Roman Empire (
Agri Decumates). During the
Thirty Years' War, all three subsites suffered from great population losses, and subsequently Swiss and other foreign families migrated into this area.
Großengstingen The earliest document of the name of the place names "Anegistingin" was dated 24 January 783 in a deed of
Lorsch Abbey. The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Chur acquired some properties at the beginning of the 10th century. In 1439 the name "Großengstingen" appeared for the first time. A rarely used name was "Churengstingen". The right for free hunting was abolished in 1709 and partially re-introduced from 1713 to 1806 out of courtesy of the duke. On October 31, 1717 Chur sold Engstingen to the
Zwiefalten Abbey. From there it was transferred to the Protestant Württemberg on 30 April 1750. Großengstingen became part of Oberamt Reutlingen in 1806 and became a district (
Landkreis) from 1938. From 1963 to 1993, the
Rocket artillery battalion 250 of the
Bundeswehr was stationed in the
Eberhard Finck barracks in Großengstingen.
Kleinengstingen Northwest of Kleinengstingen is an
Alemannic row grave field. The oldest known mention of "Clain Engstingen" dates from 1482. The place was sometimes called "Freiengstingen" in the 13th century during the reign of the barons of Engstingen (
liber de Anegestingen). However, it was probably already then under the reign of Württemberg. The local reign was finally transferred in 1454 to Württemberg, annexing it to the Amt Pfullingen. From then, it was sometimes mentioned as "Unterengstingen". In 1806 Kleinengstingen came to Oberamt Reutlingen, and in 1938 it became a district.
Kohlstetten The oldest known mention of the name "Cholsteten" (from the German words for
cabbage or more likely for
charcoal) can be found in a document of the
Weißenau Abbey of 1161. The place came in 1230 from the Earl of Achalm to the
House of Urach and from there in 1265 to Württemberg. The place was very badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War; only the church survived the era relatively unscathed. Kohlstetten was part of the Oberamt
Urach (Unteramt or parish
Gächingen) within Württemberg. In 1808, it came to the Oberamt Münsingen and became in 1938 a district. In 1973, it became part of the district of
Reutlingen.
Haid The German Empire under the dictatorship of the Nazis established the ammunition factory
Muna Haid in a wooded area about four kilometers south of Großengstingen. During
World War II, a small forced-labor and POW camp was connected to the ammunition factory, into which 200 to 300 men and women were mainly deported from France, Russia and Poland. They were either used directly in the ammunition factory or used for agricultural work in the surrounding villages. Between February and April 1945,
Muna Haid was repeatedly bombed by Allied air forces and severely damaged. The Wehrmacht itself blasted the intact remains of the ammunition bunkers shortly before the end of the war and the Nazi dictatorship, so that it would not fall into the hands of the advancing Allied troops. After the war, the site was rehabilitated, after the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949. Initially a sanatorium, then in 1953 a camp for refugees was established, mainly German expellees from the former eastern territories of the German Reich. The Bundeswehr built some barracks 1957 in the area, which were initially called Haid Barracks and in 1965 renamed to
Eberhard Finckh Barracks. Until their closure at the end of 1993, there was also an American unit (84th Field Artillery Detachment) stationed next to the Rocket Artillery 250. They had the oversight and control over the nuclear warheads that were stored in the special ammunition depot
Golf in the Eberhard Finck barracks at the road to
Meidelstetten. The area around the barracks and the nuclear weapons base was in the 1980s the location of various
protest demonstrations of the
peace movement, which demonstrated with regional Easter marches with up to 5,000 participants and some multi-week sit-ins against the military presence on the ground. Since the mid 1990s, the now civilian land is jointly used as a business park by the surrounding communities Engstingen, Hohenstein and Trochtelfingen. ==Population Development==