Gaggenau was first mentioned in local records in 1243 under the name "Gaggenaw". The present district of
Bad Rotenfels is even older, having been mentioned in a royal donation letter in 1041. Gaggenau remained a small village until the 19th century: Originally part of the
Ufgau, it came under the jurisdiction of the
marquisate of
Baden in the 13th century, and was included in the territory claimed by the
Margrave of Baden-Baden in 1535, which held it until 1689. At that time, it was placed under the jurisdiction of the
Kuppenheim district of the
Bishopric of Speyer. It was eventually assigned to the jurisdiction of the Rastatt Office of the State of Baden, which later became the District of Rastatt. In 1691, the area was at the heart of the
Palatinate War of Succession and was almost completely destroyed by the French forces. In 1772, Anton Rindeschwender established a successful glassworks factory below the village, and along with it a number of new residences and supporting businesses in the area. The real industrial boom began in 1873 with the establishment of the Michael Flürscheims Ironworks, which resurrected an iron smelter originally established by the
Margrave of Baden in the late 18th century. In 1895, the factory built the 5-hp automobile
Orient Express and entered the new industry of automobile manufacture. In 1905 they renamed themselves the
Gaggenau South German Automobile Factory GmbH. In 1907 the company was taken over by the company
Benz & Cie of Mannheim until the merger of
Daimler-Benz AG in 1926. Thus, the settlement grew, and Gaggenau was eventually raised to the status of a town on 15 September 1922 because of its economic prosperity. In September 1944, the
Nazis built a detention camp in the Bad Rotenfels district. Six barracks were built to house about 1,600 men and women, mostly French prisoners, who were used as forced labour in the Daimler-Benz plants. About 500 of them were killed. A memorial plaque has been raised in the meadow where the barracks were located. Another memorial was raised in the Bad Rotenfels cemetery commemorating the murder of 27 of those prisoners by their Nazi captors. In
World War II, about 70% of the town was destroyed. On 10 September 1944, 140 B-17 bombers from the 8th battalion of the US Air Force bombed the automobile factory complex. Another battalion of 139 B-24 bombers bombed the area a second time on 3 October. The town and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war, and was completed with the construction of Gaggenau's town hall in 1958. In 1969, in response to an effort to aggregate and consolidate municipal governments into districts of 20,000 or more, the state government of
Baden-Württemberg approved a petition by the town of Gaggenau to annex six of its surrounding communities, thereby doubling Gaggenau's population and increasing its area fivefold. Among the areas annexed was the former municipality of Rotenfels and the large swath of forest that ran along the
Murg River between the two municipalities. The annexations were performed over a period of six years.
Annexations The following communities were annexed into the town of Gaggenau on the following dates. They were all administered under the office or district of Rastatt: • 1935: Ottenau • 1 January 1970: Bad Rotenfels, with the hamlet of Winkel • 1 April 1970: Selbach • 1 September 1971: Freiolsheim with the hamlet of Moosbronn and the village of Mittelberg • 1 April 1972: Oberweier with the villages of Upper and Lower Weier • 1 April 1973: Sulzbach • 1 January 1975: Hörden and Michelbach Bad Rotenfels, Gaggenau and Ottenau together were combined into a single administrative "village" in accordance with the Municipal Code of Baden-Württemberg.
Population development Population figures for the respective territorial status. The figures are census results (¹) or official updates of the respective statistical offices (only primary residences): ¹ Census results
Religion Gaggenau belonged to the
Diocese of Speyer and was assigned to the Kuppenheim District under that Diocese. The
Reformation arrived in 1555, and over the next three and a half centuries, under a variety of rulers, the majority denomination of Gaggenau changed six times between Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran (Protestant) before finally settling to become a Catholic majority. Until 1891, the only Catholic parish church for the entire region was the St. Lawrence parish church in Rotenfels. The present church dates from the Baroque era in the 17th century, with the interior dating from the 18th century. In 1891, the
St. Wendelin chapel was consecrated in Gaggenau. Gaggenau received its own parish church of St. Joseph in 1899. The Catholic churches in the other districts of Gaggenau date to earlier times. All of the area parishes came under the newly founded
Archdiocese of Freiburg in 1821/1827 and assigned to the Murgtal Office of the Dean. Today, the town of Gaggenau includes the following Catholic parishes: St. Joseph (Gaggenau); Gaggenau; St. Mary; Mary Help (Moosbronn-Freiolsheim); St. Johann Nepomuk (Hörden); St. Michael (Michelbach); St. John the Baptist (Oberweier); St. Lawrence (Bad Rotenfels); St. Nicholas (Selbach); St. Anne (Sulzbach); and St. Jodocus (Ottenau). The Evangelical Lutherans (
Protestants) were driven out in the 18th century but moved back in again to Gaggenau in the 19th century. They formed their own community and built their own church in 1891. This church was destroyed in the
Second World War but rebuilt in 1953. The community, including all of the Protestants in the modern districts of Gaggenau and in Rastatt, belong to the
Evangelical Church district of Baden-Baden. Besides the two major churches above, other Christian communities exist in Gaggenau, including the
New Apostolic Church and
Jehovah's Witnesses. Over 1,100 Muslims, mainly Turkish, also live in Gaggenau. The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (which belongs to the DİTİB, or the
Diyanet İşleri Türk-İslam Birliği) is located in the Bad Rotenfels district and has over 200 members. ==Geography==