Middle Ages The location was most likely inhabited by
Celts before the first century AD. In 950, the
weir system in today's castle garden was constructed by the Count of Comburg-Rothenburg. In 1070, the counts of Comburg-Rothenburg, who also owned the village of Gebsattel, built Rothenburg castle on the mountain top high above the River Tauber. The counts of the Comburg-Rothenburg dynasty died out in 1116 with the death of the last count, Count Heinrich. Emperor
Heinrich V instead appointed his nephew Konrad von Hohenstaufen as the successor to the Comburg-Rothenburg properties. In 1142, Konrad von
Hohenstaufen, who became
King Konrad III (1138–52) traded a part of the monastery of Neumünster in Würzburg above the village Detwang and built the Stauffer-Castle Rothenburg on this cheaper land. He held court there and appointed officials to act as caretakers. In 1170, the city of Rothenburg was founded at the time of the building of Staufer Castle. The center was the marketplace and
St. James' Church (in German: the
St. Jakob). The development of the oldest fortification can be seen, the old cellar/old moat and the milk market. Walls and towers were built in the 13th century. Preserved are the “White Tower” and the Markus Tower with the Röder Arch. From 1194 to 1254, the representatives of the
Staufer dynasty governed the area around Rothenburg. Around this time, the
Order of St. John and other orders were founded near St. James' Church and a Dominican nunnery (1258). From 1241 to 1242, the Staufer Imperial tax statistics recorded the names of the Jews in Rothenburg.
Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenburg (died 1293, buried 1307 in Worms) had a great reputation as a jurist in Europe. In 1274, Rothenburg was accorded privileges by King
Rudolf of Habsburg as a
free imperial city. Three famous fairs were established in the city and in the following centuries, the city expanded. The citizens of the city and the Knights of the Hinterland build the Franziskaner (Franciscan) Monastery and the Holy Ghost Hospital (1376/78 incorporated into the city walls). The
German Order began the building of St. James' Church, which the citizens have used since 1336. The
Heilig Blut (Holy Blood) pilgrimage attracted many pilgrims to Rothenburg, at the time one of the 20 largest cities of the
Holy Roman Empire. The population was around 5,500 people within the city walls and another 14,000 in the of the surrounding territory. The Staufer Castle was destroyed by an earthquake in 1356; the St. Blaise chapel is the last remnant today.
The Thirty Years' War In October 1631, during the
Thirty Years' War, the Catholic
Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, wanted to quarter his 40,000 troops in Protestant Lutheran Rothenburg. Rather than allow entrance, the town defended itself and intended to withstand a
siege. However, Tilly's troops quickly defeated Rothenburg, losing only 300 soldiers. A popular legend called the
Meistertrunk states that when General Tilly condemned the councilmen to death and was set to burn the city down, the councilmen tried to sway him with a large drink of 3 1/4 liters wine. Tilly proclaimed that if anyone could drink it all in one drink, he would spare the city. The mayor at the time,
Georg Nusch, succeeded, and General Tilly kept his word. However, the story is almost certainly apocryphal. It does not appear in the chronicle of Sebastian Dehner, written about fifteen years after the facts, the earliest account. The
Meistertrunk appears for the first time in the chronicle of Georg Heinrich Schaffert, more than a century later. After the winter, they left the town poor and nearly empty, and in 1634 a
bubonic plague outbreak killed many more townsfolk. Without any money or power, Rothenburg stopped growing, thus preserving its 17th-century state.
19th century Since 1803, the town has been a part of Bavaria. The famous German landscape painter
Eugen Bracht visited Rothenburg in 1877; although he stayed only two days, he was clearly impressed. Some years later, especially artists of
Romanticism, such as
Hans Thoma and
Carl Spitzweg, visited Rothenburg, too, followed by the first tourists. Laws were created to prevent major changes to the town. In 1884
Friedrich Hessing built up till 1903 the "Hessingsche Wildbad".
Nazi Germany & World War II Rothenburg held a special significance for Nazi ideologists. For them, it was the epitome of the German 'Home Town', representing all that was quintessentially German. Throughout the 1930s, the Nazi organization KDF (
Kraft durch Freude) "
Strength through Joy" organized regular day trips to Rothenburg from all across the Reich. This initiative was staunchly supported by Rothenburg's citizenry – many of whom were sympathetic to National Socialism – both for its perceived economic benefits and because Rothenburg was hailed as "the most German of German towns". In October 1938, Rothenburg expelled its Jewish citizens, much to the approval of Nazis and their supporters across Germany. In March 1945, during
World War II, German soldiers were stationed in Rothenburg to defend it. On March 31, bombs were dropped over Rothenburg by 16 planes, killing 37 people and destroying around 275 houses (around 32% of all houses), six public buildings and damaging nine watchtowers and over of the wall. Because incendiary bombs were used most outer walls still stood after the attack and were used to rebuild the newer eastern part of the old town. Around 265 houses were rebuilt. The U.S. Assistant
Secretary of War,
John J. McCloy, knew about the historic importance and beauty of Rothenburg, so he ordered U.S. Army General
Jacob L. Devers not to use artillery in taking Rothenburg. Battalion commander Major Frank Burk ordered six soldiers of the
12th Infantry Regiment (United States), 4th Division to march into Rothenburg on a three-hour mission and negotiate the surrender of the town. First Lieutenant Noble V. Borders of
Louisville, Kentucky, First Lieutenant Edmund H. Austgen of
Hammond, Indiana, Private William M. Dwyer of
Trenton, New Jersey, Private Herman Lichey of
Glendale, California, Private Robert S. Grimm of
Tower City, Pennsylvania, and Private Peter Kick of
Lansing, Illinois were sent on the mission. When stopped by a German soldier, Private Lichey, who spoke fluent German and served as the group's translator, held up a white flag and explained, “We are representatives of our division commander. We bring you his offer to spare the city of Rothenburg from shelling and bombing if you agree not to defend it. We have been given three hours to get this message to you. If we haven’t returned to our lines by 1800 hours, the town will be bombed and shelled to the ground.” The local military commander Major Thömmes gave up the town, ignoring the order of Hitler for all towns to fight to the end and thereby saving it from total destruction by artillery. American troops of the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division occupied the town on April 17, 1945, and in November 1948, McCloy was named an honorary citizen () of Rothenburg.
Post-war reconstruction Around 32% of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, mainly in the eastern half of the town, had to be repaired or rebuilt after being bombed in World War II (with most outer walls still standing and used for the rebuild houses). Many of the rebuilt facades can now be distinguished from the surviving medieval structures as being plainer, reconstruction aiming not to replicate exactly what stood before, only to rebuild in the same style as the surviving buildings so that the new buildings would still fit into the overall aesthetic of the town. Any surviving walls of bombed-out buildings were kept in their reconstructed facades as much as possible. In the case of more significant or iconic structures, such as the town hall, whose roof was destroyed, and parts of the town wall, restoration to their original state was done as accurately as possible, and they now appear exactly as they did before the war. Donations for the rebuilding works in Rothenburg were received from all over the world, and rebuilt parts of the walls feature commemorative bricks with donor names. The older western section from which the medieval town originated and contains most of the town's historic monuments, did not suffer from the bombing. Thus, most of the buildings in the west and the south of Rothenburg still exist today in their original medieval or prewar state. It is also noteworthy that while the eastern walls and towers received bomb damage, they, unlike the houses in that part of town, remained relatively intact; many parts even survived completely because of their sturdy stone construction. In most cases, only the wooden upper portions or roofs of the eastern towers and walls needed to be rebuilt, and most of their stone structure had been preserved. ==Lord Mayors==