Emmendingen

Emmendingen, a town of Germany, in the grand-duchy of Baden, close to the Black Forest, on the Elz and the main line of railway Mannheim-Constance. Pop. 6200. It has a Protestant church with a fine spire, a Roman Catholic church, a handsome town-hall, an old castle (now a hospital), once the residence of the counts of Hochberg, spinning mills, tanneries and manufactures of photographic instruments, paper, machinery and cigars. There is also a considerable trade in timber and cattle. Here the author Johann Georg Schlosser (1739-1799), the husband of Goethe’s sister Cornelia (who died in 1777 and is interred in the old graveyard), was Oberamtmann (bailiff) for a few years.

Emmendingen was formerly the seat of the counts of Hochberg, a cadet branch of the margraves of Baden. In 1418 it received market rights from the emperor, and in 1590 was raised to the status of a town, and walled, by Margrave Jacob III.