Hagenau

Hagenau, a town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, situated in the middle of the Hagenau Forest, on the Moder, and on the railway from Strassburg to Weissenburg, 10 m. N.N.E. of the former city. Pop. (1905), 18,500. It has two Evangelical and two ancient Catholic churches (one dating from the 12th, the other from the 13th century), a gymnasium, a public library, a hospital, and a theatre. The principal industries are wool and cotton spinning, and the manufacture of porcelain, earthenware, boots, soap, oil, sparkling wines and beer. There is also considerable trade in hops and vegetables. Hagenau is an important military centre and has a large garrison, including three artillery battalions.

Hagenau dates from the beginning of the 12th century, and owes its origin to the erection of a hunting lodge by the dukes of Swabia. The emperor Frederick I. surrounded it with walls and gave it town rights in 1154. On the site of the hunting lodge he founded an imperial palace, in which were preserved the jewelled imperial crown, sceptre, imperial globe, and sword of Charlemagne. Subsequently it became the seat of the Landvogt of Hagenau, the imperial advocatus in Lower Alsace. Richard of Cornwall, king of the Romans, made it an imperial city in 1257. In 1648 it came into the possession of France, and in 1673 Louis XIV. caused the fortifications to be razed. In 1675 it was captured by imperial troops, but in 1677 it was retaken by the French and nearly all destroyed by fire. In 1871 it fell, with the rest of Alsace-Lorraine, into the possession of Germany.