Breisgau - History

History

In earlier times the Breisgau was known as Breisachgau, meaning the shire around the town of Breisach on the east bank of the Rhine.

The earliest historically attested inhabitants were Celts. In Roman times, the area was part of the province of Germania superior. But after the rupture of the limes Germanicus in 260, the area was settled by the Alemanni. It remained a part of Alemannia throughout the Early Middle Ages and was a buffer zone between the central Alemannic lands and Alsace, which was less strongly colonised by the Alemanni.

In the mid-9th century it was a march-like county guarding the frontier with southern Lotharingia and Alsace. In 859, it was bestowed on Charles the Fat, the son of King Louis I, a sign of its importance. In the 10th century, Breisgau was a county within the duchy of Swabia, ruled by the Zähringer family, who by the 12th century detached themselves from Swabia, establishing the Margraviate of Baden. The dukes founded Freiburg in it, which became their chief city.

From the 13th/14th century until 1797, the area was part of the Vorlande, the area in southwest Germany ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs, but the Breisgau, along with the rest of the Vorlande, was ceded by them to the former Duke of Modena, a relation, as compensation for his loss of his hereditary lands to the French Cisalpine Republic. In 1805, by the Treaty of Pressburg, the area was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Baden.