House of Zähringen

As we say in German, big events cast their shadows, which we are experiencing now in Freiburg. The big event is the 2020 jubilee, celebrating the founding of Freiburg as a marketplace in 1120; the shadow is an exhibition: Die Zähringer, Mythos und Wirklichkeit*.
*myth and reality

The last Zähringer, Bertold V, died in 1218, 800 years ago, a welcome reason to commemorate the House of Zähringen. The exhibition opened last Friday in Freiburg's Karl Meckel Halle and will tour other so-called Zähringerstädte (see below) in the coming months.

Laudatio: On stage, from right to left, the makers of the exhibition:
Dr. Heinz Krieg, Dr. Hans-Peter Widmann, Dr. Johanna Regnath.
They offer a special Zähringer LEGO edition to Thomas Walz (left), group leader, events/PR
of Freiburg's Municipal Saving Bank being the main sponsor of the exhibition.
In the back, two reproductions of stained glass windows by Fritz Geiges
showing the two founding fathers of Freiburg
 on the left, Bertold III, and on the right, Konrad.

Freiburg's founding fathers were two brothers, Bertold and Konrad, Dukes of Zähringen. Well, they were both dukes, but not at the same time. Bertold III (1111-1122) favored the art of warfare, and while campaigning, he told his brother, Konrad (1122-1152), to ensure everything stayed in order at home. You probably already guessed that Bertold was killed in action in 1122 while fighting in Alsace near the village of Molsheim, west of Strasburg.

Earlier, in 1114, he was defeated when he went to war against Cologne, at the time the largest (40,000 inhabitants) and wealthiest city on German territory. He was captured but kept in "easy" custody as a prisoner of war, waiting for the ransom to be paid. While strolling around the vibrant city, he is said to have had the idea of transforming the village back home, at the foot of the castle his father had built, into a marketplace.

Model of the Zähringer castle on Freiburg's Schlossberg on display at the exhibition.
Today, only overgrown scree is left.

When liberated and back in his castle, he told his brother to proceed with the plans for a market while he went to war again. Bertold required that Konrad model the market's charter on Cologne's municipal law. This original document, dated 1120, is regarded as Freiburg's foundation charter.

Already ninety-eight years later, the dynasty of the Dukes of Zähringen died out. Bertold V, who had started Freiburg's Munster church around the year 1200, was buried in the same building in 1218. Bertold V was the last Zähringer, for he had only two surviving daughters, Agnes and Anna, whose husbands not only quarreled with each other over the inheritance but also with King Friedrich II. Eventually, Egino of Urach, Agnes' husband, inherited the Breisgau and its city and subsequently called himself Count of Freiburg.

Back to the Dukes of Zäringen: they not only founded the city of Freiburg im Breisgau (1120) but also another, Freiburg im Üechtland (1157), i.e., in Burgundy, now a canton in Switzerland. In addition, the dukes laid the cornerstones for the following cities or developed older agglomerations into towns, such as there are: Villingen (1119), Rheinfelden (1130), Murten (1170), Burgdorf (1175), Neuenburg (1175), Thun (1180), Bern (1191), and Bräunlingen (1203).

For those who like to read German, here is the link to an illustrated history of the House of Zähringen.

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