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Wissembourg was asub-prefecture of the department until 2015.[4] The nameWissembourg is aGallicized version ofWeißenburg (Weissenburg) inGerman meaning "white castle". The Latin place-name, sometimes used in ecclesiastical sources, isSebusium.[5]
The town was annexed by France after1648 but then incorporated intoGermany in1871. It was returned to France in1919, but reincorporated back intoGermany in1940. After1944 it again became French.
Wissembourg is situated on the little riverLauter close to the border betweenFrance andGermany approximately 60 km (37 mi) north ofStrasbourg and 35 km (22 mi) west ofKarlsruhe. TheWissembourg station offers rail connections to Strasbourg, Haguenau and Landau (Germany).
Weissenburg (later Wissembourg) Abbey, theBenedictineabbey around which the town has grown, was founded in the 7th century, perhaps under the patronage ofDagobert I. The abbey was supported by vast territories. Of the 11th-century buildings constructed under the direction of Abbot Samuel, only theSchartenturm and some moats remain. The town was fortified in the 13th century. Theabbey church of Saint-Pierre et Paul erected in the same century under the direction of Abbot Edelin was secularized in the French Revolution and despoiled of its treasures; in 1803 it became the parish church, resulting in the largest parish church of Alsace, only exceeded in size by thecathedral of Strasbourg. At the abbey in the late 9th century the monkOtfried composed agospel harmony, the first substantial work of verse inGerman.
In 1354Emperor Charles IV made it one of the grouping of ten towns called theDécapole that survived annexation by France underLouis XIV in 1678 and was extinguished with theFrench Revolution. On 25 January 1677 a great fire destroyed many houses and the Hôtel de Ville;its replacement dates from 1741 to 1752. Many early structures were spared: theMaison du Sel (1448), under its Alsatian pitched roof, was the first hospital of the town. There are many 15th- and 16th-centurytimber-frame houses, and parts of the walls and gateways of the town. TheMaison de Stanislas was the retreat ofStanisław Leszczyński, ex-king of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, from 1719 to 1725, when the formal request arrived on 3 April 1725 asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage toLouis XV. TheFirst Battle of Wissembourg took place near the town in 1793.
The "Lines of Wissembourg" (French:Lignes de Wissembourg;German:Weißenburger Linien), originally made byVillars in 1706, were famous. They were a line of works extending toLauterbourg nine miles to the southeast. Like the fortifications of the town, only vestiges remain, although the city wall is still intact for stretches.[6]Austrian General vonWurmser succeeded in briefly capturing the lines in October 1793, but was defeated two months later by GeneralPichegru of theFrench Army and forced to retreat, along with thePrussians, across the River Rhine.[7]
Wissembourg formed the setting for the Romantic novelL'ami Fritz (1869) co-written by the team ofErckmann and Chatrian, which provided the material forMascagni's operaL'amico Fritz.
AnotherBattle of Wissembourg took place on 4 August 1870. It was the first battle of theFranco-Prussian War. The Prussians were nominally commanded by theCrown Prince Frederick, but ably directed by his chief of staff, GeneralLeonhard Graf von Blumenthal. TheFrench defeat allowed the Prussian army to move into France. The Geisberg monument commemorates the battle; the town's cemetery holds large numbers of soldiers, including the stately tomb of French generalAbel Douay who was killed in combat.[8]
In 1975 the commune of Wissembourg absorbed the former commune of Altenstadt.[9]
Martin Bucer (1491–1551) was a Protestant reformer based in Wissembourg/Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices.
Karl Harst (1492–1563), German diplomat and assistant of Erasmus
Stanisław Leszczyński, king of Poland from 1704 to 1709, exiled in Wissembourg and lived there from 1719 to 1725. The school in the city now bears his name.
Jacob Job Élie (1746-1825), French divisional general of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and among the leaders of the 1789 storming of the Bastille
Jean-Gotthard Grimmer [fr], (1749–1820), pastor at Wissembourg then deputy to the National Convention on 10 ventôse year III (28 February 1795) to replace Philibert Simond.
Louis Moll (1809–1880), agronomist, born in Wissembourg.
Auguste Dreyfus (1827–1897), businessman who made his fortune by financing the Peruvian trade in guano.
Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916), cavalry officer in the French Army, explorer, geographer, and Catholic priest and hermit who lived among the Tuareg in the Sahara in Algeria.
The town, set in a landscape of wheat fields, retains a formerBenedictine monastery with its large-scaleGothic church, now theparish church ofSaints Peter and Paul's church (Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul). Other medieval churches are the LutheranSt John's church (Église Saint-Jean), and the Romanesque St Ulrich's church (Église Saint-Ulrich) in Altenstadt. The 13th-centuryDominican church now serves as the cultural center "La Nef". TheGrenier aux Dîmes (tithe barn) belonging to the abbey is from the 18th century but an ancient foundation. Noteworthy houses are the medieval "Salt house" (Maison du sel), the Renaissance "House of l'Ami Fritz," theBaroquetown hall, a work byJoseph Massol, andChâteau du Geisberg.
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