Its name isCeltic and meansbreakwater. TherootBreis can also be found in theFrench wordbriser meaning to break. The hill on which Breisach came into existence was — at least when there was a flood — in the middle of the Rhine, until the Rhine was straightened by the engineerJohann Gottfried Tulla in the 19th century, thus breaking its surge.
The seat of a Celticprince was at the hill on which Breisach is built. TheRomans maintained anauxiliarycastle on Mons Brisiacus (which came from the Celtic word Brisger, which means waterbreak).
TheStaufer dynasty founded Breisach as a city in the modern sense, but there had already been a settlement with a church at the time. An 11th-century coin from Breisach was found in theSandur hoard.
In the early 13th century, construction on the St. Stephansmünster, Breisach's cathedral, started. In the early 16th century, Breisach was a significant stronghold of theHoly Roman Empire. On December 7, 1638,Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, who was subsidized byFrance, conquered the city, whichFerdinand II and General Hans Heinrich IX. von Reinach had defended well, and tried to make it the centre of a new territory. After Bernard's death in 1639, his general gave the territory to France, which saw it as its own conquest. In thePeace of Westphalia in 1648, Breisach wasde jure given to France.
DuringWorld War II, 85% of Breisach was destroyed byAllied artillery as the Allies crossed the Rhine. The St. Stephansmünster was also heavily damaged.
In 1969, Breisach was considered as the construction site for anuclear power plant, butWyhl was chosen instead, where the construction project was later abandoned in the face of heavy opposition.
The nearby cities of Hochstetten (1970), Gündlingen (1972), Niederrimsingen (1973), and Oberrimsingen (1975) along with Grezhausen, which had been incorporated into Oberrimsingen in 1936, were allincorporated into Breisach.
The first documentation ofJews in town dates to 1301.[3] During theBlack Death in 1349, the community was annihilated after a falseblood libel, accusing the town Jews of poisoning the town wells. After thepogrom, Jews got back to the town until 1424, when they were expelled once again.[3]
In 1550, the community reopened with a cemetery.[4] In 1750, a Jew owned a textile factory in town, employing about 330 weavers.[5] TheSynagogue, built in 1758, was destroyed in November 1938, onKristallnacht.[5] In 1825, 14% of the town population was Jewish, (438 individuals), though in 1933 this number had declined to 231. On October 22, 1940, the town's last 34 Jews who did not flee to nearby France or other places, were deported toGurs internment camp, atransit camp in the South of France.[5] In 1967, the town's sole Jewish survivor was a woman who tended the two Jewish cemeteries.[5]A website, dedicated to the town's Jewish history, commemorates the names of Jewish victims duringWorld War II who used to live in town,[6] as also personal stories of survivors and their children.[7] A Jewish survivor who lived in town named Louis Dreyfuss, gave a report on his biography on some cases.[8]The Jewish community of pre-war Breisach maintains a documentary website.[9]
