What does Graben mean?
The place name "Graben" is most likely an original job title: "am Graben" (namely at the moat of the castle where the village originated, or at the moat of the Pfinz, which falls here into the Rhine lowlands). The word Graben in German means ditch or trench. (Graben Gemeinde Website, Wikipedia)
Margrave
Graben is mentioned for the first time in 1306: On March 22, 1306, the Ubstadt “edel knecht Swiger” promised the Margrave Rudolf of Baden the right of first refusal in his part of the village of Graben. Four years later, on November 26, 1310, Swiger's brother Dietrich then sold all of his inheritance from his father Gerhart to the Margrave of Baden. There were still a number of quarrels between the Ubstadtern and the margrave, but in two documents from August 8 and 16, 1312, the sale of the castle and the village of Graben was finally sealed. So Graben had been part of the Margraviate of Baden since 1312, but since the early 15th century the castle and office of Graben remained only under fief for over 300 years (until 1746) under Electoral Palatinate sovereignty and the Margrave of Baden. (Graben Gemeinde Website)
The Margraves sell Graben
The ditch was a feast for the nobility. "My gracious prince and lord, because of the three Huoben acres, also imprisoned wooden justice in the Baurenwald to Graben as other owners of the Huoben dafelbft," the camp books report. The noble and influential citizens of the village were the respective lords of the castles, for many centuries the Margraves of Baden-Durlach. Due to the personal relations of the citizens of Graben with the sovereigns, the border town of Graben enjoyed many advantages. The lordship of Befißtum as: Buildings, gardens, fields, cottages and woods, form an outstanding part of the village's assets due to their construction, size, privileged location and the continuity of the administration in the Lauf period. The castle with Berchfrit and kennel, surrounded by wall and ditch, served the lordship of the dwelling. On the plan with the note: Tenth to Neudorf. Rent and Calf Pasture, which are annually increased by the Karlsruhe domain administration for the purpose of haymaking, find all other parts of the manor have been transferred to the Benefit of the municipality of Graben or individual citizens. (Graben by Frederick Kemm, 1920)
Castle
We know next to nothing about the appearance of the building on the left bank of the Pfinz, which is often referred to as the "castle", and which only the names "Schloßstraße" and "Schloßplatz" remind us of today. It was probably a sober building, but it served its purpose well.
The Graben office, which was abolished at the beginning of the 18th century and added to the new residential city of Karlsruhe, was always anything but impressive: It consisted of just three villages: Graben, Liedolsheim and Rußheim, which is why the coat of arms of the municipality of Graben was created in 1901 had united the horseshoe, as the village symbol of Liedolsheim and Rußheim, with the "talking" spade (= grave logs) used for the village and official name Graben. The office building was located in the south of the castle district at today's Schloßplatz and formed part of the buildings belonging to the castle. (Graben Gemeinde Website)
Religion
The effects of the Reformation led to the fact that the inhabitants of Graben adopted the new doctrine through the introduction of the reformed faith ordered by Margrave Charles II of Baden-Durlach in 1556. (Graben Gemeinde Website)
Graben Schultheiss (Sheriffs or Mayors)
1467 Heintz Tuber or Knolle
1474 Michel Müller
1521 Erhard Ochsenbacher
1554 Hans Heil
1562 Hans Ochsenbacher
1575 HansMay
1585 Hans Hüenlin
1588 Mathis Süß
Graben Pfarrers (Pastors)
1410-1467 Hans Pfaff possibly from Laudenbach.
1467-1484 Johannes, Schultheiss (mayor) von Durlach
1484-1456 Martinus Heilet, Plebanus (priest in Latin)
1556-1563 Matthias Lazius * Augsburg
1566-1571 Caspar Gössler
1571-1585 Johann Ettstein or Johann Jetzstein held three funeral sermons for death of Anna von Pfalz-Veldenz (* 12.11.1540 † 03.30.1586 in Graben ) , Marchioness of Baden by marriage with the Margrave Karl II. (* 07.24.1529 in Sulzburg † March 23, 1577 in Durlach ) . You had 1577 of up to 1584. the guardianship government of Markgrafschaft Baden-Durlach involved , until your son Ernst Friedrich (10/17/1560 * in Mühlburg † 04.14.1604 in Remchingen ) the government took over .
1585 Johann Zehender Hofprediger of Anna Margrave of Baden, (* 1564 in Besigheim , † 25.09.1613 in Vienna ), came in 1590 to the Catholic faith over and the Jesuit order one ( after John DECUMANUS ) .
What happened before Joss Scholl?
1455 Johannes Gutenberg first prints the Gutenberg Bible. His printing press will change the history of Europe.
1517 Martin Luther publishes his 95 Thesis which marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
1524 German peasants revolt against the aristocracy.
1555 Sep 25, The Religious Peace of Augsburg compromised differences between Catholics and Protestants in the German states. Each prince could chose which religion would be followed in his realm. Lutheranism was acknowledged by the Holy Roman Empire. The Peace of Augsburg was the first permanent legal basis for the existence of Lutheranism as well as Catholicism in Germany. It was promulgated as part of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles V's Augsburg Interim of 1548 was a temporary doctrinal agreement between German Catholics and Protestants that was overthrown in 1552.
1571 Dec 27, Johannes Kepler (d.1630), German astronomer known as the "father of modern astronomy," was born. Working with the data gathered by Tycho Brahe, he established the three laws of planetary motion:
a) The planets do not travel in concentric circles, but in ellipses, with the sun at one of the two foci of the ellipse.
b) A radius vector joining a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
c) The third law asserted a mathematical relation between the periods of revolution of the planets and their distance from the sun.
b) A radius vector joining a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
c) The third law asserted a mathematical relation between the periods of revolution of the planets and their distance from the sun.
Documents related to Early Graben:
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| Map of Early Graben showing the Kirche on the left and Graben Castle on the right. Notice the River Pfintz. |