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). (Graben Gemeinde Website)
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)
30 Years War
The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) brought much hardship and misery to the ditch. The population loss around Bruchsal averaged 80 percent. “In 1622, 1150 acres of arable land were cultivated, after peace in 1648 only 296 acres. 135 buildings were destroyed, in 1622 the ditch had 145 citizens, in 1648 there were only 42 left. ”The wars related to France's reunion policy under Louis XIV and the Palatinate Succession War also had devastating consequences for Ditch. So destroyed on March 31st / 1st April 1675 the French dug the castle from the Philippsburg fortress, which had been in French hands since the Peace of Westphalia (1648), and in spring 1689 they burned down the entire village "except for one old house". Quiet. (Graben Gemeinde Website)
Farming
The purely agricultural character of the municipality of Graben has been preserved until the beginning of the 20th century. It can be attributed to the cultivation of the special crops of tobacco and asparagus on the sandy soil of the Graben district that the structural change in agriculture took place only slowly. As early as 1912, 86 hectares of tobacco were grown here, and before and after World War II, Graben was one of the most important growing locations with almost 100 hectares of tobacco cultivation area. (Graben Gemeinde Website)
Hunting
Hunting in the community forest belonged to court hunting until the appearance of the newer hunting-feet (Jagdgefeß of 2 December 1850). The game species find: roe deer, harbour, fafans. partridges. Foxes, sometimes wild boars, fallow deer and red deer due to the proximity of the park. Until 1848 there were complaints about significant damage to the game by biting off the shoots of forlene; in the spring of that year well over 100 roe deer were fished and the populations were noticeably reduced. Now also the deciduous wood came up of which one believed earlier. it was held down with the scissors. The present wildlife does not exert a negative influence on the forest culture. Hunting is now once again the property of the community. (Graben by Frederick Kemm, 1920)