The Black Forest, called Schwarzwald in German, is a wooded mountain range in the south-west of Germany. This site follows its story from about the year 0 to the present, one period at a time.
The Black Forest lies mainly in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in south-west Germany.
The place
Where it is
The Black Forest lies mainly in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in south-west Germany. It runs roughly from the area around Karlsruhe and Pforzheim in the north down towards Basel and the Swiss border in the south. It is about 160 kilometres long and up to roughly 60 kilometres wide. To the west lies the wide valley of the Upper Rhine, with France beyond it, and the highest peak, the Feldberg, reaches about 1,493 metres.
Why "Black"?
The name comes from the dark look of the dense fir and spruce forest, which let little light reach the ground. For a long time this made the high country hard to settle, and that shaped its history.
Rivers and towns
The Danube begins where two streams, the Brigach and the Breg, meet at Donaueschingen on the eastern side of the range. Freiburg lies at the south-western edge, and Baden-Baden at the north-western edge.
Before Rome
For most of prehistory the high Black Forest was a place people passed around rather than lived in. The story of settlement begins at its edges.
Early settlers at the edges
Farming peoples settled in the fertile Rhine plain to the west and in the open valleys and plateaus around the forest long before written records. The steep, wooded slopes and poor soils of the high country gave little reason to stay.
The Celts
In the last centuries BC, Celtic peoples lived across much of southern Germany, including the lands around the Black Forest. The Romans later used the name Abnoba for the mountain range, a name linked to a Celtic goddess. Celtic place and river names survive in the region. The Celts mostly lived in the valleys and foothills, and the dense forest above them stayed largely empty.
The forest as a barrier
Dense forest, steep valleys and heavy snow in winter made the interior hard to cross. This pattern, with people at the edges and the forest in the middle, would last well into the Middle Ages.
Next: The Roman era.
1st to 3rd century
The Romans reached the Black Forest in the first century AD and held parts of the region for nearly two hundred years.
The Agri Decumates
The Romans took over the land between the Upper Rhine and the Danube, which they called the Agri Decumates. Its exact limits are still discussed by historians. They built forts and roads, and a road through the Kinzig valley linked the Rhine with the upper Danube. The Black Forest itself was crossed by a few such routes, but most of its high interior stayed wild.
Aquae and the baths
At the northern edge of the forest, the Romans developed hot springs into a bath settlement known as Aquae, today Baden-Baden. Remains of Roman baths can still be seen there. The town's later fame as a spa city rests on the same springs.
Rottweil and Roman towns
On the eastern side, Rottweil began as a Roman settlement and became an important local centre.
The end of Roman rule
In the middle of the third century AD, pressure from Germanic peoples across the frontier pushed the Romans back behind the Rhine and Danube. The region passed into the hands of the Alemanni.
3rd to 6th century
After the Romans withdrew, the Alemanni, a group of Germanic peoples, took over the lands west and east of the forest.
The Alemanni settle
The Alemanni settled the Rhine plain and the open country around the forest. They farmed and lived in villages, and the Black Forest uplands remained thinly populated. The name Alemannic is still used for the dialects of the region, and these are still spoken in much of the Black Forest today.
Frankish rule
Around the year 500, the Franks defeated the Alemanni and brought them under their rule. The region became part of the Frankish kingdom, and later part of the duchy of Swabia within the medieval German realm.
Christianity arrives
Christian missionaries and monks spread the new faith across the region. Over the following centuries, monasteries became the first organised centres of settlement in the forest, which is the subject of the next page.
7th to 13th century
In the central Middle Ages, monasteries and noble families began to open up the forest itself.
Why monks went into the forest
Benedictine monks sought quiet places, and the forest offered land that nobody else was using. They cleared trees, built farms and mills, and brought settlers behind them. Over time the forest slowly became dotted with clearings and villages.
Three well-known monasteries
St Trudpert
St Trudpert, in the Münster valley south of Freiburg, is traditionally said to go back to the 7th century and to an Irish monk named Trudpert.
St Blasien
St Blasien, in the southern forest, grew into one of the most important abbeys of the region. Its large domed church was built in the 18th century and still dominates the town.
St Peter
St Peter, on the western side of the forest, was founded in 1093 by the Zähringen dukes as a family monastery and burial place. Its baroque church and library date from the 18th century.
The Zähringer and Freiburg
The Zähringen family was one of the great noble houses of the area. They founded the market town of Freiburg in 1120, and it grew into the main city on the edge of the forest. Its minster was begun around 1200.
Next: Mining and glass-making.
Middle Ages onward
The forest offered wood, ore and stone, and people learned to turn all three into a living.
Silver and other ores
Silver mining in the southern Black Forest, notably in the hills near Freiburg such as the Schauinsland, became important in the Middle Ages. The silver brought wealth and helped Freiburg grow. Other metals, such as iron, were also worked in several valleys.
Glass-making
Glassmakers settled in the forest because glass needs large amounts of wood, for fuel and for potash, as well as sand. Small glass workshops moved from place to place as the trees around them were used up. Such glass is often called forest glass.
Wood as a resource
Timber itself was valuable. Trunks were floated down the rivers in rafts to the Rhine, and some of the best trees travelled as far as the Netherlands, where large timber was in demand.
A life of hard work
Farming in the high valleys was difficult, so many families combined small farms with work in the forest, in mines and in workshops. This mix of trades prepared the ground for the clock-making of later centuries.
1500s
The late Middle Ages brought growing towns, and the 16th century brought religious division and rebellion.
A patchwork of rulers
The Black Forest was never a single state. Parts belonged to the Habsburgs, who held lands in the region known as Further Austria, including Freiburg. Other parts belonged to the margraves of Baden and to the dukes of Württemberg, along with abbeys and smaller lords.
The Reformation
The Reformation, which began in 1517, split the region. Württemberg became Protestant in the 1530s, while the Habsburg lands stayed Catholic. A visitor travelling through the forest could cross from one faith to another within a few kilometres, and the difference is still visible in some local customs and church buildings.
The Peasants' War, 1524 to 1525
Many peasants in southern Germany faced heavy dues and strict control by their lords. In 1524, an uprising began in the Stühlingen area at the southern edge of the Black Forest and spread across south-west Germany. Peasants drew up demands and gathered in armed bands. In 1525, the armies of the lords defeated the peasants in battle, and many were killed. The rebellion failed to win lasting change, but it is remembered as a major event in the region.
1618 to 1648
The war that began in 1618 and ended in 1648 brought great suffering to south-west Germany.
The war reaches the forest
The Black Forest lay between several powers, and armies marched through the Rhine valley and the passes again and again. Towns were besieged. Breisach, on the Rhine, was taken by Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in 1638 after a long siege, and in 1644 French and Bavarian armies fought a battle near Freiburg.
Loss and hardship
Fighting, plague and hunger killed many people and left villages empty. In some areas the population fell sharply, and farmland returned to scrub and woodland.
The peace of 1648
The Peace of Westphalia ended the war in 1648. It left the region divided among many rulers once more, with the border on the Rhine staying a point of tension with France for years to come.
Rebuilding
After the war, settlers came in from elsewhere, including from Switzerland, and the land was gradually farmed again. Wood, trade and crafts helped the region recover.
1700s
In the 18th century the Black Forest grew more populated, but its poor mountain land could not feed everyone.
A growing population
After the recovery from the war, the population increased. Farms were divided among heirs, and many families could not live from the land alone.
Emigration to the east
In the 1700s, the Habsburg monarchy invited settlers to farm lands along the Danube that had been won back from Ottoman rule. Many people from south-west Germany, including the Black Forest, went down the Danube by boat to settle there. Their descendants are known as Danube Swabians.
Hard years
The harvests of 1816 and 1817 were very poor across Europe, after a volcanic eruption in Indonesia affected the weather, and hunger drove more people to leave.
Emigration to America
In the 19th century many people from the Black Forest and Baden emigrated to North America, particularly around the middle of the century. Some left because of poverty, and some after the failed revolution of 1848 and 1849 in Baden.
Change of rulers
In the early 1800s, during the Napoleonic era, the region was reorganised. Baden became a grand duchy in 1806, and Württemberg became a kingdom. Many monasteries, such as St Blasien, were closed.
1800s
In the 19th century, workshops, railways and visitors changed the forest economy.
Clock-making
Black Forest clock-making began in the 17th century, when farmers made clocks in the long winters. Early clocks had wooden movements. Traders carried them across Europe on their backs, and the trade grew over the 18th century. The cuckoo clock, now the symbol of the region, was developed in the 18th century. Furtwangen became the centre of the craft, and a clock-making school opened there in 1850.
Other industries
Alongside clocks, the region produced music boxes, straw hats, wooden goods and later electrical and precision products. Timber and sawmills remained important.
Railways
The Black Forest Railway (Schwarzwaldbahn) between Offenburg and Singen was built in the 1860s and 1870s, with many tunnels, and engineer Robert Gerwig designed it. The Höllental railway between Freiburg and the Danube plain opened in 1887. Railways brought goods and visitors in and out of the valleys.
Tourism
Baden-Baden became a fashionable spa town visited by European high society, and its Kurhaus and casino were part of its fame. Others came for the scenery, fresh air and walking in the forest, and tourism grew into a major source of income.
1900s
The 20th century brought two world wars, division of the country, and a new state.
The First World War
Baden was part of the German Empire. The border region on the Rhine was close to the front, and Freiburg suffered air raids. After the war, Baden became a state of the Weimar Republic.
The Second World War
In the Second World War, Freiburg was heavily bombed on 27 November 1944, and most of its old town was destroyed. The minster survived and the city was rebuilt afterwards. In 1945, French forces occupied the south-west of Germany, including much of the Black Forest.
A new state
In 1952, the states of Baden, Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern were merged to form Baden-Württemberg, the state in which the Black Forest lies today.
After the war
Industry and tourism recovered in the post-war years, and the clock-making trade faced competition and shifted towards other products. In the 1980s, concern about damage to trees, often called Waldsterben, or forest dieback, caught attention across Germany, and the Black Forest was a well-known example. On 26 December 1999, the storm Lothar flattened large areas of forest.
Next: The Black Forest today.
Now
Today the Black Forest is one of Germany's best-known landscapes, and visitors and local people both depend on it.
Tourism and landscape
Visitors come to walk and cycle, to ski in winter and to relax in spa towns. Well-known places include Baden-Baden, Freiburg, the lake called the Titisee, the Triberg waterfalls and the Feldberg.
Protecting the forest
In 2014, the Black Forest National Park was established in the northern part of the range. Elsewhere, foresters and local people manage the woods, balancing timber, nature and recreation.
Traditions and food
Cuckoo clocks and the Bollenhut, the hat with red or black pompoms worn with traditional dress in the Gutach area, are among the best-known symbols. The region is known for smoked ham, cherries and cherry spirit, and for Black Forest gateau.
Work and the future
Alongside tourism, the region has industry, research and farming, with Freiburg a university city. The challenges include a changing climate, which stresses the forest, and keeping the countryside lively for local people.
The story in short
From a thickly wooded barrier, to a land of monks and miners, to clockmakers and emigrants, and then to a place of recreation, the Black Forest has changed with each age while remaining a forest.