The history of Mosbach

Monastery, residence, county town

Mosbach developed around the Benedictine monastery "Monasterium Mosabach" and is first mentioned in a document in the 9th century. Gradually, a community grew out of this spiritual nucleus which received the rights of a free city after it had been granted several privileges in the 13th century (first authenticated date: 1241). Before the town became Palatine it was self-governing. The coat of arms of the town with its eagle and the letters OM (probably "Oppidum Mosbacense") still remind us of this time. Mosbach reached its first great heyday in the 15th century as the residence of the Counts Palatine Otto I. and Otto II. (1410 until 1499). Mosbach, which became a Palatine county after the division of the inheritance, had other properties on the Neckar river around Mosbach, in the Kraichgau around Sinsheim, at the Bergstraße as well as in the Upper Palatinate around Neumarkt.

After the breakup of the princedom of Mosbach (due to the death of Otto II. in 1499) the town became the seat of the "Oberamt Mosbach" which grew until the 18th century into the most important Oberamt of the Palatinate on the right of the Rhine.

The ground plan of the old town and several of the half-timbered houses that still exist today date from the 16th century. In that and the following century the craftsmen furthered the importance of the town. The mills and waterworks still existing today were built in the 18th century. Workshops, sawmills and mills were built along the Elz river and used the existing water-power. Mosbach, which became a part of Baden in 1806, experienced a further upturn in the middle of the 19th century when it was connected with the railway link Heidelberg-Meckesheim-Obrigheim, and the first foundries were established. After the municipal reform in 1976, Mosbach became the county town with the districts Diedesheim, Lohrbach, Neckarelz, Reichenbuch and Sattelbach, and the economic and cultural focal point of the "Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis".

Virtual tours of the town in English

For guided tours in English please contact the Tourist Information,
tourist.info@mosbach.de or phone +049 (0)6261/ 9188-0, fax. + +049 (0)6261/9188-15.

04.08.2010