DONAUESCHINGEN is first recorded as Esginga
in 889; the modern form of the name is first
certified in 1292.
In 1283, Rudolph von Habsburg granted the
principality of Baar and Donaueschingen to
Heinrich von Fürstenberg. The
right to brew beer was also connected with
this grant. This is the source of the Royal
Fürstenberg Brewery.
In 1488, possession was passed to the Count
of Fürstenberg-Baar. From the
18th Century it was the residence of the
Princes of Fü;rstenberg.
In 1806, Donaueschingen came under the rule
of the Grand Duchy of Baden and was granted
township in 1810. A large part of the town
was destroyed by fire in 1908.
Donaueschingen has a tradition as a military
garrison; since World War II the French
military has maintained barracks in the town,
and, until the early 1990s, the U.S. Air
Force operated a contingency hospital there.
Fortunately the hospital never received
casualties on a large scale from military
operations; it saw the most activity in 1989,
when the United States offered the facility
as temporary housing for refugees leaving
from East Germany to the West.
Though the Princes of
Fürstenberg were nominally
deposed as absolute rulers of the
principality, they still own huge property in
their former lands, including their palace
with the surrounding parks and gardens. The
Schlosspark (Palace Gardens) shown in the
title picture above used to be public and
from 1806 the only park accessible to the
citizens of the town. It recently became
off-limits again.
The Princes of Fürstenberg
were also the owners of an important
manuscript of the Nibelungenlied until they
sold it in 2001. The ancestral brewery has
also been sold.
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