Breisgau


Breisgau

(brīs`gou), region, Baden-Württemburg, SW Germany, including the Rhine plain and the western slopes of the Black Forest. Freiburg is the chief city. After the extinction (1218) of the first house of ZähringenZähringen
, noble German family. It took its name from a now ruined castle near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, and can be traced to the 10th cent. The family held extensive fiefs in Baden and W Switzerland, and Duke Berthold V, one of the most powerful nobles of his era,
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, it was divided among various heirs. Most of it passed to the Hapsburgs in 1368. France held the region at various times in the 17th–18th cent. In 1805 the Breisgau was divided between Baden and Württemburg; the latter gave its share to Baden in 1810.