DEUTSCHLAND	GERMANY
Bundesland: Baden-Württemberg
Regierungsbezirk: Karlsruhe
Landkreis: Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis

map →

Mosbach is situated at an elevation of 156 m on the river Elz shortly before its confluence with the Neckar river. Mosbach is the capital of the Neckr-Odenwald district; the municipality has a population of about 22,800 (2014).

The settlement of Mosbach developed around the Benedictine monastery of Mosbach Abbey (Monasterium Mosabach), the first written record of which dates from the 9th century. In 1241 rights and privileges had been granted to Mosbach as an Imperial free city. These rights were lost in 1362 when Mosbach became part of the Electorate of the Palatinate. With the division of the lands of King Ruprecht in 1410, Mosbach became the capital of a small principality known as Palatinate-Mosbach as the inheritance for his son Otto I of Palatinate Mosbach. With the death of his brother Johann, Count Palatine of Neumarkt 1443, the territory of Palatinate-Neumarkt was added in a personal union to Palatinate-Mosbach creating the territory of Palatinate-Mosbach-Neumarkt. This principality was dissolved with the death of Count Palatine Otto II in 1499. The city and adjoining territory reverted to the Electorate of the Palatinate, and Mosbach became the capital of the administrative district of "Oberamt Mosbach". In 1806 the city was made part of the Grand Duchy of Baden. In World War II, the Mosbach area was the location of a Daimler-Benz underground airplane engine factory, codenamed "Goldfisch".

The town hall [centre background] was created in 1557/58 in place of the older church of St. Cecilia. A chapel dedicated to Cecilia is likely to have existed already in the 9th century; this was redicated to St. Nicholas in the 11th century. The oldest remaining parts of that chapel date from the Romanesque period. Around 1210, the chapel was enlarged to create the church of St. Cecilia. In the course of the Reformation in the Electorate of the Palatinate, the Catholic church was closed in 1556 and was largely demolished to make way for a new town hall. Only the vaulted ceiling in a hall of the ground floor and the lower third of the tower remain from the church. The ground floor halls were used as a market hall, the upper floor as meeting room for the city councilors and archives. The upper parts of the tower were rebuilt and in 1566 received a new bell chamber for the old St. Cecilia bell of 1458. Until 1909, the tower also was home of a permanent watchman. A thorough renovation took place in 1976/77.

The soldiers' monument [foreground] was erected in 1896 to commemorate the French-German War of 1870/71. In the 1930s it was moved to its present location next to the police headquarter of Mosbach.

[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosbach, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosbach; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathaus_(Mosbach); http://www.mosbach.de/Historischer_Rundgang_II.html#Kriegerdenkmal]