page_title: Niederstotzingen
section_title: Middle Ages
hierarchical_section_title: Niederstotzingen / History / Middle Ages
caption_attribution_description: Stadt Niederstotzingen / Germany, Postcard circa 1900
context_page_description: Niederstotzingen is a small city in the district of Heidenheim in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated 17 km southeast of Heidenheim, and 24 km northeast of Ulm. The city consists of four sections or villages; Niederstotzingen, Oberstotzingen, Stetten ob Lontal and the combined section Lontal und Reuendorf. There are 4,850 inhabitants.
context_section_description: During construction in the south part of town, in 1962, a small cemetery from the later half of the 7th century was discovered.  The Alamannian cemetery contained the remains of several nobles as well as their animals and valuables. 
  The name Stotzingin first appears in 1143, though the meaning of the name is still not clear.  During the High Middle Ages, a minor noble family named itself after the city.  The family, which is still in existence, ruled Niederstotzingen until 1330.  In 1366 Emperor Charles IV gave Niederstotzingen to Wilhelm von Riedheim with a directive to expand and fortify the city.  The city was granted the status of a city which it has held ever since (except for a short interruption in the 19th century).
  In 1400 the von Leimberg family acquired the rights to rule the city.  Only fifty years later the rights went to the knightly family von Westernach.  The von Westernachs then traded Niederstotzingen in 1457 to the vom Stain family in exchange for Konzenberg.  
   
  The Stain family expanded and developed their fief over the following centuries.  They granted several important privileges including a guarantee that the citizens of the city couldn't be judged in foreign courts.  They also sought to use the wealth of the city to become free Imperial Knights, to only owe loyalty and taxes to the Emperor.  However, in 1550 the inheritance of Bernhard vom Stain was split into two pieces: the burgschlossische (called after the old knightly castle, the Burgschloss) and the steinhausische half (called after the Steinhaus or new castle).  In 1565 Heinrich vom Stain became Protestant and ordered his half of the town to convert.  His brother in the steinhausischen half remained Catholic.  The citizens of the city were therefore split over religion for centuries.  The Niederstotzinger Church was used by both faiths until 1960.
  After the death of the childless Heinrich vom Stain in 1605 his part of Niederstotzingen was granted to his cousin Leopold Karl, who ruled in the neighboring city of Bächingen.  Leopold then split his half of Niederstotzingen in 1624, between his two sons.  Inside the small city wall of Niederstotzingen there were now three related lords ruling a section of town.  There was the Catholic steinhausische, the burgschlossische and the new freihausische rulers.
  In 1661 the steinhausische section was sold to the Kaisheim Abbey.  In 1799 the last holder of the freihausische section died childless and the section was reunited with the burgschlossische under the Graf (or Count) Karl Leopold vom Stain.  He also died in 1809 without any children and his territory (Niederstotzingen as well as Riedhausen) as well as his newly built castle went to his nephew Graf (or Count) Joseph Alexander von Maldeghem.  The Schloss Niederstotzingen is currently owned by this family, which had also purchased the villages of Oberstotzingen and Stetten to expand their holdings.
caption: Postcard from 1900 of Niederstotzingen
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