FKK 66 Villingen-Schwenningen (D)

Villingen-Schwenningen

Name origin Villingen

ad Filingas (lat., = with the people of Filo, Vilmar)

Name origin Schwenningen

Suaninga (germ., = with the people of Swano, Swanagèr) --> Swenlingen

First documented mention

817 AD

Population

86,000

Area

165.53 km²

Federal state

Baden-Württemberg

Administrative region

Freiburg

District

Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis

Vehicle registration

VS

River

Brigach (Villingen), Neckar (Schwenningen)

The club FKK 66 is located in Schwenningen.

The sentence "Villingen-Schwenningen is a hicksville in the Black Forest, where you wouldn't want to be caught dead hanging over a picket fence" is wrong, and for the following reasons: First, Villingen-Schwenningen is a twin city, made up of the Baden town of Villingen and the Württemberg town of Schwenningen. Second, Villingen-Schwenningen doesn't lie in the woods at all, but on a high plateau at 758 m above sea level between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb, right along the European watershed. Third, we're talking about two towns that look back on a long history, which is reflected in each having a charming central promenade and even its own train station. Fourth, at the seat of the Baden-Württemberg Police Academy, one really shouldn't be hanging around picket fences, dead or alive. And fifth, four different sauna clubs plus two eros centers currently keep pleasure-seekers in Villingen-Schwenningen thoroughly entertained.

Anyone travelling from Baden-Baden or Offenburg to Villingen on the Schwarzwaldbahn will, after an almost adventurous ride through numerous tunnels and gorges, be quite surprised to discover that the town sits on a wide-open high plateau, the so-called Hochmulde of the Baar. Villingen-Schwenningen lies at 758 m above sea level, making it the highest-situated of all German towns with over 50,000 inhabitants. The town centres of Villingen and Schwenningen are roughly eight kilometres apart and are connected by a country road. Local transport between the two towns runs mainly via local buses, though there is also a direct rail connection via the southern loop of the regional track network. While Villingen sits right on the eastern edge of the Black Forest massif, from Schwenningen, further east, you already look out towards the ridges of the Swabian Alb. Nearby, in Donaueschingen, lies the source of the Danube, while the source of the Neckar is found near Schwenningen in the Schwenninger Moos. The recreational value of the town is obvious, with both localities having two wonderful natural landscapes right on their doorstep, and a further natural paradise, Lake Constance, lying just around forty kilometres further south. Small downside: Villingen-Schwenningen is considered the municipality with the highest hail risk in Germany.

The two towns merged into a twin city in 1972 and each have their own distinct history. Both are first mentioned in a document by Ludwig the Pious in 817, but while Villingen was assigned to the House of Fürstenberg in 1283 and belonged to Austria from 1326 to 1805, Schwenningen was assigned to the Oberamt Tuttlingen in 1444, from which it was handed over to the Oberamt Rottweil in 1842. Villingen still has a largely intact medieval town centre with several sights such as the early Gothic Münster, the late Gothic town hall, and remnants of the town fortifications like the Bickentor, the Riettor and the Pulvertürmle. Schwenningen was attacked by Villingen during the Peasants' War in 1525 and almost completely burned down, while Villingen itself had already been completely destroyed in a great fire in 1271.

Today, businesses based in Villingen include Kienzle Apparate GmbH, which now belongs to Continental AG, as well as the music label HGBS. Villingen was also once home to the popular radio manufacturer SABA. In Schwenningen, a clock factory was founded by Johannes Bürk in 1858, and the town subsequently developed into a leading centre of clock manufacturing. Today, the clock and time-recording companies Bürk, Eugen Trost, Kienzle, Mauthe and ISGUS are based in the town. As a centre of Black Forest clock production, the town lies along the route of the German Clock Road.

The singer Michelle, the ski jumper Martin Schmitt and the two footballers Florian and Sebastian Rudy all hail from Villingen-Schwenningen.