Werdenfelser Land

The Werdenfelser Land is a region of

Duke of Bavaria

.

The region derives its name from the medieval Werdenfels Castle north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The castle acted chiefly to secure the military and trade route that ran through the Loisach valley and linked trading posts in Italy and Upper Bavaria. It is sometimes called the Goldener Land after the wealth derived in the Middle Ages and Renaissance from the traffic along this Rottstraße, the main route over the Alps to Augsburg.

Municipalities

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The cultural centre of the land is the town Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The following municipalities also belong to Werdenfelser Land proper:

Werdenfelser territory, or at least culture, is also by some sources said to include the Ammertal municipalities of:

The widest definition includes all of the Loisach and Ammer valleys as far north as the edge of the Alps along the line of the Bayersoiener See-Staffelsee-Riegsee lakes, incorporating the additional municipalities of:

Geography

The southern Werdenfelser Land is bordered by the

Wetterstein Mountains and the Karwendel. The Zugspitze lies southwest of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and, at 2,962 m above sea level (NN), is the highest peak in Germany. Both the valleys and the Alpine Foreland have been heavily influenced by the last ice age. The lakes were partially formed by groundwater filling the hollows carved out by the glaciers. Later the lakes silted up and formed moors like the Murnauer Moos

.

History

In the early

Bozen (Pons Drusi), where it formed a junction with the older Reschen Pass branch. The Roman road station of Partanum was the predecessor of modern-day Partenkirchen. After the collapse of the Roman Empire and the end of the Migration Period, Bajuwaren

settled from about the 6th century A.D. in the valleys.

archbishopric enabled the population of the County of Werdenfels

to become relatively wealthy over a long period of time.

With the onset of the

Welser). The nickname Goldenes Landl ("Little Golden Land") for the Werdenfelser Land comes from this period. This development was ended by the Thirty Years' War and the population became impoverished. Later wars, such as the Wars of the Spanish and Austrian Succession in the early 18th century and Napoleonic Wars

of the 19th century, also severely affected the population. In 1803, as a result of Napoleonic rule, the Prince-Bishopric of Freising was toppled and the Werdenfelser Land was given to Bavaria.

1889 saw the advent of a new source of income as the new

railway link with Munich

brought tourists to the region.

Sources

Wolfgang Wüst: Umbruch im Goldenen Landl vor 200 Jahren. Der Markt Partenkirchen und die Grafschaft Werdenfels im Säkularisationstrauma, in: Mohr – Löwe – Raute. Beiträge zur Geschichte des Landkreises Garmisch-Partenkirchen 11, hg. v. Verein für Geschichte, Kunst und Kulturgeschichte im Landkreis e. V., Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2006, pp. 141-162.

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	Germany

Municipalities

Geography

History

Sources

External links