City Wall

Here, at the end of Uferstraße, in between Seestraße and Karlstraße, is the last remaining fragment of the city wall of what was once Buchhorn. The name of the city comes from it’s former position on the headland, where the palace now stands. On the headland protruding into the lake – which is also called Horn – beech trees (Buchen) used to grow.

Thus the combination of these German words provides the name: Buchhorn. Findings show that both the Celts and the Romans settled here, which brought Christianity to the region, as well as the Alemanni later on. For the first time, in 838, Buchhorn was handed down as the judicial place of assembly of the Linzgau Count and subsequently assigned to the House of Welf. In the 12th Century, merchants settled in this area by the lake, where we are standing now.

Buchhorn was relocated here, and achieved free city status in 1274. The city wall encompassed an area of about five football pitches in the shape of a trapezium. The longer side bordered the lakeside, and the parallel side of the wall was around the same height as Adenauerplatz. In the 15th Century, as well as a modest town hall, the city offered a customs hall, a storehouse, a church and an elderly care home and infirmary – otherwise just a few houses. The trade balance was in direct competition with nearby Ravensburg and Lindau, which stagnated the economic strength of Buchhorn. To keep the German empire alive, the Emperor even occasionally visited the small city. During the course of the Thirty Years War, Buchhorn suffered severe hardship. Abandoned imperial troops exploited the inhabitants and repeatedly pillaged the city.

The Swedish also settled in Buchhorn for one year in 1634. After extensively damaging the surrounding areas, they entrenched themselves within the city wall. Today, this event, that left the city deep in debt, is commemorated by Schanzstraße. It was only in 1755, when Buchhorn became a trading base for salt between Bavaria and Switzerland that the city finally experienced another economic revival. Today, Friedrichshafen’s coat of arms continues to symbolise its beginning, depicting a beech tree and a horn. You can also see these symbols on the tenth manhole cover along the pedestrian zone on Karlstraße.