History

Haguenau dates from the beginning of the 12th century, and owes its origin to the erection of a hunting lodge by the dukes of Swabia. The emperor Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I Barbarossa surrounded it with walls and gave it town rights in 1154. On the site of the hunting lodge he founded an imperial palace, in which were preserved the "Crown Jewels of the Holy Roman Empire", i.e. the jewelled imperial crown, sceptre, imperial globe, and sword of Charlemagne.

Subsequently it became the seat of the Richard of Cornwall king of the Romans, made it an imperial city in 1257. In the 14th century, it housed the executive council of the Decapole, a defensive and offensive association of ten Alsace|Alsatian towns against the surrounding political instability. In 1648 it came into the possession of France, and in 1673 Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV caused the fortifications to be razed. In 1675 it was captured by imperial troops, but in 1677 it was retaken by the French and nearly all destroyed by fire. In 1871 it fell, with the rest of Alsace-Lorraine, into the possession of Germany. During World War II, Easy Company of the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, portrayed in historian Stephen Ambrose's novel and miniseries; Band of Brothers, were stationed in Haguenau in early 1945.

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