Crailsheim

Crailsheim is famed for withstanding a siege by forces of three imperial cities - Schwäbisch Hall, Dinkelsbühl, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber - lasting from 1379 until 1380, a feat which it celebrates annually. Crailsheim became a possession of the Burgrave of Nuremberg following the siege. In 1791 it became part of the Prussian administrative region, before returning to Bavaria in 1806 and becoming a part of Württemberg in 1810.

Crailsheim's railroad and airfield were heavily defended by the Waffen-SS in 1945 (World War II). Following an American Army assault in mid-April 1945 the town was occupied briefly by US forces before being lost to German counter-offensive. Intense US bombing and artillery shelling during a second US conquest destroyed much of the city, with subsequent fires consuming its historic inner city. Only the Johanneskirche (St. John's Church) escaped unharmed.[2]

Crailsheim became the postwar home to the U.S. Army's McKee Barracks until the facility closed in January 1994.[3]

Major employers in the Crailsheim area include:

• Voith
• Syntegon Technology GmbH[4]
• Gerhard Schubert GmbH[5]

The following boroughs comprise the Crailsheim municipality: Altenmünster, Erkenbrechtshausen, Tiefenbach, Onolzheim, Roßfeld, Jagstheim, Westgartshausen, Goldbach, Triensbach and Beuerlbach.

Crailsheim is served by the Upper Jagst Railway.

Crailsheim is twinned with:[6]

• Biłgoraj, Poland
• Jurbarkas, Lithuania
• Pamiers, France
• Worthington, United States

The Crailsheim Merlins are the city's basketball team. Founded in 1986, they originally played in lower leagues. In 1995 they moved into a new sports hall, improved, and were promoted in 2001 to the 2. Bundesliga, the second division of German basketball. In 2015 they were first promoted to the Bundesliga but relegated after two seasons. They achieved promotion again in 2018. www.crailsheim-merlins.de

• Philipp Gottfried Alexander, 10th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg born 1970
• Inge Aicher-Scholl (1917–1998), author
• Susanne Bay (born 1965), politician (The Greens), Member of Landtag
• Eugen Grimminger (1892–1986), Member of White Rose
• Dieter Lange (born 1932), was a German illustrator for Stern Magazine, Die Zeit, Ravensburger Spielkiste, many novels and Children's books
• Sabine Meyer (born 1959), German clarinetist
• Wolfgang Meyer, (1954–2019) German clarinetist
• Alexander Neidlein (born 1975), politician (NPD)
• Hans Sachs (1874–1947), Member of Reichstag
• Kurt Schneider (1887–1967), psychiatrist
• Hans Scholl, (1918-1943) born in a village named Ingersheim, which is part of Crailsheim today, was a founding member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany.
• Eva Schorr (1927-2016), German painter and composer
• Werner Utter (1921–2006), one of the first flight captains of the Lufthansa after World War II
• Karl Waldmann (1889–1969), NSDAP-politician
• Michael Glenn (born 1978), Disciple of Jesus

• Official website (in German)
• History about Crailsheim (in English)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crailsheim". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 362.