Höchstädt an der Donau

Höchstädt an der Donau is a town in the district of Dillingen, Bavaria, Germany. It is situated near the banks of the Danube River. It consists of the following suburbs: Höchstädt an der Donau, Deisenhofen, Oberglauheim, Schwennenbach and Sonderheim. The town is the seat of the municipal association Höchstädt an der Donau, which includes the towns Blindheim, Finningen, Lutzingen and Schwenningen.

Höchstädt an der Donau
Höchstädt Castle
Coat of arms
Location of Höchstädt an der Donau within Dillingen district
Höchstädt an der Donau Show map of Germany Höchstädt an der Donau Show map of Bavaria
Coordinates: 48°36′N 10°33′E
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Schwaben
District	Dillingen
Government
• Mayor	Gerrit Maneth (FW)
Area
• Total	37.45 km2 (14.46 sq mi)
Elevation	416 m (1,365 ft)
Population  (2019-12-31)[1]
• Total	6,774
• Density	180/km2 (470/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	89420
Dialling codes	09074
Vehicle registration	DLG
Website	www.hoechstaedt.de

Diorama of the battle in the Heimat museum in Höchstädt. The foreground depicts the fierce fighting in and around Blindheim.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the wealthy mercantile family Höchstetter, which came from the town, was part of the mercantile patriciate of Augsburg.

In the early 18th century, the town was the site of two battles. The first Battle of Höchstädt (German: Schlacht von Höchstädt) on 20 September 1703 cost over 5,000 lives. A year later in 1704, the Battle of Blenheim (or Second Battle of Höchstädt also German: Schlacht von Höchstädt) between the Austrian and British forces (led by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy) on the one side, and Bavarian and French troops (commanded by Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, and the Comte de Tallard) on the other side.

The carnage of that battle was so horrific (over 20,000 men had died at the end of the day) that farmers are said to still dig up skulls from the fields today, as described in the poem After Blenheim, written by Robert Southey, which tells about children finding the skull of one of the "... many thousand men, said he, Were slain in that great victory."[2]

In June 1800, the armies of the French First Republic, under command of Jean Victor Moreau, fought Habsburg regulars and Württemberg contingents, under the general command of Pál Kray. Kray had taken refuge in the fortress at Ulm; Moreau diverted his army to approach Ulm from the east and, after a small group of men captured a foothold on the northern bank of the Danube, his forces were able to move against the fortress on both sides of the river. At this battle, the culmination of the Danube Campaign of 1800, Moreau forced Kray to abandon Ulm and withdraw into eastern Bavaria.[3]