Place:Obernai, Bas-Rhin, France

source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Obernai (Alsatian: Owernah; ) commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It lies on the eastern slopes of the Vosges mountains.

Obernai is a rapidly growing city, its number of inhabitants having gone up from 6,304 in 1968 to 11,279 in 2017.^[1]

History

The Obernai region, which was the property of the dukes of Alsace in the 7th century, is the birthplace of St. Odile, daughter of the Duke, who would become the Patron Saint of Alsace.

The Obernai name first appears in 1240, when the village acquires the status of town under the tutelage of the Hohenstaufen family. The town then prospers. It becomes a member of the Decapole in 1354, an alliance of ten towns of the Holy Roman Empire in Alsace. Obernai's status reaches its apex in the 15th and 16th century.

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) damages the town, which is occupied by the Imperial troups then by the Swedes. The town is ransomed and ceded to France in 1679, and starts to recover some of its prosperity, without totally recapturing its former glory.

The town is annexed by Germany in 1871 with the rest of Alsace then is returned to France after World War I in 1918.

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