Ilsfeld is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, on the outer edge of the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region. In addition to the village of Ilsfeld proper, it includes the formerly independent settlements of Auenstein and Schozach and some hamlets. Formerly predominantly agricultural, it has become more commercially oriented since an autobahn exit was built in the 1950s. The village of Ilsfeld was largely destroyed by a fire in 1904, and was rebuilt with public buildings in a rustic Württemberg style with Jugendstil elements.
Geography
Ilsfeld is located in the south of the district of Heilbronn, in and around the valley of the Schozach near the point where the Gruppenbach flows into it. Parts of the town fall within two natural areas: Schwäbisch-Fränkische Waldberge (Swabian-Franconian Wooded Mountains) and Neckarbecken (Neckar Basin).
The town is bordered by (clockwise from the south): Großbottwar (in the district of Ludwigsburg), Neckarwestheim, Lauffen am Neckar, Talheim, Untergruppenbach, Abstatt and Beilstein (all in the district of Heilbronn). It is the seat of the Gemeindeverwaltungsverband (local government association) of Schozach-Bottwartal, whose other members are Abstatt, Beilstein and Untergruppenbach.
Ilsfeld proper, Auenstein and Schozach are sections of the town; the first also includes the hamlet of Wüstenhausen, the settlements of Landturm and Untere Mühle and the neighborhood of Engelsberghöfe, and Auenstein also includes two hamlets, Abstetterhof and Helfenberg. Ilsfeld proper also formerly included the no longer extant settlements of Beuren, Bustatt or Boestat, Gendach, Froßbach and Seetham, and Auenstein formerly included Finkenbach (now part of Helfenberg) and Kapfenhardt.
History
Frankish court site
The territory of Ilsfeld has been settled almost without interruption since the Mesolithic and Neolithic. After the Franks expanded into the area, five ancient Alemannic settlements were subsumed in a royal court location that is the basis of the present-day town. At the former settlement of Gendach, on the Schozach near Ilsfeld, there was a small motte and bailey castle, no traces of which remain. The royal center at Ilsfeld led to new settlements in the area, such as Westheim (Neckarwestheim), Ostheim (Auenstein) and Talheim, named for their relationship to Ilsfeld and marked as Frankish by the termination -heim.
The first recorded mention of Ilsfeld itself is in an 1102 charter of Emperor Henry IV granting land in Ilisvelt to the Bishopric of Speyer. The name presumably designated the entire area and may have been derived from the Schozach, whose upper reaches appear to have been called the Ils. In 1157, after threats from King Conrad III, Ilsfeld returned to Hohenstaufen control. In the late 12th and 13th centuries, a local noble family developed, the Lords of Ilsfeld, who were ministeriales of the Margraves of Baden; either they or relatives of theirs were responsible for building a castle near Ilsfeld on the Wunnenstein.
Border territory of Württemberg
In 1368 Ilsfeld became the property of Württemberg; by about 1460 it had become a fief of the Vogt or reeve of Lauffen am Neckar. It was a border territory; to the north, Talheim had become the property of the Teutonic Knights, and beyond that lay for example Flein, which belonged to the Imperial City of Heilbronn, Stettenfels Castle, property of the Electorate of the Palatinate, and the County of Löwenstein. In 1450, during Count Ulrich V's war against 30 Swabian Imperial Cities, Ilsfeld was attacked by Heilsbronn forces; the village was laid waste, with 40 people killed and 300 head of livestock removed.
In 1456 the Württembergischer Landgraben (Württemberg Ditch) was created as a border fortification running north of Ilsfeld, with a defensive tower, the Landturm, north of the hamlet of Wüstenhausen. In 1460 the Battle of Wüstenhausen took place there, with Duke Ulrich defeating the forces of Frederick the Victorious, Elector Palatine. The many battles in the 15th century are probably why Ilsfeld was surrounded by a high wall with ten towers.