1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Weinsberg

WEINSBERG, a small town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg, pleasantly situated on the Sulm, 5 m. E. from Heilbronn by the railway to Crailsheim. Pop. (1905) 3097. It has an ancient Romanesque church, a monument, to the reformer Oecolampadius (q.v), and a school of viticulture, which is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. On the Schlossberg above the town lie the ruins of the castle of Weibertreu, and at its foot is the house once inhabited by Justinus Kerner (q.v.), with a public garden and a monument to the poet.

The German king Conrad III. defeated Count Welf VI. of Bavaria near Weinsberg in December 1140, and took the town, which later became a free imperial city. In 1331 it joined the league of the Swabian cities, but was taken by the nobles in 1440 and sold to the elector palatine, thus losing its liberties. It was burnt in 1525 as a punishment for the atrocities committed by the revolted peasants. The famous legend of Weibertreu (“women’s faithfulness”), immortalized in a ballad by Chamisso, is connected with the siege of 1140, although the story is told of other places. It is said that Conrad III. allowed the women to leave the town with whatever they could carry, whereupon they came out with their husbands on their backs.

See Bernheim, “Die Sage von den treuen Weibern zu Heinsberg” (in the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. xv., Göttingen, 1875); Merk, Geschichte der Stadt Weinsberg und ihrer Burg Weibertreu (Heilbronn, 1880).