Wissembourg

Wissembourg (German Weissenburg), till 1871 a French fortified town, close to the frontier of the Bavarian palatinate, now a manufacturing town in the German district of Lower Alsace, is on the Lauter, 42 miles NNE. of Strasbourg by rail; pop. 5968. It grew up round a 7th-century Benedictine abbey, and in 1677-97 was ceded to France. Here was fought, on the 4th August 1870, the first great battle of the Franco-German war, in which the Germans were victorious (see FRANCE, Vol. IV. p. 782). The Lines of Wissembourg, originally made by Villars in 1706, are famous—a line of works extending to Lauterburg 9 miles SE. Like the fortifications of the town, those of the lines have now disappeared.