Easy hikes and walks around Wain

A huge, very well-maintained 18-hole golf course. There's also a pretty good restaurant, but you can't miss it on this tour.

Evangelical St. Michael's Church (2): "The plaque depicts the procession of Carinthians with many children, together with Abraham and his family," explains the historically knowledgeable pastor. It is a story of departure, and the newcomers named the district "Bethlehem". (https://oberschwaben-welt.de/wain-und-die-erinnerung-an-bethlehem/)

Evangelical St. Michael's Church (1): "In the middle of the village of Wain there is probably the oldest Protestant church in Upper Swabia," says Pastor Ernst Eyrich. St. Michael's Church was built in 1687. In the Middle Ages, a smaller Gothic church stood on the site. As many Protestant religious refugees from Austria came to Wain in 1650, the congregation grew in a short time. The church was dismantled except for a section of wall and rebuilt and enlarged. This old section of wall is now part of the northern nave wall. The Protestants had to flee from Carinthia and Styria at that time. According to Pastor Eyrich, there are many special features in the church that focus particularly on the topic of baptism. The chancel is built as half an octagonal honeycomb. If this octagon were built, it would be imaginarily mirrored to form a whole honeycomb, and the baptismal font would form the exact center. The number eight can be interpreted in different ways. "The eighth day is the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. With the resurrection the new creation of the world begins, a radical change - something new begins from the old," explains Pastor Eyrich. "In the past it was actually considered a scandal if a baptismal font was placed in the middle of the chancel," he adds. Baptismal fonts are usually located to the side or in a corner. In the past, an unbaptized person was not allowed to enter the chancel. The baptismal font in St. Michael's Church stands between the altar and the congregation and is an elegant work of art made of marble on a baluster base. The carved wooden lid is lavishly decorated with fruit ornaments and the initials of the donors. This elaborate lid can be pulled up using a pendulum pull. The pulpit is made of walnut and also features lavish carved fruit arrangements. Opposite the pulpit is the count's family box. On the south side of the nave there is an exile plaque. Exiles were Protestant religious refugees from the 16th to 18th centuries who were driven from their homeland. In the 17th century, many Protestant families from Arriach in Carinthia and from Styria came to Wain, the “promised land” that the free imperial city of Ulm made available to the refugees in 1650. (https://oberschwaben-welt.de/wain-und-die-erinnerung-an-bethlehem/)

Exiles in Wain (4): The most famous descendant of the Carinthian exiles is probably Conrad Dietrich Haßler, whose ancestor Pankratius Haßler appears in the baptismal registers since 1659 as a resident, shoemaker, day laborer and mercenary. Conrad Dietrich Haßler was a professor at the grammar school in Ulm, as a member of the Stuttgart state parliament he advocated the expansion of the railway line to Ulm, was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848 and, in addition to everything else, worked tirelessly for the continuation of the construction of the tower of the cathedral in his home town, which had been unfinished since the Middle Ages. Today, numerous descendants of the former exiles still live in Wain and Balzheim, and some of their names have also been preserved, e.g. Walcher, Schließer, Unterweger, Wipfler and Neuhauser. The "Lutheran sausages" are also well known, the recipe for which the Carinthians once brought with them. The town's own history is regularly commemorated in events lasting several days, commemorative publications and plays. The "Exulantentafel" in Wain's Michaelskirche, which depicts Abraham's exodus from Haran to Canaan and was donated by the Ulm city council in 1658, is always present. The newly created Wain village fountain also commemorates this chapter of its own history. Since 1972, Wain has had an official partnership with the Carinthian mountain farming community of Arriach, the place of origin of many of the exiles. (c) Burckhard Pichon (retired senior teacher): https://stadtarchiv.ulm.de/stadtarchiv/haus-der-stadtgeschichte-stadtarchiv-ulm/ulmer-geschichte-im-netz/migration/17-jahrhundert/exulanten-wain

Exiles in Wain (3): In this way, one of the brothers, who had meanwhile (1651) taken over the Oberer Fürbachhof, was able to earn off a loan of 30 guilders for the construction of a new house and the restoration of the barn. In moral matters, however, the council was less lenient: First of all, the brothers had to provide proof of their legitimate birth from their Styrian homeland. When it later emerged that Georg Walcher had been living with his wife for years without the blessing of the church, he was put in prison, had to swear an oath of allegiance (= promise not to seek revenge for the persecution and punishment of the offense) and promise to really marry his wife. He did this, and the sentence imposed was then forgiven. The council felt responsible for ensuring that its subjects led impeccable lives, in keeping with the thinking of the time: a competitor for the Fürbachhof had not been awarded the right because he and his wife were always cursing and swearing and "therefore could not have any luck or fortune". Another example among many is Christian Besserer, who was awarded a farm in Auttagershofen by the city of Ulm on March 26, 1651. As the farm had become "badly disintegrated and unbuilt" (Wainer Urbar) due to the war, he only had to pay 20 guilders in wages for it (while the previous farmer had had to pay 120 guilders in wages for it in 1617). In addition, because of the many fallow fields, he did not have to pay the full grain rent on the farm as usual, but only rent for the fields that were actually being cultivated. It is estimated that a total of around 300 religious refugees immigrated to Wain. In a list of residents from 1684, there are 66 Carinthian and Styrian names among 118 families, with an estimated total of at least 800 residents. The flourishing of the community is also reflected in the construction of a schoolhouse (1659), its extension (1668) and a new building that was built soon after. Since there is no entry about a school building in Wain in the register volume of the Ulm council minutes before 1652, it can be assumed that the construction of a school in the village of Wain was the work of the newcomers, who - in the spirit of Martin Luther - were convinced that every Christian should be able to read and understand the Holy Scriptures themselves.

Exiles in Wain (2): It is no longer possible to determine how these Carinthian farmers were informed that they would be welcome in the Ulm domain of Wain. However, the entry for the Carinthian origins of the family of the person being baptized and his godfather can be found in the Wain baptismal register for the year 1646. They may have maintained the connection to their old homeland and passed on a corresponding note. The emigrants were allowed to keep their assets, except for the usual "departure" (= giving up the feudal relationship) of 10%, but had to sell their farms well below their value due to the short time and the oversupply. In addition to wealthy and less wealthy farmers, poor people also dared to make a new start in a foreign country: maids, farmhands, servants, shepherds and even beggars. The oldest emigrant may well have been the old man who died in Wain in 1662 at the age of 95. The communion registers record five communicants from Carinthia for the first time at Pentecost 1651. On July 20, 1651, the first couple from Afritz in Carinthia married. The farmers from the Habsburgs became vassals of the imperial city of Ulm when they moved to Wain. The Ulm city authorities did their best to support them in their settlement, especially since the city was dependent on the energetic efforts of the new immigrants to supply the wood that was so urgently needed for its ships, the rafts. As early as August 1, 1649, the two brothers Philipp and Georg Walcher, who came from Styria - ancestors of a branch of the numerous Walchers who still live in the area today - had purchased the farm in Dürach for just 25 guilders. Five of these guilders were payable immediately, the rest was deferred in four further annual installments. The following year, they were granted a deferred payment of the due rent (=the payment to the feudal lord) until the next harvest. The Wainer bailiff expressly confirmed to the two brothers that they had repaired the farm well. The council was then prepared to allow them, at their request, to earn additional wages because of their food situation: namely, felling 25 - 30 fathoms of wood and transporting it downstream to Ulm.

Exiles in Wain (1): Shortly after the Thirty Years' War, many Protestants had to leave their Habsburg-Catholic villages in Carinthia and Styria and found a new home in the Wain dominion, which has belonged to the Imperial City of Ulm since 1571 and has been Protestant ever since. Many of their descendants still live in Wain and neighboring Balzheim today, and the memory of their former origins is still very much alive. Shortly before the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, in 1617, the communion lists of the Wain parish still recorded 337 participants. But the war hit the Wain dominion hard, especially in the 1930s. The imperial troops camped in the area several times and destroyed the imperial city of Ulm in particular. During these times, the Wain residents sought safety within the Ulm city walls. There, many residents of Wain fell victim to the plague, which killed over 15,000 people in nine months, mainly refugees from the countryside. In 1637 and 1638, only 3 children were born in Wain, compared to 39 in 1630, and on the occasion of the "Peace Festival" in 1650, only 96 people were counted as participants in Holy Communion. This was the entire population except for one, as is expressly noted. In the course of the 16th century, many residents of the Austrian-Habsburg hereditary lands had turned to the teachings of Martin Luther. But although the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 had stipulated that the inhabitants of the areas that had been Protestant on January 1, 1624 could remain true to their faith, the Habsburgs had expressly stipulated that this provision should not apply in their hereditary lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. On January 28, 1651, the residents of the Carinthian county of Ortenburg were informed by the governor in Afritz that they had four weeks to "commit to the Holy Religion through real priests and communion or to quit and vacate the country within that time." Most of them left their Carinthian homeland during the course of the same year. Many of these names, recorded in an extensive log book, can be found shortly afterwards in the books of the Wain parish. (https://stadtarchiv.ulm.de/stadtarchiv/haus-der-stadtgeschichte-stadtarchiv-ulm/ulmer-geschichte-im-netz/migration/17-jahrhundert/exulanten-wain)

Exiles' fountain in Wain: Central village fountain between the community center and the town hall, opposite the rectory and near St. Michael's Church. The settlement of Protestant exiles from Carinthia and Styria after the devastation of the Thirty Years' War had a great impact on Wain. The Exiles' fountain was donated for this occasion, which, in its contemporary design language, commemorates the settlement of Protestant Christians. (https://biberach.city-map.de/02013800/) The basic shape of the fountain is an octagon, based on the choir area of the neighboring St. Martin's Church. The green Tauernstein is in the middle of the octagon and comes from Carinthia. The stone symbolizes a green island. Until the end of the Second World War, Wain was a Protestant island in the otherwise Catholic surrounding area. The woman is pulling a ladder cart, symbolizing the escape, in which only the bare essentials could be taken with her. The piled-up plates symbolize variations of how worries can be dealt with. The happy-looking boy is meant to remind us that children and young people often react carefree and with curiosity to new territory. (https://oberschwaben-welt.de/wain-und-die-erinnerung-an-bethlehem/)