{ "id": "epxmr00290", "slug": "nersingen", "title": "Nersingen", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "places", "label": "Places and geography", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places" }, { "id": "places.settlements", "label": "Settlements and neighborhoods", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.settlements" }, { "id": "places.settlements.urban", "label": "Cities and towns", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.settlements.urban" }, { "id": "places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe", "label": "Cities, towns, and villages of Western, Northern, and Southern Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe" }, { "id": "places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe.municipalities-of-germany", "label": "Municipalities of Germany", "api_url": 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"https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe.municipalities-of-germany" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2021.places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe.municipalities-of-germany.cities-in-southern-germany", "label": "Cities in southern Germany", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2021.places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe.municipalities-of-germany.cities-in-southern-germany" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Nersingen is a municipality in the district of Neu-Ulm in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, on the Leibi stream near the Danube, first recorded in 1143 and formed in the 1970s by merging four neighboring villages.", "snippet": "Nersingen is a municipality in the district of Neu-Ulm in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, on the Leibi stream near the Danube, first recorded in 1143 and formed in the 1970s by merging four neighboring villages.", "node": "places.settlements.urban.places.settlements.urban.western_southern_europe.municipalities-of-germany.cities-in-southern-germany", "markdown": "# Nersingen\n\n**Nersingen** is a municipality in the district of Neu-Ulm in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, on the Leibi stream near the Danube. Its territory contains a Roman fortlet of the early Danube frontier, and the modern municipality was formed in the 1970s by merging Nersingen with Leibi, Oberfahlheim, Straß, and Unterfahlheim.\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| First record | 1143, in a charter of Bishop Walther of Augsburg[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html) |\n| Name origin | Personal name \"Norso\" plus the suffix -ingen; the oldest mentions give the form \"Norsingen\"[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html) |\n| Municipal mergers | Leibi incorporated 1 January 1971; Oberfahlheim, Straß, and Unterfahlheim joined 1 May 1978[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html) |\n| Key publication | Michael Mackensen, *Frühkaiserzeitliche Kleinkastelle bei Nersingen und Burlafingen an der oberen Donau* (Munich, 1987)[2](https://publikationen.badw.de/de/025897901) |\n\n## Name and early settlement\n\nThe name Nersingen combines the personal name \"Norso\" with the suffix -ingen, which points to Alemannic-Frankish settlement; in the oldest records the place appears as \"Norsingen\"[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html). After the Romans were driven from the region by the Alemanni, the partly depopulated land was resettled, and in Nersingen this happened in the 7th century AD. The evidence is an Alemannic-Frankish row-grave field (Reihengräberfeld) found under a property in the Dorfstraße, dated with the help of grave goods[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html).\n\n**Prehistoric finds.** Objects recovered around Nersingen have often come from silted-up oxbow channels of the Danube, into which they entered over the millennia for various reasons. A late [Bronze Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/bronze-age) full-hilted sword of the Rixheim type was found at Nersingen-Leibi, and further swords from the same find region belong to the Urnfield-period grip-tongue swords.\n\n## The Roman fortlet\n\nIt belongs to the tiberian-claudian Danube line, an early Roman border fortification along the river, and stood on the territory of the present municipality in the Bavarian district of Neu-Ulm.\n\n**Location.** The fort lies about 2.1 kilometers north of the Danube South Road (Donausüdstraße), on a flood-free edge of the low terrace above the Leibi, a 21.9-kilometer-long southern tributary of the Danube.\n\n**Discovery and excavation.** The fort was first identified in June 1982 by the aerial archaeologist Otto Braasch, who at first took the outline for a late Roman watchtower (burgus). The dig revealed, as a surprise, not a late Roman burgus but a Roman fortlet of the mid-1st century of a type previously unknown on the Danube line[3](https://publikationen.badw.de/en/025897901/025897901.pdf).\n\n**Character of the garrison.** The fort measured 22.2 m × 25.2 m, about 780 m², in wood-earth construction, and was probably garrisoned by an auxiliary vexillation.\n\n## Relation to Burlafingen and the Danube frontier\n\nThe Nersingen fort was built around 40 AD together with the neighboring small fort at [Burlafingen](https://www.edgepedia.org/burlafingen), northwest of the village of Burlafingen, during the extension of the Danube border. The building of the forts may be connected with the use of the Danube as a traffic route or with the roughly contemporary construction of the Roman South Danube road, which runs from [Unterkirchberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/unterkirchberg) to Günzburg about 4 km south of the Burlafingen fort[4](https://stadtgeschichte.neu-ulm.de/neue-geschichtsstele-zum-roemischen-kleinkastell-burlafingen/).\n\nThe two sites differed in lifespan.\n\nThe excavation results were published in Michael Mackensen's monograph *Frühkaiserzeitliche Kleinkastelle bei Nersingen und Burlafingen an der oberen Donau* (Munich, 1987), volume 41 of the Münchner Beiträge zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 344 pages with contributions by Angela von den Driesch and others[2](https://publikationen.badw.de/de/025897901).\n\n## Medieval and modern history\n\nNersingen is first documented in 1143 in a charter of Bishop Walther of Augsburg[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html).\n\n**Two settlements.** The village probably grew together from two parts, one of which, Auheim, lay north of the present municipality. Auheim's settlers were displaced in the 12th to 14th centuries by a shift in the course of the Danube or by frequent floods and settled on the higher ground of Nersingen. The two-part field system shows the union: the original field area south of the village and Auheim's fields to the north. The rights of the parish church of St. Stephanus at Auheim are thought to have passed to the filial church at Nersingen; the Nersingen church of St. Nikolaus, for example, held the otherwise seigneurial right of fishing in the Danube[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html).\n\n**Municipal formation.** On 14 June 1970 eligible voters approved the merger of the municipalities of Nersingen and Leibi, and Leibi's incorporation took effect on 1 January 1971 by decision of the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior. In the municipal territorial reform, the communities of Oberfahlheim, Straß, and Unterfahlheim were incorporated into the unified municipality of Nersingen on 1 May 1978[1](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Ortsteil Nersingen, Zahlen & Fakten, Gemeinde Nersingen](https://www.nersingen.de/rathaus/zahlen-fakten/ortsteil-nersingen_165.html)\n2. [Mackensen, Michael: Frühkaiserzeitliche Kleinkastelle bei Nersingen und Burlafingen an der oberen Donau. München 1987, BAdW publication record](https://publikationen.badw.de/de/025897901)\n3. [Mackensen 1987, full text PDF, Bavarian Academy of Sciences](https://publikationen.badw.de/en/025897901/025897901.pdf)\n4. [Neue Geschichtsstele zum römischen Kleinkastell Burlafingen, Stadtgeschichte Neu-Ulm (2021)](https://stadtgeschichte.neu-ulm.de/neue-geschichtsstele-zum-roemischen-kleinkastell-burlafingen/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Settlements and neighborhoods › Cities and towns › Cities, towns, and villages of Western, Northern, and Southern Europe › Municipalities of Germany › Cities in southern Germany*\n\n*Initially written Oct 20, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Nersingen\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Nersingen](https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen](https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Nersingen\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/nersingen. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Nersingen is a municipality in the district of Neu-Ulm in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, on the Leibi stream near the Danube, first recorded in 1143 and formed in the 1970s by merging four neighboring villages." }