Freiburg im Breisgau

Germany

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city at the southwestern edge of the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded by the dukes of Zähringen in 1120, it placed itself under Habsburg protection in 1368. Its university, founded in 1457, is one of the oldest in Germany, and its Gothic Minster was finished by 1513. Erasmus moved there after Basel accepted the Reformation and lived there for several years. Since the 1820s the city has been the seat of a Catholic archdiocese, and the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner was born there in 1904 and studied philosophy at the university. Much of the old centre was destroyed in an air raid in November 1944 and was rebuilt on its medieval plan.