A brief history of the town of Lahr

Schächtelistadt, printer's town, garrison town - Lahr has been given many epithets in its varied history. Founded in the 13th century, worn down and destroyed in the numerous wars of the 17th century, the town on the edge of the Black Forest experienced a brilliant rise as one of Baden's most important trading towns. The very early industrialisation brought the world export products such as the Lahr Limping Messenger, snuff from Lotzbeck and the legendary cigarette brands Roth-Händle and Reval. After the Second World War, first a French, then a large Canadian military garrison was established here, with over 10,000 Canadian citizens at the end. The departure of the Canadians after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s brought renewed change to the town, calling again for all the virtues that the people of Lahr had developed over the past centuries. In his 'Little History of the Town of Lahr', the Lahr town historian recounts this eventful biography of a small town in Baden, in which the people of Lahr were sometimes objects of circumstance, sometimes subjects of their own fate.