HAGENAU  , a

town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, situated in the middle of the Hagenau Forest, on the Moder, and on the railway from Strassburg to Weissenburg, 10 m . N.N.E. of the former city . Pop . (1905), 18,500 . It has .two Evangelical and two ancient Catholic churches (one dating from the 12th, the other from the 13th century), a gymnasium, a public library, a hospital, and a theatre . The principal industries are wool and cotton spinning, and the manufacture of porcelain, earthenware, boots, soap, oil, sparkling wines and beer . There is also considerable trade in hops and' vegetables . Hagenau is an important military centre and has a large garrison, including three artillery battalions . Hagenau dates from the beginning of the 12th century, and owes its origin to the erection of a hunting lodge by the dukes of Swabia . The emperor Frederick I. surrounded it with walls and gave it town rights in 1154 . Oh the site of the hunting lodge he founded an imperial palace, in which were preserved the jewelled imperial crown, sceptre, imperial globe, and sword of Charlemagne . Subsequently it became the seat of the Landvogt of Hagenau, the imperial advocatus in Lower Alsace .

Richard of Cornwall, king of the Romans, made it an imperial city in 1257 . In 1648 it came into the possession of France, and in 1673 Louis NIV. caused the fortifications to be razed . In 1675 it was captured by imperial troops, but in 1677 it was retaken by the French and nearly all destroyed by fire . In 1871 it fell, with the rest of Alsace-Lorraine, into the possession of Germany .