WEINSBERG  , a small

town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg, pleasantly situated on the Sulm, 5 M . E. from Heilbronn by the railway to Crailsheim . Pop . (1905) 3097 . It has an ancient Romanesque church, a monument to the re-former Oecolampadius (q.v.), and a school of viticulture, which is the chief occupation of the inhabitants . On the Schlossberg above the town lie the ruins of the castle of Weibertreu, and atits foot is the house once inhabited by Justinus Kerner (q.v.), with a public garden and a monument to the poet . The German king Conrad III. defeated Count Well VI. of Bavaria near Weinsberg in December 1140, and took the town, which later became a free imperial city . In 1331 it joined the league of the Swabian cities, but was taken by the nobles in 1440 and sold to the elector palatine, thus losing its liberties . It was burnt in 1525 as a punishment for the atrocities committed by the revolted peasants . The famous legend of Weibertreu (" women's faithfulness "), immortalized in a ballad by Chamisso, is connected with the siege of 1140, although the story is told of other places . It is said that Conrad III. allowed the women to leave the town with whatever they could carry, where-upon they came out with their husbands on their backs . See Bernheim, " Die Sage von den treuen Weibern zu Weinsberg " (in the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. xv., Gottingen, 1875) ; Merk, Geschichte der Stadt Weinsberg and ihrer Burg Weibertreu (Heilbronn, i88o) .