RAVENSBURG

city, Baden-Wrttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. It lies along the Schussen River, just north of Lake Constance (Bodensee). Founded and chartered in the 12th century near the Guelphs' ancestral castle (where Henry the Lion was born) on the Veitsburg, it passed to the Hohenstaufens in 1180. A free city of the Holy Roman Empire from 1276 to 1802, it had a flourishing trading company in the 14th and 15th centuries. Parts of the city's old fortifications remain, including the wall tower Mehlsack (1350). The city's medieval buildings include the town hall, the weighing house, the parish church, and St. Jodok's Church. Textiles, paper, timber, and machinery are produced, and there is machine and textile manufacturing. Pop. (1989 est.) 44,146.