village is formed by the Eichbach, which disappears halfway through in a sinkhole. The Sulzbach flows through a wide valley southeast of the village. After being straightened during the land consolidation in the 1970s, it was renaturalised at the end of the 1980s. This measure was awarded the cultural landscape prize of the Swabian Heritage Society in 1991. Siegelhausen, a small hamlet with about 30 inhabitants, is located about five kilometres southeast of the core town off the road between Affalterbach and Hochdorf in the valley of the Strombach, which is also called the Apfelbach. History Marbach am Neckar was founded by the Franks in the 8th century AD between the Duchies of Swabia and Franconia and the Prince-Bishoprics of Speyer and Constance. Marbach received its town rights in 1009 from Walter Marktrecht, Bishop of Speyer. Around the mid-13th century, those rights were reaffirmed by the Dukes of Teck. In 1302, the Dukes of Teck sold Marbach to the County of Württemberg, who made the city the seat of its own administrative district later in the 14th century and then an Oberamt, , in 1758. That Oberamt was dramatically enlarged on 18 March 1806, but then dissolved entirely in 1938. Marbach was subsequently assigned to a new district, Landkreis Ludwigsburg. On 1 July 1972, Marbach incorporated the town of Rielingshausen. Geography The city (Stadt) of Marbach am Neckar covers of the district of Ludwigsburg in a total of four separate exclaves. Marbach is, according to government urban planning, part of the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region. Marbach's municipal areas are physically located in the Neckar, with the exception of its easternmost exclave, which lies in the Swabian-Franconian Forest. The lowest elevation above sea level in the municipal area, Normalnull (NN), is found where the Neckar flows out of Marbach and into Benningen am Neckar. The highest elevation, , is found in the east, at the top of the Bülzberg. Politics Marbach has two boroughs (Ortsteile) – Marbach am Neckar and Rielingshausen – and three villages: Hinterbirkenhof, Hörnle, Siegelhausen. Also in Marbach's municipal area are the minor administrative units of Dampfkraftwerk, Eichgraben, and Häldenmühle, and the abandoned villages of Hegnachsiedel, Kaisersberg, and Sigebotesbuch. Sister cities Marbach am Neckar is twinned with: L'Isle-Adam, Val-d'Oise, France, since 1987 Washington, Missouri, United States, since 1990 Tongling, Anhui, People's Republic of China, since 2005 Coat of arms Marbach am Neckar's coat of arms displays its field, gold