Blumberg is a municipality situated in the Schwarzwald-Baar region of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Nineteen kilometres south of Donaueschingen, it lies between the southern edge of the Schwarzwald, the Black Forest, the border with Switzerland’s Canton of Schaffhausen, and Lake Constance. History The town of Blumberg is in the region where the ancient source for the Danube is situated, the former glacial valley between Eichberg and Buchberg, and its official origins date from the 13th Century with the Masters of Blumberg first mentioned in 1260. However one of the oldest settlements, the Steppacher Hof, was already documented in the 12th century, and the town itself is believed to have originated long before that time as archaeological finds have shown the area was inhabited during the Stone Age. The Wutach is a 90km long tributary of the River Rhine that changes name twice as it passes through the southern Black Forest, and Blumberg was established in the Wutach valley close to the ancient Wutachschlucht. The spectacular 'Wutach Gorge', now a nature reserve and conservation area known as the Grand-Canyon des Schwarzwaldes. Built above the town in the Middle Ages Blumberg castle contributed significantly towards the development of the surrounding settlements, and from 1559, while ruled by the princely Fuerstenberg family who from 1283 until 2004 also were owners of a brewery, Blumberg had grown enough in importance to be elevated from Städtle (town) to a 'city'. During the Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648, the castle was destroyed but after 1648, thanks to its Doggererz iron ore reserves, the town experienced a short lived expansion. Doggererz mine was reopened and the ore was extracted once again from 1934 to 1942, the time of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, Nazi Germany. In Nazi Germany itself and throughout German-occupied Europe the use of Forced labour under German rule during World War II was widespread, and Blumberg has a memorial honoring these workers as also in Doggererz AG Zwangsarbeiter were used as miners. The population in what had been until then a predominantly agricultural town increased dramatically. By 1945 it had risen from the 700 of 1935 to 7,000. After World War II in 1945 the town and surrounding region were occupied by French forces as part of South Baden, as the previous states of Baden and Württemberg had been divided into US and French occupation zones. Blumberg expanded during the 1950s as various industrial works became