8th battalion of the US Air Force bombed the automobile factory complex. Another battalion of 139 B-24 bombers bombed the area a second time on 3 October. The town and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war, and was completed with the construction of Gaggenau's town hall in 1958. In 1969, in response to an effort to aggregate and consolidate municipal governments into districts of 20,000 or more, the state government of Baden-Württemberg approved a petition by the town of Gaggenau to annex six of its surrounding communities, thereby doubling Gaggenau's population and increasing its area fivefold. Among the areas annexed was the former municipality of Rotenfels and the large swath of forest that ran along the Murg River between the two municipalities. The annexations were performed over a period of six years. Annexations The following communities were annexed into the town of Gaggenau on the following dates. They were all administered under the office or district of Rastatt: 1935: Ottenau January 1, 1970: Bad Rotenfels, with the hamlet of Winkel April 1, 1970: Selbach September 1, 1971: Freiolsheim with the hamlet of Moosbronn and the village of Mittelberg April 1, 1972: Oberweier with the villages of Upper and Lower Weier April 1, 1973: Sulzbach January 1, 1975: Hörden and Michelbach Bad Rotenfels, Gaggenau and Ottenau together were combined into a single administrative "village" in accordance with the Municipal Code of Baden-Württemberg. Population development Population figures for the respective territorial status. The figures are census results (¹) or official updates of the respective statistical offices (only primary residences): ¹ Census results Religion Gaggenau belonged to the Diocese of Speyer and was assigned to the Kuppenheim District under that Diocese. The Reformation arrived in 1555, and over the next three and a half centuries, under a variety of rulers, the majority denomination of Gaggenau changed six times between Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran (Protestant) before finally settling to become a Catholic majority. Until 1891, the only Catholic parish church for the entire region was the St. Lawrence parish church in Rotenfels. The present church dates from the Baroque era in the 17th century, with the interior dating from the 18th century. In 1891, the St. Wendelin chapel was consecrated in Gaggenau. Gaggenau received its own parish church of St. Joseph in 1899. The Catholic churches in the other districts of Gaggenau date to earlier times. All of the area parishes came under