of Eberstein ordered to uproot the wooded and swampy valley and to found new settlements. By 1200 the route Loffenau–Scheuern–Gernsbach–Staufenberg was established. In an ebersteinian inheritance document Gernsbach is first mentioned in written form in 1219 as ‘’Genrespach’’. At that time there was already a differentiation between a Marktdorf (a settlement which had the right to run a market) and a Kirchdorf (a settlement which had the right to build a church). Gernsbach (also called “Hof” –‘’a little settlement of farmers’’) was a Kirchdorf at that time, being located to the left of the Murg in the south of the Waldbach on the ebersteinian allodium. The local church was the preceding building of today’s St.-Jakobskirche. To the north of the Waldbach was a Marktdorf on the grounds of the Diocese of Speyer located on a spur, thus having an ideal location for the construction of a fortification. Sons and daughters of the town Ludwig Dill (1848-1940), ship and landscape painter Walther Eichrodt, (1890-1978), Protestant theologian Georg Ackermann (athlete) (born 1972), long jumper Other famous personalities in Gernsbach William IV of Eberstein (1497-1562), officially introduced the Reformation in the county of Eberstein in 1556 Karl Drais (1785-1851), studied forestry teacher and inventor, lived here in 1794 and started on July 28, 1817 from Gernsbach on his running machine to Baden-Baden (second two-wheel drive of history) Heinrich Funck (1853-1932), philologist and historian, director of the Higher Bürgerschule in Gernsbach Georg Menges (1888-1973), mayor of 1919-1933, local politician of Baden and Baden-Wuerttemberg Scipio Colombo (1910-2002), Italian baritone Heinz Schimmelpfennig (1919-2010), actor and radio playwright, known as Tatort - Commissioner Gerber Gallery References Rastatt (district) Baden