Until the end of the 17th century, Rastatt held little influence, but after its destruction by the French in 1689, it was rebuilt on a larger scale by Louis William, Margrave of Baden, the Imperial General in the Great Turkish War known popularly as Türkenlouis.
The Baden revolution of 1849 began with a mutiny of soldiers at Rastatt in May 1849 under Ludwik Mieroslawski and Gustav Struve, and ended there a few weeks later with the capture of the town by the Prussians. (See The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states and History of Baden.) For some years, Rastatt was one of the strongest fortresses of the German empire, but its fortifications were dismantled in 1890.
In the same year, the town's railway station was relocated closer to the centre of Rastatt, from a location formerly outside the town walls, in what is now an industrial area.
Between 1946 and 1954, about twenty major criminal proceedings (known as the Rastatt Trials) for crimes against foreign workers and prisoners in smaller camps in the National Socialist camp system in south-west Germany took place in front of the French Military Administration's Tribunal Général on the basis of Control Council Law No. 10, along with more than 2000 defendants.
In 1992, a new Mercedes-Benz car factory started production in Rastatt.[4]
Local attractions
Rastatt and the surrounding area is home to a variety of historical buildings, includes palaces and castles such as Schloss Rastatt and Schloss Favorite. It lies in the vicinity of the Black Forest and the French border.
^"Frank" . The American Cyclopædia. Vol. VII. 1879. pp. 428–429, see page 429. ....by his son. II. Joseph, a German physician....born at Rastadt, Dec. 23, 1771....