The Jesuit father and people's missionary Philipp Jeningen came to
Ellwangen in 1680 and became the close adviser and friend of the Prince
Provost Johann Christoph IV Adelmann of Adelsmannfelden.
His goal of adorning Schönenberg mountain above the town of Ellwangen
with a large pilgrimage church, initially failed due to a lack of money.
When he visited the Prince Provost at his residence on 14 September
1681 a bolt of lightning struck the palace. The fire caused by the
lightning bolt threatened to spread to the entire town. In this
situation the father wrung the promise from the prince that, if the
town were spared, he would have a church erected on Schönenberg
mountain. The town remained untouched by the fire and the resolved that
the church be built.
Especially in the age of the Prince Provosts Johann Christoph I of
Westerstetten (1603-1613) and Johann Christoph II of Freyberg and
Eisenberg (1613-1620), so-called witches were also charged in Ellwangen
of renouncing God and the saints, carrying on illicit acts with the
devil and being the cause of epidemics and storms. The accused had to
accuse themselves of these supposed offences and confessions while
being tortured. The resulting verdict designated burning alive in many
cases. The prince provosts usually converted this punishment to death
by the sword or hanging.
Between 1588 and 1627 a total of 350 women and 100 men from the town of
Ellwangen and the surrounding villages of the prince provost's
jurisdiction lost their lives.
The canon Anton Albert of Freiberg lived at Oberamtsstraße 2, not far
from the Collegiate Church (Stiftskirche). His house, a three-story
hip-roof building with a interior appointments remodeled in the Baroque
style, offered him pleasant living comfort. Today only a slab affixed
to the northern transept wall of the Collegiate Church serves as a
reminder of the Capitulary. Its inscription reads:
"This stone immortalizes/the everlasting memory (…) of the reverend
lord highly esteemed by us, Mister Anton Albert/Baron of Freiberg (…)
true privy councilor and governor etc./after his honorable remains were
rescued from time,/he watches for eternity over this temple, in which
he is to be honored, and is hardly to be emulated (…) a very famous
father to the poor (…). Had he not died, it would be hard to believe
that he were mortal (…)"
King Jérôme Napoleon of Westphalia, the youngest brother of Bonapart,
and the King's daughter Katharina of Württemberg resided in 1815 and
1816 in Ellwangen Palace. They moved into the west wing and used the
private rooms of the former prince provost. Jérôme converted a
connecting room between the east and the west wing into a billiard
room. Canapés, sofas und divans, mainly brought in from the palace in
Mergentheim, added to the existing furnishings in Ellwangen.
The royal family was attended by a royal retinue comparable to that in
the age of the prince provosts. Forty-four persons, who included
chambermaids, wardrobe carriers and coachmen cared for and supplied the
royal family.
Ellwangen's silhouette had so greatly appealed to the movie director Helmut Weiss in 1944 that he decided to include it in his famous film "Die Feuerzangenbowle". When the actor Heinz Rühmann cast his gaze out the window of the chemistry classroom in his brilliant roles as the pupil Hans Pfeiffer with three "fs" and as Professor Schnauz, then he was looking at the town of Ellwanger with the palace up on the rise above it. During shooting of what has meanwhile become a German cult film, a large panorama photo was glued to the windows of the classroom.