Rastatt

City in Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany, near the border with France, on the River Murg, 22 km west of Karlsruhe; population (2001 est) 45,900. Rastatt manufactures car parts, optical goods, televisions, and radios. The city has a rococo palace and several old churches. The Treaty of Rastatt was signed here in 1714 at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. The main industries located locally include engineering, solar panel construction, heating systems, and the automobile industry.

A settlement at the site was first mentioned in a document dated 1084. Rastatt gained its statute as a market town in 1404. Much of the town was destroyed in a fire in 1689. In 1700, it became the residence of the Duke of Baden-Baden and in 1844 the railway arrived in the area. In 1849 Rastatt was the chief stronghold of the Baden liberal nationalist revolutionaries, after the revolutions of 1848. The city was destroyed in fighting in World War I due its location on the front-line, and it fell to the French.