Bietigheim-Bissingen

Bietigheim-Bissingen ( or ; locally: Biedge-Bissenge) is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz and the river Metter, close to its confluence with the Neckar, about 19 km north of Stuttgart, and 20 km south of Heilbronn.

==History== thumb|left|Postcard of the Bietigheim "Old Gate", 1900 The name is first recorded in 789 in Medieval Latin as Budic-heim, although settlements that benefitted from the favorable location by a natural ford indicate there were people likely much earlier. The Collegium Matisonensium, a community of Roman estate owners on the banks of the Metter River, was documented until the 3rd century AD. Burial grounds from the 5th to 7th centuries also point to settlements of the Alamanni in what is now the town's district. Towards the end of the 18th century Bietigheim saw during the beginning of the industrialisation an improvement of the living conditions and an increase in population. The 1806 furnished Oberamt Bietigheim was in 1810, however, dissolved again: the city and its official municipalities were integrated in the Oberamt Besigheim. After Bietigheim was connected mid-19th century to the railway network and the city experienced a real breakthrough and a sustained recovery. At the end of the 19th century there were 3,800 inhabitants. In 1938, Bietigheim came to the new Ludwigsburg (district). A branch of the Nazi Party was in Bietigheim since 1928. Until 1933, this was with 51 members relatively small. After the Nazi seizure of power there were 181 new entrants. By the end of the Nazi regime finally were 939 party members in Bietigheim, representing 10.4 percent of the total population in 1945.