The first certified record of Oberursel dates back to April 26th 791. On this day - as certified by the Lorsch monastery ("Lorscher Codex") - land of the region "Ursella et Steorstat" was handed over to Lorsch monastery by the knight Suicger. About 90 years later the settlement "Ursella" has again been mentioned: a document certifies that “Ludwig the German” gave away a "monasterium ad ursellam" (= the preceeding building of present day St. Ursula church) to the Salvatorstift in Frankfurt am Main.
Over time a small trading town emerges from the scattered settlements of the early middle ages, and in 1444 it was awarded with town status. From this time on the town developed into a significant commercial area with a typical medieval townscape. The first latin school was founded in 1522, followed by the first printing plant for books a few decades later. It is due to the vast destruction in the Thirty Years´ War and the reconstruction afterwards that the majority of present day houses have been built after 1650. After the reconstruction a new wave of trade and commerce emerges.
While the economy had previously been dominated by the iron an textile industry, after the Thirty Years´ War they´ve been replaced by grinding and oil mills and tanneries.
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"The Ursseler Creek, the source, the path and the end "
from the second part of Lersner's Chronicle, Frankfurt 1734
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