1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gebweiler

GEBWEILER (Fr. Guebwiller), a town of Germany in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, at the foot of the Vosges, on the Lauch, 13 m. S. of Colmar, on the railway Bollweiler-Lautenbach. Pop. (1905) 13,259. Among the principal buildings are the Roman Catholic church of St Leodgar, dating from the 12th century, the Evangelical church, the synagogue, the town-house, and the old Dominican convent now used as a market and concert hall. The chief industries are spinning and dyeing, and the manufacture of cloth and of machinery; quarrying is carried on and the town is celebrated for its white wines.

Gebweiler is mentioned as early as 774. It belonged to the religious foundation of Murbach, and in 1759 the abbots chose it for their residence. In 1789, at the outbreak of the Revolution, the monastic buildings were laid in ruins, and, though the archives were rescued and removed to Colmar, the library perished.