Konstanz, city, southwestern Germany, in Baden-Württemberg, on the Rhine River, at its exit from the Bodensee, at the Swiss border. It is a tourist and manufacturing center; products include textiles, carpets, and chemicals. Two old city gates mark the remains of its ancient fortifications. The cathedral, founded in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 15th, has fine hand-carved oak portals and choir stalls. It was there that the religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus) was sentenced to be burned at the stake. Notable secular buildings include the Kaufhaus, containing the hall in which the conclave of cardinals met to elect a pope at the time of the Council of Constance, in 1417; the Rosgarten, the former guildhall of the butchers, now housing a museum; and the Barbarossa Inn, where Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, known as Frederick Barbarossa, signed a treaty with the cities of the Lombard League in 1183. The University of Konstanz (1966) is here.
Called Constantia by the Romans, the city was known as early as the 3rd century AD. In 570 it was made the seat of a bishopric, which existed as one of the most powerful in Germany until its suppression in 1821. In 780 Konstanz was given municipal rights and in 1192 was made a free imperial city. Because it had joined the Schmalkaldic League, the city was deprived of its imperial privileges in 1548 and was presented to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, later Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. In 1805 Konstanz passed to Baden. Population (1997) 75,983.
