47° 51′ 46″ N 07° 12′ 59″ E. The 1999 population was 523. Hartmannswiller is located between vineyards and orchards at the foot of Hartmannswillerkopf ("Old Armand"), its majestic protector. The village was mentioned for the first time in 1187 under the name of "HADMANSWILRE" when Pope Gregory VIII was confirmed in the Abbey of Lucelle in the village. Acquired then by the Abbey of Murbach, then by the bishopric of Strasbourg, Hartmannswiller became "the property" of Waldner for 100 grounds in 1331. In 1760 only Waldner indeed possessed the village. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648), as often in Alsace, depopulated and ruined the village. In 1782, an epidemic of plague claimed 82 victims in a few days. 60 men of the village died during The French Revolution and under Napoleon. During the First World War, Hartmannswiller, located close to the battlefield of Hartmannswillerkopf, was almost entirely destroyed by the artillery. The presence of a Jewish community within the village is certified when the chronicler Rouffachois Materne Berler mentions in the Book of Fiefs of the Bishopric of Strasbourg in 1355 that Berthold Waldner and his nephew have a garden and a home near the Jewish cemetery. According to Rabbi Ginsburger, this cemetery had to be used for Jews expelled from Mulhouse who had become established in the bailliage of Ensisheim. During the inventory of 1 October 1725 made after the death of Johann Geörg Cromer, provost of Hartmannswiller, Héléna Wexler, Jew of Hartmannswiller, and Jew Elias Bloch from Hartmannswiller are named as creditors. Other inventories of the 1700s and 1800s list more Jews. See http://judaisme.sdv.fr/synagog/hautrhin/g-p/hartmann.htm in French. During the inventory of the Jews in 1808, the Jewish community of Hartmannswiller had 62 members and in 1880 no more than 45 members with 25 in 1895; and in 1936 their number was 24 persons. Hartmannswiller's synagogue was located in High Street behind the ancient feed store. Later, it was moved to a brewery called "Branhisla". The synagogue is still mentioned in the book of deliberation of the Town council of 1905. After WWI, some members of the community came back, but after WWII, not one Jewish family returned to Hartmannswiller. http://www.cc-guebwiller.fr/communes/hartmannswiller.php has town information in French only. [January 2008]
CEMETERY: see Jungholz: 3 burials. Submitted by Mathilde A. Tagger from her book Printed Books on Jewish cemeteries in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem: an Annotated Bibliography. Jerusalem: The Israel Genealogical Society, 1997