Friedrichshafen was established in 1811 as part of the new Kingdom of W�rttemberg, an ally of France during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named for King Frederick I of W�rttemberg, who privileged it as a free port and transshipment point for the kingdom's Swiss trade. Friedrichshafen was created from the former city of Buchhorn, whose coat of arms it adopted. The new city also incorporated the former village of Hofen, whose monastery was refurbished to serve as the summer residence of the W�rttemberger kings.
King William I continued improving the city, including the purchase of the steamship Wilhelm. Ministers and senior officials built villas around the royal castle, and many foreign tourists visited the city as well, including Tsar Alexander II of Russia. The first track laid by the Royal W�rttemberg State Railways connected the port to Ravensburg in 1847. Heilbronn was connected in 1850, and a ferry to Romanshorn, Switzerland, began operating in 1869. Despite their previous opposition to Prussia, under the federal structure of the German Empire, W�rttemberg and Friedrichshafen continued to enjoy some special privileges following their incorporation into Germany following the Franco-Prussian War.
Ferdinand von Zeppelin established his famous dirigible factory at the end of the 19th century. The 128m-long LZ1 rose from its mooring on July 2, 1900. Other aviation companies, including Maybach, also arose in Friedrichshafen to help service the industry, which received a major impetus from the First World War. Following the Treaty of Versailles, the Kingdom of W�rttemberg was dissolved but the deposed royal family continued in their possession of their castle in Friedrichshafen, despite a workers' revolution there in November, 1918.
In the aftermath of the war, Maybach and many other aviation companies turned to automobile construction, while Claudius Dornier purchased Theodor Kober's failed Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen and established Dornier
