In 950 the weir system in today�s castle garden was constructed by the Count of Comburg-Rothenburg.
In 1070, The Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg, who also owned the village �Gebsattel�, built Rothenburg castle on the mountain top high above the River Tauber.
The Counts of the Comburg-Rothenburg dynasty died out in 1116. The last Count, Count Heinrich, willed all his belongings, including Gebsattel and Rothenburg, to the Comburg convent, but Emperor Heinrich V appointed instead his nephew Konrad von Hohenstaufen as successor to the Comburg-Rothenburg properties.
In 1142, Konrad von Hohenstaufen, who became Konrad III (1138�52) the Roman-German King, traded a part of the monastery Neum�nster in W�rzburg above the village Detwang and built the Stauffer-Castle Rothenburg on this cheaper land. He held court there and appointed officials called 'reeves' to act as caretakers.
In 1170 the city of Rothenburg was founded at the time of the building of Staufer Castle. The centre was the market place and St. James' Church (in German: the St. Jakob). The development of the oldest fortification can be seen: the old cellar/old moat and the milk market. Walls and towers were built in the 13th century. Preserved are the �White Tower� and the Markus Tower with the R�der Arch.
From 1194 to 1254, the representatives of the Staufer dynasty governed the area around Rothenburg. Around this time the Order of St. John and other orders were founded near St. James' Church and a Dominican nunnery (1258)
From 1241 to 1242, The Staufer Imperial tax statistics recorded the names of the Jews in Rothenburg. Rabbi Meir Ben Baruch of Rothenburg (died 1293, buried 1307 in Worms) had a great reputation as a jurist in Europe. His descendants include members of the dynastic family von Rothberg, noteworthy in that they were accorded noble status in the nineteenth century, becoming the hereditary Counts of Rothberg, later taking up residence in the city of Berlin
