Salt was distilled by the Celts at the site of Schw�bisch Hall as early as the fifth century. The first time it was mentioned in a forged document called "�hringer Stiftungsbrief" that dates in the final years of the 11th century. The village probably belonged first to the Counts of Comburg-Rothenburg and went from them to the Imperial house of Hohenstaufen (ca 1116). It was probably Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa who founded the imperial mint and started the coining of the so-called Heller. Hall flourished through the production of salt and coins. Since 1204 it has been called a town.
After the fall of the house of Hohenstaufen, Hall defended itself successfully against the claims of a noble family in the neighbourhood (the Schenken von Limpurg). The conflict was finally settled in 1280 by King Rudolph I of Habsburg; this allowed the undisturbed development into an Free Imperial City (Reichsstadt) of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian granted a constitution that settled internal conflicts (Erste Zwietracht) in 1340. After this, the city was governed by the inner council (Innerer Rat) which was composed by twelve noblemen, six "middle burghers" and eight craftsmen. The head of the council was the St�ttmeister (mayor). A second phase of internal conflicts 1510�12 (Zweite Zwietracht) brought the dominating role of the nobility to an end. The confrontation with the noble families was started by St�ttmeister Hermann B�schler, whose daughter Anna B�schler is the subject of a popular book by Harvard professor Steven Ozment ("The B�rgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a sixteenth-century German town"). The leading role was taken over by a group of families who turned into a new ruling class. Amongst them where the Bonh�ffers, the ancestors of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
From the 14th to the 16th centuries, Hall systematically acquired a large territory in the surrounding area, mostly from noble families and the Comburg monastery. The wealth of this
