WISSEMBOURG or WEISSENBURG, a town of France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Bas-Rhin, on the Lauter, at the foot of the eastern slope of the Vosges mts., 42 m. N.E. of Strasbourg by the railway Basle-Strasbourg-Mannheim. Pop. (1930) Wissembourg grew up round a Benedictine abbey which was founded in the 7th century by Dagobert II. and became the seat of a famous school. Here Otfrid, who was a native of the district, completed (c. 868) his Old High German
Gospel book. (See GERMAN LITERATURE.) The town became a free imperial city in 1305. It has been the scene of two memorable battles. In Oct. 1793 the Prussians and Saxons under the Austrian general Wurmser stormed the "Weis sembourg Lines." On Aug. 4, 187o, the Germans, under the crown prince of Prussia, gained here the first victory of the Franco German War (q.v.).