Gengenbach may look small but it is not a village. It is a town, and the inhabitants are proud of their history as a Free Imperial City. The town developed from a settlement by the abbey since the early middle ages. Around 1350/60 it gained the status as Reichsstadt and independence from the abbey. The boundaries of this small settlement contained two independent states of the Holy Roman Empire, both with no other governor but the emperor: the imperial abbey on the one hand, the city on the other. Gengenbach was not the smallest imperial city, though, this trophy goes to nearby Zell am Harmersbach.