After the death of Margravine Matilda of Tuscany in 1115, the city began to constitute itself an independent commune, with a charter officially acknowledged by Margrave Welf VI in 1160.
Until the 1803 secularisation of Bavaria, Steingaden belonged to the Steingaden Abbey, established in 1147 by Welf VI, Margrave of Tuscany and Duke of Spoleto, and third son of Henry IX, Duke of Bavaria.
Dedicated to John the Baptist, the abbey was founded in 1147 as a Premonstratensian house by Welf VI, third son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria, and brother of Duke Henry the Proud.
Welf was an uncle of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, as Barbarossa's mother, Judith, was Welf's sister.
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Welf inherited the familial possessions in Swabia, including the counties of Altdorf and Ravensburg, while his eldest brother Henry the Proud received the duchies of Bavaria and Saxony and his elder brother Conrad entered the church.
House of Welf | Welf VI | Welf I, Duke of Bavaria | Welf VI, portrait in the ''Weingartener Stifterbüchlein'', ca. 1500 (Württembergische Landesbibliothek | Welf VII | Welf II, Duke of Bavaria | house of Welf | Elder House of Welf |
The abbey church was the place of burial of the founder, Welf VI, who died in 1191, and his son Welf VII, who predeceased his father in 1167.