Alemannia or Swabia is that part of southwestern Germany that came to be inhabited by the Germanic tribes of the Suevi and other Suevic Germanic groups who cammed t be called the Alemanni. The terms Suevi and Alemanni were used interchangeably even to the present.

The term Germanic refers to that branch of Indo-European speaking people who, at one time, shared a common language, culture, and belief, who over time branched out from the steppes of northwestern Asia into Europe. The Germanic branches of the Indo-Europeans were relative late comers on the scene in northern Europe; followed only by the Slavic peoples. Archeology places the earliest Germanic or proto-Germanic peoples in Northern Germany, the Jutland peninsula, and southern Scandinavia in north central Europe by 1500 BC. The Germanic peoples eventually, over many hundreds of years, spread out from this central region developing differing dialects of the same language and variations in there once common culture as they spread over a greater geographical area. Some modern Germanic peoples and languages are German, English, Dutch, Frisian, Flemish, Swiss, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Afrikaans, Faeroese, and Alamannic - the official language of Lichtenstein.

The Alemanni (literally “All-men” or “many peoples”) were a Germanic tribe who formed from a conglomeration of peoples from predominantly Suevic tribes, clans (Stammen), and families. Some of the known Suevic tribes are the Semnones, Hermanduri, Marcomanni, Juthungi, Bucinobanti, Lentienses, Quadi, and many other groups. The Suevi are an ancient and noble people. They are first recorded by a Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus in 98 AD. In his ethnographic work entitled ‘Germania’ he states: “I must now proceed to speak of the Suevians, who are not, like the Chattans and Tencterians, comprehended in a single people; but divided into several nations all bearing distinct names, though in general they are entitled Suevians, and occupy the larger central share of Germania. This people are remarkable for a peculiar custom, that of twisting their hair and binding it up in a knot. It is thus that the Suevians are distinguished from the other Germans, and of the free Suevians from their slaves. In other nations, whether from alliance of blood with the Suevians, or, as is usual, from imitation, this practice is also found, yet rarely, and never exceeds the years of youth. The Suevians, however, even when their hair is white through age, continue to raise it backwards in a manner stern and staring; and often tie it upon the top of their head only. That of their Princes, is more accurately disposed, and so far they study to appear agreeable and comely; but without any culpable intention. For by it, they mean not to make love or to incite it: they thus dress when proceeding to war, and deck their heads so as to add to their height and terror in the eyes of the enemy.”

He also states: “Of all the Suevians, the Semnones recount themselves to be the most ancient and most noble. The belief of their antiquity is confirmed by religious mysteries. At a stated time of the year, all the several people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in a wood; consecrated by… their forefathers, and by superstitious awe in times of old... And of all their superstition, this is the drift and tendency; that from this place the nation drew their origin, that here God, the supreme Governor of the world, resides, and that all things else whatsoever are subject to him and bound to obey him. The potent condition of the Semnones has increased their influence and authority, as they inhabit a hundred towns; and from the largeness of their community it comes, that they hold themselves for the head of the Suevians.”
These Suevic peoples coalesced together 200 years later, under the nomenclature “Alamanni” to form a geographic and military confederation for mutual protection against other Germanic tribes and neighboring barbarian groups, the aggressive machinations of the Roman Empire, and to expand their wealth and territory. The Alemanni were the Germanic tribe that during the Great Migration Age (circa 200 - 600 AD), came to inhabit and populate the lands of southwest Germany, western Austria, northern Switzerland, the Alsace region of eastern France, and Liechtenstein. The Suevic tribes made up the bulk of the new confederation of the Alemanni, and their name survives in the form of Swabia or Schwaben, a region of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany. A group of Seuvi migrated through France and over the Pyrenees to establish a kingdom in what is now northern Portugal; this kingdom lasted for nearly 200 years until they were in turn conquered by the Visigoths and absorbed by them.

This unification was also fostered by the culturo-religious belief of these diverse groups of having shared descent from common ancestral deities as mentioned above. Some of the important native gods of the Alemanni were common to all Germanic peoples. These Gods are best known to us through the Norse or “Viking” Sagas, though their Alemannic Althochdeutsch names survive; Ziu (Tyr/Tiw), Wotan (Odin), Fro Ing (Ingvi Freyr), and Donnar (Thor), and a plethora of others. These God's names still survived the coming of Christianity, and are still in every day use; they’re found in the days of the week. As with the English, Ziu survives as Ziestag (Tuesday), Woden as Wodanstag (Wednesday), and Donnar as Donnerstag (Thursday) etc. in Southwest Germany.

The Alemanni were first mentioned (by Casius Dio C.E. 213) as unsuccessfully assaulting the Romans between the Elbe and the Danube, some later settled (3rd cent.) in upper Italy. It was because of the Alemannic expeditions and attacks into Italy that the Romans built the great wall around their capital city of Rome. By the 5th century they pushed out the Romans of the region of Rhaetia (the area around Lake Constance, often called the ‘Swabian Sea’), and occupied the territories on both sides of the Rhine south of its junction with the Main (present Alsace, Baden, Württemberg, and NE Switzerland).

The word for Germans and Germany in many Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, etc.) derives from this large and formidable tribe. The Alemanni retained their tribal designation until well into the Middle-Ages. They fought under this nomenclature during the first and second Crusades.

Their westward expansion brought them into conflict with the Franks, whose king Clovis I defeated them in 496. In 505 he forced them to retire into Rhaetia, and in 536 they passed under Frankish rule and were nominally part of the Frankish kingdom. They remained autonomous from the Franks for the most part, and continued to rule themselves under powerful Dukes. The Franks were sending missionaries to minister to the Alemanni and by the late 7th century they had generally accepted Christianity.

The Alemanni again came into conflict with the Franks in the mid 8th century. Fed up by the Frankish army’s devastation being wrought upon their land and villages during their constant marches through Alemannic territory, the Alemanni rebelled. The Franks were attempting to subjugate the tribe of the Bajuari (Modern Bavarians) and so marched through their lands. They attacked the Frankish armies, and thwarted many Frankish victories over the Bavarians. In 744 C.E. an assembly was called by the Frankish king Carloman (Charlemagne’s uncle), and all the leading Dukes, chieftains, and headmen of the Alamanni were lured to ‘Thing’ at Cannstatt under the notion of peaceful negotiations. They were decieved and were surrounded, overwhelmed and slaughtered over a bloody three day period. At the end of the ‘massacre of Cannstatt’, the Franks had effectively eliminated Alamannic leadership. The Franks installed Frankish Dukes to rule over the Alemanni, and there after were effectively part of the Frankish Empire (soon to be known as the Holy Roman Empire in 801 under the Frankish King Charlemagne and the Christian pope of Rome).

Alemannia or better Swabia became one of the 6 basic ‘stem duchies’ that eventually became Germany in 1871. In 1079 the duchy was bestowed on the house of Hohenstaufen, which in 1138 also obtained the imperial title of Holy Roman Emperor. On the extinction (1268) of the dynasty, Swabia broke up into small temporal and ecclesiastic lordships and lost its political identity. The Swiss part became independent in 1291 and the Hapsburg territories in Alsace passed to France much later in 1648, but Breisgau and the other Hapsburg domains in South Baden remained Austrian until 1803-6, except from 1469 to 1477, when they were ruled by Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The rest of Swabia was held in large part by the counts (later dukes) of Württemberg, by the margraves of Baden-Durlach, by the landgraves of Fürstenberg, by the princes of Hohenzollern, by the bishops of Strasbourg, Konstanz (Constance), and Augsburg, by several powerful abbeys, and by a multitude of minor princes, counts, and knights. Most of the Swabian municipalities had obtained the status of free imperial cities (i.e., virtually independent republics) by 1300. Among them were Augsburg, Ulm, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Reutlingen, and Ravensburg. Their wealth, due mainly to commerce and industry, made them the most powerful element of the country, and they made their superior power felt by forming a series of leagues, starting in 1331. The Swabian League of 1376-89 successfully opposed Emperor Charles IV but was eventually defeated by the counts of Württemberg.