Fortified by the emperor Henry V, Dinkelsb�hl received in 1305 the same municipal rights as Ulm, and obtained in 1351 the position of a Free Imperial City. Its municipal code, the Dinkelsb�hler Recht, published in 1536, and revised in 1738, contained a very extensive collection of public and private laws.
During the Protestant Reformation, Dinkelsb�hl was notable for being � eventually along only with Ravensburg, Augsburg and Biberach an der Ri� � a Mixed Imperial City (German: Parit�tische Reichsstadt) where the Peace of Westphalia caused the establishment of a joint Catholic�Protestant government and administrative system, with equality offices (German: Gleichberechtigung) and a precise and equal distribution between Catholic and Protestant civic officials. This status ended in 1802, when these cities were annexed by the Kingdom of Bavaria.
Around 1534 the majority of the population of Dinkelsb�hl became Protestant.
Every summer Dinkelsb�hl celebrates the city's surrender to Swedish Troops during the Thirty Years' War. This reenactment is played out by many of the town's residents. It features a whole array of Swedish troops attacking the city gate and children dressed in traditional garb coming to witness the event. Paper cones full of chocolate and candy are given as gifts to children. This historical event is called the "Kinderzeche" and can in some aspects be compared with the "Meistertrunk" in Rothenburg. The name is derived from the German word for "child", and is called such because of the legend that a child saved the town from massacre by the Swedish Troops during the surrender. The legend tells that when the Swedish army besieged the town, a teenage girl took the children for begging the general for mercy. The Swedish general had recently lost his young son to illness, and a boy who approached him so closely resembled his own son that he decided to spare the town.
Remarkably, Dinkelsb�hl remained totally unscathed, except for
