Schwaningen is one of the eldest colonies of the rural district Waldshut. Already in 766 a document of the cloister Sankt Blasien gives lore of the existence of the site "Svaninga". The name was subject to numerous changes until the village was called Schwaningen from mid-16th century. Also the lordship of the people from Schwaningen changed, it were the landgraves from Stühlingen, then the Küssaberger, followed by the earls of Lupfen.

In 1524 the oppressed farmers of the landgraviate revolted against the oppression by the nobility. On June 23rd, midsummer's day, they gathered against their lord, the earl Sigmund von Lupfen. Also Clewi Hotz from Schwaningen was among the ambassadors of the farmers, who hoped for settling the disputes amicably and for an improvement of their miserable situation by intervention of the council of the city Schaffhausen. But the negotiations failed due to the relentlessness of the nobility. Instead of hoped rights and freedom the unfortunate revolution brought bigger misery to the farmers.

The Thirty Year's War afflicted also the silent Mehrenbachtal for long years. In 1633 lain 30.000 marauding lansquenets of a French-Swedish cavalry in the landscape around Stühlingen under their notorious colonel Villefranche- when in 1647 the last forces went off, they left behind a desolate land.

In 1775 the Catholic parish church was devoted to the holy Martin. The remarkable rococo high altar forms an excellent entity with the altarpiece of the Virgin Mother from an unknown master, the statues of the holy Rochus and Sebastian and the successful rococo pulpit. The quire arch is furnished with the emblem of the Fürstenberger.

The brand catastrophe in 1911

August 28th, 1911 was a black day for our village. A disastrous blast burns the vicarage, the tenth barn and further 32 houses to ashes. Among them also the tavern "Zur Brauerei" - which got the name "Schwanen" after the reconstruction.

In 1974 Schwaningen became district of the city Stühlingen in the course of the municipality reform - which was debatable not only here.