Zähringen is the name of an old German family that founded a large number of cities in what are today Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg. While the junior line that first assumed the title Duke of Zähringen, a cadet branch of the House of Baden, became extinct in 1218, the senior line persists and currently uses the title Margrave of Baden, Duke of Zähringen. Zähringen today is a district of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, which the dukes founded in 1120. In the German language the word Zähringer is used for House of Zähringen in the same way as someone from New York is called a New Yorker.

The earliest known member of the family was Berthold I, Count in the Breisgau (died 982), who was first mentioned in 962. Earlier ancestors, such as the Ahalolfings are suspected. Bertholds's great-grandson Duke Berthold I (d. 1078) was count of Zähringen and was related to the early Hohenstaufen family.

Emperor Henry III had promised his liensman Berthold of Zähringen the Duchy of Swabia, but this was not fulfilled as upon Henry's death his widow Agnes of Poitou in 1057 appointed Count Rudolf of Rheinfelden. In compensation Berthold was made duke of Carinthia in 1061. Although this dignity was a titular one, Berthold actually lost it when in the course of the Investiture Controversy he joined the rising of his former rival Rudolf of Rheinfelden against German king Henry IV in 1073. His son Berthold II, who like his father fought against Henry IV, inherited a lot of the lands of Rudolf's son Count Berthold of Rheinfelden in 1090 (though not his comital title, that stayed with the family von Wetter-Rheinfelden) and in 1092 was elected Duke of Swabia against Frederick I of Hohenstaufen. In 1098 he reconciled with Frederick, renounced all claims to Swabia and instead concentrated on his possessions in the Breisgau region, assuming the title of a "Duke of Zähringen". He was succeeded in turn by his sons, Berthold III (d. 1122) and Conrad (d. 1152).