Schriesheim


Schriesheim is a town located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, north of Heidelberg on the Bergstrasse and on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. It has a population of about 15,000 as of mid-2009. The town's landmark is the Strahlenburg Castle. Locals refer to the town as "Schriese"

Geography

Schriesheim is located at the so-called Bergstraße where a relative small valley descends from the Odenwald mountains which ranges from the east. A creek or brook known as the "Kanzelbach" flows through it. Most of the town is located in Upper Rhine Valley, but parts of it are located in the valley and on the Odenwald mountains.

Subdivisions

The city of Schriesheim has three subdivisions: Schriesheim proper, Altenbach and Ursenbach. These subdivisions are geographically identical with what were previously townships of the same name. The latter two parts are located in the Odenwald mountains. Except for Schriesheim itself, their official names appear in the form, "Schriesheim, Subdivision of ...". At the same time, these subdivisions constitute residential districts, as defined by Baden-Württemberg's municipal code. This means that each has its own village council and municipal administrator overseeing its affairs.

The subdivision of Altenbach includes the village of Altenbach, the hamlet of Kohlhof and the Röschbach homestead. The subdivision of Schriesheim includes the town of Schriesheim, the site of the Stamberg retirement community and the houses of the Schriesheim farm. Ursenbach consists of the village of Ursenbach and the Ursenbach farm. In Altenbach, the villages of Ringes und Hohenöd have recently sprung up.

Altenbach is located 7 km east of the main town of Schriesheim in the Odenwald, right at the headwaters of the Kanzelbach stream, which there is called the Altenbach, the same name as the town. Similarly, Ursenbach, which is located 3 km northwest of Altenbach and is also in the Odenwald, is named after a stream of the same name which flows into the Altenbach before the latter turns into the Kanzelbach and flows through Schriesheim.

Geology

There is a large porphyry deposit in the area of the Ölberg, which was developed in times past. Likewise, silver was mined in the past along with barite and iron sulfate in the area of the Branich.

Development of the town

The borders of Schriesheim extend to the north and south as far as the borders of the neighboring towns. This breadth has led local historians to conclude that Schriesheim could, along with Ladenburg, be one of the oldest towns in the area.
Schriesheim's municipal area covers more than 3,162 hectares. Of that, 13.1% is devoted to housing and roads, 27.7% is being used for farming, and the remaining 58.6% represents woodland.

Neighboring communities

Schriesheim borders to the west on Ladenburg, to the north on Hirschberg an der Bergstraße, to the northeast on Weinheim, to the east on Heiligkreuzsteinach and Wilhelmsfeld, to the southeast on Heidelberg and to the south on Dossenheim.

Climate

Schriesheim belongs, as does Heidelberg, to the warmest part of Germany. The amount of precipitation increases from west to east and ranges between 650 und 800 mm. The nearest weather station, located in Heidelberg, recorded an average temperature of 11.1 °C and average precipitation of 745 mm per year between the years 1971 and 2000. The warmest month is July with an average temperature of 20.1 °C while the coldest month is January with an average temperature of 2.5 °C.
A severe winter frost in 1956 destroyed many fruit trees, especially plum trees. Figs have been grown within the borders of the city for many years.

History

Ancient World

There was probably a settlement at the location of today's town already in Roman times, possibly as an offshoot of the former Roman administrative town of Lopodunum. Coin discoveries dating to the years 351/353 are the most recent evidence of Roman life in the region. It was during this time that the great "Migration Period" took place; it was a time of turmoil, poverty and the quest for salvation.

Early Middle Ages

Schriesheim was mentioned for the first time in 764 in a document of the Ellwangen Abbey and again in 766, in a document of the Cloisters Lorsch in connection with gifts of land. These documents also formed the basis for the later seignory of both cloisters in the area. On the basis of its being named in these docoments and its borders, Schriesheim is to be regarded as one of the first settlements in this area. Already in Roman times, there were Roman villas with foundations that have been uncovered in various Schriesheim locations. At the time of the first written mention of Schriesheim, it was a Frankish site.

High Middle Ages

In the 13th Century, Schriesheim had been placed under local rule by the noble Strahlenburg family on the basis of a Vogteirechten, which led to the construction of the Strahlenburg castle around 1235. The building of the castle was a clear breach of law by the Strahlenburgers, since the land on which the castle was built belonged to the Cloister Ellwangen, whose reeves the Strahlenburgers were. When it came to protecting their rights, cloisters were dependent on the efforts of others since they themselves could not attack militarily. So the abbot obtained an imperial order from Conrad I through the emperor that eventually led to a compromise. This compromise, agreed to in 1238, appears to have been designed to let Conrad I receive the Strahlenburg as a hereditary fiefdom, but he had to transfer all of his wealth to the cloister in order to get the hereditary fiefdom back. Since at that time feudal law was relatively weak, it would appear that Conrad I was the winner in that negotiation.

Founding of the city

Since ambitious nobles in those days wanted to call not only a castle but also a town their own, Conrad I began to annex a fortified town directly alongside the old village of Schriesheim on the land directly below the castle—land that was now his fiefdom. Both town and castle were integrated into a common defensive plan. There is no known date for the founding of the city but in 1256, the Strahlenbergers were members of the Rhenish League of Towns. Various evidence places the founding date between 1240 and 1245.
After the town's founding, a church was built on the spot where today the Evangelical Church stands. The old village church south of the Bachgasse was abandoned. In addition, a grand village courtyard was established; today, it is called the Strahlenberger Hof. This typical stone house with its nearly two meter high walled gable is, at 700 years, the oldest, still occupied secular building in the region.
After the slow decline of the Strahlenbergers, the Strahlenburg and all sovereignty rights were sold to the Count Palatine in Heidelberg on September 8, 1347. However, Schriesheim retained all city rights.

Loss of the rights of a township in 1470

After the death of King Rupert in 1410, the Electoral Palatinate was divided up amongst his four sons. At first, Schriesheim belonged to Ruprecht's son, Otto, but in 1448, it was transferred, as part of an exchange of territories, to Otto's brother, Stephan, the Count Palatine of Simmern and Zweibrücken. After the division of this line in 1459, Schriesheim became part of the Simmern line, which was pledged to the knight, Hans von Sickingen for 4.000 guilders. Count Palatine Louis I, however, released Schriesheim again in 1468.
In the course of the Weißenburger feud between Elector Palatine Frederick I and Louis I of Veldenz-Zweibrücken, Friedrich I. undertook a siege of Schriesheim and the Strahlenburg castle on May 6, 1470. On Sunday, May 13, 1470, first the castle and then the city were taken by storm. The conquerors demanded a bounty of 400 guilders, which had to be raised from the citizens, along with the surrender of all wine stocks under threat that the city would be burned to the ground if these conditions were not met. In addition, various fortifications were razed, towers demolished, the city wall destroyed, and the trenches filled in. Since Schriesheim had never had the blood court jurisdiction, only the market right remained as the last of the three conditions needed to be recognized as a city. Finally, even the market right was rescinded. But the court of the Äpfelbacher Group of 100 was relocated to Schriesheim which from then on became known as the Schriesheim Group of 100. And in 1579, Schriesheim got its market right back, the event which provides the basis for the annual Mathaisemarkt.

Schriesheim During the Thirty Years' War

Just before the start of the Thirty Years' War it had become evident that the privileges of authority rarely worked to the advantage of the people. The marriage of Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia to Elizabeth Stuart brought little glamour to the residents of Schriesheim. Instead, it required them to outfit a carriage for the procession with which Frederick wanted to bring his wife to Heidelberg. The carriage was deployed again in 1619 in order to bring the couple to Prague, where Frederick had accepted election as King of Bohemia.
People in Schriesheim suspected that something bad was going to happen and in 1619, they erected a guardhouse on the Branich so that they could spot approaching troops early enough to take action. In 1621, it happened: troops of the Catholic League under Tilly were approaching Heidelberg—and thus also Schriesheim—from the North. By November, about 10.000 men had encamped in the Schriesheim-Dossenheim-Ladenburg triangle. Once the battles, which led to the eventual capture of Heidelberg, were over, troops continued to pass through the region. Several young men from the region had been lost in the battles, the townspeople were being pressed hard to finance the war, the area had been plundered and several buildings had been destroyed. The Bavarians had even taken the church bells as booty. Since most people still had reserves at their disposal, the damages soon began to get fixed and normal life returned. The only problem was that the authorities now tried to make the land Catholic again, which forced the pastor to flee.
Alas, marauding troops still marched through the land. In 1625/1626 spotted fever spread and exacted its toll. In 1631, another army approached from the North; this time, it was the Protestant Swedes, who camped on a rock outcropping with a commanding view over the Rhine valley and the city of Schriesheim. They gradually squeezed the city's residents out. In the middle of September 1631, the Bavarians risked a sortie out of Heidelberg, captured Schriesheim and then pulled back into Heidelberg. Schriesheim was by then a smoking pile of rubble. Most houses and the church had been burned down; only along the Kanzelbach, where water was close at hand, had people been able to save some homes from the flames. Furthermore, soldiers were still marauding through the region.
In 1635, a Pestilence broke out and killed off a significant part of the already weakened populace. This time, it took a while to get reconstruction started. The reserves had been used up and normal life and commerce were impossible. Only the vineyards and the cattle that had been driven into the surrounding forest made survival possible.
Then in 1643, soldiers from the Lorraine came and brought war back into the region again. In 1644, the imperial army arrived and in 1645, it was the French under Turenne. To be sure, there were no more big battles but the completely brutalized soldiers were themselves now the greatest danger. While no specific atrocity occurred in Schriesheim, the fact that after holding out for 25 years, the citizens now gave up the city speaks volumes. The populace hid in the nearby forest or fled to nearby, less damaged locations. On calm days, the survivors came from the neighboring villages in order to harvest the plants that had grown in the wild on the vineyards and fields.
When in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia was signed, the scattered survivors returned to the city. Most now had inherited land and damaged homes but they had no livestock, seeds, or building materials. Thus, wherever possible, they sold a little land or a construction site, in order to again get the means to rebuild. Barely 40 families, only 24 of them with old Schriesheim names, had come back. That was less than 20 percent of the population before the Thirty Years' War. Only the immigration of a significant number of reformed Swiss allowed the population to increase again more rapidly. Nevertheless, it would still take 100 years before the population reached its former level.

Insurrection in Schriesheim

This history, the immediate proximity of the bishopric in the Roman city of Ladenburg and the belief on the part of the Reformed Church in an environment that would one day again be Catholic resulted in a notoriously truculent attitude on the part of the people toward the authorities. This lasted well into the 19th century.
The first tax rebellion began on October 21, 1789. This was put down relatively easily, thanks to concessions on the part of the authorities. But in 1791 and 1794, there was further withholding of taxes. In 1798, there was a "revolt" in Schriesheim against the Count Palatine Nikolaus Lissingolo, who stirred up a lot of trouble, the exact nature of which is not completely understood to this day. Three Schriesheimers, Balthasar Ortlipp, Wendel Müller and Heinrich Riehl wound up being sentenced to two and three years in jail, while nine others received lighter sentences.
In March 1815, there was another public rebellion by the Schriesheimers against the authority which this time, could only be suppressed with the aid of soldiers. During the revolution of 1848/49, the Schriesheimers again lived up to their reputation and participated prominently in the revolutionary activities. Most of the residents were influenced by Frederick Hecker, who had since 1842 been the elected representative of the Ladenburg-Weinheim electoral district. After the revolt had been suppressed, three mayoral elections were declared invalid by the government of Baden in 1851/52, because the winner was a "Democrat".

Emigration during the second half of the 19th century

After that, the population began to decline because of very strong emigration to America. While in 1848, there were still around 2.800 residents in Schriesheim, by 1858, there were only about 2,700 left. The population then dropped further reaching a low of about 2,650 in 1890. Actually, the very first emigrants to America had already left in 1724. The emigration did not stop until the second half of the 20th century.

20th century

On March 9, 1964, Schriesheim got its right to being called a "city" back. On January 1, 1972, Altenbach was annexed and one year later, on January 1, 1973, it was Ursenbach's turn.

Population Statistics

Estimates of the population before the 15th century are not possible. The numbers up until the end of the Thirty Years War are based on an estimate of either the number of households or the number of adult males.
Only about 12-15% of the populace survived the Thirty Years' War. Only 24 family names from the pre-war period resurfaced after the war ended. From the wealthy milling family Mack, two adult males survived the war. From all other families, only one male adult male survived.
From 1644 to 1648, the town was abandoned by its population and thus a ghost town. Surviving Schriesheimers had fled to less destroyed locations in the area. During the decades after the Thirty Years' War, many immigrants moved in, among them a lot of Reformed Swiss, the same denomination as the surviving Schriesheimers. By 1698, they constituted just under one-third of the residents.
Emigration, mostly to North America, begun in 1724. After the unsuccessful German revolutions of 1848–1849 emigration became so strong that the population declined. It took toward the end of the 19th century until emigration became weaker and the population started to grow again. After World War II, mostly in 1945 and 1946 the population grew quickly because of the flight and expulsion of Germans from East. Since the end of the 1950s, "refugees from the city", mostly Mannheim, increasingly settled in Schriesheim.
Residents of the area that was defined as Schriesheim; Altenbach und Ursenbach are not included in the figures prior to 1970:

Politics

City Council

The city council has 28 members and is elected directly by the populace for 5 year terms. The mayor is a de facto member of the council and its head. Since the 2004 election, the distribution of seats is as follows:
CDUGL*FWSPDFDPGesamt
8775128

*Green List of Schriesheim

Youth City Council

Since 2001, there has also been a Youth City Council in Schriesheim which consists of 12 young people from Schriesheim.
Their term lasts for two years. Members must be between 14 and 19 years of age and live in Schriesheim. The criteria for eligibility are the same as for eligibility to vote, i.e. every person who is eligible to vote is permitted to run for election.

Mayor

The mayor is chosen by direct ballot for a term of 8 years. In the run-off election at the end of 2005, Hansjörg Höfer narrowly won with 50,62 percent of the vote over Peter Rosenberger with 49,19 percent. Hansjörg Höfer has been in office since February 1, 2006.
Previous Mayors:
After the Second World War, the mayoral election of 1952 produced a scandal that received notice in the international press. Back then, Fritz Urban was victorious. Urban, who stemmed from an old Schriesheim family of lawyers, some of whom had previously stood for mayoral office, had back in 1933 become NSDAP-local group leader, then a few days after the seizure of power by the National Socialist Party, had become mayor and had held that office until 1945 when the Occupying Forces reinstalled George Rufer, who had already been mayor from 1920 until 1933. Fritz Urban then was not permitted to take office. The role of mayor was temporarily taken over by Acting Mayor Martin Ringelspacher until new elections took place in 1954.

Coat of arms

On the black background of the coat-of-arms is emblazoned a golden lion, with red claws, a red tongue, and a red crown, standing on two crossed arrows, one red and one silver.'
This coat-of-arms refers back to an official seal from the year 1381. The arrows suggest the local dominion of the Strahlenbergers, while the lion stands for the Electoral Palatinate.
The official city flag is yellow and black and was adopted by the community in 1956.

City Partnerships

Schriesheim has been partners with Uzès in France since 1984.

Religion

In the 16th century, Schriesheim experienced the checkered history of the Reformation in the Electoral Palatinate. In 1556 the Reformation was launched and after 1560, the Electoral Palatinate adopted Calvinism, but then under Count Palatine Louis VI, Elector Palatine, it returned to Lutheranism, only to return the Swiss Reformed Church from 1583 on under acting regent John Casimir and Frederick IV. In the first half of the 17th century, the Elector Palatine became the leader of the German Protestants.
Shortly after the 30-Years War, Schriesheim's dramatically reduced population was purely Reformed, that is Calvinist, but in the years that followed, Catholics, Lutherans and Jews moved in alongside the favored Reformed Swiss immigrants to replenish the population. But in 1685the ruling dynasty of the Electoral Palatinate which was "Reformed" since 1559, died out and was replaced by a cadet branch that was Catholic which changed the whole situation. Suddenly the small Catholic minority in the village was favored by the authorities and Catholic officials moved in.
Jews were already resident in Schriesheim during the Middle Ages, but were driven out of the city during the year of the Black Death in 1349. Jews were again documented in Schriesheim during the 15th century. In 1644, when the village was abandoned during the Thirty Years' War, the Jews also disappeared. It was only in 1651 and 1653 that two Jewish families, the Fuld and the Oppenheiner again settled in Schriesheim. In 1858, the Jewish community reached its peak with 125 members, only to shrink, primarily because of emigration to the United States and relocation to the big cities Frankfurt and Mannheim. At the start of 1933, only 38 Jews were still living in Schriesheim, almost all of whom had left by 1938. By September 1939, there were no Jews living in Schriesheim anymore. Only four were still living in Europe at the start of the Second World War. One died a natural death of old age, two others were successful in emigrating to New York. Only Levi Schlösser fell victim to the Holocaust.
In 1705/1706, Pietistic community built up around Alexander Mack, which, in 1708 led to the introduction of adult baptism in this community, which gave them the nicknames, "Dunkers" and "dippers". Soon, as a result of growing persecution, this community had to flee and eventually emigrated to America where they formed the Church of the Brethren with its many offshoots, among them the Old German Baptist Brethren.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, there were increasing numbers of Pietistic groups in Schriesheim and in 1895, Ludwig Grüber established a Baptist community.
After the Second World War, a New Apostolic Community was formed in Schriesheim.

Sacred buildings

Until near the end of the 18th century, the village linden tree stood next to the former village church in the triangle formed by the Bachgasse, Talstraße and Schmale Seite on the west side of town. It stood alongside the Gaulsbrücke over the Kanzelbach in the original heart of the village. Schriesheim's patron saint during the Middle Ages was St. Vitus, after whom the old village church was named. There is nothing left of this old village church.
The construction of the village church, on the site of today's Evangelical Church, probably started in 1243 as coins found near the foundation suggest. In the course of the centuries, this church building had suffered so much damage that by the middle of the 18th century, either it needed an elaborate and expensive renovation or it had to be completely torn down and replaced. A decision was made in favor of the latter; the new church was built between 1748 and 1751.
The relative small Catholic and Lutheran communities, which had moved in step by step after the Thirty Years' War, each built their own churches after holding simultaneous services in the old parish church for more than a decade, a situation that was forced upon the Reformed Church by the new Catholic dynasty.
In 1711, the Catholic community, with the generous support of the now Catholic authorities, built their church which remains today the Catholic Church of Schriesheim. The church had to be expanded on its northern side shortly before the Second Vatican Council in 1959 in order to accommodate the growing number of Catholics. As a result of this expansion, the original "longboat" church design was converted into a T-shaped design. In 1996/97, the last renovation occurred: the former presbytery became a baptismal chapel featuring an unusual baptismal font with running water and the factory-made glass blocks were replaced by stained-glass windows.
Between 1708 and 1711, the Lutheran community built a small church in what is today the Lutherische Kirchgasse. It was to have a checkered history. After the forced merger of the Lutheran community with the Reformed Church into the Regional Church of Baden in 1821, the building was sold to a Jewish resident, Simon Oppenheimer and in 1839, the Jewish community installed a synagogue in the eastern part of the building. In the years after 1933, when Hitler came to power, the Jews of Schriesheim mostly emigrated. The Schriesheim synagogue was plundered November 9, 1938 which Seligmann Fuld, the last remaining Jew in Schriesheim had to witness. He subsequently moved to America. In 1954, the New Apostolic community transformed the former synagogue into a church again.
In 1954, the Baptist community moved into their own, newly built church in the upper Bahnhofstraße.

Culture and Sights Worth Visiting

Sights Worth a Visit

The ruins of the Strahlenburg castle, built in the 13th century. There is also an inn and restaurant there.
The Anna-Elisabeth mine is a silver and sulfate mine that is over 500 years old. It has enjoyed landmark status since 1985; tours are available.
Above Schriesheim lie the historic vineyards of Madonna's mountain with a statue of the Madonna and a sequoia as its emblem.
The Christian-Mayer public observatory offers regular lectures.
Schriesheim has many historic buildings, such as the "Gaber´schen" House, the old town hall with pillories, the "Oil Mill" on the Kanzel stream, and the so-called "Bachschlössel". Since 2001, there is a modern elevated walkway over the Kanzel stream leading from Old Town to the city fairgrounds.
The so-called Roman cellar in the new Town Hall is indeed a Roman cellar with almost completely original walls. The cellar was unearthed in Schriesheim and during construction of the new Town Hall in 1970, was moved there and has been on display there ever since.

Museums

The works of the Luxembourg painter and sculptor, Théo Kerg are on display in the "Museum Théo Kerg".

Sport

Above Schriesheim near the Strahlenburg, there is an old stone quarry that offers many and varied opportunities for amateur rock climbers.

Regular Events

Schriesheim is a wine city and in March of every year since 1579, it sponsors the first wine festival of the season, the 8-day-long Matthias Market.

The Schriesheim Dialect

The Schriesheim dialect, locally also referred to as "Schriesheimerisch" or "Schriesemerisch", is distinguished from the usual features of Electoral Palatinate dialect mainly by the remnants left today of Lambdazismus. This is a dialect in which every "d" between vowels is converted into an "l". Examples that are still often heard today are "Bollem" for "Boden", "Oulewald" for "Odenwald", "olla" for "oder", and "dann holla" for "dann hat er". Sentences like "gewwe Se ma noch e paa fun denne guule roule Ebbl" that mean "geben Sie mir noch ein paar von diesen guten roten Äpfeln" could still be heard in the 1970s but are not heard at all today.
Additional examples of the Schriesheim dialect may be found on the German Wikipedia entry for Schriesheim; They are impossible to translate meaningfully into English.

Business and Infrastructure

Commerce

The Oberrheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, which has since 2005 been operated by the RNV, passes through Schriesheim. It is part of the fare district of the Verkehrsverbunds Rhein-Neckar.
State Road 3 passes through the town. The Bundesautobahn 5 passes to the west and provides access to the national highway system.
In order to relieve the pressure on the Talstraße into the Odenwald, the relocation of State Road L 536 into the nearly 2 km long Branich tunnel has been constructed. The first phase of construction began in 2008 and in 2016 teh tunnel was completed.

Education

There is a primary school in Altenbach. Schriesheim has the Strahlenberg primary school and the school center of the Electoral Palatinate which consists of primary and secondary schools, the latter having an extension program leading to a diploma, a junior high school, an academic high school and the private Heinrich-Sigmund Academic High School.
Schriesheim also has a music school, an adult education center, and a public library.

Citizens

Famous residents

"Schriesheim" and "Schriesheimer" are family names adopted by former Jewish citizens of Schriesheim in the time when last names became obligatory, notably today: