Biblis
Encyclopedia
Biblis is a community in the Bergstraße district
in southern Hesse
, Germany
.
between Darmstadt
to the north and Mannheim
to the south; it also lies north of Bürstadt
. Biblis lies directly north of the lower reaches of the Weschnitz, which empties into the Rhine only a few kilometres northwest of the community.
and Gernsheim
, in the east on the community of Einhausen
, in the south on the towns of Bürstadt
and Lampertheim
and in the west on the district-free city of Worms
(Rhineland-Palatinate
).
’s Codex Laureshamensis
under the name Bibifloz (“settlement at the water”) when King Louis the German
donated his holdings in Biblis, Wattenheim and Zullestein to his faithful vassal Wernher, who in turn bequeathed them to the Lorsch Abbey in 846. From 1461 to 1623, the area was pledged to the Palatinate, and in the Reformation
’s wake it became Protestant
, although after the retrocession
, it became Catholic again. During the Thirty Years' War
, the community was laid waste several times, and the populace was decimated by the Plague. With Secularization
in 1803, the community passed to what later became the Grand Duchy of Hesse
and was assigned to the district of Worms.
In 1936 the German Luftwaffe
built an airfield in Biblis disguised as a typical Hessian farm. The airfield was used during World War II
to intercept allied bombers and is an equestrian centre and restaurant today.
In 1945, Biblis was split off from Worms, which became part of the new federal state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
, and became part of the Bergstrasse district in the state of Hesse
. The formerly self-governing communities of Biblis, Nordheim and Wattenheim merged in 1970 to form the greater community of Biblis.
with 63.1% of the vote.
were bestowed upon the community of Biblis in 1950, and might be described thus: Azure a plough sinister argent, in the base a water lily argent.
Biblis’s coat of arms displays the Biblis forebears’ dogged struggle against the swamp
. They reclaimed the reedy country with what was then still primitive equipment. The water lily
stands for the wetland
while the plough
stands for the clearing of the land. The tincture
s come from the arms once borne by the House of Wittelsbach, once rulers of Electoral Palatinate, to which Biblis belonged from 1461 to 1623.
The plans for the current church were drawn up by the then Grand Duchy of Hesse district building master Christian Horst. He designed the church as a “neo-Early Gothic”, three-naved column-borne basilica with quire
and transept
on the model of the Elisabeth Church
in Marburg
.
The Catholic parish belongs to the Biblis Catholic parish cluster, which consists of these parishes:
-Torah
school and other institutions were founded, which were of great importance to Jews far beyond as well as in Biblis. The community’s synagogue
was built in 1832 on the lot at Enggasse 6. On Kristallnacht
(9 November 1938), it was desecrated by SA
members, who thoroughly destroyed the inside, after which it was used for other purposes; in 1981, it was torn down. A memorial stone still recalls the now long-gone building. At least 13 Jewish former inhabitants of Biblis were deported to the death camps where they were murder
ed.
44 federal road and the Landesstraße
3261 state road. Autobahn interchange
s are in Lorsch, Heppenheim and Gernsheim, about 10 km away. In Biblis is a railway station with direct connections to Mannheim (half-hourly), Frankfurt (hourly) and Worms (hourly).
, situated on the river Rhine with two blocks of pressurized water reactor
s - Biblis A and Biblis B. Together the blocks produce a power output of 2 500 MW. Block A came online in 1974 and Block B in 1976. At the time of opening, "Biblis" was the biggest nuclear power plant in the world and a milestone in electric power generation.
shortwave
overseas broadcaster Radio Free Europe
with antenna masts up to 125 m tall which bear the “curtain” antennae
.
Near Nordheim, three parallel high-voltage network overhead transmission lines cross the Rhine on pylon
s up to 103 m tall.
Kreis Bergstraße
Bergstraße is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Groß-Gerau, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Odenwaldkreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the urban district Mannheim, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, and the urban district of Worms...
in southern Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Location
The community lies in the Rhine rift west of the OdenwaldOdenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
between Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
to the north and Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
to the south; it also lies north of Bürstadt
Bürstadt
Bürstadt is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany, 7 km east of Worms, and 17 km north of Mannheim.-Location:Bürstadt lies in the Rhine rift between the Rhine and the Odenwald, and thereby in the Hessisches Ried....
. Biblis lies directly north of the lower reaches of the Weschnitz, which empties into the Rhine only a few kilometres northwest of the community.
Neighbouring communities
Biblis borders in the north on the communities of Groß-RohrheimGroß-Rohrheim
Groß-Rohrheim is a community in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:The community lies 3 km east of the Rhine in the middle of the Hessisches Ried north of Biblis.-Neighbouring communities:...
and Gernsheim
Gernsheim
Gernsheim is a town in Groß-Gerau district and Darmstadt region in Hesse, Germany, lying on the Rhine.-Location:The Schöfferstadt Gernsheim, as Gernsheim may officially call itself – it was Peter Schöffer's birthplace – lies 18 km southwest of Darmstadt and 16 km northeast of Worms, right...
, in the east on the community of Einhausen
Einhausen
Einhausen is a community in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, some 15 km east of Worms.-Location:Einhausen lies on the Bergstraße in the Hessisches Ried and belongs the northeast Rhine valley, which has a rather favourable climate...
, in the south on the towns of Bürstadt
Bürstadt
Bürstadt is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany, 7 km east of Worms, and 17 km north of Mannheim.-Location:Bürstadt lies in the Rhine rift between the Rhine and the Odenwald, and thereby in the Hessisches Ried....
and Lampertheim
Lampertheim
Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Conservation Area and borders on Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate...
and in the west on the district-free city of Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
(Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
).
Constituent communities
Biblis’s three Ortsteile are Biblis, Nordheim and Wattenheim.History
In 836, Biblis had its first documentary mention in the Lorsch AbbeyLorsch Abbey
The Abbey of Lorsch is a former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany...
’s Codex Laureshamensis
Lorsch codex
The Lorsch Codex is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. It consists of 460 pages in large format containing more than 3800 entries...
under the name Bibifloz (“settlement at the water”) when King Louis the German
Louis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
donated his holdings in Biblis, Wattenheim and Zullestein to his faithful vassal Wernher, who in turn bequeathed them to the Lorsch Abbey in 846. From 1461 to 1623, the area was pledged to the Palatinate, and in the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
’s wake it became Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, although after the retrocession
Cession
The act of Cession, or to cede, is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty...
, it became Catholic again. During the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, the community was laid waste several times, and the populace was decimated by the Plague. With Secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
in 1803, the community passed to what later became the Grand Duchy of Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
and was assigned to the district of Worms.
In 1936 the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
built an airfield in Biblis disguised as a typical Hessian farm. The airfield was used during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
to intercept allied bombers and is an equestrian centre and restaurant today.
In 1945, Biblis was split off from Worms, which became part of the new federal state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, and became part of the Bergstrasse district in the state of Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
. The formerly self-governing communities of Biblis, Nordheim and Wattenheim merged in 1970 to form the greater community of Biblis.
Population development
| Year | Biblis (main centre) | Nordheim | Wattenheim |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1600 | 500 | ||
| 1806 | 1,355 | 762 | 283 |
| 1980 | 5,888 | 1,450 | 930 |
| 2002 | 6,350 | 1,755 | 1,146 |
| 2006 | 6,359 | 1,896 | 1,181 |
Mayor
The independent candidate Hildegard Cornelius-Gaus, supported by the SPD, has been Biblis’s mayor since 2001, and on 4 November 2007 she was reëlected in the first voteTwo-round system
The two-round system is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate...
with 63.1% of the vote.
Community council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 |
Seats 2006 |
% 2001 |
Seats 2001 |
|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 50.3 | 12 | 47.4 | 15 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
32.9 | 8 | 38.7 | 12 |
| BBF | Bibliser Bürger Forum | 6.6 | 1 | 7.9 | 2 |
| FLB | Freie Liste Biblis | 10.2 | 2 | 6.0 | 2 |
| Total | 100.0 | 23 | 100.0 | 31 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 43.9 | 53.8 | |||
Coat of arms
The armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
were bestowed upon the community of Biblis in 1950, and might be described thus: Azure a plough sinister argent, in the base a water lily argent.
Biblis’s coat of arms displays the Biblis forebears’ dogged struggle against the swamp
Swamp
A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...
. They reclaimed the reedy country with what was then still primitive equipment. The water lily
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus...
stands for the wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
while the plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
stands for the clearing of the land. The tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
s come from the arms once borne by the House of Wittelsbach, once rulers of Electoral Palatinate, to which Biblis belonged from 1461 to 1623.
Religion
St. Bartolomew’s Catholic parish
St. Bartolomew’s Church (St. Bartholomäuskirche) comes from the year 1865. The forerunner church became too small for the population, which had sharply risen.The plans for the current church were drawn up by the then Grand Duchy of Hesse district building master Christian Horst. He designed the church as a “neo-Early Gothic”, three-naved column-borne basilica with quire
Quire (architecture)
Architecturally, the choir is the area of a church or cathedral, usually in the western part of the chancel between the nave and the sanctuary . The choir is occasionally located in the eastern part of the nave...
and transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
on the model of the Elisabeth Church
Elisabeth Church (Marburg)
St. Elisabeth's Church is a religious building in Marburg, Germany, built by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in honour of Elisabeth of Hungary...
in Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
.
The Catholic parish belongs to the Biblis Catholic parish cluster, which consists of these parishes:
- St. Bartholomäus Biblis
- St. Christophorus Wattenheim
- St. Theresia v.K.J. Groß-Rohrheim
- St. Antonius Nordheim
Jewish community
In Biblis there was a Jewish community from the 18th century until 1938. In the mid 19th century, the Jewish community numbered some 200, roughly 8% of the wider community’s population. Under Rabbi Salomon Bodenheimer (1813–1886), a TalmudTalmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
-Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
school and other institutions were founded, which were of great importance to Jews far beyond as well as in Biblis. The community’s synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was built in 1832 on the lot at Enggasse 6. On Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
(9 November 1938), it was desecrated by SA
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
members, who thoroughly destroyed the inside, after which it was used for other purposes; in 1981, it was torn down. A memorial stone still recalls the now long-gone building. At least 13 Jewish former inhabitants of Biblis were deported to the death camps where they were murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed.
Regular events
Every year in June the four-day Gurkenfest (Cucumber Festival) is opened by the Gurkenkönigin (“Cucumber Queen”) for the enjoyment of the local population and visitors alike.Transport
Biblis lies on the BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
44 federal road and the Landesstraße
Landesstraße
Landesstraßen are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads that cross the boundary of a rural or urban district...
3261 state road. Autobahn interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
s are in Lorsch, Heppenheim and Gernsheim, about 10 km away. In Biblis is a railway station with direct connections to Mannheim (half-hourly), Frankfurt (hourly) and Worms (hourly).
Education
- Katholische Kindertagesstätte Sonnenschein (Catholic daycare)
- Kindergarten Pusteblume
- Schule in den Weschnitzauen (primary school and HauptschuleHauptschuleA Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...
)
Nuclear power station
Biblis has the Biblis Nuclear Power PlantBiblis Nuclear Power Plant
The Biblis Nuclear Power Plant is in the South Hessian municipality of Biblis and consists of two units: unit A with a gross output of 1200 megawatts and unit B with a gross output of 1300 megawatts. Both units are pressurized water reactors...
, situated on the river Rhine with two blocks of pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
s - Biblis A and Biblis B. Together the blocks produce a power output of 2 500 MW. Block A came online in 1974 and Block B in 1976. At the time of opening, "Biblis" was the biggest nuclear power plant in the world and a milestone in electric power generation.
Other facilities
East of Biblis is found a transmission facility used by the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
overseas broadcaster Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
with antenna masts up to 125 m tall which bear the “curtain” antennae
HRS type antennas
HRS type antennas are more or less the standard antenna used for long distance high power shortwave broadcasting .- History of HRS design :...
.
Near Nordheim, three parallel high-voltage network overhead transmission lines cross the Rhine on pylon
Electricity pylon
A transmission tower is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. They are used in high-voltage AC and DC systems, and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes...
s up to 103 m tall.
