Erbes-Büdesheim
Encyclopedia
Erbes-Büdesheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
, in Rhenish Hesse, at an elevation of 250 m lies Erbes-Büdesheim, a place marked by distinctive geological
features, botanical singularities and a great number of surprising historical facts. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Alzey-Land
, whose seat is in Alzey
.
, the village lies on what the geologists call the Vorholz Peninsula, which some 40 to 30 million years ago almost always rose up out of the sea.
(450 - 15 BC), as shown by many finds. There was also settlement in Roman
times, and unearthed in 1909 was a whole Frankish
burial ground.
The place where Erbes-Büdesheim now lies was therefore settled through a great length of time – albeit likely with interruptions. On 2 to 4 January 767, the village had its first documentary mention, and likewise the then-standing village church, Saint Michael’s (Michaels-Kirche) between 767 and 768. The first inhabitant whose name is known was one Egilolf, who on the date mentioned sold Lorsch Abbey
, which stood on the river Rhine across from Worms
, ten Joch (about 3.5 ha) of cropland, for which he received one horse. To this faithful, precise noting of this sale by the monks, Erbes-Büdesheim owes its first documentary mention, and likewise, almost all Rhenish Hesse’s villages had their first documentary mention in such a way.
, whose main holdings lay in the Hunsrück
, and after the House of Sponheim died out in 1437, to their heirs: the County of Palatinate-Simmern, the Margraviate of Baden
and Electoral Palatinate. From 1559 to 1598 and from 1611 to 1673, it belonged to the Duchy of Palatinate-Simmern, a small Electoral Palatinate sideline whose seat was in Simmern
, and beginning in 1673, wholly to Electoral Palatinate.
Among the village’s peculiarities are the ancient stone crosses on Offenheimer Straße and Nacker Straße (streets), the former lake in the municipal area’s east to which field names still refer, the Eicherwald (forest) in the northwest and its very ancient lot division, the quicksilver
mine in the far northwest below the Eicherwald and the gallows in the east at the municipal limit with Heimersheim (an outlying centre of Alzey
).
, girded as it was by its village wall, which also had before it a water-filled dyke and an earthen berm overgrown with elm trees. The Obertor (Upper Gate) in the south and the Untertor (Lower Gate) in the north kept the village safe.
Erbes-Büdesheim earns special noteworthiness in having had two castles, the Weißes Schloss in the south and the Blaue Burg in the northwest.
The Untere Kirchgasse (“Lower Church Lane”) was also called Hundsgasse, not after a dog (Hund in German
), but rather after one Hundo, a prison official, who might well have been the one to lead condemned prisoners, who were imprisoned in the village’s west end, along the Hundsgasse to the gallows in the east.
Three little outlying villages once stood around Erbes-Büdesheim, and their land areas were later annexed by Erbes-Büdesheim. They were Aulheim in the north, Eyche in the northwest and Riede (also called Rode) in the west. Aulheim had its Saint Nicholas’s Chapel and two mills that still stand today, and Eyche a church in which the Catholics from Nack
worshipped and had a priest to look after their spiritual needs. As for Riede, the names of some buildings and plots of land are still known, as are two inhabitants’ names.
itself had its first documentary mention in 1304. It had two well known estates, the Antoniterhof (also called Thöngeshof or Pfalzhof) and the Hunolsteiner Hof, the latter of which belonged to the Vogt
of Hunolstein and formed a stone-marked domain unto itself, meaning that it was not under Nack’s authority. In the village’s southwest lay the quicksilver
mine, Karlsgrube (also called Karlsglück), from which in 1774 another 355 Pfund (old German pounds) of the liquid metal was brought to light. Although Nack was said to be a part of Erbes-Büdesheim until 1821 and only became politically autonomous in 1822, acquiring its own mayor, the place already had Schultheiß
en in the 18th century.
Erbes-Büdesheim has experienced, like most Rhenish-Hessian villages, many hardships and much sorrow, but has also had some brighter and noteworthy times. In the Landshut War of Succession
in 1504 and 1505, it was partly burnt down. In the time of the Thirty Years' War
it was likely completely emptied of people. After this great war, many Reformed
, but also some Catholic, foreigners were brought in from Switzerland
, the Netherlands
, Belgium
and the Lower Rhine region
under Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
’s population policies.
teacher in the village, and beginning in the 18th century, there was also a Catholic one. While the 19th century saw only three teachers serve at the Evangelical school in 80 years, the Catholic school went through 21 different teachers in the same timespan. As of 1934, a Christian
“simultaneous” school (that is, one shared by more than one denomination) replaced the two separate denominational schools that had existed until then. It was put into service under headteacher Böhler in 1954.
Agriculture’s hallmark, both before and after the two world wars, was the state-owned farm, the Staatsdomäne. By 1950, roughly 60 workers were still employed at this model operation, which was the model for many agricultural businesses, and whose way of working the local farmers adopted as their own. Seed breeding, swine and cattle raising, dairy farming and a distillery showed how multifaceted the Schlossgut, as it was popularly known locally, was.
Ten teams of horses and two of oxen performed a considerable part of the fieldwork. The workers’ hours were set at Mondays to Saturdays from 7:00 to 11:00 and from 13:00 to 19:00. One peculiarity even for that time was the way the workers met at the Catholic church (Katzenpumpe) and then walked together to work. Skilled agricultural workers received not only their wages, but also, each year, a payment in kind, which was a whole range of farm goods such as 30 hundredweight of potatoes, five sacks of grain, two piglets, five hundredweight of straw, one are
of clover and also a 40-German-mark bonus.
The Staatsdomäne was run at the beginning of the 20th century first by Erwin Römer, and after his death by his wife Nelly, and then until the end of the Second World War by Dr. Carl-Heinrich Roemer. Thereafter, Adolf Hartmann and, beginning in 1965 Joachim Hechler were the farm’s leaseholders. For almost half a century – from 1904 to 1950 – Josef Huckle was the farm’s governor. The state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
sold the Staatsdomäne in 1996, thereby ending the model agricultural operation’s proud history.
Both cropland and vineyards amounting to 47 ha were turned over. There was a great deal of work in this time for the chairman of the Teilnehmergemeinschaft (an association of landowners involved in a Flurbereinigung
project) Ernst Hirschel and the surveyor Emma Huckle to perform. The longsighted decision was to plant 37 continuous kilometres of windbreaking hedgerows, which today shape not only the municipal area but also the microclimate
. Because this set of hedgerows in Rhenish Hesse was so noteworthy, the project was featured at the 1992 Berlin International Grüne Woche (“Green Week”). Another forward-looking decision in the course of Flurbereinigung was the building of a bypass road in 1960 and 1961. Ten ares of cropland were made available for this. In 1954, on Nacker Straße (“Nack Road”) came the new school building’s dedication, thereby solving the unsatisfactory situation that had seen various school locations in use. In this, Heinrich Böhler, who for more than 40 years played a leading rôle in shaping the school scene, was decisively involved.
During Mayor Christian Wilhelm Lawall’s time in office, Erbes-Büdesheim became one of the last municipalities in Rhenish Hesse to acquire a public water supply, in 1963, and also relatively late, in 1992, the municipality acquired a sewer
system.
Josef Seitner shaped the economic life in the municipality quite decisively. It was he who seized the moment after the Second World War and began producing pumice
and hollow concrete blocks and dealing wholesale in building materials. After this, he turned to the then new industry of ready-mix concrete
. Also showing his versatility was his success in plastics processing. His efforts brought many Erbes-Büdesheimers jobs near home.
, which swept across almost the whole of Germany, the village became thoroughly Evangelical
about 1559, first Lutheran
and then beginning in 1598 Reformed
. The church, rectory and school thereby belonged to the Evangelical parish. Only in the wake of the Thirty Years' War
, in the time when new settlers were brought in, did Catholics once again come to the village, alongside other, Evangelical, settlers. The Roman Catholic parish was newly founded only in 1686 by Father Christoph Lautenbach. In the wake of the 1706 Palatine Church Sharing (Pfälzische Kirchenteilung, whereby Protestants
had to share their churches with Catholics), the available church along with the rectory and school were transferred to the Catholic parish. Even so, the church was by this time in a wretched state, and a new Catholic church had to be built. This was done between 1736 and 1745 by the well known master builder Caspar Valerius. The Reformed parish held its services at the town hall from 1707 to 1734, until their new church was built under the Reverend Johann Christoph Steymann from Ensheim. Since the Evangelical clergyman could no longer live in Erbes-Büdesheim as of 1697, he moved to Ensheim
and ministered to the Evangelical parish of Erbes-Büdesheim with Nack from Ensheim, building a strong – and now almost forgotten – relationship between Erbes-Büdesheim and Ensheim, at least in Evangelical ecclesiastical matters.
Between 1701 and 1748 there was a small Mennonite
community in Erbes-Büdesheim which held its services at the Weißes Schloss, a sign of the ecumenical, tolerant mindset of the Hugenot von Rochow (until 1729) or de la Roche (1729–1788) family, who owned the castle at the time, and who were Reformed.
Moreover, Erbes-Büdesheim also had a small Jewish
community, and might have as early as the 16th century. It had a small graveyard in the south part of the Blaues Schloss, and beginning in 1840 a new one in the village’s northeast. Even a synagogue
room was available on Niedergasse (lane).
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the district Groß-Gerau , the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen.- History :...
district in 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 ....
, 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
West of AlzeyAlzey
Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen....
, in Rhenish Hesse, at an elevation of 250 m lies Erbes-Büdesheim, a place marked by distinctive geological
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
features, botanical singularities and a great number of surprising historical facts. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Alzey-Land
Alzey-Land
Alzey-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located around the town Alzey, which is the seat of Alzey-Land, but not part of the Verbandsgemeinde....
, whose seat is in Alzey
Alzey
Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen....
.
Geology
In terms of Earth’s historyHistory of Earth
The history of the Earth describes the most important events and fundamental stages in the development of the planet Earth from its formation 4.578 billion years ago to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to the understanding of the main events of the Earth's...
, the village lies on what the geologists call the Vorholz Peninsula, which some 40 to 30 million years ago almost always rose up out of the sea.
History
As long ago as the New Stone Age (4500–1800 BC), this place was settled, and likewise in the early (700–450 BC) and late Iron AgeIron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
(450 - 15 BC), as shown by many finds. There was also settlement in Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
times, and unearthed in 1909 was a whole Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
burial ground.
The place where Erbes-Büdesheim now lies was therefore settled through a great length of time – albeit likely with interruptions. On 2 to 4 January 767, the village had its first documentary mention, and likewise the then-standing village church, Saint Michael’s (Michaels-Kirche) between 767 and 768. The first inhabitant whose name is known was one Egilolf, who on the date mentioned sold Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch 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...
, which stood on the river Rhine across from 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...
, ten Joch (about 3.5 ha) of cropland, for which he received one horse. To this faithful, precise noting of this sale by the monks, Erbes-Büdesheim owes its first documentary mention, and likewise, almost all Rhenish Hesse’s villages had their first documentary mention in such a way.
12th to 13th century
Fully 37 monasteries and noble families had landholdings in the village in the centuries that followed, and were therefore the landlords. The history of the local lords is quite complicated. Erbes-Büdesheim originally wholly belonged as a village about 1275 to the County of Leiningen, beginning in 1350 to the “Further” and “Hinder” County of SponheimHouse of Sponheim
The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a noble family of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages. They were Dukes of Carinthia from 1122 until 1269 and Counts of Sponheim until 1437...
, whose main holdings lay in the Hunsrück
Hunsrück
The Hunsrück is a low mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the river valleys of the Moselle , the Nahe , and the Rhine . The Hunsrück is continued by the Taunus mountains on the eastern side of the Rhine. In the north behind the Moselle it is continued by the Eifel...
, and after the House of Sponheim died out in 1437, to their heirs: the County of Palatinate-Simmern, the Margraviate of Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
and Electoral Palatinate. From 1559 to 1598 and from 1611 to 1673, it belonged to the Duchy of Palatinate-Simmern, a small Electoral Palatinate sideline whose seat was in Simmern
Simmern
Simmern is a town of 8,000 inhabitants in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, the district seat of the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, and the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde...
, and beginning in 1673, wholly to Electoral Palatinate.
Among the village’s peculiarities are the ancient stone crosses on Offenheimer Straße and Nacker Straße (streets), the former lake in the municipal area’s east to which field names still refer, the Eicherwald (forest) in the northwest and its very ancient lot division, the quicksilver
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
mine in the far northwest below the Eicherwald and the gallows in the east at the municipal limit with Heimersheim (an outlying centre of Alzey
Alzey
Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen....
).
14th to 15th century
The village itself was safeguarded against attack by the Late Middle AgesLate Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, girded as it was by its village wall, which also had before it a water-filled dyke and an earthen berm overgrown with elm trees. The Obertor (Upper Gate) in the south and the Untertor (Lower Gate) in the north kept the village safe.
Erbes-Büdesheim earns special noteworthiness in having had two castles, the Weißes Schloss in the south and the Blaue Burg in the northwest.
- The Weißes Schloss in the south with its thus far 32 owners had already been built by 1354, at which time the knight Dietz Birkenfelder from FürfeldFürfeldFürfeld is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany.-External links:*...
lived there, and thereafter and for a long time the family of the Lords of Morsheim (MorschheimMorschheimMorschheim is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
). - The Blaue Burg in the northwest between the end of Pankratiushofstraße and Grabengasse, of which only two tower remnants are still standing today, was built before 1488, and quite likely destroyed in 1504 in the Landshut War of SuccessionLandshut War of SuccessionThe Landshut War of Succession resulted from an agreement between the duchies of Bavaria-Munich and Bavaria-Landshut . The agreement concerned the law of succession when one of the two Dukes should die without a male heir...
. The plot of land known as Das blaue Schloss at the west end of Niedergasse belonged, as it were, as a bailey, to the Blaue Burg. Near this “Blue Castle” was a prison in 1590, which earlier (1533–1560) had been known as a Stock (“staff”, “stick” or “trunk”).
The Untere Kirchgasse (“Lower Church Lane”) was also called Hundsgasse, not after a dog (Hund in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), but rather after one Hundo, a prison official, who might well have been the one to lead condemned prisoners, who were imprisoned in the village’s west end, along the Hundsgasse to the gallows in the east.
Three little outlying villages once stood around Erbes-Büdesheim, and their land areas were later annexed by Erbes-Büdesheim. They were Aulheim in the north, Eyche in the northwest and Riede (also called Rode) in the west. Aulheim had its Saint Nicholas’s Chapel and two mills that still stand today, and Eyche a church in which the Catholics from Nack
Nack
Nack is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
worshipped and had a priest to look after their spiritual needs. As for Riede, the names of some buildings and plots of land are still known, as are two inhabitants’ names.
16th to 18th century
The village of NackNack
Nack is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
itself had its first documentary mention in 1304. It had two well known estates, the Antoniterhof (also called Thöngeshof or Pfalzhof) and the Hunolsteiner Hof, the latter of which belonged to the Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
of Hunolstein and formed a stone-marked domain unto itself, meaning that it was not under Nack’s authority. In the village’s southwest lay the quicksilver
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
mine, Karlsgrube (also called Karlsglück), from which in 1774 another 355 Pfund (old German pounds) of the liquid metal was brought to light. Although Nack was said to be a part of Erbes-Büdesheim until 1821 and only became politically autonomous in 1822, acquiring its own mayor, the place already had Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
en in the 18th century.
Erbes-Büdesheim has experienced, like most Rhenish-Hessian villages, many hardships and much sorrow, but has also had some brighter and noteworthy times. In the Landshut War of Succession
Landshut War of Succession
The Landshut War of Succession resulted from an agreement between the duchies of Bavaria-Munich and Bavaria-Landshut . The agreement concerned the law of succession when one of the two Dukes should die without a male heir...
in 1504 and 1505, it was partly burnt down. In the time of 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....
it was likely completely emptied of people. After this great war, many Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
, but also some Catholic, foreigners were brought in from Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and the Lower Rhine region
Lower Rhine region (Germany)
The Lower Rhine region or Niederrhein is a region around the Lower Rhine section of the river Rhine in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany between approximately Neuss and Düsseldorf in the South and the Dutch border around Emmerich in the North...
under Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine
Charles Louis, , Elector Palatine KG was the second son of Frederick V of the Palatinate, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and his wife, Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James I of England ....
’s population policies.
19th to 20th century
Raised above the neighbouring villages as it was by its general location and special past, Erbes-Büdesheim was declared the seat of a subdivision of the Oberamt of Alzey. As for schooling, there was already in the 16th century an EvangelicalEvangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
teacher in the village, and beginning in the 18th century, there was also a Catholic one. While the 19th century saw only three teachers serve at the Evangelical school in 80 years, the Catholic school went through 21 different teachers in the same timespan. As of 1934, a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
“simultaneous” school (that is, one shared by more than one denomination) replaced the two separate denominational schools that had existed until then. It was put into service under headteacher Böhler in 1954.
from 1950 onwards
The municipality of Erbes-Büdesheim, like many in Rhenish Hesse, has undergone a great shift since the 1950s not only in its structure but also in its outlook. If the municipality was still strongly characterized by agriculture after the Second World War until the 1960s, that is now rather outweighed by its residential character. Although in the 1950s there were still 50 or so independent agricultural businesses, there are now only three whose main business is agriculture and a few other businesses that have it as a sideline.Agriculture’s hallmark, both before and after the two world wars, was the state-owned farm, the Staatsdomäne. By 1950, roughly 60 workers were still employed at this model operation, which was the model for many agricultural businesses, and whose way of working the local farmers adopted as their own. Seed breeding, swine and cattle raising, dairy farming and a distillery showed how multifaceted the Schlossgut, as it was popularly known locally, was.
Ten teams of horses and two of oxen performed a considerable part of the fieldwork. The workers’ hours were set at Mondays to Saturdays from 7:00 to 11:00 and from 13:00 to 19:00. One peculiarity even for that time was the way the workers met at the Catholic church (Katzenpumpe) and then walked together to work. Skilled agricultural workers received not only their wages, but also, each year, a payment in kind, which was a whole range of farm goods such as 30 hundredweight of potatoes, five sacks of grain, two piglets, five hundredweight of straw, one are
ARE
Are, ARE or Åre may refer to: United Arab Emirates using ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code*The second-person singular and plural forms of the verb "to be", copula of the English language...
of clover and also a 40-German-mark bonus.
The Staatsdomäne was run at the beginning of the 20th century first by Erwin Römer, and after his death by his wife Nelly, and then until the end of the Second World War by Dr. Carl-Heinrich Roemer. Thereafter, Adolf Hartmann and, beginning in 1965 Joachim Hechler were the farm’s leaseholders. For almost half a century – from 1904 to 1950 – Josef Huckle was the farm’s governor. The 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 ....
sold the Staatsdomäne in 1996, thereby ending the model agricultural operation’s proud history.
Both cropland and vineyards amounting to 47 ha were turned over. There was a great deal of work in this time for the chairman of the Teilnehmergemeinschaft (an association of landowners involved in a Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung is the German word used to describe land reforms in various countries, especially Germany and Austria. The term can best be translated as land consolidation. Another European country where those land reforms have been carried out is France...
project) Ernst Hirschel and the surveyor Emma Huckle to perform. The longsighted decision was to plant 37 continuous kilometres of windbreaking hedgerows, which today shape not only the municipal area but also the microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
. Because this set of hedgerows in Rhenish Hesse was so noteworthy, the project was featured at the 1992 Berlin International Grüne Woche (“Green Week”). Another forward-looking decision in the course of Flurbereinigung was the building of a bypass road in 1960 and 1961. Ten ares of cropland were made available for this. In 1954, on Nacker Straße (“Nack Road”) came the new school building’s dedication, thereby solving the unsatisfactory situation that had seen various school locations in use. In this, Heinrich Böhler, who for more than 40 years played a leading rôle in shaping the school scene, was decisively involved.
During Mayor Christian Wilhelm Lawall’s time in office, Erbes-Büdesheim became one of the last municipalities in Rhenish Hesse to acquire a public water supply, in 1963, and also relatively late, in 1992, the municipality acquired a sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
system.
Josef Seitner shaped the economic life in the municipality quite decisively. It was he who seized the moment after the Second World War and began producing pumice
Pumice
Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. It can be formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid...
and hollow concrete blocks and dealing wholesale in building materials. After this, he turned to the then new industry of ready-mix concrete
Ready-mix concrete
Ready-mix concrete is a type of concrete that is manufactured in a factory or batching plant, according to a set recipe, and then delivered to a work site, by truck mounted transit mixers . This results in a precise mixture, allowing specialty concrete mixtures to be developed and implemented on...
. Also showing his versatility was his success in plastics processing. His efforts brought many Erbes-Büdesheimers jobs near home.
Religion
Saint Michael’s Church (Michaelskirche) in Erbes-Büdesheim suddenly became Saint Bartholomew’s Church (Bartholomäuskirche) in 1431. With the coming of the Protestant ReformationProtestant 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...
, which swept across almost the whole of Germany, the village became thoroughly Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
about 1559, first Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
and then beginning in 1598 Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
. The church, rectory and school thereby belonged to the Evangelical parish. Only in the wake of 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....
, in the time when new settlers were brought in, did Catholics once again come to the village, alongside other, Evangelical, settlers. The Roman Catholic parish was newly founded only in 1686 by Father Christoph Lautenbach. In the wake of the 1706 Palatine Church Sharing (Pfälzische Kirchenteilung, whereby Protestants
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...
had to share their churches with Catholics), the available church along with the rectory and school were transferred to the Catholic parish. Even so, the church was by this time in a wretched state, and a new Catholic church had to be built. This was done between 1736 and 1745 by the well known master builder Caspar Valerius. The Reformed parish held its services at the town hall from 1707 to 1734, until their new church was built under the Reverend Johann Christoph Steymann from Ensheim. Since the Evangelical clergyman could no longer live in Erbes-Büdesheim as of 1697, he moved to Ensheim
Ensheim
Ensheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and ministered to the Evangelical parish of Erbes-Büdesheim with Nack from Ensheim, building a strong – and now almost forgotten – relationship between Erbes-Büdesheim and Ensheim, at least in Evangelical ecclesiastical matters.
Between 1701 and 1748 there was a small Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
community in Erbes-Büdesheim which held its services at the Weißes Schloss, a sign of the ecumenical, tolerant mindset of the Hugenot von Rochow (until 1729) or de la Roche (1729–1788) family, who owned the castle at the time, and who were Reformed.
Moreover, Erbes-Büdesheim also had a small Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
community, and might have as early as the 16th century. It had a small graveyard in the south part of the Blaues Schloss, and beginning in 1840 a new one in the village’s northeast. Even a 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...
room was available on Niedergasse (lane).
Town council
The council is made up of 16 council members who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| CDU | FWG Free Voters Free Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the... |
Total | |
| 2009 | 10 | 6 | 16 seats |
| 2004 | 10 | 6 | 16 seats |
Museums
- Rheinhessisches Postmuseum in the former post office on the town hall’s ground floor
Sport
- Kneipp basin at Weedeplatz, part of the Kneipp-Napoleon hiking trail
- Schützenverein Erbes-Büdesheim (shooting club)
- 1. Taekwondo-Club Erbes-Büdesheim
Regular events
- Kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerb) on the next to last weekend in August
Established businesses
- Raiffeisenkasse Erbes-Büdesheim und Umgebung eG (financial institution)
Sons and daughters of the town
- Marie Luise NeuneckerMarie Luise NeuneckerMarie Luise Neunecker is a German hornplayer and a professor of French horn.- Professional career :Neunecker studied musicology and German studies....
, musicianMusicianA musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, hornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
player - Heinz-Hermann Schnabel, politicianPoliticianA politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, mayorMayorIn many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, Member of the Landtag