Erlenbach, Baden-Württemberg
Encyclopedia
Erlenbach is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn
Heilbronn (district)
Heilbronn is a district in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Neckar-Odenwald, Hohenlohe, Schwäbisch Hall, Rems-Murr, Ludwigsburg, Enz, Karlsruhe and Rhein-Neckar...

 in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...

 in southern Germany.

Geography

Erlenbach lies at the foot of the 317 meter tall Kayberg in the lower Sulmtal (valley of the river Sulm) in the eastern part of district of Heilbronn
Heilbronn (district)
Heilbronn is a district in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Neckar-Odenwald, Hohenlohe, Schwäbisch Hall, Rems-Murr, Ludwigsburg, Enz, Karlsruhe and Rhein-Neckar...

.

Neighboring Erlenbach are Heilbronn
Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....

 and Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm
Neckarsulm is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, near Stuttgart, and part of the district Heilbronn. As of 2004, Neckarsulm had 27,296 inhabitants....

 to the west, Eberstadt
Eberstadt
Eberstadt is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is best known for its winegrowing and its yearly international high jump meeting .-External links:*...

 to the east, and Weinsberg
Weinsberg
Weinsberg is a town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It was founded ca. 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine...

 to the southeast.

Subdivisions

Erlenbach is composed of two formerly separate villages, Erlenbach in the east and Binswangen in the west.

History

Both Erlenbach and Binswangen are supposed to have been founded in the year 500 by the Franks
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...

 and Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

, respectively. Erlenbach was first mentioned in the Codex Hirsaugiensis in 1130 as a gift to the Hirsau Abbey
Hirsau Abbey
Hirsau Abbey, formerly known as Hirschau Abbey, was once one of the most prominent Benedictine abbeys of Germany. It was located in the town of Hirsau, in the Diocese of Speyer, near Calw in the present Baden-Württemberg.-History:...

. The first record of Binswangen is in a charter on November 8, 1176 from Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...

. At this time, both communities were under authority of the Lords of Weinsberg
Weinsberg
Weinsberg is a town in the north of the German state Baden-Württemberg. It was founded ca. 1200 and is situated in the Heilbronn district. The town has about 11,800 inhabitants. It is noted for its wine...

.

Later, both communities were transferred from the Archbishopric of Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...

 to the Teutonic Order on May 27, 1484 as part of the Bailiwick Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...

. After the dissolution of the monastic states of the Teutonic Knights
Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights
The State of the Teutonic Order, , also Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights or Ordensstaat , was formed in 1224 during the Northern Crusades, the Teutonic Knights' conquest of the pagan West-Baltic Old Prussians in the 13th century....

 in 1805, they came under control of Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

 and were placed under district authority of Oberamt Neckarsulm, which was renamed Kreis (District) Neckarsulm in 1934.

The communities Erlenbach and Binswangen officially combined under the name Erlenbach on April 1, 1935. On October 1, 1938, after the dissolution of Kreis Neckarsulm, Erlenbach was placed in the Landkreis Heilbronn. The population was counted at 2137 people in 1939. During the population growth and resulting construction activity after 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...

, Erlenbach and Binswangen have grown together to form a single village.

Religion

Erlenbach is predominantly Catholic, having two Catholic parishes: St. Martinus Erlenbach and St. Michael Binswangen. The Evangelical Christ Church was dedicated in 1965.

St. Martinus

The Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 parish St. Martinus in Erlenbach was rebuilt between 1753 and 1760 in late Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 style on the site of an older Martinskirche. The Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 parish-house was built in 1781 by Franz Häffele.

St. Michael

The Catholic parish St. Michael in Binswangen was built by Ludwig Bronner in 1788 on the site of a 1578 predecessor and was dedicated in 1818. The reason for the relatively long time between construction and dedication is largely unknown.

Other Buildings

One of the oldest buildings in Erlenbach is the Erlenbach Bakery from 1575, which was a schoolhouse until 1813.

The old town hall, a large stone building from 1876 with a crow-stepped gable
Crow-stepped gable
A Stepped gable, Crow-stepped gable, or Corbie step is a stair-step type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building...

 is now a residence. The current town hall in the marketplace was built in 1698.

The 450 square meter tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....

 of the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

 from 1574 now houses the Viniculture museum "Alte Kelter Binswangen" (Old Binswangen Winepress).

Music

Every year, the music club in Erlenbach arranges a Spring concert and, every two years, a serenade in the marketplace as well as a church concert in the St. Martinus church. Additionally, it is the main organizer of the Original Erlenbach Wine Festival.

Sport

Apart from the normal sports club in Erlenbach, there is a cycling club, RSV Erlenbach, which is well known for artistic cycling
Artistic cycling
Artistic cycling is a form of competitive indoor cycling in which athletes perform tricks for points on specialized, fixed-gear bikes in a format similar to ballet or gymnastics...

.

Regular events

There are two yearly wine festivals:
  • Rund um den Wein (Around the wine) - every July in the multipurpose hall
  • Original Erlenbacher Weinfest (Original Erlenbach Wine Festival) - during the third weekend in August at the town hall in the marketplace


During Mardi-Gras, the Binswangen Carnival Club puts on a parade and variety show.

Partner Cities

Seiches-sur-le-Loir France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

vor 2000
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