Glattbach
Encyclopedia
Glattbach is a community in the Aschaffenburg district
in the Regierungsbezirk
of Lower Franconia
(Unterfranken) in Bavaria
, Germany
.
on the western edge of the Spessart
(range).
and working small farms. Out of one such settlement grew the village of Glattbach over the course of the centuries (earlier known as Gladebach and also Gladbach). It might have got its name from the goldlike glittering in the local stone found on the banks and on the bed of the brook (glad meant “glittering”, and Bach is German
for “brook”). The economic relationships were quite humble; obligatory service, tithe payments and debts thwarted any growth. The only wealth came with the vineyard
s, which lay on the sunny south and southwest slopes. Cadastral names such as Wingert unterm Dorf, Wingert oberm Dorf and Am heißen Stein still recall the local winegrowing today. Since Glattbacher wine was known to be good, it led to Count Schönborn owning a vineyard here. After many bad harvests, the vines were torn up in the late 18th century, and instead intensive fruitgrowing began. This specifically involved cherries
. In industry, linen
weaving was strongly represented. In 1832, seventeen linen weavers appeared in the old community books.
The endless sharing out of estates under Electoral Mainz
inheritance law meant that the area of land available for each farmer to work was forever shrinking. While only ten families shared the 310 ha municipal area in 1661, by the mid 18th century there were 50 neighbours (or Nachbarn, as residents were called, as opposed to those who had moved to the community and therefore neither owned land nor had rights) who had to eke out their lives from the soil.
The only major property, with 97 Morgen
(somewhat less than 200 000 m²), was the herrschaftliches Höfchen (“Manorial Estate”), which passed to Saints Peter’s and Alexander’s Monastery from noble ownership as a donation in 1334, later being bestowed by the Monastery upon various country noblemen. Later still, it passed to the landlord, the Elector of Mainz, and eventually – about 1837 – it was sold into private ownership to the landed family Heeg. About 1800, the old Hofreith was torn down, and across the road a major estate with an oil and tobacco
mill and a wine press
was built, today known as the Helmshof.
The village’s location in a secluded dale meant that there was never any through traffic. Nevertheless, in no way was Glattbach spared the hardship and war that time and again beset the Lower Main area. This may well have had something to do with the village’s lying right near the town of Aschaffenburg, or perhaps it was the Gelnhäuser Straße, an old army and trade road running by Glattbach to the west, which led up to the Johannesberger Höhe (heights). Warlike peoples came plundering, burning and murdering their way through the village, bringing the population hardship and misery. Frightful pestilences took a heavy toll on the people. After the Thirty Years' War
only ten families out of what had been 33 were still alive, and 20 houses had vanished from the earth. Many times the people fled before the soldiers. In 1743, when the English
were plundering the whole community from 18 to 26 June, the population fled, hiding out in the Spessart forests.
In the war’s wake came further sickness. The grimmest Plague years, 1606 and 1636, are today still remembered by two Bildstöcke (sing. Bildstock – a cross-shaped or columnar pillar functioning as a wayside shrine), called Peststeine (“Plague stones”), on the main road. In the time of greatest hardship, the population vowed to hold a festival and repentance day “for everlasting time” if the sickness came to an end. On this so-called Hellfeiertag (roughly “Light Holiday” – despite the similarity in pronunciation, there is no connection with “hellfire”), the Friday before Michaelmas
, it was forbidden to light a fire in any hearth, and both people and livestock observed a strict fast and did no work. The vow was strictly kept right up until the First World War.
As early as the 12th century, Glattbach was mentioned as a branch of Saint Agatha’s parish at Aschaffenburg. There is, however, no mention of a church until the 17th century. In 1682, a chapel
in Saint Nicholas’s honour was built, and consecrated by the Capuchin
priest Martin von Cochem, a famous repentance preacher and folk writer. At that time, the community had some 180 to 200 inhabitants. The chapel stood with its graveyard and schoolhouse on the lot now occupied by the church. The chapel was not standing very long. Already by 1727, a new church was being built there, the Magdalenenkirchlein (roughly “Mary Magdalene
’s Little Church”). It was built in the astonishingly short time of four months. Services were held only once a month, on a weekday. Only from 1775 onwards does it seem that there were services on Sunday – and even then only over the winter – mostly given by a Capuchin priest. In 1890, a local chaplaincy was instituted, which was raised to parish on 14 December 1922. Ten clergy worked as local chaplains in Glattbach. The first parish priest was Christian Benz from Weibersbrunn, who held this post for 25 years before he died in an accident on 20 December 1948. In 1899 the Magdalenenkirchlein was torn down. Building work then began on today’s Gothic Revival
parish church, Maria Himmelfahrt (“Assumption of Mary
”), which was consecrated on 15 August 1901. There were some 700 Catholic parishioners in those days.
Already by about 1730, there was school in Glattbach. The schoolmasters were until far into the 19th century craftsmen who pursued teaching only as a sideline, or who employed helpers to do it. The oldest known schoolhouse stood behind the Magdalenenkirchlein and contained not only a schoolroom and a teacher’s dwelling, but also a communal room. In 1878 the second schoolhouse was built, which at the time was one of the finest for a great distance. Since 1986 it has served as the town hall, after the elementary school
had moved to the new building auf dem Schwalbesgraben, one wing in 1958, and the other in 1964.
The industrialization of the 19th century and the great splintering of land ownership by inheritances that were endlessly carving plots into smaller ones brought about the community’s first structural shift from purely a farming village to a workers’ village. A man from Glattbach, a tailor named Johann Desch born in 1848, while in his shop hit on the idea of sewing suits by standard measurements ahead of time and having the sewing done by workers in their homes. These first ready-to-wear suits sold briskly in the growing industrial towns of Hanau, Frankfurt and Offenbach. The business quickly swelled, and Johann Desch bought a house in Aschaffenburg. In 1874, he had the first men’s clothing factory entered into the town’s commercial registry. This branch of industry in the Aschaffenburg area that was once so important had its cradle in that tailor’s shop in Glattbach.
In the Second World War, the village suffered greatly under the bombings in 1944 and 1945. Fourteen people were killed in these raids, and more than a hundred buildings were utterly or partly destroyed, among them the kindergarten and the gym
nasium. After the war, reconstruction was implemented through brisk building activity and a heavy inflow of inhabitants. Beginning then, Glattbach became a residential community with nearly 3,800 inhabitants, favoured by its proximity to the town and its scenically charming location. The inhabitants are mostly commuters who overwhelmingly have jobs in Aschaffenburg.
(as at municipal election held on 2 March 2008)
might be described thus: Or a bend sinister wavy azure, in chief an inescutcheon sable a stork with two heads argent armed gules, the sinister reguardant from the base issuant, in base three yarn reels palewise argent in bend sinister wound with yarn gules.
The placename ending —bach, which is German
for “brook”, is seen in the arms as the wavy blue bend sinister – that is to say, slanted stripe beginning at the top on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side. The two-headed stork in the inescutcheon comes from the arms once borne by the noble family von Wasen. They owned an estate in the community from 1387 to 1528. The yarn reels refer to the beginnings of the Aschaffenburg clothing industry.
The arms have been borne since 1980.
, Calvados
, France
Glattbach, constituent community of Lindenfels
in the Odenwald
Glattbach, constituent community of Dermbach
in Thuringia
Aschaffenburg (district)
Aschaffenburg is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Darmstadt-Dieburg, Offenbach, Main-Kinzig , the districts Main-Spessart and Miltenberg, and the town of Aschaffenburg....
in the Regierungsbezirk
Regierungsbezirk
In Germany, a Government District, in German: Regierungsbezirk – is a subdivision of certain federal states .They are above the Kreise, Landkreise, and kreisfreie Städte...
of Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria , Germany ....
(Unterfranken) in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, 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 a valley north of AschaffenburgAschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg is a city in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat.Aschaffenburg is known as the Tor zum Spessart or "gate to the Spessart"...
on the western edge of the Spessart
Spessart
The Spessart is a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse, Germany. It is bordered on three sides by the Main River. The two most important towns located at the foot of the Spessart are Aschaffenburg and Würzburg....
(range).
History
In the 12th century, the forest still reached the town gates at Aschaffenburg. In the dales, in humble settlements, lived the Mainz Archbishop’s serfs who busied themselves in forestry and lived by huntingHunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and working small farms. Out of one such settlement grew the village of Glattbach over the course of the centuries (earlier known as Gladebach and also Gladbach). It might have got its name from the goldlike glittering in the local stone found on the banks and on the bed of the brook (glad meant “glittering”, and Bach is 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....
for “brook”). The economic relationships were quite humble; obligatory service, tithe payments and debts thwarted any growth. The only wealth came with the vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s, which lay on the sunny south and southwest slopes. Cadastral names such as Wingert unterm Dorf, Wingert oberm Dorf and Am heißen Stein still recall the local winegrowing today. Since Glattbacher wine was known to be good, it led to Count Schönborn owning a vineyard here. After many bad harvests, the vines were torn up in the late 18th century, and instead intensive fruitgrowing began. This specifically involved cherries
Cherry
The cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy stone fruit. The cherry fruits of commerce are usually obtained from a limited number of species, including especially cultivars of the wild cherry, Prunus avium....
. In industry, linen
Linen
Linen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. Linen is labor-intensive to manufacture, but when it is made into garments, it is valued for its exceptional coolness and freshness in hot weather....
weaving was strongly represented. In 1832, seventeen linen weavers appeared in the old community books.
The endless sharing out of estates under Electoral 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...
inheritance law meant that the area of land available for each farmer to work was forever shrinking. While only ten families shared the 310 ha municipal area in 1661, by the mid 18th century there were 50 neighbours (or Nachbarn, as residents were called, as opposed to those who had moved to the community and therefore neither owned land nor had rights) who had to eke out their lives from the soil.
The only major property, with 97 Morgen
Morgen
A morgen was a unit of measurement of land in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the Dutch colonies, including South Africa and Taiwan. The size of a morgen varies from 1/2 to 2½ acres, which equals approximately 0.2 to 1 ha...
(somewhat less than 200 000 m²), was the herrschaftliches Höfchen (“Manorial Estate”), which passed to Saints Peter’s and Alexander’s Monastery from noble ownership as a donation in 1334, later being bestowed by the Monastery upon various country noblemen. Later still, it passed to the landlord, the Elector of Mainz, and eventually – about 1837 – it was sold into private ownership to the landed family Heeg. About 1800, the old Hofreith was torn down, and across the road a major estate with an oil and tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
mill and a wine press
Wine press
A wine press is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts controlled pressure in order to free the juice from the fruit...
was built, today known as the Helmshof.
The village’s location in a secluded dale meant that there was never any through traffic. Nevertheless, in no way was Glattbach spared the hardship and war that time and again beset the Lower Main area. This may well have had something to do with the village’s lying right near the town of Aschaffenburg, or perhaps it was the Gelnhäuser Straße, an old army and trade road running by Glattbach to the west, which led up to the Johannesberger Höhe (heights). Warlike peoples came plundering, burning and murdering their way through the village, bringing the population hardship and misery. Frightful pestilences took a heavy toll on the people. After 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....
only ten families out of what had been 33 were still alive, and 20 houses had vanished from the earth. Many times the people fled before the soldiers. In 1743, when the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
were plundering the whole community from 18 to 26 June, the population fled, hiding out in the Spessart forests.
In the war’s wake came further sickness. The grimmest Plague years, 1606 and 1636, are today still remembered by two Bildstöcke (sing. Bildstock – a cross-shaped or columnar pillar functioning as a wayside shrine), called Peststeine (“Plague stones”), on the main road. In the time of greatest hardship, the population vowed to hold a festival and repentance day “for everlasting time” if the sickness came to an end. On this so-called Hellfeiertag (roughly “Light Holiday” – despite the similarity in pronunciation, there is no connection with “hellfire”), the Friday before Michaelmas
Michaelmas
Michaelmas, the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel is a day in the Western Christian calendar which occurs on 29 September...
, it was forbidden to light a fire in any hearth, and both people and livestock observed a strict fast and did no work. The vow was strictly kept right up until the First World War.
As early as the 12th century, Glattbach was mentioned as a branch of Saint Agatha’s parish at Aschaffenburg. There is, however, no mention of a church until the 17th century. In 1682, a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
in Saint Nicholas’s honour was built, and consecrated by the Capuchin
Order of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...
priest Martin von Cochem, a famous repentance preacher and folk writer. At that time, the community had some 180 to 200 inhabitants. The chapel stood with its graveyard and schoolhouse on the lot now occupied by the church. The chapel was not standing very long. Already by 1727, a new church was being built there, the Magdalenenkirchlein (roughly “Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
’s Little Church”). It was built in the astonishingly short time of four months. Services were held only once a month, on a weekday. Only from 1775 onwards does it seem that there were services on Sunday – and even then only over the winter – mostly given by a Capuchin priest. In 1890, a local chaplaincy was instituted, which was raised to parish on 14 December 1922. Ten clergy worked as local chaplains in Glattbach. The first parish priest was Christian Benz from Weibersbrunn, who held this post for 25 years before he died in an accident on 20 December 1948. In 1899 the Magdalenenkirchlein was torn down. Building work then began on today’s Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
parish church, Maria Himmelfahrt (“Assumption of Mary
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
”), which was consecrated on 15 August 1901. There were some 700 Catholic parishioners in those days.
Already by about 1730, there was school in Glattbach. The schoolmasters were until far into the 19th century craftsmen who pursued teaching only as a sideline, or who employed helpers to do it. The oldest known schoolhouse stood behind the Magdalenenkirchlein and contained not only a schoolroom and a teacher’s dwelling, but also a communal room. In 1878 the second schoolhouse was built, which at the time was one of the finest for a great distance. Since 1986 it has served as the town hall, after the elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
had moved to the new building auf dem Schwalbesgraben, one wing in 1958, and the other in 1964.
The industrialization of the 19th century and the great splintering of land ownership by inheritances that were endlessly carving plots into smaller ones brought about the community’s first structural shift from purely a farming village to a workers’ village. A man from Glattbach, a tailor named Johann Desch born in 1848, while in his shop hit on the idea of sewing suits by standard measurements ahead of time and having the sewing done by workers in their homes. These first ready-to-wear suits sold briskly in the growing industrial towns of Hanau, Frankfurt and Offenbach. The business quickly swelled, and Johann Desch bought a house in Aschaffenburg. In 1874, he had the first men’s clothing factory entered into the town’s commercial registry. This branch of industry in the Aschaffenburg area that was once so important had its cradle in that tailor’s shop in Glattbach.
In the Second World War, the village suffered greatly under the bombings in 1944 and 1945. Fourteen people were killed in these raids, and more than a hundred buildings were utterly or partly destroyed, among them the kindergarten and the gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium. After the war, reconstruction was implemented through brisk building activity and a heavy inflow of inhabitants. Beginning then, Glattbach became a residential community with nearly 3,800 inhabitants, favoured by its proximity to the town and its scenically charming location. The inhabitants are mostly commuters who overwhelmingly have jobs in Aschaffenburg.
Community council
The council is made up of 17 council members, counting the fulltime mayor.| CSU Christian Social Union of Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany... |
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
Pro Glattbach | Total | |
| 2008 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 17 seats |
(as at municipal election held on 2 March 2008)
Coat of arms
The community’s 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...
might be described thus: Or a bend sinister wavy azure, in chief an inescutcheon sable a stork with two heads argent armed gules, the sinister reguardant from the base issuant, in base three yarn reels palewise argent in bend sinister wound with yarn gules.
The placename ending —bach, which is 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....
for “brook”, is seen in the arms as the wavy blue bend sinister – that is to say, slanted stripe beginning at the top on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side. The two-headed stork in the inescutcheon comes from the arms once borne by the noble family von Wasen. They owned an estate in the community from 1387 to 1528. The yarn reels refer to the beginnings of the Aschaffenburg clothing industry.
The arms have been borne since 1980.
Town partnerships
Bretteville-sur-OdonBretteville-sur-Odon
Bretteville-sur-Odon is a commune in the department of Calvados in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.It lies on the River Odon about west of Caen.-Population:-Twin towns:* Woodbury, Devon, UK since 1978...
, Calvados
Calvados
The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...
, 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...
Glattbach, constituent community of Lindenfels
Lindenfels
Lindenfels is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.- Location :The climatic spa, also known as the “Pearl of the Odenwald”, lies in the Odenwald in southern Hesse and is nestled in a mountain landscape with a great deal of woodland....
in the Odenwald
Odenwald
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...
Glattbach, constituent community of Dermbach
Dermbach
Dermbach is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany....
in Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
Sport and clubs
There is a lively sport and club life in Glattbach. Among others, the following clubs are active:- BeekeepingBeekeepingBeekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...
club - Flugmodelsportclub Glattbach (model plane flying)
- FSV Glattbach (football)
- Gesellschaftsverein Glattbach (social club)
- Geflügelzuchtverein Glattbach (poultryPoultryPoultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
raising) - Gesangverein Germania (singing)
- L´Amitie e.V.
- Musikverein Glattbach
- Obst- und Gartenbauverein Glattbach (fruitgrowing and gardening)
- Pro Glattbach (independent voters’ group)
- Rot-Kreuz-Gemeinschaft (Red CrossGerman Red CrossThe German Red Cross , or the DRK, is the national Red Cross Society in Germany.With over 4.5 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within and outside Germany...
) - Schützengesellschaft (shooting)
- St. Johanniszweigverein
- Turnverein 1895 e.V. Glattbach (gymnastics)
- Vogel- und Naturschutzverein Glattbach (birds and conservation)
- Nerother Wandervogel Vaganten
- Volunteer fire brigade
Transport
- Bus route 9 to Aschaffenburg
- Autobahn A 3, between FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
(roughly 45 km away) and WürzburgWürzburgWürzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
(roughly 75 km away).
Sons and daughters of the town
- Johann Desch, said to be one of the cofounders of industrial clothing production in Germany
- Alois Bergmann-Franken (b. 1897 as Alois Bergmann in Glattbach; d. 1965 in Glattbach) was a German artistic painter active throughout the Aschaffenburg district.