Grünstadt
Encyclopedia
Grünstadt is a town in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde
– a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
.
, 15 km southwest of Worms
and 20 km northwest of Ludwigshafen at the point where the German Wine Route crosses the Autobahn A 6
. The town’s landmark mountain is the so-called Grünstadter Berg.
in Grünstadt amounts to 529 mm, which is very low, falling into the lowest tenth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 7% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.7 times what it is in February. Precipitation hardly varies throughout the year, however. At 15% of the weather stations, lower seasonal swings are recorded.
, about 5000 BC, left their traces, as did farmers from the New Stone Age about 2000 BC. From the Bronze Age
(1500-750 BC), Hallstatt times
(700-450 BC) and La Tène times
(450 BC – 1) come both remnants of settlements and archaeological
finds.
In Roman times
until AD 450 there were three inhabited centres, one of which was near today’s Peterspark. This is one of Grünstadt’s “seeds”, and it was also settled in the Merovingian
and Frankish
periods. It was here that the Romans buried their dead, the Christian
Franks later taking over. There were quite likely a Roman burgus (a Latin
word borrowed from the Germanic
whose root also yields the German
Burg [“castle”] and the English
borough [originally “fortified town”]; it was a kind of small, towerlike fortification) and a temple complex that later became a church. Also here, about 800, the Alsatian
Weißenburg Monastery (which lay in what is now Wissembourg
, France
) owned a church consecrated to Saint Peter with a parish estate – the latter of which gives a clue as to the town’s importance – a lordly estate with great outbuildings and 14 farms.
At roughly the same time, there still stood a southern centre in the area around the Martinskirche (Saint Martin’s Church) that belonged to the Glandern (or Lungenfeld) Monastery near Metz
, and it is believed that there was a further settlement between the two. Grünstadt at first developed gradually from these three centres, one of which – apparently the southernmost – went back to a Frankish clan chief by the name of “Grimdeo” or “Grindeo”. Although the first syllable in the town’s name – grün – happens to be the German
word for “green”, modern linguistic research has unambiguously shown that the name does not derive from this root at all. The green municipal coat of arms
introduced in the 19th century and the town colours, green and white, that were derived from it in 1928 therefore lack any historical basis.
restored this estate to the Glandern Monastery near Metz. The place was already called Grinstat in this document, and the ownership rights already went back further, as they were only being restored. This settlement, therefore, was considerably older than that 875 document, which had nothing to say about the estate’s buildings. It is assumed to have been a monastery estate with a small church, out of which grew first a Benedictine
priory which was newly built several times, and then today’s Protestant
Saint Martin’s Church, with the burial place of the House of Leiningen-Westerburg.
At roughly the same time, about 900, the northern settlement belonging to the Weißenburg Monastery (near today’s Peterspark) was recorded in that institution’s directory of holdings, even describing it in depth, with the holdings already mentioned (church, parish estate, manor house and many buildings), which point to an already great age for the village even then. The settlement later vanished or perhaps moved to the south to join the other two. Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and its graveyard, whose beginnings could well go back to Roman times, were nevertheless kept on into the 19th century as a religious centre and necropolis, even though they lay far outside the later town of Grünstadt. In 1819, the church, which was more than 1,000 years old, was torn down, and the ancient patronage
"St. Peter" then passed to the Capuchin
church (now the Catholic parish church). The graveyard was closed only in 1874 and converted into today’s Peterspark.
In 1155, Grünstadt was named in a document from Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa
in which he donated the holdings there to the Ramsen Monastery. In 1218, Pope Honorius III confirmed the Glandern Monastery’s ownership of Saint Martin’s Church in Grünstadt. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV certified the Höningen Monastery’s holdings in Grünstadt. About 1300, the Weißenburg Monastery enfeoffed the Counts of Leiningen with its holdings in Grünstadt.
In 1556, Emperor Karl V
granted the municipality market rights, raising it from village to market town. The year before this one, Count Philipp I of Leiningen had introduced the obligatory practice of the Lutheran
faith in his county and forbidden the other Christian
denominations, namely Roman Catholicism and Reformed
.
In 1573, Henry III of France
, then King of Poland
, spent the night in Grünstadt.
In 1596 and 1597, the Plague raged in Grünstadt, killing more than 250 inhabitants in a short time.
Beginning in 1610, the Counts were having coins struck in Grünstadt, and established a mint.
In the time of the Thirty Years' War
, the town was spared any major destruction; however, the Plague once again beset the townsfolk between 1625 and 1629. Many of them died or left the area. For a time, Spanish
soldiers were quartered in Grünstadt.
In 1673, Count Ludwig Eberhardt of Leiningen converted to the Catholic faith and thereafter granted Catholics tolerance in his county. He had the Capuchins
come there, who soon founded a monastery from which arose today’s Catholic parish church and the monastery building.
In 1689, in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), the French
burnt the town down, which is why there are only a few traces of pre-Baroque architecture in town.
It was only in 1689 that the long overdue reform to the Gregorian Calendar
was implemented in Grünstadt and the rest of the county, heretofore having been boycotted for religious reasons because it was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII.
and Neuleiningen
had also been burnt down, the two comital lines both settled in Grünstadt beginning in 1700, made it a common residence town and took turns ruling. The Altleiningers had the old Glandern monasterial estate near Saint Martin’s Church expanded into a palatial residence and called it Schloß Unterhof, while the Neuleiningers built the stately Baroque
Schloß Oberhof not far away. For about 100 years, Grünstadt remained the capital of the county of Leiningen-Westerburg.
In 1726, the first Reformed
church service was held in Grünstadt. In the time that followed, the Reformed Church’s followers were subjected to great oppression, mainly by the Lutheran
clergy. They were not allowed to build their own church, and they were even forbidden to bury their dead at the local graveyard. They were instead buried in a barn, where the community also met for its services. The Reformed Schultheiß
and master tanner Johann Peter Schwartz, especially, put himself forth as the group’s spokesman to defend against this treatment. He wrote to royalty (for instance, King Frederick II of Prussia
) and eventually forced formal tolerance of the Reformed Church in the county. Not far from his house (which still bears the initials “JPS” today), on the same spot where their old barn had stood, the Reformed Church’s followers built themselves their own church in 1740, which is now known as the Friedenskirche (“Church of Peace”).
In 1729, Count Georg Hermann at Leiningen-Westerburg-Altleiningen founded a Latin school
in Grünstadt, as a successor institution to the monastery school at Höningen (nowadays an outlying centre of Altleiningen
). From this arose first a Progymnasium and then today’s Leininger-Gymnasium
.
In the War of the First Coalition, there was fighting in the area around Grünstadt between 1793 and 1795 with the occupiers changing among the Austria
ns, the French
and the Prussia
ns. In 1794, the man who would later become Field Marshal von Blücher
, but who at this time was a colonel in the Prussian Red Hussars, procured quarters in the town. According to local lore, he rode his horse up the outdoor stairway that then stood at the (now former) town hall and made a speech to the townsfolk.
– itself permanently confirmed by the Treaty of Lunéville
(1801) – Grünstadt passed as a cantonal seat to the French Department of Mont-Tonnerre
(or Donnersberg in German
), whose seat of government was in Mainz
. Grünstadt remained French until 1815.
After Napoleon’s
downfall, Grünstadt passed in 1816 to the Kingdom of Bavaria
. It remained Bavarian for exactly 130 years, until the new state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
was founded in 1946.
On 14 June 1829, King Ludwig I of Bavaria
and his consort Queen Therese
visited the town as part of their tour of the Palatinate. The king attended a High Mass
at the Capuchin
church and was ceremoniously welcomed by Father Bernhard Würschmitt.
On 14 June 1849 – twenty years to the day later – Prince William of Prussia, who would later be Wilhelm I, German Emperor, rode in pursuit of the revolutionary partisans (Freischärler) coming from Kirchheimbolanden
with his staff through what is now called Jakobstraße (street) and Hauptstraße. At the Stadthaus (now known as the Old Town Hall) he made a stop and an officer from his entourage spoke from the outdoor stairway to the townsfolk on the topic of “Loyalty towards Prince and Fatherland”, whereafter the military detachment pushed on towards the south.
In 1873, Grünstadt acquired a rail link on the Bad Dürkheim
- Monsheim
railway with its own station.
In the Second World War (1939–1945), Grünstadt was repeatedly the target of air raid
s to which, among others, Saint Martin’s Church fell victim. As a result of wartime events, 360 people lost their lives, soldiers and civilian victims of bombings. As well, the town’s very old and important Jewish community was swept away in this time by deportation and emigration, although the Baroque
synagogue
and the Jewish graveyard east of town have been preserved.
On 20 March 1945, American
troops occupied the town area; the French
military followed them on 7 July 1945.
In the wake of the dissolution of the Frankenthal district, after having belonged to the same district for more than 150 years, Grünstadt passed in 1969 to the new district of Bad Dürkheim
; the vehicle licence prefix changed from “FT” to “DÜW”. On 7 June 1969, the formerly autonomous localities of Asselheim and Sausenheim were amalgamated with the town.
sealed the community’s fate. It simply ceased to exist.
and 25.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
). Since 1 January 2010, however, Klaus Wagner (CDU) has been the new Mayor of Grünstadt.
The town’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Vert an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules among four Greek crosses in fess Or, two in chief, and two in base.
The arms were approved in 1890 by the Bavarian prince regent Luitpold
and go back to a court seal from 1456.
The eagle is taken from the arms borne by the Counts of Leiningen, but the reason for the crosses’ inclusion as a charge
is less clear. They might refer to the Weißenburg Monastery, which was also a landlord in the town. The tincture
vert (green) is canting
for the town’s name, Grünstadt, which means “Greentown”, although research has shown that the name does not derive from this German word.
, Saale-Holzland-Kreis, Thuringia
Greenville
, Ohio
, USA
Carrières-sur-Seine
, Yvelines
, France
Bonita Springs
, Florida
, USA Westerburg
, Westerwaldkreis
, Rhineland-Palatinate
Peine
, Peine
, Lower Saxony
(friendship agreement with outlying centre of Asselheim)
(Saarbrücken
–Mannheim
), Grünstadt is well linked not only to the national highway network in Germany, but also to France
and the Czech Republic
. The town also lies on the Pfälzische Nordbahn (railway), which in parts runs alongside the German Wine Route in the southerly direction to Neustadt an der Weinstraße
. Furthermore, the reactivated Eistalbahn runs into the Palatinate Forest to the Eiswoog (a manmade lake) near Ramsen
. Formerly this line reached all the way to Enkenbach. The Untere Eistalbahn also branches off the Pfälzische Nordbahn in Grünstadt.
, even though the town itself is in neither this nor any other Verbandsgemeinde.
that belongs to the state court region (Landgerichtsbezirk) of Frankenthal and the high state court region (Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk) of Zweibrücken
.
district.
and a Realschule
, there is the Leininger Gymnasium
, which is steeped in tradition and rooted in the old Höningen Latin School.
).
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
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...
with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any 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 – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
.
Location
The town lies in the Leiningerland (the lands once held by the Counts of Leiningen) on the northern border of the Palatinate Forest about 10 km north of Bad DürkheimBad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, 15 km southwest 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...
and 20 km northwest of Ludwigshafen at the point where the German Wine Route crosses the Autobahn A 6
Bundesautobahn 6
, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west and end at the Czech border near Waidhaus in the east....
. The town’s landmark mountain is the so-called Grünstadter Berg.
Climate
Yearly precipitationPrecipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
in Grünstadt amounts to 529 mm, which is very low, falling into the lowest tenth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 7% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.7 times what it is in February. Precipitation hardly varies throughout the year, however. At 15% of the weather stations, lower seasonal swings are recorded.
Constituent communities
Besides the main town of Grünstadt itself, which has some 10,000 inhabitants, there are two outlying centres within town limits, the Ortsteile of Asselheim (about 1,300 inhabitants) and Sausenheim (about 2,300 inhabitants).Early history until first documentary mention
The Grünstadt area is an ancient centre of culture. Within the town’s modern limits, hunters from the Middle Stone AgeMiddle Stone Age
The Middle Stone Age was a period of African Prehistory between Early Stone Age and Late Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50-25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550-500,000...
, about 5000 BC, left their traces, as did farmers from the New Stone Age about 2000 BC. From the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
(1500-750 BC), Hallstatt times
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
(700-450 BC) and La Tène times
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
(450 BC – 1) come both remnants of settlements and archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds.
In Roman times
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....
until AD 450 there were three inhabited centres, one of which was near today’s Peterspark. This is one of Grünstadt’s “seeds”, and it was also settled in the Merovingian
Merovingian dynasty
The Merovingians were a Salian Frankish dynasty that came to rule the Franks in a region largely corresponding to ancient Gaul from the middle of the 5th century. Their politics involved frequent civil warfare among branches of the family...
and 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...
periods. It was here that the Romans buried their dead, the 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...
Franks later taking over. There were quite likely a Roman burgus (a Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word borrowed from the Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
whose root also yields the 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....
Burg [“castle”] and the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
borough [originally “fortified town”]; it was a kind of small, towerlike fortification) and a temple complex that later became a church. Also here, about 800, the Alsatian
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
Weißenburg Monastery (which lay in what is now Wissembourg
Wissembourg
Wissembourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately north of Strasbourg and west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department...
, 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...
) owned a church consecrated to Saint Peter with a parish estate – the latter of which gives a clue as to the town’s importance – a lordly estate with great outbuildings and 14 farms.
At roughly the same time, there still stood a southern centre in the area around the Martinskirche (Saint Martin’s Church) that belonged to the Glandern (or Lungenfeld) Monastery near Metz
Metz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
, and it is believed that there was a further settlement between the two. Grünstadt at first developed gradually from these three centres, one of which – apparently the southernmost – went back to a Frankish clan chief by the name of “Grimdeo” or “Grindeo”. Although the first syllable in the town’s name – grün – happens to be the 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....
word for “green”, modern linguistic research has unambiguously shown that the name does not derive from this root at all. The green municipal coat of arms
Coat 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...
introduced in the 19th century and the town colours, green and white, that were derived from it in 1928 therefore lack any historical basis.
875 to 1500
Grünstadt – or rather the southern settlement around Saint Martin’s – had its first documentary mention on 21 November 875, when King Louis the GermanLouis 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...
restored this estate to the Glandern Monastery near Metz. The place was already called Grinstat in this document, and the ownership rights already went back further, as they were only being restored. This settlement, therefore, was considerably older than that 875 document, which had nothing to say about the estate’s buildings. It is assumed to have been a monastery estate with a small church, out of which grew first a Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
priory which was newly built several times, and then today’s 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...
Saint Martin’s Church, with the burial place of the House of Leiningen-Westerburg.
At roughly the same time, about 900, the northern settlement belonging to the Weißenburg Monastery (near today’s Peterspark) was recorded in that institution’s directory of holdings, even describing it in depth, with the holdings already mentioned (church, parish estate, manor house and many buildings), which point to an already great age for the village even then. The settlement later vanished or perhaps moved to the south to join the other two. Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and its graveyard, whose beginnings could well go back to Roman times, were nevertheless kept on into the 19th century as a religious centre and necropolis, even though they lay far outside the later town of Grünstadt. In 1819, the church, which was more than 1,000 years old, was torn down, and the ancient patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
"St. Peter" then passed to 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 :...
church (now the Catholic parish church). The graveyard was closed only in 1874 and converted into today’s Peterspark.
In 1155, Grünstadt was named in a document from Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
in which he donated the holdings there to the Ramsen Monastery. In 1218, Pope Honorius III confirmed the Glandern Monastery’s ownership of Saint Martin’s Church in Grünstadt. In 1245, Pope Innocent IV certified the Höningen Monastery’s holdings in Grünstadt. About 1300, the Weißenburg Monastery enfeoffed the Counts of Leiningen with its holdings in Grünstadt.
1500 to 1700
From 1481 to 1505, Grünstadt belonged to Electoral Palatinate, and then once again to the Leiningens, who in 1549 were also enfeoffed with the Glandern Monastery’s holdings there (the southern part around Saint Martin’s). It was not until 1735 that the Leiningens managed to acquire this property formerly belonging to the Glandern or Lungenfeld Monastery as their own.In 1556, Emperor Karl V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
granted the municipality market rights, raising it from village to market town. The year before this one, Count Philipp I of Leiningen had introduced the obligatory practice of the 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...
faith in his county and forbidden the other 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...
denominations, namely Roman Catholicism and 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...
.
In 1573, Henry III of France
Henry III of France
Henry III was King of France from 1574 to 1589. As Henry of Valois, he was the first elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Childhood:Henry was born at the Royal Château de Fontainebleau,...
, then King of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, spent the night in Grünstadt.
In 1596 and 1597, the Plague raged in Grünstadt, killing more than 250 inhabitants in a short time.
Beginning in 1610, the Counts were having coins struck in Grünstadt, and established a mint.
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....
, the town was spared any major destruction; however, the Plague once again beset the townsfolk between 1625 and 1629. Many of them died or left the area. For a time, Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
soldiers were quartered in Grünstadt.
In 1673, Count Ludwig Eberhardt of Leiningen converted to the Catholic faith and thereafter granted Catholics tolerance in his county. He had the Capuchins
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 :...
come there, who soon founded a monastery from which arose today’s Catholic parish church and the monastery building.
In 1689, in the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), the French
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...
burnt the town down, which is why there are only a few traces of pre-Baroque architecture in town.
It was only in 1689 that the long overdue reform to the Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
was implemented in Grünstadt and the rest of the county, heretofore having been boycotted for religious reasons because it was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII.
1700 to 1800
Since both the family castles of AltleiningenAltleiningen
Altleiningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
and Neuleiningen
Neuleiningen
Neuleiningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
had also been burnt down, the two comital lines both settled in Grünstadt beginning in 1700, made it a common residence town and took turns ruling. The Altleiningers had the old Glandern monasterial estate near Saint Martin’s Church expanded into a palatial residence and called it Schloß Unterhof, while the Neuleiningers built the stately Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
Schloß Oberhof not far away. For about 100 years, Grünstadt remained the capital of the county of Leiningen-Westerburg.
In 1726, the first 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...
church service was held in Grünstadt. In the time that followed, the Reformed Church’s followers were subjected to great oppression, mainly by the 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...
clergy. They were not allowed to build their own church, and they were even forbidden to bury their dead at the local graveyard. They were instead buried in a barn, where the community also met for its services. The Reformed 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...
and master tanner Johann Peter Schwartz, especially, put himself forth as the group’s spokesman to defend against this treatment. He wrote to royalty (for instance, King Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II of Prussia
Frederick II was a King in Prussia and a King of Prussia from the Hohenzollern dynasty. In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was also Elector of Brandenburg. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
) and eventually forced formal tolerance of the Reformed Church in the county. Not far from his house (which still bears the initials “JPS” today), on the same spot where their old barn had stood, the Reformed Church’s followers built themselves their own church in 1740, which is now known as the Friedenskirche (“Church of Peace”).
In 1729, Count Georg Hermann at Leiningen-Westerburg-Altleiningen founded a Latin school
Latin School
Latin School may refer to:* Latin schools of Medieval Europe* These schools in the United States:** Boston Latin School, Boston, MA** Brooklyn Latin School, New York, NY** Brother Joseph C. Fox Latin School, Long Island, NY...
in Grünstadt, as a successor institution to the monastery school at Höningen (nowadays an outlying centre of Altleiningen
Altleiningen
Altleiningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
). From this arose first a Progymnasium and then today’s Leininger-Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
.
In the War of the First Coalition, there was fighting in the area around Grünstadt between 1793 and 1795 with the occupiers changing among the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
ns, the French
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...
and the Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
ns. In 1794, the man who would later become Field Marshal von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
, but who at this time was a colonel in the Prussian Red Hussars, procured quarters in the town. According to local lore, he rode his horse up the outdoor stairway that then stood at the (now former) town hall and made a speech to the townsfolk.
1800 to 1900
In 1797, with the Treaty of Campo FormioTreaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 18 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of revolutionary France and the Austrian monarchy...
– itself permanently confirmed by the Treaty of Lunéville
Treaty of Lunéville
The Treaty of Lunéville was signed on 9 February 1801 between the French Republic and the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, negotiating both on behalf of his own domains and of the Holy Roman Empire...
(1801) – Grünstadt passed as a cantonal seat to the French Department of Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the highest point in the Rhenish Palatinate, the Donnersberg. It was the southernmost of four départements formed in 1798, when the west bank of the Rhine was annexed by France...
(or Donnersberg 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....
), whose seat of government was in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. Grünstadt remained French until 1815.
After Napoleon’s
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
downfall, Grünstadt passed in 1816 to the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
. It remained Bavarian for exactly 130 years, until the new 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 ....
was founded in 1946.
On 14 June 1829, King Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
and his consort Queen Therese
Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Therese Charlotte Luise of Saxony-Hildburghausen was a queen of Bavaria.She was a daughter of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, eldest daughter of Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.-Biography:In 1809, she was on the list of...
visited the town as part of their tour of the Palatinate. The king attended a High Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
at 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 :...
church and was ceremoniously welcomed by Father Bernhard Würschmitt.
On 14 June 1849 – twenty years to the day later – Prince William of Prussia, who would later be Wilhelm I, German Emperor, rode in pursuit of the revolutionary partisans (Freischärler) coming from Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden, the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approx. 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern. The first part of the name, Kirchheim, dates back to 774. It became a town in 1368, and the...
with his staff through what is now called Jakobstraße (street) and Hauptstraße. At the Stadthaus (now known as the Old Town Hall) he made a stop and an officer from his entourage spoke from the outdoor stairway to the townsfolk on the topic of “Loyalty towards Prince and Fatherland”, whereafter the military detachment pushed on towards the south.
In 1873, Grünstadt acquired a rail link on the Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
- Monsheim
Monsheim
Monsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
railway with its own station.
1900 to present
In the First World War (1914–1918), 164 inhabitants of Grünstadt fell, in whose memory in 1937 a templelike memorial was built in a prominent spot on the Grünstadter Berg.In the Second World War (1939–1945), Grünstadt was repeatedly the target of air raid
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
s to which, among others, Saint Martin’s Church fell victim. As a result of wartime events, 360 people lost their lives, soldiers and civilian victims of bombings. As well, the town’s very old and important Jewish community was swept away in this time by deportation and emigration, although the Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
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...
and the Jewish graveyard east of town have been preserved.
On 20 March 1945, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops occupied the town area; the French
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...
military followed them on 7 July 1945.
In the wake of the dissolution of the Frankenthal district, after having belonged to the same district for more than 150 years, Grünstadt passed in 1969 to the new district of Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
; the vehicle licence prefix changed from “FT” to “DÜW”. On 7 June 1969, the formerly autonomous localities of Asselheim and Sausenheim were amalgamated with the town.
History of Grünstadt’s Jewish community
Grünstadt was once one of the most important Jewish communities in the Palatinate. In 1827, more than ten percent of the town’s population was Jewish. From 1608 to 1933, the Jewish community’s history can be traced in an unbroken line. The persecution of Jews by the Nazi régimeNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
sealed the community’s fate. It simply ceased to exist.
Today
In 2007, 44.4% of the inhabitants were 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...
and 25.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
Town council
The council is made up of 28 honorary council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the fulltime mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
CDU | FDP Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government... |
GRÜNE Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir... |
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 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 28 seats |
| 2004 | 10 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 28 seats |
Mayors
From 2002 to 2009, the directly elected mayor was Hans Jäger (SPDSocial Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
). Since 1 January 2010, however, Klaus Wagner (CDU) has been the new Mayor of Grünstadt.
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Grün ein rotbewehrter silberner Adler, bewinkelt von vier gleichschenkligen goldenen Kreuzchen.The town’s arms
Coat 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 in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Vert an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules among four Greek crosses in fess Or, two in chief, and two in base.
The arms were approved in 1890 by the Bavarian prince regent Luitpold
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria
Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria , was the de facto ruler of Bavaria from 1886 to 1912, due to the incapacity of his nephews, King Ludwig II and King Otto.-Early life:...
and go back to a court seal from 1456.
The eagle is taken from the arms borne by the Counts of Leiningen, but the reason for the crosses’ inclusion as a charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
is less clear. They might refer to the Weißenburg Monastery, which was also a landlord in the town. 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...
vert (green) is canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
for the town’s name, Grünstadt, which means “Greentown”, although research has shown that the name does not derive from this German word.
Town partnerships
Grünstadt fosters partnerships with the following places: HermsdorfHermsdorf, Thuringia
Hermsdorf is a town in the Saale-Holzland district of the state of Thuringia in eastern Germany. It is especially known for the motorway junction "Hermsdorfer Kreuz" where the two German autobahns A 4 and A 9 meet....
, Saale-Holzland-Kreis, 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....
Greenville
Greenville, Ohio
Greenville is a city in Darke County, Ohio, United States. The population was 13,227 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Darke County.-History:Greenville is the historic location of Fort Greene Ville,Greenville is a city in Darke County, Ohio, United States. The population was 13,227 at...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Carrières-sur-Seine
Carrières-sur-Seine
Carrières-sur-Seine is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.The inhabitants of the town of Carrières-sur-Seine are called Carillons or Carillonnes , which translate into "Chimes" and "Ringing," respectively.-References:*...
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
, 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...
Bonita Springs
Bonita Springs, Florida
Bonita Springs is a city in Lee County, Florida, United States. The population was 43,914 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cape Coral–Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is located on the southwest coast of the state....
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, USA Westerburg
Westerburg
Westerburg is a small town of roughly 6,000 inhabitants in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town is named after the castle built on a hill above the mediaeval town centre -Location:...
, Westerwaldkreis
Westerwaldkreis
The Westerwaldkreis is a district in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, 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 ....
Peine
Peine
Peine is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of the district Peine. It is situated on the river Fuhse and the Mittellandkanal, approx. 25 km west of Braunschweig, and 40 km east of Hanover.- History :...
, Peine
Peine (district)
Peine is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Hildesheim, Hanover and Gifhorn, and the cities of Brunswick and Salzgitter.-History:...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
(friendship agreement with outlying centre of Asselheim)
Regular events
In Grünstadt, the tradition of the Stabausstecken has been kept, or has at least been given new life. This is a festival, traditionally held in early March, in which winter is burnt in effigy, an event known as the Winterverbrennung (“Winter Burning”).Economy and infrastructure
Transport
With the Autobahn A 6Bundesautobahn 6
, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west and end at the Czech border near Waidhaus in the east....
(Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
–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....
), Grünstadt is well linked not only to the national highway network in Germany, but also to 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...
and the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The town also lies on the Pfälzische Nordbahn (railway), which in parts runs alongside the German Wine Route in the southerly direction to Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
. Furthermore, the reactivated Eistalbahn runs into the Palatinate Forest to the Eiswoog (a manmade lake) near Ramsen
Ramsen, Rhineland-Palatinate
Ramsen is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
. Formerly this line reached all the way to Enkenbach. The Untere Eistalbahn also branches off the Pfälzische Nordbahn in Grünstadt.
Authorities
Besides its own town administration, Grünstadt harbours the administration of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-LandGrünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
, even though the town itself is in neither this nor any other Verbandsgemeinde.
Courts
Grünstadt has at its disposal an AmtsgerichtAmtsgericht
Amtsgericht is German for Local District Court, situated in Germany in almost every larger capital of a rural district.It mainly acts in Civil and Criminal law affairs. It forms the lowest level of the so-called ordinary jurisdiction of the German judiciary , which is responsible for most criminal...
that belongs to the state court region (Landgerichtsbezirk) of Frankenthal and the high state court region (Oberlandesgerichtsbezirk) of Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.- Name :Zweibrücken appears in Latin texts as Geminus Pons and Bipontum, in French texts as Deux-Ponts. The name derives from Middle High German Zweinbrücken...
.
Hospital
In the town is found a 200-bed hospital with an adjoining day clinic (12 places). The sponsor is the Bad DürkheimBad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
district.
Education
Besides three primary schools, a HauptschuleHauptschule
A 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...
and a Realschule
Realschule
The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...
, there is the Leininger Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, which is steeped in tradition and rooted in the old Höningen Latin School.
Sundry
Grünstadt is known for its AAFES bakery. In Grünstadt it is called the depot (AAFES Depot GrünstadtAAFES Depot Grünstadt
AAFES Depot Grünstadt is the German name for the GRDC Gruenstadt Distribution Center of the AAFES. In Grünstadt it is simply called the “depot”. The "depot" was founded in 1953. The bakery located in the depot Grünstadt is providing most of the bakery products for US Service Members and their...
).
Sons and daughters of the town
19th century
- Franz UmbscheidenFranz UmbscheidenFranz Umbscheiden was a revolutionary during the revolutions of 1848 who emigrated to the United States and became a journalist.-Biography:...
(1825–1874), German revolutionary and journalist - Adolf SternAdolf Stern (chess player)Adolf Stern was a German chess master.Born into a merchant Jewish family, he was the second child of Jacob Stern and Babette Caroline...
(1849–1907), chess player
20th century
- Erwin LehnErwin LehnErwin Lehn was a German jazz composer, bandleader and musician. He led the "SWR Big Band", originally the "Southern Radio Dance Orchestra", organized in 1951, for the Südwestrundfunk public broadcasting company....
(1919– ), German pianist and Orchestra leader (SWR’s Südfunk-Tanzorchester) - Ludwig WildingLudwig WildingLudwig Wilding was a German artist whose work is associated with Op art and Kinetic art. Wilding was born in Grünstadt, Germany. He studied at the University of Mainz Art School....
(1927– ), painter and object artist - Wolfgang HeinzWolfgang Heinz (politician)Wolfgang Heinz is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party.-External links:...
(1938– ), politician (FDP) - Marco HaberMarco HaberMarco Haber is a retired German footballer who played mainly as a central midfielder.-Football career :...
(1971– ), footballer - Silvio AdzicSilvio AdzicSilvio Adzic is a German football player who currently play for TuS Altleiningen. He made his debut on the professional league level in the Bundesliga for 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 30 September 2000 when he came on as a substitute in the 68th minute in a game against FC Energie Cottbus...
(1980– ), footballer
Notable people associated with the town
- Friedrich Christian LaukhardFriedrich Christian LaukhardFriedrich Christian Laukhard was a German novelist, philosopher, historian and theologian.From 1783 to 1794 he volunteered in the Prussian army as a musketeer. During the War of the first coalition his regiment Friedrich Christian Laukhard (7 June 1757 – 28 April 1822) was a German novelist,...
, (1757–1822), writer, attended the Leininger-Gymnasium. - Christophe NeffChristophe NeffChristophe Neff is a geographer.He currently leads a research group studying Mediterranean ecosystems and fire ecology at the University of Karlsruhe....
, forest fire expert and geographer, lives in Grünstadt.
Further reading
- Walter Lampert:"1100 Jahre Grünstadt", Stadtverwaltung Grünstadt, 1975 (aus diesem Werk, das alle bis dahin erschienenen stadtgeschichtlichen Publikationen zusammenfasste, sind sämtliche Angaben im Abschnitt "Geschichte" entnommen.)
- Emil Müller: "Grünstadt und Umgebung", Schäffer Verlag, Grünstadt, 1904
- Hans Feßmeyer: "Geschichte von Grünstadt", Verlag Emil Sommer, Grünstadt, 1939
- Dr. Ludwig Blankenheim: "Aus Grünstadts vergangenen Tagen", Rheinpfalz Verlag, Ludwigshafen, 1955
- Walter Lampert: "Bewegte Jahre - Grünstadt 1918-1948", Verlag Emil Sommer, Grünstadt, 1985
- Kyra Schilling, Odilie Steiner, Elisabeth Weber: Jüdisches Leben in Grünstadt. Grünstadt 2007, (Ökumenischer Friedenskreis der prot. Kirchengemeinde Grünstadt)