Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Encyclopedia
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. Its population is roughly 2,400.
. The municipality belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
in Alsace
, France
. The first documentary proof of winegrowing in the vicinity stems from a document from Fulda Abbey, dated to 770. With the building of the Romanesque
church with its striking tower, begun in 1060 and still standing today, Niederkirchen acquired its landmark. In the course of the 11th century, the village passed into the ownership of the Prince-Bishops of Speyer
. It is believed that in the 13th century, the current Deidesheim
split away from the municipality, whereafter the municipality’s name changed first to Unterdeidesheim and then Niederdeidesheim (both meaning “Lower Deidesheim”), later settling on Niederkirchen. Its location in the heart of Europe
time and again brought Niederkirchen misfortune in wars. Thus it was in the Thirty Years' War
, as a result of which the village almost died out. With the annexation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French militia
in 1794, Niederkirchen became part of the French Republic
, and in 1798 it was assigned to the Department of Mont-Tonnerre
(or Donnersberg in German
). From 1815 to 1935 the municipality belonged to Bavaria
and was then part of the Gau of Saarpfalz in National Socialist times
. As of 1940, this became the Gau Westmark
, which included parts of Alsace-Lorraine
. Since 1946, Niederkirchen has been part of the then newly formed state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Gules a cross pattée humetty Or between two mullets argent, one each in sinister chief and dexter base.
The arms were approved in 1927 by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and go back to the arms borne by Deidesheim, from which Niederkirchen originally split. To distinguish the two coats, the tincture
s and the arrangement of the mullets (star shapes) were altered.
An earlier seal showed two crossed swords and a star. Yet another coat of arms, used by Niederkirchen in the 19th century, was the same as the one still used today except that the cross was azure (blue) instead of Or (gold). Upon the official granting of the arms on 27 December 1927, the cross’s tincture was changed because it was “not heraldically correct”.
The Catholic Saint Martin’s Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Martin) is one of the Palatinate’s oldest Christian
building monuments. The church had its first documentary mention in 1235. Building features, however, lead to the conclusion that its striking Romanesque
crossing
tower has its beginnings in the latter half of the 11th century. The church’s quire is believed to have come from the time about 1300, while the nave was built onto the church in 1955 and 1956. The crossing tower originally also fulfilled the function of a sanctuary, making it a sanctuary tower, a widely found building type in mediaeval
country churches.
As one of the few preserved 11th-century churches in the Palatinate and because of its immediate proximity to the stylistically similar Limburg Monastery church near Bad Dürkheim
and to Speyer Cathedral
, the Niederkirchen parish church is of special importance to art history.
in 1993.
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the 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...
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...
. Its population is roughly 2,400.
Location
Niederkirchen lies 2 km east of DeidesheimDeidesheim
Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants.The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. The most important industries are tourism...
. The municipality belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
Deidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Deidesheim
Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants.The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. The most important industries are tourism...
.
History
In 699, Niederkirchen had its first documentary mention as Didinnes-chaime in a document from the Weißenburg Monastery in what is now WissembourgWissembourg
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...
in Alsace
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...
, 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...
. The first documentary proof of winegrowing in the vicinity stems from a document from Fulda Abbey, dated to 770. With the building of the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
church with its striking tower, begun in 1060 and still standing today, Niederkirchen acquired its landmark. In the course of the 11th century, the village passed into the ownership of the Prince-Bishops of Speyer
Bishopric of Speyer
The Bishopric of Speyer was a state, ruled by Prince-Bishops, in what is today the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was secularized in 1803...
. It is believed that in the 13th century, the current Deidesheim
Deidesheim
Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants.The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim. The most important industries are tourism...
split away from the municipality, whereafter the municipality’s name changed first to Unterdeidesheim and then Niederdeidesheim (both meaning “Lower Deidesheim”), later settling on Niederkirchen. Its location in the heart of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
time and again brought Niederkirchen misfortune in wars. Thus it was in 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....
, as a result of which the village almost died out. With the annexation of the lands on the Rhine’s left bank by French militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
in 1794, Niederkirchen became part of the French Republic
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 in 1798 it was assigned to the 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....
). From 1815 to 1935 the municipality belonged to 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...
and was then part of the Gau of Saarpfalz in National Socialist times
Nazi 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...
. As of 1940, this became the Gau Westmark
Gau Westmark
The Gau Westmark was an administrative division of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Previous to that, since 1926, it was the regional subdivision of the Nazi Party.-History:...
, which included parts of Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
. Since 1946, Niederkirchen has been part of the then newly formed 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 ....
.
Religion
In 2007, 70% of the inhabitants were Catholic and 17.1% 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...
. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
Municipal council
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:| Party | Results in % | No. of seats |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 59,3 (+2,6) | 10 (+1) |
| 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... |
33,2 (-10,1) | 5 (-2) |
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
7,6 (+7,6) | 1 (+1) |
Mayors
The Mayor of Niederkirchen is Josef Seckinger (CDU), who at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009 beat his challenger from the FWG, Hans Stähly, in a direct vote, winning 68.4% of the total. Seckinger succeeded Helmut Kähs (CDU).Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Rot ein schwebendes angetatztes goldenes Kreuz, oben links und unten rechts bewinkelt von je einem sechsstrahligen silbernen Stern.The municipality’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: Gules a cross pattée humetty Or between two mullets argent, one each in sinister chief and dexter base.
The arms were approved in 1927 by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and go back to the arms borne by Deidesheim, from which Niederkirchen originally split. To distinguish the two coats, the tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
s and the arrangement of the mullets (star shapes) were altered.
An earlier seal showed two crossed swords and a star. Yet another coat of arms, used by Niederkirchen in the 19th century, was the same as the one still used today except that the cross was azure (blue) instead of Or (gold). Upon the official granting of the arms on 27 December 1927, the cross’s tincture was changed because it was “not heraldically correct”.
Buildings
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
building monuments. The church had its first documentary mention in 1235. Building features, however, lead to the conclusion that its striking Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
crossing
Crossing (architecture)
A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...
tower has its beginnings in the latter half of the 11th century. The church’s quire is believed to have come from the time about 1300, while the nave was built onto the church in 1955 and 1956. The crossing tower originally also fulfilled the function of a sanctuary, making it a sanctuary tower, a widely found building type in mediaeval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
country churches.
As one of the few preserved 11th-century churches in the Palatinate and because of its immediate proximity to the stylistically similar Limburg Monastery church near 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 :...
and to Speyer Cathedral
Speyer Cathedral
The Speyer Cathedral, officially the Imperial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption and St Stephen, in Latin: Domus sanctae Mariae Spirae in Speyer, Germany, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Speyer and is suffragan to the Archdiocese of Bamberg. The cathedral, which is dedicated to St...
, the Niederkirchen parish church is of special importance to art history.
Sport
Surely the greatest success for a team from the Province was scored by the women’s football team from TuS Niederkirchen, the local gymnastic and sport club, when they won the German championshipFußball-Bundesliga (women)
The Women's Football Bundesliga is the main league competition for women's football in Germany. In 1990 the German Football Association created the German Women's Bundesliga, based on the model of the men's Bundesliga. It was first played with north and south divisions, but in 1997 the groups...
in 1993.
Regular events
On the last weekend in June, the Fest um den Wein (“Festival About Wine”) is held in Niederkirchen which, as the name suggests, is a wine festival. At this time, local winemaking businesses run temporary wine bars round the village square.Sons and daughters of the town
- Susanne Winterling, Palatine Wine Queen 2006/2007, German Wine Princess 2007/2008