Obrigheim, Rhineland-Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Obrigheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.
, where the uplands gradually give way to the Upper Rhine Plain
. Along a stretch of some 5 km of the brook, the centres follow one after the other, first Albsheim on the right bank and Mühlheim on the left, then Heidesheim und Colgenstein on the right bank and finally the main centre, also called Obrigheim, and the Neuoffstein factory location, both on the left bank.
Obrigheim belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
, whose seat is in Grünstadt
, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.
.
The main centre is known from 1250 onwards and could then well have been held by the Counts of Leiningen. The ending —heim points to a Frankish
origin, but there is no written evidence for this. A local nobleman named Ulricus de Obernkeim was mentioned in 1352 in a decree from the council of the Imperial City
of Speyer
; he might have been from Obrigheim. The Weißenburg Monastery, in what is now Wissembourg
in nearby Alsace
, France
, enfeoffed Count Friedrich VII of Leiningen-Dagsburg with holdings in Obrigheim. From 1467 to 1505, the village found itself in Electoral Palatinate’s ownership. In 1557 it was called Oberkum uff der wissen. This almost matches the village’s local dialectal name Owwerkumm. On a map from 1735 it is called Oberheim; in 1739, the name that is today customary first crops up.
The outlying centres mostly had their first documentary mentions even earlier: Mühlheim in 761, Albsheim in 788, Colgenstein about 1000 and Heidesheim in 1277. Upstream from Mühlheim, where the Eisbach still flows down a steep slope and has cut deep into the land, there were once at least two mills (the name “Mühlheim” means “Millhome”). Another, a sawmill
, stood on flatter land in Neuoffstein. The Heidesheimer Schloss, a palatial castle belonging to the House of Leiningen-Heidesheim was burnt down in 1794 by French Revolution
ary troops.
On 7 June 1969 the municipality of Obrigheim was newly formed out of the dissolved municipalities of Albsheim an der Eis, Colgenstein-Heidesheim, Mühlheim an der Eis and Obrigheim.
and 18.7% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Per fess azure an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules holding in his talons fesswise a key Or, wards to base, and Or a doe salient reguardant pierced to the neck with an arrow bendwise sinister, all of the third.
The arms were approved in 1970 by the now abolished Regierungsbezirk
administration in Neustadt. The doe comes from Obrigheim’s old coat of arms, and the eagle is a charge
drawn from Albsheim’s, Colgenstein-Heidesheim’s and Mühlheim’s arms, and ultimately from those borne by the House of Leiningen. The key stands for Weißenburg Monastery.
hold importance for building history.
The church in Albsheim was built in Romanesque
times; in 1520 and 1794 it underwent conversions. Here is found the Palatinate’s oldest organ
that is still played. It was built in 1730 by Johann Valentin Senn from Seebach, which is today an outlying centre of Bad Dürkheim
.
The first church in Colgenstein was mentioned as early as 991. Of the Romanesque successor building, only the 12th-century tower is still preserved. The pairs of windows on its four floors grouped one over the other call to mind the ones at Speyer Cathedral
, and the bell that rings here is probably the Palatinate’s oldest. A Late Gothic
font comes from 1509.
The Mühlheim church was built by Count Jofried of Leiningen-Hardenburg in the 1330s. In the early 17th century, the House of Leiningen-Heidesheim had it converted to a palace church, whereby the comital family’s tomb came into being in the quire. The organ built in 1738 by Johann Michael Stumm is the best preserved Stumm organ in the Palatinate.
The Obrigheim church was originally run as a branch parish of Colgenstein and was called Saint Giles
’s Chapel (Kapelle St. Ägidius). Of the old chapel, the tower from the time about 1500 is still standing. The church was newly built in 1865, and in 1910, one floor was added to the tower.
. As well as the sugar beet
s processed there, there is also winegrowing. The land area of nearly 1 000 ha under cultivation is divided into 75% sugar beet fields and 25% vineyards.
to Worms
. Bundesstraße
271 can be reached near Grünstadt-Asselheim, and over this (5 km to the south at the Grünstadt interchange
) the Autobahn A 6
. Some 4 km north of the municipal area Bundesstraße 47 (Kaiserslautern
–Worms) runs by. This has an interchange farther northeast on the Autobahn A 61
(Koblenz
–Speyer
).
The Pfälzische Nordbahn (railway) between Monsheim
and Grünstadt runs through the municipality’s western outskirts along the edge of the outlying centre of Albsheim. The halt Albsheim (Eis) is served by Regionalbahn
trains running on Rhineland-Palatinate timetabling. The Untere Eistalbahn (Grünstadt–Worms), which formerly crossed the municipal area along the Eisbach and mainly served the sugar factory, is however disused along its eastern section (sugar factory–Worms). Public transport is integrated into the VRN
, whose fares therefore apply.
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...
. It lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.
Location
Obrigheim’s main centre and its small outlying centres lie in a row from southwest to northeast on the middle EisbachEisbach (Rhine)
The Eisbach, locally known as is a 38 km long river and left or western tributary of the Rhine in the northeastern Palatinate and southeastern Rhenish Hesse, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.- Course :...
, where the uplands gradually give way to the Upper Rhine Plain
Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben is a major rift, straddling the border between France and Germany. It forms part of the European Cenozoic Rift System, which extends across central Europe...
. Along a stretch of some 5 km of the brook, the centres follow one after the other, first Albsheim on the right bank and Mühlheim on the left, then Heidesheim und Colgenstein on the right bank and finally the main centre, also called Obrigheim, and the Neuoffstein factory location, both on the left bank.
Obrigheim belongs to 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...
, whose seat is in Grünstadt
Grünstadt
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.- Location :The...
, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.
History
In 1969, the smaller neighbouring municipalities of Albsheim, Colgenstein-Heidesheim and Mühlheim an der Eis were amalgamated with Obrigheim. In the same year came a change in district since the district of Frankenthal in which Obrigheim had been up to that time was abolished. In 1972, the municipality was assigned to the newly formed 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...
.
The main centre is known from 1250 onwards and could then well have been held by the Counts of Leiningen. The ending —heim points to a 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...
origin, but there is no written evidence for this. A local nobleman named Ulricus de Obernkeim was mentioned in 1352 in a decree from the council of the Imperial City
Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...
of Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
; he might have been from Obrigheim. The Weißenburg Monastery, 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...
in nearby 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...
, enfeoffed Count Friedrich VII of Leiningen-Dagsburg with holdings in Obrigheim. From 1467 to 1505, the village found itself in Electoral Palatinate’s ownership. In 1557 it was called Oberkum uff der wissen. This almost matches the village’s local dialectal name Owwerkumm. On a map from 1735 it is called Oberheim; in 1739, the name that is today customary first crops up.
The outlying centres mostly had their first documentary mentions even earlier: Mühlheim in 761, Albsheim in 788, Colgenstein about 1000 and Heidesheim in 1277. Upstream from Mühlheim, where the Eisbach still flows down a steep slope and has cut deep into the land, there were once at least two mills (the name “Mühlheim” means “Millhome”). Another, a sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
, stood on flatter land in Neuoffstein. The Heidesheimer Schloss, a palatial castle belonging to the House of Leiningen-Heidesheim was burnt down in 1794 by French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
ary troops.
On 7 June 1969 the municipality of Obrigheim was newly formed out of the dissolved municipalities of Albsheim an der Eis, Colgenstein-Heidesheim, Mühlheim an der Eis and Obrigheim.
Religion
In 2007, 55.1% 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 18.7% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 20 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
CDU | FWG Free Voters Free Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the... |
Total | |
| 2009 | 9 | 2 | 9 | 20 seats |
| 2004 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 20 seats |
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Von Blau und Gold geteilt, oben ein rotbewehrter silberner Adler, einen waagrecht gelegten goldenen Schlüssel in den Fängen haltend, unten eine widersehende, springende, am Hals von einem roten Pfeil durchbohrte rote Hirschkuh.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: Per fess azure an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules holding in his talons fesswise a key Or, wards to base, and Or a doe salient reguardant pierced to the neck with an arrow bendwise sinister, all of the third.
The arms were approved in 1970 by the now abolished 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...
administration in Neustadt. The doe comes from Obrigheim’s old coat of arms, and the eagle is 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...
drawn from Albsheim’s, Colgenstein-Heidesheim’s and Mühlheim’s arms, and ultimately from those borne by the House of Leiningen. The key stands for Weißenburg Monastery.
Culture and sightseeing
Of Obrigheim’s five churches, the four that are today 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...
hold importance for building history.
- Albsheim
The church in Albsheim was built in 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,...
times; in 1520 and 1794 it underwent conversions. Here is found the Palatinate’s oldest organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
that is still played. It was built in 1730 by Johann Valentin Senn from Seebach, which is today an outlying centre of 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 :...
.
- Colgenstein
The first church in Colgenstein was mentioned as early as 991. Of the Romanesque successor building, only the 12th-century tower is still preserved. The pairs of windows on its four floors grouped one over the other call to mind the ones at 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...
, and the bell that rings here is probably the Palatinate’s oldest. A Late Gothic
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
font comes from 1509.
- Mühlheim
The Mühlheim church was built by Count Jofried of Leiningen-Hardenburg in the 1330s. In the early 17th century, the House of Leiningen-Heidesheim had it converted to a palace church, whereby the comital family’s tomb came into being in the quire. The organ built in 1738 by Johann Michael Stumm is the best preserved Stumm organ in the Palatinate.
- Obrigheim
The Obrigheim church was originally run as a branch parish of Colgenstein and was called Saint Giles
Saint Giles
Saint Giles was a Greek Christian hermit saint from Athens, whose legend is centered in Provence and Septimania. The tomb in the abbey Giles was said to have founded, in St-Gilles-du-Gard, became a place of pilgrimage and a stop on the road that led from Arles to Santiago de Compostela, the...
’s Chapel (Kapelle St. Ägidius). Of the old chapel, the tower from the time about 1500 is still standing. The church was newly built in 1865, and in 1910, one floor was added to the tower.
Economy
The biggest employer in the municipality has been since 1873 the sugar factory in Neuoffstein, which today is a manufacturing location of Südzucker AGSüdzucker
Südzucker AG is a German company, the largest sugar producer in Europe with an annual production of around 4.8 million tonnes.-Sugar segment:The company has 30 sugar factories and 3 refineries in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania Slovakia and...
. As well as the sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
s processed there, there is also winegrowing. The land area of nearly 1 000 ha under cultivation is divided into 75% sugar beet fields and 25% vineyards.
Transport
The municipality’s centres are bound together by Landesstraße (State Road) 395, which runs from GrünstadtGrünstadt
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.- Location :The...
to 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...
. Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
271 can be reached near Grünstadt-Asselheim, and over this (5 km to the south at the Grünstadt interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
) 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....
. Some 4 km north of the municipal area Bundesstraße 47 (Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
–Worms) runs by. This has an interchange farther northeast on the Autobahn A 61
Bundesautobahn 61
is an autobahn in Germany that connects the border to the Netherlands near Venlo in the northwest to the interchange with A 6 near Hockenheim. In 1965, this required a re-design of the Hockenheimring....
(Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
–Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
).
The Pfälzische Nordbahn (railway) between 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 :...
and Grünstadt runs through the municipality’s western outskirts along the edge of the outlying centre of Albsheim. The halt Albsheim (Eis) is served by Regionalbahn
RegionalBahn
The Regionalbahn is a type of local passenger train in Germany.-Service:Regionalbahn trains usually call at all stations on a given line, with the exception of RB trains within S-Bahn networks, these may only call at selected stations...
trains running on Rhineland-Palatinate timetabling. The Untere Eistalbahn (Grünstadt–Worms), which formerly crossed the municipal area along the Eisbach and mainly served the sugar factory, is however disused along its eastern section (sugar factory–Worms). Public transport is integrated into the VRN
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar is a public transport network covering parts of the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in south-west Germany...
, whose fares therefore apply.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Maria Luise Albertine zu Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg (1729–1818), grandmother of PrussiaPrussiaPrussia 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...
n Queen LuiseLouise of Mecklenburg-StrelitzDuchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen consort of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III... - Peter Martin (1888–1970), politician (NSDAP)