Schornsheim
Encyclopedia
Schornsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
.
, Udenheim
, Undenheim
and Wörrstadt
.
home), as are most Rhenish-Hessian placenames. The other root in the name, however, is something of a peculiarity. It is not a traditional Germanic
personal name, nor a word for a natural feature, but rather a title, and only became a personal name through transference. Scoran (cognate with English shorn, and with much the same meaning, referring to a tonsure
) was a word used for priests and monks and was given boys as a name who were destined for the clergy, for whom the tonsure had long stood as a defining mark. It could well be that a clergyman of this time gave Schornsheim its name. It is assumed that one or more Frankish
settlements had already arisen in the area of what later became Schornsheim, and the unknown priest or monk only later gave the village his name, after he himself had settled there and founded a church and perhaps also a monastery.
In one of Charlemagne
’s documents from 28 July 782, the king named Schornsheim’s church and estate as his property. The “estate” at that time meant the whole of the kingly holdings or a part thereof. How the ruler acquired it is unknown. Whatever it was that happened, it is known that the successor to the estate was the Scoran who had once founded the church.
Charlemagne gave the church of the “estate” of Schornsheim with its appurtenances (along with real estate) first as a benefice – in effect, a fief, to be used free of charge – to Leoba of Tauberbischofsheim, who is still venerated today as Saint Leoba.
Leoba, whose Anglo-Saxon
name was Leofgyth, was brought up in the convents at Minster in Kent
and Wimborne Minster
in Dorset
. As a woman, she had, after Anglo-Saxon custom, training in languages and theology, which fully equalled a man’s. She was related to Saint Boniface
, who always had a particular fondness for her. Boniface was critical of the Frankish
clergy’s crudeness and unlearnedness, which he saw as holdovers from heathen superstition. He tried to remedy these shortcomings with better training at the monasteries. Leoba was best suited to such a programme. She built a convent on an estate in Tauberbischofsheim
, which soon became a kind of college for nuns. Leoba did not live exclusively at the convent on the Tauber
, though, but rather she regularly undertook visitational
journeys to other convents under her authority. Only when she was elderly did she withdraw to the convent that she had chosen as a retirement home. She died there on 28 September 782.
Saint Leoba is still venerated today in Schornsheim. The Catholic church bears her name, and in the village square, a fountain has been built that has Saint Leoba standing in the middle.
– what is today called Rhenish Hesse – was not in any way a political unit. Electoral Palatinate, Electoral Mainz
, Waldgrave
, Rhinegrave, Nassau
and knightly landholding rights all overlapped each other in this area.
If Electoral Palatinate wanted to assert itself as the foremost power in this region, then it had about as much success at forging an exclusive territorial zone as Electoral Mainz. Very often local lords varied from one place to the next, and there were more than a few cases in which several lordships held ownership rights at the same time. The four jointly owned centres (Ganerbschaften) that were incorporated into the Knightly Canton of Oberrhein, namely Bechtolsheim
, Mommenheim
, Niedersaulheim
and Schornsheim, formed in view of their geographical location the backbone of the Imperial
-Knightly holdings in the buffer zone
between the two rival territories of Electoral Palatinate and Electoral Mainz.
A hundred years ago, Schornsheim was known as a “tailoring village”. There were more than 130 tailors and whole families made their livelihood at tailoring, sewing for factories in Mainz
, Worms
and Darmstadt
.
Each tailor worked in at his or her speciality, with some producing only trousers, and still others making only jackets. Once a week, the finished garments were then delivered to the factory. The tailors mostly lived in little, single-story loam houses with two or three windows facing onto the street, or sometimes only one, for a window tax
was levied in those days. The tailors’ livingroom became their workshop in which several sewing machine
s would be set up along with a great tailor’s table.
Father, mother, daughters and sons worked on into the night so that they could earn enough to feed themselves, for these tailors earned very little money. A great many skirts, trousers and vests had to make their way out of the workshop before a Schornsheim home worker could enjoy the pleasures of owning his own house and property.
Many tailors also had a field plot, in which they planted potatoes and grain. At home, they had a pig in the stable that would be slaughtered when it got big enough, or a goat – the so-called “tailor’s cow” – for its milk. However, as factories streamlined their production, making themselves cheaper to run, less and less work came the tailors’ way, eventually forcing them to seek other work.
Many sought it in the industrial works in Mainz or in the Opel
Works in Rüsselsheim
, where they earned much more and came to know a kind of luxury, at least compared to what they had known before. Today there is not even one tailor in the municipality; the profession has died out.
However, when one walks through the streets, especially on Karl-Marx-Straße, one still finds the odd typical tailor’s house.
families lived in the village. Each family had to pay 3 guilders in “Jew protection money” (Judenschutzgeld), after which they were entitled to live in the village and go about their business unhindered. Some Jews were merchants and others were butchers.
and English
words do nowadays, people who walk barefoot across hot coals. These were firefighters of a kind, but of course without modern equipment. One among them was the fire captain. Whenever a fire broke out anywhere, they had to walk for up to three hours to reach the fire to help put it out. However, they could not leave the scene until they had been given a certificate witnessing their efforts. Each also had to take along his leather pail on the job. When they came back, they were to get from the municipality two Maß of wine and each was to get white bread
for one Albus.
In 1731, it was written: “They should go after the fire as far as the Rhine or four hours’ walk away and then bring back a certificate, then they should have from the municipality 1 quarter of wine and for an alb. white bread and Volpert Sandmann should be the fire captain.”
clergyman Pfeiffer declared that his parish had wished “for the longest time and most longingly” a separation of churches from the Catholic parish and for a new Evangelical church to be built. There was also more payment for the extermination of mice, hamsters and wasps.
In 1848, Ludwig H., born and living in Schornsheim, had himself registered as a local citizen and paid the “fire pail money”. Owing to his intended marriage, however, the council raised an objection, because the said man had no kind of estate, neither practising a business nor being “busy” in agriculture, and about the woman’s assets, nothing was known. “One can assume that the said man cannot feed this female person with her two illegitimate children, much less should this family grow yet bigger.”
In 1850, to build the Evangelical church, the church did not want to use any stone from the Flonheim quarries because for these stones, a road improvement tax would have had to be paid. Instead, the church wanted to draw stone from the Oppenheim quarries, as those stones were free of this tax.
In 1856, chickens and geese were once again tended by Ludwig Höhler with his sister for a wage of 30 guilders. He further received, as was customary, one pound of bread from each owner of one of those geese. The vineyard marksmen now had to go to work every day. A day’s wages for each was 24 Kreuzer
.
In 1857, Philipp Geogi wanted to travel to his son in Zürich
as there were better food and care there than in Schornsheim. The municipality was ready to give him money for clothing for the trip, but as security, they wanted to pay the fare only at the railway station from which he was to begin his trip. His son was a tinsmith in Zürich. The council decided that on 23 June, the meadows would be opened. The grass was to be mown and taken away forthwith. The council objected to local citizen Mathias Z.’s marriage to Maria Chatharina J. from Wörrstadt. “Z. enjoys evil repute and has with a person from the Duchy of Nassau
undergone an immoral change and has had children with the same. He is a blasphemer and given to drink. His fiancée also possesses a frivolous character and is said already to have had two children out of wedlock with another person.”
In 1858, a gift was to be given the Grand Duke for his silver wedding anniversary. A council member agreed. All the other members, though, refused any gift. They declared that the municipality was so beleaguered by roadbuilding, the acquisition of two fire sprayers and other outlays that it had to be mindful of even the smallest savings. In November, however, deliberated once again the gift for the Grand Duke. “It would be unworthy if the municipality of Schornsheim wanted to exclude itself from the grand festival.” A collection gathered up 25 guilders for the gift.
In 1859 the council refused Carl. L. Bißmann, at the time living in Neuchâtel, an early marriage. “Even if the petitioner (applicant) at the moment has good earnings but the marriage dies before he is 25 years of age, the foreign-born woman and any possible children would become a burden to the municipality of Schornsheim. He may wait until he is of the legally prescribed age.”
In 1860, stones for improving roads were to be bought in the quantity of 9 fathoms. The stones were to be knocked asunder by debtors who were being punished as such. Their wages were to be deducted from their debt. “The ‘convicts’ recognized as being unable to pay have, however, hitherto through petitions for deadlines and assorted evasions, sought to get out of doing this work.”
J.L.H. asked for support from the municipal coffers. The council’s opinion was as follows: “Applicant is a sturdy man of 37 years, who from youth onwards adapted himself to begging. He calls himself a day labourer, but will work for nobody and busies himself merely with gathering horse dung in the streets, where he can be an idler. He could have work the year round in fieldwork and in winter in threshing. This year he was offered work in caring for geese, for which he could have earned from May to November 40 guilders and for each goose a pound of bread, but which he also did not take on. His wife, 36 years old, strong and healthy, is just as shy of work; even in the harvest these two highly lazy people take on no harvesting work. About this, the whole municipality is angered and gives nothing further. The policeman has the duty of disrupting begging. Were it further allowed the couple, they would have been able to live continually without fending for food. Such people are unworthy of being supported.”
In Undenheim a postal station was to be built. Schornsheim, however, held that the location near Wörrstadt was more advantageous given the Justice of the Peace and the tax commission’s office there. The municipality dismissed Ph. M. from his job as gooseherd “because he does not busy himself at all with herding geese, his wife only seldom. The geese would be driven out of the village to the field only seldom, and given over to his children, who are supposed to go to school, who let the geese run around in the fields at will. Now, to guard the fields against further damage, he is discharged as gooseherd.”
In 1861, after the Grand-Ducal government’s agreement with the Thurn und Taxis
postal administration, the council declared: “The municipality wants to forgo a six-time errand and only pay the bringer’s wages for the governmental paper”. The municipality did not need to procure any post boxes. Also, as two fruit dealers were already resident in Schornsheim, the council held that a further one was unneeded.
In 1862, because sparrow
s had grown so greatly in number and were doing such great harm in the fields, every citizen at his own expense had to deliver 2 to 6 sparrows. Also, because the plague of rabbit
s in the municipal area was getting out of hand, a man from Bechtheim
who owned a ferret
was to come to help. The proceeds from the rabbits were to flow into the municipality’s coffers.
In 1863, the rabbit problem had still not been overcome, and anyone who killed or presented a rabbit was to get 6 Kreuzer
for each one from the municipality’s coffers. The council also decided that the corn hamster
, which had also got out of hand, had to be exterminated. For each killed or delivered hamster, 3 Kreuzer would be paid out.
(Even by the years 1950–1960, hamsters were still being caught and would earn the catcher 1.80 DM each).
In 1870, the well in the Pfaffenwald (forest) was not supplying enough water to those who dwelt there or their livestock. At that time, there was a great need for water in Schornsheim. The council stated in August of that year that it was needless to build a new well before the Heyertor (gate), as it had rained long and persistently.
On 30 July that same year, Jakob Tautphäus delivered a horse and a waggon to send to war
in France
. Philipp Ebling gave a second horse. Both also gave a second man.
On 28 September, though, one of the men came back with the war waggon and a strange horse. According to him, his fellow warrior and his horse had both been killed in France.
On 8 October, the municipal council was complaining about the policeman. He was apparently much given to drink and had already been negligent in doing his duty for years. Also, some nighttime disturbances of the peace were not coming to his attention as he did his nightly rounds. Furthermore he had failed to appoint other citizens each evening in addition to the serving security watches for the nighttime criminality that was getting out of hand. The policeman was to be dismissed, the more so as he had thrown his sabre and duty book into the mayor’s livingroom. Five persons sought the fired policeman’s job. The wages amounted to 40 guilders. The policeman also had to act as a court official and a field marksman for the nearby surrounding area. The municipality had to borrow capital amounting to 1,500 guilders to be able to indemnify those from Schornsheim who had gone to war in France.
On 18 October came a report of a typhus
outbreak.
In 1871, the municipal council believed that “The investigation of wellwater with regard to the illness, which led to no result, could have been saved, as nothing could be confirmed.”
In 1880, the policeman was dismissed, as on some days he was not to be seen in the village, as a result of which “with begging getting out of hand, the vagabonds can go about begging undisturbed. His other functions he has also badly neglected.”
In 1881 a new knacker
was hired. He received 1.50 to 2.00 Marks for each cattle or horse carcass that he skinned and buried. For foals, calves or swine he got 50 Pfennigs. Horses and cattle had to be delivered to the knacker’s yard; other livestock had to be fetched by the knacker.
In 1897, a day’s wages (not hourly) were set out in Schornsheim. The rates were as follows:
Also, the municipality wanted to forbid free ranging of geese on Sundays and holidays.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
might be described thus: Argent on a base sable a tower sans windows gules, in a chief of the second a crozier fesswise Or.
The arms are believed to go back to a seal from 1781, when the Ganerben (“coheirs”), that is, the families von Dienheim, von Wallbrunn, von Wanscheid and Langwerth von Simmern, together held sway over the village. The tower is said to recall this time, while the bishop’s staff, or crozier, refers to Saint Leoba, who as Saint Boniface
’s kin, founded one of the oldest convents in the 8th century in Schornsheim.
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 Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the district Groß-Gerau , the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen.- History :...
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...
.
Location
The winegrowing centre lies in Rhenish Hesse and belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of WörrstadtWörrstadt (Verbandsgemeinde)
Wörrstadt is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Wörrstadt....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt is a town in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :The town lies in Rhenish Hesse on the northwest edge of the Upper Rhine Plain...
.
Neighbouring municipalities
Schornsheim’s neighbours are GabsheimGabsheim
Gabsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wörrstadt, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.- Location :The municipality...
, Udenheim
Udenheim
Udenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Undenheim
Undenheim
Undenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt is a town in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :The town lies in Rhenish Hesse on the northwest edge of the Upper Rhine Plain...
.
Name’s origins
The name Schornsheim (in 782 Scoronishaim, in 815 Scornesheim, about 836 Scoranesheim, about 1230 Schornesheym, about 1520 Schornsheim) is formed with the placename ending —heim (cognate with EnglishEnglish 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...
home), as are most Rhenish-Hessian placenames. The other root in the name, however, is something of a peculiarity. It is not a traditional 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...
personal name, nor a word for a natural feature, but rather a title, and only became a personal name through transference. Scoran (cognate with English shorn, and with much the same meaning, referring to a tonsure
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
) was a word used for priests and monks and was given boys as a name who were destined for the clergy, for whom the tonsure had long stood as a defining mark. It could well be that a clergyman of this time gave Schornsheim its name. It is assumed that one or more 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...
settlements had already arisen in the area of what later became Schornsheim, and the unknown priest or monk only later gave the village his name, after he himself had settled there and founded a church and perhaps also a monastery.
In one of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
’s documents from 28 July 782, the king named Schornsheim’s church and estate as his property. The “estate” at that time meant the whole of the kingly holdings or a part thereof. How the ruler acquired it is unknown. Whatever it was that happened, it is known that the successor to the estate was the Scoran who had once founded the church.
Saint Leoba
Leoba, whose Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
name was Leofgyth, was brought up in the convents at Minster in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
and Wimborne Minster
Wimborne Minster
Wimborne Minster is a market town in the East Dorset district of Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. As a woman, she had, after Anglo-Saxon custom, training in languages and theology, which fully equalled a man’s. She was related to Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
, who always had a particular fondness for her. Boniface was critical of the 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...
clergy’s crudeness and unlearnedness, which he saw as holdovers from heathen superstition. He tried to remedy these shortcomings with better training at the monasteries. Leoba was best suited to such a programme. She built a convent on an estate in Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim is a German town in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg on the river Tauber with a population of about 13,000. It is the capital of the Main-Tauber district....
, which soon became a kind of college for nuns. Leoba did not live exclusively at the convent on the Tauber
Tauber
For the singer, see Richard Tauber.For the mathematician, see Alfred Tauber.The Tauber is a river in Franconia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Main and is 122 km in length...
, though, but rather she regularly undertook visitational
Visitor
A Visitor, in United Kingdom law and history, is an overseer of an autonomous ecclesiastical or eleemosynary institution , who can intervene in the internal affairs of that institution...
journeys to other convents under her authority. Only when she was elderly did she withdraw to the convent that she had chosen as a retirement home. She died there on 28 September 782.
Saint Leoba is still venerated today in Schornsheim. The Catholic church bears her name, and in the village square, a fountain has been built that has Saint Leoba standing in the middle.
History of the Schornsheim Ganerbschaft
Before the turmoil in the late 18th century and the new territorial order in the early 19th, the countryside between the Rhine, the Nahe and the DonnersbergDonnersberg
For the Czech mountain, see MilešovkaThe Donnersberg is the highest peak of the Palatinate region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen en Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the mountain. The highway A63 runs along the southern edge...
– what is today called Rhenish Hesse – was not in any way a political unit. Electoral Palatinate, Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
, Waldgrave
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113....
, Rhinegrave, Nassau
Nassau (state)
Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later in the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct in male line, was the House of Nassau.-Origins:...
and knightly landholding rights all overlapped each other in this area.
If Electoral Palatinate wanted to assert itself as the foremost power in this region, then it had about as much success at forging an exclusive territorial zone as Electoral Mainz. Very often local lords varied from one place to the next, and there were more than a few cases in which several lordships held ownership rights at the same time. The four jointly owned centres (Ganerbschaften) that were incorporated into the Knightly Canton of Oberrhein, namely Bechtolsheim
Bechtolsheim
Bechtolsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Mommenheim
Mommenheim
Mommenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :Mommenheim lies between Mainz and Worms in Rhenish Hesse...
, Niedersaulheim
Saulheim
Saulheim 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 Schornsheim, formed in view of their geographical location the backbone of the Imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
-Knightly holdings in the buffer zone
Buffer zone
A buffer zone is generally a zonal area that lies between two or more other areas , but depending on the type of buffer zone, the reason for it may be to segregate regions or to conjoin them....
between the two rival territories of Electoral Palatinate and Electoral Mainz.
Schornsheim and the tailors
Schornsheim is a village that, in terms of its dwellers’ wealth and level of employment, is comparable to many other villages. This was not always so.A hundred years ago, Schornsheim was known as a “tailoring village”. There were more than 130 tailors and whole families made their livelihood at tailoring, sewing for factories 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...
, 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 Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
.
Each tailor worked in at his or her speciality, with some producing only trousers, and still others making only jackets. Once a week, the finished garments were then delivered to the factory. The tailors mostly lived in little, single-story loam houses with two or three windows facing onto the street, or sometimes only one, for a window tax
Window tax
The window tax was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. Some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces , as a result of the tax.-Details:The tax was introduced in England and Wales under...
was levied in those days. The tailors’ livingroom became their workshop in which several sewing machine
Sewing machine
A sewing machine is a textile machine used to stitch fabric, cards and other material together with thread. Sewing machines were invented during the first Industrial Revolution to decrease the amount of manual sewing work performed in clothing companies...
s would be set up along with a great tailor’s table.
Father, mother, daughters and sons worked on into the night so that they could earn enough to feed themselves, for these tailors earned very little money. A great many skirts, trousers and vests had to make their way out of the workshop before a Schornsheim home worker could enjoy the pleasures of owning his own house and property.
Many tailors also had a field plot, in which they planted potatoes and grain. At home, they had a pig in the stable that would be slaughtered when it got big enough, or a goat – the so-called “tailor’s cow” – for its milk. However, as factories streamlined their production, making themselves cheaper to run, less and less work came the tailors’ way, eventually forcing them to seek other work.
Many sought it in the industrial works in Mainz or in the Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
Works in Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim is the largest town in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany. It is one of seven special status towns in Hesse and is located on the Main, only a few kilometres from its mouth in Mainz. The suburbs of Bauschheim and Königstädten are included in Rüsselsheim...
, where they earned much more and came to know a kind of luxury, at least compared to what they had known before. Today there is not even one tailor in the municipality; the profession has died out.
However, when one walks through the streets, especially on Karl-Marx-Straße, one still finds the odd typical tailor’s house.
Poor money
From 1715 comes the story that accountant Lorenz Tautphäus was taking in “cloth money” (Tuchgeld). Certain fields in the municipal area had this so-called Tuchgeld imposed on them, which was used to buy the local poor some clothing.Jews in Schornsheim
Between 1713 and 1738, nine JewishJudaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
families lived in the village. Each family had to pay 3 guilders in “Jew protection money” (Judenschutzgeld), after which they were entitled to live in the village and go about their business unhindered. Some Jews were merchants and others were butchers.
Night watchman
In earlier years, the night watchman’s job was an important one. His service was laid out as follows in 1712:- “They have to blow
- towards the SchultheißSchultheißIn medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
’s house, - at the Schmitt Bridge,
- at Nikolaus Kneip’s house,
- at Jakob’s board house,
- at the rectory,
- at the Pfaffenwald well.
- towards the Schultheiß
- While doing this the night watchmen should at each post where they blow, whenever the hour rings, call out what hour has struck.”
Day watchman
Such a man took up this work in 1725. Of this, it was written: “By the whole municipality it was deemed advisable that a day watchman, who would go about the village the whole day long bearing a spear, and whatever strange beggars come in, he should forthwith turn them out, such would happen in the surrounding places. The day watchman should receive from each man in the municipality a loaf of bread and from the municipality a pair of shoes as wages.”Swineherd
In 1713, Nikolaus Lademann was hired as the swineherd. He received as wages “7 Malter of corn and from each one who drives swine, a loaf of bread, and the said one should drive the swine if the weather is good.” In 1722, the new swineherd received for each pig “thus driven” one fourth of a loaf of bread. He had to watch the swine as long as people “drove” them to him.“Firewalkers”
In 1722, six men were hired as “firewalkers” (Feuerläufer), although this did not mean, as both the GermanGerman 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....
and 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...
words do nowadays, people who walk barefoot across hot coals. These were firefighters of a kind, but of course without modern equipment. One among them was the fire captain. Whenever a fire broke out anywhere, they had to walk for up to three hours to reach the fire to help put it out. However, they could not leave the scene until they had been given a certificate witnessing their efforts. Each also had to take along his leather pail on the job. When they came back, they were to get from the municipality two Maß of wine and each was to get white bread
White bread
White bread is made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ have been removed through a process known as milling. Milling gives white flour a longer shelf life by removing the bran which contains oil, allowing products made with it, like white bread, the ability to survive storage and...
for one Albus.
In 1731, it was written: “They should go after the fire as far as the Rhine or four hours’ walk away and then bring back a certificate, then they should have from the municipality 1 quarter of wine and for an alb. white bread and Volpert Sandmann should be the fire captain.”
19th century
In 1840 the 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...
clergyman Pfeiffer declared that his parish had wished “for the longest time and most longingly” a separation of churches from the Catholic parish and for a new Evangelical church to be built. There was also more payment for the extermination of mice, hamsters and wasps.
In 1848, Ludwig H., born and living in Schornsheim, had himself registered as a local citizen and paid the “fire pail money”. Owing to his intended marriage, however, the council raised an objection, because the said man had no kind of estate, neither practising a business nor being “busy” in agriculture, and about the woman’s assets, nothing was known. “One can assume that the said man cannot feed this female person with her two illegitimate children, much less should this family grow yet bigger.”
In 1850, to build the Evangelical church, the church did not want to use any stone from the Flonheim quarries because for these stones, a road improvement tax would have had to be paid. Instead, the church wanted to draw stone from the Oppenheim quarries, as those stones were free of this tax.
In 1856, chickens and geese were once again tended by Ludwig Höhler with his sister for a wage of 30 guilders. He further received, as was customary, one pound of bread from each owner of one of those geese. The vineyard marksmen now had to go to work every day. A day’s wages for each was 24 Kreuzer
Kreuzer
The Kreuzer, in English usually kreutzer, was a silver coin and unit of currency existing in the southern German states prior to the unification of Germany, and in Austria.-Early history:...
.
In 1857, Philipp Geogi wanted to travel to his son in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
as there were better food and care there than in Schornsheim. The municipality was ready to give him money for clothing for the trip, but as security, they wanted to pay the fare only at the railway station from which he was to begin his trip. His son was a tinsmith in Zürich. The council decided that on 23 June, the meadows would be opened. The grass was to be mown and taken away forthwith. The council objected to local citizen Mathias Z.’s marriage to Maria Chatharina J. from Wörrstadt. “Z. enjoys evil repute and has with a person from the Duchy of Nassau
Nassau (state)
Nassau was a German state within the Holy Roman Empire and later in the German Confederation. Its ruling dynasty, now extinct in male line, was the House of Nassau.-Origins:...
undergone an immoral change and has had children with the same. He is a blasphemer and given to drink. His fiancée also possesses a frivolous character and is said already to have had two children out of wedlock with another person.”
In 1858, a gift was to be given the Grand Duke for his silver wedding anniversary. A council member agreed. All the other members, though, refused any gift. They declared that the municipality was so beleaguered by roadbuilding, the acquisition of two fire sprayers and other outlays that it had to be mindful of even the smallest savings. In November, however, deliberated once again the gift for the Grand Duke. “It would be unworthy if the municipality of Schornsheim wanted to exclude itself from the grand festival.” A collection gathered up 25 guilders for the gift.
In 1859 the council refused Carl. L. Bißmann, at the time living in Neuchâtel, an early marriage. “Even if the petitioner (applicant) at the moment has good earnings but the marriage dies before he is 25 years of age, the foreign-born woman and any possible children would become a burden to the municipality of Schornsheim. He may wait until he is of the legally prescribed age.”
In 1860, stones for improving roads were to be bought in the quantity of 9 fathoms. The stones were to be knocked asunder by debtors who were being punished as such. Their wages were to be deducted from their debt. “The ‘convicts’ recognized as being unable to pay have, however, hitherto through petitions for deadlines and assorted evasions, sought to get out of doing this work.”
J.L.H. asked for support from the municipal coffers. The council’s opinion was as follows: “Applicant is a sturdy man of 37 years, who from youth onwards adapted himself to begging. He calls himself a day labourer, but will work for nobody and busies himself merely with gathering horse dung in the streets, where he can be an idler. He could have work the year round in fieldwork and in winter in threshing. This year he was offered work in caring for geese, for which he could have earned from May to November 40 guilders and for each goose a pound of bread, but which he also did not take on. His wife, 36 years old, strong and healthy, is just as shy of work; even in the harvest these two highly lazy people take on no harvesting work. About this, the whole municipality is angered and gives nothing further. The policeman has the duty of disrupting begging. Were it further allowed the couple, they would have been able to live continually without fending for food. Such people are unworthy of being supported.”
In Undenheim a postal station was to be built. Schornsheim, however, held that the location near Wörrstadt was more advantageous given the Justice of the Peace and the tax commission’s office there. The municipality dismissed Ph. M. from his job as gooseherd “because he does not busy himself at all with herding geese, his wife only seldom. The geese would be driven out of the village to the field only seldom, and given over to his children, who are supposed to go to school, who let the geese run around in the fields at will. Now, to guard the fields against further damage, he is discharged as gooseherd.”
In 1861, after the Grand-Ducal government’s agreement with the Thurn und Taxis
Thurn und Taxis
The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis is a German family that was a key player in the postal services in Europe in the 16th century and is well known as owners of breweries and builders of many castles.- History :...
postal administration, the council declared: “The municipality wants to forgo a six-time errand and only pay the bringer’s wages for the governmental paper”. The municipality did not need to procure any post boxes. Also, as two fruit dealers were already resident in Schornsheim, the council held that a further one was unneeded.
In 1862, because sparrow
Sparrow
The sparrows are a family of small passerine birds, Passeridae. They are also known as true sparrows, or Old World sparrows, names also used for a genus of the family, Passer...
s had grown so greatly in number and were doing such great harm in the fields, every citizen at his own expense had to deliver 2 to 6 sparrows. Also, because the plague of rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s in the municipal area was getting out of hand, a man from Bechtheim
Bechtheim
Bechtheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
who owned a ferret
Ferret
The ferret is a domesticated mammal of the type Mustela putorius furo. Ferrets are sexually dimorphic predators with males being substantially larger than females. They typically have brown, black, white, or mixed fur...
was to come to help. The proceeds from the rabbits were to flow into the municipality’s coffers.
In 1863, the rabbit problem had still not been overcome, and anyone who killed or presented a rabbit was to get 6 Kreuzer
Kreuzer
The Kreuzer, in English usually kreutzer, was a silver coin and unit of currency existing in the southern German states prior to the unification of Germany, and in Austria.-Early history:...
for each one from the municipality’s coffers. The council also decided that the corn hamster
Hamster
Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species, classified in six or seven genera....
, which had also got out of hand, had to be exterminated. For each killed or delivered hamster, 3 Kreuzer would be paid out.
(Even by the years 1950–1960, hamsters were still being caught and would earn the catcher 1.80 DM each).
In 1870, the well in the Pfaffenwald (forest) was not supplying enough water to those who dwelt there or their livestock. At that time, there was a great need for water in Schornsheim. The council stated in August of that year that it was needless to build a new well before the Heyertor (gate), as it had rained long and persistently.
On 30 July that same year, Jakob Tautphäus delivered a horse and a waggon to send to war
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
in 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...
. Philipp Ebling gave a second horse. Both also gave a second man.
On 28 September, though, one of the men came back with the war waggon and a strange horse. According to him, his fellow warrior and his horse had both been killed in France.
On 8 October, the municipal council was complaining about the policeman. He was apparently much given to drink and had already been negligent in doing his duty for years. Also, some nighttime disturbances of the peace were not coming to his attention as he did his nightly rounds. Furthermore he had failed to appoint other citizens each evening in addition to the serving security watches for the nighttime criminality that was getting out of hand. The policeman was to be dismissed, the more so as he had thrown his sabre and duty book into the mayor’s livingroom. Five persons sought the fired policeman’s job. The wages amounted to 40 guilders. The policeman also had to act as a court official and a field marksman for the nearby surrounding area. The municipality had to borrow capital amounting to 1,500 guilders to be able to indemnify those from Schornsheim who had gone to war in France.
On 18 October came a report of a typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
outbreak.
In 1871, the municipal council believed that “The investigation of wellwater with regard to the illness, which led to no result, could have been saved, as nothing could be confirmed.”
In 1880, the policeman was dismissed, as on some days he was not to be seen in the village, as a result of which “with begging getting out of hand, the vagabonds can go about begging undisturbed. His other functions he has also badly neglected.”
In 1881 a new knacker
Knacker
A knacker is a person in the trade of rendering animals that are unfit for human consumption, such as horses that can no longer work. This leads to the slang expression "knackered" meaning very tired, or "ready for the knacker’s yard", where old horses are slaughtered and made into dog food and glue...
was hired. He received 1.50 to 2.00 Marks for each cattle or horse carcass that he skinned and buried. For foals, calves or swine he got 50 Pfennigs. Horses and cattle had to be delivered to the knacker’s yard; other livestock had to be fetched by the knacker.
In 1897, a day’s wages (not hourly) were set out in Schornsheim. The rates were as follows:
- for grown workmen 1 Mark 80 Pfennigs
- for grown workwomen 1 Mark 20 Pfennigs
- for youthful workmen 1 Mark 20 Pfennigs
- for youthful workwomen 80 Pfennigs
Also, the municipality wanted to forbid free ranging of geese on Sundays and holidays.
20th century
In 1903, by the district office’s decree, the council decided to put the old elmtree – the so-called Heyerbaum – under monumental protection.- Source for foregoing:
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 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... |
Henn | Total | |
| 2009 | 6 | 10 | 16 seats |
| 2004 | 5 | 11 | 16 seats |
Coat of arms
The municipality’s armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might be described thus: Argent on a base sable a tower sans windows gules, in a chief of the second a crozier fesswise Or.
The arms are believed to go back to a seal from 1781, when the Ganerben (“coheirs”), that is, the families von Dienheim, von Wallbrunn, von Wanscheid and Langwerth von Simmern, together held sway over the village. The tower is said to recall this time, while the bishop’s staff, or crozier, refers to Saint Leoba, who as Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
’s kin, founded one of the oldest convents in the 8th century in Schornsheim.
Famous people
- Kornelia Grummt-EnderKornelia EnderKornelia Ender is a former East German swimmer who at the 1976 Summer Olympics became the first woman swimmer to win four gold medals at a single Olympic Games, all in world record times...
, former East German swimmer, 1976 Olympic Champion1976 Summer OlympicsThe 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
in SwimmingSwimming (sport)Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native... - LeobaLeobaLeoba was an Anglo-Saxon nun who was part of Boniface's mission to the Germans, and a saint.- Early life :...
, locally known as Lioba von Tauberbischofsheim, a Saint