Abtswind

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 46 '  N , 10 ° 22'  E
Basic data
State :	Bavaria
Administrative region :	Lower Franconia
County :	Kitzingen
Management Community :	Wiesentheid
Height :	291 m above sea level NHN
Area :	12.81 km 2
Residents:	841 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	66 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	97355
Area code :	09383
License plate :	KT
Community key :	09 6 75 111
Market structure:	2 districts
Association administration address:	Balthasar-Neumann-Str. 14 97353 Wiesentheid
Website :	www.abtswind.de
Mayor :	Jürgen Schulz, 1st Mayor (Citizens' Block)
Location of the Abtswind market in the Kitzingen district

Central square of Abtswind

Abtswind street gate

Baroque access to the courtyard

Abtswind (dialect: downswing ) is a market with around 800 inhabitants in the Lower Franconian district of Kitzingen and a member of the Wiesentheid administrative community . The place is located at the foot of the Friedrichsberg in the west of the Steigerwald Nature Park . Abtswind, which was first mentioned in a document in 783, consisted of the two places Kleinabtswind and Großabtswind in the early Middle Ages. While Kleinabtswind degenerated into a desert during the Thirty Years War , the main town continued to develop. The Münsterschwarzach monastery was the local ruler until the 15th century. But other gentlemen also acquired shares in the small town. Abbotswind was later given its own jurisdiction and became a free spot . Abtswind is characterized by its viticulture and the old sandstone houses in the town center.

geography

location

The place is at the foot of the Friedrichsberg about 40 kilometers south of Schweinfurt , about 16 kilometers east of Kitzingen and about 50 kilometers west of Bamberg . The university town of Würzburg is 35 kilometers away. The Kantersbach flows on the northern outskirts and flows into the Schoßbach in Rüdenhausen .

Community structure

The two districts are: Abtswind and Friedrichsberg .

There is the district of Abtswind.

Land use

48.1% of the district is used for agriculture, 11% is settlement and traffic areas, 39.5% forest and 1% water.

Neighboring communities

Neighboring communities are (starting from the north clockwise): Wiesentheid , Geiselwind , Castell and Rüdenhausen .

Protected areas

The village is surrounded by several protected areas. The protection zone of the Steigerwald nature park protrudes as a landscape protection area into the district of Abtswind. The mountains east of the built-up area are part of this protection zone. The so-called Ortelsbruch below the Friedrichsberg also exists within the landscape protection area. The Würzburg Residence and the baroque Münsterschwarzach monastery church were built from the stones of this quarry . In addition, there is an old chestnut on the KT 15 district road in the direction of Rehweiler, a natural monument in Abtswind.

history

Origin of name and early Middle Ages

The name "Abbatissaewinden" (later Abtswinden, Abtswind) appeared as early as the Carolingian period . The meaning of the name at the time of the abbot's turn goes back to the abbot of the Benedictine monastery Megingaudeshausen near Ullstadt , which was abolished in 877 and relocated to Münsterschwarzach monastery . The part of the name -wind refers, similar to other places in the area ( Geiselwind , Bischwind etc.) to the West Slavic people of the Wends . The Saxons and Wends who opposed the Frankish empire of Charlemagne were resettled in order to detach them from their original tribal association. Wends were settled in certain places and placed under the rule of local authorities (an abbot: Abtswind, a bishop: Bischwind).

The first settlement of Abtswind, Kleinabtswind, was on Eichsee, on the road from Abtswind to Wiesentheid. The Franconian Apostle Kilian is said to have preached and baptized there around 680. Later there was a chapel there. This district belonged to the rule of the Counts of Castell until 1364. In the second half of the 14th century, today's Abtswind emerged, which was subordinate to the Münsterschwarzach monastery. Kleinabtswind was given up in the Thirty Years War . During road construction work around 1830, a large number of dead bones were found, which point to the former Kleinabtswind.

Late Middle Ages

The Münsterschwarzach monastery was probably the founder of today's Abtswind and until 1536 fiefdom of a large part of the place. In addition, the Ebrach Monastery , the Counts of Castell and the Fuchs von Dornheim aristocratic line owned properties there. Until the late Middle Ages there were three mayors in the village, who were subordinate to the three lords of Castell, Ebrach and Fuchs.

Early modern age

Under the influence of the Counts of Castell, Abtswind became Protestant in 1559. During this time, the village court was under the authority of the Ebrach monastery. It was practiced by five farmers whose houses were marked with coats of arms. In addition to the banishment of criminals from the village, offenses were also punished with death on the gallows. Between Abtswind and Rüdenhausen several witch burnings took place in 1617 , which killed 13 people, two men and eleven women. A total of 91 people were charged at the time. Since an army road ran through Abtswind from the Steigerwald into the Main Valley, the place had well-fortified defensive structures with moats, massive walls and towers and a fortified churchyard. The gades of the fortified church are still partially preserved.

Although there was no direct fighting, Abtswind suffered billeting , looting, arson and violence during the Thirty Years' War . In 1618 the village had about 1200 inhabitants, in 1648 there were only 15. In particular the plague , which came into the village with foreign soldiers in 1628, was responsible for the decline.

After the secularization of the monastery in 1803 and the mediatization of the counts (1806) in favor of Bavaria, the place was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg by Archduke Ferdinand of Tuscany in 1810 , before it came to the Kingdom of Bavaria with the Paris Treaty in 1814 .

Since 1815

In 1880 the schoolhouse was built in the center of the village, which is now the kindergarten. The school system in Abtswind has been documented since 1479. In 1923 the first water supply for the town center was completed. In 1948, the channeling of the rest of the place and the construction of a sewage treatment plant .

There was no direct property damage during the Second World War. Two emergency bombs that fell on the road to Untersambach in February 1944 did no damage. The only civilian victim was a three-year-old child who was killed by a ricochet in a low-flying attack . At the beginning of the war, evacuees from the Palatinate came to Abtswind, who returned after the French campaign. In 1942 women and children moved from the destroyed cities of the Ruhr area. From February 1945 bombed out people from Kitzingen , Schweinfurt and Würzburg came to Abtswind. In addition, a large number of displaced persons and refugees came after the war and the population rose rapidly. Until the arrival of the American troops in March 1945, the Nazi district leader Heer stayed with his family in Abtswind.

From 1948 to 1950, many dilapidated houses were demolished, among other things to resolve the housing shortage and to expand the village square. In 1976 the guest house was inaugurated. In the course of the community reform on March 25, 1975, Abtswind became a member of the Wiesentheid administrative community .

Population development

• 1840: 861 inhabitants
• 1961: 693 inhabitants
• 1970: 681 inhabitants
• 1987: 681 inhabitants
• 1991: 727 inhabitants
• 1995: 781 inhabitants
• 2000: 783 inhabitants
• 2005: 798 inhabitants
• 2010: 807 inhabitants
• 2015: 851 inhabitants

Parts of this article seem out of date as of 2015 .
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

politics

mayor

Mayor is Jürgen Schulz (civic block). On May 1, 2014, he was the successor to Klaus Lenz (Bürgerblock) and was re-elected on March 15, 2020 with 87.6% of the vote.

Market council

The local elections in 2002, 2008 and 2014 led to the following allocation of seats in the municipal council:

	2002	2008	2014
Civic bloc	8th	8th	8th
total	8th	8th	8th

tax income

The municipal tax revenue amounted to 1.2 million euros in 2014, of which (net) approx. 600,000 euros were trade tax revenue.

coat of arms

Blazon : "A black abbot's staff in gold, covered below with a jumping red fox."

Foundation of the coat of arms: It is assumed that the settlement of Abtswind was founded by the Münsterschwarzach monastery, which exercised feudal rule over most of the local area until 1536. It is documented as a ruler since 1281. The abbot's staff speaks for this in the coat of arms. The Ebrach monastery, the Counts of Castell, Fuchs von Dornheim and others also had goods in the municipality. The influence of the Fuchs von Dornheim family was most extensive in the 16th century. Talking stands for the family name of the fox from their coat of arms. The coat of arms was awarded by the Ministry of the Interior on August 10, 1966.

Culture and sights

Buildings

Abtswinder cemetery arcades with wooden cemetery pulpit

House entrance in the center of Abtswind

• Town center along the main street with magnificent sandstone houses
• Fortified church with Protestant parish church
• Cemetery with sermon pulpit under the arcades. This structure was created when the space around the church became too small. Therefore it was moved to the edge of the place.

Architectural monuments

→ Main article : List of architectural monuments in Abtswind

Soil monuments

→ Main article : List of ground monuments in Abtswind

Sights in nature

• Oldest wine trail in Bavaria
• Frankenblick in the vineyard. In good weather, view as far as the Rhön

Sports

• Outdoor pool, baby pool with large lawns, playground and beach volleyball field

Regular events

• Abtswinder wine festival every Saturday in October in the heated festival tent
• Christmas market with craft stalls and nativity scene on the second Advent
• Festive dance ball on the first Friday of the new year: Chrysanthemum ball

Sagas and stories

The fox Gorad

A man named Gorad lived in Abtswind. If he was irritated, he scolded and said: “Get me the will fox!” (Main Franconian: Get me the wild fox). After he passed away, he was really turned into a fox because of the frequent cursing . There are many stories about his appearance while working in the fields or while crossing the woods. However, the fox Gorad never harmed anyone.

An incident took place on the road to Wiesentheid . The church bells were ringing at noon when a woman returned from Wiesentheid and met the fox. She asked: “Gorad, what are you doing there?” The fox stood on his hind legs and replied: “Had it not struck twelve o'clock, I would have turned your head!” The woman returned home full of fear.

The Pöpelsbaum

A long time ago there was a single, large pear tree between Abtswind and nearby Rüdenhausen . Two men passed the tree on a full moon night from Rüdenhausen. It was shortly after midnight when they reached the tree. One of them called out to the other: “Look, what's there on the pear tree?” The other man replied: “That's a witch riding a white goat.” They both ran home quickly. From then on the tree was called Pöpelsbaum.

The Drudenstein

Another incident is located in the forest between Abtswind and Rüdenhausen. A wide field stone slab was called "Der Drudenstein" for a long time. The alleged witches of Abtswind were burned at the Drudenstein .

One day a broom-maker brought his supply of brushwood to Kitzingen . On the way back, it was already night, he wanted to rest a little by the wood. Suddenly he discovered a light in the place of the Drudenstein. He crept up to the place and saw a small fire burning around which several women and men in strange clothes were sitting. He was about to creep back to his cart when a woman tossed the child on her lap into the fire.

The broom-maker watched the spectacle, frozen in shock. Now everyone danced and sang around the fire. One of the men, dressed in a red doublet , was about to push a woman into the fire in front of him when he suddenly stopped. He turned to the hedge behind which the broom-maker was hidden and said: "There is one too many!" The dancers strode in the direction of the hedge, when the clock on the nearby church tower struck midnight . Immediately the dancers disappeared.

The stone cross at the cemetery

One evening in winter, an Abtswinder farmer drove past the local cemetery in his carriage . A screech owl that was sitting on a branch in a nearby tree called and the farmer raised his whip to strike at the bird. But it missed the animal and the whip became entangled in the spokes of the rolling wagon wheel. The farmer tried to loosen the cord but fell under his wagon and was killed. As a reminder, a stone cross was placed next to the cemetery.

The plague bird

Similar to Kleinlangheim, there is also a legend in Abtswind about a so-called plague bird. During the Thirty Years' War the village suffered greatly from the soldiers passing through. They also brought the plague to the place and decimated the population very much. The remainder met once a day at the village well and counted who was left. But a bird in a tree chirped: "If you eat beaver , you will not die!"

See also : Pestvogel legend in Kleinlangheim

Economy and Infrastructure

Economy including agriculture and forestry

In 1998 there were ten employed in agriculture and forestry, 74 in manufacturing and 293 in trade and transport. 31 people were employed in other economic sectors at the place of work. A total of 298 employees at the place of residence were counted. There were three operations in manufacturing, including mining and quarrying. In 1999 there were 39 farms with an agricultural area of ​​557 hectares. Of this, 456 hectares were arable land and 54 hectares were permanent green space. There is also a branch of the Raiffeisenbank Volkacher Mainschleife - Wiesentheid in Abtswind . In the village there is the headquarters of Kräuter Mix GmbH , which specializes in the production and processing of plant-based products from the areas of dried vegetables, herbs, spices and teas.

Viticulture

The vineyards near the village

Abtswind is now an important wine-growing area in the Franconian wine-growing region . There is a vineyard around the village, the wine has been marketed under the name Abtswinder Altenberg since the 1970s. In addition, the place is the eponymous lead community for the major location Abtswinder Schild. Abtswind is part of the Schwanberger Land area, until 2017 the winemakers were grouped together in the Steigerwald area. The Keuperböden around Abtswind are just as suitable for growing wine as the location in the Maingau climate zone, which is one of the warmest in Germany.

The people around Abtswind have been cultivating wine since the early Middle Ages . The Franconian settlers probably brought the vine to the Main in the 7th century. The location name Altenberg also refers to the long wine-growing tradition. In the Middle Ages, the region was part of the largest contiguous wine-growing region in the Holy Roman Empire. The people mostly operated part-time viticulture for self-sufficiency , at the same time export centers were already emerging, especially along the Main. Abtswind also rose to the market in order to be able to market his wine more centrally.

However, viticulture experienced a major decline after secularization at the beginning of the 19th century. Above all, locations with less favorable climatic conditions were completely abandoned. In addition, the emergence of pests such as phylloxera made cultivation difficult . The Franconian wine-growing region was not able to consolidate again until the second half of the 20th century. The use of fertilizers and improved cultivation methods had contributed to this, as had the organization in cooperatives and the land consolidation of the 1970s.

Today viticulture in Abtswind is an important economic factor. There are several small, self- marketing wineries in the village, and some winegrowers have joined the regional wine cooperative . As early as 1971, Bavaria's first educational wine trail was inaugurated in the southeast of the village, which provides information about the production of wine and the varieties grown. The vinotheque in the village also provides interesting information. The center of the wine culture in Abtswind is the wine festival , which takes place annually on the October weekends.

Vineyard	Size 1993	Compass direction	Slope	Main grape varieties	Great location
Altenberg	30 ha	Southwest, West, Northwest	15-50%	Müller-Thurgau , Silvaner	Abtswinder shield

Education and Public Institutions

The following institutions exist (as of: 1999):

• Kindergartens: 40 kindergarten places with 42 children
• largest private herbal museum in the world
• Market archive Abtswind , municipal archive with a large inventory on the history of the place, stored externally in the premises of the town hall in Wiesentheid

Personalities

Honorary citizen

• Paul von Hindenburg
• Walter Mix
• Karl Behringer
• Georg Eckoff
• Else Kniewasser (July 7, 2008)
• Hans-Heinz Kopp (September 30, 2008)
• Robert Wendel (August 21, 2013)

Sons and daughters of the place

• Heinrich Hornschuch (1838–1912), entrepreneur
• Caspar Finkenberger (1857–), sculptor, professor
• Ernst Loesch (1860–1946), painter and writer
• Steffen Mix (1989-2017), soccer referee

literature

• Hans Ambrosi, Bernhard Breuer: German Vinothek: Franconia. Guide to the vineyards, winegrowers and their kitchens . Herford ² 1993.
• Hans Bauer: Old and new coats of arms in the Kitzingen district . In: Yearbook of the district of Kitzingen 1980. In the spell of the Schwanberg . Kitzingen 1980. pp. 53-70.
• Johann Ludwig Klarmann: The Steigerwald in the past. A contribution to Franconian cultural studies . Gerolzhofen ² 1909.
• Johann Ludwig Klarmann, Karl Spiegel: Legends and sketches from the Steigerwald. Reprint of the 1912 edition . Neustadt an der Aisch 1982.
• Wolf-Dieter Raftopoulo: Steigerwald cultural guide. Documentation of an old cultural landscape . Dettelbach 2003.
• Theophil Steinbrenner, Gerhard Wahler, Auguste Steinberger, Felix von Fokczynski (eds.): Intermediate lights. Traditional stories from the old county of Castell . Albertshofen² 1979.
• Karl Treutwein : Legends from Main Franconia . Wuerzburg 1969.
• Karl Treutwein: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. History, sights, traditions . Volkach ⁴ 1987.

Web links

Commons : Abtswind  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on the coat of arms of Abtswind  in the database of the House of Bavarian History

• Abtswind: Official statistics of the LfStat
• Homepage Abtswind

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Data 2" sheet, Statistical Report A1200C 202041 Population of the municipalities, districts and administrative districts 1st quarter 2020 (population based on the 2011 census) ( help ).
2. ^ Market town of Abtswind: Town Hall. Retrieved May 9, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Bavarian State Library Online (BLO)
4. ↑ Cf. Ulrich Kniewasser: Der Steigerwald. Volume 1983-1 p. 14 ff.
5. ↑ See Ernst Zehnder: 125 Years of the Sängerkranz Abtswind. Abtswind 1986.
6. ↑ See Rudolf Kniewasser: Abtswind. In: Georg Güntsch (Ed.): Castell-Grafschaft and Dean's Office. Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1991.
7. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Raftopoulo: cultural guide Steigerwald. P. 25.
8. ^ See Marion Kopp: Abtswind 1945 and after. In: The Steigerwald. Volume 1999-3.
9. ^ Bauer, Hans: Old and new coats of arms in the district of Kitzingen . P. 55.
10. ^ Karl Treutwein: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. P. 11.
11. ^ Karl Treutwein: From Abtswind to Zeilitzheim. P. 11.
12. ↑ Theophil Steinbrenner: intermediate lights. P. 18.
13. ^ Karl Treutwein: Legends from Main Franconia. P. 20.
14. ^ Johann Ludwig Klarmann (among others): Legends and sketches from the Steigerwald. P. 250.
15. ^ Ambrosi, Hans (among others): German Vinothek: Franconia . Pp. 50-52.
16. ↑ Abtswind: Wine Trail , accessed on June 9, 2019.
17. ^ Government of Lower Franconia: Vineyards in Bavaria broken down by area , PDF file, accessed on May 16, 2019.
18. ^ Ambrosi, Hans (among others): German Vinothek: Franconia . P. 237.
19. ^ Johann Ludwig Klarmann: The Steigerwald in the past. P. 190.