Bechhofen (Palatinate)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 21 '  N , 7 ° 24'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Southwest Palatinate
Association municipality :	Zweibrücken-Land
Height :	277 m above sea level NHN
Area :	6.59 km 2
Residents:	2138 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	324 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	66894
Area code :	06372
License plate :	PS , ZW
Community key :	07 3 40 203
Association administration address:	Landauer Strasse 18-20 66482 Zweibrücken
Website :	www.bechhofen-pfalz.de
Local Mayor :	Paul Sefrin ( CDU )
Location of the local community Bechhofen in the district of Südwestpfalz

View of the center of Bechhofen

Bechhofen is a municipality in the district of Südwestpfalz in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the community of Zweibrücken-Land .

geography

The place lies in the natural area Sickinger step at the foot of the Sickinger Höhe and is crossed by the Lambsbach from northeast to southwest .

history

The place Bechhofen was first mentioned in a document in 1191 and subsequently named for several centuries as the seat of a knight family.

After the place was completely devastated in the Thirty Years War, resettlement began at the end of the 17th century.

In 1755 the office of Homburg and thus also Bechhofen fell to the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken through an area swap . Shortly after taking office in 1776, Duke Karl II August began building the nearby Karlsberg Palace into his residence. This meant an upswing for Bechhofen, as numerous soldiers, craftsmen and servants employed on the Karlsberg settled here at this time.

Until the end of the First World War, Bechhofen belonged to the district office of Homburg . When the Treaty of Versailles came into force in 1920, the newly defined Saar area, including the Homburg district, was placed under the government of the League of Nations and economically included in the French customs and currency area. However, Bechhofen remained together with a few other communities in the German Empire and was assigned to the Zweibrücken district office . This made Bechhofen a border area until the Saar area was reintegrated into the German Reich in 1935.

After the Second World War, the Saarland was separated from Germany, attached to the French customs area and placed under French protectorate. As a result, customs stations were again built on the local border of Bechhofen, which remained in place until the Saarland was economically decoupled from France in 1959.

In the course of the administrative and territorial reform in 1972, the place was incorporated into the district of Pirmasens , which was renamed in 1997 in the district of Südwestpfalz.

Population development

The development of the population of Bechhofen, the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 261 1835 506 1871 629 1905 917 1939 1,214 1950 1,328

year Residents 1961 1,665 1970 2.016 1987 1.952 1997 2,371 2005 2,249 2019 2.138

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council in Bechhofen consists of 16 council members, who were elected in the local elections on May 26, 2019 in a personalized proportional representation, and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the municipal council:

choice	SPD	CDU	Green	total
2019	6th	8th	2	16 seats
2014	7th	9	-	16 seats
2009	7th	9	-	16 seats
2004	7th	9	-	16 seats

mayor

Since the local elections in 2009, Paul Sefrin (CDU) has headed the community as local mayor (continued with the election victory in the 2019 local elections).

coat of arms

Blazon : "Split from red and black by a silver wave stick, on the right three vertically standing golden ears of corn, above a silver spangenhelm , below a silver cog wheel, on the left a red-tongued and armored golden lion." It was awarded in 1982 by the Rheinhessen-Pfalz district government .

Justification of the coat of arms: The Spangenhelm is a reference to the knights who named themselves after the place around 1200. The ears of wheat and the cog wheel represent the agricultural and industrial branches of trade in the municipality. The Palatinate lion refers to the dukes of Zweibrücken as local lords, and the colors of the coat of arms in the right half of the shield refer to their predecessors, the Counts of Homburg.

Culture and sights

Buildings

see list of cultural monuments in Bechhofen

Regular events

• Village festival on the 2nd weekend in July
• Sports festival on the 1st weekend in August
• Parish fair on the 2nd weekend in October
• Christmas market on the 1st weekend in Advent

Infrastructure

In the community there is a grocery store , a butcher's and a bakery as well as a general practitioner , a dentist and a pharmacy .

Bechhofen is approached by RSW buses . The next train station with an ICE stop is in Homburg , 7 km away. Bechhofen is located directly on the L 463 state road . The nearby A 6 (E 50) motorway can be reached via the Waldmohr junction , 4.5 km away.

Sons and daughters of the church

• Jakob Pirro (1899–1962), politician (NSDAP)
• Thomas Dooley (* 1961), German-American soccer player, German champion and cup winner with 1. FC Kaiserslautern, UEFA Cup winner with FC Schalke 04, 81 international matches for the USA. For his birthplace Bechhofen he played in his youth and as an active player until 1979.

Web links

Commons : Bechhofen  - Collection of Images

• Website about Bechhofen - Bechhofen Tourist Office
• Local community Bechhofen on the website of the association community Zweibrücken-Land
• Literature about Bechhofen in the Rhineland-Palatinate state bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, municipalities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ^ Andreas Neubauer: Regesten of the Werschweiler monastery . Publishing house of the Historical Association of the Palatinate, Speier am Rhein 1921. Digitized
3. ↑ Michael Frey : Attempt of a geographical-historical-statistical description of the court district of Zweibrücken in the royal. bayer. Rhine districts, dermal Palatinate , part 4, Speyer 1837, digitized
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Historical Working Group Bechhofen-Pfalz (ed.): 800 years of Bechhofen. Contributions to the history of the village , Zweibrücken 1991
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
6. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal elections 2014, city and municipal council elections
8. ↑ Mayor: Paul Sefrin should do it again. Die Rheinpfalz, February 8, 2014, accessed on March 22, 2020 . 
9. ^ The State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Zweibrücken-Land, Verbandsgemeinde, third line of results. Retrieved March 22, 2020 .