Benz (Usedom)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 53 ° 56 '  N , 14 ° 4'  E
Basic data
State :	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
County :	Vorpommern-Greifswald
Office :	Usedom-South
Height :	34 m above sea level NHN
Area :	24.5 km 2
Residents:	1072 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	44 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	17429
Area code :	038379
License plate :	VG, ANK, GW, PW, SBG, UEM, WLG
Community key :	13 0 75 010
Community structure:	6 districts
Office administration address:	Markt 1 17406 Usedom
Website :	gemeinde-benz.de
Mayor :	Enrico Tesch
Location of the municipality of Benz in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district

Benz is a municipality on the island of Usedom and is located in the so-called Achterland . It is administered by the Usedom-Süd office based in the city ​​of Usedom .

Geography and traffic

The municipality extends over an area of ​​almost 25 square kilometers from the Cosim peninsula in the west to Lake Gothensee in the east, in the middle of the Usedom Island nature park . The village itself is located in a scenic region south of the Schmollensee . This part of the Usedomer Achterland is also known as Usedom Switzerland because of its gently rolling hills . About twelve kilometers southwest of the municipality is the city of Usedom and three kilometers northeast is the seaside resort of Heringsdorf with the district of Seebad Bansin .

The B 111 has been running through the municipality since it was renamed in 2008 and Neppermin was incorporated in 2004. The district roads K 35 (east-west direction) and K 37 (north-south direction) cross in the town center. There is no direct connection to the rail network . The closest stop on the Usedomer Bäderbahn is Schmollensee ( Züssow – Wolgaster Fähre – Swinemünde line ).

View from the mill to the Schmollensee

Community structure

Districts

Balm , Benz, Labömitz , Neppermin , Reetzow , Stoben

Desolations and living spaces

Rossenthin (desert)

history

Benz

Northwest of the center of Benz is a Slavic castle complex (600 to 1200), which still clearly shows the wall and the moat. It archaeologically proves the early settlement of the area.

In 1229 the place Benz was first mentioned as "Bents". Benz mentions this document (PUB I No. 255) when the Duchess Miroslawa donated a village to the Stolpe Monastery . An earlier mention of the place comes from the year 1111 as "Bentze" in the registers or annals of the monastery of Grobe / Pudagla . The year 1111 is so far not plausible, the register of the monastery was only created during the term of office of Abbot Heinrich IV (1394–1434), but is given according to the original in the Greifswald State Archives for the period from 1111 to 1440. With this and two further reviews based on Niemeyer's note, the year is probably correct, but the meaning remains unclear, as no text translations of the passage in question are known to date. The Slavic foundation was interpreted as "hut" or "beech forest".

The main attraction of Benz is the Erd Holländermühle on the mountain above the village from 1830. In addition to exhibitions, guided tours and small catering, it offers a beautiful view of the landscape of mountains, lakes and forests, as well as the villages in the area. A post mill a little east of the mentioned has not stood the test of time.

The village form around 1900 can be described as a street perch village . The function of the place was rural. In the present, the village shape has changed to a cluster village and its function as a recreational area (gastronomy, holiday homes, tourist destinations, etc.).

After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 Benz came to Swedish Pomerania , after 1720 it became Prussian. After the administrative reform in 1815, Benz came to the Prussian province of Pomerania and from 1818 to 1945 belonged to the Usedom-Wollin district . From 1945 to 1952, the part of the district that remained in Germany after the Second World War formed the district of Usedom, which in 1952 became part of Wolgast in the Rostock district. So the affiliation remained during the GDR period, after the fall of the Wall the next change took place.

The community has been in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 1990. From 1994 to 2011 it belonged to the district of Ostvorpommern , which was added to the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald on September 4, 2011 .

History of the districts

All districts have their own articles. → see there.

Rossenthin (desert)

Rossenthin was first mentioned in a document in 1258 as "Roscetin". In it, Duke Barnim I confirms to the knight Luker that he u. a. bought the village from the brothers Oldag and Werner for 20 marks. The Slavic name is interpreted as "horn". The place was directly on the Gothensee, later (also PUM 1835) the name was mentioned as the field name of a meadow by the lake. It was on the municipal boundary to Sallenthin (Bansin).

But it could also have something to do with the island settlement in Gothensee, exactly opposite this field name. There, in 1971 and 1979 superficial finds of late Slavic ceramic shards and animal bones, as well as clay plastering from wattle-walled houses, were found. The island is only 25 meters from the shore.

Incorporations

Stoben was incorporated on July 1, 1950. Reetzow joined on September 4, 1973.
On May 22, 2004, Neppermin was incorporated.

Balm was incorporated into the Neppermin community on July 1, 1950.

Lyonel Feininger and Otto Niemeyer-Holstein

Feininger tour badge on the mill in Benz

During his summer stays on Usedom between 1908 and 1921, the German-American painter Lyonel Feininger often used to explore the Usedom Achterland, in particular the area around Benz and Neppermin, on extensive bike tours, always looking for suitable motifs. Feininger produced a whole series of drawings and pictures with Benz motifs such as the St. Petri Church or the Dutch mill. Even decades after his stay on Usedom, the painter kept going back to these motifs. A “Feininger Tour” marked by plaques in the floor leads visitors today to his places of activity in the village.

In 1975 the painter and sculptor Otto Niemeyer-Holstein , who had lived in Koserow ( Lüttenort ) since the late 1930s, bought the Dutch mill in Benz. Niemeyer-Holstein is buried in the cemetery in Benz.

politics

mayor

In the municipal elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2019 , the mayor Karl-Heinz (Ali) Schröder, who has been in office since 1990, was not re-elected. The non-party individual applicant Enrico Tesch was elected.

Community representation

Seats in the municipal council:

Political party/ Voter group	Local election 2014 (8 seats + mayor)	Local elections 2019 (10 seats + mayor)
CDU	7th	6th
independent	1	4 *

* The individual applicant Enrico Tesch could have occupied three seats in the municipal council based on his number of votes. Since he was elected mayor of the municipality, the places remain vacant.

coat of arms

Blazon : “Half-divided and split; in front: at the top in silver a black oak branch placed obliquely to the left with three green leaves and two golden acorns; below in blue two silver fish one above the other, the upper one turned to the left; behind in red a golden ear of corn with three black awns. " The coat of arms was designed by Leipzig's Achim Zoll based on a design by Bansiner Herbert Heinz . It was confirmed on February 22, 1979 by the council of the Wolgast district and registered under the number 234 of the coat of arms of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Reasons for the coat of arms: The symbols chosen stand for the main livelihoods of the inhabitants of the municipality: the oak branch for forestry, the fish for fishing and the ear for agriculture.

flag

The municipality does not have an officially approved flag .

Official seal

The official seal shows the municipal coat of arms with the inscription "GEMEINDE BENZ * LANDKREIS VORPOMMERN-GREIFSWALD".

Attractions

See also : List of architectural monuments in Benz (Usedom)

Erddolländer windmill in Benz

• St. Petri Church , single-nave brick building from the first half of the 15th century with a Baroque altar from 1712 and a pulpit from 1666.
• Museum mill Benz, a dutchman mill with elevator for the grist and extensive original equipment. The first pictorial representation is a drawing by Lyonel Feininger from 1910. The mill was used productively until the second half of the 20th century. The special thing about this mill is the tensioning of the wing rods, which have no technical effect, but as an experiment by the last wind miller represent a piece of the structural history of the monument. The basement of the mill with entrance from the north is a rarity. From 1973 to 1984 the mill was Otto Niemeyer-Holstein's refuge, and the thoroughly renovated and accessible mill has been owned by the Benz Kulturmühle association since 1992 . The annual mill festival takes place on the Whitsun holidays.
• Cemetery in Benz below the mill with the graves of Otto Niemeyer-Holstein, the actor Rolf Ludwig and the journalist Carola Stern . Two graves of (probably) Ukrainian prisoners of war who perished between 1943 and 1945 in the cemetery.
• Memorial from 1969 by the sculptor Hans Kies on the village square for the anti-fascist resistance fighter Fritz Behn , who was murdered in 1944.

Web links

Commons : Benz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Municipality of Benz on the website of the Usedom Süd office
• Benz municipality

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Statistisches Amt MV - population status of the districts, offices and municipalities 2019 (XLS file) (official population figures in the update of the 2011 census) ( help ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Manfred Niemeyer: Ostvorpommern I . Collection of sources and literature on place names. Volume 1: Usedom (= Greifswald contributions to toponymy. Volume 1), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Institute for Slavic Studies, Greifswald 2001, ISBN 3-86006-149-6 . P. 8
3. ↑ ^{a b c} municipalities 1994 and their changes since 01.01.1948 in the new federal states , publisher: Federal Statistical Office, Metzler-Poeschel publishing house, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8246-0321-7
4. ↑ Area changes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2004 (PDF; 61 kB) Statistical Office Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, February 28, 2005, p. 4 , accessed on July 27, 2015 . 
5. ^ Lyonel Feininger: Benz VI. artnet , 1914, accessed July 27, 2015 . 
6. ^ Lyonel Feininger: Benz. Harvard Art Museums, 1924, accessed December 30, 2013 . 
7. ^ Lyonel-Feininger tour on the island of Usedom. Benz municipality, accessed December 30, 2013 . 
8. ↑ Schröder loses mayoral election. Retrieved August 13, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Announcement of the final election results and the names of the candidates elected for the municipal elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on May 25, 2014. Accessed on August 13, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Announcement of the final election results and the names of the candidates elected in the local elections in the municipal council. Retrieved August 13, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Hans-Heinz Schütt: On shield and flag production office TINUS, Schwerin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814380-0-0 , p. 357
12. ↑ ^{a b} main statute § 1 (PDF).