Ehrstädt

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Ehrstädt
City of Sinsheim
Ehrstädt coat of arms
Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 40 ″  N , 8 ° 58 ′ 55 ″  E
Height : 243 m
Residents : 578  (December 31, 2017)
Incorporation : 1st December 1971
Postal code : 74889
Area code : 07266
map
Location of Ehrstädt in Sinsheim

Ehrstädt is a village in the south of the Rhein-Neckar district in Baden-Württemberg , which has belonged to Sinsheim since December 1, 1971 .

geography

Ehrstädt is embedded in the hilly landscape of the Kraichgau about seven kilometers east of the large district town of Sinsheim, in which the place has been incorporated since 1971. The place is located in the valley of the Mühlbach, to which various other bodies of water flow from the east and north and which flows into the Insenbach a few kilometers southwest of the place .

In addition to the village, Ehrstädt also includes the homestead Eulenhof , Schloss and Haus Neuhaus as well as the houses Mühle and Jägerhaus. The mill and the hunter's house are west of the village at the confluence of the Hörnlegraben in the Mühlbach, the Eulenhof is a few hundred meters west of it. Neuhaus Castle is located further south-west of the village.

history

View of Ehrstädt

Barrows from the earlier Iron Age (in the Eichwald), which were discovered by Karl Wilhelmi , indicate an early settlement of the area around Ehrstädt. The place is mentioned for the first time in the Lorsch Codex in a deed of donation dated December 28, 774 as “herstater marca”. The old castle was once located on the Marienhöhe above the village . With a letter of purchase dated July 7, 1329, the Lords of Massenbach got the castle as a fief , built a new building and then called themselves "von Neuenhaus". In the 15th century other owners appeared. The place was reformed in 1521/23 by the lords of Gemmingen .

From 1580 onwards, Christoph von Degenfeld was able to combine ownership of the old castle and its belonging by first acquiring the castle and the Württemberg half of Ehrstädt and a little later also the Worms half as a fief. In 1594 the castle was demolished and in 1596/97 the Neuhaus Castle was built in the same place by Johann Christoph I von Degenfeld († 1613) . The descendants of Johann Christoph I formed the Degenfeld-Neuhaus line , which in future ruled Ehrstädt. The descendants of his brother Konrad von Degenfeld († 1600) formed the Degenfeld-Eybach line , which later became the Degenfeld-Schonburg line .

Johann Christoph's son Christoph Jacob von Degenfeld († 1646) had to witness how Ehrstädt was completely depopulated during the Thirty Years' War . His son Johann Christoph II. Von Degenfeld († 1680) drove the repopulation of the place forward, whereby he probably benefited from the repopulation measures in the neighboring Electoral Palatinate , which a large number of settlers from Switzerland, France and the Netherlands in the Kraichgau brought. After the Thirty Years' War, a larger Jewish community also formed in the village. Resettlement was not easy, however, especially since Ehrstädt and the surrounding towns had to suffer again during the Dutch War , especially in the area around the Battle of Sinsheim in 1674, from billeting and troop movements.

Johann Christoph II's sons Christoph Friedrich I von Degenfeld and Ferdinand Friedrich I von Degenfeld shared the inherited property in January 1682. Christoph Friedrich received Neuhaus Castle, the Eulenhof and the Württemberg half of Ehrstädt. Ferdinand Friedrich received the Worms half from Ehrstädt as well as the Degenfeldschen allodial goods in Waibstadt and Unterbiegelhof, whereby at the same time a family entourage was concluded on the property. After Christoph Friedrich's death in 1705, his brother Ferdinand Friedrich I, the senior of the family, negotiated a division of the estate between Christoph Friedrich's sons Johann Friedrich I , August Maximilian and Johann Albrecht. After a few years of good living, the brothers got into an argument with their uncle, who died in 1717. Even among his descendants, dispute broke out over the property. The property of the Degenfeld-Neuhaus line was split into five extremely small parts and each of the co-owners had financial needs, which they tried to alleviate through claims against their brothers and cousins ​​or against their subjects. The epidemics of the 18th century and with it the death of some branches of the family finally brought the property back together. The last living male descendant of Christoph Friedrich I was his son Johann Friedrich I (1683–1760). After his death, Ferdinand Friedrich's son Christoph Ferdinand I (1699–1766) reunited the entire property of Degenfeld-Neuhaus and thus both halves of Ehrstädt from 1760 onwards.

The residents had no reason to cheer, however, since the local rule was again in one hand. Rather, she had to suffer from the fact that Christoph Ferdinand and his sons, after several decades of internal family disputes, now led a tough, high-handed rule against their subjects. For decades there had been a dispute about the load on the Ehrstadt church, so that it was no longer maintained and fell into disrepair. The indebted local lords had also increased the labor and taxes extraordinarily. In the 1760s there were therefore countless negotiations before the Württemberg and Worms fiefdoms, before the management of the knightly canton of Kraichgau and finally before the imperial court. The Ehrstädt community became completely impoverished as a result of these complaints. The local rulers, however, had the community leaders arrested several times. In 1768 there was even an uprising among the Ehrstadt citizens. But the uprising was of no use either, since the insurgents only had to pay additional fines afterwards, most of which went to the new Ehrstädt Palace in 1769 . It was not until 1774 that a comparison was made between the sons of Christoph Ferdinand I and the Ehrstädt community, which for a long time regulated the relationship between local rule and subjects.

Life in the poor community was tough. In the 1780s there were natural disasters and animal diseases. In 1793 the new building of the nave of the local church, which had been demolished nine years earlier due to dilapidation, was finally completed. But instead of an upswing, the troops involved in the Napoleonic wars haunted Ehrstädt and the surrounding villages with passages, billeting and demands for contributions.

In the course of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the Worms half of Ehrstädt came to Hesse , the Württemberg half with Neuhaus Castle remained with Württemberg. Through the exchange of territory between Baden, Württemberg and Hesse, the whole of Ehrstädt became part of the newly formed Grand Duchy of Baden in 1807/08 , in which the place formed an independent municipality. Even if the barons of Degenfeld-Neuhaus gradually lost their local and landlord rights in the 19th century, they remained the largest landowner in the area with the three large estates of Neuhaus Castle, Ehrstädt Castle and the Eulenhof. The property was mostly managed as a condominium, but the main representatives mostly no longer lived in the area, but often pursued military careers elsewhere, while they had the property in Ehrstädt administered by subordinate members of the family. Their fiefs were converted into family property in 1862. The Degenfeld-Neuhaus family line died out in the male line in 1921.

The times of peace in the early 19th century resulted in population growth. In 1845 a maximum population of 678 was reached. Since there were no employment opportunities beyond covering daily needs, the number of inhabitants decreased to 355 people by 1939 due to emigration and emigration. At the end of 1945 there were 461 inhabitants. After the Second World War, the place briefly had 630 inhabitants due to the reception of evacuees and refugees, but the emigration repeated itself due to the continued lack of employment opportunities and the poor traffic conditions.

The place remained almost entirely rural until well after the Second World War. The largest construction measures in the community in the 1950s were the construction of the town hall with a fire station and local arrest in 1950/51, and in 1953 the drifting away of the Mühlbach. In 1956 a deep well was built to supply the town with water, but it was replaced in 1958/60 by the water supply system for Ehrstädt, Adersbach and Hasselbach. With a construction cost of DM 610,000, this water supply was the most expensive measure that the independent municipality of Ehrstädt has ever carried out. In the early 1960s, the sewage system was created and the old local pond , the Weed , was made into a pond for extinguishing water . In 1964 a sports field was built. In the second half of the 1960s, the through-road and the connecting routes to the neighboring villages as well as to Eulenhof and Neuhaus Castle were expanded.

Ehrstädt was incorporated into Sinsheim on December 1, 1971. The place shares the fate of many rural areas of the Kraichgau that are incorporated into larger communities. There was no significant business settlement, the small-scale farms disappeared over time and after the incorporation, the already small traditional local retail trade declined, so that Ehrstädt became a place of residence for commuters in the surrounding cities and communities in particular.

While in 1990 there were 471 inhabitants, this number increased to 638 by 2004 due to the designation of building areas.

Religions

Ehrstädt was reformed by the lords of Gemmingen from 1521 to 1523 and was then almost exclusively Lutheran until the 19th century. There was also a Jewish community in Ehrstädt , which has been documented since the 16th century and built a synagogue there in 1836 . The Jewish community was disbanded in 1912 after membership dwindled.

coat of arms

The blazon reads: a fallen golden ploughshare in red, topped by two silver stars. This coat of arms can be traced in community seals since 1809 and was colored and confirmed by the Baden Ministry of the Interior in 1895.

Buildings

Neuhaus Castle
  • Neuhaus Castle , a Renaissance two-winged palace complex with an associated manor, built in 1596/97, is located about one and a half kilometers southwest of the village. In the park there is a castle chapel from 1602. It contains the epitaph of Johann Christoph I von Degenfeld († 1613) and his wife Barbara. The castle chapel also has two historic bronze bells from 1730 and 1746, which had to be delivered during the Second World War, but returned after the war. Today the castle is owned by the Barons von Gemmingen-Neuhaus and can be rented for events.
  • The mill belonging to the castle in the Mühlbachtal west of Ehrstädt was mentioned as early as 1329 and was the stately ban mill of the residents of Ehrstädt and Adersbach . The current mill building dates from 1762. The mill operation was shut down in the 1950s and the property was later used as the Alte Mühle restaurant . The running water wheel and old wooden gears have been preserved from the original mill equipment.
  • The hunter's house on the opposite bank of the Mühlbach was the residence of the lordly forester.
  • The nearby Eulenhof probably goes back to the farm yard of the old castle near Ehrstädt, which was lost by the late Middle Ages. After Albrecht von Degenfeld, who lived in the property from 1705 to 1723, the farm was also called Albrechtsburg . In 1793 Ferdinand Friedrich von Degenfeld built today's two-story manor house. The servants' house was built around 1500. The farm is still used for agriculture today. Neuhaus Castle and the Eulenhof are now managed from the nearby historic Hofgut Rauhof , which is already within the boundaries of the neighboring town of Adersbach.

  • Neuhaus Castle Estate

  • Mill

  • Ehrstädt Castle

Protestant church
  • Ehrstädt Castle in the southwest of the village was founded in 1769 by Christoph Ferdinand III. Friedrich von Degenfeld built on the site of an older castle that had burned down. The simple two-wing building is surrounded by a large farm yard and a castle park.
  • The Evangelical Church in the center of the village still has Romanesque double windows from the 12th century on the church tower and elements from the 14th century in the nave with the Gothic tracery window in the east. The nave was renewed in 1793 and renovated in 1894.
  • The synagogue was completed in 1836 by the local Jewish community. After the community was dissolved in 1912, it was sold and used as a cattle shed with a barn. Since its renovation in 2004/05, the building has served as a local meeting place. Historical Hebrew characters and a wedding stone are embedded in the outer facade . The village square, laid out in 1963, extends behind the synagogue. Weed , the Ehrstadt local pond, is located on the edge of this area . In 1963, when the village square was built, it was expanded as a fire pond and later renatured.
  • The school house was built in 1884/85, the children's school followed in 1907/08 (today: kindergarten) and in 1925 the hospital ward , which was founded on a private foundation, was set up in a residential building from 1896.
  • The town hall was inaugurated in 1952. A council chamber had already existed in the town's first schoolhouse, but from 1727 it was rented out to Jews by the local authorities because of the rent. After that, the council chamber was set up in changing private houses. In the schoolhouse from 1885 there was again a permanent council chamber, which was used until the inauguration of the town hall in 1952.

  • Old synagogue

  • school

  • Ehrstädt town hall

Sons and daughters of the place

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 479 .
  2. ↑ Norbert Jung: ihesvs maria + ano + m + cccc + xli - A contribution to the history of bells in the city of Sinsheim , Heilbronn 2009, p. 16/17.

literature

  • Friedrich Hub : Ehrstädt and Neuhaus Castle - History of a Kraichgau village and its local rule according to old documents and files , Ehrstädt 1967
  • Käthe Zimmermann-Ebert: Large district town Sinsheim - around the Steinsberg. Sinsheim 1990

Web links

Commons : Ehrstädt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files