Freinsheim

This article deals with the city of Freinsheim in Rhineland-Palatinate. For further meanings see Freinsheim (disambiguation) .

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 30 '  N , 8 ° 13'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Bad Dürkheim
Association municipality :	Freinsheim
Height :	100 m above sea level NHN
Area :	13.6 km 2
Residents:	4884 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	359 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes :	67251, 67098
Primaries :	06353, 06322
License plate :	DÜW
Community key :	07 3 32 019
Association administration address:	Bahnhofstrasse 12 67251 Freinsheim
Website :	www.stadt-freinsheim.de
City Mayor :	Matthias Weber (FWG)
Location of the city of Freinsheim in the Bad Dürkheim district

Freinsheim , “Fränsem” in the Palatinate , is one of the smaller towns in Rhineland-Palatinate with around 5000 inhabitants . It is part of the Bad Dürkheim district , within which it is the fourth largest local community in terms of population, and is the administrative seat of the association of the same name , to which it also belongs. According to state planning, Freinsheim is designated as a basic center.

geography

Freinsheim is located in the Upper Palatinate Rhine Valley , about 12 kilometers west of Ludwigshafen between Bad Dürkheim and Grünstadt , near the German Wine Route . Neighboring communities are - clockwise -  Bissersheim , Großkarlbach , Weisenheim am Sand , Erpolzheim , Bad Dürkheim, Kallstadt , Herxheim am Berg and Dackenheim .

The forest around the former forester's house Lindemannsruhe , which is now a forest inn, is an exclave in the Palatinate Forest . It includes the north and west flanks of the Rahnfels . The Fuchsbach rises within the urban area , the greater volume of which reaches the Rhine via Schrakelbach and Eckbach .

history

Early history and the Middle Ages

View by Matthäus Merian

The iron gate in Freinsheim

As archaeological excavations show, the area around Freinsheim has been continuously inhabited by people for around 5000 years. An orderly community probably existed from the 6th century, which is suggested by the discovery of a Merovingian period cemetery. Freinsheim was first documented in the year 773 in the records in what is now Alsace lying Benedictine White Castle . In 985 Freinsheim was a victim of the Sali church robbery .

Electoral Palatinate

In the 15th century Freinsheim fell to the Electoral Palatinate , which also belonged to the Kurrheinische Reichskreis , on whose behalf the existing fortifications were expanded. As the last component of the city ​​wall , the iron gate was completed in 1514 , whose name arose from the Palatine dialect expression for outer gate . In the Palatinate War of Succession , Freinsheim was badly destroyed in 1689, only the foundation walls remained. Reconstruction took place in the early 18th century. Outstanding administrative functions within the Electoral Palatinate, especially the establishment of a sub-office , promoted the economic upturn. After the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna , Freinsheim came to the Palatinate on the left bank of the Rhine (Bavaria) .

In 1712, the Electoral Palatinate General and Heidelberger Oberamtmann Johann Wilhelm von Efferen acquired the 300-acre Jungkennsche Gut in Freinsheim with today's Retzerhaus (Herrenstrasse 10) as the aristocratic residence. In 1724, the year he died, he bequeathed the property to the Carmelite Monastery of St. Maria in the Kupfergasse in Cologne so that a branch convent could be set up in Heidelberg ; in addition, the property was supposed to cover costs and dowry for the entry of four poor novices . The background to the donation to the distant Cologne monastery was the fact that Princess Maria Anna von Pfalz-Sulzbach (1693–1762), the sister of the then Electoral Palatinate pretender Joseph Karl von Pfalz-Sulzbach , lived there as a nun, General Efferen also asked for a prioress to be sent. After his death, the project of a Heidelberg branch monastery was not implemented due to the government's refusal. However, the Cologne nuns inherited the large Freinsheim estate with the castle-like Retzerhaus. This fact became of great importance for the Freinsheimer Catholics, who had no church and no pastor since the Reformation. In 1728, the priest Johann Jacob Creuzberg was sent there from Cologne as estate manager, and the Carmelites had the “large lower hall” set up as a local Catholic church in their new house . With the consent of the responsible bishop of Worms , the clergyman from Cologne exercised regular pastoral care in Freinsheim until 1745. After his departure a parish could be founded again. The estate of the Cologne nuns continued to serve as a Catholic church until a new one was built from 1771–1773.

Recent past

From 1798 to 1814, when the Palatinate was part of the French Republic (until 1804) and then part of the Napoleonic Empire , Freinsheim was incorporated into the canton of Dürkheim and the seat of its own Mairie . In 1815 the place had 1568 inhabitants. In the same year it was added to Austria . Just one year later, the place, like the entire Palatinate, changed to the Kingdom of Bavaria . From 1818 to 1862 Freinsheim belonged to the Landkommissariat Neustadt ; from this the district office of Neustadt emerged.

In 1902 Freinsheim moved to the newly created Dürkheim district office before it was reintegrated into its Neustadt counterpart in 1931. From 1939 the place was part of the district of Neustadt . After the Second World War , Freinsheim became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate within the French occupation zone . In the course of the first Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform , the place changed on June 7, 1969 to the newly created district of Bad Dürkheim . Since 1972 Freinsheim has been the administrative seat of an association community . With effect from June 23, 1979, the state government granted Freinsheim the title of city because of its historical significance .

religion

A synagogue was built in 1846 and was used until 1894. The building survived the Third Reich. The Judengasse also indicates the former Jewish community. In addition, there is the Muslim Bait us-Salam , translated as House of Peace , in the city .

politics

City council

The city ​​council in Freinsheim consists of 20 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the municipal council:

choice	SPD	CDU	FDP	GREEN	FWG	total
2019	4th	5	2	3	6th	20 seats
2014	6th	5	1	1	7th	20 seats
2009	8th	5	2	-	5	20 seats
2004	8th	7th	1	-	4th	20 seats

• FWG = Free Voting Group of the City of Freinsheim e. V.

City Mayor

In June 2016, the qualified pedagogue Matthias Weber (FWG) was elected to succeed Jürgen Oberholz (FWG). In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office with 57.05% of the votes.

coat of arms

Banner, coat of arms and flag

	Blazon : "Divided by blue and silver, above a growing left-facing, red-armored, tongued and crowned golden lion, below a red capital letter F, each accompanied by a green-stemmed blue grape."
	Justification of the coat of arms: The crowned lion symbolizes the historical Electoral Palatinate , the F stands for the first letter of the city, the two blue grapes make it clear that in Freinsheim the cultivation of red grape varieties was set very early on , which here occupy almost half of the area under vines .

Town twinning

Freinsheim maintains city ​​partnerships with the small towns of Marcigny in Burgundy ( France ) and Buttstädt in the Thuringian district of Sömmerda .

Culture and sights

literature

In memory of the writer Hermann Sinsheimer , the Hermann Sinsheimer Prize for literature and journalism has been awarded since 1983 , to which the Hermann Sinsheimer plaque was added in 2000 . Previous winners include Siegfried Lenz , Hilde Domin , Carola Stern , Marcel Reich-Ranicki and Marion Gräfin Dönhoff .

The literary reading has been taking place since 2010 . The literature festival was initiated by Hasan Özdemir and is run by Kultur Rhein-Neckar e. V. organized in cooperation with partners. Guests were u. a. Dimitré Dinev , Nora Iuga , Karl-Heinz Ott and Sibylle Lewitscharoff .

Buildings

city ​​wall

• 

  Iron gate

• 

  Inner front gate to the iron gate

• 

  Keep gate

• 

  Rooster tower

The late Gothic city ​​wall of Freinsheim with towers and gates is almost completely preserved. It is about 1300 meters long and shapes the cityscape. Particularly noteworthy is the entrance to the iron gate with flanking towers and the coat of arms of the Electorate of the Palatinate. The city center has been extremely well restored. Due to the intact historical town center, Freinsheim is also known as the "Palatinate Rothenburg ", based on the Franconian town, which has achieved worldwide fame as a symbol of the romantic German town.

Protestant Church

Town hall and Protestant parish church

The old main church on the market, which has been Protestant since the 16th century, looks back on an eventful history. A "basilica" was first mentioned in Freinsheim as early as the 9th century. A donation to the Enkenbach monastery in 1257 speaks of a parish church of St. Peter .

The tower of today's church is still Romanesque in the basement . The actual construction date of the church adjoining the tower is often given as 1470, which is confirmed by the building findings (Romanesque basic buildings, late Gothic additions). Remains of the late Gothic vault testify to the earlier form as a hall church .

After the destruction of the church in 1689 in the Palatinate War of Succession, a flat ceiling was put in during the reconstruction and the church was designed as a baroque hall church, incorporating the Romanesque and late Gothic remains . The stair tower with its portal from the Renaissance period and the hexagonal sandstone pulpit , which was also created during the Renaissance, are also worth seeing .

Former castle

The moated castle , which has been owned by the Electoral Palatinate since 1471, was located outside the city walls. The surrounding ditch is still filled with water, the current main building is a residential building from the beginning of the 19th century.

Wayside shrine

Wayside shrine black cross

In the vineyards on the road to Ungstein there is a late Gothic wayside shrine with a crucifixion group in an ogival housing. It is called the Black Cross ; A vineyard in Freinsheim is named after him.

Chapel ruin

In the mountain cemetery to the south and just outside the city there is a Romanesque west tower as a former entrance tower to the also Romanesque chapel To Our Lady on the Mountain . Shapes on the west portal suggest that it was built around the middle of the 11th century, the original roof structure no longer exists.

See also : List of cultural monuments in Freinsheim

Museums

• Historical toy museum Freinsheim
• Crafts Museum Freinsheim

Regular events

Red wine hike

The red wine hike takes place on the fourth weekend of January. At the opening there is a torchlight hike on Fridays at nightfall, during which Swedish fires are set up along the way. On Saturdays and Sundays, the hike takes place during the day. Along the hiking trail through the vineyards around Freinsheim, the local winemakers offer selected red wines and accompanying dishes.

Flower festival

The flower festival takes place every year in spring. Participants can try the various newly bottled wines in the wineries with a fixed price wine list.

Freinsheim Old Town Festival

The Freinsheim Old Town Festival takes place every year on the first weekend in June. It is under the motto "Wine and culture in historical places". The city of Freinsheim attaches great importance to sophisticated cultural presentations, which are then presented on the market square , in the Retzerhof or in the Saarhof . The festival usually lasts from Friday to Sunday.

City Wall Festival

The city ​​wall festival on the third weekend in July in the historical setting is one of the most important wine festivals in the region.

Culinary wine trail

On the fourth weekend in September, the Culinary Wine Trail leads through the city's vineyards on Saturdays and Sundays . Winegrowers and restaurants offer traditional Palatinate home cooking , Mediterranean dishes as well as wine and spring whites .

Christmas Market

The Christmas market on the four weekends in the Advent season advertises with its nativity play, with live animals as a special attraction.

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

Largest wine-growing communities in the growing area	Rank among all Rhineland-Palatinate wine-growing communities according to vineyards	Planted vineyards in 2017 (in ha )	Grape varieties
			white	Red
			(in %)
Palatinate		23,652	65	35
Landau (Palatinate)	1	2,067	66	34
Neustadt (Weinstrasse)	2	2,031	67	33
Cheap home-Ingenheim	4th	843	62	38
Bad Dürkheim	6th	819	68	32
Kirrweiler	14th	589	67	33
Edesheim	17th	505	61	39
Deidesheim	18th	498	85	15th
Wachenheim (Weinstrasse)	20th	473	75	25th
Goecklingen	22nd	464	65	34
Freinsheim	25th	437	61	39
Source: Leaflet Viticulture 2018. State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate, Bad Ems, May 2018

Freinsheim is one of the largest wine-growing communities in the Palatinate . Since the middle of the 20th century, viticulture, especially the cultivation of red grape varieties , has pushed back the formerly predominant fruit growing . The large Rosenbühl location and the individual locations Goldberg , Musikantenbuckel , Oschelskopf and Schwarzes Kreuz are located within the city limits . From 1956 to the beginning of 2010 the city was the seat of one of the largest German fruit juice manufacturers. Thanks to the historic old town, tourism has also become an important economic factor.

traffic

Rail transport

The Freinsheimer Bahnhof is the intersection of the Palatinate Northern Railway Neustadt - Monsheim, opened in full length in 1873, and the Freinsheim - Frankenthal railway line . There are direct connections to Neustadt , Frankenthal and Grünstadt and Ramsen .

Since the traffic flows in the region north of Freinsheim increasingly reoriented towards Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Frankenthal after the Second World War, the trains of the northern line from the south ended in Freinsheim, while those from Frankenthal were tied through to Grünstadt. In the meantime, every second journey from Neustadt to Grünstadt is tied through, while the others end or begin in Freinsheim. The trains from Frankenthal run to Ramsen on the Eistalbahn , on Sundays and public holidays they run to the Eiswoog.

There are long-distance connections from Neustadt and Frankenthal to Mannheim , Saarbrücken and Mainz .

Road traffic

Freinsheim is connected to the A 6 ( Mannheim - Saarbrücken ), A 61 ( Koblenz - Speyer ) and A 65 ( Ludwigshafen - Karlsruhe ) via the nearby B 271 . With the exception of the main thoroughfares ( state roads ), either 30 km / h or a traffic-calmed zone is designated throughout the village .

Bike paths

The German Wine Route and the Kraut-und-Rüben-Radweg run through Freinsheim .

societies

There is a lively club life in Freinsheim. The two largest clubs are the gymnastics and sports club 1885 and the Diakonieverein. Sports are played in other clubs, cultural heritage is cultivated, sociable togetherness is lived, and numerous sponsoring associations support non-profit institutions.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

• Klaus Bähr (1938–2020), city mayor from 1981 to 2009, co-initiator and jury chairman of the Hermann Sinsheimer Prize , received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2009 for 60 years of political and cultural commitment and later an honorary citizen.
• Gottfried Nisslmüller (* 1937), District Administrator of the Germersheim District from 1991 to 2001, was Mayor of the Freinsheim Association from 1972 to 1991 and received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2014 and honorary citizenship in 2019.

sons and daughters of the town

Philipp Tillmann 1851

• Philipp Engelmann (1518–1600), last conductor (asset manager) of the Maria Himmelskron monastery in Worms ; Gravestone in the Worms City Museum , gravestone of the woman in Worms-Hochheim, former monastery church
• Martin Eberhard von Jungkenn (~ 1679–1769), Prussian major general and chief of the "von Grape" garrison regiment
• Henry Antes (1701–1755), from Freinsheim native settler in Pennsylvania , builder of the Henry Antes House
• Alois von Hornberger (1779–1845), officer of the Bavarian Army who was highly decorated and ennobled for bravery
• Gottfried Weber (1779–1839), trained lawyer, music theorist, musician at the Mannheim Conservatory
• Philipp Lorenz Geiger (1785–1836), chemist and pharmacist
• Anna von Szent-Ivanyi (1797–1889), baroness of half-Hungarian descent, benefactress of Freinsheim and Deidesheim
• Philipp Tillmann (1809 – after 1881), landowner in Edesheim , 1845–1855 and 1863–1881 member of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies
• Karl Heinrich Fleischmann (1867–1954), Church President
• Hermann Sinsheimer (1883–1950), lawyer and author persecuted during the Nazi era because of his Jewish tradition, who also wrote down memories of his childhood in Freinsheim after his emigration. In his honor, the city awards the Hermann Sinsheimer Prize and the Hermann Sinsheimer plaque.
• Franz Lind (1900–1967), painter and sculptor
• Herbert Gustavus (1927–2014), politician (SPD)
• Gert Weber (1927–2010), founder and head of the city library for many years, initiator of the Hermann Sinsheimer Prize and the Hermann Sinsheimer plaque
• Ruth Kröther (1951–2012), Palatinate Wine Queen 1970/71 and German Wine Queen 1971/72
• Manfred Scherer (* 1951), politician (CDU)

Other personalities

Personalities not born in Freinsheim, but connected with the community:

• Johann Bartholomäus von Busch (1680–1739), professor of law in Heidelberg , diplomat and vice-chancellor of the Electoral Palatinate , owner of the "von Busch-Hof"
• Johann Wilhelm von Efferen († 1724), electoral Palatinate general and Heidelberg chief magistrate , was a landowner in Freinsheim.
• Hans-Helmut Görtz (* 1950 in Edenkoben), doctor of chemistry, family and local researcher, lives in Freinsheim.
• Emil Bert Hartwig (1907–1996), painter, master student of Paul Klee, lived in Freinsheim and died there.
• Friedrich Jossé (1897–1994), painter and graphic artist, grew up in Freinsheim.
• Joseph Sales Miltenberger (1777–1854), Provost and Vicar General of the Diocese of Speyer , was a Catholic pastor in Freinsheim in 1809/1810.
• Manfred Mühlbeyer (* 1955), book, stage and film author, director and event manager, lives on site.
• Johannes Pfeiffer (1886–1965), Catholic theologian, professor at the University of Santiago de Chile, was pastor emeritus in Freinsheim and was buried there.
• Ludwig Sinsheimer (1873–1942), who grew up in Freinsheim, was Hermann Sinsheimer's brother and like him a lawyer, was persecuted during the Nazi era because of his Jewish tradition and died after deportation in a French internment camp.
• Dieter Wagner , industrial manager, holder of the Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
• Lotte Reibold (1928–2003), holder of the Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1988

literature

• Hermann Sinsheimer: Lived in paradise . Description of a childhood and youth in Freinsheim at the end of the 19th century. Munich 1953, ISBN 3-87629-099-6 .
• Alexander Thon: Freinsheim . In: Jürgen Keddigkeit (Ed.): Palatinate Castle Lexicon. Contributions to the history of the Palatinate . tape 12/2 . Institute for Palatinate History and Folklore, Kaiserslautern 2002, ISBN 3-927754-48-X , p. 135-139 .
• Clemens Jöckle: Freinsheim . Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 1998, ISBN 3-7954-1210-2 .
• Literature about Freinsheim in the Rhineland-Palatinate state bibliography

Web links

Commons : Freinsheim  - Collection of Images

Wikisource: Frainsheim in the Topographia Palatinatus Rheni (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
3. ↑ Website with a photo of the Retzerhaus in Freinsheim
4. ^ Hans-Helmut Görtz: The builder of the Lambsheim hunting lodge . In: Heimat-Jahrbuch des Rheinpfalz-Kreis, Volume 30 (2014), pp. 110–118, ISBN 978-3-00-042960-6 .
5. ↑ Hans-Helmut Görtz: Most glorious progression of our Christianity and beautiful church service there - A source book on the history of the Freinsheimer Catholics , Freinsheim 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-048474-2 , pp. 72-94, 99 and 531.
6. ↑ Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 187 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer RLP: City Council Election 2019 Freinsheim. Retrieved October 15, 2019 . 
8. ^ Die Rheinpfalz : Article from June 26, 2016, accessed on July 25, 2020.
9. ^ The Regional Returning Officer RLP: direct elections 2019. see Freinsheim, Verbandsgemeinde, fourth line of results. Retrieved October 15, 2019 . 
10. ^ Eduard Finke: The Romanesque church towers in the Palatinate . Mainz 1994, ISBN 3-929135-03-5
11. ↑ Dagmar Schindler-Nickel: Former Mayor Klaus Bähr has died. In: The Rhine Palatinate . March 23, 2020, accessed July 25, 2020 . 
12. ↑ https://www.rheinpfalz.de/lokal/bad-duerkheim/artikel/freinsheim-ehrenbuergerwuerde-fuer-gottfried-nisslmueller/
13. ^ Website of the tombstone
14. ↑ Website for the tombstone of Barbara Engelmann geb. Eigenlaub , insschriften.net
15. ↑ Hans-Helmut Görtz. rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de, archived from the original ; accessed on July 31, 2014 .