History of the city of Heppenheim

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The history of the city of Heppenheim :

middle Ages

Early middle ages

The oldest known written mention of Hepphenheim , according to a copy of a deed of donation in the Codex Laureshamensis , dates from July 17, 755. In the deed issued in Botzheim near Ladenburg , a priest Hiebo recorded the donation of a Marcharius who owned his household in Weinheim along with the associated property Church of St. Peter in Heppenheim transferred. The document is also the first documentary mention of the city of Weinheim; the two cities are thus the oldest mentioned in the Bergstrasse area between the Roman cities of Worms ( Borbetomagus ) and Ladenburg ( Lopodunum ).

In 764 Gaugraf Cancor and his mother Williswinda donated their Laurissa (" Lorsch ") estate, located a few kilometers from Heppenheim, to Archbishop Chrodegang of Metz in order to found a monastery . This quickly developed into a center of the Carolingian rule of the Frankish Empire under King (from 800: Emperor ) Charlemagne , who elevated the Lorsch Monastery to an imperial abbey in 772 and placed it under king protection. The claims made by Count Heimerich, the son of the founder of the monastery Cancor, to the abbey as an own monastery were rejected by the royal court.

On January 20, 773, Charlemagne donated the city of Heppenheim and the associated district, the extensive "Mark Heppenheim", to the imperial monastery. The mark is mentioned for the first time in the deed relating to the donation. The area over which it extended lay a little further to the east than today's Bergstrasse district , but it did show a certain resemblance to it. The northern extension from Zwingenberg to the Neunkirchner Höhe corresponded almost exactly to today's district boundary, as did the extension in the east to just beyond Fürth (Odenwald) and in the south a little beyond Gorxheim and Siedelsbrunn . The western areas between Lorsch and the Rhine were not yet included, nor was the Hessian Neckar Valley ( Hirschhorn and Neckarsteinach ), but the Baden towns and communities along the Laudenbach , Hemsbach , Sulzbach and Weinheim mountain roads and the area around Beerfelden in the southeast .

The naming of the mark indicates that Heppenheim had a certain central role at that time. But the mark was not a real administrative unit. There can be no question of Heppenheim's position resembling a district town at this time.

The donation of the mark appears more generous than it was: the transfer of imperial land to an imperial monastery meant no loss for the empire, but basically only an administrative reform. Access to an imperial monastery was just as natural for the emperor as access to a mark belonging to the empire. The monastery and the Mark benefited from this measure, because on the one hand it meant an increase in monastic property and on the other hand the Mark now had a strong institution for further development.

The Lorsch Monastery experienced a long ascent. The following centuries were marked by the steadily growing importance of the abbey, which now stood in the rank of a principality. The East Franconian kings Ludwig the German (* 804; † 876) and Ludwig the Younger († 882; date of birth unknown) were great benefactors of the abbey and were buried in Lorsch (their grave church was consecrated anew in 1052 by Pope Leo IX ). During the time of the conspiracies against Otto the Great (* 912, † 973) in his first years of reign, it was an important base for the king, to whom he even entrusted the protection of his wife Edgith in 939; He gave his brother Bruno the management of the abbey.

The property of the monastery increased steadily through countless donations and finally stretched in a broad band from the Rhine to deep into the Odenwald , with additional, widely scattered properties e.g. B. in Swabia , on the Lahn and on the Lower Rhine .

Since the donation, Heppenheim has developed more and more into the secular center of monastic property. A market presumably took place in Heppenheim as early as the first half of the 9th century, long before market rights as an imperial privilege required a special grant, which other cities in the region were only granted a century later ( Bensheim : 956; Weinheim : 1000; Oppenheim : 1008). In addition to the economic function for the imperial abbey, Heppenheim also rose to the seat of the administration of the Lorsch rights and states. The history of the city was therefore closely linked to the history of the monastery for centuries.

Around the 10th century, the six Hubendörfer Unter- and Oberhambach , Kirschhausen , Erbach , Sonderbach and Wald-Erlenbach probably emerged in the Heppenheim district. They formed a market cooperative with Heppenheim.

High Middle Ages

In 1065 a new chapter in the history of the Bergstrasse area was opened with the construction of the Starkenburg . The circumstances that led to its construction were ultimately based on the success and importance of the Lorsch Imperial Monastery. Emperor Heinrich III. died in 1056 at the age of only 38. Heinrich IV. , His only 6-year-old son, took over the throne, but was initially under the tutelage of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne, who was supported by the princes , who was able to take over the reign and squander the imperial fortune. Then the highly educated and competent, but also power-conscious and ambitious Archbishop Adalbert von Bremen seized the emperor's flag and gained great influence over him. Heinrich rewarded Adalbert for this with rich gifts. Since 1064 Adalbert also made claims to the imperial monastery Lorsch. In the spring of 1065 Abbot Udalrich was summoned to the king's court to recognize the handover to Adalbert, but the abbot, who tried to defend the independence of the monastery, contradicted this request. Pope Alexander III. refused the consent requested by Heinrich. Nonetheless, Heinrich transferred the abbey to his favorite with a royal document dated September 6, 1065. When Udalrich still resisted and could not comply with a total of three requests by the emperor to appear at court - the last one for November 1, 1065 - due to illness, Adalbert attempted to enforce his property claims by force of arms. Supported by the fiefs of the abbey, Udalrich had the Starkenburg built at lightning speed on the Heppenheimer Stadtberg (called "Burcheldon", today: Schlossberg) from the end of October 1065. Already at the turn of the year 1065/66 the castle was besieged by Adalbert, but withstood the siege. At the Diet of Trebur in January 1066, the imperial princes succeeded in forcing Heinrich to dismiss his loyal supporter Adalbert and to repeal all orders made in his favor. Adalbert then gave up the siege of the castle and all attempts to gain control over Lorsch Monastery; the legal status of the imperial abbey was saved.

The name Burcheldon ("Burgfeld") and the extremely short construction time suggest that the Starkenburg was not a completely new building, but that an existing defense system (possibly from Celtic or Germanic times) was merely renewed and expanded.

Since that time, the Starkenburg, as a bulwark of the monastery, was his support and the guarantee for the power of the monastery in the region. As the centerpiece of the Lorsch fortification, it was repeatedly expanded and reinforced. In 1206 the name "Starkenberg" appears for the first time because it made the mountain on which it was built into a strong one. Lorsch, Heppenheim and Starkenburg formed the innermost core of the monastic property at this time.

The heyday of the monastery was followed by its decline in the 11th and 12th centuries. New powers were now competing for rule in the Starkenburg area. The Count Palatine near Rhine had already gained considerable influence; Likewise, the Archbishop of Mainz, who in addition to the episcopal city itself had an extensive spiritual territory, tried to gain supremacy. Heppenheim and the Bergstrasse area were to be exposed to the power play of these two electors for more than half a millennium before the third major rival, the County of Katzenelnbogen and the Grand Duchy of Hesse , which later emerged from it, finally prevailed at the end of the old empire . The fragmentation of the old empire was also reflected in the Bergstrasse area. In addition to the aforementioned great powers, the Counts of Erbach and the Bishop of Worms owned property in the Bergstrasse area, as well as numerous other counts and other rulers, so that this area represented a patchwork-like tangle of different sovereignty rights.

With Lorsch Abbey, Heppenheim initially lost its importance in the region. Its administrative district gradually shrank down to the six Hubendörfer. The end of the great Lorsch era was finally sealed under the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich II . After the last abbot was deposed in 1232, he placed the monastery, which had already largely sunk into insignificance, under the administration of the Archbishops of Mainz, who thus also took over the administration of Heppenheim. The rival Palatinate power was thus initially contained in the Bergstrasse area. Until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, which preceded the final fall of the old Reich in 1806, Heppenheim then remained in Mainz ownership - although this was interrupted by a pledge from the Electorate of the Palatinate for around 160 years .

From then on, Kurmainz and Electoral Palatinate fought for centuries for dominance in the Bergstrasse and Starkenburg area. Fighting broke out as early as 1238, in which the Starkenburg proved to be the most important bastion of the Archbishop of Mainz against the oppressive Count Palatine, who was supported by the Lorsch monks. The archbishop also had to defend himself against the emperor. The son and later successor of Frederick II, Conrad IV , wanted to establish a Hohenstaufen rule over the area and in the late summer of 1243 set fire to Bergstrasse. However, he could not take the Starkenburg and Heppenheim, which is protected by its walls. The archbishop regained the upper hand. In 1245 he installed Premonstratensians in the Lorsch monastery . In September 1247 he made peace with the Count Palatine in Bingen . Starkenburg now became both the military and administrative center of the region. In 1265 the " Office Starkenburg" - as a real administrative unit - is mentioned for the first time, which from now on until the end of the Mainz period in 1803 was to be called "Oberamt Starkenburg" from the 17th century.

The oldest written record about a court in Heppenheim, which first sat in the churchyard and a little later on the Landberg (between Heppenheim and Bensheim), dates from 1222 . In fact, the formation of courts goes back several centuries and probably developed from a Lorsch bailiwick area. The extensive judicial district, the " Zent ", is only passed down in detail from the 16th century. Their size and the fact that the central court was also given the jurisdiction allows a comparison with today's regional courts. The execution site was also in Heppenheim, namely at the nearby "High Court" on the border with Bensheim. The prisoners were temporarily imprisoned at the Starkenburg.

Late Middle Ages

There is no documentary evidence of the city charter. A tradition from the year 1318 on the occasion of the death of the Starkenburg burgrave Heilmann von Bommersheim testifies that city rights already existed at this time. It is often assumed that the town charter was awarded in the same year, especially since the neighboring Bensheim received town charter in 1320, i.e. almost in the same period, and from now on there are large numbers of evidence of Heppenheim's town elevation. It is also known that the Archbishop of Mainz, Peter von Aspelt , was trying to strengthen the Bergstrasse area militarily at the time and that the Starkenburg Castle was particularly well equipped for this purpose. On the other hand, the city wall - still in small remnants - was laid out much earlier. The first wall move possibly originates from the Franconian times, the second wall move was probably built during the construction of the Starkenburg. Heppenheim had long had military rights and thus possibly also city rights (market rights as the second essential privilege of cities had existed for Heppenheim for centuries anyway).

The 14th century was marked by two serious catastrophes for Heppenheim. In the years 1348/49 the city was hit by the severe plague epidemic that spread across Europe and killed 25 million people - a third of the European population. In 1369 the first big city fire raged, which destroyed the entire city except for 4 houses.

In 1385 the city wall was significantly expanded and the extensive fourth and last wall was built.

In the middle of the 15th century the rivalry between Kurmainz and Electoral Palatinate came to a head. This led to war in March 1460. Between Laudenbach and Hemsbach, a Mainz contingent was struck under the leadership of the Burgrave of Starkenburg, Ulrich von Kronberg; the burgrave lost his life. The "snake stone", the oldest war memorial in the area carved out of red sandstone, still commemorates this event today. At Pfeddersheim Archbishop Diether von Isenburg was finally defeated by the armed forces of Count Palatine Friedrich and had to ask for peace.

At the same time there was also a conflict between the Archbishop and Pope Pius II. The dispute was sparked superficially by Diether's refusal to pay the palliative money to the Pope, but it was probably due to Diether's reform intentions. The Pope finally declared the archbishop deposed and appointed Adolf II as his successor. A war broke out between the followers of Diether and the followers of Adolf ("Mainzer Stiftsfehde"). Count Palatine Friedrich now supported Archbishop Diether. On November 19, 1461, the two electors signed the "Weinheimer Bund". In return, Diether pledged the entire Starkenburg office to the Count Palatine with the right to redeem the pledge for 100,000 guilders. Heppenheim and Starkenburg became Palatinate for around 160 years.

Modern times

Early modern age

In 1504 - now under the administration of the Electorate of the Palatinate - the Starkenburg was expanded again. The reason for this was the Bavarian feud . The Roman-German King Maximilian I had commissioned Landgrave Wilhelm II of Hesse with the execution of the Eight in the Electoral Palatinate. The latter also moved with a strong army over the Bergstrasse to Heidelberg , but there was no battle for the Starkenburg.

When Martin Luther initiated the Reformation with the publication of his “ 95 Theses ” in 1517 , a fateful time with fateful consequences began, not only for the empire. Heppenheim also suffered severely from the consequences of the religious division and denominational disputes. In less than 80 years, the people of Heppenheim had to change faith no less than seven times.

Elector Ottheinrich (1556–1559) introduced the Reformation in the entire Palatinate, including the areas pledged to it, including Heppenheim. In the following years each new elector meant a new religion. The successor of Ottheinrich, Friedrich III. (1559–1576), decreed Calvinism. His heir to the throne, Ludwig VI. (1576–1583) returned to Lutheranism. Johann Casimir (1583–1592), his successor, or his guardian government, restored Calvinism, which then lasted until the Thirty Years' War .

The introduction of the new religions was always carried out with great severity. The entire population had to change faith against their will. Clergymen and officials who adhered to their religion faced punishment and dismissal. In the Calvinist time Friedrich III. Church properties were confiscated and many monasteries were secularized. Lorsch Abbey, still occupied by Premonstratensians and at that time a provost's office, was abolished in 1557 (still under Ottheinrich).

The " Prague Lintel " on May 23, 1618 ushered in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), the original catastrophe for the empire. The war also had considerable consequences for Heppenheim and the Starkenburg Office. The conflict was fueled by its own sovereign, Count Palatine Friedrich V of the Palatinate , when he was elected their king by the Protestant, Hussite and Czech estates of Bohemia (so-called "Winter King"). This was a veritable declaration of war on Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg, who had been elected King of Bohemia in 1617. Ferdinand not only intervened immediately and resolutely in Bohemia with the imperial troops and their Catholic allies, but also struck out against the Electoral Palatinate. In 1620 the allied Spaniards under Spinola penetrated to the mountain road and occupied it. Under Cordula they also took the Starkenburg in 1621. The Palatinate rule was finally broken by the defeat against the imperial troops in the Battle of Wimpfen on April 26, 1622. With the approval of the emperor, the Archbishop of Mainz, Johann Schweikhard von Kronberg, was allowed to redeem the 160-year-old pledge - initially without repayment of the pledge sum - in 1623; the office of Starkenburg with Heppenheim was now again owned by Mainz. With Gerhard von Waldenburg, a deeply religious Catholic, a new burgrave was appointed to the Starkenburg. Archbishop and Burgrave immediately began the work of recatholization, albeit with far greater indulgence and gentleness than the previous abandonment of Catholicism by the Count Palatine, because the Archbishop was moderate and tolerant. However, it was precisely the archbishop's kindness and tolerance as well as the sometimes reluctant population that made the Counter-Reformation progress rather slowly at first. In the decree of December 6, 1625, the archbishop finally presented the population with the choice of “change of faith or expulsion from the country”. Almost all of the Heppenheimers now returned to the Catholic faith.

The Premonstratensian Order asked the Archbishop to return and re-establish the Lorsch Monastery (1629). All efforts in this regard were, however, in vain; the monastery remained dissolved. The Archbishop's concern for undiminished power in the Starkenburg area outweighed his religious conscience.

In 1630 Sweden entered the war; ostensibly to support troubled Protestant princes after the successes of the Catholic League and Wallensteins against the Danes, but actually mainly out of their own striving for power in the hope of Swedish territorial gains in order to be able to found a Nordic empire around the Baltic Sea. On June 24, 1630 King Gustav Adolf landed on Usedom; from there the Swedes moved via Leipzig, Thuringia and Franconia to Mainz. In November 1630 the Bergstrasse fell into Swedish hands; the Starkenburg was occupied by the Swedes. With the Swedes came Calvinism again. The Swedish rule only lasted for a short time: on November 6, 1632, King Gustav Adolf fell in the battle of Lützen , and on September 6, 1634, the Swedes were defeated by the imperial troops near Nördlingen. At the beginning of 1635, this also led to the retreat on Bergstrasse. The rule over Heppenheim and Starkenburg now fell back to the Archbishop of Mainz. Recatholization could continue; the seventh and last change of faith of the Heppenheim population in less than 80 years was completed.

The conditions caused by the long war led to devastating plague epidemics all over Germany. In 1635, Heppenheim and the entire region were catastrophically hit by the plague. Only about 20% of the population survived, almost exclusively in the cities of Heppenheim and Bensheim, while the surrounding country was practically completely depopulated. In 1636 Heppenheim was sacked by the Poles, who also destroyed the manorial winery . In 1638 the imperial rulers also devastated the country, fed the must in Heppenheim and burned the must chests.

The Thirty Years War, which began as a denominational conflict, had long since developed into a war by foreign powers against the Reich. France in particular now intervened vigorously and began a major offensive on the entire Rhine front from 1639 (from then on the French invaded Germany's west at least once every century and always looked for Heppenheim - with the exception of the occupation of the Rhineland after the First World War home). On June 26, 1645, they forced Heppenheim to surrender unconditionally after they had managed to break a breach in the southwest corner of the city wall. The city was then relentlessly plundered by the French troops, although, as a French officer wrote, "there wasn't much in it" anyway. However, the Starkenburg could not be captured by the French. In 1646 the French were defeated by the Bavarians and the Bergstrasse was again occupied by the imperial. In 1647 the French came back. In 1648 the war finally ended. The " Peace of Westphalia " concluded in Münster and Osnabrück dedicated a separate article to the reintegration of the parts of the country on Bergstrasse, which was supplemented in 1650 by the "Bergstrasse secondary recession" established by Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn and Count Palatine Karl I. Ludwig and the reintegration of Bergstrasse finally settled. The deposit has now been paid back to Kurpfalz. Heppenheim and Starkenburg were now once again the property of Mainz.

Between 1668 and 1675 the office Starkenburg was renamed "Oberamt". The revaluation of the title was offset by a loss of competencies: The old winery (financial administration), which was congruent with the Oberamt and had its headquarters in Heppenheim, had been divided into the Heppenheim and Bensheim wineries in 1629, and in 1699 Hirschhorn came as own winery added.

Only 50 years after the occupation and sacking of Heppenheim by the French in the Thirty Years War, the French attacked Heppenheim again and this time the rage was even more devastating. Immediately after the Peace of Westphalia, Louis XIV , the French "Sun King", began his numerous campaigns of conquest on all of France's borders. He was particularly interested in the west of the empire and, after having already annexed the majority of Alsace and occupied the free imperial city of Strasbourg in 1681 , the Electoral Palatinate with the " War of the Palatinate Succession " (1688–1697), which was poorly included Windy inheritance claims of Elisabeth Charlotte ("Liselotte") of the Palatinate, who was married to Ludwig's brother, the Duke of Orleans, were justified - against their will - (Ludwig based all of his "Reunion Wars" on flimsy legal titles that had a staff dedicated to this purpose had to invent for him). The French operations were by no means limited to the Electoral Palatinate, but extended over the entire southern German area and became an unrestrained burning and robbery. The country was almost defenseless because the imperial army was still fighting the Turks in Hungary (Vienna had only just defended it against the Turks in 1683 and liberated Budapest from the Turks in 1686). In 1688 the French also moved to Bergstrasse and attacked Starkenburg three times (1688, 1689 and 1693) under their general Melac, the notorious destroyer of Heidelberg Castle, and Marshal de Lorges , but always besieged it in vain. It has now proven that the castle had been expanded, fortified and renovated to a considerable extent around ten years earlier. In 1688 the French made the monstrous demand to put down the city walls of Heppenheim and Bensheim and the walls of the Starkenburg; however, the requirement was not met. In 1689, Heppenheim was sacked by the French. After the last unsuccessful attempt at conquering the Starkenburg in 1693, they plundered Heppenheim again and caused a devastating fire that completely destroyed most of the city. The city owes the splendid buildings around the market square to the later reconstruction, especially the famous town hall, the Liebigapotheke (originally the restaurant “Zur Goldnen Rose”), today's restaurant “Zum Goldenen Engel” and many other beautiful half-timbered buildings in Heppenheim's old town.

It was only with the Peace of Rijswijk (1697) that the French withdrew from southern Germany (with the exception of Alsace including Strasbourg, which was annexed by France) after the European princes had allied themselves to ward off French supremacy and the war in view of Louis completely exhausted public finances also became hardly affordable. While they were retreating, the French devastated everything that had not already been destroyed and burned. Besides Heppenheim, in the end almost all the cities in the regions afflicted by the French were destroyed; in the Bergstrasse area among others Heidelberg, Mannheim, Worms, Weinheim and Bensheim. The cities had burned down, some razed to the ground, roads destroyed and bridges torn down. In Speyer, which also burned down together with the cathedral, the remains of the Frankish emperors were taken from the graves that had been broken open and thrown onto the Schindanger. Everywhere the French left only destroyed cities and scorched earth.

With Napoleon's Second Coalition War , Heppenheim received another visit from the French and was again plundered (1799), but this time not destroyed.

The city walls had long since lost their protective function due to the advanced war technology, in particular the penetration power of the cannons that had meanwhile been achieved. At the turn of the century, the Heppenheim city walls and towers were largely dismantled; later the city also gave up its ownership rights to them (1831) and finally declared them abandoned (1845).

The Starkenburg, which had become useless for the same reason, was released for demolition as early as 1765, but was given in 1787 by the Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, “as a monument of German art and custom and an ornament that gives an indescribable impression of calm and grandeur spread around, which nobody looks at without deepest emotion ”protected from further destruction.

In today's city of Heppenheim there were a total of 33 grinding mills in 1800, as well as three oil mills and two sawmills.

Modern

With the " Reichsdeputationshauptschluss " of February 25, 1803, the territorial conditions in the Reich were reorganized. The occasion was the conquests of Napoleon , who had extended the French state border to the Rhine. The imperial princes, who thereby lost their territories on the left bank of the Rhine, had to be compensated in accordance with a demand from France and Russia, who acted as European powers of order. An essential means of procuring the necessary compensation lands was the dissolution of the ecclesiastical domains and their distribution among the secular princes ( secularization ). The Archbishop of Mainz was able to avert complete expropriation as the only ecclesiastical prince of the empire, but had to relocate his seat to Regensburg and lost his old Mainz dominion including the Oberamt Starkenburg with Heppenheim, which now fell to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt . On August 25, 1803, Landgrave Ludwig X received the homage of the new parts of the country in front of the Heppenheim town hall. The new southern province was given the name "Principality of Starkenburg". It encompassed the entire Hessian-Darmstadt part of the country between the Rhine, Main and Neckar, so it extended beyond the former Upper Office of Starkenburg. The bombastic title, however, was an empty shell: The old Oberamt Starkenburg was dissolved as an administrative unit in 1805. Instead, the previously dependent administrative bailiffs Heppenheim, Bensheim, Lorsch and Fürth were now elevated to independent offices.

After the final dissolution of the old empire in 1806, the Landgrave even rose to become Grand Duke, so that Heppenheim and the Principality of Starkenburg now belonged to the " Grand Duchy of Hesse ".

In 1816 the Principality of Starkenburg was renamed the Province of Starkenburg , but otherwise remained unchanged. In total, the Grand Duchy now comprised three provinces; in addition to Starkenburg, these were the provinces of Upper Hesse and Rheinhessen (this division remained valid until 1937).

On December 17, 1820, the constitution of the Grand Duchy was promulgated. It was followed by the ordinance of July 14, 1821 with a comprehensive administrative reform. In the place of the magistrates' offices in the provinces of Starkenburg and Upper Hesse, district districts , the forerunners of today's districts, were established. In the area of ​​today's Bergstrasse district, the districts of Heppenheim , Bensheim , Lindenfels and Hirschhorn , as well as Wimpfen as an exclave in Baden, were formed. The district of Heppenheim, which has been a district town since that time , included, in addition to Heppenheim itself, Lorsch, Lampertheim , Groß-Rohrheim , Groß-Hausen and Wattenheim , but not the villages of Unter- and Oberhambach, Kirschhausen, which have always been so closely linked to Heppenheim , Erbach, Sonderbach and Wald-Erlenbach. The creation of such small administrative units in place of the large old upper office was the declared aim of the reform; it was hoped that this would bring greater closeness to the citizens. The judicial districts have also been redistributed, with the seats of the new "regional courts" deliberately not being assigned to the district towns, on the one hand to be able to spread the most important state institutions among as many cities as possible, and on the other hand, the principle of the separation of justice and administration (separation of powers ) better to realize. The district courts in today's Bergstrasse district were set up in Lorsch (for the Heppenheim district), Zwingenberg (for the Bensheim district) and Fürth (for the Lindenfels district). The Heppenheim Central Court was repealed. For Heppenheim, this ended the tradition as a court seat that had lasted for well over half a millennium.

The Darmstadt government quickly recognized that the newly formed administrative units had become too small. A further reform was discussed as early as 1822. When this was realized ten years later, it almost cost Heppenheim the seat of the district administration. After the reorganization announced on August 20, 1832, there should only be the districts of Bensheim and Lindenfels in the future in Süd-Starkenburg ; Heppenheim was intended to be incorporated into the Bensheim district, and its administrative district should fall into the Bensheim district. Even before the ordinance came into force on October 15, 1832, it was revised to the effect that instead of the Lindenfels district, the Heppenheim district was formed as a second district alongside the Bensheim district, and the city was therefore not incorporated into the Bensheim district.

As a result of the March Revolution of 1848, with the "Law on the Relationships of the Classes and Noble Court Lords" of April 15, 1848, the special rights of the class were finally repealed. In addition, in the provinces, the districts and the district administration districts of the Grand Duchy were abolished on July 31, 1848 and replaced by "administrative districts", whereby the previous districts of Bensheim and Heppenheim were combined to form the administrative district of Heppenheim . Already four years later, however, they returned to the division into districts, which created the districts of Lindenfels and Wimpfen temporarily (until they were finally eliminated in 1874) in addition to the Heppenheim and Bensheim districts . The communities in the Lindenfels and Wimpfen districts were added to the Heppenheim and Bensheim districts in 1874. This classification was to last until 1938.

The railway age began for Heppenheim with the construction of the Main-Neckar railway line in 1846. After completion of the first construction phase from Langen to Darmstadt (commissioning: April 16, 1846), Heppenheim became the end point of the extension to the south that was inaugurated on June 22, 1846. A little later, the continuous line from Frankfurt to Mannheim / Heidelberg was completed (July 27, 1846).

However, the further development of the Heppenheim train station into a railway junction did not succeed. The well-advanced plans for a large east-west connection through the Odenwald, for which only Heppenheim would have offered itself as an intersection with the Main-Neckar Railway, which runs from north to south, due to the topographical conditions (among other things, the railway lines from Worms to Miltenberg were discussed or from Kaiserslautern to Würzburg; some even had a Paris-Prague line in mind), was consistently and ultimately successfully sabotaged by the grand ducal government in Darmstadt, which wanted to prevent a railway junction outside Darmstadt. Therefore only the branch lines Worms-Bensheim, Lampertheim-Weinheim, Weinheim-Fürth / Wahlen and the branch line Lorsch-Heppenheim were executed. The latter was only in operation from 1903 to the end of the First World War and again from 1925 to 1934; in the Second World War it was finally dismantled because of the rail requirements in the east.

In the “ Vormärz ” and the German Revolution of 1848/49, Heppenheim was the scene of significant events on several occasions. On October 10, 1847, leading representatives of the German freedom movement - among them Heinrich von Gagern , Paul Theodor Welker and Adam von Ittstein - met in the Hotel Halber Mond for the " Heppenheimer Assembly " and formulated their demands for a German parliament, guarantee of civil liberties and basic rights including freedom of the press, publicity of the courts and constitutional life. This was the start of the revolution and at the same time one of the most important stations on the way to the German National Assembly, which passed the Imperial Constitution on March 28, 1849 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. But like the beginning, the end of the revolution was also connected with events, a major part of which happened in Heppenheim. The revolution in itself had already failed when, on April 3, 1849, the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV refused the imperial crown offered to him by the National Assembly. But their fire had not yet gone out. Among the desperate attempts to save the revolution, the “Baden uprising” occupied a special place. On May 11, 1849, Baden garrisons mutinied in the federal fortress of Rastatt. The uprising spread rapidly; the democratic people's associations, which had been the supporters of the revolution in Baden from the start, took over government. On May 24, 1849, in today's Heppenheim district of Oberlaudenbach, an assembly (previously forbidden in Unterlaudenbach, Baden) with 3,000 to 5,000 participants, which, by preparing for a military incursion into the Grand Duchy of Hesse with the additional thrust of Frankfurt am Main, established the Paulskirche parliament and the imperial constitution tried to save. In addition, attempts should be made to convince the Grand Ducal Hessian Army, or at least units of it, to overflow. The Hessian government had summoned three companies from Heppenheim and the surrounding area and sent their government commissioner Prinz, who tried to mediate, and who had a heated argument with the leader of the revolutionaries, Wilhelm Zimmermann. Suddenly shots rang out from the angry crowd and hit Prince fatally. This led to the intervention of the Hessian soldiers who, contrary to all hopes, did not change fronts. In the developing skirmish, 13 revolutionaries were killed and over 100 injured. Consequences of this "battle of Oberlaudenbach" was the proclamation of martial law in parts of the Starkenburg province for four weeks by ordinance of May 28, 1849, but also a deterrent effect on the bourgeoisie because of the violence that had broken out and a weakening of the revolutionary movement in Baden because of the Overall loyalty to the prince of the Hessian soldiers. But only a few days later the next fateful battle broke out. The Baden troops were still trying to get support from the Hessian soldiers. The headquarters of the staff of the grand ducal troops in the operations against the revolutionary movement in southern Hesse was set up in the Hotel Halber Mond in Heppenheim. When suddenly the - false - news was transmitted that Baden troops were on the march to support the revolutionary Hessian Odenwald forests, a banter with the Baden revolutionary troops took on the character of a serious battle. From Heppenheim, the Hessians first attacked Unterlaudenbach and took it without much resistance. The further advance on Hemsbach then led to bitter fighting, in which the Badeners were ultimately subject to the Hessians. This "Battle of Heppenheim and Hemsbach" (although the essential and ultimately decisive battles took place in Hemsbach, historians often simply speak of the "Battle of Heppenheim") was the turning point in the Baden revolution, with the collapse of which the revolutionary movement in Germany as a whole suffocated.

The Franco-Prussian War (1870/71) and the ensuing establishment of an empire were not associated with decisive events for Heppenheim. It also did not benefit from the reallocation of the judicial districts in 1879. In today's Bergstrasse district, local courts in Fürth, Hirschhorn, Lorsch, Wald-Michelbach and Zwingenberg (1902 also in Bensheim, 1905 in Lampertheim) took the place of the "regional courts". Heppenheim was still no longer a court seat.

The Heppenheim town hall around 1900
Kurmainzer Amtshof around 1900

In 1900 the old church building of St. Peter , which had become too small, was demolished. The church mentioned in the document of 755 was no longer available in parts, but was already completely replaced by the constant renovations, additions and renewals carried out over the centuries - some of inferior quality and inconsistent architectural styles. The new building, erected from 1901 to 1904 in an early Gothic form, is also known as the "Cathedral of the Bergstrasse" because of its size and impressive shape. The old church tower was preserved and was integrated into the north tower of the new building.

Time of world wars

In the First World War (1914-1918) 176 sons of the city lost their lives. The war did not have any other consequences for Heppenheim. It was spared in particular from the Allied "Rhineland occupation". When Germany - “undefeated in the field” - asked for an armistice in November 1918, the Allies did not occupy any part of the Reich. In the Versailles Treaty, however, the German Reich had to undertake to agree to the occupation of West Germany by the French, British, Americans and Belgians for a period of 15 years (from 1919 to 1934). The demarcation line was predominantly the Rhine, so that the occupied zone ended in Worms; Heppenheim remained vacant. Since the monarchy had collapsed and the Grand Duke had to abdicate, however, between the two world wars it no longer belonged to the “Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt”, but now to the “People's State of Hesse”.

Between the world wars, Heppenheim achieved a certain prominence among intellectuals through the work of two personalities: Paul Geheeb (1870–1961) and Martin Buber (1878–1965). Paul Geheeb had already founded his Odenwaldschule in 1910 in what is now the Oberhambach district , a boarding school with a new and for the time revolutionary educational concept: a close community - sometimes also shared living - between students and teachers and between boys and girls, course system with specialist groups without grades and without transfer rituals, absolutely without exams, grades, certificates and punishments. The great Jewish religious philosopher Martin Buber, who taught as a professor in Frankfurt, lived in Heppenheim from 1916. He consciously chose the Heppenheim residence as a calm contrast to the city of Frankfurt. Both Geheeb and Buber left Germany during the Nazi era ; Geheeb emigrated to Switzerland in 1934, Buber emigrated to Jerusalem in 1938. The Odenwald School was continued and still exists today. Martin Buber's house is now a listed building and is now the seat of the International Council of Christians and Jews.

In 1924, the keep of the Starkenburg, which had burned out after being struck by lightning and thus finally became dilapidated, had to be blown up. The new keep, built in 1930 (and provided with a roof in 1958), was not erected at the original location after a long discussion, but moved to the front, on the one hand to gain the entire area of ​​the castle courtyard for eventual events, and on the other to deliberately remove the new building to delimit its historical model. Today this decision, which was already very controversial at the time, is generally regretted. The value of the Starkenburg as a monument, which had already suffered greatly during the time of the demolition (1765–1787), was additionally impaired.

In 1927 the Mother House of the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vinzenz von Paul ("Vinzenzkloster" between the train station and Neckarstrasse) inaugurated after a two-year construction period. The construction management of the mother house of the Vincentine Sisters was in the hands of Joseph Winter. He received support from Georg Fehleisen (1893–1936). The monastery still exists today.

In Hesse, on July 3, 1933, the "Law for the implementation of field clearing for the purpose of creating jobs in the course of the redevelopment" was passed. In 13 municipalities in the Starkenburg province, including Heppenheim, the field clearing procedure was ordered over an area of ​​200,000 ha.

From 1930 onwards, the aim was to enlarge the administrative districts in the People's State of Hesse and in 1938 it was implemented. One district was dissolved in each of the three Hessian provinces of Starkenburg, Rheinhessen and Upper Hesse. In Starkenburg it hit the Bensheim district (in Upper Hesse: Schotten; in Rheinhessen: Oppenheim), which was largely added to the Heppenheim district; The latter was also designated as the legal successor to the Bensheim district and renamed the Bergstrasse district . For the lost district seat, Bensheim was compensated with the district leadership of the NSDAP (which of course became irrelevant in 1945). However, the area around Lampertheim (with Bürstadt, Hofheim and Biblis) was not part of the Bergstrasse district, but rather the Worms district.

Heppenheim synagogue

In the " Reichspogromnacht " (November 9/10, 1938) all synagogues still in use in the Bergstrasse district were destroyed, including the architecturally particularly successful synagogue in Heppenheim , built by Heinrich Metzendorf in 1900 at the foot of Starkenburgweg in red and white sandstone . It was built so massive that lighting it up was not enough to destroy it, but also had to be blown up.

Heppenheim was little affected by the horrors of the Second World War. It was spared from direct combat operations as well as from the Allied bombing raids on residential areas. In the final phase of the Second World War in Europe, the American units reached the Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim in mid-March 1945. The bridgeheads on the left bank of the Rhine could not be held by the weak German forces, which led to the demolition of the Rhine bridges at Worms, Nordheim and Gernsheim on March 20. The remnants of the German 7th Army, which had withdrawn to the right bank of the Rhine, had to leave almost all of their heavy equipment such as tanks and artillery behind, which made a continuation of the fighting with the absolute air dominance of the Americans and the lack of any German reserves actually completely pointless.

On the American side, the primary goal was now to avoid further losses, which led to the massive use of artillery, tanks and aircraft, even without precise knowledge of a possible counter-defense, on all cities and villages to be captured. If the advancing forces encountered resistance, an immediate retreat followed and a massive deployment of the air force and artillery. On March 22nd, the 3rd US Army crossed the Rhine near Oppenheim and occupied Darmstadt on March 25th. From the American point of view, this made it necessary for the neighboring US 7th Army to move up quickly to secure its flanks. In preparation for their crossing of the Rhine, most of the Ried communities were shelled by American artillery on March 25th and on the night of March 26th. In the first hours of March 26, 1945, American troops crossed the Rhine near Hamm and south of Worms. On March 27, the American units were in Lorsch, Bensheim and Heppenheim and a day later Aschaffenburg am Main and the western and northern parts of the Odenwald were occupied.

The Americans moved into Heppenheim from the north without the city being defended, so that it remained largely unscathed. However, the invasion was preceded by hours of artillery bombardment, which did not cause any major damage to the cityscape, but killed around 30 residents. The cause of the artillery bombardment were assault artillery pieces left in the city , which an American scout troop spotted in Lorscher Strasse. In addition, the middle part of the "Dreireihenhaus" (In der Krone Nr. 3), which closes the Bahnhofstrasse at the top and from which the Bahnhofstrasse can be overlooked in full length and possibly taken under fire, was completely destroyed by the American troops during the invasion after they came from Lorscher Strasse and found the railway barriers locked and feared resistance. It is difficult to determine how many people were killed by the war and the Nazi dictatorship in Heppenheim. In 2005 the Bergsträßer Anzeiger published a study by Wilhelm Metzendorf, where the following figures were given: 769 deaths in the city center (including relatives of the displaced persons), 247 in the city districts. This means, as a percentage of the population: eight percent in the city center and nine Percent in today's neighborhoods. In addition, there were over 700 foreign soldiers who died in the Heppenheim prisoner-of-war hospital, as well as 24 German and 47 foreign civilians who were brought to Heppenheim after the air raid on Darmstadt in mid-September 1944 and died there. In addition, 29 people from Heppenheim were victims of the National Socialist persecution of Jews.

Post-war and present

The three-row house was rebuilt later - as was typical for the time - with a simple and faceless purpose-built new building without regard to the earlier uniformity of the ensemble and the historic neighboring houses in the Wilhelminian style. The loss of the “Salted Water” well near today's Odenwald spring, a particularly beautiful sandstone well designed in the shape of a tree trunk, which was rolled down by an American tank during a shunting maneuver in 1945, can be reported as war damage.

During the time of the Allied occupation, Heppenheim was in the American zone, which had also set up a military administration there ("Villa Schüssel" in Karl-Marx-Strasse, the former Kaiserstrasse, which has since been referred to as the "America House"). Henry Kissinger , who later became the US Secretary of State under President Nixon, stayed there for 15 months after the end of the war . As an employee of the counterintelligence department, he was entrusted with denazification, among other things .

Heppenheim has now become part of the newly formed federal state of Hesse in the likewise newly founded Federal Republic of Germany.

In December 1948, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) was founded in Heppenheim through the merger of liberal parties from the three western zones and West Berlin (“General Representative Day”). The choice fell on Heppenheim because of its special role in the German revolution and for German liberalism (Heppenheimer Assembly). Due to damage to the heating system, however, the event could not take place at the traditional location in the "Half Moon", but had to move to the Kurmainzer Amtshof. After lengthy debates, one could agree on a party name and a catalog of common political demands, which was referred to as the “Heppenheim Proclamation”. The spokesman for the South-West German Democrats, Theodor Heuss , who became the first Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany the following year, was elected as the first chairman .

The Bergstrasse district experienced slight changes as a result of the war. The area around Lampertheim (including Bürstadt , Hofheim and Biblis ) was again spun off from the Worms district and now allocated to the Bergstrasse district, as the Rhine became the border between the American and French occupation zones and - against any historical development - the state border between the new federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate had become. The city of Wimpfen , on the other hand, was "temporarily" separated from the Bergstrasse district by order of the American military administration of November 30, 1945 and placed under the Sinsheim district of Baden . In fact, this separation has remained until today; Bad Wimpfen is now under the administration of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the district of Heilbronn. It is still unclear whether this affected his legal affiliation to Hesse (for example through the option for the south-western state in the referendum in 1952). To this day, Bad Wimpfen is ecclesiastically subordinate to the diocese of Mainz and belongs to the dean's office at Bergstrasse Ost.

After the war there was also a dispute over the district seat. All official files on the preparation of the “Law on the dissolution of the Bensheim, Schotten and Oppenheim districts” passed on April 7, 1938, were burned in the devastating terrorist attack by the Allies on Darmstadt on September 11, 1944. The city of Bensheim took a certain uncertainty about the factual and legal situation associated with the loss of the documents as an opportunity to claim the seat of the Bergstrasse district for itself. She argued that the Bergstrasse district was created through the merging of the Heppenheim and Bensheim districts and that the issue of the district seat had only been provisionally settled. It was not until 1956 that Heppenheim was finally confirmed as a district town. The decisive factor was the still-preserved publication of the legal text in the "Hessisches Regierungsblatt" (edition of April 23, 1938) and the "First Implementation Ordinance" published at the same time, from which it emerged that the Bensheim district had been dissolved at that time and the Heppenheim district had been designated as the legal successor, so both circles were by no means "united". The renaming to "Bergstrasse district" was just a change in the name of the Heppenheim district.

With the order of the regional president in Darmstadt on December 6, 1954, Starkenburg became the official area name of the southern part of the regional council, but not as an official name, but only as a landscape name.

The first decades of Heppenheim's post-war history, like that of the old federal states as a whole and of the Rhine-Main-Neckar area in particular, are characterized by the enormous economic upswing of the “economic miracle” from the currency reform (1948). The former rural character of the city was completely lost due to industrial settlements on a large scale. The population increased sharply (1939: 9,000; 1950: 13,000; 1970: 17,000), not least because of the admission of many expellees from the eastern regions.

The upswing was also favored by improved road connections, especially through the construction of the A 5 (completed in 1968), which provided Heppenheim with a direct motorway connection, the elevation of the two main traffic axes (Bergstrasse as the north / south axis and Lorscher Strasse / Siegfriedstrasse as the east / West axis) to federal highways ( B 3 and B 460 ) shortly after the war as well as through the construction of the new road to Hüttenfeld to better connect the district in the south-west (Lampertheim and Viernheim ) in 1971/72.

The wet and swampy district west of the railway line was drained as early as 1953 and could thus be opened up for further residential areas and industrial settlements as well as the later large shopping centers along Tiergartenstrasse, albeit at the cost of losing a valuable wetland biotope.

In 1955 the city celebrated its 1200th anniversary and on this occasion opened the new open-air theater with the play “Law or Violence? (A game about King Heinrich IV. ) ”, A piece written for this event by Wolfgang Altendorf . It is still in use today, holds around 2500 people and also proved itself on the Hessentag 2004.

On June 10, 1958, the Heppenheim landmark, which was erected in 1551 and magnificently rebuilt after its destruction in the Palatinate War of Succession around 1710, was badly damaged by fire. The cause of the fire was probably residual work on the recently completed renovation of the town hall tower, which now burned out completely and collapsed. In the course of the immediate restoration, the tower was provided with a carillon consisting of 33 bells, which was inaugurated for Christmas 1959.

In 1961 the size of the district was given as 2948  ha , of which 882 ha were forest. In 1967 the Bruchsee was created in the west by gravel for the construction of the motorway. The lake was made accessible as a local recreation area through laid out walking paths. In 1975 the bird park and canary breeding association set up a bird park on its southern tip.

The Hessian administrative area reform in the early 1970s practically did not change the Bergstrasse district. Only the small community of Laudenau was separated and assigned to the Odenwaldkreis (1972). Heppenheim remained a district town after all the towns and communities in the district - this time also Bensheim - had spoken out in favor of keeping the district seat in Heppenheim. The municipalities of Mittershausen (July 1, 1971), Hambach and Ober-Laudenbach (December 31, 1971), Kirschhausen (with the Igelsbach district , incorporated into Kirschhausen on December 1, 1970), Erbach , Sonderbach and Wald-Erlenbach (on December 1, 1970) February 1, 1972) were incorporated into Heppenheim as part of the regional reform (this measure also restored conditions from the earliest city history, when Unter- and Oberhambach, Kirschhausen, Erbach, Sonderbach and Wald-Erlenbach emerged in the Heppenheim district area and the city initially as "Hubendörfer" or "Filialdörfer"). As a result, the population rose to around 24,000.

In the last decades of the 20th century, the "old town renovation" was carried out, which created the basis for the further preservation of the existing large and self-contained old town core while at the same time creating modern living conditions in this particularly valuable part of the urban area.

Important post-war construction projects included the construction of new schools (Nibelungen School 1953, Konrad Adenauer School 1965 and Martin Buber School 1971) and the new building for the old Starkenburg High School (1966), the construction of the new sports facilities ( Starkenburgstadion 1965 and Starkenburghalle 1970), the construction of the disaster control center in the west (1972), the establishment of the pedestrian zone (1974), the construction of the district hospital (1982) with the possible transformation of the old city hospital into an old people's home (Haus Johannes) and the new building of the district office building (1985).

In the north, a new, large residential area ("Nordstadt") was built in the mid-1980s. As a result, the population increased to its current level (2004) of around 26,000.

The so-called " Trutzburg Heppenheim ", which existed from 2004 to 2012 , temporarily attracted media attention.

Timetable

  • 755 First documentary mention
  • 764 Foundation of the Lorsch Monastery
  • 772 Lorsch Monastery becomes an imperial abbey
  • January 20, 773 Charlemagne donated the Mark Heppenheim to the imperial monastery of Lorsch
  • 1065 Construction of the Starkenburg
  • 1065/66 First siege of Starkenburg by Archbishop Adalbert von Bremen
  • 1222 First mention of the Central Court, which had met on the Landberg since 1224
  • 1229 Acquisition of the Starkenburg by the Archbishop of Mainz
  • 1232 Acquisition of the Lorsch monastery and all possessions - including Heppenheim - by the Archbishop of Mainz
  • 1318 First documentary evidence of the (possibly much older) town charter
  • 1322 First documentary mention of the cellar, the highest judicial and financial officer after the burgrave, in the Starkenburg office (based in the official court)
  • 1348/49 Serious plague epidemic
  • 1369 Big city fire; Heppenheim burns down to four houses
  • around 1385 rebuilding of the official courtyard damaged in the town fire; at the same time Heppenheim gets a new city wall
  • 1460 war between Kurmainz and Kurpfalz; the burgrave of Starkenburg, Ulrich von Kronberg, falls in a battle between Laudenbach and Hemsbach
  • January 19, 1461 Count Palatine Friedrich and Archbishop Dieter II of Isenburg conclude the “Weinheimer Bund” in the Mainz collegiate feud; Electoral Palatinate lien over Heppenheim and Amt Starkenburg until 1623
  • 1551 New town hall building
  • 1556 Elector Ottheinrich introduces the Reformation; Heppenheim had to change religion seven times in the following 80 years (1556 Lutheran, 1561 Calvinist, 1576 Lutheran, 1584 Calvinist, 1623 Catholic, 1632 Calvinist, 1635 Catholic)
  • 1557 Abolition of the Lorsch monastery by Count Palatine Ottheinrich
  • 1564 Establishment of the Heppenheimer Kollektur (church asset management)
  • 1580 establishment of the Heidelberg-Frankfurt postal line; Heppenheim's post office building from 1594 (demolished in 1967)
  • 1621 Spanish troops take the Starkenburg during the Thirty Years War
  • 1623 redemption of the 160-year-old pledge by Archbishop Johann Schweikart von Kronberg on the basis of an imperial decree; the office of Starkenburg with Heppenheim is again owned by Mainz; Recatholization under the new Starkenburger burgrave Gerhard von Waldenburg
  • 1630 Swedish troops occupy the Bergstrasse and take the Starkenburg; Withdrawal of the Swedes in 1635
  • 1635 plague epidemic
  • 1645 Heppenheim is sacked by French troops
  • 1648 end of the Thirty Years War; the "Westphalian Peace" dedicates a separate article to the reintegration of the parts of the country on the Bergstrasse (1650 supplemented by the "Bergstrasse secondary recession")
  • 1650 After the deposit has been repaid, the Starkenburg office also legally returns to Kurmainz.
  • Between 1668 and 1675 the Starkenburg office was renamed "Oberamt"
  • 1666 plague epidemic
  • 1680 Last expansion of the Starkenburg
  • 1683 The Heppenheim collection is abolished
  • 1688, 1689 and 1693 Unsuccessful siege of Starkenburg by the French in the Palatinate War of Succession
  • 1689 Looting of Heppenheim by French troops in the Palatinate War of Succession
  • 1693 Another looting of Heppenheim by French troops in the Palatinate War of Succession; the French cause a big fire in the city
  • around 1710 rebuilding of the town hall and the Liebigapotheke (originally: Gasthaus "Zur Goldnen Rose") after the destruction in the Palatinate War of Succession
  • 1765 The Starkenburg is released for demolition
  • 1787 Archbishop v. Erthal forbids further demolition of the Starkenburg and puts the ruins under protection
  • 1791 Construction of the synagogue in the Kleine Bach
  • 1799 Heppenheim is sacked again by French troops in Napoleon's second coalition war
  • 1800 the city walls and towers were laid down
  • 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss; the Electorate of Mainz is abolished, Heppenheim becomes part of the Landgraviate (from 1806: Grand Duchy) Hessen-Darmstadt, whose new southern province was named the Principality of Starkenburg
  • 1805 Dissolution of the Upper Office Starkenburg as an administrative unit
  • 1811 Introduction of the Hochfürstlich-Hessen-Darmstadt fire regulations from 1767
  • 1816 Renaming of the Principality of Starkenburg to the Province of Starkenburg
  • 1820 administrative reform in the Grand Duchy of Hesse; the districts of Heppenheim, Bensheim, Lindenfels and Hirschhorn / Neckarsteinach are formed
  • 1821 The city administration issued the Heppenheim fire regulations
  • 1831 The city of Heppenheim gave up ownership of the city walls
  • 1832 revision of the administrative reform; The four districts are only replaced by the districts of Heppenheim and Bensheim
  • 1845 The city walls are declared abandoned
  • 1846 Construction of the Main-Neckar railway line and the Heppenheim station
  • October 10, 1847 "Heppenheimer Assembly" (meeting of liberal MPs from five German states to discuss a common approach to the political unification of Germany, which is an important step on the way to the first German National Assembly, which met in 1848 in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt.)
  • 1848 The districts of Heppenheim and Bensheim merged to form the administrative district of Heppenheim
  • 1849 “Battle of Oberlaudenbach” and “Battle of Heppenheim and Hemsbach”; the fighting leads to the stifling of the “Baden uprising” and thus seals the failure of the German revolution
  • 1852 The administrative district of Heppenheim is split up again into the Heppenheim and Bensheim districts (and temporarily into the Lindenfels district)
  • 1866 Opening of the State Hospital (today: Psychiatric Clinic)
  • 1875 Construction of today's station building
  • 1881 The city hospital opens
  • 1881 Foundation of the Heppenheim volunteer fire brigade
  • 1888 Construction of a Protestant church in Heppenheim (Heilig-Geist-Kirche on the B 3)
  • 1891 Construction of the post office building
  • 1892 A fire destroys two half-timbered houses on the market square (reconstruction as a brick house "Kaufhaus Nack")
  • 1900 Construction of the synagogue at the foot of the Starkenburgweg
  • 1900 Demolition of the old church “St. Peter"; New building in early Gothic form from 1901 to 1904
  • 1903 Opening of the Heppenheim-Lorsch branch line (final shutdown in 1934; rails dismantled during World War II)
  • 1913 Award of the new (still valid) city coat of arms by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig
  • 1924 Demolition of the dilapidated old keep of the Starkenburg
  • 1927 Inauguration of the St. Vincent Monastery
  • 1930 construction of the new keep (provided with a roof in 1958)
  • 1931 Inauguration of the municipal swimming pool on the railway line
  • 1938 Dissolution of the Bensheim district, which is mainly incorporated into the Heppenheim district; Renaming of the Heppenheim district to Bergstrasse district
  • 9/10 November 1938 "Reichspogromnacht"; Destruction of the synagogue
  • March 27, 1945 Heppenheim is occupied by US troops during World War II
  • December 1948 Foundation of the FDP in Heppenheim
  • 1953 Construction of the Nibelungen School
  • 1955 1200th anniversary celebration; for this purpose the open-air stage will be built on the Kappel
  • January 10, 1958 Severe damage to the Heppenheim town hall from a fire that was probably caused by construction work; Restoration and installation of a carillon in the town hall tower by Christmas 1959
  • 1960 Inauguration of the Catholic Dreikönigskirche in Weststadt
  • 1964 Inauguration of the Protestant Christ Church in Weststadt
  • 1965 Construction of the Konrad Adenauer School
  • 1965 Construction of the Starkenburg Stadium
  • 1966 New school building for the Starkenburg-Gymnasium in Weststadt
  • 1966 Creation of the Bruchsee through gravel for the construction of the motorway
  • 1968 completion of the A5 motorway; This gives Heppenheim a direct motorway connection
  • 1969 Construction of the Starkenburg observatory
  • 1970 Construction of the Starkenburghalle
  • 1971 Construction of the Martin Buber School
  • 1971/72 Hessian administrative area reform (the Bergstrasse district remains practically unchanged; incorporation of the communities of Unter- and Oberhambach, Kirschhausen with the districts of Igelsbach, Erbach, Sonderbach, Wald-Erlenbach, Mittershausen-Scheuerberg and Oberlaudenbach to Heppenheim with effect from January 1, 1972)
  • 1972 Establishment of the disaster control center
  • 1974 Establishment of the pedestrian zone
  • 1982 construction of the district hospital; afterwards redesign of the old city hospital into an old people's home (Haus Johannes, opening 1983)
  • 1985 New construction of the district administration building
  • 1985 Start of planning work for the northern part of the city
  • 18.-27. June 2004 Hessentag in Heppenheim

Historical forms of names

Historical forms of the name for Heppenheim were (in brackets the year of the documentary mention):

  • Heppenheim (755/56)
  • Hephenheim (773, 1071, 1195, 1210-1220)
  • Hepphenheim (773)
  • Heppeneheim (1113)
  • Heppenheim (1314)
  • Heppinheim (1362)
  • Heppfenheim (1428)
  • Hepphenheim (1428)

literature

  • 1200 years of Heppenheim an der Bergstrasse. published by the municipality of Heppenheim, 1955.
  • 900 years of Starkenburg over Heppenheim. published by the municipality of Heppenheim, 1965.
  • 1200 years of Mark Heppenheim. published by the municipality of Heppenheim, 1973.
  • Wilhelm Metzendorf: Heppenheimer Lexikon. 1986.
  • Bergstrasse district - history, economy and culture in twelve centuries. published by the district committee of the Bergstrasse district in Heppenheim, 1988.
  • Heppenheim between yesterday and tomorrow. published by the traffic and homeland association Heppenheim eV, 1991.
  • 1250 years of Heppenheim. published at the suggestion of the municipality of Heppenheim by the Verkehrs- und Heimatverein Heppenheim eV, 2005, ISBN 3-00-016093-0 .
  • Muckensturm. A year in the life of a small town. by Georg Munk alias Paula Buber, 1953.
  • The Starkenburg. Sheets for home studies and home care. ed. from the Heppenheimer Geschichtsverein eV

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Josef Minst (transl.): Lorscher Codex (Volume 2), Certificate 429 July 17, 755 - Reg. 1. In: Heidelberg historical stocks - digital. Heidelberg University Library, p. 139 , accessed on January 21, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Heinz Reitz: Mills rediscovered - Documentation of the mill locations in the Bergstrasse district. (= History sheets district Bergstrasse. Volume 14). Heppenheim 1997, ISBN 3-922781-76-4 , pp. 171-230.
  3. ↑ Law on the Conditions of the Class Lords and Noble Court Lords of August 7, 1848 . In: Grand Duke of Hesse (ed.): Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette. 1848 no. 40 , p. 237–241 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 42,9 MB ]).
  4. ^ Ordinance on the division of the Grand Duchy into circles of May 12, 1852 . In: Grand Ducal Hessian Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette 1852 No. 30 . S. 224–229 ( online at the Bavarian State Library digital [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul. Website. Accessed September 2019 .
  6. ↑ Headlines from Bensheim on the 175th anniversary of the "Bergsträßer Anzeiger" 2007: The "Origin of the Bergstrasse District", p. 109.
  7. ↑ a b Series of articles in the Bergstrasse Gazette from 2005 about the end of the war on Bergstrasse. Bergstrasse and Heppenheim. Bergsträßer Anzeiger, accessed on December 20, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Headlines from Bensheim on the 175th anniversary of the "Bergsträßer Anzeiger" 2007: "1948: Free Democratic Party founded", p. 76.
  9. ↑ Headlines from Bensheim on the 175th anniversary of the "Bergsträßer Anzeiger" 2007. (PDF 8.61 MB) When the district town presented itself with an open-air stage. P. 51 , archived from the original on October 5, 2016 ; accessed on December 28, 2014 .
  10. ↑ a b Heppenheim (Bergstrasse), Bergstrasse district. Historical local dictionary for Hesse (as of June 25, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on July 11, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Karl-Heinz Meier barley, Karl Reinhard Hinkel: Hesse. Municipalities and counties after the regional reform. A documentation . Ed .: Hessian Minister of the Interior. Bernecker, Melsungen 1977, DNB  770396321 , OCLC 180532844 , p. 208 .