History of Freiberg am Neckar
Freiberg am Neckar was created on January 1, 1972 from the merger of the three villages of Beihingen am Neckar, Geisingen am Neckar and Heutingsheim.
Prehistoric settlement
Today's urban area was already densely populated in the Neolithic period by the standards of the time. The band ceramists settled the loess areas on the Neckar, Murr and Bottwar as well as the Lange Feld and the Gäu landscapes to the west from around 4000 BC . Around Monrepos, Heutingsheim and Geisingen there were settlements with 100 to 150 houses from around 3500 BC. In 1908 Oscar Paret discovered a Neolithic village near the train station in Beihingen with the remains of clay pots and other household appliances, as well as bones from cattle, sheep and pigs. During the construction of the town hall in 1973, numerous ceramics from a Neolithic settlement were unearthed.
A homestead west of Heutingsheim and graves in Beihingen and Geisingen are documented from the Celtic period from around 1300 BC. The Celtic princely seat was from around 750 on the nearby Hohenasperg .
Roman times and the Great Migration
In the 1st century AD, the Romans invaded the Neckar area. The Neckar-Odenwald-Limes was built around 90 AD . The Benningen fort was built in the immediate vicinity . A Roman road led from Bietigheim via Geisingen and Pleidelsheim to the mouth of the Murr.
From 150 onwards, numerous Roman manors, so-called Villae Rusticae , were built in today's urban area. They were managed by former legionnaires. In Beihingen, such goods are proven in today's wine route and on the edge of the valley between Beihingen and Benningen. In Geisingen, two properties have been identified at the Inner Kirchäckern and the Langen Wiesen, in Heutingsheim an der Steig, the Bettäckern, on the Kreuzwiesen and in the western Siemensstrasse.
In the 3rd century, the Alemanni ousted the Romans in the Neckarland. In 260 they finally broke through the Limes. A few years later, Beihingen emerged as an Alemannic cluster village. A mansion was built on the site of the old Beihingen Castle. Alemannic graves are located on today's connecting roads between Beihingen and Heutingsheim and between Beihingen and Geisingen.
A controversial interpretation derives the place names Beihingen , Geisingen and Heutingsheim from the presumed names of Alemannic clan leaders called Biho , Giso and Huto . Another interpretation leads the names back to topographical circumstances: bei or mai means swamp, g sharp means swampy water .
After the victory of the Franks over the Alemanni in the Battle of Zülpich , the area came under Franconian suzerainty from around 500 onwards. Beihingen became part of the domain of the Counts of Ingersheim .
Early Middle Ages
The Christianization of the area began in the middle of the 6th century . Around 650 there was local Christian nobility in Geisingen. A first church in Beihingen is assumed to be around 700. Large parts of the area 789 came into the possession of the Lorsch Monastery through a foundation . In 818 the first stone church was built as a fortified fortified church, the predecessor of today's Amandus Church . The church was a foundation of Adelold , court clergyman and notary of Ludwig the Pious . In 836 and 944, this nobleman gave the Lorsch monastery further goods in Geisingen ( Gisingheim ) and Beihingen. The oldest known documentary mentions of Geisingen and Beihingen ( Villa Bibinga ) also date from the year 836 .
In 972, the county of Ingersheim and at the same time the associated village of Marbach was first mentioned as an associated Fronhof . Beihingen and Heutingsheim are mentioned as belonging to this Fronhof. The first written mention of Heutingsheim as Hutingesheim comes from the same year .
From the High Middle Ages to the Renaissance
General relationships of rule
In the 11th century, the Counts of Ingersheim built a castle in Calw . From then on they called themselves Counts von Calw . Their ownership in Geisingen gradually passed into the manorial rule of the Margraves of Baden between 1037 and 1050 .
The fortunes of the three towns of Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim were determined by the respective local nobility from now on until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , with various and sometimes confusing changes in rulership.
Hang up
Around 1150 the rule of the Counts of Calw was divided into several lines. As a result of this division came in 1165 3 / 5 Beihingens to the counts of Calw-Lowenstein, and 2 / 5 at the Palatine of Tübingen-Asperg. At that time the northern part of the old Beihingen Castle was built.
This division lasted until 1810 under changing rulers. In 1308 the county of Asperg and with it the smaller part of Beihingen came to the House of Württemberg . The feudal and lordship relationships up to the end of the 14th century have not been completely clarified. It is certain that from the 14th century on, the Hohenberg distress maintained relations with Beihingen. Some sources assume that in 1344 the knights Hans and Straub Nothaft received the larger district including the castle as a fief. It is possible that the smaller district was given to Nothaft as a fief as early as 1338. In any case, it is certain that in 1395 the smaller district went to the von Stammheim family as a fief, and that in the 15th century the Knights of Nothaft ruled the castle and the larger district.
In an inventory of the Counts of Württemberg it is recorded that the Württemberg part of Beihingen at that time consisted of 23 houses, 21 farms and two large farms. All of the Württemberg residents of Beihingen were serfs .
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Nothaft were an influential family. Werner IV. Nothaft, resident in Beihinger Fronhof and councilor with Eberhard IV. , Donated a benefice and an altar in the Stuttgart collegiate church in 1425 . In the 15th century, Nothaft was dedicated to the renewal and expansion of the village church, the Amandus Church . The massive defense tower of the Amandus Church and its choir were completed around 1440. Today's main nave and an extension to include a chapel that no longer exists were built by 1500, probably earlier. A foundation by the Mainz canon Peter Nothaft was essential for the expansion, and achievements by his father Bernhard V. Nothaft may also have played a role.
In 1462 the county of Ingersheim and with it the larger district of Beihingen became part of the Electoral Palatinate . For the year 1469 an extension of the Nothaft fief in the larger part of the village is notarized by the Count Palatine . The south wing of the old Beihingen Palace was probably built around 1480. This year can be found on the building as the oldest year.
The county of Löwenstein and with it the sovereignty over the fiefdom in the larger district of Beihingen came to the House of Württemberg in 1504 . Heimaran Nothaft sold this fiefdom in 1534 to his brother-in-law Ludwig von Freyberg-Steusslingen , with the exception of the patronage over the parish church. Nothaft sold the latter in a barter in 1551 to Duke Christoph von Württemberg .
Geisingen
With the county of Asperg, the village of Geisingen also came to Württemberg in 1308. From there Geisingen went as a fiefdom to the knights Sturmfeder . The Nikolauskapelle was first mentioned in a document in 1336, in a document from the Margrave of Baden to Friedrich Sturmfeder. In 1361 Friedrich Sturmfeder sold the Geisingen fiefdom to Contz von Stammheim.
From 1474 Hans von Stammheim had the Geisinger Nikolauskirche built. In 1522 the church tower was finally completed. The church remained the burial place of the Geisinger local lords until 1780. From 1486 Hans von Stammheim built the moated castle in Geisingen; the family moved there in 1495. In 1505 Geisingen became independent as a parish. Before it was a branch of Ingersheim.
Heutingsheim
Around 1100 a wooden castle called Kasteneck near Heutingsheim was built, the seat of the Kastner von Heutingsheim family . These were probably servants of the lords of the nearby Lichtenberg Castle and had ownership rights in Heutingsheim in the 13th century. Next to or before there was a local nobility based directly in the village. In 1231 and 1280 a Burkhard von Heutingsheim was mentioned in a document. In 1305 Albrecht Kastner von Heutingsheim sold the bailiwick of the village to the Bebenhausen monastery .
With the rule of Lichtenberg, Heutingsheim probably fell to Württemberg in the middle of the 14th century. Kasteneck Castle was also destroyed again in the middle of the 14th century. A number of post holes and a sales deed from 1428, in which the sale of the Burgstadel Kasteneck to the Lords of Stammheim is recorded, essentially indicate its former existence today .
The von Stammheim family, already resident in Geisingen, expanded their small territory by acquiring most of Heutingsheim (and the smaller part of Beihingen, see above) around 1360 and in the years thereafter. From 1485 , the Heutingsheim Church of St. Simon and Judas was founded, donated by Hans von Stammheim and built by the builder Peter von Koblenz .
The Reformation and the period up to the Thirty Years War
Introduction of Protestantism
The first evangelical movements in the area became evident shortly after 1520. The pastor in Besigheim was deposed around this time. A pastor in Großingersheim attracted attention because of his ducal-Württemberg and evangelical sentiments.
It is unclear exactly when Protestantism was introduced in the three communities. The transition was gradual, with delays and reservations. The local rulers first waited for the result of the Schmalkaldic War and a few years later, before Protestantism was generally introduced around 1550. Even the lords of Stammheim-Geisingen, feudal people of the Protestant Duke of Württemberg, took this time.
Development in Beihingen
With Ludwig von Freyberg , the family entered the local history from which today's city of Freiberg am Neckar derives its name and coat of arms. In the decades after his acquisition at Beihingen from 1535 until his death in 1569, there were continued disputes with the Counts of Löwenstein over the patronage of the parish of St. Amandus. The disputes revolved around the selection and appointment of pastors and their income. Ludwig von Freyberg's commitment to Protestantism from 1558 onwards played a major role. In the course of the dispute, the Löwensteiners lost more and more influence, and the right to fill the pastoral position, the Kollatur , finally passed to Württemberg.
The relationship between the local rulers was also not free from conflicts: in 1545 Ludwig von Freyberg took six Jewish families who had been expelled from Württemberg into Beihingen. Württemberg under Duke Ulrich pursued anti-Jewish policies, while many Imperial Knights gladly took in the expellees as protective Jews . Hans von Stammheim-Geisingen, the local lord of the smaller district, did not want to accept this as a loyal Württemberg liege.
After Ludwig von Freyberg's death in 1569, the legacy of the greater part of Beihingen was divided between his three sons-in-law Hans Georg von Hallweil, Johannes Wolf von Stammheim and Friedrich von Breitenbach. Friedrich von Breitenbach built the new castle opposite the old castle in 1573. Hans Georg von Hallweil was also Obervogt von Backnang and Marbach.
Together, the three local lords applied to the Kaiser for a separate high court for Beihingen. The emperor asked the Duke of Württemberg whether this was disadvantageous for Württemberg. The latter refused the application. When Hans Wolf von Stammheim and Friedrich von Breitenbach died in 1588 without male descendants, their inheritance fell to the Hallweil family, partly through intermediate stops .
The plague epidemic in 1596 and 1597 also raged in Beihingen and gave rise to a book of the dead. At the beginning there are only plague victims. The Book of the Dead records another 72 plague victims for 1597. In July 1599 there was another epidemic: 13 people died of the red dysentery . In 1607, the plague claimed another 38 lives. In 1614 a town hall was built in Beihingen, the predecessor of today's old town hall in Beihingen. The renaissance entrance is still preserved today.
Development in Geisingen and Heutingsheim
With the death of Hans Wolf von Stammheim in 1588, another family entered the local history. Johann Sebastian Schertlin von Burtenbach , son of the Swabian district chief Sebastian Schertlin von Burtenbach , inherited the family home in Geisingen and Heutingsheim and in the smaller part of Beihingen. In 1592 the Duke of Württemberg granted the new local lord his own high court for Geisingen. In 1592 the town hall in Heutingsheim was mentioned for the first time. At the end of the 16th century, the Heutingsheim area expanded to what is now the Monrepos castle and lake .
In the Thirty Years War
In the Thirty Years War , Württemberg was initially not a belligerent party, which is why the war only made itself felt indirectly in its early years, through deterioration in coins, higher prices and through reports from refugees. The small coin unit, the cruiser , was a common unit in small everyday businesses. Whose value declined from 1 / 120 Reichstaler in 1619 to 1 / 600 Reichstaler in 1622. Some refugees told of war atrocities emerged from 1622, after the Battle of Wimpfen , in place.
Immediately on site, internal problems were initially more important:
- In 1618 the occupation of the pastorate in Beihingen was again the occasion for a trial of strength. The Stuttgart consistory refused to approve the first two candidates proposed by the local lord Ludwig von Hallweil and in turn sent a candidate for a trial sermon, who in turn was rejected by the local authorities. An agreement was not reached until the fourth candidate.
- In 1626 205 people died of the plague in Beihingen, a third of the population.
From 1628, the war made itself felt directly through financial burdens and troops passing through. Beihingen had to pay 1,220 guilders in war and neighborhood burdens. In Heutingsheim, lodging costs of 526 guilders were incurred.
In 1631 Württemberg officially entered the war. Imperial soldiers camped between Beihingen and Heutingsheim and quartered themselves twice in Beihingen. The soldiers had to be provided with food and wine, and they also stole valuable draft horses. A third billeting could be averted by bribing officers.
After the victory of the imperial troops in the battle of Nördlingen , the imperial troops occupied the area and harassed the local population. Almost the entire population of Beihingen fled to Marbach. In the period from September 1634 to August 1635, 69 Beihingers died, 21 of them fleeing to Marbach. Some 100 imperial soldiers quartered in Geisingen. Heutingsheim was sacked in December 1634.
The pastor from Beihingen was among the dead in 1635. The pastor's post remained vacant until 1640 and was administered from Marbach. Some of the refugees returned to Beihingen in 1635, but at the beginning of 1636 another 30 people died in Beihingen, some of them from starvation.
In 1643, Swedish and French troops allied with Württemberg entered the area. This made little difference to the population: The “allies” were also threatened with robbery and looting. Again the population fled to Marbach. In 1645 French and Bavarian troops were again on site. A Bavarian headquarters was in Marbach in 1645. At Beihingen the French crossed the Neckar under Marshal Turenne .
The period from 1648 to 1700
Recovery after the war
In the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, Württemberg was restored to its old borders. However, the population had shrunk from 450,000 to 166,000. Compared to other places, Beihingen got off lightly: the church, castles and the most important buildings of the community were intact. Geisingen and Heutingsheim were also still standing, in contrast to some other places around the Hohenasperg, which had been devastated to the ground.
So soon after the end of the war there was an economic recovery and a revival of community life. In the rest of Württemberg it was after some time uphill: While were in 1652 in Wuerttemberg still 40,200 acres (120 km²) of vineyards and 1 / 3 of the Nutzlandes broke. In 1654, however, a rich harvest was brought in “like never before in living memory”. Compulsory elementary schooling was introduced in Württemberg as early as 1649; Beihingen set up a summer school and established school rules. The local lord Friedrich Georg von Hallweil had returned by 1653, at the same time two innkeepers had settled in Beihingen.
Beihingen and Friedrich Georg the brawler
However, the two local lords Friedrich Georg von Hallweil and Wolf Ludwig Schertlin von Burtenbach quickly got into disputes over almost all aspects of local life, be it the parish, the mill, the tavern, the brewery, the Krebswasser, the sheep farm or the jurisdiction. The village lords could not agree on filling the schoolmaster's position either. In 1654 the citizens finally appointed a schoolmaster. Although he was accepted by the citizens, Friedrich Georg von Hallweil drove him out of the village in 1657 under threat of the tower.
Friedrich Georg von Hallweils contentious manner finally earned him the nickname of the brawler . The Schertlin zu Burtenbach, on the other hand, had made themselves popular with their subjects through help and sponsorships before and after the end of the Thirty Years' War. The population of the Schertlin district grew steadily, while many Hallweil subjects did everything in their power to move into a Schertlin building. In 1656 they complained to the knightly canton of Kocher that Friedrich Georg was driving away the inhabitants through his “unpeaceful nature”. Ten Hallweil houses are empty, while the other district is overcrowded. In order to fill in the gaps, Friedrich Georg invited immigrants from Switzerland to settle in the same year.
The dispute over the schoolmaster's position continued in 1657 and 1658 because Hallweil again refused to accept the new candidate preferred by Schertlin and the citizens. In 1658, a settlement was finally concluded that gave the Hallweils the privilege of filling the schoolmaster's position, but stipulated that the schoolmaster had to be "presented" to Schertlin beforehand. Again there was a dispute over the school championship from 1662 to 1664 and from 1668 to 1669. In 1669 the duke appointed a schoolmaster by ordinance after the position had remained unfilled for months.
There were disputes with all three pastors of the Amandus Church between 1655 and 1661, which almost completely shattered church life in the village. On May 3, 1657 this even resulted in a fight in the churchyard, instigated by Mrs. von Hallweil and her groom on one side and the pastor and his wife on the other. Parts of the population from the Schertlin district rushed to the help of the pastor couple, the noble servants from the castle. So the dispute turned into a mass brawl. After this incident, the pastor had to flee to Stuttgart. In 1661 the pastor's position was again to be filled. Accompanied by a letter of appointment from Stuttgart, which was addressed to both local lords, the next pastor comes to Beihingen. Hallweil sent him away because he was solely responsible for filling the pastorate. When the Duke threatened to "arrest" Hallweil, he gave in. The new pastor was installed and remained in office until 1693.
Village life did not return to normal until the brawler died in 1671. He was buried without a tomb in the choir of the Amandus Church. In 1680 the north wing of the old Beihingen Castle was renovated and probably also expanded. The year can be found above the entrance door to the north wing.
The castle extension in Geisingen
In 1671, Wolf Schertlin von Burtenbach had the Geisinger moated castle extended by a new building, the Schlössle . In Geisingen there was now a spacious, walled complex with an inner courtyard, two residential buildings, a gatehouse, tower, moat, bakery and wine press.
The Palatinate War of Succession
At the end of the 17th century, the three places Geisingen, Heutingsheim and Beihingen had to suffer again from a war, the War of the Palatinate Succession . In December 1688, French troops marched into Stuttgart. The French confiscated the ferries along the entire Neckar, up to Beihingen. In 1689 and 1690, Bavarian and Electoral Saxon troops had to be fed by the communities in the area.
During the war, 1691-1692, joined another noble family into the fortunes Beihingens: The Family Hall since sold 1 / 8 of their hamlet to the family von Gemmingen .
The worst year of the war was 1693. In August the Hohenasperg fortress fell against the French troops under General Mélac . The 70,000-strong French army then crossed the Neckar near Beihingen. The entire Neckar plain around Pleidelsheim as well as the Murr and Bottwartal to Großbottwar were occupied by French troops. The local population fled and the villages were vandalized and looted.
In Beihingen, the three church bells and the town hall bell were stolen, and around 230 bushels of grain were burned. The entire pews and the pulpit of the Amandus Church were burned, the ritual implements for baptism and the Lord's Supper were stolen, and the church registers were destroyed.
During the subsequent counterattack by Baden troops and the retreat of the French, their headquarters were in the abandoned Heutingsheim. Heutingsheim was also looted and the church and parish registers were destroyed. The church in Geisingen even burned down completely. In the camp near Heutingsheim, a ransom was finally agreed between Württemberg and France: The French withdrew from Württemberg for a payment of 400,000 Reichstalers .
In September 1693 the population returned to their villages. In the Hallweil part of Beihingen, this was only 15 of the previous 26 households. Ten houses in Beihingen remained empty because their residents had starved to death. In Geisingen there were still 17 households. There was also famine in 1694, as not enough grain, especially winter grain, could previously be grown due to a lack of draft cattle. In 1694 Beihingen took out a loan of 200 guilders from the knightly canton of Kocher , but was unable to pay the interest.
Change of ownership in Heutingsheim
In Geisingen the local ruler, Philipp Conrad Schertlin von Burtenbach, was burdened with more than 20,000 guilders in debt in 1695. He therefore sold the village and castle of Heutingsheim to the Württemberg head stable master Levin von Kniestedt . The new local lord had the Blauhof of the Bebenhausen monastery in Heutingsheim replaced by a castle in 1696.
Rest in Beihingen
In 1698 economic life had recovered to such an extent that the citizens could start restoring their church. A new bell and a new altar Bible were bought. In 1699 the Amandus Church even got its first organ , which was bought from the city of Besigheim .
The 18th century
General development
The beginning of the 18th century was marked by the rise of handicrafts, the expansion of agriculture and growing prosperity. The proverbial poor citizens of Geisingen made a certain exception under their over-indebted local lord. The population grew rapidly. Serfdom was also gradually dismantled in the 18th century, but it was not completely abolished in Württemberg until 1817.
In the Seven Years' War 1756–1763, Württemberg was on the side of France against Prussia and had to provide troops. Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim were probably also affected by the forced evictions. 2 / 3 of these forcibly recruited men deserted . Potatoes were grown in the area on a larger scale from around 1775. Agriculture, especially clover cultivation, continued to spread at the expense of the sheep pasture.
The French Revolution of 1789 took place in Württemberg due to the relative prosperity and political participation of the people under the popular at that time Duke Carl Eugen only weak response among the population. In 1793 Württemberg took part in the First Coalition War against France. The entire region was affected by the invasion of French troops near Cannstatt under General Moreau in 1796 . In 1800, during the Second Coalition War , French troops invaded Württemberg again.
Hang up
In 1710 Ludwig Friedrich died, the last of the Beihingen branch of the Hallweil family. Even before the family had von Gemmingen gradually 1 / 4 bought the hall because rule possessions in Beihingen. Now they acquired the remaining 3 / 4 from the inheritance. To 1809 should now 3 / 5 of the place gemmingenscher be owned. In 1713 the future pastor and educator Johann Friedrich Flattich was born in the town hall of Beihingen .
Emigration from Beihingen was first mentioned in 1727. Two families and one male individual moved to America. Further emigrations are recorded for 1743. In 1744, Beihing families emigrated to Pennsylvania , presumably not out of economic hardship, but out of pietistic sentiments. Overall, emigrations to America are poorly documented. In 1750 a fire engine was first mentioned in Beihingen.
Rococo prevailed in the area around 1750 . In 1752 the Amandus Church received a major renovation in this style. The roof, windows, masonry and stalls were renovated. The ceiling was painted with ornaments and received gilded decorative knobs. The artistically valuable paintings by the Prague painter Hans Stiegler were created in the galleries .
From 1764 to 1766 the Amandus Church received a new organ, built by master organ builder Johannes Weinmar from Bondorf. The organ prospectus has been preserved to this day. Between 1765 and 1778 a ship bridge over the Neckar was in operation near Beihingen . It was torn away during the floods in 1769. The parts were recovered in Heilbronn (sic) and the bridge was restored. It was finally irreparably destroyed in a flood in 1778. It was replaced by a ferry that remained in service until 1875.
In 1796, scattered French soldiers invaded the area. Troops, consisting mainly of volunteers, extorted money from the community, plundered the parish's wine cellar, stole clothes and shoes and shot poultry. With the help of French field guards and local volunteers, the marauders were driven away. The population of Beihingen was 716 in 1800.
Geisingen, Heutingsheim, and the Schertlinian properties in Beihingen
In October 1701 the church in Geisingen, which burned down in 1693 and has since been rebuilt, was consecrated. In 1723 Friedrich Ludwig von Kniestedt built another castle in Geisingen, the upper castle on the mountain directly below the church. The family sold the castle on to the merchant Tobias Bender in 1786. From this it was acquired by the state of Württemberg in 1788, which it immediately sold on to the community. This in turn sold it to citizens of Geisingen.
The town hall in Heutingsheim was built in 1781. In 1782, Karl Christian Adam Schertel von Burtenbach sold his Geisinger property, as well as the part of Beihingen that belonged to him, to Duke Carl Eugen . A Württemberg staff office was formed from the property sold. From 1783, the duchy sold a large part of the properties in Geisingen and Beihingen to citizens. In 1800 around 475 people lived in Heutingsheim.
19th century
Reorganization as a result of Napoleonic rule
With the Treaty of Lunéville , Württemberg lost its holdings on the left bank of the Rhine. In the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803 it was compensated for by the dissolution of small principalities and territories. In 1802, the Southwest German Imperial Knights paid a bribe of 200,000 francs to Foreign Minister Talleyrand and 100,000 guilders to Napoléon and his ministers. Nevertheless, Napoléon concluded an alliance with the southern German princes in 1805, with which the imperial knighthood in southern Germany was abolished.
At the same time, Württemberg adopted a new private law modeled on French and Roman law and a new constitution modeled on the French ministerial constitution. The church property was incorporated into the state treasury. The estates lost their right to co-government and the municipalities lost their right to tax. With the edict of organization of 1806, Württemberg gave itself a new administrative structure in upper offices .
Beihingen became part of Württemberg in 1805, Geisingen and Heutingsheim followed in 1806. The three places were first added to the Marbach Oberamt , but later came to the Ludwigsburg Oberamt . In 1809 the imperial knighthood rights in Beihingen and Heutingsheim also expired.
The economic crisis from 1812 to 1817
The years 1812 to 1815 brought a period of economic hardship. Four successive rainy summers led to crop failures. The male population was decimated by the Napoleonic Wars : of 15,800 Württemberg soldiers only a few hundred returned from the Russian campaign . In 1814 almost the entire wine harvest froze to death. A wave of price increases that then set in reached its peak in 1817.
Administrative reforms from 1818 to 1822
With the administrative edict of 1822, Württemberg adopted a new municipal constitution that provided for municipal self-government that was unique in Germany: The citizenship elected the municipal council and the citizens' committee. The mayor, who is in office for life, was appointed by the Oberamt from three candidates proposed by the municipality.
In Beihingen, however, the landlords retained some influence on the spot: They retained the lower criminal law in the castle and the property belonging to it, and the authority to attend church and school visits. In fact, the landlords in Beihingen also appointed the mayor. The teachers were also appointed by the landlords well into the 20th century. In addition, the von Kniestedt and von Gemmingen families retained the privilege of tax exemption. The lords of Gemmingen continued to have income on the tithe from citizens and parish in Beihingen.
Further economic and political development in the 19th century
The beginning of industrialization was initially barely noticeable on site: Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim retained their character as agricultural villages. The total population of the three villages grew only marginally from 1828 to 1863 from 1941 to 2003 inhabitants. The economic crises of 1830 and 1846–1855 and the associated waves of emigration may have contributed to this stagnation.
In political terms, there was further liberalization , despite the failed Paulskirche constitution of 1848. In 1836, the compulsory labor service in Württemberg was abolished against payment of a transfer fee. There were disputes in Beihingen about its amount, which continued until 1839. In 1850 fiefs and tithe were abolished. By 1854 all tithes in the three villages had been replaced by one-off compensation payments.
At the Franco-German War 1870-71 participated 16 men from Beihingen, one of whom was killed. In 1871 a Beihingen factory worker was first mentioned in writing, Thomas Walter, who had an accident in Ludwigsburg. The beginning of mechanization was also noticeable in agriculture: in the 1870s, the first forage cutting and threshing machines appeared. The metric system was introduced in Württemberg in 1871 .
In 1875 Beihingen received a train station on the ridge 1½ km above the town center. In 1879 the Backnang – Bietigheim railway was opened and Beihingen was connected to it; from 1881 there was a branch from Beihingen to Ludwigsburg.
From 1889, the later archaeologist and state curator Oscar Paret grew up in the rectory in Heutingsheim . In 1890 the teacher Wilhelm Mezger, the last teacher appointed by the landlords, began his service in Beihingen. He remained in service until 1929. In 1892, the civil and church parishes were separated. The ecclesiastical property was extracted from the parish property.
Between 1881 and 1895 there was another wave of emigration to the USA. This was also fueled by an agricultural crisis in the early 1890s. In 1893 420 cattle perished in Beihingen as a result of a dry summer; In 1894, a large part of the grape harvest was unsaleable because of poor quality. In 1900 the population of Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim was a total of 2,298 people.
The 20th century
The years up to the First World War
A fundamental upheaval began in the economic structure of the three towns before 1900: the transition from agriculture to industrial employment. Around 1900 around half of the working population was already employed in the factories in Ludwigsburg, Kornwestheim, Bietigheim and Stuttgart, where wages were significantly more attractive than in agriculture. The good rail connections favored this change. However, many of the factory workers of the first and second generation did not completely give up their attachment to the soil: Many still farmed their piece at home , raised vegetables and potatoes, fattened poultry or a pig.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Beihingen got a village water pipe. An elevated water tank with a capacity of 230 m³ was installed in the Klinge below the station . In 1902 there was the first telephone connection in the Gasthaus Sonne in Heutingsheim . In the same year one of the downsides of industrialization became apparent with the first fish deaths in the Neckar.
Viticulture was given up in Geisingen around 1900. Another economic asset gained in importance, namely gravel mining in the Neckar. In 1905 a cable car was set up to transport the dredged Neckarkies up to the Beihinger train station. This cable car existed until 1922, but gravel mining continued until the gravel and sand masses below the bridge had been completely dredged and exhausted in the 1960s. In agriculture, tobacco growing gained economic importance from around 1910. It continued on an economically significant scale into the 1960s. In 1906, with the new municipal code of the Kingdom of Württemberg, the mayor's lifelong term of office was repealed.
The year 1910 saw brisk construction activity in Heutingsheim. From 1911 to 1914, the canal for the Alt-Württemberg power plant was built 200–500 m to the right of the river. The original arm of the river between Beihingen and Ingersheim now only carried the water that was not used for the canal. In the summer, the old riverbed often fell dry. At the beginning of the 5 km long canal in Beihingen, a weir was built, at the end of which at Pleidelsheim another weir and the power station. The power plant was commissioned in 1915.
The First World War
The neighboring Ludwigsburg was a strong garrison town. The surrounding area was also used for mobilization . At the beginning of August 1914, Geisingen was completely occupied with artillery troops, which were then transferred to France. From 1915, the war made itself felt with the first rationing. Bread and meat cards were introduced. Unemployment rose in Geisingen. To employ the unemployed, the municipality had piping work carried out.
From 1916 hoarding townspeople visited the villages. From May 1917, general ration cards were introduced and food was strictly rationed. Two bells from the Amandus Church and the Beihinger town hall bell were photographed and then melted down. At the end of the war, of the 235 men who went to war, Beihingen had 44 dead.
The Weimar Republic
The now noticeable population growth led to a housing shortage. In Beihingen, a total of 10 emergency apartments were built in the old castle and the old schoolhouse in 1920 to alleviate this problem. Heutingsheim grew in the direction of the train station, aided by the sale of land by the local nobles. In 1921, the forced economy for living space was introduced in Geisingen.
A changed political consciousness developed in the population: During the unrest of 1919 there was a workers and peasants' council in Heutingsheim for a short time . In the 1920s, the SPD and also the KPD gained strong support from the local working population.
The communities tried to alleviate the economic crisis in the years from 1929 through emergency work. In Heutingsheim, the Gründelbach was regulated in the course of this work. At the end of 1930 Beihingen had 51 unemployed. The community granted winter and Christmas allowances. Geisingen had over 70 unemployed in the years 1931–1932, of which about half could be employed in emergency work.
The Nazi rule
The communal code, which was reformed in 1906, was changed again with the harmonization laws. The term of office of the mayor was again for life. The local councils were dissolved and replaced by new local councils "appointed" for six years. In all three communities streets and squares were renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz , Adolf-Hitler-Strasse , Horst-Wessel-Platz and Hermann-Göring-Strasse .
The transition to the new balance of power went largely smoothly. "From the local press reports of 1933 one gets the impression that the church, the party and the municipal administration respected each other and tried together to meet the demands of the 'new era'". However, there was also opposition. In February 1933, the Geisingen municipal council rejected an application from the NSDAP to use a community hall free of charge. In September 1935 there was a physical confrontation between SA people and opponents of the NSDAP in a Geisingen economy .
The most persistent disputes took place between the parishes and the state. In the church council elections in July 1933 the German Christians in Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim could not gain a foothold. The parishes essentially re-elected their old councilors. In the Wuerttemberg church struggle in 1934, pastor Friedrich Medinger from Heutingsheim, like many other Wuerttemberg pastors, sided with his regional bishop Theophil Wurm . For this he negotiated a complaint from the mayor and a police questioning. Since the National Socialist state finally backed off in this dispute, Medinger suffered no immediate harm. However, he was monitored and given early retirement in 1939.
In 1938 the construction of the Reichsautobahn route 81 , today's A 81 began . It crossed the Neckar between Beihingen and Geisingen and separated Geisingen from Beihingen and Heutingsheim.
The Second World War began again in August 1939 with the billeting of troops. 2000 men were stationed in Geisingen. The local chronicles also mention air defense and blackout exercises. From 1940, Polish forced laborers were used in Geisingen. In 1942 wool, furs and skis were collected from the population for the Wehrmacht . The bells of the Amandus Church and the town hall bell in Beihingen, which were recovered in 1925, had to be used again for the war.
In 1943 French prisoners of war were quartered in the castle in Beihingen. The population prepared for the aerial warfare: under the castles of the three communities, the town halls of the Heutingsheim rectory and under private houses, air raid shelters were built, partly as a public service and partly by the population. In 1944 this aerial warfare became a fact. The fighter-bombers were primarily targeting the railway facilities and passing trains. In Heutingsheim, the kindergarten, mill and gymnasium were hit by bombs. Some planes were shot down. The crews were buried in Heutingsheim, Geisingen and Pleidelsheim.
In the winter of 1944–1945 there were constant air alarms. School lessons could no longer take place due to a lack of coal. In April 1945 French troops reached the Enz . The local group leader of the NSDAP had Volkssturm units set up. Artillery positions were set up in both Geisingen and Beihingen. Artillery fire and bombs caused damage to buildings and floors. On April 20, the German troops blew up all railway and road bridges, especially those over the Neckar. They left on April 21st. The handover to the French troops took place without a fight and without encroachments on their part. However, there was looting by freed prisoners of war and forced laborers.
Growth to the city
As early as May 1945, the French occupation forces cleared the area that now belonged to the American occupation zone . The National Socialist councilors were deposed. In their place came voluntary action committees which, in cooperation with the occupying power, tackled the reconstruction and democratic reorganization. The street renaming of 1933 has been reversed. In the census at the end of 1946, Beihingen had 1557 inhabitants, Geisingen 987 and Heutingsheim 1439. A considerable part of this population were expellees. In the course of 1946 a total of 976 displaced persons were assigned to the three villages for accommodation.
As everywhere in Germany, the first post-war years in the three villages were characterized by a lack of food, fuel and living space and the black market. Nobody had to starve, however. In 1947 Beihingen cleared large areas of forest and in 1948 expropriated land from Baron Max von Gemmingen in favor of public housing. Despite this shortcoming, reconstruction quickly got underway. In 1947, the first fixed Neckar bridge in the district was rebuilt in Beihingen. The municipal sewerage system began in Geisingen.
In 1948, Beihingen had 55 farm households. The years from 1949 were marked by the economic upswing in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany. The three communities grew rapidly in terms of area and population. They completely lost their character as agricultural villages and became urban settlements on the periphery of a conurbation. The agricultural areas between the places disappeared; the three places grew together seamlessly and expanded from the original valley location to the surrounding mountain ranges. In the mid-1960s, the total population of the three places exceeded 10,000.
1954 began the development of the first industrial site in Heutingsheim. It did not stop at this area: On the periphery of the newly created conglomerate, in Beihingen on the banks of the Neckar, in Heutingsheim on the hill above the railway line and at the western end of Geisingen, further industrial and commercial areas with a total of 0.85 km² were created and more than 120 medium-sized companies. Together with 300 small businesses and shops, these companies offered around 2,750 jobs in the early 1980s.
From 1954, the power station canal on the Neckar was expanded into a shipping canal. In 1955 the first motor ships sailed the route. In 1954 the water quality monitoring of the Neckar began. At this point in time, the water quality between Marbach and Pleidelsheim had dropped to heavily polluted to very heavily polluted due to industrial and domestic sewage . Apart from mud tube worms , leeches , mosquito larvae and water lice, there was no longer any animal life in the water that could be seen with the eyes. Only in the mid-1970s, thanks to intensive wastewater treatment, did this condition improve, and from the 1980s onwards, fish could be caught again in the Neckar near Freiberg.
In 1968 the old town center of Beihingen had to give way to road traffic. About 14 buildings will be demolished. From the 1960s onwards, farms were almost only found outside the three towns in the form of free-standing emigrant farms, surrounded by large, land-cleared areas.
The Amandus Church in Beihingen underwent a large-scale restoration in the 1950s, during which much of the valuable artistic substance of the old church was brought to light or restored to its former glory. The church of Simon and Judas in Heutingsheim, which was also in need of renovation at the end of the 1960s, had a different fate. After a fire in the rectory and the church tower in October 1970, the old rectory could no longer be saved and is being rebuilt, and the nave of the church is also being refurbished in a modern style.
On January 1, 1972, the three communities of Beihingen am Neckar, Geisingen am Neckar and Heutingsheim merged to form the community of Freiberg am Neckar. A modern center with a market square and town hall was built at the interface between the three communities. In March 1974 the administration and the municipal council moved into the new town hall. In November 1975 the large school center, consisting of a secondary school, secondary school and grammar school in a joint building, was completed. This school was expanded in the years up to 1982 and finally offered space for 1,850 students. The indoor pool was inaugurated in 1976. At the same time and in the following years, a number of modern buildings were built on the new market square, in which shops and medical practices were rented.
The railway line to Stuttgart was expanded to two tracks in 1978 and 1979 and electrified. The station got a parking lot for commuters, an underpass and new platforms - the old station building had served its purpose in this function and became a residential and guest house. In 1980 Freiberg was incorporated into the Stuttgart S-Bahn network on the S4 line.
On January 1, 1982, the community now had 13,500 inhabitants, the state government granted Freiberg am Neckar the status of a city.
The 21st century
Redesign of the city center
In 2010 and 2014 the municipal council passed resolutions to redesign the Freiberg city center. These provide for a friendlier design, more inviting entrances and an improved traffic concept. The school center Oscar Paret School, which is in need of renovation, is to be completely demolished and rebuilt closer to the motorway. In 2018, construction work began to demolish and rebuild the Oscar Paret School. The local BUND city association criticized the planning: It was associated with unnecessarily high land consumption and the loss of valuable green spaces, and the close proximity of the school to the motorway posed a health risk for students and teachers. In July 2019 the foundation stone for the new building of the Oscar Paret School was laid.
The planned construction costs amount to 81 million euros. The new school should be ready for occupancy in mid-2021.
literature
- Otto Majer: Beihingen - Geisingen - Heutingsheim, history in numbers , self-published by the city of Freiberg am Neckar, 1989.
- Alois Seiler: Stone Age Settlements and Roman Courts , in: City of Freiberg am Neckar (editor): Lebendiges Freiberg am Neckar. Ein Heimatbuch , self-published by the city of Freiberg am Neckar 1982, pp. 10-14.
- Alois Seiler: Common Fate in the Middle Ages , ibid, pp. 15–20.
- Alois Seiler: Churches and castles as historical witnesses , ibid, pp. 59–64.
- Martin Hohnecker: Once three farming villages, now an industrial site , ibid, pp. 99-102.
- Martin Hohnecker: Silver trains are replacing the steam locomotive. Little Freiberg Railway History, ibid, pp. 86–87.
- Friedrich Winter: Amandus Church Freiberg am Neckar , Verlag Memminger, Freiberg am Neckar 2001, ISBN 3-9807733-0-2 .
- Evangelical Church Community Heutingsheim (publisher): 1487–1987 Church Simon and Judas Heutingsheim , self-published 1987.
- Wolfram Berner: Feldbahnen im Landkreis Ludwigsburg, in Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 68/2014, Ludwigsburg 2014, ISSN 0179-1842 , pp. 193–234 (including 2 illustrations of the cable car).
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Otto Majer, Beihingen, Geisingen, Heutingsheim , p. 18.
- ↑ ibid., Editor's note, according to Hans Bahlow: Deutschlands Geographische Namenwelt. Etymological lexicon of river and place names of ancient European origin. , Suhrkamp 1985, ISBN 3-518-37721-3 .
- ↑ On the south aisle of the church there is a Latin inscription that records this act of foundation. However, this does not reveal the scope of the extensions; the inscription merely states that Nothaft capellam fieri fecit ( having a chapel built) (Friedrich Winter: Amanduskirche Beihingen , p. 17)
- ↑ Majer (p. 96) mentions a further 95 plague deaths for 1635 (died in Marbach?), Without citing the source. Winter does not mention these dead.
- ↑ The available sources do not provide any information about the population loss in Beihingen, Geisingen and Heutingsheim. However, since community life quickly regains momentum and there are no reports of a large number of vacant or destroyed houses, it can be assumed that the loss rate is nowhere near as high as overall in Württemberg.
- ↑ Majer, p. 101.
- ↑ that corresponded to about as many hectoliters in Württemberg.
- ↑ Majer, p. 150, gives 1808 as the year for Beihingen, but gives no specific information for Geisingen and Heutingsheim.
- ↑ Majer, p. 150; there no information about Geisingen.
- ↑ printed in: Königlich-Württembergisches Staats- und Regierungs-Blatt , Nro. 17 of Thursday, March 14, 1822, p. 131 ( p. 131 in the Google book search)
- ↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon from 1888, Volume 16, p. 16.776.
- ↑ Majer, p. 156, citing the handwritten local chronicle, writes that the landlords appoint the first mayor.
- ↑ Wolfram Berner: Feldbahnen im Landkreis Ludwigsburg, in Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 68/2014, Ludwigsburg 2014, pp. 223–225
- ↑ printed in: Württembergisches Regierungsblatt No. 323.
- ↑ see Garrison Museum Ludwigsburg
- ↑ The sources do not provide any information about the loss figures from Geisingen and Heutingsheim.
- ↑ in Geisingen in the 1930 Reichstag election: SPD 102 votes, KPD 157, NSDAP 5 (sic), according to Hohnecker, p. 100.
- ^ Friedrich Winter, Kirchenkampf in Heutingsheim , in: 1487–1987 Church Simon and Judas Heutingsheim , p. 86.
- ^ Benjamin Büchner: Freiberg am Neckar: A young city center is getting younger. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. May 14, 2014, accessed January 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Renewal of the city center. In: City of Freiberg am Neckar. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Aylin Bergemann (moderation): BLICKpunkt Zentrum - fit for the future . Ed .: City of Freiberg am Neckar. Freiberg am Neckar February 2, 2016 ( freiberg-an.de [PDF]).
- ^ New construction of the Oscar Paret School |. In: City of Freiberg am Neckar. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
- ↑ "Trees and nature destroyed" . In: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung . Ludwigsburg February 1, 2019.
- ^ Frank Elsässer: Starting signal for the new school . In: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung . Ludwigsburg July 18, 2019 ( lkz.de [accessed July 24, 2019]).
- ↑ Susanne Matthes: Major project in Freiberg: The school on the Autobahn is moving. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. May 18, 2019, accessed November 13, 2019 .