Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 9 '  N , 8 ° 13'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Southern Wine Route
Association municipality :	Herxheim
Height :	129 m above sea level NHN
Area :	29.12 km 2
Residents:	10,577 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	363 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	76863
Area code :	07276
License plate :	SOUTH
Community key :	07 3 37 038
Association administration address:	Obere Hauptstrasse 2 76863 Herxheim
Website :	www.herxheim.de
Local Mayor :	Hedi Braun (independent)
Location of the local community Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz in the district of Südliche Weinstrasse

Klingbach within Herxheim

The municipality of Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz ( called “Herxe” in the local dialect ) in Rhineland-Palatinate is the largest municipality in the southern Weinstrasse district in terms of population . Herxheim is the administrative seat of the association of the same name and is designated as a medium-sized center according to state planning .

geography

location

The local community is located in the Upper Rhine Plain in the east of the Southern Wine Route district. It consists of the core town of Herxheim and the district of Hayna in the south of the municipality , which are separated from each other by a forest area. The hamlet of Sandhof is located in the east of the district . The community also includes the “Neumühle”, “Am Wingertsberg” and “Am Schambach” residential areas .

Neighboring communities are - clockwise - Offenbach an der Queich , Ottersheim near Landau , Knittelsheim , Herxheimweyher , Rülzheim , Hatzenbühl , Erlenbach near Kandel , Insheim and Landau in the Palatinate .

Waters

The central body of water on site is the Klingbach , which flows in a west-east direction . The Rottenbach, designed as a drainage ditch, begins in the middle of an industrial park in the southeast of the municipality . In the far east of the municipality on the border with Herxheimweyher, it takes up the Saugraben flowing a little further south from the right .

history

The Herxheim area was already settled in the Neolithic Age. To the west of Herxheim, the remains of an approximately 7,000 year old settlement were discovered with the Herxheim mine . Franconian settlers founded the place in the 6th century . Harieschaim was first mentioned in 773 in a document for the Weißenburg monastery , when a Sigibald transferred his property to the monastery. As part of the so-called “ Weissenburg Abbey Robbery” (985/991), the Salians wrested Herxheim and other possessions from the monastery. Under the Saliern, a church was built on the Kirchberg in 1004, of which the lower part of the bell tower has been preserved. In 1057 Herxheim came back into spiritual possession through a donation from the Salian emperor Heinrich IV , namely to the Speyer monastery . Herxheim stayed with this for around 600 years and was subordinate to the Lauterburg Oberamt .

After the Peace of Nijmegen in 1678/79, Herxheim and all the communities south of the Queich fell to France. From 1798, when the Palatinate was part of the French Republic (until 1804) and then part of the Napoleonic Empire , the municipality was incorporated into the canton of Landau in the department of the Lower Rhine . In 1814 the community had a total of 2,675 inhabitants. A year later the place belonged initially to Austria . In 1816, after the Congress of Vienna , the Palatinate became the eighth province of the Kingdom of Bavaria . Herxheim belonged from 1818 - still as part of the canton Landau to the Landau Landau commissioner ; from this the district office of Landau emerged in 1862 . While it was part of Bavaria, the school was inaugurated (1824), the first tobacco factory was founded (1879) and the Herxheim – Landau railway line opened (1898).

From 1939 the place was part of the Landau district in the Palatinate . After the Second World War , Herxheim became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate within the French occupation zone , which ended the Bavarian era. During the first Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform changed the place on 7 June 1969 in the newly created district Landau-Bad Bergzabern, in 1978 in South County Wine Trail is renamed . Three years later it became the seat of the also newly formed association of the same name . On March 17, 1974, the previously independent neighboring village of Hayna was incorporated.

religion

There was a synagogue on site from 1842 , which fell victim to the November pogroms in 1938 . The Jews living in Herxheim were buried in Rülzheim .

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council in Herxheim consists of 28 council members who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the municipal council:

choice	SPD	CDU	GREEN	FDP	FWG	Flat share	total	electoral participation
2019	3	9	3	1	6th	6th	28 seats	64%
2014	6th	13	3	-	6th	-	28 seats	56.82%
2009	7th	15th	-	-	6th	-	28 seats	59.0%
2004	5	15th	2	-	6 1	-	28 seats 2	62.6%
1999	4th	13	1	-	-	-	24 seats	68.2%

¹ Overall result of two groups of voters with 3 seats each

²Increase in the number of seats to 28 due to the increased number of residents (in accordance with the Rhineland-Palatinate municipal code )

mayor

The honorary local mayor is directly elected for a term of 5 years.

In the election on June 7, 2009, the non-party Franz-Ludwig Trauth was elected as the CDU candidate with 59.0 percent. Like his predecessor Elmar Weiller, he was mayor of both the Verbandsgemeinde and the local community of Herxheim. In the election on May 25, 2014, Trauth was confirmed as local mayor without an opposing candidate with 69.19 percent approval.

In the runoff election on June 16, 2019, the non-party Hedi Braun was elected as the new local mayor, after none of the original four applicants had achieved a sufficient majority in the direct election on May 26, 2019. On August 15, 2019, she was introduced to her office as local mayor. She has also been the mayor of the Herxheim community since 2015.

Youth parliament

In May 2000, Herxheim was the first local parish in the Südliche Weinstrasse district to introduce a youth parliament . It looks after the needs of young people from the local congregation and comprises twelve members who must be between 14 and 18 years of age to be elected. The election takes place every two and a half years by majority vote.

The youth parliament has, among other things, the possibility of organizing events. For example, panel discussions for young people on the occasion of federal or local elections.

coat of arms

Blazon : "In the shield divided by silver and blue, a heraldic lily with mixed up colors, top end accompanied by two golden stars." Approval : February 20, 1923, Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior , Munich

Foundation of the coat of arms: The beginnings of the Herxheim coat of arms go back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries. After the Peace of Nijmegen (1679) the area south of the Queich came under French rule . This also included the prince-bishop Speyer Oberamt Lauterburg , to which Herxheim belonged. Some rights remained to the prince-bishop . The French tried to win over the population. For his part, the prince-bishop tried to keep his subjects balanced by being more accommodating than before. That could have been a reason to give the Herxheim community a seal for the village court. With the inclusion of the lily in the new court seal, Herxheim's affiliation to the Speyer Monastery with its Mariendom and at the same time the lilies of the French Bourbons , whose most powerful representative Louis XIV. Was now the supreme lord over Herxheim, should have been remembered. The first depiction of the lily in Herxheim and thus visible to all took place in the corner post of the former parish hall at Untere Hauptstrasse 132, which was built in 1716. The first document in which the Herxheim court seal with the lily and seven stars or a seven-pearl crown appears above dates from 1733. The appearance of the Herxheim coat of arms, which is still valid today, came about in the early 1920s. After a long discussion, it was agreed that the lily should also be used in the new coat of arms. The main reason was the earlier affiliation to the Speyer monastery - the lily is the symbol of the Mother of God, the patroness of the cathedral monastery. With regard to the colors silver and blue used, the colors of the cathedral pen and those of the Holzapfel von Herxheim family, who previously lived here, were used as a guide. Based on the seal from 1733 with the seven-pearl crown, the lily was "adorned" with two gold stars.

Community partnerships

Partnerships are maintained with Ilfracombe in England and Saint-Apollinaire in France .

archeology

→ Main article : Herxheim mine  and bone needles from Herxheim

Skull from the Herxheimer finds. It is located in the museum of the Institute for Geosciences at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

In the period from 1996 to 1999, a settlement of the linear ceramic culture was excavated in the run-up to the western industrial area . The excavations continued in 2005 and 2006 due to unusual results. The investigations are ongoing. The settlement existed from the older band ceramics (Flomborn phase) to the youngest band ceramics, namely around 5300-5150 BC. Chr.

To the south of it a large number of pits were found that were so close together and repeatedly overlapped that at first the impression of two ditches running around the village was created. This trench system was later recognized as an earthwork . In the pits that can be assigned to the youngest section, there were a multitude of human bones, many of them broken, almost always detached from the anatomical association. The number of at least 450 skulls (if the excavation of the mine has not yet been completed) proves that many more people were buried in Herxheim than could have lived there during the most recent phase of the ceramic band. Numerous other finds were also found in the pits, such as pottery , flint or millstones, many of which were also deliberately destroyed.

The examination of the bones cleaned of lime sinter and the traces of cuts on them led Bruno Boulestin, an anthropologist from the University of Bordeaux , to the assumption that the bones found were remnants of cannibal meals. The incision marks indicate that the skin has been peeled off, tendons have been severed to sever limbs, and body parts have been systematically fleshed. The traces are comparable to those found on the bones of slaughtered animals. Analyzes of the collagen contained in the bones also clearly indicate that this has been heated by boiling and partially destroyed in the process. Likewise, scorch marks on some skulls are interpreted to mean that these skulls were damaged by briefly acting heat of fire. Because brand-typical discolorations could only be found on the front teeth, but not on the molars. The scientists involved in the study pointed out that traces of this kind always occur when a person's lips roll up from being burned and expose their front teeth, while the molars are usually better protected from the effects of fire by the thicker muscle flesh of the cheeks. A massacre could be ruled out due to the lack of combat injuries. So ritual sacrifices or killing of prisoners would be conceivable.

The archaeologist Andrea Zeeb-Lanz pointed out that there was no real proof of the cannibalism thesis, such as the detection of human myoglobin in feces. In addition, the number of deaths related to the duration of the settlement would mean that human flesh had been a staple food for the band ceramists for years. Examination of the isotopes strontium-86 and strontium-87 in the tooth enamel of 54 individuals showed that they came from granite-rich mountainous regions. So they were not band ceramists who only settled on loess-rich valley plains for agricultural reasons .

Attractions

Buildings

→ Main article : List of cultural monuments in Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz

• 

  St. Mary of the Assumption

• 

  Citizens' fountain in front of the Villa Wieser

• 

  museum

• 

  Landauer Chapel (also: Loretokapelle)

• Kirchberg with the Church of St. Maria Himmelfahrt and the War Memorial Chapel . In the center of the village, north of Untere Hauptstrasse, rises the Kirchberg with its church and war memorial chapel. The oldest preserved part of the church is the stump of the church tower from 1004. The reticulated choir (1507) and the upper tower floors (bell floor from 1585) are late Gothic, the nave was built in 1776/77. The war memorial chapel is located below the church . It is a single-storey, elongated building with classical elements such as a porch with a triangular gable. In 1831 the building was built as a guard and detention house. Until then, the town hall was in its place. In 1921 and 1922 the guard house was converted into a war memorial chapel.
• Villa Wieser . In 1856/57 Leonhard Peters had a neo-baroque palace built in the center of the village, opposite today's town hall. The Villa Wieser is a two-story house with a mansard hipped roof, turrets and a neo-Gothic extension. The property is flanked by two neo-classical porches (around 1850) facing Oberen Hauptstrasse. The village fountain designed by the sculptor Gernot Rumpf is located between the two .
• A total of eight chapels - including the Landau Chapel - form a chapel wreath around Herxheim.

Museums

The Herxheim Museum , which opened in November 2004, is located on site and contains the permanent exhibition “Stone Age in the Barn Cellar”, which in turn is dedicated to the ceramic band and its local finds.

Sports

The Waldstadion special sports facility is a multi-purpose facility for horse racing, motorcycle racing and football.

Herxheim is known nationwide for the motorcycle races that take place there. The Waldstadion offers a 1000 m sand track, on which, among other things, the so-called Father's Day race takes place every year on Ascension Day, in which the world's best long-track drivers usually take part. Several times (1984, 1990, 1996, 2001) the Waldstadion has already hosted the long track world championships in both the solo and the team class . The organizer of the races is the Motorsport Association Herxheim (MSVH), for which the multiple long track world champion Gerd Riss competed.

The soccer team of SV Viktoria Herxheim played for a few years in the Oberliga Südwest and took part in the DFB Cup in 1991/92 .

The Waldstadion offers a 1,100-meter-long grass runway for horse races and a 1,000-meter sand track for trotting races. Both lanes are left course. The racing and riding club Südliche Weinstrasse Herxheim also has a 900 m gallop training sand track and organizes horse races.

theatre

Herxheim is the seat of the Chawwerusch Theater .

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

Tobacco dry shed on Bruchweg

Herxheim is still strongly influenced by agriculture. Numerous, mostly wooden tobacco sheds have been preserved in the municipality . Tobacco cultivation was introduced in Herxheim around 1860. The older raised sheds are usually on the farm premises, while the newer flat sheds are usually on the outskirts or directly in the fields. On Bruchweg, several older sheds form the only shed road built on both sides. After the end of the subsidies for tobacco growing by the EU , this branch of industry, which for decades had shaped the townscape with its distinctive scales for drying tobacco, has come to a complete standstill. The cultivation of vegetables, including downstream sectors such as vegetable wholesaling and logistics, is strongly represented.

From the 1950s, the municipality was the location of Akkord-Radio until the company was taken over by other companies. It is also the headquarters of the Hetzler Busreisen bus company , the Electrical Heaters business unit of the Eberspächer Group. The Eberspächer catem GmbH & Co. KG is based in the industrial area West. In addition, there are two large furniture stores in Herxheim, Ehrmann-Gilb and Weber . The confectionery factory Eugen Trauth & Söhne has existed since 1911 . B. Chocolate kisses are mainly marketed in direct sales. In the Hayna district there is the Zur Krone restaurant , headed by chef Karl-Emil Kuntz , a gourmet restaurant with a Michelin star and 18 out of 20 possible Gault Millau points.

traffic

Herxheim is connected to the trunk road network via the Autobahn 65 . Coming from the north you can get there via junction no. 19 (Rohrbach), coming from the south via junction no. 20 (Kandel-Nord).

Herxheim is connected by bus lines to Landau (555), Kandel (554) and Rülzheim (555, 557). The bus routes are synchronized with the local train stations. A call taxi (line 5929) operates within the Herxheim community.

From 1898 to 1983 passenger trains ran on the railway line between Landau and Herxheim , reactivation and continuation to Rülzheim was examined by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2003, but was initially rejected. However, a route security agreement still exists.

education

The grammar school has existed in the PAMINA school center in Herxheim since 1995 .

Personalities

Honorary citizen

• Elmar Weiller (1939–2017), Former Mayor, from 2009
• Bernhard Bohne (* 1941), pastor i. R., from 2012

Sons and daughters of the church

• Johann Valentin Metz (1745–1829), Catholic priest and first cathedral provost and vicar general of the newly established diocese of Speyer in 1818
• Georg Adam Zotz (1753–1816), commander of the French artillery and knight of the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis
• August Knecht (1866–1932), Roman Catholic theologian
• Valentin Eichenlaub (1882–1958), trade unionist, administrative officer and politician (center)
• Johannes Finck (1888–1953), politician (center, CDU)
• Albert Finck (1895–1956), politician (center, CDU)
• Albert Detzel (1905–1969), politician (CDU), member of the state parliament and mayor of the Herxheim community from 1950 to 1968
• Max Seither (1914–2003), politician (SPD)
• Bertold K. Jochim (1921-2002), author
• Hugo Schultz (* 1933), author
• Manfred Zimmermann (* 1933), physiologist
• Joseph Krekeler (1935-2007), politician (CDU)
• Hans-Jürgen Kerner (* 1943), criminologist
• Willi Knecht (* 1947), Roman Catholic theologian
• Fritz Brechtel (* 1955), biologist and politician (CDU)
• Bernd Gauly (* 1963), German sitar player
• Jörg-Johannes Lechner (* 1966), philosopher and educational scientist
• Markus Eichenlaub (* 1970), organist
• Jochen Rieder (* 1970), conductor

People who worked on site

• Jakob Friedrich Bussereau (1863–1919), Catholic clergyman, founder of the order and founder of the St. Paulus Foundation in Herxheim
• Michael Bauer (* 1947), journalist and author, has lived in Herxheim since 1995
• Ferdinand Dudenhöffer (* 1951), German economist and university professor
• Rosi Eichenlaub (* 1958), soccer player, played for SV Viktoria Herxheim from 1987 to 1989
• Karl-Emil Kuntz (* 1958), cook, runs the Zur Krone restaurant in the Hayna district
• Gerd Riss (* 1965), multiple motorcycle world champion on the sand track (long track)
• Drangsal (* 1993), musician, grew up locally
• Monika Kleebauer , holder of the Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate

literature

• 1225 years of Herxheim: Forays into the history of the southern Palatinate large village . Heimatverein, Herxheim 1998, ISBN 3-9804888-1-0 .
• Andrea Zeeb-Lanz et al. a .: The ceramic band settlement with the “mine” in Herxheim near Landau (Palatinate), first results of the DFG project . In: Varia neolithica. Beier and Beran, Langenweissbach 2006. ISBN 3-937517-43-X
• Egon Ehmer: Hallway and street names of Herxheim and Hayna . Heimatverein, Herxheim 1996, ISBN 3-9804888-0-2 .

Web links

Commons : Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz  - collection of images

• Website of the local community Herxheim
• DFG project "Ceramic settlement with mine in Herxheim near Landau (Palatinate)"
• The mass graves of Herxheim. In: The time . Time knowledge. Hamburg 2005.2. ISSN  0044-2070
• Cult instead of massacre. - reassessment of the finds
• Internet presence of the youth parliament Herxheim
• Literature about Herxheim near Landau / Pfalz in the Rhineland-Palatinate state bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
3. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2019 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 161 (PDF; 3 MB).
4. ↑ Official municipality directory 2006 ( Memento from December 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (= State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 393 ). Bad Ems March 2006, p. 179 (PDF; 2.6 MB). Info: An up-to-date directory ( 2016 ) is available, but in the section "Territorial changes - Territorial administrative reform" it does not give any population figures.  
5. ↑ Local elections: Election results 2019: Local council elections Herxheim near Landau / Pf. The Regional Returning Officer of Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on November 9, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Local elections: Election results 2014: Local council elections Herxheim near Landau / Pf. The Regional Returning Officer of Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on June 9, 2014 . 
7. ↑ Local elections: Election results 2009: Local council elections Herxheim near Landau / Pf. The Regional Returning Officer of Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on June 9, 2014 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Local elections: Results of the council elections: Election results 2004: Local council elections: Herxheim bei Landau / Pf. The Regional Returning Officer of Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on June 9, 2014 . 
9. ↑ State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections, dates and results of direct elections, district administrators and mayors from 2009
10. ^ Election results for the mayor of Herxheim 2014, final result. Verbandsgemeinde Herxheim, accessed on June 9, 2014 . 
11. ↑ State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate - Local Elections 2019 - Individual Results. State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on December 23, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Hedi Braun wins runoff election in Herxheim. Pfalz-Express, June 19, 2019, accessed on April 18, 2020 . 
13. ^ Andreas Schlick: Herxheim: Political camps promise more respectful interaction in the municipal council. Constituent municipal council meeting. Die Rheinpfalz, August 17, 2019, accessed on April 18, 2020 . 
14. ↑ http://www.jupa-herxheim.de/8-news/32-bericht-wahlen-zum-7-jupa.html
15. ^ Karl Heinz Debus: The great book of arms of the Palatinate. Graves, Neustadt ad Weinstrasse 1988. ISBN 3-9801574-2-3 .
16. ↑ "The human butcher in Herxheim" Article by Angelika Franz in spiegel.de of December 7, 2009
17. ↑ "Mass cannibalism in the Linear Pottery Culture at Herxheim" - Free Online Library (English)
18. ^ "Ritual massacre - or cannibalism" - Article by Hans Holzhaider in SZ online from June 3, 2011
19. ↑ Nanette Buhl: A dream made of foam - The chocolate kiss legend from the Palatinate , SWR television , Made in Südwest on October 10, 2018
20. ↑ Drangsal said in an interview in April 2018: "My biggest day was when I saw that I was listed in the Herxheim Wikipedia article under 'People who worked on site'." (Source: https: // www .youtube.com / watch? v = WFUgatwDie0 from 7:44 min)