Hornbach

Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Southwest Palatinate
Association municipality :	Zweibrücken-Land
Height :	233 m above sea level NHN
Area :	13.32 km 2
Residents:	1430 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	107 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	66500
Area code :	06338
License plate :	PS , ZW
Community key :	07 3 40 211
LOCODE :	DE 84H
Association administration address:	Landauer Strasse 18-20 ; 66482 Zweibrücken
Website :	www.klosterstadt-hornbach.de
City Mayor :	Reinhold Hohn ( FDP )
Location of the city of Hornbach in the district of Südwestpfalz

Hornbach seen from the war memorial, which is located on the northern outskirts of the city. In the right half of the picture the Protestant town church and parts of the former Benedictine monastery . The former collegiate church St. Fabian and the town hall can be seen on the left below the center of the picture. On the far left of the picture is the Catholic parish church of St. Pirminius .

Hornbach is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate and the westernmost municipality in the district of Südwestpfalz . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Zweibrücken-Land , within which it is the second largest in terms of area and the third largest in terms of population. It is also the smallest municipality in the district that has city rights. It gained national fame as the location of the monastery of the same name , which acted as its nucleus. Hornbach is a border town with France .

geography

Hornbach is located directly on the German-French border or to the east of the Saarland border in the extreme southwest of the southern part of Rhineland-Palatinate and forms the western end of the district of Südwestpfalz. There the city is located in Westrich in the Zweibrücker hill country south of Zweibrücken . It is traversed by the Hornbach , which rises near Bitsch and flows to Zweibrücken.

Hornbach also include residential places Bickenaschbacherhof , Eichenhof, Good Nevertheless, Ringweilerhof, Stuppacherhof and Unterbeiwalderhof . Neighboring communities are - clockwise - Althornbach , Mauschbach , Rolbing , Schweyen , Blieskastel and Zweibrücken.

history

In Hornbach ( Gamundias , 'confluence'), the Hornbach monastery was founded around 741 by St. Pirminius , who died here . The monastery was founded by Count Warnharius from the Widonen family . Hornbach im Bliesgau belonged to the diocese of Metz. Pirmin was buried in the monastery and venerated there as a saint. Abbot Wyrund had a new monastery church built in the 9th century. This received an apse in the west as in the east . The saint's grave came to lie in the east apse and Pirmin is named from 827 as the patron saint of the monastery alongside Peter. In the eleventh century a monumental hall church with a west building was built, which was renovated in the twelfth century. The preserved ruins still bear witness to the importance this monastery had in the Middle Ages.

Hornbach Monastery, which was donated to the Bishop of Speyer by Emperor Heinrich IV in 1087 , had a far-reaching influence until the 14th century and provided important impetus for development in Upper Lorraine . Numerous village and farm foundations go back to this monastery. Emperor Heinrich V granted the monastery the right to mint , which was exercised until around 1230. The decline of the monastery had already begun, not least due to the fact that it came under the influence of the Counts of Zweibrücken . On April 16, 1352, King Charles IV freed Count Walram II of the two cities of Zweibrücken and Hornbach according to Hagenau law.

The evangelical pastor of Hornbach was the famous botanist Hieronymus Bock from around 1538 , who had already received a benefice at Fabiansstift in 1533 in the course of the introduction of the Reformation and worked in the city until his death in 1554. The monastery, in which only three monks lived in 1548, was finally closed in the course of the Reformation in 1557. The monastery assets, the current income and the monastery buildings were used to set up a princely state school, which was responsible for the training of the next generation of pastors and higher officials required in Pfalz-Zweibrücken or was supposed to prepare them for studying at a university . In 1631 the school was relocated to Zweibrücken and was later given the name of its founder, Herzog-Wolfgang-Gymnasium .

In the Second World War, the city was exposed to destruction due to its membership in the Red Zone . After the Second World War , Hornbach became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate within the French occupation zone . In the course of the first administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate , the district of Zweibrücken was dissolved in 1972; At the same time, the community also moved to the district of Pirmasens, which was renamed in 1997 to "District of Southwest Palatinate" . In the same year the city was in the newly formed Zweibrücken-Land integrated

politics

City council

The city council in Hornbach consists of 16 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary city mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the city council:

choice	SPD	CDU	FDP	GREEN	The party	total
2019	5	2	6th	1	2	16 seats
2014	7th	2	7th	-	-	16 seats
2009	6th	2	8th	-	-	16 seats
2004	6th	3	7th	-	-	16 seats

mayor

Reinhold Hohn (FDP) became mayor of Hornbach in 1994. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office for another five years with a share of 81.92% of the vote.

coat of arms

	Blazon : “A saint growing in silver in natural colors with a gold-trimmed red miter set with two cross-shaped blue stones, a silver alb and a red choir cloak with a blue-red clasp, in the right a gold-studded, silver book with clasp, in the left oneholdingleft-facing golden abbot's staff. "
	Justification for the coat of arms: The saint represents the founder of the monastery, Pirminius .

Culture and sights

Cultural monuments

Upper town monument zone with monastery district from a bird's eye view

Fabianstift Hornbach, partial picture

The upper town with the monastery district is designated as a monument zone .

The remains of the Benedictine monastery still exist today and have been extensively restored in recent years. Today the "Hotel Kloster Hornbach" is housed there. There is also a Historama, a museum with a multimedia tour, in the buildings of the former monastery. The Fabianstift was rebuilt in the 1990s. Today it is mainly used for weddings, lectures and concerts.

The Protestant town church of Hornbach is a baroque sacred building by Friedrich Gerhard Wahl . It was built in 1785 next to the abbey church, which was demolished in the same year. A spacious hall building with 525 seats was created. The 42 meter high west tower was added in 1844. Due to its dominant location in the city, the city church is visible from a great distance.

The Catholic Church of St. Pirminius , built between 1927 and 1930, is a typical country church building by Albert Boßlet .

nature

There are a total of two natural monuments on site .

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

rail

The station Hornbach was due to the 1913 opened Hornbach train which of two bridges until after Brenschelbach ran. Passenger traffic was discontinued in 1967, freight traffic followed four years later.

Street

The federal road 424 and state road 478 lead through Hornbach, which begins in the west at the state border with Saarland and runs to the German-French border at Sankt Germanshof .

Institutions

While it was part of France, the place was the seat of a peace court , which was subordinate to the Tribunal of First Instance Zweibrücken .

tourism

The Gimpelwaldhütte is located within the city limits .

Hornbach is the end point of the northern and southern branches of the historic Palatinate Way of St. James . The city is also on the European Mill Cycle Path , which leads through the valleys of the Hornbach , the Schwalb and the Bickenalb . It is also the western end point of the Hornbach-Fleckenstein-Radweg , which leads to Bundenthal , and the Pirminius-Radweg , which runs to Wilgartswiesen

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Georg Zeämann (1580–1638), pastor, professor theologian, reformer and Protestant hymn poet
Edgar Schmued (1899–1985), German-American aircraft designer

People who worked on site

Pirminius (~ 670–753), founder of a monastery, abbot and saint
Hieronymus Bock (1498–1554), botanist, doctor and Lutheran preacher, Protestant pastor in Hornbach.
Marcus Gualtherus (~ 1580– ~ 1642), rector in Kampen, attended a local grammar school from 1596
Johann Nikolaus Götz (1721–1781), clergyman, writer and translator, Protestant pastor in Hornbach
Daniel Seel (* 1970), pianist, composer and Protestant pastor in Hornbach
Ljiljana Winkler (* 1981), Bosnian opera singer, appeared in 2009 as part of the “Euroklassik” festival in Hornbach
Martin Horn (* 1984), politician (independent), grew up in Hornbach