Kirchheim in Swabia

Basic data
State :	Bavaria
Administrative region :	Swabia
County :	Unterallgäu
Management Community :	Kirchheim in Swabia
Height :	581 m above sea level NHN
Area :	31.95 km 2
Residents:	2689 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	84 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	87757
Area code :	08266
License plate :	MN
Community key :	09 7 78 158
Market structure:	6 parts of the community
Association administration address:	VG Kirchheim i. Schw. ; Marktplatz 6 ; 87757 Kirchheim i. Schw.
Website :	www.kirchheim- ; schwaben.de
Mayoress :	Susanne Fischer
Location of the Kirchheim market in Swabia in the Unterallgäu district

Kirchheim in Schwaben (officially: Kirchheim i.Schw. ) Is a market in the Swabian district of Unterallgäu and the seat of the administrative association Kirchheim in Schwaben in Central Swabia . The place was strongly influenced by the Fuggers . In the past, the place was sometimes referred to as Kirchheim an der Mindel , Kirchheim an der Flossach , Kirchheim near Augsburg or, more recently, incorrectly as Kirchheim im Allgäu . To the north-east of the village lies the Augsburg-Western Forests Nature Park .

geography

location

Kirchheim is located about 38 km southwest of Augsburg , 80 km west of Munich , 30 km northeast of Memmingen and 43 km southeast of Ulm in the Donau-Iller region in Central Swabia on a ridge above the Mindeltal and the Flossach . There are numerous lakes in the valley. In the east the place is bordered by the communal forest, the Hagenbühl. The place is located in the geographical center of Bavarian Swabia.

and display information about the image

Panorama picture Kirchheim, viewed from the south

Expansion of the municipal area

The municipality consists of 5 districts and has 6 officially named municipality parts :

the main town Kirchheim i. Schw.
the parish village of Derndorf
the parish village of Hasberg
the church village of Spöck with the desert of Diepenhofen
the church village of Tiefenried

Fugger Castle in Kirchheim in Swabia

Historic town hall Kirchheim in Swabia

Market square with monument to John of Nepomuk

Former Dominican monastery below the church and castle

Market square with Gasthof Adler

Pharmacy on the market square

history

Early days

The history of Kirchheim begins as early as 8000 BC. BC, when the area was populated by non-sedentary hunters and gatherers in the Middle Stone Age ( Mesolithic ) . In the Bronze Age around 1800 BC, the first larger settlement with around 15 farms was founded. The settlement is also documented by finds during the time of the Roman Empire . Presumably two Roman roads ran through the Kirchheim area: a connection from the Via Julia to Türkheim and a Roman road from Kellmünz to Augsburg. Kirchheim was in the Roman province of Raetia (later Raetia secunda / Vindelica). After the imperial reform of Emperor Diocletian , Kirchheim belonged to the prefecture of Italy and within it to the diocese of Italia annonaria with the capital Milan. Around 500 AD, the Alamanni settled the place from the north and established the name Kirchheim (the home by the church). The establishment of the Alemannic settlement with the name is assumed between 550 and 650 AD. The origin of Derndorf is believed to be around 650 AD. Kirchheim in the Duriagau was in the Duchy of Alamannien / Swabia .

middle Ages

The name of the place 1067 as "Kirichain" is documented for the first time. In the early Middle Ages , Kirchheim was a royal property and between the 8th and 10th centuries it was given away by the king to the bishops of Augsburg , who held the manor until the secularization of 1802. These gave the rule of Kirchheim as a fief to the knights of Mindelberg. This was followed by the patricians Onsorg and in 1329 the Knights of Freyberg , who built a large castle complex. In 1343 Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian Friedrich von Freyberg granted high jurisdiction for Kirchheim, whereby Kirchheim became the direct imperial rule. In July 1372, Augsburg mercenaries Kirchheim and Derndorf burned down because of a dispute with knight Konrad von Freiberg over customs rights on the Lech Bridge between Augsburg and Friedberg. Kirchheim also suffered severe damage in the city war between 1387 and 1389 . In 1433 the knights of Schellenberg inherited Kirchheim and expanded the rule by buying Haselbach and Spöck. A large castle complex with an integrated church was built under the Freyberg .

Again by inheritance, the town came into the possession of the Knights of Hürnheim in 1484 , who increased the rule in 1490 with the purchase of Könghausen, Ellenried and Lutzenberg. The granting of market rights by Emperor Friedrich III. on May 5, 1490 spurred economic growth. Between 1480 and 1510 the new churches in Kirchheim, Derndorf and Mörgen were built . Hans Walther von Hürnheim buys Eppishausen with Aspach and Weiler in 1540 . After the exemption from all foreign courts by Emperor Charles V , a separate court order was issued for Kirchheim. In the German Peasants' War , Kirchheim was blackmailed into paying a large sum in order to avoid looting and pillage, while Ritter von Hürnheim fought against the uprisings in other places. The place and the castle were plundered on May 7, 1525, but not destroyed.

In 1544 Hans Walther von Hürnheim received due to his great services to the emperor and empire, a. a. As royal and imperial councilor, colonel of the mercenaries, imperial chamberlain and stewardess , personally awarded the coat of arms and seal for Kirchheim by Emperor Charles V.

Modern times

1551 the childless sold Hans Walther von Hürnheim the rule Kirchheim for 137,000 guilders to the Imperial Count Anton Fugger . The bishop of Augsburg, Cardinal Otto von Waldburg , as a feudal lord, received a bribe of approx. 21,000 guilders for approving the re-granting of the feud. In 1563 the water supply is secured with the construction of a hydropower pumping station on the Flossach . After Anton Fugger's death in 1560, Kirchheim was temporarily managed jointly by his three sons. In order to limit possible disputes, rule was passed to Hans Fugger (1531–1598) by means of “drawing lots” in 1575 . From 1578 to 1585, the Augsburg builders Jakob Eschay and Wendel Dietrich built a splendid Renaissance castle based on the model of the Escorial near Madrid instead of the castle complex and incorporating parts of the castle, which still defines the landscape today. Hans Fugger's son Markus (Marx) Fugger (1564–1614) founded the Dominican monastery in 1601 , which also made an outstanding contribution to the cultivation of church music and existed until the secularization of 1808. In 1626 a guild was founded. When trying to drain the swampy Mindeltal valley, the world's largest plow, pulled by 102 horses, was used in 1581. One of the huge plowshares has been preserved in the palace garden.

During the Thirty Years' War Swabia was occupied by the Swedes in 1632. At first, Kirchheim was able to avoid devastation through protective payments from the Fuggers. On January 3, 1633, Kirchheim was given away by the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna as spoils of war to General Count Georg Friedrich von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, who was in the Swedish service . The place was looted and the population tortured and murdered. The whole of Eppishausen was burned down. When there was nothing left to be had, the Swedes withdrew in 1635. In 1646 the Swedes and Bavarian, imperial and French troops again moved through the region and continued the war. All of them squeezed protection money and war costs from the population.

After some of the peasants refused to take the oath of homage to Count Joseph Hugo Fugger and this was supposed to be enforced, the "peasant shooting" occurred in 1785: three peasants were shot and six were fatally wounded in physical confrontations with the military.

19th century

Through Article 24 of the Rhine Confederation Act , Kirchheim loses its imperial immediacy and falls to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1806 and is incorporated into the Lechkreis , later into the district of Bavarian Swabia and Neuburg , and belonged to the Türkheim regional court , and from 1862 to the Mindelheim regional court . The rule of Kirchheim existed as a fiefdom until 1860.

The major fire of June 20, 1861 was a decisive event for the townscape. In a few hours, a third of the town (62 properties) burned down and made 255 people homeless. This catastrophe prompted the then common form of roofing with hollow tiles and lined straw ("straw docks" or "straw plumage"), which was responsible for the wide spread of the fire in addition to the unfavorable wind conditions and the wooden construction, throughout the kingdom. Just three days later, Kirchheim was hit hard by a hailstorm that destroyed most of the harvest. Because of the dire need, King Maximilian II Joseph approved a house collection and there were charity concerts as far as Nuremberg . In the following years the townscape was rearranged and all properties on Bahnhofstrasse, Schmiedberg and Haselbacherstrasse were rebuilt.

After the Fugger Kirchheim line died out, the Fugger von Glött line followed in 1878 with Count Ernst Fugger von Glött, who made Kirchheim their ancestral home.

20th and 21st centuries

At the end of the Second World War , various aerial battles and numerous troop movements took place in the region. The prudent action of those responsible resulted in only minor destruction and fighting. An SS prisoner who was accused of devastating military strength was freed from the population. American tanks of the 7th US Army moved into the town on April 27, 1945. The units of the Wehrmacht remaining in the woods behind Kirchheim and Eppishausen were imprisoned and led through Kirchheim to the camp in Thannhausen. The place had to mourn 83 dead and missing people due to the war.

In the first German Bundestag in 1949, Kirchheim had two MPs. One of them, Joseph Ernst Fugger von Glött , was one of the supporters of the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, later active in the formulation of the Basic Law as a co-founder and member of the CSU in the Bundestag and in the Bavarian state parliament . He established the decades-long tradition of meeting the regional group of CSU members in the German Bundestag in Kirchheim Castle (since 1951) as a forerunner of the later closed- door meetings in Wildbad Kreuth and Banz Monastery . The decisions made here and known as the “Kirchheim Resolutions” were decisive for Bavarian and German politics. Since then, Franz Josef Strauss has often been a long-time guest in the town.

Under Joseph Ernst Fugger von Glött , the cedar hall was opened to the public for cultural events. Princess Angela Fugger von Glött is continuing this with the organization of concerts and exhibitions of national importance.

As a result of the regional reform in Bavaria , Kirchheim came from the Mindelheim district to the newly formed Unterallgäu district in 1972 . On May 1, 1978, the previously independent communities of Derndorf, Hasberg, Spöck and Tiefenried were incorporated. As a result, the Kirchheim administrative community in Swabia was created together with Eppishausen .

On September 13, 1995, there was an accident in which a phantom fighter of Jagdgeschwader 74 from Neuburg / Donau crashed between Kirchheim and Haselbach and rammed itself into a field. Both inmates were killed.

The Pfaffenhausen – Kirchheim railway line has been replaced by a convenient state road that keeps the place free from through traffic. Through the settlement of several companies, the integration into the strong, regional medium-sized economic area, the rich cultural heritage and the diverse nature, the place has become an attractive place to live in the middle of Swabia.

Population development


Population of the Kirchheim market, 1840–2017
year	1840	1871	1900	1925	1939	1950	1961	1970	1987	1991	1995	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Residents	1834	1802	1939	2256	2149	3274	2425	2376	2403	2557	2637	2571	2567	2544	2517	2505	2480	2483	2489	2444	2548	2545	2568	2611	2597	2586	2574	2647

Between 1988 and 2018 the market grew from 2,393 to 2,647 by 254 inhabitants or by 10.6%.

politics

Bundestag election 2017

%

70

60

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

46.9%

10.8%

18.1%

9.6%

4.8%

3%

3.7%

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2013

% p

14th

12

10

8th

6th

4th

2

0

-2

-4

-6

-8th

-10

-12

-14

-16

-18

-20

-19.2 % p

+1.2 % p

+ 13.4 % p

+ 4.5 % p

+ 0.8 % p

+ 0.6 % p

+ 0.9 % p

-2.3 % p

Otherwise.

City council and mayor

Susanne Fischer has been the mayor since May 1, 2020; on March 15, 2020, she prevailed in the first ballot against two competitors with 61.4% of the vote. Her predecessor was Hermann Lochbronner from May 2002 to April 2020; he did not run for re-election.

Based on the election on March 15, 2020, the distribution of seats in the municipal council is as follows:

Non-partisan voter association Kirchheim: 7 seats
Free voter association Derndorf-Tiefenried-Spöck: 4 seats
Free civil electoral association Hasberg: 3 seats.

There are two women among the elected officials.

In the term of office from 2014 to 2020, only the nomination of the Independent Electoral List, which provided all 14 market councils, was available.

Community budget

Kirchheim has been debt-free since 2009, making it one of the few municipalities in Germany without debt.

coat of arms

Emperor Charles V himself awarded the coat of arms on May 28, 1544 during the Diet of Speyer .

Blazon : "A shield divided in red and gold, an armored, bareheaded and bearded silver man, his right hand raised, his left hand on the black hilt of the sword."

The coat of arms shows the former local lord Hans Walther von Hürnheim as a knight , field captain, colonel of the mercenaries , imperial councilor and chief executive . Although the historical coat of arms of Markt Kirchheim is described and handed down in a particularly clear manner by means of a coat of arms and coat of arms image from 1544, the knight was incorrectly depicted with raised fingers in his right hand in the previous century and until around 1960.

The original coat of arms from 1544 is in the Fugger archive in Dillingen an der Donau .

flag

The flag has red and yellow stripes with an applied coat of arms.

Partnerships

A town partnership has existed with the French community of Renazé in the Mayenne department since 1997, funded by the Franco-German Freundeskreis e. V.

As part of the sponsorship with the Bundeswehr, which has existed since 1984, a sponsorship was concluded in 2007 with the 6th company of the logistics battalion 471 from Dornstadt.

Culture and sights

Attractions

Fugger Castle from the garden

Tower of St. Peter and Paul

Castle and parish church of St. Peter and Paul

Assumption of Mary by Rubens in the parish church of Kirchheim in Swabia

High grave of Hans Fugger

Coffered ceiling in the cedar hall

Portal in the cedar hall

Schmiedberg 3

Bahnhofstrasse 4

The Fugger Castle is particularly well-known , especially because of the world-famous cedar hall with its coffered ceiling created by Wendel Dietrich , the most beautiful German carving of the Renaissance , which also has unsurpassed acoustics . The cedar wood was specially imported from Lebanon and is supplemented by over ten other types of wood. The hall is equipped with a fireplace set with sculptures, ornate portals, paintings and twelve larger than life sculptures made of terracotta , created by Carlo Pallago and Hubert Gerhard . The hall is entered through the Tuscan portico through the main portal. The castle is the ancestral seat of the line of the Fugger von Glött princes . There is a large park in front of the castle.

The painting Maria Himmelfahrt by Peter Paul Rubens is on the south side altar in the palace and parish church of St. Peter and Paul . The painting “The Holy Family” is by Domenico Zampieri, known as Domenichino . Alessandro Scalzi, called Paduano , who also furnished the antiquarium of the Munich residence , created, among other things, the high altar painting with the princes of the apostles Peter and Paul in front of the Mother of God. The church also houses the high grave of Hans Fugger by Hubert Gerhard and the court sculptor Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, Alexander Colin , which is considered an outstanding work of sculpture and one of the most beautiful sculptures of the Renaissance in southern Germany. The bones of St. Innocentius are also buried in the church.

Also worth seeing in Kirchheim is the local history museum with its collections on prehistory and early history, art, folklore, local history and handicrafts. The museum is housed in the historic town hall building with a distinctive baroque tail gable and turret. There is a statue of St. Johannes Nepomuk from 1740. Further sights are the English Greeting Chapel, the former St. Leonhard cemetery chapel with Leonhardspark and the preserved half-timbered house in Haselbacherstraße.

theatre

There is a local theater association called "Harmonie".

Kirchheimer Heimatlied

Mighty towers in Schwaben's Gauen up to the height, to the sky blue, over the
valley, on the Mindelstrande, a proud building of a castle.
His pinnacles greet the world in a friendly way, along the valley.
It's Kirchheim, the dear home, you sing at the price.

Around the Fugger Castle walls close like a bouquet of flowers,
jewelry, sedate to look at, peaceably, many town houses,
white gables, bare windows and many little gardens lovely, daring,
happy nests, happy people, our look in Kirchheim looks.

In the circle
around the forest and meadows and the field are in the best of the valley and on the hills everywhere.
Green crops, full barns, ensure that prosperity blooms,
Even the craft still pulls golden fruits from golden soil!

Kirchheim, old Swabian
settlement , stay the place of good manners, stay the residence of honest people, loyal in deeds and in word!
Remain abode of brave women and of men simply and properly,
And so flourish in the castle and market, Kirchheim, you and your family!

Heil you, Kirchheim, hometown, in the expensive Swabia!
Salvation! the Mindeltal Krone, market and castle on the edge of the hill!
Eternal loyalty, I swear to you, I am and will always remain yours:
May you be blessed with God at all times, Kirchheim!

The Kirchheimer Heimatlied was written by domain councilor Carl Ibscher and main teacher Bernhard Mittermeier. Its world premiere took place on December 26th, 1908 in the Zedernsaal in the Fugger Castle in Kirchheim . It is arranged to the tune of the Bavarian anthem .

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

Angelus Dreher (1741–1809), composer and Dominican
Carl Ernst Prince Fugger von Glött (1859–1940), President of the Imperial Councils of the Crown of Bavaria, Crown Marshal, honorary citizen
Joseph-Ernst Fürst Fugger von Glött (1895–1981), co-conspirator in the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , co-founder of the CSU in Mindelheim , member of the Bundestag and the Bavarian state parliament, member of the Council of Europe, deputy chairman of the CSU state parliamentary group, district council in Mindelheim, chairman of the Swabian university board of trustees, honorary citizen
Anna Countess Fugger von Glött (1893–1962), artist, benefactress, second federal chairwoman and diocesan director of the Pontifical Missionary Organization of Catholic Women in Germany, holder of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
Hans Walther von Hürnheim (* around 1500, † September 16, 1557), knight, royal and imperial councilor, Truchseß, chamberlain, colonel of the mercenaries, chief forester of the margraviate of Burgau, ducal Bavarian keeper in Aichach; White marble funerary monument of Annibale Caccavello in San Giovanni degli Spagnuoli in Naples; Depiction of the deceased standing on a lion in full armor with a general's staff with an inscription cartouche
Johannes Fugger (1591–1638), merchant and secret councilor of the city of Augsburg
Johann Eusebius Fugger (1617–1672), Count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, as well as Imperial Chamberlain and President of the Imperial Court of Speyer
Karl Graf (1920–2007), former district administrator of the Krumbach district (Swabia) , honorary citizen of Hasberg

Gred Ibscher (1906–1996), classical philologist and historian of philosophy

Johann Pankraz Kober (1796–1832), painter, worked on furnishing numerous churches in Central Swabia, including Erpfting, Hiltenfingen and Westerringen; Father of Joseph Kober
Joseph Kober (1823–1884), academic painter, one of the most important Swabian church painters of the Nazarenes
Johann Jakob Kollmann (1714–1778), city physician in Deggendorf, member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
Manfred Lochbrunner (* 1945), theologian and dogmatist
Aemilian Rosengart (1757–1810), composer and Benedictine
Johann Schuster (1912–1975), politician ( WAV , DP )
Marquard Schwegler , carver of sacred art of the 18th century
Gregor Thomas Ziegler (1770–1852), Bishop of Tyniec and Linz and Benedictine, court preacher of St. Stefan in Vienna, inventor of pastoral letters and popular missions

Other people and honorary citizens

Former mayor Hermann Fischer (1923–2016), 1972 to 1990 first mayor, honorary citizen
Moritz Hörberg (1912–1994), clergyman and pastor of Kirchheim, honorary citizen
Ernst Striebel senior, historical researcher and book author, honorary citizen
Rudolf Wanzl (1924–2011), entrepreneur and founder of the Wanzl metal goods factory , honorary citizen

Albert Graf Fugger von Glött (* 1932), local politician, honorary citizen

Economy and Infrastructure

Established businesses

The company Wanzl GmbH operates since 1960 in Kirchheim a work and is the largest employer of the market with more than 600 employees. The production facility has been greatly expanded in recent years and is the company's second largest location. Among other things, luggage trolleys are produced in the plant, which the world market leader sends from here to airports and train stations around the world.
Franz Wolf GmbH is an international company that manufactures technical precision parts using injection molding on the former site of the transmitter .
Max Holzheu Bauunternehmen GmbH and Holzheu Holzbau GmbH are large, supraregional construction companies.
Schneider Kunststofftechnik GmbH specializes in plastics processing in the area of injection molding and sells its products worldwide
With the Princely Fugger v. Glött'schem Elektrizitätswerk Kirchheim has its own power plant with an attached installation company.

Transport links

Kirchheim is located on State Road 2037 and State Road 2025 Thannhausen - Kirchheim - Türkheim .

Via the St 2037 and the B 16 there is a connection to the federal autobahn A 96 / E 54 Lindau - Memmingen - Landsberg am Lech - Munich near Mindelheim , via the St 2025 to the federal autobahn A 8 / E 52 Stuttgart - Ulm - Augsburg - Munich bei Jettingen-Scheppach and in Memmingen to the A 7 federal motorway . There is a rail connection in Pfaffenhausen and Mindelheim. Local public transport in Kirchheim and the surrounding area is handled by the Verkehrsverbund Mittelschwaben (VVM).

The international airport Memmingen (FMM) is 27 km away, the airport Augsburg (AGB) 43 km.

Education and children

Kirchheim is a regional school supplier with elementary school, middle school and adult education center. There are also two kindergartens in Kirchheim and Derndorf.

Local supply

Kirchheim has a very good local supply. So there are u. a. several grocers, butchers and bakeries right in town.

Transmitter

From 1950 to 1969, the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation in Kirchheim in Swabia operated a medium-wave transmitter that broadcast the Bavarian radio program at night on the medium-wave frequency 1602 kHz with 20 kW transmission power.

Railway line

From 1909 to 1966 there was a direct rail connection from Kirchheim to Pfaffenhausen to connect to the Mittelschwabenbahn . State road 2037 runs from Pfaffenhausen to Kirchheim on the route of the former railway line .

literature

Anton Wiedemann: History of the Kirchheim market with views of the surroundings , Kirchheimer Landbote 1931.
Aegidius Kolb: Unterallgäu district. MZ-Verlagsdruckerei, Memmingen 1987.
Ernst Striebel, Helmut Striebel: History of the Kirchheim market and its districts , Pröll Printing and Publishing, Augsburg 1990.
Ernst jun. and Helmut Striebel: Hans Walther von Hürnheim - Kirchheim coat of arms and Swabian Landsknechtsführer. MZ-Verlagsdruckerei GmbH, Memmingen 1994.
ID Angela Fürstin Fugger von Glött: Schloss Kirchheim. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg 1998.
Jessica and Ernst Striebel: Kirchheim from the Middle Ages to today. Publisher Hans Kögel, Mindelheim 2014.