Lion's Arch

Basic data
State :	Baden-Württemberg
Administrative region :	Stuttgart
County :	Heilbronn
Height :	385 m above sea level NHN
Area :	23.46 km 2
Residents:	3394 (Dec. 31, 2018)
Population density :	145 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes :	74245, 71543
Area code :	07130
License plate :	HN
Community key :	08 1 25 059
LOCODE :	DE 79K
City structure:	Core city and 6 districts
; City administration address :	Maybachstrasse 32 ; 74245, 71543 Löwenstein
Website :	www.stadt-loewenstein.de
Mayor :	Klaus Schifferer
Location of the city of Löwenstein in the Heilbronn district

Löwenstein is a town 20 km southeast of Heilbronn in the Heilbronn district in Baden-Württemberg . It belongs to the Heilbronn-Franken region . The city is classified as a state-approved resort .

geography

Geographical location

The city is located in the natural area of the Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains above the Sulmtal on the edge of the Löwenstein Mountains named after it at an altitude of 220 to 549 meters. The Breitenau lake , which was artificially created in the 1970s, is located partly on the municipal area .

geology

This one very distinctive stepped relief of the Keuper - Escarpment on the northwestern edge of the Swabian-Franconian Forest mountains reflected in the settlement historical layout of the city. The nucleus of the settlement is the end of the 11th century at 427 m above sea level. NN in cramped flat promontory on Stubensandstein built castle Lowenstein . The underlying pebble sandstone terrace at 385 m above sea level. NN was almost completely built over with the core city from the 13th century at the latest. After the Second World War, new development areas could only be built on the reed sandstone ( Teusserbad and New Gardens ) at about 260-300 m above sea level. NN or on the Stuben sandstone plateau near the district of Hirrweiler. The Beckershof and Breitenauer Hof farmsteads, which date from the Middle Ages, are located below the striking Oberkeuperstufe on both sides of the Sulm-Mulde on two hills of the Gypsum Keuper, which is intensively used for viticulture and fruit growing . On top of the hills are the remains of old rubble covers.

The town of Löwenstein is the namesake of the geological Löwenstein Formation, which is known by its original name Stubensandstein . The sand was quarried earlier, which resulted in two small caves in the Löwenstein district, the Hofacker cave and the Lumpenloch cave .

and display information about the image

The rag hole cave

Neighboring communities

Neighboring cities and communities in Löwenstein are ( clockwise , starting in the south): Oberstenfeld (Prevorst district, Ludwigsburg district ), the city of Beilstein , the city of Lauffen am Neckar (exclave of the Etzlensendung forest), Untergruppenbach , Lehrensteinsfeld , Obersulm , Bretzfeld ( Hohenlohekreis ) and Desert red . Except for Oberstenfeld and Bretzfeld, they all belong to the Heilbronn district. Löwenstein has entered into an agreed administrative partnership with Obersulm .

City structure

Löwenstein is divided into the core town of Löwenstein and the incorporated district of Hößlinsülz . Lowenstein themselves are still the hamlet Altenhau, Hirrweiler, light Stern (former monastery and today's Protestant Foundation Lichtenstern) Reisach and Rittelhof, the courtyards Beckershof and width Hof and residential places Bach Häusle, Frankenhof, Gerber Häusle, monastery mill, media mill, Obermühle, Sanatorium Lowenstein, Seemühle, Teusserbad , Weingarthaus and Ziegelhütte. The summit of the 538.9 m high Stocksberg with the Stocksberg hunting lodge also belongs to Löwenstein as the Stocksberg residential area, but not the hamlet of the same name on the north and east slopes, which belongs to the neighboring town of Beilstein. Lost places on the Löwenstein mark that no longer exist today are Schlagweiler and Spelach.

Division of space

According to data from the State Statistical Office , as of 2014.

history

Löwenstein and the surrounding area, around 1755

Löwenstein from the north, by G. Ebner, around 1820

Lion's Arch from the east

Until the 18th century

Around 1090, Löwenstein Castle was built by the Counts of Calw as an administrative center on the salt trade route from Heilbronn to Hall . A sideline of the Counts of Calw that was seated in the castle was called Counts of Löwenstein and was first mentioned in a document in 1123. The name Löwenstein goes back to the coat of arms of the Counts of Calw, which shows a lion standing on a mountain of three. After the main line of Calw died out, Count Gottfried von Löwenstein, who also had no male descendants, sold the County of Löwenstein with its castle and town of Löwenstein to the Diocese of Würzburg in 1277 . The latter sold the property to King Rudolf von Habsburg in 1281 , who enfeoffed his first son Albrecht von Schenkenberg and raised the town to the status of town on November 11, 1287 with the granting of the rights of the town of Weinsberg .

Albrecht von Schenkenberg founded a second, Habsburg County Löwenstein, which was founded around 1300 a. a. Due to its location on the old trade route and as a border town to the southern Württemberg, it was still an important power factor in southwest Germany, but lost its importance after Albrecht's death in 1304 and experienced an economic decline around 1375. In 1382 half of the county was pledged to the Electoral Palatinate , and in 1441 the entire county was finally sold to the Electoral Palatinate. Count Ludwig I von Löwenstein , a son of Elector Friedrich the Victorious , then founded the third, Wittelsbach-Electoral Palatinate dynasty of the Counts of Löwenstein. In 1504 Löwenstein was conquered by Duke Ulrich von Württemberg in the Landshut War of Succession . The Counts of Löwenstein received the county back in 1510 as a Württemberg fief. In addition, through marriage, they also acquired ownership of the Grafschaft Wertheim , where they later moved and have since called themselves Löwenstein-Wertheim .

During the Thirty Years' War , Löwenstein also suffered greatly from the passage of troops, looting and epidemics. Particular times of emergency were after the Battle of Nördlingen in September 1634, when troops that were defeated in the battle streamed through the town. In the following year, 314 people died of the plague in Löwenstein . Many goods lay idle for decades. The burden of war in the late 17th century prevented the eradication of poverty. In the 18th century, attempts were made to counteract poverty in Löwenstein through various efforts such as the revitalization of the Teusserbad spa , the improvement of viticulture, the settlement of shopkeepers, the expansion of the road from Heilbronn to Hall zur Chaussee and the establishment of a cattle market (1790) , but it was not until the early 19th century that living conditions improved.

19th and 20th centuries

In 1806 the city was incorporated into the Kingdom of Württemberg through the mediation of the county of the same name Löwenstein . Initially, Löwenstein was assigned to the Oberamt Backnang , from 1810 to the Oberamt Weinsberg , where the city remained until its dissolution in 1926. After the dissolution, the city was assigned to the Oberamt Heilbronn (from 1938 after the administrative reform during the Nazi era in Württemberg to the district of Heilbronn ). During the Second World War , Löwenstein was hit by three Allied air raids on April 14, 1945, the first at around 1 p.m., because there were still German anti-aircraft guns there. A total of 95 of 130 buildings, including the historic Löwenstein Castle, were destroyed, nine people were killed and 170 families were left homeless. The two nearby Hofacker caves and Lumpenloch caves served as air raid bunkers and emergency accommodation. Three days later, Americans occupied the completely destroyed city and forced boys to run on anti-tank traps to test a mine that was not available in Löwenstein. Many homeless people were initially accommodated in Lichtenstern or in the other houses.

In 1939 there were 1257 inhabitants, at the end of 1945 there were 1425. After the end of the war, the town was rebuilt.

Since Löwenstein had become part of the American zone of occupation , the city had belonged to the newly founded state of Württemberg-Baden since 1945 , which was merged into the present state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

Religions

In today's Löwensteiner area there used to be the Cistercian - Kloster Lichtenstern that during the Reformation was abolished 1535th Subsequently, a monastery superior office was set up, which administered the former properties of the monastery and existed until 1807. After the office was dissolved and the facilities began to fall into disrepair, a child rescue facility was established in 1835, which was elevated to a Royal Foundation in 1865. Today the foundation maintains facilities in Löwenstein, Obersulm , Heilbronn and Eppingen .

Today's Protestant parish in Löwenstein belongs to the Weinsberg-Neuenstadt church district of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg . The Roman Catholic parish in (Obersulm-) Affaltrach is responsible for the Catholic Christians .

Protestant conference center

The Evangelical Conference Center Löwenstein (ETL), one of the oldest church conference centers in Germany, is also located in Löwenstein. It was inaugurated on July 4, 1971. The association of the church districts Besigheim , Brackenheim , Heilbronn , Marbach and Weinsberg-Neuenstadt is responsible for the conference site . The ETL organizes meditative, creative, theological, lifelong and socio-political conferences and seminars. It is equally available to all organizers from church, business and administration.

Incorporations

On January 1, 1971, the voluntary incorporation of Hößlinsülz took place .

Town hall with market fountain

politics

Municipal council

The community council in Löwenstein has 12 members. The local elections on May 25, 2014 led to the following official final result. The turnout was 54.1% (2009: 56.0%). The municipal council consists of the elected voluntary councilors and the mayor as chairman. The mayor is entitled to vote in the municipal council.

Free voters Löwenstein	4 seats	35.5%
Pro Löwenstein	4 seats	32.4%
Independent citizens	4 seats	32.1%

mayor

Löwenstein's mayor is Klaus Schifferer. He ran for the first time in the Löwenstein mayoral election in 2000 and prevailed against the incumbent mayor Birgit Kriegel. On February 17, 2008, he was re-elected for a second term. In March 2016, Schifferer was confirmed for a third term with 69.8% of the vote.

badges and flags

Löwenstein's coat of arms

The blazon of the Löwenstein coat of arms reads: In a divided shield above, awakened by silver and blue, below in gold on a blue three-mountain a standing red lion. The city colors are blue and white.

The Löwenstein coat of arms is proven on the first known seal of the city from 1498 and also on all later ones. The lion standing on the Dreiberg is the coat of arms of the Counts of Calw , one of whom was called von Löwenstein. In the Löwenstein city coat of arms, the lion, in contrast to the count's coat of arms, is uncrowned. The silver and blue diamonds are the same as in the Bavarian coat of arms and go back to Ludwig von Pfalz-Bayern from the House of Wittelsbach , son of Elector Frederick the Victorious of the Palatinate. Ludwig was recognized as Count of Löwenstein by the Roman-German King and later Emperor Maximilian I in 1494 and founded the third tribe of the Counts of Löwenstein . He was given the right to continue the old Löwenstein coat of arms in addition to his ancestral coat of arms. The Löwenstein city coat of arms, which combines these two coats of arms, cannot have been created before 1494; its creation can be dated to the period from 1494 to 1498.

Partner municipality

The partner community of Löwenstein is the Austrian Traboch in Styria . The friendly relationships that the music associations in both places had maintained since the summer of 1966 led to the town twinning, which was sealed on July 10, 1982 in Traboch.

Culture and sights

Löwenstein is a well-known wine town in the Württemberg growing region and is located on the Württemberg Wine Route , which leads past many sights.

Museums

The listed Freihaus from the 14th century houses the Manfred Kyber Museum.

Buildings

Tower of Löwenstein Castle

The Castle Lowenstein was in 1100 by the Counts of Calw built -Löwenstein and left to decay since the 16th century. Mainly the accessible stair tower (14th century), restored in 1970, and the gatehouse (15th century), which was largely preserved in 1972, are still preserved.

The town church (mentioned for the first time in 1345) was renovated in the baroque style from 1760 to 1763 as a five-aisled nave with a curved west facade and a tower on the east side with an eight-sided upper floor, onion roof and lantern . After it was destroyed in the war, the church was rebuilt from 1946 to 1953 under the architect and head of the Heilbronn Building Department, Hannes Mayer, following the baroque model.The tower dome was initially given an emergency roof and was renewed in the early 1970s in connection with a church nave renovation and further equipping of the bell cage. The Stuttgart art professor Rudolf Yelin the Elder. In 1949 J. created the large altar wall painting with the motif "Jesus as Judge of the World at the Last Judgment", which was frequent in contemporary history after 1945. A Weigle organ was installed in 1959 and consecrated again fifty years later after a major cleaning. An interior renovation will take place in 2020.

Adjacent to the town church is the site of Löwenstein Castle , which was destroyed in World War II , of which only retaining walls and staircases are preserved today. The castle was a three-winged complex built in 1571, with it burned books and objets d'art from Stuttgart libraries. The figure of a knight on one of the preserved walls is supposed to show the Palatinate Elector Friedrich I and was made by Schwanthaler and Mayer. The Fürstlich Löwensteinische Forstamt (Fürstlich Löwensteinische Forstamt) is located on the site of the castle. It was built there around 1950 after the previous building, which was not destroyed in the war, was demolished in the course of the expansion of the thoroughfare.

The town hall was built in 1952 in place of the destroyed historic town hall from 1539. Its facade shows site-specific relief images. A lion figure sits enthroned on the fountain column of the market fountain in front of it .

City Church
Princely Löwenstein Forest Office
Market fountain

Freihaus at the lower gate

The connected to the city walls open house is said to have existed in the 14th century and was probably seat of a loan free peasants. The year 1609 visible in a portal indicates a renovation at this point in time. In the 17th century the building came to the Counts of Löwenstein, who set up a widow's residence there before the building was sold to a citizen in 1776. In 1979 the Freihaus came into the possession of the city and was renovated from 1988 to 1993 and converted into a museum.

The old wine press has existed since around 1500 and was the town's official ban press until 1848. The stately barn and the official building once stood in their neighborhood, where the wine tithes and wine presses were kept. It is now used as a festival hall, which has been completely renovated.

The early Gothic monastery church, a neo-Gothic garden chapel from 1859 and various secular buildings from the 16th century have been preserved from the former Lichtenstern monastery (former Cistercian abbey founded in 1242, first time in 1547, finally abolished in 1639). The former monastery area has been caring for disadvantaged and disabled children since 1836 (with interruptions during and after the Second World War) and is now the headquarters of the Lichtenstern Evangelical Foundation .
Lautereck moated castle ("Teusser-Schlösschen") from 1623 in the Teusserbad district.

Old wine press
Lichtenstern monastery church
Lautereck moated castle

Bleach Lake

Leisure and sports facilities

The Breitenau lake , which was artificially created in the 1970s, lies partly in the area of the city of Löwenstein . At the Bleichsee , about one kilometer south of Löwenstein, there used to be the Löwensteiner Tuchbleiche. Today the lake is the center of the 1978 designated nature reserve Bleichsee .

In the Seemühle district, the TSV Löwenstein's soccer field with sports center, which was newly laid out between 2004 and 2006, replaces an older one.

Economy and Infrastructure

The company Teusser Mineralbrunnen Karl Rössle GmbH & Co KG ( Teusser Mineralbrunnen ) is located in the Teusserbad district and fills the mineral water from a mineral spring located there. Every year around 100 million bottles (mineral water, lemonades, fruit drinks) are filled and sold under the Teusser and Löwensteiner brands.

Viticulture

Viticulture is carried out by the members of the winegrowers' cooperative Winzer vom Weinsberger Tal (formerly Winzergenossenschaft Löwenstein ) with headquarters in Löwenstein and branches in Eberstadt , Eschenau and Willsbach as well as by self-marketers. The layers are major layers Salzberg and Schozachtal in the range Württembergisch lower land of the vineyard Württemberg .

traffic

Löwenstein is on the federal highway 39 , which leads from Frankenstein in the Palatinate to Mainhardt . The winding mountain sections of the B 39 attract many motorcyclists in the warm season, who meet in large numbers on a viewing car park between Löwenstein and Hirrweiler , which is called a plate and is managed in summer. Because of the resulting noise pollution, a citizens' initiative B 39 against motorcycle noise was founded in 2010 .

media

The daily newspaper Heilbronner Voice reports on the events in Löwenstein in its edition for the Weinsberger Tal (WT).

Public facilities

Löwenstein Clinic

Manfred Kyber Elementary School

The Löwenstein Clinic , a lung specialist clinic founded as a sanatorium in 1960, is located near the Hirrweiler district of Löwenstein . It goes back to a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients founded by the Württemberg State Welfare Association in 1943 , which was housed in the Weinsberg sanatorium until 1946, and in Horneck Castle in Gundelsheim from 1946 to 1960 . From 1957 a new building was built in Geißhölzle, 500 m above sea level, in Löwenstein, and the new sanatorium was inaugurated on July 8, 1960. With the decline in tuberculosis and the treatment of other respiratory diseases, the sanatorium was renamed the Löwenstein Clinic in 1972 . The sanatorium and later the clinic was initially run by the State Welfare Association , and from 1964 its legal successor, the State Welfare Association of Württemberg-Hohenzollern . After the state welfare association was dissolved at the end of 2004, the clinic was sold in June 2007 to SLK-Kliniken GmbH , supported by the city and district of Heilbronn , which also operates the other public clinics in the city and the district. There is an ambulance station at the clinic .

education

The Manfred Kyber elementary school is located in Löwenstein . There are also four kindergartens in town. In addition, the Unterland Adult Education Center in Löwenstein has a branch.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

Frank Distelbarth (1928–2012), publisher of Heilbronn Voice, born in Löwenstein

Ernst Birk (1937–2014), mayor of Löwenstein from 1966 to 1992

sons and daughters of the town

Karl Schwenzer (1843–1904), Württemberg court medalist
August Ludwig Schwenzer (1847–1934), sculptor and restorer
Ludwig Bauer (1863–1911), physician, member of the state parliament
Paul Volz (1871–1941), born in Lichtenstern, Protestant theologian
Gertrud Goes (1878–1915), poet and narrator
Emil Schwamberger (1882–1955), Lord Mayor of Ulm
Hans Hege (1885–1983), farmer and member of parliament
Richard Hohly (1902–1995), painter

Other people associated with the city

The Löwensteiner Waldfriedhof with the grave of Friederike Hauffes (middle right)

Friederike Hauffe , b. Wanner (1801–1829), died and buried in Löwenstein, the most famous patient of Justinus Kerner , the senior medical officer in Weinsberg . As the "Seer of Prevorst", she was ascribed telepathic abilities.
Karl Friedrich Troll (1801–1868), from 1826 to 1868 the mayor of Löwenstein's city council, from 1851 to 1868 member of the state parliament
Karl Nicolai (1839–1892), from 1869 to 1881 the town councilor of Löwenstein, from 1876 to 1881 member of the state parliament
Christian Hege (1840–1907), landlord and member of parliament
Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929), designer, together with Gottlieb Daimler from Stuttgart, inventor of the world's first car; lived in Löwenstein until the age of eight
Manfred Kyber (1880–1933), storyteller and poet. The Löwenstein elementary school is named after it. His estate is documented in the local Manfred Kyber Museum.
Rudolf Haußer (1910–2003), pulmonologist, co-founder and first chief physician of the Löwenstein Clinic , member of the municipal council
Karl-Heinz Dähn (1926–2016), head of the primary school and local history researcher, Löwenstein's city archivist

Individual evidence

↑ State Statistical Office Baden-Württemberg - Population by nationality and gender on December 31, 2018 (CSV file) ( help on this ).

↑ Natural areas of Baden-Württemberg . State Institute for the Environment, Measurements and Nature Conservation Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart 2009

↑ Geological map of the Swabian-Franconian Forest Nature Park 1:50 000. 1st edition. State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg 2001

↑ Source for the urban structure section: Das Land Baden-Württemberg. Official description by district and municipality. Volume IV: Stuttgart district, Franconian and East Württemberg regional associations. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-17-005708-1 . Pp. 135-137

↑ State Statistical Office, area since 1988 according to actual use for Löwenstein.

↑ Anja Kemmler: When people had to endure in caves . In: Heilbronn voice . April 13, 2005 ( online [accessed March 23, 2019]).

↑ Communications from the Württ. And Bad. State Statistical Office No. 1: Results of the population census on December 31, 1945 in Northern Württemberg

^ Website of the Evangelical Church Community in Löwenstein

^ ^A ^b Website of the Evangelical Church District Weinsberg-Neuenstadt

^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 450 .

↑ Nelli Nickel: Mayor in the mini-election campaign . In: Heilbronn vote from February 13, 2008
Nelli Nickel: incumbent clearly confirmed . In: Heilbronner Voice of February 18, 2008

↑ http://www.lokalmatador.de/storage/2/e345e853ee7f42f19f60251386ddf7e9/e345e853ee7f42f19f60251386ddf7e9.pdf

^ Sources for the section coat of arms and flag:
Heinz Bardua: The district and community coat of arms in the Stuttgart administrative region . Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0801-8 (district and municipality coat of arms in Baden-Württemberg, 1). P. 95
Eberhard Gönner: Book of arms of the city and district of Heilbronn with a territorial history of this area . Archive Directorate Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1965 (Publications of the State Archive Administration Baden-Württemberg, 9). P. 110

^ Claudia Lamprecht: Rudolf Yelin (1902–1991): catalog raisonné of the building-related works; o. O. (Stuttgart), o. J. (1991), p. 56

↑ Otto Friedrich: Evangelical churches in the deanery Weinsberg - picture reading book ; ed. Ev. Deanery Weinsberg, 2003

↑ Joachim Kinzinger: The winemaker with the lion . In: Heilbronn voice . December 7, 2011 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on March 10, 2012]).

↑ Nelli Nickel: Local residents want their Sunday again . In: Heilbronn voice . April 28, 2010 ( from Stimme.de [accessed on April 15, 2012]).

^ Gustav Döttling: Protest against motorcyclists on B39 is organized . In: Heilbronn voice . April 30, 2010 ( from Stimme.de [accessed April 15, 2012]).

↑ Anja Krezer: Lung Clinic is the youngest child in the SLK family . In: Heilbronn Voice of June 23, 2007

↑ DRK district association Heilbronn e. V .: Ambulance guards | DRK district association Heilbronn e. V.

↑ VHS Unterland branch offices .

literature

Karl Rommel: Basic features of a chronicle of the city of Löwenstein. Photomechanical reprint of the Löwenstein 1893 edition. Bissinger, Magstadt 1980, ISBN 3-7644-0097-8
700 years of the city of Löwenstein 1287–1987. A homeland and non-fiction book . City of Löwenstein, Löwenstein 1987
Wolfram Angerbauer : 700 years of the city of Löwenstein . In: Swabia and Franconia. Local history supplement of the Heilbronner Voice , 33rd volume, number 12, December 1987