Moerlenbach

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the municipality of Mörlenbach
Moerlenbach
Map of Germany, position of the municipality Mörlenbach highlighted

Coordinates: 49 ° 36 '  N , 8 ° 44'  E

Basic data
State : Hesse
Administrative region : Darmstadt
Circle : Mountain road
Height : 160 m above sea level NHN
Area : 27.22 km 2
Residents: 10,029 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 368 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 69509
Primaries : 06209
06201 (Rohrbach)Template: Infobox municipality in Germany / maintenance / area code contains text
License plate : HP
Community key : 06 4 31 017
LOCODE : DE MEB
Community structure: Core community, 6 districts
Address of the
municipal administration: 		Rathausplatz 1
69509 Mörlenbach
Website : www.moerlenbach.de
Mayor : Jens Helmstädter (independent)
Location of the municipality of Mörlenbach in the Bergstrasse district
Groß-Rohrheim Zwingenberg (Bergstraße) Biblis Viernheim Lampertheim Bürstadt Einhausen (Hessen) Lorsch Bensheim Lautertal (Odenwald) Lindenfels Heppenheim (Bergstraße) Heppenheim (Bergstraße) Fürth (Odenwald) Grasellenbach Rimbach (Odenwald) Mörlenbach Wald-Michelbach Birkenau (Odenwald) Abtsteinach Gorxheimertal Hirschhorn (Neckar) Neckarsteinach Michelbuch (gemeindefreies Gebiet) Rheinland-Pfalz Baden-Württemberg Kreis Groß-Gerau Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg Odenwaldkreismap
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Mörlenbach is a municipality in the Bergstrasse district in the south of Hesse ( Germany ).

geography

The community is located in the Odenwald about 25 km north of Heidelberg and about 30 km northeast of Mannheim . It is located on the B 38 and is traversed by the Weschnitz and the eponymous Mörlenbach .

Panorama of Mörlenbach

geology

→ See also: Geology of the Odenwald

The verifiable geological history of Mörlenbach begins with the formation of the Bergstrasse Odenwald, which extends as the western part of the Crystalline Odenwald from Darmstadt to Heidelberg. Mörlenbach is also located in the area of ​​the so-called Weschnitzplutons (a granodiorite ). Adjacent to this (in the eastern part of the core community and in the districts of Weiher and Ober-Mumbach) is the drum granite and ( above all around Vöckelsbach ) a mixed zone of metamorphic rocks, penetrated or surrounded by granitoids . These formations were caused by large movements of the earth's crust in two different geological ages .

  • The granodiorites and biotite granites originated in the ancient times ( Paleozoic ) or were transformed from old stocks . The size and distribution of the continents at that time was very different from today: “Central Europe” was located in an ocean area south of the equator and consisted of small continents. At that time, a southern continent was drifting towards a northern continent due to the continental drift. As a result, the "Central European" dwarf continents in between collided and in the Devonian and Carboniferous times (about 380-320 million years ago) the Variscan mountains , to which the Odenwald belongs , rose up on and between them : As a result of the push-ups ( Subduction ), the old rocks were once sunk deep into the earth's crust and melted in the upper mantle at a depth of approx. 15 kilometers, and secondly , slowly - together with magma rocks - pushed back into the earth's crust, where they gradually cooled over the course of 60 million years and crystallized. Today, in the Bergstrasse Odenwald, the granites and diorites are stuck as mighty intrusion bodies between the old stocks, which have been metamorphically transformed into slate and gneiss . The Weschnitzpluton as the largest uniform granodiorite association of the Bergstrasse Odenwald originated in the Lower Carboniferous approximately 333 to 329 million years ago. The drum granite, which penetrated around 320 million years ago, welded the Bergstrasse to the 50 million years older eastern Böllsteiner-Gneiss-Odenwald . In the Weiher-Vöckelsbach area, a mixed zone with granitic rocks and converted old stocks developed, e.g. B. Biotite-plagioclase-gneiss-clods - formerly known as amphibolite . During these tectonic processes, cracks repeatedly tore open in the rock mass, into which melts penetrated and crystallized into gangue rocks, for example the kersantite dikes on the Juhöhe. Older granodiorite stocks were broken through by younger aplit-like granites (Bonsweiher - Ober-Liebersbach).
View from Klein-Breitenbach over the Mörlenbacher Weschnitztal to Götzenstein and Kisselbusch near Vöckelsbach, Rohrbach and Geisenbach: The basin-like and hilly landscape between the Tromm and Bergstrasse mountain ranges, which was created by the different weathering processes in the Tetiary and Ice Age, characterizes this impressive low mountain range of the crystalline Odenwald.
  • Many millions of years later - the Variscan mountains had already been worn down to their hulls by weathering - there were again strong movements in the earth's crust in Central Europe: In connection with a rift zone from the Mediterranean to the North Sea , erupted - in the Tertiary approx. 45 million years ago - the Upper Rhine Rift . As a result, many cross and transverse clefts divided the area of ​​today's Odenwald into mountain blocks and ditches. In the Weschnitz Valley, shear movements of the rock masses shifting against each other - in the so-called Mylonite zones - led to the shattering of the granite rocks - as in the eastern part of Mörlenbach in the direction of Nieder-Mumbach. Some gaps in the Mörlenbach area were filled with quartz and barite solutions , e.g. B. on the panorama road towards Nieder-Mumbach or on Steinböhl in Klein-Breitenbach. Through a warm, humid tertiary climate that promotes weathering and erosion and fluvial removal of the slope debris, the Weschnitz cut deep into the terrain, and the streams of the side valleys near Mörlenbach sawed up the mountain ranges, the upper parts of which were then divided into blocks by cracks by chemical weathering, spherical rock castles and seas formed ( wool sack weathering ), z. B. on the Juhöhe.
  • In the subsequent Ice Age, a permafrost climate prevailed in the Odenwald . I.e. the ground was always deeply frozen. When it warmed up (at the end of the Ice Age) the upper layer thawed and the rocks, freed from the rubble, slide down the slope on the still frozen ground. Today's typical low mountain range landscape of the spacious Weschnitz Valley and its mountain ranges - which looks like a transmontane basin - was formed from the hull of the Variscan Mountains.

Witnesses of the geological past are:

  • historical: Barite mining in Nieder-Mumbach (around 1900)
  • Amphibolite quarry (see above: biotite-plagioclase-gneiss clods) near Mackenheim in the direction of Vöckelsbach
  • former granodiorite quarries z. B. at Bonsweiher in the direction of Juhöhe
  • Accumulations of large granodiorite blocks on the Juhöhe - caused by the weathering of wool sacks and the removal of the weathered debris
  • Quartz-barite blocks at Steinböhl in Klein-Breitenbach

Neighboring communities

Mörlenbach borders in the north on the municipality of Rimbach , in the east on the municipalities of Wald-Michelbach and Abtsteinach , in the south on the municipality of Birkenau , in the west on the city of Hemsbach and the municipality of Laudenbach (both Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg ) as well in the northwest to the city of Heppenheim .

Community structure

Mörlenbach initially consists of the main town of the same name, in whose area the hamlets of Klein-Breitenbach , Groß-Breitenbach , Bettenbach and Nieder-Mumbach are located. The municipality also includes the districts of Ober-Liebersbach and Bonsweiher with the Juhöhe settlement in the northwest, the districts of Weiher , Vöckelsbach and Ober-Mumbach with the hamlets of Geisenbach in the south-east and Rohrbach in the far south .

In contrast to this, the districts with local councils to be elected are delimited as follows (the number of members of the local council in brackets) :

  • Bonsweiher : former municipality of Bonsweiher (7)
  • Mörlenbach-Mitte : Mörlenbach municipality without "Nieder-Mumbach" (7)
  • Ober-Liebersbach : former municipality of Ober-Liebersbach (5)
  • Ober-Mumbach : Area of ​​the former municipality of Ober-Mumbach and "Nieder-Mumbach" residential area in the Mörlenbach district (7)
  • Vöckelsbach : former municipality of Vöckelsbach (5)
  • Weiher : former municipality of Weiher (7)

climate

Due to its location close to the Bergstrasse, Mörlenbach has a mild climate , which is often visible in an almond tree blossom that is very early in Germany .

history

From the beginning to the 18th century

Mörlenbach arose in the area of ​​the former "Mark Heppenheim" which designated an administrative district of the Franconian Empire . As documented in the Lorsch Codex , on January 20, 773 , Charlemagne donated the city of Heppenheim including “Mark Heppenheim” to the imperial monastery of Lorsch . From here the reclamation and settlement of the area was carried out, including the Weschnitz valley with its side valleys. The heyday of the Lorsch Monastery was followed by its decline in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1232 Lorsch was subordinated to the Archdiocese of Mainz . In 1461, Kurmainz pledged these properties to the Electoral Palatinate . This changed to the Protestant faith in 1556 and closed the monastery in 1564.

The first mention of the place can be found in 795 as Morlenbach in the document of a border adjustment to the property of the Lorsch monastery in the "Mark Heppenheim", a donation by Charlemagne to the imperial monastery Lorsch. This upgraded the monastery and withdrew it from the dioceses of Mainz and Worms . The "Mark Heppenheim" encompassed most of today 's Bergstrasse district and large parts of the Odenwaldkreis . Mörlenbach is not yet mentioned in the boundary description of 773. In connection with this donation, border disputes developed between the Lorsch Abbey and the Diocese of Worms, which led to the convening of an arbitration tribunal in 795 on the Kahlberg near Weschnitz, an old assembly and court venue not far from today's Walburgis Chapel . As a result of this court of arbitration, a new boundary description was established, which now also named the most important places within the boundaries of the Mark Heppenheim, namely Furte (Fürth) , Rintbach (Rimbach) , Morlenbach (Mörlenbach), Birkenowa (Birkenau) , Winenheim (Weinheim) , Heppenheim , Besinsheim (Bensheim) , Urbach (Auerbach) , Lauresham (Lorsch) and Bisestat (Bürstadt) .

Course of the former city wall on a map from 1860

The village emerged as a closed cluster village with a one-sided valley location, which after 900 consisted of six hubs . In 1812 38 lift goods were counted. In the Lorsch Codex from the 12th century, 6 free lifts and 28 serviceable lifts are mentioned and in 1812 38 lifted goods, 59 residential buildings with 391 souls were counted. From 1648 there were reports of four mills in Mörlenbach and in 1927 the Brehms, Jews, Schützen, Stein and Weschnitz mills are still documented. At times Mörlenbach had city rights. Archbishop Dieter von Mainz freed the residents of Mörlenbach from pasture, labor and etching in 1459, on condition that they continue with the fortification of the patch that his predecessor had begun.

In 1267, a burgrave is mentioned for the first time on the Starkenburg (via Heppenheim), who also administered the “Office Starkenburg” , to which Mörlenbach was one.

A number of landlords have come down to us from the Middle Ages . So Ludwig the Strict Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria (1273), Heinrich von Mörlenbach donated goods to the Lorsch Monastery in 1294. His family was mentioned as the castle men of the former moated castle Mörlenbach. A comparison between Kurmain and Kurpfalz has come down to us from 1308 in which it was determined that the goods of the lower Mörlenbach Abbey of Lorsch Monastery belong to Mainz Monastery, which was confirmed in 1344. In 1357 Dieter von Hattenkeim was granted a Wittum for his wife from the tithe and the fruit validity of Mörlenbach by Count Palatine Ruprecht . Henne von Bensheim, Anna von Frankenstein, Hans von Hirschhorn, Junker Heinrich von Schwanheim, Konrad von Frankenstein and the provost von Lorsch also had other temporary rights to Mörlenbach. Mörlenbach has at times city rights and the city fortifications were first mentioned in 1454.

Documented since 1426, there was a Mörlenbach castle in the village until the 19th century , which was later used as an estate until it lost its importance under the Electoral Palatinate and fell into disrepair.

In the course of the Mainz collegiate feud , which was fateful for Kurmainz , the Starkenburg office was pledged redeemable to Kurpfalz and then remained in the Palatinate for 160 years. Count Palatine Friedrich had the “Amt Starkenburg” pledged for his support from Archbishop Dieter - in the “Weinheimer Bund” concluded by the Electors on November 19, 1461 - whereby Kurmainz received the right to redeem the pledge for 100,000 pounds.

In the early days of the Reformation , the Palatinate rulers openly sympathized with the Lutheran faith, but it was not until Ottheinrich (Elector from 1556 to 1559) that the official transition to Lutheran teaching took place. After that, his successors and inevitably the population changed several times between the Lutheran , Reformed and Calvinist religions. Lorsch Abbey was closed as a result of the Reformation in 1564.

During the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Spanish troops of the “Catholic League” conquered the region and in 1623 restored the rule of Kurmainz. As a result, the Reformation introduced by the Count Palatine was largely reversed and the population had to return to the Catholic faith. Although the Spanish troops withdrew from the approaching Swedes after 10 years, after the catastrophic defeat of the Evangelicals in the Nördlingen in 1634, the Swedes also left the Bergstrasse and with the Swedish-French War began the bloodiest chapter of the Thirty Years' War from 1635. The chroniclers of that time report from the region: "Plague and hunger rage in the country and decimate the population, so that the villages are often completely empty". With the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, the redemption of the pledge was finally established. In the 16th century the parish church in Mörlenbach belongs to the Weinheimer Landkapitel and has 12 branches: Buchklingen, Groß- and Klein-Breitenbach, Kunzenbach, Ober- and Unter-Liebersbach, Nieder-Mumbach, Mackenheim etc .; In 1812 there were only seven villages left in Mörlenbach.

Half-timbered houses on Rathausplatz

The administration and jurisdiction over the place was initially carried out by the Heppenheim Centers , later Mörlenbach had its own Centers , the oldest surviving description of which dates from 1504. But it only had the " lower jurisdiction " (see also " Zent Mörlenbach "). The Zentherr was the Elector of Mainz and the high jurisdiction was exercised on the Landsberg near Heppenheim and the Oberhof is the Central Court of Heppenheim in 1782 .

When there was a restructuring in the area of ​​the Kurmainzer Amt Starkenburg in 1782 , the area of ​​the office was divided into the four subordinate district bailiffs Heppenheim, Bensheim, Lorsch and Fürth and the office was renamed Oberamt. The Zente Abtsteinach , Fürth and Mörlenbach who were Amtsvogtei Fürth subordinated and had largely cast their powers. Although the central order with the central school remained formally in place, it could only carry out the orders of the higher authorities ( Oberamt Starkenburg , Unteramt Fürth). The “Oberamt Starkenburg” administratively belonged to the “Lower Archbishopric” of the Electorate of Mainz .

When there was a restructuring of the offices in the district of the Kurmainzer Amtskellerei Heppenheim in 1782, the "Zent Mörlenbach" was subordinated to the newly created Amtsvogtei Fürth and had to largely surrender its powers. Although the central order with the central school remained formally in place, it could only carry out the orders of the higher authorities ( Oberamt Starkenburg , Unteramt Fürth). The “Oberamt Starkenburg” administratively belonged to the “Lower Archbishopric” of the Electorate of Mainz .

Konrad Dahl reported in 1812 in his historical-topographical-statistical description of the principality of Lorsch, or church history of the Upper Rhinegau about the center of Mörlenbach:

"The village of Mörlenbach ... We read (in Cronio. Laur. P. 236) of the Lorsch abbot Diemo, who ruled at the beginning of the 2nd century, that he removed the customs and most of the tens of Michelstadt and Mörlenbach as a fief have given. We read further in the Lorsch donation book (No. 3663) that there are 6 free lifts and 28 servant lifts in Mörlenbach, each of which has a pig of 2 years and a camisile (in a piece of cloth) worth one ounce. ... Regardless of this small number, this place is not only regarded as a spot that has been granted various privileges, but also appears at the same time in the Bergstrasse pledge of 1463 and in the release document or the Bergstrasse recession of 1650 under the castles and cities by name. Of course, this does not mean that Mörlenbach was regarded as a town at the time; so much follows from it that this place was counted among the most excellent of the Bergstcas. But this happened mainly because of his castle, which was previously a fortress , which you can still see today on the remains of it. This castle, an old curia or cellar yard of the Lorsch monastery, was named the lower abbey in the document from 1308 (see documents, Book I, Book No. VII.). The place Mörlenbach itself was always surrounded by ramparts and walls, so that it can be considered an excellent place without hesitation. A special advantage of this place is also stated that the city of Worms had to recover the Eich and Maas, if it had lost them, at Mörlenbach. Mörlenbach burned down completely four times. ... After the Lorsch Abbey was incorporated into the Mainz Archbishopric, the right of patronage for this parish came to the Archbishop of Mainz. In 1267, however, Archbishop Wernher von Mainz gave this patronage right to the Lorsch provost. After the Lorsch Monastery had completely collapsed, the Archbishop regained the right of collation and remained in possession of it until 1802. It was the same with the whole toe to Mörlenbach, which now the Lorsch chief works. In the year 566, the Counts of Erbach also hunted the Junkers of Stettenberg, and Lindenfels Castle, like Pastor Antheile am Zehen, but all these proportions and divisions, it seems, have gradually or by treaty been abandoned. The parish church in Mörlenbach currently has 7 branches, but in 1566 it had 12 such villages as a parish; At that time, the present-day parish of Rimpach was probably still part of it, which according to the Worms synodal register in 1496 still belonged to it. The now Count Erbachische Pfarrei Rimpach consists of 6 locations: Rimbach, Monsbach, Lützelsteinbach, Zotzenbach and Mengelbach, which together with the 7 locations covered make up 12 branches. The Mörlenbach parish was subsequently merged with the Fürth parish and is separated from it again in 1701. In Mörlenbach, an early measurement fund was also founded, but this was entered into as a result of the Reformation and became part of the parish. The old castle of Mörlenbach also had its castle men, who were vassals of Lorsch Abbey. Such a family even named itself von Mörlenbach, as we know from the Lorsch Judicial Book. Archbishop Heinrich lent a court (Curiam) belonging to this castle in the year 1338 with all property belonging to it to land settlement rights for the third part of all benefits, to Conrad Gengilmann zu Mörlenbach. Mörlenbach also has two mills on the Weschnitz and the community has its own but small forest. Some other districts of Waldung belong partly to the von Wamdold family at Mannheim, and partly to the Carmelite monastery at Weinheim. The von Wambold family owns Güther and Fall as a fief there. Finally there is also a country and guilder tariffs for Mörlenbach. "

From the 19th century until today

Mörlenbach becomes Hessian

The late 18th and early 19th centuries brought far-reaching changes to Europe. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars , the “ Left Bank of the Rhine ” and thus the left bank of the Rhine from Kurmainz was annexed by France as early as 1797 . In its last session in February 1803, the Perpetual Reichstag in Regensburg passed the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , which implemented the provisions of the Peace of Luneville and reorganized the territorial relations in the Holy Roman Empire (German Nation) . The Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt was awarded parts of the dissolved principalities of Kurmainz , Electoral Palatinate and Worms as compensation for lost areas on the right bank of the Rhine . The Oberamt Starkenburg and with it Mörlenbach also came to Hessen-Darmstadt. There the "Amtsvogtei Fürth" was initially continued as a Hessian office while the Oberamt Starkenburg was dissolved in 1805. The superordinate administrative authority was the "Administrative Region Darmstadt" which from 1803 was also referred to as the "Principality of Starkenburg". In the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, the judicial system was reorganized in an executive order of December 9, 1803. The “Hofgericht Darmstadt” was set up as a court of second instance for the Principality of Starkenburg . The jurisdiction of the first instance was carried out by the offices or the landlords . The court court was the second instance court for normal civil disputes, and the first instance for civil family law cases and criminal cases. The superior court of appeal in Darmstadt was superordinate . With this the Zente and the associated central courts had lost their function.

Under pressure from Napoléon , the Confederation of the Rhine was founded in 1806 , this happened with the simultaneous withdrawal of the member territories from the Reich. This led to the laying down of the imperial crown on August 6, 1806, with which the old empire ceased to exist. On August 14, 1806, Napoleon elevated the Landgraviate of Hessen-Darmstadt to the Grand Duchy , against joining the Confederation of the Rhine and placing high military contingents in France , otherwise he threatened an invasion.

In 1812 the former Palatinate Oberamt Lindenfels was dissolved and Wald-Michelbach, which already existed as a center, received its own district bailiwick , whose area of ​​responsibility was also assigned to Mörlenbach.

After Napoleon's final defeat, the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 also regulated the territorial situation for Hesse, and in 1816 provinces were established in the Grand Duchy. The area previously known as the “Principality of Starkenburg”, which consisted of the old Hessian territories south of the Main and the territories on the right bank of the Rhine that were added from 1803, was renamed “Province of Starkenburg” . In 1814 serfdom was abolished in the Grand Duchy and with the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Hesse introduced on December 17, 1820, it was given a constitutional monarchy , in which the Grand Duke still had great powers. The remaining civil rights magnificent as Low jurisdiction , tithes, ground rents and other slope but remained composed until 1848.

In 1821, as part of a comprehensive administrative reform, the district bailiffs in the provinces of Starkenburg and Upper Hesse of the Grand Duchy were dissolved and district councils were introduced, which brought Mörlenbach to the district of Lindenfels . As part of this reform, regional courts were also created, which were now independent of the administration. The district court districts corresponded in scope to the district council districts and the district court of Fürth was responsible as the court of first instance for the district of Lindenfels . This reform also regulated the administrative administration at the municipal level. The mayor's office in Mörlenbach was also responsible for Groß- and Kleinbreitenbach , Oberliebersbach and Untermumbach (today Nieder-Mumbach) . According to the municipal ordinance of June 30, 1821, there were no longer appointments of mayors , but an elected local council, which was composed of a mayor, aldermen and council.

The statistical-topographical-historical description of the Grand Duchy of Hesse reports on Mörlenbach in 1829:

"Mörlenbach (L. Bez. Lindenfels) market town, located 2 hours from Lindenfels and 1 3/4 hours from Fürth, at the confluence of the Mörlenbach in the Weschnitz. The place has 83 houses and 683 Enw., The except for 21 Luth. and 3 reform. are Catholic, and among these 12 farmers, 56 artisans and 13 day laborers. You can still find the remains of a castle here. Three cattle markets are held annually. - The place was given to the Lorsch monastery by Emperor Carl the Great in 773, and with this monastery came to Mainz. The local castle was vestibule and a cellar yard of the abovementioned monastery, and is called the lower abbey in a document from 1308 . The castle had its own castle men, one of whom was the von Mörlenbach family. This place is not only considered to be in Flecken, but is also listed by name in the Bergstrasse deposit of 1463 and in the Bergstrasse Receß from 1650 under the castles and towns. Mörlenbach has burned down completely four times and was previously surrounded by ramparts, ditches and walls. The place came from Mainz to Hesse in 1802. "

In 1832 the administrative units were further enlarged and circles were created. After the reorganization announced on August 20, 1832, there should only be the districts of Bensheim and Lindenfels in the future in Süd-Starkenburg; the district of Heppenheim was to fall into the Bensheim district. Before the ordinance came into force on October 15, 1832, it was revised to the effect that instead of the Lindenfels district, the Heppenheim district was formed as the second district, to which Mörlenbach now belonged, alongside the Bensheim district. In 1842 the tax system in the Grand Duchy was reformed and the tithe and the basic pensions (income from property) were replaced by a tax system of the kind that still exists today.

The latest and most thorough alphabetical lexicon of all localities in the German federal states from 1845 states:

“Mörlenbach near Lindenfelz. - Market town with a Catholic parish church, with regard to the Evangelical belongs to the parish of Rimbach. - 63 H. 683 (mostly Catholic) E. - Grand Duchy of Hesse. - Prov. Starkenburg. - Heppenheim district. - Fürth district court. - Darmstadt Court of Justice. - The market town of Mörlenbach, located at the confluence of the Mörlenbach into the Weschnitz, was transferred from Mainz to Hesse in 1802. Most of the inhabitants of the village do handicrafts, several also agricultural. Incidentally, the place has 3 cattle markets. The Eulenhof, the Vohbergshof, the Bettenbacher Höfe, 6 mills, one of which is called the Weschnitzmühle, and 1 iron smelter are located in the area. In documents from the 15th and 17th centuries, Mörlenbach is referred to as a town, and it is said to have been surrounded by ramparts, moats and walls in the past. "

As a result of the March Revolution of 1848, with the "Law on the Relationships of the Classes and Noble Court Lords" of April 15, 1848, the special rights of the class were finally repealed. In addition, in the provinces, the districts and the district administration districts of the Grand Duchy were abolished on July 31, 1848 and replaced by "administrative districts", whereby the previous districts of Bensheim and Heppenheim were combined to form the administrative district of Heppenheim . Just four years later, in the course of the reaction era, they returned to the division into districts and Mörlenbach became part of the newly created Lindenfels district .

The population and cadastral lists recorded in December 1852 showed for Mörlenbach: A Catholic branch village with two mills, a paper factory and 339 inhabitants. The district consisted of 2050 acres , of which 966 acres were arable land, 288 acres were meadows and 739 acres were forest.

In the statistics of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, based on December 1867, the market town of Mörlenbach with its own mayor's office, 111 houses, 790 inhabitants, the Lindenfels district, the Fürth district court, the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Rimbach and the Reformation parish of Wald-Michelbach of the deanery are recorded Lindenfels and the Catholic parish Mörlenbach of the dean's office in Heppenheim. The mayor's office also acquired Bettenbach (4 houses, 26 inh.), Gross-Breitenbach (14 houses, 103 in.), Klein-Breitenbach (7 houses, 68 in.), Nieder-Mumbach (3 houses, 38 in.) , Ober-Liebersbach (5 houses, 45 inh.) As well as the Neumühle (one house, 12 inh.) And the Wschnitz-Mühle (one house, 17 in.).

In 1870, the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck provoked the Franco-German War with the so-called Emser Depesche in which the Grand Duchy of Hesse took part as a member of the North German Confederation on the side of Prussia . Even before its official end on May 10, 1871, the southern German states joined the North German Confederation and on January 1, 1871 its new constitution came into force, with which it was now called the German Empire . On the German side, this war claimed around 41,000 deaths. With the Reich Coin Act , Germany only had one currency, the mark with 100 pfennigs as a sub-unit. After the Grand Duchy of Hesse had been part of the German Empire from 1871, a series of administrative reforms were decided in 1874. The state-specific rules of procedure as well as the administration of the districts and provinces were regulated by district and provincial assemblies. The new regulation came into force on July 12, 1874 and also decreed the dissolution of the Lindenfels and Wimpfen districts and the reintegration of Mörlenbach into the Heppenheim district .

In 1895 the Weschnitz Valley Railway was opened, which connects Fürth with Weinheim and has a stop at Mörlenbach . The transport connections to Weinheim, Heidelberg, Darmstadt or Frankfurt have been improved by the commissioning of this railway line. A second railway line was the Überwaldbahn , which ran between Mörlenbach and Grasellenbach-Wahlen. This was opened in 1901 and operated until it was closed on April 20, 1994.

Time of world wars

On August 1, 1914, the First World War broke out and put an end to the positive economic development throughout the German Empire . When the armistice was signed after the German defeat on November 11, 1918, Mörlenbach also had many casualties, while the war cost a total of around 17 million human lives. The end of the German Empire was thus sealed, and the troubled times of the Weimar Republic followed. In the period from 1921 to 1930, there were 566,500 emigrants in Germany who tried to escape the difficult conditions in Germany.

In 1927 the size of the district was given as 1182  ha .

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, which marked the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of the National Socialist dictatorship. In the spring of 1933, Adolf Hitler made May 1 a public holiday called “German Labor Day”. In this way, a union demand was met by the government of all people, which the unions strictly opposed. The unions called for participation in the May events, as they felt they were the initiators of the May idea. The official program was already heavily influenced by the National Socialists: “6 o'clock wake up by the SA bands. 8 a.m. flag hoisting in the factories, march to the parade ground, 9 a.m. transmission of the rally from the pleasure garden in Berlin to the public squares of the cities. 10.45 am State act of the Hessian government (...), reception of a workers delegation from the three Hessian provinces. (...) Common singing of the 'Song of the Workers'. (...) 7.30 a.m. Transmission from Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin: Manifesto of Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, 'The first year of the four-year plan'. Then light music and German dance. 12 noon: Broadcast of the speech by Prime Minister Hermann Göring. (...) Former Marxist singing, gymnastics and sports clubs can take part in the parades, but carry Marxist flags or symbols with you. ”The rude awakening for the unions came a day later when the“ NSDAP led the red unions took over ”:“ The since then Marxist leaders in protective custody - A 3 million account of the former Reichstag President Löbe blocked - The rights of the workers secured - The buildings of the free trade unions occupied ”, headlined the newspapers, which had already been harmonized throughout the Reich.

The Hessian provinces of Starkenburg, Rheinhessen and Upper Hesse were abolished in 1937 after the provincial and district assemblies were dissolved in 1936. On November 1, 1938, a comprehensive regional reform came into force at the district level. In the former province of Starkenburg, the Bensheim district was particularly affected, as it was dissolved and most of it was added to the Heppenheim district. The district of Heppenheim also took over the legal successor to the district of Bensheim and was given the new name Landkreis Bergstrasse .

On September 1, 1939, when German troops marched into Poland, the Second World War began , the effects of which were even more dramatic than the First World War and the number of victims estimated at 60 to 70 million people. In the final phase of the Second World War in Europe, the American units reached the Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim in mid-March 1945. On March 22nd, the 3rd US Army crossed the Rhine near Oppenheim and occupied Darmstadt on March 25th. In the first hours of March 26, 1945, American units crossed the Rhine near Hamm and south of Worms, from where they advanced on a broad front towards the Bergstrasse. On March 27, the American troops were in Lorsch, Bensheim and Heppenheim and a day later Aschaffenburg am Main and the western and northern parts of the Odenwald were occupied. The war in Europe ended with the unconditional surrender of all German troops, which came into effect on May 8, 1945 at 11:01 p.m. Central European Time.

The Grand Duchy of Hesse was a member state of the German Confederation from 1815 to 1866 and then a federal state of the German Empire . It existed until 1919, after the First World War, the Grand Duchy for was republican written People's State of Hesse . In 1945 after the end of the Second World War , the area of ​​today's Hesse was in the American zone of occupation and by order of the military government, Greater Hesse was created , from which the state of Hesse emerged in its current borders.

Post-war and present

As the population figures from 1939 to 1950 show, Mörlenbach also had to cope with many refugees and displaced persons from the former German eastern regions after the war .

In 1961 the size of the district was given as 1182  ha , of which 229 ha were forest.

Courts in Hessen

In 1813, jurisdiction was transferred to the new justice office in Fürth. With the formation of the regional courts in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Fürth regional court was the court of first instance from 1821 . On the occasion of the introduction of the Courts Constitution Act with effect from October 1, 1879, as a result of which the previous grand-ducal Hessian regional courts were replaced by local courts in the same place, while the newly created regional courts now functioned as higher courts, the name was changed to the Fürth Local Court and assigned to the district of the Regional Court Darmstadt

Incorporations

In the course of the regional reform in Hesse , the previously independent municipalities of Ober-Liebersbach, Ober-Mumbach, Vöckelsbach (on December 31, 1970), Weiher (on July 1, 1971) and Bonsweiher (on December 31, 1971) were added on a voluntary basis Mörlenbach incorporated . In 1995 Mörlenbach celebrated its 1200th anniversary.

In Mörlenbach, the following six local districts with a local advisory board and mayor have been set up for the districts :

  1. Mörlenbach-Mitte: Mörlenbach district (with Klein-Breitenbach, Groß-Breitenbach and Bettenbach), but without Nieder-Mumbach
  2. Pond
  3. Bonsweiher (with Juhöhe)
  4. Ober-Mumbach (with Nieder-Mumbach, Geisenbach and Rohrbach)
  5. Vöckelsbach
  6. Ober-Liebersbach

Territorial history and administration

The following list gives an overview of the territories in which Mörlenbach was located and the administrative units to which it was subordinate:

Population development

 Source: Historical local dictionary

• 1566: 0069 hearths
• 1961 664 Protestant (= 20.73%), 2479 Catholic (= 77.40%) residents
Mörlenbach: Population from 1829 to 2015
year     Residents
1829
  
 991
1834
  
 1.005
1840
  
 1,043
1846
  
 1,058
1852
  
 1,084
1858
  
 1,162
1864
  
 1,079
1871
  
 1,046
1875
  
 1,070
1885
  
 1,072
1895
  
 998
1905
  
 1,053
1910
  
 1,190
1925
  
 1,331
1939
  
 1,443
1946
  
 2,309
1950
  
 2,611
1956
  
 2,901
1961
  
 3,203
1967
  
 3,995
1970
  
 4,338
1972
  
 7,690
1976
  
 8.008
1984
  
 8,510
1992
  
 9,524
2000
  
 10,600
2010
  
 10,208
2015
  
 10,000
Data source: Historical municipality register for Hesse: The population of the municipalities from 1834 to 1967. Wiesbaden: Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, 1968.
Further sources:; 1972 :; 1970 :; 1984 :; 1992 :; 2000, 2015 :; 2010:
From 1976 including the towns incorporated into Hesse as part of the regional reform .

politics

Community representation

The local elections on March 6, 2016 produced the following results, compared to previous local elections:

Distribution of seats in the municipal council 2016
     
A total of 31 seats
Parties and constituencies %
2016 		Seats
2016 		%
2011 		Seats
2011 		%
2006 		Seats
2006 		%
2001 		Seats
2001
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany 42.3 13 41.4 13 42.7 13 41.6 15th
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany 25.6 8th 26.9 8th 23.8 8th 27.3 10
GREEN Alliance 90 / The Greens 9.2 3 17.7 6th 10.3 3 7.4 3
UFW / FWG Independent Free Voters / Free Voting Community 15.2 5 9.7 3 7.3 2 6.6 3
FDP Free Democratic Party 7.7 2 4.4 1 5.8 2 3.5 1
BV Citizens Association - - - - 10.1 3 13.6 5
total 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 37
Voter turnout in% 47.8 47.4 47.7 54.0
Market fountain and new town hall from 1978
Old Town Hall

mayor

The mayor is directly elected for a term of six years.

  • 1972–1991: Ludwig Marquart
  • 1991–2014: Lothar Knopf
  • since 2015: Jens Helmstädter

coat of arms

The Mörlenbach coat of arms shows three silver bells on a red background. It was approved in 1950. The colors are reminiscent of the former feudal lords Lorsch and Kurmainz. According to a legend, the bells shown were sunk in a pond in Mörlenbach during the Thirty Years' War for fear of looters, but were not found again later despite an intensive search.

Town twinning

Mörlenbach cultivates partnership relationships

Culture and sights

Buildings

Around the market square with the village fountain you will find the old and new town hall, the Catholic church and a restored remnant of the fortification wall from the 13th century.

Cross from 1822
Catholic parish church of St. Bartholomew
Community center

According to the lintel, the old town hall dates from 1504, but the half-timbering was heavily modified in the second half of the 17th century. Used as a school and teacher's apartment until 1930/31, the building was then converted into the mayor's administrative headquarters, which in 1978 was relocated to the newly built town hall. It is now being renovated inside and out. a. used for civil weddings.

The Catholic parish church of St. Bartholomew, which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, houses three altars, among other works of art, including one by Michel Erhart from 1494 and a 350-year-old organ from the chapel of the Friedrichsbau in Heidelberg Castle .

In Mörlenbach there are several red sandstone crosses , like the one in front of the southern transept of the Catholic Church from 1822.

The community center, completed in 1994, offers space for up to 900 people and is used for a wide range of events.

Regular events

The Mörlenbacher Kerwe takes place every year on the last weekend in August , the center of which is the Kerwedorf. The highlights are the fireworks on Friday and the Kerwe parade with around 50 train numbers on Sunday.

Every year on the first weekend in Advent, the Mörlenbach Advent market takes place at the town hall.

On Shrove Saturday and the Saturday of the previous week, the two carnival events of the "Mörlenbacher Wasserschnecken" - organized by the Kolping Mörlenbach family - take place in the community center.

Every two years trade, handicrafts and trades organize the grocer's market in the center of Mörlenbach, which serves both the exhibition and the preservation of old customs.

Economy and Infrastructure

The castle courtyard school, Mörlenbach Castle was located here in the Middle Ages

education

  • 6 kindergartens
  • Primary School Weiher
  • Primary and secondary school (Schlosshofschule)
  • School for learning aid (Weschnitztalschule)
B 38 leading through the town center

traffic

Due to its central location in the Weschnitz Valley, Mörlenbach is a traffic junction. The federal highway 38 , which is the main traffic artery in the Rhine-Neckar conurbation , runs through Mörlenbach . In the center of the village, the L 3120 joins the B 38 coming from the Überwald and continues to Heppenheim. The Saukopftunnel , inaugurated in 1999, connects Mörlenbach directly with the motorway network.

The B 38a bypass is being planned and should help relieve the traffic situation within the town. However, the planning was delayed by discrepancies between proponents of different implementation options. The sub-tunneling of Mörlenbach (variant W4) favored by environmental associations and the bypass favored by the municipality (variant O2) are discussed.

Mörlenbach is part of the Rhein-Neckar transport association . The Mörlenbach station is on the Weschnitz Valley Railway Weinheim - Fürth (Odenwald) . Regional trains of DB Regio AG stop there every hour, on weekdays during rush hour every half hour . From the Weschnitz Valley Railway at the station in 1983 disused branched About Forest Railway to contest from. This route has been used for tourist trolley transport since August 2013.

Personalities

literature

Web links

Commons : Mörlenbach  - Collection of images
Wikivoyage: Mörlenbach  - travel guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hessian State Statistical Office: Population status on December 31, 2019 (districts and urban districts as well as municipalities, population figures based on the 2011 census) ( help ).
  2. ^ Erwin Nickel : Odenwald - Vorderer Odenwald between Darmstadt and Heidelberg . (= Collection of geological guides. ) 2nd edition, 65, Borntraeger, Berlin 1985.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Franke: The mid-European segment of the Variscides: tectono-stratigraphic units, terrane boundaries and plate tectonic evolution . Geol. Soc. London Spec. Publ., 179, pp. 35-61, 2000.
  4. ↑ R. Altherr u. a .: Plutonism in the Variscan Odenwald (Germany): from subduction to collision . Int. J. Earth Sci. 88, pp. 422-443, 1999.
  5. ↑ Eckardt Stein u. a .: Geology of the crystalline Odenwald - its magmatic and metamorphic development. In: Annual reports and communications from the Upper Rhine Geological Association. NF 83, pp. 89-111, 2001.
  6. ↑ Michael Fettel: Mineralogy and mining . In: Heimatbuch Mörlenbach. Mörlenbach 1983, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Main statute of the municipality of Mörlenbach from April 12, 2016 ( Memento from May 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) §6, p. 3 (PDF document, 79.5 kB); Retrieved May 19, 2016
  8. ↑ Karl Josef Minst [transl.]: Lorscher Codex (Volume 1), Certificate 6, January 20, 773 - Reg. 849. In: Heidelberg historical stocks - digital. Heidelberg University Library, p. 57 ff. , Accessed on February 12, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Minst, Karl Josef [transl.]: Lorscher Codex (Volume 1), Certificate 6a, About the Mark Heppenheim, mid-August 795. In: Heidelberg historical stocks - digital. Heidelberg University Library, p. 60 , accessed on January 6, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Regests of the city of Heppenheim and Starkenburg Castle until the end of Kurmainzer rule (755 to 1461) . No. 5a ( digital view [PDF; 2.0 MB] - compiled and commented on by Torsten Wondrejz on behalf of the Heppenheim City Archives).
  11. ↑ a b c d Konrad Dahl, p. 243 ( online at Google Books )
  12. ↑ a b c d Wilhelm Müller: Hessisches Ortnamesbuch - Starkenburg , Darmstadt 1937, pp. 471–473
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h Mörlenbach, Bergstrasse district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of June 8, 2018). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  14. ^ Heinrich Karl Wilhelm Berghaus : Germany for a hundred years: Abth. Germany fifty years ago . tape 3 . Voigt & Günther, Leipzig 1862, OCLC 311428620 , p. 358 ff . ( Online at google books ).
  15. ^ M. Borchmann, D. Breithaupt, G. Kaiser: Kommunalrecht in Hessen . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-555-01352-1 , p. 20 ( partial view on google books ).
  16. ↑ Georg W. Wagner: Volume 1, p. 159 ( online at Google Books )
  17. ↑ Johann Friedrich Kratzsch : The latest and most thorough alphabetical lexicon of all localities in the German federal states , Naumburg 1845, Volume 2, p. 155 ( online at Hathi Trust, digital library )
  18. ↑ Law on the Conditions of the Class Lords and Noble Court Lords of August 7, 1848 . In: Grand Duke of Hesse (ed.): Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette. 1848 no. 40 , p. 237–241 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 42,9 MB ]).
  19. ^ Ordinance on the division of the Grand Duchy into circles of May 12, 1852 . In: Grand Ducal Hessian Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette 1852 No. 30 . S. 224–229 ( online at the Bavarian State Library digital [PDF]).
  20. ↑ Philipp Alexander Ferdinand Walther: The Grand Duchy of Hesse according to history, country, people, state and locality. Jonghans, Darmstadt 1854, p. 351 ( online at google books )
  21. ↑ Alphabetical index of the residential places in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 1869 ( online at google books )
  22. ^ Lists of casualties of the German army in the campaign 1870/71. In: Online project fallen memorials. Archived from the original on May 6, 2015 ; accessed on May 10, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Martin Kukowski: Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt: Tradition from the former Grand Duchy and the People's State of Hesse. Volume 3 , KG Saur, 1998, ISBN 3-598-23252-7
  24. ↑ Headlines from Bensheim on the 175th anniversary of the "Bergsträßer Anzeiger" 2007: "Frisches Birkengrün, wehende Fahnen", p. 66
  25. ↑ Headlines from Bensheim on the 175th anniversary of the "Bergsträßer Anzeiger". (PDF; 9.0 MB) The creation of the Bergstrasse district. 2007, p. 109 , archived from the original on October 5, 2016 ; Retrieved February 9, 2015 .
  26. ↑ . Ordinance on the implementation of the German Courts Constitution Act and the Introductory Act to the Courts Constitution Act of 14 May 1879 . In: Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine (ed.): Grand Ducal Hessian Government Gazette. 1879 no. 15 , p. 197–211 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 17.8 MB ]).
  27. ↑ Integration of municipalities into the municipality of Mörlenbach, Bergstrasse district of January 7, 1971 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1971 No. 4 , p. 141 , point 176 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 6.3 MB ]).
  28. ^ Municipal reform in Hesse: mergers and integrations of municipalities from June 21, 1971 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1971 No. 28 , p. 1117 , item 988; Paragraph 21. ( Online at the information system of the Hessian State Parliament [PDF; 5.0 MB ]).
  29. ↑ Karl-Heinz Meier barley, Karl Reinhard Hinkel: Hesse. Municipalities and counties after the regional reform. A documentation . Ed .: Hessian Minister of the Interior. Bernecker, Melsungen 1977, DNB  770396321 , OCLC 180532844 , p. 214 .
  30. ↑ main statute. (PDF; 59 kB) § 6. In: Website. Mörlenbach community, accessed April 2019 .
  31. ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. State of Hesse. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  32. ^ Grand Ducal Central Office for State Statistics (ed.): Contributions to the statistics of the Grand Duchy of Hesse . tape 1 . Großherzoglicher Staatsverlag, Darmstadt 1862, DNB  013163434 , OCLC 894925483 , p. 43 ff . ( Online at google books ).
  33. ^ Local elections 1972; Relevant population of the municipalities on August 4, 1972 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1972 No.  33 , p. 1424 , point 1025 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 5.9 MB ]).
  34. ↑ Local elections 1977; Relevant population figures for the municipalities as of December 15, 1976 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1976 No.  52 , p. 2283 , point 1668 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 10.3 MB ]).
  35. ^ Local elections 1985; Relevant population of the municipalities as of October 30, 1984 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1984 No.  46 , p. 2175 , point 1104 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 5.5 MB ]).
  36. ↑ local elections 1993; Relevant population of the municipalities as of October 21, 1992 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1992 No.  44 , p. 2766 , point 935 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 6.1 MB ]).
  37. ↑ Municipal data sheet : Mörlenbach. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Hessisches Gemeindelexikon. HA Hessen Agency GmbH ;
  38. ↑ The population of the Hessian communities on June 30, 2010. (PDF; 552 kB) Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, p. 11 , archived from the original on February 7, 2018 ; accessed on March 20, 2018 .
  39. ^ Result of the municipal election on March 6, 2016. Hessian State Statistical Office, accessed in April 2016 .
  40. ^ Result of the municipal elections on March 27, 2011. Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt.
  41. ^ Result of the municipal elections on March 26, 2006. Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt.
  42. ↑ Direct elections in Mörlenbach. Hessian State Statistical Office , accessed in December 2018 .
  43. ↑ Granting of the right to use a coat of arms to the municipality of Mörlenbach in the Bergstrasse district, Darmstadt administrative district on November 25, 1950 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1950 No. 50 , p. 521 , point 952 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 1,3 MB ]).
  44. ^ Mörlenbach community ( Memento from December 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  45. ^ Mörlenbach municipality