Sommerau (Eschau)

Sommerau Eschau market Coordinates: 49 ° 49 ′ 24 ″  N , 9 ° 15 ′ 10 ″  E
Height :	171 m above sea level NN
Incorporation :	May 1, 1978
Postal code :	63863
Area code :	09374
Location of Sommerau in Bavaria

Sommerau is a district of the Eschau market in the Miltenberg district in Bavaria . In 2015 Sommerau had around 950 inhabitants. The district of Sommerau with its moated castle includes not only the Schafhof but also the Hesselsmühle (the history of the Hesselsmühle goes back to the 15th century, when it was mentioned as "Haslismühle" in an inventory of the properties of the Barons von Fechenbach ) and the Neumühle ( former grinding and sawmill), built in 1862/63, - mostly called the goat hedge mill, which has developed into a small settlement with 4 other family houses. Up until the incorporation, the castle ( moated castle Oberaulenbach ) and forest Aulenbach belonged to Sommerau.

geography

Spessart map by Paul Pfinzing , Nuremberg, from 1562/1594

Sommerau ("Sumerau") in the map of the Spessart by Paul Pfinzing from 1594 (north is on the right)

Sommerau is located in the southwestern Bavarian part of the Spessart on the Elsava in the Bavarian Lower Main region. The place is on the state road 2308 ( German holiday route Alps – Baltic Sea ) between Obernburg ( B 469 ) and Mespelbrunn or from Hobbach on the state road 2317 to Dammbach and Rohrbrunn to ( A 3 ). Since Monday, July 17, 2017, car traffic has been rolling past Sommerau on the new bypass.

Sommerau is approx. 18 km from the district town Miltenberg , approx. 10 km from Obernburg am Main (former district town), approx. 25 km from Aschaffenburg , approx. 70 km from Frankfurt am Main and approx. 70 km from Würzburg .

history

Archaeological finds show that the region was already settled in the Neolithic period . The area around Eschau and Sommerau was settled more than 5000 years ago, as evidenced by ceramic (Bronze Age) grave finds northwest of Sommerau near Eichelsbach and towards Mönchberg towards Eschau . From pre-Franconian times there was probably no continuous settlement. For the period around 1600–700 BC A relatively dense settlement can be documented by barrows near Eichelsbach.

The Spessart has an eventful history. At first it was an imperial forest and mainly served hunting. As a result, the Archbishops of Mainz were the sovereigns for many centuries . Only from the 12th and 13th centuries did they tolerate the settlement of the Spessart. The Spessart was always ruled from outside. It was ruled by the Archdiocese of Mainz (→ History of the Diocese of Mainz ), the Hochstift Würzburg , as well as some smaller lords, such as the Counts of Rieneck .

Foundation of the place or first mention

The first, albeit indirect, mention of a castle or a residence in Sommerau is in a document from 1277. At that time, the knight Gernod, known as von Sommerau ("dictus de Sumerawe"), and his wife Jutta gave the Himmelthal monastery , in which her daughter Mechthild entered as a nun, taxes from her farm in Eschau ("Eschehe"). As the actual place name, Sommerau appears for the first time in a document from the same monastery from 1354 as "Summerawe" (see below - parish establishment ). It describes an area located in the south on the sunny side in the floodplain, that is, in the moist meadow.

Moated castle Sommerau in today's Eschau, northwest view

Entrance coat of arms on the Renaissance building: alliance coat of arms Fechenbach and Hettersdorf

Family tree of the Fechenbach family, from 1845

In the older literature, Eberhard von Fechenbach (Vechinbach) is considered to be the builder of the Sommerau Palace, who is said to have built the complex around 1143. However, for this claim made by Freiherr Friedrich Karl Konstantin von Fechenbach in 1891, no source can be found today. In his most recent article (2009) on the early history of the Sommerau Palace, the district home administrator Wolfgang Hartmann therefore raised justified doubts about this assignment. Erected in the middle of the 12th century, it would be one of the oldest aristocratic residences in the Spessart. The building of a Niederadelsburg in a valley floodplain at this time is theoretically conceivable, but in the Elsava Valley it hardly fits into the regional and local historical context. Rather, the early history of Sommerau is connected to the Archbishopric of Mainz on the one hand and the Counts of Rieneck on the other, i.e. with the two territorial powers that fought for supremacy in the Spessart in the 13th century. After taking office in 1259, Bishop Werner von Eppstein began to rigorously curtail the counts' claims to power. He had the castle Wildenstein near Eschau conquered and wrested the promise from the Rieneckers not to build any more castle or other fortifications in the western Spessart. Nevertheless, they began to build a fortification in Eschau in 1261. After the attempt at arbitration failed, the archbishop had the count's fortifications destroyed and in turn began building a castle in Eschau. After renewed negotiations, an agreement was reached between the brothers Ludwig, Gerhard and Heinrich von Rieneck and the Archbishop of Mainz: the counts agreed to renounce the construction of castles and in return Bishop Eppstein had his “castrum esche” dismantled. In 1271 the bitter struggle for rule in the Spessart was decided in favor of the Mainz archbishopric.

The depiction of the historical events suggests that there was no fortified structure beyond the Elsava at that time. So far there are no more detailed indications of the location of the “castrum esche”. Its location in the area of ​​the later moated castle on the Sommerau side appears questionable from the historical point of view .

Of great importance for the early history of Sommerau is the so-called Mainzer Koppelfutterverzeichnis (around / after 1250), a tax list for grazing rights granted by the rulers, which reflects the settlement conditions in the area in the middle of the 13th century. The latest research is no longer convinced that the place named “Sahsen” between Himmelthal and Eschau is to be equated with today's Sommerau. Rather, one sees a desolate, fallen settlement in the area where the old paths coming from Mönchberg, Streit and earlier also from Klingenberg meet the valley road. The corresponding reference to Eschau is "Escehe ex altera parte", that is, it was a part of the settlement "on the other side" (note: settlement on the right of the Elsava), which had to pay the feed. In the comparable towns of Faulbach and Altenbuch , the tax was only levied on the part that was on the Mainz side of the stream that legally separated the town. As later sources suggest, the older part of the settlement, i.e. the Eschau to the left of the Elsava, had been freed from paddock. The register and the connections clearly show that there was no place called Sommerau at that time and that the settlement to the right of the brook was still or was also called Eschau at that time.

The above-mentioned knight Gernod "von Sommerau" was a member of the knight family named after their nickname Kottwitz and at that time held the office of the Mainz vice cathedral in Aschaffenburg. The importance of the Aschaffenburg Vizedome for castle politics in the Spessart can also be seen in the nearby Mönchberg, as well as in the recently excavated Waldenberg Castle northwest of Sommerau. Soon after the submission of the Rieneckers in their dispute with the Mainz archbishopric, the castle of Sommerau was obviously built by Archbishop Werner von Eppstein and his vice dome Gernod Kottwitz, who then named himself after Sommerau. It is possible that the construction was already started under his predecessor in office, a certain Gozzo, who was probably also a Kottwitz, which would explain the division of the estate. The castle not only embodied the Mainzers' claims to power, but also represented a counter-position to the Wildenstein-Eschau-Himmelthal property complex of the Counts of Rieneck in the central Elsava valley. Obviously, Sommerau took over a spatially concentrated part of the functions that were originally intended for Wildenstein Castle should have been in the hands of Rienecker at the time of their destruction. Sommerau Castle was not built around 1143 by the Knights of Fechenbach, as previously assumed, but from or after 1271 by the Kottwitz in their capacity as Vice Cathedral of the Archbishop of Mainz. The chosen name "Sommerau" displaced the place name Eschau, which previously included the two parts of the settlement on the right and left of the Elsava, and restricted it to the mother settlement on the left of the stream and dominated by the Rieneckers.

19th to 20th century

Moated castle Oberaulenbach, northeast side, entrance area with stair tower, on the tower the coat of arms of Kottwitz von Aulenbach

Until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803, Sommerau belonged to the Mainz Electorate , then to the newly founded Principality of Aschaffenburg , which was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt in 1810 . In 1814 Sommerau came to the Kingdom of Bavaria . As a result of the wars of liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte following the Vienna Congress in 1814/15 had Bayern's Austrian gains in the Treaty of Munich largely give up again, but got to balance parts of the Palatinate and the Franconian areas around Wuerzburg and Aschaffenburg . In the course of the administrative reforms in Bavaria, the municipal edict of 1818 created the independent municipalities.

According to the Historical Atlas of Bavaria Unterfranken-Obernburg, Aulenbach Castle and Forest ( Oberaulenbach moated castle ) was separated from Hobbach (Obernburg Regional Court) on September 12, 1838 and Sommerau (Klingenberg Regional Court) was incorporated.

In 1862 the district office of Obernburg was formed, on whose administrative area Sommerau was located. As everywhere in the German Reich , the term district was introduced in 1939. Sommerau was now one of the 35 municipalities in the district of Obernburg am Main ( OBB license plate - possible again since January 15, 2018). With the dissolution of the district of Obernburg on July 1, 1972, Sommerau came to the newly formed district of Miltenberg (license plate MIL ).

With the commissioning of the Obernburg-Elsenfeld-Heimbuchenthal railway in January 1910, Eschau and Sommerau with the Eschau-Mönchberg train station and the Eschau-Sommerau stop were connected to the Main Valley.

Incorporation to Eschau

On May 1, 1978, the previously independent and farming community with the moated castle , the Schafhof (a former estate of the barons of Fechenbach / Aufseß, privately owned since 1955), the Hesselsmühle (with formerly 3 water wheels for Drive of grinding, oil and sawmill), the Neumühle (grinding and sawmill), usually called "Geißheckenmühle", built in 1862/63, after the mill was closed in 1964, restaurant - "Landgasthof Geißheckenmühle", and Oberaulenbach Castle , with approx. 450 hectares of forest and approx. 70 hectares of fields and meadows, incorporated into Eschau. At the time of incorporation, Sommerau had an agricultural area of ​​301 hectares and an area of ​​11 km².

History of the Hesselsmühle

The history of the Hesselsmühle goes back to the 15th century, when it was mentioned as "Haslismühle" in an inventory of properties owned by the Barons von Fechenbach . The Eschau pastor Karl Heinrich Caspari reported on the involvement of the Hesselsmüller Jakob Hock in the peasant uprisings of 1525 and the attack on Sommerau Castle that he initiated . The legend about Hesselsmüller and his allies in the peasant uprising can also be found in Valentin Pfeifer's “Spessart sagas” .

In the 16th century, there was evidence of the use of water in the form of a grain mill with a grinder, driven by an overshot water wheel with a diameter of over 3.5 m. With a second water wheel of the same size, an oil mill, which consisted of a ramming hammer, was operated via a transmission. A log about 4 m long with a diameter of about 30 cm was pulled up with water power to a certain point, at which it detached itself and crashed down onto the oil fruits, which lay on a thick stone slab. The plate was framed with a wooden box so that the rapeseed oil could be collected. On the side there was an outlet for the oil, which was then heated on an open fire and thus preserved. Finally, a third waterwheel drove a gate for cutting logs. With these three functions, the hydropower could be used all year round. As a grinding, oil and cutting mill, the Hesselsmühle passed into the possession of Franz Anton Baumann (1746–1814) in 1777 and was continued by his descendants for five generations. Who owned the Hesselsmühle up to 1777 would still be an interesting research task. Possibly. a Laimeister family comes into consideration. A “Laimeister” tombstone is located at the parish church in Sommerau with various dates (1666 to 1684).

Franz Anton Baumann was born in Reicholzheim and his first marriage to Maria Barbara geb. Hildebrand from Neunkirchen married. From the 2nd marriage (1801) with Eva, geb. Green (1776–1830) von der Geishöhe was the successor to Peter Baumann (1807–1888). He was married to Maria Anna geb. Neff (1805–1887) from Mönchberg . After that, the mill was operated by their son Jakob Sebastian Baumann (1850–1893). He married Maria, geb. Pfeifer (1858–1927) from Eichelsbach . After Jakob Sebastian, the son Anton Baumann (1879–1925) became a miller at the Hesselsmühle. In 1913 he married Emilie, b. Ackermann (1887–1976) from Sommerau. After her son Anton took over the mill, Maria Baumann, nee. Pfeifer in the so-called "Baumannshaus" in Sommerau, which belonged to the Baumann family.

The scope of the mill operation corresponded to a small company. Before the accidental death of Hesselsmüller Anton Baumann, the following people were employed: Anton Baumann was the boss and grain miller, Franz Happel from Krausenbach was the oil miller, Karl Happel from Sommerau was responsible for the sawmill, Heinrich Wolf from Roßbach was employed as a farmer and Klara Wolf was out Rossbach worked in the Hesselsmühle household.

After a fatal accident involving Hesselsmüller Anton Baumann on Nov. 24, 1925, the mill was no longer used. The widow Emilie Baumann married the farmer Heinrich Pfeifer (1885–1950), who was widowed at the end of 1928, in January 1930 and moved with her daughter Rosa Baumann into the Pfeifer house (“Thedors property”) in Sommerau.

For a few years (approx. 1930 to 1933) Emilie Baumann's twin brother Josef Ackermann (1887–1973) lived and managed the mill property with his family. In the population register of 1931 he is mentioned as a farmer and miller on the Hesselsmühle. But only grain was crushed. Josef Ackermann and Josefine, b. Zimmermann (1894–1982), who came from Hobbach, then took over his parents' farm in Hobbach.

In 1954 the Hesselmühle came into the possession of the Hermann Aichinger family (1899–1972) and Franziska, nee. Fuchs (1909-1966). Both came from the Upper Palatinate and had lived in the Hesselsmühle since their wedding in 1933. The eldest son Alfred Aichinger (1936–1993) and his wife Olga, b. Mützel (1935-2016) from Stettbach near Schweinfurt, opened an inn with a boarding house in 1966. Today the Hesselsmühle is owned by Manfred Aichinger and Bettina, nee. Kemmerer from Kleinkrotzenburg.

The water power plant was used to generate electricity until 1955. Alfred Aichinger had a water turbine installed, which replaced the water wheel. The company's own electricity generation from hydropower was replaced in 1974 by connection to the public power grid.

History of the Jewish Community

In Sommerau there was a small Jewish community in close connection with Eschau (1924: Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Eschau-Sommerau ) until 1934. Its origins go back to the 18th century. In the real shamatism of the Diocese of Würzburg from 1897, 30 in Sommerau, 32 in Eschau and 9 in Hobbach are named souls (residents) with an Israelite denomination.

In terms of facilities, the community in Sommerau had a synagogue (built around 1787), a room for religious instruction for children and probably also a ritual bath. The dead of the community were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Reistenhausen . In the second half of the 19th century, a religion teacher was employed in cooperation with Eschau and other neighboring towns, who was also active as a prayer and shochet, to take care of religious tasks for the community. From 1884 to 1937, Leopold Lehmann was responsible for Eschau, Sommerau, Hobbach and Mönchberg.

During the First World War, Hugo Rothschild (born April 16, 1888 in Sommerau, died December 17, 1914) and Adolf Strauss (born October 3, 1884 in Sommerau, died November 1, 1914) fell from the Jewish community (Sommerau).

In 1933 there were still seven Jewish people living in Sommerau, who in the following year - after the Jewish community of Sommerau was dissolved, were assigned to the community in Eschau. In 1935 the synagogue was sold to a private person. The building was converted into a residential building and still exists today (2018). In 1938 there were still two Jewish people on site who were arrested during the November 1938 pogrom. On May 17, 1939, there were no longer any Jewish residents in Sommerau.

Victims of the Nazi dictatorship

In the Third Reich were four Jewish inside citizens / deported : The couple Gustav and Flora Wolf from Sommerau lost their lives in eastern Poland, Jendele Marx from Eschau in the Theresienstadt concentration camp . Lina Mosbacher from Eschau had moved to a Jewish retirement home in Frankfurt am Main in 1934; from there she was deported to Theresienstadt and murdered in Treblinka. Since May 28, 2015, a memorial plaque on the historic town hall in Eschau has been commemorating the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. Other Jewish citizens had moved to other places and were able to save some of their lives by emigrating.

The (non-Jewish) Sommerau master tailor Adam Englert (born December 16, 1876), his wife Marcelle, née Tauty, was French, was arrested. He was suspected of espionage and declared a "professional criminal". First Adam was brought to the Dachau concentration camp , a few days later he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp (Austria), prisoner number 725; Adam Englert was murdered there on September 8, 1941. A memorial plaque of the gymnastics and sports club (TuSpo) Sommerau on the cemetery in Sommerau, next to the war memorial, has been commemorating Adam Englert, who was a founding member in 1919, later chairman and then honorary member of the gymnastics club Sommerau for two years.

Culture - sights

• Moated castle Sommerau with parks of the Barons von Fechenbach / Aufseß (today private)
• Gutshof der Kottwitz (from 1693 Freiherr von Mairhofen), courtyard wall with arched gate, gate and crowning lion, sandstone, marked 1581. Manor house, two-storey saddle roof building with plastered half-timbered upper storey, courtyard-side staircase with arched portal and coat of arms, sandstone marked 1575
• Former manor and administration building of the Barons von Fechenbach (16th century, extension 18th century) with park (today private)
• neo-Gothic parish church of St. Laurentius. It is the landmark of Sommerau and is popularly called "Spessart Cathedral". The architect was the Mainz cathedral master builder Ludwig Becker . The master builder was August Schnatz from Obernburg a. Main. The inauguration by Bamberg Auxiliary Bishop Adam Senger was on May 6, 1923.
• Half-timbered school house from 1822 (today private)
• Profaned parish church of St. Laurentius, which originated in the 14th century. The listed building is in decline.
• Moated castle Oberaulenbach and the former commercial and administrative buildings of the aristocratic local lords

See also : Monuments in Sommerau

Sights in the area

• Numerous attractions worth seeing are nearby, for example. B. the castle ruins Wildenstein , the moated castle Mespelbrunn , the district town Miltenberg , the wine town Klingenberg am Main , the former district town Obernburg am Main and Aschaffenburg with its diverse sights.

Hiking trails

Some circular hiking trails, laid out and signposted by the local hiking clubs, lead through Sommerau and the neighboring Eschau. A long-distance hiking trail also leads through the Sommerau district.

Catholic parish / churches of St. Laurentius

The parish of St. Laurentius Sommerau (individual parish) with the branch in Hobbach and the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary , as well as the Old Church of St. John the Baptist, belong to the dean's office in Obernburg in the diocese of Würzburg . Sommerau is the seat of the Catholic rectory and the pastor. From January 1977 until his retirement at the end of October 2018, Otto Halk was pastor in the parish of St. Laurentius. Pastor Franz Leipold, head of the parish community "Sankt Wendelinus Röllbach", has also been appointed parish administrator of the individual parish Sommerau with effect from November 1, 2018.

Sommerau has two churches. The new parish church and the old profane parish church, originally 14th century.

• 

  New parish church of St. Laurentius

• 

  Old secular parish church of St. Laurentius 14th century

• 

  Old branch church of St. John the Baptist (Hobbach)

Parish establishment

Probably in 1330 the noble lords of Fechenbach founded their own parish in Sommerau, to which the branches Eichelsbach , Kinzbach (lost / died out by the plague - probably already in the 16th century) and Hobbach belonged. The Synod of Kleinwallstadt around 1333 sealed the final separation from the mother parish of Kleinwallstadt . Up to 1683 there is only a few information about the development of the parish of Sommerau, its pastors and churches in various sources.

A "Pastor Ulrich in Summerawe" mentioned in a document on June 11, 1354 confirms the existence of a local parish church at that time. Around 1379, Sommerau was permanently named as the parish seat. A pastor Ullrich Mynner (or Meyner), priest of Aschaffenburg and pleban (folk priest ) in Sommerau, appears in 1379 as guarantor for the vicar Philemon Barth. He died on August 16, 1380.

Old parish church of St. Laurentius

New and old parish church St. Laurentius Sommerau (Photo 2019)

The secular former Catholic parish church of St. Laurentius in Sommerau from the 14th century , dilapidated (photo 2009)

Profaned parish church of St. Laurentius, originally 14th century. The listed building is in decline. A future use as a columbarium is currently being discussed.

“The old church is a first-rate historical testimony for the Elsava Valley and deserves a more detailed study of the building history. Restoration, especially under one roof, is urgently required. ”That is the summary of the expertise of architect Heinrich Kaupp from Aschaffenburg in 1984. After a site inspection in 2006, conservator Dr. Christian Dümler from the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation in July 2007 to the Lower Monument Protection Authority in the Miltenberg District Office that the old church was "of great importance in terms of local and regional history".

The old parish church of St. Laurentius has a gable roof and is covered with hand-painted plain tiles. Above the west gable end wall, the building has a sliding gable turret with a pointed helmet over triangular gables. There is a tower cross with a weathercock on the tower, and a sandstone cross above the east gable. The interior of the house shows Gothic forms, with ribbed vaults in the choir. The grooved ribs rest on circular services that grow out of the ground without a base. The choir is separated from the nave by a rounded choir arch wall. On the east gable end wall of the choir there is a pointed arch window with a straight reveal, strict tracery in two parts with four-part division, above the side parts three-part division, with straight reveal (bricked up from the inside, but visible from the outside), above a round window; On the west gable end wall, next to the former entrance / entrance to the gallery, there is a one-piece Gothic pointed arch window with a sloping reveal. The remaining windows, two on a window axis in the nave, one on the west side of the choir. They are arched windows with a rectangular sandstone profile. In addition, there are two vertically offset elliptical windows, so-called "ox eyes", symmetrically opposite each other in the nave. The nave has a flat ceiling with a joist, it is geometrically patterned with profiled strips. The choir and nave have a grooved eaves, the former higher. On the west gable front wall, clearly recognizable, the roof was raised in 1733 to the height of the choir. The previous ridge height was retained. This increase was necessary in order to gain additional space through the installation of a gallery. The main entrance on the west side has an ogival shape with sandstone walls. A second door is located on the south side of the choir, opposite the door to the former sacristy, it has a straight end. The inside dimensions are approx. L ~ 17 m, B ~ 7 m. The wall thicknesses are approx. 0.75-0.85 m, resulting in external dimensions: L ~ 18.50 m, B ~ 8.50 m. The eaves height is ~ 7.50 m.

Probably around 1900, the plans to expand the old church began under Pastor Ernst Ankenbrand, Pastor from 1899 to 1902, and then under Pastor Nikolaus Schnall (1872–1948), who was Pastor in Sommerau from 1902 to 1920. The cathedral builder Ludwig Becker from Mainz was commissioned. Pastor Schnall later favored a new building, but the question of location had to be clarified first. In 1910 the expansion plans were finally abandoned and the church administration decided to plan a new building, which was commissioned by the same builder in 1911.

New parish church of St. Laurentius

Parish church St. Laurentius Sommerau, entrance facade, staircase. Photo 2016

The New Parish Church of St. Laurentius , built in neo-Gothic style, is popularly known as the “Cathedral in Spessart” .

Building history

The construction of the church began under Pastor Nikolaus Schnall (1872–1948) in the spring of 1913; the earthworks were done in 1912. The planner and architect was the Mainz cathedral builder Ludwig Becker . Due to the First World War, the construction work was stopped at the beginning of August 1914, because most of the construction workers and the building master builder August Schnatz (1872–1973) from Obernburg were drafted into military service. The building could not be completed until the beginning of the 1920s under Pastor Raphael Hahn (1883–1925). The inauguration by the Bamberg Auxiliary Bishop Adam Senger took place on May 6th, 1923. The major redesign of the choir space required by the Second Vatican Council took place in 1980 under the direction of the architect Heinrich P. Kaupp from Aschaffenburg. The sculptor Julian Walter from Werneck-Vasbühl created a new sandstone altar, ambo and sediments (seats) in the chancel . The consecration of the new altar took place on May 4, 1980 by the Würzburg Bishop Paul-Werner Scheele . For the 90th anniversary of the consecration in 2013, the altar area was redesigned again under the direction of the architect Helmut Becker (1935–2017) from Klingenberg and now offers more space.

architecture

The two staircases on the entrance side are decorated with sandstone pedestals and create a harmonious overall picture. Epitaphs of the Barons von Fechenbach and a civil tombstone are attached to the right outside of the church. In front of the main portal there is a small entrance porch supported by 4 pillars; above it is a mighty tracery rosette.

The church itself is built in the shape of a cross, although the transept is not very clearly visible. The chancel adjoins the transept and consists of a hexagonal choir and an extension in front of it, in which the two side altars are set up. The higher-lying choir is separated from the extension by a tapered arched choir wall with red sandstones. This is followed by the nave, which, in addition to the already mentioned transept, also includes the large central nave and two narrow aisles.

window

Parish church of St. Laurentius Sommerau, St. Cäcilia in the rose window

The windows of the church have gothic shapes, they are pointed arches and are decorated with tracery . In the nave and choir they are the same size. Some, like the windows in the transept and left and right of the main altar, contain stained glass by the Mainz artist Bernhard Kraus , depicting the life of Jesus . These motif windows have donor entries. The remaining windows (until October 2017) had simple rectangular panes framed with lead and only show colored glazing at the level of the tracery. The original colored glazing was replaced on 5 windows during the first renovation in 1951 in order to get more light into the interior of the church. In October 2017 these 5 windows were redesigned based on the pattern of the small windows next to the main entrance and in the tower. A window half as high with colorful ornamental glazing in the original (around 1920) has been preserved on the gallery below the roof turret. Under the gallery, at the side entrance, there is a smaller double window, in the niches to the left and right of the main entrance there are also smaller pointed arch windows, all with tracery and colored ornamental glazing; There is one at the same height in the tower. Both entrance portals are adorned with pointed arches with tracery and ornamental glazing. A striking feature of the "Spessart Cathedral" is the very beautiful colored rose window on the entrance side. It depicts St. Cecilia , the patron saint of church music.

Interior decoration

The interior was taken over from the old church in 1926. The three baroque altars date from 1733. The new altars that had been ordered could no longer be realized as a result of the First World War. The decision to build a new organ in 1923 also failed to materialize due to inflation.

The high altar in the choir has two altar leaves. The lower one depicts Christ on the cross with assistant figures. It is surrounded by three columns, each in front of which a statue of a saint is placed: on the left St. Lawrence the patron saint with the grate and on the right St. Catherine of Alexandria with the sword. This is followed by a structure with a round picture showing God the Father; it is framed by two small pillars. The structure is crowned by a statue of St. George on horseback with a dragon between gables on which angels sit. Immediately above the main picture is the coat of arms of the Barons von Fechenbach.

The two side altars have roughly the same structure: the altarpiece is each framed by two columns. Above that there is an attachment with a round picture between the gable pieces. Angel putti sit on the gables . On the left side altar there is a figure of Mary with a baby Jesus on the left arm (around 1490). The statue was sold from the old church to Michael Wolz in Röllbach in 1868, during which time Eduard Wolz from Röllbach was pastor in Sommerau. Pastor Joseph Ball was able to win back the original in 1953. The figure was restored by Leonhard Stock from Lohr - Sendelbach after the original paint was found and was returned to the church on December 8, 1953. Above is a depiction of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus (Thérèse von Lisieux) by Carl Clobes from Tückelhausen . The right side altar showed a statue of St. Joseph as a carpenter, which was acquired from Oberammergau in 1980 . The picture above, also by Carl Clobes, shows St. Aloisius von Gonzaga .

The baptismal font , which also comes from the old church, is placed in front of the left side altar ; a basin hunched on a baluster base with the coat of arms of the barons of Fechenbach on the base and the year 1669. The font is made of red sandstone and has a modern copper lid.

In the transept, on the left side, there is a statue of Mary (around 1510), on the right opposite a statue of St. John Nepomuk (around 1740).

On the front side in the right aisle, a replica of the famous was after renovation in 2013 Hallgartener "Schröter Madonna" set (original 1420), it originates as well as the Sacred Heart statue on the front of the left side of the ship from the workshop of the sculptor Adam Winter from Mainz - Kastel . Both of the original clay-colored figures, obtained around 1952, have had a color version since the church was renovated in 2013. The two holy water kettles under the gallery at the main entrance with Old Testament representations and motifs also come from Adam Winter: Moses on the rock, beating water from it; Naaman the Syrian , climbing into the purifying Jordan. Among them the passage through the Red Sea and the Pauline passage from the waiting of creation, which refers to the water and means the longing for salvation and sanctification.

The Way of the Cross , whose origin is unknown, has very beautiful carved frames, which presumably also come from the former wood carving school in Wintersbacher Neuhammer .

After the renovation of the sanctuary in 2013, only 4 individual parts of the ensemble of the former communion bench, decorated with Eucharistic symbols, can be seen, on which stands for sacrificial lights were attached. It also comes from the workshops of the then wood carving school in Wintersbach, as does the confessional and the cheeks of the pews, some of which are marked with a donor entry in the central aisle.

organ

The organ with 19 sounding voices and a transmission register , divided into 2 manuals and a pedal, was built in 1938 by the Wilhelm Bader company in Hardheim. It replaced the organ that was built by Balthasar Schlimbach (1807-1896) around 1863 . This was previously in the old Sommerau parish church “St. Laurentius ”. From Sommerau it came to Mespelbrunn in the Spessart (Diocese of Würzburg). After the construction of the new church in Mespelbrunn, it was acquired by the Diocese of Trier in 1976 and stored in a warehouse. In 1985 the organ was brought to Niederweis, where it was restored and placed on a specially built gallery in the small neo-Gothic village church of St. Johannes Evangelist . Niederweis is a municipality in the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the community of southern Eifel .

Bells

The first bell was purchased in 1923 for the dedication of the church. With the exception of the smallest, these bells were melted down for armament purposes during World War II. The 4 bells from 1952, from the Karl Czudnochowsky (formerly Joseph Bachmair) bell foundry - Erdinger bell foundry - in Erding, with a strike tone - d - f - g - a - result in the saying: "GIVE YOUR PEACE TO ALL". In technical terms, the ringing falls under the "harmonic-melodic dispositions" - and is referred to as the "prefatory motif".

The big bell, consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, bears the inscription “I sing the love of God”; on the second bell, consecrated to the Mother of God, it reads “I bring the salvation of men”; the third, dedicated to the holy patron saint Lawrence, bears the words “I proclaim the protection of the Most High”. On the fourth bell, consecrated to St. Michael the Archangel, it says “I guide your souls”.

school

Old school house

The / the renovated property tax register from 1856 provides information about the school building. There you can read that a new schoolhouse was built in place of the demolished school and shepherd's house in 1822. The old school building is a listed building. It is an eaves-standing two-storey half-timbered house above a massive unplastered basement slope with sandstone frames. It stands right next to the parish church of St. Laurentius and served as a schoolhouse (elementary school) with a teacher's apartment and town hall until February 1959, after which it became privately owned.

New school house

With the groundbreaking on September 17, 1957, construction work began on the new schoolhouse. The foundation stone was laid on November 3, 1957 and the topping-out ceremony was celebrated on November 29, 1957. In February 1959, the new school was ready to move into during the six months. The building was inaugurated on February 15, 1959. In 1998 the school was given up and the school house was converted into a village community center. Since then, the children in all parts of the Eschau market have been attending the “Valentin Pfeifer School”, a primary and secondary school in Eschau.

graveyard

The cemetery in Sommerau was originally laid out directly around the former parish church of St. Laurentius. In 1835 a new cemetery was built above the church. This was expanded in 1970 and a morgue was built. The war memorial erected on the old church in 1956 was removed again in 1970 and integrated into the morgue.

Personalities

Valentin Pfeifer (1763–1840), born in Sommerau (picture owned by the Pfeifer family)

Pfeifer grave in Frankfurt - Won B - No. 128 - after restoration in July 2019

• Valentin Pfeifer (1763–1840) was born in Sommerau and came from the second marriage (1756) of farmer Johannes Pfeifer (1722–1794) and his wife Anna Maria, née Weber (1735–1810) from Laudenbach am Main. After attending secondary school in Miltenberg and studying in Mainz , he was employed as a child teacher with Baron von Harff ( Dreiborn Castle ) near Monschau / Eifel . Valentin emigrated to Holland in 1786, at the age of 23, and established himself as a merchant and shipowner in Amsterdam . In January 1797 he married Maria Agnes née Weyll (1772-1856), daughter of the Cologne ranger Johann Christian Weyll (1724-1798) and Anna Katharina Weyll née Hofbauer (1732-1819) from Mainz. Valentin spent his retirement with his family in Frankfurt am Main and on their estate in Oberrad ; both are buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main. The grave site (Gewann B - No. 128) was restored in 2019 by the M. Pfeifer family and is a listed building ( list of cultural monuments at the main cemetery in Frankfurt ). Since April 24, 2019, a memorial has been dedicated to the emigrant and the equally successful descendants and benefactors of the parish of Sommerau at the cemetery in Sommerau.
• Johann Joseph Pfeifer (1776–1856), owner of a rural farm estate - brother of the above. Valentin P. - was a colorful personality. As a 24-year-old, he had already traveled to Vienna with the mayor of Sommerau, Johann Georg Fuchs, in order to enforce forest rights in the place against the Fechenbach landlords before the Reichshofrat. In 1810 he became a summer delegate in the electoral college of the estates of the newly created Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. In the Erlenbacher Chronik he is named as one of the community's creditors during the French era. In 1820 he auctioned with business acumen that once the monastery Himmelthal associated Jesuitical in Eichelsbach .
• Elmar Freiherr von Haxthausen was born on October 2, 1839 in Neisse / Silesia (now Poland ). He was in the Prussian army. At the age of 33 he said goodbye, came to Sommerau as a privateer in 1872 and bought the former administration building of the Barons von Fechenbach. The amateur archaeologist was a serious scientist for the time. Haxthausen lived in Sommerau from 1872 to 1897. He died on August 7, 1910 in Darmstadt .

First cover picture of the Spessart magazine from 1906

• Richard Wehsarg (1862–1946), from 1897 doctor and medical adviser in Sommerau. He was born in Hillesheim near Oppenheim. Before he settled in Sommerau, he ran a sanatorium, the so-called “Kuranstalt”, in the buildings of the Hobbach iron hammer, which was closed in 1888, in the “Villa Elsava”. In his house opposite the palace in Sommerau, which he bought from Baron Elmar von Haxthausen in 1897, Dr. Wehsarm a doctor's practice and a sanatorium. He founded the monthly magazine "Spessart" in 1906 and was its editor for several years. He was also a driving force behind the construction of the so-called Elsavatal Railway . Richard Wehsarg and his wife Mary b. Wagner (1857–1920), who was born in St. Louis (USA) and came to Wehsarg as a patient, are buried in the cemetery in Sommerau. A street in Sommerau reminds of him.
• Nikolaus Schnall (1872–1948), pastor in Sommerau from 1902 to 1920. During his time in Sommerau, the planning and construction of the new parish church of St. Laurentius fell. A street in Sommerau reminds of him. Nikolaus Schnall came from Röllbach ; he died in Zeuzleben near Werneck in 1948 . He was buried in the cemetery in Röllbach.
• Dr. Karl Pfeifer (1892–1944), formerly prefect at the Aschaffenburg study seminar, was introduced on September 26, 1926 as the first pastor of St. Josef (Aschaffenburg) . First of all, social facilities such as a kindergarten, nursing station and handicraft school were built or set up. The church was built in 1928/29. In the devastating bomb attack on November 21, 1944, in which the Damm district was almost completely destroyed, the parish church of St. Josef and the rectory were also destroyed. Pastor Pfeifer, having come out of the air raid shelter, shouted at the sight of the destruction: "Oh, my beautiful church!" And collapsed dead. He was buried in the priest's grave in Sommerau.
• Karl Frieß (1900–1976), was born on October 25, 1900 as the fourth of seven children of the farmer and long-time mayor of Sommerau, Vinzenz Frieß, and his wife Anna. Frieß was ordained a priest on June 29, 1925. After various positions as chaplain, Karl Frieß was pastor in Goldbach, then pastor in Heimbuchenthal until he fell ill. Then he lived in his parents' house in his home town of Sommerau until his death on October 22, 1976; here he was buried in the priest's grave.
• Othmar Weis (1908–1989) was born in Sommerau on October 23, 1908 as the third of six children of the master tailor couple Joseph and Klara Weis. Weis was ordained a priest on March 11th in Mainz Cathedral . Among other things, he was Subregens in the seminary and from 1944 to 1976 diocesan Caritas director. Prelate Othmar Weis, died on June 1, 1989 in Mainz; he is buried at Mainz Cathedral.
• Franz Roth (1912–1981) was born in Sommerau as the youngest of four sons of the master baker couple Karl and Agnes Roth. Roth was ordained a priest on February 28, 1937 in Würzburg. Among other things, he was pastor in Krombach and Bad Brückenau; there he was dean for 10 years. In 1967 Roth became the first pastor of the newly founded parish of St. Pius (Aschaffenburg) . Pastor Franz Roth (clergyman) died on January 6, 1981 in Aschaffenburg and was buried in the parish church of St. Pius.
• Oskar Hagemann (1888–1984), best known as a portrait painter , lived and worked from 1917 to autumn 1920 in the Sommerau Palace. The “environment” was not enough for a longer residency. His wife Gertrud (Gertel) Stamm-Hagemann (1891–1939) was also artistically and literary. She is the author of the little book "Muschik - From the life of a horse". This story, which takes place in Sommerau and the surrounding area, was published in Baden-Baden after her death in 1940. In December 1919, Oskar Hagemann was a co-founder of the Sommerau gymnastics club .
• Gabrielle Jesberger-Günther (* 1947) comes from Sommerau; Author of biographical novels ( Dear Life, Mary and the Mysterious Painting ).
• Hans Jürgen Fahn (* 1952) comes from Sommerau. Until 2008 he worked as a high school teacher at the Hermann-Staudinger-Gymnasium in Erlenbach am Main . Dr. Fahn is a politician for the Free Voters and was a member of the Bavarian State Parliament from October 2008 to September 2018 .

Honorary citizen

Valentin Pfeifer (1837–1909), honorary citizen of Sommerau, around 1865

• Kommerzienrat Valentin Pfeifer (1837–1909), owner of the Pfeifer & Langen sugar factory in Cologne, supported with his siblings Maria Agnes Hoesch (1834–1920), Eugen Pfeifer (1848–1915) and Johanna von Gescher (1857–1934) in 1906 , with generous donations in memory of grandfather Valentin Pfeifer (1763–1840), who was born in Sommerau in 1763, the construction of the New Sommerau parish church of St. Laurentius. In 1907 he was made an honorary citizen of the community of Sommerau. A memorial in the Sommerau cemetery has been commemorating the benefactors since April 24, 2019 . Valentin Pfeifer and his wife Hedwig, née Matzerath (1843–1911), are buried in the cemetery near the church of Alt St. Martin in Muffendorf / Bad Godesberg (today Bonn ). The grave site is looked after by the family and is a protected nature and monument.

Memorial at the cemetery in Sommerau, erected on April 24, 2019

Valentin Pfeifer (1886–1964), born in Sommerau, honorary citizen of Sommerau, around 1950

• The teacher, folklorist and local writer Valentin Pfeifer was born in Sommerau in 1886. For many years he was a teacher at the Luitpold School in Aschaffenburg and most recently Rector at the elementary school in Aschaffenburg-Damm . In addition, he was a collector, author and narrator of fairy tales, stories and sagas that took place in the Spessart. In 1956 he became an honorary citizen of the community of Sommerau. In the Aschaffenburg district of Damm and in Sommerau a street is named after him. The elementary school (elementary and middle school) in Eschau bears his name. Valentin P. died in Aschaffenburg in 1964; he is buried in a grave of honor at the forest cemetery in Aschaffenburg (Winning C 10).
• Peter Seubert (1908-2001) was pastor in the parish of St. Laurentius Sommerau from 1957 to 1975. With his active assistance, the new rectory was built in Sommerau in the late 1950s and the new church of the Visitation of Mary in Hobbach from 1963-64. He became an honorary citizen of the communities of Sommerau and Hobbach in 1975 and 1976, respectively. Pastor Seubert is buried in the priest's grave at the cemetery in Sommerau.
• Otto Halk has been a pastor in the parish “St. Laurentius “Sommerau and pastor since 1977. Halk was founded in 1971 by Diocesan Bishop Dr. Josef Stangl ordained a priest. On November 10, 2013, at the age of 70, he became an honorary citizen of the Eschau market. Halk has been retired since November 2018.

Joke verse

"In Sommerau there the sky is blue, there the billy goat is dancing with his wife."

literature

• Felix Mader : The art monuments of Bavaria . Lower Franconia XXIII. District Office Obernburg. Verlag R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1925 (Unchanged reprint. Ibid 1981, ISBN 3-486-50477-0 ).
• Gertraud Speth: Monuments in Eschau, Sommerau, Oberaulenbach and Hobbach. Admission thesis University of Würzburg, 1976.
• Karl Appel: Eschauer Heimatbuch 1985 - 700 years Markt Eschau. Edited by Markt Eschau and Raiffeisenbank Eschau, self-published, 1985.
• Würzburg Diocesan History Sheets (PDF; 2.3 MB), Volume 57, special edition, 1995, Diocese of Würzburg, pp. 107–145 (publications by Prof. Dr. Dr. Dieter Feineis)
• Otto Pfeifer: Historical house book of Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim (ed.): Markt Eschau, self-published, 2010.
• Otto Pfeifer: The history of the parish and the churches of St. Laurentius Sommerau. Hinckel-Druck, Wertheim (ed.): Markt Eschau, self-published, 2012.
• Otto Pfeifer: Church leader St. Laurentius Sommerau. Self-published, 2014.
• Otto Pfeifer: Chronicle of the Pfeifer Sommerau family. Self-published, 2017.
• Baruch Zvi Ophir, Falk Wiesemann : The Jewish communities in Bavaria 1918–1945. Publisher R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1979.
• Peter Körner: Biographical manual of the Jews in the city and old district of Aschaffenburg. Publications of the History and Art Association Aschaffenburg, Volume 39, Aschaffenburg 1993, ISBN 3-87965-062-4 .
• Wolfgang Kraus, Hans-Christoph Dittscheid, Gury Schneider-Ludorff in connection with Meier Schwarz (ed.): More than stones ... Synagogue memorial volume Bavaria. Part III / 1: Lower Franconia, Kunstverlag Josef Fink, ISBN 978-3-89870-449-6 (Volume III / 1)

Web links

Commons : Eschau (Unterfranken)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of the Jewish community in Sommerau
• http://www.otto-pfeifer.de/ (private homeland researcher in Sommerau)
• Entry on Sankt Johannes Evangelist - Organ (Niederweis) in the database of cultural assets in the Trier region .
• Spessartagen - The Schafhofbauer
• Spessartagen - The Hesselsmüller
• Spessartagen - Schloss Sommerau
• Spessartagen - From the Ambeditchen
• Spessartagen - The Hochkreuz between Sommerau and Roßbach
• Spessartagen - The Kinzbachfraache
• Spessartagen - the sheep thief
• Sommerau in the location database of the Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online . Bavarian State Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Hartmann: On the early history of Sommerau and his moated castle In: Spessart, July 2009, pp. 3–11.
2. ↑ http://www.spessartprojekt.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/KW-Eschau-1-Taf-4.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.spessartprojekt.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/KW-Eschau-2-Taf-04.pdf
4. ^ Karl Appel: Eschauer Heimatbuch 1985 - 700 years Markt Eschau, p. 247.
5. ↑ http://www.otto-pfeifer.de/ (private homeland researcher in Sommerau)
6. ↑ See old Laurentiuskirche in Sommerau to save from decay , article in Main-Echo , accessed on August 17, 2016.
7. ↑ http://www.historischerverein.de/aktuelles/2018/Glasmalereien.pdf (by Roland Bappert, Zeuzleben)
8. ↑ Hermann Fischer: Organs of the Bavarian Lower Main Region, Aschaffenburg History and Art Association, 2004.
9. ↑ http://glocken.reduts.net/mainframe.php?go=dispositionen
10. ↑ Alexander Karpf: Von Sommerau in die Welt In: Spessart, May 2019, pp. 6-15.
11. ↑ L. Tomczik: Oscar and Gertel Hagemann in Sommerau. In: Spessart (online), Aschaffenburg July 2008, pp. 21 + 23 ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ^ Oskar Hagemann in the Stadtwiki Karlsruhe
13. ↑ Alexander Karpf: Von Sommerau in die Welt In: Spessart, May 2019, pp. 6-15.