Waltenheim-sur-Zorn
| Waltenheim-sur-Zorn | ||
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| region | Grand Est | |
| Department | Bas-Rhin | |
| Arrondissement | Saverne | |
| Canton | Bouxwiller | |
| Community association | Pays de la Zorn | |
| Coordinates | 48 ° 45 ' N , 7 ° 38' E | |
| height | 147-258 m | |
| surface | 5.04 km 2 | |
| Residents | 664 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 132 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 67670 | |
| INSEE code | 67516 | |
 Entrance |
||
Waltenheim-sur-Zorn (German Waltenheim an der Zorn ) is a French commune with 664 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Bas-Rhin department in the Grand Est region (until 2015 Alsace ). Since January 1, 1997, it has been part of the Communauté de communes du Pays de la Zorn in a merger with 25 other towns .
geography
Geographical location
Waltenheim-sur-Zorn lies - equidistant from the eastern edge of the Vosges and the Rhine - in the valley of the Zorn . The place is on the canton border between Brumath and Hochfelden . The rural settlement spreads out at different heights on the flank of the 258 meter high Gibsberg and is protected by a 120 meter wide flood zone on the south bank of the Zorn. The Gibsberg or Holzberg represents a northern branch of the Kochersberg ridge .
Transport links
The station on the Paris – Strasbourg line in the neighboring town of Mommenheim , 1.7 km away, gives Waltenheim-sur-Zorn a connection to the French rail network. Regional buses connect him.
The road D 332 leads through the village.
Parallel to the Zorn, the Canal de la Marne au Rhin ( Rhine-Marne Canal ) runs directly past Waltenheim. The artificial waterway, which is mostly used by sport boaters today, comes from Saverne to the west and changes its course markedly towards the southeast and Strasbourg shortly after Waltenheim-sur-Zorn . The lock at Waltenheim allows recreational boaters to stop on the round trip on the Moselle and Rhine , also known as the Sauerkrauttour .
population
Population development
| 1798 | 1962 | 1968 | 1975 | 1982 | 1990 | 1999 | 2007 | 2012 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 452 | 544 | 522 | 518 | 551 | 601 | 642 | 720 | 669 | 664 |
Population composition
In 1999 59.1% of Waltenheimers were married, 4.9% divorced, 26.2% unmarried and 9.8% widowed. Of 309 people of working age, 4.5% were unemployed and 95.1% were employed. Around half of all Waltenheim residents are retired.
history
Name and coat of arms
There are several explanations for the place name. On the one hand it could go back to a dwelling place ( home ) of the Waldo , on the other hand the name could mean wooded dwelling place . The forest wealth of earlier centuries must have been great, because Waltenheim was known for its firewood trade until the 20th century.
A document from 1147, however, shows a Walctenheim , Walchenheim . The place name mutates occasionally to Waltikhofe . It is shortened to Walten , Waltne and finally the designation Waldenheim and Waltenheim prevails .
prehistory
Excavations on the Gibsberg unearthed finds from the Neolithic and Bronze Age , which point to early settlements in the area.
High Middle Ages
The oldest surviving documentary mention of the place comes from 889, when the East Franconian King Arnulf of Carinthia transferred the Franconian royal estate Bruochmagat in Elisatia to the imperial abbey of Lorsch . This was Brumath in Alsace , the former Roman and Carolingian administrative and ruling center.
Bruochmagat was richly endowed with churches and secular buildings, with riding at court and all serfs of both sexes, with lands and fields, planted and fallow fields, meadows, pastures, forests, ponds and streams, mills, fish ponds, with all the vineyards, paths, paths, Exporting and importing streets with movable and immovable, fixed or yet to be determined property and everything that justifiably belongs to the aforementioned court. This extensive country complex, to which Waltenheim also belonged, was recorded in the Lorsch Codex in the 12th century .
Late Middle Ages
In 1236 Emperor Friedrich II transferred the entire imperial abbey to the Archbishopric of Mainz . The archbishops of Mainz first gave the village as a fief to the Counts of Werd and in 1332 to the Lords of Lichtenberg , who assigned it to their office in Brumath . Around 1330 there was a first division of land between Johann II. Von Lichtenberg , from the older line of the house, and Ludwig III. from Lichtenberg . Waltenheim fell into the part of the property that was managed by the older line in the future. In 1378 they sold half of the village to Ulrich von Finstingen. The half sold was obviously bought back at a later date, because the place is later entirely owned by the Lords of Lichtenberg.
For their part, the Lichtenbergers took vassals from the lower nobility into their service. Two knightly families named themselves after their place of residence on the Zorn von Waltenheim :
- In 1255 a knight Heinrich and his uncle Rudolf are mentioned as those of Waltenheim, called von Mühlhausen . They served the diocese of Strasbourg and the Lords of Lichtenberg:
- In 1316 another representative of the von Waltenheim family is mentioned as Lichtenberger Burgmann zu Brumath. This branch of the family received fiefs from the diocese of Strasbourg, the Lords of Lichtenberg, later the Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg and those of Ettendorf. The headquarters in Waltenheim were destroyed in 1365 by the Strasbourgers in the course of a military conflict. The von Waltenheim family died out at the beginning of the 16th century. The last mention of this family in a document dates from 1508.
Anna von Lichtenberg (* 1442; † 1474), one of Ludwig V's two heirs, married Count Philip I the Elder of Hanau-Babenhausen (* 1417; † 1480) in 1458, who had a small secondary school from the County of Hanau had received in order to be able to marry her. The county of Hanau-Lichtenberg came into being through the marriage . After the death of the last Lichtenberger, Count Jakob, one of Anna's uncle, Philip I d. Ä. In 1480 half of the Lichtenberg rule, the other half went to his brother-in-law, Simon IV. Wecker von Zweibrücken-Bitsch . The Brumath office was initially a condominium between Hanau-Lichtenberg and Zweibrücken-Bitsch. Under the government of Count Philip III. From Hanau-Lichtenberg there was then a real division: The Brumath office came entirely to Zweibrücken-Bitsch. In contrast, the Willstätt office , which also came from the Lichtenberg legacy and was a condominium between the two houses, was transferred entirely to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg.
Early modern age
However, there was another inheritance in 1570, which also brought the office of Brumath and thus the village of Waltenheim to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg: Count Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch (* 1510; † 1570) and his brother Simon V. Wecker , who had died in 1540, left behind only one daughter each as heiress. Count Jakob's daughter, Margarethe (* 1540; † 1569), was married to Philipp V von Hanau-Lichtenberg (* 1541; † 1599). The legacy resulting from this constellation also included the second half of the former rule of Lichtenberg, which was not already ruled by Hanau-Lichtenberg, and included the office of Brumath with Waltenheim. In 1570, the ruling Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg carried out the Reformation in Waltenheim as well , in the Lutheran version, whereby Protestant pastors are said to have worked in Waltenheim as early as 1557 .
As a result of France's reunion policy , the Amt Brumath and the village of Waltenheim also fell under French sovereignty in 1680. From 1686 this led to the town's biconfessionalism : The church became a simultaneum , that is, Protestants and Catholics shared the only church in the town.
The Thirty Years War had a devastating effect in the village: From 320 inhabitants in 1590, the number of inhabitants fell to less than a hundred by the next census in 1653. The region was depopulated and devastated. The Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg summoned settlers from those parts of Europe that had been spared from the war, from Switzerland , Savoy , Vorarlberg and Tyrol . Waltenheim-sur-Zorn began to revive with the arrival of Swiss immigrants. The fallow land was cultivated again and the village rebuilt. Trade and handicrafts recovered, and the population grew steadily over several decades. In 1778 the village had 342 inhabitants again, including 290 Protestants, 37 Catholics and 15 Jews .
In 1717/1718 the Count of Hanau was able to use a patent letter from the French King Louis XV. Buy the sovereign rights to the town of Brumath and the castle of the same name , the hunting rights of the Stephansfelder Hospital and the sovereign rights to the villages of Krautweiler , Gries , Waltenheim and Arnsberg Castle for 25,000 livres from Kurmainz. They were no longer fiefs, but allod .
1736 died with Count Johann Reinhard III. the last male representative of the Hanau family. Due to the marriage of his only daughter, Charlotte (* 1700; † 1726), with the Hereditary Prince Ludwig (VIII.) (* 1691; † 1768) of Hesse-Darmstadt , he inherited the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg. In the course of the French Revolution , the part of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg on the left bank of the Rhine - and thus also Waltenheim - fell to France.
Modern times
The people in the Valley of Anger experienced great changes through the French Revolution , the Napoleonic era and ultimately through industrialization. In 1850 both the Canal de la Marne au Rhin in the immediate vicinity of Waltenheim and the railway line through Brumath were built. In 1900 another railway line was added through the neighboring town of Mommenheim. The construction of new municipal roads and the development of an industrial area directly on the Rhine-Marne Canal had a positive effect on the development of Waltenheim's industry.
Between 1870 and 1900 there was a synagogue in Waltenheim-sur-Zorn .
According to a description of the place from 1903 - Alsace had belonged to the German Empire since 1871 - there were three stone quarries and one gypsum quarry in the village of Waltenheim. The natural deposits of gypsum in Waltenheim - also in Schwindratzheim - were mined underground and processed into fine mortar gypsum in Philippe Ehrhardt's factory. A brick factory was working on the outskirts in the direction of Wingersheim, and there was also a lime factory. Otherwise, grain and firewood were mainly traded.
The population stagnated at a high level: The reason was an increased emigration of Waltenheimers, which was higher than the birth rate. The population fluctuated at that time between 604 and 729 people. Most of the people in Waltenheim were workers who were employed in 80 small and medium-sized companies. Some found accommodation in traditional rural handicrafts, especially the blacksmith and wagner handicrafts were able to survive in the village. Many peasant day laborers lived in Waltenheim. A large number of these impoverished peasants found work in the quarries, on the railroad and on the canal.
20th century
In the first half of the 20th century, the population fell sharply, mainly due to the massive rural exodus.
35 young people from Waltenheim died in the two world wars ; a monument to the fallen on the outer apse of St. Stephen's Church commemorates them. We should also remember the German occupation of France in World War II , which again severely unbalanced the relationship between the two neighboring states.
Living in the country seems to be becoming a trend. Much in Waltenheim seems almost idyllic: the stork on the power cable pole, the horse pasture on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin in the shadow of a private house that is extensively painted. Antoine Waechter's fairy-tale frescoes have achieved a national reputation through media coverage.
Also noteworthy are the spacious grounds of the village and the almost intact historic houses, which have been carefully restored with a sure sense of style.
The only restaurant in Waltenheim, the combined café-bar-tabac-restaurant à l'Ancre, is unique . The active patroness Barbara Hamm entertains locals, cyclists, hobby boaters from the nearby canal and tourists alike in her small guest room. The owner uses self-made agricultural products in his kitchen.
The anchor cannot completely fill the gap that clearly gapes in Waltenheim: There are neither bakers nor butchers, neither grocers nor newspaper sellers, let alone a pharmacy or a clothing store.
Culture and sights
Churches
Since some abbeys owned goods in Waltenheim-sur-Zorn in the Middle Ages, two more are historically documented in addition to the main church of Saint-Etienne, which still exists today : Saint Sebastian (until 1759) and the chapel Saint Antonius (mentioned in 1487). The beginnings of St. Etienne , St. Stephen's Church in Waltenheim, are believed to be in the 12th century; the building structure is secured for the 14th century. The bell tower with its distinctive sandstone blocks on the tower edges and the contrasting white plastered walls is the oldest remaining part of the church. The single nave nave was built in 1759. Since the “ Reunion ” the church has been used as a simultaneous church until today .
The feast of the church saint is celebrated on St. Stephen's Day, December 26th. The Protestant rectory is on rue de l'Ecole. In addition, there is a Methodist congregation in Waltenheim today , while the Catholics are parish in the neighboring town of Mommenheim.
The legacy of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg
Many of the old half-timbered houses that can be admired in Waltenheim today were built at the end of the 17th and first half of the 18th century. They are confusingly similar to those on the right bank of the Rhine around the municipality of Willstätt , because the Brumath office on the left of the Rhine and the Willstätt office both belonged to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg, the so-called Hanauer Land . Architecture, customs, manners, costumes and language were very similar. Many a Waltenheimer married across the Rhine to the right bank of the Rhine. The fact that the two territories of France and Germany dovetailed in the county did not create any major problems in the ancien régime . The question of nationality only became more important in the 19th century.
Old graveyard
Behind the Protestant church there is an abandoned burial ground with some sandstone grave steles that are so typical of the Protestant communities in Lower Alsace. In contrast to the gravestones in Catholic cemeteries, there are no cross attachments or cross symbols here. Rather, the grave steles are reminiscent of short tree trunks, classic columns or pylons ;
literature
- Alphonse Bisch, Agnès Muller-Ziegler: Les habitats du Bas-Rhin, Dictionnaire toponymique francais-allemand dialectal . (Publication du Cercle Généalogique d'Alsace) Strasbourg 1994-2002, Volume 1, Les Communes, p. 516; Volume 6, Lieux de culte, p. 516.
- Jean-Claude Brumm: Quelques dates importantes dan l'histoire… . In: Société d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie de Saverne et Environs (ed.): Cinquième centenaire de la création du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg 1480–1980 = Pays d'Alsace 111/112 (2, 3/1980), p 10f.
- Fritz Eyer: The territory of the Lords of Lichtenberg 1202-1480. Investigations into the property, the rule and the politics of domestic power of a noble family from the Upper Rhine . In: Writings of the Erwin von Steinbach Foundation . 2nd edition, unchanged in the text, by an introduction extended reprint of the Strasbourg edition, Rhenus-Verlag, 1938. Volume 10 . Pfaehler, Bad Neustadt an der Saale 1985, ISBN 3-922923-31-3 (268 pages).
- Francois-Jacques Himly: Inventaire general des Archives Hospitalières du Bas-Rhin des Origines à 1790 . Strasbourg 1978, p. 288 Source 972 of 1718, No. 27.
- Friedrich Knöpp: Territorial holdings of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Hesse-Darmstadt . [typewritten] Darmstadt 1962. [Available in the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt , signature: N 282/6].
- Alfred Matt: Bailliages, prévôté et fiefs ayant fait partie de la Seigneurie de Lichtenberg, du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg, du Landgraviat de Hesse-Darmstadt . In: Société d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie de Saverne et Environs (eds.): Cinquième centenaire de la création du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg 1480–1980 = Pays d'Alsace 111/112 (2, 3/1980), p 7-9.
- Le Patrimoine des Communes du Bas-Rhin, Alsace . Edited by Jean-Luc Flohic, Charentou-le-Pont (Edition Flohic) 1999, ISBN 2-84234-055-8 , p. 530 f.
- The realm of Alsace-Lorraine, description of the country and place . Ed. By the Statistical Bureau of the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine, Strasbourg (Heitz and Mündel) 1901–1903, pp. 1178 f.
- D. Wagner: Les Carrières Souterraines de Waltenheim sur Zorn et Schwindratsheim, Mémoire retrouvée d'un Mineur Alsacien . Edition Oberlin, 1987, ISBN 2-85369-061-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Matt, p. 7.
- ↑ Eyer, p. 239.
- ↑ Eyer, p. 78. It remains unclear whether this was the whole place or only half of it and where the other half was left with the division.
- ↑ Eyer, p. 104.
- ↑ Knöpp, p. 5.
- ↑ Brumm, p. 11.
- ^ M. Schickelé: État de l'Église d'Alsace avant la Révolution 1 . Colmar 1877, p. 49.
- ↑ Kathrin Ellwardt: Lutherans between France and the Empire: Church buildings in the Alsatian offices of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg under Johann Reinhard III. and Louis IX. In: New Magazine for Hanau History 2016, pp. 18–59 (38).