Rams

This article deals with the city of Aries. For persons see Cardinal von Aries .

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 19 '  N , 9 ° 25'  E
Basic data
State :	Baden-Württemberg
Administrative region :	Stuttgart
County :	Heilbronn
Height :	185 m above sea level NHN
Area :	25.23 km 2
Residents:	1809 (December 31, 2018)
Population density :	72 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	74259
Area code :	06298
License plate :	HN
Community key :	08 1 25 103
City structure:	Core city and 1 district
City administration address :	Rathausplatz 7 74259 Widdern
Website :	www.widdern.de
Mayor :	Kevin head
Location of the city of Widdern in the Heilbronn district

180 ° aerial panorama

Aries is a town in the Heilbronn district in Baden-Württemberg . It belongs to the Heilbronn-Franken region . After Langenburg and Hettingen, it is the third smallest town in Baden-Württemberg.

geography

Widdern is located in the northeast of the Heilbronn district on the right-hand confluence of the Kessach from the north into the lower Jagst , about 33 kilometers before its confluence with the Neckar .

Neighboring communities

Neighboring cities and communities in Widdern are (clockwise, starting in the east): Jagsthausen , Hardthausen am Kocher and Möckmühl (all districts of Heilbronn), Adelsheim ( Neckar-Odenwald district ) and Schöntal ( Hohenlohe district ). With Jagsthausen, Möckmühl and Roigheim , Widdern has entered into an agreed administrative partnership.

City structure

Aries consists of the districts Widdern and Unterkessach . The Schustershof, Seehaus and Ziegelhütte farms belong to Widdern , and the hamlet of Volkshausen to Unterkessach . The town of Erlach is gone, i.e. no longer exists today, on the Unterkessach mark.

Division of space

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

history

Aries from the South, author unknown, lithograph, around 1840

Aries was first mentioned in a document in 774 in the Lorsch Codex as Witterheim . The name of the place is derived from the personal name Wittero or Witteri - probably one of the founders. The ending in -heim indicates an early Franconian foundation of the place. The name Aries developed from Witterheim over several intermediate stages. The village of Unterkessach, which is incorporated today, was first mentioned in 976 in a document by Emperor Otto II . The early history of rams is obscure. The foundation of a farm in Aries to the Komburg monastery has been handed down from the 11th century . In the farm managed by the monastery brothers, viticulture in Widdern is documented for the year 1248. In the 13th century, with Wasmundus de Wideren and Fridericus de Widern , members of a noble family named after the place appear for the first time. The church in Widdern was first mentioned in 1258 on the occasion of the transfer of the patronage rights to the canons of St. Juliana in Mosbach. Based on the early Franconian founding of the place and the importance of the church as the mother church for several medieval branches, the church is certainly much older than the first documentary mention suggests.

Presumably the Counts of Lauffen had extensive possessions in Aries, which came to the Lords of Dürn in 1216–1219 . The Würzburg canon Konrad von Dürn played an important role in the transfer of the Widdern patronage rights to the Canon Monastery in Mosbach. The Dürner property in Widdern came in the course of the 13th century to the lords of Wertheim and the lords of Boxberg, who were related to them. Around 1300 the Wertheimers owned a quarter of Widdern Castle , the Boxbergers three quarters of the town that had become a town in the second half of the 13th century . The Würzburg canon and Mosbach provost Albert von Löwenstein, who bequeathed his Widdern goods to his sister Kunegundis in the Lichtenstern monastery in 1297 in his will, had further possessions in Widdern . The Lords of Weinsberg and the Lords of Berlichingen also owned Widdern around 1300 . In 1307, Count Boppo von Eberstein received the previous Wertheim share in rams as compensation for his claims to Wertheim Castle. At an unknown time, the Ebersteiners also acquired the Weinsberg share of the place. The Ebersteiners sold half of the castle and town of Widdern as a fiefdom of the Würzburg in 1362 to the Lords of Hohenlohe . The fiefdom fell back to the Würzburg monastery in the 14th century, which sold it to the court warden . Around 1400 the court warden was in the possession of the whole town, half as a Würzburg fiefdom and half as own property .

In the 15th century there was a fragmentation of ownership. Shortly after 1415, a quarter of the village came to Margarethe von Weingarten, the wife of Reinhard Hofwart, as a widow's estate. It was then given to Margaret's descendants or their spouses as a man's fief. From 1497 to 1551 this quarter was owned by the Lords of Venningen . A second quarter of the town was bought by the von Neipperg family in 1440 , who sold it to the von Zyllnhardt family in 1482 . The other two quarters continued to split up and were in rapidly changing hands by different masters. In 1443 the administration of the property was first documented by a group of heirs .

In 1458 Philipp von Heinrieth owned a part of rams. He granted refuge to the robber barons Walter von Urbach and Ulrich von Helfenstein, whereupon the castle and town were destroyed on June 29, 1458 by Count Ulrich von Württemberg in union with the Brandenburg margrave Albrecht Achilles. The castle was not rebuilt, instead, in the period that followed, government offices and, in some cases, mansions of the Ganerbe were built directly in the village.

In the course of the 15th century, the Electoral Palatinate and the Lords of Gemmingen were able to acquire significant parts of rams. At the end of the 15th century, the Venningen owned 6/16, the Zyllnhardt 4/16, the Gemmingen 3/16 and the Kurpfalz 3/16. The Palatinate share came to Württemberg in 1504 as a result of the Landshut War of Succession , and most of the Venningen property went to the court warden of Kirchheim in 1551. At the endeavors of Württemberg and the Zyllnhardt, the place was reformed in the 16th century .

During the Thirty Years' War , Aries, like the rest of the surrounding area, suffered from numerous raids and looting. In the course of the war, the number of households fell from 200 to 15. After the war, the Ganerbe struggled to settle new citizens to cultivate the fallow fields and vineyards, which they succeeded until the 1670s.

View from the tower watchman's house over Aries

In the meantime, the court warden was heavily in debt, so that the Würzburg bishopric drew in the court warden fiefs and placed itself among the gan heirs. 1675 belonged to the bishop of Würzburg 192/512 of the city, Württemberg 114/512, the lords of Gemmingen 110/512 and the lords of Zyllnhardt 96/512.

In the Palatine War of Succession , Widdern suffered again from billeting, drafts and looting from 1693 onwards. Again, many residents fled, many houses were uninhabited and many fields were fallow. The population recovered by 1702, but the warlike times demanded numerous other burdens from the population in the following years. In 1736 there were around 180 households in Aries, the population mainly engaged in fruit growing and viticulture. The place was still administered jointly by the Ganerbe, with protracted disputes between the local lords, mainly because of the timber rights.

When the German Southwest was reorganized as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the Widdern part of the Widdern region went to the princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim in 1803 and, together with the Gemmingen part, to Baden in 1806. Zyllnhardt's share went to Württemberg. By a state treaty of November 13, 1806, the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Kingdom of Württemberg agreed on a redistribution in the ratio of 19:13 along the Kessach and a condominium administration . In 1846, Baden ceded its shares in Widdern to Württemberg by means of a state treaty and in return received several localities, including Unterkessach (see Territorial peculiarities in southwest Germany after 1810 ). Widdern had been subordinate to the Upper Office of Neckarsulm since 1810 with its Wuerttemberg shares and since 1846 in full .

With the replacement of the aristocratic rights in the 19th century, the extinction of the von Zyllnhardt family and the branch of the Barons of Gemmingen, which is relevant for rams, coincided. Many of the Ganerbe's earlier buildings were then used for other purposes. The Gemmingen administrative building became a teacher's apartment, the Gemmingen castle an inn, and the Zyllnhardt castle, via detours, became today's town hall. In the late 19th century, the Jagst Valley Railway provided the town's first modern transport links.

During the administrative reform during the Nazi era in Württemberg , Widdern came to the Heilbronn district in 1938. Since the city had become part of the American zone of occupation , Widdern had belonged to the newly founded state of Württemberg-Baden since 1945 , which was merged into the current state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

On September 1, 1971, Unterkessach was incorporated into Widdern and moved from the Baden district of Buchen to the Heilbronn district .

Religions

Aries has been evangelical since the Reformation. In Widdern and Unterkessach there is a separate Protestant parish, in Widdern there is also a Catholic parish.

In Aries there was also a New Apostolic congregation from 1947 on, which built its own church in 1962 . After membership dwindled, the church was sold in 2003 and the remaining believers were integrated into the New Apostolic community in Möckmühl.

politics

Town Hall of Aries

mayor

In the mayoral election on May 8, 2011, 47-year-old banking economist Jürgen Olma prevailed with a voter turnout of 70.5 percent with 56.3 percent of the votes in the first ballot. Olma won against incumbent Michael Reinert and three other candidates. Reinert had held the office since 1995.

In the next mayoral election on May 5, 2019, Olma was the only candidate on the ballot paper, but only achieved 46.4% of the votes. In this election, many voters had made use of the possibility in the municipal electoral law of Baden-Württemberg to handwrite a different name than the person they had elected on the ballot paper in mayor elections with only one pre-printed candidate. In the then necessary second ballot on June 2, 2019, the new Kevin Kopf was elected to succeed Jürgen Olma with 63.1% of the votes.

Local council and local council

After the local elections on May 25, 2014, the Widderns municipal council has 13 seats. The municipal council consists of the elected voluntary councilors and the mayor as chairman. The mayor is entitled to vote in the municipal council. The choice brought the following result:

• Free electoral association : 44.6% - 6 seats
• Bourgeois list: 40.4% - 5 seats
• Active citizens: 15.0% - 2 seats

There is also a local council in the village of Unterkessach. At his suggestion, the local council for Unterkessach elects an honorary mayor . These bodies are to be heard on important matters affecting the locality.

badges and flags

Blazon : "A standing golden ram in black."

Founding of the coat of arms: The oldest known seal of the city from 1511 shows a walking ram as a talking coat of arms , as it also appears in later seals, from the 17th century on a floor or mountain of three . The ram has been shown standing on the seals since the 19th century, but in drawings it was still walking up to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1937 the standing ram without a bottom or three-mountain was designated as the city's coat of arms; the colors of the coat of arms were determined in 1933 by the Württemberg archives. The city has also been flying the yellow and black flag since 1933.

Partner municipality

Widdern has had a partnership with the municipality of Reinsdorf in Thuringia since 1990, which has been part of the city of Greiz since 1994 . The first contacts between the Protestant parishes of Widdern and Reinsdorf had existed since the 1950s.

Culture and sights

Evangelical Laurentius Church in Aries

Buildings

• The Protestant Laurentius Church was mentioned for the first time in 1258 and was rebuilt in its current form from 1892 to 1895 while retaining the late Gothic building core. In the church there are grave monuments from the 15th to the 18th century. Further historical grave monuments can be found in the also historical Liebfrauenkapelle , a former pilgrimage church in the cemetery. The Catholic Church of St. Joseph at the cemetery was only built in 1966, the building opposite is the former New Apostolic Church built in 1962 .
• The town hall of Widdern goes back to a former castle of the Lords of Zyllnhardt. The cellar of the castle, which was partially demolished in the 19th century, was preserved; the current building was built around 1870 on the foundations of the castle as a restaurant and acquired by the city in 1880, which has since used it as the town hall. In 1987/88 the building was extensively renovated.

Former Würzburg office building

• The former Würzburg official building is a half-timbered building from around 1600. It was renovated around 1750, passed to the princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim in 1803 and privately owned in 1840. The building was renovated from 1974 by the entrepreneur Helmut Kaiser. The imperial hall of the building named after him is used by the Widderner Kleinkulturverein für Kabarett u. used. Various spoils are walled up in the masonry at the office building. There is also a replica of the Madonna of Aries in a niche . The real figure of 1450 was once in the cemetery chapel and came in 1617 to Bamberg, where they in Marienaltar today Martin Church is revered.
• In the Keltergasse are the former Gemmingen Castle and the former Gemmingen administrative building , both half-timbered buildings with a stair tower, the core of which dates from the 16th century.

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  Former Gemmingen Castle

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  Stair tower of the former Gemmingen Castle

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  Former Gemmingensches Amtshaus

Tower Guard House

• There are only small remains of the former city fortifications. Instead of the gate tower, the tower watchman's house, also known today as Dörnle , was built in 1833 .
• Aries is also rich in historical half-timbered buildings. A half-timbered house near the Würzburger Amtshaus has a historical high water mark from 1729.
• The historic Seehaus is located outside the city, but still within its boundaries . The inn was built in the early 18th century on Hohe Straße and two lakes that were still there at the time. The guest business was discontinued in the 1990s.

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  Reconstruction of the city wall

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  Half-timbered house

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  Half-timbered house

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  Half-timbered house

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  Half-timbered house

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  Historic door

Museums

In the city there is a forge and local history museum as well as the museum in the old train station on the transport history of the city of Widdern. The "Wachthaus Am Limes" houses an exhibition on Roman numismatics from the Middle Imperial Period and on the life of Roman soldiers on the Limes.

Economy and Infrastructure

Track side of the reception building in Widdern station (July 2008)

Rams is a wine community whose locations for Großlage Kochersberg in the range Kocher-Jagst Tauber of Weinbaugebietes Württemberg belong. In the Middle Ages the place had very extensive vineyards and was one of the most important wine towns in Württemberg. Today the area under vines has shrunk to a few remains.

traffic

The federal motorway 81 leads with the Jagsttalbrücke directly through the Widdern area. The bridge of the A 81 , opened in 1974, has a length of 889 m at a height of 80 m. The next motorway junction is in Möckmühl.

In the past, Widdern was connected to the rail network by the Jagst Valley Railway ( Möckmühl - Dörzbach ). Plans to bring the line back into operation have stalled.

media

The daily newspaper Heilbronner Voice reports on the events in Widdern in its issue N, District North.

education

The primary school in Aries has around 140 pupils. There is also the Feinau School ( special needs school ). The Volkshochschule Unterland has a branch in Aries.

tourism

Walkers will rams on the 100 km long Jagst Kulturwanderweg of Bad Friedrich-Jagstfeld to Langenburg over, as well as on the Limes trail of Miltenberg am Main to Wilburgstetten at the Wörnitz, the km 245 the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes follows. The "Wachthaus Am Limes", a replica of a Roman border guards' hut on the Limes, is located on the Limes hiking trail in the Widderner district. A branch of the Way of St. James also runs through Aries.

Aries is also popular with cycle tourists in the Jagsttal, because this is where the over 100 km Grünkern Cycle Path to Walldürn-Gottersdorf begins . The village is also touched by the Kocher-Jagst-Radweg , a 340 km long circular route mainly along the neighboring rivers Kocher and Jagst from Aalen to Bad Friedrichshall and back, as well as the 818 km long German Limes Cycle Path from Bad Hönning to Regensburg.

Car tourists reach Widdern on the routes of several holiday routes , for example on the 600 km long Swabian Poet Road from Bad Mergentheim to Meersburg and on the German Alps-Baltic Sea holiday route , which connects Fehmarn with Berchtesgaden via its 1738 km route.

Aries is the starting or ending point for canoe tours.

Personalities

• Eduard von Hammer , (1793–1850), Württemberg chief magistrate and member of the state parliament
• Eduard Haug (1856–1932), literary historian
• Heinrich Dipper (1868–1945), Protestant pastor in Stuttgart and director of the Basel Mission
• Edmund Dipper (1871–1933), general practitioner, gynecologist and university professor in Beijing
• Ludwig Jehle (1899–1960), teacher and local history researcher, wrote a. a. the home song of Aries
• Martin Zeilmann (1903–1983), weaver, choir director and honorary chairman of the chess club, created the tapestries in the town hall
• Christian Würz (1910–1980), meritorious mayor of the city from 1948 to 1959, the Christian-Würz-Weg was named after him
• Kurt Ehrenfried (1913–1999), holder of the Federal Cross of Merit, long-time teacher and city archivist in Aries
• Helmut Kaiser (1913–2007), entrepreneur, artist and patron of culture, the Kaisersaal in the former Würzburg office building was named after him
• Rolf Dieffenbach (1951–2019), three-time German champion in motocross sport

youth

The youth cellar Widdern is the local youth club. It has been a popular meeting place for young people from Aries and the surrounding area since 1983. The young people in the youth cellar are repeatedly involved in public projects such as the restoration of the water playground or the construction of a barbecue hut in the forest.

literature

• Local history association Widdern (ed.): Widdern once and now , Widdern 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office Baden-Württemberg - Population by nationality and gender on December 31, 2018 (CSV file) ( help on this ).
2. ↑ See State Institute for the Environment Baden-Württemberg (LUBW) ( notes ), with u. a. the stationing of the Kessach.
3. ↑ Source for the urban structure section: Das Land Baden-Württemberg. Official description by district and municipality. Volume IV: Stuttgart district, Franconian and East Württemberg regional associations. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-17-005708-1 . Pp. 113-114
4. ↑ State Statistical Office, area since 1988 according to actual use for rams.
5. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 11.
6. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 12.
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Aries once and now 2011, p. 13.
8. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 13/14.
9. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 14.
10. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 15.
11. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 16/17.
12. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 17.
13. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 18/19.
14. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 21–23.
15. ↑ ^{a b} Aries once and now 2011, p. 21.
16. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 27/28.
17. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 88/89.
18. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 41–43.
19. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 43–48.
20. ^ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 46–48.
21. ^ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 50/51.
22. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, p. 52.
23. ↑ Aries then and now 2011, pp. 57–69.
24. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 450 .
25. ↑ Mayor Reinert voted out of office. Stimme.de, May 8, 2011
26. ^ Petra Müller-Kromer: Election failure for the Mayor of Widdern . Stimme.de , May 3, 2019
27. ↑ Local Election Act (KomWG) Baden-Württemberg in the version of September 1, 1983, § 19 (3)
28. ↑ Petra Müller-Kromer: Kevin Kopf is lucky, Jürgen Olma is disappointed . Stimme.de , June 2, 2019
29. ↑ LEO-BW - Widden
30. ^ Sources for the section coat of arms and flag:
    Heinz Bardua: The district and community coat of arms in the Stuttgart administrative region . Theiss, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-8062-0801-8 (district and municipality coat of arms in Baden-Württemberg, 1). P. 142
    Eberhard Gönner: Book of arms of the city and the district of Heilbronn with a territorial history of this area . Archive Directorate Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1965 (Publications of the State Archive Administration Baden-Württemberg, 9). P. 151
31. ^ "Museum in the old Widdern station" - information website of the city of Widdern. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
32. ↑ VHS Unterland branch offices .
33. ↑ City Archives Schaffhausen, PDF
34. ↑ Dipper, Heinrich. In: leobw. Baden-Württemberg State Archives, August 16, 1989, accessed on September 5, 2016 . 
35. ↑ Dipper, Heinrich. In: Landesbibliographie Baden-Württemberg online. Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart / Badische Landesbibliothek, August 16, 1989, accessed on September 5, 2016 . 
36. ↑ Dipper, Edmund. In: leobw. Baden-Württemberg State Archives, August 16, 1989, accessed on September 5, 2016 . 

Web links

Commons : Aries  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikivoyage: Aries  Travel Guide

Wikisource: Widdern in the description of the Upper Office Neckarsulm from 1881  - sources and full texts

• LEO-BW, discover regional studies online , Aries