Deidesheim
Encyclopedia
Deidesheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
with some 3,700 inhabitants.
The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
. The most important industries are tourism
and winegrowing. Deidesheim’s two biggest folk festivals revolve around wine
: the Geißbockversteigerung (literally “Billygoat Auction”) and the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe (wine fair).
: 23.9% of this area is used for agriculture
, mainly winegrowing, 67.9% of it is wooded, 0.6% is water, 7.4% is residential or transport-related and 0.1% of the land fits under none of these headings. The town itself lies some 1 000 m east of the Haardt. Deidesheim is found in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban region in the middle of the Palatinate wine region
. Running through the town is the German Wine Route.
, Friedelsheim
, Rödersheim-Gronau
, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
, Meckenheim
, Ruppertsberg
, Neustadt an der Weinstraße
, Lindenberg
, Lambrecht
, Frankeneck
, Neidenfels
and Wachenheim an der Weinstraße.
. The number of summery days (that is, with temperatures reaching or surpassing 25 °C) far exceeds the countrywide average by 40 or 50 each year, and the yearly precipitation
level of just over 500 mm is below the threshold, set at 600 mm, for German regions that are considered dry.
From a local climatic point of view, Deidesheim is part of the climatically favoured foothill zone of the Weinstraße region. With a mean elevation of 235 m above sea level
at the forest’s edge, the lands of the Deidesheim area reach down to some 130 m above sea level at the lower mid-slope area in the foothill zone. The outliers of the Madental and the Sensental, as well as those of the Einsteltal (dales) northwest of Deidesheim, form outflow pathways for the cold winds coming from the Haardt. Also affecting the local climate are small hollows and dells in which cold air can gather.
Climatic conditions in Deidesheim have almost Mediterranean
traits as witnessed by ripening fig
s, almond
s and bitter orange
s in the area. Profiting especially from the favourable climate are warmth-loving crops such as grapes
. This favours the growing of Qualitätsweine
, which is done here on a grand scale. With its long growing season
, the wine can age fully. Thoroughly fermented wines have a high quality, and frost damage is rare.
development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the Haardt of the Upper Rhine Plain
, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary
and which has lasted until today. The area before the Haardt range was over time scored by brooks that rise in the Palatinate Forest. During the ice age
s, there were gradual solifluction
on the slopes and also wind abrasion
. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake an alluvial fan
with embanked or eroded terraces formed. In colder, drier phases of the Würm glaciation, loess
beds came into being through the influence of the wind, whereby the loess gathered mostly at faults and alee of small hollows.
West and northwest of Deidesheim, the Voltziensandstein that predominates in the middle of the Palatinate Forest from the Triassic
represents the oldest stratigraphic
unit within Deidesheim’s limits, the so-called “Rehberg Layer”. In Deidesheim’s southwest, Pleistocene
deposits can be found; these came into being some 1,500,000 years ago. In the north, Deidesheim is girded by a band of Pliocene
deposits that formed some 3,000,000 years ago. In Deidesheim’s east are found the newest stratigraphic units in the Holocene
deposits. With foreign material such as basalt
, brick
s and dung, man has altered the natural soil composition. The most important soil
types in the Deidesheim area are various rigosols, rendzina
, parabraunerde and limestone-bearing terra fusca
.
. Today, Deidesheim is one of the Palatinate wine region’s
biggest winegrowing centres.
The first time when the placename was mentioned in 699 was in a document in which the Lotharingian nobleman Erimbert bequeathed estates under his ownership to Weißenburg Monastery in Alsace
(in the now French
town called Wissembourg
). Further mentions came in documents from Fulda Abbey (770 or 771) and Lorsch Abbey
(791), in the latter of which Deidesheim is already named as being a winegrowing centre. Documentary mentions from the Early
and High Middle Ages
, however, deal with various settled places that lay not in the town’s current place, but rather elsewhere within a greater municipal area around Deidesheim. Frankish
burial grounds in and around the neighbouring municipality Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
lead to the conclusion that there were individual settlements at least as long ago as the 6th century, some of which were forsaken. The first documentary mention is believed to refer to neighbouring Niederkirchen. When today’s Deidesheim arose as a settlement next to Niederkirchen is not known with any certainty; the two centres only became separate from each other when the Prince-Bishop’s castle, Schloss Deidesheim, was built, and for this the first evidence dates from 1292. The first confirmed distinction between Niederdeidesheim – today’s Niederkirchen – and Oberdeidesheim – today’s Deidesheim – only came in the 13th century.
In the Early Middle Ages
, Deidesheim was mainly under the aforesaid Erimbert’s and his descendants’ ownership. Among them were a few Counts of Metz, Upper Lotharingian dukes and Salians
, and they had holdings in Deidesheim for almost 400 years, until Henry IV
(1056) and Margravine Matilda of Tuscany
(1086) gave up their Deidesheim holdings and donated them to the Cathedral Chapter or Saint Guy’s Monastery in Speyer
. Not long thereafter, Deidesheim passed into the Speyer Prince-Bishops’ hands and thenceforth belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
. Other, but less important, holdings in Deidesheim in the Early Middle Ages were owned by Lorsch Abbey
and the Bishopric of Worms
.
in Deidesheim until the pogroms during the time of the plague about 1349.
Along with this development arose the townsmen’s wish to offer the flourishing community greater protection against attacks, which was granted at last by Bishop of Speyer Gerhard von Ehrenberg in 1360 when he granted Deidesheim fortification rights. On Saint Valentine’s Day 1395, the Bohemia
n King Wenceslaus
(Wenzel in German
, Václav in Czech
) granted Deidesheim town rights. These were given – as was then customary – not to the town itself, but to the Bishop of Speyer, since he was the town’s lord.
The fortification could only afford the town limited protection in wartime. The town was conquered in 1396, 1460, 1525, 1552, several times in the Thirty Years' War
, and in 1689 and 1693 (Nine Years' War), sometimes getting plundered and set on fire in the process.
militiamen, Deidesheim passed to France
in 1794. Although it was reconquered by Imperial troops in 1795, it soon fell once again to France, and remained under French administration until Napoleon’s
overlordship collapsed in 1814. Under the new territorial order prescribed by the Congress of Vienna
, Deidesheim belonged, beginning in 1816, to the Kingdom of Bavaria
as part of the Rheinkreis (“Rhine District”), which from 1838 bore the name Pfalz (“Palatinate”). In 1819, the outlying centre of Niederkirchen
, long considered to be a constituent community of Deidesheim, was demerged from the town, and has been an autonomous municipality ever since.
In 1865, Deidesheim acquired a connection on the new Bad Dürkheim
- Neustadt an der Weinstraße
railway line. About the turn of the century, there were other industrial achievements. In 1894, Deidesheim got a gasworks, in 1896 electric lighting, in 1897 a local electrical network, and in 1898, the town was connected to a public watermain. Furthermore, in the late 19th century, all important estates had a telephone connection.
troops moved into town. Troop units were billeted here. This persisted until France withdrew from the Rhineland
in July 1930. In August 1921 there was a great forest fire near Deidesheim in which some 300 ha of woodland burnt, of which 130 ha was in the Deidesheim town forest. To fight the fire, all Deidesheim’s men aged 17 and over were recruited. Quenching the fire took three long days and nights.
During the Second World War, Deidesheim was mostly spared any great war damage at first, but then, on 9 March 1945, not long before the war ended, the local infirmary was struck by a bomb, which killed nine people. On 21 March 1945, American
troops moved into town, ending the war, at least in Deidesheim.
With the formation of the state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
in 1946, Deidesheim found itself within it, and no longer part of Bavaria. In 1968, Deidesheim was given the designation Luftkurort (“climatic spa”). Along with Forst an der Weinstraße
, Ruppertsberg
, Niederkirchen
and Meckenheim
, Deidesheim has since 1972 formed the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
.
Great media coverage came Deidesheim’s way with all the visits by high-ranking foreign state visitors invited to Deidesheim by then Chancellor Helmut Kohl
between 1989 and 1997. Often, state guests were served the dish Pfälzer Saumagen (“Palatine Sow’s Stomach”). The state guests who came with Kohl were British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
(April 1989), Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev
(November 1990), Canadian
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
(June 1991), US Vice President
Dan Quayle
(February 1992), Czech
President Václav Havel
(October 1993), Russia
n President Boris Yeltsin
(May 1994), British Prime Minister John Major
(October 1994) and the Spanish
King and Queen Juan Carlos I
and Sofía
(July 1997).
Since early 2009, Deidesheim has been the first town in Rhineland-Palatinate to be a member of the Cittàslow
movement, among whose goals are improving the quality of life and enhancing cultural diversity in towns.
From the Middle Ages
has come no information about Deidesheim’s population. In part, considerable swings in the 17th and early 18th centuries in the number of inhabitants were the consequences of the many wars; foremost among these were the Thirty Years' War
and the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession) in their effect on Deidesheim’s population. In the rather more peaceful later 18th century, Deidesheim underwent a great upswing in its population, bringing the total number of inhabitants to nearly three times what it had been towards the end of the Middle Ages. After the next quick swelling of the population leading up to the Palatine Uprising in 1849, Deidesheim’s population did not rise significantly in the latter half of the 19th century – which was rather at odds with the general trend in Germany in this time of industrialization – and even shrank by the turn of the 20th century, leaving Deidesheim with fewer inhabitants in 1917 than it had had in 1823. The main cause of all this was people from Deidesheim emigrating
to North America
. Only years after the First World War did Deidesheim’s population once again reach its mid-19th-century level. After the Second World War, the number of inhabitants once again began to rise sharply and for the first time broke the 3,000 level. Over the last few years, the population has been relatively steady and amounts to some 3,800 inhabitants.
Parish Church once stood a chapel consecrated to Saint Mary
. This chapel was first mentioned about 1300. Owing to the transfer of the parish seat from Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
to Deidesheim sometime between 1437 and 1460, a new, roomier church building was needed. Work on the new building began before the middle of the century, about 1444. In 1473, the work had been finished as far as it could be. Saint Ulrich’s Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Ulrich) with its 62.7 m-tall, somewhat crooked tower is the only major church building in the Palatinate to have been built in the mid 15th century.
The Reformation
could not prevail in the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
, to which Deidesheim belonged and whose bishop was Deidesheim’s town lord (cuius regio, eius religio
). Nevertheless it wrought considerable difficulties with the allocation of the Deidesheim rectorate in the latter half of the 16th century. In 1750 and 1820 respectively, the branch parishes of Niederkirchen and Forst were split away from Deidesheim once again and were raised to fully-fledged parishes in their own right. For a short time after the French
annexation of the Rhine’s left bank, the parish of Deidesheim belonged to the Bishopric of Mainz before being ceded back to the Bishopric of Speyer.
Under the new order of deaconries made in the diocese of Speyer in 1980, Deidesheim was assigned to the deaconry of Bad Dürkheim
. Owing to a dearth of priests, Saint Ulrich’s parish has since 2006 formed a parish union with Saint Margaret’s (Forst) and Saint Martin’s (Ruppertsberg
) whose seat is in Deidesheim. In late 2007, 2,165 of Deidesheim’s inhabitants were Catholic, which made them 56.87% of the population.
share of Deidesheim’s population was long very slight, with only four in the town in 1788. By 1863 that had risen to 38. In 1874 and 1875, the Protestant church arose from the conversion of a former barn. In 1891, this acquired a tower.
The number of Protestants in town also swelled after the Second World War with the arrival of refugees
. Since 1957, Deidesheim has formed its own parish with Forst an der Weinstraße
, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
and Ruppertsberg
; the places in Wachenheim an der Weinstraße formerly also belonged. The Deidesheim parish belongs to the Evangelical
Church of the Palatinate (Protestant State Church), and since 1984 has had its own rectorate. In late 2007, 924 of Deidesheim’s inhabitants were Evangelical, which made them 24.27% of the population.
, Jews had a community with a synagogue
in Deidesheim. The community was wiped out in the pogrom
during the time of the plague in 1349 when all Deidesheim’s Jews were slain and the synagogue passed into the Church’s ownership. In the 16th century a new Jewish community was formed.
Because the prayer hall in use up to that time could no longer be used owing to disrepair, a new synagogue was built. Once discrimination and stripping of rights by the Nazis in the early days of the Third Reich
had begun, many Jews felt forced to emigrate, shrinking and impoverishing the community. In 1935, the synagogue, which was in need of renovation, was sold. Seven Jews who were born or had long lived in Deidesheim were deported in 1940 under the so called Bürckel
-Wagner
Action (they were both Gauleiter
s), even Mrs. Reinach, who had survived Camp Gurs
; all perished in The Holocaust
.
The former Jewish
graveyard on Platanenweg is under town ownership. It is some 800 m² in area and is under monumental protection. All together, 95 gravestones from the time between the 18th and 20th centuries could be restored in 1946 after they were destroyed in 1938.
might be described thus: Azure a cross pattée humetty argent, in dexter chief and base sinister a mullet Or.
The German blazon mentions nothing about a bordure
. The version shown at Heraldry of the World has none, and thus matches the blazon.
Deidesheim’s oldest seal, from 1410, showed a cross that was not couped (that is, it reached the escutcheon’s edges, unlike the one in the current arms), standing for the Bishopric of Speyer, and only one mullet (star) in dexter chief, that is, in the upper part of the escutcheon on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side. It is believed that the mullet stood for Saint Mary, the patron of the now long-vanished Marienkapelle. With this seal, the Schultheiß
, the council and the court of Deidesheim authenticated the documents that they issued. The seal bore the circumscription Gericht von Deidesheim (“Court of Deidesheim”). After Deidesheim’s destruction in the Nine Years' War in 1693, a new seal was made. This one bore the circumscription Der * Stat * Deidesheim * Insigel. The heraldic
device that it bore was the same as the arms still borne by the town now.
’s downfall, and were markedly overrepresented on town council. The actual structure of the town’s population at this time was not reflected on town council. After the First World War, the Bavarian Municipal Act of 1869 still applied at first and the 23-member council elected in 1914 stood unchanged. The last mayor, Ludwig Bassermann-Jordan, had been killed in the war after volunteering for service, and his deputy, Karl Kimich, was elected in his stead. At the next municipal election, though, he did not seek another term.
supporters and liberals together. The liberal to left-leaning Bürgerliste and the Volksliste, which was close to the SPD
, fixed on the frontrunner, Josef Eid. Siben, however, could decide the election’s outcome by himself, and he won a ten-year mandate.
While the 1920 and 1924 municipal elections went forth relatively quietly, the 1929 election was considerably more raucous. This stemmed from a proposal from the Mayor’s Office to town council just before the election to raise Siben to fulltime, professional mayor. Outrage was the response, for on the one hand, the electorate would thereby be bypassed, and on the other, many found the yearly salary of 12,000 Reichsmark
quite beyond the pale against the backdrop of the Great Depression
, which had just broken out. Nonetheless, Siben got just enough votes from the Unparteiische Bürgerliste to become the professional mayor for the next five years. At the next council election, which came shortly thereafter and had an unusually high voter turnout, the Unparteiische Bürgerliste lost almost half its council members, many to the protest movement Fortschritt und Freiheit (“Progress and Freedom”), whose leader, Friedrich Schreck, rose to become the deputy mayor after Siben.
came mainly on 15 March – the Ides
– 1933 in the form of a demonstration by several hundred people outside Siben’s house. The crowd threatened to storm the house if Siben was not prepared to surrender the mayor’s office. Siben thereupon declared to two town councillors who were there that he was resigning, all the while, however, reserving his rights. The mayoralty would then have fallen to the second mayor Friedrich Schreck; however, he would not have suited those now in power, as he had already twice been interned for resistance against the NSDAP. The Neustadt
regional office eventually decreed on 20 March that the estate owner Friedrich Eckel-Sellmayr should be mayor; he had already held a seat on town council since 1924 as part of the Bürgerliste formed by the Left-Liberals and the commercial association. Eckel-Sellmayr held the mayoralty until the end of the Second World War in 1945.
After the Americans had occupied Deidesheim towards the end of the war in March 1945, they appointed the retired headteacher Michael Henrich mayor; Ernst Fürst became his deputy. On 1 July 1948, Fürst took over the mayoralty for half a year. At the first town council elections after the Second World War on 15 September 1946, the CDU got 62% of the vote, and thereafter always earned over 50% of the vote in municipal elections, putting forth all mayors. At the next municipal election in late 1948, two voters’ groups entered the council for the first time. Thenceforth they played an important rôle in town politics and later joined forces as the Free Voters
’ Group.
On 1 December 1948, the CDU candidate Norbert Oberhettinger was elected mayor. After the owner of the Reichsrat von Buhl Winery
, Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg
, died, Norbert Oberhettinger and his wife were killed in an accident on the way back from the baron’s burial. Succeeding him to the mayoralty was the winery owner Erich Gießen, who held office until 1975. After him, Stefan Gillich, who at the time already held the mayoralty of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
, was elected. The current mayor, Manfred Dörr (CDU) was elected on 13 June 2004, succeeding Stefan Gillich. He furthermore won the 2009 municipal election in which nobody stood against him, earning 81.9% of the votes cast.
The latest municipal election’s results, along with the changes in figures from the last one before that are set out in the table at right. These results give the CDU an absolute majority on town council.
, Heinrich von Sybel
, Carl Theodor Welcker
, Heinrich von Gagern
, Karl Mathy
, Friedrich Daniel Bassermann
, Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
and Georg Gottfried Gervinus
. In March 1848, Buhl and Jordan sat in the Vorparlament in Frankfurt, a preparatory gathering for the Frankfurt Parliament
, which neither one attended, Buhl because he was not elected and Jordan because he wanted to remain Mayor of Deidesheim. No later than the Second Schleswig War in 1864, the Deidesheim Circle’s mindset had changed to a “Lesser German” one.
After the German Empire
was founded in 1871, two Deidesheimers were elected as Members of the Reichstag
: Ludwig Andreas Jordan, a Member until 1881, and Franz Armand Buhl, who held a mandate until 1893 and functioned for three years as Deputy Speaker of the Reichstag. He played a part in Bismarck’s
social and wine legislation. In Andreas Deinhard, Deidesheim also had another of its sons in the Reichstag as a Member. He held a mandate from 1898 to 1903. Buhl, Jordan and Deinhard were all members of the National Liberal Party
.
Three Deidesheimers held seats in the Chamber of Imperial Councillors (Kammer der Reichsräte) of the Kingdom of Bavaria
: Franz Armand Buhl (from 1885 to 1896), Eugen Buhl (from 1896 to 1910) and Franz Eberhard Buhl (from 1911 to 1918). In the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies (Kammer der Abgeordneten), eight Deidesheimers were represented all together: Andreas Jordan (from 1831 to 1843), Ludwig Andreas Jordan (from 1848 to 1852 and from 1863 to 1871), Franz Peter Buhl (from 1855 to 1861), Eugen Buhl (from 1875 to 1896), Franz Eberhard Buhl (from 1907 to 1911), Andreas Deinhard (from 1881 to 1904), Johann Julius Siben (from 1899 to 1907), and Josef Siben (from 1907 to 1920). Besides the eight resident Members, there were also two other Members of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies who had been born in Deidesheim: Josef Giessen (from 1907 to 1918) and Franz Tafel (from 1840 to 1843, from 1849 to 1858 and from 1863 to 1869). The latter also had a seat in the Frankfurt Parliament
.
After the Second World War, one more Deidesheimer went into state
politics: Hanns Haberer, who was born in Bruchmühlbach
and now lived in his wife’s hometown, was Economics and Finance Minister from 1946 to 1947 in Rhineland-Palatinate
’s first government and from 1947 to 1955 functioned as Secretary of State
.
, Loire-Atlantique
, France
Bad Klosterlausnitz
, Thuringia
Buochs
, Nidwalden
, Switzerland
Tihany
, Veszprém County, Hungary
.
Catholic Saint Ulrich’s Parish Church was built between 1440 and 1480 as a successor to an older Chapel of Saint Mary. It is a three-naved groin-vaulted
column basilica and the Palatinate’s only major church building preserved from the mid 15th century. The church is counted among the most important witnesses to Late Gothic architecture in the Palatinate by the Bad Dürkheim
district’s catalogue of memorial sites.
was built in the mid 19th century by the Jewish
community. With its dissolution in the time of the Third Reich
, the building was liquidated and used for a few decades as a storehouse. In the late 1980s, the building was placed under monumental protection and later bought by the town of Deidesheim. Since its renovation about the turn of the millennium, the former synagogue has been used for cultural events.
style. Its twin outdoor stairways with its “baldachin
” porch come from 1724. The historic council chamber inside was done in Renaissance Revival style in 1912. Stained glass
in the windows from the same year shows the coats of arms
of resident landed families. In the building has been since 1986 the Museum für Weinkultur, whose exhibits reflect the history of winegrowing.
. The festival began with an old agreement with the neighbouring municipality of Lambrecht
under which each year to pay off debts for woodland and meadow rights within Deidesheim’s limits, a billygoat had to be delivered by Lambrecht, which was then auctioned, with the proceeds going to Deidesheim’s benefit. This historical situation grew over time into a folk festival.
. It has been held since 1975. More than 100 sellers from Deidesheim and the surrounding area run stalls, which must stylistically fit into the market’s whole theme. The handicrafts, such as goldsmithing, ceramic, textile, woodcarving and glassblowing crafts play an important rôle in the Deidesheimer Advent. For the mulled wine
that is served then, only wines from the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim may be used, which also applies to the wine fair.
(“German Academy for Language and Poetry”), Südwestrundfunk
, the state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
and the town of Deidesheim. Candidates for the office are selected by the Foundation’s members. Because the writers, at least symbolically, reside in a little turret in the Castle Park (Schlosspark) of the former Castle Deidesheim (Schloss Deidesheim) during the term of their creative endeavours, they are called Turmschreiber (“Tower Writers”). The fund for this is endowed with €7,500. The recipient further gets a free stay in Deidesheim for a duration of four weeks and a three-bottle-a-day allowance in wine; furthermore, he or she automatically becomes a vineyard leaseholder in the Prominenten vineyard in the Deidesheimer Paradiesgarten. Following is a list of all the “Tower Writers” thus far, their works, and the year in which each was in Deidesheim:
, and also to the Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße winegrowing area (Anbaubereich). Local vineyard names were formerly borne in ownership documents that described the plots’ locations and their boundaries. Some 170 vineyards and plots of greatly varying size are known to have been within the limits of Deidesheim, Niederkirchen
, Forst
and Ruppertsberg
; they stretched partly across municipal boundaries as they now exist (they were not assigned until 1829). With the amendment to the Rhineland-Palatinate Wine Law in 1971, the Deidesheim vineyards were newly organized. Today there are eleven “single locations” – Einzellagen – and one winemaking appellation – Weingroßlage: the Einzellagen are Grainhübel, Herrgottsacker, Hohenmorgen, Kalkofen (whose name, oddly enough, means “lime kiln”), Kieselberg, Langenmorgen, Leinhöhe, Letten, Mäushöhle, Nonnenstück and Paradiesgarten; the Weingroßlage is called Hofstück. All together, the Einzellagen have an area of 523.58 ha; the Weingroßlage, to which belong many other Einzellagen in other centres, has an area of 1 401 ha. No longer to be found since the reorganization are names such as Geheu, Hahnenböhl, Kränzler, Reiß, Rennpfad, Vogelsang and Weinbach.
no earlier than the beginning of the Christian Era. Whether it was being done at Deidesheim at this time is a matter of speculation: Finds of wine amphora
e and a barrel-shaped glass jug from Roman times
near Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg
do indeed suggest that wine was being enjoyed at this time. Unambiguous evidence of any winegrowing right near Deidesheim in Roman times, however, is lacking.
About winegrowing in the Middle Ages
little is known. In 770, Deidesheim was named for the first time in a document from Fulda Abbey as being a winegrowing centre. Today’s vineyards in Deidesheim were only cleared after the turn of the second millennium. The change in land use can be seen in neighbouring placenames Forst
(“forest”) and Haardt
. With the so-called Ungeld (“unmoney”), a tax on wine allowed by the Prince-Bishop of Speyer in 1360, the town wall’s building and maintenance were financed. The earliest mention of a grape variety in Deidesheim was in 1504, when Gänsfüßer (Argant
) was named.
In the early 19th century, an important change took hold in winegrowing in the Palatinate
. The Deidesheim landowner Andreas Jordan therein became the first to produce Qualitätswein
. Well known to him was the worth of the late harvest
of noble-rot-bearing
grapes at Schloss Johannisberg
, and this selective principle he also followed in his own winery. Moreover, he first used, along with vintage and variety, the location name “Deidesheimer Geheu” as a trademark for his wines. As a result of this striving for quality, which later the other local winemakers also made their own, Deidesheim wines earned themselves great repute in the 19th century.
By implementing his ideas in production and marketing, Andreas managed to earn Qualitätswein prizes, becoming very wealthy and able to expand his winery appreciably. When he died in 1848, his bequest was split three ways – an event known as the Jordansche Teilung (Teilung means “division” or “sharing” in German
) – giving rise to Deidesheim’s three biggest wineries, which thenceforth developed independently of each other and still exist today. They bear the names Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan, Reichsrat von Buhl and Dr. Deinhard.
Because many smaller winemakers were hit hard in the wake of cheap imports and rising labour costs due to the emerging industrialization in the late 19th century, the Deidesheim Winemakers’ Association (Deidesheimer Winzerverein) was founded in 1898 on schoolteacher Johannes Mungenast’s initiative. It was the Palatinate’s first winemakers’ association. The winemakers who joined were offered a common wine cellar and common marketing. A further association, formed by small winemakers in 1913, was the Winzergenossenschaft, which merged with the Winzerverein in 1966.
Beginning in 1972 – and therefore somewhat later than in other parts of the Palatinate – a Flurbereinigung
process was undertaken near Deidesheim, which gave the area a new look. The last Flurbereinigung operation was finished in 2007. These processes allowed winemakers to save on the cost of harvesting, as this could now more easily be done with tractors and harvesting machines.
, winegrowing, too, profits to a great extent from the Weinstraße region’s natural particularity, namely the extraordinarily favourable climate. In Deidesheim, there are many wineries, a Sekt cellar and a winemakers’ association. Currently there are 85 winegrowing operations each cultivating an area of at least 0.3 ha. All together, working vineyards cover 485 ha, making the average for each operation 3.7 ha. At this time, 83.7% of the whole area is planted with white wine varieties, while the other 16.3% is planted with red, although the percentage of red is rising; in the early 1980s, the red’s share of the vineyards lay at less than 2%. By far the most widely planted variety is Riesling
, with other wines being produced here mainly from Müller-Thurgau
, Silvaner
, Pinot noir
, Portugieser
and Gewürztraminer
varieties.
s whose capacity is some 800 beds. Moreover, for a town of Deidesheim’s size, there are very many restaurant
s, of which the best known may be the Gasthaus zur Kanne (“Inn at the Jug”) and the Schwarzer Hahn (“Black Cock”) at the Deidesheimer Hof Hotel. Tourism currently offers the most jobs in town; this development owes itself to rationalization
measures in the winegrowing sector. Alongside winegrowing and its attendant festivals such as the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe and the Geißbockversteigerung described earlier on, the Palatinate Forest with its markedly well developed network of paths and many carparks for hikers is of great importance for tourism and recreation; many hikers and nature lovers come for these from the nearby urban agglomerations on day trips to Deidesheim.
, the Rathaus der Verbandsgemeinde (“Verbandsgemeinde Hall”) in Deidesheim has since it took on its current duties on 1 January 1973 housed the Verbandsgemeinde administration. Here is, among other things, the Citizens’ Bureau (Bürgerbüro), a reception centre for citizens of the Verbandsgemeinde with questions and concerns having to do with the public sector, such as, for instance, issues of residency, issuing Personalausweise
and passport
s, or issuing payroll tax
cards and postal voting
documents. Furthermore there are also forms for requests of any kind and a lost-and-found.
, Deidesheim and the other municipalities in the Middle Haardt, too, strove for a rail link. A local committee put forth a suggestion in 1860 to build a railway line from Neustadt to Dürkheim in Frankenthal
, a request that was granted on 3 February 1862 by the administration of the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn
. One of the eight signers from the local committee was the Deidesheim landowner Ludwig Andreas Jordan. The Bavarian
King Maximilian II
eventually awarded the committee, represented by the eight signatories thereto, the “Supreme Concession Document for Forming a Corporation to Build and Run a Railway from Neustadt a. H. to Dürkheim”. To carry out this project, a company was formed, the Neustadt-Dürkheimer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, which was later absorbed by the Gesellschaft der Pfälzischen Nordbahnen
.
In 1865, the Bad Dürkheim
–Neustadt an der Haardt (now Neustadt an der Weinstraße
) railway line was completed, whose trains also stopped at Deidesheim. On 6 May of that year, the first train made the roughly 15 km trip along the line. Until the late 19th century, Deidesheim grew into an important goods station. Important commodities that were handled here were dung, wood, coal and wine. Moreover, basalt
, mined near the Pechsteinkopf (mountain) and transported to Deidesheim station by cableway
, was loaded here. Goods transport, though, dwindled through to the 1980s until it was discontinued. Since then, there have only been passenger trains.
and Kaiserslautern
can then be reached by S-Bahn
in about 30 minutes. With the introduction of “Rhineland-Palatinate timing” and the link to the RheinNeckar S-Bahn
, Deidesheim is well linked to rail transport. Deidesheim is furthermore linked to the two bus routes Neustadt–Bad Dürkheim and Deidesheim–Ludwigshafen. Public transport
in Deidesheim is within the area covered by the VRN
tariff structures.
271. That road’s new alignment has merely taken it along the town’s eastern outskirts since it was opened as a bypass in 2000. The B 271 affords a quick link to the south to the Autobahn A 65
(interchange
11 Deidesheim), over which Ludwigshafen can be reached in about 25 minutes and Karlsruhe
in about 50. To the north along the B 271 lies Bad Dürkheim, where there is an interchange on the A 650 (Bad Dürkheim–Ludwigshafen).
Die Rheinpfalz contains a local section called Mittelhaardter Rundschau, which is also available in Haßloch
, Neustadt an der Weinstraße
and the Lambrecht
area as part of the same newspaper. Weekly, the advertising fliers Stadtanzeiger (in the Verbandsgemeinden of Deidesheim
, Maikammer
and Lambrecht
, as well as in Neustadt an der Weinstraße) and Rund um die Mittlere Weinstraße (in the Verbandsgemeinden of Deidesheim and Wachenheim
). Likewise weekly, the public journal
of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim is delivered to every household in Deidesheim.
On the cable television
network, the regional broadcaster Offener Kanal Ludwigshafen was available until 20 November 2008, but since that day, owing to cable network restructuring, subscribers now receive Offener Kanal Neustadt/Weinstraße and Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen.
’s visits, on which he often brought along state guests to entertain. Margaret Thatcher
, Mikhail Gorbachev
and Boris Yeltsin
, among others, thus all got to know the traditional Palatine dish Saumagen
(“sow’s stomach”). The Deidesheimer Hof became the second five-star hotel in Rhineland-Palatinate
in 2001 since the classification was introduced in 1996.
limits and is a member of the VDP
. In 1989 the house was leased to Japan
ese investors. Since 2005 it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.
. Today the winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 42 ha, among them many locations within Deidesheim’s and Forst’s limits. The winery is a member of the VDP
; in 2002 it was bought by the Neustadt
entrepreneur Achim Niederberger and now belongs to his business group.
whose father Johann Friedrich Deinhard had founded the Deinhard firm. The winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 40 ha within Deidesheim’s, Ruppertsberg
’s and Forst’s limits and belongs to the VDP
. Since late 2007, it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.
.
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with some 3,700 inhabitants.
The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
Deidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
. The most important industries are tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and winegrowing. Deidesheim’s two biggest folk festivals revolve around wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
: the Geißbockversteigerung (literally “Billygoat Auction”) and the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe (wine fair).
Geography
Location
Deidesheim lies in the Palatinate in the Weinstraße region (as distinct from the Deutsche Weinstraße – or German Wine Route – itself). Deidesheim’s municipal area stretches for 26.53 km², covering parts of three morphological and ecological units, namely the Palatinate Forest, the Weinstraße region’s uplands and the Upper Rhine PlainUpper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben is a major rift, straddling the border between France and Germany. It forms part of the European Cenozoic Rift System, which extends across central Europe...
: 23.9% of this area is used for agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, mainly winegrowing, 67.9% of it is wooded, 0.6% is water, 7.4% is residential or transport-related and 0.1% of the land fits under none of these headings. The town itself lies some 1 000 m east of the Haardt. Deidesheim is found in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban region in the middle of the Palatinate wine region
Palatinate (wine region)
Palatinate is a German wine-growing region in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate . With under cultivation in 2008, the region is the second largest wine region in Germany after Rheinhessen...
. Running through the town is the German Wine Route.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, these are Forst an der WeinstraßeForst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
, Friedelsheim
Friedelsheim
Friedelsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Rödersheim-Gronau
Rödersheim-Gronau
Rödersheim-Gronau is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
, Meckenheim
Meckenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate
Meckenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
, Lindenberg
Lindenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Lindenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Lambrecht
Lambrecht
Lambrecht is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany lying roughly 6 km northwest of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.- Location :...
, Frankeneck
Frankeneck
Frankeneck is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Neidenfels
Neidenfels
Neidenfels is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
and Wachenheim an der Weinstraße.
Climate
Macroclimatically, Deidesheim is characterized by the surrounding relief: The Palatinate Forest to the west forces the main, rainbearing winds from the west and southwest upwards, whereupon they cool and their water condenses, raining down on the Palatinate Forest. The now drier air then falls at the forest’s east side warming back up, making for a drier, less cloudy climate with warmer temperatures to the forest’s leeWindward and leeward
Windward is the direction upwind from the point of reference. Leeward is the direction downwind from the point of reference. The side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its lee side. If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of the wind, this will be the "lower side"...
. The number of summery days (that is, with temperatures reaching or surpassing 25 °C) far exceeds the countrywide average by 40 or 50 each year, and the yearly precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
level of just over 500 mm is below the threshold, set at 600 mm, for German regions that are considered dry.
From a local climatic point of view, Deidesheim is part of the climatically favoured foothill zone of the Weinstraße region. With a mean elevation of 235 m above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
at the forest’s edge, the lands of the Deidesheim area reach down to some 130 m above sea level at the lower mid-slope area in the foothill zone. The outliers of the Madental and the Sensental, as well as those of the Einsteltal (dales) northwest of Deidesheim, form outflow pathways for the cold winds coming from the Haardt. Also affecting the local climate are small hollows and dells in which cold air can gather.
Climatic conditions in Deidesheim have almost Mediterranean
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
traits as witnessed by ripening fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
s, almond
Almond
The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...
s and bitter orange
Bitter orange
The name "bitter orange", also known as Seville orange, sour orange, bigarade orange, and marmalade orange, refers to a citrus tree and its fruit. Many varieties of bitter orange are used for their essential oil, which is used in perfume and as a flavoring...
s in the area. Profiting especially from the favourable climate are warmth-loving crops such as grapes
Vitis vinifera
Vitis vinifera is a species of Vitis, native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran....
. This favours the growing of Qualitätsweine
German wine classification
German wine classification consists of several quality categories and is often the source of some confusion, especially among non-German speaking wine consumers. The official classification is set down in the wine law of 1971, although some changes and amendments have been made since then...
, which is done here on a grand scale. With its long growing season
Growing season
In botany, horticulture, and agriculture the growing season is the period of each year when native plants and ornamental plants grow; and when crops can be grown....
, the wine can age fully. Thoroughly fermented wines have a high quality, and frost damage is rare.
Geology
The most important event in the Deidesheim area’s, and indeed the whole eastern Palatinate’s, geologicalGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the Haardt of the Upper Rhine Plain
Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben is a major rift, straddling the border between France and Germany. It forms part of the European Cenozoic Rift System, which extends across central Europe...
, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary
Paleogene
The Paleogene is a geologic period and system that began 65.5 ± 0.3 and ended 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and comprises the first part of the Cenozoic Era...
and which has lasted until today. The area before the Haardt range was over time scored by brooks that rise in the Palatinate Forest. During the ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
s, there were gradual solifluction
Solifluction
In geology, solifluction, also known as soil fluction, is a type of mass wasting where waterlogged sediment moves slowly downslope, over impermeable material. It occurs in periglacial environments where melting during the warm season leads to water saturation in the thawed surface material ,...
on the slopes and also wind abrasion
Abrasion (geology)
Abrasion is the mechanical scraping of a rock surface by friction between rocks and moving particles during their transport by wind, glacier, waves, gravity, running water or erosion. After friction, the moving particles dislodge loose and weak debris from the side of the rock...
. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake an alluvial fan
Alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial...
with embanked or eroded terraces formed. In colder, drier phases of the Würm glaciation, loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
beds came into being through the influence of the wind, whereby the loess gathered mostly at faults and alee of small hollows.
West and northwest of Deidesheim, the Voltziensandstein that predominates in the middle of the Palatinate Forest from the Triassic
Triassic
The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 250 to 200 Mya . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events...
represents the oldest stratigraphic
Stratigraphy
Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....
unit within Deidesheim’s limits, the so-called “Rehberg Layer”. In Deidesheim’s southwest, Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
deposits can be found; these came into being some 1,500,000 years ago. In the north, Deidesheim is girded by a band of Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
deposits that formed some 3,000,000 years ago. In Deidesheim’s east are found the newest stratigraphic units in the Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
deposits. With foreign material such as basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
, brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
s and dung, man has altered the natural soil composition. The most important soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
types in the Deidesheim area are various rigosols, rendzina
Rendzina
Rendzina is a dark, grayish-brown, humus-rich, intrazonal soil. It is one of the soils most closely associated with the bedrock type and an example of initial stages of soil development...
, parabraunerde and limestone-bearing terra fusca
Terra fusca
Terra Fusca is a limestone based soil . It is a very fertile soil for agriculture. It is generally found in cooler climates, such as a Mediterranean or European climate. It is also referred to as Cromi-calceric cambisol....
.
Founding and Early Middle Ages
The name Deidesheim had its first documentary mention in 699, although the town now standing in its current location only arose, it is believed, in the 13th century around the former Deidesheim Castle. From 770 onwards, there is proof of winegrowing here. In the early 19th century, Deidesheim was the first place in the Palatinate whose wineries were growing QualitätsweineGerman wine classification
German wine classification consists of several quality categories and is often the source of some confusion, especially among non-German speaking wine consumers. The official classification is set down in the wine law of 1971, although some changes and amendments have been made since then...
. Today, Deidesheim is one of the Palatinate wine region’s
Palatinate (wine region)
Palatinate is a German wine-growing region in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate . With under cultivation in 2008, the region is the second largest wine region in Germany after Rheinhessen...
biggest winegrowing centres.
The first time when the placename was mentioned in 699 was in a document in which the Lotharingian nobleman Erimbert bequeathed estates under his ownership to Weißenburg Monastery in Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
(in the now French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
town called Wissembourg
Wissembourg
Wissembourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately north of Strasbourg and west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department...
). Further mentions came in documents from Fulda Abbey (770 or 771) and Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch Abbey
The Abbey of Lorsch is a former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany...
(791), in the latter of which Deidesheim is already named as being a winegrowing centre. Documentary mentions from the Early
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
and High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, however, deal with various settled places that lay not in the town’s current place, but rather elsewhere within a greater municipal area around Deidesheim. Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
burial grounds in and around the neighbouring municipality Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
lead to the conclusion that there were individual settlements at least as long ago as the 6th century, some of which were forsaken. The first documentary mention is believed to refer to neighbouring Niederkirchen. When today’s Deidesheim arose as a settlement next to Niederkirchen is not known with any certainty; the two centres only became separate from each other when the Prince-Bishop’s castle, Schloss Deidesheim, was built, and for this the first evidence dates from 1292. The first confirmed distinction between Niederdeidesheim – today’s Niederkirchen – and Oberdeidesheim – today’s Deidesheim – only came in the 13th century.
In the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
, Deidesheim was mainly under the aforesaid Erimbert’s and his descendants’ ownership. Among them were a few Counts of Metz, Upper Lotharingian dukes and Salians
Salian dynasty
The Salian dynasty was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages of four German Kings , also known as the Frankish dynasty after the family's origin and role as dukes of Franconia...
, and they had holdings in Deidesheim for almost 400 years, until Henry IV
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...
(1056) and Margravine Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany was an Italian noblewoman, the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy. She is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments...
(1086) gave up their Deidesheim holdings and donated them to the Cathedral Chapter or Saint Guy’s Monastery in Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
. Not long thereafter, Deidesheim passed into the Speyer Prince-Bishops’ hands and thenceforth belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
Bishopric of Speyer
The Bishopric of Speyer was a state, ruled by Prince-Bishops, in what is today the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was secularized in 1803...
. Other, but less important, holdings in Deidesheim in the Early Middle Ages were owned by Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch Abbey
The Abbey of Lorsch is a former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany...
and the Bishopric of Worms
Bishopric of Worms
The Bishopric of Worms was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Palatinate. Worms had been the seat of a bishop from Roman times...
.
Further development
As the Speyer Bishopric’s records confirm, Deidesheim quickly grew into an economically important centre to which contributed financially strong Jews, who had their own community with a synagogueSynagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
in Deidesheim until the pogroms during the time of the plague about 1349.
Along with this development arose the townsmen’s wish to offer the flourishing community greater protection against attacks, which was granted at last by Bishop of Speyer Gerhard von Ehrenberg in 1360 when he granted Deidesheim fortification rights. On Saint Valentine’s Day 1395, the Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n King Wenceslaus
Wenceslaus, King of the Romans
Wenceslaus ) was, by election, German King from 1376 and, by inheritance, King of Bohemia from 1378. He was the third Bohemian and second German monarch of the Luxembourg dynasty...
(Wenzel in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Václav in Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
) granted Deidesheim town rights. These were given – as was then customary – not to the town itself, but to the Bishop of Speyer, since he was the town’s lord.
The fortification could only afford the town limited protection in wartime. The town was conquered in 1396, 1460, 1525, 1552, several times in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, and in 1689 and 1693 (Nine Years' War), sometimes getting plundered and set on fire in the process.
Early modern times
With the invasion by FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
militiamen, Deidesheim passed to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in 1794. Although it was reconquered by Imperial troops in 1795, it soon fell once again to France, and remained under French administration until Napoleon’s
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
overlordship collapsed in 1814. Under the new territorial order prescribed by the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
, Deidesheim belonged, beginning in 1816, to the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
as part of the Rheinkreis (“Rhine District”), which from 1838 bore the name Pfalz (“Palatinate”). In 1819, the outlying centre of Niederkirchen
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
, long considered to be a constituent community of Deidesheim, was demerged from the town, and has been an autonomous municipality ever since.
In 1865, Deidesheim acquired a connection on the new Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
- Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
railway line. About the turn of the century, there were other industrial achievements. In 1894, Deidesheim got a gasworks, in 1896 electric lighting, in 1897 a local electrical network, and in 1898, the town was connected to a public watermain. Furthermore, in the late 19th century, all important estates had a telephone connection.
20th century onwards
After the First World War in 1918, FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
troops moved into town. Troop units were billeted here. This persisted until France withdrew from the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
in July 1930. In August 1921 there was a great forest fire near Deidesheim in which some 300 ha of woodland burnt, of which 130 ha was in the Deidesheim town forest. To fight the fire, all Deidesheim’s men aged 17 and over were recruited. Quenching the fire took three long days and nights.
During the Second World War, Deidesheim was mostly spared any great war damage at first, but then, on 9 March 1945, not long before the war ended, the local infirmary was struck by a bomb, which killed nine people. On 21 March 1945, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops moved into town, ending the war, at least in Deidesheim.
With the formation of the state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
in 1946, Deidesheim found itself within it, and no longer part of Bavaria. In 1968, Deidesheim was given the designation Luftkurort (“climatic spa”). Along with Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
, Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Niederkirchen
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
and Meckenheim
Meckenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate
Meckenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Deidesheim has since 1972 formed the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
Deidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
.
Great media coverage came Deidesheim’s way with all the visits by high-ranking foreign state visitors invited to Deidesheim by then Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
between 1989 and 1997. Often, state guests were served the dish Pfälzer Saumagen (“Palatine Sow’s Stomach”). The state guests who came with Kohl were British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
(April 1989), Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
President Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
(November 1990), Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
(June 1991), US Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
(February 1992), Czech
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
President Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
(October 1993), Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
(May 1994), British Prime Minister John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
(October 1994) and the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
King and Queen Juan Carlos I
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
and Sofía
Queen Sofía of Spain
Queen Sofía of Spain is the wife of King Juan Carlos I of Spain.-Early life and family:Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark was born in Psychiko, Athens, Greece on 2 November 1938, the eldest child of the King Paul of Greece and his wife, Queen Frederika , a former princess of Hanover...
(July 1997).
Since early 2009, Deidesheim has been the first town in Rhineland-Palatinate to be a member of the Cittàslow
Cittaslow
Cittaslow is a movement founded in Italy in October 1999. The inspiration of Cittaslow was the Slow Food organization. Cittaslow's goals include improving the quality of life in towns by slowing down its overall pace, especially in a city's use of spaces and the flow of life and traffic through them...
movement, among whose goals are improving the quality of life and enhancing cultural diversity in towns.
Population development
| Year | 1530 | 1618 | 1667 | 1702 | 1737 | 1774 | 1815 | 1849 | 1871 | 1895 | 1917 | 1933 | 1953 | 2006 |
| Inhabitants | some 500 | some 630 | 561 | 444 | 895 | 1,241 | 1,760 | 2,729 | 2,697 | 2,783 | 2,197 | 2,559 | 3,100 | 3,739 |
From the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
has come no information about Deidesheim’s population. In part, considerable swings in the 17th and early 18th centuries in the number of inhabitants were the consequences of the many wars; foremost among these were the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
and the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession) in their effect on Deidesheim’s population. In the rather more peaceful later 18th century, Deidesheim underwent a great upswing in its population, bringing the total number of inhabitants to nearly three times what it had been towards the end of the Middle Ages. After the next quick swelling of the population leading up to the Palatine Uprising in 1849, Deidesheim’s population did not rise significantly in the latter half of the 19th century – which was rather at odds with the general trend in Germany in this time of industrialization – and even shrank by the turn of the 20th century, leaving Deidesheim with fewer inhabitants in 1917 than it had had in 1823. The main cause of all this was people from Deidesheim emigrating
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Only years after the First World War did Deidesheim’s population once again reach its mid-19th-century level. After the Second World War, the number of inhabitants once again began to rise sharply and for the first time broke the 3,000 level. Over the last few years, the population has been relatively steady and amounts to some 3,800 inhabitants.
St. Ulrich’s Catholic parish
On the same spot where now stands Saint Ulrich’sUlrich of Augsburg
Saint Ulrich , sometimes spelled Uodalric or Odalrici, was Bishop of Augsburg and a leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. He was the first saint to be canonized.-Family:...
Parish Church once stood a chapel consecrated to Saint Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
. This chapel was first mentioned about 1300. Owing to the transfer of the parish seat from Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
to Deidesheim sometime between 1437 and 1460, a new, roomier church building was needed. Work on the new building began before the middle of the century, about 1444. In 1473, the work had been finished as far as it could be. Saint Ulrich’s Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Ulrich) with its 62.7 m-tall, somewhat crooked tower is the only major church building in the Palatinate to have been built in the mid 15th century.
The Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
could not prevail in the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer
Bishopric of Speyer
The Bishopric of Speyer was a state, ruled by Prince-Bishops, in what is today the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was secularized in 1803...
, to which Deidesheim belonged and whose bishop was Deidesheim’s town lord (cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio is a phrase in Latin translated as "Whose realm, his religion", meaning the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled...
). Nevertheless it wrought considerable difficulties with the allocation of the Deidesheim rectorate in the latter half of the 16th century. In 1750 and 1820 respectively, the branch parishes of Niederkirchen and Forst were split away from Deidesheim once again and were raised to fully-fledged parishes in their own right. For a short time after the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
annexation of the Rhine’s left bank, the parish of Deidesheim belonged to the Bishopric of Mainz before being ceded back to the Bishopric of Speyer.
Under the new order of deaconries made in the diocese of Speyer in 1980, Deidesheim was assigned to the deaconry of Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
. Owing to a dearth of priests, Saint Ulrich’s parish has since 2006 formed a parish union with Saint Margaret’s (Forst) and Saint Martin’s (Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
) whose seat is in Deidesheim. In late 2007, 2,165 of Deidesheim’s inhabitants were Catholic, which made them 56.87% of the population.
Evangelical parish
The Protestants’Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
share of Deidesheim’s population was long very slight, with only four in the town in 1788. By 1863 that had risen to 38. In 1874 and 1875, the Protestant church arose from the conversion of a former barn. In 1891, this acquired a tower.
The number of Protestants in town also swelled after the Second World War with the arrival of refugees
Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II...
. Since 1957, Deidesheim has formed its own parish with Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
, Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
and Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
; the places in Wachenheim an der Weinstraße formerly also belonged. The Deidesheim parish belongs to the Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
Church of the Palatinate (Protestant State Church), and since 1984 has had its own rectorate. In late 2007, 924 of Deidesheim’s inhabitants were Evangelical, which made them 24.27% of the population.
Jewish community
As early as the High Middle AgesHigh Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
, Jews had a community with a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
in Deidesheim. The community was wiped out in the pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
during the time of the plague in 1349 when all Deidesheim’s Jews were slain and the synagogue passed into the Church’s ownership. In the 16th century a new Jewish community was formed.
Because the prayer hall in use up to that time could no longer be used owing to disrepair, a new synagogue was built. Once discrimination and stripping of rights by the Nazis in the early days of the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
had begun, many Jews felt forced to emigrate, shrinking and impoverishing the community. In 1935, the synagogue, which was in need of renovation, was sold. Seven Jews who were born or had long lived in Deidesheim were deported in 1940 under the so called Bürckel
Josef Bürckel
Joseph Bürckel was a German politician and a member of the German parliament...
-Wagner
Robert Heinrich Wagner
Robert Heinrich Wagner was Gauleiter of Baden and Head of the Civil Government of Alsace during the German occupation of France in World War II....
Action (they were both Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
s), even Mrs. Reinach, who had survived Camp Gurs
Camp Gurs
Camp Gurs was an internment and refugee camp constructed by the French government in 1939. The camp was originally set up in southwestern France after the fall of Catalonia at the end of the Spanish Civil War to control those who fled Spain out of fear of retaliation from Francisco Franco's regime...
; all perished in The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
The former Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
graveyard on Platanenweg is under town ownership. It is some 800 m² in area and is under monumental protection. All together, 95 gravestones from the time between the 18th and 20th centuries could be restored in 1946 after they were destroyed in 1938.
Coat of arms
The town’s armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might be described thus: Azure a cross pattée humetty argent, in dexter chief and base sinister a mullet Or.
The German blazon mentions nothing about a bordure
Bordure
In heraldry, a bordure is a band of contrasting tincture forming a border around the edge of a shield, traditionally one-sixth as wide as the shield itself...
. The version shown at Heraldry of the World has none, and thus matches the blazon.
Deidesheim’s oldest seal, from 1410, showed a cross that was not couped (that is, it reached the escutcheon’s edges, unlike the one in the current arms), standing for the Bishopric of Speyer, and only one mullet (star) in dexter chief, that is, in the upper part of the escutcheon on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side. It is believed that the mullet stood for Saint Mary, the patron of the now long-vanished Marienkapelle. With this seal, the Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
, the council and the court of Deidesheim authenticated the documents that they issued. The seal bore the circumscription Gericht von Deidesheim (“Court of Deidesheim”). After Deidesheim’s destruction in the Nine Years' War in 1693, a new seal was made. This one bore the circumscription Der * Stat * Deidesheim * Insigel. The heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
device that it bore was the same as the arms still borne by the town now.
Town politics since the 19th century
| Time in office | Name |
|---|---|
| 1895 to 1905 | Johann Julius Siben |
| 1905 to 1914 | Ludwig Bassermann-Jordan |
| 1914 to 1920 | Karl Kimich |
| 1920 to 1933 | Arnold Siben |
| 1933 to 1945 | Friedrich Eckel-Sellmayr |
| 1945 to 1948 | Michael Henrich |
| 1948 | Ernst Fürst |
| 1948 to 1972 | Norbert Oberhettinger |
| 1972 to 1975 | Erich Gießen |
| 1975 to 2004 | Stefan Gillich |
| 2004 to today | Manfred Dörr |
Before the First World War
In the early 19th century in Deidesheim, an influential class of winery estate owners formed who always put forward the honorary mayor, even through to the Weimar RepublicWeimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
’s downfall, and were markedly overrepresented on town council. The actual structure of the town’s population at this time was not reflected on town council. After the First World War, the Bavarian Municipal Act of 1869 still applied at first and the 23-member council elected in 1914 stood unchanged. The last mayor, Ludwig Bassermann-Jordan, had been killed in the war after volunteering for service, and his deputy, Karl Kimich, was elected in his stead. At the next municipal election, though, he did not seek another term.
Weimar Republic
The most promising candidate to succeed Kimich was said to be Arnold Siben, whose father, Johann Julius Siben, had already been Deidesheim’s mayor from 1895 to 1905. Backing Siben was the Unparteiische Bürgerliste (“Independent Citizens’ List”), which itself brought Centre PartyCentre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
supporters and liberals together. The liberal to left-leaning Bürgerliste and the Volksliste, which was close to the SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, fixed on the frontrunner, Josef Eid. Siben, however, could decide the election’s outcome by himself, and he won a ten-year mandate.
While the 1920 and 1924 municipal elections went forth relatively quietly, the 1929 election was considerably more raucous. This stemmed from a proposal from the Mayor’s Office to town council just before the election to raise Siben to fulltime, professional mayor. Outrage was the response, for on the one hand, the electorate would thereby be bypassed, and on the other, many found the yearly salary of 12,000 Reichsmark
German reichsmark
The Reichsmark was the currency in Germany from 1924 until June 20, 1948. The Reichsmark was subdivided into 100 Reichspfennig.-History:...
quite beyond the pale against the backdrop of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, which had just broken out. Nonetheless, Siben got just enough votes from the Unparteiische Bürgerliste to become the professional mayor for the next five years. At the next council election, which came shortly thereafter and had an unusually high voter turnout, the Unparteiische Bürgerliste lost almost half its council members, many to the protest movement Fortschritt und Freiheit (“Progress and Freedom”), whose leader, Friedrich Schreck, rose to become the deputy mayor after Siben.
Third Reich
In Deidesheim, the MachtergreifungMachtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
came mainly on 15 March – the Ides
Ides of March
The Ides of March is the name of the 15th day of March in the Roman calendar, probably referring to the day of the full moon. The word Ides comes from the Latin word "Idus" and means "half division" especially in relation to a month. It is a word that was used widely in the Roman calendar...
– 1933 in the form of a demonstration by several hundred people outside Siben’s house. The crowd threatened to storm the house if Siben was not prepared to surrender the mayor’s office. Siben thereupon declared to two town councillors who were there that he was resigning, all the while, however, reserving his rights. The mayoralty would then have fallen to the second mayor Friedrich Schreck; however, he would not have suited those now in power, as he had already twice been interned for resistance against the NSDAP. The Neustadt
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
regional office eventually decreed on 20 March that the estate owner Friedrich Eckel-Sellmayr should be mayor; he had already held a seat on town council since 1924 as part of the Bürgerliste formed by the Left-Liberals and the commercial association. Eckel-Sellmayr held the mayoralty until the end of the Second World War in 1945.
After the Second World War
| Party | Result (%) | Number of seats on council |
|---|---|---|
| CDU | 55.9 (-3.3) | 11 (-1) |
| FWG Free Voters Free Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the... |
24.3 (+0.1) | 5 (=) |
| Grüne Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir... |
11.5 (+1.8) | 2 (=) |
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
5.3 (-1.6) | 1 (=) |
| FDP Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government... |
3.0 (+3.0) | 1 (+1) |
After the Americans had occupied Deidesheim towards the end of the war in March 1945, they appointed the retired headteacher Michael Henrich mayor; Ernst Fürst became his deputy. On 1 July 1948, Fürst took over the mayoralty for half a year. At the first town council elections after the Second World War on 15 September 1946, the CDU got 62% of the vote, and thereafter always earned over 50% of the vote in municipal elections, putting forth all mayors. At the next municipal election in late 1948, two voters’ groups entered the council for the first time. Thenceforth they played an important rôle in town politics and later joined forces as the Free Voters
Free Voters
Free Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the...
’ Group.
On 1 December 1948, the CDU candidate Norbert Oberhettinger was elected mayor. After the owner of the Reichsrat von Buhl Winery
Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl
The Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl is the largest winery estate in Deidesheim in the Palatinate wine region. It produces mainly Riesling wines. The estate is affiliated with the Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter e.V....
, Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg
Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg
Karl Theodor Maria Georg Achaz Eberhardt Josef Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg was a German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria...
, died, Norbert Oberhettinger and his wife were killed in an accident on the way back from the baron’s burial. Succeeding him to the mayoralty was the winery owner Erich Gießen, who held office until 1975. After him, Stefan Gillich, who at the time already held the mayoralty of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim
Deidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
, was elected. The current mayor, Manfred Dörr (CDU) was elected on 13 June 2004, succeeding Stefan Gillich. He furthermore won the 2009 municipal election in which nobody stood against him, earning 81.9% of the votes cast.
The latest municipal election’s results, along with the changes in figures from the last one before that are set out in the table at right. These results give the CDU an absolute majority on town council.
Deidesheimers in state and Imperial politics
Many Deidesheim estate owners were able to use their strong financial bases for activities at higher levels of government. Beginning in the 1840s, Ludwig Andreas Jordan and Franz Peter Buhl gathered liberal politicians in their houses who were of the “Greater German” mindset. The composition of this “Deidesheim Circle” (Deidesheimer Kreis) changed often; to it belonged, among others, Adam von Itzstein, Ludwig HäusserLudwig Häusser
Ludwig Häusser was a German historian.-Biography:Häusser was born at Kleeburg, in Alsace. Studying philology at Heidelberg in 1835, he was led by F. C...
, Heinrich von Sybel
Heinrich von Sybel
Heinrich Karl Ludolf von Sybel , German historian, came from a Protestant family which had long been established at Soest, in Westphalia....
, Carl Theodor Welcker
Carl Theodor Welcker
-Biography:He was a member of the Baden legislature, and a colleague of Karl von Rotteck's in the editing of The Independent . He also joined Rotteck in writing the Staatslexikon . He was a member of the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848....
, Heinrich von Gagern
Heinrich von Gagern
Heinrich Wilhelm August Freiherr von Gagern was a statesman who argued for the unification of Germany.The third son of Hans Christoph Ernst, Baron von Gagern, a liberal statesman from Hesse, Heinrich von Gagern was born at Bayreuth, educated at the military academy at Munich, and, as an officer in...
, Karl Mathy
Karl Mathy
Karl Mathy , was a Badensian statesman.He was born at Mannheim. He studied law and politics at Heidelberg, and entered the Baden government department of finance in 1829...
, Friedrich Daniel Bassermann
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann
Friedrich Daniel Bassermann was a German liberal politician who is best known for calling for a pan-German Parliament at the Frankfurt Parliament...
, Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier
Carl Joseph Anton Mittermaier was a German jurist.-Biography:He was born in Munich, and educated at the universities of Landshut and Heidelberg...
and Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus
Georg Gottfried Gervinus was a German literary and political historian.-Biography:Gervinus was born in Darmstadt. He was educated at the gymnasium of the town, and intended for a commercial career, but in 1825 he became a student of the university of Giessen...
. In March 1848, Buhl and Jordan sat in the Vorparlament in Frankfurt, a preparatory gathering for the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
, which neither one attended, Buhl because he was not elected and Jordan because he wanted to remain Mayor of Deidesheim. No later than the Second Schleswig War in 1864, the Deidesheim Circle’s mindset had changed to a “Lesser German” one.
After the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
was founded in 1871, two Deidesheimers were elected as Members of the Reichstag
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
: Ludwig Andreas Jordan, a Member until 1881, and Franz Armand Buhl, who held a mandate until 1893 and functioned for three years as Deputy Speaker of the Reichstag. He played a part in Bismarck’s
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
social and wine legislation. In Andreas Deinhard, Deidesheim also had another of its sons in the Reichstag as a Member. He held a mandate from 1898 to 1903. Buhl, Jordan and Deinhard were all members of the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Germany)
The National Liberal Party was a German political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. It was formed by Prussian liberals who put aside their differences with Bismarck over domestic policy due to their support for his highly successful foreign policy, which resulted in the unification of...
.
Three Deidesheimers held seats in the Chamber of Imperial Councillors (Kammer der Reichsräte) of the Kingdom of Bavaria
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
: Franz Armand Buhl (from 1885 to 1896), Eugen Buhl (from 1896 to 1910) and Franz Eberhard Buhl (from 1911 to 1918). In the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies (Kammer der Abgeordneten), eight Deidesheimers were represented all together: Andreas Jordan (from 1831 to 1843), Ludwig Andreas Jordan (from 1848 to 1852 and from 1863 to 1871), Franz Peter Buhl (from 1855 to 1861), Eugen Buhl (from 1875 to 1896), Franz Eberhard Buhl (from 1907 to 1911), Andreas Deinhard (from 1881 to 1904), Johann Julius Siben (from 1899 to 1907), and Josef Siben (from 1907 to 1920). Besides the eight resident Members, there were also two other Members of the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies who had been born in Deidesheim: Josef Giessen (from 1907 to 1918) and Franz Tafel (from 1840 to 1843, from 1849 to 1858 and from 1863 to 1869). The latter also had a seat in the Frankfurt Parliament
Frankfurt Parliament
The Frankfurt Assembly was the first freely elected parliament for all of Germany. Session was held from May 18, 1848 to May 31, 1849 in the Paulskirche at Frankfurt am Main...
.
After the Second World War, one more Deidesheimer went into state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
politics: Hanns Haberer, who was born in Bruchmühlbach
Bruchmühlbach-Miesau
Bruchmühlbach-Miesau is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the small river Glan, approx. 10 km north-east of Homburg, and 25 km west of Kaiserslautern. It has many festivals and is the home of two storks which are the...
and now lived in his wife’s hometown, was Economics and Finance Minister from 1946 to 1947 in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
’s first government and from 1947 to 1955 functioned as Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
.
Town partnerships
Deidesheim maintains town partnerships with the following towns: Saint-Jean-de-BoiseauSaint-Jean-de-Boiseau
Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.-References:*...
, Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Bad Klosterlausnitz
Bad Klosterlausnitz
Bad Klosterlausnitz is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany....
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
Buochs
Buochs
Buochs is a municipality in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland.-History:Buochs is first mentioned in 1124 as Boches. In 1184 it was mentioned as Buoches in 1210 as Buches, and in 1229 as Buchs.-Geography:...
, Nidwalden
Nidwalden
Nidwalden is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population is 40,287 of which 4,046 are foreigners. The capital is Stans.-History:...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Tihany
Tihany
Tihany is a village on the northern shore of Lake Balaton on the Tihany Peninsula . The whole peninsula is a historical district....
, Veszprém County, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Consular representation
Deidesheim is home to the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of TogoTogo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
.
Buildings
Saint Ulrich’s Parish Church
The Late GothicGothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
Catholic Saint Ulrich’s Parish Church was built between 1440 and 1480 as a successor to an older Chapel of Saint Mary. It is a three-naved groin-vaulted
Groin vault
A groin vault or groined vault is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. The word groin refers to the edge between the intersecting vaults; cf. ribbed vault. Sometimes the arches of groin vaults are pointed instead of round...
column basilica and the Palatinate’s only major church building preserved from the mid 15th century. The church is counted among the most important witnesses to Late Gothic architecture in the Palatinate by the Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Bad Dürkheim is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Kaiserslautern, Donnersbergkreis and Alzey-Worms, the city of Worms, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the city of Neustadt/Weinstraße, the districts of Südliche Weinstraße, the city of Landau , the district...
district’s catalogue of memorial sites.
Gasthaus zur Kanne
This inn was built about 1160 as an estate of the Cistercian Eußerthal Abbey to lodge and entertain travellers. From this branch location of the Abbey grew today’s inn, whose innkeepers and leaseholders can be traced back in an unbroken line to the year 1374. The inn is therefore said to be the Palatinate’s oldest. Today the inn is run by the Wachenheim winery Weingut Dr. Bürklin-Wolf.Castle Deidesheim
Castle Deidesheim (Schloss Deidesheim) was built in the 13th century when Deidesheim still belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer. It was likely the seed from which sprang today’s town of Deidesheim, and was the seat of the Speyer Episcopal administration. Because it has been destroyed twice, the castle has been subject to profound building alterations.Heidenlöcher
On the Martensberg (mountain), some 2.5 km northwest of Deidesheim, are found the Heidenlöcher (singular: Heidenloch – “heathen holes”), the ruins of a refuge castle, which once offered Deidesheimers shelter to which they could flee in times of war. It is believed to have been built in the 9th or 10th century, but never used for its intended purpose. Its utterly ruined state today is merely from the ravages of time, not war.Deidesheimer Spital
The Deidesheimer Spital is a short-term residence for seniors with a 500-year history full of changes. It was endowed by the Deidesheim knight Nikolaus von Böhl and served over time as a both a civilian and military hospital. In an air raid on the Spital in the Second World War, nine people lost their lives. Since 1994 the Café Alt Deidesheim has belonged to it as a “meeting place of the generations”, as has the Gästehaus „Ritter von Böhl“ (inn), whose proceeds go to benefit the Spital.Former synagogue
The former synagogueSynagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
was built in the mid 19th century by the Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
community. With its dissolution in the time of the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, the building was liquidated and used for a few decades as a storehouse. In the late 1980s, the building was placed under monumental protection and later bought by the town of Deidesheim. Since its renovation about the turn of the millennium, the former synagogue has been used for cultural events.
Historic Town Hall
The Historic Town Hall (Historisches Rathaus) was built in 1532. After sustaining heavy damage in the Nine Years' War, it was built once again, this time in the BaroqueBaroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
style. Its twin outdoor stairways with its “baldachin
Baldachin
A baldachin, or baldaquin , is a canopy of state over an altar or throne. It had its beginnings as a cloth canopy, but in other cases it is a sturdy, permanent architectural feature, particularly over high altars in cathedrals, where such a structure is more correctly called a ciborium when it is...
” porch come from 1724. The historic council chamber inside was done in Renaissance Revival style in 1912. Stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
in the windows from the same year shows the coats of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of resident landed families. In the building has been since 1986 the Museum für Weinkultur, whose exhibits reflect the history of winegrowing.
Fountains
- The Geißbockbrunnen (“Billygoat Fountain”) from 1985 was created by sculptor Gernot Rumpf. It can be found in the Deidesheim Town Square (Stadtplatz) across from the Stadthalle (literally “town hall”, but actually an event venue) and follows the theme of the Geißbockversteigerung (see Regular events below), which is held in Deidesheim each year on Whit TuesdayWhit TuesdayWhit Tuesday is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost Monday, the third day of the week beginning on Pentecost. Pentecost is a movable feast in the Christian calendar dependent upon the date of Easter.In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Whit Tuesday is known as the "Third Day of the...
. - The Andreasbrunnen (“Andrew’s Fountain”) on the Deidesheim Marketplace (Marktplatz) comes from 1851 and was endowed by Ludwig Andreas Jordan and his kin. It is named for his father Andreas Jordan (1775–1848), Deidesheim’s former mayor and a trailblazer for producing QualitätsweineGerman wine classificationGerman wine classification consists of several quality categories and is often the source of some confusion, especially among non-German speaking wine consumers. The official classification is set down in the wine law of 1971, although some changes and amendments have been made since then...
in the Palatinate. The fountain was poured by the Gienanthsche Hütte (foundry) in EisenbergEisenberg, Rhineland-PalatinateEisenberg is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest, approx. 20 km south-west of Worms....
and is based on Italian RenaissanceRenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
models. - The Geschichts- und Brauchtumsbrunnen (“History and Tradition Fountain”) at the Königsgarten (“King’s Garden”) shows on the one hand important junctures in Deidesheim’s history, such as the granting of town rights or the lordship of the Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, and on the other hand it recognizes local clubs who give themselves over to upholding traditions, such as the costume group and the Kerwebuwe (“kermis lads”). The fountain was created by sculptor Karl Seiter and finished in 2003.
Geißbockversteigerung
The Geißbockversteigerung (literally “Billygoat Auction”) is a folk festival in the form of a historical game that is celebrated each year on the Tuesday after WhitsunWhitsun
Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...
. The festival began with an old agreement with the neighbouring municipality of Lambrecht
Lambrecht
Lambrecht is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany lying roughly 6 km northwest of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.- Location :...
under which each year to pay off debts for woodland and meadow rights within Deidesheim’s limits, a billygoat had to be delivered by Lambrecht, which was then auctioned, with the proceeds going to Deidesheim’s benefit. This historical situation grew over time into a folk festival.
Deidesheim wine fair
The Deidesheimer Weinkerwe is a wine festival, and with over 100,000 visitors is the town’s biggest folk festival. It has been celebrated in its current form since 1972 and quickly grew into one of the biggest wine festivals along the German Wine Route. The festival is always held on the second and third weekends of August, each time from Friday to Tuesday. At the fair, wineries and clubs from throughout the Verbandsgemeinde run temporary bars.Advent
The Deidesheimer Advent is a Christmas market held on the four weekends in AdventAdvent
Advent is a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western liturgical year and commences on Advent Sunday, called Levavi...
. It has been held since 1975. More than 100 sellers from Deidesheim and the surrounding area run stalls, which must stylistically fit into the market’s whole theme. The handicrafts, such as goldsmithing, ceramic, textile, woodcarving and glassblowing crafts play an important rôle in the Deidesheimer Advent. For the mulled wine
Mulled wine
Mulled wine, variations of which are popular in Europe, is wine, usually red, combined with spices and typically served warm. It is a traditional drink during winter, especially around Christmas and Halloween.-Glühwein:...
that is served then, only wines from the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim may be used, which also applies to the wine fair.
Lesser events
- The Pfälzer Mineralienbörse (“Palatinate Mineral Exchange”) has been held each year since 1971 on the weekend after Whitsun at the Stadthalle.
- The Deidesheimer Orgelherbst (“Organ Autumn”), a series of concerts under church musician Elke VoelkerElke VoelkerElke Voelker is a German organist, church musician and musicologist.- Biography :Elke Voelker studied organ, church music, German and Roman languages and musicology at the universities of Mannheim, Mainz and Heidelberg...
, has been held every year since 1996 in October over several Sundays at the Catholic Parish Church. - Twice each year, the Film- und Fotobörse (“Film and Photo Exchange”) is held at the Stadthalle at which objects from the fields of photography, film and projection are displayed and traded.
Museums
- The Museum für moderne Keramik is the oldest of Deidesheim’s three museums; it was opened in 1971. The core of the exhibits is formed by ceramic works from Jakob Wilhelm Hinder’s private collection. Also, the museum displays works by Beate Kuhn, one of Germany’s foremost ceramic artists. The museum is on Stadtmauergasse and is run by ceramic artist Lotte Reimers.
- The Museum für Weinkultur is housed at the Historic Town Hall; it was opened in 1986. The museum’s exhibited pieces reflect wine’s cultural history and influence in fields such as literature, science, art and religion. The museum is financed by, among other things, contributions from the vineyard leaseholders at the Prominenten vineyard in the Deidesheimer Paradiesgarten.
- The Deutsches Film- und Fototechnik Museum is found slightly slantwise across the street from the Historic Town Hall in the rooms of the Deidesheimer Spital; it was opened in December 1990. In some 300 m² are displayed more than 4,000 exhibits from all epochs of camera technology. The museum receives donated objects from, among others, Agfa, Kodak and ArriArri-History:Arri was founded in Munich, Germany as Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917, named after founders August Arnold and Robert Richter. They produce professional motion picture equipment, digital and film cameras and cinematic lighting equipment...
, but also from television operations such as ZDFZDFZweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
and SüdwestrundfunkSüdwestrundfunkThe Südwestrundfunk is a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany, specifically the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The company has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is an...
.
Deidesheimer Turmschreiber
The Stiftung zur Förderung der Literatur in der Pfalz (“Foundation for Furthering Literature in the Palatinate”), in existence since 1978, invites well known men and women of letters every one to five years so that they can write “with a Palatine bearing” and thereafter publish the fruits of their labour. The Foundation is financed by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und DichtungDeutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung
The Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung was founded on August 28, 1949—the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe—in Paulskirche in Frankfurt...
(“German Academy for Language and Poetry”), Südwestrundfunk
Südwestrundfunk
The Südwestrundfunk is a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany, specifically the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The company has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is an...
, the state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
and the town of Deidesheim. Candidates for the office are selected by the Foundation’s members. Because the writers, at least symbolically, reside in a little turret in the Castle Park (Schlosspark) of the former Castle Deidesheim (Schloss Deidesheim) during the term of their creative endeavours, they are called Turmschreiber (“Tower Writers”). The fund for this is endowed with €7,500. The recipient further gets a free stay in Deidesheim for a duration of four weeks and a three-bottle-a-day allowance in wine; furthermore, he or she automatically becomes a vineyard leaseholder in the Prominenten vineyard in the Deidesheimer Paradiesgarten. Following is a list of all the “Tower Writers” thus far, their works, and the year in which each was in Deidesheim:
- Wolfgang Altendorf (1978; “Wie ein Vogel im Paradiesgarten”)
- Rudolf Hagelstange (1980; “Liebesreim auf Deidesheim”)
- Ludwig Harig (1982; “Zum Schauen bestellt”)
- Herbert Heckmann (1987; “Sieben Weinpredigten”)
- Walter Helmut Fritz (1991; “Die Schlüssel sind vertauscht”)
- Manuel Thomas (1992; no publication yet)
- Hans-Martin Gauger (1996; no publication yet)
- André Weckmann (1998; “Der Geist aus der Flasche und die Leichtigkeit der Zuversicht”)
- Emma GuntzEmma GuntzEmma Guntz is a German-French poet, journalist and editor living and working in Strasbourg, France.-Life:...
(2001; “Ein Jahr Leben”) - Fanny MorweiserFanny Morweiser- Curriculum Vitae :On 11th March 1940 Morweiser was born in Ludwigshafen. She studied the subjects sculpturing, painting and drawing at the Freie Akademie in Mannheim...
(2003; “Deidesheimer Elegie oder wie man keinen Krimi schreibt”) - Bernd Kohlhepp (2006; “Der Ring des Piraten”)
Vineyards
Deidesheim vineyards belong to the Palatinate wine regionPalatinate (wine region)
Palatinate is a German wine-growing region in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate . With under cultivation in 2008, the region is the second largest wine region in Germany after Rheinhessen...
, and also to the Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße winegrowing area (Anbaubereich). Local vineyard names were formerly borne in ownership documents that described the plots’ locations and their boundaries. Some 170 vineyards and plots of greatly varying size are known to have been within the limits of Deidesheim, Niederkirchen
Niederkirchen bei Deidesheim
Niederkirchen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its population is roughly 2,400.- Location :...
, Forst
Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
and Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
; they stretched partly across municipal boundaries as they now exist (they were not assigned until 1829). With the amendment to the Rhineland-Palatinate Wine Law in 1971, the Deidesheim vineyards were newly organized. Today there are eleven “single locations” – Einzellagen – and one winemaking appellation – Weingroßlage: the Einzellagen are Grainhübel, Herrgottsacker, Hohenmorgen, Kalkofen (whose name, oddly enough, means “lime kiln”), Kieselberg, Langenmorgen, Leinhöhe, Letten, Mäushöhle, Nonnenstück and Paradiesgarten; the Weingroßlage is called Hofstück. All together, the Einzellagen have an area of 523.58 ha; the Weingroßlage, to which belong many other Einzellagen in other centres, has an area of 1 401 ha. No longer to be found since the reorganization are names such as Geheu, Hahnenböhl, Kränzler, Reiß, Rennpfad, Vogelsang and Weinbach.
Winegrowing history
Long before there were domesticated grapes, wild grapes grew in the area around Deidesheim. Witnessing this are remains of vines from some 4,500,000 years ago found about 10 km north of Deidesheim near Ungstein. It is said to be certain, however, that wine was being made in Central EuropeCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
no earlier than the beginning of the Christian Era. Whether it was being done at Deidesheim at this time is a matter of speculation: Finds of wine amphora
Amphora
An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...
e and a barrel-shaped glass jug from Roman times
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
near Deidesheim and Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
do indeed suggest that wine was being enjoyed at this time. Unambiguous evidence of any winegrowing right near Deidesheim in Roman times, however, is lacking.
About winegrowing in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
little is known. In 770, Deidesheim was named for the first time in a document from Fulda Abbey as being a winegrowing centre. Today’s vineyards in Deidesheim were only cleared after the turn of the second millennium. The change in land use can be seen in neighbouring placenames Forst
Forst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
(“forest”) and Haardt
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
. With the so-called Ungeld (“unmoney”), a tax on wine allowed by the Prince-Bishop of Speyer in 1360, the town wall’s building and maintenance were financed. The earliest mention of a grape variety in Deidesheim was in 1504, when Gänsfüßer (Argant
Argant
Argant is an ancient variety of red wine grape. It originated in Spain and may have been taken to eastern France by the Romans. It was briefly popular, but little of it remains today. It used to be common in southwestern Germany and in Austria under the name Gänsfüßer .-History:As the alternative...
) was named.
In the early 19th century, an important change took hold in winegrowing in the Palatinate
Palatinate (wine region)
Palatinate is a German wine-growing region in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate . With under cultivation in 2008, the region is the second largest wine region in Germany after Rheinhessen...
. The Deidesheim landowner Andreas Jordan therein became the first to produce Qualitätswein
German wine classification
German wine classification consists of several quality categories and is often the source of some confusion, especially among non-German speaking wine consumers. The official classification is set down in the wine law of 1971, although some changes and amendments have been made since then...
. Well known to him was the worth of the late harvest
Late harvest wine
Late harvest is a term applied to wines made from grapes left on the vine longer than usual. Late harvest is usually an indication of a sweet dessert wine, such as late harvest Riesling. Late harvest grapes are often more similar to raisins, but have been naturally dehydrated while on the vine...
of noble-rot-bearing
Noble rot
Noble rot is the benevolent form of a grey fungus, Botrytis cinerea, affecting wine grapes. Infestation by Botrytis requires moist conditions, and if the weather stays wet, the malevolent form, "grey rot", can destroy crops of grapes...
grapes at Schloss Johannisberg
Schloss Johannisberg
Schloss Johannisberg is a winery in the Rheingau wine-growing region in Germany, that has been making wine for over 900 years. The winery is most noted for its claim to have "discovered" late harvest wine.- History :...
, and this selective principle he also followed in his own winery. Moreover, he first used, along with vintage and variety, the location name “Deidesheimer Geheu” as a trademark for his wines. As a result of this striving for quality, which later the other local winemakers also made their own, Deidesheim wines earned themselves great repute in the 19th century.
By implementing his ideas in production and marketing, Andreas managed to earn Qualitätswein prizes, becoming very wealthy and able to expand his winery appreciably. When he died in 1848, his bequest was split three ways – an event known as the Jordansche Teilung (Teilung means “division” or “sharing” in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) – giving rise to Deidesheim’s three biggest wineries, which thenceforth developed independently of each other and still exist today. They bear the names Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan, Reichsrat von Buhl and Dr. Deinhard.
Because many smaller winemakers were hit hard in the wake of cheap imports and rising labour costs due to the emerging industrialization in the late 19th century, the Deidesheim Winemakers’ Association (Deidesheimer Winzerverein) was founded in 1898 on schoolteacher Johannes Mungenast’s initiative. It was the Palatinate’s first winemakers’ association. The winemakers who joined were offered a common wine cellar and common marketing. A further association, formed by small winemakers in 1913, was the Winzergenossenschaft, which merged with the Winzerverein in 1966.
Beginning in 1972 – and therefore somewhat later than in other parts of the Palatinate – a Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung is the German word used to describe land reforms in various countries, especially Germany and Austria. The term can best be translated as land consolidation. Another European country where those land reforms have been carried out is France...
process was undertaken near Deidesheim, which gave the area a new look. The last Flurbereinigung operation was finished in 2007. These processes allowed winemakers to save on the cost of harvesting, as this could now more easily be done with tractors and harvesting machines.
Winegrowing today
Just like Deidesheim’s secondary economic underpinning, tourismTourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, winegrowing, too, profits to a great extent from the Weinstraße region’s natural particularity, namely the extraordinarily favourable climate. In Deidesheim, there are many wineries, a Sekt cellar and a winemakers’ association. Currently there are 85 winegrowing operations each cultivating an area of at least 0.3 ha. All together, working vineyards cover 485 ha, making the average for each operation 3.7 ha. At this time, 83.7% of the whole area is planted with white wine varieties, while the other 16.3% is planted with red, although the percentage of red is rising; in the early 1980s, the red’s share of the vineyards lay at less than 2%. By far the most widely planted variety is Riesling
Riesling
Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region of Germany. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally...
, with other wines being produced here mainly from Müller-Thurgau
Müller-Thurgau
Müller-Thurgau is a variety of white grape which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine Royale. It is used to make white wine in Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Hungary, England, in Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia,...
, Silvaner
Silvaner
Sylvaner or Silvaner is a variety of white wine grape grown primarily in Alsace and Germany, where its official name is Grüner Silvaner. In Germany it is best known as a component of Liebfraumilch and production boomed in the 1970s to the detriment of quality, but it has long enjoyed a better...
, Pinot noir
Pinot Noir
Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...
, Portugieser
Blauer Portugieser
Blauer Portugieser is a red Austrian and German wine grape found primarily in the Rheinhessen, Pfalz and wine regions of Lower Austria. It is also one of the permitted grapes in the Hungarian wine Egri Bikavér . In Germany, the cultivated area covered or 4.5% of the total vineyard area in 2007...
and Gewürztraminer
Gewürztraminer
Gewürztraminer is an aromatic wine grape variety that performs best in cooler climates. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as Gewürz, and in French it is written '...
varieties.
Tourism
In Deidesheim a considerable catering and lodging industry has sprung up, which can easily be traced to the winegrowing and its widespread fame. Since winegrowing and tourism profit from each other, they are to a certain extent dependent on each other. In Deidesheim there are many hotels and pensionPension (lodging)
A pensione is a family-owned guest house or boarding house. This term is typically used in Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, other Continental European countries, in areas of North Africa and the Middle East that formerly had large European expatriate populations, and in some parts of South America...
s whose capacity is some 800 beds. Moreover, for a town of Deidesheim’s size, there are very many restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s, of which the best known may be the Gasthaus zur Kanne (“Inn at the Jug”) and the Schwarzer Hahn (“Black Cock”) at the Deidesheimer Hof Hotel. Tourism currently offers the most jobs in town; this development owes itself to rationalization
Rationalization (economics)
In economics, rationalization is an attempt to change a pre-existing ad hoc workflow into one that is based on a set of published rules. There is a tendency in modern times to quantify experience, knowledge, and work. Means-end rationality is used to precisely calculate that which is necessary to...
measures in the winegrowing sector. Alongside winegrowing and its attendant festivals such as the Deidesheimer Weinkerwe and the Geißbockversteigerung described earlier on, the Palatinate Forest with its markedly well developed network of paths and many carparks for hikers is of great importance for tourism and recreation; many hikers and nature lovers come for these from the nearby urban agglomerations on day trips to Deidesheim.
Authorities
As seat of the like-named VerbandsgemeindeDeidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
, the Rathaus der Verbandsgemeinde (“Verbandsgemeinde Hall”) in Deidesheim has since it took on its current duties on 1 January 1973 housed the Verbandsgemeinde administration. Here is, among other things, the Citizens’ Bureau (Bürgerbüro), a reception centre for citizens of the Verbandsgemeinde with questions and concerns having to do with the public sector, such as, for instance, issues of residency, issuing Personalausweise
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
and passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s, or issuing payroll tax
Payroll tax
Payroll tax generally refers to two different kinds of similar taxes. The first kind is a tax that employers are required to withhold from employees' wages, also known as withholding tax, pay-as-you-earn tax , or pay-as-you-go tax...
cards and postal voting
Postal voting
Postal voting describes the method of voting in an election whereby ballot papers are distributed or returned by post to electors, in contrast to electors voting in person at a polling station or electronically via an electronic voting system....
documents. Furthermore there are also forms for requests of any kind and a lost-and-found.
Rail transport history
After the Palatinate’s first railway line, between Ludwigshafen and Bexbach, came into service in 1849, DürkheimBad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Deidesheim and the other municipalities in the Middle Haardt, too, strove for a rail link. A local committee put forth a suggestion in 1860 to build a railway line from Neustadt to Dürkheim in Frankenthal
Frankenthal
Frankenthal is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.- History :Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, after the founder, as the Erkenbertruine — still stand today in the town...
, a request that was granted on 3 February 1862 by the administration of the Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn
Palatine Ludwig Railway Company
The Palatine Ludwigsbahn Company was a German railway concern that was founded to operate the Palatine Ludwig Railway in the Palatinate, a region of southwest Germany that was once part of the Kingdom of Bavaria within the German Empire.On 1 January 1870, the Palatine Ludwigsbahn Company, the...
. One of the eight signers from the local committee was the Deidesheim landowner Ludwig Andreas Jordan. The Bavarian
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...
King Maximilian II
Maximilian II of Bavaria
Maximilian II of Bavaria was king of Bavaria from 1848 until 1864. He was son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.-Crown Prince:...
eventually awarded the committee, represented by the eight signatories thereto, the “Supreme Concession Document for Forming a Corporation to Build and Run a Railway from Neustadt a. H. to Dürkheim”. To carry out this project, a company was formed, the Neustadt-Dürkheimer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft, which was later absorbed by the Gesellschaft der Pfälzischen Nordbahnen
Palatine Northern Railway Company
The Palatine Northern Railways Company – abbreviated to Palatine Northern Railway - was founded on 17 April 1866 as the last of the three major private railway companies in the Bavarian province of the Palatinate.From the outset it left the management and running of its railways to the...
.
In 1865, the Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
–Neustadt an der Haardt (now Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
) railway line was completed, whose trains also stopped at Deidesheim. On 6 May of that year, the first train made the roughly 15 km trip along the line. Until the late 19th century, Deidesheim grew into an important goods station. Important commodities that were handled here were dung, wood, coal and wine. Moreover, basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
, mined near the Pechsteinkopf (mountain) and transported to Deidesheim station by cableway
Aerial tramway
An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
, was loaded here. Goods transport, though, dwindled through to the 1980s until it was discontinued. Since then, there have only been passenger trains.
Public transport
Over the link afforded by the Neustadt–Bad Dürkheim line, each of those towns can be reached from the other in roughly 10 minutes by rail. The trains run half-hourly in both directions throughout the day. By changing trains at Neustadt’s main station, both MannheimMannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
and Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
can then be reached by S-Bahn
S-Bahn
S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...
in about 30 minutes. With the introduction of “Rhineland-Palatinate timing” and the link to the RheinNeckar S-Bahn
RheinNeckar S-Bahn
The Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn forms the backbone of the urban rail transport network of the Rhine Neckar Area, including the cities of Mannheim, Heidelberg and Ludwigshafen....
, Deidesheim is well linked to rail transport. Deidesheim is furthermore linked to the two bus routes Neustadt–Bad Dürkheim and Deidesheim–Ludwigshafen. Public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
in Deidesheim is within the area covered by the VRN
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar is a public transport network covering parts of the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in south-west Germany...
tariff structures.
Highway transport
Running through Deidesheim from north to south is the German Wine Route, which formerly was the same road as BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
271. That road’s new alignment has merely taken it along the town’s eastern outskirts since it was opened as a bypass in 2000. The B 271 affords a quick link to the south to the Autobahn A 65
Bundesautobahn 65
is an autobahn in southwestern Germany. The newest section, between Neustadt and Landau, was opened only in the early 1990s.Plans to build a final stretch between Kandel or Wörth am Rhein and the French autoroute towards Haguenau and Strasbourg were not implemented during the 1990s when the focus...
(interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
11 Deidesheim), over which Ludwigshafen can be reached in about 25 minutes and Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
in about 50. To the north along the B 271 lies Bad Dürkheim, where there is an interchange on the A 650 (Bad Dürkheim–Ludwigshafen).
Media
For Deidesheim readers, the daily newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
Die Rheinpfalz contains a local section called Mittelhaardter Rundschau, which is also available in Haßloch
Haßloch
Haßloch is a municipality in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Unlike most municipalities in the district, it does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality. It lies near the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen built-up area...
, Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
and the Lambrecht
Lambrecht
Lambrecht is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany lying roughly 6 km northwest of Neustadt an der Weinstraße. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.- Location :...
area as part of the same newspaper. Weekly, the advertising fliers Stadtanzeiger (in the Verbandsgemeinden of Deidesheim
Deidesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Deidesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Deidesheim....
, Maikammer
Maikammer (Verbandsgemeinde)
Maikammer is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Südliche Weinstraße district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the municipality is in Maikammer....
and Lambrecht
Lambrecht (Verbandsgemeinde)
Lambrecht is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Lambrecht....
, as well as in Neustadt an der Weinstraße) and Rund um die Mittlere Weinstraße (in the Verbandsgemeinden of Deidesheim and Wachenheim
Wachenheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Wachenheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Wachenheim....
). Likewise weekly, the public journal
Public journal
A public journal is a day-by-day record of the business and proceedings of a public body....
of the Verbandsgemeinde of Deidesheim is delivered to every household in Deidesheim.
On the cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
network, the regional broadcaster Offener Kanal Ludwigshafen was available until 20 November 2008, but since that day, owing to cable network restructuring, subscribers now receive Offener Kanal Neustadt/Weinstraße and Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen.
Deidesheimer Hof
The hotel Deidesheimer Hof with its “Nobelrestaurant Schwarzer Hahn”, once run by leading-edge cook Manfred Schwarz, is known above all for former Federal Chancellor Helmut KohlHelmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...
’s visits, on which he often brought along state guests to entertain. Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
and Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
, among others, thus all got to know the traditional Palatine dish Saumagen
Saumagen
Saumagen is a German dish popular in the Palatinate. The name means "sow's stomach". The dish is similar to a sausage in that it consists of a stuffed casing; however, the stomach itself is integral to the dish. It isn't as thin as a typical sausage casing...
(“sow’s stomach”). The Deidesheimer Hof became the second five-star hotel in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
in 2001 since the classification was introduced in 1996.
Reichsrat von Buhl winery
The winery’s founder was Franz Peter Buhl (1809–1862); in 1849 it came into being through the so-called Jordansche Teilung, a division of inheritance (see Winegrowing history above). Today the winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 52 ha, mostly within Deidesheim’s and Forst’sForst an der Weinstraße
Forst an der Weinstraße is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Geography :...
limits and is a member of the VDP
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter e.V. or the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, is an organisation where most of Germany's top wine producers are members. It is commonly known under its acronym VDP...
. In 1989 the house was leased to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese investors. Since 2005 it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.
Geheimer Rat Dr. von Bassermann-Jordan winery
The foundation stone for this wine estate was laid by Andreas Jordan (1775–1848), who with his ideas promoted promoted production and marketing of Palatine QualitätsweineGerman wine classification
German wine classification consists of several quality categories and is often the source of some confusion, especially among non-German speaking wine consumers. The official classification is set down in the wine law of 1971, although some changes and amendments have been made since then...
. Today the winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 42 ha, among them many locations within Deidesheim’s and Forst’s limits. The winery is a member of the VDP
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter e.V. or the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, is an organisation where most of Germany's top wine producers are members. It is commonly known under its acronym VDP...
; in 2002 it was bought by the Neustadt
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Neustadt an der Weinstraße is a town located in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With 53,892 inhabitants as of 2002, it is the largest town called Neustadt.-Etymology:...
entrepreneur Achim Niederberger and now belongs to his business group.
Leopold von Winning winery
The winery came into being through the so-called Jordansche Teilung (see Winegrowing history above); its first owner and founder was Friedrich Deinhard (1812–1871) from KoblenzKoblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
whose father Johann Friedrich Deinhard had founded the Deinhard firm. The winery cultivates a vineyard area of some 40 ha within Deidesheim’s, Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg
Ruppertsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
’s and Forst’s limits and belongs to the VDP
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter e.V. or the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, is an organisation where most of Germany's top wine producers are members. It is commonly known under its acronym VDP...
. Since late 2007, it has belonged to the Niederberger Group.
Sektkellerei Deidesheim
In this business, which once dealt purely with winegrowing, Klaus Reis began to build a Sekt wine cellar after the Second World War alongside the bottle wholesale business founded by his father Johannes. This Sektkellerei now works 6 ha of its own vineyards around Deidesheim and draws the greater part of the raw wines that it needs to make Sekt from wineries in the nearby area. It is a member of the Deutscher Sektverband and is under the family Reis’s ownership.J. Biffar & Co. GmbH
This company is one of Germany’s last producers of candied fruit used in the manufacture of sweetmeats and pralines. It was founded in 1890 by Josef Biffar, who had dealt much with the process of candying. Linked with the company is the Josef Biffar winery, which belongs to the VDPVerband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter
Verband Deutscher Prädikats- und Qualitätsweingüter e.V. or the Association of German Prädikat Wine Estates, is an organisation where most of Germany's top wine producers are members. It is commonly known under its acronym VDP...
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Sons and daughters of the town
- Andreas Jordan (1775−1848), Mayor of Deidesheim, Member of the Bavarian Landtag and trailblazer in the introduction of Qualitätswein growing in the Palatinate
- Franz Tafel (1799−1869), Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Ludwig Andreas Jordan (1811−1883), Mayor of Deidesheim, Member of the Bavarian Landtag and Member of the Reichstag
- Eugen Buhl (1841−1910), Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Andreas Deinhard (1845−1907), Member of the Bavarian Landtag and Member of the Reichstag
- Heinrich Buhl (1848−1907), legal scholar
- Johann Julius Siben (1851−1907), Mayor of Deidesheim and Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Josef Giessen (1858−1944), Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Josef Siben (1864−1941), Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Franz Eberhard Buhl (1867−1921), Member of the Bavarian Landtag
- Ludwig Bassermann-Jordan (1869−1914), Mayor of Deidesheim, leader in the founding of the Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter
- Friedrich von Bassermann-Jordan (1872−1959), winegrowing historian and honorary citizen of Deidesheim
- Ernst von Bassermann-Jordan (1876–1932), German art and timepiece collector
Famous people associated with the town
- Carl Heinrich SchultzCarl Heinrich SchultzCarl Heinrich Schultz was a German physician and botanist, and a brother to Friedrich Wilhelm Schultz ....
(1805−1867), botanist, initiator in the founding of Pollichia, a conservation club - Franz Peter Buhl (1809−1862), Member of the Baden and Bavarian Landtage
- Emil Bassermann-Jordan (1835−1915), banker
- Franz Armand Buhl, (1837−1896), Member of the Bavarian Landtag, Member of the Reichstag and Vice-President of the Reichstag
- Hanns Haberer (1890−1967), Minister for Economics and Finance in Rhineland-Palatinate and honorary citizen of Deidesheim
- Theo Becker (1927−2006), oenologist and Master of the Wine Brotherhood of the Palatinate
- Stefan SteinwegStefan SteinwegStefan Steinweg is a retired professional racing cyclist from Germany.A member of Radsportclub Opel Schüler Berlin Steinweg mostly raced on the track, mainly in six day races at the winter....
(1969– ), professional cyclist, German champion, world champion and Olympic medallist
Further reading
- Kurt Andermann, Berthold Schnabel: Deidesheim – Beiträge zu Geschichte und Kultur einer Stadt im Weinland. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1995, ISBN 3-7995-0418-4
- Horst Müller: Berühmte Weinorte – Deidesheim. Falkenverlag Niederhausen/Taunus 1976
- Karl Heinz Himmler, Berthold Schnabel, Paul Tremmel: Dienstag nach Pfingsten – Der Höhepunkt im Leben des Deidesheimer Geißbocks. D. Meininger Verlag, Neustadt/Weinstraße 1982, ISBN 3-87524-023-5
- Fanny Morweiser: Deidesheimer Elegie oder wie man keinen Krimi schreibt. Verlag Pfälzer Kunst, Landau i. d. Pfalz 2004, ISBN 3-922580-97-1
- Heinz Schmitt: Geißbock, Wein und Staatsbesuche – Deidesheim in den letzten 150 Jahren. Verlag Pfälzer Kunst, Landau in der Pfalz 2000, ISBN 3-922580-82-3
- Hans-Jürgen Wünschel: Ein vergessenes Kapitel. Deidesheim nach dem Ende der Diktatur. Knecht-Verlag, Landau in der Pfalz 1994