Dirmstein
Encyclopedia
Dirmstein is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. With its roughly 3,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest Ortsgemeinde in the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
, whose seat is in Grünstadt
, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde. Dirmstein lies in the outermost northeast of the district and the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had its first documentary mention, although this was undated. The first dated documentary mention came in 842. Although it never belonged to the Counts of Leiningen, it is today counted as part of the Leiningerland, the name used for those noblemen’s old domain. The historical and well restored village centre has been raised to a monumental zone by the monument protection authority. Of the 58 protected objects, 48 lie within this zone. With few exceptions, they go back, like the village’s foremost landmark, the Baroque
simultaneous church
St. Laurentius (Saint Lawrence’s), to the municipality’s heyday in the 18th century, towards the end of which Dirmstein apparently held town rights for two decades, although some sources are disputed.
on the Upper Rhine Plain
in the northeast Palatinate. Twelve kilometres to the east (as the crow flies
) flows the Rhine, while 9 km to the west begins the Palatinate Forest and 2 km to the north runs the boundary with the neighbouring region, Rhenish Hesse.
and Worms
-Heppenheim (both in Rhenish Hesse) to the north, Heuchelheim
(Verbandsgemeinde of Heßheim
) in the east and Gerolsheim
, Laumersheim
and Obersülzen
(all in the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
) in the south, southwest and west. Heppenheim lies 5 km away, Offstein 4 km and each of the others 2 km.
Towards the eastern end alongside the Rhine, the municipal area is quite even, rising to considerable hills in the west. These belong to the Palatinate wine region
between the plain and the low mountain range, which here, until 1969, was known as Unterhaardt, but which now bears the name Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße.
fortification dyke seemed an obvious choice. Between the “Upper” and “Lower Village”, today’s Eckbach meets its old course again coming from the right.
The in itself unimposing river Floßbach, coming from Obersülzen and also known locally as the Landgraben, which flows round Dirmstein in the north and on the village’s eastern outskirts empties into the Eckbach from the left, was in the latter half of the 20th century straightened. The loss of flooding areas thus wrought, together with the increased speed of flow, brought about problems in times of heavy rainfall for the Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße (“North of Heuchelheim Road”) construction site opened in the 1980s. In 1994 came widespread flooding for the first time, in which basements were filled with water up to their upper edges. In 2006, various versions of a plan to create flooding areas were brought forth for discussion. In 2008, Grünstadt-Land Verbandsgemeinde council decided to renaturate the brook over a stretch of a good kilometre. As an ecologically worthy measure, it was subsidized by the state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
to a share of 90% of the cost within the framework of its Aktion Blau. In October 2008, the conversion began, in which former cropland along the brook, which through Flurbereinigung
had been transferred to the municipality’s ownership, was removed so that the brook could broaden out to the sides in heavy rains. To reduce the speed of flow, meanders were built back in and, of particular importance, two almost right-angled bends were smoothed out. With the planting of typical local trees and shrubs, the renaturation was completed in early 2009.
development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the surrounding low mountains of the Upper Rhine Plain
, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary
and which has lasted until today
. Before the mountains spread an area that was over time scored by the Eckbach and Floßbach. During the ice age
s, there were gradual solifluction
on the slopes and also wind abrasion
in great parts of Europe
. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake a floodplain
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. Later erosion
created steep banks in the loess areas, which today can reach 6 m in height and are valuable biotope
s.
The uppermost layer of deposits stems almost exclusively from the recent past. In lower-lying areas, the two brooks have washed the sediments downstream, with higher areas taking on new shapes more through weathering. The soils are overwhelmingly sandy and show to some extent loam
admixture, whose concentration varies. As elsewhere in the area, the odd deposit of quartz
sand is found, which owing to its purity is subject to mining rights, thereby giving it priority over agriculture
. On these grounds, the local winemakers must now and then yield even highly valuable vineyard
s to quartz sand stripmining by businesses from outside the municipality.
of the Palatinate Forest means that the locality must make do with at most 500 mm of precipitation
yearly. Moreover, in weather out of the northwest, the massif of the Donnersberg
, lying 25 km away in the North Palatine Highland
and rising to 689 m, often likewise hinders any abundance of precipitation. Dirmstein falls into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 22% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 2.2 times what it is in January. Precipitation varies markedly by month.
Owing to the dearth of rain, the water table
lies more than 10 m underground. On the one hand, this makes artificial irrigation necessary for cropraising, but on the other hand it makes for ideal conditions for winegrowing. The uppermost – dry – layers of earth warm up more quickly, promoting sugar formation in the grapes, and the vines must root deeper to reach enough moisture, which is advantageous to the absorption of minerals.
Since 1936, one kilometre south of Dirmstein, the Autobahn A 6
(Mannheim
–Saarbrücken
) has run, building work on which began as early as 1932. Since it was raised onto an embankment with an average height over the flanking lands of 5 m in the latter half of the 20th century, it has been a conspicuous barrier running across the Upper Rhine Plain
to the Palatinate Forest, pierced only by a few underpasses. Just how much the roadway influences the local climate and whether, for example, it can lead to the formation of lakes of cold air has never been systematically investigated.
overran the region just before the beginning of the Christian Era, settled here were, besides Celts, also members of the Germanic tribe
of the Vangiones
. The Romans were removed late in their Empire’s
history, about 400, by another Germanic tribe, the Alamanni
, who were thronging into the area, although they themselves were dislodged from their new homeland just under a century later by the likewise Germanic Franks
. Thus far, though, there is no evidence of any settlement at what is now Dirmstein in those days.
. Three Frankish
grave fields from the 6th century, on the village’s northeast outskirts, have been found since 1954. The last one to be found underwent archaeological
investigation in the 1980s. The finds that were recovered were taken to the Historisches Museum der Pfalz (“Historical Museum of the Palatinate”) in Speyer
. Some of the experts who dealt with the artefacts are even of the opinion that the burial grounds, at least in part, were already being used in Alamanni
c times, putting their beginnings as far back as the 5th century.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had already arisen as a Frankish settlement called Díramestein, which was named in the Codex Edelini (“Edelin’s Codex”) – also known as the Weißenburg Codex – without any exact date. The seed from which grew the village was what is now called the Oberdorf (“Upper Village”). The greatest likelihood is that this stood in the southwest, where later the “castle” was built on the Eckbach. Less likely is that the village grew from what is now the northwest entrance to the village, where, near the old customs house the hills give way to the plain, and where once flowed a stream southwards towards the Eckbach. It is certain, however, that the Niederdorf (“Lower Village”) soon thereafter arose a few hundred metres to the east in the area where the Floßbach empties into the Eckbach.
The first time when the village was mentioned with a date was in the 9th century. Charlemagne
’s grandson, King of the Franks Charles the Bald
, and later also Emperor, who had just met with his half-brother Louis the German
in nearby Worms
, issued on 23 November 842 letters patent to the Archbishop of Vienne, Agilmar (tenure: 841–859), for landholdings in Aquitaine
and Burgundy “in villa Theormsthein” or “Thiormsthein”.
to the Bishop of Worms
Konrad II of Sternberg. With documents from the years 1332 and 1384, the episcopal privileges were confirmed and in 1405 even partly expanded. A forerunner building to an episcopal palace – described simply as a “house” – was witnessed beginning in 1240; the actual palace, which also served the bishop as a summer seat, was only witnessed for the first time in 1414.
For administration the bishop availed himself of the members of the local nobility who already lived in Dirmstein or who went to live there. Dirmstein noble families were only mentioned in documents beginning in the 12th century. The best known was the family Lerch, who played an important rôle not only in the village but also – owing to their widespread holdings – throughout southwest Germany from the late 13th to the late 17th century when their family name died out. Their name is chiselled in stone at several historic buildings in Dirmstein, as it is on the gateway arch into the Spitalhof (“infirmary yard”) and on the wall at today’s Fechtschule (literally “swordfighting school”, but it is a remodelled castle) at the Kellergarten. After having married into the family in the mid 17th century, the family Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler came into the family Lerch’s inheritance.
Further noble families in the Middle Ages
were, among others, the families Nagel von Dirmstein, Von der Hauben and Affenstein. Beginning in the 15th century, the nobility’s representatives formed an area of joint rule (called a Ganerbschaft in German
) whose assemblies were held in a forerunner building to the St.-Michael-Apotheke built in 1535.
and the Elector Palatine. Why such a condominium
came to be in 1411 and was fixed by a written accord on 4 March 1419 despite the episcopal rights having been expanded only in 1405 is something that sources do not answer. Bishop Johann II of Fleckenstein and Elector Ludwig III
shared all rights at and in Dirmstein, each getting half. It must have been in this time that the Kurpfälzisches Schloss (“Electoral-Palatine Castle”) was built, which might well have been envisaged rather more as an administrative building. Little more than a century later, though, it had fallen into such disrepair due to war that it seems likely that it never underwent any repairs. Today, nobody even knows where the building stood.
The condominium proved itself throughout the time it was in force; differences were always amicably settled. The most important success might have been the awarding of the two major local churches, Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and Saint Lawrence’s Chapel (Laurentiuskapelle) to the Catholics and the Protestants
respectively. This happened after the Reformation
when Electoral Palatinate decided in the latter half of the 16th century to adopt Calvinism
. In 1705, the condominium ended with a deal in which Worms regained full rights at and in Dirmstein through a territorial exchange with Electoral Palatinate. Only in the Protestant inhabitants’ internal business was the power of decision reserved to the Elector.
, the village itself suffered little, although on 4 June 1525, rebelling peasants under Dirmstein vassal Erasmus von der Hauben’s leadership razed the Episcopal and Electoral-Palatine Castles, Castle Affenstein and the Augustinian
monastery and set them on fire. The Episcopal Castle and Castle Affenstein were subsequently made useful once again, whereas the other two building complexes lay in ruins and eventually disappeared altogether.
Likewise little damage was wrought in the Thirty Years' War
. Finding himself having to put up with repression was the avowed Catholic partisan Caspar Lerch (1575–1642), whose “castle” was plundered and who, together with his family, was forced into a 19-year exile. Caspar Lerch was a prominent representative of his family, first as Chamberlain of the Bishop of Speyer, then as Electoral Mainz
Amtmann
in Tauberbischofsheim
and finally as director of the Knightly Canton of the Upper Rhine
(Ritterkanton Oberrhein). Furthermore he compiled many juristic works as well as a family chronicle.
In 1689, however, in the Age of Absolutism
, Dirmstein was less lucky when French
troops came and all but utterly burnt it down. From 1688 to 1697, the “Sun King”, Louis XIV
waged the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession) over his sister-in-law Liselotte’s
inheritance – and somewhat paradoxically had Electoral Palatinate, the territory that he wanted as his own, reduced to rubble and ashes. In Dirmstein the blaze raged for three days, from 7 to 9 September. Only a few houses were left standing.
era, a considerable community once more grew out of the two original centres, the “Upper” and “Lower Villages”. One of this era’s most important persons was Baron Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (1674–1744), Caspar Lerch’s second daughter’s grandson. Having earned hostility for his wasteful running of the estate and his debts, he became legendary for his years-long quarrel with the authorities. He had his alleged success immortalized in 1738 on Castle Sturmfeder’s gateway, the Michelstor – along with many inscriptions – in the form of a sculpture of a victorious struggle over the devil
, which according to contemporaries bears the then mayor’s facial features. Above the gate’s side entrance, a stone chimera
has also been placed. The last bearer of the family name died in 1901.
Dirmstein has the interdenominational coöperation between the Catholic Prince-Bishop of Worms and the Protestant
Elector, which happened despite an end being put to the condominium, to thank for its famous simultaneous church
, St. Laurentius (Saint Lawrence’s). With this church building in the mid 18th century began a phase of prosperity for the village that lasted a good hundred years. From 1780 to 1801, only a century after the inferno of the Nine Years' War, Dirmstein, according to various sources, was even awarded town rights
.
A social problem grew out of the short-lived running of a stoneware
factory that existed from 1778 to 1788 in the middle of the Upper Village. There, the Bishopric of Worms
was having “Dirmstein Faïence
” made from the white clay that came from the Bishopric’s own stripmine near today’s Hettenleidelheim
in the northeast Palatinate Forest, a product whose now few preserved examples are sought-after in collectors’ circles. As early as 1779, a few months after production began, the then mayor, Johann Michael Graeff, schemed against the factory head and ceramics expert Johann Carl Vogelmann, casting false accusations his way, whereupon Vogelmann’s belongings were withheld as he, along with his wife and seven children, was hounded out of the village. Graeff took the banished former head’s job at the factory, but was such a dilettante when it came to running the business that in 1782, the Bishopric unseated him. Under Graeff’s successors, though, the business never did recover, leading to the 20- to 30-strong workforce’s impoverishment, culminating in strike
also held Electoral Palatinate in its grip. Its territory on the Rhine’s left bank was annexed de facto by the French state in 1797, and as of 1801 the annexation became official. Among other things, this led to Dirmstein’s once again losing its town rights. Until the end of the Napoleonic
era in 1815, the annexed territory was governed as part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre
(or Donnersberg in German
).
After the Congress of Vienna
, the Palatinate’s left-bank lands, and Dirmstein along with them, were assigned to the Kingdom of Bavaria
, whose ruling dynasty, the House of Wittelsbach, had its roots in Electoral Palatinate. The Rheinkreis that thus came into being, which was later named Rheinpfalz (Rhenish Palatinate) to distinguish it from the likewise Bavarian Upper Palatinate
(Oberpfalz), remained Bavarian until the end of the Second World War.
The rest of the 19th century passed without great incident. Taking over from the nobles, whom the French
had dispossessed were nouveau riche members of the upmarket citizenry, who expanded the castles and manor houses that had been auctioned off, enlarged park facilities and laid out new ones. The majority of the villagers, though, was very poor.
, Bačka
). Against that, however, a considerably greater number of the emigrants went to the United States
to seek their fortune there.
Before US independence
, only single persons or families emigrated there, as in 1708, 1742 and 1752. In the 19th century, though, came a wave of emigration, which was recorded in a Dirmstein Auswanderungsregister (“Emigration Register”) that was painstakingly kept for one hundred years and according to digital survey contains more than 600 records. According to this register, between 1806 and 1905 more than 1,200 Dirmsteiners left their homeland, especially younger families, often with many children. The last two entries refer to Dirmstein Jews, who in 1937 could still emigrate to Argentina
.
In 1933, at the beginning of the Third Reich
, 15 Jewish citizens lived in the municipality, along with one “Jewish Mischling
of the Second Degree”; eleven of them belonged to the extended family Hirsch. The family Liebmann managed to flee to Argentina with their nine-year-old daughter in 1937. Frieda Hirsch likewise emigrated there in 1938, but had to leave her ten-year-old son David behind. The nine Jews still remaining in Dirmstein in 1940 were deported under the so called Bürckel
-Wagner
Action (they were both Gauleiter
s) to Camp Gurs
. In 1941 in the South of France, David Hirsch and the distantly related Elisabeth Klara Hirsch and her daughter Ella managed to get away. The two women emigrated to the United States, where Ella’s elder brother had likely already gone in 1938. David Hirsch followed his mother to Argentina in 1947. In 2005 and 2009, he visited his schoolfriend Arthur Maurer in Dirmstein. The other six deportees died in concentration camps
or disappeared there.
Among Dirmstein’s inhabitants, 89 soldiers fell and 41 were listed as missing
in the Second World War. On 20 March 1945, American
aircraft advancing on the Rhine attacked the village causing bomb damage and striking houses with autocannon
fire. Their target was German soldiers fleeing by the village, many of whom were killed, whereas there were no casualties among the inhabitants.
In connection with the Second World War, there are two stories worth mentioning because they so thoroughly contrast with each other:
The former prisoner of war
Stanisław Swiatek (born 1920) from the now Polish
city of Szczecin
(formerly the German city of Stettin), who from 1940 onwards had spent five years in Dirmstein, maintained a lifelong friendship with the village for more than half a century because of his good experiences, and he conveyed to young fellow countrymen and countrywomen
, whom he brought along on visits, his outlook on international understanding. After his first visit, a feature article about it by Albert H. Keil appeared in the Bad Dürkheim
district’s yearbook, and Jürgen Bich reported it in the daily press.
Against that heartwarming story, however, comes another about an RAF
tail gunner
named Sergeant Cyril William Sibley (born 1923), who was wounded in captivity after his Halifax bomber
was shot down, and then murder
ed by Nazi Ortsgruppenleiter
Adolf Wolfert. In 1946, he and his accomplice in Sibley’s death, Georg Hartleb, were sentenced by a British
court-martial
to death, a fate that they eventually met after a half year of fruitless appeals. They were both hanged
in Hamelin
on 11 October 1946. In 1985, 2004 and 2008, the bloody deed done Sibley found its literary reappraisal in works by the Dirmstein writers Walter Landin and Isolde Stauder. There is a Stolperstein
in Sergeant Sibley’s memory in the municipality.
led in 1969 to a reassignment from the abolished Frankenthal district to the new Bad Dürkheim
district, and in 1972 came the municipality’s grouping into the likewise newly formed Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
.
More dramatic, at least for some of the inhabitants, was the widespread flooding in 1994 in the Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße (“North of Heuchelheim Road”) housing estate, which had been opened only ten years earlier. In 1996, the municipality celebrated the 250th anniversary of the consecration of Saint Lawrence’s Church. On 1 December 1998, the filling station
at the northeast entrance to the village was so heavily damaged by a truck that it had to be closed for a week and the building renovation was only finished early the following year. Early in 2000, there was a great fire that laid the former discount store
in ruins.
On 23 November 2005, the 1,163rd anniversary of Dirmstein’s first documentary mention, the local chronicle appeared after more than 20 years’ preparation. Working together on this project were not only the publisher (Michael Martin, Landau), who in work lasting years had marshalled the unusually comprehensive municipal archive, but also a few other outside specialists from the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein (cultural club) as well as many writers from the village.
In March 2009, the event “Dirmstein erinnert sich” (“Dirmstein remembers”), lasting several days, was held, at which the Cologne
artist Gunter Demnig
laid Stolpersteine
for the victims of National Socialism
. Nine bear the names of Jews who were deported to concentration camps
, while one is dedicated to the murdered Englishman Cyril William Sibley. The central historical-literary evening was created by Dirmstein writers Jürgen Bich, Albert H. Keil, Walter Landin and Otfried K. Linde.
Considering especially the name’s early forms, science today interprets the placename as “Diermuntstein”, thus meaning something like “Diermunt’s Stone (House)”. Apparently a wealthy man managed to build his house here out of stone, which lasted longer than the customary material, wood. Since at the earliest known mention in the 8th century an elided
form of the name is already used, it is assumed that at this time, Dirmstein had already been for at least a few generations a named place, whose name was already subject to modification.
The placename developed through many variations, of which a few notable ones have been chosen for this article: In 842 came the first dated documentary mention of the village in a document signed by King of the Franks Charles the Bald
“in villa Theormsthein” or “Thiormsthein”. Since this document only exists as a 17th-century transcription, research assumes that, following what was customary then, an original “Díermstein” was transcribed. From 1110 comes a document from Provost Hartwig von St. Paul zu Worms, in which the village is listed under the name Díeremestein. With another document from Worms from 1190, Emperor Heinrich IV
transferred the Vogt
ei over Dirmenstein to the Bishopric of Worms
. In 1315, the name Dirmstein was first used in its modern spelling. In the 16th century, variant forms were being used in which the i was mutated into a u, a b was inserted, or the diphthong ei was written as eu.
times, clearly before 1044 and presumably on a bishop’s initiative, for it was consecrated to the patron saint of the Bishopric of Worms, Saint Peter
. Given several consistent sources, historians estimate the church’s capacity at only some hundred persons, implying low population figures. The “Upper Village” had at its disposal the Gothic
Saint Lawrence’s Chapel (Kapelle St. Laurentius), first mentioned in 1240, which was raised to a branch church. In the 14th century it was joined by Saint Anthony’s
Chapel (Kapelle St. Antonius) at the graveyard in the “Lower Village” and the Infirmary Yard Chapel of Mary Magdalene
(Spitalhof-Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena) in the “Upper Village”. These chapels, too, are an indication that the low population would have made a big church needless.
Saint Lawrence’s Chapel was converted in the 16th century into a Reformed
church. Burnt to ruins in the 1689 fire, it was replaced in 1742 to 1746 by today’s Baroque
simultaneous church
, which stands on the same spot, and whose Catholic part was once again consecrated as Saint Lawrence’s. Its capacity was enough for the whole village. Given this, and Saint Peter’s Church’s continuing slide into disrepair in the 18th century, the latter church was auctioned off in 1809 and torn down. Saint Anthony’s Chapel was likewise relieved of its duties when the old graveyard was forsaken and a new one established about 1850. The Infirmary Yard Chapel has lasted until the present day, although it has been deconsecrated and several times remodelled.
In 1367 in the north of the village centre, an Augustinian
priory was founded, as was an Augustinian monastery in 1500, which was later run by the Jesuits
. While the Augustinian monastery only lasted until it was burnt down in the Peasants' War in 1525, the Jesuit monastery lasted for 300 years. In the Late Middle Ages
, the monks had the sulphur-bearing mineral spring that they used northwest of the village, the Chorbrünnel, set in stone. The Dirmstein priest’s post, before it was taken over by regular priests, is believed to have been occupied by the Jesuit fathers, although only the records from the later years, from 1685 to 1705, are preserved. About 1800, the Jesuit monastery was dissolved as a result of the French Revolution
and its attendant Secularization
.
Religious affiliation over the last 250 years is well documented, and in this time it was, given the population figures, subject to great change.
The simultaneous church
was built in 1746 with the floor area allotted at a 2:1 ratio in the Catholics’ favour for in the mid 18th century, this corresponded with the village’s denominational makeup of two-thirds Catholic and one-third Protestant
or Reformed
. Somewhat more than half a century later, though, only 56% of the villagers were Catholic and 40% Protestant. After 2000 Protestants were 45.46% of the population, Catholics 33.74% and those with other or no religious beliefs 20.79%.
From the time of the first written evidence of a Jewish community (1464) until the early 20th century, the Jewish
share of the population was usually a few dozen, peaking at 129 in 1855. Beginning no later than 1738, and thereafter with interruptions, the Jewish community maintained a “Judenschuhl”, a folk word for synagogue
.. In 1858, after building work lasting two years, a new synagogue
was consecrated on the corner of Mitteltor and Hildebrandstraße (near Saint Lawrence’s and across the street, slantwise, from the Old Town Hall). Over the next few decades, the Jewish community shrank mainly owing to emigration. About 1913 it virtually ceased to exist. The now no longer used synagogue was falling ever further into disrepair. In 1932, the ramshackle building was sold and remodelled from the ground up, leaving only the rear façade in its original form. It is now used as a house, and no longer shows any sign of its former function. In Nazi times
, all Jews still living in Dirmstein in 1940 fell victim to the Holocaust
with the exception of the three who escaped from a concentration camp
.
Only from 1771 does the municipal archive have a concrete basis on which to determine population figures; the dates listed in the table before that time (marked with an asterisk) refer to assessment book figures and represent minima, which could be considerably too low as population figures, as those not subject to taxation are not included in the books.
The sharp growth in the late 18th century might be traceable to the prospects that the “town” – as it is said Dirmstein was from 1780 to 1801 – could offer its citizens. This growth carried on until the beginning of industrialization, which made itself felt in Dirmstein about the middle of the 19th century. Emigration
and urbanization
then led, however, to a drop in population continuing for 100 years, which was reversed only by new growth in the wake of the Second World War. This turned out to be rather a slow rise in population until the 1980s, when it intensified. The 3,000 mark was breached in 1996, and since then, the rate has remained fairly constant.
The local age breakdown
has altered radically over time. In 1682, more than half Dirmstein’s inhabitants were children or youths aged 19 or younger. About 1850, their share of the population had sunk to a bit more than a third. By 2003, it amounted to 21.5%. On the other hand, the figure for those older than 40 rose from 19% in 1682 to 48.7% in 2003. In the tabulated comparison between the years 1710 (although as above, for this year the source is the assessment book and therefore does not count those who did not pay taxes) and 2002, a noticeable shift towards the right, and therefore the greater ages, is shown, and it can also be observed that the figures for the middle decades have evened out somewhat.
Thus, the trend towards an aging population can also be seen in Dirmstein. Nevertheless, the figures did not match the 1995 countrywide average until eight years later. The 2002 figures show something else, too: More than 3.5% of the inhabitants are old or very old people, who mainly still live in a family situation, for there is no seniors’ home or nursing home
in Dirmstein.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Per fess, in chief per pale sable a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules and azure semé of crosses of the second a key per bend argent, the wards to chief and dexter, and in base vair nebuly argent and gules.
The Palatine Lion on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side and the key as a symbol of the bishop’s office and Saint Peter
’s attribute on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side together stand for the condominium
under which Electoral Palatinate and the Bishopric of Worms
, whose patron saint was Peter, jointly held the local lordship for three centuries. The “vair nebuly” fur in the base of the escutcheon is meant to look like three complete and two cut-off silver helmets on a red background such as those once worn by the local resident lower nobility. These were called Eisenhüte (singular: Eisenhut; “iron hats”).
In regional literature, the red background between the “helmets” is mistaken for “rooftiles”. Further irritation having to do with the shield’s lower half comes from the Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz (“Great Arms Book of the Palatinate”), an official armorial directory which contains a version of Dirmstein’s coat of arms – sometimes used officially – in which the “helmets” in the lower row and the background have their tincture
s transposed, thus disturbing the harmonious change from silver to red fields, standing the lower helmets upside down, and arranging two of them in such a way that their bottoms touch those in the upper row in a straight line. An expert opinion obtained at the municipality’s request showed in 2007 that the version seen in the Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz was erroneous and did not match the historical example, whereupon the district administration issued the above-cited decree.
. The mayor is Bernd Eberle (FWG), and the 20 seats on council are shared by three factions. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results (with changes from 2004 results):
is still incomplete; however, there are only a few gaps and lapses in clarity.
building from the decades that followed the great blaze in the Nine Years' War. It gives one the impression of a wealthy village characterized by the nobility’s and the fashionable citizenry’s buildings and that its structure even withstood the upheaval of the French Revolution
.
The three castlelike manor houses preserved almost unscathed by time also convey the tradition of this village that was jointly ruled in the Middle Ages
by noble families. Right near each other and both singular are the English Gardens in the Upper Village’s northwest and south. Asserting itself as at least the architectural peer of the noble buildings is the simultaneous church
from 1746, which with its tower dating from the Middle Ages and built even taller in 1904 on the one hand forms a structural midpoint in the municipality, and on the other hand reflects the religious relations of this village that was ruled for three centuries as an Electoral Palatinate-Worms
condominium. Together with the former infirmary chapel across the street to the west, the church forms a homogeneous building group.
Typical for the town and country buildings that convey wealth within the monumental zone are buildings with hipped roofs with timber-frame
construction upon walled ground floors, which mainly characterize the inner village. With structural elements such as hewn-stone pilaster
s, the lordly buildings clearly served as a model for some of the houses; the flawless execution documents the local stonemasons’ craftsmanship. The homesteads with buildings on two or three sides on Affenstein and Hauptstraße and on the eastern section of Metzgergasse, on the other hand, tell of the less wealthy class of the population.
One conspicuous gap in the otherwise cheek-by-jowl buildings came about in the 1960s on the corner of Marktstraße and Metzgergasse on the north side of the Castle Square (Schlossplatz) when the building that once housed the Worms Episcopal faïence
factory was torn down. It had begun life as the Reigerspergischer Hof in 1592, and in 1689 it had withstood the great fire that had burnt the rest of the village down. Until its demolition, it was the village’s oldest building. Since the foreseen replacement, a block of flats, was never built, the plot became a featureless carpark, mostly covered in gravel.
during the Baroque
era to master builder Balthasar Neumann
’s plans, which were modified on site, beginning in 1742; it was consecrated in 1746. The Voit organ
in the Catholic part of the church, built in 1900 and renovated in 1986, draws connoisseurs from far and wide. As well, the even older instrument in the Protestant
part, which has at its disposal a work by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker, is of good repute among experts.
The Ältestes Haus – Dirmstein’s “Oldest House” – stands at the corner of Metzgergasse and Salzgasse. Chiselled into it is the yeardate 1596. In 1689, it was one of only six or seven buildings that were left standing after the French
burnt the village down. It is now the only one left of those that escaped that blaze. At the turn of the millennium, it was attractively restored.
The Sturmfedersches Schloss and the Koeth-Wanscheidsches Schloss were the Sturmfeder and Koeth-Wanscheid noble families’ castlelike manor houses, and were recently restored.
Hardly any original trace is even left of the two monasteries, one Augustinian
and the other Jesuit
, that once stood side by side in the north of the village centre. On the site of the Augustinian monastery, the Quadtsches Schloss was later built, which nowadays incorrectly does business under the name Jesuitenhof (“Jesuit Estate”). Of the Jesuit monastery, which historians regard as the true Jesuitenhof, only an outbuilding is left of the original complex.
Across the street from the church in the Spitalhof, which formerly was a hospice, and to which belongs the Gothic
and now deconsecrated Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena, the municipal kindergarten
is now housed.
The House at Marktstraße 1 was built in the early 18th century as a stone and timber-frame
building. For model renovation, the owners were recognized in 2006 with the first Balthasar-Neumann-Preis of the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein. The St.-Michael-Apotheke was likewise built in the early 18th century as a timber-frame building. The predecessor building in the Middle Ages
contained a great hall
in which the local nobles, who formed a condominium (or Ganerbschaft in German
), held their meetings. The Altes Rathaus (“Old Town Hall”) from 1714 is used as a “House of the Clubs”, those being the ones who restored the building by doing unpaid work.
Marktstraße (“Market Street”), whose southernmost portion is laid out as “Germany’s smallest pedestrian zone”, runs between the Sturmfedersches Schloss and the Hotel Café Kempf – known locally as das Kempf – which after growing out of a winemaker’s house in 1926 has taken back its place after a thorough renovation as the village’s biggest gastronomic business and is also now quite eye-catching. In the front guestroom is found a Madonna
figure from the 18th century which is under monumental protection. Functioning as a small, but fine, addition to the Café Kempf is the former Backhaus (“Bakehouse”) around the corner on the way into Herrengasse, which has now been converted into a wine parlour. Newest among the village’s leading restaurants is the Roosmarin, which was set up in an old winemaker’s house in 2006 in the Lower Village, and whose name comes from the herb
rosemary
(Rosmarin in German
) and the owner-operator’s family name.
The Fechtschule (“Swordfighting School”) stands south of the village centre at the edge of the Kellergarten. A predecessor building to this Classicist
one, die Burg (“the Castle”), was from 1602 Caspar Lerch’s house. For several decades, the Landesfechtschule des Südwestdeutschen Fechtverbandes (“State Swordfighting School of the Southwest German Swordfighting League”) has been run there, leading to the building’s current name. One peculiarity, also found on the grounds of the Kellergarten, is the Bathhouse of the Countess of Brühl, whose comital bathtub nowadays stands in the front garden as an oversize flowerpot.
In the village for centuries were two mills that were run by water from the Eckbach. The Niedermühle (“Lower Mill”) in the far east was converted in the 19th century into a farming estate in the Classicist
style. The Spormühle in the village’s southwest houses both an art gallery
and a small country hotel.
, which lies in the park and was built in 1840. Responsible, about 1790, for the Kellergarten, which is also undergoing renovations and is another of the once seven English gardens in the municipality, was Metzger’s even more famous professional colleague Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
.
grave fields mentioned earlier lay some 300 m north and northwest of the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach, and therefore not far from the area where later arose the Lower Village. However, they could not be regarded as cemeteries laid out in an organized fashion.
Until about 1850, the village kept its graveyard in the east, in the Lower Village right next to Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and near the Episcopal Palace. Since then it has not been used. The best known grave there is the one in which the physician Johann von Hubertus is buried.
The New Cemetery (Neuer Friedhof) now in use lies somewhat elevated on the village’s northern edge, the village itself having spread out towards it. Many gravestones of value to cultural history from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were taken from the old cemetery and set up here. The chapel, in which a part of the original fresco
has been restored, represents a Classicist building with a rectangular base from the mid 19th century and holds the burial vault of the noble Familie Camuzi, who endowed the chapel.
. With a trunk girth of some 6 m and a height of more than 20 m, the mighty tree is said to be a natural monument.
In the area of the road leading out of the village to the northwest (Obersülzer Straße) is a steep, south-facing loess
wall, which stands as a biotope
for many kinds of warmth-loving insects, among them solitary wild bees and digger wasps. Also, bird species that breed in hollows, such as the Common Swift
, are observed. It is possible that even the European Roller
has settled here, although it is native to Southern Europe.
The Chorbrünnel-Rundweg (path) in the northwest of Dirmstein’s municipal area links the Wörschberger Hohl, a holloway
likewise marked by loess walls, with the Chorbrünnel. This little fountain is fed by a sulphur-bearing spring
whose water was long used for healing purposes. In the Late Middle Ages
, the fountain was set in stone by the resident Jesuit
monks. In reference to this, the green signposts on the pathway show a yellowish-orange stone arcade together with the spring symbol.
The Eckbachmühlen-Rad- und Wanderweg (cycling and hiking path) leads out of Dirmstein up the Eckbach for more than 19 km to Altleiningen
, linking eight picturesque wine villages and the Eckbachweiher (pond). It affords movement in the great outdoors and is also worth visiting for mill lovers for its 23 partly restored mills.
music, Saint Lawrence’s Church (Laurentiuskirche) offers itself up with its two historic instruments, the Walcker organ from 1869 and the Voit organ from 1900.
grand piano is also available, concerts are held. Among the venues for the German-French
concert series “Printemps Rhénan – Rheinischer Frühling” (both of which mean “Rhenish Spring” in French
and German
respectively) is Saint Lawrence’s Church.
At the Schlosspark, an outdoor concert of the “palatiajazz” series is held every year at which the original Blues Brothers Band
, Branford Marsalis
and Cassandra Wilson
have appeared.
Felix Hell
, the concert organist who was born in Frankenthal
and now lives in the United States
, comes back to Dirmstein each New Year’s to give a New Year’s Eve concert at Saint Lawrence’s Church.
n partner municipality, Neuötting
, see to it that the bow-shaped, paved Schlossplatz as well as the wine parlours and wineries are thickly populated. The Schlossparkfest, which has already been held several times at the height of summer, has likewise established itself as a magnet for the public.
“St. Laurentius” and the municipal daycare centre “Himmelszelt” (“Heaven’s Tent”). Both have two groups and all-day places. At the “Himmelszelt”, there are also places for four two-year-olds.
, which is integrated into the district folk high school (Kreisvolkshochschule Bad Dürkheim). Classes are held at, among other places, the Sturmfedersches Schloss.
.
. Its sport facilities together with its clubhouse lie on the village’s southern outskirts.
-Willaberg the German Soccergolf Champion. In the same year, the European Championship was played on the Dirmstein course, and the winner was another Dirmsteiner, Hans-Peter Baudy.
teams and a student team.
, aerobics
and the like.
into a place in which as well as agriculture – and here this means mainly winegrowing – service industries, too, stand as equally important. Today there are more than 200 registered commercial operations. These are all small and medium-sized businesses; big business is wholly missing. For this reason, many Dirmsteiners commute to other places, which owing to the very tight economic interdependence in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration is less difficult than in structurally weaker areas. Jobs lie mostly within 5 to 25 km.
Dirmstein has since the 1960s also been opening up to tourism
. The village was advertised at first as the “Pearl of the Unterhaardt”, and beginning in 1972 as the “Pearl of the Leiningerland”. After the municipal council subsequently gave the mayor’s slogan – “Pearl between Worms
and Wine Route” – its blessing in 2005, this decision was revised in 2009; Dirmstein once again advertises itself as the “Pearl of the Leiningerland”. In 2006, a private investor opened Soccerpark Dirmstein on the village’s southern outskirts which quickly became a considerable economic factor in the municipality.
, wine was being grown in the Eastern Palatinate. Winegrowing in Dirmstein had its first documentary mention in 1141. The Leiningerland’s sunny climate also favours the production of Qualitätsweine
in Dirmstein.
Roughly 2.5 of the municipality’s 14.67 km² is planted with grapes
. The most commonly grown varieties are Riesling
, Blauer Portugieser
and Dornfelder
. Also worthy of mention are Pinot noir
, Pinot gris
and Pinot blanc
. Since 2003, a local winery has been successfully cultivating the variety Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
, which originally came from Asia Minor
and is actually regarded as a warmth-loving Mediterranean plant.
Dirmstein’s many former Weinlagen (“wine locations”) have since been consolidated into three Einzellagen (“individual locations”): Herrgottsacker (“Lord God’s Field”, in the north), Mandelpfad (“Almond Path”, in the west) and Jesuitenhofgarten. This last one, a slope leaning gently to the south, lies north of the centre right in the village and by area is one of Germany’s smallest. All Dirmstein’s Weinlagen belong to the winemaking appellation – Weingroßlage – of Schwarzerde (“Black Earth”).
At the edge of the south church square stands a great wooden winepress that was replicated by master cooper Emil Steigner; it also works.
s, holds some importance in Dirmstein. The fruit is used mainly to make fruit brandies. Almond
s and fig
s, on the other hand, are only of slight economic importance. A typical seasonal vegetable is asparagus
, which is grown in the flatter parts of the Dirmstein municipal area in the east. Spreading out there are mainly grain and potato
fields. Through the municipality, coming from the neighbouring district, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis
(which is known as “Germany’s Vegetable Garden”), runs a branch of the Deutsche Grumbeer- und Gemüsestraße. This means “German Potato and Vegetable Road”, although Grumbeer is a dialect word for the potato (the standard High German
word is Kartoffel).
(Mannheim
–Saarbrücken
) which runs by one kilometre to the south, but rather to Landesstraße (State Road) 453, which runs somewhat parallel thereto, linking Frankenthal
(in the east) with Grünstadt
(in the west). On the edge of each town are the nearest interchange
s. Towards the southwest, Landesstraße 455 forms a link to the town of Freinsheim
, and towards the north, by way of Offstein
, another with the Alzey-Worms
district. Kreisstraße (District Road) 24 leads south to the neighbouring municipality of Gerolsheim
. With the Autobahn A 61
(Koblenz
–Speyer), which two kilometres southeast of the municipality crosses the A 6 at the Autobahnkreuz Frankenthal, there is no direct connection.
The missing link to the Autobahn network means that there is rather heavy traffic running through the municipality. Construction measures undertaken in the late 1990s in two places on Landesstraße 453 have at least somewhat lessened the problem of speeding within the municipality.
There are two bus routes run by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
(VRN) that practically provide hourly service to the railway stations at Grünstadt (some 7 km) and Frankenthal (some 10 km). For evenings and late at night there has been since September 2006 a callable taxi service to and from the railway stations in Frankenthal and Kirchheim an der Weinstraße, which likewise accepts VRN tickets.
(1 000 mm) railway. This ran beginning on 1 July 1891 from Frankenthal station, where there was a link to the Deutsche Reichsbahn
, westwards by way of Heßheim
and Dirmstein to Großkarlbach
. The stations, which were all built in the same style – red-brown brick buildings – are in part still preserved today, like the one in Dirmstein, and are used as dwellings. Besides the old railway station itself, two streets – Bahnhofstraße (“Railway Station Street”) and Lokalbahnstraße – today still recall the line, which was closed on 14 May 1939.
Die Rheinpfalz applies. Weekly, the public journal
of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
appears, as do three advertising fliers – one from Frankenthal, two from Grünstadt. Since the 1980s, one party’s local branch publishes at irregular intervals the local newspaper De Michel; the Palatine title refers on the one hand to the Michelstor as one of the village’s landmarks, and on the other hand refers to the Deutscher Michel
.
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in 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 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 its roughly 3,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest Ortsgemeinde in the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
, whose seat is in Grünstadt
Grünstadt
Grünstadt is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.- Location :The...
, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde. Dirmstein lies in the outermost northeast of the district and the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had its first documentary mention, although this was undated. The first dated documentary mention came in 842. Although it never belonged to the Counts of Leiningen, it is today counted as part of the Leiningerland, the name used for those noblemen’s old domain. The historical and well restored village centre has been raised to a monumental zone by the monument protection authority. Of the 58 protected objects, 48 lie within this zone. With few exceptions, they go back, like the village’s foremost landmark, the Baroque
Baroque 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...
simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
St. Laurentius (Saint Lawrence’s), to the municipality’s heyday in the 18th century, towards the end of which Dirmstein apparently held town rights for two decades, although some sources are disputed.
Location
Dirmstein lies at an elevation of 108 m above sea levelSea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
on 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...
in the northeast Palatinate. Twelve kilometres to the east (as the crow flies
As the crow flies
"As the crow flies" or beelining is an idiom for the shortest route between two points; the geodesic distance.An example is the great-circle distance between Key West and Pensacola, at either end of the U.S...
) flows the Rhine, while 9 km to the west begins the Palatinate Forest and 2 km to the north runs the boundary with the neighbouring region, Rhenish Hesse.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, these are OffsteinOffstein
Offstein in the Wonnegau is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
and Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
-Heppenheim (both in Rhenish Hesse) to the north, Heuchelheim
Heuchelheim bei Frankenthal
Heuchelheim bei Frankenthal is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
(Verbandsgemeinde of Heßheim
Heßheim
Heßheim is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.It is situated approx. 4 km west of Frankenthal.Heßheim is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Heßheim....
) in the east and Gerolsheim
Gerolsheim
Gerolsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Laumersheim
Laumersheim
Laumersheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Obersülzen
Obersülzen
Obersülzen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
(all in the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
) in the south, southwest and west. Heppenheim lies 5 km away, Offstein 4 km and each of the others 2 km.
Towards the eastern end alongside the Rhine, the municipal area is quite even, rising to considerable hills in the west. These belong to 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...
between the plain and the low mountain range, which here, until 1969, was known as Unterhaardt, but which now bears the name Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße.
Streams
The municipal area is crossed from west to east by the river Eckbach, which flows into the municipality in the southwest, from Laumersheim. In the 1920s, it was redirected from the village centre to the southern outskirts. Until this time, there had been a flat, pondlike broadening of the brook’s bed south of the church on the Affenstein (a street), next to the village thoroughfare in which carriages could be cleansed of sand and loam buildup. As a new riverbed (going straight ahead instead of left), the old channel left over from the old “Upper Village’s” mediaevalMiddle 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...
fortification dyke seemed an obvious choice. Between the “Upper” and “Lower Village”, today’s Eckbach meets its old course again coming from the right.
The in itself unimposing river Floßbach, coming from Obersülzen and also known locally as the Landgraben, which flows round Dirmstein in the north and on the village’s eastern outskirts empties into the Eckbach from the left, was in the latter half of the 20th century straightened. The loss of flooding areas thus wrought, together with the increased speed of flow, brought about problems in times of heavy rainfall for the Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße (“North of Heuchelheim Road”) construction site opened in the 1980s. In 1994 came widespread flooding for the first time, in which basements were filled with water up to their upper edges. In 2006, various versions of a plan to create flooding areas were brought forth for discussion. In 2008, Grünstadt-Land Verbandsgemeinde council decided to renaturate the brook over a stretch of a good kilometre. As an ecologically worthy measure, it was subsidized by 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 ....
to a share of 90% of the cost within the framework of its Aktion Blau. In October 2008, the conversion began, in which former cropland along the brook, which through 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...
had been transferred to the municipality’s ownership, was removed so that the brook could broaden out to the sides in heavy rains. To reduce the speed of flow, meanders were built back in and, of particular importance, two almost right-angled bends were smoothed out. With the planting of typical local trees and shrubs, the renaturation was completed in early 2009.
Geology
The most important event in the 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 surrounding low mountains 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
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"...
. Before the mountains spread an area that was over time scored by the Eckbach and Floßbach. 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...
in great parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake a floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
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. Later erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
created steep banks in the loess areas, which today can reach 6 m in height and are valuable biotope
Biotope
Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.It...
s.
The uppermost layer of deposits stems almost exclusively from the recent past. In lower-lying areas, the two brooks have washed the sediments downstream, with higher areas taking on new shapes more through weathering. The soils are overwhelmingly sandy and show to some extent loam
Loam
Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration . Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to till than clay soils...
admixture, whose concentration varies. As elsewhere in the area, the odd deposit of quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
sand is found, which owing to its purity is subject to mining rights, thereby giving it priority over 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...
. On these grounds, the local winemakers must now and then yield even highly valuable vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s to quartz sand stripmining by businesses from outside the municipality.
Climate
Given the prevailing southwest and west winds, Dirmstein’s location aleeWindward 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"...
of the Palatinate Forest means that the locality must make do with at most 500 mm of 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...
yearly. Moreover, in weather out of the northwest, the massif of the Donnersberg
Donnersberg
For the Czech mountain, see MilešovkaThe Donnersberg is the highest peak of the Palatinate region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen en Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the mountain. The highway A63 runs along the southern edge...
, lying 25 km away in the North Palatine Highland
North Palatine Highland
The North Palatine Uplands , sometimes incorrectly shortened to Palatine Uplands , is a landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs largely to the Palatinate region.- Location and name :...
and rising to 689 m, often likewise hinders any abundance of precipitation. Dirmstein falls into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 22% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 2.2 times what it is in January. Precipitation varies markedly by month.
Owing to the dearth of rain, the water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
lies more than 10 m underground. On the one hand, this makes artificial irrigation necessary for cropraising, but on the other hand it makes for ideal conditions for winegrowing. The uppermost – dry – layers of earth warm up more quickly, promoting sugar formation in the grapes, and the vines must root deeper to reach enough moisture, which is advantageous to the absorption of minerals.
Since 1936, one kilometre south of Dirmstein, the Autobahn A 6
Bundesautobahn 6
, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west and end at the Czech border near Waidhaus in the east....
(Mannheim
Mannheim
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....
–Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
) has run, building work on which began as early as 1932. Since it was raised onto an embankment with an average height over the flanking lands of 5 m in the latter half of the 20th century, it has been a conspicuous barrier running across 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...
to the Palatinate Forest, pierced only by a few underpasses. Just how much the roadway influences the local climate and whether, for example, it can lead to the formation of lakes of cold air has never been systematically investigated.
Milestones
| Time | Events | Persons | Objects |
|---|---|---|---|
| from 6th cen. (5th?) |
Evidence of settlers | Franks 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... (Alamanni Alamanni The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be... ?) |
Grave fields |
| 8th cen. | Dirmstein’s first documentary mention (undated) | Benedictine Benedictine Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict... s at Weißenburg Abbey (Alsace) |
Codex Edelini |
| 23 November 842 | Dirmstein’s first documentary mention (dated) | King and later Emperor Charles the Bald Charles the Bald Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder... |
Copy of letters patent |
| early 11th cen. | Dirmstein’s first church: St. Petrus | Bishop of Worms (Burchard Burchard of Worms Burchard of Worms was the Roman Catholic bishop of Worms in the Holy Roman Empire, and author of a Canon law collection in twenty books, the "Collectarium canonum" or "Decretum".-Life:... ?) |
|
| 1141 | First documentary mention of winegrowing in Dirmstein | ||
| 13th cen. | Forerunner buildings of the later castle | Bishop of Worms, local nobles (among them Jacob Lerch?) | |
| first quarter of 17th cen. | Family Lerch’s heyday | Caspar Lerch (1575–1642) | 19-year exile |
| 1689 | Dirmstein in the Nine Years' War | 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... troops |
Destruction of whole village by fire |
| first half of 18th cen. | Building of Castle Koeth-Wanscheid Building of Castle Quadt |
Family Rießmann Family Quadt |
|
| from 1736 | Expansion of Castle Sturmfeder | Baron Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler | 1738: Building of Michelstor (gate at the castle) |
| 1742–1746 | Building of Laurentiuskirche (church) | Prince-Bishop Franz Georg von Schönborn-Buchheim Franz Georg von Schönborn-Buchheim Franz Georg von Schönborn was the Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1729 until 1756, and the Prince-Bishop of Worms and Prince-Provost of Ellwangen from 1732 until 1756.-Biography:... |
Design by Balthasar Neumann Balthasar Neumann Johann Balthasar Neumann , also known as Balthasar Neumann, was a [German] military artillery engineer and architect who developed a refined brand of Baroque architecture, fusing Austrian, Bohemian, Italian, and French elements to design some of the most impressive buildings of the period,... |
| about 1780 | Rebuilding of Castle Sturmfeder | Baron Carl Theodor Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler | |
| 1780–1801 | Town rights Town privileges Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading... |
||
| about 1790 | Building of Kellergarten | Baron Carl Theodor Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler | Landscaping architect Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell was a German landscape gardener from Weilburg an der Lahn.Sckell was trained in the Court Market Garden in Schwetzingen near Mannheim and worked after his apprenticeship in Bruchsal, Paris, and Versailles. From 1773 to 1777, he was in England busying himself with... |
| 1797–1815 | Dirmstein 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... |
Department of Mont-Tonnerre Mont-Tonnerre Mont-Tonnerre is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the highest point in the Rhenish Palatinate, the Donnersberg. It was the southernmost of four départements formed in 1798, when the west bank of the Rhine was annexed by France... |
|
| 1816–1945 | Dirmstein 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... |
“Rheinkreis”, later “Rheinpfalz” | |
| about 1830 | Building of Schlosspark | Gideon von Camuzi | Landscaping architect Johann Christian Metzger |
| 1891–1939 | Running of local narrow-gauge Narrow gauge A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :... railway |
Old railway station | |
| 1969 | District reorganization | 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 |
|
| 1972 | Verbandsgemeinde assignment | Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land Grünstadt-Land Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest... |
Celts, Romans and Germanic peoples
When the RomansAncient 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....
overran the region just before the beginning of the Christian Era, settled here were, besides Celts, also members of the Germanic tribe
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
of the Vangiones
Vangiones
The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenience. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a battle probably near Belfort...
. The Romans were removed late in their Empire’s
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
history, about 400, by another Germanic tribe, the Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...
, who were thronging into the area, although they themselves were dislodged from their new homeland just under a century later by the likewise Germanic Franks
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...
. Thus far, though, there is no evidence of any settlement at what is now Dirmstein in those days.
Frankish times
The area around the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach is known to have been settled beginning in the Early Middle AgesEarly 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...
. Three 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...
grave fields from the 6th century, on the village’s northeast outskirts, have been found since 1954. The last one to be found underwent archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
investigation in the 1980s. The finds that were recovered were taken to the Historisches Museum der Pfalz (“Historical Museum of the Palatinate”) 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...
. Some of the experts who dealt with the artefacts are even of the opinion that the burial grounds, at least in part, were already being used in Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...
c times, putting their beginnings as far back as the 5th century.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had already arisen as a Frankish settlement called Díramestein, which was named in the Codex Edelini (“Edelin’s Codex”) – also known as the Weißenburg Codex – without any exact date. The seed from which grew the village was what is now called the Oberdorf (“Upper Village”). The greatest likelihood is that this stood in the southwest, where later the “castle” was built on the Eckbach. Less likely is that the village grew from what is now the northwest entrance to the village, where, near the old customs house the hills give way to the plain, and where once flowed a stream southwards towards the Eckbach. It is certain, however, that the Niederdorf (“Lower Village”) soon thereafter arose a few hundred metres to the east in the area where the Floßbach empties into the Eckbach.
The first time when the village was mentioned with a date was in the 9th century. Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
’s grandson, King of the Franks Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
, and later also Emperor, who had just met with his half-brother Louis the German
Louis the German
Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...
in nearby Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
, issued on 23 November 842 letters patent to the Archbishop of Vienne, Agilmar (tenure: 841–859), for landholdings in Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
and Burgundy “in villa Theormsthein” or “Thiormsthein”.
Emperor, bishop and local nobility
In the beginning, Dirmstein had Imperial immediacy, with the landlordship and jurisdiction therefore belonging directly to the King or Emperor. These rights were yielded on 4 April 1190 by Heinrich VIHenry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197.-Early years:Born in Nijmegen,...
to the Bishop 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...
Konrad II of Sternberg. With documents from the years 1332 and 1384, the episcopal privileges were confirmed and in 1405 even partly expanded. A forerunner building to an episcopal palace – described simply as a “house” – was witnessed beginning in 1240; the actual palace, which also served the bishop as a summer seat, was only witnessed for the first time in 1414.
For administration the bishop availed himself of the members of the local nobility who already lived in Dirmstein or who went to live there. Dirmstein noble families were only mentioned in documents beginning in the 12th century. The best known was the family Lerch, who played an important rôle not only in the village but also – owing to their widespread holdings – throughout southwest Germany from the late 13th to the late 17th century when their family name died out. Their name is chiselled in stone at several historic buildings in Dirmstein, as it is on the gateway arch into the Spitalhof (“infirmary yard”) and on the wall at today’s Fechtschule (literally “swordfighting school”, but it is a remodelled castle) at the Kellergarten. After having married into the family in the mid 17th century, the family Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler came into the family Lerch’s inheritance.
Further noble families 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...
were, among others, the families Nagel von Dirmstein, Von der Hauben and Affenstein. Beginning in the 15th century, the nobility’s representatives formed an area of joint rule (called a Ganerbschaft 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....
) whose assemblies were held in a forerunner building to the St.-Michael-Apotheke built in 1535.
Condominium
From 1419 to 1705, Dirmstein belonged to two lords together; these were the Prince-Bishop of WormsBishopric 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...
and the Elector Palatine. Why such a condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
came to be in 1411 and was fixed by a written accord on 4 March 1419 despite the episcopal rights having been expanded only in 1405 is something that sources do not answer. Bishop Johann II of Fleckenstein and Elector Ludwig III
Louis III, Elector Palatine
Louis III, Count Palatine of the Rhine , was an Elector Palatine of the Rhine from the house of Wittelsbach in 1410–1436....
shared all rights at and in Dirmstein, each getting half. It must have been in this time that the Kurpfälzisches Schloss (“Electoral-Palatine Castle”) was built, which might well have been envisaged rather more as an administrative building. Little more than a century later, though, it had fallen into such disrepair due to war that it seems likely that it never underwent any repairs. Today, nobody even knows where the building stood.
The condominium proved itself throughout the time it was in force; differences were always amicably settled. The most important success might have been the awarding of the two major local churches, Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and Saint Lawrence’s Chapel (Laurentiuskapelle) to the Catholics and 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...
respectively. This happened after 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...
when Electoral Palatinate decided in the latter half of the 16th century to adopt Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
. In 1705, the condominium ended with a deal in which Worms regained full rights at and in Dirmstein through a territorial exchange with Electoral Palatinate. Only in the Protestant inhabitants’ internal business was the power of decision reserved to the Elector.
Times of war
In the German Peasants' WarGerman Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...
, the village itself suffered little, although on 4 June 1525, rebelling peasants under Dirmstein vassal Erasmus von der Hauben’s leadership razed the Episcopal and Electoral-Palatine Castles, Castle Affenstein and the Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
monastery and set them on fire. The Episcopal Castle and Castle Affenstein were subsequently made useful once again, whereas the other two building complexes lay in ruins and eventually disappeared altogether.
Likewise little damage was wrought 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....
. Finding himself having to put up with repression was the avowed Catholic partisan Caspar Lerch (1575–1642), whose “castle” was plundered and who, together with his family, was forced into a 19-year exile. Caspar Lerch was a prominent representative of his family, first as Chamberlain of the Bishop of Speyer, then as Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
Amtmann
Amtmann
Amtmann can be :*a feudal, administrative and/or gubernatorial title, such as Bezirksamtmann . Amtmann, ammann and amman were a kind of bailiff in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in Brussels....
in Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim is a German town in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg on the river Tauber with a population of about 13,000. It is the capital of the Main-Tauber district....
and finally as director of the Knightly Canton of the Upper Rhine
Imperial Knight
The Free Imperial Knights, or the Knights of the Empire was an organisation of free nobles of the Holy Roman Empire, whose direct overlord was the Emperor, remnants of the medieval free nobility and the ministeriales...
(Ritterkanton Oberrhein). Furthermore he compiled many juristic works as well as a family chronicle.
In 1689, however, in the Age of Absolutism
Absolutism (European history)
Absolutism or The Age of Absolutism is a historiographical term used to describe a form of monarchical power that is unrestrained by all other institutions, such as churches, legislatures, or social elites...
, Dirmstein was less lucky when 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...
troops came and all but utterly burnt it down. From 1688 to 1697, the “Sun King”, Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
waged the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession) over his sister-in-law Liselotte’s
Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine was a German princess and the wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France. Her vast correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV...
inheritance – and somewhat paradoxically had Electoral Palatinate, the territory that he wanted as his own, reduced to rubble and ashes. In Dirmstein the blaze raged for three days, from 7 to 9 September. Only a few houses were left standing.
Baroque era
In the course of the BaroqueBaroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
era, a considerable community once more grew out of the two original centres, the “Upper” and “Lower Villages”. One of this era’s most important persons was Baron Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (1674–1744), Caspar Lerch’s second daughter’s grandson. Having earned hostility for his wasteful running of the estate and his debts, he became legendary for his years-long quarrel with the authorities. He had his alleged success immortalized in 1738 on Castle Sturmfeder’s gateway, the Michelstor – along with many inscriptions – in the form of a sculpture of a victorious struggle over the devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
, which according to contemporaries bears the then mayor’s facial features. Above the gate’s side entrance, a stone chimera
Chimera (architecture)
Used in describing an architectural feature, chimera means a fantastic, mythical or grotesque figure used for decorative purposes. Chimerae are often described as gargoyles. Used correctly, the term gargoyle refers to mostly eerie figures carved specifically as terminations to spouts which convey...
has also been placed. The last bearer of the family name died in 1901.
Dirmstein has the interdenominational coöperation between the Catholic Prince-Bishop of Worms and the Protestant
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...
Elector, which happened despite an end being put to the condominium, to thank for its famous simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
, St. Laurentius (Saint Lawrence’s). With this church building in the mid 18th century began a phase of prosperity for the village that lasted a good hundred years. From 1780 to 1801, only a century after the inferno of the Nine Years' War, Dirmstein, according to various sources, was even awarded town rights
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
.
A social problem grew out of the short-lived running of a stoneware
Stoneware
Stoneware is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic ware with a fine texture. Stoneware is made from clay that is then fired in a kiln, whether by an artisan to make homeware, or in an industrial kiln for mass-produced or specialty products...
factory that existed from 1778 to 1788 in the middle of the Upper Village. There, 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...
was having “Dirmstein Faïence
Faience
Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
” made from the white clay that came from the Bishopric’s own stripmine near today’s Hettenleidelheim
Hettenleidelheim
Hettenleidelheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
in the northeast Palatinate Forest, a product whose now few preserved examples are sought-after in collectors’ circles. As early as 1779, a few months after production began, the then mayor, Johann Michael Graeff, schemed against the factory head and ceramics expert Johann Carl Vogelmann, casting false accusations his way, whereupon Vogelmann’s belongings were withheld as he, along with his wife and seven children, was hounded out of the village. Graeff took the banished former head’s job at the factory, but was such a dilettante when it came to running the business that in 1782, the Bishopric unseated him. Under Graeff’s successors, though, the business never did recover, leading to the 20- to 30-strong workforce’s impoverishment, culminating in strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
Foreign rule
Towards the end of the 18th century, the turmoil of the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
also held Electoral Palatinate in its grip. Its territory on the Rhine’s left bank was annexed de facto by the French state in 1797, and as of 1801 the annexation became official. Among other things, this led to Dirmstein’s once again losing its town rights. Until the end of the Napoleonic
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...
era in 1815, the annexed territory was governed as part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the highest point in the Rhenish Palatinate, the Donnersberg. It was the southernmost of four départements formed in 1798, when the west bank of the Rhine was annexed by France...
(or Donnersberg 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....
).
After 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,...
, the Palatinate’s left-bank lands, and Dirmstein along with them, were assigned 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...
, whose ruling dynasty, the House of Wittelsbach, had its roots in Electoral Palatinate. The Rheinkreis that thus came into being, which was later named Rheinpfalz (Rhenish Palatinate) to distinguish it from the likewise Bavarian Upper Palatinate
Upper Palatinate
The Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
(Oberpfalz), remained Bavarian until the end of the Second World War.
The rest of the 19th century passed without great incident. Taking over from the nobles, whom 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...
had dispossessed were nouveau riche members of the upmarket citizenry, who expanded the castles and manor houses that had been auctioned off, enlarged park facilities and laid out new ones. The majority of the villagers, though, was very poor.
Emigration
The Palatinate, which had been characterized over the centuries by neediness and war, lost over time many of its people to other countries. In Dirmstein, emigration was in very small measure to places in Eastern and Southeastern Europe (Galicia, BanatBanat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
). Against that, however, a considerably greater number of the emigrants went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to seek their fortune there.
Before US independence
United States Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
, only single persons or families emigrated there, as in 1708, 1742 and 1752. In the 19th century, though, came a wave of emigration, which was recorded in a Dirmstein Auswanderungsregister (“Emigration Register”) that was painstakingly kept for one hundred years and according to digital survey contains more than 600 records. According to this register, between 1806 and 1905 more than 1,200 Dirmsteiners left their homeland, especially younger families, often with many children. The last two entries refer to Dirmstein Jews, who in 1937 could still emigrate to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
World wars and National Socialism
Dirmstein came through the First World War unscathed, at least in terms of damage to the municipality itself. The cost in human terms, however, was 53 lives.In 1933, at the beginning 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...
, 15 Jewish citizens lived in the municipality, along with one “Jewish Mischling
Mischling
Mischling was the German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have only partial Aryan ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as mestee in English, mestizo in Spanish and métis in French...
of the Second Degree”; eleven of them belonged to the extended family Hirsch. The family Liebmann managed to flee to Argentina with their nine-year-old daughter in 1937. Frieda Hirsch likewise emigrated there in 1938, but had to leave her ten-year-old son David behind. The nine Jews still remaining in Dirmstein in 1940 were deported 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) to 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...
. In 1941 in the South of France, David Hirsch and the distantly related Elisabeth Klara Hirsch and her daughter Ella managed to get away. The two women emigrated to the United States, where Ella’s elder brother had likely already gone in 1938. David Hirsch followed his mother to Argentina in 1947. In 2005 and 2009, he visited his schoolfriend Arthur Maurer in Dirmstein. The other six deportees died in concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
or disappeared there.
| Stolpersteine Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism... number |
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Salomon Hirsch | Husband of Dina Hirsch | 13 October 1875 in Birkenau Birkenau (Odenwald) Birkenau in the Odenwald is a community in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany. Its nickname is Das Dorf der Sonnenuhren – “The Sundial Village”.-Location:... |
22 October 1940 to 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... |
August 1942 at Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II... |
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Dina Hirsch née Strauss |
Wife of Salomon Hirsch | 14 April 1872 in Dirmstein |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
27 October 1941 at Gurs |
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Sarah Strauss | Sister of Dina Hirsch | 21 July 1874 in Dirmstein |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
15 November 1940 at Gurs |
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Irma Hirsch | Daughter of Salomon and Dina Hirsch | 24 August 1905 in Dirmstein |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
August 1942 at Auschwitz |
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| Frieda Hirsch | Daughter of Salomon and Dina Hirsch | 19 September 1907 in Dirmstein |
8 July 1938 emigrated to Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires... |
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent... , deceased |
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David Hirsch | Son of Frieda Hirsch | 15 May 1928 in Mainz |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
1941 fled to South of 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... and 1943 to 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.... , 1947 emigrated to Argentina |
Buenos Aires | |
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Lilli Hirsch | Daughter of Salomon and Dina Hirsch | 16 May 1909 in Dirmstein |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
August 1942 at Auschwitz |
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Karoline Hirsch | unknown | 15 August 1892 in Dirmstein |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
28 August 1942 at Auschwitz |
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Elisabeth Klara Hirsch née Lorch | Mother of Julius and Ella Hirsch | 13 April 1866 in Laumersheim |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
3 November 1941 fled to South of France, 1942 emigrated to USA United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Brooklyn, MA, died 1958 |
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| Julius Hirsch | Son of Elisabeth Klara Hirsch | 15 August 1896 in Dolgesheim Dolgesheim Dolgesheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:... |
1938 emigrated to USA | Brooklyn, MA, deceased |
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Ella Hirsch | Daughter of Elisabeth Klara Hirsch | 5 September 1899 in Dolgesheim |
22 October 1940 to Gurs |
3 November 1941 fled to South of France, 1942 emigrated to USA | Brooklyn, MA, died 3 February 1975 |
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| Adolf Liebmann | Husband of Emilia Liebmann | 25 September 1890 in Dirmstein |
1937 emigrated to Argentina | Argentina, deceased |
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| Emilia Liebmann | Wife of Adolf Liebmann | 27 June 1892 in Kirchheim Kirchheim an der Weinstraße Kirchheim 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.- Location :... |
1937 emigrated to Argentina | Argentina, deceased |
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| Gertrud Liebmann | Daughter of Adolf and Emilia Liebmann | 25 June 1928 in Ludwigshafen |
1937 emigrated to Argentina | Argentina |
Among Dirmstein’s inhabitants, 89 soldiers fell and 41 were listed as missing
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
in the Second World War. On 20 March 1945, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
aircraft advancing on the Rhine attacked the village causing bomb damage and striking houses with autocannon
Autocannon
An autocannon or automatic cannon is a rapid-fire projectile weapon firing a shell as opposed to the bullet fired by a machine gun. Autocannons often have a larger caliber than a machine gun . Usually, autocannons are smaller than a field gun or other artillery, and are mechanically loaded for a...
fire. Their target was German soldiers fleeing by the village, many of whom were killed, whereas there were no casualties among the inhabitants.
In connection with the Second World War, there are two stories worth mentioning because they so thoroughly contrast with each other:
The former prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
Stanisław Swiatek (born 1920) from the now Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
city of Szczecin
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
(formerly the German city of Stettin), who from 1940 onwards had spent five years in Dirmstein, maintained a lifelong friendship with the village for more than half a century because of his good experiences, and he conveyed to young fellow countrymen and countrywomen
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, whom he brought along on visits, his outlook on international understanding. After his first visit, a feature article about it by Albert H. Keil appeared in 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 yearbook, and Jürgen Bich reported it in the daily press.
Against that heartwarming story, however, comes another about an RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
tail gunner
Tail gunner
A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane. The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun emplacement on either the top or tail end of the aircraft with a generally...
named Sergeant Cyril William Sibley (born 1923), who was wounded in captivity after his Halifax bomber
Handley Page Halifax
The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...
was shot down, and then murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed by Nazi Ortsgruppenleiter
Ortsgruppenleiter
Ortsgruppenleiter was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed between 1930 and 1945. The term first came into being during the German elections of 1930, and was held by the head Nazi of a town or city for the purposes of election district organization...
Adolf Wolfert. In 1946, he and his accomplice in Sibley’s death, Georg Hartleb, were sentenced by a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
to death, a fate that they eventually met after a half year of fruitless appeals. They were both hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in Hamelin
Hamelin
Hamelin is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of 58,696 ....
on 11 October 1946. In 1985, 2004 and 2008, the bloody deed done Sibley found its literary reappraisal in works by the Dirmstein writers Walter Landin and Isolde Stauder. There is a Stolperstein
Stolpersteine
Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism...
in Sergeant Sibley’s memory in the municipality.
Since the war
After the Second World War, the municipality’s history unfolded relatively uneventfully. The administrative reform in Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-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 ....
led in 1969 to a reassignment from the abolished Frankenthal district to the new 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, and in 1972 came the municipality’s grouping into the likewise newly formed Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
.
More dramatic, at least for some of the inhabitants, was the widespread flooding in 1994 in the Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße (“North of Heuchelheim Road”) housing estate, which had been opened only ten years earlier. In 1996, the municipality celebrated the 250th anniversary of the consecration of Saint Lawrence’s Church. On 1 December 1998, the filling station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
at the northeast entrance to the village was so heavily damaged by a truck that it had to be closed for a week and the building renovation was only finished early the following year. Early in 2000, there was a great fire that laid the former discount store
Discount store
A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances...
in ruins.
On 23 November 2005, the 1,163rd anniversary of Dirmstein’s first documentary mention, the local chronicle appeared after more than 20 years’ preparation. Working together on this project were not only the publisher (Michael Martin, Landau), who in work lasting years had marshalled the unusually comprehensive municipal archive, but also a few other outside specialists from the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein (cultural club) as well as many writers from the village.
In March 2009, the event “Dirmstein erinnert sich” (“Dirmstein remembers”), lasting several days, was held, at which the Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
artist Gunter Demnig
Gunter Demnig
Gunter Demnig is a German artist. He is best known for his "Stolperstein" memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution and oppression in Nazi Germany.- Biography :...
laid Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine
Stolperstein is the German word for "stumbling block", "obstacle", or "something in the way". The artist Gunter Demnig has given this word a new meaning, that of a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism...
for the victims of National Socialism
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...
. Nine bear the names of Jews who were deported to concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
, while one is dedicated to the murdered Englishman Cyril William Sibley. The central historical-literary evening was created by Dirmstein writers Jürgen Bich, Albert H. Keil, Walter Landin and Otfried K. Linde.
Municipality’s name
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| 8th cen. | Díramestein | first mention (undated) |
| 842 | Theormsthein or Thiormsthein | Possible transcription Transcription (linguistics) Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with... for Díermstein |
| 1044 | Díermundestein | |
| 1110 and 1120 | Díeremestein | |
| 1141 | Díermestein | |
| 1190 | Dirmenstein | |
| 12th–15th cen. | Dirmestein, Dirmenstein, Dirminstein | |
| 1315 | Dirmstein | First use of modern spelling |
| 1529 | Durmstein | Variant |
| 1561 | Dirmbstein | Variant |
| 1582 | Diermsteun | Variant |
Considering especially the name’s early forms, science today interprets the placename as “Diermuntstein”, thus meaning something like “Diermunt’s Stone (House)”. Apparently a wealthy man managed to build his house here out of stone, which lasted longer than the customary material, wood. Since at the earliest known mention in the 8th century an elided
Elision
Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
form of the name is already used, it is assumed that at this time, Dirmstein had already been for at least a few generations a named place, whose name was already subject to modification.
The placename developed through many variations, of which a few notable ones have been chosen for this article: In 842 came the first dated documentary mention of the village in a document signed by King of the Franks Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
“in villa Theormsthein” or “Thiormsthein”. Since this document only exists as a 17th-century transcription, research assumes that, following what was customary then, an original “Díermstein” was transcribed. From 1110 comes a document from Provost Hartwig von St. Paul zu Worms, in which the village is listed under the name Díeremestein. With another document from Worms from 1190, Emperor Heinrich 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...
transferred the Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
ei over Dirmenstein to 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...
. In 1315, the name Dirmstein was first used in its modern spelling. In the 16th century, variant forms were being used in which the i was mutated into a u, a b was inserted, or the diphthong ei was written as eu.
Religion
Dirmstein’s first parish church stood in the “Lower Village”. It was built in RomanesqueRomanesque art
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
times, clearly before 1044 and presumably on a bishop’s initiative, for it was consecrated to the patron saint of the Bishopric of Worms, Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
. Given several consistent sources, historians estimate the church’s capacity at only some hundred persons, implying low population figures. The “Upper Village” had at its disposal the Gothic
Gothic 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....
Saint Lawrence’s Chapel (Kapelle St. Laurentius), first mentioned in 1240, which was raised to a branch church. In the 14th century it was joined by Saint Anthony’s
Anthony of Padua
Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...
Chapel (Kapelle St. Antonius) at the graveyard in the “Lower Village” and the Infirmary Yard Chapel of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
(Spitalhof-Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena) in the “Upper Village”. These chapels, too, are an indication that the low population would have made a big church needless.
Saint Lawrence’s Chapel was converted in the 16th century into a Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
church. Burnt to ruins in the 1689 fire, it was replaced in 1742 to 1746 by today’s Baroque
Baroque 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...
simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
, which stands on the same spot, and whose Catholic part was once again consecrated as Saint Lawrence’s. Its capacity was enough for the whole village. Given this, and Saint Peter’s Church’s continuing slide into disrepair in the 18th century, the latter church was auctioned off in 1809 and torn down. Saint Anthony’s Chapel was likewise relieved of its duties when the old graveyard was forsaken and a new one established about 1850. The Infirmary Yard Chapel has lasted until the present day, although it has been deconsecrated and several times remodelled.
In 1367 in the north of the village centre, an Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
priory was founded, as was an Augustinian monastery in 1500, which was later run by the Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
. While the Augustinian monastery only lasted until it was burnt down in the Peasants' War in 1525, the Jesuit monastery lasted for 300 years. In the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, the monks had the sulphur-bearing mineral spring that they used northwest of the village, the Chorbrünnel, set in stone. The Dirmstein priest’s post, before it was taken over by regular priests, is believed to have been occupied by the Jesuit fathers, although only the records from the later years, from 1685 to 1705, are preserved. About 1800, the Jesuit monastery was dissolved as a result of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and its attendant Secularization
Secularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
.
Religious affiliation over the last 250 years is well documented, and in this time it was, given the population figures, subject to great change.
The simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
was built in 1746 with the floor area allotted at a 2:1 ratio in the Catholics’ favour for in the mid 18th century, this corresponded with the village’s denominational makeup of two-thirds Catholic and one-third Protestant
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...
or Reformed
Reformed churches
The Reformed churches are a group of Protestant denominations characterized by Calvinist doctrines. They are descended from the Swiss Reformation inaugurated by Huldrych Zwingli but developed more coherently by Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger and especially John Calvin...
. Somewhat more than half a century later, though, only 56% of the villagers were Catholic and 40% Protestant. After 2000 Protestants were 45.46% of the population, Catholics 33.74% and those with other or no religious beliefs 20.79%.
From the time of the first written evidence of a Jewish community (1464) until the early 20th century, the Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
share of the population was usually a few dozen, peaking at 129 in 1855. Beginning no later than 1738, and thereafter with interruptions, the Jewish community maintained a “Judenschuhl”, a folk word for 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 1858, after building work lasting two years, a new 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...
was consecrated on the corner of Mitteltor and Hildebrandstraße (near Saint Lawrence’s and across the street, slantwise, from the Old Town Hall). Over the next few decades, the Jewish community shrank mainly owing to emigration. About 1913 it virtually ceased to exist. The now no longer used synagogue was falling ever further into disrepair. In 1932, the ramshackle building was sold and remodelled from the ground up, leaving only the rear façade in its original form. It is now used as a house, and no longer shows any sign of its former function. In Nazi times
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...
, all Jews still living in Dirmstein in 1940 fell victim to 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...
with the exception of the three who escaped from a concentration camp
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
.
Population figures
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| 1682 | *445 |
| 1710 | *516 |
| 1771 | 945 |
| 1802 | 1,252 |
| 1815 | 1,500 |
| 1835 | 2,049 |
| 1871 | 1,517 |
| 1905 | 1,467 |
| 1939 | 1,672 |
| 1950 | 1,924 |
| 1961 | 2,091 |
| 1970 | 2,252 |
| 1986 | 2,587 |
| 2004 | 3,100 |
| 2005 | 3,030 |
Only from 1771 does the municipal archive have a concrete basis on which to determine population figures; the dates listed in the table before that time (marked with an asterisk) refer to assessment book figures and represent minima, which could be considerably too low as population figures, as those not subject to taxation are not included in the books.
The sharp growth in the late 18th century might be traceable to the prospects that the “town” – as it is said Dirmstein was from 1780 to 1801 – could offer its citizens. This growth carried on until the beginning of industrialization, which made itself felt in Dirmstein about the middle of the 19th century. Emigration
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...
and urbanization
Urbanization
Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....
then led, however, to a drop in population continuing for 100 years, which was reversed only by new growth in the wake of the Second World War. This turned out to be rather a slow rise in population until the 1980s, when it intensified. The 3,000 mark was breached in 1996, and since then, the rate has remained fairly constant.
Age breakdown
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The local age breakdown
Population pyramid
A population pyramid, also called an age structure diagram, is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population , which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing...
has altered radically over time. In 1682, more than half Dirmstein’s inhabitants were children or youths aged 19 or younger. About 1850, their share of the population had sunk to a bit more than a third. By 2003, it amounted to 21.5%. On the other hand, the figure for those older than 40 rose from 19% in 1682 to 48.7% in 2003. In the tabulated comparison between the years 1710 (although as above, for this year the source is the assessment book and therefore does not count those who did not pay taxes) and 2002, a noticeable shift towards the right, and therefore the greater ages, is shown, and it can also be observed that the figures for the middle decades have evened out somewhat.
Thus, the trend towards an aging population can also be seen in Dirmstein. Nevertheless, the figures did not match the 1995 countrywide average until eight years later. The 2002 figures show something else, too: More than 3.5% of the inhabitants are old or very old people, who mainly still live in a family situation, for there is no seniors’ home or nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...
in Dirmstein.
Coat of arms
The German blazon, in the 2007 approval documents from the Bad Dürkheim district administration, reads:The municipality’s 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...
might in English 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"...
language be described thus: Per fess, in chief per pale sable a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules and azure semé of crosses of the second a key per bend argent, the wards to chief and dexter, and in base vair nebuly argent and gules.
The Palatine Lion on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side and the key as a symbol of the bishop’s office and Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
’s attribute on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side together stand for the condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
under which Electoral Palatinate 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...
, whose patron saint was Peter, jointly held the local lordship for three centuries. The “vair nebuly” fur in the base of the escutcheon is meant to look like three complete and two cut-off silver helmets on a red background such as those once worn by the local resident lower nobility. These were called Eisenhüte (singular: Eisenhut; “iron hats”).
In regional literature, the red background between the “helmets” is mistaken for “rooftiles”. Further irritation having to do with the shield’s lower half comes from the Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz (“Great Arms Book of the Palatinate”), an official armorial directory which contains a version of Dirmstein’s coat of arms – sometimes used officially – in which the “helmets” in the lower row and the background have their tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
s transposed, thus disturbing the harmonious change from silver to red fields, standing the lower helmets upside down, and arranging two of them in such a way that their bottoms touch those in the upper row in a straight line. An expert opinion obtained at the municipality’s request showed in 2007 that the version seen in the Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz was erroneous and did not match the historical example, whereupon the district administration issued the above-cited decree.
Municipal council
Dirmstein belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-LandGrünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
. The mayor is Bernd Eberle (FWG), and the 20 seats on council are shared by three factions. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results (with changes from 2004 results):
| Municipal council election | Share | Percent | +/– | Seats | +/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eligible voters | 2,391 | 100.0 | |||
| Voters | 1,597 | 66.8 | +2.7 | ||
| Invalid ballots | 28 | 1.8 | –0.8 | ||
| Valid ballots | 1,569 | 98.2 | +0.8 | 20 | |
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
364 | 23.2 | –3.1 | 5 | = |
| CDU | 637 | 40.6 | –10.5 | 8 | –3 |
| 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... |
568 | 36.2 | +13.5 | 7 | +3 |
Mayors
This list of mayors since the Thirty Years' WarThirty 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....
is still incomplete; however, there are only a few gaps and lapses in clarity.
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Monumental zone
The historic heart of the Upper Village represents in the monument protection authority’s eyes quite a homogeneous monumental zone. It consists of Mitteltor, Affenstein, Laumersheimer Straße, Herrengasse, Kirchenstraße and Metzgergasse. At the Obertor (“Upper Gate”), and with the two park complexes, it reaches somewhat farther out. The village’s appearance in this zone is mostly compact and is defined mainly by Late 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...
building from the decades that followed the great blaze in the Nine Years' War. It gives one the impression of a wealthy village characterized by the nobility’s and the fashionable citizenry’s buildings and that its structure even withstood the upheaval of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
The three castlelike manor houses preserved almost unscathed by time also convey the tradition of this village that was jointly ruled 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...
by noble families. Right near each other and both singular are the English Gardens in the Upper Village’s northwest and south. Asserting itself as at least the architectural peer of the noble buildings is the simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
from 1746, which with its tower dating from the Middle Ages and built even taller in 1904 on the one hand forms a structural midpoint in the municipality, and on the other hand reflects the religious relations of this village that was ruled for three centuries as an Electoral Palatinate-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...
condominium. Together with the former infirmary chapel across the street to the west, the church forms a homogeneous building group.
Typical for the town and country buildings that convey wealth within the monumental zone are buildings with hipped roofs with timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
construction upon walled ground floors, which mainly characterize the inner village. With structural elements such as hewn-stone pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s, the lordly buildings clearly served as a model for some of the houses; the flawless execution documents the local stonemasons’ craftsmanship. The homesteads with buildings on two or three sides on Affenstein and Hauptstraße and on the eastern section of Metzgergasse, on the other hand, tell of the less wealthy class of the population.
One conspicuous gap in the otherwise cheek-by-jowl buildings came about in the 1960s on the corner of Marktstraße and Metzgergasse on the north side of the Castle Square (Schlossplatz) when the building that once housed the Worms Episcopal faïence
Faience
Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
factory was torn down. It had begun life as the Reigerspergischer Hof in 1592, and in 1689 it had withstood the great fire that had burnt the rest of the village down. Until its demolition, it was the village’s oldest building. Since the foreseen replacement, a block of flats, was never built, the plot became a featureless carpark, mostly covered in gravel.
Outstanding buildings in the monumental zone
Saint Lawrence’s Church (Laurentiuskirche) was built as a simultaneous churchSimultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
during the Baroque
Baroque 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...
era to master builder Balthasar Neumann
Balthasar Neumann
Johann Balthasar Neumann , also known as Balthasar Neumann, was a [German] military artillery engineer and architect who developed a refined brand of Baroque architecture, fusing Austrian, Bohemian, Italian, and French elements to design some of the most impressive buildings of the period,...
’s plans, which were modified on site, beginning in 1742; it was consecrated in 1746. The Voit organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
in the Catholic part of the church, built in 1900 and renovated in 1986, draws connoisseurs from far and wide. As well, the even older instrument in the Protestant
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...
part, which has at its disposal a work by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker, is of good repute among experts.
The Ältestes Haus – Dirmstein’s “Oldest House” – stands at the corner of Metzgergasse and Salzgasse. Chiselled into it is the yeardate 1596. In 1689, it was one of only six or seven buildings that were left standing 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...
burnt the village down. It is now the only one left of those that escaped that blaze. At the turn of the millennium, it was attractively restored.
The Sturmfedersches Schloss and the Koeth-Wanscheidsches Schloss were the Sturmfeder and Koeth-Wanscheid noble families’ castlelike manor houses, and were recently restored.
Hardly any original trace is even left of the two monasteries, one Augustinian
Augustinians
The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...
and the other Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
, that once stood side by side in the north of the village centre. On the site of the Augustinian monastery, the Quadtsches Schloss was later built, which nowadays incorrectly does business under the name Jesuitenhof (“Jesuit Estate”). Of the Jesuit monastery, which historians regard as the true Jesuitenhof, only an outbuilding is left of the original complex.
Across the street from the church in the Spitalhof, which formerly was a hospice, and to which belongs the Gothic
Gothic 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....
and now deconsecrated Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena, the municipal kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
is now housed.
The House at Marktstraße 1 was built in the early 18th century as a stone and timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
building. For model renovation, the owners were recognized in 2006 with the first Balthasar-Neumann-Preis of the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein. The St.-Michael-Apotheke was likewise built in the early 18th century as a timber-frame building. The predecessor building 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...
contained a great hall
Great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, nobleman's castle or a large manor house in the Middle Ages, and in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. At that time the word great simply meant big, and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence...
in which the local nobles, who formed a condominium (or Ganerbschaft 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....
), held their meetings. The Altes Rathaus (“Old Town Hall”) from 1714 is used as a “House of the Clubs”, those being the ones who restored the building by doing unpaid work.
Marktstraße (“Market Street”), whose southernmost portion is laid out as “Germany’s smallest pedestrian zone”, runs between the Sturmfedersches Schloss and the Hotel Café Kempf – known locally as das Kempf – which after growing out of a winemaker’s house in 1926 has taken back its place after a thorough renovation as the village’s biggest gastronomic business and is also now quite eye-catching. In the front guestroom is found a Madonna
Madonna (art)
Images of the Madonna and the Madonna and Child or Virgin and Child are pictorial or sculptured representations of Mary, Mother of Jesus, either alone, or more frequently, with the infant Jesus. These images are central icons of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity where Mary remains...
figure from the 18th century which is under monumental protection. Functioning as a small, but fine, addition to the Café Kempf is the former Backhaus (“Bakehouse”) around the corner on the way into Herrengasse, which has now been converted into a wine parlour. Newest among the village’s leading restaurants is the Roosmarin, which was set up in an old winemaker’s house in 2006 in the Lower Village, and whose name comes from the herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...
rosemary
Rosemary
Rosemary, , is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which includes many other herbs, and is one of two species in the genus Rosmarinus...
(Rosmarin 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....
) and the owner-operator’s family name.
The Fechtschule (“Swordfighting School”) stands south of the village centre at the edge of the Kellergarten. A predecessor building to this Classicist
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
one, die Burg (“the Castle”), was from 1602 Caspar Lerch’s house. For several decades, the Landesfechtschule des Südwestdeutschen Fechtverbandes (“State Swordfighting School of the Southwest German Swordfighting League”) has been run there, leading to the building’s current name. One peculiarity, also found on the grounds of the Kellergarten, is the Bathhouse of the Countess of Brühl, whose comital bathtub nowadays stands in the front garden as an oversize flowerpot.
Outstanding buildings outside the monumental zone
The Episcopal Palace (Bischöfliches Schloss), formerly the administrative and summer seat of the Prince-Bishop of Worms, near the village’s eastern outskirts is the oldest, at least partly, preserved Schloss in Dirmstein. Of this – on the lands of what is now a farming estate – only a few original remnants can be found, however.In the village for centuries were two mills that were run by water from the Eckbach. The Niedermühle (“Lower Mill”) in the far east was converted in the 19th century into a farming estate in the Classicist
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
style. The Spormühle in the village’s southwest houses both an art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
and a small country hotel.
English gardens
The Schlosspark, laid out in the style of a landscaped English garden and renovated at the turn of the millennium, furnishes a venue for events, especially musical ones. It was planned beginning in 1824 by the landscape architect Johann Christian Metzger. In 2009 began restoration work on the grottoGrotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
, which lies in the park and was built in 1840. Responsible, about 1790, for the Kellergarten, which is also undergoing renovations and is another of the once seven English gardens in the municipality, was Metzger’s even more famous professional colleague Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell was a German landscape gardener from Weilburg an der Lahn.Sckell was trained in the Court Market Garden in Schwetzingen near Mannheim and worked after his apprenticeship in Bruchsal, Paris, and Versailles. From 1773 to 1777, he was in England busying himself with...
.
Graveyards
The early mediaevalEarly 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...
grave fields mentioned earlier lay some 300 m north and northwest of the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach, and therefore not far from the area where later arose the Lower Village. However, they could not be regarded as cemeteries laid out in an organized fashion.
Until about 1850, the village kept its graveyard in the east, in the Lower Village right next to Saint Peter’s Church (Peterskirche) and near the Episcopal Palace. Since then it has not been used. The best known grave there is the one in which the physician Johann von Hubertus is buried.
The New Cemetery (Neuer Friedhof) now in use lies somewhat elevated on the village’s northern edge, the village itself having spread out towards it. Many gravestones of value to cultural history from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were taken from the old cemetery and set up here. The chapel, in which a part of the original fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
has been restored, represents a Classicist building with a rectangular base from the mid 19th century and holds the burial vault of the noble Familie Camuzi, who endowed the chapel.
Natural monuments
The area between the south corner of the Kellergarten and the Eckbach includes the Dicker Baum (“Fat Tree”), a roughly 200-year-old sycamoreSycamore
Sycamore is a name which is applied at various times and places to three very different types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms....
. With a trunk girth of some 6 m and a height of more than 20 m, the mighty tree is said to be a natural monument.
In the area of the road leading out of the village to the northwest (Obersülzer Straße) is a steep, south-facing 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...
wall, which stands as a biotope
Biotope
Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community.It...
for many kinds of warmth-loving insects, among them solitary wild bees and digger wasps. Also, bird species that breed in hollows, such as the Common Swift
Common Swift
The Common Swift is a small bird, superficially similar to the Barn Swallow or House Martin. It is, however, completely unrelated to those passerine species, since swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes...
, are observed. It is possible that even the European Roller
European Roller
The European Roller, Coracias garrulus, is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East and Central Asia and Morocco....
has settled here, although it is native to Southern Europe.
The Chorbrünnel-Rundweg (path) in the northwest of Dirmstein’s municipal area links the Wörschberger Hohl, a holloway
Sunken lane
A sunken lane is a road which has over time fallen significantly lower than the land on either side. They are created incrementally by erosion, by water and traffic...
likewise marked by loess walls, with the Chorbrünnel. This little fountain is fed by a sulphur-bearing spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
whose water was long used for healing purposes. In the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
, the fountain was set in stone by the resident Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
monks. In reference to this, the green signposts on the pathway show a yellowish-orange stone arcade together with the spring symbol.
The Eckbachmühlen-Rad- und Wanderweg (cycling and hiking path) leads out of Dirmstein up the Eckbach for more than 19 km to Altleiningen
Altleiningen
Altleiningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, linking eight picturesque wine villages and the Eckbachweiher (pond). It affords movement in the great outdoors and is also worth visiting for mill lovers for its 23 partly restored mills.
Event venues
The many local clubs bring the municipality a well filled calendar of events. Above all, the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein (cultural club) busies itself in many fields and invites the public to appearances by its historical dance troupe, to literary evenings and music at the Schlosspark. Bigger events are held at the Unterhaardter Festhalle (UHF), which stands south of Saint Lawrence’s Church on the edge of the village centre and can seat several hundred visitors. It was structurally and technologically refurbished by unpaid helpers at the onset of the new millennium. For events with no more than 80 to 100 visitors, the Eux-Stocké-Ratssaal is available at the Sturmfedersches Schloss. Specially for organOrgan (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
music, Saint Lawrence’s Church (Laurentiuskirche) offers itself up with its two historic instruments, the Walcker organ from 1869 and the Voit organ from 1900.
Concerts
In the Council Chamber (the Ratssaal mentioned above), where a BechsteinC. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik
C. Bechstein Pianofortefabrik AG is a German manufacturer of pianos, established in 1853 by Carl Bechstein.-Before Bechstein:...
grand piano is also available, concerts are held. Among the venues for the German-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...
concert series “Printemps Rhénan – Rheinischer Frühling” (both of which mean “Rhenish Spring” in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and 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....
respectively) is Saint Lawrence’s Church.
At the Schlosspark, an outdoor concert of the “palatiajazz” series is held every year at which the original Blues Brothers Band
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedy actors Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live...
, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
and Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
have appeared.
Felix Hell
Felix Hell
Felix Hell is a world renowned organist born on September 14, 1985 in Frankenthal/Pfalz, Germany. He was a child prodigy, performing his first organ recital in Russia at the age of nine, and presenting concerts on the organ in many countries around the world before his 11th...
, the concert organist who was born 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...
and now lives in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, comes back to Dirmstein each New Year’s to give a New Year’s Eve concert at Saint Lawrence’s Church.
Literary readings
In Dirmstein a variety of Vorderpfälzisch (Eastern Palatine German) belonging to the Palatine German dialect group is spoken. The fostering of the local speech is taken very seriously in the municipality: several writers who were born here or who have settled here are among the prizewinners at the Palatine dialectal poetry contests and are continually giving readings in the Council Chamber, where there are also literary events dealing with High German.Folk festivals
The Dirmsteiner Jahrmarkt (yearly market) each year on the second weekend in September and the Bayerische Bierfest (“Bavarian Beer Festival”) every other year together with the BavariaBavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n partner municipality, Neuötting
Neuötting
Neuötting is a town in the district of Altötting, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Inn, 2 km north of Altötting, about 70 km north of Salzburg, 80 southwest of Passau and almost 100 km east of Munich. It is a stop on the railway line between Munich and Simbach.-Townscape:Neuötting...
, see to it that the bow-shaped, paved Schlossplatz as well as the wine parlours and wineries are thickly populated. The Schlossparkfest, which has already been held several times at the height of summer, has likewise established itself as a magnet for the public.
Kindergarten
The municipality has at its disposal the Catholic kindergartenKindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
“St. Laurentius” and the municipal daycare centre “Himmelszelt” (“Heaven’s Tent”). Both have two groups and all-day places. At the “Himmelszelt”, there are also places for four two-year-olds.
Primary school and sport hall
Dirmstein ist the location of a two-stream primary school, which offers all-day care. Next to the school stands an “all-purpose sport hall”, which is also available for regional events.Music school
The Sturmfedersches Schloss harbours the only branch location of the Musikschule Leiningerland, whose seat is in Grünstadt.Youth room
With significant dedication by the Landjugend Dirmstein (“Dirmstein Country Youth”), which belongs to the Bund der Deutschen Landjugend (“League of German Country Youth”), a Jugendraum (“youth room”) was created in 1997 and 1998 at the Old Town Hall to look like an Internet café. Besides individually and collectively possible leisure activities, work is also done there for the community in which a volunteer team of interested youth build the municipality’s website.Adult education
Education for adults is offered by the local folk high schoolFolk high school
Folk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...
, which is integrated into the district folk high school (Kreisvolkshochschule Bad Dürkheim). Classes are held at, among other places, the Sturmfedersches Schloss.
Public library
At the Sturmfedersches Schloss is found the central public library for the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-LandGrünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
.
Fencing
The FC Dirmstein governs the Landesfechtschule des Südwestdeutschen Fechtverbandes (“State Swordfighting School of the Southwest German Swordfighting League”). It is run in the location of Caspar Lerch’s former home on the Kellergarten.Football and gymnastics
The TuS Dirmstein 1946 has 491 members. It maintains football for youth, active people and AH (Alte Herren – “Old Gentlemen”) and it also offers women gymnasticsGymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
. Its sport facilities together with its clubhouse lie on the village’s southern outskirts.
Football golf
The 1. Deutsche Fußballgolf-Club Dirmstein was founded in 2006 as the first German sport club that occupies itself with the fad sport of Soccergolf or Fußballgolf. The club has 60 members. Laid out in the south of the village is a 6 ha area called Soccerpark Dirmstein. In 2008, it was the only such place anywhere in Germany. In 2009, the Dirmsteiner Alex Kober became in BodenkirchenBodenkirchen
Bodenkirchen is a municipality in the district of Landshut in Bavaria in Germany....
-Willaberg the German Soccergolf Champion. In the same year, the European Championship was played on the Dirmstein course, and the winner was another Dirmsteiner, Hans-Peter Baudy.
Tennis
The TC Grün-Weiß Dirmstein was founded in 1979 and has 230 members. It has at its disposal on the village’s southern outskirts a tennis complex with eight sand courts and a club pub.Table tennis
The TTC Dirmstein was founded in 1997 and has 65 members. It maintains three men’s table tennisTable tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
teams and a student team.
Turnen–Spiel–Gymnastik
The TSG Dirmstein 1986 has 466 members. It has at its disposal a broad offering with respect to gymnastics, fitnessPhysical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
, aerobics
Aerobics
Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness...
and the like.
Economic trends
After the Second World War, Dirmstein grew from a municipality purely based on agricultureAgriculture
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...
into a place in which as well as agriculture – and here this means mainly winegrowing – service industries, too, stand as equally important. Today there are more than 200 registered commercial operations. These are all small and medium-sized businesses; big business is wholly missing. For this reason, many Dirmsteiners commute to other places, which owing to the very tight economic interdependence in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration is less difficult than in structurally weaker areas. Jobs lie mostly within 5 to 25 km.
Dirmstein has since the 1960s also been opening up to 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...
. The village was advertised at first as the “Pearl of the Unterhaardt”, and beginning in 1972 as the “Pearl of the Leiningerland”. After the municipal council subsequently gave the mayor’s slogan – “Pearl between Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
and Wine Route” – its blessing in 2005, this decision was revised in 2009; Dirmstein once again advertises itself as the “Pearl of the Leiningerland”. In 2006, a private investor opened Soccerpark Dirmstein on the village’s southern outskirts which quickly became a considerable economic factor in the municipality.
Winegrowing
As early as Roman timesAncient 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....
, wine was being grown in the Eastern Palatinate. Winegrowing in Dirmstein had its first documentary mention in 1141. The Leiningerland’s sunny climate also favours the production 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...
in Dirmstein.
Roughly 2.5 of the municipality’s 14.67 km² is planted with 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....
. The most commonly grown varieties are 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...
, Blauer 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 Dornfelder
Dornfelder
Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin used for red wine. It was created by August Herold at the grape breeding institute in Weinsberg in the Württemberg region in 1955. Herold crossed the grape varieties Helfensteiner and Heroldrebe, the latter which bears his name, to...
. Also worthy of mention are 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...
, Pinot gris
Pinot gris
Pinot gris is a white wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot noir grape, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name but the grape can have a brownish pink to black and even white appearance...
and Pinot blanc
Pinot Blanc
Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produced white fruit....
. Since 2003, a local winery has been successfully cultivating the variety Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a white wine grape that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera. Its name comes from its characteristic small berry size and tight clusters...
, which originally came from Asia Minor
Asia Minor
Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...
and is actually regarded as a warmth-loving Mediterranean plant.
Dirmstein’s many former Weinlagen (“wine locations”) have since been consolidated into three Einzellagen (“individual locations”): Herrgottsacker (“Lord God’s Field”, in the north), Mandelpfad (“Almond Path”, in the west) and Jesuitenhofgarten. This last one, a slope leaning gently to the south, lies north of the centre right in the village and by area is one of Germany’s smallest. All Dirmstein’s Weinlagen belong to the winemaking appellation – Weingroßlage – of Schwarzerde (“Black Earth”).
At the edge of the south church square stands a great wooden winepress that was replicated by master cooper Emil Steigner; it also works.
Other economic fields
Besides winegrowing, fruitgrowing, especially appleApple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s, holds some importance in Dirmstein. The fruit is used mainly to make fruit brandies. 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 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, on the other hand, are only of slight economic importance. A typical seasonal vegetable is asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
, which is grown in the flatter parts of the Dirmstein municipal area in the east. Spreading out there are mainly grain and potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
fields. Through the municipality, coming from the neighbouring district, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis
Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis
The Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis is a district in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.Neighboring districts are the district-free city Worms, the district Bergstraße, district-free Mannheim, Frankenthal and Ludwigshafen, Rhein-Neckar, district-free Speyer, the districts Karlsruhe, Germersheim,...
(which is known as “Germany’s Vegetable Garden”), runs a branch of the Deutsche Grumbeer- und Gemüsestraße. This means “German Potato and Vegetable Road”, although Grumbeer is a dialect word for the potato (the standard High 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....
word is Kartoffel).
Road transport
Dirmstein is not connected to the Autobahn A 6Bundesautobahn 6
, also known as Via Carolina is a 477 km long German autobahn. It starts at the French border near Saarbrücken in the west and end at the Czech border near Waidhaus in the east....
(Mannheim
Mannheim
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....
–Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
) which runs by one kilometre to the south, but rather to Landesstraße (State Road) 453, which runs somewhat parallel thereto, linking 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...
(in the east) with Grünstadt
Grünstadt
Grünstadt is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.- Location :The...
(in the west). On the edge of each town are the nearest 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...
s. Towards the southwest, Landesstraße 455 forms a link to the town of Freinsheim
Freinsheim
Freinsheim is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With about 5,000 inhabitants, it is among the state’s smaller towns...
, and towards the north, by way of Offstein
Offstein
Offstein in the Wonnegau is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, another with the Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the district Groß-Gerau , the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen.- History :...
district. Kreisstraße (District Road) 24 leads south to the neighbouring municipality of Gerolsheim
Gerolsheim
Gerolsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
. With the Autobahn A 61
Bundesautobahn 61
is an autobahn in Germany that connects the border to the Netherlands near Venlo in the northwest to the interchange with A 6 near Hockenheim. In 1965, this required a re-design of the Hockenheimring....
(Koblenz
Koblenz
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...
–Speyer), which two kilometres southeast of the municipality crosses the A 6 at the Autobahnkreuz Frankenthal, there is no direct connection.
The missing link to the Autobahn network means that there is rather heavy traffic running through the municipality. Construction measures undertaken in the late 1990s in two places on Landesstraße 453 have at least somewhat lessened the problem of speeding within the municipality.
There are two bus routes run by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
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...
(VRN) that practically provide hourly service to the railway stations at Grünstadt (some 7 km) and Frankenthal (some 10 km). For evenings and late at night there has been since September 2006 a callable taxi service to and from the railway stations in Frankenthal and Kirchheim an der Weinstraße, which likewise accepts VRN tickets.
Rail transport
Dirmstein no longer has a railway connection. For almost half a century, the village lay on the Lokalbahn, a one-track, narrow-gaugeNarrow gauge
A narrow gauge railway is a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the of standard gauge railways. Most existing narrow gauge railways have gauges of between and .- Overview :...
(1 000 mm) railway. This ran beginning on 1 July 1891 from Frankenthal station, where there was a link to the Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
, westwards by way of Heßheim
Heßheim
Heßheim is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.It is situated approx. 4 km west of Frankenthal.Heßheim is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Heßheim....
and Dirmstein to Großkarlbach
Großkarlbach
Großkarlbach 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 stations, which were all built in the same style – red-brown brick buildings – are in part still preserved today, like the one in Dirmstein, and are used as dwellings. Besides the old railway station itself, two streets – Bahnhofstraße (“Railway Station Street”) and Lokalbahnstraße – today still recall the line, which was closed on 14 May 1939.
Media
For the municipality the Frankenthal local edition (Frankenthaler Zeitung) of 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 applies. 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 Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land
Grünstadt-Land is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest...
appears, as do three advertising fliers – one from Frankenthal, two from Grünstadt. Since the 1980s, one party’s local branch publishes at irregular intervals the local newspaper De Michel; the Palatine title refers on the one hand to the Michelstor as one of the village’s landmarks, and on the other hand refers to the Deutscher Michel
Deutscher Michel
Der Deutsche Michel is a figure representing the national character of the German people, rather as John Bull represents the British. Such figures differ from those that serve as personifications of the nation itself, as Germania does the German nation and Marianne the French...
.
Honorary citizens
- Dr. rer. pol. Eux Stocké (b. 1895 in Dirmstein; d. 1992 in RödentalRödentalRödental is a town in the district of Coburg, in northern Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 7 km northeast of Coburg.-See also:*Schloss Rosenau, CoburgRödental was the name given to a group of towns that were united in the 1960s under the Rödental name...
), entrepreneur and patron, named an honorary citizen in 1976. The Eux-Stocké-Ratssaal (council chamber) is dedicated to him. - Erich Otto (b. 26 September 1921 in Dirmstein; d. 1 June 1992 in Dirmstein), mayor 1964–86, named an honorary citizen in 1997. Erich-Otto-Weg is dedicated to him.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Caspar Lerch II (b. after 1480; d. 7 or 17 August 1548), was in 1523 supporter of the rebellious knight Franz von SickingenFranz von SickingenFranz von Sickingen was a German knight, one of the most notable figures of the first period of the Reformation.-Biography:He was born at Ebernburg near Bad Kreuznach...
and was in 1539 through the expansion of the Spitalhof founder of today’s Hospitalstiftung Dirmstein (foundation). - Caspar Lerch IV (b. 13 December 1575; d. 1642 in MainzMainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
), Caspar Lerch II’s grandson, was Chamberlain to the Bishop of Speyer, Electoral MainzArchbishopric of MainzThe Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
AmtmannAmtmannAmtmann can be :*a feudal, administrative and/or gubernatorial title, such as Bezirksamtmann . Amtmann, ammann and amman were a kind of bailiff in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in Brussels....
in TauberbischofsheimTauberbischofsheimTauberbischofsheim is a German town in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg on the river Tauber with a population of about 13,000. It is the capital of the Main-Tauber district....
and Director of the Knighthood of the Upper Rhine (Oberrheinische Ritterschaft). A street in the village is named for him. - Franz Rothermel (b. 1690/91; d. 1759), was the executive entrepreneur in the building of Saint Lawrence’s Church (Laurentiuskirche, 1742–46); from him came the third and final floor plan. His house, built in the 1730s was from 2006 to 2008 restored.
- Johann Hubertus (b. 10 December 1752; d. 1823), surgeon, was professor of medicine at the Josephs-Akademie in ViennaViennaVienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and personal physician to Austrian Archduke KarlArchduke Charles, Duke of TeschenArchduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
in BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
. - Franz Balthasar Hubertus (b. 19 April 1766; d. 9 April 1832 in PressburgBratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
), was like his brother Johann a physician in Austria. - Joseph Bihn (b. 2 January 1822; d. 1893 in Tiffin, OhioTiffin, OhioTiffin is a city in and the county seat of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. The population was 18,135 at the 2000 census. The National Arbor Day Foundation has designated Tiffin as a Tree City USA....
), Catholic priest, was the founder of an order in the USA. - Adolf Römer (b. 21 September 1843; d. 27 April 1913 in ErlangenErlangenErlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....
), Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Erlangen, was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences - Friedrich Streiff (b. 16 October 1846; d. 5 August 1920), master carpenter, was a draughtsman of contemporary perspectives of Dirmstein.
- Friedrich Bengel (b. 6 October 1892; d. 23 August 1985), non-commissioned officer, was awarded the Bavarian Medal of Bravery in the First World War for averting an explosive accident.
- Arthur Maurer (b. 19 April 1929) is a local historian as well as the initiator and honorary chairman of the Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein and was awarded the Pin of Honour of the State of Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-PalatinateRhineland-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 ....
. - Josef Schmitt (b. 11 June 1929; d. 6 September 1995), was a Palatine painter.
- Alexander Schroth (b. 6 February 1934) is a Palatine dialectal poet and twice won the Palatine Dialectal Poetry Contest in Bockenheim.
- Walter Landin (b. 29 May 1952) is a Palatine dialectal poet, crime novel and theatre writer.
Famous people associated with the municipality
- Gideon von Camuzi (1799–1879), estate owner, was from 1843 to 1845 member of the chamber of representatives of the Kingdom of Bavaria and from 1868 to 1874 mayor.
- Joseph von Camuzi (1767–1828), estate owner and Gideon's father, was from 1801 to 1815 mayor and from 1816 member of the chamber of representatives of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
- Louis Coblitz (1814–1863), was a genre painterGenre paintingGenre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...
, who in Dirmstein mainly painted views of the Schlosspark. - Lydia Hauenschild (b. 1957 in DeggendorfDeggendorfDeggendorf is a town in Bavaria, capital of the district Deggendorf.The earliest traces of settlement in the area are found near the Danube, about 8,000 years ago. Both Bronze Age and Celtic era archeological finds indicate continuous habitation through the years...
), writer, lives in Dirmstein. - Johann Jakob Hemmer (1733–1790), natural scientist and linguistic researcher, taught as house teacher for the Dirmstein noble family Sturmfeder, before reaching through this connection the Mannheim court of Elector Carl TheodorCharles Theodore, Elector of BavariaCharles Theodore, Prince-Elector, Count Palatine and Duke of Bavaria reigned as Prince-Elector and Count palatine from 1742, as Duke of Jülich and Berg from 1742 and also as Prince-Elector and Duke of Bavaria from 1777, until his death...
. - Albert H. Keil (b. 1947 in Mußbach), Palatine dialectal poet, literature prizewinner and three-time winner of the Palatine Dialectal Poetry Contest, lives in Dirmstein.
- Friedrich Klingmann (1874–1947), enologist, grapegrower and agricultural councillor, founded in 1924 the Rebenveredelungsanstalt Dirmstein (“Vine Ennobling Institute”), whose name was later changed to Weinbauversuchsanstalt (“Winegrowing Experimental Institute”). Rat-Klingmann-Weg is dedicated to him.
- Rüdiger Kramer (b. 1953 in Frankenthal), dialectal writer and author, winner of the theatre prize of the town of Frankenthal in 2007, lives in Dirmstein.
- Dr. rer. nat. Otfried K. Linde (b. 1932 in SanderslebenSanderslebenSandersleben is a town and a former municipality in the Mansfeld-Südharz district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Wipper, approx. 17 km north of Eisleben...
), psychiatric natural science writer, co-publisher of documentation about crimes against psychiatric patients in the Third Reich, lives in Dirmstein.
- Dr. phil. Michael Martin (b. 1947 in Baden-BadenBaden-BadenBaden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
), town archivistArchivistAn archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
of Landau, organized in years-long work the Dirmstein municipal archive and is publisher of the local chronicle. - Balthasar NeumannBalthasar NeumannJohann Balthasar Neumann , also known as Balthasar Neumann, was a [German] military artillery engineer and architect who developed a refined brand of Baroque architecture, fusing Austrian, Bohemian, Italian, and French elements to design some of the most impressive buildings of the period,...
(1687–1753) was court master builder and drew up in 1740 and 1741 the first two building plans for Saint Lawrence’s Church. - Andrea Odermann née Schmitt (b. 1974 in GrünstadtGrünstadtGrünstadt is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.- Location :The...
), grew up in Dirmstein and was in 1994 and 1995 Wine Countess of the Leiningerland as well as Palatine Wine Princess in 1995 and 1996. - Walter Perron (b. 1895; d. 1970 in Frankenthal), painter and sculptor, lived for a while in Dirmstein and about 1950 furnished a garden pavilion from the 19th century with sgraffitoSgraffitoSgraffito is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colors to a moistened surface, or in ceramics, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive layers of contrasting slip, and then in either case scratching so as to produce an...
wall covering. Restoration work on the pavilion began in 2006. - Sigismund Ranqué (b. 1743 in Ballenberg, today RavensteinRavenstein-Places:*Ravenstein, Germany in the district Neckar-Odenwald, Baden-Württemberg*Ravenstein, Netherlands in Oss, North Brabant-People:*Johann von Ravenstein a Lieutenant in World War I and Lieutenant general in the Wehrmacht during World War II...
; d. 1795), composerComposerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and presumably a pupil of Ignaz HolzbauerIgnaz HolzbauerIgnaz Jakob Holzbauer was a composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, and a member of the Mannheim school. His aesthetic style is in line with that of the Sturm und Drang "movement" of German art and literature.Holzbauer was born in Vienna...
, was beginning in 1764 schoolmaster and organist in Dirmstein. - Helmut Ried (b. 1936 in Ludwigshafen am RheinLudwigshafen am RheinLudwigshafen am Rhein is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Ludwigshafen is located on the Rhine opposite Mannheim. Together with Mannheim, Heidelberg and the surrounding region, it forms the Rhine Neckar Area....
), painter, lives in Dirmstein. - Wolfgang Wilhelm von Rießmann, Baden-Durlach court adviser and owner of the Koeth-Wanscheidsches Schloss, distinguished himself by becoming the main sponsor for the decoration of the Protestant part of Saint Lawrence’s Church. The municipality has dedicated Hofrat-Rießmann-Straße to him.
- Erwin Spuler (b. 1906 in AugsburgAugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
; d. 1964 in Cros-de-CagnesCagnes-sur-MerCagnes-sur-Mer is a commune of the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.-Geography:It is the largest suburb of the city of Nice and lies to the west-southwest of it, about from the center.-History:...
[in the South of France, while travelling]), painter, ceramic artist, draughtsman, grafic artist, lived for several years in his youth in Dirmstein, where his mother came from. - Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (1674–1744), Baron, Caspar Lerch IV’s great-uncle, had the Sturmfedersches Schloss, which was named after his family, expanded, and had the Michelstor built.
Further reading
- Walter Landin: Wenn erst Gras wächst, Erzählungen. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Landau 1985
- Albert H. Keil: „Freunde nennen mich Stani“, Reportage. In: Landkreis Bad Dürkheim (Hrsg.): Heimatjahrbuch 1996. Verlag H. Englram, Haßloch 1995, ISBN 3-926775-13-0
- Marie-Christine Werner: Der englische Flieger – Der Mord an Cyril William Sibley. Sendung des Südwestrundfunks in MainzMainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
am 10. Februar 2001, 21:22 Uhr; Typoskript - Isolde Stauder: Wo das Dorf zu Ende geht, Eine authentische Geschichte. Sommer Druck und Verlag, Grünstadt 2004
- Michael Martin (Hrsg.): Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger, Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein. Selbstverlag der Stiftung zur Förderung der pfälzischen Geschichtsforschung, Neustadt an der Weinstraße 2005, ISBN 3-9808304-6-2
- Georg Peter Karn, Ulrike Weber: Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Kulturdenkmäler in Rheinland-Pfalz. Band 13.2: Kreis Bad Dürkheim. Stadt Grünstadt, Verbandsgemeinden Freinsheim, Grünstadt-Land, Hettenleidelheim. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2006, ISBN 978-3-88462-215-5
- Walter Landin: Anton Kocher und der englische Flieger. In: Mörderische Pfalz. Verlag Wellhöfer, Mannheim 2008
- Gemeinde Dirmstein (Hrsg.), Albert H. Keil (Redaktion): „Dirmstein erinnert sich“. Tage des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Dirmstein 2009 (Publikation als PDF)