Heppenheim
Encyclopedia
Heppenheim is the seat of Bergstraße district in Hesse
, Germany, lying on the Bergstraße on the edge of the Odenwald
.
Starkenburg (castle). Defining for the townscape, besides the castle, is St. Peter, the “Cathedral of the Bergstraße” as the big Catholic church is known locally; it was consecrated on 1 August 1904, and is not a bishop’s seat. Heppenheim lies centrally on Bundesstraße
n 3 and 460, and Autobahn A 5
/A 67, almost halfway between Heidelberg
and Darmstadt
, in southern Hesse on the boundary with Baden-Württemberg
, and is Hesse’s southernmost district seat.
The town’s official designation is “Heppenheim an der Bergstraße”. In the local South Hessian dialect, the town is also called Hepprum.
“Bergstraße” is not only the name given the road running from Darmstadt to Heidelberg on the western edge of the Odenwald and eastern edge of the Rhine rift (now Bundesstraße 3), but also one given the landscape along the road. It stands out with its unusually mild and sunny climate in which trees blossom especially early.
In the area around the outlying centre of Ober-Laudenbach is a boundary oddity unique in Hesse: just there within the town’s municipal area are two enclaves belonging to Baden-Württemberg, within one of which is a further enclave belonging to Hesse.
, in the northeast on the community of Lautertal and the town of Lindenfels
, in the east on the communities of Fürth, Rimbach, Mörlenbach
and Birkenau
, in the south on the community of Laudenbach (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
, Baden-Württemberg
), in the southwest on the towns of Viernheim
and Lampertheim
and in the west on the town of Lorsch
.
domain. In 773, this area became one of Charlemagne
’s donations to the Lorsch Abbey
, and to protect it, the castle (Starkenburg) was built above it in 1065; in 1066 it successfully resisted a siege by the Adalbert of Hamburg
, Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The Imperial
Abbey held the rank of principality, and Heppenheim developed over time into the territory’s administrative and economic hub, although it lost its importance with the Abbey’s downfall in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1229, Emperor Friedrich II
put the Starkenburg under the administration of the Archbishops of Electoral Mainz
, doing likewise with the Lorsch Abbey along with Heppenheim in 1232. But for an interruption from 1461 to 1623 when the fief was pledged to Electoral Palatinate, Heppenheim remained an Electoral Mainz holding right up until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803. Then it became Hessian, first part of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
, and since 1948 it has been part of the Bundesland
of Hesse.
Heppenheim has had town rights since at least 1318, and market rights, it is believed, already by the early 9th century. From 1265 (possibly earlier) until 1803, Heppenheim was the seat of the Electoral Mainz Amt (Oberamt) of Starkenburg. Once it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt, the Amt was abolished. Heppenheim was thereafter first the seat of a (much smaller) Amt, and then, as of 1821 the seat of the Heppenheim Administrative Region (Landratsbezirk). As of 1832 it was the seat of the Heppenheim district. Since then, it was between 1848 and 1852 the seat of the Regierungsbezirk
of Heppenheim, and has been since 1938 the seat of the Bergstraße district
, to which were assigned not only the old Heppenheim district, but also great parts of the likewise abolished Bensheim district, with the parts of the Worms district on the Rhine’s right bank being added after the Second World War.
In both 1369 and 1693 (in the latter case owing to the devastation wrought by the French in the Nine Years' War), Heppenheim was almost utterly destroyed in town fires. The town came through both world wars unscathed, aside from slight damage when the Americans
marched in in March 1945.
Heppenheim suffered severely in the Thirty Years' War
(1618–48); the Starkenburg was overwhelmed by Spanish troops in 1621, and by the Swedes
in 1630. The Plague killed about 80% of the population in 1635 (almost 100% in the outlying countryside), and the town was sacked by the Poles
in 1636 and again in 1645 by the French.
The Heppenheim Conference (Heppenheimer Tagung), a meeting of leading liberals on 10 October 1847 in the Halber Mond (“Half Moon”) Hotel, was a prelude to the German Revolution
in 1848 and 1849. Given this historical connection, the Free Democratic Party
(FDP, Freie Demokratische Partei) was founded on 11 December 1948 in Heppenheim.
There were Jews living in Heppenheim by the Middle Ages
. The town was part of the Archbishopric of Mainz from 1232 to 1803 and there were repeated ecclesiastical measures undertaken to persecute Jews. Jewish life in the town was wiped out during the persecution that accompanied the Plague in 1348 and 1349. The modern community was founded in the 17th century. About 1900, there were some 40 Jewish families, with 200 to 300 people living in town. That figure fell to 113 people by 1933, a result of migration and emigration.
Martin Buber
, Zionist
and honorary professor of religious sciences at the University of Frankfurt am Main, is the best known Jewish son of Heppenheim. In February 1938, he left the country and emigrated with his family to Jerusalem. On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht
, Buber's house was looted and his 3,000-volume library was destroyed. In May 1939, there were still 37 Jews in Heppenheim, but in September 1942, the last few Jewish residents were deported. The former synagogue’s location, now a memorial, has stone marking the perimeter of the synagogue destroyed in 1938. A plaque bears the inscription, Hier stand die 1900 erbaute und 1938 zerstörte Synagoge. (“Site of the synagogue, built in 1900 and destroyed in 1938.”). An additional plaque with the title Im Gedenken an die Ermordeten (“In memory of the murdered”) lists the names of 29 former Heppenheim Jews. The psychiatric institution in Heppenheim took part in the Nazi “euthanasia” crimes, and was also a “collection facility,” where Jewish psychiatric patients were sent on the way to the gas chamber
.
Beginning on 28 May 1942, a subcamp of Dachau/Natzweiler-Struthof
concentration camp was located in Heppenheim. It was closed on 18 December 1942, but opened again as Heppenheim subcamp on 15 June 1943. It was permanently closed on 27 March 1945 when the town was occupied by American troops at the end of the fighting in Hesse. The prisoners in Heppenheim were put to work in the SS
institution Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Ernährung und Verpflegung.
Heppenheim was the 2004 host of Hessentag, an annual event in Hesse, featuring the different regions of the state.
The sharp rise between 1971 and 1975 has to do with the amalgamations in the course of administrative reform in Hesse in 1972.
was founded in Heppenheim.
on 10 April 2005, Gerhard Herbert (SPD) defeated the incumbent Ulrich Obermayr (CDU). Herbert took over the mayor’s office on 1 September 2005 from Obermayr, who had held it for 18 years.
The following mayors have held office in Heppenheim since the municipal constitution was promulgated in 1821:
1Dr. Schiffers switched to the NSDAP to keep abreast of changes, but he soon ran into difficulties with the Party and thereby lost his office in 1937.
2Dr. Köhler was in the mayor’s office only until 1941 when he was called into the Wehrmacht. His duties were performed by deputy Franz Keil during his absence. Despite party membership, Dr. Köhler is said not to have been a fanatical Nazi, but rather a respectable mayor.
3Dr. König and Jakob Fleck were each provisionally appointed mayor after the Americans marched in in 1945.
Since 1924, beginning with Karl Schiffers’s time in office, the office of mayor has been executed by a professional mayor.
Among all the mayors, Wilhelm Höhn, Karl Schiffers and Wilhelm Metzendorf stand out as ones who decisively promoted the town.
are charge
d with the Lion of Hesse above the parting, striped as always horizontally in silver and red, but in these arrms also holding a golden-hilted, silver-bladed sword in his right paw and wearing a golden crown. The part of the field below the parting at the fess line is itself parted per pale (vertically down the middle). On the dexter side (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) is the Lorsch Abbey’s cross pattée fitchy (that is, cross with “flattened” ends to three of the arms, and a point on the bottom one) on a silver field. On the sinister side (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) is the silver six-spoked wheel of Mainz on a red field.
The arms, bestowed on the town on 30 August 1913 by Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
, symbolize the town’s historical allegiances (a Lorsch holding from 773 to 1232, a Mainz holding until 1803, and after that Hessian), but without any reference to the town’s time with Electoral Palatinate, which from 1461 to 1623 held it from Mainz as a pledge. The old, historical coat of arms showed a sitting bishop, symbolizing Electoral Mainz’s hegemony.
/Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino, South Tyrol
, Italy since 18 September 1971 Le Chesnay
, Yvelines
, France since 12 April 1975 West Bend
, Wisconsin
, USA since 19 June 2004
Every year, Heppenheim exchanges students with West Bend, and with Le Chesnay, which sends its students of German to Heppenheim, which sends Le Chesnay its students of French.
, there has been a sponsorship arrangement with regard to Luby
, formerly Schönbach in the district of Eger in the Sudetenland
(now in the Czech Republic).
Heppenheim has (as at 30 April 2008) 408 cultural monuments that are under monumental protection. The following is a selection:
Heppenheim has at its disposal a largely preserved, self-contained, picturesque Old Town core with an area of about 8 ha, within which are found all the sights mentioned in the foregoing list. The Old Town is characterized by timber-frame houses dating back mostly to the reconstruction in the early decades after Heppenheim’s destruction in the Nine Years' War in 1693, which was done over the remains of the medieval
town. Of the town wall, however, which was largely knocked down in the early 19th century, little remains.
, an amateur observatory on the Schlossberg near the Starkenburg, has made a name for itself nationally in minor planet
research.
and together with various neighbouring towns and communities (among others Bensheim, Lorsch and Lautertal) is identified as a middle centre in the South Hesse Regional Plan.
The town has in its favour good economic data – even in relation to the Rhine Neckar Area’s and the Starkenburg Region’s as a whole – above-average employment figures and an especially high proportion of graduates in the resident population’s above-average buying power.
Heppenheim is linked by several buslines to Jugenheim, Grasellenbach and Mörlenbach. Heppenheim railway station is found in the town centre, and the two-track Main-Neckar Railway links the town to Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main.
3, near the state boundary, the mineral spring business Odenwald-Quelle has been running since 1932.
wine region. With some 450 ha
of vineyards it was originally Germany’s smallest self-contained wine region (but since Reunification
it has been the second smallest). Two hundred and thirty hectares alone – roughly half – can be found in Heppenheim and its two outlying centres of Hambach and Erbach. They are marketed under the banner name “Heppenheimer Schlossberg” with the individual designations Centgericht, Stemmler, Steinkopf, Schlossberg, Maiberg and Eckweg (until 2004 there was also Guldenzoll).
Owing to the especially favourable climate and good soil conditions on the Bergstraße, mainly dry and dryish wines of very high quality are made here. The main variety is Riesling
. The biggest producer is the Bergsträßer Winzer eG coöperative, with its seat in Heppenheim, which also owns Hesse’s biggest wine cellar. The Bergsträßer Staatsweingut (“state wine estate”) with its seat in Bensheim maintains the Hessischer Rebmuttergarten (“Vineyard Mother Garden”), formerly a vineyard cultivation facility whose goal was to fight the phylloxera
, introduced from North America but only cropping up on the Bergstraße itself in 2005, by grafting phylloxera-proof hybrid rootstocks onto vines of nobler varieties. At the Bergsträßer Winzer eG begins the 6.9 km-long Erlebnispfad Wein und Stein (“Wine and Stone Adventure Path”), which runs through the vineyards with 30 stations.
, Germany's oldest comprehensive school
, is in the Ober-Hambach section of Heppenheim. It was founded by Edith and Paul Geheeb in 1910 and was based on their concept of holistic education reform, integrating work of the head and hand. Today, the boarding school
has up to 250 pupils.
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Germany, lying on the Bergstraße on the edge of the Odenwald
Odenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
.
Location
The town is romantically set on gentle vineyards below the 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...
Starkenburg (castle). Defining for the townscape, besides the castle, is St. Peter, the “Cathedral of the Bergstraße” as the big Catholic church is known locally; it was consecrated on 1 August 1904, and is not a bishop’s seat. Heppenheim lies centrally on Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
n 3 and 460, and Autobahn A 5
Bundesautobahn 5
is a 445 km long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the Hattenbach triangle intersection is a 445 km (277 mi) long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the Hattenbach triangle intersection is a 445 km (277 mi) long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the...
/A 67, almost halfway between Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
and Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, in southern Hesse on the boundary with Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, and is Hesse’s southernmost district seat.
“Bergstraße” is not only the name given the road running from Darmstadt to Heidelberg on the western edge of the Odenwald and eastern edge of the Rhine rift (now Bundesstraße 3), but also one given the landscape along the road. It stands out with its unusually mild and sunny climate in which trees blossom especially early.
In the area around the outlying centre of Ober-Laudenbach is a boundary oddity unique in Hesse: just there within the town’s municipal area are two enclaves belonging to Baden-Württemberg, within one of which is a further enclave belonging to Hesse.
Neighbouring communities
Heppenheim borders in the north on the town of BensheimBensheim
Bensheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany. Bensheim lies on the Bergstraße and at the edge of the Odenwald mountains while at the same time having an open view over the Rhine plain...
, in the northeast on the community of Lautertal and the town of Lindenfels
Lindenfels
Lindenfels is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.- Location :The climatic spa, also known as the “Pearl of the Odenwald”, lies in the Odenwald in southern Hesse and is nestled in a mountain landscape with a great deal of woodland....
, in the east on the communities of Fürth, Rimbach, Mörlenbach
Mörlenbach
Mörlenbach is a community in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany.-Location:The community lies in the Odenwald some 25 km north of Heidelberg and about 30 km northeast of Mannheim, as well as lying 8 km southeast of Heppenheim...
and 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:...
, in the south on the community of Laudenbach (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
Rhein-Neckar-Kreis is a district in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Bergstraße, Odenwaldkreis, Neckar-Odenwald, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, district-free Speyer, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, and district-free Mannheim and Heidelberg.-History:The district was created in...
, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
), in the southwest on the towns of Viernheim
Viernheim
Viernheim is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim’s outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany...
and Lampertheim
Lampertheim
Lampertheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Lampertheim lies in the southwest corner of Hesse in the Rhine rift at the Biedensand Conservation Area and borders on Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate...
and in the west on the town of Lorsch
Lorsch
Lorsch is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, 60 km south of Frankfurt. Lorsch is well known for the Lorsch Abbey, which has been named a World Heritage Site.-Location:...
.
Constituent communities
Besides the main town, Heppenheim has the outlying centres of Unter-Hambach, Ober-Hambach, Kirschhausen (with Igelsbach), Erbach, Sonderbach, Wald-Erlenbach, Mittershausen-Scheuerberg, and Ober-Laudenbach, which were in the course of municipal reform in Hesse amalgamated with Heppenheim with effect from 1 January 1972.History
In 755, Heppenheim had its first documentary mention. At that time, the town was the hub of a FrankishFranks
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...
domain. In 773, this area became one of 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 donations to the Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch Abbey
The Abbey of Lorsch is a former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany...
, and to protect it, the castle (Starkenburg) was built above it in 1065; in 1066 it successfully resisted a siege by the Adalbert of Hamburg
Adalbert of Hamburg
This article is about Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen. For other uses, see Adalbert .Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen was a German prelate, who was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043 until his death...
, Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The Imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
Abbey held the rank of principality, and Heppenheim developed over time into the territory’s administrative and economic hub, although it lost its importance with the Abbey’s downfall in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1229, Emperor Friedrich II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
put the Starkenburg under the administration of the Archbishops of 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...
, doing likewise with the Lorsch Abbey along with Heppenheim in 1232. But for an interruption from 1461 to 1623 when the fief was pledged to Electoral Palatinate, Heppenheim remained an Electoral Mainz holding right up until the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803. Then it became Hessian, first part of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse....
, and since 1948 it has been part of the Bundesland
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 Hesse.
Heppenheim has had town rights since at least 1318, and market rights, it is believed, already by the early 9th century. From 1265 (possibly earlier) until 1803, Heppenheim was the seat of the Electoral Mainz Amt (Oberamt) of Starkenburg. Once it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt, the Amt was abolished. Heppenheim was thereafter first the seat of a (much smaller) Amt, and then, as of 1821 the seat of the Heppenheim Administrative Region (Landratsbezirk). As of 1832 it was the seat of the Heppenheim district. Since then, it was between 1848 and 1852 the seat of the Regierungsbezirk
Regierungsbezirk
In Germany, a Government District, in German: Regierungsbezirk – is a subdivision of certain federal states .They are above the Kreise, Landkreise, and kreisfreie Städte...
of Heppenheim, and has been since 1938 the seat of the Bergstraße district
Kreis Bergstraße
Bergstraße is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Groß-Gerau, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Odenwaldkreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the urban district Mannheim, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, and the urban district of Worms...
, to which were assigned not only the old Heppenheim district, but also great parts of the likewise abolished Bensheim district, with the parts of the Worms district on the Rhine’s right bank being added after the Second World War.
In both 1369 and 1693 (in the latter case owing to the devastation wrought by the French in the Nine Years' War), Heppenheim was almost utterly destroyed in town fires. The town came through both world wars unscathed, aside from slight damage when the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
marched in in March 1945.
Heppenheim suffered severely 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....
(1618–48); the Starkenburg was overwhelmed by Spanish troops in 1621, and by the Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in 1630. The Plague killed about 80% of the population in 1635 (almost 100% in the outlying countryside), and the town was sacked by the Poles
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...
in 1636 and again in 1645 by the French.
The Heppenheim Conference (Heppenheimer Tagung), a meeting of leading liberals on 10 October 1847 in the Halber Mond (“Half Moon”) Hotel, was a prelude to the German Revolution
Revolutions of 1848 in the German states
The Revolutions of 1848 in the German states, also called the March Revolution – part of the Revolutions of 1848 that broke out in many countries of Europe – were a series of loosely coordinated protests and rebellions in the states of the German Confederation, including the Austrian Empire...
in 1848 and 1849. Given this historical connection, the Free Democratic Party
Free Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
(FDP, Freie Demokratische Partei) was founded on 11 December 1948 in Heppenheim.
There were Jews living in Heppenheim by 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...
. The town was part of the Archbishopric of Mainz from 1232 to 1803 and there were repeated ecclesiastical measures undertaken to persecute Jews. Jewish life in the town was wiped out during the persecution that accompanied the Plague in 1348 and 1349. The modern community was founded in the 17th century. About 1900, there were some 40 Jewish families, with 200 to 300 people living in town. That figure fell to 113 people by 1933, a result of migration and emigration.
Martin Buber
Martin Buber
Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and honorary professor of religious sciences at the University of Frankfurt am Main, is the best known Jewish son of Heppenheim. In February 1938, he left the country and emigrated with his family to Jerusalem. On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, Buber's house was looted and his 3,000-volume library was destroyed. In May 1939, there were still 37 Jews in Heppenheim, but in September 1942, the last few Jewish residents were deported. The former synagogue’s location, now a memorial, has stone marking the perimeter of the synagogue destroyed in 1938. A plaque bears the inscription, Hier stand die 1900 erbaute und 1938 zerstörte Synagoge. (“Site of the synagogue, built in 1900 and destroyed in 1938.”). An additional plaque with the title Im Gedenken an die Ermordeten (“In memory of the murdered”) lists the names of 29 former Heppenheim Jews. The psychiatric institution in Heppenheim took part in the Nazi “euthanasia” crimes, and was also a “collection facility,” where Jewish psychiatric patients were sent on the way to the gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
.
Beginning on 28 May 1942, a subcamp of Dachau/Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof
Natzweiler-Struthof was a German concentration camp located in the Vosges Mountains close to the Alsatian village of Natzwiller in France, and the town of Schirmeck, about 50 km south west from the city of Strasbourg....
concentration camp was located in Heppenheim. It was closed on 18 December 1942, but opened again as Heppenheim subcamp on 15 June 1943. It was permanently closed on 27 March 1945 when the town was occupied by American troops at the end of the fighting in Hesse. The prisoners in Heppenheim were put to work in the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
institution Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Ernährung und Verpflegung.
Heppenheim was the 2004 host of Hessentag, an annual event in Hesse, featuring the different regions of the state.
Population development
| Year | Inhabitants |
|---|---|
| 1666 | 1,066 |
| 1806 | 3,190 |
| 1861 | 4,599 |
| 1900 | 5,779 |
| 1925 | 7,693 |
| 1939 | 9,350 |
| 1950 | 13,111 |
| 1971 | 17,411 |
| 1975 | 23,793 |
| 2003 | 25,457 |
The sharp rise between 1971 and 1975 has to do with the amalgamations in the course of administrative reform in Hesse in 1972.
Politics
In 1948 the Free Democratic PartyFree Democratic Party (Germany)
The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
was founded in Heppenheim.
Town council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 |
Seats 2006 |
% 2001 |
Seats 2001 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 39.7 | 15 | 48.3 | 18 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
35.9 | 13 | 32.0 | 12 |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government... |
7.5 | 3 | 6.1 | 2 |
| GLH | Grüne Liste Heppenheim | 7.0 | 3 | 7.1 | 3 |
| FWHPINI | Freie Wähler Heppenheim PINI | 5.9 | 2 | 6.5 | 2 |
| WASG | Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative | 4.0 | 1 | – | – |
| Total | 100.0 | 37 | 100.0 | 37 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 48.6 | 53.0 | |||
Mayors
In the runoff electionTwo-round system
The two-round system is a voting system used to elect a single winner where the voter casts a single vote for their chosen candidate...
on 10 April 2005, Gerhard Herbert (SPD) defeated the incumbent Ulrich Obermayr (CDU). Herbert took over the mayor’s office on 1 September 2005 from Obermayr, who had held it for 18 years.
The following mayors have held office in Heppenheim since the municipal constitution was promulgated in 1821:
| Time in office | Mayor |
|---|---|
| 1821–1842 | Gottfried Piersch |
| 1843–1852 | Georg Neff |
| 1853–1863 | Gottfried Piersch |
| 1864–1869 | Georg Hamel |
| 1870–1874 | Johann Friedrich Weis |
| 1874–1887 | Lorenz Keßler |
| 1887–1910 | Wilhelm Höhn |
| 1910–1913 | Ludwig Lorenz Kohl |
| 1914–1924 | Anton Philipp Wiegand |
| 1925–1937 | Dr. Karl Schiffers (Zentrum/NSDAP)1 |
| 1937–1945 | Dr. Walter Köhler (NSDAP)2 |
| 1945 | Dr. Gustav König3 |
| 1945–1946 | Jakob Fleck (SPD)3 |
| 1946–1948 | Karl Hagen (CDU) |
| 1948–1954 | Otto Holzamer (FDP) |
| 1954–1973 | Wilhelm Metzendorf (independent) |
| 1973–1987 | Hans Kunz (CDU) |
| 1987–2005 | Ulrich Obermayr (CDU) |
| 2005–2011 | Gerhard Herbert (SPD) |
| since 1 September 2011 | Rainer Burelbach (CDU) |
1Dr. Schiffers switched to the NSDAP to keep abreast of changes, but he soon ran into difficulties with the Party and thereby lost his office in 1937.
2Dr. Köhler was in the mayor’s office only until 1941 when he was called into the Wehrmacht. His duties were performed by deputy Franz Keil during his absence. Despite party membership, Dr. Köhler is said not to have been a fanatical Nazi, but rather a respectable mayor.
3Dr. König and Jakob Fleck were each provisionally appointed mayor after the Americans marched in in 1945.
Since 1924, beginning with Karl Schiffers’s time in office, the office of mayor has been executed by a professional mayor.
Among all the mayors, Wilhelm Höhn, Karl Schiffers and Wilhelm Metzendorf stand out as ones who decisively promoted the town.
Coat of arms
The town’s armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
are charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
d with the Lion of Hesse above the parting, striped as always horizontally in silver and red, but in these arrms also holding a golden-hilted, silver-bladed sword in his right paw and wearing a golden crown. The part of the field below the parting at the fess line is itself parted per pale (vertically down the middle). On the dexter side (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) is the Lorsch Abbey’s cross pattée fitchy (that is, cross with “flattened” ends to three of the arms, and a point on the bottom one) on a silver field. On the sinister side (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) is the silver six-spoked wheel of Mainz on a red field.
The arms, bestowed on the town on 30 August 1913 by Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse
Ernest Louis Charles Albert William , was the last Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine from 1892 until 1918...
, symbolize the town’s historical allegiances (a Lorsch holding from 773 to 1232, a Mainz holding until 1803, and after that Hessian), but without any reference to the town’s time with Electoral Palatinate, which from 1461 to 1623 held it from Mainz as a pledge. The old, historical coat of arms showed a sitting bishop, symbolizing Electoral Mainz’s hegemony.
Town partnerships
Partnership arrangements exist with the following towns: Kaltern an der WeinstraßeKaltern an der Weinstraße
Kaltern an der Weinstraße is a municipality in South Tyrol, in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is located about 40 km north of the city of Trento and about 12 km southwest of the city of Bolzano....
/Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino, South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
, Italy since 18 September 1971 Le Chesnay
Le Chesnay
Le Chesnay is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the center-History:...
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
, France since 12 April 1975 West Bend
West Bend, Wisconsin
West Bend is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Wisconsin, United States in southeastern Wisconsin. The population was estimated to be 29,894 in 2008...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, USA since 19 June 2004
Every year, Heppenheim exchanges students with West Bend, and with Le Chesnay, which sends its students of German to Heppenheim, which sends Le Chesnay its students of French.
Sponsorship
Since 1956, together with the town of BubenreuthBubenreuth
Bubenreuth is a municipality in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt, in Bavaria, Germany....
, there has been a sponsorship arrangement with regard to Luby
Luby (Cheb District)
Luby is a town in the Czech Republic....
, formerly Schönbach in the district of Eger in the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
(now in the Czech Republic).
Sightseeing
- Marketplace with Town Hall, timber-frameTimber framingTimber 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...
houses and Marienbrunnen (fountain) - Starkenburg (castle) on the Schlossberg (mountain)
- Catholic Parish Church of St. Peter (“Cathedral of the Bergstraße”)
- Electoral Mainz Amtshof
- Former power station built in 1899 in Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
style - Open-air stage, built in 1955 on the Kappel, on the occasion of the 1,200-year jubilee
Heppenheim has at its disposal a largely preserved, self-contained, picturesque Old Town core with an area of about 8 ha, within which are found all the sights mentioned in the foregoing list. The Old Town is characterized by timber-frame houses dating back mostly to the reconstruction in the early decades after Heppenheim’s destruction in the Nine Years' War in 1693, which was done over the remains of the medieval
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...
town. Of the town wall, however, which was largely knocked down in the early 19th century, little remains.
Regular events
Important yearly events are:- Heppenheimer Festspiele (festival, daily from mid to late July to early September)
- Bergsträßer Weinmarkt (wine market, late June)
- Internationales Weinmarkt-Stockschießturnier (international wine market and ice stock sportIce stock sportIce stock sport is a winter sport, somewhat similar to curling. In German, it is known as Eisstockschießen. Competitors slide ice stocks over an ice surface, aiming for a target, or to cover the longest distance. Ice stocks have a gliding surface, to which a stick is attached...
tournament, second weekend during wine market) - Internationales Straßentheater beim Festival Gassensensationen (Street theatre, early July)
- Fastnachtsumzug (CarnivalCarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
parade) - Ferienspiele für Kinder von Vorschule bis 16 Jahren (children’s summer holiday games, preschool to 16)
- Kirchweih (church consecration festival, first weekend in August)
- Regular events by Forum Kultur
Starkenburg Observatory
The Starkenburg-SternwarteStarkenburg Observatory
Starkenburg-Sternwarte is an astronomical observatory in Heppenheim, Germany. It was formed in 1970, and currently has about 150 members.The instruments at the observatory consists of:* 0.45m newtonian* 0.30m Meade LX200...
, an amateur observatory on the Schlossberg near the Starkenburg, has made a name for itself nationally in minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
research.
Museums and cultural institutions
- Museum für Stadtgeschichte und Volkskunde (town history and folklore)
- Konservatorium
- “Theater im Hof” of the “Festspiele Heppenheim GmbH” (organizer of the Heppenheimer Festspiele)
- Kreisvolkshochschule (district folk high schoolFolk high schoolFolk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...
) - Haus am Maiberg (political and social training centre of the Diocese of Mainz)
Clubs in Heppenheim
- FC Starkenburgia 1900 e. V. Heppenheim, one of Germany’s oldest football clubs, founded in the same year as the German Football Federation
- FC Sportfreunde Heppenheim e. V.
- REC Heppenheim e. V.; ice stock sport
- HC VfL Heppenheim; team handballTeam handballHandball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
- WSV-BL; water sports
- BC Heppenheim (Badminton Club Heppenheim)
- Verkehrs- und Heimatverein e.V.; transport and local history
- SV Erbach; sport club
Economy and infrastructure
Heppenheim is part of the economically strong Rhine Neckar AreaRhine Neckar Area
The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region , often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the North and the Stuttgart Region to the South-East.Rhine-Neckar has a population of some 2.4 million...
and together with various neighbouring towns and communities (among others Bensheim, Lorsch and Lautertal) is identified as a middle centre in the South Hesse Regional Plan.
The town has in its favour good economic data – even in relation to the Rhine Neckar Area’s and the Starkenburg Region’s as a whole – above-average employment figures and an especially high proportion of graduates in the resident population’s above-average buying power.
Transport
Industry
In 1899, one of Europe’s first power stations was built in Heppenheim. Two steam engines furnished electricity beginning in 1900 for Heppenheim and Bensheim. After the Second World War, many industrial operations settled in town, from such fields as machine building (KLN Ultraschall AG), mining (Granitwerke Röhrig in the outlying centre of Sonderbach), textile and food production (among others, a great Langnese-Iglo GmbHproduction plant) and the analytical industry (WICOM). This array of businesses was also later filled out by further ones from the fields of logistics, marketing and services. On BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
3, near the state boundary, the mineral spring business Odenwald-Quelle has been running since 1932.
Winegrowing
Heppenheim is a winegrowing town belonging to the Hessische BergstraßeHessische Bergstraße
The Hessische Bergstraße is a defined region for wine in Germany located in the state of Hesse among the northern and western slopes of the Odenwald mountain chain. With only of vineyards it is the smallest of the 13 German quality wine regions...
wine region. With some 450 ha
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
of vineyards it was originally Germany’s smallest self-contained wine region (but since Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
it has been the second smallest). Two hundred and thirty hectares alone – roughly half – can be found in Heppenheim and its two outlying centres of Hambach and Erbach. They are marketed under the banner name “Heppenheimer Schlossberg” with the individual designations Centgericht, Stemmler, Steinkopf, Schlossberg, Maiberg and Eckweg (until 2004 there was also Guldenzoll).
Owing to the especially favourable climate and good soil conditions on the Bergstraße, mainly dry and dryish wines of very high quality are made here. The main variety is Riesling
Riesling
Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region of Germany. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally...
. The biggest producer is the Bergsträßer Winzer eG coöperative, with its seat in Heppenheim, which also owns Hesse’s biggest wine cellar. The Bergsträßer Staatsweingut (“state wine estate”) with its seat in Bensheim maintains the Hessischer Rebmuttergarten (“Vineyard Mother Garden”), formerly a vineyard cultivation facility whose goal was to fight the phylloxera
Phylloxera
Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...
, introduced from North America but only cropping up on the Bergstraße itself in 2005, by grafting phylloxera-proof hybrid rootstocks onto vines of nobler varieties. At the Bergsträßer Winzer eG begins the 6.9 km-long Erlebnispfad Wein und Stein (“Wine and Stone Adventure Path”), which runs through the vineyards with 30 stations.
Education
The OdenwaldschuleOdenwaldschule
Odenwaldschule, is a German school located in Heppenheim in the Odenwald. Founded in 1910, it is Germany's oldest landschulheim, a private boarding school located in a rural setting. Edith and Paul Geheeb established it using their concept of progressive education, which integrated the work of the...
, Germany's oldest comprehensive school
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
, is in the Ober-Hambach section of Heppenheim. It was founded by Edith and Paul Geheeb in 1910 and was based on their concept of holistic education reform, integrating work of the head and hand. Today, the boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
has up to 250 pupils.
Honorary citizens
- Judith Buber-Agassi, Jewish religious philosopher Martin BuberMartin BuberMartin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
’s granddaughter - Wilhelm Metzendorf, Mayor from 1954 to 1973
- Dr. Ludwig Oberndorf, editor-in-chief from 1947 to 1961 of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herold (certificate: 17 June 1963)
- Dr. Otto Ferrari, Sanitätsrat (a title of honour given a doctor) (certificate: 20 February 1947)
- Elise Fillauer, for her 100th birthday (certificate: 7 September 1954)
- Ferdinand Feuerbach, American. For hearty donations to his hometown in a time of greatest need, in 1948 (certificate: 25 August 1955)
Sons and daughters of the town
- Horst AntesHorst AntesHorst Antes is a German artist and sculptor.After his Abitur, he studied from 1957 to 1959 under the important woodcutter HAP Grieshaber at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe.In 1959, the artist's work was honoured with two prizes, art prize of the city of...
, painter (b. 1936) - Marianne Cope, nun, beatified (b. 1838)
- Jürgen W. FalterJürgen W. FalterJürgen W. Falter is a German political scientist. His research interests include political extremism and xenophobia.Born in Heppenheim, Hesse, Falter enrolled with a political science and modern history major at the University of Heidelberg in 1963 before finishing his studies with a Diplom at the...
, political scientist (b. 1944) - Jürgen GrohJürgen GrohJürgen Groh is a retired German football player. He spent 12 seasons in the Bundesliga with Hamburger SV and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He represented Germany in two friendlies.-Honours:* European Cup winner: 1982–83...
, footballer (b. 1956) - Franz LambertFranz LambertFranz Lambert is a German composer and organist. He is an avid Hammond organ player, however he is more noted in later years for playing the Wersi range of electronic organs...
, musician, composer and organist (b. 1948) - Erwin SchwabErwin SchwabErwin Schwab is a German amateur astronomer who works at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and has discovered and co-discovered many asteroids....
, discoverer of numerous minor planets (b.1964) - Sebastian VettelSebastian VettelSebastian Vettel is a German Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Red Bull Racing. He is the current World Champion, having won the championship in and ....
, 2010 and 2011 Formula One World Champion (b. 1987)
Other well known citizens
- Johannes Adam, Reformed clergyman about 1613, took a stand against witch trials and torture
- Martin BuberMartin BuberMartin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, Jewish religious philosopher, lived in Heppenheim from 1916 to 1938 - Justus von LiebigJustus von LiebigJustus von Liebig was a German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and worked on the organization of organic chemistry. As a professor, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the...
, chemist, 10-month teaching stint in Heppenheim (1818/19) - Ulrich Sahm, journalist, Abitur 1968
- Hans Richter, actor, founder of the Festspiele Heppenheim
- Margaretha Berg, American actress Grace KellyGrace KellyGrace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
’s grandmother - Hansjörg Holzamer, former Federal trainer for Athletics, who trained, among others, Hans BaumgartnerHans BaumgartnerHans Baumgartner is a retired West German long jumper.He won the silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich with a jump of 8.18 meters. Baumgartner again took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics, but did not win a medal...
and Florian SchwarthoffFlorian SchwarthoffFlorian Schwarthoff is a former German hurdler best known for winning a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Schwarthoff had his best season in 1995 when set a new German record of 13.05 sec. in Bremen...
, author of the book Der Flug der Libelle (“The Dragonfly’s Flight”) - Vala Lamberger, artist, born in 1877 in Mainz, died in 1953 in Heppenheim
- Heinrich Winter, Heimatforscher (“homeland researcher”), born 4 October 1898, died 17 January 1964
- Hans BaumgartnerHans BaumgartnerHans Baumgartner is a retired West German long jumper.He won the silver medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Munich with a jump of 8.18 meters. Baumgartner again took part in the 1976 Summer Olympics, but did not win a medal...
, silver medallist in longjump at the 1972 Olympics in Munich - Bernhard TraresBernhard TraresBernhard Trares is a retired German professional footballer, who played mainly as a central defender.-Playing career:...
, former Fußball-BundesligaFußball-BundesligaThe Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...
player and trainer
Further reading
- Wilhelm Metzendorf: Geschichte und Geschicke der Heppenheimer Juden. Verlag Reinhard Diehl, Lorsch 1982. ISBN 3-922781-67-5
- Wilhelm Metzendorf: Heppenheimer Lexikon. Verlag Laurissa, Lorsch 1986. ISBN 3-922781-69-1
- Verkehrs- und Heimatverein Heppenheim e.V. (publisher): 1250 Jahre Heppenheim. ABT Mediengruppe, Weinheim 2005. ISBN 3-000-160-93-0
- Leonhard Rettig: Die Erwähnung Heppenheims und der Starkenburg im Lorscher Codex. Magistrat der Kreisstadt Heppenheim an der Bergstraße (publisher), Heppenheim 1970.