Rieneck
Encyclopedia
Rieneck is a town in the Main-Spessart district
in the Regierungsbezirk
of Lower Franconia
(Unterfranken) in Bavaria
, Germany
.
(range) and the east side of the Spessart
(range) on the lower reaches of the River Sinn, 12 km northeast of Lohr am Main, and 39 km northwest of Würzburg
.
The town has only the Gemarkung (traditional rural cadastral area) of Rieneck.
Voit von Rieneck, which itself also later earned local importance. As the castle was being converted into a knightly castle in 1168, Count Ludwig of Rieneck acquired the County in the Spessart. The comital family, whose seat was at Lohr am Main
, died out with Count Philipp III on 3 September 1559. Rieneck ended up in 1673 in the hands of the Counts of Nostitz. The Amt of the County of Rieneck, which the Counts of Nostitz had sold in 1803 to the Counts of Colloredo Mansfeld, was in favour of the Principality of Aschaffenburg
mediatized in 1806 and passed with this state in 1814 (by this time it had become a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt) to Bavaria. In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the current community came into being with the Gemeindeedikt (“Municipal Edict”) of 1818.
The town’s Jewish
community, which had existed for many years, came to an end with Kristallnacht
(9 November 1938). Behind the house at Schloßberg 10 at the Warriors’ Monument, a plaque recalls the persecution and murder of the town’s Jewish inhabitants in the Holocaust
.
Rieneck Castle
, the town’s landmark, changed hands many times over the years. Since 1959, it has housed a modern Jugendburg (a youth meeting and training centre) run by the Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder, a Christian Guiding
and Scouting
organization. The castle’s sponsor is the Bildungs- und Erholungswerk Burg Rieneck (BEW e.V., “Rieneck Castle Educational and Recreational Works”). Worth seeing is the extraordinary Romanesque
chapel
built into the 8 m-thick walls of the Dicker Turm (“Thick Tower”) in a cloverleaf shape. This special shape of chapel is unique in Continental Europe
. Another is found only in the British Isles
in a similar defensive tower.
. The election also made for a certain interest nationally (through, among others, radio station Bayern 3’s coverage) after Edith Reuter, owing to a mistake in a formal announcement by Wolfgang Küber, was left as the only candidate on the ballot. Only after the voters had been given the possibility to enter a candidate who specifically suited them and only when a substantial number of them had decided on Küber could he force a runoff.
Wolfgang Küber stood in this election for the Rienecker Junge Wähler Union (RJWU). Since he is also a member of Die Grünen, however, he is also Bavaria’s seventh serving “Green” mayor.
Municipal taxes in 1999 amounted to €849,000 (converted), of which net business taxes amounted to €97,000.
The town’s arms
might be described thus: Quartered, first and fourth Or three chevrons gules, second and third barry of ten of the same, the whole surmounted at the fess point by a wheel spoked of six argent.
Town seals are only known as far back as the 19th century. No official approval for the arms is known. However, the arms show the two historically most important lordly families’ arms. The two quarters with horizontal golden and red stripes are both based on the arms formerly borne by the Counts of Rieneck, and the other two, with the chevrons, are based on the those formerly borne by the Counts of Hanau. The wheel is the Wheel of Mainz
. The tincture
s were laid down in writing in 1898.
(2002: 33,500 overnight stays). The local economic structure is made up mainly of producing businesses, trade and service provision. The greater part of Rieneck’s workers commute to the nearby regional centres of Lohr am Main (Bosch Rexroth
AG), Karlstadt
and Würzburg
.
and is surrounded by a charming natural landscape with mixed broadleaf forests (Spessart oak). The sweeping Sinn valley floodplain (Sinntalaue), which in the late 1990s was made a nature conservation area, offers rare animals, like the beaver
, and protected plants, like the snake’s head
, a home.
stop is the railway station at Würzburg, 50 km away, and the nearest airport is 100 km away, at Frankfurt
.
belonging to SOS-Kinderdorf Deutschland, the organization’s German branch. Just under 160 handicapped people (as at October 2007) live there in families who care for them, and they work in their own workshops, market gardens, dairies and bakeries. The products, which are made to Demeter
guidelines, can be bought in the Village’s own farm shop. The 140 ha of cropfields, meadows and woodland around the Village are inviting to those who like extensive walks, which can end at the café. Although with the inhabitants of Hohenroth there are close social and ecclesiastical ties with Rieneck, Hohenroth is officially a Stadtteil of Gemünden am Main
.
Main-Spessart
Main-Spessart is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Bad Kissingen, Schweinfurt and Würzburg, the state of Baden-Württemberg , the districts of Miltenberg and Aschaffenburg, and the state of Hesse .-History:The district was established in 1972 by merging the former...
in 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 Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia
Lower Franconia is one of the three administrative regions of Franconia in Bavaria , Germany ....
(Unterfranken) in Bavaria
Bavaria
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...
, 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...
.
Location
Rieneck lies in the Würzburg Region between the southern foothills of the RhönRhön Mountains
The Rhön Mountains are a group of low mountains in central Germany, located around the border area where the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Thuringia come together. These mountains, which are at the extreme southeast end of the East Hesse Highlands , are partly a result of ancient volcanic activity...
(range) and the east side of the Spessart
Spessart
The Spessart is a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse, Germany. It is bordered on three sides by the Main River. The two most important towns located at the foot of the Spessart are Aschaffenburg and Würzburg....
(range) on the lower reaches of the River Sinn, 12 km northeast of Lohr am Main, and 39 km northwest of Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
.
The town has only the Gemarkung (traditional rural cadastral area) of Rieneck.
History
In 790, Rieneck had its first documentary mention. The town’s current name comes from its former lords, the Counts of Rieneck, who themselves had taken the name from a Middle Rhenish noble family that had died out. In the mid 12th century a castle was built on the banks of the Sinn. With this arose a settlement, which as of 7 June 1311 was described as an “oppidum” (town). Among the Counts’ descendants is found the family of MinisterialesMinisterialis
Ministerialis ; a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses...
Voit von Rieneck, which itself also later earned local importance. As the castle was being converted into a knightly castle in 1168, Count Ludwig of Rieneck acquired the County in the Spessart. The comital family, whose seat was at Lohr am Main
Lohr
Lohr am Main is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and the seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft of Lohr am Main.- Location :The town lies on the Main in the Spessart about halfway between Würzburg and...
, died out with Count Philipp III on 3 September 1559. Rieneck ended up in 1673 in the hands of the Counts of Nostitz. The Amt of the County of Rieneck, which the Counts of Nostitz had sold in 1803 to the Counts of Colloredo Mansfeld, was in favour of the Principality of Aschaffenburg
Principality of Aschaffenburg
The Principality of Aschaffenburg was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the Confederation of the Rhine from 1803–10. Its capital was Aschaffenburg....
mediatized in 1806 and passed with this state in 1814 (by this time it had become a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt) to Bavaria. In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the current community came into being with the Gemeindeedikt (“Municipal Edict”) of 1818.
The town’s Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
community, which had existed for many years, came to an end with 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...
(9 November 1938). Behind the house at Schloßberg 10 at the Warriors’ Monument, a plaque recalls the persecution and murder of the town’s Jewish inhabitants in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Rieneck Castle
Rieneck Castle
Rieneck Castle is a castle built by Ludwig I, Count of Loon and Rieneck, in the year 1151. The city of Rieneck is situated about 80 km east of Frankfurt. The castle now serves as a Scouting facility and is owned by the German Christian Guide and Scout Association, VCP...
, the town’s landmark, changed hands many times over the years. Since 1959, it has housed a modern Jugendburg (a youth meeting and training centre) run by the Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder, a Christian Guiding
Girl Guides
A Guide, Girl Guide or Girl Scout is a member of a section of some Guiding organisations who is between the ages of 10 and 14. Age limits are different in each organisation. It is the female-centred equivalent of the Scouts. The term Girl Scout is used in the United States and several East Asian...
and Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
organization. The castle’s sponsor is the Bildungs- und Erholungswerk Burg Rieneck (BEW e.V., “Rieneck Castle Educational and Recreational Works”). Worth seeing is the extraordinary Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
built into the 8 m-thick walls of the Dicker Turm (“Thick Tower”) in a cloverleaf shape. This special shape of chapel is unique in Continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
. Another is found only in the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
in a similar defensive tower.
Population development
Within town limits, 2,315 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 2,096 in 1987 and in 2000 2,127.Mayors
The mayor has been, since 1 October 2006, Wolfgang Küber (RJWU). He managed to beat his opponent Edith Reuter of the Bürger Forum Rieneck (BFR) in a 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...
. The election also made for a certain interest nationally (through, among others, radio station Bayern 3’s coverage) after Edith Reuter, owing to a mistake in a formal announcement by Wolfgang Küber, was left as the only candidate on the ballot. Only after the voters had been given the possibility to enter a candidate who specifically suited them and only when a substantial number of them had decided on Küber could he force a runoff.
Wolfgang Küber stood in this election for the Rienecker Junge Wähler Union (RJWU). Since he is also a member of Die Grünen, however, he is also Bavaria’s seventh serving “Green” mayor.
| Time in office | Mayor |
|---|---|
| 1986–2003 | Walter Höfling |
| 2003 – 30 September 2006 | Waldemar Horn (died in office) |
| 1 October 2006 – present | Wolfgang Küber |
Municipal taxes in 1999 amounted to €849,000 (converted), of which net business taxes amounted to €97,000.
Coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might be described thus: Quartered, first and fourth Or three chevrons gules, second and third barry of ten of the same, the whole surmounted at the fess point by a wheel spoked of six argent.
Town seals are only known as far back as the 19th century. No official approval for the arms is known. However, the arms show the two historically most important lordly families’ arms. The two quarters with horizontal golden and red stripes are both based on the arms formerly borne by the Counts of Rieneck, and the other two, with the chevrons, are based on the those formerly borne by the Counts of Hanau. The wheel is the Wheel of Mainz
Wheel of Mainz
thumb|150px|version until 1992thumb|150px|version from 1992 - 2008thumb|150px|version from 2008The Wheel of Mainz or Mainzer Rad, in German, was the coat of arms of the Archbishopric of Mainz and thus also of the Electorate of Mainz , in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It consists of a silver wheel...
. The 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 were laid down in writing in 1898.
Economy and infrastructure
Rieneck’s economic potential lies in forestry (more than 2 000 ha of woodland) and above all in tourismTourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
(2002: 33,500 overnight stays). The local economic structure is made up mainly of producing businesses, trade and service provision. The greater part of Rieneck’s workers commute to the nearby regional centres of Lohr am Main (Bosch Rexroth
Bosch Rexroth
Bosch Rexroth is an engineering firm based in Lohr am Main in Germany. It is the result of a merger on 1 May 2001 between Mannesmann Rexroth AG and the Automation Technology Business Unit of Robert Bosch GmbH, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH. Rexroth in turn consisted of a...
AG), Karlstadt
Karlstadt
Karlstadt can refer to places:* Karlstadt am Main, Germany* Karlovac, Croatia * Karlstad, Swedenor to:* Andreas Karlstadt, a contemporary of Martin Luther during the Reformation....
and Würzburg
Würzburg
Würzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located at the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
.
Tourism
Rieneck lies at the foot of Rieneck CastleRieneck Castle
Rieneck Castle is a castle built by Ludwig I, Count of Loon and Rieneck, in the year 1151. The city of Rieneck is situated about 80 km east of Frankfurt. The castle now serves as a Scouting facility and is owned by the German Christian Guide and Scout Association, VCP...
and is surrounded by a charming natural landscape with mixed broadleaf forests (Spessart oak). The sweeping Sinn valley floodplain (Sinntalaue), which in the late 1990s was made a nature conservation area, offers rare animals, like the beaver
European Beaver
The Eurasian beaver or European beaver is a species of beaver, which was once widespread in Eurasia, where it was hunted to near extinction both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties...
, and protected plants, like the snake’s head
Fritillaria meleagris
Fritillaria meleagris is a fritillary in the family Liliaceae. Its common names include Snake's Head Fritillary, Snake's Head , Checkered Daffodil, Chess Flower, Frog-cup, Guinea-hen Flower, Leper Lily , Frog-cup, Lazarus bell or, in northern...
, a home.
Transport
Transport links to and from Rieneck are to be had through the railway (Flieden–Gemünden line) and the Main-Spessart local bus service. The nearest InterCityExpressInterCityExpress
The Intercity-Express or ICE is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany and neighbouring countries. It is the highest service category offered by DB Fernverkehr and is the flagship of Deutsche Bahn...
stop is the railway station at Würzburg, 50 km away, and the nearest airport is 100 km away, at Frankfurt
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport may refer to:Airports of Frankfurt, Germany:*Frankfurt Airport , the largest airport in Germany*Frankfurt Egelsbach Airport, a general aviation airport*Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , a converted U.S...
.
Social services
On Rieneck’s outskirts, on the former “Hohenroth” estate, has been found since 1978 the SOS-Dorfgemeinschaft Hohenroth, an SOS Children’s VillageSOS Children's Villages
SOS Children's Villages is an independent, non-governmental international development organisation which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria...
belonging to SOS-Kinderdorf Deutschland, the organization’s German branch. Just under 160 handicapped people (as at October 2007) live there in families who care for them, and they work in their own workshops, market gardens, dairies and bakeries. The products, which are made to Demeter
Demeter International
Demeter International is the largest certification organization for biodynamic agriculture, and is one of three predominant organic certifiers. Its name is a reference to Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and fertility. Demeter Biodynamic Certification is used in over 50 countries to verify that...
guidelines, can be bought in the Village’s own farm shop. The 140 ha of cropfields, meadows and woodland around the Village are inviting to those who like extensive walks, which can end at the café. Although with the inhabitants of Hohenroth there are close social and ecclesiastical ties with Rieneck, Hohenroth is officially a Stadtteil of Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main
Gemünden am Main is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg.- Location :...
.