Wattenheim
Encyclopedia
Wattenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
. Until 1969 it also belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal.
, Neuleiningen
, Altleiningen
, Carlsberg
, an exclave of Neuleiningen, Bad Dürkheim
, Fischbach
, Enkenbach-Alsenborn
, Ramsen
and Eisenberg
.
had already established some kind of settlement in what is now Wattenheim. Wattenheim’s first documentary mention in 793 in the Lorsch codex
is said to be disputed. It is believed that the village had its first documentary mention in 1221. In the Middle Ages
, Wattenheim belonged to the House of Leiningen. In 1695, it was sold to the Baron of Blumencron.
and 35.9% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Per pale gules a cross Or and azure a Tatar vested of the first wearing a fur cap of the same garnished of the second and boots sable, his sinister hand on his hip, and in his dexter hand a sabre argent and garnished of the second, the point to chief.
The arms were approved in 1958 by the Mainz Ministry of the Interior and go back to a court seal from 1733 in which the two fields were transposed. The cross is drawn from the arms once borne by the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg, and the Tatar from those borne by the family Blumencron.
The Protestant
church’s history reaches all the way back to the first Crusades
. Standing in the village centre is the Catholic church, a Gothic Revival
hall church
from the years 1892-1893.
6. At the Wattenheim turnoff are an Autobahn police station
and the Autobahn maintenance facility.
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...
.
Location
Wattenheim lies on a cone-shaped hill with a gentle slope. This village in the Leiningerland – the name for the lands once held by the Counts of Leiningen – is a starting point for long or short hikes. Wattenheim belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of HettenleidelheimHettenleidelheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Hettenleidelheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Bad Dürkheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Hettenleidelheim....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
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...
. Until 1969 it also belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the northeast, these are HettenleidelheimHettenleidelheim
Hettenleidelheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Neuleiningen
Neuleiningen
Neuleiningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, 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 :...
, Carlsberg
Carlsberg, Germany
Carlsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, an exclave of Neuleiningen, Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim
Bad Dürkheim is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Fischbach
Fischbach, Kaiserslautern
Fischbach is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....
, Enkenbach-Alsenborn
Enkenbach-Alsenborn
Enkenbach-Alsenborn is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the northern edge of the Palatinate forest, approx. 10 km north-east of Kaiserslautern...
, Ramsen
Ramsen, Rhineland-Palatinate
Ramsen is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
and Eisenberg
Eisenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Eisenberg is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of the Palatinate forest, approx. 20 km south-west of Worms....
.
History
Various finds lead to the conclusion that 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....
had already established some kind of settlement in what is now Wattenheim. Wattenheim’s first documentary mention in 793 in the Lorsch codex
Lorsch codex
The Lorsch Codex is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. It consists of 460 pages in large format containing more than 3800 entries...
is said to be disputed. It is believed that the village had its first documentary mention in 1221. 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...
, Wattenheim belonged to the House of Leiningen. In 1695, it was sold to the Baron of Blumencron.
Religion
In 2007, 42.5% of the inhabitants were EvangelicalEvangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
and 35.9% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
CDU | 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... |
Total | |
| 2009 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 16 seats |
| 2004 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 16 seats |
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Von Rot und Blau gespalten, rechts ein durchgehendes goldenes Kreuz, links ein rotbekleideter Tatar mit goldenbordierter roter Pelzmütze und schwarzen Stiefeln, die Linke in die Hüfte gestützt, in der Rechten ein silbernes Krummschwert mit goldenem Griff schwingend.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 pale gules a cross Or and azure a Tatar vested of the first wearing a fur cap of the same garnished of the second and boots sable, his sinister hand on his hip, and in his dexter hand a sabre argent and garnished of the second, the point to chief.
The arms were approved in 1958 by the Mainz Ministry of the Interior and go back to a court seal from 1733 in which the two fields were transposed. The cross is drawn from the arms once borne by the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg, and the Tatar from those borne by the family Blumencron.
Culture and sightseeing
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...
church’s history reaches all the way back to the first Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. Standing in the village centre is the Catholic church, a Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
hall church
Hall church
A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....
from the years 1892-1893.
Transport
Wattenheim is linked to the long-distance road network by BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
6. At the Wattenheim turnoff are an Autobahn police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
and the Autobahn maintenance facility.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Barbara Pfister (1867–1909), mysticMysticismMysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and stigmaticStigmataStigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, such as the hands and feet... - Daniel Meininger (1876–1964), publisherPublishingPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
- Karl Dieter (1903–1956), Nazi functionary
- Mario Basler, national soccer player