Buttenheim is a

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

in the Upper Franconian district of

Bamberg Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...

and lies in the Regnitz Valley between

and

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Buttenheim is Levi Strauss’s birthplace: the future inventor of

blue jeans Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with copper-riveted pockets which were invented by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and paten ...

emigrated from Germany to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1847.

Constituent communities

The market community of Buttenheim has the following constituent communities: * Buttenheim, the namesake community *

Dreuschendorf Dreuschendorf is a small village located in Bavaria, Germany. It is in Upper Franconia, in the Bamberg district. Dreuschendorf is a constituent community of Buttenheim. In 2007, the village had a population of 327.Frankendorf * Gunzendorf *

Hochstall Hochstall is a small village located in Bavaria, Germany. It is in Upper Franconia, in the Bamberg district. Hochstall is a constituent community of Buttenheim Buttenheim is a market town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg (district), B ...

Kälberberg Kälberberg is a constituent community of Buttenheim, in the district of Bamberg. It is in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany. It is a small village with about 30 inhabitants. Kälberberg is about 1000 meters west of Tiefenhöchst ...

* Ketschendorf bei Buttenheim *

Senftenberg Senftenberg ( wen, Zły Komorow) is a town in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany, capital of the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district. Geography Senftenberg is located in the southwest of the historic Lower Lusatia region at the border with Saxony. It ...

* Stackendorf *

Tiefenhöchstadt Tiefenhöchstadt is a small village located in Bavaria, Germany. It is in Upper Franconia, in the Bamberg district. Tiefenhöchstadt is a constituent community of Buttenheim. In 2007, the village had a population of 90. Geography A stream called ...

History

Buttenheim – “Botho’s Home” – had its first documentary mention in 1017. It lies on the north-south Regnitz Valley transport axis and was probably founded about 550. During a river journey from Forchheim to

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

in 793,

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

ordered churches to be built in the Regnitz area to convert the

Slavs Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...

. It is assumed that one of Charlemagne's 14 “Slavic Churches”, which were built about 800 in the Radenzgau (a county roughly corresponding to today's Upper Franconia), stood in Buttenheim. Until the mid-17th century, Buttenheim was the most important place between Bamberg and Forchheim. Through Buttenheim ran the old trade road from

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

to Bamberg/

Hallstadt Hallstadt is a town in the Upper Franconian district of Bamberg on the left bank of the Main, 4 km north of Bamberg. Geography Hallstadt borders in the south on the city of Bamberg and in the west on the Main. There are two constituent comm ...

and on to

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

. Furthermore, the Saxon Road, another old connection, this one east-west, ran from the Steigerwald forest by way of Hirschaid to “

Franconian Switzerland Franconian Switzerland (german: Fränkische Schweiz) is an upland in Upper Franconia, Bavaria, Germany and a popular tourist retreat. Located between the River Pegnitz in the east and the south, the River Regnitz in the west and the River Main i ...

”. Parts of that road are still used, having been incorporated into the modern road ''Staatsstraße'' 2260. The Lords of Schlüsselberg, who had their first documentary mention in 1304, were resident in Buttenheim and until 1762 held an estate, the court and lordship over the village. These, however, later belonged to the Barons of Seefried. By the Act of the

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria an ...

in 1806, the community passed to

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Population development

Within municipal limits, 2,619 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 2,786 in 1987 and 3,092 in 2000. In early 2005 it was 3,442.

Politics

The community's politics is dominated by a coalition that calls itself the ''CSU /Zum Wohl der Gemeinde/Neue Wählergemeinschaft'' and furnishes the mayor. The

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

and FDP are not represented on municipal council, but instead various other voter communities are, such as ''Bürgerblock Gunzendorf'', ''WG Dreuschendorf'', ''WG Ketschendorf'' or ''WG Frankendorf''. In 1999, municipal tax revenue amounted to €1,896,000 of which business taxes (net) amounted to €789,000.

Coat of arms

Buttenheim's arms might heraldically be described thus: Party per pale, dexter party per fess argent and sable, in argent a boar spear gules per pale, sinister in argent the chief gules, thereunder a knife azure per pale. The black and silver half of the shield is a reduced form of the arms borne by the old Lords of Stiebar, who were resident in Buttenheim. Their arms were parted and out of the parting line sprouted a ''Schweinsfeder'' (“swine’s feather” – a spearlike war weapon somewhat similar to the boar spear mentioned in the blazon, which itself in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

has a similar name: ''Saufeder'', or “sow’s feather”) with a golden bend. The

tinctures A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

gules and argent (red and silver) are the old Bamberg High Monastery's colours. This monastery had holdings in the community. The blue knife is an attribute of Saint Bartholomew, the patron saint of the Buttenheim church.

Culture and sightseeing

Breweries

In Buttenheim there are currently two breweries, St-Georgen-Bräu and Löwenbräu; the outlying centres of Gunzendorf and Dreuschendorf each have one brewery. Buttenheim Pfarrkirche

Parish church in Buttenheim

The ''Pfarrkirche St. Bartholomäus'' in Buttenheim was likely among the 14 “Slavic Churches” built in the Radenzgau by the Bishop of Würzburg at Charlemagne's behest.

Schloss Buttenheim

In Buttenheim, two castles were once to be found: the ''Oberes Schloss'' (“Upper Castle”, also called ''Deichselburg'') and the ''Unteres Schloss'' (“Lower Castle”). Both were owned by the Imperial Barons of Stiebar, who further owned three others in Aisch, Pretzfeld and Ermreuth. The Stiebar noble family can be traced back to 1253 and belonged to the former knighthood of the canton of Gebürg, which was under direct Imperial authority, and which stretched among Kronach, Nuremberg, Buttenheim and

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or ''Bratwürste''. Geography Location Ku ...

. This noble family put many abbesses,

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

and capitulars in the High Monasteries of Bamberg and Würzburg. Between 1377 and 1560, at least fourteen members of this family were capitulars in the High Monasteries of Bamberg and Würzburg. The ''Oberes Schloss'' (square with wall and four corner towers) was burnt down during the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

in 1525 and never built again. The castle that still stands today in Buttenheim is the so-called ''Unteres Schloss'', which originally served the von Lichtenstein family as a bower, was taken over by the Stiebars, along with other pieces of real estate in Buttenheim in 1438. The Stiebars had at their disposal in Buttenheim at that time jurisdiction over life and death, having inherited this from the von Schlüsselbergs. Under the Stiebars’ ownership, the Lower Castle was burnt down several times: in 1492 in “bloody feud between Albrecht Stiebar the Younger and Prince-Bishop Heinrich III of Bamberg”, in 1525 by “rebellious people from out of town” and once again in 1561 through a castle servant's carelessness when he went to bed, forgetting to put the light in his room out. Hans Joachim von Stiebar, who in 1574 was elected to the First Knightly Council (''Erster Ritterrat'') of the canton of Gebürg for the Bamberg and Forchheim area, thereby enjoying great prestige, repaired the damage. The Stiebars embraced

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

quite early on, as witnessed by, among other things, the appointment of an Evangelical preacher at Schloss Buttenheim, which was mentioned in a document as early as 1591. In 1630, the Stiebars were stripped of their holdings at Imperial behest for having taken part in the Protestant Union’s struggles, putting Buttenheim, and thereby the Lower Castle, under Prince Georg Ludwig von Schwarzenberg’s ownership. The Stiebars, however, got their belongings back in 1648 under the

Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia (german: Westfälischer Friede, ) is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster. They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought pea ...

. In 1741, the chapel, which still stands today, was built next to the rubble of the castle, which had been destroyed by war. The castle lords, however, had to live in a side building. In 1762, with Imperial Baron Johann Georg Christoph Wilhelm von Stiebar’s death, this noble family’s main

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

n line died out. Their fiefdom went to the High Monasteries of Bamberg and Würzburg, and also partly back to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. Ownership stayed with the heirs, the widow and the daughters. In 1761 the ''Kammerjunker'' (variously translated as “page” or “chamberlain”) Wilhelm Christian Friedrich von Seefried wed Elisabeth Sofie von Stiebar, whom he had come to know while he was a student of jurisprudence in

Erlangen Erlangen (; East Franconian German, East Franconian: ''Erlang'', Bavarian language, Bavarian: ''Erlanga'') is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is the seat of the administrative district Erlangen-Höchstadt (former administrative d ...

. A few years later, they moved to Buttenheim. Since the Lower Castle “...had been destroyed or wiped out by fire (down to) the mediaeval, massive, square tower topped with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

...”, Wilhelm Christian Friedrich von Seefried built the current

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

castle in 1774 onto the one tower that still stood, and in which is still found the Evangelical

castle chapel Castle chapels (german: Burgkapellen) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle. They fulfilled the religious requirements of the castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the ...

. Wilhelm Christian saw to it that the Evangelical castle parish was newly confirmed. In 1790, Wilhelm Christian, who had set himself all his life to strengthening the Evangelical faith, was raised to the Imperial Barony. In 1814, a “Protestant castle parish” from the “Castle Chaplaincy” was consecrated, and on 27 August 1826, the castle chapel was consecrated as a communal House of God. Even today, the castle chapel still serves the Buttenheim Evangelical parish, which since that time has been put in the care of the parish of Hirschaid, as a House of God. Since Wilhelm Christian's time, the castle has been occupied almost uninterruptedly by his descendants.

Curacy Church in Gunzendorf

From the Baroque ''Kuratie-Kirche St. Nikolaus'' begins the ''Georgiritt'' (roughly “George’s Ride”) to the Senftenberg, a nearby mountain.

Senftenberg with St. George’s Chapel

The Baroque community chapel of St. George on the Senftenberg is the destination of the ''Georgiritt''.

"Golden Village" of Frankendorf with climbing park

Frankendorf, a village of timber-frame houses, became the winner of the contest ''Unser Dorf soll schöner werden'' ("Our village ought to become lovelier") in 1981. The district evaluation jury came to this conclusion in 1980:

The almost fully preserved timber-frame ensemble with its 31 one-floor farmers houses under memorial protection is without peer in Upper Franconia.

It goes on to say:

The townsfolk's community spirit and readiness to sacrifice were always exemplary for the district.

About the landscape, this was stated:

Orchards green the place in exemplary fashion; the valley is covered with groves of trees. The transition to free landscape is fluid.

Levi-Strauss-Museum

Levi Strauss, the inventor of blue jeans was born in Buttenheim on 26 February 1829 as Löb Strauß. The house where he was born is now a museum. Built in 1687, the timber-frame structure was expanded in 1733 to house two families. Among the permanent exhibits can be seen the Strauss family's emigration documents and the publication of their emigration in the official journal.

Museums

The ''Kleines Haus der Kunst'' (“Little House of Art”) shows paintings, graphics, sculpture and photographs by Eastern European artists.

Regular events

The tradition-rich Georgiritt takes place on 23 April (Saint George's Day) and leads from Gunzendorf up onto the Senftenberg. This is a kind of pilgrimage to

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...

traditionally done on horseback.

Economy and infrastructure

According to official statistics, there were 334 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls working in producing businesses in 1998, and in trade and transport 267. In other areas, 104 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls were employed, and 1,139 such workers worked from home. In processing businesses there were no businesses, and in construction three. Furthermore, in 1999, there were 75 agricultural operations with a working area of 1 661 ha, of which 1 226 ha was cropland and 429 ha was meadowland.

Transport

Buttenheim lies right on

Bundesautobahn 73 is a motorway in Germany. It connects Suhl to Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, an ...

with its own interchange and on the Bamberg–Nuremberg railway line with its own station.

Telecommunications

The 142-meter-tall

Deutsche Telekom AG Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...

transmission tower, built in 1973 (), stands on the Sommeranger Berg.

Education

In 1999, the following institutions existed in Buttenheim: *150

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

places with 135 children *

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

with 15 teachers and 322 pupils

Famous people

* Levi Strauss (1829–1902), German-American industrialist, company founder and inventor of blue jeans; born and grew up in Butterheim

References

External links

Markt ButtenheimKuratie-Kirche ''St. Nikolaus'' GunzendorfGeburtshaus Levi Strauss Museum Jeans & KultLevi-Strauss-Museum
{{Authority control Bamberg (district)