![2006 Dirmstein-Schlossplatz-Suedwest-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/2006_Dirmstein-Schlossplatz-Suedwest-2.jpg)
Dirmstein ( pfl, Dermschdää) is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
belonging to a ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhineland- ...
'', a kind of collective municipality – in the
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.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...
district in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
,
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 ...
. With its roughly 3,000 inhabitants, it is the third largest ''Ortsgemeinde'' in the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland, whose seat is in
Grünstadt
Grünstadt ( pfl, Grinnschdadt) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless th ...
, although that town is itself not in the ''Verbandsgemeinde''. Dirmstein lies in the outermost northeast of the district and the northwest of the
Rhine-Neckar
The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), 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 ...
urban agglomeration.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had its first documentary mention, although this was undated. The first dated documentary mention came in 842. Although it never belonged to the
Counts of Leiningen, it is today counted as part of the ''Leiningerland'', the name used for those noblemen's old domain. The historical and well restored village centre has been raised to a monumental zone by the monument protection authority.
[Georg Peter Karn, Ulrike Weber: ''Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Kulturdenkmäler in Rheinland-Pfalz''] Of the 58 protected objects,
[Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz]
''Nachrichtliches Verzeichnis der Kulturdenkmäler: Kreis Bad Dürkheim''
/ref> 48 lie within this zone. With few exceptions, they go back, like the village's foremost landmark, the 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 ...
simultaneous church ''St. Laurentius'' (Saint Lawrence's), to the municipality's heyday in the 18th century, towards the end of which Dirmstein apparently held town rights for two decades, although some sources are disputed.[Michael Martin in: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 157]
Geography
Location
Dirmstein lies at an elevation of 108 m above sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
on the Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...
in the northeast Palatinate. Twelve kilometres to the east (as the crow flies
__NOTOC__
The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliv ...
) flows the Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
, while 9 km to the west begins the Palatinate Forest and 2 km to the north runs the boundary with the neighbouring region, Rhenish Hesse
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...
.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, these are Offstein
Offstein in the Wonnegau is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
The municipality lies in Rheni ...
and Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
-Heppenheim (both in Rhenish Hesse) to the north, Heuchelheim
Heuchelheim (official name: ''Heuchelheim a. d. Lahn'') is a municipality in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most popu ...
( ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Heßheim) in the east and Gerolsheim, Laumersheim and Obersülzen (all in the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland) in the south, southwest and west. Heppenheim lies 5 km away, Offstein 4 km and each of the others 2 km.
Towards the eastern end alongside the Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
, the municipal area is quite even, rising to considerable hills in the west. These belong to the Palatinate wine region
Palatinate (german: Pfalz) is a German wine-growing region (''Weinbaugebiet'') in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''). With un ...
between the plain and the low mountain range, which here, until 1969, was known as ''Unterhaardt'', but which now bears the name ''Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße''.
Streams
The municipal area is crossed from west to east by the river Eckbach, which flows into the municipality in the southwest, from Laumersheim. In the 1920s, it was redirected from the village centre to the southern outskirts. Until this time, there had been a flat, pondlike broadening of the brook's bed south of the church on the ''Affenstein'' (a street), next to the village thoroughfare in which carriages could be cleansed of sand and loam buildup. As a new riverbed (going straight ahead instead of left), the old channel left over from the old "Upper Village’s" mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
fortification dyke seemed an obvious choice. Between the "Upper" and "Lower Village", today's Eckbach meets its old course again coming from the right.
The in itself unimposing river Floßbach, coming from Obersülzen and also known locally as the ''Landgraben'', which flows round Dirmstein in the north and on the village's eastern outskirts empties into the Eckbach from the left, was in the latter half of the 20th century straightened. The loss of flooding areas thus wrought, together with the increased speed of flow, brought about problems in times of heavy rainfall for the ''Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße'' ("North of Heuchelheim Road") construction site opened in the 1980s. In 1994 came widespread flooding for the first time, in which basements were filled with water up to their upper edges. In 2006, various versions of a plan to create flooding areas were brought forth for discussion. In 2008, Grünstadt-Land ''Verbandsgemeinde'' council decided to renaturate the brook over a stretch of a good kilometre. As an ecologically worthy measure, it was subsidized by the state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
to a share of 90% of the cost within the framework of its ''Aktion Blau''.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Lösung für Hochwasser in Lokalbahnstraße gefunden'', 26. April 2008] In October 2008, the conversion began, in which former cropland along the brook, which through ''Flurbereinigung
is the German language, German word best translated as ''land consolidation''. Unlike the land reforms carried out in the socialist countries of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany, the idea of was not so much to distribute large quasi-feu ...
'' had been transferred to the municipality's ownership, was removed so that the brook could broaden out to the sides in heavy rains. To reduce the speed of flow, meanders were built back in and, of particular importance, two almost right-angled bends were smoothed out. With the planting of typical local trees and shrubs, the renaturation was completed in early 2009.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''An einem Strang'', 28. Mai 2009]
Geology
The most important event in the eastern Palatinate's geological
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...
development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the surrounding low mountains of the Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...
, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary
The Paleogene ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning o ...
and which has lasted until today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
. Before the mountains spread an area that was over time scored by the Eckbach and Floßbach. During the ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
s, there were gradual solifluction
Solifluction is a collective name for gradual processes in which a mass moves down a slope ("mass wasting") related to freeze-thaw activity. This is the standard modern meaning of solifluction, which differs from the original meaning given to it ...
on the slopes and also wind abrasion in great parts of Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake a floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
with embanked or eroded terraces formed. In colder, drier phases of the Würm glaciation
The Würm glaciation or Würm stage (german: Würm-Kaltzeit or ''Würm-Glazial'', colloquially often also ''Würmeiszeit'' or ''Würmzeit''; cf. ice age), usually referred to in the literature as the Würm (often spelled "Wurm"), was the last g ...
, loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
beds came into being through the influence of the wind, whereby the loess gathered mostly at faults and alee of small hollows. Later erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
created steep banks in the loess areas, which today can reach 6 m in height and are valuable biotope
A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term "habitat", which is more commonly used in English-speaking countrie ...
s.
The uppermost layer of deposits stems almost exclusively from the recent past. In lower-lying areas, the two brooks have washed the sediments downstream, with higher areas taking on new shapes more through weathering. The soils are overwhelmingly sandy and show to some extent loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
admixture, whose concentration varies. As elsewhere in the area, the odd deposit of quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
sand is found, which owing to its purity is subject to mining rights, thereby giving it priority over agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
. On these grounds, the local winemakers must now and then yield even highly valuable vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...
s to quartz sand stripmining by businesses from outside the municipality.
Climate
Given the prevailing southwest and west winds, Dirmstein's location alee of the Palatinate Forest means that the locality must make do with at most 500 mm of precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
yearly. Moreover, in weather out of the northwest, the massif of the Donnersberg
The Donnersberg ("thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate (german: Pfalz) region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the m ...
, lying 25 km away in the North Palatine Highland
The North Palatine Uplands (german: Nordpfälzer Bergland), sometimes shortened to Palatine Uplands (''Pfälzer Bergland''), is a low mountain range and List of landscapes in Rhineland-Palatinate, landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland- ...
and rising to 689 m, often likewise hinders any abundance of precipitation. Dirmstein falls into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 22% of the German Weather Service's weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 2.2 times what it is in January. Precipitation varies markedly by month.
Owing to the dearth of rain, the water table
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
T ...
lies more than 10 m underground. On the one hand, this makes artificial irrigation necessary for cropraising, but on the other hand it makes for ideal conditions for winegrowing
Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
. The uppermost – dry – layers of earth warm up more quickly, promoting sugar formation in the grapes, and the vines must root deeper to reach enough moisture, which is advantageous to the absorption of minerals.
Since 1936, one kilometre south of Dirmstein, the Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
A 6 (Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
–Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
) has run, building work on which began as early as 1932. Since it was raised onto an embankment with an average height over the flanking lands of 5 m in the latter half of the 20th century, it has been a conspicuous barrier running across the Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...
to the Palatinate Forest, pierced only by a few underpasses. Just how much the roadway influences the local climate and whether, for example, it can lead to the formation of lakes of cold air has never been systematically investigated.
History
Milestones
Chronicle
Celts, Romans and Germanic peoples
When the Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
overran the region just before the beginning of the Christian Era, settled here were, besides Celts
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
, also members of the Germanic tribe
This list of ancient Germanic peoples is an inventory of ancient Germanic cultures, tribal groupings and other alliances of Germanic tribes and civilisations in ancient times. The information comes from various ancient historical documents, beginn ...
of the Vangiones
The Vangiones appear first in history as an ancient Germanic tribe of unknown provenance. They threw in their lot with Ariovistus in his bid of 58 BC to invade Gaul through the Doubs river valley and lost to Julius Caesar in a battle probably near ...
. The Romans were removed late in their Empire's history, about 400, by another Germanic tribe, the Alamanni
The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes
*
*
*
on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...
, who were thronging into the area, although they themselves were dislodged from their new homeland just under a century later by the likewise Germanic Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
. Thus far, though, there is no evidence of any settlement at what is now Dirmstein in those days.
Frankish times
The area around the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach is known to have been settled beginning in the Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
. Three Frankish
Frankish may refer to:
* Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture
** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages
* Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany
* East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...
grave fields from the 6th century, on the village's northeast outskirts, have been found since 1954.[Joachim Kauppert, Melanie Lebschy: ''Das merowingerzeitliche Gräberfeld von Dirmstein aus anthropologischer Sicht''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 25–35] The last one to be found underwent archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
investigation in the 1980s. The finds that were recovered were taken to the ''Historisches Museum der Pfalz'' ("Historical Museum of the Palatinate") in Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...
. Some of the experts who dealt with the artefacts are even of the opinion that the burial grounds, at least in part, were already being used in Alamanni
The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes
*
*
*
on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...
c times, putting their beginnings as far back as the 5th century.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had already arisen as a Frankish settlement called ''Díramestein'', which was named in the Codex Edelini ("Edelin’s Codex") – also known as the Weißenburg Codex – without any exact date. The seed from which grew the village was what is now called the ''Oberdorf'' ("Upper Village"). The greatest likelihood is that this stood in the southwest, where later the "castle" was built on the Eckbach. Less likely is that the village grew from what is now the northwest entrance to the village, where, near the old customs house the hills give way to the plain, and where once flowed a stream southwards towards the Eckbach. It is certain, however, that the ''Niederdorf'' ("Lower Village") soon thereafter arose a few hundred metres to the east in the area where the Floßbach empties into the Eckbach.
The first time when the village was mentioned with a date was in the 9th century. Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) 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 ...
’s grandson, King of the Franks Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...
, and later also Emperor, who had just met with his half-brother Louis the German
Louis the German (c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany and Louis II of East Francia, was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the P ...
in nearby Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
, issued on 23 November 842 letters patent to the Archbishop of Vienne, Agilmar (tenure: 841–859), for landholdings in Aquitaine
Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...
and Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
''"in villa Theormsthein"'' or ''"Thiormsthein"''.
Emperor, bishop and local nobility
In the beginning, Dirmstein had Imperial immediacy
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular pri ...
, with the landlordship and jurisdiction therefore belonging directly to the King or Emperor. These rights were yielded on 4 April 1190 by Heinrich VI
Henry VI (German: ''Heinrich VI.''; November 1165 – 28 September 1197), a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sic ...
to the Bishop of Worms
The Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Electorate of the ...
Konrad II of Sternberg. With documents from the years 1332 and 1384, the episcopal privileges were confirmed and in 1405 even partly expanded. A forerunner building to an episcopal palace – described simply as a "house" – was witnessed beginning in 1240; the actual palace, which also served the bishop as a summer seat, was only witnessed for the first time in 1414.
For administration the bishop availed himself of the members of the local nobility who already lived in Dirmstein or who went to live there. Dirmstein noble families were only mentioned in documents beginning in the 12th century. The best known was the family Lerch, who played an important rôle not only in the village but also – owing to their widespread holdings – throughout southwest Germany from the late 13th to the late 17th century when their family name died out. Their name is chiselled in stone at several historic buildings in Dirmstein, as it is on the gateway arch into the ''Spitalhof'' ("infirmary yard") and on the wall at today’s ''Fechtschule'' (literally "swordfighting school", but it is a remodelled castle) at the ''Kellergarten''. After having married into the family in the mid-17th century, the family Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler came into the family Lerch’s inheritance.
Further noble families in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
were, among others, the families Nagel von Dirmstein, Von der Hauben and Affenstein. Beginning in the 15th century, the nobility’s representatives formed an area of joint rule, called a ''Ganerbschaft
A ''Ganerbschaft'' (plural: ''Ganerbschaften'' in German), according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (''Ganerben'') only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corresp ...
'', whose assemblies were held in a forerunner building to the ''St. Michael Apotheke'' built in 1535.
Condominium
From 1419 to 1705, Dirmstein belonged to two lords together; these were the Prince-Bishop of Worms and the Elector Palatine
The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...
. Why such a condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
came to be in 1411 and was fixed by a written accord on 4 March 1419 despite the episcopal rights having been expanded only in 1405 is something that sources do not answer. Bishop Johann II of Fleckenstein and Elector Ludwig III
Ludwig III (Ludwig Luitpold Josef Maria Aloys Alfried; 7 January 1845 – 18 October 1921) was the last King of Bavaria, reigning from 1913 to 1918. Initially he served in the Bavarian military as a lieutenant and went on to hold the rank of Oberl ...
shared all rights at and in Dirmstein, each getting half. It must have been in this time that the ''Kurpfälzisches Schloss'' ("Electoral Palatinate Castle") was built, which might well have been envisaged rather more as an administrative building. Little more than a century later, though, it had fallen into such disrepair due to war that it seems likely that it never underwent any repairs. Today, nobody even knows where the building stood.
The condominium proved itself throughout the time it was in force; differences were always amicably settled. The most important success might have been the awarding of the two major local churches, Saint Peter’s Church (''Peterskirche'') and Saint Lawrence’s Chapel (''Laurentiuskapelle'') to the Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and the Protestants
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
respectively. This happened after the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
when Electoral Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...
decided in the latter half of the 16th century to adopt Calvinism
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
. In 1705, the condominium ended with a deal in which Worms regained full rights at and in Dirmstein through a territorial exchange with Electoral Palatinate. Only in the Protestant inhabitants’ internal business was the power of decision reserved to the Elector.
Times of war
In the German Peasants' 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 ...
, the village itself suffered little, although on 4 June 1525, rebelling peasants under Dirmstein vassal Erasmus von der Hauben’s leadership razed the Episcopal and the Electoral Palatinate Castles, Castle Affenstein and the Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
monastery and set them on fire. The Episcopal Castle and Castle Affenstein were made useful once again, whereas the other two building complexes lay in ruins and eventually disappeared altogether.
Likewise little damage was wrought in the Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
. Finding himself having to put up with repression was the avowed Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
partisan Caspar Lerch (1575–1642), whose "castle" was plundered and who, together with his family, was forced into a 19-year exile. Caspar Lerch was a prominent representative of his family, first as Chamberlain of the Bishop of Speyer, then as Electorate of Mainz
The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...
''Amtmann
__NOTOC__
The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most seni ...
'' in Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim is a German town in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg on the river Tauber with a population of about 13,200. It is the capital of the Main-Tauber district. It is a popular tourist destination due to its numerous historical b ...
and finally as director of the Knightly Canton of the Upper Rhine (''Ritterkanton Oberrhein''). Furthermore he compiled many juristic works as well as a family chronicle.
In 1689, however, in the Age of Absolutism
Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constitut ...
, Dirmstein was less lucky when French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
troops came and all but utterly burnt it down. From 1688 to 1697, the "Sun King", Louis XIV waged the Nine Years' War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
(known in Germany as the ''Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg'', or War of the Palatine Succession) over his sister-in-law Liselotte’s inheritance – and somewhat paradoxically had Electoral Palatinate, the territory that he wanted as his own, reduced to rubble and ashes. In Dirmstein the blaze raged for three days, from 7 to 9 September. Only a few houses were left standing.
Baroque era
In the course of the 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 ...
era, a considerable community once more grew out of the two original centres, the "Upper" and "Lower Villages". One of this era’s most important persons was Baron Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (1674–1744), Caspar Lerch’s second daughter’s grandson. Having earned hostility for his wasteful running of the estate and his debts, he became legendary for his years-long quarrel with the authorities. He had his alleged success immortalized in 1738 on Castle Sturmfeder’s gateway, the ''Michelstor'' – along with many inscriptions – in the form of a sculpture of a victorious struggle over the devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
, which according to contemporaries bears the then mayor’s facial features. Above the gate’s side entrance, a stone chimera
Chimera, Chimaera, or Chimaira (Greek for " she-goat") originally referred to:
* Chimera (mythology), a fire-breathing monster of Ancient Lycia said to combine parts from multiple animals
* Mount Chimaera, a fire-spewing region of Lycia or Cilicia ...
has also been placed. The last bearer of the family name died in 1901.
Dirmstein has the interdenominational coöperation between the Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Prince-Bishop of Worms and the Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Elector, which happened despite an end being put to the condominium, to thank for its famous simultaneous church, ''St. Laurentius'' (Saint Lawrence’s). With this church building in the mid-18th century began a phase of prosperity for the village that lasted a good hundred years. From 1780 to 1801, only a century after the inferno of the Nine Years' War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
, Dirmstein, according to various sources, was even awarded town rights
Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...
.
A social problem grew out of the short-lived running of a stoneware
Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a Vitrification#Ceramics, vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refracto ...
factory that existed from 1778 to 1788 in the middle of the Upper Village.[Walter Jarosch: ''Keramik aus Dirmstein''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 481–497] There, the Bishopric of Worms
The Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Electorate of the ...
was having "Dirmstein Faïence
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...
" made from the white clay that came from the Bishopric’s own stripmine near today’s Hettenleidelheim in the northeast Palatinate Forest, a product whose now few preserved examples are sought-after in collectors’ circles. As early as 1779, a few months after production began, the then mayor, Johann Michael Graeff, schemed against the factory head and ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
s expert Johann Carl Vogelmann, casting false accusations his way, whereupon Vogelmann’s belongings were withheld as he, along with his wife and seven children, was hounded out of the village. Graeff took the banished former head’s job at the factory, but was such a dilettante when it came to running the business that in 1782, the Bishopric unseated him. Under Graeff’s successors, though, the business never did recover, leading to the 20- to 30-strong workforce’s impoverishment, culminating in strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
-like events. Further reasons given for ending the project were the cumbersome carting of the raw materials over some 25 km and the distribution difficulties with the finished products in the face of the many customs duties.
Foreign rule
Towards the end of the 18th century, the turmoil of the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
also held Electoral Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...
in its grip. Its territory on the Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
’s left bank was annexed ''de facto'' by the French state in 1797, and in 1801 the annexation became official. Among other things, this led to Dirmstein’s once again losing its town rights. Until the end of the Napoleonic
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
era in 1815, the annexed territory was governed as part of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre was a department of the First French Republic and later the First French Empire in present-day Germany. It was named after the highest point in the Palatinate, the ''Donnersberg'' ("Thunder Mountain", possibly referring to Donar, ...
(or Donnersberg 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 ...
).
After the Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
, the Palatinate’s left-bank lands, and Dirmstein along with them, were assigned to the Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
, whose ruling dynasty, the House of Wittelsbach
The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...
, had its roots in Electoral Palatinate. The ''Rheinkreis'' that thus came into being, which was later named ''Rheinpfalz'' (Rhenish Palatinate) to distinguish it from the likewise Bavarian Upper Palatinate
The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria.
Geography
The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...
(''Oberpfalz''), remained Bavarian until the end of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
The rest of the 19th century passed without great incident. Taking over from the nobles, whom the French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
had dispossessed were ''nouveau riche'' members of the upmarket citizenry, who expanded the castles and manor houses that had been auctioned off, enlarged park facilities and laid out new ones. The majority of the villagers, though, was very poor.
Emigration
The Palatinate, which had been characterized over the centuries by neediness and war, lost over time many of its people to other countries. In Dirmstein, emigration was in very small measure to places in Eastern and Southeastern Europe ( Galicia, Banat
Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...
, Bačka
Bačka ( sr-cyrl, Бачка, ) or Bácska () is a geographical and historical area within the Pannonian Plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east. It is divided between Serbia and Hungary ...
). Against that, however, a considerably greater number of the emigrants went 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 ...
to seek their fortune there.
Before US independence, only single persons or families emigrated there, as in 1708, 1742 and 1752. In the 19th century, though, came a wave of emigration, which was recorded in a Dirmstein ''Auswanderungsregister'' ("Emigration Register") that was painstakingly kept for one hundred years and according to digital survey contains more than 600 records. According to this register, between 1806 and 1905 more than 1,200 Dirmsteiners left their homeland, especially younger families, often with many children. The last two entries refer to Dirmstein Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s, who in 1937 could still emigrate to Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
World wars and National Socialism
Dirmstein came through the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
unscathed, at least in terms of damage to the municipality itself. The cost in human terms, however, was 53 lives.
In 1933, at the beginning of the Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, 15 Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish citizens lived in the municipality, along with one "Jewish ''Mischling
(; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denota ...
'' of the Second Degree"; eleven of them belonged to the extended family Hirsch. The family Liebmann managed to flee to Argentina with their nine-year-old daughter in 1937. Frieda Hirsch likewise emigrated there in 1938, but had to leave her ten-year-old son David behind. The nine Jews still remaining in Dirmstein in 1940 were deported under the so-called Bürckel-Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
Action (they were both Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
s) to Camp Gurs
Gurs internment camp was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at the en ...
. In 1941 in the South of France, David Hirsch and the distantly related Elisabeth Klara Hirsch and her daughter Ella managed to get away. The two women emigrated to the United States, where Ella’s elder brother had likely already gone in 1938. David Hirsch followed his mother to Argentina in 1947. In 2005 and 2009, he visited his schoolfriend Arthur Maurer in Dirmstein. The other six deportees died in concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
or disappeared there.[Michael Martin: ''Juden in Dirmstein''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 327–338]
Among Dirmstein’s inhabitants, 89 soldiers fell and 41 were listed as missing
Missing or The Missing may refer to:
Film
* ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young
* ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras
* ''Missing'' (2007 film) (''Vermist''), a Bel ...
in the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. On 20 March 1945, American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
aircraft advancing on the Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
attacked the village causing bomb damage and striking houses with autocannon
An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...
fire. Their target was German soldiers fleeing by the village, many of whom were killed, whereas there were no casualties among the inhabitants.[Jürgen Bich: ''Kriegsende – Schrecken durch Jagdbomber''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 221–225]
In connection with the Second World War, there are two stories worth mentioning because they so thoroughly contrast with each other:
The former prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
Stanisław Swiatek (born 1920) from the now Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
city of Szczecin
Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...
(formerly the German city of Stettin), who from 1940 onwards had spent five years in Dirmstein, maintained a lifelong friendship with the village for more than half a century because of his good experiences, and he conveyed to young fellow countrymen and countrywomen, whom he brought along on visits, his outlook on international understanding. After his first visit, a feature article about it by Albert H. Keil appeared in the Bad Dürkheim
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.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...
district’s yearbook,[Albert H. Keil: ''"Freunde nennen mich Stani"''. In: Heimatjahrbuch 1996, Haßloch 1995, S. 250] and Jürgen Bich reported it in the daily press.[Jürgen Bich: ''"Woi sollschte trinke, Schtani, Woi!"''. In: ''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung, 15. April 1995]
Against that heartwarming story, however, comes another about an RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
tail gunner
A tail gunner or rear gunner is a crewman on a military aircraft who functions as a gunner defending against enemy fighter or interceptor attacks from the rear, or "tail", of the plane.
The tail gunner operates a flexible machine gun or aut ...
named Sergeant Cyril William Sibley (born 1923), who was wounded in captivity after his Halifax bomber
The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.
The Halifax has its or ...
was shot down, and then murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...
ed by Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
''Ortsgruppenleiter
''Ortsgruppenleiter'' (Local Group Leader) was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed between 1930 and 1945. The term first came into being during the German elections of 1930, and was held by the head Nazi of a town or city, or in ...
'' Adolf Wolfert. In 1946, he and his accomplice in Sibley’s death, Georg Hartleb, were sentenced by a British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
court-martial
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
to death, a fate that they eventually met after a half year of fruitless appeals. They were both hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
in Hamelin
Hamelin ( ; german: Hameln ) is a town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont and has a population of roughly 57,000. Hamelin is best known for the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
H ...
on 11 October 1946.[Marie-Christine Werner: ''Der englische Flieger - Der Mord an Cyril William Sibley'', Südwestrundfunk ]Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, 10. Februar 2001 In 1985, 2004 and 2008, the bloody deed done Sibley found its literary reappraisal in works by the Dirmstein writers Walter Landin[Walter Landin: ''Wenn erst Gras wächst''][Walter Landin: ''Anton Kocher und der englische Flieger''] and Isolde Stauder.[Isolde Stauder: ''Wo das Dorf zu Ende geht'', S. 134 f.] There is a ''Stolperstein'' in Sergeant Sibley's memory in the municipality.
Since the war
After the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the municipality's history unfolded relatively uneventfully. The administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
led in 1969 to a reassignment from the abolished Frankenthal district to the new 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.
Geography
Location
Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German Wine ...
district, and in 1972 came the municipality's grouping into the likewise newly formed ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland.
More dramatic, at least for some of the inhabitants, was the widespread flooding in 1994 in the ''Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße'' ("North of Heuchelheim Road") housing estate, which had been opened only ten years earlier. In 1996, the municipality celebrated the 250th anniversary of the consecration of Saint Lawrence's Church. On 1 December 1998, the filling station
A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel.
Gasoli ...
at the northeast entrance to the village was so heavily damaged by a truck that it had to be closed for a week and the building renovation was only finished early the following year.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung, 3. Dezember 1998] Early in 2000, there was a great fire that laid the former discount store
A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...
in ruins.
On 23 November 2005, the 1,163rd anniversary of Dirmstein's first documentary mention, the local chronicle appeared after more than 20 years’ preparation. Working together on this project were not only the publisher (Michael Martin, Landau), who in work lasting years had marshalled the unusually comprehensive municipal archive, but also a few other outside specialists from the ''Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein'' (cultural club) as well as many writers from the village.
In March 2009, the event ''"Dirmstein erinnert sich"'' ("Dirmstein remembers"), lasting several days, was held, at which the Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
artist Gunter Demnig
Gunter Demnig (born 27 October 1947 in Berlin) is a German artist. He is best known for his ''Stolperstein'' ("stumbling block") memorials to the victims of Nazi persecution, including Jews, homosexuals, Romani and the disabled. The project plac ...
laid '' Stolpersteine'' for the victims of National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
. Nine bear the names of Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s who were deported to concentration camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
, while one is dedicated to the murdered Englishman Cyril William Sibley. The central historical-literary evening was created by Dirmstein writers Jürgen Bich, Albert H. Keil, Walter Landin and Otfried K. Linde.[Gemeinde Dirmstein (Hrsg.), Albert H. Keil (Redaktion): ''"Dirmstein erinnert sich"'', S. 3 f.]
Municipality’s name
Considering especially the name's early forms, science today interprets the placename as "Diermuntstein", thus meaning something like "Diermunt’s Stone (House)". Apparently a wealthy man managed to build his house here out of stone, which lasted longer than the customary material, wood. Since at the earliest known mention in the 8th century an elided
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
form of the name is already used, it is assumed that at this time, Dirmstein had already been for at least a few generations a named place, whose name was already subject to modification.
The placename developed through many variations, of which a few notable ones have been chosen for this article: In 842 came the first dated documentary mention of the village in a document signed by King of the Franks Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...
''"in villa Theormsthein"'' or ''"Thiormsthein"''. Since this document only exists as a 17th-century transcription, research assumes that, following what was customary then, an original "Díermstein" was transcribed. From 1110 comes a document from Provost Hartwig von St. Paul zu Worms, in which the village is listed under the name ''Díeremestein''. With another document from Worms from 1190, Emperor Heinrich IV Henry IV may refer to:
People
* Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor (1050–1106), King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperor
* Henry IV, Duke of Limburg (1195–1247)
* Henry IV, Duke of Brabant (1251/1252–1272)
* Henryk IV Probus (c. 1258–1290), Du ...
transferred the ''Vogt
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
ei'' over ''Dirmenstein'' to the Bishopric of Worms
The Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Electorate of the ...
. In 1315, the name ''Dirmstein'' was first used in its modern spelling. In the 16th century, variant forms were being used in which the ''i'' was mutated into a ''u'', a ''b'' was inserted, or the diphthong ''ei'' was written as ''eu''.
Population
Religion
Dirmstein's first parish church stood in the "Lower Village". It was built in Romanesque times, clearly before 1044 and presumably on a bishop's initiative, for it was consecrated to the patron saint of the Bishopric of Worms, Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
. Given several consistent sources, historians estimate the church's capacity at only some hundred persons, implying low population figures. The "Upper Village" had at its disposal the Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
Saint Lawrence's Chapel (''Kapelle St. Laurentius''), first mentioned in 1240, which was raised to a branch church. In the 14th century it was joined by Saint Anthony's Chapel (''Kapelle St. Antonius'') at the graveyard in the "Lower Village" and the Infirmary Yard Chapel of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...
(''Spitalhof-Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena'') in the "Upper Village". These chapels, too, are an indication that the low population would have made a big church needless.
Saint Lawrence's Chapel was converted in the 16th century into a Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
Reform may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
* Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group
* ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine
*''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...
church. Burnt to ruins in the 1689 fire, it was replaced in 1742 to 1746 by today's 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 ...
simultaneous church, which stands on the same spot, and whose Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
part was once again consecrated as Saint Lawrence's. Its capacity was enough for the whole village. Given this, and Saint Peter's Church's continuing slide into disrepair in the 18th century, the latter church was auctioned off in 1809 and torn down. Saint Anthony's Chapel was likewise relieved of its duties when the old graveyard was forsaken and a new one established about 1850. The Infirmary Yard Chapel has lasted until the present day, although it has been deconsecrated and several times remodelled.
In 1367 in the north of the village centre, an Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
priory was founded, as was an Augustinian monastery in 1500, which was later run by the Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
. While the Augustinian monastery only lasted until it was burnt down in the Peasants' War in 1525, the Jesuit house lasted for 300 years. In the Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
, the monks had the sulphur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
-bearing mineral spring that they used northwest of the village, the ''Chorbrünnel'', set in stone. The Dirmstein priest's post, before it was taken over by regular priests, is believed to have been occupied by the Jesuit fathers, although only the records from the later years, from 1685 to 1705, are preserved. About 1800, the Jesuit community was dissolved as a result of the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and its attendant Secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
.
Religious affiliation[Margret Schwerdt: ''Ein Blick auf die Sozialgeschichte vom Ende des 17. bis in die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts mit Bezügen zur Gegenwart''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 119–140] over the last 250 years is well documented, and in this time it was, given the population figures, subject to great change.
The simultaneous church was built in 1746 with the floor area allotted at a 2:1 ratio in the Catholics’ favour for in the mid-18th century, this corresponded with the village's denominational makeup of two-thirds Catholic and one-third Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
or Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
Reform may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
* Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group
* ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine
*''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...
. Somewhat more than half a century later, though, only 56% of the villagers were Catholic and 40% Protestant. After 2000 Protestants were 45.46% of the population, Catholics 33.74% and those with other or no religious beliefs 20.79%.
From the time of the first written evidence of a Jewish community (1464) until the early 20th century, the Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
share of the population was usually a few dozen, peaking at 129 in 1855. Beginning no later than 1738, and thereafter with interruptions, the Jewish community maintained a ''"Judenschuhl"'', a folk word for synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
. In 1858, after building work lasting two years, a new synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
was consecrated on the corner of Mitteltor and Hildebrandstraße (near Saint Lawrence's and across the street, slantwise, from the Old Town Hall). Over the next few decades, the Jewish community shrank mainly owing to emigration. About 1913 it virtually ceased to exist. The now no longer used synagogue was falling ever further into disrepair. In 1932, the ramshackle building was sold and remodelled from the ground up, leaving only the rear façade in its original form. It is now used as a house, and no longer shows any sign of its former function. In Nazi times, all Jews still living in Dirmstein in 1940 fell victim to the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
with the exception of the three who escaped from a concentration camp
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...
.
Population figures
Only from 1771 does the municipal archive have a concrete basis on which to determine population figures; the dates listed in the table before that time (marked with an asterisk) refer to assessment book figures and represent minima, which could be considerably too low as population figures, as those not subject to taxation are not included in the books.
The sharp growth in the late 18th century might be traceable to the prospects that the "town" – as it is said Dirmstein was from 1780 to 1801 – could offer its citizens. This growth carried on until the beginning of industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
, which made itself felt in Dirmstein about the middle of the 19th century. Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
and urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...
then led, however, to a drop in population continuing for 100 years, which was reversed only by new growth in the wake of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. This turned out to be rather a slow rise in population until the 1980s, when it intensified. The 3,000 mark was breached in 1996, and since then, the rate has remained fairly constant.
Age breakdown
The local age breakdown has altered radically over time. In 1682, more than half Dirmstein's inhabitants were children or youths aged 19 or younger. About 1850, their share of the population had sunk to a bit more than a third. By 2003, it amounted to 21.5%. On the other hand, the figure for those older than 40 rose from 19% in 1682 to 48.7% in 2003. In the tabulated comparison between the years 1710 (although as above, for this year the source is the assessment book and therefore does not count those who did not pay taxes) and 2002, a noticeable shift towards the right, and therefore the greater ages, is shown, and it can also be observed that the figures for the middle decades have evened out somewhat.
Thus, the trend towards an aging population can also be seen in Dirmstein. Nevertheless, the figures did not match the 1995 countrywide average until eight years later. The 2002 figures show something else, too: More than 3.5% of the inhabitants are old or very old people, who mainly still live in a family situation, for there is no seniors’ home or nursing home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to in ...
in Dirmstein.
Politics
Coat of arms
The German blazon, in the 2007 approval documents from the Bad Dürkheim district administration,[Kreisverwaltung Bad Dürkheim, Verfügung vom 24. September 2007] reads:
The municipality's arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
might in English heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
language be described thus: Per fess, in chief per pale sable a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules and azure semé of crosses of the second a key per bend argent, the wards to chief and dexter, and in base vair nebuly argent and gules.
The Palatine Lion on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side and the key as a symbol of the bishop's office and Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
’s attribute on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side together stand for the condominium
A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
under which Electoral Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...
and the Bishopric of Worms
The Prince-Bishopric of Worms, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Electorate of the ...
, whose patron saint was Peter, jointly held the local lordship for three centuries. The "vair nebuly" fur
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
in the base of the escutcheon is meant to look like three complete and two cut-off silver helmets on a red background such as those once worn by the local resident lower nobility. These were called ''Eisenhüte'' (singular: ''Eisenhut''; "iron hats").
In regional literature, the red background between the "helmets" is mistaken for "rooftiles". Further irritation having to do with the shield's lower half comes from the ''Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz'' ("Great Arms Book of the Palatinate"),[Karl Heinz Debus: ''Das große Wappenbuch der Pfalz''. Neustadt an der Weinstraße 1988, ] an official armorial directory which contains a version of Dirmstein's coat of arms – sometimes used officially – in which the "helmets" in the lower row and the background have their tincture
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 ...
s transposed, thus disturbing the harmonious change from silver to red fields, standing the lower helmets upside down, and arranging two of them in such a way that their bottoms touch those in the upper row in a straight line. An expert opinion obtained at the municipality's request showed in 2007[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Ludwigshafen: ''Gutachter klärt Wappen-Rätsel auf'', 18. September 2007] that the version seen in the ''Großes Wappenbuch der Pfalz'' was erroneous and did not match the historical example, whereupon the district administration issued the above-cited decree.
Municipal council
Dirmstein belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland. The mayor is Bernd Eberle (FWG), and the 20 seats on council are shared by three factions. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results (with changes from 2004 results):[Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz](_blank)
(accessed 8 June 2009)
Mayors
This list of mayors since the Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
is still incomplete; however, there are only a few gaps and lapses in clarity.
Culture and sightseeing
Monumental zone
The historic heart of the Upper Village represents in the monument protection authority's eyes quite a homogeneous monumental zone. It consists of Mitteltor, Affenstein, Laumersheimer Straße, Herrengasse, Kirchenstraße and Metzgergasse. At the ''Obertor'' ("Upper Gate"), and with the two park complexes, it reaches somewhat farther out. The village's appearance in this zone is mostly compact and is defined mainly by Late 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 ...
building from the decades that followed the great blaze in the Nine Years' War
The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...
. It gives one the impression of a wealthy village characterized by the nobility's and the fashionable citizenry's buildings and that its structure even withstood the upheaval of the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
.
The three castlelike manor houses preserved almost unscathed by time also convey the tradition of this village that was jointly ruled in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
by noble families. Right near each other and both singular are the English Gardens in the Upper Village's northwest and south. Asserting itself as at least the architectural peer of the noble buildings is the simultaneous church from 1746, which with its tower dating from the Middle Ages and built even taller in 1904 on the one hand forms a structural midpoint in the municipality, and on the other hand reflects the religious relations of this village that was ruled for three centuries as an Electoral Palatinate
The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...
-Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
condominium. Together with the former infirmary chapel across the street to the west, the church forms a homogeneous building group.
Typical for the town and country buildings that convey wealth within the monumental zone are buildings with hipped roofs with timber-frame
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
construction upon walled ground floors, which mainly characterize the inner village. With structural elements such as hewn-stone pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s, the lordly buildings clearly served as a model for some of the houses; the flawless execution documents the local stonemasons’ craftsmanship. The homesteads with buildings on two or three sides on Affenstein and Hauptstraße and on the eastern section of Metzgergasse, on the other hand, tell of the less wealthy class of the population.
One conspicuous gap in the otherwise cheek-by-jowl buildings came about in the 1960s on the corner of Marktstraße and Metzgergasse on the north side of the Castle Square (''Schlossplatz'') when the building that once housed the Worms Episcopal faïence
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...
factory was torn down. It had begun life as the ''Reigerspergischer Hof'' in 1592, and in 1689 it had withstood the great fire that had burnt the rest of the village down. Until its demolition, it was the village's oldest building. Since the foreseen replacement, a block of flats, was never built, the plot became a featureless carpark, mostly covered in gravel.
Buildings
Outstanding buildings in the monumental zone
Saint Lawrence's Church (''Laurentiuskirche'') was built as a simultaneous church during the 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 ...
era to master builder Balthasar Neumann
Johann Balthasar Neumann (; 27 January 1687 (?) – 19 August 1753), usually known as Balthasar Neumann, was a German architect and military artillery engineer who developed a refined brand of Baroque architecture, fusing Austrian, Bohemian, Ita ...
’s plans, which were modified on site, beginning in 1742; it was consecrated in 1746. The Voit organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
in the Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
part of the church, built in 1900 and renovated in 1986, draws connoisseurs from far and wide. As well, the even older instrument in the Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
part, which has at its disposal a work by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker
Walcker Orgelbau (also known as E. F. Walcker & Cie.) of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is a builder of pipe organs. It was founded in Cannstatt, a suburb of Stuttgart in 1780 by . His son Eberhard Friedrich Walcker moved the business t ...
, has a good reputation among experts.
The ''Ältestes Haus'' – Dirmstein’s "Oldest House" – stands at the corner of Metzgergasse and Salzgasse. Chiselled into it is the year 1596. In 1689, it was one of only six or seven buildings that were left standing after the French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
burnt the village down. It is now the only one left of those that escaped that blaze. At the turn of the millennium, it was attractively restored.
The ''Sturmfedersches Schloss'' and the ''Koeth-Wanscheidsches Schloss'' were the Sturmfeder and Koeth-Wanscheid noble families’ castlelike manor houses, and have been restored.
Hardly any original trace is even left of the two monasteries, one Augustinian Augustinian may refer to:
*Augustinians, members of religious orders following the Rule of St Augustine
*Augustinianism, the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and his intellectual heirs
*Someone who follows Augustine of Hippo
* Canons Regular of Sain ...
and the other Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
, that once stood side by side in the north of the village centre. On the site of the Augustinian monastery, the ''Quadtsches Schloss'' was later built, which nowadays incorrectly does business under the name ''Jesuitenhof'' ("Jesuit Estate"). Of the Jesuit monastery, which historians regard as the true ''Jesuitenhof'', only an outbuilding is left of the original complex.
Across the street from the church in the ''Spitalhof'', which used to be a hospice, and to which belongs the Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and now deconsecrated ''Kapelle St. Maria Magdalena'', the municipal 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 ...
is now housed.
The House at Marktstraße 1 was built in the early 18th century as a stone and timber-frame
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
building. For model renovation, the owners were recognized in 2006 with the first ''Balthasar-Neumann-Preis'' of the ''Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein''.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Ein "zugelaufenes" Fachwerkhaus voller Überraschungen'', 13. September 2006] The ''St.-Michael-Apotheke'' was likewise built in the early 18th century as a timber-frame building. The predecessor building in the Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
contained a great hall
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great ...
in which the local nobles, who formed a condominium (or ''Ganerbschaft'' 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 ...
), held their meetings. The ''Altes Rathaus'' ("Old Town Hall") from 1714 is used as a "House of the Clubs", those being the ones who restored the building by doing unpaid work.
Marktstraße ("Market Street"), whose southernmost portion is laid out as "Germany’s smallest pedestrian zone
Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...
", runs between the ''Sturmfedersches Schloss'' and the Hotel Café Kempf – known locally as ''das Kempf'' – which after growing out of a winemaker's house in 1926 has taken back its place after a thorough renovation as the village's biggest gastronomic business and is also now quite eye-catching. In the front guestroom is found a Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
figure from the 18th century which is under monumental protection. Functioning as a small, but fine, addition to the Café Kempf is the former ''Backhaus'' ("Bakehouse") around the corner on the way into Herrengasse, which has now been converted into a wine parlour. Newest among the village's leading restaurants is the ''Roosmarin'', which was set up in an old winemaker's house in 2006 in the Lower Village, and whose name comes from the herb
In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...
rosemary
''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...
(''Rosmarin'' 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 ...
) and the owner-operator's family name.
The ''Fechtschule'' ("Swordfighting School") stands south of the village centre at the edge of the ''Kellergarten''. A predecessor building to this Classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
one, ''die Burg'' ("the Castle"), was from 1602 Caspar Lerch's house. For several decades, the ''Landesfechtschule des Südwestdeutschen Fechtverbandes'' ("State Swordfighting School of the Southwest German Swordfighting League") has been run there, leading to the building's current name. One peculiarity, also found on the grounds of the ''Kellergarten'', is the Bathhouse of the Countess of Brühl, whose comital bathtub nowadays stands in the front garden as an oversize flowerpot.
Outstanding buildings outside the monumental zone
The Episcopal Palace (''Bischöfliches Schloss''), which had been the administrative and summer seat of the Prince-Bishop of Worms, near the village's eastern outskirts is the oldest, at least partly, preserved ''Schloss'' in Dirmstein. Of this – on the lands of what is now a farming estate – only a few original remnants can be found, however.
In the village for centuries were two mills that were run by water from the Eckbach. The ''Niedermühle'' ("Lower Mill") in the far east was converted in the 19th century into a farming estate in the Classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
style. The ''Spormühle'' in the village's southwest houses both an art gallery
An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...
and a small country hotel.
Parks and graveyards
English gardens
The ''Schlosspark'', laid out in the style of a landscaped English garden and renovated at the turn of the millennium, furnishes a venue for events, especially musical ones. It was planned beginning in 1824 by the landscape architect Johann Christian Metzger. In 2009 began restoration work on the grotto
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...
, which lies in the park and was built in 1840.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''"Grottenbillige" Sanierung'', 24. Juli 2009] Responsible, about 1790, for the ''Kellergarten'', which is also undergoing renovations and is another of the once seven English gardens in the municipality, was Metzger's even more famous professional colleague Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell
Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell (13 September 1750, in Weilburg – 24 February 1823, in Munich) was a German landscape gardener from Weilburg an der Lahn. He is regarded as the founder of the English gardens in Germany, which he introduced to the Germ ...
.
Graveyards
The early mediaeval
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
grave fields mentioned earlier lay some 300 m north and northwest of the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach, and therefore not far from the area where later arose the Lower Village. However, they could not be regarded as cemeteries laid out in an organized fashion.
Until about 1850, the village kept its graveyard in the east, in the Lower Village right next to Saint Peter's Church (''Peterskirche'') and near the Episcopal Palace. Since then it has not been used. The best known grave there is the one in which the physician Johann von Hubertus is buried.
The New Cemetery (''Neuer Friedhof'') now in use lies somewhat elevated on the village's northern edge, the village itself having spread out towards it. Many gravestones of value to cultural history from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were taken from the old cemetery and set up here. The chapel, in which a part of the original fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
has been restored, represents a Classicist building with a rectangular base from the mid-19th century and holds the burial vault of the noble ''Familie Camuzi'', who endowed the chapel.
Natural monuments
The area between the south corner of the ''Kellergarten'' and the Eckbach includes the ''Dicker Baum'' ("Fat Tree"), a roughly 200-year-old sycamore
Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry".
Species of trees known as sycamore:
* ''Acer pseudoplata ...
. With a trunk girth of some 6 m and a height of more than 20 m, the mighty tree is said to be a natural monument.
In the area of the road leading out of the village to the northwest (Obersülzer Straße) is a steep, south-facing loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
wall, which stands as a biotope
A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term "habitat", which is more commonly used in English-speaking countrie ...
for many kinds of warmth-loving insects, among them solitary wild bees and digger wasps. Also, bird species that breed in hollows, such as the common swift
The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between th ...
, are observed. It is possible that even the European roller
The European roller (''Coracias garrulus'') is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East, Central Asia and the Maghreb.
The European roller is found in a wide variety of ha ...
has settled here, although it is native to Southern Europe.
The ''Chorbrünnel-Rundweg'' (path) in the northwest of Dirmstein's municipal area links the ''Wörschberger Hohl'', a holloway likewise marked by loess walls, with the ''Chorbrünnel''. This little fountain is fed by a sulphur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
-bearing spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season), a season of the year
* Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy
* Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water
* Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a ...
whose water was long used for healing purposes. In the Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
, the fountain was set in stone by the resident Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
monks. In reference to this, the green signposts on the pathway show a yellowish-orange stone arcade together with the spring symbol.
The Eckbach Mill Path (''Eckbachmühlen-Rad- und Wanderweg'') leads out of Dirmstein up the Eckbach for more than 19 km to 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.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies at an e ...
, linking eight picturesque wine villages and the Eckbachweiher (pond). It affords movement in the great outdoors and is also worth visiting for mill lovers for its 23 partly restored mills.
Regular events
Event venues
The many local clubs bring the municipality a well filled calendar of events. Above all, the ''Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein'' (cultural club) busies itself in many fields and invites the public to appearances by its historical dance troupe, to literary evenings and music at the ''Schlosspark''. Bigger events are held at the ''Unterhaardter Festhalle'' (UHF), which stands south of Saint Lawrence's Church on the edge of the village centre and can seat several hundred visitors. It was structurally and technologically refurbished by unpaid helpers at the onset of the new millennium. For events with no more than 80 to 100 visitors, the ''Eux-Stocké-Ratssaal'' is available at the ''Sturmfedersches Schloss''. Specially for organ
Organ may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a part of an organism
Musical instruments
* Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone
** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument
** Hammond ...
music, Saint Lawrence's Church (''Laurentiuskirche'') offers itself up with its two historic instruments, the Walcker organ from 1869 and the Voit organ from 1900.
Concerts
In the Council Chamber (the ''Ratssaal'' mentioned above), where a Bechstein grand piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
is also available, concerts are held. Among the venues for the German-French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
concert series "Printemps Rhénan – Rheinischer Frühling" (both of which mean "Rhenish Spring" in French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and 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 ...
respectively) is Saint Lawrence's Church.
At the ''Schlosspark'', an outdoor concert of the ''"palatiajazz"'' series is held every year at which the original Blues Brothers Band, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed inst ...
and Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She is one of the most successful female Jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed wi ...
have appeared.
Felix Hell
Felix Hell (born 14 September 1985) is a German organist.
Childhood
Born in Frankenthal, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hell was a child prodigy, performing his first organ recital in Russia at the age of nine, and presenting concerts on the Pipe organ, ...
, the concert organist who was born in Frankenthal
Frankenthal (Pfalz) ( pfl, Frongedahl) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
History
Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, aft ...
and now lives in 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 ...
, comes back to Dirmstein each New Year's to give a New Year's Eve concert at Saint Lawrence's Church.
Literary readings
In Dirmstein a variety of ''Vorderpfälzisch'' (Eastern Palatine German) belonging to the Palatine German dialect group is spoken. The fostering of the local speech is taken very seriously in the municipality: several writers who were born here or who have settled here are among the prizewinners at the Palatine dialectal poetry contests and are continually giving readings in the Council Chamber, where there are also literary events dealing with High German.
Folk festivals
The ''Dirmsteiner Jahrmarkt'' (yearly market) each year on the second weekend in September and the ''Bayerische Bierfest'' ("Bavarian Beer Festival") every other year together with the 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 ...
n partner municipality, Neuötting
Neuötting is a Town#Germany, town in the Altötting (district), district of Altötting, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Inn (river), Inn, 2 km north of Altötting, about 70 km north of Salzburg, 80 southwest of Passau a ...
, see to it that the bow-shaped, paved ''Schlossplatz'' as well as the wine parlours and wineries are thickly populated. The ''Schlossparkfest'', which has already been held several times at the height of summer, has likewise established itself as a magnet for the public.
Education
Kindergarten
The municipality has at its disposal the Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
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 ...
"St. Laurentius" and the municipal daycare centre "Himmelszelt" ("Heaven’s Tent"). Both have two groups and all-day places. At the "Himmelszelt", there are also places for four two-year-olds.
Primary school and sport hall
Dirmstein is the location of a two-stream 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 ...
, which offers all-day care. Next to the school stands an "all-purpose sport hall", which is also available for regional events.
Music school
The ''Sturmfedersches Schloss'' harbours the only branch location of the ''Musikschule Leiningerland'', whose seat is in Grünstadt.
Youth room
With significant dedication by the ''Landjugend Dirmstein'' ("Dirmstein Country Youth"), which belongs to the ''Bund der Deutschen Landjugend'' ("League of German Country Youth"), a ''Jugendraum'' ("youth room") was created in 1997 and 1998 at the Old Town Hall to look like an Internet café. Besides individually and collectively possible leisure activities, work is also done there for the community in which a volunteer team of interested youth build the municipality's website.
Adult education
Education for adults is offered by the local folk high school
Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;'' ...
, which is integrated into the district folk high school (''Kreisvolkshochschule Bad Dürkheim''). Classes are held at, among other places, the ''Sturmfedersches Schloss''.
Public library
At the ''Sturmfedersches Schloss'' is found the central public library for the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland.
Sport
Six sport clubs offer opportunities in their respective activities:
Fencing
The ''FC Dirmstein'' governs the ''Landesfechtschule des Südwestdeutschen Fechtverbandes'' ("State Swordfighting School of the Southwest German Swordfighting League"). It is run in the location of Caspar Lerch's former home on the ''Kellergarten''.
Football and gymnastics
The ''TuS Dirmstein 1946'' has 491 members.[Mitgliederstand 2006 (Website-Erhebung)] It maintains football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
for youth, active people and AH (''Alte Herren'' – "Old Gentlemen") and it also offers women gymnastics
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...
. Its sport facilities together with its clubhouse lie on the village's southern outskirts.
Football golf
The ''1. Deutsche Fußballgolf-Club Dirmstein'' was founded in 2006 as the first German sport club that occupies itself with the fad sport of ''Soccergolf'' or ''Fußballgolf''. The club has 60 members. Laid out in the south of the village is a 6 ha area called ''Soccerpark Dirmstein''. In 2008, it was the only such place anywhere in Germany.[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Wenn der Ball einfach nicht durch den Betonring will'', 4. August 2008] In 2009, the Dirmsteiner Alex Kober became in Bodenkirchen-Willaberg the German ''Soccergolf'' Champion. In the same year, the European Championship was played on the Dirmstein course, and the winner was another Dirmsteiner, Hans-Peter Baudy.
Tennis
The ''TC Grün-Weiß Dirmstein'' was founded in 1979 and has 230 members. It has at its disposal on the village's southern outskirts a tennis complex with eight sand courts and a club pub.
Table tennis
The ''TTC Dirmstein'' was founded in 1997 and has 65 members. It maintains three men's table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
teams and a student team.
''Turnen–Spiel–Gymnastik''
The ''TSG Dirmstein 1986'' has 466 members. It has at its disposal a broad offering with respect to gymnastics, fitness, aerobics
Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness (flexibility, muscular strength, and cardio-vascular fitness). It ...
and the like.
Economy and infrastructure
Economic trends
After the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Dirmstein grew from a municipality purely based on agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
into a place in which as well as agriculture – and here this means mainly winegrowing
Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
– service industries
Service industries are those not directly concerned with the production of physical goods (such as agriculture and manufacturing).
Some service industries, including transportation, wholesale trade and retail trade are part of the supply chain del ...
, too, stand as equally important. Today there are more than 200 registered commercial operations. These are all small and medium-sized businesses; big business is wholly missing. For this reason, many Dirmsteiners commute to other places, which owing to the very tight economic interdependence in the Rhine-Neckar
The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), 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 ...
urban agglomeration is less difficult than in structurally weaker areas. Jobs lie mostly within 5 to 25 km.
Dirmstein has since the 1960s also been opening up to tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
. The village was advertised at first as the "Pearl of the Unterhaardt", and beginning in 1972 as the "Pearl of the Leiningerland". After the municipal council gave the mayor's slogan – "Pearl between Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany, a city
**Worms (electoral district)
*Worms, Nebraska, U.S.
*Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy
Arts and entertainme ...
and Wine Route" – its blessing in 2005, this decision was revised in 2009; Dirmstein once again advertises itself as the "Pearl of the Leiningerland".[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Dirmstein ist wieder "Perle des Leiningerlands"'', 19. Dezember 2009] In 2006, a private investor opened ''Soccerpark Dirmstein'' on the village's southern outskirts which quickly became a considerable economic factor in the municipality.
Winegrowing
Dirmstein is part of the Palatinate wine region
Palatinate (german: Pfalz) is a German wine-growing region (''Weinbaugebiet'') in the area of Bad Dürkheim, Neustadt an der Weinstraße, and Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate. Before 1993, it was known as Rhine Palatinate (''Rheinpfalz''). With un ...
. As early as Roman times
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
, wine was being grown in the Eastern Palatinate. Winegrowing in Dirmstein had its first documentary mention in 1141. The Leiningerland's sunny climate also favours the production of ''Qualitätsweine'' in Dirmstein.
Roughly 2.5 of the municipality's 14.67 km2 is planted with grapes
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago ...
. The most commonly grown varieties are Riesling
Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. 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 wh ...
, Blauer Portugieser
Blauer Portugieser is a red Austrian, Slovenian wine, Croatian wine and German wine grapeJ. Robinson (ed) ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 542 Oxford University Press 2006 found primarily in the Rheinhessen, Pfalz and wine re ...
and Dornfelder
Dornfelder is a dark-skinned variety of grape of German origin used for red wine. . Also worthy of mention are Pinot noir
Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...
, Pinot gris
Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...
and Pinot blanc
Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produces white ...
. Since 2003, a local winery has been successfully cultivating the variety Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains
Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...
, which originally came from Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and is actually regarded as a warmth-loving Mediterranean plant.Die Rheinpfalz
''Die Rheinpfalz'' is a German–language regional newspaper based in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The paper is one of the leading newspapers which serve the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
History and profile
''Die Rheinpfalz'' was first published in ...
, Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Perle mit Rosenduftaroma'', 5. Januar 2010
Dirmstein's many former ''Weinlagen'' (vineyard sites) were consolidated into three ''Einzellagen'' (single vineyard sites) following the adoption of the 1971 Wine Law: ''Herrgottsacker'' ("Lord God’s Field", in the north), ''Mandelpfad'' ("Almond Path", in the west) and ''Jesuitenhofgarten''. This last one, a slope leaning gently to the south, lies north of the centre right in the village and by area is one of Germany's smallest. All Dirmstein's single vineyard sites belong to the collective vineyard site – ''Großlage'' – of ''Schwarzerde'' ("Black Earth").
A part of the Mandelpfad single vineyard site is classified as a '' Große Lage'', the highest level, by the grower organisation VDP. This sub-vineyard is referred to as ''Himmelsrech'', but the official name of the entire vineyard is Dirmsteiner Mandelpfad.VDP Pfalz: Die Lagen: Dirmstein
, accessed 2014-07-28
At the edge of the south church square stands a great wooden
winepress
A winepress is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts controll ...
that was replicated by master cooper Emil Steigner; it also works.
Other economic fields
![2004-Dirmstein-Mandelbluete](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/2004-Dirmstein-Mandelbluete.jpg)
Besides winegrowing, fruitgrowing, especially
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
s, holds some importance in Dirmstein. The fruit is used mainly to make fruit brandies.
Almond
The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...
s and
fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...
s, on the other hand, are only of slight economic importance. A typical seasonal vegetable is
asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
, which is grown in the flatter parts of the Dirmstein municipal area in the east. Spreading out there are mainly grain and
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
fields. Through the municipality, coming from the neighbouring district, the
Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis
The Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) the district-free city Worms, the district Bergstraße, district-free Mannheim, Frankenthal and Ludw ...
(which is known as "Germany’s Vegetable Garden"), runs a branch of the ''Deutsche Grumbeer- und Gemüsestraße''. This means "German Potato and Vegetable Road", although ''Grumbeer'' is a dialect word for the potato (the standard
High German
The High German dialects (german: hochdeutsche Mundarten), or simply High German (); not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called ''High German'', comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Benrath and ...
word is ''Kartoffel'').
Transport
Road transport
Dirmstein is not connected to the
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
A 6 (
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
–
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...
) which runs by one kilometre to the south, but rather to ''
Landesstraße
''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...
'' 453, which runs somewhat parallel thereto, linking
Frankenthal
Frankenthal (Pfalz) ( pfl, Frongedahl) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
History
Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, aft ...
(in the east) with
Grünstadt
Grünstadt ( pfl, Grinnschdadt) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless th ...
(in the west). On the edge of each town are the nearest
interchanges. Towards the southwest, ''Landesstraße'' 455 forms a link to the town of
Freinsheim
Freinsheim (; Palatine German: Fränsem) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With about 5,000 inhabitants, it is among the state's smaller towns. It is also the seat of the like-named ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a ...
, and towards the north, by way of
Offstein
Offstein in the Wonnegau is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
The municipality lies in Rheni ...
, another with the
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms () is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the district Groß-Gerau (Hesse), the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen. ...
district. ''
Kreisstraße
A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...
'' 24 leads south to the neighbouring municipality of
Gerolsheim. With the Autobahn
A 61 (
Koblenz
Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary.
Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...
–Speyer), which two kilometres southeast of the municipality crosses the A 6 at the ''Autobahnkreuz Frankenthal'', there is no direct connection.
The missing link to the Autobahn network means that there is rather heavy traffic running through the municipality. Construction measures undertaken in the late 1990s in two places on ''Landesstraße'' 453 have at least somewhat lessened the problem of speeding within the municipality.
There are two bus routes run by the
Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar
The Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (VRN) is a transport association covering parts of the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse in south-west Germany. Founded in 1989, it initially served the Rhein Neckar Area, but ha ...
(VRN) that practically provide hourly service to the
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s at Grünstadt (some 7 km) and Frankenthal (some 10 km). For evenings and late at night there has been since September 2006 a callable taxi service to and from the railway stations in Frankenthal and Kirchheim an der Weinstraße, which likewise accepts VRN tickets.
Rail transport
Dirmstein no longer has a
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
connection. For almost half a century, the village lay on the ''Lokalbahn'', a one-track,
narrow-gauge
A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and .
Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
(1 000 mm) railway. This ran beginning on 1 July 1891 from Frankenthal station, where there was a link to the
Deutsche Reichsbahn
The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
, westwards by way of
Heßheim and Dirmstein to
Großkarlbach
Großkarlbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Großkarlbach lies near the ...
. The stations, which were all built in the same style – red-brown brick buildings – are in part still preserved today, like the one in Dirmstein, and are used as dwellings. Besides the old railway station itself, two streets – Bahnhofstraße ("Railway Station Street") and Lokalbahnstraße – today still recall the line, which was closed on 14 May 1939.
Media
For the municipality the Frankenthal local edition ''(Frankenthaler Zeitung)'' of the daily
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
''Die Rheinpfalz'' applies. Weekly, the
public journal
A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establis ...
of the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland appears, as do three advertising fliers – one from Frankenthal, two from Grünstadt. Since the 1980s, one party's local branch publishes at irregular intervals the local newspaper ''De Michel''; the
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times. title refers on the one hand to the ''Michelstor'' as one of the village's landmarks, and on the other hand refers to the
Deutscher Michel
(; "Michael the German") is a figure representing the national character of the German people, rather as John Bull represents the English. He originated in the first half of the 19th century.
Overview
Michel differs from figures that serve ...
.
Famous people
Honorary citizens
* Dr. rer. pol. Eux Stocké (b. 1895 in Dirmstein; d. 1992 in
Rödental
Rödental () is a town in the Coburg (district), district of Coburg, northern Bavaria, Germany, 7 km northeast of Coburg.
Rödental was the name given to a group of municipalities that united 1971, including Mönchröden, Oeslau, Einberg, O ...
), entrepreneur and patron, named an honorary citizen in 1976. The ''Eux-Stocké-Ratssaal'' (council chamber) is dedicated to him.
* Erich Otto (b. 26 September 1921 in Dirmstein; d. 1 June 1992 in Dirmstein), mayor 1964–86, named an honorary citizen in 1997. ''Erich-Otto-Weg'' is dedicated to him.
Sons and daughters of the town
* Caspar Lerch II (b. after 1480; d. 7 or 17 August 1548), was in 1523 supporter of the rebellious knight
Franz von Sickingen
Franz von Sickingen (2 March 14817 May 1523) was an Imperial Knight who, with Ulrich von Hutten, led the so-called "Knights' Revolt," and was one of the most notable figures of the early period of the Protestant Reformation. Sickingen was nickn ...
and was in 1539 through the expansion of the ''Spitalhof'' founder of today's ''Hospitalstiftung Dirmstein'' (foundation).
[Michael Martin: ''Die Familie Lerch von Dirmstein''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 63–76 (65–68)]
* Caspar Lerch IV (b. 13 December 1575; d. 1642 in
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
), Caspar Lerch II's grandson, was Chamberlain to the Bishop of Speyer,
Electorate of Mainz
The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In the ...
''
Amtmann
__NOTOC__
The ''Amtmann'' or ''Ammann'' (in Switzerland) was an official in German-speaking countries of Europe and in some of the Nordic countries from the time of the Middle Ages whose office was akin to that of a bailiff. He was the most seni ...
'' in
Tauberbischofsheim
Tauberbischofsheim is a German town in the north-east of Baden-Württemberg on the river Tauber with a population of about 13,200. It is the capital of the Main-Tauber district. It is a popular tourist destination due to its numerous historical b ...
and Director of the Knighthood of the Upper Rhine (''Oberrheinische Ritterschaft''). A street in the village is named for him.
* Franz Rothermel (b. 1690/91; d. 1759), was the executive entrepreneur in the building of Saint Lawrence's Church (''Laurentiuskirche'', 1742–46); from him came the third and final floor plan.
[Franz Rothermel, ''Grundriss'', Original im Zentralarchiv der Evangelischen Kirche der Pfalz (Speyer), Abt. 170, Nr. 698] His house, built in the 1730s was from 2006 to 2008 restored.
* Johann Hubertus (b. 10 December 1752; d. 1823), surgeon, was professor of medicine at the Josephs-Akademie in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and personal physician to Austrian Archduke
Karl Karl may refer to:
People
* Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne
* Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer
* Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
.
* Franz Balthasar Hubertus (b. 19 April 1766; d. 9 April 1832 in
Pressburg
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approximately 140% of ...
), was like his brother Johann a physician in Austria.
* Joseph Bihn (b. 2 January 1822; d. 1893 in
Tiffin, Ohio
Tiffin is a city in and the county seat of Seneca County, Ohio, United States. Developed along the Sandusky River, which flows to Lake Erie, Tiffin is about 55 miles southeast of Toledo. The population was 17,963 at the 2010 census.[Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...]
priest, was the founder of an order in the USA.
[Joachim Specht: ''Pfarrer Joseph Ludwig Bihn aus Dirmstein, der Vater der Alten und Waisen von Nordwest-Ohio''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 617–622]
* Adolf Römer (b. 21 September 1843; d. 27 April 1913 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 ...
), Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Erlangen, was a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
* Friedrich Streiff (b. 16 October 1846; d. 5 August 1920), master carpenter, was a draughtsman of contemporary perspectives of Dirmstein.
[Jürgen Huck: ''Der Chronist mit dem Zeichenstift''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 607–616]
* Friedrich Bengel (b. 6 October 1892; d. 23 August 1985), non-commissioned officer, was awarded the Bavarian Medal of Bravery in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
for averting an explosive accident.
[Joachim Specht: ''Friedrich Bengel, Träger der Bayerischen Tapferkeitsmedaille''. In: ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 623]
* Arthur Maurer (b. 19 April 1929) is a local historian as well as the initiator and honorary chairman of the ''Kulturverein St. Michael Dirmstein'' and was awarded the Pin of Honour of the State of
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
.
* Josef Schmitt (b. 11 June 1929; d. 6 September 1995), was a Palatine painter.
* Alexander Schroth (b. 6 February 1934) is a Palatine dialectal poet and twice won the Palatine Dialectal Poetry Contest in Bockenheim.
* Walter Landin (b. 29 May 1952) is a Palatine dialectal poet, crime novel and theatre writer.
Famous people associated with the municipality
* Gideon von Camuzi (1799–1879), estate owner, was from 1843 to 1845 member of the chamber of representatives of the Kingdom of Bavaria and from 1868 to 1874 mayor.
* Joseph von Camuzi (1767–1828), estate owner and Gideon's father, was from 1801 to 1815 mayor and from 1816 member of the chamber of representatives of the Kingdom of Bavaria.
* Louis Coblitz (1814–1863), was a
genre painter
Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...
, who in Dirmstein mainly painted views of the Schlosspark.
* Lydia Hauenschild (b. 1957 in
Deggendorf
Deggendorf () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, capital of the Deggendorf district.
It is located on the left bank approximately in the middle between the Danube cities of Regensburg and Passau. The Danube forms the town's natural border towards th ...
), writer, lives in Dirmstein.
* Johann Jakob Hemmer (1733–1790), natural scientist and linguistic researcher, taught as house teacher for the Dirmstein noble family Sturmfeder, before reaching through this connection the Mannheim court of Elector
Carl Theodor.
* Albert H. Keil (b. 1947 in Mußbach), Palatine dialectal poet, literature prizewinner and three-time winner of the Palatine Dialectal Poetry Contest, lives in Dirmstein.
* Friedrich Klingmann (1874–1947), enologist, grapegrower and agricultural councillor, founded in 1924 the ''Rebenveredelungsanstalt Dirmstein'' ("Vine Ennobling Institute"), whose name was later changed to ''Weinbauversuchsanstalt'' ("Winegrowing Experimental Institute"). ''Rat-Klingmann-Weg'' is dedicated to him.
* Rüdiger Kramer (b. 1953 in Frankenthal), dialectal writer and author, winner of the theatre prize of the town of Frankenthal in 2007, lives in Dirmstein.
* Dr. rer. nat. Otfried K. Linde (b. 1932 in
Sandersleben), psychiatric natural science writer, co-publisher of documentation about crimes against psychiatric patients in the Third Reich, lives in Dirmstein.
![2006 Dirmstein-Gartenhaus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/2006_Dirmstein-Gartenhaus.jpg)
* Dr. phil. Michael Martin (b. 1947 in
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
),
town archivist of
Landau
Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...
, organized in years-long work the Dirmstein municipal archive and is publisher of the local chronicle.
*
Balthasar Neumann
Johann Balthasar Neumann (; 27 January 1687 (?) – 19 August 1753), usually known as Balthasar Neumann, was a German architect and military artillery engineer who developed a refined brand of Baroque architecture, fusing Austrian, Bohemian, Ita ...
(1687–1753) was court master builder and drew up in 1740 and 1741 the first two building plans for Saint Lawrence's Church.
* Andrea Odermann ''née'' Schmitt (b. 1974 in
Grünstadt
Grünstadt ( pfl, Grinnschdadt) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless th ...
), grew up in Dirmstein and was in 1994 and 1995 Wine Countess of the Leiningerland as well as Palatine Wine Princess in 1995 and 1996.
* Walter Perron (b. 1895; d. 1970 in Frankenthal), painter and sculptor, lived for a while in Dirmstein and about 1950 furnished a garden pavilion from the 19th century with
sgraffito
''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive laye ...
wall covering. Restoration work on the pavilion began in 2006.
[''Die Rheinpfalz'', Frankenthaler Zeitung: ''Vereine wollen Pavillon sanieren'', 20. September 2006]
* Sigismund Ranqué (b. 1743 in Ballenberg, today
Ravenstein Ravenstein may refer to:
Places
*Ravenstein, Germany in the district Neckar-Odenwald, Baden-Württemberg
*Ravenstein, Netherlands in Oss, North Brabant
*Ravenstein railway station
Films
Ravenstein a 2020 British Horror film
People with the su ...
; d. 1795),
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
and presumably a pupil of
Ignaz Holzbauer
Ignaz Jakob Holzbauer (18 September 1711 – 7 April 1783) was an Austrian composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber music, and a member of the Mannheim school. His aesthetic style is in line with that of the ''Sturm und Drang'' "m ...
, was beginning in 1764 schoolmaster and organist in Dirmstein.
* Helmut Ried (b. 1936 in
Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...
), painter, lives in Dirmstein.
* Wolfgang Wilhelm von Rießmann, Baden-Durlach court adviser and owner of the ''Koeth-Wanscheidsches Schloss'', distinguished himself by becoming the main sponsor for the decoration of the Protestant part of Saint Lawrence's Church. The municipality has dedicated ''Hofrat-Rießmann-Straße'' to him.
* Erwin Spuler (b. 1906 in
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
; d. 1964 in
Cros-de-Cagnes n the South of France, while travelling, painter, ceramic artist, draughtsman, graphic artist, lived for several years in his youth in Dirmstein, where his mother came from.
* Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler (1674–1744), Baron, Caspar Lerch IV's great-uncle, had the ''Sturmfedersches Schloss'', which was named after his family, expanded, and had the ''Michelstor'' built.
Further reading
* Walter Landin: ''Wenn erst Gras wächst'', Erzählungen. Pfälzische Verlagsanstalt, Landau 1985
* Albert H. Keil: ''"Freunde nennen mich Stani"'', Reportage. In: Landkreis Bad Dürkheim (Hrsg.): ''Heimatjahrbuch 1996''. Verlag H. Englram, Haßloch 1995,
* Marie-Christine Werner: ''Der englische Flieger – Der Mord an Cyril William Sibley''. Sendung des Südwestrundfunks in
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
am 10. Februar 2001, 21:22 Uhr; Typoskript
* Isolde Stauder: ''Wo das Dorf zu Ende geht'', Eine authentische Geschichte. Sommer Druck und Verlag, Grünstadt 2004
* Michael Martin (Hrsg.): ''Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger'', Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein. Selbstverlag der Stiftung zur Förderung der pfälzischen Geschichtsforschung, Neustadt an der Weinstraße 2005,
* Georg Peter Karn, Ulrike Weber: ''Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Kulturdenkmäler in Rheinland-Pfalz''. Band 13.2: ''Kreis Bad Dürkheim. Stadt Grünstadt, Verbandsgemeinden Freinsheim, Grünstadt-Land, Hettenleidelheim''. Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2006,
* Walter Landin: ''Anton Kocher und der englische Flieger''. In: ''Mörderische Pfalz''. Verlag Wellhöfer, Mannheim 2008
* Gemeinde Dirmstein (Hrsg.), Albert H. Keil (Redaktion): ''"Dirmstein erinnert sich"''. Tage des Gedenkens an die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Dirmstein 2009
Publikation als PDF
References
External links
Dirmstein in the collective municipality’s Web pages
{{Authority control
Bad Dürkheim (district)
Holocaust locations in Germany