Hohenems (
High Alemannic: ''Ems'') is a town in the Austrian
state of
Vorarlberg in the
Dornbirn district. It lies in the middle of the Austrian part of the
Rhine valley. With a population of 16,946, it is the fifth largest municipality in Vorarlberg and currently has the fastest population growth in the state. Hohenems' attractions include a
Renaissance palace dating back to the 16th century, a Jewish history museum, and the old town center.
Geography
The town is located at above sea level, about south of
Lake Constance
Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...
. Hohenems extends for from north to south and from west to east. Its total area is , of which 42% is covered with forest. The
oxbow lake
An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are call ...
of the river Rhine in the west, forming the border of Austria as well as
EU to Switzerland, and the mountainside in the east is at the narrowest point of the Austrian Rhine valley. The ''Schlossberg'' ("castle mountain"), elevation , offers a distinctive backdrop to the town center.
Hohenems is divided into the neighborhoods of Markt (centre), Oberklien and Unterklien (north), Hohenems-Reute (east), Schwefel (south) and Herrenried (west). It is surrounded by six other communities,
Lustenau and
Dornbirn in the Dornbirn district (north and east),
Fraxern
Fraxern is a municipality in the district of Feldkirch in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label=Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest ...
,
Götzis and
Altach
Altach is a municipality in the district of Feldkirch, in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg.
Neighboring municipalities
Five other municipalities surround Altach: Hohenems in the district of Dornbirn, Götzis and Mäder in the d ...
in the
Feldkirch district (south) and
Diepoldsau in the
Swiss canton
The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Conf ...
St. Gallen (west).
History
The summit of the ''Schlossberg'' rock, within 45 minutes walk from the town center, is crowned by the ruins of ''Alt-Ems'', a castle dating back to the 9th century CE. From the 12th century it was among the largest fortifications in the south of the
German kingdom
The Kingdom of Germany or German Kingdom ( la, regnum Teutonicorum "kingdom of the Germans", "German kingdom", "kingdom of Germany") was the mostly Germanic-speaking East Frankish kingdom, which was formed by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, especi ...
. The stronghold was very extensive, with a length of up to 800 m (2,625 ft) and a width of 85 m (280 ft). It reached its peak of fame from the 13th to 16th centuries, as a residence of many lords and knights of Hohenems. As they were loyal ''
ministeriales'' of the
Hohenstaufen dynasty, the castle served as a prison for notable prisoners like the Norman king
William III of Sicily, who probably died there in 1198.
Hohenems was granted municipal rights and liberties (German ''Stadtrecht'') in 1333, but the town did not make use of these rights for 650 years until, in 1983, the government of Vorarlberg granted Hohenems full status as a "municipality".
The
Burg Neu-Ems
Neu-Ems Castle (german: Burg Neu-Ems or ''Schloss Glopper'') is a medieval castle in Hohenems in the province of Vorarlberg, Austria. It was the fortification of the nobility ''Herren von Ems'' (Lords of Ems). Neu-Ems Castle is above sea level ...
(also called "Schloss Glopper"), built in 1343, is located on a mountain promontory near Alt-Ems. In 1407 both castles were destroyed during the
Appenzell Wars, but rebuilt shortly afterwards. Burg Neu-Ems is still intact today and is the private property of the
Waldburg-Zeil family.
The Renaissance palace stands at the foot of the Schlossberg and dominates the main square of town, the ''Schlossplatz.'' It was built from 1562 to 1567, according to plans by architect
Martino Longhi the Elder at the initiative of Cardinal Marcus Sittich Hohenems (Altemps), architect who also designed the Cardinal’s palace in Rome. Religious wars and a plague decimated the population and devastated the area over the next century, ironically the time of the greatest power of the (Protestant)
Counts of Hohenems
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New Yor ...
, when they acquired
Vaduz Castle from what was later to become
Liechtenstein. Two manuscripts of the
Nibelungenlied were found in Hohenems, in 1755 and 1779, in the palace's library.
The first café (1797), bank and printing office (1920) of Vorarlberg were opened in Hohenems.
Jewish heritage
The Jewish community in Hohenems had its beginnings with a charter in 1617. Soon thereafter a
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 ...
, a ritual bath (
mikvah
Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Most forms of ritual impurity can be purifi ...
), a school and a poorhouse were built. A cemetery was established on the southern outskirts of town. Jewish economic activity in the town resulted in the first coffee house in 1797, and in 1841, the first bank and insurance company in Vorarlberg. The Hohenems Jewish community celebrated its golden era around 1862, with nearly 600 Jewish citizens, 12% of the population. The Jewish presence in town was terminated in 1942 with the
deportation of the last remaining Jew, Frieda Nagelberg, to Vienna and eventually to
Izbica. Recently three Jewish people have moved into Hohenems.
The synagogue survived the
Kristallnacht without damage. It was acquired by the municipality after the war and converted into a fire station. All objects pertaining to its use as a synagogue were removed or destroyed. In 2001 the synagogue was renovated and it now used as a cultural centre. The Jewish quarter, which has had historical preservation status since 1996, includes numerous townhouses and mansions surrounding the synagogue. Along with the former ''Christengasse'' ("Christian Lane"), renamed ''Marktstrasse'' (Market Street), it forms the urban core of Hohenems.
In 1991, the
Jewish Museum Hohenems was opened in a mansion in the center of the Jewish quarter. The museum commemorates the history of the Jewish community in Hohenems. The many remaining objects it exhibits bear witness to the former flourishing Jewish community in Hohenems. As part of its remembrance culture, a section of the museum is dedicated to the memory of the darkest chapter in Vorarlberg history – the national socialist period, and its attempts to eliminate all traces of Jewish culture in Vorarlberg and beyond. The Jewish cemetery south of the town dates to the first Jewish settlement in 1617 and is still in use today. It contains more than 500 graves, with 370 surviving gravestones.
Mayors
2004–2015: Richard Amann
Since December 2015: Dieter Egger (born 1969)
Population
Infrastructure
Apart from the historical sites, the town center is rapidly developing a modest urban ambience, with hotels, shops, and restaurants. On the outskirts of town there are large businesses, with branches of multinational retail chains and a ten-screen
multiplex. On the way to the mountain village ''Reute'', high above Hohenems, there is a unique museum – ''Stoffels Säge-Mühle'' ("Stoffel's Sawmill") – which presents the history of saw milling and mill grinding technologies.
Hohenems has several leisure amenities. In the mountain area there is a small ski resort (''Schuttannen'') and a rock-climbing area called ''Löwenzähne'' ("Lion's Teeth") with walls up to 150 m (500 ft) and level 10. There also is a wide range of hiking trails and mountain biking routes nearby. The town boasts of the largest recreational centers (13 hectares) in Vorarlberg, situated on the banks of the river Rhine's oxbow lake.
One section of the hospital in Hohenems was originally built in 1908, and has now been totally renovated. Called the ''Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Krankenhaus'' (
"Empress Elisabeth hospital"), it is a magnificent example of
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
architecture. It hosts the
palliative care unit. The modern General Hospital was built in 1972.
Transport
Two state roads, the ''Vorarlberger Strasse'' L190 and the ''Rheinstrasse'' L203 cross the municipality from north to south. The L46 leads from the town center to the customs buildings at the border to Switzerland. Hohenems has motorway access to the ''Rheintal/Walgau-Autobahn'' (Austrian A14/
European route E60).
Hohenems railway station is on the main west–east route connecting the
Vorarlberg railway
The Vorarlberg Railway (german: Vorarlbergbahn) denotes a through line running through the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. Its route is similar to the Rheintal/Walgau Autobahn from the border between Lindau and Hörbranz to Bludenz, where it connec ...
line () in the directions
Bregenz and
Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
. The train system is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (
ÖBB).
The sole
airfield in Vorarlberg, with a 630 m (2,066 ft) runway, is located within the municipal borders
Trivia
Hohenems was one of the locations in the Swiss-Austrian film ''
Akte Grüninger
''Akte Grüninger'' is a Swiss-Austrian feature film produced in 2013 for the Swiss television SRF. The television film focuses on events in late summer 1938, when Paul Grüninger saved the lives of up to 3,600 Jewish refugees from Germany and Au ...
''.
The town is the site of the climax of
Dennis Wheatley
Dennis Yeats Wheatley (8 January 1897 – 10 November 1977) was a British writer whose prolific output of thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series ...
's novel about the 1914 outbreak of the First World War, ''The Second Seal'' (1950).
Bernard Levin mentions Hohenems in his book ''Conducted Tour'' (1982) as being the location of a music festival where all the works of
Franz Schubert were performed in chronological order.
Twin towns
Hohenems has
twinned
Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to:
* In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so;
* Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning
* Twinning inst ...
with
Bystré and
Polička
Polička (; german: Politschka) is a town in Svitavy District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,700 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Administrat ...
in the
Czech Republic ''(since 1997)''
Notable persons
*
Rudolf von Ems (1200–1254),
Middle High German poet and minstrel.
*
Markus Sittich von Hohenems
Mark Sittich von Hohenems (24 June 1574 – 9 October 1619) was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1612 until his death.
Biography
Mark Sittich von Hohenems was born in Hohenems, Further Austria ( Vorarlberg), a member of the noble House of Em ...
(1574–1619),
Archbishop of Salzburg
*
Salomon Sulzer (1804–1890), reform
cantor and composer
*
August Brentano (1829–1886),
New York City newspaper dealer; emigrated in 1851
*
Eugen Steinach (1861–1944), an Austrian physiologist and pioneer in
endocrinology.
*
Bernhard Vogel, (DE Wiki) (1913–2000), politician (SPÖ), member of Parliament and the Federal Council
*
Michael Köhlmeier (born 1949), Austrian writer and musician, lives locally
*
Hans Jörg Schelling (born 1953), entrepreneur, politician (ÖVP) and former Federal
Minister of Finance
*
Fatima Spar, (DE Wiki) (born 1977), jazz singer and composer
Sport
*
Adi Hütter (born 1970), football player and coach, played 480 games and 14 for
Austria
*
Wolfram Waibel Jr.
Wolfram Waibel Jr. (born 22 February 1970) is an Austrian sport shooter.
He was born in Hohenems, Austria. He competed for Austria and won both a silver medal and a bronze medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics ( ...
(born 1970), sports marksman, bronze and silver medallist at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
*
Harald Morscher
Harald Morscher (born 22 June 1972) is an Austrian former professional cyclist. He competed in the men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He also won the Austrian National Road Race Championships in 2004.
Major results
;1994
: ...
(born 1972), retired cyclist
*
Christian Klien (born 1983), former
Formula One racing driver
*
Ramazan Özcan
Ramazan Özcan ( born 28 June 1984) is an Austrian former professional footballer of Turkish descent, who played as a goalkeeper.
Career Club
Özcan started his professional career with Austria Lustenau in 2003, and moved to Red Bull Salzburg ...
(born 1984),
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 ...
goalkeeper, played over 240 games and 10 for
Austria
*
Matthias Brändle (born 1989), professional cyclist
*
Kevin Fend
Kevin Fend (born 8 April 1990) is an Austrian footballer who plays for Dornbirner SV.
External links
*
1990 births
Living people
Association football goalkeepers
Austrian footballers
SC Rheindorf Altach players
SV Grödig players
SV ...
(born 1990), an Austrian football goalkeeper; has played over 330 games
*
Marcel Mathis
Marcel Mathis (born December 24, 1991) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Born in Hohenems, Vorarlberg, he primarily competed on the European Cup circuit, but raced in several World Cup events, all in giant slalom.
Mathis' fi ...
(born 1993), alpine skier
*
David Reinbacher, professional ice hockey player
Notes
External links
Town of HohenemsJewish Museum of Hohenems
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Dornbirn District
Holocaust locations in Austria
Vorarlberg