Hohenems (
High Alemannic
High Alemannic is a dialect of Alemannic German spoken in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Language area
The High Alemannic dialects are spoken in Liechtenstein and in most of German-speaking S ...
: ''Ems'') is a town in the
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
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
Vorarlberg
Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with th ...
in the
Dornbirn district. It lies in the middle of the Austrian part of the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, source ...
valley. With a population of 15,200, it is the fifth largest municipality in Vorarlberg. Hohenems' attractions include a
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
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 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, called the Lak ...
. 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
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, 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
Lustenau (; gsw, Luschnou) is a town in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg in the district of Dornbirn. It lies on the river Rhine, which forms the border with Switzerland. Lustenau is Vorarlberg's fourth largest town.
Geography
...
and
Dornbirn
Dornbirn () is a city in the westernmost Austrian state of Vorarlberg. It is the administrative centre for the district of Dornbirn, which also includes the town of Hohenems, and the market town Lustenau.
Dornbirn is the largest city in Vorarlb ...
in the Dornbirn district (north and east),
Fraxern,
Götzis
Götzis is a town in the western Austrian state of Vorarlberg. The Alpine Rhine valley municipality belongs to the district of Feldkirch.
Population
Events
The town is well known for its annual hypo-combined events meeting, the so-called Hyp ...
and
Altach in the
Feldkirch district
The Bezirk Feldkirch is an administrative district ('' Bezirk'') in Vorarlberg, Austria.
Area of the district is 278.26 km², population is 100,656 (2012), and population density 362 persons per km². Administrative center of the district is ...
(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 Co ...
St. Gallen
, neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach
, twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic)
, website = ...
(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, espec ...
. 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
The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire.
The word and its German translations, ''Minist ...
'' of the
Hohenstaufen
The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynas ...
dynasty, the castle served as a prison for notable prisoners like the Norman king
William III of Sicily
William III ( it, Guglielmo III; c. 1186 c. 1198), a scion of the Hauteville dynasty, was the last Norman King of Sicily, who reigned briefly for ten months in 1194. He was overthrown by his great-aunt Constance and her husband Emperor Henry VI. ...
, 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 (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
The Appenzell Wars (german: Appenzeller Kriege) were a series of conflicts that lasted from 1401 until 1429 in the Appenzell region of modern-day Switzerland. The wars consisted of uprisings of cooperative groups, such as the farmers of Appenzell ...
, but rebuilt shortly afterwards. Burg Neu-Ems is still intact today and is the private property of the
Waldburg-Zeil
Waldburg-Zeil was a County and later Principality within Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Waldburg, located in southeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located around Schloss Zeil, near Leutkirch im Allgäu.
History
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. 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, when they acquired
Vaduz Castle from what was later to become
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...
. Two manuscripts of the
Nibelungenlied
The ( gmh, Der Nibelunge liet or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germani ...
were found in Hohenems, in 1755 and 1779, in the palace's library.
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 wor ...
, 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 purif ...
), 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
Deportation is the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. The term ''expulsion'' is often used as a synonym for deportation, though expulsion is more often used in the context of international law, while deportation ...
of the last remaining Jew, Frieda Nagelberg, to Vienna and eventually to
Izbica
Izbica ( yi, איזשביצע ''Izhbitz, Izhbitze'') is a village in the Krasnystaw County of the Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina administrative district called Gmina Izbica. It lies approximately south of Kr ...
. Recently three Jewish people have moved into Hohenems.
The synagogue survived the
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation fro ...
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
Multiplex may refer to:
* Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make
* Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain
* Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company
* Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measu ...
. 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
Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...
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
European route E 60 is the second longest road in the International E-road network. It runs , from Brest, France (on the Atlantic coast), to Irkeshtam, Kyrgyzstan (on the border with China).
Route
*
**: Brest ()
**: Brest - Quimper - ...
) and is on the main west-east route connecting the ''Vorarlbergbahn'' railway line in the directions
Bregenz
Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...
and
Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...
. The train system is operated by the Austrian Federal Railways (
ÖBB
The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...
). 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 w ...
's novel about the 1914 outbreak of the First World War, ''The Second Seal'' (1950).
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship t ...
mentions Hohenems in his book ''Conducted Tour'' (1982) as being the location of a music festival where all the works of
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...
were performed in chronological order.
Twin towns
Hohenems has
twinned 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.
Administra ...
in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
''(since 1997)''Website of Hohenems
- Sistercities: Bystre and Policka
Notable persons
*
Jean Améry
Jean Améry (31 October 191217 October 1978), born Hanns Chaim Mayer, was an Austrian-born essayist whose work was often informed by his experiences during World War II. His most celebrated work, ''At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Surv ...
, (1912-1978),
resistance fighter against Nazism, essayist
*
Matthias Brandle (born 1989), professional cyclist
*
August Brentano
August Brentano (undated)
August Brentano (1828''-''1886) was a New York City newspaper dealer.
Background
August Brentano was born on December 23, 1828, in Hohenems, Austria. He immigrated to New York in 1851.
Career
Brentano started a busin ...
(1829-1886), newspaper dealer
*
Rudolf von Ems (1200-1254), medieval poet and minstrel
*
Adi Hütter
Adolf Hütter (; born 11 February 1970) is an Austrian professional football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of Borussia Mönchengladbach. As a player, Hütter reached the 1993–94 UEFA Cup final, won the Austrian c ...
(born 1970), football player and coach
*
Christian Klien
Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver. In total he has scored 14 points in Formula One. Klien currently competes full-time in the GT World Challenge Europe for JP Motorsport.
Racing career
Bor ...
(born 1983),
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing driver
*
(born 1949), Austrian writer and musician
*
Marcel Mathis (born 1993), alpine skier
*
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), cyclist
*
Ramazan Özcan (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 ...
goalkeeper
*
Hans Jörg Schelling
Hans Jörg Schelling (born 27 December 1953 in Hohenems, Vorarlberg as Johann Georg Schelling) is an Austrian entrepreneur and politician of the Austrian People's Party and who served as Minister of Finance of Austria in the governments of chanc ...
(born 1953), entrepreneur, politician (ÖVP) and former Federal Minister of Finance
*
Mark Sittich von Hohenems (Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg) (1574-1619), Archbishop of Salzburg
*
Salomon Sulzer
Salomon Sulzer ( he, סלומון זולצר, March 30, 1804, Hohenems, Vorarlberg – January 17, 1890, Vienna) was an Austrian ''hazzan'' (cantor) and composer.
Biography
His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of ''Levi'', removed to ...
(1804-1890), reform cantor and composer
*Bernhard Vogel (1913-2000), politician, member of Parliament and the Federal Council (SPÖ)
*
Wolfram Waibel Jr. (born 1970), Austrian sports marksman
*
Eckart Witzigmann
Eckart Witzigmann is an Austrian chef.
After his chef-apprenticeship in the Hotel Straubinger in Bad Gastein (1957–60), Witzigmann moved on to numerous positions in prestigious restaurants around the world, among others as a student of Paul B ...
(born 1941), cook, awarded three stars in
Michelin
Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and larg ...
*
Fatima Spar (born 1977), jazz singer and composer
Notes
External links
Town of HohenemsJewish Museum of Hohenems
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Dornbirn District
Holocaust locations in Austria
Vorarlberg