Ilsfeld is a municipality in the district of
Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
in
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
in
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 ...
, on the outer edge of the
Stuttgart Metropolitan Region
The Stuttgart Metropolitan Region is a metropolitan region in south-west Germany consisting of the cities and regions around Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Tübingen/Reutlingen. These cities are arranged into three agglomeration areas. The population of th ...
. In addition to the village of Ilsfeld proper, it includes the formerly independent settlements of Auenstein and Schozach and some hamlets. Formerly predominantly agricultural, it has become more commercially oriented since an
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'. ...
exit was built in the 1950s. The village of Ilsfeld was largely destroyed by a fire in 1904, and was rebuilt with public buildings in a rustic Württemberg style with
Jugendstil
''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...
elements.
Geography
Ilsfeld is located in the south of the district of Heilbronn, in and around the valley of the
Schozach
Schozach is a river in Germany. It is a right tributary of the Neckar in the southern part of the Heilbronn district of Baden-Württemberg. It has its source near the village Vorhof near Untergruppenbach in the Löwenstein Hills and flows th ...
near the point where the
Gruppenbach flows into it. Parts of the town fall within two
natural area
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or o ...
s: Schwäbisch-Fränkische Waldberge (Swabian-Franconian Wooded Mountains) and Neckarbecken (
Neckar
The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenn ...
Basin).
The town is bordered by (clockwise from the south): Großbottwar (in the
district of Ludwigsburg),
Neckarwestheim
Neckarwestheim is a municipality with 3524 inhabitants in the Heilbronn district, Baden-Württemberg, in south-west Germany. It is located on the Neckar river and is well known as the location of a nuclear power station, the Neckarwestheim Nuclea ...
,
Lauffen am Neckar
Lauffen am Neckar () or simply Lauffen is a town in the district of Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is on the river Neckar, southwest of Heilbronn. The town is famous as the birthplace of the poet Friedrich Hölderlin and for its qu ...
,
Talheim
Talheim () is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in E ...
,
Untergruppenbach
Untergruppenbach () is a municipality near Heilbronn, a city in the northern half of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
There are a total of 7,600 inhabitants living in six villages that form the municipality of Untergruppenbach. Approxim ...
,
Abstatt
Abstatt () is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
Geography
Abstatt is situated in the south of the district of Heilbronn at the Schozach river. Heilbronn is about to the northwest.
Neighb ...
and
Beilstein (all in the district of Heilbronn). It is the seat of the ''Gemeindeverwaltungsverband'' (local government association) of Schozach-Bottwartal, whose other members are Abstatt, Beilstein and Untergruppenbach.
Ilsfeld proper, Auenstein and Schozach are sections of the town; the first also includes the
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of Wüstenhausen, the settlements of Landturm and Untere Mühle and the neighborhood of Engelsberghöfe, and Auenstein also includes two hamlets, Abstetterhof and Helfenberg. Ilsfeld proper also formerly included the no longer extant settlements of Beuren, Bustatt or Boestat, Gendach, Froßbach and Seetham, and Auenstein formerly included Finkenbach (now part of Helfenberg) and Kapfenhardt.
History
Frankish court site
The territory of Ilsfeld has been settled almost without interruption since the
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
and
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. After the
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, ...
expanded into the area, five ancient
Alemanni
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 settlements were subsumed in a royal court location that is the basis of the present-day town. At the former settlement of Gendach, on the Schozach near Ilsfeld, there was a small motte and bailey castle, no traces of which remain. The royal center at Ilsfeld led to new settlements in the area, such as Westheim (Neckarwestheim), Ostheim (Auenstein) and Talheim, named for their relationship to Ilsfeld and marked as Frankish by the termination -''heim''.
The first recorded mention of Ilsfeld itself is in an 1102 charter of
Emperor Henry IV
Henry IV (german: Heinrich IV; 11 November 1050 – 7 August 1106) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 to 1105, King of Germany from 1054 to 1105, King of Italy and Burgundy from 1056 to 1105, and Duke of Bavaria from 1052 to 1054. He was the son ...
granting land in ''Ilisvelt'' to the
Bishopric of Speyer
The Prince-Bishopric of Speyer, formerly known as Spires in English, (German: ''Hochstift Speyer, Fürstbistum Speyer, Bistum Speyer'') was an ecclesiastical principality in what are today the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Würt ...
. The name presumably designated the entire area and may have been derived from the Schozach, whose upper reaches appear to have been called the Ils. In 1157, after threats from
King Conrad III, Ilsfeld returned to
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 dynasty ...
control. In the late 12th and 13th centuries, a local noble family developed, the Lords of Ilsfeld, who were
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, ''Minis ...
of the
Margraves of Baden
The Margraviate of Baden (german: Markgrafschaft Baden) was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Spread along the east side of the Upper Rhine River in southwestern Germany, it was named a margraviate in 1112 and existed until 1535, ...
; either they or relatives of theirs were responsible for building a castle near Ilsfeld on the
Wunnenstein
Wunnenstein is a hill in Baden-Württemberg, 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 ...
.
Border territory of Württemberg
![Ilsfeld-kieser1685](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Ilsfeld-kieser1685.jpg)
In 1368 Ilsfeld became the property of
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
; by about 1460 it had become a fief of 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 ...
or reeve of Lauffen am Neckar. It was a border territory; to the north, Talheim had become the property of the
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
, and beyond that lay for example
Flein
Flein () is a municipality in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany.
Geography
Flein is situated in the south of the district of Heilbronn and directly borders on to Heilbronn in the south.
Neighbouring municipal ...
, which belonged to the Imperial City of
Heilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
From the late Mid ...
,
Stettenfels Castle
Stettenfels Castle is a medieval castle above the town of Untergruppenbach in Heilbronn. It was once owned by Hans Fugger and is now used for cultural events.
History
The castle was built in the 11th century, probably at about the same time ...
, property of the
Electorate of the 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
County of Löwenstein. In 1450, during
Count Ulrich V's war against 30 Swabian Imperial Cities, Ilsfeld was attacked by Heilsbronn forces; the village was laid waste, with 40 people killed and 300 head of livestock removed.
In 1456 the ''Württembergischer Landgraben'' (Württemberg Ditch) was created as a border fortification running north of Ilsfeld, with a defensive tower, the ''Landturm'', north of the hamlet of Wüstenhausen. In 1460 the Battle of Wüstenhausen took place there, with Duke Ulrich defeating the forces of
Frederick the Victorious, Elector Palatine. The many battles in the 15th century are probably why Ilsfeld was surrounded by a high wall with ten towers.
Ilsfeld suffered greatly in the wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1519,
Duke William IV of Bavaria quartered his army there; during 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 ...
there were outbreaks of
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
in 1626 and 1634 and Imperial troops were quartered there in 1638/39; and in 1645 it was plundered by French, Hessian and Weimar troops. During the war the population shrank from about 1,200 to barely 100, and years after the war ended, many fields and vineyards were still abandoned. Despite a large number of settlers from Austria and Switzerland, it took approximately a century for the settlement to recover. During that time there were further quarterings of troops and required contributions. Between 1672 and 1675, Brandenburg troops were several times quartered in Ilsfeld. In 1693, during the
War of the Palatine Succession
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 monarc ...
, French troops used it as a base to attack Heilbronn.
Rural district of Württemberg
![Ilsfeld Bahnhof 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Ilsfeld_Bahnhof_2013.jpg)
In the 18th century, there was again peace and modest growth in Ilsfeld. After the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
, following which the entire surrounding area became Württemberg territory, and after a territorial reorganization of the Duchy, Ilsfeld belonged to the ''Oberamt'' of Bietigheim beginning in 1808, and then to the ''Oberamt'' of Besigheim beginning in 1810. The settlement slowly grew beyond its medieval borders, first west and east along the main street. By 1832, the town gates no longer existed. In 1844, for the first time, the number of inhabitants officially exceeded 2,000. However, poverty was ever-present until well into the 19th century. There were famines in 1816, 1831 and 1841, and between 1810 and 1890, 651 residents emigrated, mostly to America but also to Africa (the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
) and Russia (the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
).
Between 1889 and 1891, a road was built connecting Ilsfeld to the administrative center of Besigheim, and in November 1899 a segment of the
Bottwar Valley Railway
The Bottwar is a river in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It passes through Großbottwar and flows into the Murr in Steinheim an der Murr.
See also
*List of rivers of Baden-Württemberg
A list of rivers of Baden-Württemberg, Germany:
A
* Aal
...
was inaugurated; the following year, this was extended from Ilsfeld to Heilbronn South. The
Royal Württemberg State Railways
The Royal Württemberg State Railways (''Königlich Württembergische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.W.St.E.'') were the state railways of the Kingdom of Württemberg (from 1918 the ''People's State of Württemberg'') between 1843 and 1920. Please ...
built the station at Ilsfeld as a unified station of Type IIIa. The railroad caused Ilsfeld to develop in the early 20th century from a purely rural settlement to a bedroom community for Heilbronn, where more than 200 residents were soon working, mostly in factories such as the Ackermann
plying
In the textile arts, plying (from the French verb ''plier'', "to fold", from the Latin verb ''plico'', from the ancient Greek verb .) is a process of twisting one or more strings (called strands) of yarn together to create a stronger yarn. Strands ...
mill, the
Knorr soup factory, the Bruckmann silverware factory and the Flammer soap factory. After an electricity generating plant was built in
Pleidelsheim
Pleidelsheim is a municipality in the state of Baden-Württemberg, about north of Stuttgart. Pleidelsheim is situated on the right bank of the Neckar river across from Ingersheim. This historical town has buildings that date back to the 14th ...
around 1907, Ilsfeld was electrified by 1914.
1904 fire
![IlsfeldBrand](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/IlsfeldBrand.jpg)
On August 4, 1904, approximately of the town burned; 130 buildings were destroyed, including the town hall, the school, the church and 77 barns. One person was killed and 706 left homeless. The losses were assessed at 1,392,696
Reichsmark
The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...
s. The fire was caused by a
portable stove
A portable stove is a cooking stove specially designed to be portable and lightweight, used in camping, picnicking, backpacking, or other use in remote locations where an easily transportable means of cooking or heating is needed. Portable stoves ...
that children were using to bake apples and that tipped over. Firefighting efforts were considerably hindered by the different hose couplings used by Württemberg firefighting units. The fire shocked the whole of Germany; during the following days
King William II visited the town, as did more than 40,000 of the curious.
By August 8, the Württemberg Ministerial Division of Road and Water Construction had organized a rebuilding committee led by ''Oberbaurat'' Richard Leibbrand, which began by erecting a temporary barracks encampment to house the homeless over the winter. A new town plan was then drawn up: when the town was rebuilt, the main street (still the center of the town and called ''König-Wilhelm-Straße'' since 1906) was widened by by not rebuilding on the slope leading up to the church and instead supporting the hillside with a retaining wall, the ''Planmauer'', which was extended by about . The major public buildings (town hall, church, school, teacher's and minister's residences, and the Dorastift kindergarten) were designed by the architects
Paul Schmohl and Georg Stähelin in a traditional Swabian style with
Jugendstil
''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...
elements. By 1906, rebuilding was largely complete.
Ilsfeld remained primarily rural in character until
World War II
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 ...
; industry failed to gain a foothold, primarily because of a lack of infrastructure. In 1935 there were 335 agricultural concerns, mainly smallholdings, employing 40–60% of the residents, and 120 small businesses with a total of 220 employees. A planned
post bus
A postbus is a public bus service that is operated as part of local mail delivery as a means of providing public transport in rural areas with lower levels of patronage, where a normal bus service would be uneconomic or inefficient. Postbus ser ...
connection to Lauffen am Neckar, which would have enabled residents to work at the cement works, failed to materialize in 1929.
Third Reich
Hugo Heinrich, elected ''Schultheiß'' in 1916 (his title became ''Bürgermeister'', mayor, in 1932) became a member of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
in 1934 and remained in office throughout 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 ...
; he petitioned to retire for reasons of ill health in 1937 but was unable to obtain the necessary medical certification. From 1939 on, he was also mayor of Schozach under a joint arrangement.
Construction began in 1935 on the
Reichsautobahn
The ''Reichsautobahn'' system was the beginning of the German autobahns under Nazi Germany. There had been previous plans for controlled-access highways in Germany under the Weimar Republic, and two had been constructed, but work had yet to star ...
segment between Heilbronn and Stuttgart, now
Bundesautobahn 81
is a motorway in Germany. It branches off the A 3 at the Würzburg-West triangle and ends near the border with Switzerland.
The oldest part of the A 81 between the Weinsberg intersection ( A 6) near Heilbronn and Dreieck Leonberg ...
, which passes through the southeastern part of Ilsfeld. When the ''Oberamt'' of Besigheim was dissolved in 1938, unlike most other localities within it, Ilsfeld became part of the district of Heilbronn.
During the war, Ilsfeld was at first largely spared by air raids, although surrounding localities were heavily affected beginning in 1941. After Heilbronn was bombed on December 4, 1944, approximately 600 people fled to Ilsfeld, which was already full of
refugee
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. s and
expellees. In the final days of the war, on April 14 and 16, 1945, Ilsfeld itself became a bombing target; about 50 buildings were destroyed and several people were killed. The town was occupied by American troops on April 20. Refugees caused the number of inhabitants to swell from 1,999 in 1939 to 2,164 at the end of 1945.
Post-war
After Hugo Heinrich retired in 1947, two temporary mayors were appointed, followed in 1947/48 by Gottlob Frank, who had previously acted as the mayor's deputy. In 1948 Eugen Härle was elected to the position; he served until 1974, from 1954 to 1972, when it was annexed by Ilsfeld, once again also as mayor of Schozach.
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'. ...
was not returned to service until 1950. At first Ilsfeld only had one-way access for military vehicles; in 1956 an exit was built, and in 1968–74, two rest stops. The railroad was closed in 1967; together with the proximity of the autobahn exit, this meant increasing traffic problems in the villages of Ilsfeld and Auenstein. Auenstein was helped with a bypass in the 1990s.
In 1950, what is now the town of Ilsfeld had 571 farms employing 1,151 people, and 217 commercial businesses employing 448. Since the 1950s, an influx of business and industry has caused considerable development in the area, with processing soon replacing agriculture as the primary source of employment. The business district of Ilsfeld proper extends from the center of the town east to the autobahn exit, and starting with the 1952 ''Kernersiedlung'', large new residential developments have appeared to the east, north, and south. The other centers within the town have also experienced both residential and commercial development. In 1987, there were 58 farms employing 203 people, and 332 commercial businesses employing 2,029. Numerous foreigners migrated to the area to work beginning in the early 1960s; in 1987, of approximately 6,200 residents, about 550 were non-Germans.
In February 1970, a large section of the Planmauer collapsed; renovation lasted until 1974, and plans were made at the same time for renewal of the now aged village centre, which was carried out in the 1980s. This involved demolition and replacement of numerous old residential buildings that had survived the 1904 fire and restoration of buildings erected after the fire.
Annexations
Ilsfeld annexed Schozach on July 1, 1971. On December 31, 1973, Ilsfeld and Auenstein (including Abstetterhof and Helfenberg) were combined to form the new town of Ilsfeld.
Governance
Town council
In an election on June 7, 2009, the town council was reduced from 22 to 20 seats. The mayor is also a member and presides.
Coat of arms
The
blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...
of the coat of arms of Ilsfeld is: On a field of silver, a black stag's
antler
Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...
(the Württemberg heraldic emblem) over a rooted green tree. The town flag is green and white.
The tree is the ancient symbol of Ilsfeld, appearing on boundary markers since at least 1685. The stag's antler is the heraldic symbol of Württemberg. Official seals of Ilsfeld have combined the two since 1468 (the oldest known village seal and arms in Württemberg). The antler was originally to the right of the tree; the current arrangement was adopted in 1596. The colors are attested since the late 16th century. The arms were adopted by the unified town after the annexation of Auenstein, and were officially granted by the District of Heilbronn on January 24, 1978.
Twinning
*
Ottery St Mary
Ottery St Mary, known as "Ottery", is a town and civil parish in the East Devon district of Devon, England, on the River Otter, about east of Exeter on the B3174. At the 2001 census, the parish, which includes the villages of Metcombe, Fair ...
, United Kingdom (Since 2003)
*
Auenstein, Switzerland
*
Moşna, Romania
Culture and sights
Religion
Ilsfeld and Auenstein each have a
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 ...
parish; Ilsfeld also has a
New Apostolic
The New Apostolic Church (NAC) is a Christian church that split from the Catholic Apostolic Church during an 1863 schism in Hamburg, Germany.
The church has existed since 1863 in Germany and since 1897 in the Netherlands. It came abo ...
parish.
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 ...
belong to the Catholic parish of Untergruppenbach and
Methodists to the parish of Abstatt-Happenbach.
Buildings
After the 1904 fire, numerous
Jugendstil
''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...
buildings were erected in the village of Ilsfeld. The Protestant church of St. Bartholomew on the Spreuerberg hill, designed by Paul Schmohl, incorporates a late
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 ...
choir
A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...
and portions of the tower and west end of the former church and has Jugendstil decorations by Josef Zeitler. The nearby town hall has a Jugendstil entrance, and the school, the
parsonage
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically own ...
, and the Dorastift kindergarten are similar in style. The town hall was enlarged in 1993.
The Dorastift is on the site of the original parsonage, which was the childhood home of
Ferdinand von Steinbeis, a 19th-century Württemberg politician, and until her death in 1817 the home of his grandmother Friederike Kerner, mother of
Justinus Kerner
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (18 September 1786, in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany – 21 February 1862, in Weinsberg, Baden-Württemberg) was a German poet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed des ...
; her grave is in the Ilsfeld cemetery. As a result of endowments made in the 1880s, a kindergarten was established there, and the building was replaced after the 1904 fire with a kindergarten and public bath donated by
Karl Vollmöller
Karl Gustav Vollmöller (or Vollmoeller; 7 May 1878 – 18 October 1948) was a German philologist, archaeologist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and aircraft designer. He is most famous for the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime '' The Mira ...
and named for his wife Theodora.
The buildings erected along the main street after the fire in many cases have massive ground floors influenced by Jugendstil, but mostly traditional ''
Fachwerk
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 ...
'' (half-timbering) on their upper stories. The Gasthaus Krone retains a
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 ...
first floor with a decorated doorway constructed in 1766.
Only fragments of the town wall and its ten towers remain; these include the south wall of the cemetery and portions of the wall around the church, and two remaining towers in Turmstraße and Bollwerkstraße at the east end of the formerly walled area. The ''Obere Bollwerkturm'' was converted to a residence in 1919 with a half-timbered addition. The so-called ''Steinhaus'' in Mühlstraße, dating to 1585, is one of the oldest buildings in Ilsfeld.
In the hamlet of Wüstenhausen are the ruins of a 15th-century chapel and the ''Landturm'', part of the ''Württembergischer Landgraben'' defensive works.
Above the hamlet of Helfenberg, part of Auenstein, are the ruins of the mid-13th-century
Helfenberg Castle.
Events
The annual ''Ilsfelder Holzmarkt'' market was described as an ancient tradition in 1521. It takes place on the last weekend in August; in the 1970s it developed into a peddlers' market with a fun fair and events marquee.
Economy
Ilsfeld is a wine-growing area, with vineyards belonging to the Schozachtal, Wunnenstein und Kirchenweinberg sections of the Württembergisch Unterland wine-producing region. Viticulturists in Ilsfeld, Auenstein, Helfenberg und Abstatt belong to the ''Weingärtnergenossenschaft Mittleres Schozachtal''. Carina Läpple was the first Ilsfelder chosen Württemberg Wine Queen, in 2000. The town is also on the ''Württemberger Weinstraße''.
Since the 1950s, several
business park
A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...
s have transformed the formerly largely agricultural area. In the 1970s and 1980s, businesses employing between one and four people made up roughly two thirds of the 235 commercial employers in Ilsfeld, and there were only three or four businesses with more than 50 employees. Processing was for a long time the most significant source of employment in the town, but in the 1980s there was a large increase in the number of people employed in sales and services, in particular.
Transportation
Ilsfeld is located on
Bundesautobahn 81
is a motorway in Germany. It branches off the A 3 at the Würzburg-West triangle and ends near the border with Switzerland.
The oldest part of the A 81 between the Weinsberg intersection ( A 6) near Heilbronn and Dreieck Leonberg ...
(Würzburg – Stuttgart) and has its own exit. From 1899 to 1968, Ilsfeld, Auenstein and Schozach had stations on the
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 ...
Bottwar Valley Railway (
Marbach am Neckar
Marbach am Neckar is a town about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. It belongs to the district of Ludwigsburg, the Stuttgart region and the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart. Marbach is known as the birthplace of Friedrich Schiller, to w ...
–
Heilbronn South); the tracks have been taken up and the Alb-Neckar bicycle trail (
Eberbach –
Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
) now runs along most of the route.
Since March 1, 2008, with increased restrictions beginning January 1, 2012, Ilsfeld proper restricts traffic to non-polluting vehicles.
Media
Ilsfeld is covered by the SO (''Süd-Ost'', Southeast) edition of the ''
Heilbronner Stimme Heilbronner or Heilbroner is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Edgar Heilbronner (1921–2006), Swiss German chemist
*Johann Christoph Heilbronner (1706–1745), German mathematical historian and theologian
*Louie Heilbroner (186 ...
'' newspaper.
Education
The ''Steinbeis-Schulzentrum Ilsfeld'' school center includes a primary school and
Hauptschule
A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...
secondary school, a
Werkrealschule Werkrealschule is a relatively young branch of German secondary education (e.g. in Baden-Württemberg), which offers pupils additional lessons in grades 8 and 9 and allows them to qualify after ten years with a final exam which is equal to graduatio ...
vocationally oriented secondary school, and the Steinbeis
Realschule
''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...
. Auenstein has its own primary school, and Ilsfeld also has a
special education
Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
school.
There is a town library.
Sports
Ilsfeld has an open-air pool with an associated
DLRG
The German Life Saving Association (german: Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft or DLRG) is a relief organization for life saving in Germany. The DLRG is the largest voluntary lifesaving organization in the world.
With around 560,000 membe ...
lifesaving club. The ''Grün-Weiß'' (green and white) tennis club has a clubhouse and several tennis courts adjacent.
The Sportclub Ilsfeld (SCI) offers badminton,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
, judo, karate, track and field, gymnastics, and volleyball.
Notable people
Honorary citizens
By a decision of the community council dated July 12, 1906, the following people were declared honorary citizens of Ilsfeld in recognition of their services during the rebuilding after the 1904 fire:
*
Richard Leibbrand
* Councilman Zimmermann (died 1911), Besigheim
*
Karl Vollmöller
Karl Gustav Vollmöller (or Vollmoeller; 7 May 1878 – 18 October 1948) was a German philologist, archaeologist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and aircraft designer. He is most famous for the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime '' The Mira ...
(1848-1922), German philologist
*
Robert Vollmöller (1849 – 1911)
*
Julius Spohn (1841 – 1919)
* Ernst Hartmann (minister)
The following have been awarded honorary citizenship since then:
* 1951:
Gottlob Obenland (1871 – 1966)
* 1971: Gottlob Frank (1900 – 1983)
* 1976:
Eugen Härle (1911 – 2003)
* 1992: Herbert Diener (1927 – 2006)
Danke, Herbert Diener - Erinnerungen an ein erfülltes Leben
Rathaus Aktuell, Gemeinde Ilsfeld, retrieved November 4, 2013
Others
* Lothar Späth
Lothar Späth (16 November 1937 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), CDU.
Life
Späth was born in Sigmaringen.
From 30 August 1978 to 13 January 1991 Späth was the 5th Minister President of ...
, politician ( CDU), raised in Ilsfeld
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Heilbronn (district)
Württemberg