Walldorf (

South Franconian South Franconian (german: Südfränkisch) or South Rhine Franconian (german: Südrheinfränkisch) is an Upper German dialect which is spoken in the northernmost part of Baden-Württemberg in Germany, around Karlsruhe, Mosbach and Heilbronn. Lik ...

: ''Walldoaf'') is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Rhein-Neckar-Kreis The Rhein-Neckar-Kreis is a district in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The administrative headquarters are based in the city Heidelberg, which is a district-free city. As of 2019, the district is the most populous in Baden-Württe ...

district in the state of

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. In the eighteenth century, Walldorf was the birthplace of

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by smuggling opium into China, and ...

, who emigrated and became a prominent fur trader in the newly independent United States, establishing a monopoly in North America. Concentrating on real estate acquisition and investment, and based in New York City, he grew even wealthier and was the patriarch of the wealthy and influential Astor family. Walldorf is home to the world's third largest

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

company

SAP Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separa ...

Geography

The neighbouring town to the southeast is Wiesloch. The towns are strongly linked economically. Adjacent municipalities are

Sandhausen Sandhausen () is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of Heidelberg. Geography Location Sandhausen belongs to the Rhein-Neckar Metropolitan region. It is known for its sand ...

, Leimen,

Nußloch is a municipality in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis (Baden-Württemberg), about 10 km south of Heidelberg. It is on a much traveled tourist route: Bergstraße ("Mountain Road") and Bertha Benz Memorial Route. The hamlet Maisbach also belongs to ...

, St. Leon-Rot and

Reilingen Reilingen () is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route The Bertha Benz Memorial Route is a German tourist and theme route in Baden-Württemberg and member o ...

. The train station, named '' Wiesloch-Walldorf'', is located between the two towns.

History

Hallstatt-culture barrows are preserved in the Hochholz woods, near the offices of SAP Deutschland. The earliest documentary mention of the settlement occurs as Waltorf in a 770 deed issued by the Abbey of Lorsch. The Electorate of the Palatinate received Walldorf as an Imperial fief in 1230. The town suffered much 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 ...

of 1618–1648, and in 1689 was completely destroyed in the course of the French invasion during

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 ...

. The area was settled anew by religious refugees, among them the predecessors of John Jacob Astor, Waldensians from

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

. During the

German Mediatisation German mediatisation (; german: deutsche Mediatisierung) was the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region by means of the mass mediatisation and secularisation of a large number ...

, Walldorf fell to Baden. In 1843 the Rheintalbahn was built: this railway decisively promoted economic development. In 1901 Grand Duke

Frederick I of Baden Frederick I (german: Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig; 9 September 1826 – 28 September 1907) was the Grand Duke of Baden from 1858 to 1907. Life Frederick was born in Karlsruhe, Baden, on 9 September 1826. He was the third son of Leopold, Gra ...

granted Walldorf town privileges. After World War II the companies Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (founded 1850) and SAP (founded 1972; moved to Walldorf in 1977) were established in Walldorf.

Politics

Seats in the municipal assembly (''Gemeinderat'') as of 2019 elections: * CDU (Christian Democratic Union): 6 (29,03%) * SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany): 6 (24,80%) * Grüne (Alliance '90/The Greens): 5 (24,24%) * FDP (Free Democratic Party): 5 (21,93%)

Economy

SAP SE Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a sepa ...

has its headquarters in the city since 1977. It is Europe's most valuable brand, as well as the largest non-American software enterprise by revenue.

Twin cities

Astoria, Oregon Astoria is a port city and the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the northwest corne ...

, United States, since 1963 * Kırklareli, Turkey, since 1970 * Saint-Max, France, since 1985 * Waldorf, Maryland, United States, since 2002 *

Freeport, New York Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York state. The population was 43,713 at the 2010 census, making it the second largest village in New York by population. A settlemen ...

, United States, since 2003

Sights

The ''Astorhaus'' was built in 1854, from a pecuniary legacy of the deceased

to his hometown. For decades, it served as an

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, and now hosts the register office and a museum. The 19th-century synagogue was devastated in the 1938 '' Kristallnacht'' attacks and most of the congregation was killed in 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 ...

. The building is now used as a

New Apostolic Church The New Apostolic Church (NAC) is a Christian denomination, 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 Ne ...

.Die Synagoge in Walldorf (Rhein-Neckar-Kreis)
Alemannia-judaica.de. Retrieved on 2013-07-26. Walldorf is known for cultivating

white 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 available in the months of April through June.

Representation in other media

*British writer

John Le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

refers to the town, without naming it, in his novel '' Absolute Friends'' (2003), which is primarily set in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Notable people

John Wesley Jarvis - John Jacob Astor - Google Art Project

* Joseph Anton Sambuga (1752-1815), a German Catholic theologian of Italian descent. *

(1763–1848), entrepreneur, emigrated as a young man to the United States, where he made a fortune in fur trading and real estate acquisition; he was the wealthiest man in the nation at his death. * Leopold Rügheimer (1850–1917) a notable German chemist, invented the Staedel-Rugheimer pyrazine synthesis * Dietmar Hopp (born 1940), billionaire software entrepreneur *

Timo Jouko Herrmann Timo Jouko Herrmann (born September 22, 1978, in Heidelberg) is a German composer, musicologist and conductor. Biography Herrmann studied composition with Ulrich Leyendecker and musicology with Hermann Jung at the Hochschule für Musik und Dar ...

(born 1978) a German composer, musicologist and conductor.

References

External links

Official Homepage
{{Authority control Rhein-Neckar-Kreis Baden