Guldental

Guldental

Coat of arms
Guldental

Coordinates: 49°53′31″N 07°50′28″E / 49.89194°N 7.84111°E / 49.89194; 7.84111Coordinates: 49°53′31″N 07°50′28″E / 49.89194°N 7.84111°E / 49.89194; 7.84111
Country Germany
State Rhineland-Palatinate
District Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc. Langenlonsheim
Government
 • Mayor Alfons Lorsbach (CDU)
Area
 • Total 12.99 km2 (5.02 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
 • Total 2,509
 • Density 190/km2 (500/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 55452
Dialling codes 06707
Vehicle registration KH
Website www.guldental.de

Guldental is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Langenlonsheim, whose seat is in the like-named municipality. With a population of some 2,900 inhabitants, Guldental is the biggest rural winegrowing community on the Nahe.

Geography

Guldental

Location

Guldental lies in the Naheland – the land lining each side of the Nahe – among the southern foothills of the Hunsrück, on the Guldenbach.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Guldental's neighbours are the municipality of Langenlonsheim, the municipality of Bretzenheim, the town of Bad Kreuznach, the municipality of Hargesheim, the municipality of Gutenberg and the municipality of Windesheim.

Constituent communities

Guldental's Ortsteile are Heddesheim and Waldhilbersheim. Also belonging to Guldental are the outlying homesteads of Breitenfelserhof and Ackermühle.[2]

History

Constituent community of Heddesheim above
Constituent community of Waldhilbersheim below
Breitenfelserhof

As early as 1163, the landhold of Hetdenesheim (Heddesheim) had its first documentary mention and already by 700 years ago it was one of the greater villages in what is now the Bad Kreuznach district. Under Revolutionary/Napoleonic French rule, Heddesheim was grouped into the Mairie ("Mayoralty") of Langenlonsheim in 1800. The village, now constituent community of Guldental, Waldhilbersheim is likewise very old. Beginning as long ago as 1200, it began to crop up in documents. In 1800, however, it was grouped into the Mairie of Windesheim, and in 1939 into the Amt of Langenlonsheim. Today's Ortsgemeinde of Guldental was formed in the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate on 7 June 1969 through the merger of the hitherto self-administering municipalities of Heddesheim (Nahe) with its outlying centre of Breitenfelser Hof and Waldhilbersheim.[3] Guldental thus became the biggest winegrowing community on the Nahe, with 417 ha of land given over to vineyards. The vineyards to the south run for 6 km along the Guldenbach. Winegrowing in this area is witnessed quite early on.[4]

Jewish history

Until the 1930s, there was a small Jewish community in Waldhilbersheim to which Jews in Heddesheim – and thus in both villages that now make up Guldental – also belonged. It had come to be established at least as far back as the 18th century. In 1808, Waldhilbersheim counted 29 Jewish inhabitants. Living here about 1858 were 50 Jews in Waldhilbersheim and another 40 in Heddesheim, but thereafter the numbers began to shrink with emigration and depopulation. This small community also included the Jewish inhabitants in Laubenheim until 1895, when they became tied to the community in Langenlonsheim. By 1925, the Jewish population in Waldhilbersheim and Heddesheim had sunk to 8 and 29 respectively. In the mid 1920s, the head of the Jewish community was August Schneider. In the way of institutions, the Jewish community had a small synagogue, a religious school (believed to have been housed somewhere in the synagogue) and a graveyard. To supply the community's religious needs, a "worship official" was hired, at least temporarily, to do the jobs of religious teacher, prayer leader and shochet. According to the Gedenkbuch – Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 ("Memorial Book – Victims of the Persecution of the Jews under National Socialist Tyranny") and Yad Vashem, of all Jews who either were born in Waldhilbersheim or Heddesheim or lived there for a long time, 50 died in the time of the Third Reich (birthdates in brackets):

  1. Walter Aron (1894)
  2. Moritz Grünewald (1886)
  3. Hilde Hallgarten née Simon (1895)
  4. Erna Marcus née Aron (1893)
  5. Berta Schneider née Abraham (1854)
  6. Rosa Schneider (1882)
  7. Thekla Wolf née Schneider (1887, Rosa's sister)
  1. Frieda (Friedel) Ansbacher née Stern (1896)
  2. Max Ansbacher
  3. Else Ansbacher
  4. Willy Ansbacher
  5. Leopold Bähr (1873)
  6. Walter Benjamin (1910)
  7. Adelheid (Adele) Brunner née Reinstein (1867)
  8. Isidor Flörsheim (1870)
  9. Ida Grünfeld née Benjamin (1901)
  10. Jakob Grünwald (1885)
  11. Berthold Halm (1884)
  12. Friederike (Frieda) Heilbron née Stern (1870)
  13. Erna Kahn née Stern (1899)
  14. Moritz Kahn (1885)
  15. Ida Kiefer née Wolf (1885)
  16. Flora Meyer née Stern (1893)
  17. Sally Meyer
  18. Betty Moses née Stern (1901)
  19. Willy Moses
  20. Martha Müller née Benjamin (1895)
  21. Dorothe Schneider (1895)
  22. Johanna Schneider (1892)
  23. Sally Schwab
  24. Helene Schwarz née Benjamin (1884)
  25. Bertha Stern née Hirschfeld
  26. Auguste Stern née Lindauer
  27. Emil Stern
  28. David Stern (1878)
  29. Heinrich Stern (1879)
  30. Herbert Stern (1928)
  31. Lina Stern née Kahn
  32. Lothar Stern (1930)
  33. Markus Stern (1866)
  34. Moses Stern (1863)
  35. Sally Stern (1893)
  36. Rosa Strauß née Stern (1875)
  37. Ella Wolf (1896)
  38. Franz Wolf (1927)
  39. Lotte Wolf (1921)
  40. Moses Wolf (1855)
  41. Selma Wolf née Benjamin (1886)
  42. Walter Josef Wolf (1922)
  43. Amalie Zack née Schneider (1891)

On a memorial at the community's Jewish graveyard are the names of 23 persons who died in the Holocaust. In the 19th century, the Jewish community held its services in rented rooms until in 1910 a favourably located house was acquired that cound be converted into a synagogue. On 16 September 1910, the synagogue was consecrated by the Kreuznach regional rabbi, Dr. Abraham Tawrogi. Also present were the mayors of both Windesheim and Langenlonsheim, along with Heddesheim's and Waldhilbersheim's municipal leaders, clergy and schoolteachers. The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, a Jewish newspaper, reported the following on 7 October 1910:

Kreuznach, 28 September (1910). Last Thursday, the celebratory consecration of the newly built synagogue of the neighbouring municipalities of Heddesheim-Waldhilbersheim took place amidst participation of the citizenry of both villages. Also present were the Catholic and Evangelical pastors as well as all the schoolteachers of both church communities. Moreover, the Amt head and, from the surrounding area, the mayors of Windesheim and Langenlonsheim appeared. Mr. District Chairman von Nasse from Kreuznach, who was kept from attending the celebration by duty, had his wishes of luck to the Jewish community expressed by none other than Rabbi Dr. Tawrogi, who carried out the consecration of this House of God. After Mr. Cantor Marwit from Bingen had presented the liturgical songs with his tuneful voice, Rabbi Dr. Tawrogi lit the everlasting lamp. Thereupon, the magnificently adorned Torah scrolls found their way into the holy shrine to be kept there, whereupon Rabbi Dr. Tawrogi gave the festive speech. In this, the speaker remembered first all those who have contributed to the lovely synagogue's success through their work, thanked all who furthered the work through material support and spoke in an effective way about the purpose of the Jewish House of God. He exhorted the community to the right and assiduous use of this newly consecrated place. After the conclusion of this uplifting celebration, which ended with a prayer for the Kaiser and the Empire, the celebration participants accepted an invitation from the head of the Jewish community, Mr. August Schneider, to a comfortable get-together.

The synagogue itself was a simple aisleless building with round and round-arch windows. Corner lesenes and an ascending frieze were the outward decorative elements. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the synagogue was wrecked and plundered. In the process, all the fittings and the ritual objects (two Torah scrolls, the silver menorah, silver beakers and plates, 75 prayer books, curtains and blankets), the pump organ, the stove, lamps and other useful things were stolen or destroyed by the Nazis. In January 1939, the building was sold and thereafter it was used as a storage building or a garage. On the street side, a gate was broken through, and the windows were walled up. Since 1994, the building has been under monumental protection. Its address in Waldhilbersheim is Naheweinstraße 83.[5]

Religion

As at 30 September 2013, there are 2,460 full-time residents in Guldental, and of those, 768 are Evangelical (31.22%), 1,272 are Catholic (51.707%), 1 belongs to the Free Evangelical Church (0.041%), 1 is Greek Orthodox (0.041%), 4 are Lutheran (0.163%), 53 (2.154%) belong to other religious groups and 361 (14.675%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.[6]

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 20 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[7]

  SPD CDU Greens FLG Total
2009 4 9 2 5 20 seats
2004 4 10 1 5 20 seats

Mayor

Guldental's mayor is Alfons Lorsbach, and his deputies are Peter Schermuly, Elke Demele and Kurt Römer.[8]

Coat of arms

The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per fess Or a saltire humetty sable and gules three wings argent.

The municipal arms are put together from two coats of arms, the ones formerly borne by the two villages of Heddesheim and Waldhilbersheim before they were merged as part of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate. The charge in the upper field is Saint Andrew's Cross, a saltire (X-shaped cross) whose arms do not reach the field's outer edges ("humetty"). This was drawn from Waldhilbersheim's former arms. In the lower field stands a threefold charge, bird's wings. These were drawn from Heddesheim's former arms. The approval for the new, merged municipality of Guldental to bear these arms was granted some time after the actual 1969 merger, in 1971, by the now defunct Regierungsbezirk administration in Koblenz.[9]

Town partnerships

Guldental fosters partnerships with the following places:

This relationship is not a formalized partnership, amounting to more of a "friendship".

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:[10]

Kronbergbrücke (bridge)
Feldbahn and museum

Heddesheim

Waldhilbersheim

Jewish graveyard

The Jewish graveyard in Waldhilbersheim was documented up to about 1934, according to Alemannia Judaica. It has an area of 1 274 m². Also differing from the Directory of Cultural Monuments above is Alemannia Judaica's figure for the number of gravestones, which they give as 42.[11]

Clubs

Guldental has a great number of clubs. Currently active in the municipality are the following:[12]

Museums

Economy and infrastructure

Disused section of the Hunsrückquerbahn near Guldental
Sonnenberg, Appellation Guldental

Transport

Guldental lies within the Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund, a local public transport association whose fares therefore apply. Within the municipality is a railway station, Heddesheim (Nahe) on the Cross-Hunsrück Railway (Hunsrückquerbah; Langenlonsheim–Hermeskeil), although currently it has only goods service. The nearest place with passenger rail service is Langenlonsheim on the Alsenz Valley Railway (Alsenztalbahn; Pirmasens–Bingen) lying some 5 km east of Guldental. In Bad Kreuznach, some 8 km south of Guldental, this line crosses the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken). Running daily at least every two hours to Bad Kreuznach is bus route 240, run by Omnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe. The nearest Autobahn interchange is Waldlaubersheim on the A 61 (Koblenz–Ludwigshafen), some 5 km north of Guldental.

Winegrowing

Guldental is characterized to a considerable extent by winegrowing, and with 377 ha of vineyard planted it is second only to Bad Kreuznach among the Nahe wine region's biggest winegrowing centres.

Famous people

Honorary citizens

Sons and daughters of the town

Famous people associated with the municipality

Sundry

The constituent community of Heddesheim has the same name as another village in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis in Baden-Württemberg.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ "Gemeinden in Deutschland mit Bevölkerung am 31. Dezember 2015" (PDF). Statistisches Bundesamt (in German). 2016.
  2. ↑ Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile, Seite 15 (PDF; 2,3 MB)
  3. ↑ Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Gemeindeverzeichnis 2006, Seite 178 (PDF; 2,6 MB)
  4. ↑ History
  5. ↑ Jewish history and synagogue
  6. ↑ Religion
  7. ↑ Der Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz: Kommunalwahl 2009, Stadt- und Gemeinderatswahlen, gesehen 23. Juli 2009
  8. ↑ Guldental’s executive
  9. ↑ Rainer Seil: GULDENTAL. Ortsgemeinde Guldental im Selbstverlag, 1986
  10. ↑ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
  11. ↑ Jewish graveyard
  12. ↑ Clubs
  13. ↑ Sons and daughters of the town
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