Hüffelsheim

Hüffelsheim

Coat of arms
Hüffelsheim

Coordinates: 49°49′21″N 7°47′55″E / 49.82250°N 7.79861°E / 49.82250; 7.79861Coordinates: 49°49′21″N 7°47′55″E / 49.82250°N 7.79861°E / 49.82250; 7.79861
Country Germany
State Rhineland-Palatinate
District Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc. Rüdesheim
Government
 • Mayor Jochen Fiscus (SPD)
Area
 • Total 6.55 km2 (2.53 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)[1]
 • Total 1,327
 • Density 200/km2 (520/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 55595
Dialling codes 0671
Vehicle registration KH
Website www.og-hueffelsheim.de

Hüffelsheim 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 Rüdesheim, whose seat is in the municipality of Rüdesheim an der Nahe.

Geography

Location

Hüffelsheim lies on a high plateau at an elevation of roughly 220 m above sea level above the River Nahe at the Naturpark Soonwald-Nahe. Bad Kreuznach, the district seat, lies only a few kilometres away to the eastnortheast. The municipal area measures 657 ha, of which 30 ha is wooded and 20 ha is planted with vineyards.[2]

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Hüffelsheim’s neighbours are the municipality of Rüdesheim an der Nahe, the town of Bad Kreuznach and the municipalities of Traisen, Norheim, Niederhausen, Schloßböckelheim and Weinsheim, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Constituent communities

Also belonging to Hüffelsheim are the outlying homesteads of Antoniushof, Marienhof and Wiesenhof.[3]

History

Hüffelsheim is believed to have grown out of a Roman country estate, which after the Frankish conquest under King Clovis about AD 500 would have been taken into ownership by the Frankish nobleman Hufileib (or Hufflilin) and, over time, expanded. About 766, the village had its first documentary mention. As long ago as 800, the first Christian church arose on noble property, which was consecrated to Saint Lambert of Maastricht. The counts of the Nahegau exercised sovereignty over the village. In the 10th century, it was the Archbishopric of Magdeburg that held both the land and the tithes, and later on it was Mainz. About 1200, the village belonged as an Imperial fief to the Rhinegrave of Stein, although he in turn enfeoffed various knightly families with his own landhold. Among these families were the Hundesrucke, the Lords of Sien and the Family von Sickingen-Ebernburg. The Hüffelsheim village lordship was also further granted in fief by the Waldgraves of Kyrburg and Dhaun to other fiefholders, such as Hermann von der Porten and the knights Boos von Waldeck (about 1359). According to legend, a knight Boos supposedly acquired the village of Hüffelsheim by drinking from a boot. Hüffelsheim’s current coat of arms acknowledges this legend in one of its charges. On into the 18th century, the Families Boos von Waldeck and Sickingen exercised their rights in Hüffelsheim that had come down to them from the Middle Ages. The village church was converted and enlarged in Gothic times. About 1542, the Hüffelsheim town hall came into being, later acquiring a bakehouse addition in 1575. Next to this lay the lordly estate with the tithe barn. Arising here later was a Boos von Waldeck Amt winery. During the Thirty Years' War, the village was empty of people for some years. Begun thereafter was an ongoing development of community life that has persisted down to the present day. After the Peace of Augsburg, the Reformation was also introduced into Hüffelsheim (about 1557). A village school was established about 1660. The years after the Thirty Years' War, however, also brought hardship with French troops who showed up in the course of King Louis XIV’s wars of conquest. The old village church was given a makeover about 1706-1708 as a Baroque hall church and for more than 180 years thereafter, it was shared with the then recently arrived Catholic inhabitants, until the Catholics built their own church in 1886. In the mid 18th century, the Sickingen landholds were sold to the Princes of Bretzenheim. When the French Revolutionary troops came about 1796, however, the time of nobles and lords, even the Barons Boos von Waldeck, came to an end. For two decades, Hüffelsheim, along with the rest of the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank, belonged to France (first the French First Republic, and then eventually Napoleonic France. After Napoleon’s defeat in the German campaign, the last and decisive phase of the War of the Sixth Coalition and indeed of the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna grouped Hüffelsheim into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815. The village remained in Prussia until the end of the Second World War. On 13 August 1913, the King of Prussia – who was also the Emperor of Germany – Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Hüffelsheim.[4] Since 1949, the village has belonged to the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.[5]

The bell from Powunden

In the Second World War, the great bell from the Hüffelsheim church was seized by the authorities and met a more than usually unkind fate. It never did get melted down for wartime use. Instead, it was destroyed in a bombing at the storage yard – these places were called “bell graveyards” – in Hamburg. So, the Evangelical church community asked the bell office at the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland for a replacement. Instead, they were given a loaner in 1952. It was one of the two bells from the church at Powunden near Königsberg in East Prussia, although even by this time, as a result of shifts in borders in the wake of the war, this place was already known as Khrabrovo (and the nearby city as Kaliningrad). The formerly East Prussian bell still calls worshippers in Hüffelsheim to services even today.[6] See also Town partnerships below.


Population development

Hüffelsheim’s population development since Napoleonic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:[7]

Year Inhabitants
1815 560
1835 726
1871 674
1905 701
1939 711
Year Inhabitants
1950 748
1961 789
1970 966
1987 1,070
2005 1,318

Religion

Hüffelsheim has two churches, one Protestant and one Catholic. As at 30 September 2013, there are 1,328 full-time residents in Hüffelsheim, and of those, 673 are Evangelical (50.678%), 412 are Catholic (31.024%), 24 (1.807%) belong to other religious groups and 219 (16.491%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.[8]

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 16 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:[9]

  SPD CDU FWG Total
2009 11 4 1 16 seats
2004 11 4 1 16 seats

Mayor

Hüffelsheim’s mayor is Jochen Fiscus, and his deputies are Uwe Weidmann and Ernst-Walter Thomas.[10][11]

Coat of arms

The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per bend sinister gules in dexter chief a bunch of grapes below which three arming buckles flory in bend sinister, all Or and Or a boot sable.

In 1980, Hüffelsheim gave itself a new coat of arms. Hüffelsheim had had no arms of its own until that time. All that was known before these arms was an old court seal with Saint Lambert’s image. In Prussian times, the Prussian Eagle graced the seal and the municipal stamps. The charges borne in the arms refer to Hüffelsheim’s only local legend, the one that tells of the drink from the boot. The bunch of grapes also stands for the wine made in Hüffelsheim. The three buckles stand for the Family Boos von Waldeck, one of whose members figures in the legend. The boot, according to legend, was the drinking vessel used by a knight Boos to partake of wine – a fair amount, given that the legend says that he drank a whole bootful – and he thereby earned the right to acquire Hüffelsheim for himself and his family.[12]

Town partnerships

Hüffelsheim fosters partnerships with the following places:

Hüffelsheim’s partner community lies in what was once East Prussia. Before the Potsdam Agreement went into effect, it was Powunden in the Königsberg district (or from 1939 to 1945, the Samland district), before as a result of the said agreement it found itself in the Soviet Union. See also The bell from Powunden above.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[13]

More about the Jewish graveyard

The Jewish graveyard in Hüffelsheim was laid out about 1820. It was also the burying ground for Jewish inhabitants of Norheim. Its area is 2 014 m². Still preserved there are 30 graves with gravestones, although many of these stones are unreadable. The oldest datable stone is from 1837 (Breinele, daughter of Jizchak from Altenbamberg), while the newest is from 1928 (Selma Strauss née Grünewald, died on 23 October 1928). Without knowing the local environs or the country paths in depth, the graveyard is very hard to find. The way to the graveyard leads from Hüffelsheim some 2 km towards Niederhausen, then to the right at the edge of the woods and another kilometre up the mountainside. As seen from the entrance, the graveyard abuts the municipal limit with Niederhausen to the right. Alternatively, visitors can park at the Wiesenhof (between Hüffelsheim and Schloßböckelheim) and walk south to the edge of the woods, then keep right in the woods for the 300 m or so up to the graveyard. However one goes there, though, one is greeted by a sign on the gate (which itself is hard to spot from the path through all the bushes), which says Betreten verboten – Schlüssel beim Bürgermeister (“entry forbidden – key with the mayor”).[14]

Clubs

Hüffelsheim distinguishes itself with its very active club life, as well as its harmonious sense of community. The following clubs are active in Hüffelsheim:[15]

Regular events

Hüffelsheim’s sense of community also shows itself in the great number of festivals staged by clubs and the wealth of cultural events on offer. There is, for example, each year on the weekend of the last Sunday in July, a traditional kermis (church consecration festival), put on by various clubs. Since 2005, this has been enriched with the addition of a parade. Every other year in late August, the Ortsgemeinde administration stages a village community festival around the historic town hall, with a great village market. Other cultural events may include, among other things, theatrical productions, concerts and Carnival events.[16] Other regular events include the following:

Economy and infrastructure

Economic structure

Today roughly 1,400 people make their homes in Hüffelsheim. The village has the infrastructure that one would usually associate with such a small place. Basic needs are supplied by resident shops such as bakeries, inns and a drink market. There is a kindergarten for young children, and local public transport links may be described as good.[17]

Transport

Running through Hüffelsheim is Landesstraße 108, off which, right in the village centre, branches Kreisstraße 53, which leads a short way to Bundesstraße 41, which passes by the village just to the north. Serving nearby Norheim is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

Education

Hüffelsheim’s kindergarten is made up of three groups, each with 25 children. There are eight kindergarten teachers on staff. All together, 75 places are available for children aged from 2 to 6. Thirty-four of those places are all-day places.[18]

Famous people

Famous people associated with the municipality

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ "Gemeinden in Deutschland mit Bevölkerung am 31. Dezember 2015" (PDF). Statistisches Bundesamt (in German). 2016.
  2. ↑ Geographical statistics
  3. ↑ Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Amtliches Verzeichnis der Gemeinden und Gemeindeteile, Seite 16 (PDF; 2,2 MB)
  4. ↑ Card commemorating the Kaiser’s visit
  5. ↑ History
  6. ↑ Pfr. Jens Kölsch-Ricken
  7. ↑ Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz – Regionaldaten
  8. ↑ Religion
  9. ↑ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
  10. ↑ Hüffelsheim’s mayor
  11. ↑ Hüffelsheim’s council
  12. ↑ Description and explanation of Hüffelsheim’s arms
  13. ↑ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
  14. ↑ Jewish graveyard
  15. ↑ Clubs
  16. ↑ Regular events
  17. ↑ Economic structure
  18. ↑ Municipal kindergarten
  19. ↑ Obituary
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