Viernheim

Infobox German Location
Art = Town
image_photo =
Wappen = Wappen Viernheim.svg
lat_deg = 49 |lat_min = 32 |lat_sec = 30
lon_deg = 8 |lon_min = 34 |lon_sec = 43
Bundesland = Hesse
Regierungsbezirk = Darmstadt
Landkreis = Bergstraße
Höhe = 98
Fläche = 48.41
Einwohner = 32593
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 68501–68519
Vorwahl = 06204
Kfz = HP
Gemeindeschlüssel = 06 4 31 020
LOCODE = DE VIM
Website = [http://www.viernheim.de/ www.viernheim.de]
Bürgermeister = Matthias Baaß
Partei = SPD

Viernheim is a midsize industrial town on Mannheim’s outskirts and is found in the Rhine Neckar agglomeration and economic area. It is the second biggest town in Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany. Since 1994 it has also borne the title "Brundtlandstadt", as it has been taking part in a energy conservation pilot project.

Geography

Location

Viernheim lies in the Rhine rift, and although it also lies in Hesse, it is bounded on the west, south and east by Baden-Württemberg. North of the Viernheim woods, in Lampertheim, begins the "Hessisches Ried". East of Viernheim lies the town of Weinheim, which is where the district’s namesake Bergstraße begins, and which also marks the beginning of the Odenwald. The town lies roughly 10 km northeast of Mannheim, 10 km west of the Rhine and 10 km east of the Bergstrasse.

Neighbouring communities

Viernheim borders in the north on the town of Lampertheim (in Hesse), in the northeast on the towns of Hemsbach and Weinheim, in the south on the community of Heddesheim (all three in the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis), and in the west on the district-free city of Mannheim (all in Baden-Württemberg).

Constituent communities

Viernheim is divided into several sections. It has been the local, everyday speech and town expansions, though, that have yielded most of the divisions. They therefore have no precisely defined bounds. The "Stadtkern", or town core, is made up of the "Innenstadt" (“Inner Town”) and the "Altstadt" (“Old Town) lying around it. Among the other neighbourhoods are the "Nordstadt" (“North Town”, north of Nibelungenstraße and Wormser Straße), the "Nordweststadt" (“Northwest Town”, west of Kreuzstraße and Am Königsacker), the "Tivoli" (in the south at the "Rhein-Neckar-Zentrum"), "Hinter den Zäunen" (“Behind the Fences”, south of the OEG tracks), "Gewerbegebiet Eins" (“Commercial Area One”, in the northeast, north of Friedrich-Ebert-Straße and east of Lorscher Straße) and the new development that has sprung up over the last few years, Bannholzgraben, east of Janusz-Korczak-Allee (L 3111). Moreover, there are also the "Sportgebiet West" (“Sport Area West”, west of the A 6), the two outlying centres which are each made up of only one road, Neuzenlache and Ziegelhütte (south of the A 659 and the outlying farms northeast of town.

History

Viernheim grew out of a Carolingian king’s court. Viernheim had its first documentary mention in 777 in the Lorsch codex, the Lorsch Abbey’s book of documents. Through donations, it ended up in the Abbey’s ownership. In 1232, the Abbey’s holdings were given to the Archbishops of Mainz, but only in 1308 did Viernheim pass to Mainz. In 1439, however, the town was pledged to the Schönau Abbey, who in turn sold it to Electoral Palatinate. After the Thirty Years' War, it passed back to Mainz, and thence under the "Reichsdeputationshauptschluss" in 1803 to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, out of which came the People's State of Hesse in 1918. Once in the People's State, the town was assigned first to the "Amtsvogtei" of Lorsch. When "Landratsbezirke" – another kind of administrative division – were created in 1821, Viernheim was assigned to Heppenheim. From 1832 to 1839 came a spell under Bensheim’s jurisdiction. From 1848, the town then belonged to Heppenheim district, which in 1938 was merged with Bensheim district to form today’s Bergstraße district. In 1948, Viernheim was granted town rights by the newly founded "Land" of Hesse.

During the 19th century the tobacco industry gained some importance, since several small tobacco manufacturers were founded. Rolling cigars provided additional income for farmers or peasants and their families during the winter.

Until the end of the 19th century, Viernheim was a farming village. Bad harvests and widespread hunger in 1852 led to 458 inhabitants emigrating in this year to North America. With industrialization and the opening of the "Oberrheinische Eisenbahn" (a regional narrow-gauge railway still serving a roughly triangular route among Weinheim, Mannheim and Heidelberg) in 1887, the town began to become more of a workers’ residential community as many inhabitants found work in the factories in nearby Mannheim and Weinheim. Many workers, however, kept farming as a sideline. The location of industry in Viernheim itself began with the opening of the Weinheim-Worms railway (now mostly derelict) in 1905, and further strengthened after the Second World War, bringing along with it a sharp rise in population. Given the town’s favourable road links to three "Autobahnen", it grew into a midsize industrial town. In 1994 came its designation as a “Brundtland Town”, and its attendant participation in an energy conservation pilot project.

During the Second World War, Viernheim did not suffer severe damage, since the town had no strategic or industrial importance. So the Viernheim railway station served a while as Mannheim station, after the Mannheim Central Station was destroyed in an air-raid in 1942.

Population development

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Religion

For a long time, Viernheim belonged to the the Archbishopric of Mainz. Owing to changing lords in the 15th and 16th centuries, the towsfolk had to convert seven times because of the Peace of Augsburg. When the town passed back to Electoral Mainz, however, Roman Catholicism kept its place as the local denomination. In the early 20th century, the Evangelical townsfolk who had by now been drawn to the town got their own church in Viernheim.

Churches

Today in Viernheim, there are four Catholic parishes, "St. Marien", "St. Michael", "St. Hildegard" and "St. Aposteln", which belong to the deanery of "Bergstraße-West" of the Bishopric of Mainz, and two Evangelical parishes, "Auferstehungskirche" (“Church of the Resurrection”) and "Christuskirche", which both belong to the deanery of "Bergstraße-Süd" of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau.

Besides the two big churches, the "Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden in Deutschland" (“League of Free Evangelical Parishes in Germany”) has a parish, as do the "Evangeliumschristen-Baptisten" (“Gospel Christian Baptists”), the New Apostolic Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses. There has been no Jewish community in town since National Socialist times. The synagogue on Hügelstraße, consecrated on 31 August 1827, was destroyed by the SA along with some locals on 10 November 1938 during the Kristallnacht pogrom.

Politics

Town council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Mayors

Heading the town is the Mayor ("Bürgermeister") who is directly elected by the people for a term of six years. In office since 1997 has been Mayor Matthias Baaß (SPD). The next mayoral election is planned for 2009.

At his side is the First Town Councillor ("Erster Stadtrat"), along with 11 parttime councillors. They are all chosen by the town assembly ("Stadtverordnetenversammlung") for terms of six and five years respectively and reflect the assembly’s political makeup at the time of their appointments.

The Mayor, the First Town Councillor and the 11 parttime councillors together form the town’s executive ("Magistrat").

Following is a list of the town’s mayors since 1822 (from 1649 to 1822, eight "Schultheißen" – roughly “sheriffs” – are known to history):

*1822–1824: Joh. Jakob Georgi
*1825–1842: Johann Beikert
*1842–1847: Georg Kühner
*1848–1853: Peter Minnig
*1853–1862: Johann Kempf
*1862–1873: Michael Keller
*1873–1875: Johann Winkler 5.
*1875–1895: Johann Bläß 1.
*1895–1904: Georg Pfützer 2.
*1904–1913: Gg. Friedrich Kühlwein
*1913–1933: Jean Lamberth (Centre Party)
*1933–1945: Hanns Bechtel (NSDAP)
*1945: Martin Alter
*1945–1946: Nikolaus Schlosser
*1946–1960: Lorenz Neff (SPD)
*1960–1975: Hans Mandel (SPD)
*1975–1981: Erwin Bugert (SPD)
*1981–1987: Josef Baumgärtner (CDU)
*1987–1997: Norbert Hofmann (SPD)
*since 1997: Matthias Baaß (SPD)

Coat of arms

The town’s arms might be described thus: Party per fess, above azure the Lion of Hesse armed and crowned Or and langued gules, below party per pale gules a six-spoked wheel argent and Or a Gothic four sable.

The arms were introduced in 1926. The charge in the upper part of the escutcheon is the Lion of Hesse, which expresses the town’s longstanding status as part of Hesse. Below the fess line on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side is the Wheel of Mainz, which stands for the town’s former allegiance to Electoral Mainz. On the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side is a Gothic figure of four, which formerly was used as the local logo, making the arms canting, that is to say, suggestive of the town’s name, since the German word for “four” is "vier". Although it sounds rather like the first syllable in the town’s name, it seems likelier that this comes from the Old High German "firni" (“old”, “from long ago”) or the Celtic "vernos" (“alder”) [http://www.heinrich-tischner.de/22-sp/8namen/1ort/sn05/orte/v/viernhei.htm] .

The Viernheim town flag is blue-white-red.

Town partnerships

Viernheim maintains partnership arrangements with the following places:
*flagicon|France Franconville, Val-d'Oise, France since 1966
*flagicon|United Kingdom Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom since 1972
*flagicon|Italy Rovigo, Veneto, Italy since 1991
*flagicon|Germany Haldensleben, Saxony-Anhalt since 1992
*flagicon|Burkina Faso Satonévri, Burkina Faso since 1994

Viernheim undertook a sponsorship arrangement in 1968 for ethnic Germans from this place who were driven out of their old homeland after the Second World War:
*flagicon|Czech Republic Altrohlau/Stará Role (outlying centre of Karlovy Vary), Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Road transport

Viernheim lies on the A 659, which leads directly to Mannheim and Weinheim, and also affords a direct link to three further Autobahnen, the A 5, the A 6 and the A 67. Because of the two Autobahn junctions, the "Viernheimer Kreuz" and the "Viernheimer Dreieck", Viernheim is also well known to many drivers.

Local public transport

Viernheim is linked to the surrounding cities by a narrow-gauge railway and a busline. The electric narrow-gauge railway ("Oberrheinische Eisenbahn", OEG), nowadays designated line 5R, is usually regarded as an interurban. Since 1887 it has run to Mannheim, Weinheim and Heidelberg, and is run by the Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (RNV). A regional busline of Busverkehr Rhein-Neckar runs to Weinheim as well as Lampertheim and Worms. There are also two town buslines run by the RNV daughter company V-Bus. All public transport is integrated into the Rhine-Neckar Transport Association.

Rail transport

Viernheim is the endpoint of the Weinheim–Viernheim railway line built in 1905, which originally ran on by way of Lampertheim to Worms to afford a link with the "Weschnitztalbahn" there. Owing to low demand, however, passenger service was discontinued in 1960 on the whole line and replaced with a bus service, while the tracks between Viernheim and Lampertheim were torn up (the right-of-way can still be discerned in the woods today as a broad lane). Only goods service was continued between Weinheim and Viernheim by Deutsche Bahn, until it, too, ceased. It was, however, revived in July 2004 by the MVV GmbH daughter company ConTrain. The old railway station today houses a municipal leisure and meeting place bearing the name "Treff im Bahnhof" (“Meeting in the Railway Station”).

Established businesses

Viernheim has four industrial area with many middle-class businesses.

There, many well known firms, such as Pfenning Logistics, have their warehouses. Buderus has its distribution centre there, and RF Systems Nachrichtentecknik, Plisch Nachrichtentechnik and Hommel Hercules Werkzeuge their head offices. The most popular, however, the nationally known Rhein-Neckar-Zentrum shopping centre opened in 1972.

Media

In Viernheim there are two regional daily newspapers:
*Viernheimer Tageblatt, founded in 1883,
*Mannheimer Morgen as "Südhessen Morgen" with a "Viernheim" regional editionThe following free advertising fliers are distributed weekly:
*Viernheimer Volksblatt
*Wochenblatt Mannheim
*Bergsträßer Anzeigen-Zeitung (BAZ)The following regional media see Viernheim as part of their feeder and distribution area:
*Hessischer Rundfunk, Südwestrundfunk ("Kurpfalz-Radio" within the framework of SWR4 Baden-Württemberg)
*Rhein-Neckar Fernsehen (television)
*Radio Regenbogen, Hit Radio FFH, Radio RPR, sunshine live, bigFM, bermuda.funk
*Bild Rhein-Neckar
*Meier (magazine)

Education

*Primary schools:
**Schillerschule
**Goetheschule
**Nibelungenschule
**Friedrich-Fröbel-Schule

*Primary school/Hauptschule/Realschule:
**Friedrich-Fröbel-Schule

*comprehensive school Hauptschule/Realschule/Gymnasium:
**Alexander-von-Humboldt-Schule

*Gymnasium:
**Albertus-Magnus-Schule – Gymnasium sponsored by the Bishopric of Mainz

*Special school:
**Albert-Schweizer-Schule

Further schools with specific profiles are to be found in the neighbouring cities.

The nearest colleges and universities are found in nearby Mannheim and Heidelberg.

Culture and sightseeing

Museums and galleries

*Heimatmuseum (local history)
*Kunstverein Viernheim (art club)
*Kunsthaus Viernheim (art)
*Humboldt-Galerie
*Europäisches Fotozentrum für junge Fotografie

Churches

*St. Apostel Kirche
*St. Marien Kirche
*St. Hildegard
*St. Michael
*Evangelische Auferstehungskirche, Berliner Ring (Church of the Resurrection)
*Evangelische Christuskirche, Saarlandstaße
*Neuapostolische Kirche, Maria-Mandel-Straße
*Kapelle St. Josef, Bürgermeister Neff-Straße 15 (Tridentine Mass)

Parks

*Tivoli Park
*Viernheimer Vogelpark

Bodies of water

*Bannholzgraben
*Schwarzer Bach (brook)
*Waldsee (popularly “Anglersee”), large, manmade pond in recreation area.

Buildings

*Marienkirche
*Various other churches of Germany’s two predominant denominations:
**Evangelical
***Auferstehungskirche
***Christuskirche
***Freie Evangelische Gemeinde
**Catholic
***Kirche St. Marien
***Kirche St. Aposteln
***Kirche St. Michael
***Kirche St. Hildegard
***Kapelle St. Josef
*Warriors’ Memorial on Weinheimer Straße

Sport

*TSV Amicitia Viernheim
*Turnverein von 1893 Viernheim (TV 1893, gymnastic club)
*Badminton Club Viernheim
*Golf Club Mannheim-Viernheim
*Viernheimer Billard - Club 1967
*Balettschule Heide Heidt (balet school)
*Viernheimer SV (swimming club)
*Ski Club Viernheim
*ERC Viernheim (artistic roller skating)
* 1.Viernheimer Karate Dojo

Regular events

* February: Carnival parade or Street Carnival (alternating each year)
* May: 1 May Labour Day: German Confederation of Trade Unions celebration
* May: Tanz in den Mai; Traditionelles May Day at the fire station, Brundtlandfest
* August: Viernheimer Triathlon (1,5 / 46 / 10)
* July: first weekend, traditional community festival of community association, Viernheim
* July: CdG-Sommerfest in Bavarian style
* August: MGV- Gartenfest (first weekend in August)
* September: Innenstadtfest (downtown festival)
* September: Südhessische Akkordeontage
* November: Kerwe (church consecration festival)
* December: Christmas Market
* Parish festivals
* 24-hour walk, St.Michael’s parish
* Seifenkistenrennen (soapbox race) of the Viernheim scouts

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

* Hans Knapp (1910-2006), "Heimatforscher" (“homeland researcher”)
* Ulrich Tukur (1957– ), actor
* Fritz Niebler (1958– ), wrestler

Honorary citizens

* 1948: Prof. Dr. Ludwig Bergsträsser, chairman of the first postwar Hessian government (1883–1960)
* 1948: Hans Mayr, rector (1864–1958), editor of the "Chronik der Stadt Viernheim"
* 1949: Dr. Karl Alter, Archbishop of Cincinnati (1885–1977)
* 1965: Dr. Nikolaus Hattemer, deacon (1900–1970)
* 1973: Anton Darmstadt, clergyman (1900–1981)
* 1975: Hans Mandel, mayor (1917– )
* 1975: Michael Bugert, honorary town councillor (1905–1989)

Clubs

* Spvgg. Amicitia 09 - football
* Club der Gemütlichen – Carnival club
* Große Drei - Carnival club
* Turnverein von 1893 e.V. Viernheim – gymnastics
* KJG - St. Michael, St. Aposteln, St. Marien, St. Hildegard
* TSV Viernheim – sport club
* Herolde – music
* TC Viernheim - tennis
* Kunstverein Viernheim – art
* Kerweverein Viernheim – church consecration festival club
* Evangelischer Posaunenchor Viernheim – choir
* ASV Viernheim 1968 e.V. - Angelsport-Verein – angling
* SRC -Stemm- uind Ringclub Viernheim e.V.
* Stadtnetz und Internet Freunde Viernheim e.V.
* Frauenchor 1947 Viernheim e.V. – women’s choir
* Männergesangverein 1846 Viernheim e.V. – men’s choir
* Sportschützenverein Viernheim 1953 e.V. – shooting
* Siedlergemeinschaft Viernheim e.V. – community association

Further reading

* Heinrich Loew, "Festschrift zur Jahrhundertfeier des Synagogenbaues", Viernheim 1927
* Franz Josef Haas, Adam Haas: "Der Geländeraub in Viernheim 1934 (Wegnahme der Allmend), Denkschrift zur Frage der Wiederherstellung der Allmende in der Gemeinde Viernheim", Kommission zur Wiedergutmachung des Unrechts von 1934 (publisher), edited by Franz Josef Haas 1. and Adam Haas 6., Viernheim 1948
* Hans Knapp: Viernheimer Wörterbuch "Wie gered't sou gebabblt", 1972
* Hans Mayr: "Chronik der Stadt Viernheim", Mannheim 1949
* "1200 Jahre Viernheim 777 - 1977", Hg. Magistrat der Stadt Viernheim
* Brigitte Perker: "Viernheim zwischen Weimar und Bonn - Demokratie und Diktatur in einer deutschen Kleinstadt - 1918-1949". publisher Magistrat der Stadt Viernheim. Viernheim, 1988.
* Gisela Wittemann: "Illustrierte Geschichte Stadt Viernheim", 160 pages. Verlag: Edition Quadrat Bernhard Wipfler, 1998. ISBN 3-923003-82-X
* Werner Nägel "et al." ,"100 Jahre Standesamt Viernheim", 1876 - 1976, 92 pages, Viernheim 1976, publisher Standesamt Viernheim
* Claudia Reinhardt: "No Place like Home", photographs and texts about Viernheim, "Verbrecher Verlag" Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-87512-413-8

References

External links

* [http://www.viernheim.de/ Town’s official webpage] de icon
* de icon
* [http://www.viernheimfotos.de More interesting views in the "Viernheim Foto-Galerie"] de icon