- Bürstadt
Infobox Ort in Deutschland
Art = Stadt
image_photo = Wiki bs 001.jpg
Wappen = Wappen Bürstadt.png
lat_deg = 49 |lat_min = 38 |lat_sec = 0
lon_deg = 8 |lon_min = 27 |lon_sec = 0
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Hessen
Regierungsbezirk = Darmstadt
Landkreis = Bergstraße
Höhe = 90
Fläche = 34.46
Einwohner = 16095
Stand = 2007-06-30
PLZ = 68642
Vorwahl = 06206, 06245
Kfz = HP
Gemeindeschlüssel = 06 4 31 005
LOCODE = DE BDT
Gliederung = 3
Adresse = Rathausstraße 2
68642 Bürstadt
Website = [http://www.buerstadt.de/ www.buerstadt.de]
Bürgermeister = Alfons Haag
Partei = CDUBürstadt is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern
Hesse ,Germany , 7 km east of Worms, and 17 km north ofMannheim .Geography
Location
Bürstadt lies in the
Rhine rift between theRhine and theOdenwald , and thereby in the "Hessisches Ried".Neighbouring communities
Bürstadt borders in the north on the community of
Biblis , in the northeast on the community of Einhausen, in the east on the town ofLorsch , and in the south and west on the town ofLampertheim .Constituent communities
Bürstadt’s "
Ortsteil e" are Bobstadt, Bürstadt and Riedrode. Each of the two outlying centres lies roughly one kilometre from Bürstadt.History
The name "Bürstadt" comes from "Bisos Stätte" (“Biso’s Stead”). Biso was a Frankish prince who had holdings in the area.
Bürstadt lies in one of the most culture- and history-laden of Germany’s old domains. Conditioned by the Rhine rift’s fertile soil and wealth in wildlife and biodiversity, the Rhine’s upper bank was already settled very early on.
A 1.35 m-high monolith that stands in Bürstadt’s municipal area, the so-called Sackstein (coord|49|39|19|N|8|26|4|E), is probably a
menhir from the lateNew Stone Age . Barrows in the Bürstadt woods have yielded some finds that can be dated to Hallstatt times. Also worthy of note are a number of finds from early La Tène times, for example a beaker shaped by hand with finger impressions dating from about 500 BC. Moreover, remains of an extensive Roman settlement can be found on the edge of the Bürstadt woods. For the traveller, Bürstadt, where there was once aCarolingian royal court, lay halfway between the "Nibelung enstadt" (city connected with theNibelungenlied ) of Worms, founded byCelts , and the formerLorsch Abbey .This abbey was founded in 764 in nearby
Lorsch by Count Kankor, and from the 9th to 12th centuries it was among Germany’s biggestBenedictine abbeys. On 1 November 767, Bürstadt had its first documentary mention in a donation document. In 776, Eufemia, Count Kankor’s daughter, donated her holdings in "Villa et marca Babestat" to the Lorsch Abbey. Her brother Heimerich, too, bequeathed his property in Bobstadt to the Abbey in 782, thus giving Bobstadt its first documentary mention.In 789 came the Boxheimerhof’s first documentary mention. This was a Lorsch monastic estate, and it appeared under the name "Villa wizzilin" or "Wizzelai". By 1275, it already bore the name Boxheim.
In late April 873, at
Whitsun , KingLouis the German held his Imperial Assembly (placitum) in Bürstadt. There were negotiations with Danish King Siegfried’s legation and a reception forGreat Moravia n Prince Svatopluk’s envoy. Furthermore, it was here that Louis reconciled with his sons.In 1232, Bürstadt passed, along with the Lorsch Imperial Abbey to the
Archbishopric of Mainz . In 1427, Bobstadt was enfeoffed to the Lords of Wattenheim, but with Peter von Wattenheim’s death in 1440, the holdings passed back to themonastery at Worms. In 1443, Bishop Johann of Worms gave the village and court of Bobstadt to Konrad von Frankenstein, who was the first feudal lord from the Frankenstein noble family in the "Amt zum Stein" in a line that was to last until 1780.In 1461, Bürstadt was pledged to
Electoral Palatinate . In 1556, the Elector of Palatinate introduced theReformation into Bürstadt, along with other places.In the
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), all houses in Bürstadt were burnt down. For almost ten years, the village had no inhabitants. In 1618 it had roughly 700 people, and by the war’s end, only 154. In 1623, Bürstadt passed back to the Archbishopric of Mainz, and Catholicism was thereby reintroduced. In 1732, building work began on St. Michael’s, a Baroque church.In 1780, Bobstadt was once again in the Worms "Amt" of Lampertheim (formerly "Amt Stein"). With the dissolution of the Electorate of Mainz, Bürstadt passed to the
Grand Duchy of Hesse .On 3 November 1824, the "Reuterdeich", a
levee on the Rhine near Nordheim, broke, and the floods overwhelmed the Ried (upper part of the Rhine rift). The flooding hit Bobstadt hard.In May 1882, Peter Itzel, a Catholic priest from St. Michael’s, was stabbed to death by day labourer Fischbach, giving Bürstadt a bad reputation and the nickname "Messerstecher" (“Knifer”)
On 10 July 1936 came the dedication of the first "Erbhofdorf" (“Heritage Farming Village”) in Hesse, Riedrode. Twenty-eight families took ownership of 28 farms. This was all in accordance with the National Socialist "Reichserbhofgesetz", or “Reich Heritage Farming Law” (See:
Blood and soil ).In 1967, Bürstadt was granted town rights. In 2005, the world’s biggest rooftop
photovoltaic system was brought into service in Bürstadt (40 000 m² roof area; 5 MW output). The same year, Bürstadt became the German champion in the "Solarbundesliga" (category: 10,000-100,000 inhabitants). In 2006, Bürstadt won the gold medal in the "Entente Florale" contest.On 22 February 2007, the foundation was laid for one of Germany’s biggestbiogas facilities with an output of roughly 2.2 MW, and on 5-7 September 2008, the EnergieTrends+ fair was held for the first time.Amalgamations
* Bobstadt
* Riedrode (15 May 1971)Former parts of town
* Rosengarten
Population development
* 1806: 1,357
* 1867: 2,765
* 1925: 7,144
* 1988: 15,214
* 2004: 15,308
* 2005: 15,427
* 2006: 15,973
* 2007: 16,095Politics
Community council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
Mayor
Since 1989, Alfons Haag (CDU) has been the town’s mayor.
Coat of arms
The town’s arms might be described thus: Gules a cross pattée fitchy argent, the chief bendy lozengy argent and azure.
The Lorsch cross fitchy (that is, with a point on the bottom arm) recalls the time from 767 to 1262 when the town was one of the Abbey’s holdings. In 1461, Bürstadt was pledged to
Electoral Palatinate , hence the chief with the bendy lozengy (that is, made up of slanted diamonds of alternating tinctures) pattern. In 1632, the town passed back to Electoral Mainz, and as of 1803 belonged to theGrand Duchy of Hesse , hence the red field behind the cross.Bürstadt received the right to bear these arms when it was also granted town rights in 1967.
Town partnerships
*flagicon|Austria
Krieglach ,Styria ,Austria , since 1974
*flagicon|FranceWittelsheim ,Haut-Rhin ,France , since 1982
*flagicon|JapanMinano , Saitama,Japan (“friendship agreement”), since 1984
*flagicon|GermanyGlauchau ,Saxony , since 1991Transport and infrastructure
Bürstadt lies in the north of the
Rhine Neckar Area on "Bundesstraße n" 47 and 44.Autobahn A 67 can be reached through the Lorsch interchange, about 5 km from town.Bürstadt
railway station lies at the junction of theRiedbahn and Nibelungenbahnrailway s (Mannheim-Frankfurt am Main and Worms-Bensheim), giving the station services in all four cardinal compass directions.Frankfurt Airport is roughly 60 km from town.Leisure facilities
*Solar-heated outdoor
swimming pool
*Athletics facility with 6-laneTartan track
*VfR Bürstadt Football stadium with a 500-seat grandstand
*Artificial turf sporting ground in Riedrode
*"Jugendhaus Schillers" (“Youth House”)Economy
Bürstadt has been since 2004 the location of the world’s biggest rooftop
photovoltaic system (5 MW from 40 000 m² roof area), built on a local logistics business’s roof.Furthermore, Bürstadt is also the location of a 380 kV transmission substation run by
RWE AG, which was brought into service as one of the first such facilities of this capacity in Germany on 4 October 1957 in the course of bringing Germany’s first 380 kV transmission line (Rommerskirchen-Bürstadt-Hoheneck) into service.Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
* Ilona Dörr (b. 1948), politician
* Ingrid Schmidt (b. 1955), President of the Federal Labour CourtPeople connected with Bürstadt
*
Mandy Capristo (b. 1990 in Mannheim), singer in the bandMonrose , lives in BürstadtExternal links
* [http://www.buerstadt.de/ www.buerstadt.de Town’s official webpage] de icon
*dmoz|World/Deutsch/Regional/Europa/Deutschland/Hessen/Landkreise/Bergstraße/Städte_und_Gemeinden/Bürstadt|Bürstadt de icon
* [http://www.herdsoft.com/buerstadt/buerstadt.html OpenStreetMap-street map of Bürstadt]
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