Marktheidenfeld

Marktheidenfeld
Marktheidenfeld
Location of the town of Marktheidenfeld within Main-Spessart district
Coordinates	49°51′N 9°36′E / 49.85°N 9.6°E / 49.85; 9.6Coordinates: 49°51′N 9°36′E / 49.85°N 9.6°E / 49.85; 9.6
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Lower Franconia
District	Main-Spessart
Town subdivisions	6 Stadtteile
Mayor	Helga Schmidt-Neder (FWG)
Basic statistics
Area	37.54 km2 (14.49 sq mi)
Elevation	140-335 m
Population	10,839 (31 December 2010)[1]
- Density	289 /km2 (748 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	MSP
Postal code	97828
Area codes	0 93 91
Website	www.marktheidenfeld.de

Marktheidenfeld is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany and the seat (but not a member) of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Administrative Community) of Marktheidenfeld.

Geography

Location

The town lies 24 km west of Würzburg at the Mainviereck (Main Square) on the eastern side of the Spessart (range), geologically on the seam between the Spessart red sandstone area and the Muschelkalk area of the Fränkische Platte (a flat, mostly agricultural region), which between the Main Square and the Maindreieck (Main Triangle) is known as the Marktheidenfelder Platte.

The town has the following Gemarkungen (traditional rural cadastral areas): Altfeld, Glasofen, Marienbrunn, Marktheidenfeld, Michelrieth, Oberwittbach, Zimmern.

History

Heidenfeld may have arisen during the Frankish taking of the land in the early 8th century. Already by 855 the place belonged to the Holzkirchen Monastery, which from this time belonged to the Fulda Abbey. The Counts of Wertheim, who were the monastery’s Vögte also managed in the late 13th century to secure the same office over Heidenfeld. In 1397, Marktheidenfeld was first described as a town. Between 1522 and 1530, the Reformation was introduced into the County of Wertheim, and thereby also into Marktheidenfeld. In 1612, after the Würzburg-Wertheim Feud (1599 to 1617), Heidenfeld was taken over as a Würzburg fief, and thus began the Counterreformation under the clergyman Johannes Molitor (1576–1639). From 1632 to 1634, after the Swedes’ victories in the Thirty Years' War, the town was once again Protestant, albeit for only a short time, for the town soon passed to the Princely Electorate (Hochstift) of Würzburg. In 1649, the name Marktheidenfeld made its first appearance, to distinguish the town from the Heidenfeld Monastery near Schweinfurt, which likewise belonged to Würzburg. The Amt of the Princely Electorate (Hochstift) of Würzburg was in Bavaria’s favour secularized in 1803, and then ceded in a border adjustment treaty in 1807 to the Grand Duchy of Würzburg, with which it passed in 1814 to Bavaria. In 1814, Marktheidenfeld became the seat of the Homburg district court, forerunner of the Marktheidenfeld Bezirksamt (a local authority), which in 1939 took the name Landratsamt (district head’s office). In 1948, Marktheidenfeld, which underwent a great upswing in population growth after the Second World War with the arrival of Heimatvertriebene, was raised to town. In 1972, the Marktheidenfeld district (Landkreis Marktheidenfeld) was abolished. Since the municipal reforms in Bavaria (1972–1976), the formerly self-administering communities of Altfeld, Glasofen, Marienbrunn, Michelrieth, Oberwittbach and Zimmern have belonged to Marktheidenfeld.

Constituent communities

Marktheidenfeld’s Stadtteile are Glasofen (amalgamated in 1972), Zimmern (1974), Marienbrunn (1975), Altfeld, Michelrieth and Oberwittbach (all in 1978).

Religion

• Catholic: 6,210 = 52.6% out of a total population of 11,807 (1 July 2005)
• Evangelical: 2,846 = 24.1%
• other or none: 2,751 = 23.3%

Population development

The town had some 530 inhabitants in 1542, roughly 730 to 800 in the late 16th century, 630 in 1633 and by the end of the Thirty Years' War, in 1648, possibly 500 to 550. In 1673 the figure had risen again to some 700, and about 1,100 people lived in Marktheidenfeld by 1720.

In 1920, after the First World War, 2,058 inhabitants lived in Marktheidenfeld, in 1925, this had shrunk slightly to 2,030, but had risen again to 2,232 in 1933. The population had further grown by 1938 to 2,687 inhabitants. After the Second World War, in 1946, there were 4,302 inhabitants. Within town limits, 8,364 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 9,421 in 1987 and in 2000 10,803.

On 1 July 2005, 9,034 inhabitants (76.5%) lived in the main town, and 2,773 (23.5%) in the six outlying centres. The total figure amounted to 11,807 inhabitants, of whom foreigners accounted for just under 8%.

Distribution of inhabitants among main town and outlying centres

Centre	Population
Marktheidenfeld (main town)	8,803
Altfeld	752
Glasofen	435
Marienbrunn	373
Michelrieth	557
Oberwittbach	144
Zimmern	457

as at 1 January 2008

Politics

Historic Town Hall

Since 1 May 2008, Helga Schmidt-Neder (Freie Wähler) has been the mayor.

Municipal taxes in 1999 amounted to €13,797,000 (converted), of which net business taxes amounted to €8,484,000.

Town council

Apportionment of the 24 seats (2008-2014 electoral period)

• CSU 9 seats
• SPD 5 seats
• FW 9 seats
• Bündnis 90/Die Grünen 1 seat

Town partnerships

• Montfort-sur-Meu, Ille-et-Vilaine, France, since 1988
• Germantown, Ohio, USA, since 1980
• Pobiedziska, Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, since 2007

Coat of arms

The town’s arms might be described thus: Argent, in base water azure, thereupon a bridge of stone gules masoned sable with three piers upon which segmented arches with keystones, in chief a mullet of the second.

The town’s first arms were conferred on 7 September 1883 and showed similar charges, the main differences being that the bridge – which is the local bridge across the Main – bore a golden uppercase cursive L with a silver crown on top on the middle spandrel, which was flanked each side by two digits of the yeardate 1846 (the bridge’s building date), that the arches were round rather than segmented and had no keystones, and that the mullet (star shape) was Or (golden) rather than azure (blue). The water was also “proper”, meaning that it was shown in natural colour. The current form of the coat of arms has been used since 1930, but was not actually conferred until 1965^[2].

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Waterway

The river Main is a Federal Waterway (Bundeswasserstraße) of the first order for which the Aschaffenburg Water and Ship Transport Office (Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Aschaffenburg) is responsible.

Road

The Federal Autobahn A 3 (Nuremberg-Frankfurt) runs east-west, cutting across Staatsstraßen (State Roads) 2299 and 2315 in the outlying centre of Altfeld, whereas Bundesstraße 8, running through the municipal area, serves as an Autobahn feeder road.

Local transport

A well-developed bus network run by the Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Main-Spessart (“Main-Spessart Local Transport Company”) links the town and its environs. Within town runs a town bus.

In the outlying centre of Altfeld is a glider airfield.

Established businesses

• Braun GmbH
• WAREMA AG (windowblinds)
• ELAU AG (automation technology)
• Martinsbräu Georg Mayr GmbH & Co. KG
• Schleunung Druck GmbH (printing)
• Metallbau Brod GmbH
• Udo Lermann GmbH & Co. KG
• Hilite International
• Universal Life with the HG Naturklinik Michelrieth

There are also many others.

Financial institutions

• Sparkasse Mainfranken (savings and loan association)
• Credit union (Raiffeisenbank)
• Hypo Vereinsbank
• Deutsche Postbank

Public institutions

• Town administration
• Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Administrative Community) of Marktheidenfeld
• Financial office outpost
• Landratsamt (district head’s office) outpost (with vehicle licensing centre, youth office and health office service centre)
• Police
• Marktheidenfeld fire brigade

Education

• Friedrich-Fleischmann-Grundschule, Marktheidenfeld (primary school)
• Grund- und Hauptschule des Schulverbands Oberndorf, Bischbrunn (primary school and Hauptschule)
• Hauptschule am Maradies
• Staatliche Realschule, Marktheidenfeld (state Realschule)
• Balthasar-Neumann-Gymnasium, Marktheidenfeld
• Staatliche Fachoberschule und Berufsoberschule, Marktheidenfeld (state higher vocational and professional school)
• Altenpflege- und Krankenpflegeschule des Landkreises Main-Spessart, Marktheidenfeld (district school for geriatric care and nursing)
• Förderschulen: St. Kilian und St. Nikolaus, Marktheidenfeld (special education)
• 2 private music schools and the municipal music institute, Marktheidenfeld
• Volkshochschule Marktheidenfeld (folk high school)

Culture and sightseeing

Franck-Haus

Franck-Haus – outside view

The Franck-Haus is a richly adorned townsman’s house from the Baroque period, built in 1745, and is one of the town’s most important sights.

The building master was the wine merchant and salesman Franz Valentin Franck (1702–1777). Since 1987, the house has been under the town’s ownership. From 1994 to 1998 it was renovated, for which the façade’s smalt-blue colour, which at the time the house was built was the dearest colour, was reconstituted. Today the house is used for exhibitions^[3].

Permanent exhibits include the “world’s smallest library”, a collection of miniature books from Valentin Kaufmann’s legacy, the demonstration smithy, an old smith’s workshop built in the courtyard, and an information room on painter and artistic craftsman Hermann Gradl’s life and works.

St.-Laurentius-Kirche

Saint Lawrence’s Church (St.-Laurentius-Kirche) has time and again, for more than 700 years, undergone new building work. All together, four sections of building in Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Baroque Revival styles can be discerned. Each style was harmoniously worked into the old building.

Many art-history finds, such as the mediaeval frescoes in the quire and the two tomb slabs from the 16th century make the church something of a history book of the town.

Other sights

Alte Mainbrücke

The Alte Mainbrücke (“Old Main Bridge”), made out of red sandstone blocks, was built in the mid 19th century during King Ludwig I’s reign, and opened in 1845. More than 150 years later, the old arch bridge was followed by the Nordbrücke (“North Bridge”), a bowstring arch bridge with the unusual feature of hangers that cross each other.

Also worth seeing are the Old Town with its historic timber-frame houses, the Main Promenade, the marketplace with the Fischerbrunnen (fountain), and the Kreuzbergkapelle (chapel), consecrated in 1890. This stands on its namesake mountain, the Kreuzberg, and can be reached by a Way of the Cross.

Regular events

From June to July, several events take place, such as the Altstadtfest (Old Town Festival) and the Caribbean Night.

Since 1999, the Marktheidenfeld Rowing Club has each year in July held the Red Dragon Cup (so called even in German), at which company and club teams take part in dragon boat races in which even costumes are awarded prizes.

On the first weekend in August, the charburners’ club stages its traditional charburners’ festival (Köhlerfest) in the outlying centre of Glasofen.

In August, the Marktheidenfeld Folk Festival, the Laurenzi-Messe, takes place for ten days. The event’s centrepiece is the Laurenzimarkt (market), which since 2007 has been on the bank of the Main. Furthermore, there are a midway, the traditional beer tent and a tent for commercial displays.

Famous people

• Johann Friedrich Anton Fleischmann (1766–1798), composer
• Cornel Schmitt (b. 4 January 1874, d. 13 January 1958), educator and composer
• Hermann Gradl (b. 15 February 1883, d. 15 February 1964 in Nürnberg), landscape painter
• Armin Grein (b. 21 April 1939), former mayor, former head of Main-Spessart district council
• Sigfried Held (b. 1942 in Freudenthal), national footballer (world vice-champion)
• Peter Kiesewetter (b. 1945), composer
• Roland Matthes (b.1950 in Pößneck), backstroke swimmer (four-time Olympic champion)
• Hartmut Leimeister (b. 1957), cook
• René Frank (b. 1974), composer and textbook author
• Tanja Hart (b. 1974), national volleyball player
• Tina Landgraf (b. 1976 in Cochem), television actress
• Regina Schleicher (b. 1974 in Würzburg), competition cyclist (world champion)
• Willy Schleunung (1917–2007), entrepreneur (founder of Schleunung Druck) and Member of the Bavarian Senate

References

1. ^ "Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes" (in German). Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung. 31 December 2010. https://www.statistikdaten.bayern.de/genesis/online?language=de&sequenz=tabelleErgebnis&selectionname=12411-009r&sachmerkmal=QUASTI&sachschluessel=SQUART04&startjahr=2010&endjahr=2010. 
2. ^ Description of Marktheidenfeld’s arms at Heraldry of the World
3. ^ Franck-Haus on Marktheidenfeld’s webpage

External links

• www.marktheidenfeld.de Town’s official webpage (German)
• Marktheidenfeld at the Open Directory Project
• Marktheidenfeld. article in: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, 4. Aufl. 1888–1890, Bd. 11, S. 266 f.

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.