Kirchheimbolanden

Coordinates: 49°39′59″N 8°0′42″E / 49.66639°N 8.01167°E / 49.66639; 8.01167
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Kirchheimbolanden
Town walls with the Grey Tower
Town walls with the Grey Tower
Coat of arms of Kirchheimbolanden
Location of Kirchheimbolanden within Donnersbergkreis district
Kirchheimbolanden is located in Germany
Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden is located in Rhineland-Palatinate
Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden
Coordinates: 49°39′59″N 8°0′42″E / 49.66639°N 8.01167°E / 49.66639; 8.01167
CountryGermany
StateRhineland-Palatinate
DistrictDonnersbergkreis
Municipal assoc.Kirchheimbolanden
Government
 • Mayor (2019–24) Marc Muchow[1] (CDU)
Area
 • Total26.36 km2 (10.18 sq mi)
Elevation
232 m (761 ft)
Population
 (2021-12-31)[2]
 • Total7,893
 • Density300/km2 (780/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
67292
Dialling codes06352
Vehicle registrationKIB
Websitewww.kirchheimbolanden.de

Kirchheimbolanden (German pronunciation: [ˌkɪʁçhaɪ̯mboˈlandn̩] , also [-ˈboːlandn̩]), the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern. The first part of the name, Kirchheim, dates back to 774. It became a town in 1368, and the Sponheim family improved its security with many towers and walls. William, Duke of Nassau, ancestor of the royal families of Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, and of the grand-ducal family of Luxembourg, was born in Kirchheimbolanden. It was also ruled by the First French Empire between 1792 and 1814, before passing to the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1815. It was a rural district centre in the Rheinkreis, which was renamed Pfalz (Palatinate) in 1835.

Geography[edit]

Location[edit]

Kirchheimbolanden lies in the Palatinate at the transition point of the Nordpfälzer Bergland to the Alzeyer Hügelland bordering to the east. The city centre is located about four kilometres (as the crow flies) northeast of Donnersberg on the slope of Wartberg, also known as Schillerhain. The Leiselsbach, a left tributary of the Pfrimm, rises in the urban area. The lowest point lies at 229 m above sea level, the highest at 496 m above sea level.

Elevation[edit]

The highest point of the district is the summit of the 502 meter high Eichelberg in the far west, further east the 430.7 meter high Kuhkopf extends. The development is on the slope of the Wartberg, alternatively called Schillerhain. In the northwest of the district rises the 399.7 meter high Albertskreuz and northwest of the settlement area the 354.1 meter high Steinkopf. The Hungerberg range of hills, up to 302 meters high, is located in the southeast.

Urban division[edit]

Kirchheimbolanden is divided into the city centre with the district Haide and the districts Ambach, Bolanderhof, Edenbornerhof, Hessenhütte, Neuhof, Rothenkircherhof and Schillerhain Further places of residence are railway station 2262, Brunnenberg, brickworks Ebert, Kohlhütte and Ziegelhütte.

History[edit]

Middle ages[edit]

The place Kirchheim was first mentioned in 774, later it belonged to the Lords of Bolanden.

It is mentioned in the Wormser wall-building ordinance from around 900 as one of the places that shared responsibility for maintaining the city wall of Worms.[3] At the end of the 13th century, Kirchheim was inherited by the Sponheim branch line Bolanden-Dannenfels. Count Heinrich II. Von Sponheim-Bolanden raised the village to a town in 1368 and made it his residence. Via his granddaughter Anna von Hohenlohe[4] († 1410) and her husband Philipp I, Count of Nassau-Weilburg, Kirchheimbolanden and the entire Sponheim-Bolander family property finally fell to the Nassau House, which owned it until the end of the feudal period.

Early modern age[edit]

Charles August, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg moved his residence from Weilburg to Kirchheim in 1737. Charles Christian, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg temporarily owned his own infantry regiment (1755–1759) in Mannheim with the Elector of the Electoral Palatinate and was temporarily general of the Netherlands, where he was governor. Frederick William, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg (1788–1816) left the city in 1793 because of the French Revolution and went to Bayreuth. This ended the time as the royal seat for Kirchheimbolanden, then only called Kirchheim.

It experienced its greatest heyday under Prince Charles August (1719–1753) and especially under Carl Christian (1753–1788) of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and his rich, clever and musical wife Princess Carolina of Orange-Nassau.

From the 19th century[edit]

After 1792, French revolutionary troops occupied the region and after the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), annexed the left bank of the Rhine. From 1798 to 1814, Kirchheim belonged to the French department of Donnersberg and was the main town (chef-lieu) of the canton of the same name.

Due to the agreements made at the Congress of Vienna (1815) and an exchange contract with Austria, the region became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816. From 1818, Kirchheim was the seat of a land commissioner in the Bavarian Rhine circle.

When the Rhenish Hessian Legion hurriedly evacuated Kirchheim from a Prussian overwhelming power during the Palatinate uprising on June 14, 1849, Palatine militants remained in the palace garden without notification. In the battle of Kirchheimbolanden in the presence of the Prince of Prussia, 17 militants were killed.

From 1939, the place was part of and administrative seat of the district of the same name. After the Second World War, Kirchheimbolanden became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate, within the French occupation zone. In the course of the first Rhineland-Palatinate administrative reform, the city moved in 1969 to the newly formed Donnersbergkreis and its seat; three years later, Kirchheimbolanden was incorporated into the also newly created community of the same name.

Politics[edit]

The city council in Kirchheimbolanden consists of 24 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019, and the honorary city mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the city council are:[5]

Election SPD CDU GRÜNE FDP LINKE FWG Wir für Kibo Total
2019 5 8 4 1 4 2 24 Seats
2014 8 9 2 1 3 1 24 Seats
2009 7 9 3 1 1 3 24 Seats
2004 6 11 2 1 4 24 Seats
  • FWG = Free Voters City of Kirchheimbolanden e. V. (formerly voter group Schauß)

In 2019, the town gained international attention after Lisel Heise, a 100-year old former physical education teacher, ran for the local council and was elected.[6][7]

City Mayor[edit]

The previous mayors of Kirchheimbolanden:

Term of office Name Party
1905–1906 Ulrich Brunck NLP
1945 Ferdinand Schardt SPD
1946–1956 Karl Fittler SPD
1956–1960 Hermann Frambach SPD
1960–1961 Hans Schabler WGR
1961–1971 Friedrich Bettenhausen SPD
1971–1972 Eugen Zänger WGR
1972–1974 Edmund Reichert CDU
1974–1999 Lothar Sießl SPD
1999–2019 Klaus Hartmüller CDU
since 2019 Marc Muchow CDU

Coat of arms[edit]

Coat of arms of Kirchheimbolanden

Blazon: "Divided; at the top of silver and black sheathed in three rows, at the bottom in green a black boar striding to the right."

Justification of the coat of arms: The coat of arms was awarded by King Ludwig I of Bavaria on January 30, 1844 and was last confirmed on June 18, 1976 by the district government, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. It comes from a city seal from the 14th century. The chess (actually blue and gold) comes from the coat of arms of Count Heinrich II. Von Sponheim-Bolanden (Grafschaft Sponheim), who in 1368 obtained town rights from Emperor Charles IV in 1368. The boar is reminiscent of the Counts of Eberstein, former masters of Stauf Castle, who temporarily held local authority.

Twin towns and sister cities[edit]

Climate[edit]

Kirchheimbolanden has a moderate climate. It is classified as a "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate) by the Köppen Climate Classification system.

Climate data for Kirchheimbolanden
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 4
(39)
6
(43)
10
(50)
14
(57)
18
(64)
21
(70)
23
(73)
24
(75)
20
(68)
15
(59)
9
(48)
5
(41)
14
(57)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −1
(30)
0
(32)
2
(36)
4
(39)
8
(46)
11
(52)
13
(55)
13
(55)
10
(50)
6
(43)
3
(37)
0
(32)
6
(42)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 32
(1.3)
32
(1.3)
41
(1.6)
41
(1.6)
58
(2.3)
55
(2.2)
56
(2.2)
51
(2.0)
41
(1.6)
42
(1.7)
40
(1.6)
45
(1.8)
534
(21.2)
Average precipitation days 13 12.6 13.3 12.4 14.6 14.8 15 13 10.8 12 12.7 14.9 159.1
Source: [8]

Sons and daughters of the city[edit]

Year up to 1900[edit]

Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg
Georg von Neumayer 1905

20th century[edit]

Gallery[edit]

Kirchheimbolanden
Grey tower
Kirchheimbolanden Liebfrauenkirche (Liebfrauen church)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Direktwahlen 2019, Donnersbergkreis, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 9 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Bevölkerungsstand 2021, Kreise, Gemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden" (in German). Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 2022.
  3. ^ C. Van De Kieft and J. F. Niermeyer, eds. (1967), Elenchus fontium historiae urbanae (Leiden: E. J. Brill), pp. 43–44.
  4. ^ "Hessische Biografie : Erweiterte Suche : LAGIS Hessen". Lagis-Hessen. LAGIS.
  5. ^ "Endgültiges Ergebnis der Gemeinderatswahl 2019".
  6. ^ Cole, Deborah (July 25, 2019). "Drawing inspiration from youth climate movement, 100-year-old German granny enters politics". Japan Times. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  7. ^ Noack, Rick (October 1, 2019). "Germany's oldest politician is a 100-year-old woman who loves Obama and hates Brexit". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  8. ^ "Klima Kirchheimbolanden". meteoblue.
  9. ^ SWR2. "Die Zwillinge Clara und Marie Becker leben und musizieren zusammen". swr.online (in German). Retrieved 2023-04-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links[edit]