Odernheim am Glan
Odernheim am Glan 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 Bad Sobernheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Odernheim is a winegrowing village.
Geography
Location
Odernheim lies at the edge of the North Palatine Uplands at the mouth of the River Glan, where it empties into the River Nahe. This village, lying at the foot of the Disibodenberg, an important monastic centre in the Middle Ages, is surrounded by vineyards, forests and meadows in the southeastern part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Sobernheim, and in the middle of the Nahe wine region. Among nearby towns, the Verbandsgemeinde seat of Bad Sobernheim lies 4 km to the northwest, the district seat of Bad Kreuznach 16 km to the northeast, Kirn 20 km to the west and Meisenheim 7 km to the south. Farther afield, Bingen am Rhein lies roughly 27 km to the north-northeast, while to the northeast lie Mainz, Wiesbaden just beyond and FrankfurtNeighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, Odernheim's neighbours are the municipalities of Staudernheim, Duchroth, Lettweiler, Rehborn and Abtweiler, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.Constituent communities
Also belonging to Odernheim am Glan are the outlying homesteads of Am Kapellenberg, Birkenhof, Charlottenhof, Elsenpfuhl, Heddarterhof, Niedermühle, Sonnenberghof, Disibodenberg and Disibodenbergerhof.Palaeontology
Some 290,000,000 years ago, in Rotliegend times during the Early Permian, a freshwater lake stretched out near what is now Odernheim am Glan, living in which were predatory ancient amphibians, now known to palaeontologists as Sclerocephalus haeuseri, that reached up to two metres in length. Known worldwide are the little Branchiosauridae Apateon pedestris and Micromelerpeton credneri from Odernheim. Also yielded by the investigations have been fossils of mayflies. Some fossils from Odernheim are on show at the Palaeontological Museum in Nierstein.History
Odernheim am Glan is an early Frankish settlement that had its first documentary mention in 976 by Archbishop Willigis of Mainz. It is believed that the Franks founded Odernheim in the 5th or 6th century. By this time, the land already belonged to the Archbishopric of Mainz. In 1108, a Benedictine monastery was founded on the hill near Odernheim at the forks of the Nahe and the Glan, known as the Disibodenberg, and in 1112, Jutta von Sponheim, Hildegard of Bingen and a girl whose name is unknown entered a women's cell at the Benedictine monastery that had been specially built for them. Her epithet “of Bingen” notwithstanding, it was at the Disibodenberg near Odernheim that Hildegard lived the longest time in one place. In 1147, Hildegard had a vision that moved her to have a convent built down at the mouth of the Nahe, where it empties into the Rhine at Bingen, on the Rupertsberg. The number of nuns in Hildegard's sisterhood had been growing steadily, and in 1150, she and 18 other nuns moved from Disibodenberg Abbey to the new convent on Bingen's Rupertsberg. In the 12th century, the Archbishopric enfeoffed the Counts of Veldenz with the land on which Odernheim stood, and they later came to own it themselves. In 1349, Odernheim was granted town rights by Emperor Karl IV, allowing the village to fortify itself with walls and towers, hold a market and set up a town court with a Schultheiß. The last of the Counts of Veldenz, namely Friedrich III, died in 1444. His daughter Anna married King Ruprecht's son Count Palatine Stephan of the House of Wittelsbach. By uniting his own Palatine holdings with the now otherwise heirless County of Veldenz – his wife had inherited the county upon her father's death, but not his comital title – and by redeeming the hitherto pledged County of Zweibrücken, Stephan founded a new County Palatine, as whose comital residence he chose the town of Zweibrücken: the County Palatine – later Duchy – of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. Beginning then, the village belonged to this state. During the War of the Succession of Landshut, Odernheim was besieged in 1504, and after the townsmen's fierce defence, overrun and subsequently almost utterly destroyed. Bits of the old town wall can still be seen today. Standing as witness to the later reconstruction is the town hall, built in 1541, in whose tower a bell from Disibodenberg Abbey still hangs. Indeed, Odernheim's history was from yore tightly bound to the now ruined abbey, which for 40 years was where Saint Hildegard of Bingen lived and worked. In 1567, Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrücken had the Zweibrücker Schlösschen built near the Upper Gate for his daughter Countess Palatine Christine. This still stands today and is an important point of interest. The Thirty Years' War brought Odernheim much hardship, but worse still, its end did not bring the peace that everybody had been hoping for. In the course of French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest – specifically, during the Nine Years' War – French troops set Odernheim on fire in 1689. In 1786, Odernheim passed under the terms of the Selz-Hagenbach Exchange Treaty from the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken to Electoral Palatinate. This arrangement did not last long, for by 1797, French Revolutionary troops had overrun the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank and they had been annexed to the French state. It was then that Odernheim lost its town rights, and it has since never regained them. It became a mairie, finding itself in the Canton of Obermoschel, the Arrondissement of Kaiserslautern and the Department of Mont-Tonnerre. In 1814, the now Napoleonic French were driven out of the region by the Prussian general Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. Under the terms laid out by the Congress of Vienna, Odernheim passed in 1816 to the Kingdom of Bavaria. The border between this state and neighbouring Prussia ran between Staudernheim and Odernheim. Odernheim remained Bavarian through the rest of the 19th century, Imperial times, Weimar times and the Third Reich, only becoming part of the present Rhineland-Palatinate after the Second World War. Already after the First World War, all monarchs had been forced to abdicate. Odernheim then belonged to the Regierungsbezirk of Pfalz and the Rockenhausen district. In the course of administrative restructuring in Rhineland-Palatinate after the Second World War, however, Odernheim was grouped on 7 June 1969 into the Bad Kreuznach district and the Regierungsbezirk of Koblenz. The latter has since been dissolved along with all Rhineland-Palatinate's Regierungsbezirke. On 7 November 1970, the Bürgermeisterei of Odernheim am Glan was dissolved and the Ortsgemeinde of Odernheim was assigned to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sobernheim. From an ecclesiastical standpoint, Odernheim still belongs to the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer.Population development
Odernheim am Glan'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:ReligionAs at 30 November 2013, there are 1,718 full-time residents in Odernheim, and of those, 1,113 are Evangelical, 303 are Catholic, 19 belong to other religious groups and 283 either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.PoliticsMunicipal councilThe 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:MayorOdernheim's mayor is Achim Schick, and his deputies are Rainer Hildenbrand, Hans Jörg Lenhoff and Claudia Schatto.Coat of armsThe German blazon reads: In Silber auf grünem Dreiberg rechts ein goldenes Hochkreuz, auf das ein links danebenstehender blauer, goldbewehrter und rotbezungter Löwe die Pranke legt.The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent in base a trimount vert upon which dexter a cross Latin Or and sinister a lion rampant azure armed of the third and langued gules with his gambe on the cross. Town partnershipsOdernheim fosters partnerships with the following places:
BuildingsThe following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
Regular eventsYearly events in Odernheim am Glan include the kermis in the autumn and the Christmas Market during Advent.ClubsThe following clubs are active in Odernheim am Glan:
HikingMany hiking trails lead along brooks that are close to nature, flower-rich glades, fallow vineyards with exotic orchids, through dales and over hilltops with outstanding views, and all furnished with benches for resting.CyclingThe Nahe-Radweg, a 120 km-long cycle path, opens to the cyclist the Naheland from the river's source in Nohfelden down to the mouth at Bingen am Rhein. Twenty side routes offer many other possibilities, and a total length of 500 km. The Glan to Blies Cycleway, with a length of 125 km, leads from the Glan's mouth, where it empties into the Nahe, through Odernheim and onwards to Sarreguemines in France.Draisine touringOne popular way of exploring the Glan valley is by pedalled draisine. One can travel up to 40 km on the disused railway from Altenglan near Kusel by way of Lauterecken, Meisenheim and Odernheim all the way to Staudernheim. At many points, halts have been set up where riders may lift the draisine off the track and have a rest, stop to eat or have a look at a point of interest.Canoeing on the GlanOn offer are half-day or full-day tours from Medard or Meisenheim going downstream in three-man open canoes to Odernheim.OtherAlso found locally are paragliding, tennis, riding, angling on the Glan, Nordic walking and many other sport and leisure pursuits.Economy and infrastructureWinegrowingAs a winegrowing village in the Nahe wine region, Odernheim am Glan has several Weingüter :
TransportOdernheim lies on Landesstraßen 234 and 235 and Kreisstraße 78. The nearest Bundesstraßen are the B 41 and the B 420, which are each about 6 or 7 km away. Local passenger transport is provided by Omnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe with bus routes linking with the Deutsche Bahn railway network at Lauterecken, Altenglan, Staudernheim and Bad Sobernheim. There is also a bus link to and from Bad Münster am Stein. There is currently no railway service in Odernheim itself, but the village was once on the network. This came about in 1896 with the opening of the Lautertalbahn extension from Lauterecken to Odernheim. This part of the line became part of the fully opened Glantalbahn in 1904, although this has since been disused. Since this railway split into two branches at Odernheim, one leading to Staudernheim station and the other to Bad Münster am Stein station, Odernheim station became a minor railway junction. The line along with these two branches has since been disused. The Glantalbahn is now used for recreational draisine travel.EducationOdernheim has one kindergarten and one primary school.TourismThe draisine tours on the local disused railway line have gradually made the village better known to visitors, and there are several inns in Odernheim where they can stay overnight.Famous peopleSons and daughters of the town
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