Wiesloch, is a city in Germany, in northern Baden-Württemberg. It is situated 13 kilometres south of Heidelberg. After Weinheim, Sinsheim and Leimen it is the fourth largest city of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis and is in the north-central area near Heidelberg with its neighbouring town Walldorf with which it shares Wiesloch-Walldorf station. Also in the vicinity of Wiesloch are the cities and towns of Dielheim, Malsch, Mühlhausen, Rauenberg and Sankt Leon-Rot. During the reformation of the area in the 1970s Wiesloch's inhabitants exceeded 20,000. Wiesloch became a "Große Kreisstadt" on 1 January 1973, when Altwiesloch, Baiertal, Frauenweiler and Schatthausen were joined with the town of Wiesloch to form the present municipality.
Partnerships
Wiesloch is a twin town of:
Sturgis, St. Joseph County, Michigan, US
Amarante, Portugal
Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Ząbkowice Śląskie, Poland
History
The settlement that is now Wiesloch town centre originated during the expansion of silver mining in the vicinity in the 10th century.
Fossil site
The fossil remains of the oldest hummingbird found to date, Eurotrochilus inexpectatus, were found in a clay pit at Frauenweiler. This bird lived during the Early Oligocene, when the area had a humid, subtropical climate similar to the northern Caribbean today.
In 1077, Emperor Henry IV locked more than 100 of his enemies in the early church at Wizinloch on the site of the present Reformed church and burnt the building down.
The city pharmacy in Wiesloch was the first "filling station" in the world, because Bertha Benz stopped there on 5 August 1888, on the first long distance car trip, to refill the tank of her automobile, which her husband Karl Benz had invented. She was supplied with ligroin by the apothecary Willi Ockel. In 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was officially designated an industrial heritage route, following Bertha Benz's route on the world's first long-distance journey by automobile. It is a 194 km signposted circuit from Mannheim via Heidelberg and Wiesloch to Pforzheim in the Black Forest, and back.
The Codex Manesse includes four sophisticated Middle High Germanlyrics in the tagelied genre ascribed to the Minnesinger von Wissenlo. The identity of the Minnesinger von Wissenlo is not known, but the poet is conjectured to be Heinrich Swendinger von Wissenloch, who lived in the second half of the 13th century. An illustration titled von Wissenlo in the Codex Manesse shows a lady, a child, and a knight, and includes an escutcheon which does not match that of the Von Wissenloch family. There are two statues of the Minnesinger von Wissenlo in Wiesloch town centre: one, by Hatto Zeidler from 1978, is in the square by the united protestant church and shows the poet playing the lyre; the other, an equestrian statue on a tall column, is part of a group by Karel Fron that was erected in the market square near the town hall in 1988.
Geography
Wiesloch is situated partly on the southern foothills of the Odenwald, partly in the Rhine Valley, and partly in the Kraichgau. Five brooks flow through Wiesloch: the Leimbach, the Gauangelbach, the Waldangelbach, the Ochsenbach, and the Maisbach.
