Мейзенхайм: История и описание города в Рейнланд-Пфальце

the town in Rhineland Palatinate

Meisenheim is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like named Verbandsgemeinde, and is also its seat. Meisenheim is a state recognized recreational resort (Erholungsort) and it is set out as a middle centre in state planning.

Meisenheim lies in the valley of the River Glan at the northern edge of the North Palatine Uplands. The municipal area measures 1 324 ha.

Clockwise from the north, Meisenheim's neighbours are Raumbach, Rehborn, Callbach, Reiffelbach, Odenbach, Breitenheim and Desloch, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district, except for Odenbach, which lies in the neighbouring Kusel district.

Also belonging to Meisenheim are the outlying homesteads of Hof Wieseck, Keddarterhof and Röther Hof.

Meisenheim is believed to have arisen in the 7th century AD, and its name is often derived from the town's hypothetical founder "Meiso" (thus making the meaning "Meiso's Home"). In 1154, Meisenheim had its first documentary mention. Sometimes cited as such, however, is a document dated 14 June 891 from the West Frankish king Odo (for example by K. Heintz in Die Schlosskirche zu Meisenheim a. Gl. u. ihre Denkmäler in Mitteilungen d. Histor. Vereins d. Pfalz 24 (1900) pp. 164–279, within which p. 164, and by W. Dotzauer in Geschichte des Nahe Hunsrück Raumes (2001), pp. 69 & 72), but this document is falsified (cf. H. Wibel: Die Urkundenfälschungen Georg Friedrich Schotts, in Neues Archiv d. Ges. f. Ältere Dt. Gesch. kunde Bd. 29 (1904), pp. 653–765, within which p. 688 & pp. 753– 757). In the 12th century, Meisenheim was raised to the main seat of the Counts of Veldenz and in 1315 it was granted town rights by King Ludwig IV. On what is now known as Schlossplatz ("Palace Square"), the Counts of Veldenz built a castle, bearing witness to which today are only two buildings that were later built, the Schloss Magdalenenbau (nowadays called the Herzog Wolfgang Haus or "Duke Wolfgang House") and above all the Schlosskirche ("Palace Church"), building work on which began in 1479. Both buildings were built only after the Counts of Veldenz had died out in 1444 and the county had been inherited by the Dukes of Palatine Zweibrücken. This noble house, too, at first kept their seat at Meisenheim, but soon moved it to Zweibrücken. From 1538 to 1571, Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrücken maintained in Meisenheim a mint, with one interruption, although this was then moved to Bergzabern. The Doppeltaler (double Thaler), Taler (Thaler) and Halbtaler (half Thaler) coins minted in the time when the mint was in Meisenheim remain among the highest quality mintings from Palatinate Zweibrücken. In 1799, Duke of Zweibrücken Maximilian IV inherited the long united lands of the Electorate of Bavaria and the Electorate of the Palatinate. While these three states were now de jure in personal union, this did not shift the power structures on the ground at all, for Palatinate Zweibrücken had already been occupied by French Revolutionary troops along with the other left bank territories. After the end of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in 1815, the Congress of Vienna assigned the part of Palatinate Zweibrücken lying north of the Glan, including Meisenheim, to the Landgraviate of Hesse Homburg rather than Maximilian's Kingdom of Bavaria. From 1816 onwards, Meisenheim was the administrative seat of the [[Amt (country subdivision) of Meisenheim and an [[Schultheiß. In 1866 the Grand Duchy of Hesse inherited Hesse Homburg but had to cede its territory to the Kingdom of Prussia later that same year following its defeat in the Austro Prussian War. The town of Meisenheim itself was not wholly reunited until after the Second World War when state of Rhineland Palatinate was founded. Until then, the lands just across the Glan had been Bavarian (either as foreign territory or as another province within Imperial, Weimar or Nazi Germany) since the Congress of Vienna.

Like many places in the region, Meisenheim can claim to have had its dealings with the notorious outlaw Schinderhannes (or Johannes Bückler, to use his true name). In early 1797, the already well known robber committed one of his earliest burglaries in Meisenheim. One night, he climbed into a master tanner's house and stole part of his leather stock, which he then apparently tried to sell back to the tanner the next day. In the spring of 1798, Schinderhannes went dancing several times at inns in Meisenheim.

Meisenheim's Evangelical Christians belong, as one of the church's southernmost communities, to the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, while the Catholics belong to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier. As at 30 November 2013, there are 2,764 full time residents in Meisenheim, and of those, 1,739 are Evangelical (62.916%), 591 are Catholic (21.382%), 8 are Lutheran (0.289%), 1 belongs to the New Apostolic Church (0.036%), 41 (1.483%) belong to other religious groups and 384 (13.893%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.

Meisenheim's mayor is Gerhard Heil. The article and the website Heraldry of the World show three different versions of the arms. The oldest, seen at Heraldry of the World, comes from the Coffee Hag albums from about 1925. It shows the tit in different tinctures, namely argent and sable (silver and black). The arms with the Wittelsbach bendy lozengy pattern are not shown.

Meisenheim's Old Town is the only one in the area that can boast of continuous development, uninterrupted by war, fire or other destruction, since the 14th century. It also has an in places well preserved girding wall with a still preserved town gate, the Untertor (“Lower Gate”), the 1517 town hall, many noble estates and townsmen's buildings as well as a mediaeval scale for weighing freight carts. The town's oldest noble estate, the Boos von Waldeckscher Hof, was built about 1400. The building is today livened up by an event venue and can be visited.

Left over from the Schloss (palatial residence), formerly held by the Counts of Veldenz and later the Dukes of Palatine Zweibrücken, extensively renovated in the 15th century but beset with fire in the 18th century and a round of demolition in the 19th, is only one major building, the Magdalenenbau, which was built in 1614 as a residence for Magdalena, the Ducal Zweibrücken widow, and considerably remodelled in the 19th century by the Landgraves of Hesse Homburg. It is nowadays used by the Evangelical Church and hence also bears the name Herzog Wolfgang Haus (“Duke Wolfgang House”) after the Duke who lent the Reformation considerable favour.

The Evangelical Schlosskirche (“Palace Church”), a three naved hall church, was built between 1479 and 1504. At the time of building, it stood right next to the Schloss and was the estate church, the town parish church and the Knights Hospitaller commandry’s church. Its Late Gothic west tower is shaped by rich stonemasonry. In the grave chapel, the 44 mostly Renaissance style tombs of the House of Palatinate Zweibrücken and the rich Gothic rib vaulting bear witness to sculptors’ highly developed art; also often praised is the wooden Rococo pulpit. The organ restored in 1993/1994 on the west gallery with its Baroque console was completed in 1767 by the renowned Brothers Stumm, and was already at the time, with its 29 stops, 2 manuals and pedal, one of the most opulent works of organ building in the Middle Rhine region. Together with the organ at the Augustinian Church (Augustinerkirche) in Mainz, it is one of the biggest preserved instruments built by this Hunsrück organ building family.

The Baroque Catholic parish church, Saint Anthony of Padua, has very lovely interior décor, parts of which were endowed by former Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński, who for a time during his exile lived in Meisenheim.

On Lindenallee, which was fully renovated amid great controversy in 2007, stands the stately old Volksschule (public school), which after serving 90 years as a school is now an “adventure hotel”.

At first, there was a Jewish prayer room. In 1808, a synagogue was built on Lauergasse. After it grew too small to serve the burgeoning Jewish community in the 19th century, the community decided in 1860 to build a new synagogue at the town's bleachfield on what is now called Saarstraße. From the earliest time during which donations were being gathered comes a report from the magazine Der Israelitische Volkslehrer published in October 1860:Meisenheim. This time, the local community has celebrated a very nice matnat yad. After using considerable sums to expand and beautify the graveyard two years ago, and one year ago, for the rabbi’s maintenance, correspondingly voting for a payrise for him, it granted over the last few festive days the sum of 2,000 Rhenish guilders to build a new synagogue. The one used until now was at the time of its founding 52 years ago was reckoned on a much smaller membership and even about 12 years ago became bereft of light as its neighbouring properties on all sides were built up; so that, seen from the point of view of the demands for better taste, it lacked light, air and room. Anyone who knows the local community’s circumstances will not consider this willingness to make sacrifices slight and will not refuse the community’s goodwill the fullest approval. Of course, this sum is still not enough and it is hoped all the more that there will be outside help, as people here never stood idly by when a call for help came from outside. The earlier synagogue was torn down a few years later. The new building was to become a representative building. The financing – costs reached 15,200 Rhenish guilders – could be ensured with a bit of effort. On 3 August 1866, the consecration of the new synagogue, designed by architect Heinrich Krausch, took place. It had seating for 160 worshippers. It was equipped with, among other things, six Torah scrolls, elaborate Torah ornamentation, silver candlesticks, an organ and a library. The prayer books were kept in six lecterns. Outwardly, it was a six axis aisleless building with a three floor façade with twin towers. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the Meisenheim synagogue sustained considerable damage. All doors, windows and great parts of the galleries were reduced to rubble and a fire was set, although this was quickly quenched once the Brownshirt thugs realized that one of the neighbouring buildings was an SA house. The synagogue, however, was not torn down as so many others were, although the upper levels of the twin towers were removed in 1940. In the time of the Second World War, the building was mainly used as an industrial works, quite contrary to its originally intended purpose, and thereafter as a municipal storehouse. From 1951 on, it was a private storehouse for grain, fodder and fertilizer. In a conversion, the remnants of the women's galleries were torn out, the windows were walled up and upper floors were built inside. In 1982, the building was placed under monumental protection. In 1985, the Meisenheim Synagogue Sponsorship and Promotional Association was founded, which acquired the former synagogue the following year and had it restored. On 9 November 1988 – fifty years to the day after Kristallnacht – the former synagogue building was opened to the public as the Haus der Begegnung (“House of Meeting”). This new name corresponds to the literal meaning of the Hebrew term for “synagogue”: בית כנסת (beyt knesset, literally “house of assembly”). On the upper floor, as a visible reminder of the former synagogue, a glass window by the Israeli artist Ruth van de Garde Tichauer was installed. The window was created with technical assistance from Karl Heinz Brust from Kirn. The window's content is the return of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to Jerusalem based on the text from the Amidah (תפילת העמידה; Tefilat HaAmidah “The Standing Prayer”), also called the Shmoneh Esreh (שמנה עשרה; “The Eighteen”): “Sound the great shofar for our freedom; raise a banner to gather our exiles, and bring us together from the four corners of the earth into our land.” In a decision taken on 21 May 1997, the synagogue building received the protection of the Hague Convention as a cultural property especially worthy of protection. Since 1999, above the entrance, has been a Star of David made of Jerusalem limestone, endowed by the Bad Kreuznach district's partner town in Israel, Kiryat Motzkin. The former synagogue's address in Meisenheim is Saarstraße 3.

The Jewish graveyard in Meisenheim was laid out no later than the early 18th century. The oldest preserved gravestone dates from 1725. In 1859, the graveyard was expanded with the addition of the “newer part”. The last burial that took place there was in 1938 (Felix Kaufmann). The graveyard has an area of 4 167 m2. In the graveyard's “older part”, gravestones are still standing at 105 of the graves, and in the “newer part”, this is so for a further 125 graves. The “newer part” is bordered on the east by a quarrystone wall. There is a great wrought iron entrance gate. The graveyard lies outside the town to the east, east of the road from Meisenheim to Rehborn, in a wood called the “Bauwald”. It can be reached by walking about 200 m along a farm lane that branches off the highway.

In 1896, Meisenheim was joined to the railway network with the opening of the Lauterecken–Odernheim stretch of the Lauter Valley Railway. This section was absorbed in 1904 into the Glantalbahn, which was fully opened that year. Meisenheim's railway station was important to all resident industry. In 1986, though, passenger service between Lauterecken Grumbach and Staudernheim was discontinued. Today, the station is only used as a stop on the adventure draisine journeys between Staudernheim and Kusel. Snaking through Meisenheim, mostly along the town's outskirts, is Bundesstraße 420.

The Glantal Klinik Meisenheim has two hospitals at its disposal. The Haus „Hinter der Hofstadt“ covers the demand for surgery, internal medicine and ambulant family medicine. The Glantal Klinik is a centre for acute neurology, neurological rehabilitation, surgery and accident surgery, internal medicine and communication disorder therapy. Adjoining the clinic is a speech language pathology centre.