Adelsheim

Sister cities

• Berchères-sur-Vesgre

History

In 1374, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor raised Adelsheim to town. The landlords were the Imperial Knights (Reichsritter) of Adelsheim. The Reichsritters von Adelsheim were eventually elevated to the rank of Freiherr (Barons of the Holy Roman Empire). Adelsheim was already home to some Jews in the Middle Ages. In 1338, Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor had allowed the brothers Poppo and Berlinger von Adelsheim to "keep" four Jewish families in their lands. Also in 1690, there were four Jewish families resident in Adelsheim. The establishment of an actual community can be traced back to the seventeenth century. The highest number of Jewish inhabitants was reached in 1885 when the count was 70. Under an ordinance from 1690, the Jewish community yearly had to pay the Barons of Adelsheim four gulden for "school", that is to say, to be allowed to hold their religious services. The prayer room used at that time, according to oral tradition, was set up on the second floor of the house built by Melchior Keller in 1418 in the Torgasse ("Gate Lane"). This house was dismantled in 1952. Later, there was a prayer room in a likewise no longer standing building in the yard of the Oberschloss. From the middle of the nineteenth century until 1889, a synagogue stood at Turmgasse 27. A ritual bath and a Jewish school were housed at the old synagogue in the nineteenth century at Turmgasse 27, and as of 1889 at the new synagogue (Untere Austraße 1). When the new synagogue was being torn down in 1977, the ritual bath was rediscovered. Burials were performed in Buchen-Bödigheim and after 1884 in Sennfeld. After the deportations during the Third Reich, at least ten of the 35 Jews living in town in 1933 lost their lives. As a result of the Reformation, the people became Lutheran. Until 2000,…

Geography

Adelsheim lies at the mouth of the river Kirnau which comes from the west, emptying into the river Seckach coming from the north. The combined stream was used in building the town fortifications. Farther downstream, the Seckach flows by Möckmühl into the Jagst, thence into the Neckar, and thence into the Rhine. The Adelsheim area is part of the greater geographical region known as the Bauland, a mountain range stretching from the Odenwald in the northwest to the Jagst valley in the south as well as to the Tauber valley in the east. Part of the municipality's area lies within the Neckartal-Odenwald Nature Park. Sennfeld lies about 3 km southwest along the Seckach valley and has about 1,250 inhabitants. The place was first mentioned in a document in 1110. In 1615, Margaretha von Carben, who was Götz von Berlichingen's granddaughter, endowed the Evangelical parish church. The Sennfeld Schloss (stately home), formerly owned by kin of the Barons of Berlichingen, was built in 1713 in a countrified Baroque style. Leibenstadt, a former knightly village with about 320 inhabitants lying south of Adelsheim was first mentioned in a document in 1293, and has been part of Adelsheim since 1971. Website: http://www.leibenstadt.de The hamlet of Wemmershof, lying 3 km west of Adelsheim, saw the beginning of its village history in 1423. In the Middle Ages, the landlords relinquished the property to the farmers who lived there at the time. Today Wemmershof is now, as then, a community shaped by agriculture, and it has about 50 inhabitants. Hergenstadt lies to the southeast. It is a hamlet with about 50 people, founded in 1500. The Adelsheim Business Park (called Business-Park Adelsheim in German) is located 1 km to the west, outside the Adelsheim municipal centre and…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  397
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  396
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  382
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  320
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  313
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  311
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  307
• Great Spotted Woodpecker

  Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  273

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2014-05-17
  2 km ESE of Pfungstadt, Germany
• M 3 — 2007-12-13
  2 km NE of Monsheim, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2007-11-25
  0 km S of Hildrizhausen, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2007-11-23
  2 km ESE of Landau in der Pfalz, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2007-06-30
  1 km ESE of Ehningen, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2007-05-29
  2 km SSE of Offstein, Germany