Sinsheim

Sister cities

• Longué-Jumelles
• Barcs

History

The region around Sinsheim has been settled since 700,000 BC, as shown by the finding of the fossil Homo heidelbergensis in the village of Mauer, about 12 km (7 miles) north of Sinsheim. The Romans ruled the area from 90 AD to 260 AD. The city was possibly founded in about 550 AD by the Frankish nobleman Sunno. It was first historically mentioned in 770 AD in the Codex of the cloister Lorsch. Since 1192, the town had city rights, a privilege first granted by Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Sinsheim was affected by wars and poverty from the 1500s to the 1700s. Sinsheim-born revolutionary Franz Sigel became a famous Union general in the American Civil War. The Elsenz Valley Railway and Sinsheim station were opened in 1868 and the nearby Steinsfurt–Eppingen line was opened in 1900; electricity and public water pipes were introduced into the city from 1910 on. The World Wars and the Great Depression kept Sinsheim from growing until the A6 Autobahn was built in 1968. It connected Sinsheim to national and international roads, with Mannheim, Stuttgart, Frankfurt am Main, Heilbronn, Heidelberg, Ludwigshafen all now within an hour by car. While traditionally being an agricultural town, the highway made it into a small industrial centre, but it has been hit by recession and international outsourcing in recent years.

Geography

Sinsheim consists of a town centre and 12 suburbs with a total population of 36,780 (as of March 2023). Its area encompasses . The Elsenz, an unnavigable left-bank tributary of the Neckar, flows through the town, reaching the Neckar at Neckargemünd. The list below shows the 12 suburban villages (Stadtteile). Population data was as of 31 December 2020 and the one of Sinsheim (the town proper) was of 12,914. {| border="1" cellspacing="0" | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Village ! style="background:#efefef;" | Population |----- | Adersbach || align="right" | 626 |----- | Dühren || align="right" | 2,214 |----- | Ehrstädt || align="right" | 578 |----- | Eschelbach || align="right" | 2,222 |----- | Hasselbach || align="right" | 325 |----- | Hilsbach || align="right" | 2,323 |} | valign="top" | {| ! style="background:#efefef;" | Village ! style="background:#efefef;" | Population |----- | Hoffenheim || align="right" | 3,310 |----- | Reihen || align="right" | 2,281 |----- | Rohrbach || align="right" | 2,209 |----- | Steinsfurt || align="right" | 3,312 |----- | Waldangelloch || align="right" | 1,661 |----- | Weiler || align="right" | 1,919 |----- |} |}

Most-observed species

• Zoropsid spider

  Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820) · Arachnida
  2,522
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,546
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,390
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,381
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,314
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,190
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,127
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,089

Most recent

• M 4 — 2022-07-09
  2 km NNE of Grosselfingen, Germany
• M 3.6 — 2014-05-17
  2 km ESE of Pfungstadt, Germany
• M 3.4 — 2010-12-23
  4 km WNW of Mainz, Germany
• M 3.4 — 2010-06-29
  3 km NW of Hochheim am Main, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-12-12
  2 km ESE of Nehren, Germany
• M 2.8 — 2008-11-25
  1 km S of Steinmauern, Germany