Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken | |
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 Aerial view of Heiligenstadt | |
_COA.svg) Coat of arms | |
Location of Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken within Bamberg district  | |
 Location of Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken | |
  Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken  Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken | |
| Coordinates:49°52′N11°10′E / 49.867°N 11.167°E /49.867; 11.167 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Bavaria |
| Admin. region | Oberfranken |
| District | Bamberg |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–26) | Stefan Reichold[1] (SPD) |
| Area | |
• Total | 76.7 km2 (29.6 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 304 m (997 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 3,703 |
| • Density | 48.3/km2 (125/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 91332 |
| Dialling codes | 09198 |
| Vehicle registration | BA |
| Website | www.markt-heiligenstadt.de |
Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken (German pronunciation:[ˈhaɪlɪɡn̩ˌʃtatʔɪnˈʔoːbɐˌfʁaŋkn̩],lit. 'Heiligenstadt in Upper Franconia'; officially:Heiligenstadt i. OFr.) is a community with market rights in theUpper Franconian district ofBamberg. The town clusters round the base ofSchloss Greifenstein.
To furthertourism the old school was converted into today's town hall, the historicmarketplace was remodelled, and atEaster it is adorned with anEaster fountain. Furthermore, an oldbarn was converted into a community centre.
The community with its houses under memorial protection and its historically interestingchurch is a well known outing destination.
Visitors are especially numerous at Easter when many come to see theFranconian Switzerland’s Easter fountains.
The EvangelicalSt.-Veit- und St.-Michaels-Kirche (church) goes back to a formertithe barn. The freestandingbelltower stands on what is left of a formercastle. Unusual for an Evangelical church is the elaborateBaroque painting on the wooden galleries and the panelled ceilings.
Heiligenstadt lies in the Bamberg district’s southeastern corner. The 24Gemeindeteile lie along the Leinleiter Valley and on the abutting Jura Plateau. Veilbronn lies 329 m abovesea level. The greatest elevation is the Altenberg (mountain) behindZoggendorf at 583 m above sea level. The villages on the heights from Volkmannsreuth to Teuchatz belong to theLange Meile ("Long Mile"). The North Jura joins with the Seigelstein near Lindach. The mountain villages east of the Leinleiter are part of theAufseßer Gebirge (mountain range).
Heiligenstadt, in the Naturpark Fränkische Schweiz-Veldensteiner Forst (nature park), is the most important place in the Leinleiter Valley.
Heiligenstadt is a small centre with 24 constituent communities (Gemeindeteile). Within municipal limits is an area of 77 km2 making Heiligenstadt the district's third biggest community; however, it belongs to the more thinly populated areas. In all of Heiligenstadt's centres live roughly 3,500 inhabitants.[3]
 |  | Brunn has an area of 5.57 km2, lying on aplateau between Hohenpölz and Schloss Greifenstein. |  | 111 inhabitants |
 |  | Burggrub lies on the ridge of the Altenberg and below the 525-m high Eichenberg in the Leinleiter Valley, 378 m above sea level. |  | 158 inhabitants |
 |  | Thehamlet of Geisdorf lies roughly 500 m above sea level on a terrace of the Jura. |  | 34 inhabitants |
 |  | Schloss Greifenstein lies 502 m above sea level and is the seat of the nobleStauffenberg family. | | 6 inhabitants |
 |  | Heiligenstadt is the community's main and namesake centre, dwarfing all of its outlying centres with a population of 1,333. |  | 1,422 inhabitants |
 |  | The Heroldsmühle lies near the Leinleiter's source. |  | 10 inhabitants |
 |  | Herzogenreuth lies 566 m above sea level, making it the Bamberg district's highest village. |  | 129 inhabitants |
 |  | Hohenpölz with its 30-metre high church belltower can be seen from almost everywhere in the heights of theFranconian Jura. It has an area of 7.57 km2. |  | 143 inhabitants |
 |  | Kalteneggolsfeld has an area of 4.18 km2 and an elevation of 520 m. It lies on the edge of theLange Meile (“Long Mile”). |  | 139 inhabitants |
 | .jpg) | Leidingshof |  | 35 inhabitants |
 |  | Lindach was until administrative reform Bavaria's smallest community. |  | 72 inhabitants |
 |  | Not far from Neudorf begins the Wein Valley, which leads to Veilbronn. |  | 47 inhabitants |
 |  | The Neumühle lies on the Volletsbach 370 m above sea level below Schloss Greifenstein (castle) and is included in most depictions of the castle. |  | 22 inhabitants |
 |  | Oberleinleiter lies 386 m above sea level. The village's landmark is the 520-m high Kreuzsteinfelsen, from which there is a panorama over the countryside as far as the villages of the Bamberger Jura. |  | 155 inhabitants |
 |  | Oberngrub has an area of 3.7 km2. It is part of theLange Meile (“Long Mile”). |  | 174 inhabitants |
 |  | Reckendorf lies in a side valley of the Leinleiter running north–south, two kilometres north of Heiligenstadt. |  | 70 inhabitants |
 |  | Siegritz has an area of 9.24 km2. It lies near the Wern Valley on the Alb plateau about 456 m above sea level in the Bamberg district's southeasternmost reaches. |  | 174 inhabitants |
 |  | Stücht once belonged to the Lords of Stauffenberg at Schloss Greifenstein. |  | 68 inhabitants |
 |  | Teuchatz lies in a small basin (545 m above sea level) on the edge of the western heights of theFranconian Jura. |  | 212 inhabitants |
 |  | Tiefenpölz has a noteworthy St. Martin's Parish Church that rises over the village. |  | 140 inhabitants |
 | Traindorf lies in the Leinleiter Valley hardly a kilometre south of Heiligenstadt. |  | 144 inhabitants | |
 |  | Veilbronn lies in the Leinleiter Valley south of Heiligenstadt and is well known as a holiday village. |  | 74 inhabitants |
 |  | Volkmannsreuth lies on the plateau. |  | 52 inhabitants |
 |  | Zoggendorf lies in the Leinleiter Valley. Towering over it is the 585-m high Altenberg. |  | 106 inhabitants |
Prehistoric finds establish that the market community's municipal area was already populated thousands of years ago, at least at times. However, permanent small communities only arose about the year 500 at the time of theMigration Period (orVölkerwanderung). Documentary mention, though, came only much later.
The community's villages arose about a thousand years ago. Heiligenstadt itself already existed before theBishopric of Bamberg was founded in 1007.
In the Leinleiter Valley were lordly seats of the Knights of Streitberg. In 1525,the peasants revolted and inflicted heavy damage upon the castles. In 1541, the Emperor granted Heiligenstadt market privilege.
In 1580, theReformation was introduced into Heiligenstadt andUnterleinleiter. In 1690, the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg,Marquard Sebastian Schenk von Stauffenberg inherited the knightly estates of Greifenstein and Burggrub together with patronage over Heiligenstadt. The Counts Schenk vonStauffenberg still live at Greifenstein Castle and the palatial estate of Burggrub today. The villages in the community's northern area grew out of the former BambergÄmter. Here there was no change in the prevailingreligion.
Through theReichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803, the community passed toBavaria.
In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the communities of Brunn, Burggrub, Hohenpölz, Oberleinleiter, Siegritz, Stücht, Traindorf and Zoggendorf joined the market community of Heiligenstadt.
The first major war of which anything exact is known was theHussite War in 1430. The Heiligenstadt parish chronicle reports that in 1429, singleBohemian cohorts destroyed parts of Heiligenstadt and the whole of Burggrub and Zoggendorf. By paying an immense sum of money, theMargrave Friedrich, who had been summoned for help, managed to get the Hussite leaderProkop to turn away. The money had to be made up through specialtaxes paid by the subjects.
During the German Peasants' War of 1525, peasants from the Bamberg area plundered and burnt the castle at Burggrub. A cohort fromEbermannstadt plundered the castle at Veilbronn. Once the revolt had been quelled by theSwabian League, five of the peasants’ leaders were beheaded at the market inHollfeld.
TheSecond Margrave War was set off in 1552 by the MargraveAlbrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. In April 1553, the Margrave's horsemen laid waste to the village of Herzogenreuth. Hohenpölz was supposed to pay protection money to receive a charter to avoid the worst.
TheThirty Years' War caused the most damage of all wars. On 10 September 1632, the Mistendorf clergyman reported the plunder of the villages of Teuchatz and Tiefenpölz, both served by him. The perpetrators, however, were not theSwedes, but Imperial troops who were fighting on the Catholic side. TheKastner (“bursary officer”) of the Streitburg wrote in 1633 to the Margrave in Kulmbach telling him that “the subjects had all theirlivestock andgrain taken away and many were horridlymurdered. In some villages more than half the subjects are said to have died wretchedly.” Farms were forsaken in Volkmannsreuth, Brunn, Oberleinleiter, Burggrub and Stücht. Meanwhile, times had become so uncertain that hardly any more written records were kept. Moreover, no-one knew anymore who was fighting for or against whom. On 12 June 1634,Weimar horsemen plundered the villages and took the farmers’ livestock away. An eyewitness wrote:
In connection with this, Heiligenstadt may also have been affected.
TheSeven Years' War betweenPrussia andAustria was about supremacy inCentral Europe. The Prussians moved by way ofFürth towards the north and in the summer of 1757 they were quartered inEbermannstadt, which they plundered before they then moved up the Leinleiter. On the way, they extorted all that there was to have: money, livestock, food. Under the soldiers’ march, Veilbronn and Traindorf both suffered. Barely a year later came the Prussians’ next invasion, and a year after that came a third. In November 1762, Prussian troops stayed in the area around Heiligenstadt for three weeks.
In theNapoleonic Wars, an army corps under GeneralJourdan on a retreat overran the Franconian Switzerland.Frenchmilitary police rode through the villages and extorted protection money from the peasants – sometimes many times in quick succession.
With the annexation ofAlsace-Lorraine, many of those called up formilitary service were stationed at theMetz garrison, some of whom stayed for ever and took wives. Among these was Jean Puff from the Heroldsmühle.
Even though theFirst World War took place far from Heiligenstadt, the human losses were roughly as high as they had been in the Thirty Years' War.
As theSecond World War was drawing to an end, the villagers hid with their livestock while the village elders approachedUnited States troops with a white flag to surrender their village. The Americans established a military government, ordering, on pain of death, the surrender of allfirearms. Near Teuchatz, abomb disposal site was set up, whereWehrmachtmunitions were destroyed.
The placename Heiligenstadt has nothing to do with theGerman wordheilig (“holy”). It is merely another example of how names can change over time. The community was first mentioned in 1365 asHaldenstat, meaning “town at the slope” (Halde is still a German word for “slope”).
In a report from the time of the Franconian Switzerland's discovery (that is, as a tour destination), Dr. Gottlieb Zimmermann describes in 1840 ahiking route along the Leinleiter wherein he shows by mentioning the community's old name that the name Heiligenstadt has nothing to do withHeiligen (“Holy Ones” or “Saints”), but rather with the wordHalde:
The community was calledLutherisches Hallstadt to distinguish it fromHallstadt near Bamberg, which was (and is) mostlyCatholic.
Within the market community's limits, Catholic and Evangelical villages lie in the area of the Archdiocese of Bamberg: In Leidingshof there is not a single Catholic, in the villages of the parish of Tiefenpölz, almost nobody is Evangelical. In the heart of the main community, mostlyLutherans live, whereas in the outlying newer developments, most people are Catholic. All together, the ratio between the two faiths stands at roughly 1:1.
Heiligenstadt-Burggrub is a patronage parish with presentation rights of the Schenken von Stauffenberg, Greifenstein, and calls itself St. Paul Heiligenstadt-Burggrub.
The Evangelical Lutheran parish has its centre in the St.-Veit- und St.-Michaels-Kirche.
Furthermore, there is in Heiligenstadt anEvangelical Free Church Congregation (Baptists). It has its seat in the family centre (sponsored by theFamilienzentrum der Evangelisch-Freikirchlichen Gemeinden in Nordbayern e. V.)
Already by 1430 there wereJews from nearby towns doing trade with peasants in Heiligenstadt. In Heiligenstadt itself, it is believed there were no Jews at that time.
According to documents, in 1605 there were at least three Jewish families living in Heiligenstadt. In 1617, there were seven. According to a directory kept by a clergyman named Knab from Heiligenstadt, there were 1,758 souls in his parish all together, 239 of them Catholic and 58 Jewish.
In 1692, ashechita andslaughter order was in effect. In 1734, Jews were allowed to carry their books publicly, accompanied by musicians, into theirsynagogue.
Not seldom, the Jews’ business acumen led to envy. In 1699, peasants from theScheßlitz area rose up together against the Jews. First, the Heiligenstadters wanted to stand against them. However, once they learnt that only Jews were to be harmed, they forsook their resistance. Some even took part in the ensuingpogrom. In 1716, the Jews requested lordly protection when news reached Heiligenstadt that a “young Christian girl” inPretzfeld had been murdered, leading the Jews to fear that they would be the targets of a revenge campaign by those who suspected them.
The last relic of Jewish life is the Jewish cemetery on the Berg Kuhlich, mentioned as early as 1608. The last burial here took place about 1900. An unknown witness noted in the 1950s:
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2021) |
The community council is made up of 16 members, listed here by party or voter community affiliation, and also with the number of seats that each holds:[6]
The community's arms show theArchangel Michael with golden wings, red cloak and blue robe, golden helmet with a red tuft of feathers on the head standing on a silver cloud and holding a blue flaming sword in his right hand and a greenolive twig in his left.
When the outlying communities of Brunn, Burggrub, Hohenpölz, Oberleinleiter, Siegritz, Stücht, Traindorf and Zoggendorf were amalgamated with Heiligenstadt, the new, bigger community kept the old Heiligenstadt'scoat of arms, which at arms revision in 1819 was held to be the “longest borne arms”. Older seals, however, have not come down to the present day.
The Archangel Michael is, along withSaint Vitus, the holy protector of the now EvangelicalSt.-Veit- und St.-Michaels-Kirche in Heiligenstadt.
Theindustrialization arising in the surrounding towns led to the outflow of both small craftsmen and youth. Even the refugees driven from formerly German lands east of theOder andNeiße after the Second World War did not decisively change this emigration pattern. Not all of them stayed for any length of time. It was only in the 1970s that an upswing was brought about when Mayor Daum did all that he could to make Heiligenstadt more attractive to those seeking work. To this end, jobs were created along with shopping facilities. The state furnished funds for this, making it possible to overhaul the community core.
From 1915 to 1968, Heiligenstadt was the end of the Heiligenstadt–Ebermannstadt spur line, which also afforded a connection to Forchheim. When the time came to build it, there were still some who needed convincing of the project's wisdom. Put forth as arguments in its favour were thebasalt mined on the Upper Leinleiter,iron ore finds nearKönigsfeld, thewood from the Stauffenberg and Aufseß forests, loading grain and livestock, and the looming tourism in the Franconian Switzerland.
For those whose lands abutted the projected right of way, building the railway meant a financial burden, for the railway required acquisition of lands needed not only for this right of way but also for other building works such as access ways. Even communities farther away from the railway were ready to throw their lot in with those that were nearer in the hope that there would one day be an extension toHollfeld orScheßlitz.
The people of Gasseldorf, on the other hand, caused the railway builders difficulties. They were unwilling to yield land for the project, making forcible expropriation measures necessary.
In June 1913, building work began. There was 117 000 m³ of earth to be moved, 11bridges to be built, and the Leinleiter riverbed had to be shifted in five places, making plenty of work for more than 100 workers and many residents.
In 1915, the project could fulfil its purpose. On 4 October 1915, the Ebermannstadt-Heiligenstadt local railway went into service. The schoolteacher Hans Spörl wrote:
It goes on to say:
The pride was, however, short-lived, for in June 1960, passenger service ended on the line, and in 1968, goods services were also halted.
Already by 1912 there were signals to the effect that a motorizedpostal service from Bamberg to Heiligenstadt was being planned. In 1930, the postal bus was running “as demand required”. This mainly meant outings into the Franconian Switzerland. The post conducted its wanting service mostly under bad road conditions. The motorized postal line to Hollfeld was abandoned again in the autumn of 1931 because the abutting communities of Zoggendorf and Stücht were not using the service enough for it to be justifiable. After that, the coachman with his horse-drawn service ran once again.
Roads fit for motor vehicles within the community's limits came into being only in the 1930s through work done by theReichsarbeitsdienst, mainly through their job creation schemes. In connection with this, the roads from Veilbronn to Siegritz and from Hohenpölz to Reckendorf were built.
The biggest postwar project was the building of the valley bridge in Veilbronn in the 1950s.
The oldest note of the postal service in Heiligenstadt comes from the year 1733 when the prospective Catholic clergyman Josef Rösch in Bamberg stated that his father had for many years been the postmaster in Heiligenstadt. In 1853, theBriefniederlage (“letter repository”) was replaced with aBrief- und Fahrpostexpedition (“letter and coach service”). Whenever the postal agent changed, the station for the service also changed. In 1892, Heiligenstadt got a postal stop for the so-calledCariolpostlinie to Aufseß andHollfeld. Another such postal line ran to therailway station inEbermannstadt. In 1898 came the establishment of a planned postal agency, whose agents complained about the strenuous duty because the postal vehicles always came at night or very early in the morning, making it necessary for them to be on duty then.
Letter and parcel post was carried by motor vehicles. The postal delivery service was provided until the 1960s by postmen on foot or bicycle.
On 1 October 1874, Heiligenstadt got aMorsetelegraph station, which was used until 1926. In 1907, atelephone exchange was opened. The first subscribers were the Hösch Inn and Schloss Greifenstein as well as the communities of Burggrub and Hohenpölz.
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