municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
belonging to a ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhinelan ...
'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
.
Geography
Location
Bissersheim lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland, whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the ''Verbandsgemeinde''. It sits at an elevation of 141 m above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...
near the northern end of the German Wine Route. To the west rises the
Haardt
The Haardt () is a range of wooded, sandstone hills in the state of Rhineland Palatinate in southwestern Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous c ...
, the Palatinate Forest’s eastern edge, and in the east stretches the
Upper Rhine Plain
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...
. Flowing through the municipality from west to east is the river Eckbach, also regionally known as ''die Eck''.
History
In 774, Bissersheim had its first documentary mention as ''Bizziricheshaim''.
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, it belonged to the district of Frankenthal (''Landkreis Frankenthal''), until this was abolished in 1969. After the transfer to the new district of Bad Dürkheim had been made the following year, Bissersheim was likewise grouped into the newly formed ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Grünstadt-Land in 1972.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by
majority vote
A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat /ref>
Coat of arms
The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Argent, in base a dragon slain sans wings and hindlegs vert standing on which Saint Margaret of Antioch vested gules, robed of the first, booted, crined and crowned Or, in her dexter hand a cross-staff botonny, the lower arm in the dragon’s chest.
Saint Margaret of Antioch appears in the coat of arms as one of the local church’s patron saints. The church, ''Pfarrkirche St. Blasius und St. Margaretha'' (“Parish Church of Saint Margaret and Saint Blaise”), also has Saint Blaise as a patron.
Culture and sightseeing
Regular events
The ''Bissersheimer Weinkerwe'' (“Bissersheim Wine Fair”) is held each year on the second weekend in August.
Economy and infrastructure
The municipality is a winegrowing centre in the Palatinate wine region and looks back on a long winegrowing tradition.
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
* Abraham Kuhn (1838–1900), professor of medicine at the University of Strasbourg (then Straßburg).