Evangelische Kirche Balkhausen Seeheim-Jugenheim 01

Balkhausen is a village of 693 inhabitants forming part of the municipality

Seeheim-Jugenheim Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000. Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages: * Balkhausen (population 693) *Jugenheim (population 4,448) *Mal ...

Darmstadt-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds. Histo ...

district in

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Balkhausen lies in the Vorderer

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

South Hesse Darmstadt is one of the three of Hesse, Germany, located in the south of the state. The other two are Giessen and Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central ...

in the valley between the

Melibokus The Melibokus (also ''Melibocus'', ''Malchen'' or ''Malschen'') is at 517 metres (1696 feet), the highest hill in the Bergstraße region of southern Hesse, central Germany. It was also the name of a hill in Germania described by classical ...

- massif in the west and the Felsberg (Odenwald) - massif in the east. The district includes the source area of the '' Quaddelbach (Landbach)'' (partly also called ''Quattelbach''), which leads in northern direction down the valley to

, where it unites with the ''Stettbach'' to the ''Landbach''. The southern boundary follows the ridge that connects the two mountain massifs with a saddle height of about 285 meters. The southern boundary is a few hundred meters away from this transition to the ''Mühltal'', through which one can reach Auerbach (Bensheim) along the ''Mühlbach'' to the south via Hochstädten to

Auerbach Auerbach or Auer Bach, German for "meadow-brook", may refer to the following: Places In Austria *Auerbach, Upper Austria, Braunau am Inn district In Germany Localities *Auerbach (Albtal), a village of Karlsbad, administrative area in Baden-W ...

, which as a district of

Bensheim Bensheim () is a town in the Kreis Bergstraße, Bergstraße district in southern Hessen, Germany. Bensheim lies on the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and at the edge of the Odenwald mountains while at the same time having an open view over the Rhi ...

lies on the Bergstraße and on the eastern edge of 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 ...

. Following the ''Quaddelbach'' up the valley to the east, one either comes to the

Felsenmeer A blockfieldWhittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, pp. 66 and 190. . (also spelt block fieldLeser, Hartmut, ed. (2005). ''Wörterbuch Allgemeine Geographie'', 13th ed., dtv, Munich, pp. 107 and 221 ...

or via the ''Kuralpe'' at the ''Staffeler Kreuz'' down to Staffel and further to

Modautal Modautal (, ) is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hesse, Germany. Approximately 5,050 inhabitants live in 11 districts on an area of 31 km2 with about 38.7% wood. The first historical chronicles date back to the 13th centur ...

. East of the village in the direction of Schmal-Beerbach lies the settlement Quattelbach (Balkhausen), which was first documented in 1377 as a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

and has always been part of the Balkhausen district.

History

The first known mention of the village dates back to 1357 and is a document that was written at Bickenbach Castle (today Schloss Alsbach) about the castle's peace there. In this document also estates in ''Balkhusen'' are mentioned.Document: HStAD Bestand A 1 Nr. 21/2
nbsp;In: (Arcinsys Hessen). In later documents Balkhausen becomes Balkhusen under the

place name Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for a proper nam ...

n ''Balkhusen'' (1357), Blaghuß" (1380-1388), "Whale pants" and "Balkhusen" (1415), "Balkhusen" (1451), "Balckhusen" (1496) and "Balckhausen" (1553) are mentioned. The church of Balkhausen is mentioned in the middle of the 14th century. It was always branch church of Jugenheim. In 1571, Balkhausen was granted the ''

Amt Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...

Auerbach'' and 1621 administered by ''Amt Seeheim-Tannenberg''. After the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

Balkhausen was completely extinct only in 1648 a resident is found again in the chronicles, moved in from the surroundings. Only in 1660 there were 27 inhabitants again. In the 18th century, the structure of the village was consolidated; buildings were built along the natural line of the Quaddelbach stream. Thus slowly a so-called

Waldhufendorf The ''Waldhufendorf'' ("forest village"; plural: -''dörfer'') is a form of rural settlement established in areas of forest clearing with the farms arranged in a series along a road or stream, like beads on a chain.Dickinson, Robert E (1964). ''G ...

is being created. In 1714 the

County of Erbach A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) ''Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denotin ...

, which ruled the Odenwald area for 500 years, was forced to sell Balkhausen as an accessory to the ''Amt Seeheim-Tannenberg'' to the

Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt () was a Imperial State, State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse among the four sons of Landgr ...

due to financial difficulties. It then remained in Hesse or its predecessor states until today.

References

External links

Website Balkhausen (in German)
Darmstadt-Dieburg Villages in Hesse Odenwald {{Hesse-geo-stub