Eppelheim () is a city in northern

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

bordering

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. It belongs to the district Rhein-Neckar-Kreis.

Geography

Location and neighboring communities

Eppelheim is situated in the valley of the

Upper Rhine Upper Rhine ( ; ; kilometres 167 to 529 of the Rhine) is the section of the Rhine between the Middle Bridge, Basel, Middle Bridge in Basel, Switzerland, and the Rhine knee in Bingen am Rhein, Bingen, Germany. It is surrounded by the Upper Rhine P ...

southwest of the hills of the

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' ...

and directly on the

Bundesautobahn 5 is a 445 km (277 mi) long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the Hattenbach triangle intersection (with the Bundesautobahn 7, A 7). The southern end is at the Switzerland, Swiss border near Basel. It runs through the Germa ...

. The location of the city within the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis is almost completely surrounded by the urban district of Heidelberg. Eppelheim borders the Heidelberg boroughs of Wieblingen in the North, Pfaffengrund in the East, and Kirchheim in the South. To the West lies the municipality of Plankstadt, also within the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis. Another center in the Rhein-Neckar metropolitan region is Mannheim, about northwest of Eppelheim.

Boroughs

Eppelheim does not have any boroughs, but locals orient on the directions of the compass and refer to the parts of the city that way. For example, northeast Eppelheim. However, there are no exact demarcations.

History

Archaeological finds from the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

, and the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

indicate that the area where the city is located was inhabited by people for a long time. Eppelheim was first mentioned in historical documents pertaining to a grant in the year 770 in the

Lorsch codex The Lorsch Codex (Chronicon Laureshamense, Lorscher Codex, Codex Laureshamensis) is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Lorsch Abbey, Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. The codex is handwrit ...

under the name ''Ebbelenheim''. From the 11th century Eppelheim was a typical small village of the

Electorate of the Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a Imperial State, constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy ...

. The number of inhabitants remained continuously under 150 up until the 18th century. Among the reasons for this was the destruction of Eppelheim in 1689. The village, like so many others in the area, was burned down by French troops on 28 January during the

War of the Grand Alliance The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

. Eppelheim was rebuilt and experienced a steady increase in population. In the 20th century the population boomed. The population went from 2644 in 1905 to 13,904 in 1997. The people of Eppelheim chose masonry as a career more than the average German in the 20th century. In 1908 there were over 400. Eppelheim is known in the region as a mason community. In 1998 Eppelheim was elevated to city status by the State of Baden-Württemberg.

Government

Municipal council

The municipal council of the city of Eppelheim has 22 members. They carry the title ''Stadträtin/Stadtrat'' (city councilor ''female/male'').

Coat of arms

The coat of arms in its current form was introduced in 1900. It is based on a lost seal from 1689. The coat of arms matches

inescutcheon In heraldry, an inescutcheon is a smaller Escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon that is placed within or superimposed over the main shield of a coat of arms, similar to a Charge (heraldry), charge. This may be used in the following cases: * as a sim ...

of the old coat of arms of the Electorate of the Palatinate, which refers to the honor of the counts palatine of the Rhine. The flag is yellow and red and was awarded by the Ministry of State in 1959.

International relations

Eppelheim is twinned with: * Flag of Germany

Wilthen (

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

), since 1989 * Flag of France

Dammarie-lès-Lys (

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

), since 1996 Friendly contacts have been established with the following cities: * Flag of Hungary

Vértesacsa (

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

) *

Montebelluna Montebelluna is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, Italy, approximately northwest of Venice. It has an estimated population of 31,000. Montebelluna borders the following municipalities: Altivole, Caerano di San Marco, Cornuda, Crocetta del Montello ...

(

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

)

Economy and infrastructure

Businesses

The company Wild has its headquarters in EppelheimApproach Heidelberg
." Wild. Retrieved on 22 October 2011. and is the largest employer (including a factory of its subsidiary global brand Capri-Sun) in the southern part of the city with approximately 1400 workers. The tax on the company's business is an important factor in determining the city budget.

Transportation

Eppelheim is directly on the

and has access through the Heidelberg/Schwetzingen exit. The city is connected to the neighboring university city, Heidelberg by the well travelled streetcar line 22. The streetcar is run by the Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (RNV). The connection leads to other public transit opportunities. Bus line 713 connects to Schwetzingen via Plankstadt. Intracity connections are offered by Eppelheim's bus line 732, run by Busverkehr Rhein-Neckar GmbH as the so-called ''City-Bus''. File:No. 2 tram leaving Eppelheim, 1979.JPG, Heidelberg bound tram leaving Eppelheim, 1979 File:No. 2 tram, Hauptstrasse, Eppelheim 1979.JPG, Tram in the main street Eppelheim, 1979

Personality

Honorary citizen

* 1906: Jakob Neu (1836-1921), head teacher from 1878 to 1907 * Andreas Jäger, mayor from 1919 to 1933 and from 1945 to 1954 * 1979: Rudolf Wild (1904–1995), entrepreneur, founder of the Wild (company) * Alois Berberich (1913–2000), second mayor * 1997: Leonie Wild, (1908–2005) co-founder of the Wild-company * 2001: Inge Burck * 2003: Hans Stephan, retired rector * 2006:

Hans-Peter Wild Hans-Peter Wild (born 16 June 1941) is a German-born Swiss businessman and lawyer. Wild is the owner and chairman of Capri-Sun a fruit juice manufacturer based in Zug, Switzerland. Until 2014, he was the majority shareholder in the company Wild ( ...

, (born 1941), lawyer and entrepreneur

Personalities who have worked in Eppelheim

Wolfgang Ketterle Wolfgang Ketterle (; born 21 October 1957) is a German physicist and professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zer ...

(born 1957), grew up in Eppelheim, holder of the Nobel Prize for Physics * Ernst Knoll (1940–1997), eight times German champion and twice Olympic participant in wrestling * Jakob Rupper (1896–1958), owner of a steel construction company and Member of the ''Landtag'' * Wolfgang Ernst (born 1957), politician, Lord Mayor of Leimen 2000–2016

External links

* (German
Official website
* (German
Private website about Eppelheim
* (German

Aerial photos of Eppelheim and other cities.

References

{{Authority control Towns in Baden-Württemberg Rhein-Neckar-Kreis