Marnheim is a municipality in the

Donnersbergkreis The Donnersbergkreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the middle of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Bad Kreuznach, Alzey-Worms, Bad Dürkheim, Kaiserslautern, Kusel. History The district was created in 1969 by merging the dist ...

district, in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

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

Marnheim is located around 4 km (2.5 mi) south of

Kirchheimbolanden Kirchheimbolanden is the capital and the second largest city of the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate. Situated in south-western Germany, it is approximately 25 km west of Worms, Germany, Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaisersla ...

. The nearest bigger cities are

Worms The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a taxonomic database that aims to provide an authoritative and comprehensive catalogue and list of names of marine organisms. Content The content of the registry is edited and maintained by scien ...

and

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

. The

Pfrimm The Pfrimm () is a , left or western tributary of the Rhine in the Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany). Course The Pfrimm rises in the southern part of the Donnersbergkreis. Its spring lies in the northern part of the Palatinate Forest Nature P ...

river flows through the village. Neigbouring municipalities are Bolanden, Gauersheim,

Albisheim Albisheim is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the Zellertal region. Geography The village is located in the part of the Pfrimm Valley, known as ''Zellertal'', which forms part of the Alzey Hil ...

Rüssingen Rüssingen is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The municipality is located between Kaiserslautern and Worms around 4 km (2.5 mi) east of Göllheim. The landscape is part of the Alzey Hi ...

Göllheim Göllheim () is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated north of the Palatinate forest, approx. 25 km west of Worms. It was the site of the 1298 Battle of Göllheim. Göllheim is the seat of ...

, Dreisen and

Weitersweiler Weitersweiler is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, 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 ...

. Besides the village proper, the inhabited places Berghof, Elbisheimerhof, Froschauerhof, Mittelmühle, Riedenmühle, Rothenbergermühle, Sandbrunner Häuschen and Steinmühle are all part of the municipality.

History

In 774 Marnheim was mentioned as ''Mawenheim'' 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 ...

. The settlement is probably older, as indicated by finds in the area. In 1135 the village is called ''Mouwenheim'' in a document of a certain ''Arnold of Mouwenheim''. In the Middle Ages Marnheim was part of the ''Dominion of Bolanden'' for a long time. Later it became part of the

Electoral Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a 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 Roman Empero ...

and the Duchy of Nassau-Weilburg until the end of the 18th century. After the

War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition () was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797, initially against the Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI, constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French First Republic, Frenc ...

Marnheim was occupied and later annexed by

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 ...

with the

Treaty of Campo Formio The Treaty of Campo Formio (today Campoformido) was signed on 17 October 1797 (26 Vendémiaire VI) by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of the French Republic and the Austrian monarchy, respectively. The trea ...

in 1797. From 1798 to 1814 it belonged to the French Departement du Mont-Tonnerre. After the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

the region was first given to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

(1815) and later to

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

(1816). In the context of the revolutionary battles of 1849, then prince of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and later emperor

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

signed the disputed (Declaration of a state of war in the Palatinate). The table on which he did it is preserved in Kirchheimbolanden. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Marnheim became part of

(1946). Since 1969 it belongs to the

district.

Religion

There is a protestant church in Marnheim. The catholics are part of

St. Anna According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's nam ...

parish of Kirchheimbolanden. The local Jews were deported on 22 October 1940, as part of the ''Wagner-Bürckel-Aktion''. Kirche Marnheim 01

Politics

Council

The

village council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counci ...

is composed of 16 members who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on June 9, 2024, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Heraldry

The coat of arms shows a wheel of the Counts of Bolanden in the colours of the

Counts of Wartenberg The House of Wartenberg () was the name of the German comital family (''Grafen'') which held large territories in Rhenish Hesse, Electoral Palatinate and Upper Swabia. Origins The distant origins of this family are speculative yet seem to origi ...

, the two advocatusses over Marnheim. The waves symbolise the Pfrimm river. It was granted by the

Bavarian Ministry of the Interior The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Sport and Integration () is the interior ministry of Bavaria. It is headquartered in Munich, and was established on November 21, 1806 as the ''Departement des Innern''. The first Minister of the Interior wa ...

in July 1930.

Sights

The rest of the Pfrimm Viaduct is the most famous sight of Marnheim. It was once part of a railway bridge spanning the Pfrimm valley until it was blown-up in 1945 to block Allied Forces form advancing into German territory. Pfrimmtalviadukt01

Infrastructure

Roads

The federal roads B47 and B40 (former) pass the village. The A63 highway touches the west of the village at the municipal border with Bolanden.

Rail

Marnheim station is located at the

Zeller Valley Railway References External links StreckeninformationenFörderverein Eistalbahn e. V.– Fahrplaninformationen, Betriebsführung und Instandhaltung Infrastrukturbetreiber der Strecke Railway lines in Rhineland-Palatinate North Palatinate Palatinate ...

, which is not served by

passenger trains A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

at the moment (2025). Until 1945 the station was a

junction Junction may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Junction'' (2012 film), an American film * ''Junction'' (2024 film), an American film * ''Jjunction'', a 2002 Indian film * ''Junction'' (album), a 1976 album by Andrew Cyrille * Junction (E ...

between the mentioned and the

Donnersberg Railway The Donnersberg Railway () is a branch line from Alzey to Kirchheimbolanden, which originally ran as far as Marnheim. Although it was once part of the main line from Kaiserslautern to Mainz, the Pfrimm Viaduct was blown up in 1945 during the S ...

Education

The village has a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

and an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

References

{{Authority control Donnersbergkreis