Rothenberg is a village and a former municipality in the
Odenwaldkreis
The Odenwaldkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Darmstadt-Dieburg, Miltenberg, Neckar-Odenwald-Kreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis and Kreis Bergstraße. ''Odenwaldkreis'' belongs to the Rhine Neckar ...
(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 ...
. Since January 2018, it is part of the new town
Oberzent
Oberzent is a town in the district of Odenwaldkreis, in Hesse, Germany. It was created with effect from 1 January 2018 by the merger of the former town Beerfelden and the former municipalities of Hesseneck, Rothenberg and Sensbachtal.
Geography ...
.
Geography
Location
Rothenberg lies at elevations between 200 and 500 m in the southern
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' ...
in the ''Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald'', 7 km north of
Hirschhorn on the
Neckar
The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...
. The main centre lies in the south of the municipal area as a high settlement in a clearing 430 m high on the ridge of the otherwise wooded Hirschhorner Höhe (heights). The municipal area stretches northwestwards along the Finkenbach.
Many tourists visit Billy Rothenberg because of the wonderful natural setting and because of so many possibilities for sports such as swimming, riding bikes, riding horses, hiking, gliding (with a flex-wing or with a glider).
Neighbouring communities
Rothenberg borders in the north on the town of
Beerfelden
Beerfelden (pronunciation: ˈbeːɐˌfɛldən) was a town in the Odenwald in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany, 28 km northeast of Heidelberg. On 1 January 2018 Beerfelden, Hesseneck, Rothenberg and Sensbachtal merged to create th ...
(Odenwaldkreis), in the east on the town of
Eberbach (
Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
The Rhein-Neckar-Kreis is a district in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The administrative headquarters are based in the city Heidelberg, which is a district-free city. As of 2019, the district is the most populous in Baden-Württe ...
in
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 ...
), in the south on the town of
Hirschhorn (
Bergstraße district) and in the west on the town of Eberbach (outlying centre of Brombach) and the community of
Wald-Michelbach
Wald-Michelbach is a municipality in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The community lies in the Odenwald, 12 km east of Weinheim. The now disused ''Überwaldbahn'' (railway) runs through Wald-Michelbach.
Geolo ...
(Bergstraße district).
Constituent communities
Rothenberg’s ''
Ortsteil
A village is a human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located ...
e'' are Finkenbach, Hinterbach, Kortelshütte, Ober-Hainbrunn, Raubach and Rothenberg.
History
Rothenberg went, as ''Rodenberg'', in 1535, along with the villages of Ober-Hainbrunn and Unter-Finkenbach, and ''
Vogt
An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...
'' rights in Moosbrunn, as an
Imperial fief
A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...
to the Lords of Hirschhorn. After they died out in 1632, ownership passed to Otto von Kronberg, and after the Counts of Kronberg died out in 1704 to the Barons of Degenfeld-Schaumburg. Through marriage, ownership was held from 1786 to 1801 by the Counts of Erbach-Fürstenau and then lastly to the Counts of Billy Rothberg. By the Treaty of the
Confederation of the Rhine
The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine or Rhine Confederation, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austrian Empire, Austria ...
, Rothenberg and the other villages, but not Moosbrunn, passed along with the County of Erbach in 1806 to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1835, Rothenberg was, with 1,098 inhabitants the third biggest village in the ''Landratsbezirk'' (roughly “administrative region”). When in the course of
industrialization
Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
traffic routes were being expanded, this handicraft and market community’s high elevation, which did not favour transport, became a curse. There was no industrial development, and the community’s population figures fell. To this day, the community is strongly characterized by
agriculture
Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
. In 1971, the hitherto self-governing communities of Ober-Finkenbach and Raubach were amalgamated. The
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 ...
s of Kortelshütte and Hinterbach were established in the 18th century as settling communities for newcomers and those without property. Kortelshütte has developed itself since the early 20th century into a climatic spa after a highway link and new housing estates were built, while Hinterbach earned importance in the 1930s for its mineral springs.
Politics
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
Mayor
The independent mayor Hans Heinz Keursten was reëlected in the
first round of voting on 18 September 2005 with 91.5% of the vote.
Cultural monuments
Rothenberg and its outlying centres are rich in cultural monuments. Besides the Old Lutheran ''Schwarze Kirche'' ('Black Church') from 1883 and the ''Evangelische Pfarrkirche'' ('
Evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
Parish Church') from 1880, several
timber-frame
Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...
houses in particular may be named, such as the ''Forsthaus Saubuche'' ('Sow Beech Forest House') near the outlying centre of Raubach. There are many smaller cultural monuments such as wells, border stones and rows of standing stone slabs (''Stellsteinreihen'') believed to once have been cattle-driving ways. One of these can be found at Ober-Hainbrunn.
About the turn of the 20th century, complaints were mounting among dwellers in the upper village about the water supply's shortcomings. The spring of the ''Großer Brunnen'' ('Great Spring') on the slope of the Gammelsbach valley gave forth enough water, so the state authorities in the
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...
put the ''Kulturinspektion Darmstadt'' in charge and they found the solution to the water supply problem by furnishing two
water motors
Hydraulic machines use liquid fluid power to perform work. Heavy construction vehicles are a common example. In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is pumped to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders throughout the machine and b ...
, delivered by the
Zurich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
machine factory Schmid. Each of the motors drives a three-cylinder pump. One comes from the year 1902 and the other is two years newer. Today, the historic pumphouse between Kortelshütte and Rothenberg is run by a circle of technically enthusiastic idealists.
Furthermore, in the Rothenberg hamlet of Hinterbach can be found the Odenwald’s last maintained
hydraulic ram
A hydraulic ram pump, ram pump, or hydram is a cyclic pump, cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device ...
.
Sport
The Rothenberg Heights are popular for
hiking
A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time.
"Hi ...
and walks. From the heights, the Odenwald's highest mountain, the Katzenbuckel, can be seen. In good weather,
gliders can also be seen, as Rothenberg has a glider launching facility. There are many springs and resting places. Furthermore, there is an "Inliner Day" every summer, for which the highway between Rothenberg and Beerfelden (10 km) is closed to traffic for
inline skating
Inline skating is a multi-disciplinary sport and can refer to a number of activities practiced using inline skates. Inline skates typically have two to five polyurethane wheels depending on the style of practice, arranged in a single line by a ...
and
cycling
Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...
.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
''
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with re ...
'' 37 lies about 8 km away in
Hirschhorn. ''Bundesstraße'' 45 lies about 12 km away in
Beerfelden
Beerfelden (pronunciation: ˈbeːɐˌfɛldən) was a town in the Odenwald in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany, 28 km northeast of Heidelberg. On 1 January 2018 Beerfelden, Hesseneck, Rothenberg and Sensbachtal merged to create th ...
. The Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
line in Hirschhorn lies about 8 km away.
Sights
Cities to be seen, when visiting Rothenberg:
Hirschhorn ca. 5 minutes,
Eberbach ca. 15 minutes,
Neckarsteinach
The four-castle town of Neckarsteinach () lies on the Neckar in the Bergstraße district in the southernmost part of Hesse, Germany, 15 km east of Heidelberg.
Geography
Location
Both by way of transport and culture, Neckarsteinach's locat ...
ca. 20 minutes,
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 ...
ca. 30 minutes,
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...
ca. 45 minutes,
References
External links
{{Authority control
Odenwaldkreis
Former municipalities in Hesse