Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is surrounded by Heilbronn District and, with approximately 123,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state.
The city on the Neckar is a former Imperial Free City and is the seat of Heilbronn District. Heilbronn is also the economic center of the Heilbronn-Franken region that includes most of northeast Baden-Württemberg. Furthermore, Heilbronn is known for its wine industry and is nicknamed Käthchenstadt, after Heinrich von Kleist's Das Käthchen von Heilbronn.
Geography
Heilbronn is located in the northern corner of the Neckar basin at the bottom of the Wartberg. It occupies both banks of the Neckar, and the highest spot inside city limits is the Schweinsberg with a height of 372 meters. Heilbronn is adjacent to Swabian-Franconian Forest Nature Park and is surrounded by vineyards.Heilbronn and its surroundings are located in the northern part of the larger Stuttgart metropolitan area. The city is the economic center of the Heilbronn-Franken region and is one of fourteen such cities in the Baden-Württemberg master plan of 2002. It also serves Abstatt, Bad Rappenau, Bad Wimpfen, Beilstein, Brackenheim, Cleebronn, Eberstatt, Ellhofen, Eppingen, Flein, Gemmingen, Güglingen, Ilsfeld, Ittlingen, Kirchardt, Lauffen am Neckar, Lehrensteinsfeld, Leingarten, Löwenstein, Massenbachhausen, Neckarwestheim, Nordheim, Obersulm, Pfaffenhofen, Schwaigern, Siegelsbach, Talheim, Untergruppenbach, Weinsberg, Wüstenrot, and Zaberfeld as a regional economic centre.
Neighboring communities
Heilbronn shares a border with the following cities and towns, all part of Heilbronn County and listed here clockwise from the North: Bad Wimpfen, Neckarsulm, Erlenbach, Weinsberg, Lehrensteinsfeld, Untergruppenbach, Flein, Talheim, Lauffen am Neckar, Nordheim, Leingarten, Schwaigern, Massenbachhausen and Bad Rappenau.Boroughs
The city is divided into nine boroughs:History
Up to AD 1200
The oldest traces of humans in and around Heilbronn date back to the Old Stone Age. The fertile Neckar floodplains in the Heilbronn basin aided early settlement by farmers and ranchers. The city limits of present-day Heilbronn contain many sites of Bronze Age finds. Later on, but still before AD, the Celts already mined here for salt from brine.Under Roman Emperor Domitian the Romans pushed east away from the Rhine and the outer boundary of the Roman Empire was set at the Neckar-Odenwald Limes. A castle in today's borough of Böckingen was part of that limes, and nearby numerous Roman villas and plantations were built. Around AD 150, the Neckar-Odenwald Limes became obsolete when the boundary of the Roman Empire was moved approximately to the east, where it was subsequently fortified with the construction of the Upper Germanic Limes complete with parapet and trenches.
Around 260, the Romans surrendered the limes, and the Alamanni became rulers of the Neckar basin. Between the 4th and 7th centuries, the area became part of the Frankish Empire, and the first settlement was built in the general vicinity of the present center of town.
In 741 Heilbronn is first mentioned in an official document of the Diocese of Würzburg as villa Helibrunna, and in 841, King Louis the German set up court here for a period of time. The name Heilbrunna hints to a well that is located not far from the basilica. In 1050 a significant settlement of Jews is noted in official documents, and the Codex of the monastery in Hirsau documented Heilbronn's right to hold market days and mint coins, mentioning its harbor and vineyards as well. The name of the city became a widespread Jewish surname in many varieties, see Heilprin and Halperin.
1200–1500
In 1225 Heilbronn was incorporated into the Hohenstaufen Empire as oppidum Heilecbrunnen. Oppidum signified a city fortified by parapet and trenches. Later during the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights obtained ownership of a large area south of Heilbronn which would remain owned by that order until German Mediatisation in 1805. Starting in 1268, the order built the Deutschhof there as one of its residences. The church building of the order that was located on the premises was modified and expanded several times: First in 1350 it was expanded, then it was remodeled in 1719, and in 1977, it was consecrated as a cathedral.After the demise of the Staufen dynasty, King Rudolf I returned city status to Heilbronn in 1281 and installed a regal advocate to rule the city. In addition to the advocate he put a council in place that was headed up by a mayor. Around 1300, the first city hall was erected in the market place and the Kilianskirche was expanded. The Neckar privilege gave the city the right to modify the flow of the river in 1333, which meant it now had the right to construct dams, harbors and mills. Because of the infrastructure thus created, during the 14th century Heilbronn grew attractive to merchants and craftspeople, who now demanded the right to determine their own fate.
In 1371 Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, issued a new charter to the city. Now Heilbronn needed to answer only to the Emperor and as such was an Imperial Free City. Craftspeople and merchants were now represented in its council and the villages of Böckingen, Flein, Frankenbach and Neckargartach became part of Heilbronn's territory.
As an Imperial Free City Heilbronn was threatened by the ambitious House of Württemberg. A relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor and a treaty with the Electorate of the Palatinate in effect from 1417 to 1622 strengthened Heilbronn's position and kept the House of Württemberg at bay. The political stability enjoyed by the city during the 15th century enabled it to expand, and many of its historic structures, such as the Kilianskirche, trace their origins to that era.
1500–1700
spent three years in "knightly custody" in Heilbronn starting in 1519 and even spent a night in the tower of the bastion. That same year people first took note of the pub owner Jäcklein Rohrbach who with accomplices would later kill the executor of Böckingen. After he had spent some time in the Hohenlohe Plains and collected similarly minded characters around him, he returned to Heilbronn in April 1525 just as the German Peasants' War was getting into full swing. On April 16 the peasants killed many of the nobles in Weinsberg and on April 18 the Heilbronn cloister of the Order of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel was attacked and ransacked. The city opened its gates in response to demands of the peasants and consequently more churches and municipal institutions were robbed the next day. For about a month Heilbronn remained under the control of rebellious peasants. And even though Johann Lachmann, later a church reformer, had attempted to mediate, the peasants did not leave the city until one of their armies was defeated on May 12, 1525 in Böblingen. Their leader Rohrbach was executed on May 21, 1525 in Neckargartach and his home town of Böckingen was partially burnt to the ground in punishment.In 1528, the replacement of the mayor by Hans Riesser, a Protestant, brought on the previously delayed Reformation and through the efforts of Reformer Lachmann schools and healthcare were also reorganized. In 1529 the Kilianskirche was completed. It was the first important religious building of the Renaissance in Germany. The year 1530 brought about the acceptance of the Augsburg Confession by city council and residents and the Heilbronn Catechism of 1536 is the second oldest catechism in the Protestant Church. In 1538 Heilbronn joined the Schmalkaldic League but by 1546 squabbles between troops of the Schmalkaldic League and those of the Emperor Charles V escalated into battles that were won by the Emperor. As a result, Charles V spent Christmas 1546 in Heilbronn to attend the ensuing criminal proceedings. It is also Charles V who in 1522 changed the charter of the city and this charter survived almost unscathed until 1803.
During the Thirty Years' War the city and surrounding villages suffered badly. After the battle of Wimpfen in 1622, Neckargartach was burnt to the ground. In 1631 Heilbronn was occupied by imperial troops but the same year the Swedes succeeded in conquering the city. From 1644 through 1647, Heilbronn was again part of the Holy Roman Empire, but then French troops moved in and later those of the Electorate of the Palatinate. The city was not free of occupying forces until four years after the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. But already in the 1670s the city again became the stage for armed manoeuvres, until it was occupied by French troops in 1688. But while that occupation of the city only lasted several months, the French were only persuaded to leave the surrounding areas in 1693, after a large defensive army had been put into the field and fortifications had been erected.
1700–1900
During the 18th century, archives suggest all members of the city council enjoyed some sort of formal education; Schiller and Goethe came to visit; and elaborate buildings were being constructed in the Rococo style.On September 9, 1802, Heilbronn lost its status as an Imperial Free City when the troops of Duke Friedrich I of Württemberg arrived. The duke had conceded the left bank of the Rhine to France during the French Revolutionary Wars but had been compensated with areas on the right bank. This is how Heilbronn and other former Imperial Free Cities became part of Württemberg in 1803. Heilbronn became the seat of an Oberamt, and the four Imperial Free villages became separate communities within the district. In 1806 the Duchy of Württemberg became the Kingdom of Württemberg.
In 1815, Heilbronn again became a staging area for major armies ahead of the campaign against Napoleon, and 10,000 troops paraded in front of Emperor Franz of Austria and more than one hundred German princes and generals in the Theresienwiese. Tsar Alexander I of Russia met in Heilbronn with the Baltic Baroness Juliane von Krüdener, who talked him into founding the "Holy Alliance".
Industrialization arrived in 1820. When the first train lines were placed in service in Württemberg, Heilbronn was at the end of the line of the northern branch that connected Heilbronn with Stuttgart and further fueled industrialization.
For a while Heilbronn suffered from the upheavals of the Baden Revolution that its civil guard participated in. During that time the 8th infantry regiment switched sides and joined the revolutionaries until it was subsequently disarmed and force-transferred out of the area.
In 1849 was founded the Hoerner Bank, one of the oldest still functioning banks in Germany.
Heilbronn became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the unification of Germany.
In the 1860s the city's train tracks were extended to Heidelberg via Bad Wimpfen, to Würzburg via Osterburken, and to Crailsheim via Schwäbisch Hall. In 1880, the Kraichgau line was completed and created an important connection towards Karlsruhe, and by the end of the 19th century, Heilbronn had become an important hub, second in Wuerttemburg to Stuttgart in industrial output.
The year 1892 brought a connection to the power plant in Lauffen; thus Heilbronn became the first city in the world to enjoy long-distance electric power.
1900–1945
With the dissolution of monarchy in the German Reich as a result of World War I, Heilbronn became part of the Free People's State of Württemberg in 1918.After almost a century of economic boom and growth of the local industry Heilbronn's citizenry included many labourers. The city came to be known as a "red hot spot"; numerous worker and sports clubs were begun. Already prior to World War I the SPD cornered the majority of the vote and stayed that course during the Weimar Republic. At his visit to the city on May 15, 1926, Hitler was clearly not welcome by everyone, and several people were injured when a man was mistaken for Hitler and attacked. Hitler himself was able to give his speech in the city's community center Harmonie, but the SPD had the majority in Heilbronn over the NSDAP as late as the elections on March 5, 1933.
Richard Drauz, who had been born into a respected Heilbronn family, became Heilbronn's NSDAP Kreisleiter in 1932. He was also elected to the Reichstag from 1933 on and pushed hard for the Gleichschaltung of the Heilbronn clubs and press in Nazi Germany.
On July 28, 1935, the port was opened in a canal off the Neckar, and 1936 saw the Autobahn between Heilbronn and Stuttgart completed. Economy and infrastructure were booming in Württemberg, and Heilbronn was at the logistic centre of it all. As the result of a district reform on October 1, 1938, Heilbronn became the seat of the newly created Heilbronn County and regained independent city status. At the same time the previously independent communities of Böckingen, Sontheim, and Neckargartach were annexed, and with 72,000 residents Heilbronn then was the second largest city in Württemberg. The port turned into an important transfer station on the Neckar and one of the ten largest interior ports in the country.
On November 10, 1938, the Heilbronn synagogue was destroyed during the Kristallnacht. Soon thereafter the Jewish community was all but eliminated.
Starting in 1942 during World War II, the salt mines in and around Heilbronn were used to store art and artifacts from Germany, France, and Italy. Similarly, important producers of the war industry were moved into the mine shafts. The expansion of the shafts was undertaken by labour brigades of the concentration camp branches in Kochendorf and Neckargartach. From Heilbronn all the way to Neckarelz numerous subterraneous complexes, some of them gigantic, were constructed; on November 20, 1942, the Heilbronn Bureau of Labour had 8,000 forced labourers registered in its district.
In 1940 allied air raids began, and the city and its surrounding area were hit about 20 times with minor damage. On September 10, 1944, a raid by the allies targeted the city specifically, in particular the Böckingen train transfer station. As a result of 1,168 bombs dropped that day, 281 residents died. The city was carpet-bombed from the southern quarter all the way to the Kilianskirche in the center of town. The church was burnt out.
After a ten-day battle, with the allies advancing over the strategically important Neckar crossings, the war ended for the destroyed city, and it was occupied by the U.S. Army on April 12, 1945. Local NSDAP leader Drauz became a fugitive because of executions of American prisoners of war he had ordered in March 1945. He was eventually arrested, tried, and hanged by the Allies in Landsberg on December 4, 1946.
Since World War II
After the war, Emil Beutinger, mayor until 1933, returned to office and began the formidable task of reconstruction that was subsequently continued by his successors Paul Metz and Paul Meyle. Milestones were the rededication of historic city hall in 1953 and the reopening of the community centre, Harmonie. Heilbronn was part of Württemberg-Baden until 1952, after which it became part of Baden-Württemberg.After 1951, US troops were permanently stationed in Heilbronn. They used barracks built prior to World War II and added some structures of their own.
The opening of the Autobahn A 6 from Heilbronn to Mannheim in 1968 was an important economic event. When the A 81 to Würzburg and the A 6 to Nuremberg was completed in 1974 and 1979, respectively, Heilbronn became an important logistical centre in southern Germany. As a result, many large companies opened offices in Heilbronn.
When Klingenberg became part of Heilbronn on January 1, 1970, the city's population exceeded 100,000 for the first time; thus Heilbronn attained "major city" status. During the last district reform in the 1970s, Kirchhausen, Biberach, Frankenbach and Horkheim were incorporated into Heilbronn, and the city was reconfirmed as independent city and seat of Heilbronn County. It was also declared seat of the newly formed Franken region, now Heilbronn-Franken.
Also during the 1970s, the centre of the city was transformed into a pedestrian zone and the rededication of the city theatre in 1982 closed one of the largest holes left in the inner city from World War II.
Pursuant to the NATO Double-Track Decision of 1979, Pershing II intermediate-range nuclear missiles were stationed just uphill of Heilbronn in the Waldheide. This made Heilbronn the only major city in Germany with atomic missiles inside its city limits — a fact that became front-page news during the missile accident on January 11, 1985. After the INF Treaty was signed in 1987, the missiles were removed.
In the 1980s, Heilbronn hosted Heimatttage and Landesgartenschau staged by the State of Baden-Württemberg. In 1998, Heilbronn was connected to the S-Bahn net with Karlsruhe. This further transformed the city centre, and an extension of the S-Bahn towards Öhringen opened on December 10, 2005, marking the completion of the east–west axis of the Baden-Wuerttemburg regional transportation system. The north–south axis was in the planning stages as of February 2006.
Heilbronn won the European competition "Entente Florale 2000" on September 9, 2000, in Broughshane, Northern Ireland, and in 2005–06 the city became the first UNICEF children's city in Germany.
Late in 2005, Heilbronn was chosen to host the Bundesgartenschau in 2019. An entire new borough along the S-Bahn line Böckingen–Theresienwiese–Neckargartach is planned.
Religion
Ever since the Franks under Chlodwig settled in the Neckar region around 500 the area has been predominantly Christian and when Heilbronn was first mentioned in an official document in 741 Christian Michaelsbasilica, present day's Kilianskirche, was mentioned along with the city. The Teutonic Knights constructed its church from the 13th century and both churches were continually expanded. They were joined later by other churches and cloisters in the city.Around 1050 an important Jewish community was mentioned that had settled in what became known as the Judengasse. In 1298, 143 Jews were killed during the Rintfleisch-Pogrom and in 1350 Jews suffered attacks again during a European epidemic of the Bubonic plague. The city's constitution required the council to include Jews, but already in the middle of the 15th century Jews were the target of vigilantes again until they were evicted from the city in 1490 with the blessings of Emperor Frederick III.
It is worth noting that the common Jewish name Halpern, and many variants such as Alpert, derive from the name of this city Heilbronn, and the early Jewish community there.
While Heilbronn was part of the Diocese of Würzburg, the independent villages of Böckingen, Neckargartach and Frankenbach were attached to the Diocese of Worms. From 1514 on the Heilbronn native Johann Lachmann was caretaker of the parish in St. Kilian, in 1521 he became its preacher, in 1524 he converted to Lutheranism and proceeded to teach and lead the Reformation in Heilbronn against the wishes of both dioceses. After the Protestant reformation of Heilbronn was complete the city remained Lutheran for centuries and the council and citizens accepted the Augsburg Confession without dissent. Catholics were no longer welcome, Jews were prohibited from settling in Heilbronn, and the city took part in the Protestation at Speyer on April 19, 1529.
The Age of Enlightenment brought Heilbronn freedom of religion. From 1803 Jews were again permitted to settle in the city, Catholics also began to move back in and by the 1860s Jews were granted equal rights as Heilbronn citizens.
After the city became part of Württemberg in 1803 it also became seat of a deaconry and the Prelate or regional bishop of the Protestant State Church in Württemberg. To this day Protestants are in the majority in Heilbronn. The Catholic parishes belong to the Deacony Heilbronn and are part of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
Around 1920 first groups of "Serious Bible Students" formed. Their small community suffered from oppression during the Third Reich and many of its members died in concentration camps. Similarly, the Jewish community had to watch as its colossal synagogue went up in flames and its 350 members were subsequently all but extinguished. Jehovah's Witnesses built a first meeting room in Heilbronn in 1953 and many more have been added since then.
Since the 1970s, after guest workers and immigrants from Islamic or Russian-Orthodox countries settled here, these faiths are practiced by a growing part of the population and numerous mosques have been created since the 1990s in the city and county of Heilbronn.
District reform
Over the years, the following, formerly independent towns or communities, have been annexed to Heilbronn:| Year | Town | Area |
| June 1, 1933 | Böckingen | 11.35 |
| October 1, 1938 | Neckargartach | 11.25 |
| October 1, 1938 | Sontheim | 7.40 |
| January 1, 1970 | Klingenberg | 2.72 |
| July 1, 1972 | Kirchhausen | 11.47 |
| January 1, 1974 | Biberach | 10.58 |
| April 1, 1974 | Frankenbach | 8.89 |
| April 1, 1974 | Horkheim | 4.86 |
Demographics
Figures reflect city limits at the time and are estimates or Census data, or official extensions thereof, counting only primary residences.¹ Census data GovernmentIn connection with the district reform in the 1970s, municipal laws of Baden-Württemberg were amended to introduce borough councils for certain boroughs. Residents of such boroughs elect their borough council at each municipal election and the borough council must be consulted on all matters of significance to the respective borough. The Borough President also presides over the Borough Council. In Heilbronn the boroughs of Biberach, Frankenbach, Horkheim, Kirchhausen and Klingenberg have borough councils.City councilAfter the municipal elections of May 25, 2014 the city council of Heilbronn was made up of 40 seats. The members belong to political parties as follows:
MayorAt first Heilbronn was governed by a regal advocate and an executor. Later, the city had two mayors but ever since the city was made part of Württemberg it has had just one mayor at a time.
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