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80-502: The Odenwaldschule was a German school located in Heppenheim in the Odenwald . Founded in 1910, it was Germany's oldest Landerziehungsheim , a private boarding school located in a rural setting. Edith and Paul Geheeb established it using their concept of progressive education , which integrated the work of the head and hand. The school went bankrupt and was closed in 2015, following

160-570: A Mainz holding until 1803, and after that Hessian), but without any reference to the town's time with the Electorate of the Palatinate , which from 1461 to 1623 held it from Mainz as a pledge. The old, historical coat of arms showed a sitting bishop, symbolizing Electoral Mainz's hegemony. Heppenheim is twinned with: Since 1956, together with the town of Bubenreuth , there has been a sponsorship arrangement with regard to Luby , formerly Schönbach in

240-458: A blind eye and ducking away, through its own non-action", the head of the management team, Marcus Halfen-Kieper, explained. "We could and should neither try to blame the responsibility for the situation on the media nor the regulators or the politics nor even the victims of sexual assault at the school." Parents and students fought to keep the school open. On 30 May 2015, the chairman of the sponsoring organisation resigned after temporarily giving up

320-593: A few days later, on 18 July 2007, the DDVG announced that it would sell 50 percent plus one share to the independent publishing company M. DuMont Schauberg based in Cologne , Germany. Today, DuMont Schauberg holds 50 percent plus one share, the DDVG owns 40 percent and the Karl-Gerold-Foundation holds 10 percent of the newspaper. The Frankfurter Rundschau and local newspaper Frankfurter Neue Presse were taken over by

400-429: A housing complex, a holiday park and a historical museum following the acquisition of adjacent land. The new amenities are planned to provide space for 300 people and will be named "Wohnpark Ober-Hambach". 49°39′58″N 8°41′12″E  /  49.66611°N 8.68667°E  / 49.66611; 8.68667 Heppenheim The town is set on the vineyards below the mediaeval Starkenburg (castle). Defining for

480-854: A meeting of leading liberals on 10 October 1847 in the Halber Mond (“Half Moon”) Hotel, was a prelude to the German Revolution in 1848 and 1849. Given this historical connection, the Free Democratic Party (FDP, Freie Demokratische Partei ) was founded on 11 December 1948 in Heppenheim. There were Jews living in Heppenheim by the Middle Ages . The town was part of the Archbishopric of Mainz from 1232 to 1803 and there were repeated ecclesiastical measures undertaken to persecute Jews. Jewish life in

560-434: A memorial, has stone marking the perimeter of the synagogue destroyed in 1938. A plaque bears the inscription, Hier stand die 1900 erbaute und 1938 zerstörte Synagoge. (“Site of the synagogue, built in 1900 and destroyed in 1938.”). An additional plaque with the title Im Gedenken an die Ermordeten (“In memory of the murdered”) lists the names of 29 former Heppenheim Jews. The psychiatric institution in Heppenheim took part in

640-424: Is "enormous injustice in the pay of editorial members". In December 2023, a conflict over uniform pay for FR employees escalated. FR employees have been demanding a collective agreement for months, but management wanted to avoid it. Negotiations with the ver.di and DJV unions were broken off without result. Ippen increased the editor's salary across the board and viewed this as an enormous concession. Nevertheless,

720-569: Is Hesse's southernmost district seat. The town's official designation is “Heppenheim an der Bergstraße”. In the local Hessian German dialect , the town is also called Hepprum . Heppenheim´s biggest lake is the Bruchsee. Multiple streams such as the Hambach, Stadtbach, Erbach und Brombach flow from the east and down the valleys of the Odenwald into the Weschnitz , the town's western border. “Bergstraße”

800-465: Is characterized by timber-frame houses dating back mostly to the reconstruction in the early decades after Heppenheim's destruction in the Nine Years' War in 1693, which was done over the remains of the medieval town. Of the town wall, however, which was largely knocked down in the early 19th century, little remains. Important yearly events are: The Starkenburg-Sternwarte , an amateur observatory on

880-579: Is not only the name given the road running from Darmstadt to Heidelberg on the western edge of the Odenwald and eastern edge of the Rhine rift (now Bundesstraße 3), but also one given the landscape along the road. It stands out with its unusually mild and sunny climate in which trees blossom especially early. In the area around the outlying centre of Ober-Laudenbach is a boundary oddity unique in Hesse: just there within

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960-475: Is said not to have been a fanatical Nazi, but rather a respectable mayor. Dr. König and Jakob Fleck were each provisionally appointed mayor after the Americans marched in 1945. Since 1924, beginning with Karl Schiffers's time in office, the office of mayor has been executed by a professional mayor. Among all the mayors, Wilhelm Höhn, Karl Schiffers and Wilhelm Metzendorf stand out as ones who decisively promoted

1040-493: Is the Lorsch Abbey's cross pattée fitchy (that is, cross with “flattened” ends to three of the arms, and a point on the bottom one) on a silver field. On the sinister side (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) is the silver six-spoked wheel of Mainz on a red field. The arms, bestowed on the town on 30 August 1913 by Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse , symbolize the town's historical allegiances (a Lorsch holding from 773 to 1232,

1120-475: Is the best known Jewish inhabitant of Heppenheim where he settled in 1916. In February 1938, he left the country and emigrated with his family to Jerusalem . On 9 November 1938, Kristallnacht , Buber's house was looted and his 3,000-volume library was destroyed. In May 1939, there were still 37 Jews in Heppenheim, but in September 1942, the last few Jewish residents were deported. The former synagogue's location, now

1200-706: The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss in 1803. Then it became Hessian, first part of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt , and since 1948 it has been part of the Bundesland of Hesse. Heppenheim has had town rights since at least 1318, and market rights, it is believed, already by the early 9th century. From 1265 (possibly earlier) until 1803, Heppenheim was the seat of the Electoral Mainz Amt ( Oberamt ) of Starkenburg. Once it passed to Hesse-Darmstadt,

1280-780: The Americans marched in March 1945. Heppenheim suffered severely in the Thirty Years' War (1618–48); the Starkenburg was overwhelmed by Spanish troops in 1621, and by the Swedes in 1630. The Plague killed about 80% of the population in 1635 (almost 100% in the outlying countryside), and the town was sacked by the Poles in 1636 and again in 1645 by the French. The Heppenheim Conference ( Heppenheimer Tagung ),

1360-654: The Amt was abolished. Heppenheim was thereafter first the seat of a (much smaller) Amt , and then, as of 1821 the seat of the Heppenheim Administrative Region ( Landratsbezirk ). As of 1832 it was the seat of the Heppenheim district. Since then, it was between 1848 and 1852 the seat of the Regierungsbezirk of Heppenheim, and has been since 1938 the seat of the Bergstraße district , to which were assigned not only

1440-798: The Auschwitz trials in Germany. At the end of the 1960s, the Frankfurter Rundschau uncovered the so-called HS-30 scandal. The German government only procured the HS-30 armored personnel carrier for the Bundeswehr because bribes had been paid to several responsible persons and illegal payments had been made to the CDU . On 30 May 2007 the Rundschau changed its format to the award-winning smaller tabloid size . The paper

1520-582: The DuMont Mediengruppe , the former majority owners. The private foundation managing Karl Gerold's legacy still owns 10% of the shares. But all commercial activity of the paper, printing, selling advertisement and distribution was put in the hands of the Frankfurter Societät. The FR printing enterprise was closed. The contracts for printing BILD-Zeitung and other papers went from the FR' s printshop to

1600-630: The Hessischer Rebmuttergarten (“Vineyard Mother Garden”), formerly a vineyard cultivation facility whose goal was to fight the phylloxera , introduced from North America but only cropping up on the Bergstraße itself in 2005, by grafting phylloxera-proof hybrid rootstocks onto vines of nobler varieties. At the Bergsträßer Winzer eG begins the 6.9 km-long Erlebnispfad Wein und Stein (“Wine and Stone Adventure Path”), which runs through

1680-449: The Nazi “ euthanasia ” crimes, and was also a “collection facility,” where Jewish psychiatric patients were sent on the way to the gas chamber . Beginning on 28 May 1942, a subcamp of Dachau/ Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp was located in Heppenheim. It was closed on 18 December 1942, but opened again as Heppenheim subcamp on 15 June 1943. It was permanently closed on 27 March 1945 when

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1760-543: The sexual abuse of more than 130 pupils by at least 8 teachers in the 1970s and 1980s. One year later the Darmstadt prosecution service dismissed the penal case review due to statutory limitations. When Jörg Schindler reported the accusations in the Frankfurter Rundschau in November 1999, Florian Lindermann, the spokesman for the former students, criticized the coverage as over the top. In 2010 Margarita Kaufmann, headmistress at

1840-534: The "concept of the national socialistic schooling community." After the war, the school was run by Minna Specht from 1946 to 1951. In the years following the Second World War, the school's teaching system was reformed many times. In 1963 it became a UNESCO ASPNet project. The school was a member of the Schulverbund Blick über den Zaun (literally: School Union - view over the fence). The Odenwaldschule

1920-511: The 13 preliminary proceedings. At the end of May 2010 the prosecution service investigated six former teachers and one student. There was no court ruling until the end of 2012. In a letter sent by Gerold Becker to the Odenwaldschule community in March 2010, he asked his victims for forgiveness and renewed his offer to come forward and speak to the victims. Becker died on 7 July 2010 without suffering legal consequences. The board of directors at

2000-414: The 2012/13 academic year), and there were additional fees for vocational courses. External students paid a lower amount. Official school letters, found in archives and reviewed in a dissertation, point to sexual abuse of girls and boys under the management of school founders Paul and Edith Geheeb. However no one contacted the police. In 1998 reports from former students were made public, according to which

2080-509: The Abbey's downfall in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1229, Emperor Friedrich II put the Starkenburg under the administration of the Archbishops of Electoral Mainz , doing likewise with the Lorsch Abbey along with Heppenheim in 1232. But for an interruption from 1461 to 1623 when the fief was pledged to the Electorate of the Palatinate , Heppenheim remained an Electoral Mainz holding right up until

2160-559: The FAZ's Societätsdruckerei . On 1 April 2018, the Frankfurter Societät's ninety per-cent share was sold to Zeitungsholding Hessen, an investment vehicle of the publisher Dirk Ippen . In October 2021, Ippen blocked the publication by the Franfurter Rundschau of an investigative report on accusations of abuse of power made against former Bild editor, Julian Reichelt . The Rundschau published its first issue on 1 August 1945 shortly after

2240-681: The Newspaper Holding Hessen, ZHH in spring 2018. The ZHH is majority owned by the Ippen publishing group and the MDV media group of the Giessen publishing family Rempel (" Gießener Allgemeine "). In the summer of 2023, the newspaper's employees will contact Ippen. In an open letter they wrote: "As a left-liberal newspaper, we stand up for justice in our articles. We report on wage inequality, labor disputes, gender equality and social politics." However, there

2320-405: The Odenwaldschule initially rejected the idea of financial compensation for the victims in a July 2010 letter. In September 2010, however, the board of directors promised financial compensation for 50 former students who were affected. Additionally, there remained further unresolved cases requiring review. The lawyers Claudia Burgsmüller and Brigitte Tilmann were entrusted with the task of reviewing

2400-572: The Odenwaldschule's sponsoring organisation, published the book Freiwild . Die Odenwaldschule - Ein Lehrstück von Tätern und Opfern . (literally: "Fair game. The Odenwaldschule - a lesson of attackers and victims.") Jens demanded more balanced coverage: contrary to the customs of the constitutional state also innocent people were denounced as assailants or co-assailants. In October 2014 an article of in Deutschlandfunk reported him as saying that even if

2480-427: The Odenwaldschule. Additionally the school's sponsorship was to be transferred to a foundation and a not-for-profit private limited company. The new management team were to take over the running of the organization that summer, but the sponsoring organisation dismissed the team on 27 July 2015 after unspecified disputes. The sponsoring organisation publicly announced on 25 April 2015 that it had not succeeded in securing

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2560-600: The Rhine Neckar Area's and the Starkenburg Region's as a whole – above-average employment figures and an especially high proportion of graduates in the resident population's above-average buying power. Heppenheim is linked by several buslines to Jugenheim, Grasellenbach and Mörlenbach. Heppenheim station is found in the town centre, and the two-track Main-Neckar Railway links the town to Heidelberg and Frankfurt am Main. In 1899, one of Europe's first power stations

2640-632: The Schlossberg near the Starkenburg, has made a name for itself nationally in minor planet research. Heppenheim is part of the economically strong Rhine Neckar Area , as well as the Rhein-Main area . Together with various neighbouring towns and communities (among others Bensheim, Lorsch and Lautertal), Heppenheim is identified as a middle centre in the South Hesse Regional Plan. The town has in its favour good economic data – even in relation to

2720-677: The United States, taught there. From 1924 until 1932 the educator Martin Wagenschein worked at the school. In 1934, Paul and Edith Geheeb emigrated to Switzerland with around 25 students and some teachers and formed the Ecole d'Humanité . In 1939 the Reicharbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service of the National Socialist government) requested the takeover of the Odenwaldschule as it contradicted

2800-464: The analytical industry (WICOM). This array of businesses was also later filled out by further ones from the fields of logistics, marketing and services. On Bundesstraße 3, near the state boundary, the mineral spring business Odenwald-Quelle has been running since 1932. Heppenheim is a winegrowing town belonging to the Hessische Bergstraße wine region. With some 450  ha of vineyards it

2880-633: The association was accidental. In 2003, the paper had financial difficulties and was supported by a guarantee from the federal state of Hesse . In May 2004 the Deutsche Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft  [ de ] (DDVG), owned by the SPD, acquired 90 percent of the shares of the Druck- und Verlagshaus Frankfurt am Main (DuV), the publisher of the FR until then. The social democrats emphasized that they wanted to assure

2960-434: The board of directors and vacated his functions and duties". In 1998 the victims of sexual abuse met with the former headteacher Harder and the former SPD -MP Peter Conradi - as the vice-president of the sponsoring organisation - and agreed to review the abuse accusations, but this did not happen as promised. In the late 1990s, and again in 2010, the school became the center of national attention when an investigation revealed

3040-524: The district of Eger in the Sudetenland (now in the Czech Republic). Heppenheim has (as at 30 April 2008) 408 cultural monuments that are under monumental protection. The following is a selection: Heppenheim has at its disposal a largely preserved, self-contained, picturesque Old Town core with an area of about 8 ha, within which are found all the sights mentioned in the foregoing list. The Old Town

3120-547: The end of World War II in Europe. It was the first newspaper published in the US sector in occupied Germany and the third newspaper in post-war Germany . The licence was handed over to the first team of editors consisting of Emil Carlebach, Hans Etzkorn, Wilhelm Karl Gerst, Otto Grossmann, Wilhelm Knothe, Paul Rodemann and Arno Rudert, a progressive think-tank of social democrats , political Catholics and communists , who had spent years in

3200-449: The film Die Auserwählten (The Favored Few) was filmed at the Odenwaldschule -showing a willingness on the part of school's management to confront the history of misconduct -it failed in previous years to reach further resolutions. In September 2010 several victims formed a group called Glasbrechen (literally - breaking of glass), with the goal of helping people who had experienced sexual, physical and psychological attacks. In July 2011

3280-427: The finances for continued operation, after a large part of the trust funded by former students had been spent. This meant the definite end of the school. The remaining time until the next academic year was used to wind down all school operations and to move the students to other schools, according to Vice District Administrator Schimpf. "The school is where it is now through its own mistakes, its own structures, by turning

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3360-489: The following results: The elections in March 2021 showed the following results: In the runoff election on 10 April 2005, Gerhard Herbert (SPD) defeated the incumbent Ulrich Obermayr (CDU). Herbert took over the mayor's office on 1 September 2005 from Obermayr, who had held it for 18 years. In 2011 Rainer Burelbach (* 1965) (CDU) was elected mayor with 55,6 % of the votes. Burelbach was reelected in 2017 and 2023. The following mayors have held office in Heppenheim since

3440-473: The former headmistress Kaufmann resigned from her office to focus on the review of the sexual abuse cases. In 2011 the club Odenwaldschule e.V. with the Altschülervereinigung und Förderkreis der Odenwaldschule e.V. (literally: "Association of former students and society for promotion of the Odenwaldschule") formed the foundation "Brücken bauen" (literally "building bridges"). According to its charter

3520-468: The foundation carries out and supports measures to aid victims of sexual violence, physical, psychological abuse at the Odenwaldschule. A fierce critic of the legal review process is Andreas Huckele, who published his book Wie laut soll ich denn noch schreien? , under a pseudonym. In his acceptance speech for winning the Geschwister-Scholl-Preis in 2012 he criticized the lack of action taken by

3600-410: The future of one of the few left-liberal daily newspapers in Germany and asserted they would not exert influence on the articles. The social democrats also announced that they wanted to reduce their share to under 50 percent until 2006. In order to save the paper from insolvency, the DDVG soon drastically cut back expenditures. By means of dismissals and outsourcing, the number of employees shrank within

3680-447: The idea that all students should be able to co-create, participate, and be equally responsible. The school rules underpinned this philosophy, reading " The Odenwaldschule is a free community , in which the different generations treat each other impartially and can learn from each other" . Where possible, students received individual learning stimuli such as intellectual, practical, musical and artistic learning methods, and academic learning

3760-576: The institution, it was closed in 2015. There are plans for renovating the location. Heppenheim is also home to the European Hotel Academy. Frankfurter Rundschau The Frankfurter Rundschau ( FR ) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main . The Rundschau' s editorial stance is social liberal . It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-war Germany Frankfurter Rundschau

3840-409: The last three years from 1700 to 750. Amid speculation on DDVG's complaints about too friendly articles on the new left party Die Linke and its plan to sell the majority of its shares (see article in the newspaper Junge Welt from 30 August 2007) Wolfgang Storz's term as editor-in-chief ended abruptly on 16 May 2006. The appointed next editor-in-chief was Uwe Vorkötter (effective 1 July 2006). Only

3920-552: The municipal constitution was promulgated in 1821: Dr. Schiffers switched to the NSDAP to keep abreast of changes, but he soon ran into difficulties with the Party and thereby lost his office in 1937. Dr. Köhler was in the mayor's office only until 1941 when he was called into the Wehrmacht. His duties were performed by deputy Franz Keil during his absence. Despite party membership, Dr. Köhler

4000-519: The newspaper published an editorial titled "The Eternal Netanyahu" about Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu . The name evoked a Nazi Germany film titled The Eternal Jew . Ulf Poschardt, editor-in-chief of German newspaper Die Welt , tweeted a condemnation of the Frankfurter Rundschau , as did a top journalist for German newspaper Bild . The Frankfurter Rundschau claimed that

4080-611: The old Heppenheim district, but also great parts of the likewise abolished Bensheim district, with the parts of the Worms district on the Rhine ’s right bank being added after the Second World War . In both 1369 and 1693 (in the latter case owing to the devastation wrought by the French in the Nine Years' War ), Heppenheim was almost utterly destroyed in town fires. The town came through both world wars unscathed, aside from slight damage when

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4160-476: The paper was acquired by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Frankfurter Societät (publisher of the Frankfurter Neue Presse ) in 2013, by taking over just 28 full-time journalists. The FR editorial board continued to be bound by the legacy of Karl Gerold and the commitment to a "left-liberal" political line, and was integrated in the national and international editorial and correspondents network of

4240-537: The phrase "be who you are" ( Γένοιο οἷος ἔσσι. ) from the Greek poet Pindar . Thus the school was to promote community, personality and self-determined actions. To begin with, there were only 14 students, all housed in the main building, the Goethehaus . The founders' concept was originally based on the fundamentals of the work schools, for example in the introduction of a course system and the dispensation with year groups, and

4320-437: The reins to the new management team on 17 May 2015. The school, parents, and former students hoped to attract financing for the next two academic years by setting up a trust, but were not successful. On 16 June 2015, the sponsoring organisation declared itself bankrupt and in September 2015, the school was permanently closed. In 2016, the inventory of the school (furniture, tools and the library) were sold by public auction, and

4400-447: The resistance and Nazi concentration camps or in exile. With the coming of the Cold War , the American occupation authority forced all communist members of the editorial team to leave the paper two years later. In 1949 only Arno Rudert and Karl Gerold were left from the founding team. Gerold left SPD in the same year, to demonstrate his political independence. Research by the Rundschau in the 1960s revealed, among other things, initiated

4480-418: The revelation of numerous cases of sexual abuse of students. The Odenwaldschule was founded by Paul and Edith Geheeb on 14 April 1910, emerging as part of the reformed education movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Edith Geheeb's father, Max Cassirer, was the town councilmember for Berlin, and supported the founding of the school, financing the land purchase and the buildings. Geheeb felt inspired by

4560-562: The school since 2007, called for a new inquiry into the sex abuse cases. Kaufmann spoke of 33 victims that she knew of, and eight teachers that she believed were guilty of sexual assault between 1966 and 1991; it was assumed that more than ten teachers were perpetrators. The music teacher Wolfgang Held, who died in 2006, was named as the main perpetrator alongside Becker. The Frankfurter Rundschau daily newspaper reported on 6 March 2010 that they believed that there had been between 50 and 100 victims. The Darmstadt prosecution service dismissed six of

4640-425: The school since the first article was published in the Frankfurter Runschau in 1999. On 9 April 2014 a teacher, who taught and lived at the school from 2011, had their room searched by the authorities. The teacher admitted to having downloaded child pornography before his appointment at the Odenwaldschule. He was immediately dismissed from teaching at the school. The district administrator Matthias Wilkes criticised

4720-437: The school's archive was given to a public archive in Darmstadt for preservation. Months later, the buildings were sold to an entrepreneur from Mannheim. Also in 2016, a group consisting of parents and donors who wanted to reopen the school under a new name ( "Schuldorf Lindenstein" ) declared the end of their efforts. According to the purchaser of the school's buildings, the buildings are planned to be renovated and established as

4800-508: The school's management because they had not adhered to promised transparency. After this incident, in June 2014, the headmaster Däschler-Seiler handed in his resignation. In July 2014, the sponsoring organisation dismissed the entire management. In February 2015, Gerhard Herbert, as chairman of the sponsoring organisation, introduced a new management team consisting of the boarding school's headteacher Sonya Mayoufi and manager Marcus Halfen-Kieper. The new management team tried to rebuild trust in

4880-433: The sex abuse cases in 2010. According to the final report, released on 17 December 2010, at least 132 students were victims of attack by teachers between 1965 and 1998. The lawyers who wrote the report said the documentation was incomplete. In March 2011 Christian Füller's monograph, entitled Sündenfall. Wie die Reformschule ihre Ideale missbrauchte (literally: "The Fall from Grace. How the Reform School Abused its Ideals"),

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4960-493: The southwest on the towns of Viernheim and Lampertheim and in the west on the town of Lorsch . Besides the main town, Heppenheim has the outlying centres of Unter-Hambach, Ober-Hambach, Kirschhausen (with Igelsbach), Erbach, Sonderbach, Wald-Erlenbach, Mittershausen-Scheuerberg, and Ober-Laudenbach, which were in the course of municipal reform in Hesse amalgamated with Heppenheim with effect from 1 January 1972. In 755, Heppenheim had its first documentary mention. At that time,

5040-400: The students came from the state of Hesse , one fifth came directly from the Bergstraße district, and "almost a third were state supported children." Most of the students lived at the boarding school in family-like groups of six to ten people. The average class size was 17 students. Roughly half of the 120 employees were teachers at the school. A boarding school place cost 2.370 € (as of

5120-465: The then-headmaster Gerold Becker had sexually abused multiple students in the 1970s to the 1980s. Andreas Huckele, a former student, who attended Odenwaldschule from 1981 to 1988 and was later protected by the Frankfurter Rundschau with the pseudonym Jürgen Dehmers, had sent two letters to headmaster Wolfgang Harder in June 1998. The school explained in 1998 that the former headmaster had never contradicted "the victim's statements when he had to meet with

5200-424: The town hosted the 44th Hessentag state festival. The sharp rise between 1971 and 1975 has to do with the amalgamations in the course of administrative reform in Hesse in 1972. In 1948 the Free Democratic Party was founded in Heppenheim. Furthermore, the liberal Heppenheimer Versammlung was one of the starting points of the German revolutions of 1848–1849 . The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded

5280-423: The town was occupied by American troops at the end of the fighting in Hesse. The prisoners in Heppenheim were put to work in the SS institution Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Ernährung und Verpflegung . In 1955, the town celebrated its 1,200th anniversary and opened the new open-air stage "Freilichtbühne". It is still in use today, seats around 2500 people and also proved its worth at the Hessentag 2004. In 2004,

5360-470: The town was the hub of a Frankish domain. In 773, this area became one of Charlemagne ’s donations to the Lorsch Abbey , and to protect it, the castle (Starkenburg) was built above it in 1065; in 1066 it successfully resisted a siege by Prince-Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen . The Imperial Abbey held the rank of principality, and Heppenheim developed over time into the territory's administrative and economic hub, although it lost its importance with

5440-427: The town was wiped out during the persecution that accompanied the Plague in 1348 and 1349. The modern community was founded in the 17th century. About 1900, there were some 40 Jewish families, with 200 to 300 people living in town. That figure fell to 113 people by 1933, a result of migration and emigration. Martin Buber , Zionist and honorary professor of religious sciences at the University of Frankfurt am Main ,

5520-452: The town's municipal area are two enclaves belonging to Baden-Württemberg, within one of which is a further enclave belonging to Hesse. Heppenheim borders in the north on the town of Bensheim , in the northeast on the community of Lautertal and the town of Lindenfels , in the east on the communities of Fürth , Rimbach , Mörlenbach and Birkenau , in the south on the community of Laudenbach ( Rhein-Neckar-Kreis , Baden-Württemberg ), in

5600-416: The town. The town's arms are charged with the Lion of Hesse above the parting, striped as always horizontally in silver and red, but in these arms also holding a golden-hilted, silver-bladed sword in his right paw and wearing a golden crown. The part of the field below the parting at the fess line is itself parted per pale (vertically down the middle). On the dexter side (armsbearer's right, viewer's left)

5680-410: The townscape, besides the castle, is St. Peter , the “Cathedral of the Bergstraße” as the big Catholic church is known locally; it was consecrated on 1 August 1904, and is not a bishop's seat. Heppenheim lies centrally on Bundesstraßen 3 and 460, and Autobahn A 5 / A 67 , almost halfway between Heidelberg and Darmstadt , in southern Hesse on the boundary with Baden-Württemberg , and

5760-491: The vineyards with 30 stations. The Odenwaldschule , once Germany's oldest comprehensive school , was in the Ober-Hambach section of Heppenheim. It was founded by Edith and Paul Geheeb in 1910 and was based on their concept of holistic education reform, integrating work of the head and hand. The boarding school used to have up to 250 pupils. After a scandal about sexual abuse cases in the 1970s and 1980s and attempts to save

5840-484: Was also Guldenzoll). Owing to the especially favourable climate and good soil conditions on the Bergstraße, mainly dry and dryish wines of very high quality are made here. The main variety is Riesling . The biggest producer is the Bergsträßer Winzer eG cooperative, with its seat in Heppenheim, which also owns Hesse's biggest wine cellar. The Bergsträßer Staatsweingut (“state wine estate”) with its seat in Bensheim maintains

5920-399: Was an integrated comprehensive school . It was possible to take a metalwork vocational course or a chemistry assistant course with a state qualification, alongside a technical diploma or the full Abitur . There were approximately 250 school places, although the number of students fluctuated. At the end of 2011, there were roughly 200 students at the Odenwaldschule. In 2010 almost half of

6000-646: Was awarded the European Newspaper of the Year in the category of judges' special recognition by the European Newspaper Congress in 2011. In the 2013 elections the magazine was among the supporters of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) . The 1993 circulation of the paper was 189,000 copies. In the first quarter of 2015, the newspaper boasted a circulation of around 70,000 copies. In 2019,

6080-401: Was built in Heppenheim. Two steam engines furnished electricity beginning in 1900 for Heppenheim and Bensheim. After the Second World War , many industrial operations settled in town, from such fields as machine building (KLN Ultraschall AG), mining (Granitwerke Röhrig in the outlying centre of Sonderbach), textile and food production (among others, a great Langnese-Iglo GmbHproduction plant) and

6160-447: Was connected with vocational training. Students lived in a mixed-age living area, headed by a teacher, and rearranged every year. Being on an informal basis with the teacher was a further unusual characteristics of the school's educational concept, long before the mainstream emergence of anti-authoritarian schooling. In the 1920s the school was internationally recognised, and until 1938 teachers from other countries, including England and

6240-516: Was for decades a leading force of German press. The newspaper was one of the first licencened by the US military administration in 1945 and had a traditional social democratic , antifascist and trade union stand. Starting with the decline of printed daily newspapers in the 2000s, the FR changed ownership several times, reduced its editorial team dramatically and today has little national significance. Frankfurter Rundschau Druck and Verlagshaus GmbH filed for bankruptcy on 12 November 2012. Then

6320-439: Was originally Germany's smallest self-contained wine region (but since Reunification it has been the second smallest). Two hundred and thirty hectares alone – roughly half – can be found in Heppenheim and its two outlying centres of Hambach and Erbach. They are marketed under the banner name “Heppenheimer Schlossberg” with the individual designations Centgericht, Stemmler, Steinkopf, Schlossberg, Maiberg and Eckweg (until 2004 there

6400-407: Was published. Füller calls the school, when it was under Becker's management, a "reformed education paradise with a torture chamber in the basement" based on the model of a "aristocratic patriarchy ". He speaks of paedophiles and "robbers of childhood", which had systematically taken over the part of the school. Two months later Tilman Jens, a former student and until the summer of 2014 a member of

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