Town in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Wiesloch
(
German:
[?viːsl?x]
,
locally
[?v?sl?x]
;
South Franconian
:
Wissloch
) is a town in northern
Baden-Wurttemberg
, Germany. It is situated 13 kilometres south of
Heidelberg
. After
Weinheim
,
Sinsheim
and
Leimen
, it is the fourth largest town in the
Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
. It shares
Wiesloch-Walldorf station
with its neighbouring town
Walldorf
. Also in the vicinity of Wiesloch are
Dielheim
,
Malsch (bei Wiesloch)
,
Muhlhausen
,
Rauenberg
and
Sankt Leon-Rot
.
Wiesloch's population grew to more than 20,000 when the administration of the area was reorganised in the 1970s. Wiesloch became a
Große Kreisstadt
on 1 January 1973, when Altwiesloch, Baiertal, Frauenweiler and Schatthausen were amalgamated with Wiesloch to form the present municipality.
History
[
edit
]
The settlement that is now Wiesloch town centre originated during the expansion of silver mining in the vicinity in the 10th century.
[3]
Fossil site
[
edit
]
The fossil remains of the oldest
hummingbird
found to date,
Eurotrochilus inexpectatus
, were found in a clay pit at Frauenweiler. This bird lived during the Early
Oligocene
(30
mya
), when the area had a humid, subtropical climate similar to the northern
Caribbean
today.
[4]
Emperor Henry IV
[
edit
]
In 1077,
Emperor Henry IV
locked more than 100 of his enemies in the early church at
Wizinloch
(as the place was then known) on the site of the present
Protestant
church (
Stadtkirche
) and burnt the building down.
[5]
Battles
[
edit
]
Battle of Wiesloch (1632)
There were three battles near Wiesloch, the
Battle of Mingolsheim
on 27 April 1622 (during the
Thirty Years' War
), the
1632 Battle of Wiesloch
on 16 August 1632, (during the same war) and the
1799 Battle of Wiesloch
on 3 December 1799 (during the
War of the Second Coalition
).
Wiesloch was attacked on 28 January 1689 by French troops under
Ezechiel du Mas, Comte de Melac
, during the
Nine Years' War
, and was almost completely burnt down and destroyed.
First "filling station" in the world
Bertha Benz
[
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]
The city pharmacy in Wiesloch was the first "
filling station
" in the world, because
Bertha Benz
stopped there on 5 August 1888, on the first long distance car trip, to refill the tank of her
automobile
, which her husband
Karl Benz
had invented. She was supplied with
ligroin
by the
apothecary
Willi Ockel.
In 2008, the
Bertha Benz Memorial Route
was officially designated an industrial heritage route, following Bertha Benz's route on the world's first long-distance journey by automobile. It is a 194 km signposted circuit from
Mannheim
via
Heidelberg
and Wiesloch to
Pforzheim
in the
Black Forest
, and back.
The Minnesinger von Wissenlo, from the Codex Manesse
The Minnesinger von Wissenlo
[
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]
The
Codex Manesse
includes four sophisticated
Middle High German
lyrics
in the
tagelied
genre ascribed to the
Minnesinger von Wissenlo
(meaning "
minnesang
poet from Wiesloch").
[6]
[7]
The identity of the Minnesinger von Wissenlo is not known, but the poet is conjectured to be Heinrich Swendinger von Wissenloch, who lived in the second half of the 13th century.
[8]
An illustration titled
von Wissenlo
in the Codex Manesse shows a lady, a child, and a knight, and includes an
escutcheon
which does not match that of the Von Wissenloch family.
[9]
There are two statues of the Minnesinger von Wissenlo in Wiesloch town centre: one, by Hatto Zeidler from 1978, is in the square by the united Protestant church (
Stadtkirche
) and shows the poet playing the lyre;
[10]
the other, an equestrian statue on a tall column, is part of a group by Karel Fron that was erected in the market square near the town hall in 1988.
[11]
Geography
[
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]
Wiesloch is situated partly on the southern foothills of the
Odenwald
, partly in the
Rhine
Valley, and partly in the
Kraichgau
.
Five brooks flow through Wiesloch: the
Leimbach
, the
Gauangelbach
, the
Waldangelbach
, the Ochsenbach, and the Maisbach.
Economy
[
edit
]
MLP AG
, a large German broker of
personal finance
services, is headquartered at Wiesloch. Wiesloch also hosts the world's largest printing press manufacturing site, operated by
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen
.
[12]
Other large companies in the close vicinity are
HeidelbergCement
, the central
cool store
warehouses for the
REWE Group
supermarket chain, and the global headquarters of
SAP SE
.
"MetropolPark Wiesloch-Walldorf" is the brand name for the commercial and industrial
business park
surrounding Wiesloch-Walldorf railway station.
Leisure
[
edit
]
The open-air
Leimbach Park
and
Wiesloch Feldbahn and Industrial Museum
are in the region surrounding the joint railway station.
Twin towns ? sister cities
[
edit
]
Wiesloch is
twinned
with:
[13]
Notable people
[
edit
]
- Karl Hermann Zahn
(1865?1940), botanist, studied
hawkweed
- Werner Zahn
(1890?1971), bobsledder
- Erich Schelling
(1904?1986), architect, worked in
Karlsruhe
- Rudolf Wild
(1904?1995), businessman, founded
WILD
, a food company
- Alfred Schon
(born 1962), football manager and former player who played over 330 games.
- Klaus Weese
(born 1967), freestyle skier
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Oberburgermeisterwahl Wiesloch 2023
, Staatsanzeiger. Retrieved 13 June 2024.
- ^
"Bevolkerung nach Nationalitat und Geschlecht am 31. Dezember 2022"
[Population by nationality and sex as of December 31, 2022]
(CSV)
(in German).
Statistisches Landesamt Baden-Wurttemberg
. June 2023.
- ^
Ludwig H. Hildebrandt:
Mittelalterliche Urkunden uber Wiesloch und Walldorf
, Ubstadt-Weiher 2001, p 110
(in German)
- ^
World's oldest hummingbirds
- ^
Ludwig H. Hildebrandt:
Mittelalterliche Urkunden uber Wiesloch und Walldorf
, Ubstadt-Weiher 2001, p 114, no. W20
(in German)
- ^
Nu wol uf, ritter, ez ist tac! ? Die Tagelieder des von Wissenlo
booklet accompanying a music CD (same title) by Freiburger
Spielleyt
, distributed by Verlag der Spielleute. (The booklet includes full texts of the four known lyrics by Von Wissenlo)
(in German)
- ^
Carl von Kraus:
Deutsche Liederdichter des 13. Jahrhunderts
, Part I Text, pp 593ff, and Part II Commentary, pp 644ff, Tubingen 1978
(in German)
- ^
der Minnesanger von Wissenlo
on the official civic site for Wiesloch
(in German)
- ^
Karl Zangemeister:
Die Wappen, Helmzierden und Standarten der Grossen Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Manesse-Codex)
, p. 18, Gorlitz 1892; available to download from Heidelberg University Library at
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/Zangemeister1892
(in German)
- ^
Article about the statue, with photograph, on the official civic site for Wiesloch
(in German)
- ^
Article about the group, with photographs, on the official civic site for Wiesloch
(in German)
- ^
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen annual report 2006/2007, p. F-5
Archived
11 July 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"Wieslochs Partnerstadte"
.
wiesloch.de
(in German). Wiesloch
. Retrieved
17 February
2021
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Wiesloch
.
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