Wattenheim

Wattenheim
Wattenheim
Location of Wattenheim within Bad Dürkheim district
Coordinates	49°31′18″N 8°03′42″E
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Dürkheim
Municipal assoc.	Hettenleidelheim
Mayor	Ernst-Albert Kraft (CDU)
Basic statistics
Area	12.53 km2 (4.84 sq mi)
Elevation	312 m  (1024 ft)
Population	1,613 (31 December 2011)
- Density	129 /km2 (333 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	DÜW
Postal code	67319
Area code	06356
Website	www.vg-h.de

Wattenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

Wattenheim lies on a cone-shaped hill with a gentle slope. This village in the Leiningerland – the name for the lands once held by the Counts of Leiningen – is a starting point for long or short hikes. Wattenheim belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Hettenleidelheim, whose seat is in the like-named municipality. Until 1969 it also belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the northeast, these are Hettenleidelheim, Neuleiningen, Altleiningen, Carlsberg, an exclave of Neuleiningen, Bad Dürkheim, Fischbach, Enkenbach-Alsenborn, Ramsen and Eisenberg.

History

Various finds lead to the conclusion that the Romans had already established some kind of settlement in what is now Wattenheim. Wattenheim’s first documentary mention in 793 in the Lorsch codex is said to be disputed. It is believed that the village had its first documentary mention in 1221. In the Middle Ages, Wattenheim belonged to the House of Leiningen. In 1695, it was sold to the Baron of Blumencron.

The Evangelical church

Religion

In 2007, 42.5% of the inhabitants were Evangelical and 35.9% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

	SPD	CDU	FWG	Total
2009	6	8	2	16 seats
2004	6	8	2	16 seats

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: Von Rot und Blau gespalten, rechts ein durchgehendes goldenes Kreuz, links ein rotbekleideter Tatar mit goldenbordierter roter Pelzmütze und schwarzen Stiefeln, die Linke in die Hüfte gestützt, in der Rechten ein silbernes Krummschwert mit goldenem Griff schwingend.

The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale gules a cross Or and azure a Tatar vested of the first wearing a fur cap of the same garnished of the second and boots sable, his sinister hand on his hip, and in his dexter hand a sabre argent and garnished of the second, the point to chief.

The arms were approved in 1958 by the Mainz Ministry of the Interior and go back to a court seal from 1733 in which the two fields were transposed. The cross is drawn from the arms once borne by the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg, and the Tatar from those borne by the family Blumencron.

Culture and sightseeing

The Catholic Church in the background

The Protestant church’s history reaches all the way back to the first Crusades. Standing in the village centre is the Catholic church, a Gothic Revival hall church from the years 1892-1893.

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Wattenheim is linked to the long-distance road network by Bundesstraße 6. At the Wattenheim turnoff are an Autobahn police station and the Autobahn maintenance facility.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

• Barbara Pfister (1867–1909), mystic and stigmatic
• Daniel Meininger (1876–1964), publisher
• Karl Dieter (1903–1956), Nazi functionary
• Mario Basler, national soccer player

External links

• Municipality’s official webpage (German)
• Wattenheim in the district’s Web pages (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.