Rimbach () in the Odenwald is a municipality in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location The community lies in the Odenwald some 30 km north of Heidelberg and about 35 km northeast of Mannheim. It is found on Bundesstraße 38, and through it flows the Weschnitz.
Neighbouring communities Rimbach borders in the north on the community of Fürth, in the east on the community of Grasellenbach, in the southeast on the community of Wald-Michelbach, in the south on the community of Mörlenbach and in the west on the town of Heppenheim.
Constituent communities Rimbach's Ortsteile are Albersbach, Lauten-Weschnitz, Mitlechtern, Münschbach, Unter-Mengelbach and Zotzenbach.
Climate Owing to its location in Bergstraße district, a mild climate prevails in Rimbach, which often leads to what in Germany is a very early blossoming of the almond trees.
History
Pre-18th Century Rimbach probably dates back to a Frankish settlement that emerged in the course of the Frankish land conquest from the 5th century AD. The oldest surviving documentary mention of Rimbach dates back to 795 in the Lorsch Codex, a list of possessions of Lorsch Monastery, and is connected to Charlemagne's donation of the Mark Heppenheim to the monastery. The Mark Heppenheim comprised most of today's Bergstrasse district and large parts of the Odenwald district. In connection with this donation, border disputes arose between Lorsch Abbey and the Bishopric of Worms, which led to the convening of a court of arbitration in 795 on the Kahlberg near Weschnitz, an old meeting place and court not far from today's Walburgis Chapel. As a result of this court of arbitration, a new boundary description was established, which now also named the most important places within the borders of the Mark Heppenheim, namely Furte (Fürth), Rintbach (Rimbach), Morlenbach (Mörlenbach), Birkenowa (Birkenau), Winenheim (Weinheim), Heppenheim, Besinsheim (Bensheim), Urbach (Auerbach), Lauresham (Lorsch) and Bisestat (Bürstadt).Regesten der Stadt Heppenheim und Burg Starkenburg bis zum Ende Kurmainzer Oberherrschaft (755 bis 1461). No. 5a (Digital view) Compiled and annotated by Torsten Wondrejz on behalf of the Stadtarchiv Heppenheim).
Another early mention can be found in the Lorsch Codex, when in 877 a Liuthar von Hausen donated the villa Rinthbach to the monastery and received it back as a fief. Supported by many other donations, the monastery was one of the largest and most powerful Benedictine abbeys in Germany in the 9th-12th centuries. The heyday of Lorsch Abbey was followed by its decline in the 11th and 12th centuries. During the Investiture Controversy from 1076 (Synod of Worms) to 1122 (Concordat of Worms), many possessions had to be ceded to the nobility. In the late 12th century, attempts were made to reorganize the administration by recording the old property deeds (Lorsch Codex). Nevertheless, in 1232 Emperor Frederick II placed Lorsch Abbey under the control of the Archbishopric of Mainz and its Bishop Siegfried III von Eppstein for reform. At this time, the area of the later Amt Schönberg, to which Rimbach later belonged, was in the possession of the Counts Palatine.Wilhelm Müller: Hessisches Ortsnamenbuch - Starkenburg, Darmstadt 1937, pp. 641-642 However, in 1409, Archbishop Johann von Mainz gave the fief to Schenk Konrad von Erbach with the house and castle barn of Rimbach. However, all other feudal deeds to the Schenken von Erbach were issued by the Counts Palatine. In 1385, Count Palatine Ruprecht I authorized the Schenk Eberhard von Erbach to pledge the villages of Rimbach and Zotzenbach to Hanemann von Sickingen, bailiff of Lindenfels and Hennel von Mosbach, bailiff of Heidelberg.
High jurisdiction over the village was exercised by the Heppenheim Center, whose supreme judge was the burgrave of Starkenburg Castle (above Heppenheim), first mentioned in 1267. Lower jurisdiction was exercised by the Vogteigericht, whose district included Rimbach as well as Lützel-Rimbach, Ober- and Unter-Mengelbach, Mossbach and Zotzenbach. The Schenken von Erbach already held the lower court as a Palatinate fief in the oldest documents. The Worms monastery bailiffs were administrators and court lords within the monastery estate. This office came into the possession of the Counts Palatine as early as 1165. Economically, the village was characterized by the three-field farming of the lords of the manor and the village cooperative until the 18th century. Rye, spelt, oats, spring barley, millet and other crops were cultivated.
A number of names of other landlords have survived from the Middle Ages. The noble families Betzer von Rimbach, Rauch von Rimbach, Jude vom Stein, Beyer von Boppard and the Lords of Rodenstein were feudal lords of the Counts of Erbach or the Counts Palatine During the Erbach rule over Rimbach, the village was assigned to the Schönberg office. Half of the tithe in Rimbach was due to the parish of Rimbach and half to the Lords of Dalberg, who had to maintain the nave of the church in return.
In the 16th century, the Reformation made its way into the Odenwald. By 1544, the Counts of Erbach had introduced the Lutheran creed for their county, and the Palatine rulers also openly sympathized with the Lutheran faith; however, it was only under Ottheinrich, Elector from 1556 to 1559, that the official transition to Lutheran doctrine took place. Before the Reformation, the parish of Rimbach belonged to the "Weinheim district chapter" of the diocese of Worms. The patronage was held by the Counts of Erbach from the Erbach-Fürstenau line, who owned it as a Palatinate fiefdom. In addition to Rimbach, the parish consisted of the villages of Lützel-Rimbach, Münchbach, Zotzenbach, Obermengelbach and two farms in Untermengelbach. Before 1516, the parish also included the villages of Mittelshausen, Scheuerberg, Mitlechtern, Knoden, Schannenbach, Ober-Laudenbach and Scharbach, which were exchanged for a Palatinate share of Reichenbach, as well as Igelsbach, which was exchanged with the Ullners of Dieburg.
The Thirty Years' War began in 1618, and ended in 1622. The Schönberg district suffered as a result, when Ligist troops repeatedly attacked and plundered it. The bloodiest chapter of the Thirty Years' War followed in the mid-1630s with the Franco-Swedish War. Chroniclers from the region at the time reported: "Plague and famine ravaged the land and decimated the population, often leaving the villages completely empty".
In the fall of 1696, Schönberg Castle was attacked during the Nine Years' War. It was only with the Peace of Ryswick in 1697 that the French withdrew behind the Rhine.
At the beginning of the 18th century, the villages of Rimbach, Lützelrimbach and Münschbach together counted 34 centmen and 5 assessors. Agriculture was enriched by the cultivation of legumes such as alfalfa or sainfoin, as well as potatoes; potato cultivation is documented in Zotzenbach as early as 1769. In 1717, the house of the Counts of Erbach was divided and Schönberg Castle became the seat of the younger Erbach-Schönberg line under Count Georg August zu Erbach-Schönberg. The latter received the Schönberg and König offices and half of the Breuberg dominion. The Erbach-Schönberg line made the castle their residence, giving it its current castle character.
19th Century to present On August 14, 1806, Napoleon elevated the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt to a Grand Duchy. With the Rhine Confederation Act, the County of Erbach was mediatized and incorporated for the most part into the Grand Duchy of Hesse; this also included the "Amt Schönberg", which initially remained as a baronial office.
The court system in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt had was reorganized on 9 December 1803. For the Principality of Starkenburg, the "Darmstadt Court" was established as a court of second instance. The courts of first instance were administered by the offices or lords of the manor. The court was the court of second instance for normal civil disputes and the court of first instance for family law and criminal cases. The higher court of appeal was the Court of Appeals of Darmstadt. This meant that the Zente and the associated landgerichts had finally lost their function. The provisions also applied in the Grand Duchy.
After the final defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15 also confirmed that the County of Erbach belonged to the "Principality of Starkenburg" of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. As a result, provinces were formed in the Grand Duchy in 1816 and the area previously known as the "Principality of Starkenburg" was renamed the "Province of Starkenburg". In 1821/22, as part of a comprehensive administrative reform, the bailiwicks in the provinces of Starkenburg and Upper Hesse of the Grand Duchy were dissolved and administrative districts were introduced, with the Schönberg office being assigned to the Lindenfels administrative district in 1822. As part of this reform, district courts were also created, which were now independent of the administration. Their court districts corresponded in size to the administrative districts. The district court of Fürth was the court of first instance for the district of Lindenfels. It was not until 1826 that all the functions of the former baronial district of Schönberg were transferred to the state. This reform also organized the administrative administration at municipal level. The mayor's office in Rimbach was also responsible for Litzelrimbach (settlement in the district of Rimbach) and Mönsbach (today, as Münschbach, a hamlet in the district of Rimbach). In accordance with the municipal ordinance of June 30, 1821, there were no longer any appointments of Schultheißen, but rather an elected local council made up of the mayor, aldermen and municipal council.
In 1832, the administrative units were further enlarged and districts were created. According to the reorganization announced on August 20, 1832, there were to be only the districts of Bensheim and Lindenfels in South Starkenburg in future; the district of Heppenheim was to fall under the district of Bensheim. However, before the ordinance came into force on October 15, 1832, it was revised to the effect that instead of the district of Lindenfels, the district of Heppenheim was formed as a second district alongside the district of Bensheim, to which Rimbach now belonged.
In 1835 the first doctor with academic training practiced in Rimbach. During these years, the Jewish community built a synagogue, which also built a cemetery in 1846.
The years 1846/49 were characterized by social unrest, many Rimbach residents took part in the popular assembly in Ober-Laudenbach, from which the so-called Ober-Laudenbach incident developed, a confrontation between armed revolutionaries and the military. The revolutionaries wanted to defend the Frankfurt constitution and gathered in Ober-Laudenbach from the surrounding Odenwald. The conductor of the government commission of the Heppenheim administrative district, Christian Prinz, tried to break up the meeting. He was shot in the process, which led to a violent confrontation between the Hessian military and the revolutionaries. 13 men died, 107 were arrested, the others escaped.
On July 31, 1848, the counties and administrative districts of the Grand Duchy were abolished and replaced by "administrative districts", with the former counties of Bensheim and Heppenheim being united to form the administrative district of Heppenheim. However, just four years later, during the Reaction Era, the districts were reorganized and Rimbach became part of the newly created district of Lindenfels.