Dirmstein () is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With its roughly 3,000 inhabitants, it is the third largest Ortsgemeinde in the Verbandsgemeinde of Leiningerland, whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde. Dirmstein lies in the outermost northeast of the district and the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration.
In the 8th century, Dirmstein had its first documentary mention, although this was undated. The first dated documentary mention came in 842. Although it never belonged to the Counts of Leiningen, it is today counted as part of the Leiningerland, the name used for those noblemen's old domain. The historical and well restored village centre has been raised to a monumental zone by the monument protection authority.Georg Peter Karn, Ulrike Weber: Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Kulturdenkmäler in Rheinland-Pfalz Of the 58 protected objects,Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz: Nachrichtliches Verzeichnis der Kulturdenkmäler: Kreis Bad Dürkheim 48 lie within this zone. With few exceptions, they go back, like the village's foremost landmark, the Baroque simultaneous church St. Laurentius (Saint Lawrence's), to the municipality's heyday in the 18th century, towards the end of which Dirmstein apparently held town rights for two decades, although some sources are disputed.Michael Martin in: Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger, Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 157
Geography
Location Dirmstein lies at an elevation of 108 m above sea level on the Upper Rhine Plain in the northeast Palatinate. Twelve kilometres to the east (as the crow flies) flows the Rhine, while 9 km to the west begins the Palatinate Forest and 2 km to the north runs the boundary with the neighbouring region, Rhenish Hesse.
Neighbouring municipalities Clockwise from the north, these are Offstein and Worms-Heppenheim (both in Rhenish Hesse) to the north, Heuchelheim (Verbandsgemeinde of Heßheim) in the east and Gerolsheim, Laumersheim and Obersülzen (all in the Verbandsgemeinde of Leiningerland) in the south, southwest and west. Heppenheim lies 5 km away, Offstein 4 km and each of the others 2 km.
Towards the eastern end alongside the Rhine, the municipal area is quite even, rising to considerable hills in the west. These belong to the Palatinate wine region between the plain and the low mountain range, which here, until 1969, was known as Unterhaardt, but which now bears the name Mittelhaardt-Deutsche Weinstraße.
Streams
The municipal area is crossed from west to east by the river Eckbach, which flows into the municipality in the southwest, from Laumersheim. In the 1920s, it was redirected from the village centre to the southern outskirts. Until this time, there had been a flat, pondlike broadening of the brook's bed south of the church on the Affenstein (a street), next to the village thoroughfare in which carriages could be cleansed of sand and loam buildup. As a new riverbed (going straight ahead instead of left), the old channel left over from the old "Upper Village’s" mediaeval fortification dyke seemed an obvious choice. Between the "Upper" and "Lower Village", today's Eckbach meets its old course again coming from the right.
The in itself unimposing river Floßbach, coming from Obersülzen and also known locally as the Landgraben, which flows round Dirmstein in the north and on the village's eastern outskirts empties into the Eckbach from the left, was in the latter half of the 20th century straightened. The loss of flooding areas thus wrought, together with the increased speed of flow, brought about problems in times of heavy rainfall for the Nördlich der Heuchelheimer Straße ("North of Heuchelheim Road") construction site opened in the 1980s. In 1994 came widespread flooding for the first time, in which basements were filled with water up to their upper edges. In 2006, various versions of a plan to create flooding areas were brought forth for discussion. In 2008, Grünstadt-Land Verbandsgemeinde council decided to renaturate the brook over a stretch of a good kilometre. As an ecologically worthy measure, it was subsidized by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate to a share of 90% of the cost within the framework of its Aktion Blau.Die Rheinpfalz, Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: Lösung für Hochwasser in Lokalbahnstraße gefunden, 26. April 2008 In October 2008, the conversion began, in which former cropland along the brook, which through Flurbereinigung had been transferred to the municipality's ownership, was removed so that the brook could broaden out to the sides in heavy rains. To reduce the speed of flow, meanders were built back in and, of particular importance, two almost right-angled bends were smoothed out. With the planting of typical local trees and shrubs, the renaturation was completed in early 2009.Die Rheinpfalz, Lokalausgabe Frankenthaler Zeitung: An einem Strang, 28. Mai 2009
Geology The most important event in the eastern Palatinate's geological development was the rifting and downfaulting relative to the surrounding low mountains of the Upper Rhine Plain, whose onset was some 65,000,000 years ago in the Lower Tertiary and which has lasted until today. Before the mountains spread an area that was over time scored by the Eckbach and Floßbach. During the ice ages, there were gradual solifluction on the slopes and also wind abrasion in great parts of Europe. These processes led to a transformation of the original surface relief in whose wake a floodplain with embanked or eroded terraces formed. In colder, drier phases of the Würm glaciation, loess beds came into being through the influence of the wind, whereby the loess gathered mostly at faults and alee of small hollows. Later erosion created steep banks in the loess areas, which today can reach 6 m in height and are valuable biotopes.
The uppermost layer of deposits stems almost exclusively from the recent past. In lower-lying areas, the two brooks have washed the sediments downstream, with higher areas taking on new shapes more through weathering. The soils are overwhelmingly sandy and show to some extent loam admixture, whose concentration varies. As elsewhere in the area, the odd deposit of quartz sand is found, which owing to its purity is subject to mining rights, thereby giving it priority over agriculture. On these grounds, the local winemakers must now and then yield even highly valuable vineyards to quartz sand stripmining by businesses from outside the municipality.
Climate
Given the prevailing southwest and west winds, Dirmstein's location alee of the Palatinate Forest means that the locality must make do with at most 500 mm of precipitation yearly. Moreover, in weather out of the northwest, the massif of the Donnersberg, lying 25 km away in the North Palatine Highland and rising to 689 m, often likewise hinders any abundance of precipitation. Dirmstein falls into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 22% of the German Weather Service's weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in May. In that month, precipitation is 2.2 times what it is in January. Precipitation varies markedly by month.
Owing to the dearth of rain, the water table lies more than 10 m underground. On the one hand, this makes artificial irrigation necessary for cropraising, but on the other hand it makes for ideal conditions for winegrowing. The uppermost – dry – layers of earth warm up more quickly, promoting sugar formation in the grapes, and the vines must root deeper to reach enough moisture, which is advantageous to the absorption of minerals.
Since 1936, one kilometre south of Dirmstein, the Autobahn A 6 (Mannheim–Saarbrücken) has run, building work on which began as early as 1932. Since it was raised onto an embankment with an average height over the flanking lands of 5 m in the latter half of the 20th century, it has been a conspicuous barrier running across the Upper Rhine Plain to the Palatinate Forest, pierced only by a few underpasses. Just how much the roadway influences the local climate and whether, for example, it can lead to the formation of lakes of cold air has never been systematically investigated.
History
Milestones Time Events Persons Objects from 5th or 6th century Evidence of settlers Franks(Alamanni?) Grave fields 8th century Dirmstein's first documentary mention (undated) Benedictines at Weißenburg Abbey (Alsace) Codex Edelini 23 November 842 Dirmstein's first documentary mention (dated) King and later Emperor Charles the Bald Copy of letters patent early 11th century Dirmstein's first church: St. Petrus Bishop of Worms (Burchard?) 1141 First documentary mention of winegrowing in Dirmstein 13th century Forerunner buildings of the later castle Bishop of Worms, local nobles (among them Jacob Lerch?) first quarter of the 17th century Family Lerch's heyday Caspar Lerch (1575–1642) 19-year exile 1689 Dirmstein in the Nine Years' War French troops Destruction of whole village by fire first half of the 18th century Building of Castle Koeth-Wanscheid Building of Castle Quadt Family RießmannFamily Quadt from 1736 Expansion of Castle Sturmfeder Baron Marsilius Franz Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler 1738: Building of Michelstor (gate at the castle) 1742–1746 Building of Laurentiuskirche (church) Prince-Bishop Franz Georg von Schönborn-Buchheim Design by Balthasar Neumann about 1780 Rebuilding of Castle Sturmfeder Baron Carl Theodor Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler 1780–1801 Town rights about 1790 Building of Kellergarten Baron Carl Theodor Sturmfeder von Oppenweiler Landscaping architect Friedrich Ludwig von Sckell 1797–1815 Dirmstein French Department of Mont-Tonnerre 1816–1945 Dirmstein Bavarian "Rheinkreis", later "Rheinpfalz" about 1830 Building of Schlosspark Gideon von Camuzi Landscaping architect Johann Christian Metzger 1891–1939 Running of local narrow-gauge railway Old railway station 1969 District reorganization Bad Dürkheim district 2018 Verbandsgemeinde assignment Verbandsgemeinde of Leiningerland
Chronicle
Celts, Romans and Germanic peoples When the Romans overran the region just before the beginning of the Christian Era, settled here were, besides Celts, also members of the Germanic tribe of the Vangiones. The Romans were removed late in their Empire's history, about 400, by another Germanic tribe, the Alamanni, who were thronging into the area, although they themselves were dislodged from their new homeland just under a century later by the likewise Germanic Franks. Thus far, though, there is no evidence of any settlement at what is now Dirmstein in those days.
Frankish times
The area around the forks of the Eckbach and Floßbach is known to have been settled beginning in the Early Middle Ages. Three Frankish grave fields from the 6th century, on the village's northeast outskirts, have been found since 1954.Joachim Kauppert, Melanie Lebschy: Das merowingerzeitliche Gräberfeld von Dirmstein aus anthropologischer Sicht. In: Dirmstein – Adel, Bauern und Bürger, Chronik der Gemeinde Dirmstein, S. 25–35 The last one to be found underwent archaeological investigation in the 1980s. The finds that were recovered were taken to the Historisches Museum der Pfalz ("Historical Museum of the Palatinate") in Speyer. Some of the experts who dealt with the artefacts are even of the opinion that the burial grounds, at least in part, were already being used in Alamannic times, putting their beginnings as far back as the 5th century.