Bad Sobernheim

A great number of the people there chose to move house to Bad Sobernheim to escape the continual noise from aircraft, and the town annexed the land where they had formerly lived, up on the Nahe Heights.

It was, however, the town rights on the Bingen model granted by Archbishop Baldwin of Trier in 1330 that became operative and remained so until the French Revolutionary Wars.

Sobernheim became the seat of a mairie ("mayoralty") that included not only the town itself but also the outlying villages of Waldböckelheim, Thalböckelheim, Schloßböckelheim, Steinhardt, Boos, Oberstreit, Bockenau, Burgsponheim and Sponheim as well as a Friedensgericht ("Peace Court"; in 1879 this became an Amtsgericht).

Reconstruction began with the 1948 currency reform and brought into being a town of some 7,000 inhabitants in which trade, industry, services and public institutions defined economic life.

The German Air Force was stationed at the outlying centre of Pferdsfeld from 1960 with the Leichtes Kampfgeschwader ("Light Combat Squadron") 42 and from 1975 with the Jagdbombergeschwader 35 (Jagdgeschwader 73).

This one appeared in that newspaper on 1 August 1853:The local Jewish community seeks for 1 September of this year an efficient elementary teacher and cantor.

[8] Bad Sobernheim's mayor is Michael Greiner (SPD), and his deputies are Alois Bruckmeier (FWG) and Ulrich Schug (Greens).

Besides sumptuous altar baldachin capitals with representations of angels and colouring from the time of building, the organ built by Johann Michael Stumm in 1739, largely preserved in its original state and restored, and the windows by Georg Meistermann are worth viewing.

Likewise about 1566, in an attempt to gain more stabling room, a wooden middle floor was built in, which is now important to the building's history for both its age and its shaping in the Renaissance style.

Since both the later building jobs – the vaulted cellar and the middle floor – came to be in the course of the chapel's profanation after the Reformation was introduced, they can also be considered witnesses to the local denominational history.

The west portal's outer tympanum, which shows, under a mighty ogee, in the style of the Frankfurt School, a calvary with Jesus, Mary Mother of God and John the Apostle as well as two thurible-swinging angels attending, is the only one with carved ornamentation in the Nahe-Glan region that has been preserved from the Middle Ages.

The artwork is stylistically akin to the tomb carving in nearby St. Johannisberg (constituent community of Hochstetten-Dhaun) and at the Pfaffen-Schwabenheim collegiate church.

The motif of the crockets along the ogee, on the viewer's left turned away and on his right opened towards him, are otherwise only found on the west portal of St. Valentin in Kiedrich in the Rheingau.

Brought to light in 1985 during restoration work beneath the tympanum was an atlas in the shape of a male figure, which because of his arm warmers reaching down over his palms is described as the Bauhandwerker – roughly "construction worker".

(Förderverein means "promotional association" in German) has since set itself the task of finding a cultural use for the old chapel in keeping with its dignity as a former ecclesiastical building, and of permanently opening it to the broader public.

It has a Gothic Revival triptych altar from 1905, a Sacramental shrine from the 15th century and an historic organ from 1901/1902 built by Michael Körfer from Gau-Algesheim.

The left window shows church patron Saint Matthew's calling at the tax office, under which are shown Hildegard of Bingen and Simon Peter.

The marketplace and the neighbouring streets are also the venue for Bad Sobernheim's yearly traditional Innenstadtfest ("Inner Town Festival"), held on the first weekend in September.

[14] In Pferdsfeld, one of the centres in Bad Sobernheim's northwest exclave, stands the Paul-Schneider-Gedenksäule in memory of the martyr Paul Schneider, who was born here.

On Saturday, the Jewish community’s schoolteacher and cantor Mr. Kahn preached on the theme “Build me a House of God and I shall live among you.” S. Hadra, Master Bricklayer.In 1904, the synagogue was thoroughly renovated and expanded towards the west.

The consecration service held on Friday afternoon, at which, among others, the mayor, the town executive, the Royal District School Inspector, the principal of the local Realschule and representatives of the schoolboards took part, was opened with the motet “Gesegnet sei, wer da kommt im Namen des Herrn” (“Blessed be He who Cometh in the Lord’s Name”), presented by the synagogue choir.

After the choir then sang Ma Tovu (מה טבו), leadership member Mr. Michel’s eldest daughter presented a prologue in exemplary fashion and handed the community head, Mr. M. Marum, the key to the holy ark.

While the choir sang Vaychi benisa (ויחי בנסע), leadership member Mr. Löb took out one of the Torah scrolls and handed it to Mr. Berendt, who with a festive voice spoke the following: “And this is the teaching that Moses set before the Children of Israel, and in this teaching is the Word that served Israel as a banner on its long wandering through history, around which it gathered, the Word, which was its guiding star in friendly and dreary days: Hear, O Israel, the Everlasting, our God, the Everlasting, is the only one.” After the choir and the community had repeated the last words in Hebrew, the Torah scroll was put into the holy ark amid song from the choir for that occasion.

After a short break, קבלת שבת took place (onset of Shabbat), at which our splendid House of God shone as surely as it had at midday in glorious electric light.

To the following goes credit for the embellishment of the House of God: Mrs. Jakob Kaufmann née van Geldern, who by collections among the women made possible a magnificent parochet; Mr. Ferdinand Herz, who endowed a sumptuous shulchan cover (for the lectern); Mrs.

Registered as the graveyard's owner in 1826 was the horse dealer Philipp Werner (at the time, the Jewish community could not function as an incorporated body and thus could not own things).

The local history museum (Heimatmuseum) has pictures, sculptures and notes made by well known Bad Sobernheim artists such as Jakob Melcher, Johann von der Eltz and Rudolf Desch on display.

The peas presumably formed inside hot springs that apparently were linked with a geological remoulding near Steinhardt and bore barium chloride.

In the pit of a former Bad Sobernheim brickworks, superb fossils of plants from Rotliegend times (Permian) some 290,000,000 years ago have been unearthed.

Even today, agriculture still defines part of the region's culture, giving rise to, among other things, a great grape and fruit market in the town each autumn.

Dornbachstraße 20 – former town mill
Former town mill – the waterwheel
Former town mill – the millrace and the waterwheel
Igelsbachstraße 7 – Saint Matthew’s Evangelical Parish Church ( Pfarrkirche St. Matthias ), Stumm organ
Eckweiler Straße, at the graveyard – J. Müller tomb
Eckweiler: Evangelical church
Eckweiler, Entenpfuhl: former Chief Forest Office
Eckweiler, Entenpfuhl: monument to the "Hunter from the Palatinate" (" Jäger aus Kurpfalz ")
Pferdsfeld, in the Soonwald: Alteburg Tower
Wilhelmstraße 13: Baroque timber-frame house ( Pförtnerhäuschen )
Barfußpfad ("Barefoot Path"): crossing the Nahe at a ford