Oberkirch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

🇩🇪 Oberkirch (Owerkirch) is a town in Western Baden-Württemberg, Germany about 12 km North-East of Offenburg and belongs to the Ortenaukreis district.

Since the 1st January 2004, Oberkirch is a large district town. With the city of Renchen and the municipality of Lautenbach, the city has entered into an agreed administrative community.

Geography: Location Oberkirch is located on the edge of the Upper Rhine Plain at the entrance of the Rencht Valley into the Black Forest.

The Rench enters the urban area in the south-east of the Black Forest, then flows through the core city in a northwesterly direction (the old town is on the right bank), then the Stadelhofen district and then leaves the urban area in the north-west in the direction of the Rhine. Oberkirch includes two enclaves, which are located in the northern Ortenau in the Maiwald.

Neighboring communities The following cities and municipalities border the city of Oberkirch. They are called clockwise starting in the north: Renchen, Kappelrodeck, Lautenbach, Oppenau, Nordrach, Durbach and Appenweier (all Ortenaukreis).

City division The urban area of Oberkirch is divided into the core city and the districts of Bottenau, Butschbach, Haslach, Nußbach, Ödsbach, Ringelbach, Stadelhofen, Tiergarten and Zusenhofen, which were incorporated as part of the municipal reform of the 1970s.

The districts with the exception of Butschbach are also localities within the meaning of the Baden-Württemberg municipal code, which means that there is a local council to be elected by the eligible voters in each local election with a local leader as chairman. The local councils have between six and ten members, depending on the size of the locality.

Some districts sometimes include other residential places with their own name, which usually have very few inhabitants. There are a lot of residential places in Oberkirch, as some districts are pronounced scattered settlements. On the other hand, there are also new residential areas with their own names, whose boundaries are usually not precisely defined.

In detail, the following residential places belong to the districts: • to Bottenau: Buseck, Diebersbach, Fröschhof, Herbstkopf, Hummelswald, Kaltenhof, Kernenhof, Korberg, Lerchenlochhof, Meisenbühl, Rohrbach, Rottelshalt, Saalengrund, Schlatten • to Butschbach: Albersbach, Eckenberg, Fürsteneck, Hesselbach, In der Rot, Köbelesberg, Schafhof • to Haslach: Waldeck • to Nußbach: Herztal, Müllen (partially), Neubergerhof, Weierhof • to Oberkirch: Gaisbach, Hilzen, Oberdorf, Schloßhof, Waldhof, Wolfhag • to Ödsbach: Bergle, Fiegenbach, Giedensbach, Gnadhof, Grimmersbach, Gründle, Hanselbach, Hengstbach, Heuberg, Hochkopf, Holdersberg, Laibach, Lendersbach, Löchle, Mooshof, Ötsch, Rank, Rotengaß, Scheuermatt, Sieferspring, Steinhof • to Tiergarten: Hubeneck, Niederlehen, Springhöfe, Tanzberg • to Zusenhofen: Garbage (partially)

History Oberkirch was founded in the 11th Century first mentioned as Obernchirchen. The settlement was probably created by the Zähringern and was located north of today's city. Probably after 1218 the place came to the empire and was given to the Margraves of Baden as a fief. In 1225 it was mentioned as civitas and later as oppidum. In 1246 the place was burned down and then rebuilt in today's place. Oberkirch came to the diocese of Strasbourg via the Fürstenberger in 1303. In 1326 he was granted city rights. Except for a few interruptions, it was ruled by the Strasbourg bishops, but it was partially granted to fiefs (1604 to 1634 and 1649 to 1665 to Württemberg and 1683 to 1697 to Baden). In the 15th In the 19th century, Oberkirch became the seat of a bailiff to whom several courts in the surrounding area were subject. In the Thirty Years' War it was severely destroyed, as well as in 1689 (except for the church), but then rebuilt.

19th and 20th Century In 1803, Oberkirch came to Baden and became the seat of a district office, which was abolished in 1936. His area was predominantly assigned to the district office of Offenburg, from which the district of Offenburg emerged in 1939.

After the Second World War, the district of Offenburg belonged to the state of Baden and from 1952 to the administrative district of Südbaden. In the district reform for the 1st In January 1973, the district of Offenburg was dissolved. He was assigned to the newly formed Ortenaukreis. The integration of nine surrounding municipalities in the early 1970s created the conditions that the number of inhabitants could exceed the 20,000 limit in 2002. As a result, the city administration submitted the application for elevation to the large district town, which the state government of Baden-Württemberg then with effect from the 1st. January 2004 decided. Oberkirch thus became the fifth large district town in the Ortenau district.

The districts also have a long history. They almost all belonged to the Oberkirch court of the diocese of Strasbourg (Gaisbach was a knightly place before 1805 (Schauenburg), Nußbach and Zusenhofen belonged to Vorderösterreich), all came to Baden with Oberkirch in 1805 and then mostly belonged to the district of Oberkirch. Meisenbühl, Nußbach, Stadelhofen and Zusenhofen initially belonged to the AmtAppenweier and only came to the district office Oberkirch in 1819, Ringelbach belonged to the district office Achern and also came to the district office Oberkirch in 1819. When the Oberkirch district office was dissolved in 1936, all municipalities came to the Offenburg district office and to the Offenburg district in 1939.

History: Districts Bottenau was only formed in 1935 as an independent municipality. The eponymous place had been first mentioned in 1296 as Botnowe and belonged to the municipality of Durbach until 1935. The hamlets of Diebersbach belonging to Bottenau (1381 mentioned as Diepolczbach) and Schlatten (1381 as "in dem Slatten") belonged to the municipality of Butschbach and Meisenbühl (1432 mentioned as "uff der Egesen") to the dissolved municipality of Herztal until 1935. Herztal (1346 "zu Hetzelis" first mentioned and today belongs to the Nußbach district), was the name of the municipality of Meisenbühl since 1846, when it had been newly formed from several hamlets.

Butschbach was founded in 1360 as Buspbach by Fursteneck, Haslach 1247 as Hasilach, Ödsbach in the 11th Century as Ongisbach, Ringelbach 1225 as "in the Ringelbach", Stadelhofen 1347 as Stadelhoven and Tiergarten 1319 as "in the Thiergarten" first mentioned and were early part of the Hochstift of Strasbourg, Court Oberkirch or Oppenau.

Gaisbach, first mentioned in 1225 "in the Geißbach", developed at the foot of the Schauenburg, which constituted an independent territory of the Ritterschaft Ortenau and came to Baden in 1805.

Nußbach was founded in 994 as Nuzbach and Zusenhofen in the 12th century as Uzzenhöfen for the first time. These villages belonged to the Landvogtei Ortenau, which was pre-Austrian.

See also:Fürsteneck Castle

Incorporations The following municipalities were incorporated into the city of Oberkirch: • 1827: Oberdorf • 1837: Wolfhag • 1872: Fernach • 1936: Gaisbach • 1939: Winterbach (only partially, the rest remained with the municipality of Lautenbach) • 1. January 1971: Butschbach (with the municipality of Hesselbach incorporated in 1837) • 1. July 1971: Haslach • 1. July 1972: Ringelbach • 1. January 1974: Stadelhofen, Tiergarten, Zusenhofen • 1. July 1974: Nußbach (with parts of the municipality of Herztal dissolved in 1935) • 1. January 1975: Bottenau (1935 formed from some hamlets, including parts of the dissolved municipality of Herztal) and Ödsbach

Religion The name Oberkirch refers to a chapel that was opened before the 13th. century of the church in Nußbach. In 1225, an already existing chapel was elevated by the Strasbourg bishop Bertold von Teck to a church to be permanently occupied by a clergyman and occupied by the monastery of Allerheiligen with pastors. In 1803, the places came to the diocese of Konstanz before they became part of the newly founded archdiocese of Freiburg The congregations then belonged to the deanery of Oberkirch. Today, all congregations in the Oberkirch city area belong to the Dean's Office of Acher-Renchtal. There are the following Catholic communities (for their churches cf. at Bauwerke): St. Cyriak Oberkirch (with Butschbach and since 1937 also with Ringelbach), St. Sebastian Nußbach (with Bottenau), St. Jakob the Elder Ödsbach (own parish since 1932), St. Wendelin Stadelhofen (own parish since 1887), St. Urban Tier St. Aloysius Haslach was a branch community of Renchen-Ulm and is now part of the Oberkirch pastoral care unit.

Beginning of the 19th In the 19th century, Protestants also moved to Oberkirch. The Protestant community received its own church in 1866. The Protestant church has been wearing since the 1st Advent 2016 the name Martin Luther Church. The Protestant community also includes the Protestants of all nine districts: Bottenau, Butschbach, Ödsbach, Ringelbach, Tiergarten, Haslach, Stadelhofen, Nußbach and Zusenhofen. The Evang. Church community of Oberkirch belongs to the Evang. Church district Ortenau, Kehl region, the Evangelical State Church in Baden.

According to the 2011 census, 68.4% of the population of Oberkirch were Roman Catholic, 14.7% Protestant, 0.7% Orthodox and 14.9% belonged to another or no public religious community.

For the Muslims in Oberkirch, who are predominantly of Turkish origin, the Turkish association Oberkirch e. V. a mosque in Oberdorfstraße.

Museums In the old town hall is the local history and Grimmelshausen museum. It informs, among other things, about the history of the city and the life of the poet Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, who wrote his work "Simplicissimus" in Oberkirch. The municipal gallery, which is also located there, regularly presents well-known artists from home and abroad.

Buildings The landmark of Oberkirch is the one from the 11th. Ruin of Schauenburg, which stands 200 meters above the village. There, von Grimmelshausen worked as a castle administrator after the Thirty Years' War. At the end of the war in the years 1650–1660, he had the south tower of the Schauenburg demolished and the stones rolled into the valley to build the Gaisbach Castle. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen as administrator of Hans Reinhard von Schauenburg (defender of Offenburg) was also the innkeeper at the Gasthaus zum Silbernen Stern in Gaisbach.

There is also the Fürsteneck ruin. In the district of Tiergarten is the ruin of the Ullenburg.

The old town still has some historical half-timbered houses and baroque buildings as well as fragments of the old city wall. The Catholic parish church of St. Cyriak, on the other hand, was only built in 1863 in the neo-Romanesque style instead of a demolished predecessor building. The Protestant city church was built in 1866 on the site of the former Capuchin monastery, which was demolished in 1847.

In contrast to this is the media library, which was inaugurated in 2010. This leisure, educational and cultural institution convinces with its modern design language, which was also appreciated in the corresponding professional circles. 8]

In the districts there are the following churches and chapels: • Wendelinuskapelle in Bottenau (built in 1750) • Catholic Church of St. Aloysius in Haslach (built in 1866) • Josefskapelle in Hesselbach • Catholic Church of St. Martin (built in 1827, the choir tower of the previous church now serves as a choir) • Catholic Church of St. Sebastian in Nußbach • Jakobus Chapel in Ödsbach (Gothic, built in 1499) • Catholic Church of St. James the Elder (built in 1911/12) • Wendelinuskapelle in Ringelbach (built in 1863 in neo-Romanesque style) • Catholic parish church of St. Wendelin in Stadelhofen (built in 1882 by Friedrich Kempf in neo-Roman style instead of a previous building from 1780) • Catholic parish church St. Urban in Tiergarten (built in 1870, a chapel St. Urban has been attested since 1332) • Catholic Church of St. Josef in Zusenhofen (built in 1933/1934)

Sport SV Oberkirch is the local football club, which is best known for its successes in the 60s throughout southern Baden. Today, the senior team plays in the district league Offenburg.

Another successful sports club is the Schützenverein Oberkirch. Since the 1980s, the shooting club has been successful nationally, internationally and on South Baden level in different disciplines and age groups. Numerous members were members of the national team or won titles at the national level.

Economy The agriculture of Oberkirch is characterized by viticulture and fruit growing. In addition, there is the paper and textile industry as well as mechanical engineering. Oberkirch is the headquarters of the August Koehler paper factory and the listed car supplier Progress-Werk Oberkirch.

Viticulture and schnapps distillery In viticulture, the cooperative wine cooperative is formative in the village. Most wine-growing areas are managed by members of the Oberkircher Winzergenossenschaft. Later Pinot Noir and Riesling wines (also called "Klingelberger" in the region) are the most common types of wine.

Almost 900 house distilleries distill noble brandies in Oberkirch.

Mining (historical) In the Oberkirch area there were also mines that mined river and heavy spade underground. It was the Hesselbach and Ödsbach mines.

For the "Spatwerk Hesselbach" owned by Hans Grimmig, a ton-level shaft of 45 m length is given for 1948, from which a raw production of 4030.5 t of fluorspar and 252 t of heavy spat took place over three blind shafts and two tunnels in 1949. 12]

The same aisle system as for the Hesselbach mine also formed the basis for the Ödsbach mine. This is first mentioned in 1911 by Freiherr von Verschuer. In 1914, the conveyor tunnel had already reached a length of 175 m. In 1920, the main tunnel was 240 m long. In 1921, there was a workforce of 45 men. In 1931, the 64 m sole was laid over a shaft, and this shaft was equipped with an electric conveyor machine. In Bottenau and in the Durbachtal there were other smaller spat pits. In Ödsbach, a mouth hole closed with a door and ruins of loading facilities have been preserved in the Lendersbachtal next to Wäldenstraße.

Traffic The city can be reached via a railway line from Offenburg via Appenweier. The city belongs to the Ortenau tariff association, which serves local public transport (ÖPNV) through several bus lines. In addition, SWEG serves the city of Oberkirch (Renchtalbahn). The ring bus has been around since 2005. This travels the city and its districts with three lines.

The local bypass of the federal road 28 has relieved Oberkirch and Lautenbach of through traffic since August 2014. On a total length of six kilometers, the supra-local traffic on the important west-east connection between Strasbourg and Tübingen can pass the Renchtal without crossing Oberkirch and Lautenbach. The construction period was seven years. The heart of the 69 million euro project are the two tunnel structures. 14]

Media The Acher-Rench-Zeitung of the Mittelbadische Presse reports on the local events in Oberkirch as a daily newspaper.

The television production company Kimmig Entertainment has its headquarters in Oberkirch. The company has been producing large TV shows since 1981 (e.g. B. Do you understand fun?, The Helene Fischer Show) and award ceremonies (e.g. B. German Television Award, Crown of Folk Music).

Court and institutions Oberkirch is the seat of a district court, which belongs to the district court district of Offenburg and the Higher Regional Court district of Karlsruhe, as well as a notary's office. The Ortenaukreis maintains a branch office and a district hospital in Oberkirch with the Office for Forest Economics.

Education Oberkirch has a grammar school (Hans-Furler-Gymnasium), a secondary school (Realschule Oberkirch), a special school (Altstadtschule), a secondary school (August-Ganther-Hauptschule), two primary and secondary schools with Werkrealschule (in Nußbach and Ödsbach) as well as five primary schools (Johann-Wölff

The Ortenaukreis is the sponsor of the Renchtalschule for the language disabled.