Kindenheim

Kindenheim 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

The municipality lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and is a winegrowing centre in the Palatinate near the north end of the German Wine Route. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land, whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.

History

In 817, Kindenheim had its first documentary mention as Cunerono. Later it was called Cunnenheim or Kinnenheim. Until 1969 it belonged to the now abolished Frankenthal district, and in 1972 it was assigned to the newly formed Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land

Religion

In 2007, 59.8% of the inhabitants were Evangelical and 12.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none^[2].

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:

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In Silber auf grünem Grund zwei unbekleidete naturfarbene Kinder, von denen das rechte in der Rechten geschultert eine goldene Hacke, das linke in der Linken ein goldenes Rebmesser (Sesel) hält, während beide mit der anderen Hand zwischen sich eine aufrecht stehende grüne Traube halten.

The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Argent on a mount vert two naked children proper crined Or, the one in dexter holding in his dexter hand a two-pronged hoe resting on his shoulder of the third, the one in sinister holding in his sinister hand a billhook of the third, both supporting with their free hands a bunch of grapes palewise reversed with leaves of the second.

The arms were approved by the Mainz Ministry of the Interior in 1967 and go back to a court seal from 1544, albeit in modified form. The two children are canting for the municipality’s name, Kind being the German word for “child” and Kinder the word for “children”^[3].

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The Kreutzenberger winery can be considered a monument in building form. The Bauhaus architect Otto Prott built the house in the economically hardship-stricken 1920s in the style of Modernity. In 2005, the house was carefully expanded in the style of those times with the addition of a winepress house with a wine tasting parlour on the rooftop terrace. The architect Heribert Hamann earned the Architekturpreis Wein for this.

Regular events

• The kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerwe) is held every year on the first weekend in September.
• The shooting club holds its local championships each year in the sport and leisure hall.
• The TV Kindenheim (gymnastic club) yearly stages its sport week at the clubhouse and on the sporting grounds.

References

External links

• Municipality’s official webpage (German)
• Kindenheim in the collective municipality’s Web pages (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.