Heigenbrücken

Heigenbrücken is a municipality in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany and seat of the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Administrative Community) of Heigenbrücken.

Geography

Location

Heigenbrücken lies in the Bavarian Lower Main (Bayerischer Untermain) in the middle of the Spessart (range).

Constituent communities

Jakobsthal

Heigenbrücken’s one outlying Ortsteil is Jakobsthal, lying about 5 km away from the main centre.

History

In 1477, Heigenbrücken had its first documentary mention as Heygerbruch. Along with the Archbishopric of Mainz, Heigenbrücken passed at Secularization to the newly formed Principality of Aschaffenburg, with which it passed in 1814 (by this time it had become a department of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt) to Bavaria. In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the current community came into being with the Gemeindeedikt (“Municipal Edict”) of 1818.

Heigenbrücken lies on an old road leading through the Spessart between Würzburg and Aschaffenburg. The placename ending —brücken (“bridges”) likely refers to that.

Religion

Catholic: 1,961
Evangelical: 255
other: 376

(as at 1 January 2005)

Population development

Within the municipal area lived 2,330 inhabitants in 1970, 2,332 in 1987 and 2,499 in 2000.

Politics

Community council

The council is made up of 15 council members, counting the mayor.

	CSU	SPD	Freie Wähler Heigenbrücken-Jakobsthal	Total
2008	6	6	3	15 seats

(as at municipal election held on 2 March 2008)

Mayors

The mayor is Werner Englert (SPD). In 2002 he succeeded Hans Wüst (SPD).

Coat of arms

The community has borne arms since June 1977.

The community’s arms might be described thus: Argent a gurgle glass gules palewise between two oak leaves vert palewise, in base a mound of the third surmounted by a tunnel portal masoned of the first with a tunnel sable.

The Schwarzkopftunnel, which at the building of the Ludwig-Westbahn (railway) was said to be a special technical achievement, and which is the community’s landmark, was included as a charge in the arms. The two oak leaves refer to the community’s geographical location in the Spessart, which has a wealth of oak trees. The “gurgle glass” (for want of a better translation – the German blazon calls for a Kutterolf, also known in German as an Angster or a Gluckerflasche) is a bottle or drinking vessel of a kind known since 3rd-century Cologne, and which was in use up until the 19th century; the charge stands for the once important glass industry in the community. Referring to the community’s former allegiance to the Electorate of Mainz are the tinctures argent and gules (silver and red).

Economy and infrastructure

The municipal tax revenue in 1999 amounted to €935,000.

Agriculture and forestry

According to official statistics, there were 20 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls working in agriculture and forestry in 1998. In producing businesses this was 59, and in trade and transport 11. In other areas, 97 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls are employed, and 782 such workers work from home. There is one processing business. Three businesses are in construction, and furthermore, in 1999, there were no agricultural operations.

The firm Wenzel Präzision runs a hotel with a gourmet restaurant, the “Villa Marburg” at the intersection of the streets Lindenallee and Werner-Wenzel-Straße.

Transport

Portal of the Schwarzkopftunnel in Heigenbrücken

Heigenbrücken lies on the Aschaffenburg-Würzburg long-distance railway line of the Main-Spessart-Bahn. Heigenbrücken railway station lies just east of the peak tunnel on this line, the Schwarzkopftunnel, which also appears in the community’s arms.

From a railway signalling point of view, the 925 m-long Schwarzkopftunnel lies within Heigenbrücken railway station. This peculiarity stems from a pushing operation, still undertaken today, between Laufach and Heigenbrücken. Heavy goods trains come to a stop at Laufach station, where a helper locomotive joins the train’s tail end to help the train’s main locomotive get the train up the Spessart Ramp, which reaches a steepness of 1:47 (some 21‰). The tunnel itself is built with no gradients to speak of. Just before the tunnel portal, the helper locomotive leaves the goods train, which has now covered the steepest gradient and continues on its way southeastwards. So that the helper locomotive does not need to go through the tunnel and into the passenger transport complex (which would lead to disruption of normal operations), the tracks at the Aschaffenburg (that is to say, far) end of the tunnel are so arranged as to allow it to cross over to the other track and travel back to Laufach. The points needed for this also belong to the Heigenbrücken signal box, meaning that Heigenbrücken station stretches right through the tunnel.

Currently (as of 2012) being planned is a replacement of this tunnel by a new arrangement owing to its great age. Also in the works is a plan to realign the line from Laufach to Heigenbrücken somewhat so that the slope can be reduced. An end to the pushing operation is therefore to be foreseen sometime in the next few years. Four new tunnels would replace the Schwarzkopftunnel. The names for these new tunnels are Falkenbergtunnel (approximately 2600 m, making it the longest tunnel in the group), Hirschbergtunnel, Metzbergtunnel and Haintunnel. Trains would be allowed to double their speed through the new tunnels from the current 70 km/h (43 MPH) to 140 km/h (87 MPH). The new alignment will also necessitate the construction of a new railway stop/station for Heigenbrücken, replacing the current station. Construction is planned to begin in 2011 and should be completed by 2017 at a cost of approximately 321 million Euros.

There is also limited bus service to neighboring communities, connecting those communities to the Heigenbrücken bahnhof (railway station).

Education

The following institutions are to be found in Heigenbrücken (as at 1999):

Kindergartens: 100 kindergarten places with 79 children.
Elementary school: 1 with 17 teachers and 312 pupils.

Museum

A privately run small motorcycle museum (Moppedscheune) is to be found in the rooms at Dorfstraße 14. A further exhibition room has been open diagonally across the street since early 2008. On show are motorcycles and accessories from the 1930s to the 1970s.

References

↑ "Fortschreibung des Bevölkerungsstandes". Bayerisches Landesamt für Statistik und Datenverarbeitung (in German). 31 December 2012.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heigenbrücken.

Community’s official webpage (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.

v t e Towns and municipalities in Aschaffenburg

Alzenau Bessenbach Blankenbach Dammbach Geiselbach Glattbach Goldbach Großostheim Haibach Heigenbrücken Heimbuchenthal Heinrichsthal Hösbach Johannesberg Kahl am Main Karlstein am Main Kleinkahl Kleinostheim Krombach Laufach Mainaschaff Mespelbrunn Mömbris Rothenbuch Sailauf Schöllkrippen Sommerkahl Stockstadt am Main Waldaschaff Weibersbrunn Westerngrund Wiesen

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