Meißenheim

Meisenheim
Coat of arms
Meisenheim
Location of Meisenheim within Bad Kreuznach district
Coordinates: 49°43′N 07°40′E / 49.717°N 7.667°E / 49.717; 7.667Coordinates: 49°43′N 07°40′E / 49.717°N 7.667°E / 49.717; 7.667
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Bad Kreuznach
Municipal assoc.	Meisenheim
Government
• Mayor	Gerhard Heil
Area
• Total	10.34 km2 (3.99 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	2,927
• Density	280/km2 (730/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	55590
Dialling codes	06753
Vehicle registration	KH
Website	www.meisenheim.de

Meisenheim is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, and is also its seat. Meisenheim is a state-recognized recreational resort (Erholungsort) and it is set out as a middle centre in state planning.

Meisenheim lies in the valley of the River Glan at the northern edge of the North Palatine Uplands. The municipal area measures 1 324 ha.

Clockwise from the north, Meisenheim’s neighbours are Raumbach, Rehborn, Callbach, Reiffelbach, Odenbach, Breitenheim and Desloch, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district, except for Odenbach, which lies in the neighbouring Kusel district.

Also belonging to Meisenheim are the outlying homesteads of Hof Wieseck, Keddarterhof and Röther Hof.

Meisenheim is believed to have arisen in the 7th century AD, and its name is often derived from the town’s hypothetical founder “Meiso” (thus making the meaning “Meiso’s Home”). In 1154, Meisenheim had its first documentary mention. Sometimes cited as such, however, is a document dated 14 June 891 from the West Frankish king Odo (for example by K. Heintz in Die Schlosskirche zu Meisenheim a. Gl. u. ihre Denkmäler in Mitteilungen d. Histor. Vereins d. Pfalz 24 (1900) pp. 164–279, within which p. 164, and by W. Dotzauer in Geschichte des Nahe-Hunsrück-Raumes (2001), pp. 69 & 72), but this document is falsified (cf. H. Wibel: Die Urkundenfälschungen Georg Friedrich Schotts, in Neues Archiv d. Ges. f. Ältere Dt. Gesch.kunde Bd. 29 (1904), pp. 653–765, within which p. 688 & pp. 753– 757). In the 12th century, Meisenheim was raised to the main seat of the Counts of Veldenz and in 1315 it was granted town rights by King Ludwig IV. On what is now known as Schlossplatz (“Palace Square”), the Counts of Veldenz built a castle, bearing witness to which today are only two buildings that were later built, the “Schloss Magdalenenbau” (nowadays called the Herzog-Wolfgang-Haus or “Duke Wolfgang House”) and above all the Schlosskirche (“Palace Church”), building work on which began in 1479. Both buildings were built only after the Counts of Veldenz had died out in 1444 and the county had been inherited by the Dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. This noble house, too, at first kept their seat at Meisenheim, but soon moved it to Zweibrücken. From 1538 to 1571, Duke Wolfgang of Zweibrücken maintained in Meisenheim a mint, with one interruption, although this was then moved to Bergzabern. The Doppeltaler (double Thaler), Taler (Thaler) and Halbtaler (half Thaler) coins minted in the time when the mint was in Meisenheim remain among the highest-quality mintings from Palatinate-Zweibrücken. In 1799, Duke of Zweibrücken Maximilian IV inherited besides the land that he already held the long united lands of the Electorate of Bavaria and Electorate of the Palatinate. While these three countries were now de jure in personal union, this did not shift the power structures on the ground at all, for Palatinate-Zweibrücken had already been occupied by French Revolutionary troops. Because of the terms of the Congress of Vienna (1815), the part of Palatinate-Zweibrücken lying north of the Glan, and thus Meisenheim too, were assigned not to the Kingdom of Bavaria but rather to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg. From 1816 onwards, Meisenheim was the administrative seat of the Oberamt of Meisenheim and an Oberschultheißerei. In 1866, the Grand Duchy of Hesse inherited the whole territory, but after losing a war later that same year, the grand duchy had to cede Hesse-Homburg to the Kingdom of Prussia. The town of Meisenheim itself was not wholly reunited until after the Second World War when state of Rhineland-Palatinate was founded. Until then, the lands just across the Glan had been Bavarian (either as foreign territory or as another province within Imperial, Weimar or Nazi Germany) since the Congress of Vienna.