Hüffelsheim

Hüffelsheim lies on a high plateau at an elevation of roughly 220 m above sea level above the River Nahe at the Naturpark Soonwald-Nahe. Bad Kreuznach, the district seat, lies only a few kilometres away to the east-northeast. The municipal area measures 657 ha, of which 30 ha is wooded and 20 ha is planted with vineyards.[2]

Clockwise from the north, Hüffelsheim's neighbours are the municipality of Rüdesheim an der Nahe, the town of Bad Kreuznach and the municipalities of Traisen, Norheim, Niederhausen, Schloßböckelheim and Weinsheim, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

Also belonging to Hüffelsheim are the outlying homesteads of Antoniushof, Marienhof and Wiesenhof.[3]

In the Second World War, the great bell from the Hüffelsheim church was seized by the authorities and met a more than usually unkind fate. It never did get melted down for wartime use. Instead, it was destroyed in a bombing at the storage yard – these places were called “bell graveyards” – in Hamburg. So, the Evangelical church community asked the bell office at the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland for a replacement. Instead, they were given a loaner in 1952. It was one of the two bells from the church at Powunden near Königsberg in East Prussia, although even by this time, as a result of shifts in borders in the wake of the war, this place was already known as Khrabrovo (and the nearby city as Kaliningrad). The formerly East Prussian bell still calls worshippers in Hüffelsheim to services even today.[6] See also Town partnerships below.

Hüffelsheim's population development since Napoleonic times is shown in the table below. The figures for the years from 1871 to 1987 are drawn from census data:[7]

The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation 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:[9]

Hüffelsheim's mayor is Jochen Fiscus, and his deputies are Uwe Weidmann and Ernst-Walter Thomas.[10][11]

The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per bend sinister gules in dexter chief a bunch of grapes below which three arming buckles flory in bend sinister, all Or and Or a boot sable.

In 1980, Hüffelsheim gave itself a new coat of arms. Hüffelsheim had had no arms of its own until that time. All that was known before these arms was an old court seal with Saint Lambert's image. In Prussian times, the Prussian Eagle graced the seal and the municipal stamps. The charges borne in the arms refer to Hüffelsheim's only local legend, the one that tells of the drink from the boot. The bunch of grapes also stands for the wine made in Hüffelsheim. The three buckles stand for the Family Boos von Waldeck, one of whose members figures in the legend. The boot, according to legend, was the drinking vessel used by a knight Boos to partake of wine – a fair amount, given that the legend says that he drank a whole bootful – and he thereby earned the right to acquire Hüffelsheim for himself and his family.[12]

Hüffelsheim fosters partnerships with the following places:

• Khrabrovo, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia since 1985

Hüffelsheim's partner community lies in what was once East Prussia. Before the Potsdam Agreement went into effect, it was Powunden in the Königsberg district (or from 1939 to 1945, the Samland district), before as a result of the said agreement it found itself in the Soviet Union. See also The bell from Powunden above.

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[13]

• Evangelical parish church, Weinsheimer Straße – formerly Saint Lambert’s, west tower and nave walls Late Gothic, conversions in 1611 and 1706; old graveyard wall; warriors’ memorial 1914-1918, sandstone pillar with relief, 1920s; three pastors’ gravestones, 19th century
• katholische Kirche, Beinde 10 – Gründerzeit brick building, marked 1887, Master Builder Johann Pfeiffer
• Brunnenstraße – well, 18th or 19th century
• Brunnenstraße – wayside chapel, 19th century
• Near Fröschengasse 8 – Renaissance wellhouse/well, marked 1595
• Fröschengasse 8 – timber-frame house, partly solid, about 1600
• Fröschengasse 13 – house, about 1600
• Hauptstraße 7 – Baroque timber-frame house, 18th century
• Near Hauptstraße 8 – well, possibly from the latter half of the 18th or earlier half of the 19th century
• Hauptstraße 13 – town hall; timber-frame building with gateway, 1582–1595, stairway tower marked 1595, former bakehouse, 1608
• Hauptstraße 14 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 18th century, essentially possibly older
• Hauptstraße 16 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 18th century
• Hauptstraße 18 – building with half-hip roof, about 1800
• Hauptstraße 44 – Baroque timber-frame house of an estate complex, partly solid, possibly from the 17th century, gateway arch with pedestrian gate, marked 1717
• Kirchenstraße 2 – building with half-hip roof, about 1800
• Jewish graveyard, in the southwest at the edge of the “Heisterberg” forest (monumental zone) – opened in the early 19th century, gravestones up to 1928 (see also below)

The Jewish graveyard in Hüffelsheim was laid out about 1820. It was also the burying ground for Jewish inhabitants of Norheim. Its area is 2 014 m². Still preserved there are 30 graves with gravestones, although many of these stones are unreadable. The oldest datable stone is from 1837 (Breinele, daughter of Jizchak from Altenbamberg), while the newest is from 1928 (Selma Strauss née Grünewald, died on 23 October 1928). Without knowing the local environs or the country paths in depth, the graveyard is very hard to find. The way to the graveyard leads from Hüffelsheim some 2 km towards Niederhausen, then to the right at the edge of the woods and another kilometre up the mountainside. As seen from the entrance, the graveyard abuts the municipal limit with Niederhausen to the right. Alternatively, visitors can park at the Wiesenhof (between Hüffelsheim and Schloßböckelheim) and walk south to the edge of the woods, then keep right in the woods for the 300 m or so up to the graveyard. However one goes there, though, one is greeted by a sign on the gate (which itself is hard to spot from the path through all the bushes), which says Betreten verboten – Schlüssel beim Bürgermeister (“entry forbidden – key with the mayor”).[14]

Hüffelsheim distinguishes itself with its very active club life, as well as its harmonious sense of community. The following clubs are active in Hüffelsheim:[15]

• CDU-Ortsverband Hüffelsheim — Christian Democratic Union of Germany local chapter
• Fastnachtsverein “Die Kuckuckseier” e.V. — Shrovetide Carnival (Fastnacht) club
• Förderverein “Freunde der Feuerwehr” — volunteer fire brigade promotional association
• Freiwillige Feuerwehr Hüffelsheim — volunteer fire brigade
• FWG Hüffelsheim e.V. — Free Voters local chapter
• Jugend- und Turnverein Hüffelsheim — youth and gymnastic club
• Männergesangverein Hüffelsheim — men's singing club
• Musikverein Hüffelsheim — music club
• SPD-Ortsverein Hüffelsheim — Social Democratic Party of Germany local chapter
• Sportgemeinde Hüffelsheim — sporting union
• Square Dance Club “Red-Rock-Hoppers”
• Sterbekasse Hüffelsheim 1881 — insurance club that pays for funerals
• Verein der Freunde und Förderer der SG 1946 Hüffelshein e.V. — sporting union promotional association
• Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein — transport and beautification club
• Volksbildungswerk Hüffelsheim — “people’s education”

Hüffelsheim's sense of community also shows itself in the great number of festivals staged by clubs and the wealth of cultural events on offer. There is, for example, each year on the weekend of the last Sunday in July, a traditional kermis (church consecration festival), put on by various clubs. Since 2005, this has been enriched with the addition of a parade. Every other year in late August, the Ortsgemeinde administration stages a village community festival around the historic town hall, with a great village market. Other cultural events may include, among other things, theatrical productions, concerts and Carnival events.[16] Other regular events include the following:

• SPD/CDU New Year's levée, second Sunday in January
• May Day celebration, 30 April, staged by the volunteer fire brigade
• Summer Festival, second weekend in June, staged by the youth and gymnastic club and the men's singing club
• Adventsblasen rund ums Rathaus, fourth day of Advent

Today roughly 1,400 people make their homes in Hüffelsheim. The village has the infrastructure that one would usually associate with such a small place. Basic needs are supplied by resident shops such as bakeries, inns and a drink market. There is a kindergarten for young children, and local public transport links may be described as good.[17]

Running through Hüffelsheim is Landesstraße 108, off which, right in the village centre, branches Kreisstraße 53, which leads a short way to Bundesstraße 41, which passes by the village just to the north. Serving nearby Norheim is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).

Hüffelsheim's kindergarten is made up of three groups, each with 25 children. There are eight kindergarten teachers on staff. All together, 75 places are available for children aged from 2 to 6. Thirty-four of those places are all-day places.[18]

• Norbert Becker (b. 1949 in Hüffelsheim), Biologist at the Heidelberg University and President of the World Mosquito Control Association
• Johannes Polke (b. 20 May 1931 in Ludwigsdorf, now Bystre, an outlying centre of Oleśnica, Poland; d. 7 August 2013 in Bad Kreuznach[19]), German Evangelical theologian, local historian and journalist; was pastor in Hüffelsheim from 1963 to 1996.
• Matthias Jung (b. 16 June 1978 in Bad Kreuznach), comedian
• Erich Sirrenberg (b. 1938 in Sulzburg), professor