Adelsheim

Adelsheim lies at the mouth of the river Kirnau which comes from the west, emptying into the river Seckach coming from the north. The combined stream was used in building the town fortifications. Farther downstream, the Seckach flows by Möckmühl into the Jagst, thence into the Neckar, and thence into the Rhine.

The Adelsheim area is part of the greater geographical region known as the Bauland, a mountain range stretching from the Odenwald in the northwest to the Jagst valley in the south as well as to the Tauber valley in the east. Part of the municipality's area lies within the Neckartal-Odenwald Nature Park.

Sennfeld (Baden)

Schloss Sennfeld

Sennfeld lies about 3 km southwest along the Seckach valley and has about 1,250 inhabitants. The place was first mentioned in a document in 1110. In 1615, Margaretha von Carben, who was Götz von Berlichingen's granddaughter, endowed the Evangelical parish church. The Sennfeld Schloss (stately home), formerly owned by kin of the Barons of Berlichingen, was built in 1713 in a countrified Baroque style.

In 1374, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor raised Adelsheim to town. The landlords were the Imperial Knights (Reichsritter) of Adelsheim. The Reichsritters von Adelsheim were eventually elevated to the rank of Freiherr (Barons of the Holy Roman Empire).

Adelsheim was already home to some Jews in the Middle Ages. In 1338, Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor had allowed the brothers Poppo and Berlinger von Adelsheim to "keep" four Jewish families in their lands. Also in 1690, there were four Jewish families resident in Adelsheim. The establishment of an actual community can be traced back to the seventeenth century. The highest number of Jewish inhabitants was reached in 1885 when the count was 70. Under an ordinance from 1690, the Jewish community yearly had to pay the Barons of Adelsheim four gulden for "school", that is to say, to be allowed to hold their religious services. The prayer room used at that time, according to oral tradition, was set up on the second floor of the house built by Melchior Keller in 1418 in the Torgasse ("Gate Lane"). This house was dismantled in 1952. Later, there was a prayer room in a likewise no longer standing building in the yard of the Oberschloss.

From the middle of the nineteenth century until 1889, a synagogue stood at Turmgasse 27.

A ritual bath and a Jewish school were housed at the old synagogue in the nineteenth century at Turmgasse 27, and as of 1889 at the new synagogue (Untere Austraße 1). When the new synagogue was being torn down in 1977, the ritual bath was rediscovered. Burials were performed in Buchen-Bödigheim and after 1884 in Sennfeld.

After the deportations during the Third Reich, at least ten of the 35 Jews living in town in 1933 lost their lives.

As a result of the Reformation, the people became Lutheran. Until 2000, Adelsheim was the seat of a deaconate of the Baden State Church, part of the Evangelical Church in Germany. In the course of deaconate reform, the deaconate moved to Hirschlanden in Rosenberg.

Catholics are a minority. After 1945 a rough balance between the two faiths was reached through the arrival of refugees from the east. After 1960, a further Catholic church was established, St. Mary's.

• The forerunner to the folk festival (Volksfest) was the Homeland Days (Heimattage) in 1948. The occasion for Adelsheim's second folk festival in 1949 was the celebration of the dedication of the new Kirnau Bridge, which replaced one destroyed in 1945.
• On 11 November 1948, the Adelsheim District Agricultural School (Kreislandwirtschaftschule Adelsheim) opened its doors under Dr. Leopold Wiswesser's leadership. In the years that were to come, Adelsheim's history was shaped by its schools: the Volksschule moved onto the Eckenberg in 1958, and farther into the forest a few years later, the Gymnasium with its boarding school was established.

Rathaus

Mayors (Bürgermeister)

• Wolfram Walafried Bernhardt
• Klaus Gramlich
• Walter Muth
• Peter Hütt
• Günter Bauer
• Friedrich Gerner

Municipal council (after 2004 municipal election):

• CDU 8 seats
• SPD 6 seats
• FWV (citizens' coalition) 3 seats
• BLA 3 seats

• Gothic (old) Jakobskirche (church), built 1489 with many tombs on the inner and outer walls; great plague grave.
• Ober- and Unterschloss (stately homes)
• Town hall with fine half-timbering, 1619, completed and preserved by new building in contemporary style (about 1990).
• Evangelical town church, late Baroque.
• reconstructed town tower.
• Town garden with waterfall lit at night.
• Former synagogue in Sennfeld, built 1836.
• Old mill
• Bauländer Heimatmuseum Adelsheim – open May–September Sundays 14-16 h or by telephoning to make arrangements.
• For railway enthusiasts: Ostbahnhof (station) with outlying buildings, Nordbahnhof in late Gothic style with two waiting rooms.
• "Lookout Bench" at Alt-Stadtrat Schmitt (especially for lovers).
• Grand-Ducal Local Court with adjoining prison.
• Jugendhaus Adelsheim, inaugurated about 1969, earlier housed on a nineteenth-century estate, now in a renovated railway station building.
• Youth prison (block or box design from the early 1970s with distinctive "town wall"), built in a side valley off the Seckach valley.
• Kirnau valley with remains of the Grand-Ducal irrigation works for ambitious agricultural projects.
• Transmission tower at 49° 24' 38" N, 9° 23' 29" E (freestanding steel lattice construction, bearing until 1993 an SWR MW transmission antenna in the form of a long-wire antenna)

• Adelsheim webseite
• Adelsheim-Kunstsommer: the lights at the castle

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