Mandel, Germany

Geography

Location

Mandel lies in the Naheland (the region either side of the River Nahe), south of the Hunsrück, some 5 km west of Bad Kreuznach amidst vineyards, meadows and woodland. Mandel sits at an elevation of 200 m above sea level and its municipal area measures 6.33 km².^[3]

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Mandel's neighbours are the municipalities of Sankt Katharinen, Roxheim, Rüdesheim an der Nahe, Weinsheim, Sponheim and Braunweiler, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.

History

Mandel (then Mannendal) had its first documentary mention in 962 as an

1. Rosalie Dreifuss née Rauner (1895)
2. Moses Hirsch (1882)
3. Otto Hirsch (1877)
4. Simon Hirsch (1875)
5. Jenny Kaufmann née Hirsch (1880)
6. Bertha Löb née Hirsch (1862)
7. Rosa Löb née Hirsch (1857)
8. Emil Marx (1876)
9. Ernst Marx (1913)
10. Eugenie Marx née Marx (1881)
11. Karola Marx (1910)
12. Rosa Marx (1873)
13. Berta Rauner (1886)
14. Moritz Salomon (1876)
15. Luise Schloss née Bärmann (1883)
16. Salomon Schloss (1878)
17. Siegbert Schloss[5]

Religion

As at 31 October 2013, there are 896 full-time residents in Mandel, and of those, 500 are

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by personalized proportional representation at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairwoman. The 12 seats are shared between two voters' groups.^[7]

Mayor

Mandel's mayor is Peter Schulz.^[1]

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: Das Wappen zeigt ein Schachbrett mit blau-gelben Feldern, oben rechts ein goldenes Freifeld, darin ein Rabe auf zwei grünen Mandeln.

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Chequy azure and Or a quarter of the second in which a raven standing on two almonds, all proper.

At the wine festival in Mandel, the village was decked out with the municipal flag, giving rise to the question of what the coat of arms meant. The arms, approved by the now defunct Regierungsbezirk administration in 1959, is derived from the village's former court seal. This court seal in turn had its roots in the arms once borne by the former court lords of Mandel, the Lords of Koppenstein. Koppe is apparently a word that means "raven", which led the Koppensteins to adopt the raven as their heraldic device. In their arms, the raven charge stood on two mountaintops, but in Mandel's former court seal, these were changed to two almonds, almost certainly to serve as a canting charge, for Mandel also happens to be the German word for "almond". Since the Koppensteins had sprung from an illegitimate connection with the Counts of Sponheim, they also bore the Sponheims' blue and gold "chequy" pattern in their arms. The Koppensteins' arms are also part of those borne by the Verbandsgemeinde of Rüdesheim. This stems from the old Mairie ("Mayoralty") of Mandel, a body that existed under Revolutionary and Napoleonic French rule, later the Bürgermeisterei (also "Mayoralty") of Mandel under Prussian rule, which, as a union of Mandel and Hüffelsheim formed the basis of what later became the Verbandsgemeinde.^[8]

Panorama of Mandel

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:^[9]

• Evangelical church, Schloßstraße 16 – Late Classicist aisleless church, 1829/1830, District Building Inspector Ludwig Behr, Bad Kreuznach
• Saint Anthony's Catholic Church (Kirche St. Antonius), Kreuznacher Straße 39 – Romanesquified brick building, 1897, architect Lambert von Fisenne, after fire in 1948 reconstruction
• Alte Rathausstraße 4 – timber-frame house, plastered, marked 1594
• Alte Rathausstraße 17 – former syrup factory; estate complex, 19th century; three-floor building with half-hip roof, marked 1815, essentially possibly older
• Alte Rathausstraße 25 – Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, about 1700
• Schloßstraße 5 – estate complex; Baroque building with half-hip roof, timber framing plastered, mid-18th century; cast-iron pump well
• Schloßstraße 14 – Evangelical rectory; Early Classicist building with hip roof, 1789–1791, Building Inspector Schweitzer, Kirchheimbolanden; Baroque barn
• Schloßstraße 18 – former castle (Schloss) of the Knights of Koppenstein; Renaissance building with stairway tower, marked 1624, ringwall remnants with shell towers; armorial stone 1722
• Sponheimer Straße 1 – estate complex; Baroque building with half-hip roof, timber-frame, partly solid, marked 1746
• Sponheimer Straße 7 – estate complex; Baroque timber-frame house, partly solid, 18th century, timber-frame barn, partly solid, gateway complex marked 1775
• Sponheimer Straße 20, 22 – Catholic and Evangelical schoolhouse; cube-shaped buildings with tent roofs, mid-19th century
• At Zur alten Trift 1 – inscription tablet, wooden, marked 1730
• Jewish Graveyard (monumental zone)^[10] – two-part complex with some 40 gravestones from the 19th and early 20th centuries as well as three gravestones from about 1930
• signpost, on Kreisstraße 50 – sandstone obelisk, 19th century
• Vineyard house, Schlossberg – Gründerzeit brick building, belvedere, possibly from the late 19th century

• 
  Alte Rathausstraße 17 – former syrup factory
• 
  Schloßstraße 14 und 16 – Evangelical rectory and church
• 
  Schloßstraße 18 – former castle of the Knights of Koppenstein
• 
  Schloßstraße 18 – armorial stone
• 
  Sponheimer Straße 1 – estate complex

More about buildings

Synagogue

At first there was a Jewish prayer room in Mandel at one of the Jewish houses. In the mid-19th century, a synagogue was built. It was made out of red sandstone and had several round-arch windows and corner lesenes. On Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), the synagogue's interior was heavily damaged by Brownshirt thugs, leaving little more than a shell of a building. In 1959/1960, what was left of the building was torn down. In 1932, the synagogue stood at Hauptstraße 62.^[11]

Jewish graveyard

The Jewish graveyard (Judenkirchhof) in Mandel was laid out before 1821. There are an older graveyard with 43 graves recognizable as such and – lying apart from this some 10 m away – a newer graveyard with an area of only 25 m² and three graves. The older part stands under monumental protection. The last burial at the newer part took place in 1933 (Julius Hirsch, d. 18 November 1933). The graveyard's area is 1 133 m². It lies on a hill north of the village in the cadastral area known as "Auf dem Judenkirchhof", field 5. From here there is a panoramic view of the village of Mandel.^[12]

Clubs

The following clubs are active in Mandel:^[13]

• Bauern- und Winzerverband — farmers' and winegrowers' association
• Kirchliches Blasorchester — church wind orchestra
• Landfrauenverein — countrywomen's club
• MGV Edelweiß 1931
  e.V.
  — men's singing club
• Spielplatzteam — "playground team"
• TuS Mandel 1901 e.V. —
  sport club
• VdK Ortsverein — social advocacy group local chapter

Economy and infrastructure

Wineries

Mandel's website lists five wineries (Weingüter) in the village:^[14]

• Weingut Manfred & Gernot Bamberger
• Weingut Arnold Baumberger
• Weingut Römerhof Ralf Baumberger
• Weingut Heinrich Brück
• Weingut Sonnenhof Michael Gräff

Transport

Running through Mandel is

and Regionalbahn trains. The travel time to Mainz lies between 25 and 40 minutes, with about 22 minutes for the direct buses to Bad Kreuznach and the connection time to be added, and to Saarbrücken between 1 hour and 40 minutes and 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Public institutions

Since 1986, Mandel has had the Schlossberghalle, a multipurpose hall.[15]

Education

Beside the Schlossberghalle stands the municipal kindergarten. It opened in April 1971, has room for two groups and currently caters to 40 children.^[16]

Further reading

• Bodo Lipps: Entdeckungsreisen im Landkreis Bad Kreuznach. Kreisverwaltung Bad Kreuznach, Bad Kreuznach 1991, S. 154.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

• Julius Hirsch (b. 30 October 1882; d. 14 August 1961 in New York)

Considered one of the foremost representatives of modern business science, Hirsch was awarded a Dr. phil. in 1909 after studies in national economics at the

Jews were no longer welcome under the new Nazi régime, and Hirsch emigrated by way of the Netherlands to Denmark, working there until 1940 as a professor at the Copenhagen Business School. Hitler's forces then marched into Denmark and Hirsch was arrested. In 1941 he emigrated to the United States, teaching there at the New School for Social Research in New York until his death. He was well known as an adviser in politicoeconomic matters not only to private enterprise but even to the US government.^[17]

• Wolfgang Knauss (b. 12 December 1933)

Engineering scientist, professor at the California Institute of Technology

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Bad Kreuznach, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 2 August 2021.
2. Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz
   . 2023.
3. ^ "Elevation and area". Archived from the original on 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
4. ^ History Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
5. ^ Jewish history
6. ^ Religion
7. ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
8. ^ Description and explanation of Mandel's arms Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
9. ^ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Bad Kreuznach district
10. ^ Landkreis Bad Kreuznach: Inhaltsverzeichnis des Kreisrechtes, retrieved 31 October 2011.
11. ^ Synagogue
12. ^ Jewish graveyard
13. ^ Clubs Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
14. ^ Wineries Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
15. ^ "Schlossberghalle". Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
16. ^ Education Archived 2013-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
17. ^ Julius Hirsch

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mandel (municipality).

• Municipality's official webpage (in German)