Worms, Germany
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Worms | |
---|---|
Nibelungen Bridge over the Rhine in Worms Medieval city center Christoffelturm | |
Location of Worms within Rheinland-Pfalz Urban district | |
Government | |
• Lord mayor (2018–26) | Adolf Kessel[1] (CDU) |
Area | |
• Total | 108.73 km2 (41.98 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 167 m (548 ft) |
Lowest elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 84,646 |
• Density | 780/km2 (2,000/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 67547–67551 |
Dialling codes | 06241, 06242, 06246, 06247 |
Vehicle registration | WO |
Website | www |
Official name | ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | (ii)(iii)(iv) |
Designated | 2021 |
Reference no. | [1] |
Worms (German pronunciation: [vɔʁms] ⓘ) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about 60 km (40 mi) south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had about 84,646 inhabitants as of 2022[update].[3]
A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. It was the capital of the Kingdom of the Burgundians in the early fifth century, hence is the scene of the medieval legends referring to this period, notably the first part of the Nibelungenlied.
Worms has been a Roman Catholic
Today, the city is an industrial centre and is famed as the origin of Liebfraumilch wine.[5] Its other industries include chemicals, metal goods, and fodder.
Name
Worms' name is of
According to tradition, the name derives from when the legendary hero Siegfried slew a lindworm (dragon) near the city, as recounted in the Nibelungenlied.[6]
Geography
Worms is located on the west bank of the River Rhine between the cities of Ludwigshafen and Mainz. On the northern edge of the city, the Pfrimm flows into the Rhine, and on the southern edge, the Eisbach flows into the Rhine.
Boroughs
Worms has 13 boroughs (or "quarters") around the city centre. They are:
Name | Population | Direction and distance from city centre |
---|---|---|
Abenheim | 2,744 | Northwest 10 km (6.2 mi) |
Heppenheim | 2,073 | Southwest 9 km (5.6 mi) |
Herrnsheim | 6,368 | North 5 km (3.1 mi) |
Hochheim | 3,823 | Northwest |
Horchheim | 4,770 | Southwest 4.5 km (2.8 mi) |
Ibersheim | 692 | North 13 km (8.1 mi) |
Leiselheim | 1,983 | West 4 km (2.5 mi) |
Neuhausen | 10,633 | North |
Pfeddersheim | 7,414 | West 7 km (4.3 mi) |
Pfiffligheim | 3,668 | West |
Rheindürkheim | 3,021 | North 8 km (5.0 mi) |
Weinsheim | 2,800 | Southwest 4 km (2.5 mi) |
Wiesoppenheim | 1,796 | Southwest 5.5 km (3.4 mi) |
Climate
The climate in the Rhine Valley is cool in winter and very warm in summer. Rainfall is below average for the surrounding areas. Winter snow accumulation is low and often melts quickly.
History
Antiquity
Worms was in ancient times a Celtic city named Borbetomagus, perhaps meaning "water meadow".[7] Later it was conquered by the Germanic Vangiones. In 14 BC, Romans under the command of Drusus captured and fortified the city, and from that time onwards, a small troop of infantry and cavalry was garrisoned there. The Romans renamed the city as Augusta Vangionum, after the then-emperor and the local tribe. The name does not seem to have taken hold, however, and from Borbetomagus developed the German Worms and Latin Wormatia; as late as the modern period, the city name was written as Wormbs.[8] The garrison grew into a small town with a regular Roman street plan, a forum, and temples for the main gods Jupiter, Juno, Minerva (whose temple was the site of the later cathedral), and Mars.
Roman inscriptions, altars, and
During the disorders of 411–413 AD, Roman usurper
Middle Ages
The
Worms prospered in the High Middle Ages. Having received far-reaching privileges from King
The Free Imperial City of Worms, known in medieval Hebrew by the name Varmayza or Vermaysa (ורמיזא, ורמישא), was a centre of medieval
Modern era
In 1689 during the
After the Battle of the Bulge in early 1945, Allied armies advanced into the Rhineland in preparation for a massive assault into the heart of the Reich. Worms was a German strongpoint on the west bank of the Rhine, and the forces there resisted the Allied advance tenaciously. Worms was, thus, heavily bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces in two attacks on February 21 and March 18, 1945, respectively. A postwar survey estimated that 39% of the town's developed area was destroyed. The RAF attack on Feb. 21 was aimed at the main railway station on the edge of the inner city, and at chemical plants southwest of the inner city, but also destroyed large areas of the city centre. Carried out by 334 bombers, the attack in a few minutes rained 1,100 tons of bombs on the inner city, and Worms Cathedral was among the buildings set on fire. The Americans did not enter the city until the Rhine crossings began after the seizure of the Remagen Bridge.
In the attacks, 239 inhabitants were killed in the first and 141 in the second; 35,000 (60% of the population of 58,000) were made homeless. In all, 6,490 buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. After the war, the inner city was rebuilt, mostly in modern style. Around a third of Worms´s buildings is from before 1950.[10] Postwar Worms became part of the new state of Rhineland-Palatinate; the borough Rosengarten, on the east bank of the Rhine, was lost to Hesse.
Worms today fiercely vies with the cities Trier and Cologne for the title of "Oldest City in Germany". A multimedia Nibelungenmuseum was opened in 2001, and a yearly festival in front of the Dom, the Worms Cathedral, attempts to recapture the atmosphere of the pre-Christian period.
In 2010, the Worms synagogue was firebombed. Eight corners of the building were set ablaze, and a
Main sights
- The renovated (1886–1935)[12] Romanesque Cathedral, dedicated to St Peter (12th-13th century)
- Protestantchurch (17th century)
- St Paul's Church (Pauluskirche) (13th century)
- St Andrew's Collegiate Church (Andreaskirche) (13th century)
- St Martin's Church (Martinskirche) (13th century)
- Liebfrauenkirche (15th century)
- Luther Monument (Lutherdenkmal) (1868) (designed by Ernst Rietschel)
- ShUM city of Worms, UNESCO World Heritage Site[13]
- Rashi Synagogue and Mikvah
- Jewish Museum in the Rashi-House
- Jewish Cemetery
- Nibelungen Museum, celebrating the Middle High German epic poem Das Nibelungenlied (The Song of the Nibelungs)
- Magnuskirche, the city's smallest church, which possibly originates from the eighth century
Twin towns – sister cities
Notable people
- Samuel Adler (1809–1891), German-American Reform rabbi
- Curtis Bernhardt (1899–1981), film director
- Rolf Wilhelm Brednich (born 1935), folklorist
- John Derst (1838–1928), baker
- Marvin Dienst (born 1997), German racing driver
- Hans Diller (1905–1977), classical scholar specializing in Ancient Greek medicine
- Ferdinand Eberstadt (1808–1888), textile merchant and mayor of Worms
- Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918), anatomist and neurologist
- Saint Erentrude, or Erentraud (c. 650–710), virgin saint of the Roman Catholic Church
- Hans Folz (1435/1440–1513), notable medieval author
- Friedrich Gernsheim (1839–1916), composer, conductor and pianist
- Florian Gerster (born 1949), politician (SPD), former chairman of the Federal Employment Agency
- Petra Gerster (born 1955), television journalist (ZDF)
- Johann Nikolaus Götz (1721–1781), poet
- Siegfried Guggenheim (1873–1961), lawyer, notary and art collector
- Isaac ben Eliezer, 15th-century rabbi
- Isaac ben Eliezer Halevi (died 1070), French rabbi
- Cologneand Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empıre
- Timo Hildebrand (born 1979), footballer
- Richard Hildebrandt (1897–1951), politician in Nazi Germany and member of the Reichstag executed for war crimes
- Hans Hinkel (1901–1960), journalist and Nazi cultural functionary
- Hanya Holm (1893–1992), choreographer, dancer, educator and one of the founders of American Modern Dance
- Vladimir Kagan (1927–2016), furniture designer
- philanthropist
- Meir of Rothenburg (1215–1293), rabbi and poet
- Conrad Meit (or Conrat Meit) (1480s–1550/1551), Renaissance sculptor, mostly in the Low Countries
- Minna of Worms (died 1096), influential Jewish citizen, victim of the Worms massacre (1096)
- Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040–1105), rabbi, studied in the Worms Yeshiva in 1065–1070
- Juspa Schammes (1604–1678), caretaker of the Worms Synagogue and writer
- Alica Schmidt (born 1998), track and field athlete, fitness coach
- Hugo Sinzheimer (1875–1945), legal scholar, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1919
- Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965), organic chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1953
- Rudi Stephan (1887–1915), composer
- Monika Stolz (born 1951), politician (CDU), Member of Landtag Baden-Württemberg since 2001
- RMS Titanic
- Emil Stumpp (1886–1941), cartoonist, died in jail after doing an unflattering portrait of Adolf Hitler
- Rod Temperton (1949–2016), English songwriter, record producer and musician
- Markus Weinmann (born 1974), agricultural scientist in the area of plant physiology
See also
References
- ^ Wahl der Oberbürgermeister der kreisfreien Städte, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 30 July 2021.
- Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 2023.
- ^ Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz, Bevölkerungsstand 2022, Kreise, Gemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden.
- ^ "ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
- ^ Eric Pfanner (October 12, 2012). "After the Debacle Called Liebfraumilch". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
- ^ Vinycomb, John (1906). Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art. London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd. p. 80.
- ^ "Etymologie". Etymologie.info.
damit der Bedeutung von 'Borbetomagus' = dt. 'Wasserwiese'
- ^ see Apologia Der Stadt Wormbs Contra Bistum Wormbs, 1694.
- ^ Teems, David. "Tyndale: The man who gave God an English voice." Nashville: Thomas Nelson (2012). Chapter 4.
- ^ https://zensus2011.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Publikationen/Aufsaetze_Archiv/2015_12_NI_GWZ_endgueltig.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
- ^ "Worms synagogue fire-bombed". Haaretz. 17 May 2010.
- ^ "Dom St. Peter Worms". pg-dom-st-peter-worms.bistummainz.de. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
- ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
- ^ "Städtepartnerschaften". worms.de (in German). Worms. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
Further reading
- Roemer, Nils H. German City, Jewish Memory: The Story of Worms (Brandeis University Press, 2010)
- "Rede: UNESCO-Welterbe-Urkunde für die SchUM-Stätten". Der Bundespräsident(in German). Retrieved 1 February 2023.
External links
- The Official website Archived 2005-10-30 at the Wayback Machine of the city of Worms (in English)
- Explore the ShUM Sites of Speyer, Worms and Mainz in the UNESCO collection on Google Arts and Culture
- Nibelungenmuseum website (in English)
- wormser-dom.de, website of the Worms Cathedral with pictures (in German) (click on the "Bilder" link in the left panel)
- Wormatia, Worms football club (in German)