Norheim
Norheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rüdesheim, whose seat is in the like-named town. Norheim is a state-recognized tourism community. and a winegrowing village.
Geography
Location
Norheim lies in the Nahe valley near the Rheingrafenstein with its castle, and near the Rotenfels. Norheim's elevation is 135 m above sea level and its municipal area measures 3.15 km2.Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, Norheim's neighbours are the municipality of Traisen, the town of Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg and the municipalities of Niederhausen and Hüffelsheim, all of which likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district.Constituent communities
Also belonging to Norheim are the outlying homesteads of Brunnenhof, Buchenländerhof, Wasserkraftwerk, Kronenhof and Haus am Tunnel.Climate
Norheim is especially advantageous for its climate. Framed as it is by crags and wooded mountains, its location brings it little rain and a mild climate. Moreover, the soils that have formed from the weathering of the volcanic crags represent the best prerequisites for Norheim's winegrowing.History
At the foot of the porphyry massif known as the Rotenfels, Norheim has a 1,200-year-long history as the oldest wine village on the Nahe, at least going by historical records. In 766, Norheim had its first documentary mention as Narheim in pago Nahgowe when the Frankish free noble Adalger sold his landhold, which lay in Narheim, for two pounds of silver to Lorsch Abbey on the Bergstraße. The record of this is contained in the abbey's old directory of holdings, the Lorsch codex, document no. 2007. The name Narheim may have had its roots in nava, a Celtic word for "flowing water". Over the years, the river's name underwent various changes: Naba, Naha, Nae, Noh, Nahe. Several times over the centuries, Norheim's overlords changed as secular princes replaced those who had gone before. Adalger's old landhold was exchanged by Lorsch in 962 with Saint Maximin's Abbey in Trier. In 1190, the Lords of Bolanden were enfeoffed with the jurisdiction and holdings by the Holy Roman Empire. By way of the Rhinegraves and the Counts of Sponheim, the Lords of Sickingen at Castle Ebernburg became the village's rulers in 1440, ruling for more than 300 years. When the last lord of this line died out in 1768, the now heirless fief passed back to the overlord, the Electorate of the Palatinate. After the Napoleonic Wars had ended and after the decisions had been made at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Norheim became Prussian and was assigned to the Oberamt of Kreuznach.Population development
Norheim'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:ReligionAs at 30 November 2013, there are 1,499 full-time residents in Norheim, and of those, 539 are Evangelical, 583 are Catholic, 1 is Greek Orthodox, 1 is Lutheran, 30 belong to other religious groups and 345 either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.PoliticsMunicipal councilThe council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected by proportional representation at the municipal election held on 9 June 2024, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The distribution of seats of the council:
Norheim's current mayor is Uwe Sax, who was sworn in on 03-Dec-2024. The deputies to the mayor are Patrick Rusch, Rainer Beisiegel, and Stephan Karsch. During the municipal election held on 09-Jun-2024 the lone candidate for mayor, Tristan Heringklee, had not reached the required absolute majority, missing it by 12 votes. Due to this a special election was held on 10-Nov-2024, during which the candidate Uwe Sax won the absolute majority, receiving a percentage of votes of 78.2%. His opponent Tristan Heringklee received a percentage of votes of 21.8%. Uwe Sax's predecessor, Dr. Kai Michelmann, was sworn in on 01-Jul-2014. He was first voted into office at the municipal election held on 25-May-2014, with a percentage of votes of 75.2%. At the municipal election held on 26-May-2019 he was confirmed in office, with a percentage of votes of 71.44%, against his opponent Markus Karsch. Coat of armsThe municipality's arms might be described thus: Azure on ground vert, a steed passant argent upon which Saint Martin of Tours of the same cutting with his sword a piece of his cloak gules for a kneeling beggar man of the third.This scene from Saint Martin's life appears in many German civic coats of arms. Indeed, Norheim's arms are not even the only ones in the Bad Kreuznach district to bear this image, with Meddersheim and Rüdesheim an der Nahe likewise bearing arms depicting Martin cutting off a piece of his cloak for a beggar. Town partnershipsNorheim fosters partnerships with the following places:BuildingsThe following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate's Directory of Cultural Monuments:
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