Weinheim

Weinheim is situated on the Bergstraße theme route on the western rim of the Odenwald. The old town lies in the valley, with the new part of town further to the west. The Market Square is filled with numerous cafes, as well as the old Rathaus (guildhall). Further to the south is the Schlossgarten (Palace Garden) and the Exotenwald (Exotic Forest), which contains species of trees imported from around the world, but mostly from North America and Japan.

Weinheim celebrated its 1250th anniversary in 2005.

The earliest record of Weinheim dates back to 755 CE, when the name "Winenheim" was recorded in the Lorsch codex, the record book of Lorsch Abbey.^[3]

In 1000, Emperor Otto III bestowed on Weinheim the right to hold markets, and in 1065 the right to mint and issue coins. A new town developed next to the old town from 1250. In 1308, the old town was transferred to the Electorate of the Palatinate and from 1368 the whole town belonged to the Electorate. From the end of the 14th century, the whole town belonged to the Heidelberg Oberamt district. With the transfer to Baden in 1803, Weinheim became the seat of its own Amt, until unification with the Mannheim Landkreis (district) in 1936. Weinheim has been within the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis since its formation on 1 January 1973.

A Jewish community in Weinheim is recorded from 1228. There are records of Jewish persecution in 1298 (Rintfleisch massacres) and 1348–49 (Black Death persecutions) before the Jews were expelled from Weinheim in 1391. The Weinheim Jewish community began to grow again during the Thirty Years' War. There was a synagogue, a beth midrash, and a mikveh, and, in the 19th century, a school for boys together with a teacher-training college. The synagogue was destroyed in the Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938) and the last remaining Jews were sent to Gurs on 22 October 1940.^[4]

• Windeck Castle, originally built around 1100 to protect the Lorsch monastery; it was badly damaged in the Thirty Years' War and again by Louis XIV of France in the Nine Years' War.
• Wachenburg Castle, built between 1907 and 1928 by German Student Corps fraternities; the annual convention of the Weinheimer Senioren-Convent is held at the Wachenburg.
• The Market Square
• The Schloss, home of the town council
• Gerberbach Quarter, the former tanning district
• Schlosspark
• Waidsee Lido (Strandbad Waidsee), swimming beach on the Waidsee artificial lake
• Miramar (Weinheim) thermal spa and sauna complex, next to the Waidsee lake
• Exotenwald Weinheim, a forest arboretum
• Schau- und Sichtungsgarten Hermannshof, a botanical garden

• February: High-jump Gala, with world class high-jumpers
• March: the Sommertagszug, a festival celebrating the coming of summer.
• May/June (near Ascension Day): day of the Weinheimer Senioren-Convents
• June–August: Weinheim's summer of culture
• June: Scheuerfest (barn party) in Ritschweier
• July: the Weinheim road race
• May–September: Kerwes in Rippenweier, Sulzbach, Lützelsachsen, Oberflockenbach und Hohensachsen
• August (second weekend, Friday-Monday): Weinheim's Kerwe
• September (first Friday-Sunday): Weinheimer UKW-Tagung, a three-day international amateur radio meeting held annually since 1956^[5]
• October: Bergsträßer Winzerfest (lit. "mountain-road vintner festival") in Lützelsachsen

• Freudenberg Group
• Wiley-VCH publishers
• SAP SE

Weinheim is twinned with:^[6]

Population figures are made up of a combination of official estimations, Volkszählungsergebnisse (semi-official figures, demarcated by a ¹), and official statistics based on place of residence (Hauptwohnsitz) registrations.

¹ These are taken from a Volkszählungsergebnis.

• Federico Rauch (1786–1829), colonel who fought and died in Argentina
• Heinrich Hübsch (1795–1863), a German architect, head of public works in Karlsruhe
• Philipp Bickel, (DE Wiki) (1829–1914), baptist theologian and publisher
• Valentine Dell (1829-1885), newspaper editor, publisher, politician and U.S. marshal in Arkansas.
• August Bender, (DE Wiki) (1847–1926), chemist and entrepreneur
• Wilhelm Platz, (DE Wiki) (1866–1929), author and factory owner
• Richard Freudenberg (1892–1975), politician (FDP)
• Erwin Linder (1903–1968), a German stage, film and TV actor.
• Hartmut K. Lichtenthaler (born 1934), botanist, plant physiologist and university professor.
• Werner Andreas Albert (1935–2019), an Australian conductor.
• Valentino Bellucci (1975–2021), an Italian philosopher, sociologist, poet, painter and essayist.