Kleinheubach

Kleinheubach is a market community in the Miltenberg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany and the seat of the like-named Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (Administrative Community).

Geography

Location

Kleinheubach lies between the Spessart and Odenwald ranges in the Main valley.

History

For a long time there were many Jewish families among the community’s population. They built themselves a synagogue on Gartenstraße. This house of worship was destroyed on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938) and since then the building has been used for other purposes. A memorial plaque mentions the synagogue, but does not go into this story.

Politics

Community council

The council is made up of 17 council members, counting the mayor.

(as at municipal election held on 2 March 2008)

Coat of arms

The community’s arms might be described thus: Argent on a mount of three Or a lion rampant gules armed and langued of the second.

The lordship of Kleinheubach passed after the Counts of Rieneck died out in 1559 to the Counts of Erbach, and again in 1731, through sale, to the Princes of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. At the time of sale, the Princes had to promise that this Protestant place would be allowed unhindered to keep the Augsburg Confession even under their Catholic rule. They had a stately palace built by Johann Dientzenhofer on the site of the former castle, which is still owned by the family today. The lion is taken from this princely family’s arms, in a somewhat simplified form, as it has appeared there since about 1518. The market community’s seal is known from imprints between 1810 and 1840, and shows the same composition, although the lion is in some cases on flat ground rather than the “mount of three” (or Dreiberg, as this device is called in German heraldry).