Bad Friedrichshall presents itself

image author: P.Schmelzle@wikimedia.org

Bad Friedrichshall is a town in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Jagst and the Kocher into the Neckar, 10 km north of Heilbronn. Bad Friedrichshall arose by the connection of Kochendorf and Jagstfeld in 1933, and is famous for its salt-mine.

image author: P.Schmelzle@wikimedia.org

Bad Friedrichshall arose in 1933 by the connection of Kochendorf and Jagstfeld. The name Friedrichshall is derived from a salt-works in Jagstfeld named by Frederick I in 1818. The term Bad is from a brine in Jagstfeld.

image author: P.Schmelzle@wikimedia.org

Situated at the confluence of the Kocher and the Neckar on a hill there was presumably a consolidated estate, around which people settled and let arise the village of Kochendorf, that was first mentioned in 817. The St. Sebastian church probably already existed before 1100. Around 1200 Kochendorf got bricked in. In the 13th century a gentry of Kochendorf appeared. It dealt with ministerialis of the Staufers in Wimpfen. In the 15th and 16th century the gentry let build three castles. In 1672 the Freiherrs of Saint-André bought a third of the village and let build a new castle on one of the former castle sites.

The Ritterkanton Odenwald, who was able to buy the whole village in 1762 from the former heirs, made Kochendorf as their chancellery and carried on a knightly hotel which doesn't exist anymore. In 1806 Kochendorf came to Württemberg as a free municipality. In 1899, a salt-works of the Salzwerke Heilbronn AG was opened.

Besides there was a big former Jewish parish. Jews are proved there living since the 16th century; a synagogue was built around 1740, which got replaced by a new construction in 1806. Until 1854 the parish grew onto 154 people and represented nearly 9% of the village population. However, the parish decreased by migration and emigration in the following time enormously. In 1880, there was just an amount of 71 Jewish inhabitants and in 1925 there were only 7 Jews. Then the synagogue was sold to the Protestant parish, the Jewish parish broke up even before 1933. Five of the last seven Jews in Kochendorf were killed by persecution in 1940-43.