“Harxheim: circular routes, local documentation and contemporary witnesses”:
This is the somewhat unwieldy name of the largest HVV project to date after the Weinhöfefest. Within the framework of the project, which was predominantly supported with European LEADER funds, the historical tour of the village, the Harxheim Panorama Trail and a loop to the Small Mainz High Trail were created and the website doku-Harxheim.de was created with many text contributions about Harxheim and with videos of contemporary witnesses. Furthermore, the VinoMobil bar trolley was purchased. Reason enough to describe the course of this extensive project once again here.

It all started in the late summer of 2020, the first “Corona Summer,” at an outdoor board meeting. Harald Schenk, 1st chairman of the HVV, suggested the creation of a historical tour of the town by the HVV. Birgit Korte, a member of the HVV board, was to set up a project group and implement the project with it.

No sooner said than done. The constituent meeting of the project group took place on October 13, 2020 with the participation of Anja and Klaus-Werner Fritzsch, Joachim Geiberger, Birgit Korte, Reinhold Stössel and Siegfried Schäfer and. Shortly thereafter, Silvia Geiberger, Florian Imbusch and Dorothee Kerzan joined the working group as project members.

First, it was necessary to define more precisely what HVV actually wanted to implement as part of the project. The “wish list” quickly became quite long:

• Creation of a historical tour of the village, creation of a circular trail through the district incl. Connections to existing hiking trails in the immediate vicinity, installation of information boards with QR codes along the circular trails, installation of fly loungers along the circular trails.
• Creation of a webpage doku-Harxheim, which is publicly accessible on the internet; this webpage should contain many text contributions about the history of Harxheim and the local nature as well as videos of contemporary witnesses
• Acquisition of a bar cart
• Renewal of the aging corridor designation signs.

It soon became clear that this HVV project would extend over several years. Tatsächlich vergingen von der ersten Idee im Spätsommer 2020 bis zum Abschluss des Projektes im August 2023 drei Jahre. After the first two working sessions, the working group was unable to meet in the winter of 2020/21 due to Corona and now met via Zoom meetings. This proved so efficient that even after the pandemic subsided, almost all work sessions were held via Zoom. In total, there were just under 30 working meetings by the end of the project. In addition to the project members, the 1st chairman of the HVV, Harald Schenk, also regularly participated in these meetings.

Acquisition of funding

Construction of the swing couch at Kalmit in summer 2022

Bildquelle: Birgit Korte

How to get LEADER funding? The Rheinhessen region has a LEADER funding pot, the allocation of which is decided by the board of the Rheinhessen Local Action Group (LAG). The application for LEADER funds is made via a project profile in which the project to be funded is described in detail. The positive regional effects to be achieved with the project must also be explained here. For example, one of the HVV’s concerns stated in the project application was to use this project to increase the quality of experience in the town.

If a project is selected by the LAG Rheinhessen board as worthy of funding, a formal application for funding must then be submitted to the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD) in Trier, which administers and disburses the funding.

The HVV working group has been diligently working through the spring of 2021 to develop the project and gather all the necessary information for the project description and required attachments. In the summer of 2021, the happy news came that the HVV project had been selected as eligible for funding. All planned project components could be realized. The binding funding decision from the ADD was issued at the beginning of November 2021. From this point on, actual project implementation was allowed to begin. Bis zum 31.08.2023, also gut anderthalb Jahre später, sollte das Projekt abgeschlossen sein.

First, the bar car was ordered in 2021, which accounted for the largest share of the funding. The car was delivered in late spring 2022. The inauguration took place on June 27, 2022 during a public event at the Platz an der Waage in the presence of the two wine majesties Mirjam (Rheinhessen Wine Princess 2021/22) and Magdalena I (Harxheim Wine Princess 2021/22).

Further essential project components were the creation of a suitable internet tool for the webpage doku-Harxheim, the creation of contents (content: texts, videos) for doku-Harxheim and the uploading of these contents to the internet tool. Other topics included trail planning and signage and the design of informational signs along the trails. Finally, all the signs had to be erected and installed, and before that the necessary posts had to be set.

The members of the working group brought many different skills, experiences and inclinations to the group. Accordingly, everyone was able to participate in the project implementation on the building blocks that most suited their background and interests. Furthermore, all topics were discussed and coordinated in regular working meetings.

The new webpage doku-harxheim.de

The decision as to whether such documentation should be in the form of a book or in “modern” form as a web page and multimedia and flexible documentation platform was quickly made.

Now it was time to get to grips with the complexity. To do this, we had to solve the following tasks (in very abbreviated form):

• Development of the architecture of the webpage and structuring of the topics
• Establishment of a file structure that can be viewed and edited by everyone at any time
• Video conferencing
• Development of a coding system by means of which each document and each image, pdf or video file can be precisely assigned
• Development of a system for systematic collection of raw material, processed and final files and documents
• Development of a control file that allows each team member (especially the author and the person responsible for the web page) to recognize and track the editing, control and release status of each individual contribution.
• Translation of all final pages into different languages (English and French to start with)
• Ensuring a backup system

The volume of documents and pages processed as well as the results were beyond our estimate:

• More than 12,000 files were processed.
• The volume of the doku-harxheim sitecorresponds to that of a book of well over 1,000 pages.
• The backup file has a volume of more than 3.5 gigabytes-.

Eyewitness videos for doku-harxheim

As part of the sub-project Contemporary Witnesses, interviews were conducted with numerous Harxheim citizens who were born here or have lived in Harxheim for a very long time. Most of the interviews took place in the Old Town Hall and were recorded using professional technical equipment.

We were very pleased to see how positively the idea of eyewitness interviews was received and how willingly the people of Harxheim submitted to the video interviews. Most of the interviewees were a bit nervous at the beginning because of the unusual situation; there was a lot of camera, sound recording and lighting equipment set up and a lot of cables in the room. However, this quickly subsided when they began to talk about their former life in Harxheim. Many hours of footage were shot, then screened, edited, and have been and continue to be edited and edited for specific topics.

Thus, an extraordinary cinematic contemporary documentary has been created with a view of Harxheim and the region of days gone by for the people of Harxheim and the region of times to come.

Texts for doku-harxheim

Besides videos, doku-Harxheim was to be filled with text contributions about Harxheim. Thematic focal points should be the recent and older local history, nature and viticulture in the Harxheim district and reports on points of interest (buildings or structures with remarkable history). The local chronicle, which was published as a book in 2017 as part of the 1250th anniversary of the village, was a good starting point; a large number of interesting texts could be transferred from the chronicle to the webpage.

In addition, a great deal of new information about our place was researched and a large number of other text contributions were created. Among the topics covered for the first time are, for example, the history of the Jewish fellow citizens in Harxheim, the Selzstellung defense line that ran past Harxheim until after the end of World War I, and the iron ore deposit at Eisenkopf that was exploited in the 19th century. In addition, a comprehensive article on the history of Harxheim was compiled. Another highlight is the publication of the notes written by Pastor Würth during his time in Harxheim from 1909 to 1920 in the chronicle of the Protestant community. Nature is not neglected either: In doku-Harxheim, for example, there is information on 40 different herbs and 16 different grape varieties that can be found in the Harxheim district. Other articles deal with the history of a total of 24 points of interest signposted in the town. In total, the text contributions and the processed documents and media have a volume equivalent to a book of more than 1,000 pages.

Inclusion of text, video, images and other content on doku-harxheim

Particular attention was paid to meticulously ensuring copyright and source citations. As part of the system developed especially for the project, it was already ensured that each source was named, each image source documented, and each processed document or medium labeled accordingly.

A time-consuming step requiring extensive special knowledge was the integration of all videos and text contributions into the newly created webpage doku-Harxheim. In addition to the error-free input of videos, texts and a large number of photos, the entire content also had to be structured thematically and linked in such a way that the user can now enjoy surfing through the content. In a further step, all contributions were translated into English and French.

Path planning and signage

The working group determined the course of the two trails to be created in the district during several hikes and walks. The signposts were created with the support of professional trail planning offices, and the specifications of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate for themed hiking trails relevant to tourism were observed.

Guests of honor and project participants at the inauguration of the loop of the Small Mainz High Trail

Image source: Siegfried Schäfer

As a next step, the working group put up 24 POI signs in the village in spring 2023. The signs are located on buildings that are of special importance to our town because of their architectural substance and/or because of their history.

In the summer of 2023, the signposting of the Harxheim Panorama Trail followed, a circular hiking trail running around Harxheim with a length of 6 km. In addition to the trail signs, numerous information boards have been set up to provide information about native herbs and birds, among other things. In addition, there is now a historic walking tour of the old town center that passes by many of the 24 points of interest.

Also in the summer of 2023, overview boards will be set up to inform interested hikers and walkers at several locations (e.g., at the square by the scales, at the parking lot by the cemetery, and at the community center) about the Panorama Trail and the historical tour of the town.

Linking of signs and web-page via QR codes

The last step was to provide all information signs and boards in the village and in the district with QR codes. The QR codes can be used to call up more detailed information on doku-Harxheim on site. Great care was required here to ensure that all of the more than 100 QR codes were also stuck on the correct sign.

Acknowledgement

• all Harxheimers who made themselves available for video recordings
• all Harxheimers who contributed information in the course of our research and supported the working group with their knowledge
• the municipality of Harxheim, which supported the project in terms of content and financially
• the protestant church, which allowed the HVV to transcribe the records of pastor Würth in the protestant parish chronicle and to publish them on the webpage doku-harxheim.de
• Magdalena Haag and Mareike Fox from the regional management of the local LEADER action group Rheinhessen, who were very knowledgeable and helpful in answering all our questions about applying for and receiving LEADER funding.
• Ralph Heinrichs, trail manager at the German Alpine Club, section Mainz, who supported us very friendly and committed with words and deeds during the construction of the loop to the Small Mainzer Höhenweg.
• all authors of the Harxheimer Ortschronik of 2017, who allowed us to publish their articles on the webpage doku-harxheim
• Gerhard Krämer, who provided us with his unpublished manuscript “Notes on Harxheim
• Irmgard Kaiser-Vreke, who digitized many old photos for the project
• Hans Vreke, who actively supported the signage team
• Wolfgang Beckenbach, who undertook welding work as part of the path signposting project
• Gerhard Buchert, who supported us with words and deeds during the installation of the sign frames
• Florian Imbusch for video recording and technology, video editing, lighting and editing
• Camilla Madsen – without her the webpage doku-harxheim would not have been possible in this way

In addition, the working group would like to thank all those who motivated them to work on the project with their interest and approval.

The working group “Harxheim: circular routes, local documentation and contemporary witnesses” of the HVV-Harxheim in August 2023