Forstbaumscher Hof
The Forstbaumsche Hof is the only building with a stately character in Harxheim. Its name is derived from the However, the property, which was built in the 18th century, did not belong to its builder, but to the Frankfurt Forsboom family. She has the farm in the 19th century possessed for several decades.
The property is listed in the monument register of the Mainz-Bingen district.
Watercolor of Forstbaum’s farm from 1944, signed with Ries
Image source: Local municipality of Harxheim (ed.): Festbuch 2017. Harxheim. Eintausendzweihundertfünfzig. Selzen. S. 70
The Forstbaum farm in a drawing by Clemens Kissel 1910
Image source: Winegrowers’ Association of the Province of Rhine Hesse (1910): The Rhine wines of Hesse. P. v. Zabern. Mainz. S. 91
The courtyard in Obergasse 9, also called Forstbaumscher Hof, is the only baroque building with a stately character in Harxheim. It was built in the first half of the 18th century, and the irregular ground plan indicates two construction phases. The entrance gate has a coat of arms with a baronial crown at the top of the keystone, and to the left and right of it is carved the now heavily weathered date 1724.
The dwelling house is an elongated two-story plastered half-timbered building and rests on a high brick plinth. Only the two narrow sides are solidly built.
To the left of the dwelling house there used to be a farm building with a barn extending to the farm wall at a right angle, which was demolished in the 1980s. To the right of the yard there were two more barns in a row, which were demolished earlier. This could have been the Zehntscheuer in Harxheim. Under the residential building is a two-part basement. One part has a barrel vault, the second part has a rather rare cross vault. The roof truss is still mostly original.
Little was known about the ownership history of the farm until now. The coat of arms in the archway with an arched rafter accompanied by three roses and the baronial crown above it could not be assigned to any noble family so far.
Coat of arms above the entrance gate of the Forstbaum farm in a drawing by Clemens Kissel 1910
Image source: Winegrowers’ Association of the Province of Rhine Hesse (1910): The Rhine wines of Hesse. P. v. Zabern. Mainz. S. 91
Extract from the book of deeds, notarization of an “obligation” in favor of “Forsborn de Franckfort” in 1802
Image source: Landesarchiv Speyer. Document book Nieder-Olm 1802. Stock K1, No. 4473
The name Forstbaumscher Hof probably goes back to the Forsboom family, who came from Sweden and settled in Frankfurt. Rafael Forsboom had married into a Frankfurt family in 1745. His son Franz ran a snuff factory in Frankfurt and was demonstrably active in business in Harxheim in the first half of the 19th century. In 1802, an “obligation” 1) in his favor in Harxheim was notarized by a Nieder-Olm notary.
It is documented that Franz Forsboom acquired the Harxheimer Zehntscheuer, presumably the barns formerly standing to the right of the farm, in 1803 as part of the secularization. 2) Probably he bought not only the barn, but the whole complex of buildings, even if there is no documentation for the complete acquisition today. However, the preserved name Forstbaumscher Hof for the estate speaks for it.
In the fire cadastre of Harxheim for the period of 1817 – 1835, an owner Franz Forstbaum is registered under the serial number 7 with the beginning of insurance in the year 1832. Insured is a residential house together with a wine press house, two stables and a barn. Also for 1819 there is already an entry with his name. The consecutive number in the fire cadastre probably corresponded to the house number at that time.3) The counting began in today’s Obergasse 1 and then continued counterclockwise. The then No. 7 should therefore be the present Obergasse No. 9.
Excerpt from the Harxheim fire cadastre with an entry about Franz Forstbaum as “owner” 1832
Image source: Hessian State Archives Darmstadt. Fire register Harxheim, No. 1 (HStAD, C 6, 949)
Newspaper advertisement in 1843 about auction of Harxheim wines of the trading house Franz Forsboom
Image source: Frankfurter Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung of April 16, 1843,
On April 16, 1843, an advertisement appeared in the Frankfurter Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung offering wines from the Frankfurt trading house Franz Forsboom for auction. The wines came from the winery in Harxheim, which belonged to the trading house.
So presumably Franz Forsboom and his descendants owned the property at Obergasse 9 for a certain period of time, at least in the first half of the 19th century. The Frankfurt trading house ceased to exist in the 1870s. The farm in Harxheim was probably also sold. In a cadastral map from 1896 Johann Georg Reichert appears as the owner. The property remained in the possession of his descendants until the current owner family acquired it in the late 1970s.
The question remains open as to who owned the farm before the Forsboom family acquired it. The manorial character of the estate and the connection with the tithe barn could indicate that this farm may have belonged to an administrator appointed by the sovereigns of the time, the Counts of Falkenstein. However, there is no evidence of this.
References:
1) Speyer State Archives. Document book Nieder-Olm 1802. Stock K1, No. 4473.
2) Schieder, Wolfgang (ed., 1991): Säkularisation und Mediatisierung in den vier rheinischen Departments 1803 – 1813. Part IV. Donnersberg Department. Boppard on the Rhine. S. 86.
3) This reference comes from Rüdiger Gottwald, a passionate local historian who grew up in Harxheim.
Krienke, Dieter (2011): Verbandsgemeinden Bodenheim, Guntersblum und Nieder-Olm. . .
