Harxheim address list from 1906
The address list for Harxheim from 1906 can be retrieved here can be found. This is an interesting document of contemporary history – not only for the old-established Harxheimers, whose family names were already on the list at that time.
In the Landes-Adressbuch für das Großherzogtum Hessen of 1906, 2nd volume: Provinz Rheinhessen, 140 entries with the inhabitants of Harxheim at that time appear on pages 252 – 253. In addition to the surname, first name and a house number, the occupation and – if it was a widowed resident – the marital status are also mentioned. Most of the entries concern men. Women are presumably listed only if the household in question did not include a man (see, for example, Barbara, Katharina, and Sabine Lambinet). Many family names, especially those appearing several times in the list due to several family lines, are still represented in Harxheim today.
The numbers appearing at the end of the entries, obviously the house numbers, do not correspond to today’s addresses with indication of street name and house number. Obviously, the houses were numbered at that time starting with 1, without differentiating between streets. Under the number 1 lived at that time the widow of the farmer Johann Georg Happel III, under the highest appearing number 119 lived the farmer Heinrich Brehm.
Annex 1 (Address list Harxheim from 1906)
Source: Landes-Adressbuch für das Großherzogtum Hessen von 1906, 2. vol.
Reconciliation of former address numbers to current addresses
Now it would be interesting to know according to which system the numbering was done at that time and what the present address of a number appearing in the address list would be. A preserved site plan from 1897 is helpful here, in which the names of the owners at that time are inscribed in the parcels:
Harxheim site plan from 1897
Image source: Irmgard Kaiser-Vreke
It should be noted that the address list appeared nine years later than the site plan and that changes in ownership may have occurred in the meantime. Moreover, not all plots are labeled with names. Nevertheless, with the help of the plan as well as supplementary information from old-established Harxheimers the system of the numbering at that time can be recognized well. In most cases, it is also possible to assign the address number of that time to a current address.
The then number 1 is today’s Obergasse 1. The highest number 119 is today Mainzer Straße 4 (on the right, opposite the Röhrbrunnen). Number 1 and number 119 are therefore almost opposite each other. The numbering thus obviously ran in a large loop through Harxheim. From number 1 it went counterclockwise through what is now Obergasse to Untergasse. In the Untergasse, the numbers first continued to the western end of the village (today Weingut Schenk) and then back through the Untergasse to the square at the Waage. From there we went along Enggasse to the southern exit of the village in Gaustraße opposite the Protestant church. The numbers then ran again in a northerly direction through Gaustraße – taking into account the few houses in Bahnhofstraße at the time – to the present-day intersection of Gaustraße, Obergasse and Mainzer Straße. The further numbering process starts at the northern end of the village (today Mainzer Straße) below the former school and continues through today’s Mainzer Straße to its end point at the former Rindssteig.
On this basis, today’s addresses can be assigned to the address entries of that time largely according to the following list:
Annex 2 (Address list Harxheim from 1906, incl. today’s addresses)
Source: Birgit Korte
What were the occupations of Harxheimer in 1906?
In addition to the address numbers at the time, the information on occupations is also interesting. Of course, there were many more farmers in Harxheim at that time. They are also likely to have produced wine, but were usually mixed agricultural farms. Thus, there was only one winemaker in the address list. Tradesmen offering products and services on site were much more numerous than today.
Among the 140 persons in the address list, 48 are farmers, 24 are day laborers, and 13 are private individuals. In addition, there were three bakers in Harxheim at that time, six railroad workers (at that time Harxheim also had a station), a barber, a field gunner, two carters, three (guest) innkeepers, a community collector, a merchant, an infant teacher and two teachers (one Protestant and one Catholic), a haberdasher, two mäkler, four bricklayers, five butchers, a letter carrier, a blacksmith, three tailors, a carpenter, three shoemakers, a road keeper, a cattle dealer, a wainwright, four wine merchants (3x Lotz and 1x Herdt) and a vintner (Philipp III. Deiß). Furthermore, an agent, a railroad agent and an alderman appear, as well as, of course, the mayor, then Philipp Heinrich Frieß, and the (Protestant) pastor, then Hermann Weigold.
References:
Landes-Adreßbuch für das Großherzogtum Hessen. Volume II: Province of Rhine-Hesse. Darmstadt. 1906. https://www.dilibri.de/rlb/content/pageview/1365858, retrieved 12/21/2021.
When assigning the old house numbers to today’s addresses, many helpful hints came from Klaus-Werner Fritzsch.
