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“Waltdorf” was first documented on 20th October 770 in a deed of donation issued by the Abbey of Lorsch. However, records from earlier times prove that people had already long before settled at the place at which the subsequent village in the woods developed.
The territorial lords changed often as the result of pledges. Walldorf soon became the southern-most settlement of the Electoral Palatinate. It is mentioned that the Lords of Sickingen were granted land by Ludwig III, Elector Palatine in 1420. The colourful history left its mark in the small village of the Electoral Palatinate.
During peasant revolts and in the Thirty Years’ War, Walldorf became a stage for battles and plundering. In the War of the Palatinate Succession of 1689, the town was even completely destroyed. After a sluggish recovery period, the land was resettled from 1716.
Most settlers were newcomers from Switzerland and amongst them was the Astor family. One of the Astors, Johann Jakob, immigrated to America to escape the poverty, as many others did too. He became the wealthiest man in the United States by trading in fur and real estate.
Johann Jakob Astor, in a portrait by Gilbert Stuart
Walldorf, which fell to Baden after the Napoleonic Wars, transformed itself in the 19th century from a farming village to an important agricultural market place. Timber, tobacco, asparagus, and hops – once called “green gold”- brought modest wealth to the town.
In 1901, Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden granted town privileges to Walldorf and wished that the community would “bloom and prosper”.
The Hauptstrasse (Main Street) in Walldorf around 1930
The “former” Walldorf is today a town of over 14,000 residents and an industrial estate from which high-tech companies perform their extremely successful global business, providing jobs for around 18,000 employees. However, even today in times of global networks and influences from countries all over the world, the hospitable town of Walldorf manages to retain its local charm and to celebrate its traditions.
Remembering former Jewish citizens
One name, one stone – Stumbling stones for the mind
They have already been set in over 500 towns and cities in Germany: the “stumbling stones” of the artist Gunter Demnig. Walldorf became one of these locations on 2nd May 2010, when Gunter Demnig, accompanied by Otto Steinmann, the town’s deputy mayor, as well as representatives from the municipal council fractions, and Dieter and Jürgen Herrmann from the “Vereinigung Walldorfer Heimatfreunde” (Friends of Walldorf Association) set 20 of the stones with brass commemorative plaques in six different locations in the centre of Walldorf.
Sigmund Bär, Ludwig Klein, Amanda Broder or Nanny Weil may have had such different names, dates of birth, personalities, hopes and dreams, yet a single fateful date united them: 22nd October 1940. On this day they were all deported to Gurs on the edge of the Pyrenees. As Jewish citizens they were persecuted and later murdered by the Nazi regime. Dieter Herrmann, who has studied intensively the history of these former citizens of Walldorf, researched the fate of each individual. Their names, dates of birth and death can now be found on the 10cm square brass plaques that have been set into the ground in front of the last place of residence that these Jewish citizens were able to choose themselves. They are “stumbling stones for the mind”, believes Gunter Demnig, who in 1990 started the first campaign to remember the deportation of Sinti and Roma from Cologne, and who in 1993 came up with the first draught for his “Stumbling Stone” project and set the first stone without permission in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In the meantime he has been able to give a name to over 12,000 victims of the Nazi regime and to awaken memories of them as a result of his actions. The “largest decentralised memorial in the world” has found its way to Walldorf thanks to a proposal made by the municipal council’s Bündnis 90/Die Grünen fraction which was agreed by an overwhelming majority.
Gunter Demnig sets each stumbling stone personally (Photos: Pfeifer)
Otto Steinmann, who strongly welcomed the campaign against forgetting, explained while the stone was being set that this was being done with the agreement of all of today’s respective home owners. “I would like to make tracks visible and in this way prevent things and events from being forgotten”, declared Gunter Demnig, who was visibly impressed by the meticulous preparation of the twenty permanent locations for the stumbling stones that had been taken care of by the employees of the municipal building yard. During the ceremony on 2nd May, a white rose was laid on each stone.
The stumbling stone locations:
Apothekenstrasse 6
Sigmund Bär
Hilda Bär
Salomon Broder
Amanda Broder
Hauptstrasse 15
Ludwig Klein
Alice Klein
Blanca Salomon
Hauptstrasse 26
Albert Vogel
Emilie Vogel
Wilhelm Weil
Nanny Weil
Hauptstrasse 27
Sara Mayer
Flora Mayer
Ida Menges
Hedwig Menges
Hauptstrasse 52
Bella Grombacher
Moritz Mayer
Selma Mayer
Sandstrasse 3
Sannchen Kramer
Dora Neuburger
Books about Walldorf (in German)
Walldorf – Ansichten einer Stadt, Hrsg. Stadt Walldorf, 2005,
ISBN 3-00-016244-5
Walldorf 21 – 100 Jahre Stadtrechte: von der Hopfenbörse zum virtuellen Marktplatz, Hrsg: Stadt Walldorf, Vereinigung Walldorfer Heimatfreunde e.V. 1965, verlag regionalkultur, 2002, ISBN 3-89735-179-X
David Depenau, Die Ortsnecknamen in Heidelberg, Mannheim und dem Rhein-Neckar-Kreis: von Bloomäuler, Lellebollem und Neckarschleimer, verlag regionalkultur, 2002, ISBN 3-89735-205-2
Katja Doubek, Die Astors - Glanz und Elend einer legendären Dynastie, Piper Verlag GmbH, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-492-05098-2
Herbert C. Ebeling, Johann Jakob Astor, Ein Lebensbild, Hrsg. Astor-Stiftung Walldorf, Stadt Walldorf, Baden, 1998, ISBN 3-00-003749-7
Dr. Alexander Emmerich, John Jacob Astor - Der erfolgreichste deutsche Auswanderer, Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart, 2009,
ISBN: 978-3-8062-2265-4
Mathias Heß, Unser Walldorf, Heimatbuch der Stadt Walldorf, herausgegeben von der Stadt Walldorf, 1950 – neu aufgelegte und erweiterte Faksimileausgabe, 2008
Ludwig H. Hildebrandt, Mittelalterliche Urkunden über Wiesloch und Walldorf, Hrsg. Stasdt Wiesloch, Stadt Walldorf, verlag regionalkultur, 2001,
ISBN 3-89735-164-1
W. O. von Horn, Johann Jacob Astor, Ein Lebensbild aus dem Volke, für das Volk und seine Jugend – Zusammengestellt und bearbeitet von Herbert C. Ebeling, Hrsg. Astor-Stiftung Walldorf, 2004
Werner Kögel, "Walldärferisches!" "Kurpälza Gschichtlin" und "Kurpfälzer Dialektik", Unterhaltsame Geschichten, Biographien und Gedichte in Walldorfer Mundart, zu beziehen über den örtlichen Buchhandel und den Autor
Thomas Löffler, Zu Nutzen und Gebrauch der Armen – Die Geschichte der Astor-Stiftung in Walldorf, Stadt Walldorf, 1998, ISBN 3-00-003748-9
Klaus Ronellenfitsch, Walldorfer Familienbuch 1650-1900, Walldorf 1993, Band 84 der Reihe B der Deutschen Ortssippenbücher der Zentralstelle für Personen- und Zeitgeschichte, Frankfurt/Main, Hrsg. Vereinigung Walldorfer Heimatfreunde e.V. 1965
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