Transport and communication routes

• Barr has a TER Alsace railway station located eight minutes walk from the city centre. There is a train every half-hour.
• The cycle route of the Alsatian vineyards (EuroVelo 5) passes through the centre of the city.
• Barr town is a step in the Vosges part of the hiking trail GR 5 and E2 European path.
• From 1889 to 1906 the Forest Railway Welschbruch was a narrow gauge forest railway along the river Kirneck.

Environment

Part of the "forest of Landsberg" is located in the commune. This forest has been owned by a forestry group run by six managers since 1800. The forest covers 158 hectares (nearly 25 ha unproductive) spread over 3 communes (Heiligenstein, Barr, and Obernai). It is the subject of a "close to nature forestry" management according to the principles recommended by Prosilva with no clear-felling. It was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in December 2000 and by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) in December 2002.^[3]

History

Barr appears as Barr on the 1750 Cassini Map^[10] and the same on the 1790 version.^[11]

Although the first written records mentioning the village of Barr as Barru dates from the year 788, historians believe that the site was occupied long before as evidenced by many prehistoric remains of the Iron Age and Bronze Age discovered in the area.

Barr was originally an imperial property, but in 1522 the Habsburgs leased it to Nicolas Ziegler, and converted into Allod or freehold three years later. His son later sold it to the city of Strasbourg. This led to Barr being involved in the Bishop's War of Strasbourg (1592–1604) against the Catholics of Lorraine, which resulted in Barr's castle and many of its houses being razed to the ground in 1592.^[4]

During the Thirty Years War it suffered from the Holy Roman Empire, the Swedes, and the French but less than the surrounding villages. During the conflict with Louis XIV in Strasbourg, the town was occupied by the French: the murder of an officer by a resident brought about the burning of the town in retaliation.

Rebuilding was rapid and thereafter Barr had no further disasters although it had to endure the passage of troops that had to be fed.

In the 18th century there was a legal process that lasted nearly a century opposing the ceding of the localities of the Lordship of Barr to the city of Strasbourg, their suzerain, who claimed all the forests of its vassal. In 1763 a first decision attributed the lands to Strasbourg; there was an appeal and it was not until 1836, under the July Monarchy, that the verdict was definitively confirmed.

Heraldry

The portcullis in the arms symbolizes the ancestral role of this city as the last barrier on the way to the Mont Sainte-Odile, formerly a sacred place occupied by the Druids.

Administration

(Not all data is known)

Twinning

Barr has twinning associations with:^[8]

• {{flagicon|Germany}} Trier (Germany) since 1961.
• {{flagicon|Senegal}} Kolda (Senegal) since 1998.

Demography

In 2010 the commune had 6830 inhabitants. The evolution of the number of inhabitants is known from the population censuses conducted in the commune since 1793. From the 21st century, a census of communes with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants is held every five years, unlike larger communes that have a sample survey every year.^[9]

Culture and heritage

Barr has a very large number of buildings and sites that are registered as historical monuments. For a complete list including links to descriptions (in French) click here.

Highlights of some of the sites are:

• The Protestant Church of Saint Martin){{Mérimée Icon}}^[10]
• The Protestant and Catholic cemeteries{{Mérimée Icon}}
• Barracks, Saint Martin church - school and organ. The based was built by Stiehr Mockers and the instrument designed by Kriess.
• The old synagogue had to be destroyed in 1982 following the collapse of a corner pillar, but the windows of the synagogue were reused for the benefit of the Meinau oratory and some stones including the Tablets of Stone are displayed in the park of the Elisa Foundation in Strasbourg.^[11]
• The Town Hall{{Mérimée Icon}}
• A Coaching Inn{{Mérimée Icon}}
• The Museum of the Folie Marco{{Mérimée Icon}}

The commune has an enormous number of items that are registered as historical objects. For a complete list including links to descriptions (in French) click here.

Picture Gallery

Culture

• The Municipal band Union of Barr has existed since 1863.
• The film by Tony Gatlif, Je suis né d'une cigogne (1999), with Romain Duris and Rona Hartner shot some scenes with the landscape of Barr^[12]

Notable people linked to the commune

• Émile Bieckert (Don Emilio), who introduced the manufacture of beer to Argentina.
• Richard Hartmann, native of Barr, locomotive manufacturer who founded a large factory in Chemnitz
• Édouard Schuré, esoteric writer
• Jean Hermann, doctor and naturalist whose natural history gave birth to the Musée zoologique de la ville de Strasbourg.
• Jean-Frédéric Hermann (1743-1820), brother of Jean, MP for Bas-Rhin and Mayor of Strasbourg.
• Charles Dietz-Monnin (1826-1896), politician, born in Barr.
• Martin von Feuerstein, artist and painter, born on 6 January 1856 in Barr and died 13 February 1931 at Munich.
• Henri Rieffel, surgeon and professor of anatomy at SAint Louis Hospital in Paris, born in 1862 in Barr, died at Villerville (Calvados) in 1939.
• Edmond Rinckenbach, artist and painter, born on 1 March 1862 in Barr and died 13 August 1902 at Metz.
• Paul Schmitthenner, German architect and University professor.
• Charles Alexis Vandenberg (1858-1942), Major-General commanding the 10eth Army Corps, was in Barr in 1918.
• Joseph Bloch, Grand Rabbi (1875-1970).^[13]
• Isaac Eisik Roller, Grand Rabbi (1832-1900).^[14]
• Pisla Helmstetter (1926-2013), author of memories of life of the Alsatian Roma community.
• Jean Joho, French expatriate chef in the United States^[15]
• Albert Wolff (1906–1989), French-born American Olympic fencer
• Willard Bowsky (1907-1944) American animator at Fleischer Studios. He worked on Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman cartoons. He died near Barr as a soldier.

See also

• Communes of the Bas-Rhin department

Bibliography

• "Alternative and simultaneum in the Bailiwick of Barr: a new balance between Lutherans and Catholics, 1681-1789", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2013, No. 47, p. 115-130 {{Fr icon}}
• Meryem Grifty, Barr, for a history of past times or The history of urban development of the barroise city, M. Grifty, Strasbourg, 1998, 100 p. {{Fr icon}}
• Friedrich Hecker, Die Stadt Barr von der französischen Revolution bis auf unsere Tage, Strassburger Druckerei, 1911, 354 p. {{De icon}}
• Anémone Koffel, "Viticulture and wine producers in Barr 1815-1939", in Historic Buildings in Alsace, 1998 No. 1, p. 153-160 {{Fr icon}}
• Jean-Marie Le Minor, "Surgeons, barbers, and swimmers in Barr from the 16th to the 18th century", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2004, No. 38, p. 109-136 {{Fr icon}}
• Claude Muller, From lived history: a barroise chronicle of Jacques Frey (1820-1898)", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2011 No. 45, p. 8-12 {{Fr icon}}
• Renée Schneider, "Schools in Barr in the 20th century", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2007, No. 41, p. 81-122 {{Fr icon}}
• Renée Schneider, "Industry in the 19th century: the family of Moses Barr", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2010, No. 44, p. 27-58 {{Fr icon}}
• Renée Schneider, "From Alsace to America: the family Bartholmé Barr", in Yearbook of the Society of History and Archaeology of Dambach-la-Ville, Barr, Obernai, 2010, No. 44, p. 113-132 {{Fr icon}}
• Régine Philippe Schultz and Schultz, Once upon a time ... es war einmal ... Barr: a page of Alsatian history between 1870 and 1918, Ed Alsace, Colmar, 1993, 96 p.
• Emmanuel Solère Stintzy, "Barr: the authentic, not kitsch!", in In Alsace, 2005, No. 39, p. 54-68 {{Fr icon}}

Notes and references

Notes

References