The Neckar has dug its way through the wooded hills of the Odenwald here. Hirschhorn stretches along the right bank of the Neckar, i. Ersheim, Hirschhorn's oldest part, has the distinction, however, of being the only bit of Hesse south of the Neckar. In Hirschhorn, two northern tributaries, the Ulfenbach and the Finkenbach, join to become the Laxbach before flowing into the Neckar.
South of Hirschhorn there is the parish of Schoenbrunn Rhein-Neckar-Kreis ; the town of Neckarsteinach is towards the south-west, and to the west of Hirschhorn there is the town of Schoenau Rhein-Neckar-Kreis , with the forest district of Michelbuch in between, which has its own peculiar status and does not belong to any village or town.
Apart from the town itself, the following villages belong to Hirschhorn: Langenthal in the Ulfenbach valley Unter-Hainbrunn in the Finkenbach valley Hessisch-Igelsbach Badisch-Igelsbach is part of Eberbach Ersheim[ edit ] The first document in which the settlement of Ersheim is mentioned is the Lorsch codex in an endowment dated Lorsch Documents, no.
This settlement, which in under the name of Erasam belonged to the property of a monastery affiliated to Lorsch, St Michael's on Heiligenberg near Heidelberg, was one of the oldest in the Neckar valley. Whereas almost the whole of the surrounding area came into the possession of the diocese of Worms in the 11th century, Ersheim together with the nearby village of Ramsau downriver on the right bank remained an exclave of Lorsch.
From here several villages were founded in forest clearings from the 12th century onward, among them Weidenau, Unter-Hainbrunn, Igelsbach and Krautlach, but they were largely abandoned again afterwards. Grave plate of Hans V of Hirschhorn, local lord about Foundation of the town by the Lords of Hirschhorn[ edit ] The actual town of Hirschhorn southwest of Ersheim on the right bank of the Neckar derives its name from its founders, the Lords of Hirschhorn, whose coat of arms shows a stag's antler.
