register office and a museum. The 19th-century synagogue was devastated in the 1938 Kristallnacht attacks and most of the congregation was killed in the Holocaust. The building is now used as a New Apostolic Church. Walldorf is known for cultivating white asparagus, which is available in the months of April through June. Representation in other media British writer John Le Carré refers to the town, without naming it, in his novel Absolute Friends (2003), which is primarily set in Heidelberg. Notable people Joseph Anton Sambuga (1752-1815), a German Catholic theologian of Italian descent. John Jacob Astor (1763–1848), entrepreneur, emigrated as a young man to the United States, where he made a fortune in fur trading and real estate acquisition; he was the wealthiest man in the nation at his death. Leopold Rügheimer (1850–1917) a notable German chemist, invented the Staedel-Rugheimer pyrazine synthesis Dietmar Hopp (born 1940), billionaire software entrepreneur Timo Jouko Herrmann (born 1978) a German composer, musicologist and conductor. References External links Official Homepage Rhein-Neckar-Kreis Baden