Armsheim
Encyclopedia
Armsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. Armsheim lies in the Rheinhessisches Hügelland (Rhenish-Hessian Hills), has roughly 2,650 inhabitants and is the third biggest municipality within the Verbandsgemeinde of Wörrstadt
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
. The current Armsheim was formed out of two formerly autonomous centres in 1969, named Armsheim and Schimsheim.
, 18 km from Bad Kreuznach
, 25 km from Bingen
and some 30 km southwest of Mainz
.
and Iron Age
(specifically from La Tène times
) finds show heavy settlement. One of these people’s centres was formed by lands that now make up the new development area. Surface-level witnesses to this early time are the menhir
s, of which, however, only one still stands near its original location.
In the 5th century BC, a Celtic princely seat was to be found in what is now the municipal area. A grave that had been part of the complex was opened while a railway was being built. Precious artifacts yielded up by the grave included parts of a carriage and Etruscan
bronze dishes, revealing something about these Princes’ power and wealth. Their hegemony presumably included the Celtic town on the Wißberg (a nearby hill). Celtic times ended at about the time of the dawn of the Christian Era, when Roman
rule began.
. Where these estates lay can be determined by archaeological
finds and toponyms, especially ones containing Weiler (in Modern High German
, this means “hamlet
”, but it is derived from the Latin
villa, as in villa rustica
, which was the Latin term for one of these estates). A sanctuary in Jupiter
’s honour stood somewhere near where the Armsheim church now stands, and in the municipal area’s west also a sanctuary in Diana
’s honour. In the Suntflur, a rural area, the area of an old villa, marked by boundary stones, was preserved into the 20th century.
The Roman estates were forsaken towards the end of the 4th century after Germanic
tribes began pushing across the Rhine and the Roman military withdrew.
took over the land about 500. The villages were made up of loose groupings of farms around a central estate with a church and a graveyard, after whose owners the two centres were named. Further farms could be found without. In the turbulent 12th and 13th centuries, they were forsaken, resulting in the still observable townlike concentration of the settlements, which were shielded by hedgerows and ditches.
The courses followed by roads and the building development give important clues as to both villages’ emergence and development.
Schimsheim’s centre is formed nowadays by the little square, itself formed by the roads that meet there. There also once stood the village and court tree, the legendary Schimsheim Elm. The limetree
now growing here was planted in the hollow left by the elm after it died. Originally, this was the village’s outskirts; the old well is still preserved a few steps away to the south. The adjoining Kirchgasse (church lane) shows where Saint Martin’s church was before it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War
.
Armsheim’s settlement structure shows the economic foundations on which the village was built, and also what the driving forces of its development were. Unlike Schimsheim’s quiet development, here it was marked by a quick upswing leading to a brief blossoming, followed by a downfall that was just as quick.
Two centres of settlement may be distinguished, one lying north of the through road with the Freier Platz (“Free Square”), and one to the south along Mühlstraße (“Mill Road”). There is much to suggest that this was a planned settlement, especially the nearly square layout of the Rosenplatz (“Rose Square”), which is reminiscent of a town marketplace.
Standing as driving forces were Saint Remigius’s Church (St. Remigius-Kirche) and the castle of the local lords, the Counts of Veldenz. The church’s blood reliquary became the goal of a pilgrimage
that drew worshippers from well beyond the region, and also the cause of building the pilgrimage Church “To the Holy Blood” (1431), which is counted among the most important Gothic
buildings on the Rhine Gorge
. The Counts’ seat was the hub of their holdings in this area. The village was granted town rights no later than 1349 and was fortified with walls and towers. Armsheim was said to be the best fortified town in the Nahegau. Parts of the old wall are preserved between the churchyard and Neugasse (lane), as are the Bielgraben (dyke) and underground passages. Three gatekeeper’s houses establish the settlement’s expansion over a long time.
The Gothic church’s size and beauty reveal yet more about Armsheim’s importance as a pilgrimage destination and a Veldenz town. When the family Veldenz died out and the Protestant Reformation
was introduced, this development ended: The town passed to Electoral Palatinate in 1471, the walls and towers were torn down, the town was stripped of its town rights, and it was assigned to the Oberamt of Alzey. The Reformation brought the destruction of the church’s interior and an end to the pilgrimage. Traces of the destruction can be seen in Father Odenkemmer’s gravestone in the church’s chancel and in the shattered figure of a saint, which was walled up in an estate on the main street.
The small square, where once stood the communal bakehouse, may be regarded as Armsheim’s village centre. Not far from there was the pranger
, later the communal scale
. Not far above stands the old town hall, from whose façade comes the measurement standard, the iron ell
wand, which is now fastened onto the Evangelical
church’s vestibule. Also, the village’s biggest inn was not far.
Outside the village, on the road to Schimsheim, stood the hospital for lepers, the Gutleuthaus, and on the road to Alzey stood the hangman’s house. The toponym Galgenberg (“Gallows Mountain”) south of the railway station refers to the old execution place.
Not only had Armsheim lost its importance as an administrative seat and a pilgrimage centre, but nor was any business or trade forthcoming either. What was lacking was a link to the long-distance road network. The road from Worms to Bingen, the Hohe Straße (“High Road”), led through Flonheim, west of the village, missing it altogether, while the Alte Straße (“Old Road”) from Alzey to Ingelheim ran by to the east, somewhat following the railway’s current alignment. Moreover, the local history in the 17th and 18th centuries was marked by repeated destruction and sacking. Little was left after the Nine Years' War and its attendant ravages in the Palatinate by King Louis XIV’s
troops. One of the first systematic expansions of the village came in the 18th century on the filled-in ditch (Neugasse – “New Lane”), but it was not until the early 19th century that this road reached the highway.
. The building development that arose along Bahnhofstraße (“Railway Station Street”, formerly known as Sauweg – “Sow Way”) reflects the railway’s importance to the village over a hundred years. Another village expansion came in the form of a new-town development, begun in 1983, which united the two villages, which had been politically one since 1969.
The phases in the local history from the 16th century onwards can easily be gathered from the development of house and homestead forms. The typical Frankish homesteads bespeak an agricultural livelihood, in part combined with crafts. After 1870 the houses show with their outbuildings how the new townsmen, who came mainly from the countryside, sought a livelihood in hired labour and agricultural sidelines (especially in the railway station area). Houses from the third phase show no regional style and are designed for a life in town, bearing no hint of country life, local history or agriculture, bringing local history into a critical phase.
Today’s municipality came into being on 7 June 1969 through the merger of the two centres of Armsheim and Schimsheim.
, Meurthe-et-Moselle
, France
since 1988
Fléville-devant-Nancy has roughly 2,900 inhabitants and, as its name suggests, lies near Nancy.
might be described thus: Per fess sable a demi-lion rampant Or armed, langued and crowned gules, and argent a dexter arm naked embowed lopped of the third.
The upper charge
is the Palatine Lion. The lower charge is canting
, suggesting the municipality’s name (“Arm” means the same in German
as in English
). The oldest town seals date from the early 15th century and already show these two charges. At one time, the hand held a bunch of grapes, symbolizing winegrowing, but this was dropped in the 19th century.
to Worms
. Formerly there was also a line sprouting off to the Wiesbachtalbahn towards Wendelsheim
by way of Flonheim
, which saw an end to its passenger traffic by 1966. On weekends and holidays, it is possible to travel on the Elsass-Express (“Alsace Express”) to Wissembourg
.
Even today it is called “Rhenish Hesse’s loveliest village church”. A particular jewel is the memorial organ
, which is particularly worthy of protection, built by the famous organ builder Johann Michael Stumm in 1739.
Each year, outstanding organists perform in the concert series Armsheimer Orgelsommer (“organ summer”).
During intermission, concertgoers are treated to the Orgeltropfen (“organ drop”), a yearly special bottling of Armsheim wine, in the summertime church garden.
A particularly strong draw for art lovers from the whole region is the project Kunst und Kirche (“Art and Church”). Each year, there is at least one presentation of contemporary religious artistic creation in the old pilgrimage church. In 2001, a collective artwork was created: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Versuch einer Annäherung (“Dietrich Bonhoeffer
– Attempt at Harmonization”), using pictures, words and music. Under Mainz Professor Guido Ludes’s leadership, various creative artists found themselves working together on this coöperative project. Special recognition was conferred through Ministerpräsident Kurt Beck’s collaboration.
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the district Groß-Gerau , the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Bingen.- History :...
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Armsheim lies in the Rheinhessisches Hügelland (Rhenish-Hessian Hills), has roughly 2,650 inhabitants and is the third biggest municipality within the Verbandsgemeinde of Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt (Verbandsgemeinde)
Wörrstadt is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Wörrstadt....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt is a town in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :The town lies in Rhenish Hesse on the northwest edge of the Upper Rhine Plain...
. The current Armsheim was formed out of two formerly autonomous centres in 1969, named Armsheim and Schimsheim.
Location
Armsheim lies in the middle of Rhenish Hesse, some 14 km from AlzeyAlzey
Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen....
, 18 km from Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach is the capital of the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine...
, 25 km from Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
and some 30 km southwest of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
.
Before the Christian Era
For 40,000 years there have been people living on the floodplain in the Wiesbach valley, and for 1,500 years, the villages of Armsheim and Schimsheim have stood here. The open land here, scored by brooks, offered Old Stone Age hunter-gatherers ideal living conditions. From the New Stone Age (after 4000 BC), the land was permanently settled. Crop farming and livestock raising underpinned the settlers’ livelihood. Many Neolithic, Bronze AgeBronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
and Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
(specifically from La Tène times
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
) finds show heavy settlement. One of these people’s centres was formed by lands that now make up the new development area. Surface-level witnesses to this early time are the menhir
Menhir
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...
s, of which, however, only one still stands near its original location.
In the 5th century BC, a Celtic princely seat was to be found in what is now the municipal area. A grave that had been part of the complex was opened while a railway was being built. Precious artifacts yielded up by the grave included parts of a carriage and Etruscan
Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to a civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany. The ancient Romans called its creators the Tusci or Etrusci...
bronze dishes, revealing something about these Princes’ power and wealth. Their hegemony presumably included the Celtic town on the Wißberg (a nearby hill). Celtic times ended at about the time of the dawn of the Christian Era, when Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
rule began.
Roman Empire
In the four hundred years during which the Romans held sway, the land was worked by state-owned farmsVilla rustica
Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...
. Where these estates lay can be determined by archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds and toponyms, especially ones containing Weiler (in Modern High German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, this means “hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
”, but it is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
villa, as in villa rustica
Villa rustica
Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...
, which was the Latin term for one of these estates). A sanctuary in Jupiter
Jupiter (mythology)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Jupiter or Jove is the king of the gods, and the god of the sky and thunder. He is the equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon....
’s honour stood somewhere near where the Armsheim church now stands, and in the municipal area’s west also a sanctuary in Diana
Diana (mythology)
In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and moon and birthing, being associated with wild animals and woodland, and having the power to talk to and control animals. She was equated with the Greek goddess Artemis, though she had an independent origin in Italy...
’s honour. In the Suntflur, a rural area, the area of an old villa, marked by boundary stones, was preserved into the 20th century.
The Roman estates were forsaken towards the end of the 4th century after Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
tribes began pushing across the Rhine and the Roman military withdrew.
Frankish times
Both Armsheim’s and Schimsheim’s actual histories began when the FranksFranks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
took over the land about 500. The villages were made up of loose groupings of farms around a central estate with a church and a graveyard, after whose owners the two centres were named. Further farms could be found without. In the turbulent 12th and 13th centuries, they were forsaken, resulting in the still observable townlike concentration of the settlements, which were shielded by hedgerows and ditches.
The courses followed by roads and the building development give important clues as to both villages’ emergence and development.
Schimsheim’s centre is formed nowadays by the little square, itself formed by the roads that meet there. There also once stood the village and court tree, the legendary Schimsheim Elm. The limetree
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The greatest species diversity is found in Asia, and the genus also occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but not western North America...
now growing here was planted in the hollow left by the elm after it died. Originally, this was the village’s outskirts; the old well is still preserved a few steps away to the south. The adjoining Kirchgasse (church lane) shows where Saint Martin’s church was before it was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
.
Armsheim’s settlement structure shows the economic foundations on which the village was built, and also what the driving forces of its development were. Unlike Schimsheim’s quiet development, here it was marked by a quick upswing leading to a brief blossoming, followed by a downfall that was just as quick.
Two centres of settlement may be distinguished, one lying north of the through road with the Freier Platz (“Free Square”), and one to the south along Mühlstraße (“Mill Road”). There is much to suggest that this was a planned settlement, especially the nearly square layout of the Rosenplatz (“Rose Square”), which is reminiscent of a town marketplace.
Standing as driving forces were Saint Remigius’s Church (St. Remigius-Kirche) and the castle of the local lords, the Counts of Veldenz. The church’s blood reliquary became the goal of a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
that drew worshippers from well beyond the region, and also the cause of building the pilgrimage Church “To the Holy Blood” (1431), which is counted among the most important Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
buildings on the Rhine Gorge
Rhine Gorge
The Rhine Gorge is a popular name for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, a 65 km section of the River Rhine between Koblenz and Bingen in Germany...
. The Counts’ seat was the hub of their holdings in this area. The village was granted town rights no later than 1349 and was fortified with walls and towers. Armsheim was said to be the best fortified town in the Nahegau. Parts of the old wall are preserved between the churchyard and Neugasse (lane), as are the Bielgraben (dyke) and underground passages. Three gatekeeper’s houses establish the settlement’s expansion over a long time.
The Gothic church’s size and beauty reveal yet more about Armsheim’s importance as a pilgrimage destination and a Veldenz town. When the family Veldenz died out and the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
was introduced, this development ended: The town passed to Electoral Palatinate in 1471, the walls and towers were torn down, the town was stripped of its town rights, and it was assigned to the Oberamt of Alzey. The Reformation brought the destruction of the church’s interior and an end to the pilgrimage. Traces of the destruction can be seen in Father Odenkemmer’s gravestone in the church’s chancel and in the shattered figure of a saint, which was walled up in an estate on the main street.
The small square, where once stood the communal bakehouse, may be regarded as Armsheim’s village centre. Not far from there was the pranger
Pranger
The pranger is a German physical punishment device related to the stocks and the pillory. The Middle Low German word means something that pinches badly.The pranger chained the victim's neck to a pair of leg restraints fastened around the ankles...
, later the communal scale
Weighing scale
A weighing scale is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object. A spring scale measures weight by the distance a spring deflects under its load...
. Not far above stands the old town hall, from whose façade comes the measurement standard, the iron ell
Ell
An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...
wand, which is now fastened onto the Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
church’s vestibule. Also, the village’s biggest inn was not far.
Outside the village, on the road to Schimsheim, stood the hospital for lepers, the Gutleuthaus, and on the road to Alzey stood the hangman’s house. The toponym Galgenberg (“Gallows Mountain”) south of the railway station refers to the old execution place.
Not only had Armsheim lost its importance as an administrative seat and a pilgrimage centre, but nor was any business or trade forthcoming either. What was lacking was a link to the long-distance road network. The road from Worms to Bingen, the Hohe Straße (“High Road”), led through Flonheim, west of the village, missing it altogether, while the Alte Straße (“Old Road”) from Alzey to Ingelheim ran by to the east, somewhat following the railway’s current alignment. Moreover, the local history in the 17th and 18th centuries was marked by repeated destruction and sacking. Little was left after the Nine Years' War and its attendant ravages in the Palatinate by King Louis XIV’s
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
troops. One of the first systematic expansions of the village came in the 18th century on the filled-in ditch (Neugasse – “New Lane”), but it was not until the early 19th century that this road reached the highway.
From the 19th century onwards
A new epoch in the village’s development dawned with the expansion of the Rhenish-Hessian road network in the 1830s and the building of the Bingen-Worms railway line (Rheinhessenbahn) in 1870, the Mainz-Alzey line (1871) and the Armsheim-Wendelsheim line (1871–1895). The settlement that sprang up after 1870 at the railway station was based on wine, coal and livestock trade as well as cooperageCooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...
. The building development that arose along Bahnhofstraße (“Railway Station Street”, formerly known as Sauweg – “Sow Way”) reflects the railway’s importance to the village over a hundred years. Another village expansion came in the form of a new-town development, begun in 1983, which united the two villages, which had been politically one since 1969.
The phases in the local history from the 16th century onwards can easily be gathered from the development of house and homestead forms. The typical Frankish homesteads bespeak an agricultural livelihood, in part combined with crafts. After 1870 the houses show with their outbuildings how the new townsmen, who came mainly from the countryside, sought a livelihood in hired labour and agricultural sidelines (especially in the railway station area). Houses from the third phase show no regional style and are designed for a life in town, bearing no hint of country life, local history or agriculture, bringing local history into a critical phase.
Today’s municipality came into being on 7 June 1969 through the merger of the two centres of Armsheim and Schimsheim.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Johannes Schnitzer from Armsheim, cartographer of PtolemyPtolemyClaudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
’s Geography
Municipal council
The council is made up of 20 council members, and the honorary mayor as chairman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
FL e.V. | W.A.S | Pro Armsheim | Total | |
| 2009 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 20 seats |
Mayors
- Larius Frensrep about 1618
- Philipus Maul about 1618
- Christoph Wallrab Jan. 1791 - 1797
- Johannes Schöfer about 1796
- Ernst Wallrab 1801 - 1808
- Philipp Hausmann 1808 - 1818
- Ludwig Bayer for Armsheim, Schimsheim and Eichloch 1818 - 1822
- Johann Gerlach Jan. 1822 - 1837
- Ludwig Göttelmann 1837 - 1843
- Friedrich Krug 1843 - 1856
- Jakob Zimlich Jan. 1856 - 1875
- Johann Gerlach Mar. 1875 - 1889
- Peter Eibach Apr. 1890 - 1911
- Philipp Feldmann Jul. 1911 - 1933
- Johann Weintz 1933 - 1945
- Georg Link 1945 - 1946
- Ernst Feldmann 1946 - 1948
- Robert Heinrich Eichberger 1948 - 1952, son of the well known Mainz poet and sculptor Theodor Eichberger.
- Karl Feldmann Jan. 1952 - 1964
- Wilhelm Corell 1964 - 1984
- Lothar Müller 1984 - 1994
- Herbert Feldmann 1994 - 1999
- Udo Nehrbaß-Ahles - SPD 1999 - 2005
- Peter Starck - DFL (2005 - heute)
Town partnerships
Fléville-devant-NancyFléville-devant-Nancy
Fléville-devant-Nancy is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department...
, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle is a department in the Lorraine region of France, named after the Meurthe and Moselle rivers.- History :Meurthe-et-Moselle was created in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War from the parts of the former departments of Moselle and Meurthe which remained French...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
since 1988
Fléville-devant-Nancy has roughly 2,900 inhabitants and, as its name suggests, lies near Nancy.
Coat of arms
The municipality’s armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might be described thus: Per fess sable a demi-lion rampant Or armed, langued and crowned gules, and argent a dexter arm naked embowed lopped of the third.
The upper charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
is the Palatine Lion. The lower charge is canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
, suggesting the municipality’s name (“Arm” means the same in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
as in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
). The oldest town seals date from the early 15th century and already show these two charges. At one time, the hand held a bunch of grapes, symbolizing winegrowing, but this was dropped in the 19th century.
Transport
With its railway station, Armsheim forms an important hub in Rhenish Hesse. Crossing here are the two railway lines Alzey – Mainz and the Rheinhessenbahn from Bingen am RheinBingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
to Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
. Formerly there was also a line sprouting off to the Wiesbachtalbahn towards Wendelsheim
Wendelsheim
Wendelsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
by way of Flonheim
Flonheim
Flonheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, which saw an end to its passenger traffic by 1966. On weekends and holidays, it is possible to travel on the Elsass-Express (“Alsace Express”) to Wissembourg
Wissembourg
Wissembourg is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in northeastern France.It is situated on the little River Lauter close to the border between France and Germany approximately north of Strasbourg and west of Karlsruhe. Wissembourg is a sub-prefecture of the department...
.
Buildings
- Kirche “Zum Heiligen Blut” (Church “To the Holy Blood”). The EvangelicalEvangelical Church in GermanyThe Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
church is one of Rhenish Hesse’s loveliest GothicGothic architectureGothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
village churches. The church is still called Zum Heiligen Blut Christi (“To Christ’s Holy Blood”) even today. It was built in 1431 for “the worship of Christ’s wonder-working blood”.
Even today it is called “Rhenish Hesse’s loveliest village church”. A particular jewel is the memorial organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, which is particularly worthy of protection, built by the famous organ builder Johann Michael Stumm in 1739.
Each year, outstanding organists perform in the concert series Armsheimer Orgelsommer (“organ summer”).
During intermission, concertgoers are treated to the Orgeltropfen (“organ drop”), a yearly special bottling of Armsheim wine, in the summertime church garden.
A particularly strong draw for art lovers from the whole region is the project Kunst und Kirche (“Art and Church”). Each year, there is at least one presentation of contemporary religious artistic creation in the old pilgrimage church. In 2001, a collective artwork was created: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - Versuch einer Annäherung (“Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
– Attempt at Harmonization”), using pictures, words and music. Under Mainz Professor Guido Ludes’s leadership, various creative artists found themselves working together on this coöperative project. Special recognition was conferred through Ministerpräsident Kurt Beck’s collaboration.
- St. Remigius-Kirche (Saint Remigius’s Church) s
- Schloss Veldenz (Veldenz Castle)
Trivia
- Taekwondo und Allkampf Club Armsheim e.V. (TaekwondoTaekwondoTaekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...
and combined martial arts) - TSV Armsheim-Schimsheim 1886 e.V. (gymnastic and sport club)