Eimsheim
Encyclopedia
Eimsheim is a winegrowing Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
s.
suggest that there were settlers in the time between 1800 and 1000 BC. The remains of a column capital from a Jupiter temple have also been found.
About 500, the Franks
settled here; the placename Uminisheim goes back to the tribal elder Umin. Eimsheim, at the time belonging to the Wormsgau (a county), had its first documentary mention in 762 in a donation document in which Egilolf transferred a vineyard in the Huminsheimer Marca to the Lorsch Abbey
.
In the early 11th century Eimsheim belonged to the Bishopric of Worms
, which later ceded it to the “Weidas” Cistercian convent
near Dautenheim
. In 1485, half of the village was handed over to the Elector Palatine Philipp “the Gallant”
, while the other half only passed to Electoral Palatinate in 1551 under Philipp’s son Friedrich “the Wise”
.
In 1780 the new Catholic church was completed. Shortly thereafter, Eimsheim fell under French
administration. Eimsheim citizens, too, fought in the Napoleonic Wars
. As a memorial to this time, the so-called Napoleonstein was put up at the old graveyard in 1852 in memory of the veterans.
In a phase of great building activity between 1890 and 1906 arose, among other things, the Old School, the New School, the Town Hall and the Evangelical
church. The population had reached some 600 by this time.
In 1982, Eimsheim won first prize in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our Village Should Be Lovelier”).
community.
).
The 2004 municipal election was run on the majority vote
principle, without lists; each councillor was directly elected.
might be described thus: Per fess sable a demi-lion rampant Or armed, langued and crowned gules, and azure from base issuant a spring basin of the second masoned of the first from which a stream of water argent surmounting a crozier of the second bendwise sinister.
Eimsheim belonged from 1565 until Napoleonic times to the Electoral Palatinate, explaining the Palatine Lion in the upper part of the escutcheon. The Catholic Church is consecrated to Saint Pirmin
, who therefore appeared in a court seal known from 1546. Another court seal with the same composition comes from 1769. In both seals, the saint’s full figure is shown, and he is clothed as a bishop with a mitre and a crozier. Beside the saint is a small spring basin on the ground with a stream of water coming forth from it. This motif recalls that Saint Pirmin, according to legend, made a spring come forth with a blow from his bishop’s crozier. The spring’s water was said to have healed eye complaints and rheumatic illnesses. The spring itself water was said to have been on Reichenau Island
in Lake Constance
, where Pirmin founded his well known monastery – and indeed where he got rid of all the venomous snakes. The saint, who died in Hornbach
near Zweibrücken
– his last place of work – was one of Southwest Germany’s most important missionaries. In the Middle Rhine area he seldom appears as a church’s patron saint, and that he is such a thing for a church in Eimsheim can be explained by the municipality’s former allegiance to the Palatinate, where his name often cropped up. Furthermore, to this day, springs can still be found in Eimsheim giving forth water from slopes, and they are also to be seen on many farms. As late as 1906, the municipality got its water supply from ten municipally owned springs.
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 Mainz-Bingen
Mainz-Bingen
Mainz-Bingen is a district in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Rheingau-Taunus, the district-free cities Wiesbaden and Mainz, the districts Groß-Gerau, Alzey-Worms, Bad Kreuznach, Rhein-Hunsrück.-History:During the French occupation under Napoleon the district...
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...
.
Land use
The municipality’s area is 451 ha, of which some 100 ha is given over to vineyardVineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s.
History
Finds unearthed from the 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...
suggest that there were settlers in the time between 1800 and 1000 BC. The remains of a column capital from a Jupiter temple have also been found.
About 500, the Franks
Franks
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...
settled here; the placename Uminisheim goes back to the tribal elder Umin. Eimsheim, at the time belonging to the Wormsgau (a county), had its first documentary mention in 762 in a donation document in which Egilolf transferred a vineyard in the Huminsheimer Marca to the Lorsch Abbey
Lorsch Abbey
The Abbey of Lorsch is a former Imperial Abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about 10 km east of Worms, one of the most renowned monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, its remains are among the most important pre-Romanesque–Carolingian style buildings in Germany...
.
In the early 11th century Eimsheim belonged to the Bishopric of Worms
Bishopric of Worms
The Bishopric of Worms was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Located on both banks of the Rhine around Worms just north of the union of that river with the Neckar, it was largely surrounded by the Palatinate. Worms had been the seat of a bishop from Roman times...
, which later ceded it to the “Weidas” Cistercian convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
near Dautenheim
Alzey
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....
. In 1485, half of the village was handed over to the Elector Palatine Philipp “the Gallant”
Philip, Elector Palatine
Philip the Upright, Elector Palatine of the Rhine was an Elector Palatine of the Rhine from the house of Wittelsbach from 1476 to 1508....
, while the other half only passed to Electoral Palatinate in 1551 under Philipp’s son Friedrich “the Wise”
Frederick II, Elector Palatine
Frederick II, Count Palatine of the Rhine , a member of the Wittelsbach dynasty, was Prince-elector of the Palatinate from 1544 to 1556.- Biography :...
.
In 1780 the new Catholic church was completed. Shortly thereafter, Eimsheim fell under French
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...
administration. Eimsheim citizens, too, fought in the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. As a memorial to this time, the so-called Napoleonstein was put up at the old graveyard in 1852 in memory of the veterans.
In a phase of great building activity between 1890 and 1906 arose, among other things, the Old School, the New School, the Town Hall and 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. The population had reached some 600 by this time.
In 1982, Eimsheim won first prize in the contest Unser Dorf soll schöner werden (“Our Village Should Be Lovelier”).
Religion
There are two churches, St. Pirmin for the Catholic community and Christ the Redeemer for the EvangelicalEvangelical 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...
community.
Ortsbürgermeister
The Ortsbürgermeister – Mayor of the Ortsgemeinde – is Hans-Joachim Eller (SPDSocial Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
).
The 2004 municipal election was run on the majority vote
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
principle, without lists; each councillor was directly elected.
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 azure from base issuant a spring basin of the second masoned of the first from which a stream of water argent surmounting a crozier of the second bendwise sinister.
Eimsheim belonged from 1565 until Napoleonic times to the Electoral Palatinate, explaining the Palatine Lion in the upper part of the escutcheon. The Catholic Church is consecrated to Saint Pirmin
Saint Pirmin
Saint Pirmin , also named Pirminius, was a monk, strongly influenced by Celtic Christianity and Saint Amand.-Biography:...
, who therefore appeared in a court seal known from 1546. Another court seal with the same composition comes from 1769. In both seals, the saint’s full figure is shown, and he is clothed as a bishop with a mitre and a crozier. Beside the saint is a small spring basin on the ground with a stream of water coming forth from it. This motif recalls that Saint Pirmin, according to legend, made a spring come forth with a blow from his bishop’s crozier. The spring’s water was said to have healed eye complaints and rheumatic illnesses. The spring itself water was said to have been on Reichenau Island
Reichenau Island
Reichenau Island lies in Lake Constance in southern Germany, at approximately . It lies between Gnadensee and Untersee, two parts of Lake Constance, almost due west of the city of Konstanz. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway that was completed in 1838...
in Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
, where Pirmin founded his well known monastery – and indeed where he got rid of all the venomous snakes. The saint, who died in Hornbach
Hornbach
Hornbach is a municipality in the Südwestpfalz district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated southwest of the Palatinate forest, on the border with France, south of Zweibrücken. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Zweibrücken-Land.The monastery was the most likely reason for the...
near Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.- Name :Zweibrücken appears in Latin texts as Geminus Pons and Bipontum, in French texts as Deux-Ponts. The name derives from Middle High German Zweinbrücken...
– his last place of work – was one of Southwest Germany’s most important missionaries. In the Middle Rhine area he seldom appears as a church’s patron saint, and that he is such a thing for a church in Eimsheim can be explained by the municipality’s former allegiance to the Palatinate, where his name often cropped up. Furthermore, to this day, springs can still be found in Eimsheim giving forth water from slopes, and they are also to be seen on many farms. As late as 1906, the municipality got its water supply from ten municipally owned springs.