Gernsheim
Encyclopedia
Gernsheim is a town in Groß-Gerau
district and Darmstadt
region in Hesse
, Germany
, lying on the Rhine.
's birthplace – lies 18 km southwest of Darmstadt
and 16 km northeast of Worms
, right on the Rhine's east bank, south of the Old Rhine near Stockstadt am Rhein in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region.
and Riedstadt
, in the east on the town of Pfungstadt
and the communities of Bickenbach and Alsbach-Hähnlein
(all in Darmstadt-Dieburg
), in the south on the town of Bensheim
and the communities of Einhausen
and Groß-Rohrheim
(all in Kreis Bergstraße
) and in the west on the community of Hamm
(Alzey-Worms
).
settlement in what is now Gernsheim. By the 7th century, this had given way to Frankish
settlement. In 852, Gernsheim had its first documentary mention, and was also later mentioned in the Lorsch codex
.
In 1356, Gernsheim was granted town rights by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
. In 1425, Peter Schöffer
, later to be well known as one of Johannes Gutenberg's colleagues, was born.
In 1937, the village of Allmendfeld, now part of Gernsheim but originally a separate municipality, was founded. It is Hesse's newest town (in the common sense, if not the administrative). It is named after the commons (die Allmende in German
).
might heraldically be described thus: In gules a six-spoked wheel argent.
Gernsheim was among Mainz's many landholdings for centuries (1232-1802). The charge in these arms is the Wheel of Mainz, a common heraldic charge in the region, given the history, but unlike many others, Gernsheim's arms have only this one charge. The town's oldest known seal, from the 14th century, already showed the wheel, as have all seals that later followed. The arms were officially granted in 1925.http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/g/gernshei.htm
Gernsheim has the same arms as Höchst
, a constituent community of Frankfurt am Main
.
Gernsheim lies on the Frankfurt – Mannheim railway line. There are also bus
connections to Darmstadt
, Bensheim
, Goddelau and Lamperthein.
Gernsheim's riverfront on the Rhine is home to a container port
with a railway connection. There are also ferries
across the Rhine to Eich
in Rhineland-Palatinate
.
Groß-Gerau (district)
Groß-Gerau is a Kreis in the south of Hesse , Germany. Neighboring districts are Main-Taunus, district-free Frankfurt, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Bergstraße, Alzey-Worms, Mainz-Bingen, and the district-free cities Mainz and Wiesbaden....
district and Darmstadt
Darmstadt (region)
Darmstadt is one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Hesse, Germany, located in the south of the state.- External links :*...
region in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, 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...
, lying on the Rhine.
Location
The Schöfferstadt Gernsheim, as Gernsheim may officially call itself – it was Peter SchöfferPeter Schöffer
Peter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer was an early German printer, who studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender.-Life and works:Working for Fust, Schöffer was the principal...
's birthplace – lies 18 km southwest of Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
and 16 km northeast of 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...
, right on the Rhine's east bank, south of the Old Rhine near Stockstadt am Rhein in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region.
Neighbouring communities
Gernsheim borders in the north on the communities of BiebesheimBiebesheim
Biebesheim am Rhein is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany.- Location :Biebesheim am Rhein lies in the Hessisches Ried, the northeastern section of the Rhine rift, west of Darmstadt and north of Worms...
and Riedstadt
Riedstadt
Riedstadt, with its municipal area of 73.76 km² is Groß-Gerau district's biggest town by land area. It lies in Hesse, Germany, about 12 km southwest of Darmstadt.-Location:...
, in the east on the town of Pfungstadt
Pfungstadt
Pfungstadt is a German town of 25,117 inhabitants, in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the state of Hesse.The town was first mentioned in 785 as property of the Monastery of Lorsch and got its town rights in 1886 due to its railway station...
and the communities of Bickenbach and Alsbach-Hähnlein
Alsbach-Hähnlein
Alsbach-Hähnlein is a municipality in southern Hesse in the district Darmstadt-Dieburg. It resulted from a merger of the two separate municipalities Alsbach and Hähnlein.- External links :* *...
(all in Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds.-History:...
), in the south on the town of Bensheim
Bensheim
Bensheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany. Bensheim lies on the Bergstraße and at the edge of the Odenwald mountains while at the same time having an open view over the Rhine plain...
and the communities of Einhausen
Einhausen
Einhausen is a community in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany, some 15 km east of Worms.-Location:Einhausen lies on the Bergstraße in the Hessisches Ried and belongs the northeast Rhine valley, which has a rather favourable climate...
and Groß-Rohrheim
Groß-Rohrheim
Groß-Rohrheim is a community in the Bergstraße district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:The community lies 3 km east of the Rhine in the middle of the Hessisches Ried north of Biblis.-Neighbouring communities:...
(all in Kreis Bergstraße
Kreis Bergstraße
Bergstraße is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Groß-Gerau, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Odenwaldkreis, Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the urban district Mannheim, the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, and the urban district of Worms...
) and in the west on the community of Hamm
Hamm am Rhein
Hamm am Rhein is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
(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 :...
).
Constituent communities
Gernsheim consists of the centres of Allmendfeld, Gernsheim and Klein-Rohrheim.History
In the first century, there was RomanRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
settlement in what is now Gernsheim. By the 7th century, this had given way to Frankish
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...
settlement. In 852, Gernsheim had its first documentary mention, and was also later mentioned in the Lorsch codex
Lorsch codex
The Lorsch Codex is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. It consists of 460 pages in large format containing more than 3800 entries...
.
In 1356, Gernsheim was granted town rights by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV , born Wenceslaus , was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor....
. In 1425, Peter Schöffer
Peter Schöffer
Peter Schöffer or Petrus Schoeffer was an early German printer, who studied in Paris and worked as a manuscript copyist in 1451 before apprenticing with Johannes Gutenberg and joining Johann Fust, a goldsmith, lawyer, and money lender.-Life and works:Working for Fust, Schöffer was the principal...
, later to be well known as one of Johannes Gutenberg's colleagues, was born.
In 1937, the village of Allmendfeld, now part of Gernsheim but originally a separate municipality, was founded. It is Hesse's newest town (in the common sense, if not the administrative). It is named after the commons (die Allmende 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....
).
Amalgamated communities
- Allmendfeld, since 1971 (founded 1937)
- Klein-Rohrheim, since 1971 (about 1200 years old)
Coat of arms
Gernsheim's civic coat of 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 heraldically be described thus: In gules a six-spoked wheel argent.
Gernsheim was among Mainz's many landholdings for centuries (1232-1802). The charge in these arms is the Wheel of Mainz, a common heraldic charge in the region, given the history, but unlike many others, Gernsheim's arms have only this one charge. The town's oldest known seal, from the 14th century, already showed the wheel, as have all seals that later followed. The arms were officially granted in 1925.http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/g/gernshei.htm
Gernsheim has the same arms as Höchst
Höchst (Frankfurt am Main)
Höchst is a district of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the Ortsbezirk West, and is subdivided into 4 Stadtbezirke.Höchst am Main became part of Frankfurt am Main in 1928 together with its boroughs Sindlingen, Unterliederbach and Zeilsheim. It is situated 10 km west of downtown...
, a constituent community of Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
.
Buildings
- Wallfahrtskirche Maria Einsiedel (pilgrimagePilgrimageA 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...
church, 1431) - Museum (Peter Schöffer Haus)
- Rathaus (Town Hall)
- Stadthalle (guildhall)
- Old electricity works (Mario Derra)
Regular events
- Rhenish Fishing Festival (Rheinisches Fischerfest) – since 1948, the biggest fishing festival on the Rhine (first weekend in August)
- Street Carnival (Straßenfastnacht, with parade)
- Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt)
- Church Fair (Kerb)
- Downtown Festival (Innenstadtfest)
Transport
Roads serving Gernsheim include Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 44, B44a and B 426. Gernsheim is also connected to the Autobahn A 67, as well as to State Highway (Landesstraße) L 3112 and the K 206.Gernsheim lies on the Frankfurt – Mannheim railway line. There are also bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
connections to Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, Bensheim
Bensheim
Bensheim is a town in the Bergstraße district in southern Hesse, Germany. Bensheim lies on the Bergstraße and at the edge of the Odenwald mountains while at the same time having an open view over the Rhine plain...
, Goddelau and Lamperthein.
Gernsheim's riverfront on the Rhine is home to a container port
Containerization
Containerization is a system of freight transport based on a range of steel intermodal containers...
with a railway connection. There are also ferries
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
across the Rhine to Eich
Eich, Rhineland-Palatinate
Eich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
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 ....
.