Stadecken-Elsheim
Encyclopedia
Stadecken-Elsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
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...

.

Location

Stadecken-Elsheim lies just under 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) (as the crow flies
As the crow flies
"As the crow flies" or beelining is an idiom for the shortest route between two points; the geodesic distance.An example is the great-circle distance between Key West and Pensacola, at either end of the U.S...

) southwest of the state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

 capital 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...

 in the middle of the wine region
Rheinhessen (wine region)
Rheinhessen is the largest of 13 German wine regions for quality wines with under cultivation in 2008. Named for the traditional region of Rhenish Hesse, it lies on the left bank of the River Rhine between Worms and Bingen in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate...

 of Rhenish Hesse on both sides of the Selz
Selz
The Selz is a river in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, a left tributary to the Rhine. It flows through the biggest German wine region, which is called Rheinhessen....

. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm
Nieder-Olm (Verbandsgemeinde)
Verbandsgemeinde Nieder-Olm is a collective municipality in the district Mainz-Bingen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The administrative center of the Verbandsgemeinde Nieder-Olm is located in the town of Nieder-Olm...

, whose seat is in the like-named town
Nieder-Olm
Nieder-Olm is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Until 5 November 2006 it was an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – but it was raised to town the next day...

.

Neighbouring municipalities

Stadecken-Elsheim borders in the west on Jugenheim
Jugenheim in Rheinhessen
Jugenheim in Rheinhessen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...

, in the northeast on Essenheim
Essenheim
Essenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:Essenheim lies in Rhenish Hesse southwest of Mainz...

, in the east on Nieder-Olm
Nieder-Olm
Nieder-Olm is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Until 5 November 2006 it was an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – but it was raised to town the next day...

 (all likewise in the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm), in the northwest on Schwabenheim
Schwabenheim an der Selz
Schwabenheim an der Selz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...

 (Verbandsgemeinde of Gau-Algesheim
Gau-Algesheim (Verbandsgemeinde)
Gau-Algesheim is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Mainz-Bingen in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Gau-Algesheim....

) and in the south on Saulheim
Saulheim
Saulheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...

 (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....

 in 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 :...

).

History

Stadecken-Elsheim is a municipality made up of the two formerly self-administering municipalities of Stadecken and Elsheim on 7 June 1969. The newly created double municipality was supposed to be given the coined name “Sonnenberg”. This suggestion was, however, rejected. Named first in today’s double-barrelled name is Stadecken, for its greater size.

Given that the municipality was formerly two separate ones, there is no common history that can be told about Stadecken-Elsheim. Therefore, to have a clear, comprehensive picture of the whole municipality’s history, one needs to consider each centre’s history separately.

Stadecken’s history

The constituent community of Stadecken gets its name, which is unusual for the region, from the moated castle of Stadeck, which had its first documentary mention as Eckburg am Gestade in 1276. The castle with its surrounding 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...

 stood for centuries as an administrative hub and lordly headquarters with winegrowing that had great importance to the surrounding villages.

In the 13th century, the mighty dynastic family of the County of Katzenelnbogen
County of Katzenelnbogen
The County of Katzenelnbogen was an immediate state of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed between 1095 and 1479, when it was inherited by the Landgraves of Hesse.The estate comprised two separate territories...

, who also ruled 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...

, Sankt Goar
Sankt Goar
Sankt Goar is a town on the left bank of the Middle Rhine in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, whose seat is in the town of Oberwesel....

 and parts of the Taunus
Taunus
The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. It is bounded by the river valleys of Rhine, Main and Lahn. On the opposite side of the Rhine, the mountains are continued by the Hunsrück...

, managed to get a foothold in the Gau when in 1291, as Vögte
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...

they began overseeing three parish churches’ worldly welfare in Hedesheim, Engelstadt
Engelstadt
Engelstadt is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...

, and Ockenheim
Ockenheim
Ockenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...

 for their owner, Sankt Andres zu Köln (monastery). In 1291 Count Eberhart built Stadeck Castle with a moat on the territory of Hedesheim for the area’s security. He soon brought settlers into his castle’s protection and acquired for his castle hamlet in 1301 town rights from Emperor Albrecht
Albert I of Germany
Albert I of Habsburg was King of the Romans and Duke of Austria, the eldest son of German King Rudolph I of Habsburg and his first wife Gertrude of Hohenburg.-Life:...

. Hedesheim, the old village from the 7th century, was forsaken, and nowadays exists only in the cadastral name Im Altdorf (“In the Old Village”). Although the Count’s efforts to enlarge the castle hamlet of Stadeck never bore any fruit, his castle stood as an important barrier against further encroachment by Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...

 and became an important centre for securing his power base.

In 1468, Count Phillip of Katzenelnbogen, before his family died out, endowed his granddaughter Ottilie with Stadeck when she wed the Margrave Christoph I of Baden so that it could later serve as a widow’s seat for the Margravine.

In 1507 the Baden Dynasty sold the Stadeck lordship to the Knights of Quad-Wickrath. This intermediate period, though, only lasted until 1564, when Wolfgang von Zweibrücken bought the Amt, castle and village for 32,000 Gulden
Gulden
Gulden is the historical German term for gold coin Gulden is the historical German term for gold coin Gulden is the historical German term for gold coin (from Middle High German guldin [pfenni(n)c] "golden penny", equivalent to the Dutch term guilder...

. The Counts Palatine had the now newly formed Amt consisting of Stadeck, Essenheim and great holdings in Elsheim’s land area run by Amtsmänner, who lived at Stadeck Castle together with the clergyman, the schoolteacher and four servants. Stadeck Castle can be seen in Zweibrücken’s time as a fortified administrative and financial office. At this time, the village’s population was roughly 350, and these people, along with those from Essenheimern, were obliged to do compulsory labour. The village had self-administration then under the Schultheiß (roughly “reeve”) and the five councilmen. They formed the Stadeck court.

In April 1632, in battle between Spaniards
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, the castle and the greater part of the village were destroyed. In the great devastation in the Palatinate, Stadecken suffered further damage. In 1733 the Amt of Stadeck (Stadecken and Essenheim) passed at the settlement of succession questions to Electoral Palatinate. It was made part of the Oberamt of Oppenheim. The lordly officials assigned to this the family of officials, Hecht, who were from Kreuznach. In the time of 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...

 rule from 1797 to 1813, Stadecken belonged to the department of Donnersberg
Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the highest point in the Rhenish Palatinate, the Donnersberg. It was the southernmost of four départements formed in 1798, when the west bank of the Rhine was annexed by France...

 and the canton of Nieder-Olm. In 1816, the Amt and the village passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...

.

Even in National Socialist times
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, Stadecken had special functions. The local NSDAP group, which in the rural municipality of Stadecken came into being as early as the beginning of April 1929 through wine dealer Moritz Cramer’s efforts, stood as a base for the spread of the party in the northern area of the region of Rhenish Hesse.

Elsheim’s history

Elsheim has a past no less rich in tradition. Its roots reach back, much as Stadecken’s “forerunner village” Hedesheim’s do, 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...

 times. Elsheim had its first documentary mention in 1144 as Ilgesheim. Elsheim, unlike Stadecken, belonged for centuries to the Imperial Villages (that is, those with Imperial immediacy) of the Ingelheimer Grund. This was pledged in 1375 to the Count Palatine and was taken over by him for good as an Imperial pledge in 1407, and thus it remained until the late 18th century. Given that they lived in the Imperial Territory, the Elsheim townsmen enjoyed the same rights and were subject to the same duties as townsmen in Imperial Cities. Even Elsheim, though, had to take its share of destruction 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....

, but it continued, despite the ensuing years of hunger. Better times brought the economy to life. The street network was expanded, a fact still commemorated today by the Ehrensäule (“Column of Honour”).

Town partnerships

Rupt-sur-Moselle
Rupt-sur-Moselle
Rupt-sur-Moselle is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.-External links:*...

, Vosges
Vosges
Vosges is a French department, named after the local mountain range. It contains the hometown of Joan of Arc, Domrémy.-History:The Vosges department is one of the original 83 departments of France, created on February 9, 1790 during the French Revolution. It was made of territories that had been...

, 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 1980 Wilbich
Schimberg
Schimberg is a Thuringian municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany.-References:...

, Eichsfeld district
Eichsfeld (district)
Eichsfeld is a district in Thuringia, Germany, and part of the historical region of Eichsfeld. It is bounded by the districts of Nordhausen, Kyffhäuserkreis and Unstrut-Hainich, and by the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony .-History:In medieval times the Eichsfeld, which is larger than the...

, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

 since 1990 Ershausen
Schimberg
Schimberg is a Thuringian municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany.-References:...

, Eichsfeld district, Thuringia since 1990 Bovolone
Bovolone
Bovolone is a town and a comune in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about 90 km west of Venice and about 25 km southeast of Verona....

, Province of Verona
Province of Verona
The Province of Verona is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Verona.-Overview:The province has an area of 3,109 km², and a total population of 912,981...

, Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 since 2000

Winegrowing

Owing to the high-grade soil and the mild climate in the Rhine valley, winegrowing here looks back on a long tradition. The municipality is therefore characterized by winegrowing, and today, with its Stadecker Spitzberg, Stadecker Lenchen, Elsheimer Blume and Elsheimer Bockstein vineyards on the Mainzer Berg (mountain) it is one of Rhenish Hesse’s biggest winegrowing centres. The typical grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

 variety
Variety (biology)
In botanical nomenclature, variety is a taxonomic rank below that of species: as such, it gets a three-part infraspecific name....

 is Silvaner
Silvaner
Sylvaner or Silvaner is a variety of white wine grape grown primarily in Alsace and Germany, where its official name is Grüner Silvaner. In Germany it is best known as a component of Liebfraumilch and production boomed in the 1970s to the detriment of quality, but it has long enjoyed a better...

, but Müller-Thurgau
Müller-Thurgau
Müller-Thurgau is a variety of white grape which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882. It is a crossing of Riesling with Madeleine Royale. It is used to make white wine in Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Hungary, England, in Australia, Czech Republic, Slovakia,...

, Riesling
Riesling
Riesling is a white grape variety which originated in the Rhine region of Germany. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling white wines. Riesling wines are usually varietally...

, Blauer Portugieser
Blauer Portugieser
Blauer Portugieser is a red Austrian and German wine grape found primarily in the Rheinhessen, Pfalz and wine regions of Lower Austria. It is also one of the permitted grapes in the Hungarian wine Egri Bikavér . In Germany, the cultivated area covered or 4.5% of the total vineyard area in 2007...

 and further various Burgundy varieties are widely grown. A great deal of the Qualitätsweine made here are marketed by the local winemakers themselves. Especially in the autumn, at grape harvesting time, visitors are drawn by the many Straußwirtschaften
Strausse
A Strausse or Strausswirtschaft is a type of wine tavern in winegrowing areas of German-speaking countries that is only open during certain times of the year. Typically it is a pub run by winegrowers and winemakers themselves, in which they sell their own wine directly to the public...

.

Transport

The municipality lies five kilometres away from Autobahn A 63
Bundesautobahn 63
is an autobahn in southwestern Germany. It connects the Mainz area to Kaiserslautern and the A 6 and is therefore an important connection between the Rhine/Main and the Saar areas...

 at the intersection with highways 413, 426 and 428. Stadecken-Elsheim lies within the area served by the Rhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund (RNN) and is served by buses of the Omnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe (ORN) and the Mainzer Verkehrsgesellschaft (MVG) which afford the local transport links to Rhenish Hesse’s outlying areas and to Mainz, and also to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund
Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund
The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund is an organised transport network in the German state of Hesse, centred around the city of Frankfurt am Main. Its head office is located in Hofheim im Taunus...

(RMV).

Famous people

  • Friedrich Axt (1870–1947), Member of the Diet of the People's State of Hesse (Landtag des Volksstaates Hessen, born in Elsheim.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK