Büttelborn
Encyclopedia
Büttelborn is a community in Groß-Gerau
district in Hesse
, Germany
.
an community, lying 12 km from Darmstadt
, 25 km from Mainz
and 30 km from Frankfurt am Main.
, in the east on the town of Weiterstadt
, in the south on the town of Griesheim
(both in Darmstadt-Dieburg
), and in the west and northwest on the town of Groß-Gerau
.
. Once the Katzenelnbogen male line had died out, Büttelborn passed to Hesse in 1479, of which it is still part today. In the Middle Ages
, there was in Büttelborn one of the 30 woods of the Dreieich Royal Hunting Grounds.
. The inhabitants were, however, largely independent of their overlords. Foremost among their activities were grain farming
and cattle raising and the woods north of the Mühlbach served as grazing
lands. The two mills, of which the Eichmühle ("Oak Mill") still stands today, were already being mentioned in documents in 1303.
The time when the Middle Ages were coming to an end and the modern age was dawning was not altogether peaceful, with the village being drawn into the dispute between Katzenelnbogen
and Mainz
in 1342, leading to its being pillaged.
According to the register of the damages, Klein-Gerau suffered heavy destruction. In 1395, a similar thing once again happened at the Hanau
ers' hands. At this time, the greater part of the population was under serfdom
, as documentation shows. The village lay between two yards, the older one near where the town hall now is, and the newer one at what is now the intersection of Bahnhofstrasse and Hauptstrasse, where there was also a small graveyard
and St. Wendelin's Chapel. This chapel
was destroyed in the Schmalkaldic War
, as was the whole village, by General von Bueren's people.
The village's character had not changed up until the Thirty Years' War
. Klein-Gerau had 150 inhabitants when in 1622 Field Marshal Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld
marauded for a while over the Gerauer Land. Then came the Swedes
under Gustav II Adolf
and with them the Plague
. It took more than 50 years for the village to recover from the war's ravages.
As of 1700, the population growth led to clearing north of the Mühlbach that was only brought to an end for good on the 20th century. In 1729 the Town Hall was built and in 1753 a new schoolhouse, which is nowadays the Evangelical
church.
The population was now rising steadily and briskly. In 1779, Klein-Gerau had 323 inhabitants. By 1825, that had risen to 459, and by 1900 to 723, reaching "exactly 1,075" by the time the Second World War broke out in 1939.
The building of the railway between Darmstadt
and Mainz
about 1858 improved the strained situation in the village considerably, affording access to jobs in surrounding towns, and raising many groups' incomes by improving distribution of harvested crops to the market
s in neighbouring towns. Moderately prosperous – for a full century from 1850 to 1950 – were the orchard
s established by the teacher Berz who lived in the village. Even asparagus
farming in the local area began in Klein-Gerau. All this meant that the village and its people were spared the worst troubles at the time of the Industrial Revolution
.
On the night of 17 and 18 April 1932, a fire broke out at the Town Hall, destroying the whole attic, parts of the upper floor and the clock works in the bell tower, together with the bell. Nevertheless, the Town Hall was built anew that same year and placed under protection as a monument.
In the second half of the 20th century, the heretofore secondary industry of agriculture
was coming ever more towards the fore, with this restructuring bringing Klein-Gerau to prominence as a rural residential community.
In 1977, previously independent community of Klein-Gerau was amalgamated as one of three constituent communities of Büttelborn. In the summer of 1996, Klein-Gerau celebrated its 750th anniversary of first documentary mention with, among other things, a great street festival around the renovated historic Town Hall.
For years, Klein-Gerau has been known countrywide as the "Bauchnabel Südhessens" – "South Hesse's Navel".
The name Klein-Gerau means "Small Gerau", and the village shares its name with the independent town of Groß-Gerau
– "Great Gerau".
In 1319, the village was referred to as villa urfelt.
The likeliest explanation of the name's meaning comes from the Hessian Ortsnamensbuch ("Placename Book"), namely from ur (for "moist" or "moist field") and wara (for "care" or "protection").
Worfelden nobles are also to be found in the history books, such as Heinrich von Worfelden, a guarantor for Count Eberhard von Katzenelnbogen in 1297 or Clas Ernst von Worfelden, Sänger zu Oppenheim, Angrenzer in Erfelden ("Singer at Oppenheim, Neighbouring Landowner in Erfelden").
In the Middle Ages, there was in Worfelden one of the 30 woods of the Dreieich Royal Hunting Grounds.
The people of Worfelden at first paid their tax
es to the Landgrave
s of Dornberg, later the Counts of Katzenelnbogen (until 1479), and thereafter to the Landgrave of Darmstadt. In 1791, the village had 2002 Morgen
s of mostly sandy fields and 157 Morgens of meadow
s, and neither forest nor grazing land. The woods had been sold about 1670 to Klein-Gerau, then a separate village.
In 1912, Worfelden was connected to the electrical grid. At the 1929 church festival, water was first drawn from the supply network. The village's former agricultural character was lost after the Second World War, as it was throughout the area. Many people from Worfelden found their livelihoods at Opel
in Rüsselsheim
. In mid 1975, Worfelden's 750th anniversary of first documentary mention was celebrated, before the village had to give up its independence only one and a half years later.
– Mainz line with a station in Klein-Gerau.
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 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...
.
Location
Büttelborn lies on the edge of the northern Hessisches Ried, the northeastern section of the Rhine rift, and even today is still partly rural. Its proximity to the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region makes Büttelborn an attractive suburbSuburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an community, lying 12 km from 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...
, 25 km from 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...
and 30 km from Frankfurt am Main.
Neighbouring communities
Büttelborn borders in the north on the town of Mörfelden-WalldorfMörfelden-Walldorf
Mörfelden-Walldorf is a town in the Groß-Gerau district, situated in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hessen, Germany.- Location :Mörfelden-Walldorf is situated within a triangle formed by the South Hessian cities of Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt and Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt International...
, in the east on the town of Weiterstadt
Weiterstadt
Weiterstadt is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated approx. 6 km northwest of Darmstadt.....
, in the south on the town of Griesheim
Griesheim
Griesheim is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hessen, Germany. It is situated approx. 7 km west of Darmstadt.-History:...
(both 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:...
), and in the west and northwest on the town of Groß-Gerau
Groß-Gerau
Groß-Gerau is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area.-Location:...
.
Constituent communities
Since municipal reforms in 1977, the community has had three centres named Büttelborn (5,266 inhabitants), Klein-Gerau (3,803 inhabitants) and Worfelden (4,345 inhabitants).Büttelborn
Büttelborn's first documentary mention came in 1222 under the name Butelbrunne. In 1257, Büttelborn passed to the Counts of KatzenelnbogenKatzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small city in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenelnbogen.-History:...
. Once the Katzenelnbogen male line had died out, Büttelborn passed to Hesse in 1479, of which it is still part today. In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, there was in Büttelborn one of the 30 woods of the Dreieich Royal Hunting Grounds.
Klein-Gerau
Klein-Gerau's first documentary mention came in 1246. It was part of the Mark Gerau ("Gerau March") and was a fief of the Lords of DornbergDörnberg
Dörnberg is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....
. The inhabitants were, however, largely independent of their overlords. Foremost among their activities were grain farming
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
and cattle raising and the woods north of the Mühlbach served as grazing
Grazing
Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...
lands. The two mills, of which the Eichmühle ("Oak Mill") still stands today, were already being mentioned in documents in 1303.
The time when the Middle Ages were coming to an end and the modern age was dawning was not altogether peaceful, with the village being drawn into the dispute between Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small city in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenelnbogen.-History:...
and 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 1342, leading to its being pillaged.
According to the register of the damages, Klein-Gerau suffered heavy destruction. In 1395, a similar thing once again happened at the Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
ers' hands. At this time, the greater part of the population was under serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
, as documentation shows. The village lay between two yards, the older one near where the town hall now is, and the newer one at what is now the intersection of Bahnhofstrasse and Hauptstrasse, where there was also a small graveyard
Graveyard
A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
and St. Wendelin's Chapel. This chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was destroyed in the Schmalkaldic War
Schmalkaldic League
The Schmalkaldic League was a defensive alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire during the mid-16th century. Although originally started for religious motives soon after the start of the Protestant Reformation, its members eventually intended for the League to replace the Holy...
, as was the whole village, by General von Bueren's people.
The village's character had not changed up until 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....
. Klein-Gerau had 150 inhabitants when in 1622 Field Marshal Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld
Ernst von Mansfeld
Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld , was a German military commander during the early years of the Thirty Years' War.-Biography:...
marauded for a while over the Gerauer Land. Then came the 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....
under Gustav II Adolf
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...
and with them the Plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
. It took more than 50 years for the village to recover from the war's ravages.
As of 1700, the population growth led to clearing north of the Mühlbach that was only brought to an end for good on the 20th century. In 1729 the Town Hall was built and in 1753 a new schoolhouse, which is nowadays 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 was now rising steadily and briskly. In 1779, Klein-Gerau had 323 inhabitants. By 1825, that had risen to 459, and by 1900 to 723, reaching "exactly 1,075" by the time the Second World War broke out in 1939.
The building of the railway between 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 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...
about 1858 improved the strained situation in the village considerably, affording access to jobs in surrounding towns, and raising many groups' incomes by improving distribution of harvested crops to the market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
s in neighbouring towns. Moderately prosperous – for a full century from 1850 to 1950 – were the orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
s established by the teacher Berz who lived in the village. Even asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
farming in the local area began in Klein-Gerau. All this meant that the village and its people were spared the worst troubles at the time of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
On the night of 17 and 18 April 1932, a fire broke out at the Town Hall, destroying the whole attic, parts of the upper floor and the clock works in the bell tower, together with the bell. Nevertheless, the Town Hall was built anew that same year and placed under protection as a monument.
In the second half of the 20th century, the heretofore secondary industry of agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
was coming ever more towards the fore, with this restructuring bringing Klein-Gerau to prominence as a rural residential community.
In 1977, previously independent community of Klein-Gerau was amalgamated as one of three constituent communities of Büttelborn. In the summer of 1996, Klein-Gerau celebrated its 750th anniversary of first documentary mention with, among other things, a great street festival around the renovated historic Town Hall.
For years, Klein-Gerau has been known countrywide as the "Bauchnabel Südhessens" – "South Hesse's Navel".
The name Klein-Gerau means "Small Gerau", and the village shares its name with the independent town of Groß-Gerau
Groß-Gerau
Groß-Gerau is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area.-Location:...
– "Great Gerau".
Worfelden
Worfelden's first documentary mention came in 1225, under the name Woruelde, when a Heinrich von Worfelden was named as a witness to the division of a plot of land. The document also renders the name Worfelden and Woruelden. Other spellings that have cropped up over the course of the years are Urfelt, Würfelt, Worveldin and Wohrfelden.In 1319, the village was referred to as villa urfelt.
The likeliest explanation of the name's meaning comes from the Hessian Ortsnamensbuch ("Placename Book"), namely from ur (for "moist" or "moist field") and wara (for "care" or "protection").
Worfelden nobles are also to be found in the history books, such as Heinrich von Worfelden, a guarantor for Count Eberhard von Katzenelnbogen in 1297 or Clas Ernst von Worfelden, Sänger zu Oppenheim, Angrenzer in Erfelden ("Singer at Oppenheim, Neighbouring Landowner in Erfelden").
In the Middle Ages, there was in Worfelden one of the 30 woods of the Dreieich Royal Hunting Grounds.
The people of Worfelden at first paid their tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
es to the Landgrave
Landgrave
Landgrave was a title used in the Holy Roman Empire and later on by its former territories. The title refers to a count who had feudal duty directly to the Holy Roman Emperor...
s of Dornberg, later the Counts of Katzenelnbogen (until 1479), and thereafter to the Landgrave of Darmstadt. In 1791, the village had 2002 Morgen
Morgen
A morgen was a unit of measurement of land in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the Dutch colonies, including South Africa and Taiwan. The size of a morgen varies from 1/2 to 2½ acres, which equals approximately 0.2 to 1 ha...
s of mostly sandy fields and 157 Morgens of meadow
Meadow
A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...
s, and neither forest nor grazing land. The woods had been sold about 1670 to Klein-Gerau, then a separate village.
In 1912, Worfelden was connected to the electrical grid. At the 1929 church festival, water was first drawn from the supply network. The village's former agricultural character was lost after the Second World War, as it was throughout the area. Many people from Worfelden found their livelihoods at Opel
Opel
Adam Opel AG, generally shortened to Opel, is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1862. Opel has been building automobiles since 1899, and became an Aktiengesellschaft in 1929...
in Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim
Rüsselsheim is the largest town in the Groß-Gerau district in the Rhein-Main region of Germany. It is one of seven special status towns in Hesse and is located on the Main, only a few kilometres from its mouth in Mainz. The suburbs of Bauschheim and Königstädten are included in Rüsselsheim...
. In mid 1975, Worfelden's 750th anniversary of first documentary mention was celebrated, before the village had to give up its independence only one and a half years later.
Schools
- Pestalozzischule in Büttelborn
- Erich-Kästner-Schule in Klein-Gerau
- Grundschule Worfelden in Worfelden (primary school)
Transport
Büttelborn is connected to Autobahn A67 and Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B42. There is also a railway connection on the AschaffenburgAschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg is a city in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not considered part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is the administrative seat.Aschaffenburg is known as the Tor zum Spessart or "gate to the Spessart"...
– Mainz line with a station in Klein-Gerau.
Events
- Kerb (kermesseKermesseKermesse or kermis, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' and 'mis' that became borrowed in English and French, originally denoting the mass said on the anniversary of the foundation of a church and in honour of the patron...
) - FastnachtFastnachtThe Swabian–Alemannic Fastnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria....
(carnival) - Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)