Gau-Algesheim
Encyclopedia
Gau-Algesheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Gau-Algesheim
, a kind of collective municipality.
and just under 3 km away from the Rhine on the edge of the Ingelheimer Rheinebene (“Ingelheim Rhine Plain”) on the terraces at the Rhenish Hesse West Plateau, into whose varied soil structure the “Geo-Ecological Teaching Path” on the Westerberg’s slopes allows a glimpse. Through the municipal area flows the Welzbach.
, Appenheim
, Ockenheim
and Bingen
.
times this was a border area, but already by the Middle Ages
it had grown into part of the Holy Roman Empire
’s heartland.
Before the town’s first documentary mention in the Lorsch codex
in 766, Alagastesheim may already have had more than two centuries of history behind it. The documents about Alagastesheim and Bergen (Laurenziberg) in the lists of holdings from the Lorsch
and Fulda Abbeys beginning in 766-767 allow inferences about cropraising, livestock raising, winegrowing, fruitgrowing and individual inhabitants’ wealth. Gau-Algesheim came to the fore in history along with all the other places in the Binger Land on 14 June 983, when Emperor Otto II
donated to his Mainz Archchancellor Willigis
in Verona
the town of Bingen
and the land “that stretches this side of the Rhine from the bridge over the Selzbach as far as Heimbach, beyond the Rhine but from the spot where the Elzbächlein (a small stream) flows into the same, as far as the little village of Caub”.
Margrave
s. The Margrave himself then further pledged it in 1461, and the villages of Dromersheim, Gau-Bickelheim, Ockenheim, Windesheim, Kempten
, Münster and Büdesheim to the financially strong Count Philipp of Katzenelnbogen-Diez. Under him, the term Wein vom Gau, meaning “Wine from the Gau (or Region)”, was coined. As Philipp died in 1479 without a male heir, Gau-Algesheim ended up involved in the Katzenelnbogen succession dispute.
“Living well under the crozier” was not something that held true at all times. Often domestic or foreign armies would sweep through the town bringing war’s attendant burdens and havoc, for instance, in 1248 during the struggles between Emperor Frederick II’s
and King William II’s troops, in 1553 in the war of Protestant
princely opposition to Emperor Charles V
, in 1631 when Swedish
King Gustav II Adolf’s
troops burnt much of the town down, or 1690, 1733 and 1792, when French
soldiers burnt or seized Gau-Algesheim.
Even the two conferrals of town rights, the one in 1332 at Elector of Mainz Baldwin of Luxembourg’s request by Emperor Louis the Bavarian
and the one in 1355 by King Charles IV
in support of the Archbishop of Mainz, were primarily motivated by political and military considerations and were only secondarily meant to further the towsfolk’s security and well-being. Nevertheless there arose a weekly market and a wine market along with a healthy number of craftsmen and businessmen with the urban life then creating supply and demand for regular markets.
At the same time, a great many financial pledges and the mention of a Jewish head tax
point to rather a high demand for cash and business. Eventually, for over 400 years, from the latter half of the 14th century until the end of the Old Empire
, there arose the Amt of Algesheim under the governance of Amtmänner, Landschreiber, Amtskeller (all titles for various officials) and Schultheißen (roughly “sheriffs”) of the Mainz overlords.
The overlords’ might, already demonstrated in the municipal law of 15 July 1417, was keenly felt by Gau-Algesheim when Elector Albrecht
of Brandenburg put an end to efforts to secure self-administration for the town by issuing the state law of 3 January 1527 because the town had taken part in the “Rheingau Uprising” in 1525, and released “unser stadt Algeßheym von unserm landt dem Ringgaw” (“our town Algesheim from our land, the Rheingau”, in archaic German
), cutting the town off from the Rheingau, supposedly in perpetuity. Alongside this, pictures of the town, cadastral plans and village descriptions from cartographer Gottfried Mascop’s 1577 atlas, the 1590 and 1668 village descriptions and the 1595 Police Law give impressions of the extent to which, and within what bounds of administrative structures the small farming town’s social and economic life, and also the townsfolk’s self-awareness and self-will developed.
and German
respectively), Gau-Algesheim had a personal continuity from the time of French rule on into Hessian times. Eickemeyer gave the community a modern shape by reforming fire control, restructuring finances, expanding the town’s building work, and furthering schooling and agriculture.
The town’s growing importance found expression in the institution of a notary’s office (1809), the building of the Ludwigsbahn (Mainz-Bingen railway) with a station (1859), the building of a postal depot (1861) out of which grew postal shipping and a post office, and in Georg Presser’s (1862) and the Avenarius Brothers’ (1869) first factories.
The traces left in Gau-Algesheim by the Catholic priest Peter Koser from 1869 to 1890 are still apparent today. The Rheinischer Volksbote (“Rhenish Messenger”), first published by the printer Reidel in 1869 and under Father Koser’s editorship, was for decades a regionally important organ of the Catholic Centre Party
. A teacher preparation institute (an institution that prepared students for teacher’s college), known to locals as the Lateinschul (“Latin School”) or the Aljesemer Hochschul (“Algesheim College”, in dialectal German), a childcare centre, a credit and savings union on a coöperative basis, a farmers’ and consumers’ association, and not least of all the newly built Catholic parish church and the establishment of church music in 1888 confirm Peter Koser’s religious and sociopolitical contributions in a time of political and ideological struggles.
holding its own as the strongest party with 46.6% of the vote, against the National Socialists with 26.6%. The SPD
and the Communists
trailed rather badly with 16.2% and 6.9% respectively. After the dissolution or banning of democratic political parties and ecclesiastical associations, and the Gleichschaltung
of clubs, opponents of National Socialism were progressively isolated and intimidated. In the context of the dispute over the Reichskonkordat
between the German Empire and the Roman Curia
, members of the Centre, and also two Social Democrats, were defamed as separatists and traitors to the Fatherland, resulting in their being delivered to Osthofen Concentration Camp. When the Second World War ended, the roughly 80 dead and missing from the First World War were joined by a further 200 or so dead, murdered and missing.
41) over the railway line (1957), the cycling sport hall (1960), the new Catholic kindergarten
(1961) and the expansion of the Albertus-Hospital (1962) and the primary school (1963) changed the town’s face. Once the town administration had moved from the Town Hall on the marketplace to Schloss Ardeck (castle) in 1969, the results of administrative reform made themselves known, among which were the Regierungsbezirk
of Rheinhessen-Pfalz
(1968), the Mainz-Bingen
district (1969) and the Verbandsgemeinde of Gau-Algesheim
(1972) as well as the new Schloss-Ardeck-Grundschule (primary school, 1979), the Schloss-Ardeck-Sporthalle (1981) and the Christian Erbach Regional School (2003).
Life in the many clubs and the conviviality are anchored in an historical foundation: in the traditional festivals, the pilgrimage on the Laurenziberg on the Sunday after Saint Lawrence’s Day (10 August), the kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerb) around Assumption Day
(15 August), the Young Wine Festival on the second weekend in October and the Christmas Market on the first Sunday in Advent.
, Côte-d'Or
, France
Caprino Veronese
, Province of Verona
, Veneto
, Italy
Redford
, Michigan
, USA
Neudietendorf
, Gotha district
, Thuringia
Erfurt-Stotternheim
, Thuringia
The partnerships began in 1964 with Saulieu. After both places’ mayors had met, a group of Catholic youths (from the Katholische Junge Gemeinde) travelled to a campground in Burgundy. The links with Caprino Veronese, Redford, Neudietendorf and Stotternheim, too, began with contacts by individual persons or groups before there was ever official contact, much less formal ties. For its dedication to nurturing town partnerships, Gau-Algesheim was awarded the Europe Diploma in 1994 by the Council of Europe
, and the European Flag of Honour in 1995.
In 2002, the many stresses on the town and its inhabitants were greatly eased by state recognition of the town as a Tourism Municipality (Fremdenverkehrsgemeinde).
might be described thus: Gules a cross crosslet pattée couped top and bottom by a wheel in each of chief and base spoked of six lozengy argent.
The arms are derived from those borne by Mainz, which is explained by an historical connection. Gau-Algesheim was an Archbishopric of Mainz
holding until 1803. The arms were conferred in 1853, at least officially. The wheel-and-cross composition had, however, been appearing in town seals since at least the 15th century.
The town’s landmarks are the ensemble of the Catholic parish church, the Town Hall, townsmen’s houses and marketplace, Schloss Ardeck (castle), the Graulturm (tower) and the Evangelical
church.
Schloss Ardeck has housed since 2002 the Rhenish Hesse Bicycle Museum. It is open every Sunday and holiday from 11:00 to 17:00 from Easter to the Young Wine Festival on the second weekend in October.
Since late 2005, the new regional “Rheinwelle” adventure pool on Landesstraße (State Road) 419 within Gau-Algesheim town limits has been open. It is run jointly by Gau-Algesheim, Ingelheim and 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...
. It is the seat of the 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....
, a kind of collective municipality.
Location
Gau-Algesheim lies roughly 20 km west of MainzMainz
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 just under 3 km away from the Rhine on the edge of the Ingelheimer Rheinebene (“Ingelheim Rhine Plain”) on the terraces at the Rhenish Hesse West Plateau, into whose varied soil structure the “Geo-Ecological Teaching Path” on the Westerberg’s slopes allows a glimpse. Through the municipal area flows the Welzbach.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, these are IngelheimIngelheim am Rhein
Ingelheim am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany on the Rhine’s west bank. The town calls itself the Rotweinstadt and since 1996 it has been Mainz-Bingen’s district seat....
, Appenheim
Appenheim
Appenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, 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 :...
and 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...
.
Constituent communities
Gau-Algesheim’s Stadtteile are Gau-Algesheim and Laurenziberg.History
In RomanAncient 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....
times this was a border area, but already by 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...
it had grown into part of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
’s heartland.
Before the town’s first documentary mention 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 766, Alagastesheim may already have had more than two centuries of history behind it. The documents about Alagastesheim and Bergen (Laurenziberg) in the lists of holdings from the Lorsch
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...
and Fulda Abbeys beginning in 766-767 allow inferences about cropraising, livestock raising, winegrowing, fruitgrowing and individual inhabitants’ wealth. Gau-Algesheim came to the fore in history along with all the other places in the Binger Land on 14 June 983, when Emperor Otto II
Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto II , called the Red, was the third ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty, the son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Italy.-Early years and co-ruler with Otto I:...
donated to his Mainz Archchancellor Willigis
Willigis
Saint Willigis was Archbishop of Mainz from 975 until his death as well as a statesman of the Holy Roman Empire.-Life:...
in Verona
Verona
Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
the town of 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 the land “that stretches this side of the Rhine from the bridge over the Selzbach as far as Heimbach, beyond the Rhine but from the spot where the Elzbächlein (a small stream) flows into the same, as far as the little village of Caub”.
Middle Ages
Under financial pressure, Gau-Algesheim was pledged to the BadenBaden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
Margrave
Margrave
A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...
s. The Margrave himself then further pledged it in 1461, and the villages of Dromersheim, Gau-Bickelheim, Ockenheim, Windesheim, Kempten
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...
, Münster and Büdesheim to the financially strong Count Philipp of Katzenelnbogen-Diez. Under him, the term Wein vom Gau, meaning “Wine from the Gau (or Region)”, was coined. As Philipp died in 1479 without a male heir, Gau-Algesheim ended up involved in the Katzenelnbogen succession dispute.
“Living well under the crozier” was not something that held true at all times. Often domestic or foreign armies would sweep through the town bringing war’s attendant burdens and havoc, for instance, in 1248 during the struggles between Emperor Frederick II’s
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
and King William II’s troops, in 1553 in the war of Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
princely opposition to Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
, in 1631 when Swedish
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....
King Gustav II Adolf’s
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,...
troops burnt much of the town down, or 1690, 1733 and 1792, when 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...
soldiers burnt or seized Gau-Algesheim.
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....
and the one in 1355 by King Charles IV
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 support of the Archbishop of Mainz, were primarily motivated by political and military considerations and were only secondarily meant to further the towsfolk’s security and well-being. Nevertheless there arose a weekly market and a wine market along with a healthy number of craftsmen and businessmen with the urban life then creating supply and demand for regular markets.
At the same time, a great many financial pledges and the mention of a Jewish head tax
Leibzoll
The Leibzoll was a special toll which Jews had to pay in most of the European states in the Middle Ages and up to the beginning of the nineteenth century.- Rate of the toll :...
point to rather a high demand for cash and business. Eventually, for over 400 years, from the latter half of the 14th century until the end of the Old Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, there arose the Amt of Algesheim under the governance of Amtmänner, Landschreiber, Amtskeller (all titles for various officials) and Schultheißen (roughly “sheriffs”) of the Mainz overlords.
The overlords’ might, already demonstrated in the municipal law of 15 July 1417, was keenly felt by Gau-Algesheim when Elector Albrecht
Albert of Mainz
Cardinal Albert of Hohenzollern was Elector and Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.-Biography:...
of Brandenburg put an end to efforts to secure self-administration for the town by issuing the state law of 3 January 1527 because the town had taken part in the “Rheingau Uprising” in 1525, and released “unser stadt Algeßheym von unserm landt dem Ringgaw” (“our town Algesheim from our land, the Rheingau”, in archaic 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....
), cutting the town off from the Rheingau, supposedly in perpetuity. Alongside this, pictures of the town, cadastral plans and village descriptions from cartographer Gottfried Mascop’s 1577 atlas, the 1590 and 1668 village descriptions and the 1595 Police Law give impressions of the extent to which, and within what bounds of administrative structures the small farming town’s social and economic life, and also the townsfolk’s self-awareness and self-will developed.
French Revolution and the years that followed
From 1797 to 1815, Gau-Algesheim, along with the whole of the territory on the Rhine’s left bank, belonged to the French Republic or the Napoleonic Empire. In the person of scientist, engineer and officer Rudolf Eickemeyer, who was from 1811 to 1813 and again from 1814 to 1815 the maire and from 1815 to 1822 the Bürgermeister (“mayor” in FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and 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....
respectively), Gau-Algesheim had a personal continuity from the time of French rule on into Hessian times. Eickemeyer gave the community a modern shape by reforming fire control, restructuring finances, expanding the town’s building work, and furthering schooling and agriculture.
The town’s growing importance found expression in the institution of a notary’s office (1809), the building of the Ludwigsbahn (Mainz-Bingen railway) with a station (1859), the building of a postal depot (1861) out of which grew postal shipping and a post office, and in Georg Presser’s (1862) and the Avenarius Brothers’ (1869) first factories.
The traces left in Gau-Algesheim by the Catholic priest Peter Koser from 1869 to 1890 are still apparent today. The Rheinischer Volksbote (“Rhenish Messenger”), first published by the printer Reidel in 1869 and under Father Koser’s editorship, was for decades a regionally important organ of the Catholic Centre Party
Centre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
. A teacher preparation institute (an institution that prepared students for teacher’s college), known to locals as the Lateinschul (“Latin School”) or the Aljesemer Hochschul (“Algesheim College”, in dialectal German), a childcare centre, a credit and savings union on a coöperative basis, a farmers’ and consumers’ association, and not least of all the newly built Catholic parish church and the establishment of church music in 1888 confirm Peter Koser’s religious and sociopolitical contributions in a time of political and ideological struggles.
Third Reich
In the 5 March 1933 Reichstag elections, the town’s Catholic character showed itself once again with the Centre PartyCentre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
holding its own as the strongest party with 46.6% of the vote, against the National Socialists with 26.6%. The SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
and the Communists
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
trailed rather badly with 16.2% and 6.9% respectively. After the dissolution or banning of democratic political parties and ecclesiastical associations, and the Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
of clubs, opponents of National Socialism were progressively isolated and intimidated. In the context of the dispute over the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
between the German Empire and the Roman Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
, members of the Centre, and also two Social Democrats, were defamed as separatists and traitors to the Fatherland, resulting in their being delivered to Osthofen Concentration Camp. When the Second World War ended, the roughly 80 dead and missing from the First World War were joined by a further 200 or so dead, murdered and missing.
Since the war
The 600th anniversary of Gau-Algesheim’s elevation to town in 1355 was recalled by a days-long festival in the summer of 1955, which formed the high point, and indeed the completion of the phase of reconstruction and restoration of traditional structures. Within a few years, the roadbridge (BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
41) over the railway line (1957), the cycling sport hall (1960), the new Catholic kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
(1961) and the expansion of the Albertus-Hospital (1962) and the primary school (1963) changed the town’s face. Once the town administration had moved from the Town Hall on the marketplace to Schloss Ardeck (castle) in 1969, the results of administrative reform made themselves known, among which were the Regierungsbezirk
Regierungsbezirk
In Germany, a Government District, in German: Regierungsbezirk – is a subdivision of certain federal states .They are above the Kreise, Landkreise, and kreisfreie Städte...
of Rheinhessen-Pfalz
Rheinhessen-Pfalz
Rheinhessen-Pfalz was one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located in the south of the state...
(1968), 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 (1969) and the 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....
(1972) as well as the new Schloss-Ardeck-Grundschule (primary school, 1979), the Schloss-Ardeck-Sporthalle (1981) and the Christian Erbach Regional School (2003).
Life in the many clubs and the conviviality are anchored in an historical foundation: in the traditional festivals, the pilgrimage on the Laurenziberg on the Sunday after Saint Lawrence’s Day (10 August), the kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Kerb) around Assumption Day
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
(15 August), the Young Wine Festival on the second weekend in October and the Christmas Market on the first Sunday in Advent.
Town partnerships
SaulieuSaulieu
Saulieu is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in the Burgundy region in eastern France.Capital of the Morvan, and found in the Morvan Regional Park, Saulieu is located to the southeast of Paris on the RN6 road.-History:...
, Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or
Côte-d'Or is a department in the eastern part of France.- History :Côte-d'Or is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was formed from part of the former province of Burgundy.- Geography :...
, 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...
Caprino Veronese
Caprino Veronese
Caprino Veronese is a comune in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about 120 km west of Venice and about 30 km northwest 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...
Redford
Redford Township, Michigan
The U.S. Census Bureau also defined Redford Township as a census-designated place in the 2000 Census so that the community would appear on the list of places as well on the list of county subdivisions...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Neudietendorf
Neudietendorf
Neudietendorf is a village and a former municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 December 2009, it is part of the municipality Nesse-Apfelstädt. Since the mid-18th Century it has been the seat of a Congregation of the Moravian Church who established well-known...
, Gotha district
Gotha (district)
Gotha is a Kreis in the middle of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Unstrut-Hainich, Sömmerda, the district-free city Erfurt, Ilm-Kreis, Schmalkalden-Meiningen and the Wartburgkreis.-History:...
, 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....
Erfurt-Stotternheim
Erfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, Thuringia
The partnerships began in 1964 with Saulieu. After both places’ mayors had met, a group of Catholic youths (from the Katholische Junge Gemeinde) travelled to a campground in Burgundy. The links with Caprino Veronese, Redford, Neudietendorf and Stotternheim, too, began with contacts by individual persons or groups before there was ever official contact, much less formal ties. For its dedication to nurturing town partnerships, Gau-Algesheim was awarded the Europe Diploma in 1994 by the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, and the European Flag of Honour in 1995.
In 2002, the many stresses on the town and its inhabitants were greatly eased by state recognition of the town as a Tourism Municipality (Fremdenverkehrsgemeinde).
Coat of arms
The town’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: Gules a cross crosslet pattée couped top and bottom by a wheel in each of chief and base spoked of six lozengy argent.
The arms are derived from those borne by Mainz, which is explained by an historical connection. Gau-Algesheim was an Archbishopric of 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...
holding until 1803. The arms were conferred in 1853, at least officially. The wheel-and-cross composition had, however, been appearing in town seals since at least the 15th century.
Economy and infrastructure
The town lies in a favourable location for transport on the Left Rhine railway towards Frankfurt, Koblenz, and Mainz and the line to Bad Kreuznach, which connects to the Nahe Valley line to Saarbrücken and on Autobahn A 60.The town’s landmarks are the ensemble of the Catholic parish church, the Town Hall, townsmen’s houses and marketplace, Schloss Ardeck (castle), the Graulturm (tower) 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.
Schloss Ardeck has housed since 2002 the Rhenish Hesse Bicycle Museum. It is open every Sunday and holiday from 11:00 to 17:00 from Easter to the Young Wine Festival on the second weekend in October.
Since late 2005, the new regional “Rheinwelle” adventure pool on Landesstraße (State Road) 419 within Gau-Algesheim town limits has been open. It is run jointly by Gau-Algesheim, Ingelheim and Bingen.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Christian ErbachChristian ErbachChristian Erbach was a German organist and composer.Erbach was born in Gau-Algesheim, Mainz-Bingen, now in the Rhineland-Palatinate Bundesland, and began to study musical composition at a considerably young age...
, (b. between 1568 and 1573; d. 1635) organist and composer - Winfried HassemerWinfried HassemerWinfried Hassemer , is a German criminal law scholar. He was vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court.Born in Gau-Algesheim, Hassemer was from 1964–1969 a scientific assistant at the Institut for laws and social philosophy of the university of Saarland.He is married with Kristiane...
, vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of GermanyFederal Constitutional Court of GermanyThe Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law... - Elisabetha (Betti) Mayer, née Nathan, was the mother of Leopold Mayer, alias Léo Maillet (b. 1902; d. 1990), a German-Swiss painter and etcher of German-speaking exile who first became known in 1994 through an exhibition by Erich Hinkel in Gau-Algesheim (Gau-Algesheim. Historisches Lesebuch, 1999, p. 161-167.
- Heinrich Vogt, astronomer and theoretical astrophysicist, known above all by the Vogt-Russell theoremVogt-Russell theoremThe Vogt-Russell theorem, named after Heinrich Vogt and Henry Norris Russell, states that:The mass and the composition structure throughout a star uniquely determine its radius, luminosity, and internal structure, as well as its subsequent evolution....
named after him. - Franz Josef Bischel (b. 1938), politician, 1974–1984 Mayor of Gau-Algesheim
Famous people from the town’s history
- Rudolf Eickemeyer (1753–1825), Mayor of Gau-Algesheim, scientist, soldier.