Ginsheim-Gustavsburg
Encyclopedia
The double community of Ginsheim-Gustavsburg in the northwest of Groß-Gerau
district in Hesse
has about 16,000 inhabitants.
Ginsheim-Gustavsburg lies south of the Main and north of the Rhine in the so-called Mainspitze triangle, a narrow piece of land between the Main and Rhine where the former empties into the latter. Across the Rhine from the community lies Mainz
. Wiesbaden
is also nearby.
and the town of Hochheim
(Main-Taunus-Kreis
), in the east on the community of Bischofsheim
and the town of Rüsselsheim
, in the south on the community of Trebur
, and in the west on the community of Bodenheim
(Mainz-Bingen
) and the district-free city of Mainz
.
Gimmo family and had its first documentary mention in 1211 as "Ginnensheim" in the "Oculus Memorie" (Eberbach Monastery's goods directory). After the former Imperial village was pledged to Count Dieter von Katzenelnbogen
in 1248, history yields other noble families' names such as Falkenstein, Sayen and Isenburg as the village's overlords changed. In 1600, the village ended up in the Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgrave
Ludwig V's hands. In the Thirty Years' War
, the community was so badly battered that from 1634 to 1642, hardly anyone lived there.
Typical trades in Ginsheim in bygone ages are said to have been farmer
, fisherman
and miller
. Milling developed itself into a proper line of industry. At any one time, up to 15 floating watermills were anchored at Ginsheim, with the last one being withdrawn from service in 1929. It was towed to Mainz Harbour where it was placed under protection as a monument until it was destroyed in an air-raid
late in the Second World War. This and some other interesting chapters in the local history are on display at the Heimatmuseum.
King Gustav Adolf
, who in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War had a fort built on the Mainspitze. Found during work on this was, among other things, a Roman
horseman's gravestone, a copy of which now graces the Town Hall's lobby. In 1635, the Swedes quit the Gustavsburg, as the fort was known ("Gustavsburg" literally means "Gustav's castle" in German
), which after changing hands several times in the war at last fell into French
hands. In 1673, Mainz Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn
had the complex razed. Until 1740, according to one municipal map, the only resident business in what is now Gustavsburg was a tiler's workshop.
When the railway was opened in 1858, so was the Hafenbahnhof Gustavsburg (Gustavsburg Harbour Railway Station). A year later, the Nuremberg firm Klett & Co. (which later became Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg, or MAN) began building work on a bridge
across the Rhine. An assembly area was set up in Gustavsburg as part of the project, and workers and their families moved into this area. Quickly there arose an industrial community.
) and the islands just offshore under French administration. The Rhine's left bank (the other side) had been brought under French sovereignty in 1801. The French had no interest in that part of Kostheim's municipal area that lay south of the river Main, and so the area where Gustavsburg lies today passed to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt who in turn gave it to Ginsheim. On 30 December 1808, the Ginsheim Schultheiß
(roughly "sheriff
"), confirmed this new acquisition. In the years that followed, Kostheim townsfolk who still owned land south of the Main sold their fields to Ginsheim farmers, thus making 1808 Ginsheim-Gustavsburg's actual time of birth.
On 28 September 1929, the double community's councils voted to be amalgamated with the city of Mainz. In November 1929, the Hessian Landtag
approved the separation of the Ginsheim municipal area and the Ginsheim Rhine floodplains from Groß-Gerau district and Starkenburg province so that they could be assigned to Mainz district and Rheinhessen
province.
Thus it remained until the end of World War II
in 1945, when the Rhine became a boundary between two zones of occupation, the French and the American
, splitting the communities on the Mainspitze triangle away from Mainz and grouping Ginsheim-Gustavsburg and Bischofsheim once again with Groß-Gerau district. They have never been reincorporated into Mainz, and indeed the two municipalities nowadays lie in two different Bundesländer
, with Ginsheim-Gustavsburg in Hesse and Mainz in Rhineland-Palatinate
.
, France
, since 1989 Ballou, Senegal
, since 1989
. In Gustavsburg there are a railway station called Mainz-Gustavsburg (recalling Gustavsburg's former status as a Mainz constituent community) and a harbour on the Rhine.
church, which was built in 1746 as a Baroque
hall with a three-sided end. The Altrheinfest (Old Rhine Festival) – on the first weekend in June, organized by local clubs – draws many visitors, even from outside.
Other things to see include a yacht
marina, a local history museum (Heimatmuseum) and an historical industrial crane
.
There is also a new park built where King Gustav Adolf's fort once was.
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...
has about 16,000 inhabitants.
Location
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...
. Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
is also nearby.
Neighbouring communities
Ginsheim-Gustavsburg borders in the north on the district-free city of WiesbadenWiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
and the town of Hochheim
Hochheim am Main
Hochheim am Main is a town in the Main-Taunus district of the state of Hessen, Germany. It is located near the right bank of the Main River three miles above the branch into the Rhine, as well as on the German Framework Road....
(Main-Taunus-Kreis
Main-Taunus-Kreis
Main-Taunus is a Kreis in the middle of Hesse, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region as well as the Frankfurt urban area...
), in the east on the community of Bischofsheim
Bischofsheim (Mainspitze)
Bischofsheim is a municipality in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany with a population of more than 12,000.- Location :Bischofsheim lies south of the Main and east of the Rhine in the so-called Mainspitze triangle, a narrow piece of land between the Main and Rhine where the former empties into...
and the town of 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 the south on the community of Trebur
Trebur
Trebur is a community in Groß-Gerau district in Hesse, Germany. It is 13 km southeast of Mainz, and 8 km south of Rüsselsheim.-Location:Trebur is located in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region...
, and in the west on the community of Bodenheim
Bodenheim
Bodenheim is a state-recognized tourism municipality in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany-Location:...
(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...
) and the district-free city 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...
.
Constituent communities
As its name suggests, Ginsheim-Gustavsburg consists of two centres, named Ginsheim and Gustavsburg.Ginsheim
The placename is believed to go back to the FrankishFranks
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...
Gimmo family and had its first documentary mention in 1211 as "Ginnensheim" in the "Oculus Memorie" (Eberbach Monastery's goods directory). After the former Imperial village was pledged to Count Dieter von 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:...
in 1248, history yields other noble families' names such as Falkenstein, Sayen and Isenburg as the village's overlords changed. In 1600, the village ended up in the Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse....
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...
Ludwig V's hands. 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....
, the community was so badly battered that from 1634 to 1642, hardly anyone lived there.
Typical trades in Ginsheim in bygone ages are said to have been farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
and miller
Miller
A miller usually refers to a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a cereal crop to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents in other languages around the world...
. Milling developed itself into a proper line of industry. At any one time, up to 15 floating watermills were anchored at Ginsheim, with the last one being withdrawn from service in 1929. It was towed to Mainz Harbour where it was placed under protection as a monument until it was destroyed in an air-raid
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
late in the Second World War. This and some other interesting chapters in the local history are on display at the Heimatmuseum.
Gustavsburg
The constituent community of Gustavsburg owes its name to the SwedishSweden
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 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,...
, who in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War had a fort built on the Mainspitze. Found during work on this was, among other things, a Roman
Ancient 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....
horseman's gravestone, a copy of which now graces the Town Hall's lobby. In 1635, the Swedes quit the Gustavsburg, as the fort was known ("Gustavsburg" literally means "Gustav's castle" 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....
), which after changing hands several times in the war at last fell into 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...
hands. In 1673, Mainz Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn
Johann Philipp von Schönborn
Johann Philipp von Schönborn was the Archbishop-Elector of Mainz from 1647 until 1673, the Bishop of Würzburg from 1642 until 1673, and the Bishop of Worms from 1663 until 1673....
had the complex razed. Until 1740, according to one municipal map, the only resident business in what is now Gustavsburg was a tiler's workshop.
When the railway was opened in 1858, so was the Hafenbahnhof Gustavsburg (Gustavsburg Harbour Railway Station). A year later, the Nuremberg firm Klett & Co. (which later became Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg, or MAN) began building work on a bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
across the Rhine. An assembly area was set up in Gustavsburg as part of the project, and workers and their families moved into this area. Quickly there arose an industrial community.
Creation of the community of Ginsheim-Gustavsburg
In 1806, Napoleon placed Kastel, Kostheim, the Maarau (floodplainFloodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
) and the islands just offshore under French administration. The Rhine's left bank (the other side) had been brought under French sovereignty in 1801. The French had no interest in that part of Kostheim's municipal area that lay south of the river Main, and so the area where Gustavsburg lies today passed to the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt who in turn gave it to Ginsheim. On 30 December 1808, the Ginsheim Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
(roughly "sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
"), confirmed this new acquisition. In the years that followed, Kostheim townsfolk who still owned land south of the Main sold their fields to Ginsheim farmers, thus making 1808 Ginsheim-Gustavsburg's actual time of birth.
On 28 September 1929, the double community's councils voted to be amalgamated with the city of Mainz. In November 1929, the Hessian Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
approved the separation of the Ginsheim municipal area and the Ginsheim Rhine floodplains from Groß-Gerau district and Starkenburg province so that they could be assigned to Mainz district and Rheinhessen
Rheinhessen
Rhenish Hesse refers to the part of the former Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt located west of the Rhine river and now part of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is a hilly countryside largely devoted to vineyards, therefore it is also called the "land of the thousand hills." Its larger towns include:...
province.
Thus it remained until the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1945, when the Rhine became a boundary between two zones of occupation, the French and the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, splitting the communities on the Mainspitze triangle away from Mainz and grouping Ginsheim-Gustavsburg and Bischofsheim once again with Groß-Gerau district. They have never been reincorporated into Mainz, and indeed the two municipalities nowadays lie in two different Bundesländer
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...
, with Ginsheim-Gustavsburg in Hesse and Mainz 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 ....
.
Partnerships
BouguenaisBouguenais
Bouguenais is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France near Nantes.Bouguenais is home to the Nantes Atlantique Airport.-Economy:...
, 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 1989 Ballou, Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, since 1989
Transport
Ginsheim-Gustavsburg is directly reachable by Autobahnen A 60 and A 671Bundesautobahn 671
is an autobahn in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. It begins as a continuation of Mainzer Straße in Wiesbaden from its junction with A 66 and connects the center of the Hessian capital city with A 60.- Exit list :...
. In Gustavsburg there are a railway station called Mainz-Gustavsburg (recalling Gustavsburg's former status as a Mainz constituent community) and a harbour on the Rhine.
Ginsheim
The idyllic location on the Old Rhine with the offshore islands Nonnenau (reachable by the ferry Johanna), Langenau and Rabenwörth, and the picturesque Rheinauen (Rhine floodplains) have made Ginsheim into a well visited local recreation area. Worth seeing is the EvangelicalEvangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
church, which was built in 1746 as a Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
hall with a three-sided end. The Altrheinfest (Old Rhine Festival) – on the first weekend in June, organized by local clubs – draws many visitors, even from outside.
Other things to see include a yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
marina, a local history museum (Heimatmuseum) and an historical industrial crane
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
.
Gustavsburg
Worth seeing in Gustavsburg are the two churches, the Main Sluice, the Mainspitze and the Cramer-Klett-Platz workers' neighbourhood, which now stands under protection as a monument. Every year, a Christmas Market is held there. The greatest yearly festival is the Burgfest ("Castle Festival"), held at Whitsun.There is also a new park built where King Gustav Adolf's fort once was.