Spiesheim
Encyclopedia
Spiesheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms
district in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
of Rhenish Hesse. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wörrstadt
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
. The nearest town is Alzey
(6 km) and the state
capital of Mainz
, which is less than 30 km away, can easily be reached over Autobahn A 63
. The 750 ha municipal area has a variance in elevation of more than 100 m.
, Biebelnheim
, Ensheim
and Wörrstadt
.
are traces of Celtic settlement from the time beginning in 250 BC. Further finds have established a continuous Roman
settlement. In the 5th century came the taking of the land by the Franks
, out of which arose the founding of the municipality under the name Spizisheim. In 750, Spiesheim had its first documentary mention in a document that dealt with a donation of vineyards and cropfields to Lorsch Abbey
.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
might be described thus: Per fess in chief per pale, azure semé of billets Or a lion rampant of the same armed, langued and crowned gules, and gules semé of cinquefoils argent seeded of the second a vielle bendwise of the second, in base argent in dexter a hound springing gorged sinister and in sinister three bugle-horns fesswise in pale, all of the third.
Spiesheim’s arms were approved in 1986 by the now defunct Regierungsbezirk
of Rheinhessen-Pfalz
. They go back to a court seal from 1492, which is known to have still been in use in 1599. It already showed all the current escutcheon’s charge
s, but with a Saint as a supporter.
The two fields above the main parting
per fess (that is, horizontally across the middle) are inspired by arms borne by local lords in centuries gone by. The composition on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side, with the vielle
, comes from the arms borne by the Seneschal
s of Alzey, and the one on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side, with the lion rampant from those borne by the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken
. The hound and the hunting horns below the parting refer to other noble families of whom, unfortunately, only one is known. On an old gravestone in the church at Spiesheim is a coat of arms with a red hunting horn, seen at left, that has been confirmed to be the arms borne by the Lords of Horneck (of the House of Horneck von Hornberg). This would clearly make the charge canting
(“horn” is also Horn in German
).
can be reached more or less directly through the Biebelnheim interchange
, as can the A 61
through the Bornheim
interchange, only 4.5 km away. The A 63 links Spiesheim to Mainz
and Kaiserslautern
. Ludwigshafen and the Rhine-Neckar area can be reached over the A 61. Towards the north, the A 61 is a link to Koblenz
, Mönchengladbach
and farther still, to the Netherlands
.
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 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 :...
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
As a winegrowing centre, Spiesheim lies in Germany’s biggest winegrowing district, in the middle of the wine regionRheinhessen (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. It belongs to the 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....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt is a town in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :The town lies in Rhenish Hesse on the northwest edge of the Upper Rhine Plain...
. The nearest town is Alzey
Alzey
Alzey is a Verband-free town – one belonging to no Verbandsgemeinde – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fourth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, and Bingen....
(6 km) and 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...
, which is less than 30 km away, can easily be reached over 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...
. The 750 ha municipal area has a variance in elevation of more than 100 m.
Neighbouring municipalities
Spiesheim’s neighbours are AlbigAlbig
Albig is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in Rhenish Hesse in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Biebelnheim
Biebelnheim
Biebelnheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
, Ensheim
Ensheim
Ensheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt
Wörrstadt is a town in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :The town lies in Rhenish Hesse on the northwest edge of the Upper Rhine Plain...
.
History
Documented by archaeologyArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
are traces of Celtic settlement from the time beginning in 250 BC. Further finds have established a continuous 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....
settlement. In the 5th century came the taking of the land by the Franks
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...
, out of which arose the founding of the municipality under the name Spizisheim. In 750, Spiesheim had its first documentary mention in a document that dealt with a donation of vineyards and cropfields to Lorsch Abbey
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...
.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
WfS | Total | |
| 2009 | 5 | 7 | 12 seats |
| 2004 | 5 | 7 | 12 seats |
Mayors
- Philipp Grünewald (FWGFree VotersFree Voters is a German concept in which an association of persons participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it is a locally organized group of voters in the form of a registered association . In most cases, Free Voters are active only at the...
) 1946–1964 - Jakob Babel (FWG) 1964–1966
- Friedrich Weinz (FWG) 1966–1979
- August Ohl (FWG) 1979–1994
- Klaus Gombert (FWG) 1994–2004
- Hans-Philipp Schmitt (SPD) since 2004
Coat of arms
The municipality’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: Per fess in chief per pale, azure semé of billets Or a lion rampant of the same armed, langued and crowned gules, and gules semé of cinquefoils argent seeded of the second a vielle bendwise of the second, in base argent in dexter a hound springing gorged sinister and in sinister three bugle-horns fesswise in pale, all of the third.
Spiesheim’s arms were approved in 1986 by the now defunct 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...
. They go back to a court seal from 1492, which is known to have still been in use in 1599. It already showed all the current escutcheon’s charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
s, but with a Saint as a supporter.
Division of the field
In heraldry, the field of a shield can be divided into more than one area of different tinctures, usually following the lines of one of the ordinaries and carrying its name...
per fess (that is, horizontally across the middle) are inspired by arms borne by local lords in centuries gone by. The composition on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side, with the vielle
Vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the Medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs. The instrument was also known as a fidel or a viuola, although the French...
, comes from the arms borne by the Seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
s of Alzey, and the one on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side, with the lion rampant from those borne by the Counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken
Nassau-Saarbrücken
Nassau-Saarbrücken was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Upper Rhenish Circle. It belonged to the Walram branch of the House of Nassau.-County of Saarbrücken:...
. The hound and the hunting horns below the parting refer to other noble families of whom, unfortunately, only one is known. On an old gravestone in the church at Spiesheim is a coat of arms with a red hunting horn, seen at left, that has been confirmed to be the arms borne by the Lords of Horneck (of the House of Horneck von Hornberg). This would clearly make the charge canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
(“horn” is also Horn 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....
).
Clubs
Spiesheim has cultivated a lively club life, which is even mirrored in various community undertakings.Regular events
- Kermis (church consecration festival, locally known as the Spiesheimer Kerb), held on the second Sunday in July.
- Oberbrunnenfest on the third weekend in August.
Buildings
- Bergkirche (“Mountain Church”) with a defensive tower from the 11th century
- Sängerhalle (“Singers’ Hall”) with leaden glazing
Transport
Transport links, for a place of Spiesheim’s size, can be described as very good. The A 63Bundesautobahn 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...
can be reached more or less directly through the Biebelnheim interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
, as can the A 61
Bundesautobahn 61
is an autobahn in Germany that connects the border to the Netherlands near Venlo in the northwest to the interchange with A 6 near Hockenheim. In 1965, this required a re-design of the Hockenheimring....
through the Bornheim
Bornheim, Alzey-Worms
Bornheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is known as the “Gateway to the Rhenish-Hessian Switzerland”, as the region is called.- Location :Bornheim is nestled in...
interchange, only 4.5 km away. The A 63 links Spiesheim to 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 Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
. Ludwigshafen and the Rhine-Neckar area can be reached over the A 61. Towards the north, the A 61 is a link to Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
, Mönchengladbach
Mönchengladbach
Mönchengladbach , formerly known as Münchengladbach, is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine half way between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border....
and farther still, to the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
.