Wendelsheim
Encyclopedia
Wendelsheim 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, 10 km west of Alzey
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wöllstein
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
. Through the municipality flow the rivers Wiesbach and Finkenbach. These two brooks drove several watermills in the Late Middle Ages
.
(other sources refer to a donation document for Fulda Abbey from 841). Celtic finds, however, establish that the area was already settled in prehistory. As with all places whose names end in —heim (cognate with English
home), it might have been a Frankish
settlement.
Wendelsheim might well have been among the Waldgrave
s’ oldest landholdings. It is supposed that it belonged to the estate of office with which the Emichonen, as the Salians’
“undercounts”, had been furnished. From 1370, it is evident that Count Palatine
Ruprecht I held landlordly rights to Wendelsheim. About 1380, the village was pledged to Count Palatine Ruprecht the Young, and from 1438 to 1452 to Count Palatine Ludwig IV.
In 1398 and 1409, Wendelsheim was a Comital-Palatine fief held by Rhinegrave Johann von Dhaun zu Rheingrafenstein. Mediaeval
sources describe the Rhinegrave as the village’s and municipal area’s highest Vogt
and rightful chief justice.
From 1475 until the French Revolution
, lordship over Wendelsheim was held by the Counts of Salm.
In the wake of the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, Wendelsheim passed in 1815 to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
. After the Second World War, the municipality was assigned to the state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
might be described thus: Tierced in mantle, Or a lion rampant gules crowned argent, gules semé of crosses pattée of the first two salmon haurient addorsed of the third, and azure diapered a fess of the third.
The lion rampant on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side comes from the arms once borne by the Waldgrave
s, and the silver fess (that is, horizontal stripe) on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side from those once borne by the Rhinegraves. The two salmon
are a canting
charge
for the Counts of Salm (Salm means “salmon” in German
), who were Wendelsheim’s last lordly rulers. The arms are first known from a seal dating from 1775.
, Meurthe-et-Moselle
, and Ablis
, Yvelines
France
Wendelsheim
, Tübingen
, Baden-Württemberg
The other Wendelsheim is actually a Stadtteil of Rottenburg am Neckar
.
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, Wendelsheim 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, 10 km west of 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....
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Wöllstein
Wöllstein (Verbandsgemeinde)
Wöllstein is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Wöllstein....
, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Wöllstein
Wöllstein is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.- Location :...
. Through the municipality flow the rivers Wiesbach and Finkenbach. These two brooks drove several watermills in the Late Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th to the 16th century . The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern era ....
.
History
In 766, Wendelsheim (Wenilsheim) had its first documentary mention in the Lorsch codexLorsch 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...
(other sources refer to a donation document for Fulda Abbey from 841). Celtic finds, however, establish that the area was already settled in prehistory. As with all places whose names end in —heim (cognate with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
home), it might have been a Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
settlement.
Wendelsheim might well have been among the Waldgrave
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113....
s’ oldest landholdings. It is supposed that it belonged to the estate of office with which the Emichonen, as the Salians’
Salian dynasty
The Salian dynasty was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages of four German Kings , also known as the Frankish dynasty after the family's origin and role as dukes of Franconia...
“undercounts”, had been furnished. From 1370, it is evident that Count Palatine
Count palatine
Count palatine is a high noble title, used to render several comital styles, in some cases also shortened to Palatine, which can have other meanings as well.-Comes palatinus:...
Ruprecht I held landlordly rights to Wendelsheim. About 1380, the village was pledged to Count Palatine Ruprecht the Young, and from 1438 to 1452 to Count Palatine Ludwig IV.
In 1398 and 1409, Wendelsheim was a Comital-Palatine fief held by Rhinegrave Johann von Dhaun zu Rheingrafenstein. Mediaeval
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...
sources describe the Rhinegrave as the village’s and municipal area’s highest Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
and rightful chief justice.
From 1475 until the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, lordship over Wendelsheim was held by the Counts of Salm.
In the wake of the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, Wendelsheim passed in 1815 to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
. After the Second World War, the municipality was assigned to 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...
of 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 ....
.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 16 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... |
CDU | FWG Free Voters Free 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... |
Total | |
| 2009 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 16 seats |
| 2004 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 16 seats |
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: Tierced in mantle, Or a lion rampant gules crowned argent, gules semé of crosses pattée of the first two salmon haurient addorsed of the third, and azure diapered a fess of the third.
The lion rampant on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side comes from the arms once borne by the Waldgrave
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113....
s, and the silver fess (that is, horizontal stripe) on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side from those once borne by the Rhinegraves. The two salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
are a 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 –...
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...
for the Counts of Salm (Salm means “salmon” 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....
), who were Wendelsheim’s last lordly rulers. The arms are first known from a seal dating from 1775.
Town partnerships
MesseinMessein
Messein is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France....
, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle
Meurthe-et-Moselle is a department in the Lorraine region of France, named after the Meurthe and Moselle rivers.- History :Meurthe-et-Moselle was created in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War from the parts of the former departments of Moselle and Meurthe which remained French...
, and Ablis
Ablis
Ablis is a commune in the Yvelines department in north-central France.-History:During the Franco-Prussian War, when a German unit moved to take Ablis on October 7, 1870 they were ambushed and routed by about 1,500 French militia soldiers who were supported by the citizens of Ablis. In revenge, a...
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
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...
Wendelsheim
Wendelsheim (Rottenburg)
Wendelsheim is a suburban district of Rottenburg am Neckar in the administrative district of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg .- Geography :...
, Tübingen
Tübingen (district)
Tübingen is a district in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Böblingen, Reutlingen, Zollernalbkreis and Freudenstadt.-History:...
, Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
The other Wendelsheim is actually a Stadtteil of Rottenburg am Neckar
Rottenburg am Neckar
Rottenburg am Neckar is a medium-sized town in the administrative district of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It rests about 50 km southwest of the provincial capital Stuttgart and about 12 km southwest of the district town Tübingen...
.
Culture and sightseeing
- SchinderhannesSchinderhannesJohannes Bückler , nicknamed Schinderhannes, was a German outlaw who orchestrated one of the most fascinating crime sprees in German history. He was born at Miehlen, the son of Johann and Anna Maria Bückler. He began an apprenticeship to a tanner, but turned to petty theft. At 16 he was arrested...
höhle (cave) - Vineyard cottages and trulliTrulloA trullo is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Itria Valley, in the Murge area of the Italian region of Apulia. Trulli were generally constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small...
- Bannmühle, Hasselmühle, Rübenmühle (old mills)
- Salmsches Schloss – built in 1758 by Rhinegrave Carl Magnus
- TeufelsrutschTeufelsrutschDie Teufelsrutsch is a densely wooded porphyry knoll in Rhenish Hesse, Germany. It is a popular place for excursions with wonderful views over the Wiesbach valley. The name "Devil's Slide" was inspired by a local tale, according to which the residents of Wendelsheim once tricked the devil into...
crag (Devil's Slide) - St. Martin’s Church (St.-Martin-Kirche)
- Friedrich Christian LaukhardFriedrich Christian LaukhardFriedrich Christian Laukhard was a German novelist, philosopher, historian and theologian.From 1783 to 1794 he volunteered in the Prussian army as a musketeer. During the War of the first coalition his regiment Friedrich Christian Laukhard (7 June 1757 – 28 April 1822) was a German novelist,...
’s birth house and memorial to him