Eppelsheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a '' Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

The municipality lies in Rhenish Hesse.

Politics

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 chairwoman. The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

Coat of arms

The municipality’s

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might be described thus: Per pale sable a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules, and Or an apple twig fructed of two vert.

Culture and sightseeing

Deinotherium sands

The first discovery of a fossil femur of a great ape '' Paidopithex rhenanus'' (now considered to be an ape relative not an ape - possibly being a

Pliopithecoid Pliopithecoidea is an extinct superfamily of catarrhine primates that inhabited Asia and Europe during the Miocene. Although they were once a widespread and diverse group of primates, the pliopithecoids have no living descendants. History of di ...

) was made near Eppelsheim in 1820. The finding was made in deposits of the prehistoric Rhine river and are about 10 million years old. These deposits are known as the

Deinotherium Sands ''Deinotherium'' was a large elephant-like proboscidean that appeared in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene. Although superficially resembling modern elephants, they had notably more flexible necks, limbs adapted to a mo ...

, because they often contain teeth and bones from the extinct

proboscid The Proboscidea (; , ) are a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic order (biology), order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (biology), family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger ...

Deinotherium ''Deinotherium'' was a large elephant-like proboscidean that appeared in the Middle Miocene and survived until the Early Pleistocene. Although superficially resembling modern elephants, they had notably more flexible necks, limbs adapted to a mo ...

''. In October 2017, scientists from the Natural History Museum at Mainz reported that two teeth about 5 to 8 million years old had been found in 2016, that resemble those of extinct human relatives '' Ardipithecus ramidus'' and '' Australopithecus afarensis''. Early reactions to the "Eppelsheim teeth" ranged from interest to dismissal while the researchers indicated that they will continue their investigations and analysis.

Dinotherium Museum

The ''Dinotherium-Museum'' in Eppelsheim shows original finds of fossil mammals from local deposits. One attraction at the ''Dinotherium-Museum'' is the cast of a Deinotherium skull that was unearthed in 1835 near Eppelsheim. The ''Dinotherium-Museum'' was former mayor Heiner Roos's brainchild.

Buildings

Village dyke

The ''Dorfgraben'', also called the ''Effenring'', was a heart-shaped ditch that surrounded the

mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

village, serving along with its banked walls as both a flood ditch and a village fortification. Its beginnings seem to have brought woes, though. History records only one dispute, in the late 14th century, between the von Dalberg family and the municipality. One family member claimed part of the dyke as his own. The ensuing negotiations ended with a compromise: one part each was allotted to the von Dalberg family and the municipality. The four roads leading out of the village in the cardinal compass directions were particularly well secured with

portcullis A portcullis (from Old French ''porte coleice'', "sliding gate") is a heavy vertically-closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications, consisting of a latticed grille made of wood, metal, or a combination of the two, which slides down gr ...

es at the four gates (''Pforten''), (the ''Hangen-Weisheimer Pforte'', the ''Flomborner Pforte'', the ''Dintesheimer Pforte'' and the ''Alzeyer Pforte''). At the dawn of the 20th century, the dyke had become overgrown mainly with elms and since 11 March 1927 it has been a protected natural monument called the ''Effenkranz'' (“Elm Wreath”), or sometimes the ''Allee''. Dutch elm disease, however, did not spare the ''Effenkranz'', and between 1976 and 1981, all elms had to be felled, and they were replaced with 550 other trees.

Dalberg Tower

The ''Dalberger Turm'' was built about 1500 by the Chamberlains Dalberg from Worms, who nonetheless never lived in Eppelsheim, as a defensive tower and a dwelling for the Cathedral Foundation at Worms. It is nowadays under private ownership. In old documents, the ''Dalberger Turm'' is described as the "Wasserhaus" (“Waterhouse”), because there was a moat around the tower, fed by the nearby village dyke. The building has walls wholly built out of quarrystones ( limestone) and covers a ground area of some 10 m × 10 m. Besides the ground floor, there are also five upper floors. The ground floor’s walls are some 1.5 m thick. Once, the only way in was through the first of the upper floors by way of a ladder or movable stairway. The tower was surrounded by a further wall with a parapet walk, and was part of the village’s fortifications. The roof, converted in 1602, was originally steeper; the less steep tent roof comes from a later time. Windows and arrowslits are framed with red sandstone. Heating facilities could not be ascertained, and therefore the tower’s use as a dwelling, at least in times of danger, must be assumed (it was later used as a warehouse and a fruit store). The ''Dalberger Turm'' and the townscape with the village walls have since 30 September 1988 been under the protection of the Hague Conventions.

Famous people

Henry Greenebaum Henry Greenebaum (June 18, 1833 – February 2, 1914) was a German-born Jewish-American banker. Life Greenebaum was born on June 18, 1833 in Eppelsheim, the Grand Duchy of Hesse, near the city of Worms and the Rhine River. He was the son of merc ...

(1833–1914), Jewish-American banker *Emil Knodt (1852-1924), Evangelical theologian and animal welfare proponent.

References

External links

*
The discovery of the Deinotherium of Eppelsheim
{{Authority control Rhenish Hesse Alzey-Worms