Erlenbach am Main (officially: ''Erlenbach a.Main'') is the largest town in the Miltenberg district in the ''

Regierungsbezirk A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts. Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...

'' of

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (german: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. History After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally ...

(''Unterfranken'') in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It has a population of around 10,000. Erlenbach is the site of one of the Miltenberg district's two hospitals, and is well known for its wine. Until 25 years ago, Erlenbach was Bavaria's newest town.

Geography

Location

Erlenbach lies in Lower Franconia in Bavaria's northwest, at the ''Mainviereck'' (“

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

Square”), near

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the Aschaffenburg (district), district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative sea ...

Constituent communities

The formerly self-administering neighbouring communities of Mechenhard and Streit were amalgamated with Erlenbach in 1976 and 1978, respectively.

History

The local area has been inhabited at least since the late

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, based on archaeological findings. In 1876, four barrows from the Bronze Age (roughly 1550–1250 BC) were discovered. In 1981, two typical

Urnfield culture The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

graves from the time about 1000–800 BC were found. In the 1st century AD, the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

reached all the way to the

. This watery stretch of the

Limes Germanicus The (Latin for ''Germanic frontier'') is the name given in modern times to a line of frontier () fortifications that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubd ...

was enforced with castra. To avoid the Romans, the

Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...

moved their settlements to the other side of the Main, the east side, or right bank. After the Roman Empire fell, it took many years for the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

to move into the Main region in 531 and found settlements of their own. The first farms in Erlenbach were likely only built sometime between 800 and 950. About 1183, Emperor

Friedrich Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

granted Erlenbach market rights. The Imperial award was given visible expression with a market and freedom sign. It shows a large cross on whose top stands a cock. On the crossbeam a hand rises up on one side and on the other a sword. The upheld hand made clear that the Erlenbach dwellers stood under the Emperor's special protection, and that any who set himself against it would have to reckon with the sovereign's upraised sword.

Demographics

Religion

Besides the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

churches Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's, Saint Joseph’s (main town), Saint Joseph’s (outlying centre of Mechenhard) and Saint

Charles Borromeo Charles Borromeo ( it, Carlo Borromeo; la, Carolus Borromeus; 2 October 1538 – 3 November 1584) was the Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation combat ...

’s there is also the

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

Martin Luther Church. Since January 2007 there has also been the Evangelical Free Church Erlenbach Congregation, which in April 2009 counted 61 members.

Economy

Since 1918, Erlenbach has been the site of a shipyard that as of 2003 was "one of the largest inland vessel yards" in Europe.

Governance

Town council

The council is made up of 24 council members, with seats apportioned thus: * CSU 10 * SPD 7 *

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...

5 *

Freie Wähler Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...

Mayors

The Mayor is Michael Berninger (CSU), and the deputies are Alexander Monert (CSU) and Jörg Barth (Freie Wähler).

Town twinning

* Saint-Maurice,

Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a p ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

* Erlenbach, Canton of Zürich, Switzerland * Erlenbach im Simmental, Canton of Bern, Switzerland

Coat of arms

The town's arms might be described thus: Or an eagle with two heads displayed sable crowned on each head gules with studs of the field, armed and beaked of the field holding in his talon dexter an orb of the third banded and ensigned with a cross of the field and in his talon sinister a sword of the third, in chief an Elector's crown proper. This coat of arms, newly conferred upon the market community of Erlenbach am Main in 1953 is based on two seals known to have been borne by the Erlenbach court in the time from 1722 to 1810 and whose images matched each other. Both seals showed a crowned two-headed eagle holding a monarch's orb in the right talon and a sword in the left. Floating above the eagle's heads was an Elector's crown, and underneath their heads were the letters E and B (Erlenbach).

Culture and sightseeing

The renovated ''Frankenhalle'' offers theatre, musicals and concerts. The ''Kino-Passage'' cinema has operated since 1979 as a repertory cinema. There are also many festivals and markets. Winegrowing is only confirmed as a local practice by a document from 2 January 1261. Since 1990, Erlenbach has been located on the ''Fränkischer Rotwein Wanderweg'' ("Franconian Red Wine Hiking Trail"), a along-distance hiking path.

Sports

The town's association football club SV Erlenbach, formed in 1919, experienced its greatest success in 2013 when it won promotion to the

Bayernliga The Bayernliga (English: Bavarian league) is the highest amateur football league and the second highest football league (under the Regionalliga Bayern) in the state of Bavaria (german: Bayern) and the Bavarian football league system. It is one o ...

for the first time.

Gallery

File:Erlenbach Rathaus.JPG, Town hall File:Erlenbach Frankenhalle.JPG, ''Frankenhalle'' File:Erlenbach Kirche.JPG, Saint Peter's and Saint Paul's Church File:Erlenbach Weinberge.JPG, Vineyards on the banks of the Main

Notable people

Friedrich Guggenberger(1915-1988), U-boat captain during the Second World War.

Sons and daughters of the town

* Aloys Schmitt (1788-1866), composer, pianist and music pedagogue * (born 1958), children's and young people's book author * Carsten Schloter (1963-2013), manager, CEO of Swisscom * Thomas Kroth (born 1959), football national player * (born 1964), psychologist and philosopher * Leon Köhler (born 1999), racing driver

Connected with Erlenbach

* Kurt Klühspies (born 1952), German handball world champion

References

External links

Town’s official webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erlenbach Am Main Miltenberg (district) Populated places on the Main basin Populated riverside places in Germany