Monsheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
belonging to a ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhinelan ...
'', a kind of collective municipality – in the
Alzey-Worms
Alzey-Worms () is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the district Groß-Gerau (Hesse), the city of Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim, Donnersbergkreis, Bad Kreuznach and Mainz-Binge ...
district in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
,
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 ...
.
Geography
Location
Monsheim lies in the southern Wonnegau in
Rhenish Hesse
Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (german: Rheinhessen) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland- ...
on the river
Pfrimm, which rises in the southern
Donnersbergkreis
The Donnersbergkreis is a district (''Kreis'') in the middle of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Bad Kreuznach, Alzey-Worms, Bad Dürkheim, Kaiserslautern, Kusel.
History
The district was created in 1969 by merging the dis ...
and empties into the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
at
Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
, which is roughly 10 km from the municipality. It is also the seat of the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Monsheim.
History
Prehistory
The Pfrimm valley has long been settled. In the Monsheim municipal area there have been many
archaeological finds. Important are the finds made in the rural area known as ''Hinkelstein''. Here, in 1866, while a field was being cleared to make way for a vineyard, a burial ground was discovered. Originally standing here was a
menhir
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found ...
some 2 m tall, known in the local speech as the ''Hinkelstein''; this is now kept in the Monsheim Castle grounds. The discovery was investigated by the
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...
prehistorian Ludwig Lindenschmit the Elder (1809–1893) who described it in 1868. The Worms physician and prehistorian Karl Koehl (1847–1929) put forth the name “Hinkelstein type” as a description for the culture whose artifacts had been unearthed in Monsheim, and today the term “
Hinkelstein culture
The Hinkelstein culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture situated in Rhine-Main and Rhenish Hesse, Germany.
It is a Megalithic culture, part of the wider Linear Pottery horizon, dating to approximately the 50th to 49th century BC.
The c ...
” is customary. This culture existed roughly from 4900 to 4800 BC. It was spread mainly over parts of what are now
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
,
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
and
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...
.
Recorded history
In the 8th century, Monsheim had its first documentary mention in the
Lorsch codex
The Lorsch Codex (Chronicon Laureshamense, Lorscher Codex, Codex Laureshamensis) is an important historical document created between about 1175 to 1195 AD in the Monastery of Saint Nazarius in Lorsch, Germany. The codex is handwritten in Carol ...
.
Some of the first German settlers in
North America, who founded
Germantown Township, Pennsylvania
Germantown Township, also known as German Township, is a defunct township that was located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The municipality ceased to exist and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act o ...
in 1683, were from Monsheim's outlying centre of Kriegsheim (then spelled ''Cresheim''). The
Cresheim Creek
Cresheim Creek is a creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising at Wyndmoor in Springfield Township (in a park near the USDA's Agricultural Research Service Eastern Regional Research Center, adjacent to the border between Montgomery County and ...
, Cresheim Road, and Cresheim Valley Drive in northwestern
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
are named after the village.
Today’s municipality came into being through the merger on 7 June 1969 of the two formerly separate municipalities of Kriegsheim and Monsheim.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 20 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:
Mayors
* 1958–1994: Gerd Heinz Schilling (FWG)
* 1994–2019: Michael Röhrenbeck (FWG)
* 2019–present: Kevin Zakostelny (SPD)
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: Azure an eagle displayed, wings elevated argent, armed gules, in a chief of the third a cross Or.
Monsheim’s oldest known seal dates from 1523, but the oldest one still in existence is from 1598. This showed an
escutcheon charge
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
d with a cross and with the field semé of crosses (that is, strewn with little crosses). The cross came from the arms borne by the Lords of Westerburg, who held the village at that time. The next seal, which is known from 1690, was quarterly (that is, divided into four fields vertically and horizontally) with the eagle in the first and fourth quarters and five crosses each in the other two. The former came from the arms borne by the Counts of Leiningen, and the latter from the Westerburg arms. This new composition was borne by the Counts of Leiningen-Westerburg, as the fiefholders were now called. There was also a
supporter in these arms, the local patron saint,
Pirmin, who also held a small model of the local church in his free hand. Later seals show either Pirmin or the current armorial composition.
Another coat of arms was proposed in 1956, which might have been described thus: Azure semé of crosses pattée Or a church with a tower in sinister charged with a cross pattée of the same, in chief above the nave an eagle displayed, wings elevated argent, armed and langued of the second.
Finally, the arms shown in this article are slightly different from the ones shown in the source (''Heraldry of the World''). The ones there show the eagle with a red (gules) tongue and claws, but with silver (argent) legs and beak.
The current arms have been borne since 28 December 1957.
Description and explanation of Monsheim’s arms
/ref>
File:DEU Monsheim COA.svg, Coat of arms of Monsheim
File:DEU Kriegsheim COA.svg, Coat of arms of Kriegsheim
Culture and sightseeing
Cultural monuments
*Castle: In the 17th century, the old castle was converted into a Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
château.
*On the castle grounds is found the “Hinkelstein”, a menhir
A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. They can be found ...
which may well be from the New Stone Age
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
In Monsheim, ''Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
n'' 271 and 47 cross each other. Monsheim station
Monsheim station is in the municipality of Monsheim in the Alzey-Worms district of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is at the junction of the Rheinhessen Railway, the Palatine Northern Railway and the Zeller Valley Railway. The stati ...
lies on the '' Rheinhessenbahn'' (railway), which runs from Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein () is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
The settlement's original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant "hole in the rock", a description of the shoal behind the ''Mäuseturm'', k ...
to Worms Worms may refer to:
*Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs
Places
*Worms, Germany
Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...
. Moreover, the ''Zellertalbahn'' begins in Monsheim, running to Langmeil, an outlying centre of Winnweiler, on which excursion trains go to Hochspeyer
Hochspeyer is a municipality in the district of Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Palatinate forest (Pfälzer Wald), approx. 10 km east of Kaiserslautern.
Hochspeyer was the seat of the former Verban ...
in the summer. The Pfälzische Nordbahn
The Palatine Northern Railway (german: Pfälzische Nordbahn) is a non-electrified single-track main line that connects Neustadt (Weinstr) Hbf with Monsheim in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was opened between 1865 and 1873 in three ...
also begins in Monsheim. On summertime weekends and holidays, journeys on the ''Elsass-Express'' (“Alsace Express”) to Wissembourg
Wissembourg (; South Franconian: ''Weisseburch'' ; German: ''Weißenburg'' ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France.
It is situated on the little river Lauter close to the border between France and Germany a ...
are possible. There is also a bus route beginning in Monsheim, number 921, that goes to Kirchheimbolanden
Kirchheimbolanden (), the capital of Donnersbergkreis, is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, south-western Germany. It is situated approximately 25 km west of Worms, and 30 km north-east of Kaiserslautern. The first part of the name, ''Ki ...
.
Education
*''Heinrich-von-Gagern-Grundschule'' (primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
)
Famous people
* David Möllinger (1709–1786), German agrarian reformer
* Ernst von Gagern (1807-1865), important priest in the Diocese of Speyer
The Diocese of Speyer (lat. Dioecesis Spirensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland. The bishop's ...
.
References
External links
Municipality’s official webpage
{{Authority control
Alzey-Worms
Rhenish Hesse