Gräfendorf is a community in the Main-Spessart 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 r ...

(''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 ...

and a member of the ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' (Administrative Community) of Gemünden am Main.

Geography

Location

Gräfendorf lies in the Würzburg Region near

Gemünden am Main Gemünden am Main (officially ''Gemünden a.Main'') is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany and lies roughly 40 km down the Main from Würzburg. Gemünde ...

Constituent communities

The community has the following ''Gemarkungen'' (traditional rural cadastral areas) and ''

Ortsteil A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population t ...

e'': Gräfendorf, Michelau an der Saale, Schonderfeld, Weickersgrüben, Wolfsmünster.

History

In Gräfendorf the Barons of Thüngen and the '' Juliusspital'' in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

– a hospital foundation that still exists today – shared the lordship. The latter's rights passed under the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

in 1803 to Bavaria, and in 1805 to the Grand Duchy of

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

. The former's rights were traded by Aschaffenburg in 1808, after mediatization, to the Grand Duchy. In 1813, the community became definitively Bavarian. In the course of administrative reform in Bavaria, the current community came into being with the ''Gemeindeedikt'' (“Municipal Edict”) of 1818.

Population development

Within town limits, 1,729 inhabitants were counted in 1970, 1,452 in 1987, 1,554 in 2000 and in 2006 1,601.

Politics

The mayor is Johannes Wagenpfahl, elected in March 2020. Municipal taxes in 1999 amounted to €576,000 (converted), of which net business taxes amounted to €71,000.

Coat of arms

The community'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 fess in chief azure a bend argent surmounted by three annulets of the first in bend, in base per fess gules and Or a cogwheel spoked of four and toothed of twelve counterchanged.

Economy and infrastructure

According to official statistics, there were 139 workers on the social welfare contribution rolls working in producing businesses in 1998. In trade and

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

this was 37, and 470 such workers worked from home. Nobody was employed in processing businesses. Two businesses were in construction, and furthermore, in 1999, there were 58 agricultural operations with a working area of 925 ha, of which 596 ha was cropland and 323 ha was meadowland.

Transport

Gräfendorf, as well as outlying Wolfsmünster, Michelau and Weickersgrüben, lies on the ''Fränkische Saaletalbahn'' (

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

) and is served hourly (with the odd gap) by the Erfurter Bahn, a railway service owned and operated by the City of

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

, using modern ''Unterfranken-Shuttle'' trainsets. Between Gräfendorf and Schonderfeld a stone pillar of the never-finished ''Reichs

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

'' is used as a

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with grips for hands and feet, usually used for indoor climbing, but sometimes located outdoors. Some are brick or wooden constructions, but on most modern walls, the material most often used i ...

Education

In 1999 the following institutions existed in Gräfendorf: *

Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

s: 75 places with 68 children *

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 ...

s: 1 with 5 teacher and 139 pupils

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grafendorf Main-Spessart