Raunheim is a town in

Groß-Gerau Groß-Gerau () is the district seat of the Groß-Gerau district, lying in the southern Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region in Hesse, Germany, and serving as a hub for the surrounding area. In 1994, the town hosted the 34th Hessentag state festival. Geog ...

district in

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 ...

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 betwee ...

and a part of the Frankfurt Urban Region as well as the

Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...

Geography

Location

Raunheim lies in the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region between

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

(24 km southwest of downtown) and

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 ...

on the south bank of the Main, 3 km northeast of Rüsselsheim.

Neighbouring communities

Raunheim borders in the north on the towns of

Hattersheim am Main Hattersheim am Main () is a town in the Main-Taunus district, Hesse (Germany) and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. Geography Neighbouring towns Hattersheim borders the city of Frankfurt in the northeast, in the southeast with Kels ...

(

Main-Taunus-Kreis Main-Taunus is a Kreis (district) in the middle of Hessen, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region as well as the Frankfurt urban area. Neighboring districts are Hochtaunuskreis, district-free Frankfurt, Groß-Gerau, ...

) and

Kelsterbach Kelsterbach () is a town in Groß-Gerau district in Hessen, Germany and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It is located on Frankfurt's southwestern outskirts at a bend on the left bank of the river Main, right where a small brook, ca ...

, in the east on the district-free city of

, in the south on the town of Rüsselsheim, and in the west on the town of Flörsheim am Main (Main-Taunus-Kreis).

Constituent communities

Raunheim consists of only one constituent community.

History

In 1425 Count John IV. of

Katzenelnbogen Katzenelnbogen () is the name of a castle and small town in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the '' Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Aar-Einrich. History Katzenelnbo ...

bought the villages Seilfurt und Raunheim for 5000 florin from the Lords of Eppstein.

Population development

* 1852: 644 * 1875: 700 * 1895: 1.005 * 1910: 1.931 * 1939: 3.151 * 1946: 3.688 * 1961: 6.140 * 1967: 12.388 * 2015: 15.636 In 2011 more than half of Raunheim's inhabitants were migrants. According to census data from that year Raunheim and

Dietzenbach Dietzenbach is the seat of Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany and lies roughly 12 km southeast of Frankfurt am Main on the waterstream Bieber. Before the Second World War, the current town was ...

also had the highest shares of Muslim migrants in

and Germany.

Politics

Town council

The town council for Raunheim consists of 31 councillors. Elections in 2016: *SPD = 16 *CDU = 7 *GRÜNE = 4 *FDP = 3 *FNR = 1

Mayors since 1947

* 1947 Heinrich Schneiker (SPD) * 1949 Adam Wildmeister (CDU) * 1955 Erwin Lang (SPD), * 1969 Günther Diehl (SPD), * 1988 Herbert Haas (SPD) * since 2000 Thomas Jühe (SPD)

Coat of arms

Raunheim's civic

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

have no clear meaning. The charge in the arms is first known from a document dating from 1625. The seal used on the document likely dates back further. The ringlike charge is also seen on 18th-century town limit markers. The arms were granted in 192

Town partnerships

Raunheim maintains partnership links with the following towns: * Le Teil, ''département'' of

Ardèche Ardèche (; oc, Ardecha; frp, Ardecha) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It is named after the river Ardèche and had a population of 328,278 as of 2019.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

* Trofarello near

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Economy and infrastructure

The town's advantageous location on the Main and near the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

and

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' ...

led to quick growth after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

(1945 population: 3,600) and to its becoming an important industrial location. Several thousand jobs are set to arise soon on the former

Caltex Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. It is also the brand name of non-Chevron petroleum companies in some countries (such as New Zealand, and previously A ...

refinery's old lands. The aerospace division of the multinational corporation Honeywell is based in Raunheim.

Transport

The interchange on Autobahn A 3 is about 2 km away.

Frankfurt International Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centre ...

lies 8 km away. Raunheim also has

S-Bahn The S-Bahn is the name of hybrid urban-suburban rail systems serving a metropolitan region in German-speaking countries. Some of the larger S-Bahn systems provide service similar to rapid transit systems, while smaller ones often resemble c ...

connections to Frankfurt, Mainz and

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. Being near the airport is not an advantage in every way, since Raunheim lies on the airport approach. With certain wind conditions (officially: operational direction 07), the approaching aircraft fly about 300 m over the town, reaching a noise level of 70 dB, peaking at 90 dB, making Raunheim the airport area community most strongly affected by aircraft noise. This has led the town to develop a noise reduction plan. A citizen initiative is fighting against airport expansion.