Gräfendorf is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the Main-Spessart district in the ''

Regierungsbezirk A ' (, 'governmental district') is a type of administrative division in Germany. Currently, four of sixteen ' (states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts ' (plural, ) serve as regional mid-level local gov ...

'' of

Lower Franconia Lower Franconia (, ) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. It consists of nine districts and 308 municipalities (including three cities). History After ...

(''Unterfranken'') in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

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

Geography

Location

Gräfendorf lies in the Würzburg Region near Gemünden am Main.

Constituent communities

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

Ortsteil A village is a human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located ...

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, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

– 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 (; Hessian: ''Aschebersch'', ) is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg, despite being its administrative seat, is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg. 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 Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

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 using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

) 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 (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...

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

autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

'' is used as a

climbing wall A climbing wall is an artificially constructed wall with manufactured grips (or "holds") for the hands and feet. Most walls are located indoors, and climbing on such walls is often termed indoor climbing. Some walls are brick or wooden constr ...

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 cen ...

s: 75 places with 68 children *

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s: 1 with 5 teacher and 139 pupils

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grafendorf Main-Spessart