Gau-Bickelheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location Gau-Bickelheim lies south of the Wißberg (mountain) in the Rheinhessisches Hügelland (Rhenish-Hessian Uplands).
Politics
Municipal council The council is made up of 16 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:Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat CDU WG Gau-Bickelh. WG Erbenich Gesamt 2009 7 6 3 16 seats
Mayor Gau-Bickelheim's mayor is Jürgen Vollmer (WG Gau-Bickelheim).
Coat of arms The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per fess abased argent three pickaxes palewise in fess, the middle one abased, gules, and gules a wheel spoked of six of the first.
The pickaxes are a canting charge: “Pickaxe” is Pickel in German, which sounds rather like the second and third syllables of the municipality's name, Gau-Bickelheim. The escutcheon's base contains the Wheel of Mainz, an historical symbol of Electoral Mainz.
Town partnerships Aiserey, Côte-d'Or, France
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings Pfarrkirche St. Martin (“Saint Martin’s Parish Church”)Pfarrkirche St. Martin Kreuzkapelle (“Cross Chapel”)
Economy and infrastructure
Transport Running through the municipality is Bundesstraße 420. Running nearby from northwest to southeast is the Autobahn A 61. The Gau-Bickelheim interchange (Nr. 52) is not right on Bundesstraße 420, but rather, it can be reached over Bundesstraße 50. The interchange itself is rather a sprawling one and looks somewhat like a half cloverleaf. This came about because the original plan called for there to be an interchange between the A 60 and the A 61 here.Netzplan vom 1. Januar 1976 In the mid 1990s, an off-highway service centre was built nearby.
Gau-Bickelheim has at its disposal a railway station on the Rheinhessenbahn.
Public institutions Gau-Bickelheim highway police stationPolizeiautobahnstation Gau-Bickelheim
Notable people The writer Arno Schmidt lived for a short while in Gau-Bickelheim after the Second World War as an Umsiedler (member of a mass migration). The municipality is mentioned in passing at the beginning of the narrative Schwarze Spiegel (“Black Mirrors”). The narrative Die Umsiedler gives this time a literary treatment.
References
External links
Municipality’s official webpage Gau-Bickelheim wine learning path