Heidesheim am Rhein (, ) is an Ortsbezirk (borough) of the town Ingelheim am Rhein in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Before July 2019, it was a separate municipality belonging to the former Verbandsgemeinde (a kind of collective municipality) Heidesheim am Rhein, of which it was the administrative seat. Heidesheim was one of the biggest municipalities in Rhenish Hesse.
Geography
Location
Heidesheim lies in northern Rhenish Hesse, on the so-called Rhine Knee, west of the state capital, Mainz. The municipal area reaches in the north up to the middle of the Rhine's navigational lane, which here reaches one of its greatest breadths, comprising even the Königsklinger Aue (an island, although its name identifies it as a floodplain). At the bank behind the floodwall, at an elevation of some 82 m, it abuts a sandy plain which is used especially for growing asparagus and which is also covered in fruit trees. Just behind the floodwall is the outlying centre of Heidenfahrt. From here, before the channelling work on the Mariannenaue (floodplain) was broadened towards the east, there was once a ferry link to Erbach. The community core of Heidesheim itself lies some 2 km from the Rhine's banks, in a location safe from floodwaters at the foot of the Rhenish Hesse hill country. The municipal area stretches on from there up the north slope of these hills, reaching 2 km east of the municipality's centre an elevation of 207 m above sea level. Wherever gaps in the fruit trees allow it, there is a broad view over the Rhine into the Rheingau, all the way to the western part of the Taunus’s main ridge, the Rheingau Range (Rheingaugebirge) with the Kalte Herberge and the Hallgarter Zange (mountains) as its highest elevations in the centre. In the east, near Uhlerborn, on the boundary with Budenheim, Heidesheim has a share of one of Rhenish Hesse's few wooded areas.
As of late 2006 Heidesheim has a population of 7,195, and covers and area of 17.56 km².
Constituent communities
Heidesheim's Ortsteile are Heidesheim, Heidenfahrt and Uhlerborn.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the north, these are Eltville am Rhein (on the Rhine's right, or north, bank), Budenheim, Mainz’s outlying centres of Gonsenheim and Finthen, the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm, the Verbandsgemeinde of Gau-Algesheim and the town of Ingelheim
History
Many finds from prehistory and early historical times confirm that Heidesheim am Rhein's municipal area was settled as early as the New Stone Age (5500 to 2200 BC). Most have been chance finds.Bernhard Stümpel, Aus Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Gemarkung Heidesheim, in: Gemeinde Heidesheim, Hrsg., Festschrift zur 1200-Jahr-Feier von Heidesheim, Gau-Algesheim 1962, S. 9-16. In Roman times, north of today's community core, stood an extensive villa rustica, which was forsaken after the Germanic invasions in the early 5th century. Within its walls was built Saint George's Chapel (Sankt Georgskapelle), around which, after the mid 7th century, Frankish settlers came to live. The municipality's name is said to go back to an estate owned by a Frankish nobleman called Heisino.Franz Joseph Spang, Das geschichtliche Werden von Heidesheim, in: Festschrift 1962 (wie Anm. 1) S. 18-31 bes. S. 21.
The place had its first documentary mention as Heisinisheim or Hasinisheim in donations to the Lorsch Abbey, the earliest of which purports to date from 762, although in actuality it can only be traced back to some time between September in one of the years between 765 and 768.Karl Glöckner, Bearb. u. Hrsg., Codex Laureshamensis, Bd. 2: Kopialbuch, Teil 1: Oberrhein-, Lobden-, Worms-, Nahe- und Speiergau, Darmstadt 1933 (= Arbeiten der Historischen Kommission für den Volksstaat Hessen), S. 406 Nr. 1436. - Generaldirektion der Staatlichen Archive Bayerns und Kuratorium Weltkulturdenkmal Kloster Lorsch e.V., Hrsg., Codex Laureshamensis, Urkundenbuch der ehemaligen Fürstabtei Lorsch, Faksimileausgabe der Handschrift im Staatsarchiv Würzburg, Bd. 1: Faksimile, Neustadt a. d. Aisch 2002 (= Sonderveröffentlichungen der Staatlichen Archive Bayerns, Nr. 1), fol. 112r Sp. 2. The earliest confirmed date is 5 July 768.Glöckner (wie Anm. 4) S. 405 Nr. 1429. - Codex Laureshamensis (wie Anm. 4) fol. 112r Sp. 1. All together, the Lorsch codex catalogues ten endowments for the Lorsch Abbey in Heidesheim between 765 or 768 and 794,Glöckner (wie Anm. 4) S. 405 ff. Nr. 1429-1438. - Codex Laureshamensis (wie Anm. 4) fol. 112r Sp. 1 f. of which however none crops up in later documents. This circumstance leads to the inference that Lorsch had already traded or sold its holdings in Heidesheim by the time the Codex was transferred to parchment between 1183 and 1195.
A wider array of documents referring to Heidesheim only comes to light about 1150. The Altmünster Abbey at Mainz then had at its disposal extensive landholdings and half the tithes. Whether these stemmed from the Rhine Counts (Rheingrafen), as one always reads,As in Ernst Krebs, Zur Geschichte von Heidesheim, in: Männer-Gesang-Verein "Einigkeit" Heidesheim, Hrsg., Festschrift zur Fahnenweihe verbunden mit Wertungssingen am 4., 5. und 6. Juli 1925, Gau-Algesheim o.J. (1925) S. 5-33 bes. S. 10. has yet to be confirmed. Besides this, in 1145, the first holding in Walsheim (a vanished village near Heidenfahrt) passed to Eberbach Abbey, laying the groundwork for the Sandhof (see Culture and sightseeing: Buildings below). Eventually, in 1158, the Lords of Winternheim were mentioned, who later named themselves after the castle, Burg Windeck, as the Lords of Winterau. Besides these three parties, who dominate the historical records, other Mainz monastic foundations and resident families held lands and rights here.
While the Lords of Winternheim began work on Burg Windeck in the earlier half of the 12th century, the actual settlement around Saint George's Chapel apparently remained unfortified, or at least not amply so: when Archbishop Conrad of Wittelsbach was getting himself ready in 1200 to build Mainz's city wall up again after it had been razed on Emperor Friedrich I's orders in 1163, he obliged many villages in the outlying countryside to build their own respective sections. The Heidesheim dwellers had to contribute, arm and maintain five merlons, for which they enjoyed protection, defence, market rights and free buying and selling in the city.Schaab I S. 188. - Krebs, Festschrift 1925, S. 10 f. - Quelle: Bodmann, Rhein. Alterth. I S. 23; vgl. auch Mainzer UB II 2 S. 1157 f. Nr. 709.
Besides landholdings and income, Altmünster had the Heidesheim Vogtei and thereby sovereign rights over the village. Over the course of the centuries, the Vogtei passed through many holders’ hands: That it was held after 1250 by the Lords of Biegen, who gave it back to Altmünster on 13 February 1285Karl Anton Schaab, Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, Bd. 3: Geschichte der Großherzoglich Hessischen Rheinprovinz I. Abtl., Mainz 1847, S. 454 f. is clearly not so. The relevant document refers not to Heidesheim, but rather to Hattenheim in the Rheingau.Wilhelm Sauer, Nassauisches Urkundenbuch I 2, Wiesbaden 1886, S. 614 f. Nr. 1043 Against this is that the Abbey appointed Werner von Winterau and his male heirs village Vögte on 31 January 1326.Schaab (wie Anm. 11) III S. 455 (irrig zu 1326 Februar 2) The lordly house of Winterau died out before 12 April 1372, on which day a Wilhelm von Scharpenstein was avouched as Vogt.Ludwig Baur, Hrsg., Hessische Urkunden, Bd. 3: Rheinhessen 1326-1399. Nachträge zu allen 3 Provinzen 1133-1335, Darmstadt 1863 (Nachdruck Aalen 1979), S. 455 ff. Anm. From him the Vogtei passed on 14 July 1385 in inheritance along the male line to Dietrich Huth von Sonnenberg.Schaab III S. 455
On 17 January 1414, the Archbishop of Mainz John II of Nassau documented that the abbess and convent of Altmünster at Mainz had transferred one third of the court at Heidesheim to the Archbishopric. Outside this arrangement were the Vogtei with all its appurtenances, the income and the landholdings that were part of the convent's estate. This was confirmed in writing to the convent for all time by the Archbishop with the cathedral deacon's and the cathedral capitular's consent. Moreover, Altmünster was henceforth to be freed of all contributions and levies imposed by the Archbishop or the cathedral capitular. Both pledged henceforth to protect and defend the convent with all its holdings and rights – particularly the remaining two thirds of the court at Heidesheim Der Mainzer und Magdeburger Erzbischof Kardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg bestätigte die Verfügung seines Vorgängers am 22. Oktober 1522.Schaab III S. 456.
Such deals, under which Mainz ecclesiastical and monastic foundations yielded sovereign rights, which they could hardly assert through their own power, to the Archbishop against assurance and protection of their ownership rights were often struck in the time that followed.Wilhelm Fabricius, Erläuterungen zum geschichtlichen Atlas der Rheinprovinz, Bd. 6: Die Herrschaften des unteren Nahegebietes, der Nahegau und seine Umgebung, Bonn 1914 (= Publikationen der Gesellschaft für rheinische Geschichtskunde, Bd. 12/6), S. 44 In Heidesheim's case, this transfer led to the Archbishop's Amtmann appearing alongside the Altmünster convent's Vogt. Men known to have served as Archiepiscopal Amtmänner after 1414 on are, in 1481 Johann Langwerth von Simmern, and from 1565 to 1584 Mainz cathedral cantor Heinrich von Stockheim. Known Vögte from that same time are, from 1468 to 1489 Philipp von Stockheim, and from 1489 to 1524 Count Emmerich of Nassau and his male heirs, from 1524 to 1537 Ritter (“Knight”, or perhaps “Sir”) Rabe von Liebenstein, from 1537 to 1553 Hans Sifrid vom Oberstein, and from 1553, first Konrad, and then Hans Georg von Bicken. That the Amtmann and Vogt often annoyed each other can be seen in two trials fought by Heinrich von Stockheim and Hans Georg von Bicken before the Imperial Chamber Court.Bayerisches Staatsarchiv Würzburg
When Hans Georg von Bicken found out that he would keep being denied inheritance along the male line, he asked Archbishop of Mainz Wolfgang von Dalberg on 10 November 1598 to change the Heidesheim Vogtei, which had been transferred to him and his cousins as a non-heritable fief, into a heritable fief. His request was never answered.Bayerisches Staatsarchiv Würzburg M.R.A.-K.727/Stifte 2377. Thus, when he died about 1608, the Vogtei passed back to Altenmünster. The convent seized the day: On advice that in these hard times they could no longer fulfil the demands that the remaining two thirds of the sovereign rights in Heidesheim required of them, the abbess and convent offered the Elector this two-thirds share. In return, the Archbishop – as had been done in 1414 and 1522 – was to protect holdings, rights and income in the village. The Archbishop accepted the transfer with the specified conditions on the very same day, which suggests that the matter had been being discussed for quite some time.
The year 1609 was a watershed in the municipality's history. Altenmünster now only held patronage rights at Saint Philip's and Saint James's Parish Church; the convent could still suggest priests and bellringers, who had to be confirmed by the Archbishop. Furthermore, in spiritual matters, the archiepiscopal vicariate general was responsible, while in worldly matters Heidesheim was under an Electoral deputy. The offices of monasterial Vogt and Electoral Amtmann were forgone. Eventually, the Electoral Chamber gave out Windeck Castle – until then the Amtmann’s seat – as a heritable asset.
Politics
Municipal council
Elections in 2014:
SPD: 8 seats CDU: 7 seats Greens: 2 seats FDP: 1 seat THE LEFT: 1 seat FWG: 1 seat BLH: 2 seats Total: 22 seats
Coat of arms
The municipality's arms might be described thus: Gules a cross argent surmounting a wheel of the same; Wheel of Mainz.