Wendelsheim

Wendelsheim
Wendelsheim
Municipality
	Coat of arms
	Location of Wendelsheim within Alzey-Worms district
	Wendelsheim Wendelsheim
	Coordinates:49°50′08″N08°03′05″E/ 49.83556°N 8.05139°E
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Alzey-Worms
Municipal assoc.	Wöllstein
Government
•Mayor(2019–24)	Christine Knuth(SPD)
Area
• Total	12.56 km2(4.85 sq mi)
Elevation	127 m (417 ft)
Population (2022-12-31)
• Total	1,425
• Density	110/km2(290/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00(CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00(CEST)
Postal codes	55234
Dialling codes	06734
Vehicle registration	AZ
Website	wendelsheim-rhh.de

Wendelsheimis anOrtsgemeinde– amunicipalitybelonging to aVerbandsgemeinde,a kind of collective municipality – in theAlzey-Wormsdistrict inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany.

Geography

Location

As awinegrowingcentre, Wendelsheim lies in Germany's biggest winegrowing district, in the middle of thewine regionofRhenish Hesse,10 km west ofAlzey.It belongs to theVerbandsgemeindeof Wöllstein,whose seat is in thelike-named municipality.Through the municipality flow the rivers Wiesbach and Finkenbach. These two brooks drove several watermills in theLate Middle Ages.

History

In 766, Wendelsheim (Wenilsheim) had its first documentary mention in theLorsch codex(other sources refer to a donation document forFulda Abbeyfrom 841).Celticfinds, however, establish that the area was already settled in prehistory. As with all places whose names end in—heim(cognate with Englishhome), it might have been aFrankishsettlement.

Wendelsheim might well have been among theWaldgraves’ oldest landholdings. It is supposed that it belonged to the estate of office with which theEmichonen,as theSalians’“undercounts”, had been furnished.^[3]From 1370, it is evident thatCount Palatine Ruprecht Iheld landlordly rights to Wendelsheim. About 1380, the village was pledged to Count Palatine Ruprecht the Young, and from 1438 to 1452 to Count PalatineLudwig IV.

In 1398 and 1409, Wendelsheim was a Comital-Palatine fief held by Rhinegrave Johann von Dhaun zu Rheingrafenstein.Mediaevalsources describe the Rhinegrave as the village's and municipal area's highestVogtand rightful chief justice.

From 1475 until theFrench Revolution,lordship over Wendelsheim was held by the Counts of Salm.

In the wake of the 1803Reichsdeputationshauptschluss,Wendelsheim passed in 1815 to theGrand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.After theSecond World War,the municipality was assigned to thestateofRhineland-Palatinate.

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:^[4]

	SPD	CDU	FWG	Total
2009	6	4	6	16 seats
2004	6	5	5	16 seats

Mayors

Jakob Schwind (until 2004)
Hans-Ludwig Kilian (2004–2019)
Christine Knuth (since 2019)

Coat of arms

The municipality'sarmsmight be described thus: Tierced in mantle, Or a lion rampant gules crowned argent, gules semé of crosses pattée of the first two salmon haurient addorsed of the third, and azure diapered a fess of the third.

The lion rampant on the dexter (armsbearer's right, viewer's left) side comes from the arms once borne by theWaldgraves,and the silver fess (that is, horizontal stripe) on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side from those once borne by the Rhinegraves. The twosalmonare acanting chargefor the Counts of Salm (Salmmeans “salmon” inGerman), who were Wendelsheim's last lordly rulers. The arms are first known from a seal dating from 1775.^[5]