Germersheim
Encyclopedia
Germersheim is a town in the German state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim district
. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer
, Landau
, Philippsburg
, Karlsruhe
and Wörth
.
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, of around 20,000 inhabitants. It is also the seat of the Germersheim district
Germersheim (district)
Germersheim is a district in the south-east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Südliche Weinstraße, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, the district Karlsruhe as well as the district-free city of Karlsruhe, and the French département Bas-Rhin.-History:Most of the region was part of the...
. The neighboring towns and cities are Speyer
Speyer
Speyer is a city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim. Founded by the Romans, it is one of Germany's oldest cities...
, Landau
Landau
Landau or Landau in der Pfalz is an autonomous city surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town , a long-standing cultural centre, and a market and shopping town, surrounded by vineyards and wine-growing villages of the...
, Philippsburg
Philippsburg
Philippsburg is a town in Germany, in the district of Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg.-History:Before 1632, Philippsburg was known as "Udenheim".The city was a possession of the Bishop of Speyer from 1371–1718...
, Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
and Wörth
Wörth
Wörth may refer to:*places in Germany:**Wörth am Main, Miltenberg district, Bavaria**Wörth am Rhein, Germersheim district, Rhineland-Palatinate**Wörth an der Donau, Regensburg district, Bavaria**Wörth an der Isar, Landshut district, Bavaria...
.
Coat of arms
The coat of arms features a golden crowned eagle on a blue background. The eagle derives from the fact that, at one time the town was ruled directly by the emperor of Germany.History
- After his invasion of GalliaGalliaGallia may refer to:*Gaul , the region of Western Europe occupied by present-day France, Belgium and other neighbouring countries...
, Gaius Iulius CaesarJulius CaesarGaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
made the Rhine river the border between the Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and GermaniaGermaniaGermania was the Greek and Roman geographical term for the geographical regions inhabited by mainly by peoples considered to be Germani. It was most often used to refer especially to the east of the Rhine and north of the Danube...
. Some small areas east of it were later invaded and added to the Roman provinceRoman provinceIn Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Agri DecumatesAgri DecumatesThe agri decumates or decumates agri were a region of the Roman Empire's province of Germania superior , covering the Black Forest area between the Main river and the sources of Danube and Rhine rivers, presently in Southwestern Germany...
. As it was attacked more and more it was given up in the second half of the third century and a military camp was founded, named "Vicus Iulii" ("Village of Julius/Julius' Village). It was supported up to the fourth century. - The first record of the name "Germersheim" is from 1090, when it was named in the Sinsheimer Chronik (ChronicleChronicleGenerally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...
of SinsheimSinsheimSinsheim is a town in southwestern Germany, in the Rhine Neckar Area of the state Baden-Württemberg about 22 kilometers southeast of Heidelberg and about 28 kilometers northwest of Heilbronn in the district Rhein-Neckar. It consists of a city center and 11 suburbs with a total population of 35,605...
). The German King Rudolph von HabsburgRudolph I of GermanyRudolph I was King of the Romans from 1273 until his death. He played a vital role in raising the Habsburg dynasty to a leading position among the Imperial feudal dynasties...
(Rudolf of Habsburg) gave Germersheim city rights in 1276 (18 August). There is a legend which says that he, as a sick man, rode from Germersheim to Speyer to die there and not in Germersheim. - In 1325 the town was given to the Electoral Palatinate by King Ludwig IVLouis IV, Holy Roman EmperorLouis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....
. It got a higher status in the following centuries. A Catholic Order founded a monastery in 1298 which it used up to 1527. - Having been nearly destroyed in the times of the plagueBubonic plaguePlague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
and the Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' WarThe Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
Germersheim was burned down by FrenchFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
troops in 1674. Only the cryptCryptIn architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
and the foundations of the Catholic church survived. - From the year 1793, Germersheim belonged to FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, until it was conquered by BavariaBavariaBavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n troops in 1814. After being retaken in 1814, Germersheim's Bavarian rulers started to build a fortress in 1831. It was completed in 1855, although excavations for underground passages continued until 1861. By this time, however, the fortress had become outdated, as artillery had improved greatly in the thirty years since work began. The fortress was destroyed in 1921/22 as a result of the Treaty of VersaillesTreaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. Some parts still exist, such as the "Fronte Beckers", where the town's Music School is today. - Germersheim was the scene of several conflicts between French troopsFrench ArmyThe French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
and German veteran associations during the occupation of the RhinelandOccupation of the RhinelandThe Occupation of the Rhineland took place following the armistice and brought the fighting of World War I to a close on 11 November 1918. The occupying armies consisted of American, Belgian, British and French forces...
following the First World War. - General Hans Graf von SponeckHans Graf von SponeckHans Graf von Sponeck or Hans Emil Otto Graf Sponeck was a German General-Leutnant during World War II who was imprisoned for disobeying orders and later executed. He was the father of Hans von Sponeck....
, who ordered the retreat of his troops from KerchKerch PeninsulaThe Kerch Peninsula is a major and prominent geographic feature located at the eastern portion of Crimea. Stretching towards the Taman peninsula, it is reminiscent of an isthmus between two neighboring seas: Azov Sea and Black Sea...
because they were going to be hopelessly cut off by the Russian landings at TheodosiaTheodosiaFeodosiya is a port and resort city in Crimea, Ukraine, on the Black Sea coast. During much of its history the town was known as Caffa or Kaffa .- History :...
, on the Crimean Peninsula, and against express instruction of his superior officer in the winter 1941, was interned here in the fortress after Hitler had commuted his death sentence to six years detention. In the purge following the failed assassination attempt on HitlerJuly 20 PlotOn 20 July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of the Third Reich, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia. The plot was the culmination of the efforts of several groups in the German Resistance to overthrow the Nazi-led German government...
Graf Sponeck, although not involved, was shot. Today, a street in Germersheim is named Hans Graf Von Sponeck Straße in his honour. - In 1972 the Second British Rock Festival was held here. After learning of the festival plans, the city authorities tried to stop it, on the grounds that the town and its population (at the time around one tenth of the number of expected concert-goers) could not accommodate such a large crowd. However, the city soon realized it could not stop the surge of people into Germersheim and relented.
| Seat distribution in the town council (2004) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Percentage | Number of seats |
| CDU Christian Democratic Union (Germany) The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum... |
43.4 | 16 |
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
15.2 | 9 |
| FW | 10.5 | 4 |
| AKTIVE | 8.5 | 3 |
| REP Republicans (Germany) The Republicans is a national conservative political party in Germany. The primary plank of the program is opposition to immigration. The party tends to attract protest voters who think that the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria are not sufficiently conservative... |
8.3 | 3 |
| FDP Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government... |
4.9 | 2 |
| B90/Grüne Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir... |
4.9 | 2 |
| IDEALE | 4.4 | 1 |
Honorary citizens
- Karl Schmitt-WalterKarl Schmitt-WalterKarl Schmitt-Walter was a prominent German opera singer, particularly associated with Mozart and the more lyrical Wagner baritone roles....
(* 23 December 1900 in Germersheim, † 14 January 1985 in KreuthKreuthKreuth is a municipality in the district of Miesbach in Bavaria in Germany.-Schloss Ringberg:The castle Ringberg was owned by the dukes of Bavaria and was donated to the Max Planck Society in 1973.-Wildbad Kreuth:...
) stage singer - Eduard Orth (* 13 October 1902 in Germersheim, † 31 March 1968), Politician (CDUChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
), Education minister of the state of Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
during the years 1956 and 1967
Sons and daughters of the city
- Otto Freiherr Kreß von KressensteinOtto Kreß von KressensteinPaul Otto Felix Freiherr Kreß von Kressenstein was a Bavarian Colonel General and War Minister from 16 February 1912 to 7 December 1916.- Biography :...
(1850–1929), Bavarian general and War Minister - Lothar FischerLothar FischerLothar Fischer was a German sculptor.He was born in Germersheim, Palatinate. Between 1952 and 1958 he studied under Professor Heinrich Kirchner at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich...
(* 8 November 1933 † 16 June 2004 in BaierbrunnBaierbrunnBaierbrunn is a municipality in the district of Munich in the south-German state Bavaria....
), German sculptor