Seligenstadt
Encyclopedia
Seligenstadt is a town in the Offenbach district
in the Regierungsbezirk
of Darmstadt
in Hesse
, Germany
. Seligenstadt is one of Germany’s oldest towns and was already of great importance in Carolingian
times.
, directly neighbouring Bavaria
.
, in the east on the community of Karlstein
(Aschaffenburg district
in Bavaria), in the southeast on the community of Mainhausen
, in the south on the town of Babenhausen
(Darmstadt-Dieburg
) and in the west on the town of Rodgau
.
, a Cenozoic
subsidence basin between the local highlands of Spessart
and Odenwald
. Quaternary
fluvial deposits of the river Main overlying Pliocene
, lignite
bearing sequences and Miocene
sands and marls form the subsurface of the town.
Emperor Trajan
, a cohort castrum
was built on what is now Seligenstadt’s marketplace and parts of its Old Town. Since the 16th century, the castrum has been assigned the name “Selgum”. The 500 legionaries and auxiliary forces stationed there belonged to the Legio XXII Primigenia
, or Roman 22nd Legion, based in Mogontiacum (Mainz
). The cohort was known by the name Cohors I Civium Romanorum equitata and was responsible for security along the stretch of the Limes Germanicus
running along the Main. With the fall of the Limes during the stormings by the Alamanni
about 260, the castrum was forsaken, and the Romans withdrew farther behind the Rhine line. On the former castrum’s rubble and on what is now the monastery area in a section of the Breitenbach valley arose the early mediaeval
settlement of Mulinheim superior, or Obermühlheim.
’s biographer Einhard
. After he had acquired the Frankish
settlement of Obermulinheim from Louis the Pious
in 815 as a donation, he founded a Benedictine
monastery here. Mentioned as an earlier owner is a Count Drogo. Martyrs Marcellinus’s and Peter’s
bones, which had been stolen in Rome
, were transferred from the basilica in Steinbach in the Odenwald
to Obermühlheim, soon leading to a change in the community’s name from Obermühlheim to Seligenstadt (“Blessed Ones’ Town” in German
). About 830, building work began on the Einhard-Basilika, now the landmark of this town on the Lower Main.
In 1028, a Roman Catholic synod
was held, whose most important result was the introduction of ember days
with their strict rules for fasting
. In 1063, Emperor Heinrich IV
confirmed to the Archbishop of Mainz
the lawfulness of his ownership of the abbey.
Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa
held court in Seligenstadt in 1188. During his reign the community acquired town rights and a royal court (Kaiserpfalz
) was built on the banks of the Main.
brought in a new town order whereby the Seligenstadt townsmen’s rights were sharply limited.
During the Thirty Years' War
, a Swedish
commissary administered the abbey on King Gustav II Adolf’s
behalf. The Swedish king had spared the town destruction and burning in return for the townsmen’s tribute. As he went forth with his army, though, the occupation troops who had been left behind plundered the town and the abbey anyway. In 1658, the abbey and convent buildings were newly built.
of Electoral Mainz
in 1803, the Amt of Seligenstadt passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the abbey was dissolved. In 1832, the Landratsbezirk of Seligenstadt was merged into the Offenbach district and in 1882 the Hanau
-Seligenstadt-Eberbach
railway opened.
The voters thereby confirmed the CDU’s absolute majority, which they have held since 2001. The town council has four boards:
, Yvelines
, France
since 1967 Brookfield
, Wisconsin
, United States
since 2 September 2008 Piedimonte Matese
, Italy
since October September 2010
In March 2008, the partnership with the Dutch
community of Heel, which had existed since 1972, was ended by the community of Maasgouw
, into which the former communities of Heel, Maasbracht
and Thorn were amalgamated on 1 January 2007. The partnership with Heel went back to the partnership between the formerly self-administering community of Klein-Welzheim, now part of Seligenstadt, and the Dutch community of Wessem, which belonged to Heel then.
Seligenstadt’s most important building is the Einhard-Basilika with Saints Marcellinus’s and Peter’s
relics. Since 1925 it has borne the honorary title of minor basilica, bestowed by Pope Pius XI. Although the building was heavily modified over the centuries, this is nonetheless one of the most impressive basilicas with a basic Carolingian
structure north of the Alps.
The Benedictine
monastery, dissolved in 1803, that abuts this on the south with its Baroque
wings and broad estate and garden complexes has been fully restored.
Of the Palatium (Kaiserpfalz
) on the Main’s banks, also known as the Rotes Schloss (“Red Palace”), only the Main façade is still standing with double and triple arcades with arches of red sandstone. With a ground area of 47 m × 14 m, this rectangular Kaiserpfalz was among the smaller ones. Perhaps the Emperor used it as a weekend residence or a small hunting lodge. The first restoration work took place in 1938; restoration work on the south and west walls has been ongoing since 1996.
From the same time comes the so-called Romanisches Haus built in massive stone with great arcades on the ground floor. On the first floor are double arcades with middle column and arch and a blind arcade under the crow-stepped gable. In 1187, the building was the Vogt
ei and in 1188 the showplace for Barbarossa’s
court, which he held there that year. It was restored in 1984, and in the 21st century, cultural events take place here.
The town fortification, built in the 12th century and strengthened in the 15th, originally had 4 gatetowers and 6 bulwark towers. Of the town gates, only the Steinheimer Tor from 1603-1605 is preserved; of the bulwark towers, three are still standing. The Kaiserpfalz’s Main façade was integrated into the town wall, to which also wall and ditch complexes belonged. The greater part of the town fortification was torn down in the 19th century.
The Town Hall at the marketplace was renovated in 1823 and stands out architecturally as the only Classicist
building with great arcades in amongst many timber-frame
houses. Two arms stones with dragon’s heads were integrated into the building from the forerunner building, itself documented in 1539. The square tower goes back to the old parish church, which was torn down once the town parish took over the Einhard-Basilika in 1812 and the Benedictine abbey had been dissolved.
Seligenstadt has a great number of historic buildings and timber-frame
houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, some of which are under monumental protection. This is why the town is also on one of the nine routes of the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße, or German Timber Frame Road (Rhine-Main-Odenwald
route).
Most of these two- and three-floor timber-frame houses are to be found at the marketplace and in rows along the nearby streets (particularly Steinheimer Straße, Kleine Fischergasse, Große Fischergasse, Kleine Maingasse, Große Maingasse and Freihofstraße). Examples at the marketplace are the Alte Schmiede (“Old Smithy”, no. 13, now a restaurant), nos. 7 and 10, the historic apothecary with the apothecary’s emblem with a mortar, the so-called Einhard-Haus from 1596 with a richly decorated oriel, the house on Steinheimer Straße at the corner of Stadtmühlengasse (1697), Freihofplatz 3 (1567), the little house at Freihofstraße 4 (souvenir shop) and many others.
The timber-frame neighbourhood along Rosengasse is called Klaa-Frankreich (Frankreich means “France” in German
), for which there is a particular historical reason: After the Thirty Years' War
, Abbot Leonhard Colchon settled people from a Wallonian
homeland here after the local population had been decimated by warfare, famine and the Plague. Names like Beike, Massoth, Bonifer, Dutine, Oger and Assian still bear witness to the earlier francophone
settlers.
, which has been preserved in altered form down to the present day. In the Middle Ages, bands of merchants with their wagons came from all points on the compass to the Frankfurt Trade Fair
. Merchants from Augsburg
and Nuremberg
had to come through the Spessart
or along the Main to their rest stop at Seligenstadt. The way was dangerous, as the rich merchants were very much a worthwhile target for highwaymen
and robber knights. Therefore, the Staufer Emperor Friedrich II
put the merchants under Imperial protection with a Geleitsbrief, a kind of safe-conduct, in 1240. Every affected fiefholder thereafter was obliged to afford those passing through their lands armed escort for a fee. Near Seligenstadt the escort troops were changed. Electoral Mainz
escort troops handed their charges to Frankfurt troops. From this time comes the Hänselbrauch, a custom among salesmen that actually became a rule. Newly minted salesmen then had to drink a whole litre of wine from the Geleitslöffel (“escort spoon”) without stopping to rest to earn entrance into the salesmen’s association. Anyone who could not pass the so-called Nagelprobe (“nail test”) had to “treat” the merchants’ guild, and this specifically meant paying for the catering. This custom is, in moderated form, still today in Seligenstadt the highlight of the Geleitsfest (“Escort Festival”), which is held every four years.
The town of Seligenstadt is widely known for its Carnival parade, which snakes its way, traditionally on Rosenmontag
(Shrove Monday), through the historic inner town and the neighbouring parts of town. There is proof that this Rosenmontag parade has existed since 1859. Nowadays the parade has more than a hundred elaborately built attractions, drawing an average of forty thousand interested visitors from near and far. At Carnival time, the Seligenstadt fools (Narren) call themselves “Schlumber” and their town “Schlumberland”. Each year, a Carnival Prince and Princess are chosen, as are two children to be the Child Prince and Princess. Besides the Rosenmontag parade, there is a Kinderfaschingsumzug (“Children’s Carnival Parade”) each year on the Sunday.
on the A 3, linking it not only with other regions within Germany, but also with the Netherlands
and Austria
.
Seligenstadt railway station lies on the Hanau
-Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach (- Erbach
) railway line (Odenwaldbahn).
Today’s Mainfähre (“Main ferry”, formerly known as “Newe”) is an untethered car ferry
and crosses the Main at Main kilometre 69.60. It has been running since 1971. Before this there had been two or three (the exact number cannot be confirmed) ferries linking the Hessian town of Seligenstadt with the Bavaria
n side of the Main – the communities of Kahl
and Dettingen
. It is run by the Seligenstadt Town Works and incurs great losses every year due to, among other things, the high administrative costs. It has therefore been discussed many times whether it might be a better idea to build a bridge across the Main (as was done at Mainflingen
) or indeed to replace the car ferry with a pedestrian and cyclist ferry. There has also been talk of privatizing the ferry to reduce costs. It is one of twelve ferries still crossing the Main today.
As early as the 9th century there was a link in place across the Main, as the monastery at Seligenstadt held the rights to ferry persons and goods to the Main’s far side. For money or kind, these rights were passed on, out of which arose something called Fährgerechtigkeit (“ferry justice”). This Fährgerechtigkeit remained mostly for many years in one family’s ownership and could be further bequeathed. When the monastery was dissolved in 1803, the Fährgerechtigkeit passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse
. In 1868, the town of Seligenstadt took over all rights and privileges for the Main crossing from the ferrymen of the time. The town then leased the ferrying rights to the highest bidder. Only after the Second World War did the town take the ferry over again.
and the Oberlandesgericht (High State Court) region of Frankfurt am Main
.
The formerly self-administering community of Froschhausen named the longtime municipal politician Josef Happel an honorary citizen. The late honorary citizens of Froschhausen Dr. Ernst Braun and the Reverend Josef Gremm have had streets in Froschhausen named after them.
Offenbach (district)
Offenbach is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Neighbourhood districts are Main-Kinzig, Aschaffenburg, Darmstadt-Dieburg, Groß-Gerau and the cities of Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Offenbach.-History:The district Offenbach was first...
in the Regierungsbezirk
Regierungsbezirk
In Germany, a Government District, in German: Regierungsbezirk – is a subdivision of certain federal states .They are above the Kreise, Landkreise, and kreisfreie Städte...
of Darmstadt
Darmstadt (region)
Darmstadt is one of the three Regierungsbezirke of Hesse, Germany, located in the south of the state.- External links :*...
in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Seligenstadt is one of Germany’s oldest towns and was already of great importance in Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
times.
Location
Seligenstadt is one of 13 towns and communities in the Offenbach district. The town lies on the river Main’s left bank roughly 25 km southeast of Frankfurt am MainFrankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, directly neighbouring Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, 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...
.
Neighbouring communities
Seligenstadt borders in the north on the community of HainburgHainburg
Hainburg may refer to the following places:* Hainburg an der Donau, Lower Austria, Austria* Hainburg, Germany, Hesse, Germany...
, in the east on the community of Karlstein
Karlstein am Main
Karlstein am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.-Location:...
(Aschaffenburg district
Aschaffenburg (district)
Aschaffenburg is a district in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Darmstadt-Dieburg, Offenbach, Main-Kinzig , the districts Main-Spessart and Miltenberg, and the town of Aschaffenburg....
in Bavaria), in the southeast on the community of Mainhausen
Mainhausen
Mainhausen is a community of over 9,000 in the Offenbach district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Mainhausen is one of 13 towns and communities in the Offenbach district, lying in the southernmost part of Hesse right on the boundary with Bavaria...
, in the south on the town of Babenhausen
Babenhausen
Babenhausen is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hesse, Germany.-Geography:It is situated on the river Gersprenz, 25 km southeast of Frankfurt, and 14 km west of Aschaffenburg. South of its general borders, the mountain range of the Odenwald is situated about 15 km away...
(Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds.-History:...
) and in the west on the town of Rodgau
Rodgau
Rodgau is a town in the Offenbach district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany. It lies southeast of Frankfurt am Main in the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and has the greatest population of any municipality in the Offenbach district...
.
Constituent communities
Seligenstadt’s Stadtteile are Seligenstadt, Klein-Welzheim and Froschhausen.Geology
Seligenstadt is located in the Hanau-Seligenstadt BasinHanau-Seligenstadt Basin
The Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin is a subbasin of the Upper Rhine Graben southeast of Frankfurt am Main .- Location :The Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin is located in the eastern part of the Lower Main lowlands. The river Main crosses the basin between Aschaffenburg and Offenbach am Main...
, a Cenozoic
Cenozoic
The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the three Phanerozoic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 mya to the present. The era began in the wake of the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous that saw the demise of the last non-avian dinosaurs and...
subsidence basin between the local highlands of Spessart
Spessart
The Spessart is a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse, Germany. It is bordered on three sides by the Main River. The two most important towns located at the foot of the Spessart are Aschaffenburg and Würzburg....
and Odenwald
Odenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
. Quaternary
Quaternary
The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...
fluvial deposits of the river Main overlying Pliocene
Pliocene
The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...
, lignite
Lignite
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, or Rosebud coal by Northern Pacific Railroad,is a soft brown fuel with characteristics that put it somewhere between coal and peat...
bearing sequences and Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
sands and marls form the subsurface of the town.
Antiquity
Sometime about AD 100, during the reign of RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
Emperor Trajan
Trajan
Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...
, a cohort castrum
Castra
The Latin word castra, with its singular castrum, was used by the ancient Romans to mean buildings or plots of land reserved to or constructed for use as a military defensive position. The word appears in both Oscan and Umbrian as well as in Latin. It may have descended from Indo-European to Italic...
was built on what is now Seligenstadt’s marketplace and parts of its Old Town. Since the 16th century, the castrum has been assigned the name “Selgum”. The 500 legionaries and auxiliary forces stationed there belonged to the Legio XXII Primigenia
Legio XXII Primigenia
Legio XXII Primigenia was a Roman legion levied by Roman Emperor Caligula in 39, for his campaigns in Germania. There are still records of the XXII Primigenia in Mogontiacum from the end of 3rd century...
, or Roman 22nd Legion, based in Mogontiacum (Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
). The cohort was known by the name Cohors I Civium Romanorum equitata and was responsible for security along the stretch of the Limes Germanicus
Limes Germanicus
The Limes Germanicus was a line of frontier fortifications that bounded the ancient Roman provinces of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior and Raetia, dividing the Roman Empire and the unsubdued Germanic tribes from the years 83 to about 260 AD...
running along the Main. With the fall of the Limes during the stormings by the Alamanni
Alamanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...
about 260, the castrum was forsaken, and the Romans withdrew farther behind the Rhine line. On the former castrum’s rubble and on what is now the monastery area in a section of the Breitenbach valley arose the early mediaeval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
settlement of Mulinheim superior, or Obermühlheim.
Middle Ages
Seligenstadt had its first documentary mention on 11 January 815 in a donation document, under its then current name of Obermühlheim. The town was founded by CharlemagneCharlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
’s biographer Einhard
Einhard
Einhard was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the Vita Karoli Magni, "one of the most precious literary bequests of the early Middle Ages."-Public life:Einhard was from the eastern...
. After he had acquired the Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
settlement of Obermulinheim from Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
in 815 as a donation, he founded a Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery here. Mentioned as an earlier owner is a Count Drogo. Martyrs Marcellinus’s and Peter’s
Marcellinus and Peter
Saints Marcellinus and Peter were two 4th century Christian martyrs in the city of Rome.-Life:Very little is known about the two martyrs' lives. Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304, during the persecution of Diocletian...
bones, which had been stolen in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, were transferred from the basilica in Steinbach in the Odenwald
Odenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
to Obermühlheim, soon leading to a change in the community’s name from Obermühlheim to Seligenstadt (“Blessed Ones’ Town” in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
). About 830, building work began on the Einhard-Basilika, now the landmark of this town on the Lower Main.
Synod
A synod historically is a council of a church, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not...
was held, whose most important result was the introduction of ember days
Ember days
In the liturgical calendar of the Western Christian churches, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer...
with their strict rules for fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
. In 1063, Emperor Heinrich IV
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...
confirmed to the Archbishop of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
the lawfulness of his ownership of the abbey.
Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
held court in Seligenstadt in 1188. During his reign the community acquired town rights and a royal court (Kaiserpfalz
Kaiserpfalz
The term Kaiserpfalz or Königspfalz refers to a number of castles across the Holy Roman Empire which served as temporary, secondary seats of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages...
) was built on the banks of the Main.
Reformation and Renaissance
In 1527, Archbishop Albert of MainzAlbert of Mainz
Cardinal Albert of Hohenzollern was Elector and Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.-Biography:...
brought in a new town order whereby the Seligenstadt townsmen’s rights were sharply limited.
Thirty Years' War
The 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....
, a Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
commissary administered the abbey on King Gustav II Adolf’s
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...
behalf. The Swedish king had spared the town destruction and burning in return for the townsmen’s tribute. As he went forth with his army, though, the occupation troops who had been left behind plundered the town and the abbey anyway. In 1658, the abbey and convent buildings were newly built.
Modern times
Through the SecularizationSecularization
Secularization is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions...
of Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
in 1803, the Amt of Seligenstadt passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the abbey was dissolved. In 1832, the Landratsbezirk of Seligenstadt was merged into the Offenbach district and in 1882 the Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
-Seligenstadt-Eberbach
Eberbach
Eberbach can refer to:* Eberbach , city on the river Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany* Eberbach Abbey, Cistercian monastery in Germany* Eberbach-Seltz, commune of the Bas-Rhin département in FrancePeople:...
railway opened.
Recent times
In 1977 in the course of municipal reform in Hesse, the neighbouring communities of Froschhausen and Klein-Welzheim were merged into Seligenstadt.Town council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 |
Seats 2006 |
% 2001 |
Seats 2001 |
|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 51.7 | 19 | 50.8 | 19 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
24.1 | 9 | 32.9 | 12 |
| GREENS | Bündnis 90/Die Grünen | 6.5 | 2 | 5.9 | 2 |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party 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... |
10.2 | 4 | 4.9 | 2 |
| FWS | Freie Wähler Seligenstadt | 7.5 | 3 | 5.5 | 2 |
| Total | 100.0 | 37 | 100.0 | 37 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 47.6 | 56.0 | |||
The voters thereby confirmed the CDU’s absolute majority, which they have held since 2001. The town council has four boards:
- Board for youth, social services, sport and culture (chairman: Steffen Thiel, CDU)
- Board for building and planning (chairman: Johannes Zahn, CDU)
- Board for environment and transport (chairman: Michael Rickert, CDU)
- Main, financial and economic promotion board (chairman: Volker Horn, CDU)
Town partnerships
Triel-sur-SeineTriel-sur-Seine
Triel-sur-Seine is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is positioned approximately to the north-west of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.Inhabitants are known as Triellois or Trielloises according to gender....
, Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...
, France
France
The 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...
since 1967 Brookfield
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Brookfield is a city located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It had a population of 37,920 in the 2010 census. Brookfield is the second largest city in Waukesha County, and the leading commercial suburb of Milwaukee. The City of Brookfield was formed in 1954 from the Town of...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
since 2 September 2008 Piedimonte Matese
Piedimonte Matese
Piedimonte Matese is a comune in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about 60 km north of Naples and about 30 km north of Caserta....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
since October September 2010
In March 2008, the partnership with the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
community of Heel, which had existed since 1972, was ended by the community of Maasgouw
Maasgouw
Maasgouw is a municipality in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located on both banks of the river Meuse southwest of the city of Roermond. It was formed in a merger of the former municipalities of Heel, Maasbracht and Thorn on January 1, 2007....
, into which the former communities of Heel, Maasbracht
Maasbracht
Maasbracht is a town in the southeastern Netherlands. It was a separate municipality until January 1, 2007, when it became a part of the new municipality of Maasgouw. Footballer Mark van Bommel was born in Maasbracht.-External links:*...
and Thorn were amalgamated on 1 January 2007. The partnership with Heel went back to the partnership between the formerly self-administering community of Klein-Welzheim, now part of Seligenstadt, and the Dutch community of Wessem, which belonged to Heel then.
Ecclesiastical buildings
Marcellinus and Peter
Saints Marcellinus and Peter were two 4th century Christian martyrs in the city of Rome.-Life:Very little is known about the two martyrs' lives. Marcellinus, a priest, and Peter, an exorcist, died in the year 304, during the persecution of Diocletian...
relics. Since 1925 it has borne the honorary title of minor basilica, bestowed by Pope Pius XI. Although the building was heavily modified over the centuries, this is nonetheless one of the most impressive basilicas with a basic Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
structure north of the Alps.
The Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery, dissolved in 1803, that abuts this on the south with its Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
wings and broad estate and garden complexes has been fully restored.
Secular buildings
From Friedrich Barbarossa’s time (12th century), two relics are still standing:Of the Palatium (Kaiserpfalz
Kaiserpfalz
The term Kaiserpfalz or Königspfalz refers to a number of castles across the Holy Roman Empire which served as temporary, secondary seats of power for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Early and High Middle Ages...
) on the Main’s banks, also known as the Rotes Schloss (“Red Palace”), only the Main façade is still standing with double and triple arcades with arches of red sandstone. With a ground area of 47 m × 14 m, this rectangular Kaiserpfalz was among the smaller ones. Perhaps the Emperor used it as a weekend residence or a small hunting lodge. The first restoration work took place in 1938; restoration work on the south and west walls has been ongoing since 1996.
From the same time comes the so-called Romanisches Haus built in massive stone with great arcades on the ground floor. On the first floor are double arcades with middle column and arch and a blind arcade under the crow-stepped gable. In 1187, the building was the Vogt
Vogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
ei and in 1188 the showplace for Barbarossa’s
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
court, which he held there that year. It was restored in 1984, and in the 21st century, cultural events take place here.
The town fortification, built in the 12th century and strengthened in the 15th, originally had 4 gatetowers and 6 bulwark towers. Of the town gates, only the Steinheimer Tor from 1603-1605 is preserved; of the bulwark towers, three are still standing. The Kaiserpfalz’s Main façade was integrated into the town wall, to which also wall and ditch complexes belonged. The greater part of the town fortification was torn down in the 19th century.
The Town Hall at the marketplace was renovated in 1823 and stands out architecturally as the only Classicist
Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
building with great arcades in amongst many timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
houses. Two arms stones with dragon’s heads were integrated into the building from the forerunner building, itself documented in 1539. The square tower goes back to the old parish church, which was torn down once the town parish took over the Einhard-Basilika in 1812 and the Benedictine abbey had been dissolved.
Timber frame architecture
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, some of which are under monumental protection. This is why the town is also on one of the nine routes of the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße, or German Timber Frame Road (Rhine-Main-Odenwald
Odenwald
The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
route).
Most of these two- and three-floor timber-frame houses are to be found at the marketplace and in rows along the nearby streets (particularly Steinheimer Straße, Kleine Fischergasse, Große Fischergasse, Kleine Maingasse, Große Maingasse and Freihofstraße). Examples at the marketplace are the Alte Schmiede (“Old Smithy”, no. 13, now a restaurant), nos. 7 and 10, the historic apothecary with the apothecary’s emblem with a mortar, the so-called Einhard-Haus from 1596 with a richly decorated oriel, the house on Steinheimer Straße at the corner of Stadtmühlengasse (1697), Freihofplatz 3 (1567), the little house at Freihofstraße 4 (souvenir shop) and many others.
The timber-frame neighbourhood along Rosengasse is called Klaa-Frankreich (Frankreich means “France” in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), for which there is a particular historical reason: After the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The 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....
, Abbot Leonhard Colchon settled people from a Wallonian
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
homeland here after the local population had been decimated by warfare, famine and the Plague. Names like Beike, Massoth, Bonifer, Dutine, Oger and Assian still bear witness to the earlier francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
settlers.
Buildings outside the town centre
- In the constituent community of Klein-Welzheim near the historic monastery fishponds stands a moated castle in the style of a mediaeval castle, albeit with BaroqueBaroque architectureBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
additions, which the abbot at Seligenstadt had built in 1707 as a summer seat. - In the constituent community of Froschhausen, the former community’s town hall has a special meaning. Before it was built in 1939, the former community church standing at the spot was torn down. The churchtower, however, was integrated into the new town hall building. Froschhausen’s old community core also offers a few other pretty timber-frame buildings.
Name
According to a legend, the town’s name has nothing to do with the transfer of the martyrs’ bones as related above, but rather with the above-mentioned Einhard, one of Charlemagne’s advisers, with whose daughter, Emma, Einhard ran away. He lived with her in Obermulinheim. The Emperor was passing through the town one night and entered the inn, in which his daughter was working. She served him pancakes, and the Emperor recognized their incomparable flavour. Charlemagne, realizing that he had found his runaway daughter then supposedly said “Selig sei die Stadt genannt, da ich meine Tochter Emma wiederfand” (“Blessed be called the town, as I found my daughter Emma again.”), which, it is said, yielded the town’s name, from the word selig (“blessed”) and the word Stadt (“town”). This “quote” is still to be seen on the oriel at the so-called Einhardhaus (renovated in 1596) in Seligenstadt.Seligenstädter Geleit
The Seligenstädter Geleit (“Seligenstadt Escort”) is a custom that is unique in Germany from the Early Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, which has been preserved in altered form down to the present day. In the Middle Ages, bands of merchants with their wagons came from all points on the compass to the Frankfurt Trade Fair
Frankfurt Trade Fair
Frankfurt Trade Fair , with 448,000,000 Euros in sales and over 1,600 active employees, is one of the world's largest trade fair companies. The group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices, and 52 international sales partners. Thus, the Messe Frankfurt is present in over 150...
. Merchants from Augsburg
Augsburg
Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
and Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
had to come through the Spessart
Spessart
The Spessart is a low mountain range in northwestern Bavaria and southern Hesse, Germany. It is bordered on three sides by the Main River. The two most important towns located at the foot of the Spessart are Aschaffenburg and Würzburg....
or along the Main to their rest stop at Seligenstadt. The way was dangerous, as the rich merchants were very much a worthwhile target for highwaymen
Highwayman
A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
and robber knights. Therefore, the Staufer Emperor Friedrich II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
put the merchants under Imperial protection with a Geleitsbrief, a kind of safe-conduct, in 1240. Every affected fiefholder thereafter was obliged to afford those passing through their lands armed escort for a fee. Near Seligenstadt the escort troops were changed. Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
escort troops handed their charges to Frankfurt troops. From this time comes the Hänselbrauch, a custom among salesmen that actually became a rule. Newly minted salesmen then had to drink a whole litre of wine from the Geleitslöffel (“escort spoon”) without stopping to rest to earn entrance into the salesmen’s association. Anyone who could not pass the so-called Nagelprobe (“nail test”) had to “treat” the merchants’ guild, and this specifically meant paying for the catering. This custom is, in moderated form, still today in Seligenstadt the highlight of the Geleitsfest (“Escort Festival”), which is held every four years.
Carnival (Fastnacht)
Rosenmontag
Rosenmontag is the highlight of the German "Karneval" , and is on the Shrove Monday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The "Mardi Gras," though celebrated on Tuesday, is a similar event...
(Shrove Monday), through the historic inner town and the neighbouring parts of town. There is proof that this Rosenmontag parade has existed since 1859. Nowadays the parade has more than a hundred elaborately built attractions, drawing an average of forty thousand interested visitors from near and far. At Carnival time, the Seligenstadt fools (Narren) call themselves “Schlumber” and their town “Schlumberland”. Each year, a Carnival Prince and Princess are chosen, as are two children to be the Child Prince and Princess. Besides the Rosenmontag parade, there is a Kinderfaschingsumzug (“Children’s Carnival Parade”) each year on the Sunday.
Transport
Seligenstadt has its own Autobahn interchangeInterchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
on the A 3, linking it not only with other regions within Germany, but also with the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
Seligenstadt railway station lies on the Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
-Groß-Umstadt Wiebelsbach (- Erbach
Erbach im Odenwald
-Location:The town lies in the Odenwald at elevations between 200 and 560 m in the valley of the Mümling.-Neighbouring communities:Erbach borders in the north on the town of Michelstadt, in the east on the market town of Kirchzell , in the south on the community of Hesseneck and the town of...
) railway line (Odenwaldbahn).
Main ferry
| Technical data | |
| Overall length | 28 m |
| Overall breadth | 8.40 m |
| Vehicle deck breadth | 5.25 m |
| Draught (unladen) | 0.62 m |
| Draught (laden) | 1 m |
| Tonnage | 45 t |
| Drive | 2 Iveco engines |
| Propellers | 2 Schottel propellers SRP 30 |
| Onboard voltage | 24 V |
| Speed | 5 knots (9.26 km/h) |
| Keel laying | February 1971 |
| Beginning of service | May 1971 |
| Hours in service thus far | over 75,000 hours |
Today’s Mainfähre (“Main ferry”, formerly known as “Newe”) is an untethered car ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
and crosses the Main at Main kilometre 69.60. It has been running since 1971. Before this there had been two or three (the exact number cannot be confirmed) ferries linking the Hessian town of Seligenstadt with the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, 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 side of the Main – the communities of Kahl
Kahl am Main
Kahl am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.- Location :...
and Dettingen
Karlstein am Main
Karlstein am Main is a community in the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.-Location:...
. It is run by the Seligenstadt Town Works and incurs great losses every year due to, among other things, the high administrative costs. It has therefore been discussed many times whether it might be a better idea to build a bridge across the Main (as was done at Mainflingen
Mainflingen
Mainflingen is a small settlement of about 3800 inhabitants, a constituent community of the municipality Mainhausen in Hesse, Germany....
) or indeed to replace the car ferry with a pedestrian and cyclist ferry. There has also been talk of privatizing the ferry to reduce costs. It is one of twelve ferries still crossing the Main today.
As early as the 9th century there was a link in place across the Main, as the monastery at Seligenstadt held the rights to ferry persons and goods to the Main’s far side. For money or kind, these rights were passed on, out of which arose something called Fährgerechtigkeit (“ferry justice”). This Fährgerechtigkeit remained mostly for many years in one family’s ownership and could be further bequeathed. When the monastery was dissolved in 1803, the Fährgerechtigkeit passed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse
Grand Duchy of Hesse
The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine , or, between 1806 and 1816, Grand Duchy of Hesse —as it was also known after 1816—was a member state of the German Confederation from 1806, when the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was elevated to a Grand Duchy, until 1918, when all the German...
. In 1868, the town of Seligenstadt took over all rights and privileges for the Main crossing from the ferrymen of the time. The town then leased the ferrying rights to the highest bidder. Only after the Second World War did the town take the ferry over again.
Courts
Seligenstadt has at its disposal an Amtsgericht (roughly, a district court), which belongs to the state court region of DarmstadtDarmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
and the Oberlandesgericht (High State Court) region of Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
.
Media
- Offenbach-Post – the publishing house has its headquarters in Offenbach am Main and reports regularly in the regional section about Seligenstadt. It has an editorial office in Seligenstadt.
- Seligenstädter Heimatblatt – has appeared weekly since 1949.
- Kurier am Marktplatz – reports about Seligenstadt and the neighbouring communities of MainhausenMainhausenMainhausen is a community of over 9,000 in the Offenbach district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Mainhausen is one of 13 towns and communities in the Offenbach district, lying in the southernmost part of Hesse right on the boundary with Bavaria...
and HainburgHainburgHainburg may refer to the following places:* Hainburg an der Donau, Lower Austria, Austria* Hainburg, Germany, Hesse, Germany...
.
Schools
- Alfred-DelpAlfred DelpAlfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest who was executed for his resistance to the Nazi régime in Germany.- Early life and education :...
-Schule in Froschhausen - Don-BoscoJohn BoscoJohn Bosco , was an Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer of the 19th century, who put into practice the convictions of his religion, dedicating his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth and employing teaching methods...
-Schule - Einhardschule Seligenstadt
- Freie Schule Seligenstadt
- Gerhart-HauptmannGerhart HauptmannGerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
-Schule in Klein-Welzheim - Hans-MemlingHans MemlingHans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
-Schule - Konrad-AdenauerKonrad AdenauerKonrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer was a German statesman. He was the chancellor of the West Germany from 1949 to 1963. He is widely recognised as a person who led his country from the ruins of World War II to a powerful and prosperous nation that had forged close relations with old enemies France,...
-Schule - Matthias-GrünewaldMatthias GrünewaldMatthias Grünewald or "Mathis" , "Gothart" or "Neithardt" , , was a German Renaissance painter of religious works, who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century.Only ten paintings—several consisting...
-Schule - MerianMatthäus MerianMatthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...
schule Seligenstadt - Walinusschule in Klein-Welzheim
Honorary citizens
- 20 April 1921, Franz Xaver Dorn, school rector, b. 17 February 1852, d. 10 February 1927
- Franz Boeres, b. 4 September 1872, d. 24 May 1956
- Fritz Bruder, b. 30 May 1907, d. 1975
- July 2000, Marcellin Spahn, b. 31 October 1928, d. 1 April 2005
The formerly self-administering community of Froschhausen named the longtime municipal politician Josef Happel an honorary citizen. The late honorary citizens of Froschhausen Dr. Ernst Braun and the Reverend Josef Gremm have had streets in Froschhausen named after them.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Hans MemlingHans MemlingHans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
, b. ca. 1433, d. 11 August 1494 in BrüggeBrüggeBrügge is a municipality in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.Its small church and market square are noted for their beauty....
, German painter of the Dutch school. - Franz Boeres, b. 4 September 1872 in Seligenstadt, d. 24 May 1956, sculptor and painter.
- Heinrich Galm, b. 23 October 1895 in Seligenstadt, d. 30 October 1984, socialist politician.
- Franz Singer, b. 8 September 1898 in Seligenstadt, d. 22 July 1953 in SaarbrückenSaarbrückenSaarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
, journalist and politician in the Saarland. - Otto Höfling, b. 9 February 1941 in Seligenstadt, entrepreneur and Rally Flying pilot, five-time German champion and vice-champion in Rally Flying.
- Frank Lortz, b. 5 June 1953 in Seligenstadt, member and former vice-president of the Hessian Landtag and chairman of the club ring in Froschhausen.
Others with links to Seligenstadt
- Elisabeth LanggässerElisabeth LanggässerElisabeth Langgässer was a German author and teacher. She is known for lyrical poetry and novels...
, poet and writer, taught intermittently from 1920 to 1928 at the boys’ elementary school in Seligenstadt. Into this time also fell the beginning of her relationship to the constitutional lawyer Hermann HellerHermann Heller (legal scholar)Hermann Heller was a German legal scholar and philosopher of Jewish descent. He was active in the non-Marxist wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic. He attempted to formulate the theoretical foundations of the social-democratic relations to the state, and...
.
Further reading
- Backes, Magnus / Feldtkeller, Hans: Kunsthistorischer Wanderführer Hessen, Lizenzausgabe 1984, ISBN 3-88199-133-6
- Einhard: Translatio et Miracula SS. Marcellini et Petri. (about transfer of martyrs’ relics and origin of town’s name)
- Hell, Franz: Seligenstadt und seine Merkwürdigkeiten, Seligenstadt 1879
- Koch, J.: Die Wirtschafts- und Rechtsverhältnisse der Abtei Seligenstadt im Mittelalter, 2 Bde., Gießen 1940 u. Darmstadt 1942
- Ordensbruderschaft vom Steyffen Löffel zu Seligenstadt (publisher): Seligenstadt am Main – Ein Bilderbuch. Fotografien von Frank Kress, Horst Müller und Mathias Neubauer, Texte von Alexandra Kemmerer, Seligenstadt 2007 (2. Aufl. Seligenstadt 2008)
- Steiner, Joh. Wilh. Christian: Geschichte und Beschreibung der Stadt und ehemaligen Abtei Seligenstadt, Aschaffenburg 1820