Ingelheim am Rhein | |
|---|---|
 TheBurgkirche ("Castle Church") in Ingelheim | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
Location of Ingelheim am Rhein within Mainz-Bingen district  | |
 Location of Ingelheim am Rhein | |
  Ingelheim am Rhein  Ingelheim am Rhein | |
| Coordinates:49°58′29″N8°3′23″E / 49.97472°N 8.05639°E /49.97472; 8.05639 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Mainz-Bingen |
| Government | |
| • Lord mayor(2019–27) | Ralf Claus[1] (SPD) |
| Area | |
• Total | 73.31 km2 (28.31 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 247 m (810 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 80 m (260 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 36,390 |
| • Density | 496.4/km2 (1,286/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 55218 |
| Dialling codes | 06132 06130-Großwinternheim 06725-Sporkenheim |
| Vehicle registration | MZ, BIN |
| Website | www.ingelheim.de |
Ingelheim (German pronunciation:[ˈɪŋəlhaɪm]ⓘ), officiallyIngelheim am Rhein (German pronunciation:[ˈɪŋəlhaɪmʔamˈʁaɪn],lit. 'Ingelheim on theRhine'), is a town in theMainz-Bingendistrict in theRhineland-Palatinate state ofGermany and also the seat of the Mainz-Bingen district. The town sprawls along theRhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat since 1996.
From the later half of the 8th century, theIngelheim Imperial Palace, which served emperors and kings as a lodging and a ruling seat until the 11th century, was to be found here.
The typicallyRhenish-Hessian placename ending—heim might well go back toFrankish times, that is to say, likely as far back as the 5th or 6th century. Settlements or estates then took their lords’ names and were given this suffix, which means "home" inGerman. The name is recorded in later documents asIngilinhaim,Ingilinheim (782),Ingilenhaim,Engelheim,Hengilonheim,Engilonheim (822),Engilinheim (826),Hingilinheim (855),Ingilunheim (874),Ingulinheim (889),Ingelesheim (891),Ingelenheim (940),Anglia sedes (1051),Ingilheim andIngelnheim (1286), among other forms.
Since 1269, a distinction has been made betweenNieder-Ingelheim andOber-Ingelheim (Lower and Upper Ingelheim).
Ingelheim am Rhein lies in the north of Rhein Hessen on the so-called Rhein Knee, west of the state capital,Mainz. The Rhein forms the town's northern limit. Southwards, the town stretches into the valley of the riverSelz, which empties into the Rhein in the constituent community of Frei-Weinheim or Ingelheim-Nord ("North").
The constituent communities of Ingelheim-Mitte and Ingelheim-Süd ("Middle" and "South") are nestled against the corner of the so-calledMainzer Berg [de] ("Mainz Mountain").
The municipal area's lowest point is the harbour on the Rhein at 80.8 mabove sea level. The two highest points are the Mainzer Berg at 247.8 m above sea level and theWesterberg [de] at 247.5 m above sea level.
An obelisk on the south side of the village in directionWackernheim, marks the road begun byCharlemagne, and completed by Napoleon. From this point a fine prospect of the entireRheingau could be obtained.[3]
The municipal area's north-south extent is 7.9 km, while the east-west extent is 5 km.
Clockwise from the north, these areGeisenheim,Oestrich-Winkel on the Rhine's right bank, and on the left bankBudenheim,Finthen, theVerbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm,Schwabenheim,Gau-Algesheim (both belonging to theVerbandsgemeinde of Gau-Algesheim) andBingen am Rhein. Since 1 July 2019 Wackernheim and Heidesheim are incorporated into the city of Ingelheim.[4]
Ingelheim is currently divided into sixStadtteile: Ingelheim-Mitte, Ingelheim-Nord, Ingelheim-Süd, Sporkenheim, Groß-Winternheim and Ingelheim-West. Before Ingelheim became a town in 1939, the first three centres bore the names Nieder-Ingelheim, Frei-Weinheim and Ober-Ingelheim. Official changes notwithstanding, the old names are still quite often used.
The town lies in thetemperate zone. The average yearly temperature in Ingelheim is 9.8 °C. The warmest months are July and August with average temperatures of 18.0 and 18.5 °C respectively, and the coldest month is January at 1.0 °C on average. The most precipitation falls in June and August with an average of 64 mm, and the least in March with an average of 31 mm. Like all Rhenish Hesse, Ingelheim, too, is sheltered from the weather by theHunsrück, theTaunus, theOdenwald and theDonnersberg, thereby limiting the yearly precipitation to only 560 mm.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temperature (°C) | 1.0 | 2.0 | 4.5 | 9.5 | 14 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 14.5 | 10.5 | 5 | 2 | 9.7 |
| Precipitation (mm) | 40 | 35 | 31 | 36 | 52 | 64 | 59 | 64 | 45 | 40 | 51 | 43 | 560 |
| Source:Deutscher Wetterdienst[5] | |||||||||||||
The Ingelheim area was already settled in prehistoric times. The place first earned itself particular importance, though, only underCharlemagne and his successors. Charlemagne had built theIngelheim Imperial Palace (Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz) here, wheresynods andImperial diets were held in the time that followed. His son and successor, EmperorLouis the Pious, died on 20 June 840 in Ingelheim.
In the High and LateMiddle Ages, the Palatinate's, and thereby also Ingelheim's, importance shrank.
For German justice history, theIngelheimer Oberhof ("Ingelheim Upper Court") is of particular importance, as a unique collection of judgments from the 15th and 16th centuries that it handed down has been preserved.
Late 19th century Ingelheim was the residence of the Dutch writerMultatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker).
In 1939, the formerly self-administering municipalities of Nieder-Ingelheim, Ober-Ingelheim and Frei-Weinheim were merged into the Town of Ingelheim am Rhein.
From theSecond World War, Ingelheim emerged as the only unscathed town between Mainz andKoblenz. Today, Ingelheim is amiddle centre in Rhineland-Palatinate, a Great District-Bound Town (Große kreisangehörige Stadt – a status deriving from the Rhineland-Palatinate Municipal Order) and the seat of district administration forMainz-Bingen.
Furthermore, Ingelheim harbours the businessBoehringer Ingelheim which is active worldwide.
In 2004, 36% of Ingelheim's inhabitants belonged to theLutheran faith, and 34% wereCatholic, while 24% were without any religious faith; from 2% of the population, no data were forthcoming.
The six Catholic parishes belong, within theRoman Catholic Diocese of Mainz to theDeanery of Bingen.
The five Protestant parishes of theEKHN belong to the Provostship (Propstei) of Mainz, and within this to the Deanery of Ingelheim.
Besides these, theBaptists,Religious humanists andMuslims each have small communities in Ingelheim, as do theJehovah's Witnesses andBuddhists.
Until 1942 there was aJewish community, whose beginnings went back to the 16th century. About 1850, roughly 200 Jewish inhabitants lived in Ober-Ingelheim, and by 1933 there were still 134 all together in Oberingelheim and Niederingelheim. In 1840 and 1841, asynagogue that was important to architectural history was built. It was dedicated on 27 August 1841 and destroyed on 9 November 1938 –Kristallnacht. Many Jewish inhabitants lost their lives after being deported to thedeath camps during the time of theThird Reich.
On 22 April 1972 the municipality of Groß-Winternheim was amalgamated. The former municipalitiesHeidesheim am Rhein andWackernheim were merged into Ingelheim am Rhein on 1 July 2019.
| Year | Nieder-Ingelheim | Ober-Ingelheim | Frei-Weinheim | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1815 | 1,360 | 1,738 | 192 | 3,290 |
| 1871 | 5,760 | |||
| 1885 | 2,729 | 3,160 | 701 | 6,590 |
| 1900 | 3,435 | 3,402 | 838 | 7,675 |
| 1905 | 8,098 | |||
| 1910 | 3,852 | 3,479 | 882 | 8,213 |
| 1933 | 5,157 | 4,116 | 1,183 | 10,456 |
| 1939 | 5,526 | 4,309 | 1,200 | 11,035 |
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The municipal election held in 2004 yielded the following results:
| Party | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|
| Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 37.53% (-4.24%) | 13 |
| Social Democratic Party of Germany | 29.64% (-5.90%) | 11 |
| Grünen | 10.41% (+2.52%) | 4 |
| Liste Klose | 10.19% (+10.19%) | 4 |
| Freie Wähler | 7.30% (-2.33%) | 2 |
| Free Democratic Party | 4.93% (-0.24%) | 2 |
In the last mayoral elections, held on 26 May 2019, Ralf Claus, mayor of Ingelheim since 2012, was reelected as mayor:
| Candidate | Party | % |
|---|---|---|
| Breyer, Eveline | CDU | 44.4% |
| Claus, Ralf | SPD | 55.6% |
Mayors (Bürgermeister) from 1946, Chief Mayors (Oberbürgermeister) from 1972:
The town'sarms might be described thus: Argent an eagle displayed sable armed and langued gules.
The eagle is the Imperial Eagle. The arms have their roots in the Imperial Freedom enjoyed by theIngelheimer Grund (Ingelheim area).
Ingelheim am Rhein istwinned with:[6]
Stevenage, England, United Kingdom (1963)
Autun, France (1963)
San Pietro in Cariano, Italy (1984)
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (Berlin), Germany (1971)Limbach-Oberfrohna, Germany (1990)
Nysa, Poland (2002)On 24 October 1975, the three-way partnership between Ingelheim, Autun and Stevenage was officially sealed.
Ingelheim has a multi-purpose culture centre, namedkING, located close to the station.
TheMuseum bei der Kaiserpfalz ("Museum at theImperial Palace") has an exhibit dedicated to the Imperial Palace built in Ingelheim after 785 byCharlemagne. On show are small archaeological finds, objects from architectural sculpture and a demonstrative model of the once imposing building. Remnants of the Imperial Palace can be seen right near the museum. Of Europe-wide importance is the goldensolidus found in 1996, which is hitherto still the only gold coin ever found struck with Charlemagne's effigy.[7]
There is in Ingelheim a well-developedcarnival culture, which admittedly is very much under theMainz carnival’s influence. All together, the town counts four Carnival clubs:
The town has at its disposal a range of historical buildings worth seeing:
In the cadastral areas of Nieder-Ingelheim and Frei-Weinheim, mainly north of theAutobahn along Konrad-Adenauer-Straße, but also south of the Autobahn – even within theBoehringer Ingelheim industrial lands – are found drifting chalk sands. Likewise a deposit is to be found in the area of theGriesmühle (mill).
These formations are under conservational protection under the Rhineland-Palatinate State Care Law. Damaging them or removing them, among other acts, is considered an incompensable encroachment on nature and the landscape. Municipal building uses in drifting chalk sand areas are therefore routinely excluded or only approved in very special cases. Two such exceptions were the building of Konrad-Adenauer-Straße (from the Autobahn bridge to Rheinstraße) and the building of the daycare centre on Sporkenheimer Straße.
TheMütZe ("Mothers’ and Families’ Centre", with the abbreviation resembling the wordMütze – "cap") is to be found at the oldGymnasium. TheMütZe takes upon itself a generation-spanning exchange for all Ingelheim residents. A babysitter exchange, handicraft classes, breakfast and lunch, housework and holiday support are regularly offered, as well as courses and events covering every family theme from babies to health to creativity.
In Ingelheim there are also a House of Youth (Haus der Jugend, although this is soon to become a shopping centre and will be replaced with another House of Youth) and aMehrgenerationshaus.
RegionalRhenish-Hessian specialities areasparagus and morellocherries (acultivar ofsour cherries).
TheAutobahnA 60 runs through the municipal area and has twointerchanges there.Bundesstraße 41 ends in Ingelheim. The AutobahnenA 61 andA 63 lie right nearby.Frankfurt Airport can be reached by Autobahn in roughly 30 minutes.Frankfurt-Hahn Airport can be reached in roughly 50 minutes by Autobahnen A 60 and A 61 orBundesstraße 50. A Bus to Hahn can be caught in Mainz
Ingelheim lies on the Mainz-Bingen-Cologne (West Rhine Railway) and Saarbrücken-Mainz-Frankfurtrailway lines. Between Ingelheim-Nord andOestrich-Winkel runs a Rhine ferry. The constituent communities and the surrounding municipalities are served by city and regional bus routes ofOmnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe GmbH. The local rail transport is served by theRhein-Nahe-Nahverkehrsverbund.
Of the 4,987-hectare municipal area, 641 ha is used forwinegrowing and 1 373 ha is used for crops. The main agricultural produce issour cherries,white asparagus andWine. Although the town lies in a region dominated by white wine, 54.9% of the vineyard area in Ingelheim am Rhein is used for growing red wine varieties. With 641 ha in vineyards, the town is moreover one ofRhenish Hesse’s biggest winegrowing centres afterWorms, (1,490 ha),Nierstein (783 ha),Alzey (769 ha),Westhofen (764 ha),Alsheim (704 ha) andBechtheim (654 ha), and one of the biggest in the wholestate ofRhineland-Palatinate.
"The red wines of Ingelheim and Heidesheim (…) opposite to Eltville (…) enjoy a high reputation."[3]
TheGeisenheim Grape Breeding Institute’s vegetable farming department runs an experimental asparagus field in Ingelheim. The research results can be viewed on the Internet.[8]
Local daily newspaper:Allgemeine Zeitung Ingelheim within theRhein Main Presse, published by theVerlagsgruppe Rhein Main, Mainz.
Municipal television: "Blickpunkt Ingelheim", which is broadcast every Monday and Thursday on regional channel K3.
Since 1996, Ingelheim has been the seat of district administration forMainz-Bingen.
Ingelheim is home to:
Under the umbrella of the Ingelheim Further Education CentreWeiterbildungszentrum Ingelheim the following institutions work:
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