The settlement's original name was Bingium, aCeltic word that may have meant "hole in the rock",[3][citation needed] a description of theshoal behind theMouse Tower (German:Mäuseturm), known as theBinger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for theVia Ausonia, aRoman military road that linked the town withTrier. Bingen is well known for, among other things, the legend about the Mouse Tower, in whichHatto II, the Archbishop of Mainz, was allegedly eaten by mice. Since the 19th century, the legend has increasingly been attributed toHatto I, a predecessor of Hatto II. SaintHildegard von Bingen, an importantpolymath,abbess,mystic andmusician, one of the most influentialmedievalcomposers and one of the earliest Western composers whose music is widely preserved and performed, was born 40 km away from Bingen, inBermersheim vor der Höhe. Bingen am Rhein was also the birthplace of the poetStefan George, along with many other influential figures.
Bingen is situated just southeast of theRhine knee by theBingen Forest (Binger Wald – actually a low mountain range), which rises west of the town. Rising to the north on the other side of the Rhine is theRheingau range, theTaunus's southwesternmost outcrop. In Bingen the river Nahe empties into theRhine Gorge. Bingen forms the southern limit of theUNESCO Rhine GorgeWorld Heritage Site. The Rochusberg (mountain) is nearly completely surrounded by the town site.
Even before theRomans came, people lived here, because the location favoured transport, being at the confluence of the Nahe and Rhine Rivers, and the Rhine's entry into the gorge. The first settlement seems to have been aCeltic (Gaulish) settlement by the name ofBinge – meaning "rift". In the early first century AD, Roman troops were stationed in Bingen on the Rhine Valley Road, and rendered the local name asBingium inLatin. There the Romans erected a wooden bridge across the Nahe and constructed abridgeheadcastrum. A RomanMithraic monument, which included a mutilated sculpture representing the nativity of Mithra from a rock, was discovered in Bingen; one of its inscriptions is dated 236.[4]
The presbyter Aetherius of Bingen founded sometime between 335 and 360 a firmly Christian community. Bearing witness to this time is Aetherius's gravestone, which can still be seen in Saint Martin's Basilica.[5][6] After thefall of theLimes, the town became aFrankish royal estate and passed in 983 by the Donation of Verona fromOtto II to ArchbishopWilligis of Mainz.[7] UnderOtto III theBinger Kammerforst (forest) came into being. Under Willigis, some way up the river Nahe, the stoneDrususbrücke (bridge) was built.[8]
The inhabitants of Bingen strove time and again for independence, which led in 1165 through disputes between the Archbishop of Mainz and the Emperor to destruction. In the 13th century, Bingen was a member of theRhenish League of Towns. The building ofKlopp Castle (Burg Klopp) in the mid 13th century could well be seen as being tied in with this development. A last attempt was the town's unsuccessful participation in theGerman Peasants' War in 1525. From the Archbishop the Cathedral Chapter of Mainz acquired the town in two halves in 1424 and 1438. Until the late 18th century Bingen remained under its administration. Like many towns in the valley, Bingen suffered several town fires and wars.
From 1792 to 1813, the town was, as part of thedépartement ofMont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg – both names meaning "Thunder Mountain"), French afterFrench Revolutionary troops had occupied the Rhine's left bank. In 1816, after theCongress of Vienna, the town passed to theGrand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt while today's outlying centre of Bingerbrück went toPrussia'sRhine Province, making Bingen a border town until 1871, when theGerman Empire was founded.
On 7 June 1969, the formerly Prussian[9] municipality of Bingerbrück was amalgamated. On 22 April 1972 came Dromersheim's and Sponsheim's amalgamation with Bingen. The epithetam Rhein has been borne since 1 July 1982.[10]
For the State Garden Show in 2008 in Bingen, the Rhineside areas in the town underwent extensive modernization.
Benjamin of Tudela mentioned a Jewish community in Bingen in the mid-12th century. Christian inhabitants attacked the small Jewish quarter onRosh Hashanah in 1198 or 1199, and the Jews were driven from the city. Jews again lived in Bingen as moneylenders in the middle of the 13th century under the jurisdiction of thearchbishop of Mainz. In 1343,French Jews settled in Bingen. In 1405, the archbishop declared a moratorium on one-fifth of the debts owed to Jews by Christians, and subsequently the archbishops repeatedly extorted large sums. Noted rabbis who taught in the small community included Seligmann Oppenheim, who convened the Council of Bingen (1455–56) in an unsuccessful attempt to establish his authority over the whole ofRhineland Jewry. After the proposal was opposed by Moses Minz, the matter was referred to Isaac Isserlein, who rejected the project. The Jews were again expelled from Bingen in 1507, and did not return until the second half of the 16th century. The Jewish population was 465 in 1933, and 222 in 1939 due to flight and emigration. The 169 Jews who remained in Bingen in 1942 were sent to concentration camps, and only four ultimately returned. The synagogue was demolished in 1945, and the community was not reestablished after World War II.[11]
Bingerbrück ReiterSignal Box technological cultural monument
A new concept was introduced with theRoute der Industriekultur Rhein-Main ("Rhine-Main Industrial Culture Route"), along which industrial building works on the 160 km betweenMiltenberg and Bingen are linked together into an adventure route about the Industrial Age in southern Germany.[13] Already 700 buildings are scientifically catalogued.
Bingen was from 18 April to 19 October 2008 host for the Rhineland-Palatinate State Garden Show. The event was held along a 2.8 km stretch of the Rhine waterfront on 24 ha of exhibition area. With 1.3 million visitors, the expected number of 600,000 was greatly exceeded.[14]
The region is characterized economically bywinegrowing, especially as in Bingen three winegrowing areas (Rheinhessen,Mittelrhein andNahe) meet. The town is also the winegrowingBereich's (Bereich Bingen) namesake in German wine law.
Other industries that once did business in Bingen when there was a harbour have left the town over the years. The service industries here today are found mainly in the industrial park (Autobahninterchange Bingen-Ost / Kempten / Industriegebiet) and in the Scharlachberg commercial park.
Bingen (Rhein) Stadt station lies 2 km farther east, right across from the historical harbour crane. This station is important only for local transport. There is also a stop in Bingen-Gaulsheim. The reason that two railway stations arose in Bingen is historical. The main railway station was originally aPrussian border station built by theRhenish Railway Company on itsWest Rhine Railway, whilst the station in town belonged to theHessian Ludwig Railway.
The stops at Drususbrücke on theBingen Hbf-Bad Kreuznach line and Bingen-Kempten and Büdesheim-Dromersheim on the Bingen/Rhein Stadt–Alzey line are no longer served.
Only private transport is still of importance today. The cargo harbour has been abandoned. The former winter harbour is now amarina.
There are landing stages of the tourist lines Köln-Düsseldorfer, Bingen-Rüdesheimer Fahrgastschifffahrt and Rösslerlinie. A passenger ferry and a car ferry link Bingen withRüdesheim.
Until the late 1970s Bingen was a piloting station.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179),abbess and author, mystic, writer, composer, musician, and medic. After her the Bingen girls' school (Gymnasium andvocational school), the Hildegardisschule ("Higa"), is named. On 7 October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.
^Heinrich Gottfried Philipp Gengler:Regesten und Urkunden zur Verfassungs- und Rechtsgeschichte der deutschen Städte im Mittelalter, Erlangen 1863,S. 224.
