Mettenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate

Mettenheim
Mettenheim
Location of Mettenheim within Alzey-Worms district
Coordinates	49°44′24″N 8°19′33″E / 49.74°N 8.32583°E / 49.74; 8.32583Coordinates: 49°44′24″N 8°19′33″E / 49.74°N 8.32583°E / 49.74; 8.32583
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Rhineland-Palatinate
District	Alzey-Worms
Municipal assoc.	Eich
Mayor	Leonhard Jugenheimer
Basic statistics
Area	6.41 km2 (2.47 sq mi)
Elevation	87 m  (285 ft)
Population	1,512 (31 December 2010)[1]
- Density	236 /km2 (611 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate	AZ
Postal code	67582
Area code	06242
Website	www.mettenheim-rlp.de

Mettenheim

Mettenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in Rhenish Hesse between Worms and Mainz. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Eich, whose seat is in the like-named municipality.

Climate

Yearly precipitation in Mettenheim amounts to 558 mm, which is low, falling into the lowest fourth of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 12% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations are even lower figures recorded. The driest month is January. The most rainfall comes in July. In that month, precipitation is twice what it is in January. Precipitation varies moderately. At 51% of the weather stations, lower seasonal swings are recorded.

History

Mettenheim was mentioned as early as 873 in the Annales Wormatienses as a Roman colony. It was originally held by the Bishop of Worms, but, still in early times, the Counts of Leiningen were enfeoffed with it, later counting it as being among their ancestral holdings. Towards the end of the 17th century, the village ended up in the Frankfurt merchant Canpoing’s ownership, from whom it then passed to the Counts of Wartenberg. In 1393, a castle at Mettenheim was mentioned, whose owners, the Chamberlains and Knights of Fleckenstein, sold it at that time to the City of Worms.

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results^[2]:

	CDU	FWG	Loibl	BLM	Total
2009	2	6	2	6	16 seats

Town partnerships

• Pupillin, Jura, France
• Mettenheim, Bavaria

Coat of arms

The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Argent a talon barwise lopped, the toes to chief, azure.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

In 2007, the crypt of the Counts of Wartenberg was opened to the public after renovation.

Mettenheim town hall

Economy and infrastructure

About half of the usable agricultural land of 540 ha in Mettenheim is planted with vineyards. The vineyards are sheltered from the wind on the typical Wonnegau terraces. There are 34 businesses that earn their living wholly from winegrowing. Mettenheim lies in the Nierstein zone of the Rhenish Hesse wine region and bears the winemaking appellations Michelsberg, Schloßberg and Goldberg.

Transport

• Running right near the municipality is Bundesstraße 9, which links Ludwigshafen am Rhein with Mainz.
• Mettenheim has a railway station on the Mainz–Ludwigshafen line with very good connections.

Mettenheim station

Famous people

Mettenheim on a Pabst glass from 1958

Jacob Best, Sr. (1786–1861) was born in Hesse-Darmstadt where he learned the brewing trade, later running a small brewery in Mettenheim. He later founded one of the forerunners of the Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee after his emigration in 1844 to join his sons^[3][4].

References

1. ^ "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden am 31.12.2010" (in German). Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 31 December 2010. http://www.statistik.rlp.de/fileadmin/dokumente/berichte/A1033_201022_hj_G.pdf. 
2. ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
3. ^ Helmut Schmahl: Rheinhessische Brauer in Milwaukee in: Verpflanzt, aber nicht entwurzelt: Die Auswanderung aus Hessen-Darmstadt (Provinz Rheinhessen) nach Wisconsin im 19. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt/Main (u. a.) 2000 (Mainzer Studien zur Neueren Geschichte, 1)
4. ^ Cochran, Thomas C. (1948). The Pabst Brewing Company: The History of an American Business. New York University Press. pp. 455. ISBN 0966208455. 

External links

• Municipality’s official webpage (German)
• Mettenheim at the Open Directory Project
• Homepage about Mettenheim (German)

This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.