Rodgau
Rodgau is a town in the Offenbach district in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, 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. It came into being in 1979 when the greater community of Greater Rodgau was raised to the status of a town, after having been formed through a merger of five formerly self-administering communities in the framework of municipal reform in Hesse in 1977. The current constituent communities’ history reaches back to the 8th century.
Geography
Location
Rodgau is part of the metropolitan area known as the Rhein-Main-Gebiet in German, one of Germany's economically strongest areas. The fiftieth parallel of north latitude passes right through Puiseaux-Platz in Nieder-Roden.The town lies on the so-called Untermainebene, or Lower Main Plain, the northern outlying part of the Rhine rift. The flat land around Rodgau is set against hillier country in the nearby Spessart, Taunus, Vogelsberg, Odenwald and Bergstraße, which all serve as recreational areas for the people. The state boundary with neighbouring Bavaria runs only a few kilometres away, at the Main.
About a third of the municipal area is made up of woodland, and another third of land under agricultural use and of open water, while the remaining third is built up with residential and commercial areas and transport facilities. The brook, the Rodau, runs for 15 km through the whole municipal area.
Climatically the area is among Germany's mildest and least rainy areas.
Neighbouring communities
Rodgau borders in the north on the towns of Heusenstamm and Obertshausen, in the east on the community of Hainburg and the town of Seligenstadt, in the southeast on the town of Babenhausen and the community of Eppertshausen, in the southwest on the town of Rödermark and in the west on the town of Dietzenbach.Constituent communities
Rodgau's Stadtteile are Weiskirchen, Hainhausen, Jügesheim, Dudenhofen and Nieder-Roden with its own Ortsteil of Rollwald.History
Town’s founding
On 1 January 1977, in the course of municipal reform in Hesse, the greater community of Rodgau came into being as the communities of Weiskirchen, Hainhausen, Jügesheim, Dudenhofen and Nieder-Roden, along with the settlement of Rollwald belonging to Nieder-Roden were amalgamated. The greater community was granted town rights on 15 September 1979. The old cropfield name Rodgau, like Bachgau and Kinziggau belonging to the Maingau, gave the town its name. The original communities have been in existence for hundreds of years.Today, Rodgau has 45,236 inhabitants, of whom 22,120 are male and 23,116 female. Foreigners from 52 different nations account for 4,471 inhabitants. Those who have lived in Rodgau longer than ten years account for 64.6% of the population.
Weiskirchen
Around Saint Peter's Church arose the settlement of Wichenkirchen in Frankish times as a Thorpe. It had its first documentary mention in 1287 in the Seligenstadt Monastery's accord with the Auheimer Mark. Weiskirchen was at this time Mother Church to the villages of Jügesheim, Hainhausen and Rembrücken. The first landlords, the Lords of Hagenhausen – later of Eppstein – sold the Amt of Steinheim in 1425 along with Weiskirchen, a village belonging to it, to the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, to whom the village belonged until 1803. With this, Weiskirchen formed an ecclesiastical and economic hub in the Rodgau. When the Auheimer Mark was divided up in 1786, Weiskirchen received a share of the forest.After Secularization in 1803, the Amt of Steinheim along with Weiskirchen passed to Hesse. In 1896 the Rodgaubahn with a railway station in Weiskirchen opened.
In the course of the 19th century, Weiskirchen shifted from a farming village to a worker's community. Of the once well known village with its timber-frame houses very little is left. During National Socialist times, the small Jewish community was driven out. In March 2005, the small, restored former synagogue was ceremoniously reopened as a memorial. Since 1967, the Weiskirchen transmitter, a medium-wave transmitter owned by Hessischer Rundfunk, has been in operation on Weiskirchen's northwestern outskirts on a frequency of 594 kHz although this has now been dismantled.
Population development
In 1576, Weiskirchen had 37 households. In 1681, 111 inhabitants lived in 26 households. In 1834, 655 people lived in the village. A century later, in 1939, that figure had risen to 1,740. By 1970, the population had risen to 4,840 inhabitants. In late 2007, the constituent community had 6,115 inhabitants.Hainhausen
As early as 1108, Rodgau's smallest constituent community had a documentary mention as the location of a moated castle belonging to the Lords of Hagenhausen, in which it was named as Haginhusen. Remains of this castle still lie under a meadow near the Rodau on today's Burgstraße. The Hagenhausen noble family, who after moving to the Taunus began styling themselves the Lords of Eppstein, and writing many a page in mediaeval German history, found themselves holding great importance and power from the 13th century onwards. Four Archbishops of Mainz alone were installed by the Eppsteins. Hainhausen, though, did not benefit from the former lords’ descendants’ lordliness. In 1425, the Lords of Eppstein sold the Amt of Steinheim along with Hainhausen to the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz. Its low point came, as it did for all the surrounding villages too, in the Thirty Years' War, at which time the Plague also raged among the population. The survivors besought the patron saint of Plague sufferers, Saint Roch for help. The end of the deadly epidemic is still celebrated today every year on 16 August with a procession, whose destination was originally the Rochus-Kapelle, consecrated in 1692. Nowadays, though, the newer Rochus-Kirche, standing at a different site in the heart of the community, serves as the procession's endpoint, and has since the late 19th century. Saint Roch's Church houses as an art history treasure a pietà from the mid 14th century which depicts in sculpture Mary and Jesus after he has been taken down from the Cross. After Secularization in 1803, Hainhausen passed to Hesse.Population development
In 1681, 101 inhabitants lived in 18 households. In 1834, there were 341 inhabitants in Hainhausen. In 1939, this had risen to 835 inhabitants. In 1970, Hainhausen had 2,051 inhabitants. In late 2007 the constituent community had 3,820 inhabitants.Jügesheim
Founded as a clump village, today's constituent community had its first documentary mention in 1261 under the name Guginsheim. One of Charlemagne’s Vögte named Gugin or Guginhart was supposedly the namesake. Other forms of the name used over the course of the Middle Ages were Gugesheym, Gogeßheym, Goginsheym, and Gugesheim. In the local speech, Jügesheim is sometimes still called Giesem today. Jügesheim was founded in Frankish times, or more particularly in Merovingian times. Near the old Roman roads in the Maingau woods, which crossed near Jügesheim, the Franks built new military colonies to control the land.In the Middle Ages, the surrounding woodlands belonged to the Wildbann Dreieich, a royal hunting forest, one of whose 30 Wildhuben was maintained in Jügesheim. In 1425, the Lords of Eppstein sold the Amt of Steinheim along with Jügesheim to the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz.
The Thirty Years' War took a heavy toll on the community, which at that time was part of the Rödermark. The place only recovered in the 17th century. In the 20th century it established a leather industry with many workers working leather at home. Besides this there were of course many farming households. After Secularization in 1803, Jügesheim passed to Hesse. In 1896 the Rodgaubahn with a railway station in Jügesheim opened.
In the mid-1970s, a commercial area was laid out, which over the years that followed further grew. The new Town Hall made Jügesheim into a centre of Rodgau. Today Rodgau's second biggest constituent community has some 11,700 inhabitants.
North of the constituent community between Hainhausen and Jügesheim is found the 43.5 m-tall watertower built in the years from 1936 to 1938. It was in use until 1979, and is now under monumental protection. It has become a kind of landmark for Jügesheim, and indeed for all Rodgau.
Population development
In 1576 Jügesheim had 36 households. In 1681, 121 persons lived in only 26 households. In 1834, the village had 1,071 inhabitants. In the 20th century this rose to 3,174 in 1939, and to 7,673 in 1970. In late 2007 the constituent community had 11,855 inhabitants.Dudenhofen
Dudenhofen was founded in the second wave of Frankish settlement, after the time of the partition of the empire in 561. The place was founded at a newly built road junction in an expanded road network, at the expense of the former hub at Jügesheim. The placename relates to a personal name Tuoto or Dodo.Dudenhofen had its first documentary mention in 1278 in an accord from Archbishop Werner von Eppstein of Mainz with the Lords of Eppstein. The village long belonged to various owners at the same time, the odd part was bequeathed, others were traded or mortgaged. Between 1450 and 1736, Dudenhofen belonged to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg and was assigned to the Amt of Babenhausen, thereby making the place as of 1550 an Evangelical enclave surrounded by Catholic neighbours. The Counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg died out in 1736, whereupon Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Kassel found themselves at odds over the village. In 1771, Dudenhofen was annexed by the County of Hesse-Kassel. Above the main entrance to the Baroque Evangelical church is therefore found Hesse-Kassel's coat of arms. Underneath the arms is the inscription Was unter Hessens Lust Erbprinz Wilhelm gebaut, sei Dir, o wahrer Gott, zur Pflege nun vertraut. Meant here is William IX.
In 1807, the Amt of Babenhausen along with Dudenhofen passed to French administration. In 1811, Dudenhofen was absorbed into the Grand Duchy of Hesse. In 1896 the Rodgaubahn with a railway station in Dudenhofen opened.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, many young men emigrated to the Americas to seek their fortune. Today, agriculture, except for asparagus growing, plays no further rôle.