Ingelheim am Rhein

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Ingelheim am Rhein is the capital of the Mainz-Bingen district, situated on the left bank of the Rhine within the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The town has approx. 25,000 inhabitants. Boehringer-Ingelheim, one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies, has its headquarters there.

Otherwise, the region is well known for its apples, strawberries and white asparagus. The biggest German market for cherries (6,900 tons) and mirabelle plums (1,450 tons) is located in Ingelheim. It is known as the red wine district of Rheinhessen, most importantly from the pinot noir variety , as well as Portugieser, but also for Pinot blanc and Silvaner.

The town was settled well before Roman times and reached its greatest importance during the reign of Charlemagne who built a palace there. His son Louis the Pious used the palace frequently and died on an island in the Rhine close by. Several diets of the Holy Roman Empire, as it was known later, were held in Ingelheim by Charlemagne and his successors. Parts of the palace have been excavated and can be viewed. In later medieval times the significance of the palace declined but was briefly revived by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who greatly admired Charlemagne. An important regional court was located in the town of Ober-Ingelheim throughout the Late Middle Ages and early modern times.

Western side of Burgkirche

Apart from the remnants of the Carolingian palace there are a number of other historical buildings, among them the "Burgkirche" church, whose fortifications protected the townsfolk from marauding troops during many wars over the centuries. The famous red wine festival is held in these picturesque surroundings each year in late September/early October. During the Napoleonic period, the region was under French rule and Ingelheim became an administrative subcenter of the "Departement Mont-Tonnere". Following Napoleon's downfall it was designated part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The dialect spoken in the area is quite similar to southern Hessian, with a Palatine influence.

The modern town was formed on April 1, 1939, by consolidating the formerly independent small towns of Ober-Ingelheim, Nieder-Ingelheim, Frei-Weinheim and Sporkenheim. In 1969, Groß-Winternheim was added as part of a statewide reform of local governments.

During the Nazi period, Ingelheim's development was similar to most other German towns: its small but long-established Jewish minority and local Roma and Sinti were expelled or murdered, proven political leaders incarcerated and a great number of its young men killed in the war. However, the town was spared major destruction and accepted many German refugees expelled from the east.

Today it is a striving small-to-medium town with a newly-built centre, which enjoys a good climate, interesting surroundings, many employment opportunities, a variety of schools and the vicinity of the busy Rhine Main Area with the Frankfurt airport as its hub.