Gau-Bickelheim
| Gau-Bickelheim | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
  Gau-Bickelheim | ||
Location of Gau-Bickelheim within Alzey-Worms district  | ||
| Coordinates: 49°50′08″N 08°01′04″E / 49.83556°N 8.01778°ECoordinates: 49°50′08″N 08°01′04″E / 49.83556°N 8.01778°E | ||
| Country | Germany | |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate | |
| District | Alzey-Worms | |
| Municipal assoc. | Wöllstein | |
| Government | ||
| • Mayor | Friedrich Janz | |
| Area | ||
| • Total | 7.99 km2 (3.08 sq mi) | |
| Elevation | 139 m (456 ft) | |
| Population (2012-12-31)[1] | ||
| • Total | 2,006 | |
| • Density | 250/km2 (650/sq mi) | |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) | |
| Postal codes | 55599 | |
| Dialling codes | 06701 | |
| Vehicle registration | AZ | |
| Website | www.gau-bickelheim.de | |
Gau-Bickelheim 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
Gau-Bickelheim lies south of the Wißberg (mountain) in the Rheinhessisches Hügelland (Rhenish-Hessian Uplands).
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 | WG Gau-Bickelh. | WG Erbenich | Gesamt | |
| 2009 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 16 seats |
Mayor
Gau-Bickelheim’s mayor is Friedrich Janz (CDU).
Coat of arms
The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per fess abased argent three pickaxes palewise in fess, the middle one abased, gules, and gules a wheel spoked of six of the first.
The pickaxes are a canting charge: “Pickaxe” is Pickel in German, which sounds rather like the second and third syllables of the municipality’s name, Gau-Bickelheim. The escutcheon’s base contains the Wheel of Mainz, an historical symbol of Electoral Mainz.[3]
Town partnerships
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
- Pfarrkirche St. Martin (“Saint Martin’s Parish Church”)[4]
- Kreuzkapelle (“Cross Chapel”)
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
Running through the municipality is Bundesstraße 420. Running nearby from northwest to southeast is the Autobahn A 61. The Gau-Bickelheim interchange (Nr. 52) is not right on Bundesstraße 420, but rather, it can be reached over Bundesstraße 50. The interchange itself is rather a sprawling one and looks somewhat like a half cloverleaf. This came about because the original plan called for there to be an interchange between the A 60 and the A 61 here.[5] In the mid 1990s, an off-highway service centre was built nearby.
Gau-Bickelheim has at its disposal a railway station on the Rheinhessenbahn.
Public institutions
- Gau-Bickelheim highway police station[6]
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
- Richard Groß, politician
Famous people associated with the municipality
- School inspector Franz-Josef-Spang, local historian
- The writer Arno Schmidt lived for a short while in Gau-Bickelheim after the Second World War as an Umsiedler (member of a mass migration). The municipality is mentioned in passing at the beginning of the narrative Schwarze Spiegel (“Black Mirrors”). The narrative Die Umsiedler gives this time a literary treatment.
References
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gau-Bickelheim. |
- Municipality’s official webpage (German)
- Gau-Bickelheim wine learning path (German)
- This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.
