Nieder-Olm

Nieder-Olm

Coat of arms
Nieder-Olm

Coordinates: 49°54′30″N 08°12′10″E / 49.90833°N 8.20278°ECoordinates: 49°54′30″N 08°12′10″E / 49.90833°N 8.20278°E
Country Germany
State Rhineland-Palatinate
District Mainz-Bingen
Municipal assoc. Nieder-Olm
Government
 • Mayor Dieter Kuhl (SPD)
Area
 • Total 17.09 km2 (6.60 sq mi)
Population (2012-12-31)[1]
 • Total 4,153
 • Density 240/km2 (630/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 55268
Dialling codes 06136
Vehicle registration MZ
Website www.nieder-olm.de

Nieder-Olm is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Until 5 November 2006 it was an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – but it was raised to town the next day.[2] It is still the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm, and functions as a middle centre in the region.

Geography

Location

Nieder-Olm

Nieder-Olm lies some 10 km south of Mainz in the heart of Rhenish Hesse, on the east bank of the Selz in the northern part of the Rhenish-Hessian Hills (Rheinhessisches Hügelland), known as the Mainz Basin.

The town’s average elevation lies at some 150 m above sea level. The highest elevation within municipal limits is the Mühlberg at 243 m in the northeast between Nieder-Olm and Mainz-Ebersheim.

The landscape is strongly characterized by winegrowing and fruit growing. A wood named Im Loh can be found in the northeast of the municipal area. It is only some 11 ha in area.

Geology

Predominant here are loess soils, which are of very high quality.

Climate

Owing to the location in the Mainz Basin, the climate in Nieder-Olm is very mild and dry.

The mean temperature over the year is 8 °C, making the area one of the warmest in Central Europe. The yearly precipitation is, at 500 mm, rather slight.

Constituent communities

Nieder-Olm has one outlying Stadtteil called Goldberg.

Neighbouring municipalities

Clockwise from the north, these are:

History

Early Middle Ages

Since so few written documents about Nieder-Olm from the Middle Ages are available, dating Nieder-Olm founding is difficult. Finds from grave digs from the late 6th century, however, point to an early settlement in this area.

It is believed that this may have been brought about by the early Franks during the so-called Fränkische Landnahme (“Frankish Land-Taking”), when the Franks reconquered the lands formerly held by the Romans. The Frankish settlement called Reichelsheim lay roughly where the commercial development now lies in northwest Nieder-Olm and can still be made out in aerial photographs. The placename ending —heim is typical of names that the Franks gave places, including many other nearby places. Reichelsheim, though, was later forsaken.

Middle Ages

Saint George’s Catholic Church in Nieder-Olm

From the Middle Ages, Nieder-Olm was an Electoral Mainz holding. It is established by documents that in 899 Archbishop of Mainz Hatto I made over a landholding called Ulmena (Olm) to the wife of Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia with a lifetime term. This estate is believed to have lain in the area now occupied by Ober-Olm and is both municipalities’ namesake. In 994, at Emperor Otto III’s behest, the estate was put back under the Archbishopric’s ownership. In the late 11th century, ownership was transferred to the Mainz Cathedral Foundation, in which time also arose Saint George’s Catholic Church, expedited by strong ecclesiastical influence.

The settlement’s first fortifications are believed to date from the 12th century. These were made up of walls and ditches and had four main gates. Later, in the late 13th century, supposedly as a reaction to the building of Stadeck Castle, a castle with a moat was built within the municipal boundaries, to which noble Burgmänner were given priority.

In the 15th century, Nieder-Olm found itself caught between the frontlines in an archieposcopal feud being waged by Archbishops Diether von Isenburg and Adolf von Nassau. Its consequences entailed frequent changes in rulers. In 1503, Archbishop Berthold had the castle newly built to meet the requirements of what were then modern attack techniques. From this time, the castle was known as St. Laurenziburg. In the years that followed, both the castle and the fortifications were repeatedly destroyed. Today only a few remnants are left. In the early 19th century, the castle finally had to give way to a road. Quite well preserved is the defensive complex at the graveyard, which at the time surrounded the church.

Early modern times

During the Thirty Years' War, Nieder-Olm was repeatedly overrun by the enemy and in 1632 it was occupied by Swedish troops. Some 60 years later, in the Nine Years' War, Nieder-Olm was sacked by French troops.

Once again in the late 18th century, Nieder-Olm was occupied. This time it was French Revolutionary troops. The French put a Liberty pole up in 1792 and made Nieder-Olm a part of the Republic of Mainz, which was the first democratic republic on German territory. Only a short time later – the Republic of Mainz only lasted 100 days – Nieder-Olm was reconquered by Imperial troops.

As soon afterwards as 1797, though, French troops managed to take Nieder-Olm once again, and it thus became part of the Napoleonic Empire. After this fell, Nieder-Olm became in 1816 part of the newly founded province of Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen), which also made it part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.

With the opening of the Hessian Ludwig Railway from Mainz to Alzey in 1871, Nieder-Olm was linked to the railway network.

First and Second World Wars

After the First World War, Nieder-Olm once again became French-occupied under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. A border station of the occupied Rhineland was set up in an inn at that time, the Gasthaus zur schönen Aussicht.

Having been returned to German sovereignty in 1929, Nieder-Olm was no more spared National Socialism than any other part of Germany. After Kristallnacht (9 November 1938), in which Jewish houses and shops were looted and destroyed, there were no more Jewish inhabitants in Nieder-Olm.

Into the history of the Second World War went Nieder-Olm when during the Allied advance, scattered German troops in the Selz valley put up considerable resistance. Bearing witness to this time are American emplacements west of the Selz, which have, however, for safety’s sake, been filled in.

Postwar to present

From 1946, Nieder-Olm belonged to the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

In the decades that followed, the infrastructure was under ongoing expansion: new schools arose (in 1957 the new primary school Burgschule Nieder-Olm, in 1974 the Hauptschule and special school and in 1981 the Gymnasium, as well as two schools for physically handicapped pupils and those with learning difficulties), a gymnasium and festival hall (1961) and the indoor and outdoor swimming pool (1968) were built. In 1980 the town acquired a connection to the A 63.

Also in the last two decades, development was steadily furthered: new residential areas were laid out and older ones continually expanded. The commercial area was amply expanded and three new bypasses were built. In 1997 the old festival hall was torn down and replaced with the new Ludwig-Eckes-Halle. Likewise, the indoor and outdoor swimming pool was expanded into an adventure pool.

Further upgrading is planned with a view to barring all through traffic and doing further building work, especially in the area around the primary school and Pariser Straße.

Today, Nieder-Olm has over 9,200 inhabitants and the number is growing. The Rhineland-Palatinate Cabinet decided on 24 October 2006 to grant Nieder-Olm the designation “town” (Stadt in German). Nieder-Olm has been allowed since the delivery of the granting documents on 6 November 2006 by Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Karl Peter Bruch to call itself the “Town of Nieder-Olm” (Stadt Nieder-Olm).

Politics

Town council

The council is made up of 24 council members, counting the mayor, with seats apportioned thus:

CDU SPD FWG The Greens Total
2009 9 11 3 1 24 seats

(as at municipal election held on 7 June 2009)[3]

Mayor

Dieter Kuhl (SPD)

Town partnerships

Coat of arms

The town’s arms might be described thus: Per fess argent a cross moline gules and gules a wheel spoked of six argent.

The earliest seal, from 1519, shows the cross moline (that is, cross with pointed split ends turned out), whereas later ones show a cross pattée (that is, cross whose arms broaden at the ends, which are flat). The original form was chosen for inclusion in the modern arms.

The reason for the cross’s inclusion as a charge is unclear, although it has been suggested that it refers to Saint George, who is the patron saint. The wheel is the Wheel of Mainz, and refers to Nieder-Olm’s allegiance to Electoral Mainz until 1803. The tinctures are also Mainz’s.[4]

Culture and sightseeing

The Evangelical Parish Church in Nieder-Olm

Buildings

Regular events

Economy and infrastructure

The head office of Eckes AG, a financial holding company, has been in Nieder-Olm since 1857.

Transport

Roads

The Autobahn A 63 from Kaiserslautern to Mainz passes Nieder-Olm in the west and is linked to the town through two interchanges. On the one hand it is easy to reach the important north-south connection, the A 61 along this road, and on the other, it serves as a feeder to the urban agglomeration of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and the other Autobahnen that lead there.

Over several Landesstraßen (State Roads), Nieder-Olm is linked with neighbouring municipalities.

Local public transport

Bus

Nieder-Olm is connected to local public transport by the ORN (Omnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe GmbH), a bus company:

Rail

In the east of downtown is found the Deutsche Bahn railway station. On weekdays, it is served strictly by half-hourly regional trains (RE/RB) in both directions on the Alzey–Mainz line. Even on Sundays and holidays, the service is only slightly less. In the morning rush hour there are two direct connections to Worms by way of Alzey. In the summer months, a few trains go through to Kirchheimbolanden. On weekends and holidays, journeys on the Elsass-Express (“Alsace Express”) to Wissembourg are possible.

Public institutions

Nieder-Olm is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Nieder-Olm.

Education

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

Famous people working in town

References

  1. ↑ "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden am 31.12.2012". Statistisches Bundesamt (in German). 2013.
  2. ↑ Pressedienst der Landesregierung: "Nieder-Olm darf sich künftig „Stadt Nieder-Olm“ nennen"
  3. ↑ http://wahlen.rlp.de/kw/wahlen/2009/gemeinderatswahlen/ergebnisse/3390604200.html
  4. ↑ Description and explanation of Nieder-Olm’s arms

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nieder-Olm.