Gerolsheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns. Rhinelan ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland, which was formed in 2018, and whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the ''Verbandsgemeinde''.

History

In 915, Gerolsheim had its first documentary mention as ''Geroltesheimero''. Until 1969, the municipality belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal. In 1972 came the amalgamation with the newly formed ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Grünstadt-Land. The ''Sondermülldeponie Gerolsheim'' (“Special Garbage Dump”) was closed in 2003 after decades-long efforts by residents to reach that goal.

Religion

In 2007, 41.2% of the inhabitants were

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

and 29.5%

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.

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:

Mayor

In the mayoral election, 1,421 citizens were eligible to vote, of whom 919 actually went to the polls. ''Ortsbürgermeister'' (Mayor) Erich Weyer (FWG) was confirmed in his office with 713 votes (79.7%) against opponent Volker Rossel’s (SPD) 182 votes (20.3%).

Coat of arms

''In Rot ein dreizackiges silbernes Fischspeereisen, unten beidseits von je einer goldenen Rose mit blauen Butzen beseitet.'' The municipality’s arms is described thus: ''In Rot ein dreizackiges silbernes Fischspeereisen, unten beidseits von je einer goldenen Rose mit blauen Butzen beseitet.'' It might in English

heraldic Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...

language be described thus: Gules the head of a trident palewise argent, the points to chief, between two roses Or seeded azure in base. The arms were approved in 1926 by the

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

n State Ministry of the Interior and go back to a seal from 1541. The trident stands for the church’s patron saint,

Leodegar Leodegar of Poitiers ( la, Leodegarius; french: Léger; 615 – October 2, 679 AD) was a martyred Burgundian Bishop of Autun. He was the son of Saint Sigrada and the brother of Saint Warinus. Leodegar was an opponent of Ebroin, the Frankish Mayo ...

.Karl Heinz Debus: ''Das große Wappenbuch der Pfalz''. Neustadt an der Weinstraße 1988,

Famous people

Honorary citizens

*23 October 2004 Adolf Buch, 40 years as a municipal politician, just under 25 of which as mayor *23 October 2004 Ilse Buch (Adolf Buch’s wife), 40 years of social and club work

References

External links

Gerolsheim in the collective municipality’s Web pages
{{Authority control Bad Dürkheim (district)