Fußgönheim is a

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

in the

Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis The Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis () is a district (''Kreis'') in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) the district-free city Worms, Germany, Worms, the district Bergstraße (district), Bergstraße, dis ...

, in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) 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 sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is a member of the Verbandsgemeinde Maxdorf, together with

Maxdorf Maxdorf is a municipality in the Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated approximately 11 km west of Ludwigshafen. Maxdorf is also the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Maxdorf. Hist ...

and Birkenheide.

History

Archaeological findings indicate a settlement existed at the time of the

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

and

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

. The first certified documentary evidence comes from the list of goods of the

Prüm Abbey Prüm Abbey is a former Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine abbey in Prüm, now in the diocese of Trier (Germany), founded by the Franks, Frankish widow Bertrada of Prüm, Bertrada the elder and her son Caribert of Laon, Charibert, Count of Laon, ...

from the year 893. Fußgönheim was owned by members of the

Salian dynasty The Salian dynasty or Salic dynasty () was a dynasty in the High Middle Ages. The dynasty provided four kings of Germany (1024–1125), all of whom went on to be crowned Holy Roman emperors (1027–1125). After the death of the last Ottonia ...

from 900 to 1100, and later the sovereignty changed to the

Electoral Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy Roman Empero ...

. Fußgönheim was divided into an upper-village (Oberdorf) and a lower-village (Unterdorf), and became a

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

of the families of Falkenstein and . Later, the Bolandian possession was sold to the Count of Leiningen. In 1728, from the purchased the hereditary claim of the upper village and one year later he bought the lower village, after which Charles III Philip conferred the right of sovereign over the village to him. In 1740, Jakob Tillmann von Hallberg built Castle Hallberg with a church and introduced the Catholic confession to the place which had been Lutheran since the Reformation. The reign of the Hallberg family ended with the conquest of the Palatinate by the French, who incorporated the village into the Canton of Mutterstadt of the Department of Mont-Tonnerre. Since the departure of the French in 1818, the leadership of the municipality was subject to the mayor and the municipal council. The town was first administered by the District Office of Speyer of the " Bavarian Rheinkreis," which was later renamed "Palatinate." In 1886, Fußgönheim went to Ludwigshafen, a newly formed district, and is now part of the

. The was built between 1933 and 1940. It was later incorporated, with its 1,602 inhabitants, into the neighboring town of

, as part of a regional reorganization on June 7, 1969.

Demographics

Population development

Population details were first recorded in 1560, at which time around 150-200 people were living there. Until the 19th century, only the eastern route through the village, consisting of Hauptstraße and Ruchheimer Straße, was populated. The settlement of many peasants, craftsmen and merchants led to a strong population increase in the first half of the 19th century from about 500 inhabitants in 1815 to 1,000 in 1840. During this period, the settlement expanded in a westerly direction. Until 1900, the local boundaries remained virtually unchanged, after which most new development was on the western side of the original centre as the steep slope to the ''Niederterrasse'' on the eastern border constituted a problem. In 1950, the population of reached 1,500. This was mainly due to building the western road from Bahnhofstraße and Speyerer Straße. The largest increase in population occurred in the 1960s and 1970s following the designation of development areas, and by 1988 had risen to 2,565.

Religion

On October 31, 2014, 40.3 percent of the population was

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

and 25.6 percent

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The rest belonged to another religion or were

nondenominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. The term has been used in the context of various faiths, including Jainism, Baháʼí Faith, Zoro ...

Politics

Coat of arms

The

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the coat of arms is: Per fess, the chief per pale. First Or, a wheel gules of six spokes, second azure, an eagle argent armed and langued gules, third a fox courant gules. It was approved in 1927 by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior. The fox refers to the origin of the town name, which is derived from ''Fuchs-Gönheim'' it. fox-Gönheim The wheel is reminiscent of the coat of arms of House Bolanden and the eagle of that of the House of Leiningen, both of which are former rulers of the town.

References

External links

Official Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fussgonheim Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis