Kettenheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – 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' ...

belonging to a ''

Verbandsgemeinde A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A is typically composed of a small group of Municipalitie ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Alzey-Worms Alzey-Worms () is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the district Groß-Gerau (district), Groß-Gerau (Hesse), the city of Worms, Germany, Worms and the districts of Bad Dürkheim (district) ...

district 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 ...

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in

Rhenish Hesse Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (, ) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is ...

and belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Alzey-Land, whose seat is in

Alzey Alzey () is a ''Verband''-free town – one belonging to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the fifth-largest town in Rhenish Hesse, after Mainz, Worms, Germany, Worms, Ingelheim am Rhei ...

History

Earlier known as ''Kiedenheim'', the village lay in the lower Nahegau (a county) and for a great length of time was subservient to the castle at

. The family ''Dieter von Kiedenheim'' was enfeoffed with great holdings by Ruprecht III. Northeast of Kettenheim lay the village of ''Egersheim'' or ''Ergisheim'' which later vanished, most likely shortly after the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

Politics

Town council

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by

majority vote A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
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Coat of arms

The municipality's

arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...

might be described thus: Argent diapered on a pale azure a chain sable. Both the external links for Kettenheim, however, show a different coat of arms, this one with the

diapering Diaper is any of a wide range of decorative patterns used in a variety of works of art, such as stained glass, heraldic shields, architecture, and silverwork. Its chief use is in the enlivening of plain surfaces. Etymology For the full etymolo ...

missing from the field and with the chain arranged in a horseshoe shape over the field, centred on the pale, instead of running lengthwise along it. No explanation of the municipality's arms is given at either site. Nevertheless, ''Ketten'' means “chains” in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The town hall is from 1686 and has richly carved

timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

and oriel windows built onto a single hall. The ''Hessensteiger Mühle'' is made of two properties, both former watermills. ''Hessensteiger Mühle I:'' Proof of this mill's existence can be found through entries of christenings, births and so on in the church books since at least 1570, before which it likely belonged to Weidas Monastery in Dautenheim (now an outlying centre of

), thereby meaning that it could indeed be much older. ''Hessensteiger Mühle II:'' Proof of this mill's existence goes back to 1840 in a fire survey in the Town of Alzey archives. The mills stand at the municipal limits with Alzey-Dautenheim underneath the Dautenheim

Autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

valley viaduct.

References

External links

Kettenheim in the collective municipality’s Web pages

Private homepage about Kettenheim
Alzey-Worms {{AlzeyWorms-geo-stub