Mertesheim 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 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. Rhine ...

'', a kind of collective municipality – in the

Bad Dürkheim Bad Dürkheim () is a spa town in the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration, and is the seat of the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Bad Dürkheim lies at the edge of Palatinate Forest on the German W ...

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 (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the northwest of the

Rhine-Neckar The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle, is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the Nor ...

urban agglomeration and belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Leiningerland, whose seat is in

Grünstadt Grünstadt ( pfl, Grinnschdadt) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with roughly 13,200 inhabitants. It does not belong to any ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – but is nonetheless th ...

, although that town is itself not in the ''Verbandsgemeinde''.

History

In 771, ''Meldrisheim'' had its first documentary mention. It is mentioned in the Wormser wall-building ordinance from around 900 as one of the places that shared responsibility for maintaining the

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany, a city ** Worms (electoral district) * Worms, Nebraska, U.S. *Worms im Veltlintal, the German name for Bormio, Italy Arts and entertai ...

.C. Van De Kieft and J. F. Niermeyer, eds. (1967), ''Elenchus fontium historiae urbanae'' (Leiden: E. J. Brill), pp. 43–44. Until 1969 it belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal. Currently it is in the district of

, and it joined the newly formed ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Grünstadt-Land in 1972.

Religion

In 2007, 43.5% of the inhabitants were

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 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

and 35.3%

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 exp ...

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

Politics

Municipal council

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

majority vote A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster 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 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 bran ...

language be described thus: Gules on a mount of three in base vert a stag passant reguardant argent unguled Or with a cross crosslet of the same instead of attires. The German blazon, however, does not mention the stag's golden hooves (“unguled Or”). The arms were approved in 1926 by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior and date from a 16th-century seal.Karl Heinz Debus: ''Das große Wappenbuch der Pfalz''. Neustadt an der Weinstraße 1988,

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Mertesheim lies on the

Eis Valley Railway The Eis Valley Railway (german: Eistalbahn) is a branch line in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, that runs through the Palatine Forest. It runs from Grünstadt in a southwesterly direction through the valley of the Eisbach (or "Eis") t ...

, which runs between

and

Ramsen Ramsen may refer to: * Ramsen, Rhineland-Palatinate Ramsen is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It ...

and is served by scheduled '' Regionalbahn'' trains. Public transport is integrated into the VRN, whose fares therefore apply.

References

External links

Mertesheim in the collective municipality’s Web pages
Bad Dürkheim (district) {{BadDürkheim-geo-stub