Gau-Bickelheim
Gau-Bickelheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Gau-Bickelheim | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Gau-Bickelheim within Alzey-Worms district  | |
  Gau-Bickelheim  Gau-Bickelheim | |
| Coordinates: 49°50′08″N 08°01′04″E | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Alzey-Worms |
| Municipal assoc. | Wöllstein |
| Government | |
| • Mayor (2019–24) | Jürgen Vollmer[1] |
| Area | |
| • Total | 7.99 km2 (3.08 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 139 m (456 ft) |
| Population (2021-12-31)[2] | |
| • Total | 2,170 |
| • Density | 270/km2 (700/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 55599 |
| Dialling codes | 06701 |
| Vehicle registration | AZ |
| Website | www.gau-bickelheim.de |
Geography
Location
Gau-Bickelheim lies south of the Wißberg (mountain) in the Rheinhessisches Hügelland (Rhenish-Hessian Uplands).
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:[3]
| CDU | WG Gau-Bickelh. | WG Erbenich | Gesamt | |
| 2009 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 16 seats |
Mayor
Gau-Bickelheim's mayor is Jürgen Vollmer (WG Gau-Bickelheim).
Coat of arms
The municipality's arms might be described thus: Per fess abased argent three pickaxes palewise in fess, the middle one abased, gules, and gules a wheel spoked of six of the first.
The pickaxes are a canting charge: “Pickaxe” is Pickel in German, which sounds rather like the second and third syllables of the municipality's name, Gau-Bickelheim. The escutcheon's base contains the Wheel of Mainz, an historical symbol of Electoral Mainz.[4]
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
- Pfarrkirche St. Martin (“Saint Martin’s Parish Church”)[5]
- Kreuzkapelle (“Cross Chapel”)
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
Running through the municipality is Bundesstraße 420. Running nearby from northwest to southeast is the Autobahn A 61. The Gau-Bickelheim interchange (Nr. 52) is not right on Bundesstraße 420, but rather, it can be reached over Bundesstraße 50. The interchange itself is rather a sprawling one and looks somewhat like a half cloverleaf. This came about because the original plan called for there to be an interchange between the A 60 and the A 61 here.[6] In the mid 1990s, an off-highway service centre was built nearby.
Gau-Bickelheim has at its disposal a railway station on the Rheinhessenbahn.
Public institutions
- Gau-Bickelheim highway police station[7]
Notable people
- The writer Arno Schmidt lived for a short while in Gau-Bickelheim after the Second World War as an Umsiedler (member of a mass migration). The municipality is mentioned in passing at the beginning of the narrative Schwarze Spiegel (“Black Mirrors”). The narrative Die Umsiedler gives this time a literary treatment.
References
- Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Alzey-Worms, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 3 August 2021.
- "Bevölkerungsstand 2021, Kreise, Gemeinden, Verbandsgemeinden" (in German). Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 2022.
- Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
- Description and explanation of Gau-Bickelheim’s arms
- Pfarrkirche St. Martin
- Netzplan vom 1. Januar 1976
- Polizeiautobahnstation Gau-Bickelheim Archived 2011-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Municipality’s official webpage (in German)
- Gau-Bickelheim wine learning path (in German)
