Hargesheim

Sometime about AD 600, Hargesheim arose as an outlying centre of the ancient settlement of Roxheim.

In 1158, Hargesheim had its first documentary mention in a directory of landholds kept by Rupertsberg Abbey (see image at right).

From 1801 to 1814 – Napoleonic times – Hargesheim belonged to the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle in the First French Empire.

In 1816, after Napoleon's downfall and the imposition of a new political order on Europe by the Congress of Vienna, Hargesheim passed to the Kingdom of Prussia, within which a new administrative régime also put it in the Kreuznach district.

In 1868, the school house was built at the church; this building still stands and has since become the municipal hall.

The early years of the 20th century also saw the arrival of important infrastructure in Hargesheim, a watermain in 1912 and electric light in 1913.

In 1930, President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg was heartily greeted as he was driven through the village.

Hindenburg would soon afterwards play no small part in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, signing both the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act in 1933, bringing an end to the Weimar Republic, whose head of state he himself had been, and making Hitler Germany’s dictator.

Late in the Second World War, in 1945, Hargesheim found itself in the midst of an air raid.

The social advocacy organization VdK set up a local chapter in Hargesheim in 1948.

In 1976, the Evangelical parish hall came into service, and a new water cistern was built up on the Straußberg.

Also that year, the marching band was founded and the high school, the Alfred-Delp-Schule Hargesheim, was opened.

Also in 1978, work began on laying sewerage in Hargesheim and the first medical practice opened its doors.

Also in that year, a village fountain was dedicated on Backesgasse, a town partnership was established with Oetz in the Austrian Tyrol, the limetree boulevard was newly planted and the former mayor Fuchs was made an honorary citizen of Hargesheim.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:[7] Hargesheim's mayor is Haiko Grün.

[1] The German blazon reads: Das Wappen zeigt ein blau-goldenes Schachbrett, rechts oben ein blaues Freiviertel mit goldenem Abtstab und goldnem überlaufendem Wasserbecher.

After he had done so, he supposedly said out of joy “Das erquickt die Arm Seel” (“That refreshes the poor soul”).

Currently active in the municipality are the following:[12] Running through Hargesheim is Landesstraße 236, which just to the south links with Bundesstraße 41, and just beyond to other roads leading into nearby Rüdesheim an der Nahe and the district seat of Bad Kreuznach.

Hargesheim's first documentary mention from 1158