Großostheim

Sister cities

• Hamoir
• Carbon-Blanc
• Saulxures-sur-Moselotte

History

The market municipality of Großostheim, as a greater municipality, is made up of the Gemeindeteile of Großostheim, Ringheim, Pflaumheim and Wenigumstadt. While Ringheim has always been part of Großostheim, the other two places, Pflaumheim and Wenigumstadt, have only been as much since municipal reform on 1 May 1978. Ostheim, called Großostheim since the 18th century – groß is German for “great” or “big” – had its first documentary mention in a document from the Fulda Abbey dating from sometime between 780 and 799. Ostheim belonged from the time of its first documentary mention to various lordly domains, before it passed along with the whole Bachgau to the Electorate of Mainz. The Gemeindeteil of Ringheim gets its name from an older village that died out in the early 16th century. The Ringheimer Mühle – a mill, formerly an inn and a farmhouse – seems to be the last piece of property from the old Ringheim. The new Ringheim arose after 1945 on the lands of the former Luftwaffe base, in whose barracks and other buildings Germans driven out of their homelands were housed. Quick growth with industries locating in the new settlement has made of the initially small Gemeindeteil a considerable settlement today, which has become a desirable place to live. The Gemeindeteil of Pflaumheim, despite lying right near the significant centre of Ostheim, had always been an independent municipality. It did, however, belong ecclesiastically as a branch parish to the parish of St. Peter and Paul in Großostheim. Only in 1923 did Pflaumheim, with its Kirche St. Luzia (church) become an independent parish. In 1994, Pflaumheim's 1,200-year jubilee was celebrated, as in 794 the Pflaumgau, and in the same era Pflaumheim itself, were named in documents handed down from the Lorsch and Fulda…

Geography

Großostheim lies on the northeast edge of the Odenwald in the Bavarian Lower Main (Bayerischer Untermain) region. Großostheim's Gemeindeteile are Großostheim, Pflaumheim, Wenigumstadt and Ringheim. Clockwise from the north, these are the municipality of Stockstadt, the district-free town of Aschaffenburg, the municipality of Niedernberg, the municipality of Mömlingen (both in Miltenberg district) and the municipality of Schaafheim (Darmstadt-Dieburg). Together with Stockstadt am Main and the neighbouring Hessian municipality of Schaafheim, the market municipality forms the historic Bachgau region.