Domain Mechtildshausen

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The Mechtildshausen domain near Wiesbaden - Erbenheim is an agricultural business that is run as a social facility by the Wiesbaden youth workshop. It belongs to the Wiesbaden district of Delkenheim . The estate itself is several hundred years old and was already used to cultivate the fields during the Carolingian era . The current lease by the Wiesbaden youth workshop aims to train disadvantaged young people and to reintegrate long-term unemployed people into working life. Today, a total of 500 young people are being trained in numerous different professions at the various locations of the domain.

history

middle Ages

The domain was first mentioned in a document as early as the 12th century. Nucleus of the domain was a later Krongut developed court place of the existing early as the Merovingian Königssondergaues extending from Kriftelbach in the east to Walluf extended to the west. Since the end of the 12th century, the Lords of Eppstein held the Mechtildshausen district court as a royal fief in the eastern half of the area; in the western half Wiesbaden was an imperial fiefdom of the Counts of Nassau . After the Nassau-Eppstein feud , this ownership was confirmed in 1283.

When the Eppstein family split up in 1433, most of the eastern half fell to the Eppstein-Munzenberg line. After various splits in the 15th century - for example, Bierstadt came to the Counts of Nassau in 1441, Hochheim to Kurmainz in 1478 - the area of ​​the Mechtildshausen Regional Court essentially coincided with that of the so-called Ländchen . In 1492 the area was bought by the Landgraviate of Hesse .

Younger story

Entrance to the domain and part of the courtyard

In 1803/1806 the land passed to the Duchy of Nassau , and after the German War in 1866 to the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau . After 1945 the domain came into the possession of the state when Hesse was founded as a state domain .

Until the 1980s, the domain was leased out as an agricultural operation; the last tenants were Dorothee Schneider's parents . The Wiesbaden youth workshop began leasing in 1987. In the same year, agricultural production was converted to organic-biological principles and, after a five-year conversion period, led to recognition as an organic farm . In 1997, Prince Charles visited the Mechtildshausen domain to have a demonstration of the agricultural principles and then dined in the court restaurant.

In October 2008, the SPD and the Greens held coalition negotiations in the domain for two weeks, in order to prepare a change of state government in Hesse under the leadership of Andrea Ypsilanti (which ultimately failed).

Partial sale to the Federal Republic of Germany

According to an application from the Hessian state government in September 2008, parts of the land belonging to the domain were sold to the Federal Republic of Germany . The sale was in connection with the relocation of the European headquarters of the US armed forces from Heidelberg to Wiesbaden. For this purpose, the US military airfield adjacent to the domain was provided with additional building areas, which until then belonged to the domain area. A new lease agreement was drawn up, within the framework of which the Mechtildshausen domain made replacement areas available and the resulting cost disadvantages were offset by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Further information on the expansion of the military airfield can be found in the article Erbenheim Airport .

The domain today

Hofmarkt

Logo of the domain as handicraft in the Hofmarkt

The products obtained and produced are offered in several buildings on the farm itself. In addition to the farm market with fruit, vegetables and other agricultural products, there is a butcher and a bakery. Dairy products are also offered in the rear area of ​​the bakery. In addition, a restaurant, a café and a guest house are run in the courtyard area.

Agricultural production and animal husbandry

Horse stables in the Mechtildshausen domain

The products grown include over 80 different types of vegetables, various types of pome and stone fruit, as well as berries. The basis of cattle husbandry is a Charolais herd with over 250 cows and approx. 15 breeding bulls. Around 250 calves are born on the domain every year. The very rare Glan cattle have been bred on the domain for several years . More than 50 Montbéliard and eight Jersey cows are used to produce milk. Poultry farming for egg and poultry meat production includes 3,000 chickens and 1,000 geese and 800 ducks annually, as well as quails and pigeons. Pig farming is based on the "German Landrace". In addition, the domain recently has a herd of 20 Haflinger horses, whose mare's milk is offered as a dairy product, but is also intended to enable the development of natural cosmetics.

location

The Mechtildshausen domain is now in the immediate vicinity of the US military airfield in Erbenheim . In the Middle Ages it was on a Via Regia , which was an important traffic connection between Western and Eastern Europe. Even today this street is called " Steinern Straße " as it was back then .

185 hectares of land are cultivated at the main location in Mechtildshausen . The total cultivated area covers 650 ha, including 30 ha at Hofgut Klarental, 140 ha in cooperation with the Kalmenhof at Gassenbacher Hof near Idstein and 60 ha in Watzelhain . The pure arable land amounts to a total of 250 ha.

literature

Web links

Commons : Domain Mechtildshausen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Geipel : Social structure and consciousness of unity as the basis of geographical structure (illustrated using the example of the “little country” between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden) . Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1952 ( Rhein-Mainische Forschungen . Issue 38).
  2. ↑ Portrait of Dorothee Schneider on dressursport-deutschland.de
  3. ↑ Dream of the Olympics will come true ( memento from July 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Katja Sturm / Frankfurter Rundschau , July 20, 2012
  4. ↑ Application by the state government regarding the sale of domain-fiscal real estate, in particular Section 5. (PDF; 70 kB)

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 15 ″  N , 8 ° 19 ′ 22 ″  E