Maingau

Einhard basilica in Seligenstadt

The Maingau ( Gau am Main ) was in the time of the Frankish Empire , the settlement area in Mainbogen east of Frankfurt am Main and in the northern Odenwald to the Main tributaries Rodau , Gersprenz and Mümling , as well as the right of the Main to Aschaffenburg . Einhard , a famous scholar of the Middle Ages, was born in Maingau (“in pago Moingewi”) in 770. The Maingau was in the Duchy of Franconia , later in the Duchy of West Franconia (also Rhine Franconia).

location

Location of Maingau in the Duchy of West Franconia around the year 1000

In the west, the Maingau was bordered by the Oberrheingau , in the north (north of the Main) by the Niddagau and Wettergau (see Wetterau ). As a rule, there was no fixed boundary. The border between Rheingau and Maingau was located in the vast wooded area of ​​the Dreieich, probably along the watershed of the streams that rose there. The later names Rodgau and Bachgau are subdivisions of the Maingau. In addition to Bachgau and Rodgau, the Kinziggau also existed as Untergaue in the northern part, along the Kinzig and Plumgau in the east, in the southern Spessart .

Johann Wilhelm Christian Steiner gives a more precise definition of the Maingau in his work from 1821 on page 47 (see below):

“The Maingau had the following limits. From Offenbach up the Main to the outflow of the Kinzig, but in such a way that Dörnigheim still belongs to the Maingau. From there the border of the Kinzig runs up to Gelnhausen, there the places of the Kinziggau belong: Höchst, Wirtheim, Kassel, then Bieber and Löhrhaupten, which are all in the Archidiaconat Aschaffenburg, to the Maingau. Through the Spessart next to the Sinngrund to Lohr on the Main; this city is in his district. Then with the borders of the Lohr district to Stadtprozelten to the Engelsberg, now via Mainbullau to the county of Erbach, which, as far as the Plumgau extends, largely belongs to the Maingau. In Berfelden past west to Reichelsheim, Bieberau, Rheinheim, Georgenhausen, Roßdorf, Dieburg, Messel, Urberach, Oberroden, Ditzenbach, Heusenstamm and Offenbach. All these places were in its outermost boundary lines. "

history

Romans

Location of the province of Upper Germany in the Roman Empire

While it belonged to the Roman Empire , the later Maingau was part of the Civitas Auderiensium in the province of Upper Germany . In the writings of Tacitus , the inhabitants of the region ("Zehntland" = Agri decumates ) were already written about .

After the Roman troops withdrew from the Tenth Land (area to the right of the Rhine ) until 260 AD, the Celto - Germanic mixed population remained resident and continued to trade with the Romans on the left bank of the Rhine.

Alemanni

Overview of the distribution of the Alemanni

Of the peoples who migrated during the migration period, the Alamanni are the most important . Several local foundations go back to them: Bellingen , Sprendlingen ("Sprendlingun"), Mainflingen ("Manolfingen"), Hainstadt ("Heinstadt"), Seligenstadt ("Saligunstadt"), Stockstadt ("Stoddenstadt") and Groß- and Klein-Krotzenburg ("Cruzenburch"). See also the article about places ending with -ingen .

Francs

Duchy of Franconia around 800

After the victory of the Frankish king Clovis I over the Alemanni in 496, the Alemannic settlement area came under Frankish rule. It belonged to the part of the empire Austrasia . Under the Franks, the Maingau was subordinated to the Maingaugrafen as an administrative area and was part of the Duchy of Franconia, later Rhine Franconia.

The new Franconian rulers relocated the old settlements of Bürgel, Bieber, Lammerspiel and Roden in Merovingian times (481–560 AD) - while retaining the old names - to newly established bases which were located on road connections. The old Roman roads continued to be used. The Alemannic settlements of Langen, Sprendlingen, Bellingen, Mainflingen, Krotzenburg, Hainstadt, Seligenstadt and Stockstadt continued to exist in connection with a Franconian settlement (see also Franconian land acquisition ).

Central Europe in the early Middle Ages, the Maingau was in Austrasia

At the junction of the old Roman roads in the forest area, Guntheim and Jügesheim (Guginsheim) emerged as Franconian military colonies . Schwanheim (Sueinheim), Rumpenheim, Dietesheim (Ditinesheim), Meielsheim (Meginoluesheim), Groß- and Klein-Auheim (Euuichheim) and Groß- and Klein-Welzheim (Walinesheim) were founded on Mainuferstraße . A road from Sprendlingen via Bieber to Lämmerspiel and a road from Bürgel via Bieber , Bellingen and Nieder-Roden to Altdorf were added as new road connections .

After the Frankish division of the empire in 561, the nobility gained power and brought the kingdom into their hands. At this time, extensive clearing took place in the Maingau. New foundations in the cleared area received personal names in connection with the endings -bach, -tal, -hofen and -feld, in Maingau these were:

• Offenbach , Bach place with the personal name Ovo. There is also evidence of a Franconian row cemetery south of the oldest town center on Waldstrasse from the 6th or 7th century.
• Dietzenbach , Bach place with the personal name Diozo.
• Dudenhofen , -hofen -Ort with the personal name Tuoto or Dodo. The founding of Dudenhofen by noblemen becomes a crossroads in the extended road network of the Maingau at the expense of the former Jügesheim junction.
• the deserted Hartingshofen near Dietzenbach (from the name Harto ), mentioned in a document in the 13th century but already deserted at that time.

Further start-ups in the Lower Maing area outside the Maingau were: Mörfelden (Mersenuelt), Langen and Egelsbach (from the name Egilo ).

The imperial monastery Lorsch came to extensive possessions in Maingau through donations

In the Carolingian period (687–814) there was a renewed strengthening of the royal power and, as a result, a repeated colonization of the forest areas. In Maingau extensive donations to the newly founded imperial monasteries and imperial churches were made by the nobles. The row cemeteries outside the towns disappeared and the dead were buried near the churches in the center of the town. Grave goods were banned (as a result of Christianization and increasing looting).

Although King Clovis I was baptized as a Christian in 499, the residents of the Maingau stuck to their old pagan customs. It was not until 719 that the region was evangelized by Boniface (see also German mission ).

The startups were given the ending -hausen:

• Dreckshausen ( Dreckhusen 1336), deserted area near Froschhausen, the name goes back to the swampy subsoil, so the place went out. In 1567 the place was said to have run out. There was only one courtyard that belonged to the Seligenstadt monastery. Today the pilgrimage site Liebfrauenheide is located there,
• Froschhausen ( villa Froschusen 1323), owned by the Seligenstadt monastery,
• Hainhausen ( Haginhusen 1107), seat of the Lords of Hagenhausen who were the descendants of the Maingaugrafen, from whom the Lords of Eppstein later emerged,
• Ippingshausen ( Ippingeshusen 1210) Desert south-east of Dietzenbach. Already desolate around 1400, its residents have probably moved to Dietzenbach,
• Messenhausen (1282) was a place owned by imperial knights . During the Thirty Years' War, Ober-Roden took over half of the district (temporarily reduced to three farms),
• Obertshausen ( Oberdueshusen 11th century), the moated castle, the remains of which are approx. 300 meters southeast of the old town center, belonged to the Lords of Hausen on a sideline of the Counts of Hagenhausen,
• Patershausen ( Patershusen 1210), originally a small Benedictine monastery was located here (dissolved in 1252 by Ulrich II von Munzenberg and occupied by nuns of the Cistercian order),
• Rennigishausen (Rennigishusen), the only mention of the place comes from a donation to the Patershausen monastery in 1210. In 1385 a mill in Rennigishausen is mentioned, but the place seems to have been desolate back then. Rennigishausen was between Heusenstamm and Patershausen.
• Richolfshausen (Rycholfshusen), recorded between 1338 and 1430 in the north of the Dietzenbacher district,
• Zellhausen ( Celhusen 1329), possession of two courtyards of the Seligenstadt monastery. The cell church, which existed until 1816 (to the west of the village), was located in the middle of a fortification that was probably abandoned in the 13th century and which may have been a base for Irish-Scottish missionaries.
• Hausen ( Husen near Mainflingen 1357), imperial knighthood fief of Hanau . The "Haus Schloss" is an old tower hill from the 10th or 11th century with an unknown builder.

The imperial knighthood and spiritual possessions of these houses from the Carolingian era indicate a planned settlement and reclamation of the newly cleared land by the kingship.

Several market cooperatives existed in Maingau : Biebermark and Auheimer Mark (previously Bellinger Mark), Rödermark (Rothaher marca), Babenhäuser Mark (previously referred to as the Babenberger marca together with the later Dieburger Mark ), Orlis-Mark (the Mark Orlis in Bachgau , a Untergau des Maingaus, had its court seat in the now closed Ringenheim near Großostheim ), Obermark ( Oberhof Zellhausen, previously Manolfinger marca ), Hohe Mark (on the right bank of the Rhine). In addition to imperial forests (to the west), these forest marrow cooperatives also consisted of monastic forest holdings. They survived the Frankish times, the Biebermark z. B. was not dissolved until 1819. The forests, which are still numerous today south of the Main, as well as the formerly extensive forest areas north of the river, largely belonged to the Dreieich Wildbann . In the southern part of the Maingau, between the Welzbach (Pflaumbach) near Großostheim and the Laudenbach, the wild ban of the Breuberg monastery, which was dependent on the Fulda monastery , extended .

Maingaugrafen

The Hagenhausen moated castle in the Hainhausen coat of arms

Under the successors of Charlemagne, the county was transformed into a hereditary county. Little is known about the Maingau counts. It is believed that the von Hagenhausen family (based in today's Rodgau district of Hainhausen) traced back to them. For their part, the Lords of Eppstein go back to the Hagenhausen family.

• Count Drogo (attested between 753 and 762) owned the villages of Ober- and Untermühlheim (today Seligenstadt and Mühlheim) according to a document from the year 815. For other namesake see Drogo .
• Count Rupert around 776.
• Count Warin (also Werinhere ) and his wife Fiderun (from 762 also Friderun ) donated considerable property from Bieber to the Fulda monastery in 768 or 786, as recorded there in writing. The later German imperial family of the Salians is said to have descended from Gaugraf Warin. Warin was also Count in Thurgau around 772 . It is attested until 813. Other namesake, see Warin .
• Count Walah made a donation in Bieber before 768. The places Groß- and Klein-Welzheim got their names from Walah (Walinesheim).

In the 9th century the Frankish Babenberg counts were in Maingau. Hence the name of the Babenberger Mark for the area of ​​the later Babenhauser and the Dieburger Mark.

• Count Konrad the Elder ( Konradiner ) was appointed by Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia in 893 in place of Popponen Margrave in Maingau. This led to bitter hostility between the two sexes. Konrad was born around 855 and died on February 27, 906 .
• Count Konrad the Younger † December 23, 918, 908 Count in Hessengau, 910 Count in Keldachgau, Margrave in Maingau and Dux (Duke of Franconia), 7./10. November 911 East Franconian king as successor to the last East Franconian Carolingian Ludwig the child; Founded in 912 by Sankt Walpurgis in Weilburg, buried in Fulda, son of Konrad the Elder
• Count Eberhard † October 23, 939 near Andernach ( Konradiner ), Duke of Franconia, 909 lay abbot of Sankt Maximin in Trier , 913 Count in Hessengau and Perfgau , 913 and 928 Count in Oberlahngau , 914 Margrave , 936 Truchsess , Margrave in Maingau , 938 Count Palatine son of Konrad the Elder
• Count Ruochar, around 945, has a Comitat in the "royal march".
• Count Meingaud, also Meingoz or Meiningoz, from the house of the Konradines was Count in Maingau between 965 and 987 and Count in Lobdengau from 987 to 1002 and lay abbot of St. Maximin . Grandson of Eberhard son of Konrad III
• Count Gerlach ("Gerlahi") appears in 1013 in a deed of donation from King Heinrich II as the owner of the village of Dietesheim. Maybe he was also Gaugraf in Lahngau .
• Count Gerhard, probably a member of the noble family of the Reginbodonen descendants of the Konradines, is mentioned in 1069 as Count in Maingau.

Furthermore, a Count Dito is mentioned in the 11th century , who owned goods in Rodheim (Rodem) today Radheim .

Further development

Steinheim Castle , seat of the bailiffs in Steinheim

In later times, property in northern Maingau remained mainly with the Lords of Hagenhausen, who later called themselves Lords of Eppstein after their new headquarters. In 1425 Gottfried von Eppstein sold the entire Steinheim office to the Electorate of Mainz . The Counts of Isenburg , Hagen-Münzenberg and von Falkenstein later also gained rich holdings in Maingau.

From 1803 large parts of the former Maingau belonged to the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Principality of Aschaffenburg , which for a short time became part of the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt and in 1814 to Bavaria . The Hessians divided the area into new administrative structures in the following period. Today the old Maingau is divided into the independent city ​​of Offenbach am Main, the Offenbach district , the Darmstadt-Dieburg district , the Aschaffenburg district and the Miltenberg district in the federal states of Hesse and Bavaria.

Deeds of gift

Many places in Maingau were first mentioned in deeds of donation to Lorsch Abbey. This gave the monastery extensive holdings in this area in the early Middle Ages.

Documentary mentions from Franconian times have come down to the following places in the Maingau:

• Rumpenheim was mentioned on July 1, 770 in a deed of donation about a vineyard belonging to a Gunthart to the Lorsch monastery, 16 other donations (850 Lorsch owned 600 to 700 acres of land in Rumphenheim ) including an exchange between King Heinrich I and Fulda monastery ,
• Bellingen was mentioned several times between 765 and 815 in deeds of donation to the Lorsch monastery (including the gift of Erlulf in 791 as with Bieber and Ober- and Nieder-Roden), until 1385 the place became desolate ,
• Klein-Welzheim and Großwelzheim were mentioned as Walinesheim 772 in a deed of donation from the Lorsch Monastery,
• Mainflingen , from 775 to 799 various donations of real estate to the Lorsch monastery in the Manolfinger marca are recorded
• Bürgel 790 donation to the Lorsch monastery, in the 9th century donation to St. Salvator in Frankfurt (the "village called Bürgel including the church and the associated tithe, as Ruotker owned as a fiefdom").
• Bieber was mentioned in the first definitely datable document on April 22nd, 791, when a Franconian nobleman named Erlulf gave all his property in Bieber to the Lorsch monastery, the donations of the maing counts Warin (four hooves ) and Walah (all his property in Bieber) cannot be clearly dated, but are estimated to be 768 at the latest, on September 28, 868 a Teotger donated his goods in Bieber to the Lorsch monastery
• Ober-Roden and Nieder-Roden were mentioned on April 22nd, 791, when a Franconian nobleman named Erlulf gave all his property in the towns to the Lorsch Abbey, Roden (Ober- or Nieder-Roden) was donated to the Lorsch Monastery mentioned, Rotaha Monastery was mentioned as early as 786 ,
• Dörnigheim 793 gave Wolfbodo to the Lorsch Monastery, among other things, the area in Maingau, which was in Turinchheim ,
• Klein-Auheim and Großauheim were mentioned in a document of a Reginbodo 806 as Euuichheim and 1062 as Oweheim ,
• Mühlheim was mentioned in 815 as Untermühlheim in a deed of donation from Emperor Ludwig the Pious to the Lorsch Monastery (four hooves with serfs),
• Seligenstadt was mentioned in 815 as Obermühlheim in a donation from Ludwig the Pious to the Lorsch Monastery (19 Hufen and 13 serfs), this property formerly belonged to Count Drogo,
• Offenbach was mentioned in 977 in a deed of donation by Emperor Otto II (the church is donated to the Salvatorkapelle in Frankfurt),
• Kleinostheim 980 Certificate of a Megengozi,
• Dietesheim In 1013 King Heinrich II gave his property in Dietesheim to Lorsch Abbey in exchange,
• Stockstadt am Main as Stoddenstadt 1024,
• Hausen , in 1049 King Heinrich IV allowed new breaches to be built near the villa Hausen,
• Babenhausen in the 11th century in a certificate from a Reginbodo,
• Hergershausen ,
• Hainstadt ,
• Meielsheim (later devastated).

The Maingau today

In recent times there has been a tendency to apply the term Maingau, which has long since ceased to be an administrative unit, unspecifically to larger parts of the Rhine-Main area . Behind it are probably the district divisions of the gymnastics and rifle guilds. Sport-Schützengau 8 is called "Maingau" and includes the districts 81 Frankfurt, 82 Offenbach, 83 Main-Taunus, 84 Hochtaunus and 85 Usingen. In 1890 the Maingau Hospital was opened in the Nordend district of Frankfurt by the Patriotic Women's Association from Rothen Kreuz . In Flörsheim am Main , the Maingau-Bote (today Flörsheimer Zeitung ) was published until 1989 .

But the term also still exists for the original area: A merger of Volksbanken in the Offenbach district and Volksbank Hausen, decided in the 1990s, bears the name Volksbank Maingau and since the merger with Volksbank Obertshausen the name Vereinigte Volksbank Maingau. There is also, for example, Maingau Energie GmbH (formerly the Obertshausen Gas Supply Association) and the Maingau-Halle in Kleinostheim .

The district association of the Junge Union Offenbach-Land has been called "Junge Union Maingau" since March 2007. There are also voices calling for the Offenbach district (to which the city of Offenbach no longer belongs since 1938) to be renamed the Maingau district .

literature

• Karl Nahrgang: City and District Offenbach am Main - Atlas for settlement studies, traffic, administration, economy and culture . Commission publishing house Dr. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1963.
• Karl Nahrgang: City and District Offenbach am Main - Studies and Research, Issue 4 . Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt am Main 1958.
• JW Chr. Steiner: Antiquities and history of the Bachgau in the old Maingau I-III . Aschaffenburg 1821 and 1827.
• JW Chr. Steiner: History and antiquities of Rodgau in old Maingau . Darmstadt 1833

Web links

• The Gaue before 900th Historical Atlas of Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• The Gaue after 900th Historical Atlas of Hesse. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).