Gimbsheim - History

History

Gimbsheim is believed to have been founded about 500 while the Franks were settling the land under Clovis I by a Frank named Gimmund.

In the beginning, the place was called Gimmundheim. Over the course of the years, the name changed in historical sources, yielding the current name Gimbsheim from Gimmundheim.

On 13 May 766, Gimbsheim, then called Gimmenheim, had its first documentary mention in the Lorsch codex. Two of the villagers donated cropland and vineyards to Lorsch Abbey for their salvation. In 813, another donation, this one to Fulda Abbey, was registered. From 1194 comes the first documentary mention of a church in Gimbsheim. In 1208, a Gimbsheim clergyman by the name of Heinrich was mentioned as being a member of the Cathedral Chapter at Worms.

In 1402, the Gimbsheim court seal, the Mauricius Siegel was mentioned for the first time. In 1499, Gimbsheim burnt to the ground.

In 1662, Gimbsheim became an Electoral Palatinate holding. Only four years later, in 1666, Gimbsheim was stricken with the Plague.

On 17 October 1704, another great fire in Gimbsheim destroyed a great many homesteads.

Beginning in 1798, all important municipal business was handled through the town hall, not, as it heretofore had been, through the parish register. In 1800 came the first mention of a doctor in Gimbsheim.

Between 1798 and 1814, Gimbsheim was in the Department of Mont-Tonnerre (or Donnersberg in German), belonging at that time to Napoleonic France. In 1830, the Rhine straightening project was carried out along the reach of the river that borders Gimbsheim. The project would eventually encompass the Rhine’s course from Basel all the way down to Worms.

In 1974, Gimbsheim opened its outdoor swimming pool. In 1977, the areas left high and dry by the Rhine straightening project in 1830, known as the Altrhein (“Old Rhine”), were made a conservation area.

In 1997, the television series Himmelsheim was filmed in Gimbsheim for Südwestrundfunk. The same year, the Niederrheinhalle (“Lower Rhine Hall”) came to be as a centre for sport and culture.

In 2000, the so-called Pfarrwiesensee, a former gravel quarry that had become a pond, was converted into a bathing lake.