Eltville

Eltville am Rhein (, from Alta Villa, lat. = “high estate, high town”, corrupted to Eldeville, Elfeld and later Eltville) is a town in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Half-Timbered House Road (Fachwerkstraße).

Eltville is the biggest town in the Rheingau. It bears the nicknames Weinstadt, Sektstadt, Rosenstadt and since 2006 also Gutenbergstadt. Some of Germany's most famous vineyards (Steinberg, Rauenthaler Baiken, Erbacher Marcobrunn) are found within Eltville's municipal limits.

Location
Eltville, which belongs culturally to the Rheingau region, lies on the River Rhine, 12 km westsouthwest of Wiesbaden.

Neighbouring communities
Eltville borders in the north on the communities of Schlangenbad and Kiedrich, in the east on the district-free city of Wiesbaden and the community of Walluf, in the south – separated by the Rhine – on the communities of Budenheim und Heidesheim and the town of Ingelheim (all three in Mainz-Bingen in Rhineland-Palatinate) and in the west on the town of Oestrich-Winkel.

Constituent communities
Eltville’s Stadtteile, besides the main town, also called Eltville, are Erbach, Hattenheim, Martinsthal and Rauenthal.

History
The earliest traces of humans settling here go back to the New Stone Age. There has been continuous habitation since the late 4th century. Eltville had its first documentary mention in Vita Bardonis (“Bardo’s Life”) from 1058, a biography of Archbishop Bardo of Mainz. In 1329, the archiepiscopal castle and the town wall around Eltville were built. On 23 August 1332, Emperor Louis the Bavarian granted Eltville town rights. With the granting of town rights, Eltville ended up being a pawn in the then ongoing dispute between the Emperor and the Pope. Archbishop Baldwin, one of Emperor Louis’s followers and administrator of the Mainz monastery, was the one who asked for Eltville to be raised to town. From 1347 to 1480, Eltville was the residence of the Archbishops of Mainz. From Dietrich Schenk von Erbach, Archbishop of Mainz (1434–1459), the outlying centre of Erbach presumably got its name.

Town council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Town partnerships
The town of Eltville am Rhein maintains partnerships with these places:
 * Montrichard, Loir-et-Cher, France
 * Arzens, Aude, France
 * Passignano sul Trasimeno, Perugia, Umbria, Italy

Buildings

 * Electoral castle from the 14th century
 * Remains of town fortifications
 * timber-frame from the 16th and 18th centuries
 * Eberbach Cistercian monastery
 * Clos of the Steinberg, Germany’s best known clos (small, enclosed vineyard)
 * Schloss Reinhartshausen (palace)
 * St. Peter’s and Paul’s parish church from the 14th century
 * Pfarrkirche St. Markus (“St. Mark’s parish church”) in Erbach from the 15th century and the Evangelical church in Erbach from the 19th century.
 * Kulturkirche Martinsthal (“culture church”)
 * Crass Castle

Regular events

 * Gutenberg-Winter in Eltville – each year in January and February
 * Rheingauer Schlemmerwoche (“Gluttons’ Week”) and Days of Open Wine Cellars with many wine samplings – late April/early May
 * Rosentage in Eltville (“Rose Days”) – each year on the first weekend in June
 * Erdbeerfest in Erbach (“Strawberry Festival”) – each year in mid-June
 * Sektfest Eltville – each year on the first weekend in July
 * Martinsthaler Weinfest – always on the second weekend in July
 * Rheingau Musik Festival – International Music Festival, in summer
 * Rauenthaler Weinfest – on the second or third weekend in August
 * Burghofspiele – in summer
 * Kappeskerb/Weinlesefest in Eltville (kermis/wine harvest festival) – each year on the last weekend in October
 * Rheingau Pokal ("cup" in taekwondo, fighting) – each year in mid-November
 * Musikalischer Winter in Eltville – each year on each Thursday from mid-November to late April
 * Christmas Market in the Old Town – on the second weekend in December.

Economy and tourism
Eltville is touristically developed and well known for its wine and sekt production, which can be sampled at many wineries and Straußwirtschaften (seasonal wine shops). Of particular importance is the Vinothek, which brings together every leading estate’s wines so that wine lovers can compare the products. It is the only local Vinothek in the Rheingau and one of few in Germany. Eltville is the headquarters of MM-Sektkellerei (which today belongs to Rotkäppchen-Sekt), Hessische Staatsweingüter Kloster Eberbach (“Hessian State Wine Estates of Eberbach Monastery”), and Sektmanufaktur Schloss Vaux, as well as the biggest industrial employer in the Rheingau, Jean Müller GmbH Elektrotechnische Fabrik. Eltville is one of Germany’s ten Rosenstädte (“Rose Towns”).

Transport
Eltville lies on Bundesstraße 42, which towards the east is built like an Autobahn and near Walluf seamlessly joins the A 66. The town also lies on the Frankfurt – Wiesbaden – Eltville – Koblenz railway line and belongs to the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund. On the Rhine’s bank are several landing stages for, among others, the Köln-Düsseldorfer Rheinschiffahrt, a well known Rhine passenger ship concern.

Education

 * Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule (primary school in the main town)
 * Gutenberg-Schule (Realschule in the main town)
 * Gymnasium Eltville (in the main town)
 * Sonnenblumenschule (primary school in Erbach)
 * Waldbachschule (primary school in Hattenheim)
 * Otfried-Preußler-Schule (primary school in Rauenthal)
 * Mediathek Eltville (public municipal library)

Famous people

 * Johannes Gutenberg was named on 17 January 1465 a courtly nobleman by the Archbishop and Elector Adolph II of Nassau, who at the time resided in the Electoral castle at Eltville. Presumably under Gutenberg’s guidance, the Brothers Bechtermünz founded a small printing shop. This published in 1467 the Vocabularius ex quo, a Latin dictionary. In this workshop, Thomas Aquinas’s Summa de articulis fidei (1472) was also reprinted. This made Eltville one of the cradle towns of book printing. In the castle tower, a memorial recalls Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s brother, Friele Gensfleisch, lived in Eltville from 1434 until his death in 1447. The Gensfleisch-Haus still stands today right next to the castle.
 * Gebeno von Eberbach, clergyman
 * Julius Koch (b. 28 February 1912 in Frankfurt; d. 2 July 1991 in Eltville), German drink researcher, oenologist and food chemist.
 * Georg Herber (1763–1833 in Eltville), for many years President of the second chamber of The Estates of Duchy of Nassau

Sons and daughters of the town

 * Michael Apitz (1965–   ), graphic and comic strip artist
 * Franz Josef Jung (1949–   ), German politician (CDU) and Federal Minister of Defence in the first Merkel cabinet
 * Augustinus Kilian (1856–1930 in Limburg an der Lahn) was from 1913 until his death in 1930 Roman Catholic Bishop of the Bishopric of Limburg an der Lahn.
 * Heinrich Köppler (1925–1980), German politician (CDU), candidate at the Landtag election in North Rhine-Westphalia, 1980.
 * Wilhelm Kreis (1873–1955), architect
 * Eduard Kremer (1881–1948), politician
 * Ernst Freiherr Langwerth von Simmern (1865–1942), German diplomat, ambassador in Madrid and Imperial commissar for the occupied Rhenish areas in Koblenz
 * Ferdinand Wilhelm Emil Roth (1853–1924), historical researcher
 * Andreas Scholl (born 1967), countertenor
 * Bernhard Schott (1748–1809), music publisher, founded the music publishing house Schott Music in Mainz in 1770

Documents

 * Bild von Elfeld (heute Eltville) aus J.F. Dielmann, A. Fay, J. Becker (Zeichner): F.C. Vogels Panorama des Rheins, Bilder des rechten und linken Rheinufers, Lithographische Anstalt F.C. Vogel, Frankfurt 1833