Guntersblum is an Ortsgemeinde– a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Location
Guntersblum lies on the Rhine’s left bank between Mainz and Worms, right on the Mainz–Ludwigshafen railway line, and roughly 25 km south of Mainz.
The municipality’s total area is 1 668 ha, 1 373 ha of which is given over to agriculture and forestry, and 550 ha of this is used for winegrowing. Winegrowing areas include Guntersblumer Vögelsgärten and Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen while individual vineyards are Steinberg, Authental, Steigterassen, Bornpfad, Kreuzkapelle, Eiserne Hand, St. Julianenbrunnen and Sonnenhang.
History
9th to 10th century
Between 830 and 850 Guntersblum, had its first documentary mention as Chunteres Frumere in the Lorsch codex: a kingly bondsman had to pay the royal court interest in the form of two Fuder (very roughly, 2 000 L) of wine. On 13 June 897 came the municipality’s first datable documentary mention, this time under the name Cundheresprumare (“Gunter’s Plum Garden”). In this document, King Zwentibold confirmed to the monks at Saint Maximin's Abbey at Trier that they had holdings at their disposal in Guntersblum. Between 922 and 927, the Archbishop of Cologne endowed this monastery to the Holy Virgins and Saint Ursula’s Monastery in Cologne with holdings, among other things several arpents of fields in Guntersblum.
13th to 18th century
In 1215, the Xanten Monastery leased its income from the church at Guntersblum (yearly 12 Fuder of wine, 100 Malter of rye and 50 Malter of wheat) to the knight Herbord von Albig and his son Cuselin. In 1237, the Monastery sold the church patronage rights and the whole of its holdings in Guntersblum to the Worms Cathedral Monastery. The goods were shared between the brothers Friedrich III of Leiningen and Emich IV of Leiningen-Landeck. The latter acquired the Electoral-Cologne feudal estate in Guntersblum. Before 1242, Friedrich III of Leiningen was enfeoffed by the Archbishops of Cologne (the village’s owners) with the Vogtei over Guntersblum. Beginning then, Guntersblum remained under Leiningen lordship and belonged until 1316 to the House of Leiningen: until 1466 to the House of Leiningen-Hardenburg. until 1572 to the House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg. until 1658 to the House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg (in Heidesheim). until 1766 to the House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg in Guntersblum. until 1787 to the House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg. from 1787 to the House of Leiningen-Guntersblum. late 1797 – End of Leiningen lordship; Rhine’s left bank annexed to France.
A document now at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries shows a succession of Jewish private tutorship in Guntersblum as early as 1742.
19th century
In 1814 and 1815 came the Congress of Vienna and along with it, the end of French rule. In 1815 and 1816, the Province of Rhenish Hesse (Rheinhessen) came into being and was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, thereby making Guntersblum Hessian. In 1828 and 1829, work on straightening the Rhine was done, part of which involved the creation of the Kühkopf (“Cow’s Head”), an island, formerly joined to the left bank as the land inside an oxbow. In 1852, Guntersblum became part of the new Oppenheim district. In 1853, the Hessische Ludwigsbahn (railway) from Mainz to Worms was built.
20th century
In 1930, the last occupation troops from the First World War left Guntersblum. In March 1945, American tank units rolled through Rhenish Hesse and also Guntersblum. After the Second World War, Guntersblum grew in the course of the great economic upswing throughout Germany to more than double its former size. Given the way the Allied occupiers set their occupation zones up, the Kühkopf area became part of Hesse. In 1969, Guntersblum was made part of the newly formed Regierungsbezirk of Rheinhessen-Pfalz and, within that, part of the newly formed Mainz-Bingen district. In 1972, Guntersblum became the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, which merged into the Verbandsgemeinde Rhein-Selz in 2014.