Karlstein am Main
(officially Karlstein a.Main) is a community in the
Aschaffenburg
district
in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in
Bavaria
, Germany
.
Geography
Location
Dettingen
am Main lies on the River Main
, and on the
railway between Frankfurt am
Main
and Aschaffenburg
, 16 km northwest of
Aschaffenburg.
Constituent communities
Karlstein’s
Ortsteile are
Dettingen and Großwelzheim.
History
Prehistory
Karlstein finds itself on old, historic ground, as witnessed by
many finds from before the Christian Era. The placename Dettingen
suggests an
Alamannic settlement (3rd to
14th century), and the placename Großwelzheim a
Frankish one.
First mentions
Großwelzheim had its first documentary
mention in a donation document from the Lorsch Abbey
in 772. Then, the village was called
Walinesheim. The placename has the
—heim ending
that was typical for places founded in Frankish times. The name
comes from a count named
Walah who held sway in the
Maingau.
Dettingen had its first documentary mention in a donation document
from
Emperor Otto
II.
Battle of Dettingen
The
War of the Austrian
Succession brought about, among other things, a battle in the
Karlstein area on 27 June 1743, the Battle of Dettingen.
The
so-called “Pragmatic Army”, made up of 35,000 Britons, Hanoverians
and Austrians and under British King George II’s command, found itself
fighting a 70,000-strong French
army.
The Pragmatic Army overcame the French, thus giving rise to the
legend of the “Wandering Englishman”, which has been handed down in
Dettingen to this day. Furthermore,
George Frideric Handel wrote the
Dettingen Te Deum in honour of the
British victory, which was first performed on 27 November 1743 –
exactly 5 months after the battle began – in George II’s
presence.
Amalgamation
In the course of municipal reform in Bavaria came the merger of the
two communities of Dettingen and Großwelzheim on 1 July 1975. In a
vote, the new community’s citizens decided on the name Karlstein,
which had cropped up as early as some time about 1000 in a
description of the Aschaffenburg Forest Region, and was also the
name given an old community limit stone between Dettingen and
Großwelzheim.
Name’s origin
The name
Karlstein supposedly, according to a traditional
anecdote, goes back to
Charlemagne (who
is called
Karl der Große in
German).
Charlemagne often found himself in Seligenstadt
, right across the river, and was much given to
hunting in the Spessart
. To reach there, he would cross the Main in his ship
to the place then still known as Tettingen. The
stone at the landing, or even the limit stone between
Tettingen and
Walinesheim, then came to be known
as Karlstein.
Politics
Community council
The council is made up of 20 council members, not counting the
mayor.
(as at municipal election held on 2 March 2008)
Coat of arms
The community’s
arms might be described
thus: Party per fess wavy, azure the Cross of Dettingen argent,
argent an atom symbol with three orbits of the first and a nucleus
gules.
The wavy parting refers to the community’s location on the Main,
which is also part of the community’s name. Since the community was
formed out of the two former communities of Dettingen and
Großwelzheim in 1975, the arms display
charge from each former community’s arms.
The uniquely shaped cross above the parting is the so-called Cross
of Dettingen (or
Dettinger Kreuz in
German). It comes from Late Gothic times and
is found in
Saint Hippolytus’s
Church (
Kirche St. Hippolyt) in the constituent community
of Dettingen. The atom symbol below the parting is taken from the
arms formerly borne by the community of Großwelzheim. Within
community limits, Germany’s first
nuclear
power station was built, although it was only experimental. In
1960, it began feeding electricity into the power grid. The reactor
was shut down in 1985, and by the end of 2008, it had been fully
removed.
The arms have been borne since 13 October 1977.
Economy
Nuclear power stations
On 13
November 1960, the Kahl Nuclear Power Plant
, which despite the name is wholly within
Karlstein’s limits, came into service. The neighbouring
community of Kahl am
Main
merely stood godfather at the christening.
On 25 November 1985, after running for 25 years, the power station
was shut down. In 1988 began the first dismantling work, which
ended by late 2008.
On the same lands stood the Großwelzheim hot steam reactor, which
has been fully dismantled since 1998.
External links
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