Rümmelsheim

Rümmelsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Langenlonsheim-Stromberg, whose seat is in Langenlonsheim. Rümmelsheim is a winegrowing village. Rümmelsheim lies southwest of Bingen am Rhein and north-northwest of Bad Kreuznach in the Trollbach valley, west of the Nahe, just upstream from where it empties into the Rhine. The Trollbach itself flows through the village. Clockwise from the north, Rümmelsheim's neighbours are the municipalities of Münster-Sarmsheim, Dorsheim, Waldlaubersheim and Waldalgesheim, the first and last of which lie in the neighbouring Mainz-Bingen district, while the other two likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. Rümmelsheim (Bad Kreuznach district) also comes within several metres of Langenlonsheim, but does not actually touch it, while the village of Weiler bei Bingen (Mainz-Bingen district) lies roughly as far away to the north as the village of Münster-Sarmsheim does to the northeast, but Münster-Sarmsheim's municipal area lies between the two. Rümmelsheim's Ortsteile are the main centre, also called Rümmelsheim, and the outlying centre of Burg Layen. Rümmelsheim and Burg Layen have been bound to each other throughout the ages. In 1125, Rümmelsheim had its first documentary mention as Rimilisheim. Rimilisheim and the castro Leiga ("fortified house of Layen") then belonged, together with feudal landholds in Waldlaubersheim, Genheim, Roth, Schweppenhausen and Eckenroth to the Lords of Bolanden. Lesser landholds in Rümmelsheim were held by the Knights of Stein, Löwenstein, Weierbach and Dalberg. Without doubt, Castle Layen's task was to keep watch over the road that ran by, through the Trollbach valley to the bizarre crag formations up on the heights. The castle's name stems from its standing on a Lay, that is to say, stone (the same word element can still be seen today in "Loreley").