Langenlonsheim

Langenlonsheim 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, and is also its seat. Langenlonsheim is a state-recognized tourism community and a winegrowing village. Langenlonsheim lies between the southern edge of the Hunsrück and the Nahe. Lying 7 km away is the district seat, Bad Kreuznach, while Bingen am Rhein lies just under 10 km away. On the municipality's western outskirts, the Guldenbach flows by, while the Nahe flows by to the south. Langenlonsheim is well known for its good vineyards and wineries and its Qualitätsweine. Fertile loess soils and the region's warm climate have been defining factors for the village. Clockwise from the north, Langenlonsheim's neighbours are the municipalities of Laubenheim, Grolsheim, Gensingen, Bretzenheim, Guldental, Windesheim, Waldlaubersheim and Dorsheim. Grolsheim and Gensingen both lie in the neighbouring Mainz-Bingen district, whereas all the others likewise lie within the Bad Kreuznach district. Langenlonsheim also comes to within a few metres of two other neighbours: the municipality of Rümmelsheim in the northwest and the town of Bad Kreuznach in the southeast. Also belonging to Langenlonsheim is the outlying homestead of Forsthaus Langenlonsheim. Even as long ago as Roman times, there was winegrowing in what is now Langenlonsheim. In 769, Langenlonsheim had its first documentary mention as Longistisheim. Over its long history, the village changed owners many times. Under French rule, Langenlonsheim became the seat of a mairie ("mayoralty") in 1800, to which five municipalities belonged. This arrangement persisted even after the French were driven out and the region was assigned under the terms of the Congress of Vienna to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815, although it was thereafter known as a Bürgermeisterei (also "mayoralty"). In those days, the population was still very much engaged in agriculture as its main income earner.