Wöllstein

Location

The municipality lies in Rhenish Hesse roughly 8 km southeast of Bad Kreuznach, and 30 km southwest of Mainz. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.

Postal station on the Dutch Post Route

From the latter half of the 16th century, there was a postal station in Wöllstein on the Dutch Post Route running from Brussels (nowadays in Belgium rather than the Netherlands) by way of Rheinhausen and Augsburg to Innsbruck, Trent and Italy. The postal station had its first documentary mention in Giovanni da l’Herba’s 1563 postal travel book as Bilstain ò Vilstain, villa (that is, village). Beginning in 1578, a branch of the Dutch Post Route led from Wöllstein to Cologne. During the time when the postal system was insolvent in the late 16th century and owing to the resulting postal station operators’ strike, both postal station operator Valentin Dill (Till) and his widow, the Postfrau zu Welstein Margarethen, played a decisive rôle as strike leaders, in which they refused to carry any mailbags anywhere beyond Wöllstein. After consolidation and the founding of the Imperial Post (Kaiserliche Reichspost) in 1597, the Wöllstein postal station was still open for business, but beginning in the late 17th century, owing to route changes and cities’ growing influence, it slowly lost its importance.

Municipal council

The council is made up of 20 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairwoman.

The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:

Coat of arms

The municipality’s arms might be described thus: Per pale gules a wheel spoked of six argent and azure semé of crosses pattée of the second a lion rampant of the second armed, langued and crowned of the first.

The wheel on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side is the Wheel of Mainz, a reference to Wöllstein’s former allegiance to Electoral Mainz, and the lion rampant on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side is taken from the arms once borne by the County of Nassau-Saarbrücken, forming another reference to a former territorial allegiance.

In the late 19th century, Otto Hupp showed in one of his Kaffee HAG publications a different coat of arms for Wöllstein showing an abbot with a halo and a small bear springing (similar to “rampant”, but with both hindfeet on the ground). Both charges were predominantly black. The design was taken from old village seals dating back to the 16th century. The abbot figure stood for Saint Maximin of Trier. This was likewise a reference to a former territorial allegiance, as Wöllstein was once held by the abbey named for this saint. The bear is Saint Maximin’s attribute.

The current arms have been borne since 1918.

Falkenstein domain

Electoral Mainz domain

Nassau domain

Wöllstein as a whole

Town partnerships

Transport

Running through the Wöllstein municipal area is Bundesstraße 420, coming from Nierstein. To the east, the Justizvollzugsanstalt Rohrbach, a prison, stands at the highway. It also leads by an industrial-commercial area. Right nearby, in Gau-Bickelheim, is the Autobahn A 61.

Local public transport

There are links to bus routes run by Omnibusverkehr Rhein-Nahe (ORN) and the Verkehrsgesellschaft Bad Kreuznach.

Several times daily, buses run the route from Wöllstein by way of Siefersheim, Wonsheim and Wendelsheim to Alzey, and in the opposite direction there is the odd bus to Wörrstadt. The link to Bad Kreuznach is by comparison to the one to Alzey somewhat better. These buses run hourly on weekdays by way of Volxheim and Hackenheim to Bad Kreuznach.

Established businesses

Located in Wöllstein are the JUWÖ Poroton Werke (hollow bricks), Meralux (doors and windows), the institutional kitchen supplier Jomo and a Lidl distribution centre.

Public institutions

Since 2002, there has been the Justizvollzugsanstalt Rohrbach (prison) in Wöllstein. Moreover, there are a Realschule and a primary school. There are also two kindergartens at the municipality’s disposal.

Famous people