Moerfelden-Walldorf Travel Guide

More about the History of Moerfelden-Walldorf

Mörfelden was first mentioned in the "Lorscher Reichsurbar" of 830 to 850 under the name "Mersenualt". The church was mentioned as early as 1304 as being the "Parish Church with branch at the Gundhof". During the Middle Ages, the surrounding forests belonged to the Dreieich (Dreieich vacation rentals | Dreieich travel guide) Royal Hunting Woods (Wildbann Dreieich), which maintained one of its 30 woods in Mörfelden. In 1600, Mörfelden passed to Hesse-Darmstadt.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Mörfelden became a significant tradepost with a population of 500, but the Thirty Years War set back the development of the village. It was repeatedly plundered and ravaged, and the plague took its toll. In the 19th century, however, the village benefited anew from economic development, and from the arrival of a railway line. The village developed early on into a community of workers, who commuted towards nearby cities. The inhabitants specialised as construction workers, and Mörfelden became known as the "bricklayers village".

After the Second World War, many refugees and expellees from Germany's former Eastern territories settled here. Mörfelden was raised to town in 1972.

Walldorf was founded in 1699 as "Waldenserkolonie am Gundhof", was given the name Walldorf in 1715 and was raised to town in 1962.

From about 1935 to 1944, there was a concentration camp in Walldorf into which were brought 1,700 Jewish girls and women from Hungary to work at runway and taxiway expansion and repair at Frankfurt (Frankfurt vacation rentals | Frankfurt travel guide) Airport. This chapter in the town's history had lain forgotten until 1972 when three interested youths rediscovered it. Since then, a film called Rollbahn has dealt with the theme.

The town of Mörfelden-Walldorf came into being on 1 January 1977 through the merger of the until then independent towns of Mörfelden and Walldorf in the face of pressure from Frankfurt to amalgamate with that city.

Guntheim is the third community in Mörfelden-Walldorf's history. It lay in Walldorf's northeast. It had its first documentary mention in 1307 under the name villa Guntheim. There was also a Gunthof nearby, but the Gunthof (always with the definite article) came to be part of Guntheim in the 15th century through division of inheritance. The village ceased to be a population centre in 1647.

Guntheim was established in Merovingian times (481 – 560) as a Frankish military colony at the junction of some old Roman roads in the forest.

[ source: wikipedia ]