Alzenau

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ALZENAU (IN UNTERFRANKEN)

State : Bayern
District (Kreis) : Aschaffenburg (until 1972 Alzenau)
Additions : 1972 Albstadt, Kälberau, Wasserlos; 1975 Hörstein, Michelbach

Official blazon

(de) In Rot über zwei schräg gekreuzten goldenen Zweigen ein sechsspeichiges silbernes Rad

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on November 24, 1926.

The arms show the wheel of Mainz and the symbol of the local village court, two twigs.

Wilmundsheim (the precedessor of Alzenau) and the neighbouring villages were free villages until 1500. Just across the river, the Archbishop of Mainz - who wanted to get a hold of the district - in 1395 built a castle and founded a village called Alzenau, for which in 1401 he obtained the city rights from King Ruprecht. Alzenau and Wilmundsheim gradually merged as the castle lost importance. In 1500 the free villages came under the joint overlordship of the Archbishop of Mainz and the Count of Hanau. When the lines of the counts died out in the 18^th century, the district was divided between the Archbishop (3/4 including Alzenau) and the Count of Hessen-Kassel, the legal heirs of Hanau. Alzenau remained under the direct rule of Mainz until 1803. Then the district over to the Grandduke of Hessen-Darmstadt and in 1816 to the King of Bavaria.