Gerolsheim

Gerolsheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land, which was formed in 1972, and whose seat is in Grünstadt, although that town is itself not in the Verbandsgemeinde.HistoryIn 915, Gerolsheim had its first documentary mention as Geroltesheimero.Until 1969, the municipality belonged to the now abolished district of Frankenthal. In 1972 came the amalgamation with the newly formed Verbandsgemeinde of Grünstadt-Land.The Sondermülldeponie Gerolsheim (“Special Garbage Dump”) was closed in 2003 after decades-long efforts by residents to reach that goal.ReligionIn 2007, 41.2% of the inhabitants were Evangelical and 29.5% Catholic. The rest belonged to other faiths or adhered to none.PoliticsMunicipal councilThe council is made up of 16 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:MayorIn the mayoral election, 1,421 citizens were eligible to vote, of whom 919 actually went to the polls. Ortsbürgermeister (Mayor) Erich Weyer (FWG) was confirmed in his office with 713 votes (79.7%) against opponent Volker Rossel’s (SPD) 182 votes (20.3%).