Kettenheim

Kettenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.GeographyLocationThe municipality lies in Rhenish Hesse and belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Alzey-Land, whose seat is in Alzey.HistoryEarlier known as Kiedenheim, the village lay in the lower Nahegau and for a great length of time was subservient to the castle at Alzey. The family Dieter von Kiedenheim was enfeoffed with great holdings by Ruprecht III. Northeast of Kettenheim lay the village of Egersheim or Ergisheim which later vanished, most likely shortly after the Thirty Years' War.PoliticsTown councilThe council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Coat of armsThe municipality’s arms might be described thus: Argent diapered on a pale azure a chain sable.Both the external links for Kettenheim, however, show a different coat of arms, this one with the diapering missing from the field and with the chain arranged in a horseshoe shape over the field, centred on the pale, instead of running lengthwise along it. No explanation of the municipality’s arms is given at either site. Nevertheless, Ketten means “chains” in German.