Erpolzheim

Geschichte

Erpolzheim 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 Palatinate on the German Wine Route. Erpolzheim belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Freinsheim, whose seat is in the like-named town.HistoryIn 781, the municipality had its first documentary mention as Erbholfesheim.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:Coat of armsThe German blazon reads: Von Blau und Silber gespalten, rechts ein halber rotbewehrter silberner Adler am Spalt, links eine aufgerichtete blaue Weintraube mit grünen Blättern.The municipality’s arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per pale azure issuant from the line of partition an eagle displayed argent armed and langued gules, and argent a bunch of grapes slipped proper reversed.The village’s oldest known seal from the 16th century bears the eagle as a charge, the device also borne by the Counts of Leiningen, who held the local lordship. Late in that same century, the grapes were added to stand for winegrowing. Some later seals, however, showed another plant with three leaves. The current arms are based on seals from the 16th and 17th centuries. They have been borne since 17 July 1952.