Groß-Umstadt

Groß-Umstadt
Coat of arms
Groß-Umstadt
Location of Groß-Umstadt within Darmstadt-Dieburg district
Coordinates: 49°52′N 08°56′E / 49.867°N 8.933°E / 49.867; 8.933Coordinates: 49°52′N 08°56′E / 49.867°N 8.933°E / 49.867; 8.933
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Darmstadt
District	Darmstadt-Dieburg
Government
• Mayor	Joachim Ruppert (SPD)
Area
• Total	86.84 km2 (33.53 sq mi)
Elevation	170-224 m (−565 ft)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	20,821
• Density	240/km2 (620/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	64823
Dialling codes	06078
Vehicle registration	DA, DI
Website	www.gross-umstadt.de

Groß-Umstadt is a town in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hessen in Germany. It is near Darmstadt and Frankfurt on the northern border of the Odenwald and is on the south-eastern edge of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region.

The population is about 21,000 residents. About half of these live in Umstadt itself and the remainder in eight other districts which were combined with Umstadt in the state of Hessen government reforms in the 1970s:

The last of these includes Frau-Nauses.

Traces of palaeolithic habitation have been identified outside the town.

The settlement of Civitas Auderiensium was founded at Dieburg in AD 125 in the context of the Roman occupation of the section of the province of Germania Superior on the right bank of the Rhine. The foundation was followed by an orderly settlement and Romanisation of the district, and a market for agricultural produce was established. The main building of a "villa rustica" has been excavated under the current town church. This villa remained until the collapse of the Alemanni around AD 300. The town's history over the following 450 years until the first documentary evidence of the town is unclear. Alemannic and later Frankish tombs point to a settlement in the area of the town. The siting of the church in the core area of the former villa indicates an uninterrupted settlement, or at least to awareness of the previous settlement.

After the conquest of Alemannic territory by the Franks, they established royal fortifications in order to secure control of the area. One such was undoubtedly established in Umstadt, the center of government of the Umstaedter Mark, which included the current municipalities of Otzberg, Höchst, Breuberg and Schafheim as well as Umstadt itself. At that time Umstadt had the status of a market town as well as a church and the seat of a Count. The first documentary evidence of the district was in 743 under the name of "Autmundisstat", which signified "Autmund's town" (possibly Edmund's). Another possible origin of the name is "ad montes" (near the mountains). In 766 the Fulda monastery acquired the ownership of the Umstaedter Mark, and by 985 it owned three churches, mills and vineyards here.