Groß-Umstadt is a town in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. It is near by Darmstadt and Frankfurt on the northern border of mountain range Odenwald and is on the south-eastern edge of Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. The population is about 21,000 residents. About half of residents are living in Groß-Umstadt itself and the remainder in eight other districts which were incorporated by Hesse State Municipal Reform Act in 1970s: Dorndiel Heubach Kleestadt Klein-Umstadt Raibach Richen Semd Wiebelsbach (also includes village Frau-Nauses). History 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 Roman 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. Early mediaeval period 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 im Odenwald, Breuberg and Schaafheim 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 Princely Abbey of Fulda acquired the ownership of the Umstaedter Mark, and by 985 it owned three churches, mills and vineyards here. Late mediaeval period By 1263 or earlier, Umstadt had obtained town privileges as well as a town wall. Konrad IV of Hanau