maintained in Nieder-Roden. Nieder-Roden had another documentary mention in 791 when the Frankish nobleman Erlulf donated all his holdings in Nieder-Roden (rotahen inferiore), Ober-Roden (rotahen superiore) and Bieber to the Lorsch Abbey. In 1346 the village became an independent parish, although in the years that followed it still remained in a certain dependency relationship with its former mother parish of Ober-Roden. Formerly an Eppstein holding, the place belonged from 1425 to 1803 to the Archbishopric of Mainz and enjoyed great importance as the centre of a tithing area and the seat of a tithe court. In 1803, the village, as part of the Amtsvogtei of Dieburg, ended up with the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, the later Grand Duchy of Hesse. When the Rödermark (a communally held parcel of land to which belonged several villages) was divided up in 1818, Nieder-Roden received a share of the forest. In 1832, Nieder-Roden passed to the Offenbach district. From 1874 to 1977, the community was in the Dieburg district. In 1896 the Rodgaubahn (railway) with a railway station in Nieder-Roden opened. In the Second World War, during the National Socialist régime, there arose a penal and prison camp, the Lager Rollwald (“Rollwald Camp”) on the land now occupied by the Rollwald community. After the war, Nieder-Roden grew, especially in the 1960s and 1970s from 2,500 inhabitants to now almost 16,000. In the course of district reform in Hesse in 1977, the community was transferred from the Dieburg district to the Offenbach district, to which the town of Rodgau also belongs. Population development In 1576 there were 66 households. In 1681, 117 people lived in only 29 households. In 1829 Nieder-Roden had 787 inhabitants. In 1939, this had risen to 3,616 and by 1970 the number had reached 11,033. In late 2007 the constituent community had 15,479 inhabitants. Politics Town council, as the highest political body in Rodgau, is elected every five years by eligible citizens. The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: CDU 47.7%, SPD 31.1%, GRÜNE 9.9%, Bürger/FWG 4.2%, FDP 3.9%, Deutsche Liste 3.2%. This has further yielded the following seat apportionment: CDU = 22, SPD = 14, Grüne = 4, Bürger/FWG = 2, FDP = 2, Deutsche Liste = 1. The CDU and FDP work together and between them have a three-vote majority in local government. These two parties are also the ones from which the two full-time