to the Wildbann Dreieich, a royal hunting forest, one of whose 30 Wildhuben (special estates whose owners were charged with guarding the hunting forest) was maintained in Jügesheim. In 1425, the Lords of Eppstein sold the Amt of Steinheim along with Jügesheim to the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz. The Thirty Years' War took a heavy toll on the community, which at that time was part of the Rödermark (communal lands). The place only recovered in the 17th century. In the 20th century it established a leather industry with many workers working leather at home. Besides this there were of course many farming households. After Secularization in 1803, Jügesheim passed to Hesse. In 1896 the Rodgaubahn (railway) with a railway station in Jügesheim opened. In the mid-1970s, a commercial area was laid out, which over the years that followed further grew. The new Town Hall made Jügesheim into a centre of Rodgau. Today Rodgau's second biggest constituent community has some 11,700 inhabitants. North of the constituent community between Hainhausen and Jügesheim is found the 43.5 m-tall watertower built in the years from 1936 to 1938. It was in use until 1979, and is now under monumental protection. It has become a kind of landmark for Jügesheim, and indeed for all Rodgau. Population development In 1576 Jügesheim had 36 households. In 1681, 121 persons lived in only 26 households. In 1834, the village had 1,071 inhabitants. In the 20th century this rose to 3,174 in 1939, and to 7,673 in 1970. In late 2007 the constituent community had 11,855 inhabitants. Dudenhofen Dudenhofen was founded in the second wave of Frankish settlement, after the time of the partition of the empire in 561. The place was founded at a newly built road junction in an expanded road network, at the expense of the former hub at Jügesheim. The placename relates to a personal name Tuoto or Dodo. Dudenhofen had its first documentary mention in 1278 in an accord from Archbishop Werner von Eppstein of Mainz with the Lords of Eppstein. The village long belonged to various owners at the same time (the Lords of Falkenstein, Hanau, Isenburg and Electoral Mainz), the odd part was bequeathed, others were traded or mortgaged (complete with inhabitants). Between 1450 and 1736, Dudenhofen belonged to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg and was assigned to the Amt of Babenhausen, thereby making the place as of 1550 an Evangelical enclave