Nackenheim is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – and a winegrowing centre in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location Nackenheim lies in Rhenish Hesse near Mainz. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bodenheim, whose seat is in the like-named municipality, and is the only Ortsgemeinde in this Verbandsgemeinde that lies right on the Rhine. It is a municipality idyllically set between hillside vineyards on the one side and the Rhine on the other, whose vineyards were first mentioned more than 1,200 years ago. The islands of Kisselwörth (35 ha) and Sändchen cut Nackenheim off from the Rhine's mainstream. The two islands have conservation status and belong to the Rheinauen ("Rhine Floodplains") Habitats Directive area. Formerly, the area was under cultivation, but nowadays, meadow orchards (Streuobstwiesen) are found there. In the course of the Rhine straightening project in the 19th century, Kisselwörth and Sändchen were enlarged with landfill and current control works. Neighbouring municipalities Nackenheim's neighbours are Bodenheim, Nierstein, Lörzweiler and Trebur. History The name Nackenheim The actual derivation of the name Nackenheim is not known. One supposition holds that the name goes back to prehistoric Nackenheim and a chieftain named Nacho, yielding a name meaning "Nacho’s Home". Another explanation that has developed in the course of history according to which the name derives from the place's location in the "neck of the mountain" (in German: im Nacken des Berges). Thus far, neither theory has been confirmed. Politics Town council The council is made up of 22 council members, counting the part-time mayor, with seats apportioned thus: (as at municipal election held on 7 June 2009) Mayor In May 2019, René Adler was elected as Nackenheim's mayor. Coat of arms The municipality's arms might be described thus: A bar argent, in chief sable an orb of the first, in base a wheel spoked of six of the first. In an expert's report from 25 May 1984, Chief Archivist Dr. Debus from the Speyer State Archive (Landesarchiv Speyer) made the following remarks:"Above the Nackenheim Town Hall entrance is found an arms stone, which deviates from the arms in question on the following points: Instead of the cross, a hook with a pointed angle adorns the globus cruciger, and the wheel is eight-spoked. … The keystone above the Town Hall entrance yields, surely in unwitting transformation, the always six-spoked Wheel of Mainz,