Oppenheim

Oppenheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, lying on the Upper Rhine in Rhenish Hesse between the cities of Mainz and Worms. It is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde, the special administrative district that groups the surrounding municipalities. The Frankish village was first documented in 765 in the Lorsch Codex, in connection with an endowment by Charlemagne to Lorsch Abbey, and it received market rights in 1008. In October 1076 it became important in the Investiture Controversy, when princes meeting at Trebur and Oppenheim called on King Henry IV to undertake the Walk to Canossa. It became a Free Imperial City in 1225 under Frederick II, was pledged to the Electorate of Mainz in the 14th century and later belonged to the Electoral Palatinate. French troops destroyed the town and Landskrone Castle in 1689, and in March 1945 American troops crossed the Rhine near the town. Its Gothic Katharinenkirche is the best known landmark.