2018

• Car sharing starts in Rodgau: Energieversorgung Rodau GmbH sets up a charging station for electric cars next to the town hall. The electrically powered car-sharing car is available to all citizens.
• Gale-force winds topple trees and cause water damage at the municipal day-care centre 6 in Rollwald.
• Unknown persons have stolen seven road signs and twelve fastening sleeves from the forest recreation centre in Dudenhofen, which were actually intended for the timber auction.
• The long-planned renovation of the station forecourt in Dudenhofen begins right on time at the start of the year with the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony. A drop-off and pick-up zone for parent taxis is set up at the Gartenstadtschule in order to equalise the volume of vehicles and reduce the associated chaotic conditions.
• Marianne Hilge from Hainhausen closes her costume shop after more than 30 years. More than 3000 costumes and around 100 real hair wigs have to be sold in order to close the treasure trove of costume hire.
• After almost 20 years, during which the "Lichte Haide" (W18) development plan has been in force, the Hessische Landgesellschaft (HLG) is purchasing the approximately six-hectare site on behalf of the town of Rodgau and planning the building development.
• The scrap metal artworks created at the Rodgauer ART have found their permanent exhibition space on the garage roof of the community centre in Nieder-Roden.
• The city administration of Rodgau is responsible for monitoring hazardous goods for the cities of Seligenstadt, Heusenstamm, Dreieich and Langen.
• The President of the Dieburg Carnival Association, Günter Hüttig, ceremoniously presents the Rodgau Monotones with the "Wooden Lantern". This is the Dieburg Carnival Association's highest external honour and has been awarded to individuals or institutions since 1982.
• The ground-breaking ceremony marks the start of the renovation of the station forecourt in Dudenhofen. The sand and gravel works sells parts of the lake back to the town of Rodgau, as the sand and gravel reserves are exhausted.

• The third round of mediation between Wildtierarche and the Offenbach district is intended to settle the legal dispute.
• The city parliament instructs the Hessische Landgesellschaft (HLG) to purchase the approximately 14.8-hectare site between Ferdinant-Porsche-Ring in Jügesheim and Kreisquerverbindung and to coordinate its development into a new industrial estate.
• The municipal regulatory authority has had good experience with the principle of "better prevention than punishment" and has purchased a third speed measurement board. It not only measures and records the speed in both directions, but also greets drivers with a short text or symbol.
• Rodgau gymnast Reinhard Eichenberg, who is a member of the SV Weiskirchen board and head coach for competitive gymnastics, takes part in RTL's trampoline obstacle course show "Big Bounce".
• With around 130 exhibitors and countless visitors, the 22nd Rodgau Education Fair is once again a complete success.
• EDEKA Ermel is donating 50 cuddly teddy bears to the Rodgau volunteer fire brigade, which will now travel with them on missions and provide comfort to children at the scene of an emergency. The company is thus not only supporting the German Teddy Foundation, but also the local fire brigade.

• Walk of Fame: The Weiskirchen Sports Association is launching a fundraising campaign to mark the 125th anniversary of the club. A concrete slab is to be cast for each year of the club's existence, on which the donor of the slab can immortalise themselves with hand and footprints. The slabs will then be laid to form a long path on the sports grounds.
• 40 years of the Rodgau Monotones: A cult band begins its - open-ended - worldwide farewell tour.
• Old braids for children with cancer. Roger Keil is once again collecting long hair in his hairdressing salon in Dudenhofen, which will then be auctioned off by the Federal Association of Second Hair Specialists. The association wants to use the proceeds from the auction to help children with cancer.
• The furniture store "Spilger's Sparmaxx" in the Nieder-Röder industrial estate closes.
• A dark column of smoke can be seen for kilometres. On 20 March, six weeks before the opening of the swimming season, the functional building at the Nieder-Roden lido burns down. The building is so badly damaged that it has to be completely demolished and replaced. 46 firefighters are deployed with ten vehicles.
• The 63 participants in the spring festival experience a rush of visitors that has not been seen for a long time. This is the second time that the festival has been organised by the Dudenhofen trade association.
• Around 600 people once again take part in the "Clean Rodgau" campaign. However, the amount of rubbish collected is unpleasant. Car parts and road signs are also collected.
• Pupils from Claus-von-Stauffenberg-Schule take part in Hessenfernsehen's video competition on the subject of "My training".
• Young people from the Rodgau cultural academy "Kultinklusive" have embellished a wall on the S-Bahn subway in Dudenhofen with colourful art from a spray can in their latest graffiti campaign.
• The city parliament decides that the city of Rodgau will participate in the "Hessenkasse" debt relief programme.
• Two lifetimes of volunteering: Gerhard Klein and Walter Kraus are delighted to receive the State Letters of Honour.
• The Jügesheim Heritage and History Society is moving from the Schwesternhaus in Ostring 27 to Heckelpassage in Vordergasse 59.
• 500 trees for climate protection: The first 153 trees are planted in the city area, mainly in Dudenhofen and Nieder-Roden. The dry and warm spring makes it difficult to plant the trees, which is why some can only be planted in autumn.

• Wasp expert Peter Tauchert is in great demand as a speaker. People even come from Holland to attend his lectures.
• The municipal utilities have installed one of five new litter bins at Puiseauxplatz. A built-in compactor ensures that seven times more rubbish fits inside. A solar panel on the lid provides sufficient power. The bin thanks you for disposing of waste with a smile.
• Wind power dreams are buried: For the time being, the city parliament has decided not to apply again for sites for wind turbines and a large-scale solar power plant. The city informs the regional association of this in a statement.
• The Max Planck Institute is donating an English telephone box weighing several tonnes to the town of Rodgau. Like two other telephone boxes, it is also to be converted into a bookcase.

• After the English telephone box that had been converted into a bookcase was destroyed, the glass panes have now been replaced by shatterproof Makrolon and Plexiglas panes.
• 200 kindergarten children bake together at the "Backes" bakery in Dudenhofen.
• The city walks mark the start of public participation in the planned urban redevelopment of Dudenhofen.
• Oliver Meermann, Johanniter regional board member, awards the Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe badge of honour to Ralf Ackermann as a sign of gratitude for the "always good cooperation and for the support and foresight of the Offenbach district as a rescue service provider".
• Alexandra Breitbach, headmistress of the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule in Dudenhofen, hands out certificates and gifts to primary school pupils who have consciously avoided taking their parents' taxis for a week and travelled to lessons on foot or by bike. Many classes receive their well-earned rewards.
• The leading actor in a documentary film? The Rodgau association "Gemeinsam mit Behinderten" (Together with the Disabled) is accompanied for 18 months by an author from Offenbach at events such as the 24-hour run and everyday life in the groups or at Haus Emmanuel.
• Car sharing and e-mobility: the car show at Puiseauxplatz in Nieder-Roden attracts numerous visitors with an extended range of products. Many citizens take part in a panel discussion.
• The municipal council decides that the purchase price for the plots in the planned construction area N39 will be 65 euros.
• On Childcare Day, Mayor Jürgen Hoffmann and First City Councillor Michael Schüßler thank the 253 municipal nursery school teachers and day carers for their work with the children and express their appreciation with a rose.
• The emergency breathing apparatus training squadron of the Rodgau volunteer fire brigade practises at the Weiskirchen sewage treatment plant. Neighbouring towns express their interest in the Rodgau unit.
• The city has completed two apartment blocks with affordable housing in the Weiskirchen district. With a basic rent of eight euros per square metre, 400 applicants are trying to get their hands on one of the twelve three-room flats.
• Mayor Jürgen Hoffmann presents the Rodgau volunteer fire brigade with a new crew transport vehicle and a traffic safety trailer.
• Michael Gröschel is re-elected as deputy town fire inspector for the next five years with a clear majority.

• The South Volunteer Fire Brigade once again successfully organises the Firefit Championship. For the first time, the event takes place over two days.
• "Schönheiten der Natur in Rodgau" is the title of the new book published by the Rodgau Nature Conservation Association. The book about local flora and fauna can be purchased for ten euros.
• To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the Rodgau Nord volunteer fire brigade organises a big party with demonstrations and hands-on activities.
• A 59-year-old missing veterinarian from Rodgau is found dead in Offenbach-Waldhof.
• After the stand pool's functional building was completely destroyed by fire, the bathing lake opens seven weeks late. Annual passes are sold at a reduced price due to the shortened season.
• Besi & Frieds are taking part in the "Race across America". With a team of thirteen people, they cycle 4800 kilometres from California on the west coast to Maryland on the east coast in just nine days.
• Following voluntary investigations by private well owners, it is clear that the water in many wells in Rodgau is too heavily contaminated with nitrate. The drinking water, on the other hand, is of 1A quality. Like many other lakes, the Rodgau lido is not spared from the plague of goose droppings. The town is trying to keep the sunbathing areas clean by cleaning up even more.
• The municipal council decides to include the Catholic kindergarten Sankt Rochus in Hainhausen. The town of Rodgau continues to implement the cycle path concept. Three new links are renovated at a cost of 75,000 euros.

• Athlete Nicola Walde sets a new women's HPV world record with her velomobile, a three-wheeled recumbent bike, at the Opel Test Centre. Using pure muscle power, the 44-year-old covered exactly 1,088 kilometres in 24 hours on her clad velomobile, beating the previous women's record of 1,012 kilometres.
• A 79-year-old resident of a villa in Nieder-Roden is found dead in the outdoor pool. The woman was suffering from a heart condition and had fallen into the water after an attack of weakness. The husband did not realise at first that the woman was missing.
• The Rodgau Summer Sunday on Puiseauxplatz in Nieder-Roden is a real crowd-puller. Visitors can watch the World Cup quarter-finals together on a giant screen. Even though Germany has already been eliminated and the match between Russia and Croatia is being played, the atmosphere is good.
• After the unexpected death of Peter Altenau, the former kiosk operator at the lido, a new beginning begins. With their advertising and event agency City Promotion, Jürgen and Philipp Klein from Obertshausen organise countless events. Now they not only run the kiosk at the bathing lake, but also organise the lido festival.
• Open for the first time after an exhausting move: In their new home in the former Heckel carpentry workshop, Chairman Josef Herbert Spahn and his colleagues from the local history association can now present the exhibits much more clearly, even though the exhibition space has shrunk by 100 square metres. The planning was difficult, but apart from two glass showcases, there is now space for Jügesheim's more recent past and millions of years of geological history.

• New service for parents: there's almost nothing you can't do online. From glasses to pizza, everything can be ordered or organised. Parents can now use the betreuungsplatz.online portal to register their children for the city's daycare centres. An online user account accompanies parents throughout their child's time at the daycare centre. Invitations are also sent out and the lunch money is settled via this account.
• The kick-off event for the "NäherDran" project organised by Sportjugend Hessen takes place at the Georg Büchner School in Jügesheim with around 1000 young people in attendance. The project is dedicated to the integration of minorities and inclusion of the disabled. In wheelchair biathlon, sitting volleyball and a blindfolded bell ball game, the young people can experience what it is like to have limited physical functions.
• The striking corner building on the so-called triangle in Jügesheim is gone. After pieces of wall from the former Pig & Pipes restaurant fell onto the carriageway during the initial demolition work, construction work was halted. For the remaining demolition work, the central junction of the through road will be fully closed and traffic will be regulated by the police. Pedestrians will also have to take a diversion.
• Gold-rush atmosphere not wanted in Rodgau: In order to prevent a gold-rush atmosphere in land transactions for future building areas, the city is putting a stop to it. Because the municipal council decides to make use of its right of first refusal, a purchase agreement for a field in Rodgau-West has to be cancelled.
• A 50-year-old cyclist from Weiskirchen is involved in a road accident through no fault of her own and becomes trapped between a car and the wall of a house within sight of the Weiskircher Kerb. The rescue helicopter Christoph 2 landed in the car park at the community centre and transported the seriously injured woman to a clinic. The police believe that the accident was caused by a failure to give way. The police and fire brigade had to hold out for five hours.
• Out of lovesickness, a 27-year-old man sets fire to his ex-girlfriend's clothes in his flat in the so-called China Wall. As it was suspected that he wanted to take his own life and showed no willingness to co-operate, a special task force (SEK) broke down the door to the tenth-floor flat after five hours and overpowered the man.
• The hot summer brings record-breaking visitor numbers to the lido. Just six weeks after the start of the season, the 100,000th visitor is honoured. The entire functional building was destroyed in a fire in March, which is why the bathing season could only start six weeks late.
• The space reserves at Münchhausen School and Geschwister-Scholl School in Hainhausen have been exhausted. A temporary solution consisting of four makeshift rooms is being set up in front of the school gymnasium to alleviate the lack of space for the time being.
• Dana Jäger and Axel Winkler return to Rodgau after more than 20,000 kilometres. The two of them cycle through a total of 19 countries and five continents for a year to collect donations for the German Bone Marrow Donor Registry. They achieve their goal of collecting at least as many donations as kilometres cycled.

• After 32 years, the apron is hanging up. The traditional Jügesheim restaurant Bei Ammie is known for its chicken. But after 32 years, landlady Ursula Nöth is closing the doors and retiring. There has been a pub in the house on Vordergasse for more than 120 years.
• Drought fuels forest fires in Rodgau. The Rodgau fire brigade is called out to several forest fires in the Nieder-Roden municipal forest. The fires destroy several thousand square metres of forest. Due to the very dry conditions, the extinguishing work is difficult, which is why other fire brigades from the district are alerted for support.
• Thieves steal a children's training dummy at the Weiskirchen forest leisure centre. The children's group from the North Volunteer Fire Brigade is looking forward to an exercise at the forest recreation centre, where they are supposed to rescue an injured person. But shortly beforehand, a thief steals the dummy from the fictitious accident site. After a large-scale search operation and reports of missing persons in the newspapers, the dummy turns up again.
• The hot summer allows tropical fruits to grow: for the first time, an amateur gardener can harvest watermelons in Hainhausen. Thanks to the summer heat, they grow particularly well.
• The 1st Rodgau Open Industry Festival is a complete success. Over two days, eleven companies from the Jügesheim industrial estate opened their doors to the public. A panel discussion on topics such as "digitalisation" and "recruiting skilled workers" as well as a colourful entertainment and music programme enriched the festival.
• For the first time, the police will also have a stand at the city's children's festival. Under the motto "Be safe on the road", the police officers will check visitors' bicycles for road safety free of charge and on a voluntary basis and give tips on what should be improved before the dark and wet season begins. Of the 100 bicycles checked, 46 had minor or major defects. All of the other 54 with bicycles without defects can look forward to a reflective click wristband.

• Fewer Rodgau residents go to the polls: 70.9 per cent of Rodgau residents exercise their right to vote. This means that voter turnout is down 6.1 per cent on the last state election.
• Pastor Benjamin Graf from the Protestant parish in Nieder-Roden is working with two linguists from the University of Bamberg and Saudi Arabia to develop a new phonetic script using Arabic characters. The special phonetic transcription will make it easier for native Arabic speakers to learn German and pronounce entire sentences correctly in future. A 36-page booklet has been produced as a guide for teachers and learners. The Protestant regional church is printing 4,000 copies and there is also a digital version of the booklet online with explanations to listen to and watch.
• The Kronen-Lichtspiele cinema celebrates its reopening following the renovation of the family business, which has existed since 1953. After the death of the owner, Willi Rebell, grandson Maximilian Keck continues the tradition of the Rodgau cinema theatres.
• The bells of the Protestant parish of Nieder-Roden ring out for the first time from the new church tower on Puiseauxplatz.
• Artist Gunter Demnig lays twelve Stolpersteine in Weiskirchen. The memorial stones commemorate the members of the Lilienthal and Meyer families who were murdered during the National Socialist era. In Rodgau, four Stolpersteine have been laid since 2011 in memory of the members of the Reinhardt and Klasen families.

Several luxury cars are on fire: Within a week, four cars from different manufacturers are ablaze. Due to the accumulation, the police suspect arson.

Tragic discovery of a corpse in Hainhausen: the body of a 45-year-old man is found at the edge of the forest in Hainahusen. A post-mortem examination is unable to determine the cause of death, as the decomposition is already too advanced after three months. A 45-year-old man from Rockenberg (Wetterau district) leads the police to the body and claims to have buried it together with his 39-year-old ex-wife in the forest near Hainhausen.

The Medicum Rodgau project is dead. Instead of the promised doctors' surgeries in a medical competence centre, the Werkmann Group now wants to build flats. The city is accepting 181,350 euros as compensation for the value of the subsidised land.

Gas alarm paralyses half of Weiskirchen: The town centre in Weiskirchen is closed for several hours due to a gas alarm. Over 100 fire, rescue and police personnel are on site and twelve houses are evacuated. During the demolition of a former factory building, the natural gas house connection is damaged and gas leaks out. The road has to be broken up to seal the leak.

The memorial on the former cemetery of the former Rollwald prison camp has a new look. After nine weeks of work, Mayor Jürgen Hoffmann presents the result. In his own words, landscape architect Dirk Melzer paid particular attention during the redesign to ensuring that the new ensemble blends in well with its surroundings and that, in addition to commemorating death, it also symbolises life.

• W.I.R. stands for cosmopolitanism, integration and respect. Under the motto Rodgau - Together for tolerance and diversity, against prejudice, hatred and violence, a joint rock concert centred around the headliners Rodgau Monotones will take place in the Nieder-Roden community centre.
• For 40 years, master baker Lutz Hofmann worked in the traditional bakery of the same name. Now it's over. After more than 40 years in the business, the Hofmann family is handing over their business to their successor, Bäckerei Wolz from Seligenstadt.
• After more than two decades of planning and a remodelling period of just under a year, the station square in Dudenhofen is inaugurated in cold and wet weather.