Germany · Hessen · Offenbach
Bürgel, Offenbach — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Bürgel is a Stadtteil of Offenbach am Main in the Main bend, first named as Birgelen in a donation to the abbey of Lorsch dated 12 June 790.
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Where to stay in Bürgel
How the choice of base plays out on the ground.
The bathing lake sits between two villages. The Schultheis-Weiher lies between Bürgel and Rumpenheim and was a popular place to swim, and since the Cassella firm handed it to the Umlandverband Frankfurt at the end of the 1970s its northeastern half has been a nature reserve while the rest takes bathers, anglers and model boats. A footbridge crosses the Main.
The Arthur-von-Weinberg-Steg was finished in 1981 and links Bürgel to Frankfurt-Fechenheim on the far bank, and the Hessische Apfelwein- und Obstwiesenroute runs through the village on its way past. Offenbach housing surrounds the rest.
About Bürgel
What are the main landmarks in Bürgel?
Roman roads met here. One came from Höchst over the Frankfurt cathedral hill and Fechenheim, another from Friedberg through Vilbel, Bergen and Enkheim to the Mainkur, and at Bürgel they divided toward Hanau and, south of the Main, toward Frankfurt. The graves are the proof.
A large Roman burial ground lay at the Mittelweg with many grave goods in it, the settlement is presumed further south where the Stiftshof later stood, and a row of piles found in the Main may have been a landing stage. A bridge here is only a guess. One was long presumed at the northern end by the boathouse of the Wassersportverein, but with no dating finds the newer literature does not treat it as proven, and the whole area belonged to the Civitas Auderiensium in Germania Superior.
What is the history of Bürgel?
The first mention is a gift of land. A man called Salacho gave estates here to the abbey of Lorsch on 12 June 790 according to a copy of the deed in the Codex Laureshamensis, where the place appears as Birgelen, and a Meizolf made a second donation in 793. A church follows in 880.
Estates at Bürgel with their church passed that year to the Salvatorstift in Frankfurt, later the Bartholomäusstift and now the cathedral, which disposes of the old story that a sister of Charlemagne left the place to the Mainz Petersstift about 800. The charter that first names Offenbach confirms it. That is the deed of 977, and the Petersstift at Mainz only acquired its holdings here in the middle of the 13th century, after which the village belonged to it until the Stift was dissolved in 1802.
An emperor once held an assembly here. Heinrich II called one at Bürgel in 1018, not a full Reichstag but enough that the spot still carries the name Reichstag locally, there are reports of a Carolingian castle destroyed when Wilhelm von Holland took the place in 1250, and the St. Pankratius dedication is put in the Ottonian period with an independent parish under the mother church at Mühlheim recorded in 1297.
Where is Bürgel?
Bürgel lies on the Main in the bend of the river, with Rumpenheim and the Schultheis-Weiher to the north, Frankfurt-Fechenheim across the water to the west, and Offenbach housing closing it in on the west and south, some of it on Bürgel land.
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Updated September 2026