From 1797 to 1815, Gau-Algesheim, along with the whole of the territory on the Rhine's left bank, belonged to the French Republic or the Napoleonic Empire. In the person of scientist, engineer and officer Rudolf Eickemeyer, who was from 1811 to 1813 and again from 1814 to 1815 the "maire" and from 1815 to 1822 the "Bürgermeister" (“mayor” in French and German respectively), Gau-Algesheim had a personal continuity from the time of French rule on into Hessian times. Eickemeyer gave the community a modern shape by reforming fire control, restructuring finances, expanding the town's building work, and furthering schooling and agriculture.