Gudensberg

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the city of Gudensberg
Gudensberg
Map of Germany, position of the city of Gudensberg highlighted

Coordinates: 51 ° 11 '  N , 9 ° 22'  E

Basic data
State : Hesse
Administrative region : kassel
County : Schwalm-Eder district
Height : 228 m above sea level NHN
Area : 46.5 km 2
Residents: 9710 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 209 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes : 34281, 34305
Area code : 05603
License plate : HR, FZ, MEG, ZIG
Community key : 06 6 34 007
LOCODE : DE UGG
City structure: 7 districts

City administration address : 		Kasseler Strasse 2
34281 Gudensberg
Website : www.gudensberg.de
Mayor : Frank Börner ( SPD )
Location of the city of Gudensberg in the Schwalm-Eder district
Kassel Landkreis Fulda Landkreis Hersfeld-Rotenburg Landkreis Kassel Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf Landkreis Waldeck-Frankenberg Vogelsbergkreis Vogelsbergkreis Werra-Meißner-Kreis Knüllwald Homberg (Efze) Frielendorf Schwarzenborn (Knüll) Neukirchen (Knüll) Oberaula Ottrau Schrecksbach Willingshausen Schwalmstadt Gilserberg Jesberg Neuental Bad Zwesten Borken (Hessen) Morschen Malsfeld Wabern (Hessen) Felsberg (Hessen) Spangenberg Melsungen Körle Guxhagen Edermünde Gudensberg Niedenstein Fritzlarmap
About this picture
View from the north to Gudensberg
City center

Gudensberg is a small town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse ( Germany ). Gudensberg is also known for the ruins of the Obernburg .

geography

Geographical location

Gudensberg is located at the extreme southeastern tip of the Habichtswald Nature Park, about 20 km south of Kassel and ten kilometers northeast of Fritzlar (distances as the crow flies ). While the central city ​​and the district of Maden are traversed by the Ems tributary Goldbach , the south-western district of Dorla and the southern district of Obervorschütz are located on the Eder tributary of the Ems.

Neighboring communities

The municipality borders in the north and northeast on the municipality of Edermünde , in the east on districts of Felsberg , which lie in the area of ​​the Eder lower reaches. To the south and south-east of the Ems lower course lie other parts of Felsberg. In the south, southwest and west are districts of Fritzlar. In the northwest of the district pushes likes to Niedenstein . In this direction rise behind the Odenberg the Langenberge belonging to the Habichtswald Nature Park with a narrow strip of the Gudensberg city forest extending far to the northwest. At its northern edge, it borders on the community of Schauenburg .

City structure

In addition to the core city, the villages of Deute , Dissen , Dorla, Gleichen , Maden and Obervorschütz are districts of Gudensberg.

history

Numerous prehistoric and early historical finds have been found in the area around Gudensberg. Finds from the Rössen culture have been discovered at Lamsberg . In 1938 a band ceramic settlement was established between the Odenberg and Gudensberg around 4000 BC. And an Iron Age settlement around the birth of Christ. At the Kasseler Kreuz one was found at the railway construction in 1899 cremation cemetery from the period 1000 BC. In the summer and autumn of 2007, parts of an important Neolithic settlement between Gudensberg and Maden from the time between 5500 and 4900 BC were established. Excavated. The remains of several typical longhouses , pit ovens for baking, storage pits for grain, several human burials, grain mills and ceramic shards were also found.

middle Ages

Copper engraving after Merian -Stich around 1654 by Gudensberg with surroundings, reproduction around 1850
The Obernburg
Prisoner tower

The place name is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1121, on which the North Hessian Count Giso IV. Signed as Count of Udenesberc . The name probably derives from Odinsberg from a place names theoretical evidence that in ancient Germanic time there from the chat the Germanic god Odin may have been worshiped (or Wotan). The place names Wothenesberc (1123), Wuodesnberg (1131) and Wotensberg (1209) can be found in documents from the 12th and early 13th centuries, and in 1672 the place was called Wutansberg in a document . However, the current place name has appeared far more frequently since the early 12th century, albeit often in slightly modified variations.

In the Middle Ages, the Obernburg was built on the mountain , which was the seat of Hessian counts from the Werner family and then that of the Gisonen . Since the counts kept Thing on the nearby Mader Heide , the county was often referred to as the county of maggots . After the marriage of Hedwig von Gudensberg to the Count and later Landgrave Ludwig I of Thuringia in 1122 and the extinction of the Gisonens in the male line in 1137, Gudensberg belonged to the Ludowinger Landgraves of Thuringia until 1247 , who or their younger brothers who came from Gudensberg Hessian parts of the country administered, then partly called Counts of Gudensberg, partly called Counts of Hesse. One of them was Konrad von Thuringia , who in 1232 stormed the Mainz city ​​of Fritzlar after an initially unsuccessful siege and had it cremated. As the residence of the younger brothers of the Ludowinger Landgraves, Gudensberg experienced a heyday, with the first walling from around 1170 to 1180 and being mentioned as a city in 1254 with an urban constitution at the beginning of the 13th century.

After the death of Heinrich Raspe , the last Thuringian landgrave from the Ludowinger family, and the partition of Thuringia after the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession , Gudensberg fell to the new Landgraviate of Hesse , now separated from Thuringia , and Heinrich I , grandson of St. Elisabeth , was proclaimed the first Landgrave of Hesse on the Mader Heide in 1247. In 1300 Heinrich I moved the seat of the administration of Niederhessen from Gudensberg to Kassel , where he already resided from 1277, and Gudensberg lost its political and administrative importance. In 1324, however, Gudensberg was mentioned again as the capital of Nyderlandt zu Hessen . In 1356 the so-called "Freedom" was founded as an independent city. In 1365 the “Hospital of the Holy Spirit” was founded for lepers.

In the numerous feuds between the Archdiocese of Mainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse, Gudensberg was one of the main bases in Hesse and repeatedly suffered severe damage. On September 2, 1387, Gudensberg and the Wenigenburg , but not the Obernburg, were captured and cremated by Mainz troops. A year later, Archbishop Adolf von Mainz destroyed everything that had escaped devastation in the previous year.

Modern times

Fire disasters repeatedly struck the city. In 1587 the city was ravaged by carelessness. In 1640 Gudensberg was sacked by imperial troops during the Thirty Years' War ; During this plunder, the philosopher and theologian Daniel Angelocrater lost all his belongings.

In 1626 Tilly convened a state parliament of the Hessian cities in Gudensberg, where he tried in vain to obtain the abdication of Landgrave Moritz . A year later (1627) the Hessian estates gathered on the Mader Heide forced Moritz to hand over the regency to his son Wilhelm . The last Hessian state parliament on Mader Heide was convened in 1654.

During the Seven Years' War in 1761 the still partially preserved Obernburg was badly damaged by shelling by British troops under John Manners . In 1806, French troops looted the remains of the Obernburg and completely destroyed it. The city ​​gates were demolished as a traffic obstacle in 1823.

From 1807 to 1813 Gudensberg was the administrative seat of the canton of Gudensberg within the Kingdom of Westphalia .

Historical sources

The Gudensberg City Archives are kept in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg (inventory 330 Gudensberg). The inventory has been fully developed and can be researched online.

Incorporations

On December 31, 1971, the previously independent communities of Deute , Dissen , Dorla , Gleichen , Maden and Obervorschütz were incorporated into the city of Gudensberg.

Jewish community

Gudensberg had a Jewish community ( Kehillah ) that had flourished since the 17th century and had a total of 194 members in 1871, and was considerably strengthened by citizens from the surrounding villages, in particular Maden and Obervorschütz .

At the end of the 18th century, Gudensberg was of regional importance for the Jewish communities: from 1788 to 1797, four Jewish state days were held at the site, each lasting three to five weeks and to which all Jewish taxpayers had to appear. The last Jewish state parliament in Hessen-Kassel also took place in Gudensberg in 1807. From 1830 Gudensberg was the seat of the district rabbinate for the districts of Fritzlar and Melsungen ; the most famous district rabbi was Mordechai Wetzlar (1801–1878). The community facilities included a synagogue , a school , a ritual bath , and the cemetery in Obervorschütz .

The Jewish school, first mentioned in 1825, at which Wetzlar also taught, was probably the oldest of its kind in Niederhessen. It was attended by 26 children in 1877 and 48 children in 1882. The school, in the house next to the synagogue, was closed by the National Socialists on January 1, 1934 ; at that time 14 children were still in school. The last teacher was Hermann Stern.

The large stone Gudensberg synagogue , which offered space for around 280 people, was built in 1840–1843 by the Kassel architect Albrecht Rosengarten , who also built the large synagogues in Kassel, Hamburg, Wiesbaden and Vienna. The synagogue was closed in 1937, sold in private ownership in 1938, and then used as a warehouse and gradually decayed. In 1985 the building was placed under monument protection, bought by the city in 1991 and inaugurated as a cultural center in 1995 after thorough renovation.

On January 30, 1933, 124 Jews lived in the city. At least 60 Jews born or resident in Gudensberg, Maden or Obervorschütz were deported to concentration camps and murdered there or have since been considered missing. In May 1938, when the last Jewish family left Gudensberg, the story of this once thriving community came to an end. In March 2009 and in the years afterwards, “ stumbling blocks ” were laid in various places in the city to commemorate former citizens of the Jewish faith .

politics

City Council

The local elections on March 6, 2016 produced the following results, compared to previous local elections:

Distribution of seats in the 2016 city council
   
A total of 31 seats
Parties and constituencies %
2016 		Seats
2016 		%
2011 		Seats
2011 		%
2006 		Seats
2006 		%
2001 		Seats
2001
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany 60.0 18th 56.8 18th 58.4 18th 61.8 19th
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany 28.2 9 24.0 7th 27.3 8th 26.6 8th
GREEN Alliance 90 / The Greens 11.8 4th 14.7 5 8.5 3 6.5 2
FDP Free Democratic Party - - 4.4 1 5.8 2 5.2 2
total 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 31
Voter turnout in% 49.2 51.6 50.8 59.8

mayor

According to the Hessian municipal constitution, the mayor is the chairman of the magistrate , which in the city of Gudensberg includes ten voluntary councilors in addition to the mayor . Frank Börner (SPD) has been mayor since February 25, 2010. His directly elected predecessors were

  • 1999 to 2009 Edgar Franke (SPD)
  • 1981 to 1999 Paul Dinges (SPD)
  • 1962 to 1981 Willi Hildebrand (SPD)
  • 1946 to 1962 Adam Umbach

Town twinning

Gudensberg maintains partnerships with Jelcz-Laskowice in Poland and with Shchyrez in Ukraine .

Culture and sights

Buildings

Wenigenburg
Ev. City Church of St. Margarethen
old market

The castle ruins of Obernburg are located above the city on the Schlossberg . From the 306 m high mountain you have a magnificent view of the Mader Heide , the Mader Stein , the Nenkel and the Odenberg with its two ring walls . The sister castle Wenigenburg is located below the castle hill on a smaller hill. On a mountain saddle below the Obernburg, a tower has been preserved as part of the old city fortifications.

Former hospital of the Holy Spirit
Chapel of the former Hospital of the Holy Spirit

In the city ​​center there are various historical buildings, mostly half-timbered buildings , including the old office building with its Renaissance portal , the rectory from 1642, which was built in 1643, Renthof was largely destroyed by a fire in 2015 , and the oldest non-sacred building in the city, the farmhouse built in 1596. The classicist former town hall dates from 1839.

The Protestant town church “St. Margarethen “ on the Alter Markt is a Gothic building from the 13th-14th centuries. Century with extensions and alterations from the 15th to 16th centuries. Century; the choir of the church was consecrated in 1271. The former Hospital of the Holy Spirit , founded in 1365 for lepers and expanded several times until the 18th century , is located on the swimming pool path at the corner of Fritzlarer Straße . Immediately to the west of it is the former hospital chapel, which is still used as a place of worship. In the back alley is the former synagogue , built between 1840 and 1843 , which has been used as a cultural center since 1995 after extensive renovations; a permanent exhibition documents the history of the Jewish community in Gudensberg.

In the old town there is also the "Old Cemetery" with historical gravestones from the 17th to 19th centuries. A horseshoe print on a stone of the churchyard wall is interesting: Charlemagne's horse is said to have stood on this stone when he fought a battle near today's deserted Karlskirchen near Odenberg.

The Scharfenstein

Natural monuments

The striking landmark of the district of Dissen is a basalt dome, the Scharfenstein , which due to its nature attracts many climbers. Other beautiful mountains near Gudensberg are the Mader Stein on the edge of the Mader Heide , the Odenberg , the Nenkel, the Nacken with the Kaiser Wilhelm I monument and the Wartberg .

In 1899, during construction work on the Grifte – Gudensberg small railway, a ceramic band grave from the 10th century BC was found in the immediate vicinity . Chr.

There is a stone chamber grave in Dissen . Less striking, but shrouded in legend, is the Glisborn , north of the Scharfenstein, probably a cultic sanctuary of the Chatti, in which healing powers were suspected. The Lautariusgrab , a stone chamber grave from the Neolithic Age, is located in the Gudensberg forest .

In the cemetery of the Dorla district stands the more than 500-year-old Dorla candelabra , a natural monument that is unique in Hesse, but which had to be cut back considerably in 2015 due to the risk of collapse.

Between Gudensberg and Maden stands the Wotan stone , a menhir with which, according to the legend, Satan wanted to smash the chapel of Boniface in Fritzlar, but the stone got stuck in his sleeve when he was thrown and therefore landed here.

At a crossroads from Gudensberg to Kassel north of Gudensberg is the Kassel Cross , a Gothic stone cross from the 14th century. It is probably an atonement cross by an unknown stonemason . The 1.2 m high and 0.6 m wide cross was placed for an unknown reason. 1642–1646 it was first depicted in an engraving by Gudensberg by Matthäus Merian in the Topographia Germaniae .

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Gudensberg is on the A 49 . An express bus line connects Gudensberg with Kassel and Bad Wildungen (via Fritzlar ).

Grifte-Gudensberger Kleinbahn

Former Gudensberg train station (photo 2005)

Construction of the small railway began in 1898. The Grifte-Gudensberger Kleinbahn , which connects to the main Frankfurt-Kassel line, was opened on July 15, 1899 and, with a length of 7.72 km, had only four stations:

Passenger traffic ceased on December 31, 1954. After that, a packaging machine manufacturer from Gudensberg only used the route once a week to deliver its products. The tracks were removed around 1980 and the embankment is now used as a cycle and footpath.

Established businesses

There are the following larger companies in town:

  • Big drum
  • GST stamping technology
  • Lindner stamping and pressing plant
  • DPD (warehouse 0134)
  • KLAWA plant construction (bottom sludge remover)
  • Novus Germany GmbH
  • Rudolph logistics

education

There are four kindergartens, two primary schools, a comprehensive school with a school observatory, a special needs school and a media library in the village.

sons and daughters of the town

People who worked in Gudensberg without being born there

literature

Web links

Commons : Gudensberg  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Gudensberg  - travel guide
Wikisource: Gudensberg in Merian's Topographia Hassiae  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hessian State Statistical Office: Population status on December 31, 2019 (districts and urban districts as well as municipalities, population figures based on the 2011 census) ( help ).
  2. ↑ a b "Gudensberg, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis". Historical local lexicon for Hesse (as of April 15, 2014). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on July 11, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Overview of the holdings “Stadtarchiv Gudensberg” , Arcinsys. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  4. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 392 .
  5. ↑ SEKnews: Stumbling blocks should keep memories alive
  6. ^ Result of the municipal election on March 6, 2016. Hessian State Statistical Office, accessed in April 2016 .
  7. ^ Hessian State Statistical Office: Result of the municipal elections on March 27, 2011
  8. ^ Hessian State Statistical Office: Result of the municipal elections on March 26, 2006
  9. ^ Hessian State Statistical Office: Direct elections in Gudensberg
  10. ^ Gudensberg: Mayor Frank Börner starts his second term of office , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  11. ^ Gudensberg: Gudensberger Geschichtsbuch now online , accessed on August 8, 2016.
  12. ^ Bettina Toson: Medieval hospitals in Hesse between Schwalm, Eder and Fulda. Hessian Historical Commission Darmstadt and Historical Commission for Hesse, Darmstadt and Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-88443-319-5 , pp. 37–55.