Heldburg

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

Coordinates: 50 ° 17 '  N , 10 ° 44'  E

Basic data
State : Thuringia
County : Hildburghausen
Management Community : Heldburger Unterland
Area : 112.75 km 2
Residents: 3404 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 30 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 98663
Area code : 036871
License plate : HBN
Community key : 16 0 69 063
LOCODE : DE HUR
City structure: 14 districts

City administration address : 		Port market 164
98663 Heldburg
Website : stadt-heldburg.de
Mayor : Christopher Other ( CDU )
Location of the city of Heldburg in the Hildburghausen district
Ahlstädt Auengrund Beinerstadt Bischofrod Eisfeld Brünn Dingsleben Ehrenberg Eichenberg Eisfeld Grimmelshausen Grub Heldburg Henfstädt Hildburghausen Kloster Veßra Lengfeld Marisfeld Masserberg Oberstadt Reurieth Römhild Schlechtsart Schleusegrund Schleusingen Schmeheim Schweickershausen St. Bernhard Straufhain Themar Ummerstadt Veilsdorf Westhausen Thüringenmap
About this picture

Heldburg is a town in the Hildburghausen district in the extreme south of Thuringia . Heldburg is located in the center of the Heldburger Land , is the administrative seat of the administrative community Heldburger Unterland and has almost 3500 inhabitants, of which approx. 1000 are in the district of Heldburg.

Above the city is the Veste Heldburg with the German Castle Museum, which opened in 2016 .

geography

The fortress Heldburg above the city
Shoe market with the lower gate (also lower gate)
City Church
Happach's house
Forsthaus Heldburg

Geographical location

Heldburg is located on the Kreck , a tributary of the Rodach , about 20 km away from Hildburghausen (Thuringia) in the north, Coburg ( Upper Franconia ) in the east and Bad Königshofen ( Lower Franconia ) in the west. The closest regional centers to Coburg are Bamberg , 45 km south and Schweinfurt 45 km south-west.

There are meadows and arable land along the Kreck Valley, while large forest areas occupy the rest of the Heldburg area.

City structure

The urban area is divided into the following districts:

Neighboring communities

The neighboring municipalities of the city are, starting from the north and clockwise: Westhausen , Straufhain , Bad Rodach , Ummerstadt , Seßlach , Maroldsweisach , Schweickershausen , Sulzdorf an der Lederhecke , Trappstadt and Schlechtsart .

history

For the first time Heldburg was mentioned in the document No. 507 of the Codex Eberhardi issued on October 17, 837 . Sigibald, the executor of Count Asis' will, transferred goods in Heldburg and other places to the Fulda monastery. The fortress, first mentioned in 1317, was the rulership of the Counts of Henneberg , after whom the area fell to the Burgraves of Nuremberg in 1353 and to the Wettins in 1374 . Heldburg received town charter on December 2, 1394, the council is attested in 1396 and held the lower courts to a limited extent. Heldburg was fortified in the 16th century. In the Middle Ages, the town church of our dear women was under the district of Coburg of the Würzburg diocese .

Heldburg was affected by the persecution of witches from 1557-1700 . 22 women and the son of a defendant got into witch trials . Five women were executed and three died under torture. In the last witch trial, Dorothea Schütz from Heldburg was in prison for seven months and was tortured twice until she died of torture in 1700.

The residents mainly pursued agriculture and handicrafts. In 1833 there were 1185 inhabitants, around this time many residents emigrated to North America. In 1922 Einöd was incorporated.

After the division of Germany, Heldburg and the neighboring Ummerstadt were the southernmost cities of the GDR . The Heldburger Land formed a corner which was surrounded on three sides by the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. This meant that the area was completely included in the exclusion zone on the inner-German border created in 1952. The isolated location severely hampered residents, the economy and traffic and led to stagnation and emigration of the population. Further population losses were caused by two forced evacuations (1952 Vergeziefer and 1961 Kornblume campaign ) from the restricted area. The situation improved with reunification. Today it is an up-and-coming region, also thanks to the support of the neighboring regions in Bavaria.

On March 23, 1993, the six formerly independent communities of Bad Colberg , Gellershausen , Heldburg with Einöd, Holzhausen , Lindenau and Völkershausen founded the unified community of Bad Colberg-Heldburg . On January 1, 2019, the communities of Hellingen and Gompertshausen merged with the city of Bad Colberg-Heldburg to form the city of Heldburg.

politics

City council

In the local elections on May 26, 2019 , the first city council of the new city was elected with a turnout of 71.0% with the following result:

Party / list % Seats
CDU 47.7 9
FW / UB 1 45.5 8th
BZH 2 3.6 1
BCI 3 3.2 0
total 100.0 18th
1 Free Voters / Independent Citizens
2 Alliance Future Hildburghausen
3 Bad Colberg Initiative eV

mayor

In the mayoral election on May 26, 2019 , Christopher Other (CDU) was elected the first mayor of the new city with a turnout of 70.8% with 91.1% of the valid votes. He was the only nominated candidate.

coat of arms

It shows a silver pinnacle tower on a red heraldic shield, on which an upright golden lion lays his paws. The coat of arms comes from the old verifiable seals of the city. The resemblance to the coat of arms of the city of Meissen , an upright black lion there lays its paws on a red tin tower, clearly indicates the Wettin origin of the Heldburg coat of arms. The so-called Meißner lion can be found in numerous coats of arms of the former Wettin cities. The pinnacle tower indicates the fortitude of the city after it was fortified with a city wall. The coloring of the Heldburg coat of arms has been changed several times. A recovered wood-carved coat of arms from 1833, it hangs in the town hall, shows a golden lion and a golden tower.

Attractions

To the northeast of the city is the Veste Heldburg , in which the German Castle Museum is located. After years of renovation and construction work on the fortress, the museum was opened on September 8, 2016 by the Thuringian Prime Minister. The museum comprises 40 rooms, which deal with the meaning and function of castles. In addition, their structural development and life in castles, both in times of peace and times of war, are shown.

The old town with its restored half-timbered buildings from the early modern period is also worth seeing . It is surrounded by a city wall from the 16th century . In addition to wall sections, five of the former 14 towers and the lower gate as one of the former four city gates have been preserved. The Protestant town church of Our Lady on the west side of the market square dates from between 1502 and 1537, the tower is older. The St. Leonhard cemetery chapel, first mentioned in 1497 , has also served as a Catholic church for many years since 1950.

The town hall is a half-timbered building with a turret and is located on the market in the city center.

Near the driveway to Veste Heldburg is the dead gun oak with a chest height of 7.05 m (2014).

Economy and Transport

Heldburg is still dominated by agriculture, there are no large commercial operations on site. The city performs administrative and supply functions for the surrounding area. There was a train station on the Hildburghausen – Lindenau – Friedrichshall line . The inauguration of the section from Hildburghausen to Heldburg took place on July 1st, 1888. On December 1st, the remainder was put into operation. In 1946 the rails had to be dismantled as part of the reparations payments to the Soviet Union.

State roads connect Heldburg with Gleichamberg in the north-west, Hildburghausen in the north, Bad Rodach in the north-east, Coburg in the east, Seßlach in the south-east and Maroldsweisach in the south-west. The next connections to the railway and motorway network are currently in Coburg and Hildburghausen .

Personalities

literature

  • Max-Rainer Uhrig: The Heldburger Land . In: Frankenland, magazine for Franconian regional studies and culture. Issue 6, Würzburg, June 1990 ( online on the University of Würzburg website ).
  • Norbert Klaus Fuchs: The Heldburger Land - a historical travel guide . Rockstuhl Publishing House, Bad Langensalza 2013, ISBN 978-3-86777-349-2 .
  • City of Bad Colberg-Heldburg (ed.): The Heldburg book; Contributions to the 1175-year history of the city . Bad Colberg-Heldburg 2012.

Web links

Commons : Heldburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Topographia Franconiae: Heldburg  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics  ( help on this ).
  2. ↑ a b Mayor election Heldburg 2019. wahlen.thueringen.de, accessed on August 1, 2019 .
  3. ^ Kai Lehmann : Exhibition "Luther and the Witches", Heldburg area, Library Museum Schloss Wilhelmsburg Schmalkalden, 2012; Ronald Füssel: The persecutions of witches in the Thuringian region , publications of the working group for historical research on witches and crime in Northern Germany, Volume 2, Hamburg 2003, p. 237f .; Egbert Friedrich: Witch hunt in the Rodach area and the witch trial ordinance of Duke Johann Casimir (writings of the Rodacher Rückert Circle, issue 19), Rodach 1995, pp. 192-236
  4. ^ Norbert Klaus Fuchs: Billmuthausen – The condemned village. Greifenverlag zu Rudolstadt & Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86939-004-8
  5. ↑ Heldburg City Council Election 2019. wahlen.thueringen.de, accessed on August 1, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The German Castle Museum In: Homepage of the German Castle Museum, accessed on September 13, 2016
  7. ^ Entry in the directory of monumental oaks . Retrieved January 10, 2017
  8. ^ Georg Brückner:  Bartenstein, Lorenz Adam . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 93.
  9. ^ Wilhelm Sauer:  Rühle v. Lilienstern, August Friedemann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, p. 610 f.