Herora
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Herora
City of Wanfried
Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 39 " N , 10 ° 11 ′ 47" E
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| Height : | 173 (169-183) m above sea level NHN |
| Area : | 5 km² |
| Residents : | 490 (Dec. 31, 2013) |
| Population density : | 98 inhabitants / km² |
| Incorporation : | April 1, 1972 |
| Postal code : | 37281 |
| Area code : | 05655 |
 Look at Heldra
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Heldra is a village district of the city of Wanfried in the Werra-Meißner district in Hesse . Heldra includes the Großburschla train station settlement , which has developed over the years around the Heldra train station in the neighboring Thuringian town.
Geographical location
Heldra is located on the eastern edge of Northern Hesse at the mouth of the Heldrabach in the Werra . The village is surrounded on three sides by Thuringian territory. Landesstrasse 3244 and Kreisstrasse 6 meet at the northern edge of the village ; both lead to the nearby federal highway 250 . To the south, beyond the Werra on the Thuringian side, rises the 503.8 m high mountain Heldrastein , for which Heldra was named.
history
The village was first mentioned in 874 as Heldron , later called Hellerbach . In the northern corridor of the village, the so-called "field mill" marks the location of a desert . According to local tradition, it is said to have been the predecessor of Heldra. In the 15th century, the place was relocated near the Hellerburg.
In 1902 Heldra was connected to the Schwebda – Wartha railway line , which was interrupted after 1945 by the division of Germany between Heldra and Treffurt and was shut down in 1970.
Before 1945 Heldra belonged to the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau and was enclosed in the west, south and east by the territory of the province of Saxony . According to the zone protocols , after the Second World War, the border between the western and eastern occupation zones was drawn between these provinces. The place with the Steuben house was thus assigned to the American zone of occupation. This border course was not changed later, so that from 1949 to 1990 Heldra was enclosed to the west, south and east by the territory of the GDR and was therefore only accessible from the north. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a popular excursion point from which you could look all around the GDR. For this purpose, as in many places along the inner-German border, special information pavilions were set up.
The special course of the border was officially designated as the "Heldraer Zipfel". In fact, you could only see your own place (Heldra) and the connecting road from Großburschla to Schnellmannshausen as well as a part of Treffurt from the top viewpoint "in the west" , because the 500 m high Heldrastein blocked the view of Thuringia. This spot, like the town of Heldra in general, was a popular motif for Western camera teams for years during the Cold War to report directly from the Iron Curtain . Opposite the vantage point, behind the border fences and on the other side of the street, there was a medium-sized observation tower (BT 11) of the GDR border troops . It was intended to prevent potential refugees from overcoming the barrier, which, due to the extremely steep slope, consisted only of two expanded metal fences at a distance of only about 10 m and because of the dog track without a minefield. The population of Großburschla, who drove past the fence every day by bus or car, was strictly forbidden from responding to people just a stone's throw away at the viewpoint "in the west" with gestures such as waving or nodding. In addition, there was an absolutely strict no-stopping rule , because a small part of the street was not visible from the tower; there, of all places, the border ran for about 150 m directly next to the street and the fences were also half below street level at one point because of the steep terrain, so could this point can only be monitored with regular patrols.
It was there in the early morning of March 3, 1989 that a truck driver who knew the route well managed to escape from the GDR . He stopped and placed a construction he had built himself from a long pipe (which successfully simulated a crane belonging to the vehicle to the overnight checkpoints in Schnellmannshausen) horizontally from the loading area. But it only reached over the first fence, he decided to crawl over it anyway, but now had to jump into the space in between. Despite his excitement, he spoke to the dog in a friendly manner, which to his amazement remained peaceful and only now realized that he was trapped, because the second fence was a bit too high to climb over. An unbelievable coincidence helped him, he saw that the roof on the dog house was only loosely, he used it as a climbing aid and was able to climb over the fence. In the steeply sloping terrain, he quickly made it over the actual border and disappeared into the dense forest on the Hessian side. Like all escape attempts, this one was life-threatening - less than nine months before the fall of the Berlin Wall .
On April 1, 1972, Heldra was incorporated into the city of Wanfried.
In 2003 Heldra became the state winner in the competition “Our village” and in 2004 won a silver medal in the national competition “Our village should be more beautiful - our village has a future” .
Attractions
There are many half-timbered houses and farmsteads in the village, including the houses of the ancestors of August Hermann Francke and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben . Further sights are the Heldrastein , the Franckesche Gut and the neighboring Steuben-Haus in the center of the village as well as the local museum.
Infrastructure
- There is a community center in the village .
- There is a boat dock in Heldra.
- There are also children's playgrounds and a sports field .
Others
- Florian Henning , a notorious robber in the Werra Valley, was born in Heldra in the 18th century ; he lived in the Henningshöhle on the Heldrastein.
Web links
- Heldra on the city of Wanfried's website
- Heldra, Werra-Meissner district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- Literature about Heldra in the Hessian Bibliography
Individual evidence
- ^ Heldra, Werra-Meißner-Kreis. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of January 26, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
- ↑ Geodata Center: Heldra , accessed February 2016.
- ^ Topographic map 1: 25000, sheet Treffurt from 1909, individual supplements 1936 ( online ).
- ^ 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 GmbH, Stuttgart and Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 389 .
