Churches (victory)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 49 '  N , 7 ° 53'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Altenkirchen (Westerwald)
Association municipality :	Churches (victory)
Height :	230 m above sea level NHN
Area :	39.59 km 2
Residents:	8492 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	214 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	57548
Area code :	02741
License plate :	AK
Community key :	07 1 32 063
City structure:	5 districts + churches
Association administration address:	Lindenstrasse 1 57548 Kirchen (Sieg)
Website :	www.stadt-kirchen.de
Mayor :	Andreas Hundhausen ( SPD )
Location of the city of Kirchen (Sieg) in the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald)

Churches (victory)

Freusburg Castle , youth hostel.

Kirchen (Sieg) is a town on the upper Sieg and a recognized climatic health resort in the southwestern part of the Siegerland in the Altenkirchen district in Rhineland-Palatinate , on the border with North Rhine-Westphalia . It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Kirchen , to which it also belongs. Kirchen was elevated to the status of a city on November 6, 2004 and is designated as a medium-sized center according to state planning .

geography

Geographical location

Kirchen is on the Cologne-Siegen railway line , on the B 62 and close to the A 45 / Sauerland line . It is served by local and regional bus routes.

City structure

The city of Kirchen has designated five local districts. These are Freusburg , Herkersdorf - Offhausen , Katzenbach , Wehbach and Wingendorf . In addition, the district of Kirchen (Ort) itself. The hamlet of Äpfelbach as well as the residential areas Alexander, Brühlhof, Freusburgermühle, Grindel, Jungenthal, Kircherhütte, Niederasdorf and Riegel also belong to the churches.

By 2019 there were six local districts. On December 12, 2018, the Churches City Council decided to unite the two previous districts of Herkersdorf and Offhausen into one local district after the 2019 local elections. Corresponding plans to also merge Wehbach and Wingendorf were stopped by the city council after a unanimous rejection by the two local councils .

climate

The annual precipitation is 1115 mm. The rainfall is high. They are in the upper quarter of the values ​​recorded in Germany. Lower values ​​are registered at 90% of the measuring stations of the German Weather Service . The driest month is April, with the most rainfall in December. In December there is 1.6 times more rainfall than in April. The rainfall varies greatly. Lower seasonal fluctuations are recorded at 73% of the measuring stations .

history

On June 7, 1969, the communities of Freusburg, Herkersdorf, Offhausen, Wingendorf and Katzenbach were incorporated with the exception of the Unterbüdenholz district, which was incorporated into Brachbach . On the same day, the community was renamed from Kirchen-Wehbach (Sieg) to Kirchen (Sieg). The town charter was Kirchen (Sieg) on 6 November of 2004.

Statistics on population development

The development of the population of churches (Sieg) in relation to today's urban area; the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 1,784 1835 2,488 1871 3,459 1905 6.241 1939 7,875 1950 8,958

year Residents 1961 9,693 1970 10,208 1987 9,353 2005 9,147 2011 8,648 2017 8,567

Population development of churches from 1815 to 2017 according to the table below

politics

City council

City council election 2019 in churches

Participation: 60.0% (+ 7.4%)

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

36.7

35.4

14.9

13.0

SPD

CDU

Green

FDP

Gains and losses

compared to 2014

 % p

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

-3.8

-4.1

+2.4

+5.5

SPD

CDU

Green

FDP

The city ​​council in Kirchen (Sieg) consists of 24 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary city ​​mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the city council:

choice	SPD	CDU	FDP	GREEN	total
2019	9	8th	3	4th	24 seats
2014	10	9	2	3	24 seats
2009	7th	11	3	3	24 seats
2004	6th	14th	2	2	24 seats

mayor

Mayor of Kirchen is Andreas Hundhausen (SPD). In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was re-elected with 76.41% of the vote.

coat of arms

Today's city of Kirchen can be regarded as the legal successor to the former rule of Freusburg and the later Saynian office of Freusburg and probably derives its name from the often-cited name Kirch-Freusburg. Today's church deanery still belongs to the diocese of Trier and is known as the " Trier Island ".

Therefore, the three old rulership coats of arms are combined in the coat of arms: the boar heads of Freusburg , the lion of the County of Sayn and the red cross of the Archbishopric of Trier . The Verbandsgemeinde Kirchen (Sieg) has the same coat of arms as the city of Kirchen (Sieg), but surrounded by an additional golden border.

Culture and sights

View from the Ottoturm near Herkersdorf.

The Druid Stone .

Hiking signs.

The best-known natural sight in Kirchen is the Druidenstein , a basalt rock that rises to around 450 m above sea level. The best - known building in the church is the lookout tower called Otto Tower, which was reopened on August 28, 2010. The Freusburg is the symbol of the eponymous hamlet and is used as a youth hostel today. The Kirchen Heimatmuseum is operated by the Kirchener Heimatverein in the city .

Further sights are the Wildenburg, Junkernthal archway at the Alte Rentei , the Red Chapel and the Freusburger Mühle , as well as the Villa Kraemer , the moated Castle Crottorf and the Otto Pfeiffer Museum .

Religious buildings in the area include the Baroque Friesenhagen Church , the Siegerland Cathedral and the neo-Gothic St. Michaels Church with its historic Eggert organ.

A Nordic walking fitness park and the Sieg Bigge cycle path, on which a two-country tour can be ridden, are available for sporting activities.

Some sights are signposted via their own hiking trails - which can also be hiked in combination.

See also:

• List of cultural monuments in churches (Sieg)
• List of natural monuments in churches (Sieg)
• List of stumbling blocks in churches (Sieg)

traffic

Churches has a station on the winning path at which the Rhein-Sieg-Express (9 RE) of Aachen to Siegen and the Westerwald win train (RB 90) of Limburg about Siegen to Kreuztal reversed. The Sieg-Dill-Bahn (RB 95) from Betzdorf via Siegen to Dillenburg also stops in Kirchen .

Due to the location of churches in the Altenkirchen district in Rhineland-Palatinate , the tariff of the Rhein-Mosel transport association (VRM) applies . There are also transitional tariffs of the two North Rhine-Westphalian transport associations, VRS and VGWS, for journeys with a starting or destination station in their area. The latter has been replaced by the Westphalian tariff since August 2017 .

Public facilities

There is a German Red Cross hospital in Kirchen .

Economy and Infrastructure

In the district of Wingendorf Segelflugclub Betzder / churches eV operates from neighboring Katz angle the airfield Betzdorf-Kirchen .

Kirchen lies with the Freusburg Siedlung and Kirchen (Sieg) stops on the victory route . There used to be two stations on the Asdorftalbahn (Kirchen and Wehbach), but they have been closed since the 1980s (passenger traffic) and 1990s (freight traffic) and are only available as a remnant in Niederfischbach .

Personalities

• Friedrich Felix Furkel (1771–1840), first district administrator in the Wetzlar district
• Heinrich Kraemer (1842–1907), mayor, member of the Reichstag and Landtag
• Ludwig Doll (1846–1883), Protestant clergyman, founder of an orphanage and the Neukirchen Mission
• Arnold Jung (1859–1911), entrepreneur and founder of the locomotive factory named after him
• Paul Wingendorf (1914–1995), politician (CDU)
• Bruno Wiefel (1924–2001), politician (SPD)
• Karl-Wilhelm Dahm (* 1931), Protestant theologian and professor emeritus at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster
• Josef Happ (* 1938), politician (CDU)
• Hilarion Petzold (* 1944), psychologist and professor emeritus at the Free University of Amsterdam
• Jürgen Ebach (* 1945), Protestant theologian and professor at the Ruhr University in Bochum
• Claus Scholl (1945–2015), legal scholar
• Jürgen Alberts (* 1946), writer
• Titus Dittmann (* 1948), entrepreneur
• Hartmut Siebertz (* 1951), physician and medical officer in the Bundeswehr with the rank of general
• Ludwig Zöller (* 1953), geographer and professor at the University of Bayreuth
• Michael Schneider (* 1954), politician (CDU)
• Ulrich Pracht (* 1955), medical officer of the Bundeswehr with the rank of general
• Peter Löcherbach (* 1957), social worker, educator and social work scientist
• Werner Schepp (* 1958), church musician and university professor
• Barbara Rudnik (1958–2009), actress
• Andreas Turkat (1961–2008), politician (SPD)
• Georg Bätzing (* 1961), Catholic clergyman, Bishop of Limburg, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference
• Jürgen Alzen (* 1962), automobile racing driver
• Christoph Klein (* 1964), pediatric oncologist and medical director of the Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital of Munich University Hospital
• Heike Schäfer (* 1964), pop singer
• Josef Rosenbauer (* 1966), politician
• Uwe Alzen (* 1967), automobile racing driver
• Ralph Szepanski (* 1967), news anchor and television editor
• Agnes Hammer (* 1970), writer
• Stefan Quast (* 1971), musicologist
• Eva Brenner (* 1976), TV presenter and interior designer
• Katharina Schultens (* 1980), German writer
• Verena Dreier (* 1985), track and field athlete
• Katharina Wäschenbach (* 1985), actress
• Thomas Kraft (* 1988), football player
• Marcel shoes (* 1993), soccer goalkeeper

Web links

Commons : Churches  - collection of images

• Website of the city of churches (Sieg)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 187 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
3. ↑ ^{a b} State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
4. ^ City of churches (Sieg): main statute. (PDF) § 14. Stadt Kirchen, 25 June 2019, accessed on 16 November 2019 . 
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2019 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 16 (PDF; 3 MB).
6. ↑ Current - Bulletin for the VG Kirchen (Sieg): 4th statute to amend the main statute of the city of churches from July 24, 2014. (PDF) Edition 15/2019. Linus Wittich Medien GmbH, April 3, 2019, accessed on November 16, 2019 . 
7. ↑ Claudia Geimer: City council churches stop merging: Wehbach and Wingendorf remain "independent". (PDF) Rhein-Zeitung, December 14, 2018, accessed on November 16, 2019 . 
8. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal Council Election 2019 Churches (Sieg). Retrieved November 9, 2019 . 
9. ↑ Local election Rhineland-Palatinate 2014, municipal council
10. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see churches (Sieg), Verbandsgemeinde, fourth line of results. Retrieved November 9, 2019 .