Lahn (city)

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Coat of arms of the city of Lahn

Lahn was a short-lived city ​​in Hesse that existed from 1977 to 1979 (31 months). The cities of Gießen and Wetzlar were the most important sub-communities of the large community . To distinguish it from the eponymous river, the Lahn , it was also referred to as the city ​​of Lahn . The city of Lahn had around 156,600 inhabitants in 1977.

Origin and dissolution

The city of Lahn was formed as an independent city on January 1, 1977 as part of the regional reform in Hesse . It had around 156,000 inhabitants and was also the administrative seat of the Lahn-Dill district, which was then newly founded by the merger of the Dill district with the districts of Gießen and Wetzlar . After civil protests, the city was dissolved again with effect from August 1, 1979. The lasting result for Gießen was the loss of the former circle freedom.

Merged communities

The merged communities of the new city of Lahn were:

  • Giessen , urban district
  • from the district of Giessen
    • Hypocritical home
  • from the district of Wetzlar
    • Atzbach
    • Dutenhofen
    • Garbenheim
    • Hermannstein
    • Krofdorf-Gleiberg
    • Launsbach
    • Lützellinden
    • Münchholzhausen
    • Nauborn
    • Naunheim
    • Steindorf
    • Waldgirmes
    • Wetzlar , city
    • Wissmar

structure

City of Lahn and Lahn-Dill district 1977–1979 against the background of the district boundaries in Hesse from 2019

The internal structure of the urban area deviated from the regulations of the Hessian municipal code (HGO). Instead, on the basis of the North Rhine-Westphalian municipal constitution, the area was divided into city ​​districts .

Lahn had 23 districts in six city districts:

Resistance and dissolution

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Hesse's former Prime Minister, Albert Osswald (SPD) from Giessen , initially described the new city as a “work of the century”: It was intended to strengthen the Central Hessian region in relation to the two centers of Frankfurt and Kassel. But because of the strong resistance of the population to the merger, the city of Lahn was dissolved again on July 31, 1979. Since then there have been the cities of Gießen and Wetzlar , which have been created again, as well as the three communities Heuchelheim , Lahnau and Wettenberg . The Lahn-Dill district was retained (district town was Wetzlar), but lost the area of ​​the district of Gießen , which was rebuilt. The formerly independent Gießen became the district town of this district. The Lahn districts of Blasbach, Dutenhofen, Garbenheim, Hermannstein, Münchholzhausen, Nauborn, Naunheim, Steindorf and Wetzlar became districts of the city of Wetzlar.

Not only the aversion of the population, especially in the district of Wetzlar, to the city of Lahn was a reason for the short lifespan of the artificial city. In contrast to many other united cities, there was no clear central function orientation. Lahn had two city centers that existed and competed side by side. Lahn-Gießen was an administrative, university and shopping district, while Lahn-Wetzlar was an industrial center (in the area north of the Lahn river) and a shopping center. The old town - south of the Lahn - is of great tourist importance then as now. The two cores were about 15 kilometers apart, in between (today's communities Heuchelheim and Lahnau) are rather sparsely populated areas with village-like districts. This made networking and differentiation of the functions very difficult.

Daily cancellation main post in Wetzlar (6300 Lahn 2)

The residents of Wetzlar feared that they would be structurally crushed by the greater Gießen and that they would degenerate into a "dormitory city". The postal address alone reinforced this feeling: The city of Lahn received the previous Gießen postcode 6300 . Letters to Gießen were addressed with "6300 Lahn 1", letters to Wetzlar with "6300 Lahn 2". The population suspected that the urban districts between Gießen and Wetzlar could be deprived of their character by a large expansion of the building areas and that the traffic load between the two cities would increase.

The city name “Lahn” was also felt to be unfortunate: Initially the combination “Gießen-Wetzlar” was planned, later the choice fell on “Lahn” so that the participating villages could add their names. However, many citizens felt that the name had no history. The slogan “When I see Lahn, I get a toothache” was stuck on many cars. “ I can't imagine a Lotte in Lahn ,” said the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt , referring to Goethe's Lotte and Thomas Mann's “ Lotte in Weimar ”.

The Deutsche Bundesbahn did not use the name Lahn for a station, the existing station names were retained.

The disputes over the Lahn city were not without consequences, especially for the SPD, which had played a key role in promoting the reform: In the local elections in March 1977 , many social democratic politicians were no longer elected, but replaced by Christian Democrats who were declared opponents of the Lahn city had run for election. In Lahn, the Union achieved a landslide victory in this election. The CDU achieved an increase of 30.2 percentage points and came to a total of 50.7 percent. It was Wilhelm Runtsch selected (CDU) as mayor of Lahn. He died on August 20, 1977. His successor was Hans Görnert , who remained Lord Mayor of Gießen until 1985 after the city of Lahn was dissolved.

The city of Lahn was dissolved again just 31 months after it was founded. The city of Gießen lost its district freedom and only received the formerly independent community of Lützellinden, as the city had already been able to incorporate it. The Hessian state government settled the regional council for Central Hesse in Giessen in 1981 . Wetzlar, on the other hand, emerged strengthened from the failed merger with the incorporation of eight surrounding municipalities, which, apart from three (Dutenhofen, Münchholzhausen and Blasbach) were already firmly attached to the city.

Municipalities after the dissolution of the city

Comparison with other mergers

In Baden-Württemberg, the two medium- sized towns of Villingen in the Black Forest (formerly Baden) and Schwenningen am Neckar (formerly Württemberg) were merged into Villingen-Schwenningen in the course of municipal and district reform in 1972 . This twin city still exists, but the process of merging is still ongoing. The merger of the independent cities of Barmen and Elberfeld (and some smaller towns) to form Wuppertal in 1929 was successful . On the other hand, in December 1975, Glabotki was rejected by a court ruling following the regional reform in North Rhine-Westphalia .

Vehicle registration number since 1990

Lahn received the "L" as a distinguishing mark on its license plate. This letter was originally reserved for the city of Leipzig in the event of reunification (see: East zone directory of German license plates ). Some critics took the approach as a provocation on the part of the social-liberal federal government. Some even saw this as de facto recognition of the division of Germany.

After the dissolution of Lahn, the newly created Lahn-Dill district initially retained the "L". When German reunification actually became a reality in 1990, Leipzig and the then eponymous district took over the distinguishing mark in January 1991, as originally planned. The Lahn-Dill district has been using the distinctive sign "LDK" since November 1990. On July 1, 2012, the city of Wetzlar received the vehicle identification “WZ” again. With the introduction of license plate liberalization in November 2012, residents of the Lahn-Dill district (with the exception of the citizens of Wetzlar) have been able to receive the old distinguishing mark "DIL" for their vehicles since May 2, 2014. The "LDK" continues to apply.

Whether a motor vehicle with an "L" license plate came from Hesse or Saxony could only be determined using the identification number . In order to make the difference clear, especially to outsiders, for whom no knowledge could be assumed here, and to stand out, some vehicle owners used a sticker with the text "L - but not from Leipzig!"

Trivia

Although already dissolved again in 1979, the concept of the city of Lahn lived on for a long time in - also official - map series, for example in the "Map of the Hessian Forestry Offices" as of January 1, 1985, the Lahn forestry district is still listed.

Personalities

literature

  • Johannes Koenig: Administrative reform in Hesse (1945–1981). Goals - strategies - actors . Darmstadt, Marburg 2006 (sources and research on Hessian history 151). On the city of Lahn, p. 350–475.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Law on the Education of the City of Lahn
  2. ^ Article in Gießener Anzeiger ( memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed February 2, 2014
  3. ↑ Law on the restructuring of the Dill district, the districts of Gießen and Wetzlar and the city of Gießen (GVBl. II 330–28) of May 13, 1974 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): Law and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Hesse . 1974 No. 17 , p. 237 ff ., § 1 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 1,2 MB ]).
  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 GmbH, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 346 .
  5. ↑ Werner Wolf: New beginning and struggle for the majority. The CDU Hessen under Alfred Dregger 1967–1982; in: Bernd Heidenreich and Werner Wolf: The way to the strongest party 1945–1995 / 50 years CDU Hessen, Wiesbaden 1995, ISBN 3-8046-8827-6 , page 59-93
  6. ^ Dissolution of the Lahn city 30 years ago , Frankfurter Rundschau online from July 30, 2009, accessed on April 6, 2011
  7. ↑ JÖRGEN LINKER: "DIL is close to my heart". TRAFFIC Hundreds of people are waiting in front of the registration office for the new license plate. In: Dill-Post. May 2, 2014, accessed May 15, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Ramona Vogel, Enrico Dix: How Lahn took the "L" from Leipzig. Review: A license plate wrote a chapter in German-German history. In: Das Parlament , No. 51, December 20, 2010, accessed August 27, 2013.

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 '  N , 8 ° 35'  E