Lahn valley

Basic data
State :	Hesse
Administrative region :	to water
County :	Marburg-Biedenkopf
Height :	217 m above sea level NHN
Area :	40.49 km 2
Residents:	6905 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	171 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	35094
Primaries :	06420, 06423
License plate :	MR, BID
Community key :	06 5 34 012
LOCODE :	DE ZAP
Community structure:	7 districts
Address of the ; municipal administration:	Oberdorfer Strasse 1 ; 35094 Lahntal
Website :	www.lahntal.de
Mayor :	Manfred Apell ( SPD )
Location of the municipality of Lahntal in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district

The municipality of Lahntal is located in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in north-western Central Hesse .

geography

Geographical location

The community of Lahntal is located on the upper Lahn about 83 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main and about 7 kilometers northwest of Marburg .

The 498 meter high Rimberg rises to the west of the community .

Natural space

The Lahn downstream from west to east, Brungershausen , Kernbach and Caldern belong naturally to the Upper Lahn valley , while Sterzhausen , Goßfelden , Sarnau and Göttingen are in the Wetschaft depression . The Obere Lahntal is the northern seam of the Gladenbacher Bergland to the foothills of the Rothaargebirge ( Wittgensteiner Bergland and bagpipe plus foreheads ).

climate

The Lahntals area lies in the warm, temperate rainy climate of the middle latitudes. The mean daily mean temperature in summer in the upper Lahn valley is around 15–16 ° C, lower (Wetschaftssenke) 16–17 ° C and in winter around –1 ° C to 1 ° C. The mean amount of precipitation in the upper Lahn valley is around 800–1000 mm, in the lower 700–800 mm.

Waters

The mouth of the Wetschaft in the Lahn

The largest flowing water in Lahntal is the Lahn . It flows through the municipality in the northern area from the west (municipality of Dautphetal ) to the east (municipality of Cölbe ), partly to the southeast. The Wetschaft flows to her from the north ( Wetter (Hessen) ). The Wetschaft flows south-east of Göttingen at 192 m above sea level. NN left in the Lahn. All other streams within the Lahn valley are very short for geographical reasons and also feed the Lahn directly or indirectly, such as the Sarnau, which flows into the Lahn near the Sarnau district.

Neighboring communities

Lahntal borders the city of Wetter in the north and east, the municipality of Cölbe in the southeast, the city of Marburg in the south, and the municipality of Dautphetal in the west (all in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district).

Community structure

Lahntal consists of the following districts (in brackets population figures 2008):

Brungershausen (91)
Caldern (1330)
Goßfelden (2387)
Goettingen (268)
Kernbach (184)
Sarnau (1051)
Sterzhausen (2050)

history

In the run-up to the regional reform in Hesse , the previously independent municipalities of Caldern (with the former municipalities of Caldern and Kernbach) and Sterzhausen merged to form a municipality called Lahntal on December 31, 1971 . On July 1, 1974, the community was Lahntal powerful state law with the communities Brungershausen, Göttingen and Lahn rock (with the former municipalities Goßfelden and Sarnau) to a community with the name Lahntal together . The individual districts have independent historical roots.

In 1992 a castle stable , the Burgstall Brungershausen , from the 10th to 13th centuries, was discovered near the district of Brungershausen . It has not yet been clarified whether the castle, about which there is no evidence, is related to the noble family " de Brungodeshusen ".

The church in Caldern was the center of a Cistercian monastery of which remains are still preserved and which was mentioned as a landgrave's court around 800 AD.

The district of Göttingen was first mentioned in 1306 and has always been an important traffic junction due to its location. Since the Thirty Years' War , the trade route from Frankfurt to Bremen through Göttingen and Cölbe and the old Niederrheinische Strasse from Göttingen to the Eibenhardt passed the Bürgeln Chausseehaus.

Goßfelden, first mentioned in a deed of donation to the Fulda monastery around 850 AD, was part of the Teutonic Knights Order in Marburg for centuries . The synagogue community in Goßfelden, which existed from the beginning of the 19th century, included the Jewish residents of Caldern, Goßfelden, Sterzhausen and Wetter.

The defense tower of the church of Sterzhausen, one of the oldest buildings in the Lahn valley

According to the records of the Marburg State Archives, the district of Kernbach was first mentioned around 1130 with the name "Cagernbach". Later, according to a document from the Caldern monastery in 1254, the place was led under the name "Kerenbach".

The name of the district Sarnau is of Celtic and Slavic origin. Sarnowa means Rehaue or Rehwiese. Ceramic finds indicate a correspondingly early settlement. Sarnau first appears in a document around the year 1200. In 1322 the knight Gottschalk von Sarnowe managed the knight's farm in Sarnau.

In the 13th century, the village of Sterzhausen belonged to the County of Wetter , for which different spellings are known from old documents and records, such as Steinerthusen (1280), Stereshusen (1330) and Stertzhausen (1570). The fortified tower of the Sterzhausen church, visible from afar, is by far the oldest building. It is very likely that the foundation walls of the tower go back to a Romanesque chapel. The oldest beams in the tower are dated to 1246. Wall paintings from the 13th century have been preserved in the choir.

Territorial reform

The amalgamation of municipalities as part of the regional reform in Hesse took place between December 31, 1970 and July 1, 1974.

Former parish	date	annotation
Brungershausen	July 1, 1974
Calder	December 31, 1971	Foundation of the community of Lahntal
Goßfelden	December 31, 1970	Merger with Sarnau zu Lahnfels
Goettingen	July 1, 1974
Kernbach	December 31, 1970	Incorporation to Caldern
Lahnfels	July 1, 1974
Sarnau	December 31, 1970	Merger with Goßfelden zu Lahnfels
Sterzhausen	December 31, 1971	Foundation of the community of Lahntal

Local districts with local advisory councils and local councilors were formed for all former municipalities in accordance with the Hessian municipal code.

politics

Community representation

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

Distribution of seats in the municipal council 2016 A total of 31 seats SPD : 14 Greens : 4 CDU : 6 BLL : 7	Parties and constituencies		% 2016	Seats 2016	% 2011	Seats 2011	% 2006	Seats 2006	% 2001	Seats 2001
	SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany	44.5	14th	48.0	15th	51.4	16	43.1	13
	CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	19.5	6th	20.4	6th	22.2	7th	22.1	7th
	BLL	Lahntal citizens' list	23.7	7th	16.4	5	-	-	-	-
	GREEN	Alliance 90 / The Greens	12.3	4th	15.2	5	7.6	2	10.4	3
	CITIZENS BLOCK	Citizens' block Goßfelden-Sarnau-Göttingen	-	-	-	-	12.9	4th	16.6	5
	Flat share	Lahntal-Sterzhausen voter community	-	-	-	-	5.9	2	7.8	3
	total		100.0	31	100.0	31	100.0	31	100.0	31
	Voter turnout in%		51.7		51.3		52.1		60.9

mayor

After the Hessian municipal constitution is the Mayor Chairman of the Municipal Executive Board , the next to the mayor eight volunteer in the community Lahntal Associate members. Manfred Apell (SPD) has been mayor since January 21, 1993.

coat of arms

The coat of arms of the municipality Lahn shows in the red, by the German religious sign (black continuous Silver Cross) took silver wave beams, split shield behind the heart sign a slanted and golden introverted Äbtissinnenstab with silver veil, accompanied top left three, down from four silver, three-leaf clover leaves. The coat of arms was adopted after the formation of the community as part of the Hessian regional reform and refers to the eponymous river with the wavy bar. The number of shamrocks corresponds to the number of districts of which the abbess's staff on Caldern (former monastery) and the German order shield refer to the part of Goßfelden south of the Lahn .

Community partnerships

The community of Lahntal has been related to the French community of Sussargues since April 6, 1986 . Sussargues is located in the Hérault department in the south of France, in close proximity to Montpellier (about 17 kilometers) and the Mediterranean Sea. The distance between Lahntal and Sussargues is about 1050 kilometers.
The partnership between the Polish community of Stara Kiszewa and the community of Lahntal was sealed in a ceremony on January 10, 2005 in Poland . The signing in Lahntal took place on May 26, 2006. The municipality of Stara Kiszewa has around 6,200 inhabitants in around 20, partly very small districts and is located in the Kościerzyna district, around 80 kilometers south of Gdańsk (Danzig) and 80 kilometers west of Malbork (Marienburg) in the touristically interesting region of Kashubia .

Intermunicipal cooperation

The municipality of Lahntal has been working more closely with the municipalities of Cölbe , Münchhausen and Wetter in several areas since 2007 . In addition to the cooperation in the so-called northern district on classic administrative tasks, such as speed control and building yard, the important future municipal tasks of demographic change , sustainable and climate-friendly energy supply, as well as child and youth support are also processed on an inter-municipal level. Two trade fairs are also jointly organized for this purpose, “Living in old age” and the “Solar fair”.

Culture and sights

Buildings

The Ubbelohdehaus

Rimberg Tower near Caldern
Defense tower of the church in Sterzhausen from the 12th / 13th centuries Century.
Old Lahn Bridge in Goßfelden
Otto Ubbelohde House in Goßfelden

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

The federal road 62 runs through the municipality in a west-east direction from the direction of Biedenkopf to Cölbe and further in the direction of Alsfeld . The federal highway 252 coming from the north from Diemelstadt or Korbach ends in the district of Göttingen .

The Obere Lahntalbahn connects Marburg via Biedenkopf and Bad Laasphe with Erndtebrück . It is operated by the Kurhessenbahn . There are stops in Caldern, Sterzhausen and Goßfelden. The Sarnau station was closed to passenger traffic in July 2010 and converted into a depot . Instead, the Lahntal-Sarnau stop was opened on July 4, 2010 .

tourism

The municipality of Lahntal and parts of its territory belong to the Burgwald-Ederbergland region , the Lahntal tourist destination and the Lahn-Dill-Bergland nature reserve . It is located on the Lahntal cycle path .

Personalities

Honorary citizen

Surname	Data	Awarded on	Honorary title
Ludwig Weiershäuser	* May 20, 1915; † January 10, 2005	October 12, 1972	Community elder
Jakob Schmidt	* November 17, 1914; † August 7, 2006	17th November 1984	Former Mayor
Hans Becker	* December 2, 1930; † March 30, 2002	March 17, 1995	Honorary local fire chief
Helwig Veit	* February 9, 1922; † July 5, 1996	December 8, 1995	Former Mayor
Jost Funk	* November 3, 1926; † February 20, 2015	June 16, 1997	Former Mayor
Johannes Laukel	* October 5, 1928; † July 27, 2005	June 24, 1999	Honorary Associate
Justus Gimbel	* April 30, 1934; † February 18, 2006	June 18, 2001	Honorary Associate
Matthias Peter	* October 3, 1927; † April 24, 2015	June 18, 2001	Honorary Associate
Heinrich Ebert	* April 14, 1935	August 26, 2002	Honorary Head
Jakob Bickhard	* March 10, 1933	December 17, 2003	Community elder
Jakob Opper	* February 4, 1929	July 6, 2006	Honorary Head
Hermann Kuhn	* October 21, 1949	July 6, 2006	Honorary Head
Jakob Kraus	* May 11, 1915	September 19, 2006	Community elder
Otto Ruppersberg	* November 30, 1931	September 19, 2006	Community elder
Wilhelm Damm	* March 28, 1931	September 19, 2006	Community elder
Helmut Heck	* October 12, 1951; † February 27, 2015	January 30, 2007	Community elder
Werner Reinl	* November 15, 1950	January 30, 2007	Community elder
Paul-Heinz Schmidt	* March 24, 1933; † October 30, 2007	June 28, 2007	Honorary Associate
Ludwig Schmidt	* October 18, 1934	October 18, 2009	Honorary Associate and Honorary Registrar

sons and daughters of the town

Johann Heinrich Christian Bang (1774–1851), Lutheran pastor and educator, member of the Marburg Romantic Circle
Otto Ubbelohde (1867–1922), draftsman and painter, member of the Marburg Romantic Circle
Oswald Voh (1904–1979), graphic artist and painter
Christean Wagner (* 1943), Hessian politician (CDU)
Richard Munz (1953–2010), recipient of the "Cross of Merit on Ribbon" (awarded on January 17, 2003)