Neukirchen (Knull)

Basic data
State :	Hesse
Administrative region :	kassel
County :	Schwalm-Eder district
Height :	305 m above sea level NHN
Area :	66.26 km 2
Residents:	6946 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	105 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	34626
Area code :	06694
License plate :	HR, FZ, MEG, ZIG
Community key :	06 6 34 017
City structure:	8 districts
; City administration address :	Am Rathaus 10 ; 34626 Neukirchen
Website :	www.neukirchen.de
Mayor :	Klemens Olbrich ( CDU )
Location of the city of Neukirchen in the Schwalm-Eder district

Neukirchen is a town in Knüll in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse . It is a climatic health resort and Kneipp spa .

geography

Geographical location

Neukirchen is located on the southwest slope of the Knüll Mountains on the edge of the Schwalm landscape . It is traversed by the Grenff , into which the Buchenbach flows above Neukirchen and the Urbach in the village .

The next larger cities with functions of an upper or middle center are Kassel (about 60 km north), Marburg (about 40 km west), Fulda (about 60 km southeast) and Bad Hersfeld (about 25 km east).

Neighboring communities

Neukirchen borders the municipality of Frielendorf in the north, the city of Schwarzenborn and the municipality of Oberaula in the east, the municipality of Ottrau in the south , and the municipalities of Schrecksbach and Willingshausen (all in the Schwalm-Eder district) in the west .

City structure

In addition to the core city of Neukirchen, the city includes the districts of Asterode , Christerode , Hauptschwenda , Nausis , Riebelsdorf , Rückershausen , Seigertshausen and Wincherode . The Neukirchen district had a total of 4243 inhabitants on June 30, 2017.

history

Neukirchen was first mentioned in 1142 in a document from the Hersfeld monastery . From 1331 to 1867 Neukirchen was the seat of the Ziegenhainischen and from 1450 Landgrave-Hessian District Neukirchen . In 1368 the town was granted city rights. In the Middle Ages the city was ravaged by fires several times; three quarters of the houses fell victim to the fire disaster of 1533.

During the Thirty Years War , on November 15, 1640, a few hundred meters northwest of the Riebelsdorf district, the heavy battle on Riebelsdorfer Berg took place between Saxon-Weimar troops, reinforced by a French battalion and the Ziegenhain citizen corps, on the one hand, and imperial troops under General Hans Rudolf von Breda on the other hand, in which the outnumbered imperialists suffered a defeat and Breda and 300 of his men lost their lives. According to tradition, Breda was killed by a shot by captain Velten Muhly , commander of the Ziegenhain vigilante group founded in 1539. In 1843 Ziegenhain citizens erected an obelisk at the point where Breda fell, on the B 454 ; Since then, there has been a slender stone column at the place where Velten Muhly is said to have shot at Breda.

A Jewish community existed in Neukirchen from the 17th century until it was destroyed during the Nazi era . The cemetery of the lost community is located on Schwarzenborner Straße a few hundred meters northeast of the old town ( 50 ° 52 ′ 18 ″ N , 9 ° 20 ′ 48 ″ E ); it still contains around 100 tombstones today. Since March 2014 Neukirchen has been participating in the so-called “ Stolpersteine ” project: List of Stolpersteine in Neukirchen (Knüll) . 50.8718 9.34675

During the Kingdom of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813, the city was the administrative seat of the canton of Neukirchen in the Hersfeld district .

Until 1968, the city was the seat of the Neukirchen District Court .

Incorporations

In the course of the regional reform in Hesse on December 31, 1971, the previously independent communities of Asterode, Christerode, Hauptschwenda, Nausis, Riebelsdorf and Rückershausen were incorporated . On January 1, 1974, Seigertshausen was added by virtue of state law.

Accidents

On September 11, 2014, two people died in a plane crash between Nausis and Immichenhain when an ultralight aircraft crashed into a rape field.

On June 18, 2016, three children drowned in a pond in the Seigertshausen district . On September 7, 2018, charges of negligent homicide were brought against the mayor of the community of Neukirchen , because he had insufficiently secured the pond and thus contributed to the death of the children.

politics

City Council

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

Distribution of seats in the 2016 city council A total of 31 seats SPD : 10 Greens : 2 FDP : 3 CDU : 9 FW : 3 UBL : 4	Parties and constituencies		% 2016	Seats 2016	% 2011	Seats 2011	% 2006	Seats 2006	% 2001	Seats 2001
	SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany	30.7	10	34.9	11	38.0	12	36.6	11
	CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	29.5	9	33.6	10	38.4	12	38.4	12
	UBL	Independent citizen list	14.3	4th	9.2	3	7.7	2	11.0	3
	FWG	Free community of voters	10.3	3	6.5	2	6.0	2	5.1	2
	FDP	Free Democratic Party	10.2	3	9.6	3	9.9	3	8.9	3
	GREEN	Alliance 90 / The Greens	5.0	2	6.2	2	-	-	-	-
	total		100.0	31	100.0	31	100.0	31	100.0	31
	Voter turnout in%		54.7		53.1		52.1		60.6

Half-timbered house from 1598

Partner communities

France Longpont-sur-Orge has been Neukirchen's partner municipality since 1991.

Hungary Nagynyárád has been a partner municipality in the Seigertshausen district since 1991 .

Culture and sights

For the listed objects see the list of cultural monuments in Neukirchen (Knüll) .

Museums

There is a local museum with documents on the city's history, prehistoric collections and a classroom.
A barn from Asterode has been used as an exhibition center in Hessenpark since 2009 .

Nikolaikirche

Neukirchen

Old town of Neukirchen 1930s

Churches

The Nikolaikirche in the Neukirchen town center was built in several phases more than 500 years ago.

Hospitals

From 1959 to 2002 the Urbachtal Rehabilitation Center, which specialized in cancer diagnosis and treatment, existed in a remote location in the forest between Neukirchen and Hauptschwenda. The buildings, which are still empty after the bankruptcy , have been left to decay and vandalism.

Sports

Neukirchen became known nationwide through the 1st soccer team of SC Neukirchen , which played for four years in the then four-track regional league.

Since 2007 there has been a Nordic Walking Park in the forest between Seigertshausen and Neukirchen with four different lengths across the Neukircher Forest.

societies

The Neukirchen Steno and Machine Writing Association made the city famous beyond the borders of the region. The writing sportsmen of the association took part in several world championships, became German individual and team champions several times and provide numerous Hessen champions (individual and team competitions).

Economy and Infrastructure

Pro Neukirchen eV

The economic association, which has been called Pro Neukirchen eV since 2006, aims to develop the city - not only in economic terms, but also in cultural and tourist terms.

traffic

Neukirchen is on the federal highway 454 ( Kirchhain - Niederaula ). The community belongs to the North Hessian Transport Association .

Personalities

Johann Heinrich Schreiber (* 1797 in Asterode; † 1871), former landowner in Asterode and member of the Kurhessische Estates assembly
Johann Joachim Schröder (* 1680 in Neukirchen; † 1756), orientalist, librarian, Reformed theologian and church historian
Ernst von Weyrauch (* 1832 in Neukirchen; † 1905), member of the Reichstag
Manfred Roeder (* 1929 in Berlin; † 2014 in Neukirchen), a convicted right-wing extremist and Holocaust denier, spent the last two years of his life in Neukirchen
Gerhard Meyer (* 1949 in Neukirchen), Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church

literature

Literature about Neukirchen in the Hessian Bibliography
Search for Neukirchen (Knüll) in the archive portal-D of the German Digital Library
A small town in Hesse - Neukirchen, the Jews and National Socialism, author: Barbara Greve [1]

Historical sources

The Neukirchen City Archives are kept in the Hessian State Archives in Marburg (holdings 330 Neukirchen). Almost all of the holdings have been developed and can be researched online.