Vacha

This article deals with the Thuringian city of Vacha . For people with the same name, see Vácha .

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 50 '  N , 10 ° 1'  E
Basic data
State :	Thuringia
County :	Wartburg district
Height :	223 m above sea level NHN
Area :	44.41 km 2
Residents:	5125 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	115 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	36404
Area code :	036962
License plate :	WAK, SLZ
Community key :	16 0 63 082
City structure:	18 districts
City administration address :	Market 4 36404 Vacha
Website :	www.vacha.de
Mayor :	Martin Müller ( CDU )
Location of the city of Vacha in the Wartburg district

Vacha [ ˈfaχa ] is a town in the west of Thuringia in the Wartburg district , right on the border with Hesse .

geography

Vacha is located in the Werra valley on the northern foothills of the Rhön . Eisenach is located about 27 km northeast, Bad Hersfeld about 23 km west of Vacha.

Neighboring communities are (clockwise) the district of Vitzeroda of the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal in the north, the Bad Salzungen district of Springen in the northeast, the Krayenberg community in the east, Dermbach in the southeast, the communities Oechsen , Geisa and Buttlar in the south, and Unterbreizbach with its district Sünna in the southwest, Philippsthal in the west and Heringen in the northwest.

City structure

In addition to the core city of Vacha with the Badelachen settlement, the city consists of the following districts:

• Oberzella with the small settlement Unterzella and the desert areas Heiligenroda , Niederndorf and Schwenge
• Martinroda
• Völkershausen with the settlements Busengraben , Furthmühle , Hedwigshof , Kohlgraben , Luttershof , Rodenberg , Sauermühle and Willmanns
• Wölferbütt with the Mariengart and Masbach settlements

history

Prehistoric time

Overview of the ramparts on the Öchsen

The archaeologically verifiable history of the settlement in today's urban area begins with finds from the Neolithic Age from the Michelsberg culture . The oldest surviving evidence of buildings can be found on the Öchsenberg (627.2 m above sea level ). They are stone walls made of basalt, in the innermost bering they encompassed a completely closed oval 180 meters long and 130 meters wide. The size of the complex, which is also the strongest fortification of the Thuringian Rhön, suggests a developed Celtic hilltop settlement, an oppidum ; the main wall had a diameter of 320 meters. The source of drinking water is located on the southern slope of the mountain, which must have migrated down the valley over time, as indicated by a basin-like structure, a kind of channel and two short ledges. The upper of the two additional walls touches the outer main wall, which is angled here in the arch, on the west side. With these ramparts, the ring wall in the last stage of development up to the main wall in the north had a diameter of 480 meters.

First mention

Since the early Middle Ages, the area around today's city was in the border area between Saxony, Thuringia and Franconia. In the 9th century, the territories of the abbeys Fulda and Hersfeld collided here. Therefore, there are many documents from this time with a boundary description in the area around today's Vacha. These boundary descriptions do not mention Vacha. On August 31, 786, the Dorndorfer Mark with a description of the border was handed over to the Hersfeld Abbey. Here the western borderline from the mountain Öchsen in a northerly direction to today's deserted Schwenge (in the documents Uuihingesboumgarto) with the intermediate point of the Badelachen court (possibly the royal court) is described. As a result, it is assumed that there were no noteworthy buildings in today's urban area until the 12th century, because Vacha is also not mentioned in the Wildbann document from Emperor Heinrich II for the Hersfeld Abbey from 1016. Possibly there was a Vorwerk of the Badelachen farm, from which the village of Vacha gradually emerged. This village is mentioned for the first time in a servitia register (villages that had to transfer natural goods to the monastery) of the Fulda monastery, which is dated between 1155 and 1165. In the directory, Vacha had to deliver a cow to the brothers in the Fulda monastery, the lowest performance in the entire directory.

Wolfgang Kahl , on the other hand, documents the first mention of the place for the period from 802 to 817. An addendum to the Codex Eberhardi of the Fulda monastery from the 12th century documents an exchange of goods between 814 and 817. The document states that the abbot Ratgar leaves the Emperor Ludwig the Pious Ibstadt ( Ibistat ) on the Rhine and the dairies ( villicationes ) Vacha ( Vachhe ), Geisa ( Geisaha ) and Spahl ( Spanelo ) received. Today, however, this document is regarded as a forgery by the monk Eberhard. The certificate was created when the Hersfeld Abbey was in disputes with the Thuringian landgraves over disputed bailiwick rights. The Fulda Abbey took advantage of this weak phase to get the lower Ulstertal under their control in the 12th century with the help of this document.

Name origin

One of the oldest evidence of Vacha's name (Dronke Cod. Dipl. Fuldensis No. 353) is the documented reference ... villis in zuisgen Facchon ... - this means a settlement made up of two neighboring villages, between which there is a fish weir . The so-called fans were dams and weirs that led through the rivers in order to catch fish - salmon to be precise - in traps.

High Middle Ages

Ruins of the Annenkapelle

City wall tower

Monastery church at the cemetery

Vacha was a village with its own village mark until at least 1180. In that year Hersfeld Abbey received donations from the Hersfeld monk Sigibodo. Among other things, the income from a field in the village of Vacha. But just six years later, in 1186, an exchange took place between Landgrave Ludwig III. von Thuringia and Abbot Hermann von Reinhardsbrunn , in whose document Vacha was mentioned as a city owned by the Abbey of Fulda. The Werra Bridge was also mentioned for the first time in this document , via which the Via Regia old road led to Eisenach and Leipzig. According to the sources, Vacha was one of the first places in Thuringia to receive city rights.

The construction of the city wall and Wendelstein Castle began in the 12th century ; it served both to protect the Werra crossing and to control the city itself. Vacha Castle formed a bridgehead to secure the Werra crossing. Under Abbot Heinrich IV. Von Erthal , the city was expanded and the fortifications expanded around 1250. One of the oldest buildings in the city is the Anne Chapel , which was built on a mountain south of the city and was used as a place of pilgrimage until the Reformation. The city parish of St. Vitus comes into the light of history with the mention of Pleban Berthold in 1172. It was the seat of an ecclesiastical administrative district (Sedes) with the subordinate parishes of Oechsen, Völkershausen and Heiligenroda. The Servite Convent , which was located in Mariengart / Rhön before 1339 , was granted the right to settle in the suburb in front of the Obertor in 1368. Around 1400 the monastery church and a farm yard were built there. The monastery properties, which were increased through donations and gifts, included farms and property in the surrounding communities, they were intended to benefit pastoral activities and care for the sick and poor. In 1467, a large fire destroyed almost all of the town's buildings, and the Servite monastery burned down in the process, and it took several decades to repair the damage. Outside the city walls were some mills and hospitals, also to prevent the spread of epidemics. The oldest city seal of Vacha dates from the 13th century and is handed down as an imprint in 1303. Councilors ( consules ) and aldermen ( scabini ) are first attested in 1307, and mayors in 1362. The first town hall was mentioned in 1429. Because of the market operation, inns, shops and a mint of the Fulda abbots were also built on the Vacha market square. The Vacha mint was set up in 1455 by Abbot Hermann II as a branch of the monastic mint and was only allowed to use Fulda mint stamps.

In 1406 two thirds of the town and office of Vacha came from the imperial abbey of Fulda to the Landgraves of Hesse in pledge . In September 1518, Count Wilhelm von Henneberg tried to conquer the city in a nocturnal raid, but was repulsed.

Reformation and Peasants' War

Memorial plaque for the peasant war leader Hans Sippel at Wendelstein Castle

Vacha is one of the cities in Germany where the Reformation began. The first Lutheran sermons were given by Georg Witzel from 1522 , who introduced the first preachers to the official villages of Sünna and Unterbreizbach in April 1525 as part of a Protestant visitation . His fate later led him to an opposition role to Luther and other reformers, after which he returned to the Catholic faith. At the same time, the farmers in neighboring Völkershausen revolted . Vacha became the rallying point of the Werrahaufens , which was headed by the Vacha citizen Hans Sippel and comprised around 8,000 men who came from the Saxon and Fulda offices of Salzungen, Krayenburg, Wasungen, Gerstungen, Creuzburg, Hausbreitenbach and Wasungen. The city of Vacha was besieged by the peasants, two captains and 20 mercenaries from the city guard as well as weapons and ammunition were made available to the peasants. The farmers had previously suffered a setback during the two-day siege of Völkershausen Castle, which was defended by Hans von Völkershausen with his mercenaries.

The monks of the Vacha Servite monastery had given up the mass service and taken over the evangelical sermon. Their farms and the monastery itself were outside the city wall and were therefore plundered by the rebellious farmers, and at the same time the neighboring Kreuzberg monastery was attacked. These successes tempted the peasantry to go to Eisenach via Berka / Werra , where they were hoping for further reinforcements. The plan failed and the farmer's leader Sippel and other prisoners found death by beheading at the place of execution in Eisenach. He had previously tried in vain to persuade the Eisenach councilors and the townspeople to participate in the peasant uprising. The army of peasants encamped in front of the city wall at that time no longer dared to free the captive leaders, they withdrew without having achieved anything and responded to Thomas Müntzer's call . After the end of the Peasant War, the further fate of the Servite monastery in Vacha lay in the hands of the city lord and Landgrave of Hesse, Philipp. The Homberg Synod had to decide on the further fate of the monasteries in the Landgraviate of Hesse, after which the Servite monastery was closed in 1527 and the monks were released with severance payments, the monastery property and lands were sold in favor of the state finances. As a result of this decision, the Hessian state officials and some wealthy nobles acquired large parts of the former monastery properties around Vacha and Stadtlengsfeld . In 1528, Landhofmeister Ludwig von Boineburg zu Lengsfeld was also able to take possession of the neighboring fiefdom of Mariengart. Martin von der Tann, the Hessian bailiff in Vacha had received general power of attorney to inspect all the churches in the district in order to determine the church assets. The church inventory and valuables belonging to the respective parish were also confiscated. The city of Vacha received the right of first refusal for the monastery church and the sacred field of the Servite monks. The previous diocesan association in Vacha was declared dissolved and new pastors, vicars and chaplains were appointed by the sovereign. Even the official places belonging to the Fulda third were inspected and reformed. In 1542, Abbot Philipp von Schweinburg felt compelled to issue a Reformation order in his towns in order to thwart the more radical Hessian regulations. A dispute also arose over the occupation of the city parish in Vacha, the people proposed by the council had to be examined and approved by both the Hessian landgrave and the Abbot of Fulda, this regulation was still in use in the 17th century.

Vacha in the Thirty Years War

Town hall (Haus Widmarckt) and Vitus fountain on the market

Today's town hall of Vacha was built in 1614 as a representative town palace of the Hessian bailiff Caspar von Widmarckt. Caspar, who came from a patrician family in Leipzig , had a talent for languages ​​and was versatile. He became a confidante of the French king and traveled to many European royal courts as a secret diplomat. His thirst for adventure made him take part in several campaigns. For his services he was promoted several times and adopted by the Hessian landgrave as bailiff to Vacha. Widmarckter, who remained childless in his marriage, donated large parts of his fortune for charitable purposes and is named as the builder for the construction of several representative buildings in Vacha, he also had the market fountain built. His tombstone, which was made during his lifetime, is in the town church. Widmarckt died in 1621 at the age of 56, his wife and widow remained in the city as a benefactor, she met a gruesome death when the Croatians invaded the city on October 18, 1634. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was captured and occupied as a strategically important place (Werra Bridge) by changing warring parties. As early as 1631, the Hessian landgrave managed to recapture the city, which the previous year had been captured by Count Fugger's imperial troops without much resistance. Landgrave Wilhelm von Hessen wanted to take revenge and had encircled the city with a siege ring. Only about 100 survivors of the Fugger crew are said to have escaped from Vacha. Since Count Fugger also acted as governor in Vacha with the approval of the Fulda abbot, Landgrave Wilhelm declared the dual rule ended after the liberation of Vacha and, on this pretext, marched into the state territory of the Fulda Abbey, which he held for two years.

Modern times

Engraving by Vacha in 1655 ( Matthäus Merian the Younger )

On December 28, 1648, the Fulda abbot Joachim sold his stake in the urban area of ​​Vacha for 11,700 Reichstaler to the Hessian countess Amalie Elisabeth. The annexation made by Landgrave Wilhelm in 1631 had become ineffective as the war continued.

As a result of dynastic decisions in the Hessian Landgrave House, the rule and landgrave branch line Hessen-Philippsthal with its own national territory arose on the opposite bank of the Werra from parts of the former monastery bailiwick of Kreuzberg . The residential palace Philippsthal was built on the site of the former Kreuzberg monastery. Landgrave Ernst von Hessen Philippsthal allowed a group of French religious refugees to settle in his country, the new place was founded with the name Gethesemane.

Seven Years War

The Landgraves of Hesse had identified themselves as supporters and military allies of the Prussian King Friedrich. In August 1757 the Reich Execution Army began its operations in Thuringia against the Saxon territory occupied by Prussia. The army consisted of a French corps under the Prince of Soubise and the imperial troops under the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen , who was also in command. Frederick II of Silesia advanced against this army and defeated it on November 5, 1757 in the Battle of Roßbach .

In accordance with the warfare at that time, garrisons and military supply facilities had been left behind in all previously passed cities, which put the occupied area under martial law and squeezed it out. On November 11, 1757, a fleeing French regiment (de Rengon) passed through Vacha and occupied the neighboring village of Pferdsdorf, where they set up winter quarters. Further units of the imperial troops were distributed over western Thuringia by January 1758 as a result of the winter supply shortages. In this situation, the Hessian General von Urff began an unexpected counter-offensive at the beginning of March to liberate the eastern parts of the Landgraviate from military occupation. In a surprise attack, the Cologne regiment in the Vacha garrison was routed and taken prisoner in Hesse. The imperial regiments were alerted and withdrew via the Öchsetal to Kaltensundheim . Vacha escaped a threatened bombardment by handing over 20,000 thalers. As a result of the spring offensive, Vachaer Strasse was passed by numerous regiments in 1758. In the late autumn of 1758, enemy troops had again taken control of Vacha. At the beginning of February 1761, Prussian troops coming from Langensalza penetrated into the Vacha area. On February 19, 1761, the city was shelled by Prussian artillery from Siechenberg, several buildings in the city burned down. The cannon thunder could be heard as far as the Hersfeld area . In order to stop the further advance of the Prussians, the French city commandant there ordered the destruction of the winter supplies stored in the abbey church on the same day, the church was set on fire. The marches of fleeing enemy or allied troops continued until the Peace of Hubertusburg (February 15, 1763).

Economic conditions around 1800

According to the official census of the year 1771, there were 1548 inhabitants in that year - 317 (adult) men, 347 (adult) women, 330 boys and 414 girls, as well as 68 servants, 52 maids were employed in the city from the surrounding communities. There were four Jewish families in the city. The occupations of the city's population were also recorded: 33 shoemakers, 37 woolen cloth makers, 7 potters, a brickmaker, 4 blacksmiths, 4 nailers, 4 carpenters, 3 bricklayers, 13 tailors, 3 saddlers, 12 butchers, 15 tanners, one white tanner, 2 pharmacists, a papermaker, 2 carpenters, a Wagner, 2 turners, 3 millers, 9 bakers, a confectioner and other tradespeople lived in the city. In addition to 58 day laborers, there was also a significant group of merchants and hauliers - 6 (general) traders, a wine merchant, 7 protection and trade Jews.

Napoleonic occupation

During the time of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia (1807-1813) Vacha was the capital of the canton of Vacha and seat of the justice of the peace .

On the night of October 27-28, 1813, Napoleon passed the city with a small escort after the Battle of Leipzig. The fleeing emperor took a short break to find out about the road conditions; he rode on during the night to get to Hersfeld. After the restitution of the Electorate of Hesse-Kassel , it came back to Electorate Hesse , but in 1816 it was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach . The fugitive French also brought in a typhus epidemic, and 266 people died by the turn of the year.

Vacha in the 19th century

Johanneskirche (Protestant town church), consecrated in 1824

School built in 1868, today Vitus elementary school

The reconstruction of Vacha brought the city's first economic impetus when the harvest was lost due to storms in 1816 and a famine broke out. In the following year, the Werra flood caused great damage. After the war, many neglected buildings and damage had to be removed. The dilapidated town church should first be restored in the Gothic style, because of the enormous construction costs, this project could not be realized. The building, which has now been supplemented in the classical style, is attached to the medieval bell tower. The renovation of the town church began in 1821, the laying of the foundation stone was set on the birthday of the then Hereditary Prince Carl Alexander August Johann and the new building was named Johanniskirche in his honor . On September 3, 1824, the inauguration took place by General Superintendent Nebe from Eisenach. To improve school education, a new school was built in 1868; today it serves as a primary school. Carl Oeste was mayor from 1869 to 1890 . The second church building in the city - the monastery church had to be restored in 1878 due to the risk of collapse. The Eisenach architect Dittmar was commissioned to redesign the building. The nave was reduced in size and during the demolition work discovered medieval wall paintings, which were probably whitewashed during the Reformation. The church, which was converted into a late Gothic chapel, was consecrated as a "cemetery church" on November 10, 1878 by superintendent K. Stössner . As early as the spring of 1878, a house in the upper town of Vacha, acquired as a foundation by the Fulda bishop Christian Florentinus Kött, was converted into a church service for the Catholics of the town of Vacha. The Israelite religious community living in the city was able to build a small synagogue in the back alley , its cemetery is on Martinrodaer Weg.

On the night of September 2, 1878, great damage was caused by arson in the upper town: 60 houses with over 140 barns and outbuildings were destroyed. The fire sites were leveled, new buildings and wider streets were built, the city wall was removed in many places. A terminus station for the Feldabahn , which was extended to Vacha, was built on the eastern edge of the city and allowed connection to the rail network. This was followed by the constant expansion of the connections as a result of the potash mining in the nearby Werra potash district . Vacha's industrial development was accelerated by the rail link. Numerous new buildings and some factories were built on the eastern outskirts.

20th century

In 1933 the city had 71 Jewish residents out of a total population of 2,300. The Vacha synagogue was stormed by seven to eight people in the course of the November pogroms in 1938 , who devastated the interior. A little later, the Jewish community sold the synagogue and property to the city for 1,900 Reichsmarks. In 1955 the building, now privately owned, was demolished.

In the final phase of the Second World War , two arches of the historic Werra bridge Vacha , at that time part of Reichsstraße 84 , were blown up. After the end of the war, Vacha was in the Soviet occupation zone , and from 1949 in the GDR directly on the inner-German border . In 1950 the town, which had belonged to the Eisenach district since 1922 , moved to the newly established Bad Salzungen district . Several residents of the town near the border were deported from Vacha to the interior of the GDR in 1952 as part of the " Ungeziefer " campaign.

In 1990 Vacha came to the state of Thuringia and has been part of the Wartburg district since 1994. Also in 1994 Oberzella was incorporated into Vacha.

present

As of December 31, 2013, the Vacha administrative community , to which the municipalities of Martinroda, Völkershausen and Wölferbütt also belonged in addition to the city of Vacha, was dissolved and the municipalities merged to form the new city of Vacha.

Population development

Development of the population:

1994 - 4,162 1995 - 4,109 1996 - 4,029 1997 - 3,961 1998 - 3,954 1999 - 4,029

2000 - 4,032 2001 - 3,979 2002 - 3,939 2003 - 3,898 2004 - 3,902 2005 - 3,861

2006 - 3,865 2007 - 3,781 2008 - 3,737 2009 - 3,687 2010 - 3,676 2011 - 3,709

2012 - 3,644 2013 - 5,464 2014 - 5,383 2015 - 5,303 2016 - 5,237 2017 - 5,218

2018 - 5,173

Data source: from 1994 Thuringian State Office for Statistics - values ​​from December 31st

politics

City council

The city council has consisted of 20 members since the 2014 city council election (previously 16). The local elections since 1999 have produced the following results:

Parties and constituencies	% 2019 *	Seats 2019 *		% 2014	Seats 2014	% 2009	Seats 2009	% 2004	Seats 2004	% 1999	Seats 1999
CDU and citizens of our city	47.1	10		44.4	9	23.4	4th	29.1	5	29.4	4th
Free list Oechsetal and SPD	16.1	3		26.1	5	53.3	9	43.7	7th	52.6	9
Vacha Free Voting Community	19.7	4th		22.4	5	23.2	3	27.2	4th	18.1	3
The left for Vacha	10.5	2		7.1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
National Democratic Party of Germany	6.6	1		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
voter turnout	61.5%			55.6%		58.0%		50.5%		61.9%

^* Local election on May 26, 2019

mayor

Martin Müller (CDU) was elected mayor in the local elections on April 22, 2012 with 1267 votes (63.9%). On July 1, 2012, he replaced Frank Pach (SPD), who had held the office since 1994. In the local elections on April 15, 2018 , Martin Müller (CDU) was re-elected with 97.7%.

coat of arms

Description : In blue, a curved, overturned golden tip over a continuous three-arched silver stone bridge in blue water. At the top is a nimbly red-clad growing bishop with a golden bishop's staff in his left hand and a book of the same color in his right hand ; the tip is covered by a golden ear in front and behind by a golden gear with a hammer.

Symbolism: The coat of arms contains between industrial and agricultural symbols as a historical reminiscence of St. Boniface ; the bridge embodies the stone Werra bridge from the Middle Ages. The Vacha city coat of arms has been valid in its present form since December 15, 1950.

St. Boniface, patron of the Fulda monastery , was shown in the first town seal from 1303, and in 1631 St. Vitus , the patron of the town church , appears instead .

Town twinning

• Blatná ( Czech Republic )
• Philippsthal ( Hesse )
• Sargé-lès-le-Mans ( Sarthe department in France, since 1992)

Religions

Catholic community

The Catholic St. Elisabeth Church in Vacha was consecrated in 1907.

When the Servite monastery in Vacha dissolved in 1525, the Catholic faith in the city died out. It was not until 1823 that a Weimar law made Catholic pastoral care possible again in Vacha, which was taken over by the parish of Buttlar . In 1870 14 Catholics lived in the city. With the industrialization of the Werra Valley, more and more Catholic Christians came to Vacha in the following years, and the desire for their own church grew. Construction of the church began in 1906 and the shell was completed in the same year. Bishop Endert died in 1906, so the church could not be consecrated until April 14, 1907. Due to the turmoil of the Second World War, combined with migrating refugees, and the later expulsion of the German population from the eastern regions, numerous Catholics again came to Vacha. The congregation grew rapidly to 6,000 members by 1947. From the 1960s onwards, chroniclers report increased reprisals from government agencies in the GDR. For example, pressure was exerted on Christian youth and their parents who did not take part in the youth consecration . The participants in the men's pilgrimage to Weiherberg near Geismar on June 7, 1970 were also harassed. In 1972, Bishop Hugo Aufderbeck and dean Ferdinand Dallwig were arrested when they were consecrating an altar in Reinhards . In 1976 the St. Elisabeth Church in Vacha was renovated. The Catholic parish held its services in the Protestant St. John's Church during this time. In 1992, Dallwig also donated an Elisabeth sculpture to the Vacha community, which was made by the wood sculptor Manfred Bellinger from Unteralba .

Jewish community

→ Main article : Vacha synagogue

There is evidence of a Jewish community in Vacha as early as 1323. It existed until 1349. Presumably there was already a synagogue and a mikveh at this time . Around 1630 ten Jewish families lived in the city, in 1652 there was still one Jew.

A Jewish religious community was established in 1777 and lasted until 1938. On August 21, 1903, the last members of the disbanded community of Völkershausen joined the community of Vacha.

Evangelical community

The Protestant parish in Vacha goes back to the time of the Reformation. Georg Witzel gave his first Lutheran sermons in Vacha in 1522.

Today the evangelical parish Vacha belongs to the parish of Bad Salzungen-Dermbach of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany . In addition to the parish of Vacha, the Vacha parish also looks after the parish of Oberzella.

Culture and sights

City Church (Johanneskirche)

Storchenturm, view from the former train station

Museums

• Wendelstein Castle Museum

Memorials

• In front of the Johanneskirche, a bronze monument by Richard Engelmann from 1929 commemorates the fallen of the First World War . The memorial shows a dying youth, a very rare motif at the time.
• In the municipal cemetery , a grave field with a memorial commemorates 27 forced laborers and their children who were deported to Germany during the Second World War and were victims of forced labor.
• In 1998 a memorial plaque was erected in the Jewish cemetery for the persecuted Jewish citizens of the city of Vacha during the Nazi era (1933–1945).
• In 2014, several stumbling blocks were laid in memory of the Vacha victims of National Socialism, see list of stumbling blocks in Vacha .

Buildings

Wendelstein Castle, next to it the castle tower, in front of it the remains of the castle or city fortifications

• 

  Storchenturm in Widemarkter Strasse, 2018
  The market square is a longitudinal square, widened to the south to form a triangle and to the north facing the city ​​church (Johanneskirche) . It is built with gabled houses in the Hessian half-timbered style. These include the Widmarckt House, the Alte Münze, the Einhornapotheke (around 1780) and the Knusperhäuschen (around 1600). The square is further emphasized by the market linden tree and the Vitus fountain.
• Since 1911, the Widmarckt house has housed the town hall and the Ratskeller. The representative half-timbered building in the Hessian style was built in 1613 by Hans Weber (Hersfeld) for the landgrave bailiff Caspar Widmarckter . In 1910 the building received a right-angled extension. A restoration took place in 1923.
• The beginnings of the "old coin" go back to the 12th century. The building was spared from a fire in 1467 and was a Catholic worship room from 1878 to 1900. It contains a Gothic, three-lane window added to the side.
• The so-called "Knusperhäuschen" is a gable-independent, three-story half-timbered house with a massive ground floor, carved corner posts and thresholds. Curved St. Andrew's crosses and sun rosettes can be seen in the parapets.
• The Vitus Fountain was built in 1613 and renewed in 1818. The round sandstone basin contains a well with reliefs from the life of the city saint and is crowned with the figure of St. Vitus.
• The Werra Bridge is a 225-meter-long stone arch bridge from the Middle Ages, part of Frankfurt-Leipziger-Strasse , which connects the city with the Hessian Philippsthal and spans the Werra.
• At the northern edge of the old town is Wendelstein Castle , a town castle built in the high Middle Ages, which protected the access to the Werra Bridge.
• The ruins of the Annenkapelle can be found on St. Annenberg . It was mentioned in 1440. The surrounding walls of the rectangular building have been preserved on three sides.
• The Protestant Johanneskirche (formerly St. Vitus) is a classicistic hall church with a Romanesque west tower. It was partially rebuilt in 1821-1824 after the choir from 1365 and the nave from 1467 had been demolished in 1820 . It is a broad ashlar building. The west tower in quarry stone masonry contains a corner block and a Romanesque column portal. The bell storey from the 14th / 15th centuries Century has Gothic windows and a tracery gallery with gargoyles . There is a pyramid helmet from 1478 on the tower. In the south of the building there is a portico portal with thermal bath windows , in the east portal the thermal bath windows are in a recessed arched niche. The rectangular hall shows a cantilevered hollow vault . On the narrow sides are wide galleries with staggered rows of benches. The community room under the east gallery is separated by glass windows. The furnishings come from the time it was built. The color scheme is classicist, cool in gray, white, blue and gold. The main room contains full- length portrait tombstones of Caspar Widmarckter and his wife (1615 and 1621). The church houses an organ by Johann Michael Holland from 1831, which was restored by Orgelbau Waltershausen from 2002 to 2004.
• Monastery church (Servite order from 1368 in Vacha) with wall paintings (15th century)
• The Catholic parish church of St. Elisabeth is a hall church from 1906 and has a recessed, polygonal choir. It contained an important, rare Shrine Madonna from Elbing (probably 1402). This has now been taken to a museum. It shows the protective coat motif open and a fully plastic mercy seat .
• From the city fortifications, which were built from the 12th century, parts of the city wall and three round towers have been preserved. Originally it was a fortification system reinforced by Wendelstein Castle with towers and a wall-ditch system.
• Jewish cemetery at the Hospitalland in the direction of Busengraben
• Bismarck tower on the Öchsenberg - built in 1902, blown up in 1978.
• The depot of Kraftverkehr Bad Salzungen at the entrance to the village from the direction of Sünna with its three-story, round administration building had an architecture that was unusual for the GDR in the 1950s. It was demolished in 2014/15.

Regular events

• Christmas heart market
• carnival
• Castle Festival
• City festival

Economy and Infrastructure

Commercial areas

The Vacha / Oberzella industrial park is located on the western outskirts of the Oberzella district . It has a total area of ​​26.3 hectares (as of 2009), a further 17 hectares are reserved for expansion.

traffic

Rail transport

Since 1879 the city has had a connection to the railway network with the Vacha train station . After the closure of the Ulstertal Railway due to border security measures at the inner-German border , a border bypass loop was built to Unterbreizbach in 1952 in order to be able to handle all freight traffic to the local potash plant via GDR territory. The bypass route was also used for passenger traffic from 1954 to 1956. Since 1956, passenger traffic has only been between Bad Salzungen and Vacha. With the cessation of potash traffic to Unterbreizbach at the beginning of 2000 and the end of passenger traffic to Bad Salzungen in June 2001, the station lay idle.

In the premises of the former Vacha depot , after many years of use by a steel construction company, there is now a railway association that maintains the railway facilities and aims to resume railway operations on the route to Bad Salzungen as a connecting railway for goods traffic.

Road traffic

The federal highways 62 and 84 lead through the area of ​​the city , via which the cities of Bad Salzungen, Eisenach, Fulda and Bad Hersfeld can be reached. Connection to the federal motorway 4 is via the B 62 near Friedewald and the B 84 in Eisenach.

Vacha is now connected to the local public transport network with several bus routes operated by the Wartburgmobil transport company . These run between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the direction of Geisa , Unterbreizbach , Oechsen , Dermbach , Bad Salzungen and Eisenach . There is also a line to Bad Hersfeld , which is operated in cooperation with the NVV .

Personalities

• Carl Oeste (1832–1898), politician, Mayor of Vacha from 1869 to 1890

sons and daughters of the town

• Balthasar Fabricius (around 1478–1541), humanist, Latin grammarian and rhetorician
• Georg Witzel (1501–1573), theologian and opponent of Luther
• Louis Heyligenstaedt (1842–1910), machine manufacturer in Gießen and member of the Reichstag
• Ferdinand Gerstung (1860–1925), beekeeper and co-founder of the first beekeeping museum
• Leopold Suchsland (1871–1943), music teacher and composer
• Günter Porsiel (1933–2017), politician (CDU) and local history researcher
• Conrad Cappell (* 1947), diplomat and 2008-2013 Consul General of Ho Chi Minh City
• Jürgen Bohn (* 1959), FDP politician and from 1990 to 1994 State Minister for Economics and Technology in Thuringia
• Volker Wachter (* 1960), archivist and publicist in the field of film
• Frank Witter (* 1970), actor

literature

• WE Eberhardi: Historical Notes on the City of Vacha . Müller, Vacha 1841.
• Paul Grau: Chronicle of the City of Vacha . Festschrift to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the affiliation of the office and the city of Vacha to the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar. Borkmann, Vacha 1891.
• Georg Voss: Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach: Dermbach administrative district: District court districts Vacha, Geisa, Stadtlengsfeld, Kaltennordheim and Ostheim vd Rhön. Jena 1911 digitized
• Paul Grau: Chronicle of the City of Vacha . Completed and edited by Max Eckardt. 3rd edition expanded by the author. Albrecht-Dürerhaus u. a., Vacha 1922.
• Waldemar Küther : Vacha and his Servite monastery in the Middle Ages . With a certificate and regesta attachment. With the collaboration of Hans Goller. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne u. a. 1971, ( Mitteldeutsche Forschungen 64, ISSN  0544-5957 ).
• Olaf Ditzel: The time of the city of Vacha . A look back at the 800th anniversary of the first designation as a city 1186–1986. Ott, Bad Hersfeld 1991.
• Günter Hermes: Vacha. Timeline to history . 4 volumes. sn, Vacha 1996-2004.
• Günter Hermes: Vacha. Pictures of an old city . Geiger, Horb am Neckar 2004, ISBN 3-89570-985-9 .
• Olaf Ditzel, Walter Höhn: Vacha and the neighboring communities in the Oechsetal . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg / Fulda 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-121-8 , p. 32 .
• Dietrich Lemke: Vachaer Heimatbuch . Zeuthen 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-028957-6 .

Web links

Commons : Vacha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Vacha in Merian's Topographia Hassiae  - Sources and full texts

• Website of the city of Vacha
• Illustration by Daniel Meisner from 1624: Vacha. Fortuna Non Sine Metu ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics  ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Robert Riemann Keltenburgen north and south of the Thuringian Forest Hagenberg-Verlag, Homburg 1986, p. 26.
3. ↑ Alfred Götze : Prehistoric castle on the Oechsen near Vacha. In: Georg Voss (Hrsg.): Architectural and art monuments of Thuringia. Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach. Vacha District Court District . Booklet XXXVII. Verlag Gustav Fischer, Jena 1911, p. 37-39 .
4. ↑ Vacha and his Servite Monastery in the Middle Ages, p. 3.
5. ↑ Vacha and his Servite Monastery in the Middle Ages, pp. 9-14.
6. ^ Wolfgang Kahl: First mention of Thuringian towns and villages. Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 2010, ISBN 978-3-86777-202-0 , p. 297.
7. ^ Waldemar Küther: Vacha and his Servite monastery in the Middle Ages. Böhlau, Cologne 1971, p. 8.
8. ^ Edward Schröder Vacha and Fischbach. Salmon migration and settlement on German rivers. In Namn och Bygd magazine for Nordic place-name research. Lund 1928, pp. 39-58.
9. ↑ Vacha and his Servite Monastery in the Middle Ages, p. 14 and 15th
10. ↑ Michael Köhler: Thuringian castles and fortified prehistoric and early historical living spaces. Jenzig-Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-910141-43-9 , p. 256.
11. Jump up ↑ Vacha town's warehouse, piece and tax book, volume 1771.
12. ↑ News of the events in Vacha also reached the English press through an English war correspondent. As compensation, the city of Vacha received 3,050 thaler from an aid committee in Great Britain. A quarter of the money was used for the renovation of the town church.
13. ↑ Vacha in alemannia-judaica.de, accessed on November 27, 2017
14. ↑ Gewerbeverein Vacha ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 27, 2017 
15. ↑ Thuringian Law and Ordinance Gazette No. 12/2013 p. 355 , accessed on October 16, 2016
16. ↑ City council election 2019 in Thuringia - preliminary result. Thuringian State Office for Statistics, accessed on May 28, 2019 . 
17. ^ Result of the mayoral election 2012 in Vacha, Stadt. (No longer available online.) Office of the Regional Returning Officer, April 22, 2010, formerly the original ; accessed on April 23, 2012 : “Entitled voters: 3,108; Voters: 2005; Turnout: 64.5%; Invalid votes 21; Valid votes 1984. " 
18. ^ Elections in Thuringia. Retrieved April 29, 2019 . 
19. ↑ Hartmut Ulle: Thuringian Wappenbuch - Arbeitsgemeinschaft Genealogie e. V. (ed.)
20. ↑ (sach): A “simple little church” for Vacha Catholics. Südthüringer Zeitung (editorial office Bad Salzungen), April 20, 2007, accessed on September 30, 2012 . 
21. ^ Vacha parish office
22. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Georg Dehio , edited by Stephanie Eißing u. a .: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Thuringia. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 , p. 1262.
23. ↑ Georg Dehio , edited by Stephanie Eißing a. a .: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Thuringia. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 , p. 1262 f.
24. ↑ Olaf Ditzel: Die Johanneskirche Stadtpfarrkirche zu Vacha, 2004, p. 90, note 54
25. ↑ ^{a b} Georg Dehio , edited by Stephanie Eißing a. a .: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Thuringia. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 , p. 1263.
26. ↑ Olaf Ditzel: Die Johanneskirche Stadtpfarrkirche zu Vacha, 2004, p. 90, note 54
27. ↑ Georg Dehio , edited by Stephanie Eißing a. a .: Handbook of German Art Monuments. Thuringia. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-422-03095-6 , p. 1261.
28. ↑ Erich Hahn: The Jewish cemetery in Vacha . In: Rhönklub (Ed.): Rhönwacht . No. 4 , 1994, ISSN  0936-1723 , pp. 6-7 .
29. ↑ Business parks in the Wartburg region. In: Wartburgkreis-Online. Retrieved February 18, 2010 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) 
30. ↑ District Office Wartburgkreis (Ed.) The business location Wartburgkreis - City of Eisenach. Info folder Bad Salzungen / Eisenach 1998, p. 20.
31. ^ Michael Knauf: History of the railway line Vacha - Unterbreizbach 1952–2000. First socialist railway construction in Germany September 1 - November 30, 1952 . Rockstuhl Verlag, Bad Langensalza 2008, ISBN 978-3-86777-038-5 .