Wallenfels

Basic data
State :	Bavaria
Administrative region :	Upper Franconia
County :	Kronach
Height :	382 m above sea level NHN
Area :	45.66 km 2
Residents:	2627 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	58 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	96346
Primaries :	09262, 09289
License plate :	KC, SAN
Community key :	09 4 76 184
LOCODE :	DE WFS
City structure:	5 districts
; City administration address :	Rathausgasse 1 ; 96346 Wallenfels
Website :	www.wallenfels.de
Mayor :	Jens Korn ( CSU )
Location of the city of Wallenfels in the district of Kronach

Catholic Church of St. Thomas

Wallenfels is a town in the east of the Upper Franconian district of Kronach in Bavaria . It is part of the Upper Rodachtal region , a state-approved resort, and is best known for rafting .

geography

Geographical location

Wallenfels is part of the Upper Franconia-West planning region and is located in the Franconian Forest Nature Park in the Wild Rodach Valley, about 13 kilometers east of the district town of Kronach. The highest point is the Geuserberg at 708 m.

Community structure

Wallenfels has 23 officially named municipal parts.

the hamlet of Berghaus ( ⊙ )50.29164 11.54672
the hamlet Dörnach ( ⊙ )50.26121 11.44298
the wasteland Forstloh ( ⊙ )50.27382 11.44907
the hamlet of Geuser ( ⊙ )50.2438 11.46924
the wasteland hammer ( ⊙ )50.2752 11.45406
the hamlet of Kleinthiemitz ( ⊙ )50.27787 11.53443
the church village Neuengrün ( ⊙ )50.30056 11.50833
the wasteland Neumühle ( ⊙ )50.26529 11.50672
the wasteland Oberwellesmühle ( ⊙ )50.294 11.51518
the hamlet of Schindelthal ( ⊙ )50.29168 11.49974
the wasteland of Schmölz ( ⊙ )50.25508 11.5282

the village of Schnaid (rear) ( ⊙ )50.29159 11.55307
the church village Schnaid (middle) ( ⊙ )50.28853 11.54342
the village of Schnaid (front) ( ⊙ )50.2842 11.5393
the village of Schnappenhammer ( ⊙ )50.27797 11.52982
the wasteland stump grinder ( ⊙ )50.27599 11.4482
the desert of Thiemitz ( ⊙ )50.28905 11.5658
the hamlet of Unterwellesmühle ( ⊙ )50.29099 11.51241
the wasteland fowling ( ⊙ )50.28383 11.54712
the main town Wallenfels
the Wellesbach settlement ( ⊙ )50.27796 11.51829
the hamlet of Wellesberg ( ⊙ )50.29022 11.51682
the church village Wolfersgrün ( ⊙ )50.30889 11.53278

Another place in the municipality is Lorchenmühle. ( ⊙ ) 50.28783 11.56077

climate

The municipality of Wallenfels is climatically in the transition area between the low mountain range and the continental climate. The temperature differences are dampened by the high proportion of forest (over 80%).

history

In 1126 Wallenfels was first mentioned as "Ilowa". The name "Waldenfels" was first used in a document from Count Palatine Otto I in 1248 (see also the noble family Waldenfels ). Wallenfels in today's administrative district of Upper Franconia belonged to the Bamberg monastery from 1195 . From 1300 Waldenfels, which had market and brewing rights, became an independent episcopal office, around the same time the rafting business on the Wilder Rodach , which is still operated today, was first mentioned. In 1507 the place lost its independence and was subordinate to Kronach , in 1527 the castle Wallenfels was completely destroyed in peasant revolts. In 1541, the Waldenfels market was given its own coat of arms by Charles V. During the Second Margrave War , the church and the market were destroyed by arson. On February 4, 1588 Waldenfels was granted city rights for the first time as a result of the renewal of the market rights .

In the Thirty Years War the Swedes attacked Waldenfels in 1634 and burned it down, at the same time the name was changed to Wallenfels. With the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803, the place came to Bavaria and was assigned to the district court of Kronach . In 1900 Wallenfels got a railway connection with the Rodachtalbahn , in 1976 the line was closed.

1954 Wallenfels was again given city rights.

On November 12, 2015, Wallenfels gained notoriety in the international media after the discovery of eight baby bodies in a property in the city center. The place was besieged by international media representatives for days.

Religions

The inhabitants of Wallenfels are predominantly Catholic . There are four catholic houses of worship in the city. The Protestant parish Unterrodach-Wallenfels maintains a prayer room for Protestant Christians in Wallenfels.

Incorporations

The following table lists the formerly independent municipalities with the date of incorporation into the city of Wallenfels:

Former parish	Population (2014)	Residents (1970)	Date of incorporation	annotation
Wallenfels	2159	2864
Geuser	38	64	07/01/1972	without the place Haid, who after Reichenbach came
Neuengrün	137	180	07/01/1971	Wellesberg with Ober- and Unterwellesmühle incorporated on April 1, 1951
Wolfersgrün	215	286	07/01/1972	Wellesberg with Oberwellesmühle and Unterwellesmühle on March 31, 1951
Schnaid	312	519	01/01/1972

Population development

As of December 31, 2014, Wallenfels had 2,786 inhabitants. In the 1970s the peak of over 4,000 inhabitants was reached. Since then, due to demographic change and emigration, the number of inhabitants has declined sharply, and has decreased by 35% since the 1970s. In recent years, the decline has been slowed down by various measures. In the medium term, it is assumed that there will be 2500 inhabitants.

In the period from 1988 to 2018, the population fell from 3,410 to 2,657 by 753 or 22.1%.

politics

City council

The city council has 15 members including the full-time Mayor. The seats are distributed as follows:

town hall

Party / list	Seats 2002	Seats 2008 ¹	Seats 2014 ²	Seats 2020 ³
CSU	5	7th	10	8 ^*
SPD	4th	3	3	3
FW	8 ^*	7 ^*	4th	4th
total	17th	17th	17th	15th

¹ Status: Local election on March 2, 2008
² Status: Local election on March 16, 2014
³ Status: Local election on March 15, 2020
^* including the First Mayor

As of 2020, the city council will only have 14 members plus the first mayor due to the decline in population.

mayor

1984–1996: Manfred Nürnberger (CSU)
1996–2014: Peter Hänel (Free Voters)
since 2014: Jens Korn (CSU)

coat of arms

The description of the coat of arms reads: “Split by gold and silver; in front a red armored black lion covered with a silver sloping bar; in the back on a three-part silver rock mountain three green deciduous trees side by side. "

Town twinning

England England : The English city of Bingham near Nottingham has been twin town of Wallenfels since 1984 . To promote the twinning of the club Förderkreis Bingham Wallenfels e was the 1985th V. founded; mutual visits take place regularly.

Music clubs

Musikverein Wallenfels e. V.
Wallenfelser Blasmusik e. V.
Wind music Neuengrün / Schlegelshaid e. V.

tourism

Every year from May to September there are raft trips on the Wilder Rodach, to which between 500 and 1000 guests come on the weekends. At the Wallenfels parish fair at the end of July, the night torch raft ride in Rodach is held in flames with thousands of visitors. To secure this tourist attraction permanently, a larger reservoir is planned in the area of the Schnappenhammer district.

The signposted network of hiking trails at the Wallenfels hiking center is suitable for tours of various levels of difficulty. There are the nature trails Geopfad on Silberberg and Lamitzpfad at Schnappenhammer. Wallenfels is part of the Upper Rodachtal Nordic Walking Center.

Buildings

Hammer grinder on the Wild Rodach; Completely overhauled in 1997, since then it has been in operation again as a sawmill
Schloßberg chapel on the Schloßberg with a cloister
City parish church of St. Thomas
Historic lock structures on the Wilder Rodach from the time of rafting (upper and lower lock in Wallenfels)

Architectural monuments

Sports

Sports and leisure facilities include tennis and soccer fields, a skate facility, a heated outdoor pool with a beach volleyball field, a camping and tent site, a football field, signposted mountain bike and Nordic walking trails and an extensive one for cyclists and inline skaters Cycle path network.

sports clubs

FC Wallenfels
SV Wolfersgrün / Neuengrün
Wallenfels tennis club
TTC Wallenfels
Wallenfels shooting club

Regular events

The Wallenfels carnival parade takes place every year on Shrove Tuesday.
Bütten evenings in the carnival season
Easter market
Corpus Christi procession with the Swedish flag and the soldiers' procession as well as the corridor procession
Shooting and folk festival in June
Wallenfelser Kirchweih with Rodach in flames on the last weekend of July
Christmas market on the first weekend of Advent

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

The economy is shaped by the wood industry. In Wallenfels there are four larger sawmills and, in addition to some medium-sized industrial companies, mainly small and medium-sized craft and service companies. All local amenities including discount stores and petrol stations are available. The largest employer with around 120 employees in various institutions is Caritas.

traffic

Wallenfels is opened to traffic in an east-west direction by the heavily used and nationally important B 173 . While the federal road ran through the city center for decades and heavy goods traffic in particular developed into a massive burden on the population in the narrow valley floor in the course of German reunification , a bypass was built between 2001 and 2004 at great technical expense . The district road KC 31 leads from the B 173 (Wallenfels-Ost) to Geuser. The next junction to the Federal Motorway 9 is about 20 kilometers away.

The connection to the Rodachtalbahn via the Wallenfels station in the Erlabrück district no longer exists for passenger traffic since May 30, 1976. Freight traffic on this route was stopped in 1989. In this area, the tracks were dismantled in 2005 and the route to Steinwiesen expanded as a cycle path . The following section to Nordhalben is used as a route for the museum railway of the Eisenbahnfreunde Rodachtalbahn.

There are regular local bus connections to Kronach and Bad Steben ( DB-Frankenbus and RegioBus Kronach).

The Franconian Marienweg runs through Wallenfels .

education

Education center Wallenfels (municipal primary school, Catholic kindergarten, Catholic crèche, Caritas day care center, city music school, city library, sports hall, athletics and multi-purpose outdoor sports facilities with floodlights, traffic education area, Caritas advanced training center)
Branch of the Volkshochschule Kreis Kronach
Ecological outstation of the University of Bayreuth

In the medium term, Wallenfels is also set to become a university location within the framework of the "University Region District Kronach" project. Courses in medicine / ehealth and forest are possible.

sons and daughters of the town

Margarete Götz (* 1951), pedagogue and university professor
Lorenz-Günther Köstner (* 1952), soccer player and coach
Wolfgang Müller (* 1955), cross-country skier and participant in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid
Matthias Ring (* 1963), bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Germany since 2009

Others

In May 1962, the city of Wallenfels took over the sponsorship of the general and heavy cargo ship Wallenfels of the Hansa line in Bremen .

literature

Johann Kaspar Bundschuh : Wallenfels . In: Geographical Statistical-Topographical Lexicon of Franconia . tape 6 : V-Z . Verlag der Stettinische Buchhandlung, Ulm 1804, DNB 790364328 , OCLC 833753116 , Sp. 953-955 ( digitized version ).

Pleikard Joseph Stumpf : Wallenfels . In: Bavaria: a geographical-statistical-historical handbook of the kingdom; for the Bavarian people . Second part. Munich 1853, p. 603 ( digitized version ).

Franz Behrenschmidt, Annegret Hümmrich-Korm, Werner Stumpf, Maria Stumpf (Wallenfels Local History Working Group, ed.): Wallenfels - des sinn mije (750 years of the city of Wallenfels). Self published in 2004.