Weilmünster

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the community of Weilmünster
Weilmünster
Map of Germany, position of the municipality Weilmünster highlighted

Coordinates: 50 ° 26 '  N , 8 ° 22'  E

Basic data
State : Hesse
Administrative region : to water
County : Limburg-Weilburg
Height : 175 m above sea level NHN
Area : 77.42 km 2
Residents: 8649 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 112 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 35789
Primaries : 06472, 06475 (Laubuseschbach, Wolfenhausen)Template: Infobox municipality in Germany / maintenance / area code contains text
License plate : LM, WEL
Community key : 06 5 33 018
LOCODE : DE WMU
Address of the
municipal administration: 		Rathausplatz 8
35789 Weilmünster
Website : www.weilmuenster.de
Mayor : Mario Koschel ( independent )
Location of the community of Weilmünster in the Limburg-Weilburg district
Rheinland-Pfalz Hochtaunuskreis Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis Lahn-Dill-Kreis Bad Camberg Beselich Brechen (Hessen) Dornburg (Hessen) Elbtal (Hessen) Elz (Westerwald) Hadamar Hünfelden Limburg an der Lahn Limburg an der Lahn Löhnberg Mengerskirchen Merenberg Runkel Selters (Taunus) Villmar Waldbrunn (Westerwald) Weilburg Weilmünster Weinbachmap
About this picture
View over Weilmünster

Weilmünster is a market town in the Limburg-Weilburg district in Central Hesse .

geography

Geographical location

Weilmünster is located on the northern slope of the Taunus in the Weil valley , a tributary of the Lahn . The nearest larger cities are Wetzlar (20 kilometers) in the northeast, Butzbach (30 kilometers) in the east, Usingen (18 kilometers) in the southeast and Bad Camberg (23 kilometers) and Limburg an der Lahn (35 kilometers) in the southwest.

Neighboring communities

Weilmünster borders in the north on the cities of Weilburg (district Limburg-Weilburg) and Braunfels , in the east on the community Waldsolms (both Lahn-Dill district ), in the south on the communities Grävenwiesbach , Weilrod (both Hochtaunuskreis ) and Selters , and in the west to the communities of Villmar and Weinbach (all three in the Limburg-Weilburg district).

structure

Weilmünster consists of the districts Audenschmiede , Aulenhausen , Dietenhausen , Ernsthausen , Essershausen , Laimbach , Langenbach , Laubuseschbach , Lützendorf , Möttau , Rohnstadt , Weilmünster (core town) and Wolfenhausen .

The core town of Weilmünster is the largest of all districts in the market town of almost 9,000 residents, as well as the center for medical care and a shopping area.

history

Weilmünster was first mentioned in 1217 as Wilmunstre , but at that time it was already a village with its own church. There is evidence that the Fulda monastery , which had possessions in the area, had this church built in the course of the 9th century. The current Protestant church was built at the beginning of the 16th century and its square defensive tower around 1300. From 1601, a regular market in Weilmünster is documented. Weilmünster was the official seat of the Weilmünster Office . The place belonged to Nassau , after the division of the estate to Nassau-Weilburg, from 1806 to the Duchy of Nassau and after the Prussian annexation in September 1866 came to the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau .

Industrialization in Weilmünster began early. For the year 1421 there is evidence of a forest smithy in Audenschmiede . Already before 1495 there was the Mehlbach mine, a mine for silver, lead and copper, which over the centuries has been one of the most productive in the Lahnmulde.

At the end of the 16th century there was a steel works with a blast furnace in Weilmünster itself . As a result, foundries and other metal processing companies settled there . During the Thirty Years War , metal processing largely ceased, and in 1655 the blast furnace was put back into operation. In 1712 the Nassau-Weilburg government decreed the closure of the hut in order to protect the forests, which had been damaged by charcoal production. Audenschmiede was to be continued as the only smelting site.

In 1798 the Audenschmiede plant became the property of the budding Buderus Group and until 1930 was one of its most important locations. However, this industrial development was short-lived. While the road in the Lahn valley was expanded and the Lahn canalized, the remote Weilmünster fell behind. The construction of Weilstrasse in 1860 came too late; the railway did not reach Weilmünster until 1890.

In the 1897 built Landesheil- and nursing home Weilmünster were in the Nazi time the mentally ill and disabled people forcibly sterilized and, omission of care or systematically murdered by deliberate deprivation of food by overdose of drugs. From 1937 to 1945 more than 6,000 people died there, including all Jewish patients. Investigations against staff of the institution for participating in the National Socialist murders of the sick were discontinued in 1953.

Möttau was first mentioned in a document in 802 of today's districts, Laubuseschbach 897, Wolfenhausen 1194, Essershausen 1233, Lützendorf 1234, Dietenhausen 1301, Ernsthausen 1309, Laimbach 1344, Langenbach 1335, Rohnstadt 1355 and Aulenhausen in 1565.

The Weilmünster peasant uprising

In the second half of the 16th century, there were sometimes violent revolts against the sovereigns of the Weilmünster population, who were mainly active in agriculture. The reason was Count Albrecht von Nassau-Weilburg's wish to have the "Bulnberg" forest transferred to the community of Weilmünster. A corresponding request was made to the residents on July 1, 1563 during a meeting on Diedenhausener Landstrasse, which they rejected. Thereupon the count had the Weilmüsterer locked out of their forest and arrested two of them while enforcing this lock. The community in turn successfully sued the Reich Chamber of Commerce in Speyer for the failure to lock and release the prisoners.

In the further course of the year, the count offered the community an exchange of the forest for other rights in Weilmünster in his possession, which the community also refused. Thereupon Albrecht proclaimed the ban on the Bulnberg and in the night of November 10th, 1563, invaded Weilmünster by brushwood and infantry. The soldiers knocked down four farmers and took several prisoners.

In the following year Albrecht increased the compulsory labor of the Weilmünsterers and no longer paid them any service fees . The majority of the peasants then refused to do labor and again appealed to the Reich Chamber of Commerce. The count reacted with fines and, when these were not paid, with the seizure of cattle and later of real estate and farm equipment. According to the farmers, around 1,500 head of cattle should have been confiscated by 1668. For the next 20 years or so, the conflict remained largely unchanged. There were always new letters and negotiations at the Imperial Court of Justice as well as supplements to the imperial court from the peasants and more and more distractions, arrests and expulsions from the count. The seizures and the costs of the legal dispute as well as the loss of arrested or expelled workers led in the following years to an increasing indebtedness of many community members in Weilmünster. In 1566 Albrecht forbade taking out mortgages on community property, which further restricted the financial leeway of his opponents.

In 1571 the count reached a settlement of the disputes with nine surrounding villages, which had been involved to a lesser extent. Within Weilmünster the tensions between the farmers on the one hand and the mayor Christian Weismann and the local Jews on the other had grown over the years. The former was the count's local executive; the latter acted both as the lender of the mortgage and as the usher of the seized property on behalf of the count.

In 1584 it came after mediation efforts by Johann VI. von Nassau-Dillenburg via the Wetterauer Grafenverein, led by him, to a settlement of the conflict between Count Albrecht and a minority of 67 members of the community of Weilmünster. In the following year, Emperor Rudolf II (HRR) finally set up a commission chaired by Kurmainz and the imperial city of Frankfurt to settle the conflict. At the same time, Count Albrecht had all of the community members who were clinging to the dispute expelled from Weilmünster. Albrecht rejected the following proposed solutions by the commission and threatened the resistanceists from Weilmünster at a meeting on September 4, 1587 in Weilburg with the final deportation together with their families and the confiscation of all their property. Thereupon a majority of the community submitted to the count. In November of that year only 53 and thus around a third of the parishioners supported the demands against the sovereign. By February 1588, the number dwindled to a few farmers who were actually expelled from the county and thus became vagabonds . Albrecht then forgave the community part of their debts and took over the entire castle forest. The residents of Weilmünster had to repay the remaining debts in the following years.

Territorial reform

As part of the regional reform in Hesse , the former market town of Weilmünster in the Oberlahnkreis merged voluntarily on December 31, 1970 with the previously independent communities Aulenhausen, Dietenhausen, Ernsthausen, Laimbach, Langenbach, Laubuseschbach, Lützendorf, Möttau, Rohnstadt and Wolfenhausen to form the new large community of Weilmünster. Essershausen was added on December 31, 1971. For all twelve formerly independent municipalities, local districts with local advisory councils and local councilors were formed in accordance with the Hessian municipal code.

Territorial history and administration

The following list gives an overview of the territories in which Weilmünster was located and the administrative units to which it was subordinate:

population

Population development

Weilmünster: Population from 1834 to 2015
year     Residents
1834
  
 1,299
1840
  
 1,429
1846
  
 1,506
1852
  
 1,550
1858
  
 1,503
1864
  
 1,570
1871
  
 1,517
1875
  
 1,401
1885
  
 1,464
1895
  
 1,531
1905
  
 2,744
1910
  
 2,967
1925
  
 1,893
1939
  
 3,643
1946
  
 3,328
1950
  
 3,684
1956
  
 4.120
1961
  
 3,675
1967
  
 4,040
1970
  
 8,897
1972
  
 9,429
1976
  
 9.094
1984
  
 8,900
1992
  
 9,014
2000
  
 9,400
2010
  
 9,029
2015
  
 8,800
Data source: Historical municipality register for Hesse: The population of the municipalities from 1834 to 1967. Wiesbaden: Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, 1968.
Further sources:; 1972 :; 1976 :; 1984 :; 1992 :; 2000, 2015 :; 2010:
From 1970 including the towns incorporated into Hesse as part of the regional reform .

Religious affiliation

Source: Historical local dictionary

• 1885: 1378 Protestant (= 97.66%), 32 Catholic (= 2.27%), one Jewish (= 0.07%) residents
• 1961: 2499 Protestant (= 68.00%), 1074 Catholic (= 29.22%) residents

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
11
10
6th
4th
11 10 6th 4th 
A total of 31 seats
  • SPD : 11
  • CDU : 10
  • BL : 6
  • BfW : 4
 Parties and constituencies %
2016 		Seats
2016 		%
2011 		Seats
2011 		%
2006 		Seats
2006 		%
2001 		Seats
2001
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany 35.6 11 45.5 14th 43.1 13 43.3 13
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany 32.2 10 37.9 12 41.2 13 40.5 13
BL Citizens List FWG-FDP 19.1 6th 16.6 5 15.7 5 10.9 3
BfW Citizens for Weilmünster 13.2 4th - - - - - -
GREEN Alliance 90 / The Greens - - - - - - 5.2 2
total 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 31 100.0 31
Voter turnout in% 52.0 49.3 48.4 56.9

mayor

  • Eppstein, Johann Christian (1867–1875)
  • Dienst, Philipp Friedrich (1876–1880)
  • Dienst, Friedrich Ernst (1880-1891)
  • Dienst, Philipp Friedrich (1891-1896)
  • Eppstein, Philipp (1896–1900)
  • Klein, Philipp Heinrich (1900–1926)
  • Müller, August (1926–1933)
  • Färber, August (1933–1941)
  • Weil, Hermann (1941–1945)
  • Weil, Albert (1945)
  • Metzler, Adolf (1945–1946)
  • Weil, Albert (1946–1948)
  • Weinbrenner, Friedrich (1948), acting, first alderman
  • Benz, Albert (1948–1951)
  • Dr. Kottek (1951–1952), acting, first alderman
  • Benz, Wilhelm (1952–1958)
  • Windmeier, Waldemar (1958–1988)
  • Pfeiffer, Klaus (1988–1994)
  • Heep, Manfred (1994-2018)
  • Koschel, Mario (since 2018)

Sovereignty symbols

coat of arms

Coat of arms of the market town of Weilmünster
Coat of arms of the market town of Weilmünster
 Blazon : "In silver a two-towered, blue-roofed and with crossed golden tower balls on the spiers and the nave roof occupied red church in perspective southeast view, in the left upper corner in blue a rising red-tongued and red-defended golden lion sprinkled with seven golden shingles. "
Reasons for the coat of arms: The coat of arms in its current form was awarded on July 1, 1935 by the President of the Hesse-Nassau Province and confirmed by the Hessian Minister of the Interior on September 30, 1983. At the same time, the community Weilmünster (Oberlahnkreis) was granted the right to use the designation " market town " in a separate document .

The church in the coat of arms is modeled on the Protestant church in Weilmünster. The golden lion with the seven shingles comes from the coat of arms of the former Duchy of Nassau. It is evident that today's coat of arms was used as an official seal shortly after the Thirty Years' War .

flag

“The flag shows the two color strips orange and blue, which are confused in the upper third, covered with the municipal coat of arms.” The colors orange and blue are reminiscent of the national colors of the former Duchy of Nassau. As an alternative to the municipal coat of arms, a flag, the Weilmünster flag, is hoisted at certain events.

Partnerships

Weilmünster has had a partnership with the municipality of Le Cheylard in France since 1963 .

Culture and sights

Cultural monuments

  • Office building

  • Amtshaus (side view)

  • Bakehouse

  • Protestant church

  • Weilmünster town hall

  • Heimatstube of the Heimatverein

  • Kirbergturm

Old Nassau office building

The office building in Weilmünster is a half-timbered house with a half- hipped roof and a hexagonal ridge opposite the town hall and the Protestant church. The building was erected in the 17th century and was the seat of the upper school and the court. From 1772 to 1822 the building also served as a school. A boys 'and a girls' class were set up. From 1822 to 1915 the house was a school building for Weilmünster. From 1915 to 1965 the house was used as a residential building. From 1969 to 1974 preparatory work for the change of use was carried out and the renovation was completed in 1979/80. Today the house is the seat of the building authority and the registry office.

The former bakery (popularly known as “Bolles-che”) is attached to the office building. The small building with the conspicuous roof was used as a prison, guard room, seat of the night watchman and the local shepherd.

Evangelical church with defense tower

The Protestant church in Weilmünster has a free-standing fortified tower from the 12th / 13th centuries. Century. The choir and nave were consecrated in 1511 . In 1790 the church was rebuilt in baroque style. The three-sided gallery and the offering box date from 1654, the pulpit from the 17th century, the organ from 1776 and the baptismal font stand from the 18th century.

town hall

The classicist town hall was built around 1810. The building was also used as a school until 1915. During the Second World War , the house was destroyed in 1944 and partially rebuilt after the war.

Home parlor

The home office is a traufständiges semi-detached house with a built in around 1700. The half-timbered house has carvings on threshold and corner post . The skylight door, decorated with lozenges and plaits, shows the year 1837. Today the house is used as the home room of the home association Weilmünster.

In addition to the Heimatstube, there are other half-timbered houses in the village.

"Kirbergturm" observation tower

The Kirbergturm, also popularly known as the "Römerturm", is an approximately 20 meter high tower that is approximately 25 meters above the community. It is a watchtower as part of the medieval fortifications of Weilmünster. The building dates from around 1600. There are remains of the fortification wall in the vicinity. The tower was renovated in 1986/87.

Regular events

Weilmünster has had market rights for more than 400 years and still makes extensive use of them today. Spring, farmers and martini market attract a large number of visitors. In addition, sporting events such as the Weiltal Marathon and the car-free Sunday in the Weiltal always attract guests to the town. The course of the year:

  • March spring market
  • April Weiltal Marathon
  • June Weiltal family bike tour in cooperation with the traffic and beautification association Weilmünster
  • July Apple run in cooperation with the Heil wine press
  • July wine festival
  • August Car-free Weiltal Sunday
  • September fair (with farmers market)
  • November Martini market

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

Vitos Klinikum Weilmünster is the largest employer in the municipality with 680 employees. The second largest employer is the automotive supplier KM Decorative Components GmbH in Audenschmiede. This is followed by a road construction company and a large number of medium-sized businesses and craft businesses.

Weilmünster is one of the most densely wooded places in the district. In addition to the state forest, the Weilmünster forestry office also looks after the forest of twelve municipalities in the south of the Limburg-Weilburg and Lahn-Dill districts.

traffic

Weilmünster is close to the federal highway 456 , via which Weilburg and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe can be reached. The distance to Frankfurt Airport is around 60 km.

The Weilburg - Grävenwiesbach ( Weiltalbahn ) railway, which was dismantled by 1990 , passed through Weilmünster. In addition to the actual, remote train station itself, the spa facility also had its own stop called Weilmünster-Kurhaus . In the village the branch line branched off to Laubuseschbach. In the meantime, all tracks have been completely removed and the route was mostly used for the construction of the Weiltalweg.

The route to Laubuseschbach can now also be used by hikers, cyclists or inline skaters (asphalt surface). In Weilmünster, the last witnesses of the railway are the old station building and the walled up tunnel portals. The stone arches of the viaduct that were still in place until August 2007 had to give way to a road widening. In connection with the reactivation of the Grävenwiesbach - Brandoberndorf railway line , reconnecting Weilmünster to the rail network was also considered. However, the plans were not specifically pursued.

education

In the core community of Weilmünster there is a primary school with a branch in Laubuseschbach. There is also a cooperative comprehensive school with a secondary school , a secondary school and a grammar school for grades five to nine. Many students from Weilmünster also attend secondary schools in Weilburg .

Facilities

  • Weilmünster volunteer fire brigade , founded in 1910 (since October 1, 1975 with youth fire brigade and since September 23, 2007 with children's fire brigade )
  • Aulenhausen volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1934 (with youth fire brigade since January 1, 1992)
  • Dietenhausen volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1934 (since February 27, 1996 with youth fire brigade and since April 2, 2011 with children's fire brigade)
  • Ernsthausen volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1932 (with youth fire brigade since July 8, 1990)
  • Essershausen volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1934
  • Volunteer fire brigade Laimbach, founded in 1934 (since July 1, 1988 with youth fire brigade)
  • Langenbach volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1934 (with fanfare train since 1977 and with youth fire brigade since December 1, 1981)
  • Volunteer fire brigade Laubuseschbach, founded in 1934 (since June 16, 1983 with youth fire brigade and since August 21, 2010 with children's fire brigade)
  • Voluntary fire brigade Rohnstadt, founded in 1934 (since January 9, 1999 with youth fire brigade)
  • Wolfenhausen volunteer fire brigade, founded in 1932 (since March 1, 1977 with youth fire brigade and since September 25, 2010 with children's fire brigade)

Sons and daughters of the church

literature

  • Erco von Dietze: Archive Evangelical Church Community Weilmünster I. 1565–1975. Finding aid. 1989
  • Erco von Dietze: Archive of the Evangelical Church Community Weilmünster II. (Ernsthausen) 1766–1976. Finding aid. 1989
  • Fritz Geisthardt: Sovereign iron industry in the Taunus. In: Nassau Annals . Vol. 68, 1957, pp. 156-174.
  • Georg Schmidt (historian) : Peasant unrest in Weilmünster (1563-1588). In: Nassau Annals. Vol. 95, 1984, pp. 91-118.
  • Literature on Weilmünster in the Hessian Bibliography

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hessian State Statistical Office: Population status on December 31, 2019 (districts and urban districts as well as municipalities, population figures based on the 2011 census) ( help ).
  2. ↑ Amalgamation of communities to form the community "Weilmünster", Oberlahnkreis on January 6, 1971 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1971 No. 4 , p. 141 , point 170 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 6.3 MB ]).
  3. ^ 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, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 373 .
  4. ↑ main statute. (PDF; 51 kB) § 6. In: Website. Weilmünster community, accessed March 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c Weilmünster, Limburg-Weilburg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of June 5, 2018). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  6. ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. State of Hesse. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  7. ^ Local elections 1972; Relevant population of the municipalities on August 4, 1972 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1972 No.  33 , p. 1424 , point 1025 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 5.9 MB ]).
  8. ↑ Local elections 1977; Relevant population figures for the municipalities as of December 15, 1976 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1976 No.  52 , p. 2283 , point 1668 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 10.3 MB ]).
  9. ^ Local elections 1985; Relevant population of the municipalities as of October 30, 1984 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1984 No.  46 , p. 2175 , point 1104 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 5.5 MB ]).
  10. ↑ local elections 1993; Relevant population of the municipalities as of October 21, 1992 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1992 No.  44 , p. 2766 , point 935 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 6.1 MB ]).
  11. ^ Community data sheet : Weilmünster. (PDF; 222 kB) In: Hessisches Gemeindelexikon. HA Hessen Agency GmbH ;
  12. ↑ The population of the Hessian communities on June 30, 2010. (PDF; 552 kB) Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, p. 11 , archived from the original on February 7, 2018 ; accessed on March 20, 2018 .
  13. ^ Result of the municipal election on March 6, 2016. Hessian State Statistical Office, accessed in April 2016 .
  14. ^ Hessian State Statistical Office: Result of the municipal elections on March 27, 2011
  15. ^ Hessian State Statistical Office: Result of the municipal elections on March 26, 2006
  16. ↑ a b Description of the coat of arms. In: weilmuenster.de. Market town Weilmünster, accessed on January 29, 2019 .