Werra-Suhl valley

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 56 '  N , 10 ° 4'  E
Basic data
State :	Thuringia
County :	Wartburg district
Height :	236 m above sea level NHN
Area :	77.67 km 2
Residents:	6398 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	82 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	99837
Primaries :	036922, 036925 (wish chair)
License plate :	WAK, SLZ
Community key :	16 0 63 103
City structure:	10 districts
City administration address :	Markt 1 99837 Werra-Suhl-Tal
Website :	www.vg-berka-werra.de
Location of the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal in the Wartburg district

Werra-Suhl-Tal is a town in the Wartburg district in Thuringia with 6,464 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2017). It was created on January 1, 2019 through the merger of the rural town of Berka / Werra with the neighboring communities of Dankmarshausen , Dippach and Großensee .

geography

location

The city of Werra-Suhl-Tal is located in the far west of Thuringia, directly on the state border with Hesse . The location on the inner-German border shaped the region for decades. Neighboring communities are Gerstungen in the north and east, the Frauensee district of the city of Bad Salzungen and the Oberzella district of the city of Vacha in the south, the Hessian city of Heringen (Werra) in the southwest and the municipality of Wildeck in the northwest. The city area is traversed by the eponymous Werra from south to north, tributaries include the eponymous waters Suhl (Werra) and Suhl (Weihe) .

The city is located in the center of the Berka-Gerstung basin . Substantial potash deposits of the Werra potash district are located underground in the urban area , which were previously mined in Abteroda, Dippach and Dankmarshausen. Due to the sinking of potash lye near Springen and after 1945 in the Horschlitter Mulde near Horschlitt, the aquifer under the urban area has been very salty since the 1960s.

The nature reserve Dankmarshäuser Rhäden , which extends on the state border northwest of Dankmarshausen in the biotope network Green Belt , as well as the nature reserve Werraaue near Berka and Untersuhl are of nature conservation importance .

City structure

The city consists of the districts Berka / Werra , Dankmarshausen , Dippach , Fernbreitenbach , Gospenroda , Großensee , Herda (with Hausbreitenbach and Kratzeroda ), Horschlitt (with Auenheim-Rienau ), Vitzeroda (with Abteroda and Gasteroda ) and Wünschensuhl .

history

The communities Berka / Werra, Dankmarshausen, Dippach and Großensee have been administered in the Berka / Werra administrative community since 1994 . As part of the Thuringia regional reform in 2018 and 2019 , the four municipalities agreed to submit an application to the Free State of Thuringia for a merger to form the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal on January 1, 2019 and to dissolve the Berka / Werra administrative community.

The Thuringian state government included the project in the second law for the voluntary reorganization of municipalities belonging to the district, which was passed by the Thuringian state parliament on December 13, 2018 and came into force at the turn of the year 2018/19.

politics

City council

The first election of the city council of the newly formed regional authority took place as part of the local elections in Thuringia 2019 . Until the election of a city council, there was a transitional council, consisting of all councils of the dissolved municipalities.

The city council consists of 20 members and received the following composition in the 2019 city council election:

Parties and constituencies		% 2019	Seats 2019
CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	23.1	5
Left / OL	The Left / Open List	11.3	2
FW	Free voters	57.3	11
WHVV	Community of voters, home and tourist association	2.3	1
PWST	Pro Werra-Suhl valley	6.0	1
Turnout: 63.9%

mayor

In the 2019 local elections , René Weisheit (Free Voters) was elected full-time mayor with 59.7 percent. Wisdom was previously mayor of the city of Berka / Werra.

Culture and sights

Buildings

Cultural monuments

The districts of the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal have a high number of half-timbered houses typical of the region, some of which are listed . Significant buildings in the urban area are:

• The Untertor in Berka, the last of the three former Berka city gates that has been preserved, is the most famous building in the city.
• The former Berka brewery is now the seat of the city administration.
• The former colliery building in Dankmarshausen is evidence of the attempt to mine potash in the village.
• The Dippach castle is used as a daycare today.
• Since the Middle Ages, the Vitzerodaer Kreuz has been an important border point and customs point on Hohen Strasse from Leipzig to Frankfurt am Main .

• 

  The lower gate in Berka

• 

  The old Georg Zinn brewery in Berka

• 

  Formerly the Dankmarshausen colliery

• 

  Dippach Castle

• 

  Vitzeroda Cross

Sacred buildings

Almost all districts of the city have Evangelical Lutheran church buildings:

• The church of Berka / Werra with the Juliusturm built in 1439 was once a fortified church .
• The St. Kilian Church is the defining building and the center of the historical location of Dankmarshausen.
• The Gothic village church of St. Katharina in Dippach stands out due to its unusual construction.
• The Holy Spirit Church in Fernbreitenbach dates from the pre-Reformation period.
• The village church Gospenroda was built in 1784 in half-timbered construction.
• The church of Großensee was built in the Gothic style, probably in the 14th century.
• The church of St. Margarethen in Herda was once a fortified church.
• The Vitzerodaer Church was built in 1912 in Art Nouveau style.

There are no sacred buildings of other religious communities in the city.

Natural monuments

The three-tier dance linden tree on the village square of Großensee was designated as a natural monument in 1966 .

Economy and Infrastructure

economy

At the beginning of the twentieth century, today's urban area was briefly a focus of the potash industry with pits in Abteroda, Dankmarshausen and Dippach. Towards the end of the Second World War, the BMW aircraft engine factory in Eisenach had a branch in the former Abteroda mine.

Today, the commercial area on the Dornenhecke in Berka, which was developed in the 1990s, is of particular importance. There are other industrial areas in Herda and Dippach.

The agricultural cooperative Dankmarshausen has operations in Horschlitt and Dankmarshausen and cultivates large parts of the agricultural land in the urban area.

tourism

The Werra Valley Cycle Path and the themed hiking path in the Green Belt biotope network run through the urban area along the state border. The Rhäden nature reserve with a dense network of hiking trails is open to those seeking relaxation. Water hikes on the Werra are also important - there are landing stages in Dankmarshausen and Berka.

traffic

The nearest junction 36 (Gerstungen) of the A4 is two kilometers north of Berka near Gerstungen. A section of the Thuringian Railway Eisenach - Bebra has stops at Gerstungen station and in Wildeck- Obersuhl . The abandoned train stations of Berka / Werra and Dankmarshausen were on the Gerstungen – Vacha railway line, which is still used for freight traffic today . From this a branch went off to the potash shafts Dippach and Abteroda.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Population of the municipalities from the Thuringian State Office for Statistics  ( help on this ).
2. ^ Geyer, Jahne, Storch: Geological sights of the Wartburg district and the independent city of Eisenach . In: District Office Wartburgkreis, Lower Nature Conservation Authority (Hrsg.): Nature conservation in the Wartburgkreis . Issue 8. Printing and publishing house Frisch, Eisenach / Bad Salzungen 1999, ISBN 3-9806811-1-4 , p. 105-108 .
3. ↑ TLUG Jena - Hydrogeology , accessed on January 2, 2019
4. ^ Main statute of the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal from January 19, 2019
5. ^ Rüdiger Schwanz: Mayors seal the city of Werra-Suhl-Tal. Thüringer Allgemeine , March 29, 2018, accessed on January 2, 2019
6. ↑ Thuringian Law and Ordinance Gazette No. 14/2018 p. 795 ff. , Accessed on January 2, 2019
7. ↑ Section 44 (1) of the Thuringian Act on the Voluntary Reorganization of District Communities in 2019
8. ↑ Birgit Schellbach: The new city is called Werra-Suhl-Tal. Thüringer Allgemeine, August 8, 2018, accessed on January 12, 2019
9. ^ Elections in Thuringia , accessed on May 29, 2019
10. ↑ Mayoral election 2019 , accessed on May 28, 2019
11. ↑ The Church at eisenach.ekmd-online.de.Retrieved on September 29, 2014
12. ^ Biedermann: Natural monuments in the Wartburg district. District Office Wartburgkreis, 2014, p. 41.