Knowledge (city)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '  N , 7 ° 44'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Altenkirchen (Westerwald)
Association municipality :	Knowledge
Height :	200 m above sea level NHN
Area :	34.88 km 2
Residents:	8315 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	238 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	57537
Area code :	02742
License plate :	AK
Community key :	07 1 32 117
Association administration address:	Rathausstrasse 75 57537 Knowledge
Website :	www.stadt-wissen.de
City Mayor :	Berno Neuhoff (CDU)
Location of the city of Wissen in the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald)

Knowledge , also knowledge / victory , is a town in the district of Altenkirchen (Westerwald) in Rhineland-Palatinate . It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Wissen , to which it also belongs. The city is a state-approved climatic health resort and designated as a middle center according to state planning .

Knowledge, aerial view (2017)

geography

location

The city is located on the Sieg about 35 km southwest of Siegen , centrally between the Altenkirchener Oberkreis and the lower district on the northern foothills of the Westerwald at the transition to the Bergisches Land and the Siegerland .

City structure

The city of Wissen includes the districts of Alserberg, Altenbrendebach, Brückhöfe, Dorn, Ende, Endepfuhl, Glatteneichen, Hausen, Hufe, Köttingen, Neubrendebach, Neuhöfchen, Niederhombach, Nisterbrück, Oberhombach, Pirzenthal, Schönstein , Weidacker, Wendlingen and several hamlets and farms.

Knowledge (city), smooth oaks, aerial photo (2017)

History and Development

history

The first historical mention of the place took place in the year 913. The original settlement was founded in the second settlement period in the cleared area on the edge of the Archdiocese of Cologne and was named "Wisnerofanc" in 1048.

Exaltation of the Cross Church

The Lords of Arenberg , Burgraves of Kurköln , received the manorial rule in 1176. After they died out in 1280, the Archbishopric of Cologne moved the parish Wissen left der Sieg in as a completed fiefdom. The part of the parish on the right of the Sieg remained with the Lords of Wildenburg , whose line Werther of the House of Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg later also took Wissen on the left as a fief.

From 1803 to 1815 the parts of the parish came to Nassau , after which the parish was united under Prussian rule and Wissen became the seat of a mayor's office . In the 19th century, the transport connections of knowledge were considerably improved and larger industrial companies also settled there. Knowledge to the left of victory and knowledge to the right of victory were initially politically independent communities before they were united on October 1, 1952 to form the new community of Wissen. On April 19, 1969, Wissen was granted city rights. The three previously independent municipalities of Elbergrund , Köttingerhöhe and Schönstein were incorporated on June 7, 1969.

Population development

The development of the population in relation to today's urban area of ​​Wissen, the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 2,629 1835 3.151 1871 4,623 1905 6,282 1939 7,702 1950 8,447 1961 9,166

year Residents 1970 8,951 1987 8,321 1997 8,814 2005 8,538 2011 8,210 2017 8,419

Population development of knowledge from 1815 to 2017 according to the adjacent table

politics

City council

town hall

City Council Election 2019 Knowledge

Participation: 54.6% (+ 4.0%)

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

47.7

23.2

15.2

13.9

n. k.

CDU

SPD

FWG

Green

FDP

Gains and losses

compared to 2014

 % p

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-4.7

-11.6

+8.0

+10.2

-1.9

CDU

SPD

FWG

Green

FDP

The City Council in Knowledge consists of 24 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary city ​​mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the city council:

choice	SPD	CDU	FDP	GREEN	FWG	total
2019	6th	11	-	3	4th	24 seats
2014	8th	13	0	1	2	24 seats
2009	8th	13	1	-	2	24 seats
2004	6th	15th	1	-	2	24 seats

• FWG = Free Voting Group Verbandsgemeinde Wissen e. V.

mayor

Berno Neuhoff has been mayor since June 18, 2017. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed with 75.29% of the votes.

coat of arms

City arms

	Blazon : "A black St. Andrew's cross in silver." The coat of arms represents the coat of arms of the court of Wissen, handed down in a seal from 1539 - a St. Andrew's cross - and was already part of the previous coat of arms. On October 2, 1968, the former municipality of Wissen was granted approval by the Koblenz district government to use the version that is valid today.
	Justification of the coat of arms: The colors, black cross on a silver background, indicate that knowledge belonged to the Electorate of Cologne at the time of the old empire . By keeping the old symbols, the memory of the mining industry that has been around for almost 1000 years should be kept alive. The St. Andrew's Cross is still the most important warning sign underground today.

Historical coat of arms

Blazon : "In silver an oblique left blue wavy bar, above a floating black St. Andrew's cross, underneath three red heraldic roses with golden lugs and green sepals."

Establishment of the coat of arms: The municipal coat of arms, approved in 1960, symbolizes the location, development and earlier history of the village. The wavy bar indicates the amalgamation of parts of the previously independent communities Wissen right and Wissen der Sieg 1952. The district to the left of the river belonged to the electoral state of Cologne in 1803, on whose cross arms the colors black and silver refer, whereby the St. Andrew's cross is reminiscent of the image seal of the court of Wissen from 1539. The roses are borrowed from the coat of arms of the Lords of Wildenburg-Hatzfeld; Knowing right the victory was once part of their eponymous rule.

Town twinning

The city of Wissen maintains partnerships with the cities of Chagny (since 1968) in France , with the garden city of Letchworth (since 1983) in England and Krapkowice (Ger. Krappitz, since 2000) in Poland.

Culture and sights

Schönstein Castle

Heisterkapelle

Attractions

• Schönstein Castle
• Heisterkapelle , one of the oldest half-timbered chapels in the country
• Catholic parish church Exaltation of the cross (laying of the foundation stone in the year 1000) with the cross altar from the Grafschaft monastery and Peter Hecker's frescoes from 1928–1931
• see also → List of cultural monuments in Wissen

Regular events

The largest regular events are the annual rifle festival of the Schützenverein Wissen as well as the Schützenfest in the Schönstein district, the fair of the Catholic youth, the spring concert of the town and fire brigade band Wissen and the carnival program with the parade through the city on Carnival Tuesday.

Numerous events of the most varied kinds also take place in the KulturWERKwissen event hall, which was opened in 2009. The biggest event here is the NachtSchicht (industrial culture Westerwald & Sieg), which takes place every year in June.

Economy and Infrastructure

Industrial companies

Knowledge was, among other things, the headquarters of the commercial vehicle manufacturer Nistertal Walter Niepenberg Maschinenfabrik , which, in addition to its vehicle production, gained international fame as a supplier for the automotive industry and for the production of electrical welding equipment.

traffic

Knowledge regional train station, 2007

The Wissen (Sieg) train station is on the Cologne – Siegen railway line ( KBS 460 ). It is currently served by the SPNV line RE 9 and the RB 90 of the Hessische Landesbahn (HLB).

line	Line course	Tact
RE 9	Rhein-Sieg-Express : Aachen Hbf  - Aachen-Rothe Erde  - Stolberg (Rheinl) Hbf  - Eschweiler Hbf  - Langerwehe  - Düren  - Horrem  - Cologne-Ehrenfeld  - Cologne Hbf  - Cologne Messe / Deutz  - Porz (Rhein)  - Troisdorf  - Siegburg / Bonn  - Hennef (Sieg)  - Eitorf  - Herchen  - Schladern (Sieg)  - Au (Sieg)  - Wissen (Sieg)  - Betzdorf (Sieg)  - Kirchen  - Brachbach  - Siegen Hbf Status: timetable change December 2017	60 min
RB 90	Westerwald-Sieg-Bahn : Siegen Hbf  - Betzdorf (Sieg)  - Au (Sieg)  - Altenkirchen (Westerwald)  - Westerburg  - Limburg (Lahn) Mon – Fri two pairs of trains to / from Kreuztal Status: timetable change December 2017	60 min

The regional train station, which changed the appearance of the city, was inaugurated in November 2006. The cost of the project amounted to around 14 million euros.

In the past there was also a railway connection to Morsbach (Sieg) with the southern route of the Wissertalbahn , which was destroyed in the Second World War between Morsbach-Volperhausen and Wissen (Sieg), dismantled due to reparations payments and no longer rebuilt.

Public facilities

The St. Antonius Hospital Knowledge is an institution of the non-profit society of the Franciscans in Olpe mbH . In addition to the psychiatric institute outpatient clinic with two connected day clinics, the offer includes the St. Hildegard retirement home and the church welfare station.

Educational institutions

In the city of Wissen there is the Franziskus elementary school , the Marion-Dönhoff- Realschule plus as well as a vocational school , the Kopernikus-Gymnasium and two special schools.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• Hermann Knackfuß (1848–1915), painter, art writer and academy teacher
• Bruno Tacke (1861–1942), peat researcher and soil scientist
• August Wetter (1890–1970), politician (NSDAP), SA leader and police chief of Koblenz
• Waldemar Schweitzer (1926–1978), journalist and publisher
• Roderich Reifenrath (* 1935), journalist, former editor-in-chief of the Frankfurter Rundschau
• Hans Dieter Stöver (1937–2020), writer
• Ulrich Schmalz (* 1939), politician (CDU), member of the Landtag and the Bundestag
• Hannes Heer (* 1941), historian
• Gerd Alzen (* 1945), voice actor and radio host
• Theo Kölzer (* 1949), historian and diplomat
• Josef Sanktjohanser (* 1950), manager and president of the Main Association of German Retailers
• Klaus Anders (* 1952), poet and translator
• Anna Neuhof (* 1952), politician (Alliance 90 / The Greens)
• Andreas Krautscheid (* 1961), Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and the Media of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Michael Klein (* 1964), Protestant pastor, author, church historian and university professor
• Andreas Rödder (* 1967), historian and professor of modern history at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
• Matthias Rödder (* 1981), actor

People connected to knowledge

• Josefine Doerner (1895–1968), politician, lived close to Wissen in Schönstein
• Hanns-Josef Ortheil (* 1951), German writer, professor of creative writing, grew up partly in knowledge and now lives in Stuttgart and Wissen
• Thomas Enders (born December 21, 1958 in Neuschlade) CEO of the Airbus Group (formerly EADS), attended the Kopernikus-Gymnasium in knowledge.
• Eda Jahns (* 1939 in Graz) politician (SPD), member of the state parliament, lives in knowledge
• Jessica Weller (* 1983 in Wissen) politician (CDU), member of the state parliament, attended Kopernikus-Gymnasium in Wissen .

See also

• List of stumbling blocks in the Association of Knowledge

literature

• Knowing homeland book. Chronicle of the knowledge office (victory). Published by Wissener Heimatfreunde. Sieg-Post-Druckerei, Wissen 1951.
• Lorenz Gilles: April 19, 1969: Knowledge became a city. A report with pictures by Dieter Buslau among others . G. Nising, Wissen 1969. Online edition dilibri Rhineland-Palatinate
• Karl Friedrich Everke: Knowledge. A sketch. With pictures by Horst Huppert among others . G. Nising, Knowledge 1968.

Web links

Commons : Knowledge  - collection of images

• City knowledge / victory
• KulturWERKwissen e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
3. ↑ The History of the City of Knowledge
4. ↑ Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 188 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
5. ↑ Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 182 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
6. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal Council Election 2019 Knowledge. Retrieved November 10, 2019 . 
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal elections 2014, city and municipal council elections
8. ↑ Mayor Wissen 2017 - final result. Verbandsgemeinde Wissen, accessed on February 20, 2018 .  
9. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Knowledge, Verbandsgemeinde, last line of results. Retrieved November 10, 2019 . 
10. ^ Verbandsgemeinde Wissen / town twinning. Retrieved October 16, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Franz Klanitz: Grafschafter In the footsteps of art. Schmallenberger Sauerland Almanach 1990, p. 149 ff., Westphalian Slate Mining Museum Schmallenberg-Holthausen (Ed.)
12. ↑ Query of the course book route 460 at Deutsche Bahn.
13. ↑ Psychiatric Institute Outpatient Clinics (PIAs). St. Antonius Hospital Knowledge, accessed on March 5, 2020 .