Altenstadt is a municipality in the district

Wetteraukreis The Wetteraukreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis and Lahn-Dill-Kreis. History The distric ...

, in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is situated in the Nidder valley, approx. 27 kilometers north-east of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

History

Altenstadt was part of the

limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) * the Latin word for ''limit'' which refers to: ** Limes (Roman Empire) (Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimiting ...

, the former border of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, that passes through the town. According to excavations, Altenstadt was a Roman garrison in the first half of the second century. The first documented mention of Altenstadt took place only in the year 767, which makes Altenstadt the oldest municipality of Upper Hesse.

Division of the municipality

The municipality consists of 8 districts:

Notable persons

One of the inhabitants of Altenstadt was the justice inspector

Friedrich Kellner August Friedrich Kellner (1 February 1885 – 4 November 1970) was a German mid-level official and diarist who worked as a justice inspector in Laubach from 1933 to 1945. Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment during the First Worl ...

, who alternated his work-week between Laubach and Altenstadt during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Kellner recorded the misdeeds of the Nazis in a ten-volume diary which was on display in 2005 at the

George Bush Presidential Library The George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of George H. W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States (1989–1993), and his wife Barbara Bush. Located on a site on the west campus of T ...

. A Canadian documentary, My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner, was produced in 2006. The Lutheran missionary Georg Heinrich Schwarz was born in Höchst an der Nidder in 1868. He laboured in the

Cape Bedford Mission The Cape Bedford Mission was the first Christian mission on the Cape York Peninsula of Queensland, Australia. It is the oldest surviving mission in northern Queensland. Founded by Lutheran staff from the Cooper Creek area of South Australia (wh ...

, North Queensland, Australia, for 55 years. The anniversary of his arrival is still celebrated there each year in September and known as Muni Day. On 5 September 2019, Stefan Jagsch from the extreme-right NPD was elected the Mayor of the Waldsiedlung unopposed, which led to irritation in other parties at national level.

References

External links

Official site

Website of Lindheim

Website of Enzheim

Altenstadt and the former Airfield Altenstadt in World War II Wetteraukreis {{Hesse-geo-stub