Babenhausen () is a town in the
Darmstadt-Dieburg
Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (Districts of Germany, district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach (district), Offenbach, Aschaffenburg (district), Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg (district), Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Berg ...
district, 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 ...
.
Geography
It is situated on the river
Gersprenz
Gersprenz is a river that starts in the Odenwald, Hesse and flows into the river Main near Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany. Including its source river Mergbach, it is long, without the Mergbach it is long.
Tributaries
The tributaries of the Ge ...
, 25 km southeast of
Frankfurt
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 ...
, and 14 km west of
Aschaffenburg
Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative seat.
Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...
. South of its general borders, the mountain range of the
Odenwald
The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
Location
The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried'' (the northeastern section ...
is situated about 15 km away. The landscape is rather flat due to the landscape forming process of the Gersprenz and other small rivers. Some sections along the Gersprenz are set aside as nature reserves with valuable plants and animals, e.g. the
white stork
The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to en ...
or the
kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
. The forests in the municipal area are mostly pine woods on ice-age dunes with heath fields. The sandy soil is regionally famous for growing white
asparagus
Asparagus, or garden asparagus, folk name sparrow grass, scientific name ''Asparagus officinalis'', is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus''. Its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable.
It was once classified in ...
.
History
The town of Babenhausen includes a medieval core with a castle (12-13th century), numerous old houses and a large part of the city wall (1445). Babenhausen was chartered as a town in 1295. It belonged first to the Lords of
Hanau-Münzenberg
The County of Hanau-Münzenberg was a territory within the Holy Roman Empire. It emerged when the County of Hanau was divided in 1458, the other part being the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg. Due to common heirs, both counties were merged from 1642 t ...
and was – after the last male descendant of this family died - inherited by the Lords of
Hanau
Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ...
in the 13th century. In 1458 a minor line of them (first called ''Hanau-Babenhausen'', later called ''
Hanau-Lichtenberg
The County of Hanau-Lichtenberg was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire. It emerged between 1456 and 1480 from a part of the County of Hanau and one half of the Barony of Lichtenberg. Following the extinction of the counts of Hanau-Lichtenberg in ...
'') founded a county (they had received the title of ''
Graf
(feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "coun ...
'' (Count) in 1429) on its own within the town and its district. In 1736 the last of the family died and the two potential inheritors, the Landgraves of
Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwee ...
and of
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Lan ...
(or Hesse-Cassel) nearly went to war over it. It took 35 years to settle the conflict and to arrange a compromise under which the town of Babenhausen came to Hesse-Kassel. But this was soon revised by the territorial rearrangements during and after Napoleonic times: From the beginning 19th century Babenhausen belonged to Hesse-Darmstadt.
In the aftermath of
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 ...
Babenhausen was the site of a
UNRRA
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
-sponsored
DP camp
DP may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre
* '' Danny Phantom'', an animated television series
* David Production, a Japanese animation studio
* Director of photography, a job in filmmaking
* Digital Playground, an ...
.
Population development
Number of inhabitants:
* 1786: 1,033
* 1800: 1,192
* 1861: 2,072
* 1890: 2,484
* 1900: 2,255
* 1939: 3,143
* 1948: 3,702
* 1970: 7,240
* 2012: 15,588
* 2014: 15,716
Politics
After the revision of districts and their borders in the state of Hesse in 1974 the following villages were added to the area of the town of Babenhausen.
#
Harreshausen, a small village just one km away from Babenhausen. It has its own castle. At its edge, the "Schöne Eiche" ("beautiful oak"), the mother tree of all pyramidal oaks grafted from it, a variant of the pedunculate oak (''
Quercus robur
''Quercus robur'', commonly known as common oak, pedunculate oak, European oak or English oak, is a species of flowering plant in the beech and oak family, Fagaceae. It is a large tree, native plant, native to most of Europe west of the Caucasus ...
''), appeared as a mutation about 1600.
#
Hergershausen
Hergershausen is the largest of the five villages in the municipality of Babenhausen in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in southern Hesse.
Geographical location
The town is located in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg on the first foothill ...
, elected as the third most beautiful village in Hesse.
#
Harpertshausen
#
Sickenhofen
#
Langstadt
The US military installation in Babenhausen, Babenhausen Kaserne, formerly home of the
41st Field Artillery Brigade, the 2nd and the 5th Field Artillery unit and two Patriot Missile units (D and E Batteries) of the
5th Battalion 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, was closed and returned to the control of the German government in 2007.
In the early '60s, it was the home of the 1st Missile Battalion 38th Artillery (Corporal) and its supporting Ordnance Detachment, the 157th Ord Det.
Mayor
Dominik Stadler (independent) was elected mayor in November 2020 with 54.9% of the votes.
Results
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Sons and daughters of the town
* Wilhelm Grünewald (1859-1925), German politician ( Progressive People's Party, DDP) member of Landtag (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 ...
), member of the Weimar National Assembly
The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its ...
* Oskar Hock (1898-1976), German physician, NSDAP functionary, SS Brigade commander and major general of the Waffen SS
* Heinrich Klein (1932-1989) Gross-Umstadt), was from 1970 to 1976 District Administrator of the Dieburg district and 1976-1989 member of the Bundestag
* Johann Adam Oest (born 1946), German actor
* Heinrich Leonhard Kolb (born 1956), politician ( FDP), Member of the Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
1990-2013
References
{{Authority control
Darmstadt-Dieburg
Grand Duchy of Hesse