Biebrich is a borough of the city of
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
,
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 ...
. With over 38,000 inhabitants, it is the most-populated of Wiesbaden's boroughs. It is located south of the city center on the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
River, opposite the
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
borough of
Mombach
Mombach, with 13,875 inhabitants (Apr. 2021), is a borough in the northwest corner of Mainz, Germany. Mombach can be reached via Mainz-innenstadt (downtown) or Bundesautobahn 643.
Location
Mombach is located on the southern (left) bank of the ...
. Biebrich was an independent city until it was incorporated into Wiesbaden in 1926.
History
![Wi-biebrich-02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Wi-biebrich-02.jpg)
Numerous prehistoric and early-historical archeological finds indicate that the Biebrich area has been continuously inhabited since the
Neolithic Age
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. In the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, from the beginning of the reign of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
, the places ''Biburc'' (Biebrich) and ''Moskebach'' (Mosbach) were part of the
Königssondergau
The Königssondergau (German for "King's Special District") was a Frankish '' gau'' (district) which existed in the area north of the confluence of the Rhine and Main rivers in Germany, from Frankish times until the end of the 12th century. Ofte ...
Wiesbaden, held by the Frankish king as his personal property.
Biebrich was first mentioned in historical documents in 874. King
Louis the German
Louis the German (c. 806/810 – 28 August 876), also known as Louis II of Germany and Louis II of East Francia, was the first king of East Francia, and ruled from 843 to 876 AD. Grandson of emperor Charlemagne and the third son of Louis the P ...
and his entourage boarded vessels at ''Villa Biburg'' on a trip from
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 ...
to
Aachen
Aachen ( ; ; Aachen dialect: ''Oche'' ; French and traditional English: Aix-la-Chapelle; or ''Aquisgranum''; nl, Aken ; Polish: Akwizgran) is, with around 249,000 inhabitants, the 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the 28th- ...
.
Beginning of the 18th century, the princes (''Fürsten'') of
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
built the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
Biebrich Palace
Biebrich Palace (german: link=no, Schloss Biebrich) is a Baroque residence (''Schloss'') in the borough of Wiesbaden-Biebrich, Biebrich in the city of Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany. Built in 1702 by Prince George August, Count of Nassau-Idstein, Geor ...
(''
Schloss
''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house.
Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...
Biebrich''). When this magnificent building was completed in 1744, the Prince of
Nassau-Usingen
Nassau-Usingen was a county of the Holy Roman Empire in the Upper Rhenish Circle that became a principality in 1688.
The origin of the county lies in the medieval county of Weilnau that was acquired by the counts of Nassau-Weilburg in 1602.
Tha ...
relocated his residence from the far side of the
Taunus
The Taunus is a mountain range in Hesse, Germany, located north of Frankfurt. The tallest peak in the range is ''Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are ''Kleiner Feldberg'' (825 m) and ''Altkönig'' (798 m).
The Taunus range spans ...
to Biebrich. Until the completion of the City Palace in Wiesbaden in 1841, Biebrich was the principal residence of the Princes (and, after 1806, the Dukes) of Nassau.
In the 19th century, Biebrich became an important industrial center of the
Rhine Main Area
The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest metropolitan re ...
with the plants of Dyckerhoff Concrete (now owned by
Buzzi Unicem
Buzzi Unicem S.p.A. is an Italian company, quoted on the Borsa Italiana, which produces cement, ready-mix concrete, and construction aggregates. Its headquarters are in the town of Casale Monferrato which was once known as the Italian ‘cement ca ...
), Kalle and Albert Chemistry (now
Celanese
Celanese Corporation, formerly known as Hoechst Celanese, is an American technology and specialty materials company headquartered in Irving, Texas. A Fortune 500 corporation, the company is the world’s leading producer of acetic acid, produc ...
), and Henkell (sparkling wine = Sekt). In the economical crisis of the post-
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Era, the small town, struck hard by unemployment of the majority of his working-class residents, merged with the bigger and much wealthier nearby spa city of Wiesbaden.
In 1951, the 633rd AAA Gun Battalion, 90mm, 7th Army U.S. NATO Occupation Forces were stationed in Biebrich.
Twin towns – sister cities
Biebrich is
twinned with:
*
Glarus
, neighboring_municipalities= Glarus Nord, Glarus Süd, Muotathal (SZ), Innerthal (SZ)
, twintowns= Wiesbaden-Biebrich (Germany)
}
Glarus (; gsw, Glaris; french: Glaris; it, Glarona; rm, Glaruna) is the capital of the canton of Glarus in S ...
, Switzerland
Notable people
*
Seligman Baer
Seligman (Isaac) Baer (1825–1897) was a Masoretic scholar, and an editor of the Hebrew Bible and of the Jewish liturgy. He was born in Mosbach, the northern district of Biebrich, on 18 September 1825 and died at Biebrich-on-the-Rhine in March ...
(1825–1897), Biblical scholar and scholar of Jewish liturgy
*
Wilhelm Dilthey
Wilhelm Dilthey (; ; 19 November 1833 – 1 October 1911) was a German historian, psychologist, sociologist, and hermeneutic philosopher, who held G. W. F. Hegel's Chair in Philosophy at the University of Berlin. As a polymathic philosopher, w ...
(1833–1911) and
Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl
Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl (6 May 1823 – 16 November 1897) was a German journalist, novelist and folklorist.
Riehl was born in Biebrich in the Duchy of Nassau and died in Munich. Riehl was born into a settled middle-class background, was a profe ...
(1823–1897), pioneers of the early German cultural studies of the 19th century, grew up in Biebrich
*
Sophia of Nassau
Sophia of Nassau (Sophia Wilhelmine Marianne Henriette; 9 July 1836 – 30 December 1913) was Queen of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Oscar II. She was Queen of Sweden for 35 years, longer than anyone before her, and the longest-servin ...
(1836–1913), Queen consort of Sweden and Norway (1873-1907), wife of King Oscar II
*
Wilhelm Ferdinand Kalle
Wilhelm (Jakob) Ferdinand Kalle (born 19 February 1870 in Biebrich (Wiesbaden); died 7 September 1954 in Wiesbaden) was a German chemist, industrialist and politician.
Life
His father was industrialist Wilhelme Kalle. He studied at Universi ...
(1870–1954), chemist, industrialist and politician
*
Ludwig Beck
Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general and Chief of the German General Staff during the early years of the Nazi regime in Germany before World War II. Although Beck never became a member of the Na ...
(1880–1944), general
*
Toni Sender Toni Sender (or Tony Sender) (29 November 1888 Biebrich (Wiesbaden), Biebrich – 26 June 1964 New York City, New York) was a German socialist, feminist, politician and journalist. She was active in left-wing German politics in the WWI and interwar ...
(1888–1964), socialist politician
*
Walther Gerlach
Walther Gerlach (1 August 1889 – 10 August 1979) was a German physicist who co-discovered, through laboratory experiment, spin quantization in a magnetic field, the Stern–Gerlach effect. The experiment was conceived by Otto Stern in 1921 an ...
(1889–1979), physicist
*
Jürgen Grabowski
Jürgen Grabowski (7 July 1944 – 10 March 2022) was a German footballer. He played for Eintracht Frankfurt. He became European champion in 1972 and world champion in 1974. Grabowski is considered the greatest Eintracht Frankfurt player ever.
...
(born 1944), footballer, grew up in Biebrich and was part of two its youth clubs (FV Biebrich 1902 und SV Biebrich 1919)
*In the years 1863-1866 was
Béla Kéler
Béla Kéler (13 February 1820 - 20 November 1882) was a Hungarian composer of romantic music period and orchestral conductor.
Béla Kéler was born as ''Albert Paul Keler'' (''Adalbert Paul von Keler).'' He is also known in Hungarian as ''Ké ...
the music director at the ducal court of Nassau in Wiesbaden
*In 1862,
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
lived for one year in a newly built country house (later called Villa Annika) near the castle at the bank of the river Rhine, working on the first act and the prelude of the third act of ''
Die Meistersinger
Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life.
Die may also refer to:
Games
* Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers
Manufacturing
* Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
''. Following the composer's wishes, local wind instrument producer
Wilhelm Heckel
Wilhelm Heckel GmbH is a manufacturer of woodwind instruments based in Wiesbaden, Germany. It is best known for its bassoons, which are considered some of the finest available.The company was established in 1831 by the instrument maker Johann Ad ...
invented the so-called "
Heckelphone
The heckelphone (german: Heckelphon) is a musical instrument invented by Wilhelm Heckel and his sons. The idea to create the instrument was initiated by Richard Wagner, who suggested it at the occasion of a visit of Wilhelm Heckel in 1879. In ...
" (a basso-oboe, used by Richard Strauss, Paul Hindemith, and others).
References
Sources
* Partly derived from
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...
External links
Private unofficial Wiesbaden-Biebrich website(in German)
{{Authority control
Boroughs of Wiesbaden