Butzbach () is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

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 distri ...

district in

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

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 located approximately 16 km south of

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

and 35 km north 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 ...

. In 2007, the town hosted the 47th

Hessentag The Hessentag (; en, Hesse Day) is an annual event, both fair and festival, organized by the German state of Hesse to represent the different regions of Hesse. The events are shown for a week to the visitors, with an emphasis on cultural disp ...

state festival from 1 to 10 June. The "Landgrafenschloss" ("

landgrave Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...

s' castle"), used by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

until 1990, is now utilized by the city council. The so-called "Roman Way Housing" of the

with more than 1000 apartments was returned to the German Government in October 2007 and since has been renovated and rented out to the public. The town's market place is enclosed by

timber framing Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

. The "Schrenzer" hill (or Heidelbeerberg, 385 m) overlooks the town and the country north of Frankfurt, called ''Wetterau''. Another much higher mountain nearby is the

Hausberg {{italic title ''Hausberg'' (lit.: "house mountain", plural: ''Hausberge'') is German for a prominent mountain or hill in the immediate vicinity of a village, town or city, usually located on its municipal territory, but outside the built up are ...

which features a look-out tower.

Boroughs of Butzbach

Butzbach consists of the boroughs Bodenrod, Butzbach (urban core), Ebersgöns,

Fauerbach vor der Höhe Fauerbach may refer to: * Fauerbach (Usa), a river of Hesse, Germany, tributary of the Usa * Fauerbach, a district of Friedberg, Hesse, Germany * Fauerbach, a district of Nidda, Hesse, Germany * Fauerbach vor der Höhe, a district of Butzbach B ...

, Griedel, Hausen-Oes, Hoch-Weisel, Kirch-Göns, Maibach,

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

, Nieder-Weisel,

Ostheim Ostheim vor der Rhön is a town in Northern Bavaria in the district of Rhön-Grabfeld in Franconia. Though politically part of Bavaria since 1947, it was historically a part of Thuringia, and remains religiously, architecturally, and to some exten ...

, Pohl-Göns and Wiesental.

Twin towns – sister cities

Butzbach is twinned with: *

Collecchio Collecchio ( Parmigiano: ) is a town in the province of Parma, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located by road southwest of the centre of Parma. A major food-producing area, it is home to multinational Italian dairy and food corporation Parm ...

, Italy (2012) *

Eilenburg Eilenburg (; hsb, Jiłow) is a town in Germany. It lies in the district of Nordsachsen in Saxony, approximately 20 km northeast of the city of Leipzig. Geography Eilenburg lies at the banks of the river Mulde at the southwestern edge ...

, Germany (1990) *

Saint-Cyr-l'École Saint-Cyr-l'École () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. It used to host the training school for officers of the French army, the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr (ESM), which w ...

, France (2008)

Notable people

Gabriel Biel Gabriel Biel (; 1420 to 1425 – 7 December 1495) was a German scholastic philosopher and member of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of Windesheim, who were the clerical counterpart to the Brethren of the Common Life. Biel was born in Spe ...

(c. 1420–1495), scholastic philosopher and theologian; longtime Propst of the

Brothers of the Common Life The Brethren of the Common Life (Latin: Fratres Vitae Communis, FVC) was a Roman Catholic pietist religious community founded in the Netherlands in the 14th century by Gerard Groote, formerly a successful and worldly educator who had had a religio ...

in Butzbach *

Johann Jakob Griesbach Johann Jakob Griesbach (4 January 1745 – 24 March 1812) was a German biblical textual critic. Griesbach's fame rests upon his work in New Testament criticism, in which he inaugurated a new epoch. His solution to the synoptic problem bears his na ...

(1745–1812), biblical textual critic *

Friedrich Ludwig Weidig Friedrich Ludwig Weidig (15 February 1791 – 23 February 1837) was a German Protestant theologian, pastor, activist, teacher and journalist. Initially working as a teacher in Butzbach, he then spent a short time as a pastor in Ober-Gleen, a dis ...

(1791–1837), theologian, pastor and teacher; worked here 22 years as teacher and rector of the school * Lorenz Diefenbach (1806–1883), librarian, pastor, Germanist, lexicographer and writer *

Friedrich Schwally Friedrich Zacharias Schwally (10 August 1863 – 5 February 1919) was a German Orientalist with professorships at Strasbourg, Gießen and Königsberg. He held the degrees of PhD, Lic. Theol., Dr. Habil., and the Imperial honour of the Order of th ...

(1863–1919), orientalist *

Ernst Glaeser Ernst Glaeser (29 July 1902 – 8 February 1963) was a German writer, known for his best-selling pacifist novel ''Jahrgang 1902'' ("Born in 1902"). He was associated with the political left, and went into exile in Switzerland at the start of the N ...

(1902–1963), writer *

Peter Krick Peter Krick (born 31 January 1944) is a German former competitive figure skater who represented West Germany. He is a three-time (1966–68) national champion and finished in the top ten at seven ISU Championships – four Europeans and three ...

(born 1944), figure skater *

Dieter Enders Dieter Enders (17 March 1946 – 29 June 2019) was a German organic chemist who did work developing asymmetric synthesis, in particular using modified prolines as chiral auxiliaries. The most widely applied of his chiral auxiliaries are the comple ...

(born 1946), chemist and expert in the field of asymmetric synthesis *

Siegfried Zielinski Siegfried Zielinski (born 1951) is a German media theorist. He held the chair for Media Theory: Archaeology and Variantology of the Media at Berlin University of the Arts, he is Michel Foucault Professor for Techno-Culture and Media Archaeology a ...

(born 1951), media scientist and university lecturer *

Ron Gardenhire Ronald Clyde Gardenhire (born October 24, 1957) is an American former professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played as a shortstop for the New York Mets from 1981 through 1985. After another year playing in the minor leagues, he se ...

(born 1957), baseball manager

References

External links

Official website

Wetteraukreis Grand Duchy of Hesse {{Hesse-geo-stub