Edertal is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Waldeck-Frankenberg Waldeck-Frankenberg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland. History The district was created in 1972 by merging ...

in northern

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

Location

Edertal lies roughly 30 km in a straight line southwest of

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

. It is on the north and northwest edges of the

Kellerwald The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany. Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Ederse ...

range and stretches to the south shore of the

Edersee The Edersee, also known as the Ederstausee, is an reservoir in Waldeck-Frankenberg, Hesse, Germany with of storage space. It has the 2nd largest area (behind the Forggensee), and the 3rd largest volume (behind the Bleilochstausee and Rurstause ...

and south and southwest of its

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

. It lies at the eastern edge of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park, a small part of which is inside municipal limits. The community of Edertal is crossed by the river Eder, the biggest body of flowing water in the community, from northwest to southeast. Into this empties the Wesebach at the constituent community of Giflitz. The Affolderner See, which is found within municipal limits, is another

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

used as lower reservoir for the Waldeck Pumped Storage Station (one of Germany's largest hydro power stations) and for recreation. On the whole,

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

use at the Edersee is also well developed.

Neighbouring communities

Edertal borders in the north on the town of Waldeck, in the east on the towns of

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...

(

district) and Fritzlar (

Schwalm-Eder-Kreis Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Kassel, Werra-Meißner, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Vogelsberg, Marburg-Biedenkopf, and Waldeck-Frankenberg. History In 1821 districts were create ...

), in the south on the town of

Bad Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the s ...

, and in the west on the town of

Frankenau Frankenau () is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Frankenau lies in the Kellerwald range southwest of the Talgang (566 m-high mountain). It is found on the southern edge of the Kellerwald-Eder ...

and the community of

Vöhl Vöhl is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse, Germany, not far southwest of Kassel. Geography Location Vöhl lies in the northern part of the Kellerwald-Edersee Nature Park on the Edersee, a man-made lake. It is located 40 kilometers ...

(all three in Waldeck-Frankenberg).

Constituent communities

In Giflitz is the community's administrative seat. With the neighbouring centre of Bergheim to the northeast, it forms the heart of the community and, accordingly, a lower centre in the Regional Plan (in terms of

Walter Christaller Walter Christaller (April 21, 1893 – March 9, 1969), was a German geographer whose principal contribution to the discipline is central place theory, first published in 1933. This groundbreaking theory was the foundation of the study of citie ...

Central Place Theory Central place theory is an urban geographical theory that seeks to explain the number, size and range of market services in a commercial system or human settlements in a residential system.Goodall, B. (1987) The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geo ...

). The community of Edertal consists of the following centres: Bringhausen was one of three villages that originally stood where the Edersee is now. It was relocated to higher ground early in the 20th century.

Geology

The area belongs to the foothills of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. Outcrops here are mainly

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

and

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

Politics

Municipal council

Edertal's council is made up of 31 councillors, with seats apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006: Note: FWG is a citizens' coalition. *Elections in March 2016: *CDU: 6 *SPD: 10 *Greens: 3 *FDP: 3 *FW: 6 *WIR: 3