Eschenburg is a municipality in the

Lahn-Dill-Kreis Lahn-Dill is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Siegen-Wittgenstein, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Gießen, Wetteraukreis, Hochtaunuskreis, Limburg-Weilburg, Westerwaldkreis. History The southern district belo ...

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 ...

. The community inherited its name from nearby

Eschenburg Eschenburg is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The community inherited its name from nearby Eschenburg mountain. Geography About 20 km², or 43.8%, of the municipal area is wooded, 9.85 km² of this being munic ...

mountain.

Geography

About 20 km², or 43.8%, of the municipal area is wooded, 9.85 km² of this being municipal forest, and the rest state forest.

Location

The individual communities within Eschenburg lie on the river Dietzhölze and in its side valleys and high dales in the Rothaargebirge's foothills. Eschenburg lies in the northern Lahn-Dill-Kreis, some 10 km northeast of

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen (region), Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-N ...

and 23 km east of

Siegen Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...

Neighbouring communities

Eschenburg borders in the north on the communities of Dietzhölztal (Lahn-Dill-Kreis) and

Breidenbach Breidenbach is a municipality in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Neighbouring communities * Bad Laasphe *Biedenkopf *Dautphetal *Eschenburg * Steffenberg Community divisions The community is divided into ...

, in the east on the communities of

Steffenberg Steffenberg is a municipality in Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Steffenberg lies at the southern foothills of the Rothaargebirge between the towns of Dillenburg (20 km) and Marburg (35 km). Neighbouri ...

and

Angelburg Angelburg is a municipality in western Marburg-Biedenkopf in northwest Middle Hesse in Germany. Geography Geographical location The community is found about 12 km south of Biedenkopf in the Gansbach valley north of the ''Schelder Wald'' ...

(all three in

Marburg-Biedenkopf Marburg-Biedenkopf is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Waldeck-Frankenberg, Schwalm-Eder, Vogelsbergkreis, Gießen, Lahn-Dill, Siegen-Wittgenstein. History The district was created in 1974 when th ...

), in the south on the community of

Siegbach Siegbach is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location The community of Siegbach lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland in the valley of its namesake brook, the Siegbach, which empties into the Aar to the south at Bi ...

, in the southwest on the town of

, and in the west on the town of

Haiger Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger. Geography Location Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern ...

(all in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis).

Constituent communities

Eschenburg comprises the centres of Eibelshausen – which is also the administrative seat – Eiershausen, Roth, Simmersbach, Wissenbach, Hirzenhain Ort and Hirzenhain Bahnhof.

History

It is known from

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

finds that there were settlers in what is today Eschenburg as far back as

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

ic times. Eschenburg had its first documentary mention in the 13th century. Quite early on in its history,

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...

s such as

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

were being mined in various places, and

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

and

diabase Diabase (), also called dolerite () or microgabbro, is a mafic, holocrystalline, subvolcanic rock equivalent to volcanic basalt or plutonic gabbro. Diabase dikes and sills are typically shallow intrusive bodies and often exhibit fine-graine ...

were being quarried. This resulted in

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

and hammering mills being established in the area. Only recently have archaeological digs shown the groundwork of a mediaeval forest smithy in Wissenbach. The founding of the greater community came on 1 October 1971 through a voluntary merger of Eibelshausen, Eiershausen and Wissenbach. On 1 July 1974, the communities of Hirzenhain, Simmersbach and Roth, all from the former district of Biedenkopf, also joined, bringing today's greater community of Eschenburg into being two years before municipal reform. The 589 m-high mountain

, seven kilometres northeast of Dillenburg, is the community's namesake. Among the six constituent communities, Eibelshausen is the biggest. It serves as a centre point in the middle Dietzhölze Valley, is the administrative seat, and is the centre for

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

with Haupt- and

Realschule ''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...

, and a gymnasial branch for ten villages in the communities of Eschenburg and Dietzhölztal.

Culture, leisure and sightseeing

Museums

The ''Heimatmuseum'' (Local Museum) in Eibelshausen as well as the Eschenburg-Dietzhölztal Culture Group offer interesting exhibits and a cultural programme featuring great diversity.

Sightseeing

Worth seeing is the more than 750-year-old village of Hirzenhain with its gliderport and

downhill skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping), w ...

run. Hirzenhain is the world's second oldest gliderport. Glider flying is maintained by the Hirzenhain Gliding Club, but even non-members can take part for a small fee. In the countryside around Simmersbach, the ''Philippsbuche'' ("Philip's Beech") recalls Landgrave Philip I's homecoming after a five-year Spanish-Dutch imprisonment on 10 September 1552.

Exercise, sport and leisure places

In Eschenburg there are many sport clubs in which one can practise almost any discipline, from football and handball to athletics, gymnastics, tennis, and so on. * 3 gymnasia * 1 ski run with lift * 1 multi-purpose hall * 7 sport fields * 3 shooting ranges with clubhouse * 5 tennis courts * sports grounds * fitness-studio * football fields * 2 long-distance cross-country skiing trails * gliderport (gliding and hang-gliding) * indoor swimming pool with outdoor basin and beach volleyball court

Barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

areas and leisure facilities are available in the outlying centres. Nature trails through the woods, hiking trails, and protected areas for birds and scenery beckon hikers.

Historic personage

From Wissenbach came the violinist, violist, concert director and radical pietist religion founder Johann Daniel Müller, also known as Elias or Elias Artista first predicted by

Paracelsus Paracelsus (; ; 1493 – 24 September 1541), born Theophrastus von Hohenheim (full name Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), was a Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. He w ...

(born 10 February 1716 in Wissenbach, died sometime after 1785, presumably in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

). His wife was a relative of

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...

Economy and infrastructure

Established businesses

* BBT Thermotechnik GmbH Werk Eibelshausen * Rittal Großschaltschränke GmbH & Co. KG Werk Wissenbach

Public institutions

* volunteer fire brigades in every centre * indoor swimming pool * Evangelical or open daycare centres in every centre * Catholic daycare centre in Eibelshausen * municipal library * houses for public events in every centre * Diakonie mobile care service

Education

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

s in Eibelshausen, Wissenbach, Hirzenhain, Simmersbach and Eiershausen * ''Holderbergschule'' (

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

, Gymnasium) in Eibelshausen

References

External links

Eschenburg
*
Wissenbach
{{Authority control Lahn-Dill-Kreis