Gräfenberg is a

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

n town in the district of Forchheim, in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

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 situated 16km southeast of

Forchheim Forchheim () is a town in Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) in northern Bavaria, and also the seat of the administrative district of Forchheim. Forchheim is a former royal city, and is sometimes called the Gateway to the Franconian Switzer ...

and 25km northeast of

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

Location

Gräfenberg is located in the southern part of Little Switzerland. The town is characterised by a great range of elevation (from 400 to 550 metres). A brook, the Kalkach, flows through the town with a steep drop. Gräfenberg is divided into 16

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

: *The town Gräfenberg *Lilling *Hohenschwärz *Kasberg *Walkersbrunn *Dörnhof *Thuisbrunn *Höfles *Sollenberg *Rangen *Haidhof *Schlichenreuth *Guttenburg *Neusles *Lillinger Höhe *Gräfenberger Hüll

Pictures

Image:Stadtkirche-Rathaus-Gräfenberg-16-05-2005.jpeg, Town church and town hall image:Kriegerdenkmal-Gräfenberg-16-05-2005.jpeg, Memorial for the fallen of World War I and II above the town. Image:Gräfenberg Panorama 01.jpg, A panorama of the center and eastern part of Gräfenberg.

Religion

Gräfenberg is a majority

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

town; even so, some districts (Lilling, Sollenberg) are majority

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

History

Gräfenberg was first mentioned in the year 1172. From 1333 onward the patrician family Haller reigned in Gräfenberg. In 1371 King Karl IV granted the market

municipal law Municipal law is the national, domestic, or internal law of a sovereign state and is defined in opposition to international law. Municipal law includes many levels of law: not only national law but also state, provincial, territorial, regional, ...

. In 1567 a fire destroyed the parts of town located back of the walls. In 1778 a flood wave, resulting from heavy rainfalls, killed six people. With the

Reichsdeputationshauptschluss The ' (formally the ', or "Principal Conclusion of the Extraordinary Imperial Delegation"), sometimes referred to in English as the Final Recess or the Imperial Recess of 1803, was a resolution passed by the ' (Imperial Diet) of the Holy Roman Em ...

in 1803 the town became part of

. In the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

between the

German Confederation The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...

(which included

), and

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and her allies, the town was the headquarters of the Prussian army at the time that the ceasefire between

and

was declared in 1866. In the 1960s and 1970s the other districts of Gräfenberg became part of the borough: for example Lilling (first mentioned 1205) and Thuisbrunn (first mentioned 1007).

Local council

Local elections were held on March 15, 2020 with the following results: *

Christian Social Union in Bavaria The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic ...

4 seats *

Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

2 seats * Free voters Bavaria 5 seats *

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

3 seats * Gräfenberg citizens (GBL) 2 seats

Mayors

Ralf Kunzmann (Free Voters Bavaria) is the mayor since May 1, 2020. He won the election on March 29, 2020 against his predecessor Hans-Jürgen Nekolla (SPD) with 52,55 % of the vote.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grafenberg Forchheim (district)