Herleshausen is a municipality in the
Werra-Meißner-Kreis
Werra-Meißner is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Göttingen, Eichsfeld, Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Wartburgkreis, district-free Eisenach, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Kassel.
History
The dis ...
in
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
Herleshausen lies north of a section of the boundary with
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
in the thickly wooded area between the Ringgau and the
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...
(ranges) with the Thuringian Forest Nature Park in the southeast. It is found between the river
Werra
The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the t ...
in the south and the
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
A 4 (
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- ...
–
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
) in the north.
Herleshausen borders on the municipal area of the district-free town of
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
, whose main centre lies some 12 km east-southeast. To the district seat of
Eschwege
Eschwege (), the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh '' Hessentag'' state festival.
Geography
Location
The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river W ...
to the north-northwest, it is about 22 km, and to
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 ...
, the nearest city, to the northwest, it is about 60 km (each time
as the crow flies
__NOTOC__
The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...
).
Neighbouring communities
Herleshausen borders in the north on the communities of
Ringgau
Ringgau is a municipality in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The community of Ringgau lies in the like-named low mountain range some 11 km (as the crow flies) south of Eschwege between the Hoher Meißner an ...
(Werra-Meißner-Kreis) and
Ifta
Ifta is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it has been part of the town Treffurt
Treffurt () is a small town in the western region of the Wartburgkreis district which belongs to the f ...
(
Wartburgkreis
Wartburgkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Gotha, Schmalkalden-Meiningen, and the districts Fulda, Hersfeld-Rotenburg and W ...
in Thuringia), in the east on the town of
Creuzburg
Creuzburg is a town and a former municipality on the Werra river in the Wartburgkreis in Thuringia, Germany. Since December 2019, it is part of the town Amt Creuzburg.
Geography
Creuzburg is in the area known as the Muschelkalk. Three mountain ...
and the community of
Krauthausen
Krauthausen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, 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, a ...
(both in the Wartburgkreis), in the southeast on the Thuringian district-free town of Eisenach, in the south on the community of
Gerstungen
Gerstungen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. In July 2018 the former municipalities of Marksuhl and Wolfsburg-Unkeroda were merged into Gerstungen.
History
Between 1945 and 1990, Gerstungen station served a ...
(Wartburgkreis) and in the west on the town of
Sontra
Sontra is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany.
The air spa of Sontra is known as ''Berg- und Hänselstadt'', with ''Bergstadt'' referring to the time when there was bituminous shale mining (“mining” is ''B ...
(Werra-Meißner-Kreis).
Constituent communities
The community's eleven ''
Ortsteil
A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population t ...
e'' are Herleshausen, Wommen, Nesselröden, Breitzbach, Unhausen, Holzhausen, Markershausen, Altefeld, Archfeld,
Willershausen and Frauenborn.
History
In 1019, Herleshausen had its first documentary mention in a donation document in which ownership was transferred to the
Kaufungen Abbey
Kaufungen Abbey (german: Kloster Kaufungen) was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1017 by the Empress Cunigunde of Luxembourg, wife of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, located in Kaufungen in Hessen, Germany.
History
In May 1017 Cunigunde was stay ...
, which then held the village until
Secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
in 1521. Thereafter, it passed to the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, who enfeoffed various lords with it.
The community found itself on a much more public stage after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
when a border checkpoint between
East
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...
and
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
was built near Herleshausen. Many prisoner exchanges between the two German states took place during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
at the border checkpoint, including German soldiers returning from
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
captivity and
East German citizens traded to West Germany in return for hard currency and goods.
Politics
Community council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
Town partnerships
*
Cléder
Cléder (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Population
Inhabitants of Cléder are called in French ''Clédérois''.
Breton language
In 2008, 25.9% of primary-school children attended bilingual ...
,
Finistère
Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090. ,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
* Lauchröden, constituent community of
Gerstungen
Gerstungen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany. In July 2018 the former municipalities of Marksuhl and Wolfsburg-Unkeroda were merged into Gerstungen.
History
Between 1945 and 1990, Gerstungen station served a ...
,
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
Coat of arms
The community's
arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
might be described thus: Gules a wall embattled with two end towers with pointed roofs argent and with closed gate Or, above which a tower with a double cupola of the second.
The crenellated wall stands for the fortress church estate, which has the parish church's quire tower rising above it. The
tincture
A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...
s red and silver are Hesse's state colours. The coat of arms was approved in 1954 by the Hesse Interior Ministry.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
Schloss Augustenau
After the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
was introduced and Hesse's monasteries were secularized,
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse (13 November 1504 – 31 March 1567), nicknamed (in English: "the Magnanimous"), was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestan ...
enfeoffed with the Herleshausen estate his troop leader Georg von Reckerode, who built himself the "Steinstock" palace there in 1539. After Reckerode's death in 1558, he was followed as fiefholder by the family von Wersebe, who enlarged the complex by building two wings onto it. When the Wersebes' male line died out in 1678, the palace and the Herleshausen estate passed back to
Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who transferred it to his brother Philipp, first as a fief, and later to have as his own. Thereafter, the palace and the Herleshausen estate were held by the family Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld. In 1821, the palace was given the name "Augustenau", after Landgrave Charles's recently deceased consort Auguste von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
Herleshausen has a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the ''Thüringer Bahn''
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
between Eisenach and
Bebra
Bebra () is a small town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany.
Geography Location
Bebra lies some south of Kassel on the Fulda. The town is easy to find on most maps thanks to its prominent location on the ''Fuldaknie'' ...
. Here, the last
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
were released after
Konrad Adenauer
Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a Germany, German statesman who served as the first Chancellor of Germany, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the fir ...
's visit to Moscow in 1955.
Running by the community is a section of the
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
A 4 (
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- ...
–
Görlitz
Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, :de:Ostlausitzer Mundart, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the Germany, German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and ...
) with its Herleshausen
interchange. The Herleshausen
service centre was torn down in 2005 to make way for the 6-lane expansion. There are, however, new plans to build another service centre, "Werratal", on the A 4's south side.
Notable people
*
D.L. Lang - Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California
*
Dirk Wilutzky
Dirk Wilutzky (born 1965 in Herleshausen, West Germany) is a German film producer and director. He won the shared Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the 2014 documentary '' Citizenfour'' at the 87th Academy Awards in 2015. He is m ...
- Academy award-winning filmmaker
Gallery
File:Herleshausen border crossing.jpg, The former Herleshausen border crossing on the Inner German border, looking into West Germany.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1223-012, Lauchrödem - Herleshausen, Grenzübergang.jpg, Border crossers being treated to free sausages, sandwiches, wine, coffee and cake on the Thuringian side of the new border crossing between Herleshausen and Lauchröden in Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
in December 1989.
References
{{Authority control
Inner German border
Werra-Meißner-Kreis