The land known as the Hessian Hinterland (german: Hessisches Hinterland) lies within the region of

Middle Hesse The region of Middle Hesse (german: Region Mittelhessen, ) is one of three planning regions in the German state of Hesse, alongside North and South Hesse. Its territory is identical with that of the administrative province of Gießen (''Regierung ...

and is concentrated around the old county of

Biedenkopf Biedenkopf () is a spa town in western Hesse, Germany with a population of 13,491 (2020). Geography Location The town of Biedenkopf lies in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Ringed by mountains reaching up to above sea level – the ...

, that is the western part of the present county of

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 ...

, as well as elements of the present-day counties of

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 ...

and

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 t ...

. Formerly it snaked its way from

Bromskirchen Bromskirchen is a village and a former municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse, Germany. On 1 January 2023, it was merged into the municipality of Allendorf (Eder).Biebertal Biebertal is a municipality in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 7 km northwest of Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the distric ...

. Günter Bäumner: ''Skizzen aus dem Hinterland.'' Hinterländer Geschichtsblätter, No. 4 (December 1990), history supplement to the Hinterländer Anzeiger, Biedenkopf, pp. 51–53 The ''Hinterland'' was originally territory belonging to

Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwee ...

, from which it was almost completely isolated, and managed by the '' Ämter'' of

Blankenstein Blankenstein is a village and a former municipality in the district Saale-Orla-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality Rosenthal am Rennsteig Rosenthal am Rennsteig is a municipality in the district Saa ...

(Gladenbach) with the Breidenbacher Grund,

and

Battenberg (Eder) Battenberg (Eder) is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district, the state of Hesse, Germany. The town is noted for giving its name to the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the ruling House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and through it, the name Mo ...

. Later the description was just applied to the old county of Biedenkopf. Today the term is used locally for those parts of the old county of Biedenkopf that were absorbed into the Marburg-Biedenkopf. The Hinterland Intercommunal Cooperative (''Interkommunale Zusammenarbeit Hinterland'', a special purpose association set up in 2006, has given the name for this small region a public institutional significance again. In Hinterland a dialect of

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

known as Hinterländer Platt is spoken – albeit by fewer and fewer people, mostly just its older, local inhabitants.

Administrative units today

The following towns and villages (arranged from north to south) are part of Hinterland: * Waldeck-Frankenberg:

Bromskirchen Bromskirchen is a village and a former municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse, Germany. On 1 January 2023, it was merged into the municipality of Allendorf (Eder).Allendorf (Eder) Allendorf (Eder) () is a municipality which situated in the north west of Hesse, Germany. The municipality is within the Waldeck-Frankenberg district in a rural region called the upper Eder Valley. The Burgwald range is located west of Allendor ...

, Hatzfeld (Eder),

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 s ...

* Marburg-Biedenkopf:

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 th ...

Dautphetal Dautphetal is a municipality in Hesse, Germany, and is among the six larger municipalities of the 22 in Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geography The municipality lies in the western part of the district about 37 km east of Siegen and about 15 ...

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 ...

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'' ...

Bad Endbach Bad Endbach is the westernmost municipality in Marburg-Biedenkopf district of the state of Hesse in Germany, and borders on the Lahn-Dill district. Geography Location Bad Endbach lies in the Lahn-Dill Bergland (''ie'' Highland) in the foothills o ...

Gladenbach Gladenbach [] is a town in Hesse, Germany, in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geography Location The town of Gladenbach lies on the eastern edge of the Westerwald in the Hessian Highland (''Bergland''). This part of the Lahn-Dill Highlan ...

(apart from Weitershausen) * Lahn-Dill-Kreis: Simmersbach and

Roth Roth may refer to: Places Germany * Roth (district), in Bavaria, Germany ** Roth, Bavaria, capital of that district ** Roth (electoral district), a federal electoral district * Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany: ** Roth an der Our, in the district B ...

, today in the municipality of

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 municip ...

Bischoffen Bischoffen is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Bischoffen lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland at the Aar Dam (''Aartalsperre''). This dam holds back the river Aar, a tributary to the Dill, forming a 57-ha la ...

all villages, the quarter of Waldgirmes in the town of

Lahnau Lahnau is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany, and lies about midway – about 6 km each way – between the towns of Wetzlar and Gießen. Geography Neighbouring communities Lahnau borders in the north on the community of ...

and the quarters of

Naunheim Naunheim is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Eu ...

and Hermannstein in

Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...

. * Gießen:

Biebertal Biebertal is a municipality in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 7 km northwest of Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the distric ...

less Vetzberg

References

Literature

* Elsa Blöcher: ''Das Hinterland. Ein Heimatbuch.'' Stephani, Biedenkopf, 1981. * Elsa Blöcher, Hinterländer Geschichtsverein (ed.): ''Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hinterlandes.'' Biedenkopf, 1985. * Hans Friebertshäuser: ''Mundart und Volksleben im Altkreis Biedenkopf.'' Volksbank und Raiffeisenbank, Biedenkopf-Gladenbach, 1998. * Jens Friedhoff: ''Hessen contra Mainz, Burg- und Stadtgründungen als Instrument hessischer und mainzischer Territorialpolitik im Hinterland''. Region und Geschichte, Festschrift zum 100-jährigen Bestehen des Hinterländer Geschichtsvereins e. V., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hinterlandes, Vol. IX, Biedenkopf, 2008, , pp. 108–132. * Karl Huth, Kreisausschuß des Landkreises Biedenkopf (ed.): ''Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Landkreises Biedenkopf 1800–1866.'' Wetzlar, 1962. * Christoph Kaiser: ''Die Tracht als veränderliche Kleidung. Beschrieben anhand der Trachten des Hessischen Hinterlandes, insbesondere der Tracht des Untergerichts des Breidenbacher Grundes.'' Grin, Munich, 2008, . * Regina Klein: ''In der Zwischenzeit. Tiefenhermeneutische Fallstudien zur weiblichen Verortung im Modernisierungsprozess 1900–2000.'' Psychosozial-Verlag, Gießen, 2003, (Life story of three Hinterland women). * Ulrich Lennarz: ''Die Territorialgeschichte des hessischen Hinterlandes.'' Elwert, Marburg, 1973, . * Bernhard Martin, Kreisausschuß des Landkreises Biedenkopf (publ.): ''Alte Lieder aus dem Hinterland.'' Wetzlarer Verlagsdruckerei, Wetzlar ,1964 (Liederbuch). * Kerstin Werner: ''Wandern zwischen zwei Welten – Die Geschichte der Hinterländer / Arbeitsmigration in der Wetterau.'' In: Michael Keller,

Herfried Münkler Herfried Münkler (born August 15, 1951) is a German political scientist. He is a Professor of Political Theory at Humboldt University in Berlin. Münkler is a regular commentator on global affairs in the German-language media and author of numer ...

(ed.): ''Die Wetterau.'' Sparkasse Wetterau, Friedberg, 1990, . * Hinterländer Geschichtsverein e. V. (Hrsg.): ''Lebensbilder aus dem Hinterland, Geschichte, Landschaft und Dialekt als Bedingungsfaktoren für Existenz und Lebensformen im Hinterland'' (= ''Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hinterlandes.'' Vol. V). Biedenkopf, 1996. * Karl Scheld: ''Wider das Vergessen.'' Kempkes, Gladenbach, 2005, (including details of the Aurora Works and iron smelting industry in the Hessian Hinterland). * Hinterländer Geschichtsblätter, since 1907, {{ISSN, 0018-196X.

External links

Hinterland Community Association
Geography of Hesse Middle Hesse Grand Duchy of Hesse