Homberg (Ohm) () is a town in the

Vogelsbergkreis The Vogelsbergkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Schwalm-Eder, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Fulda, Main-Kinzig, Wetteraukreis, Gießen and Marburg-Biedenkopf. History The district was created in 1 ...

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.

Geography

Location

The officially recognized climatic spa of Homberg lies from 203 to 350 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

in the valley of the

Ohm Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm. Ohm or OHM may also refer to: People * Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm'' * Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer * Jörg Ohm (b ...

, a tributary to the

Lahn The Lahn is a , right (or eastern) tributary of the Rhine in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia (23.0 km), Hesse (165.6 km), and Rhineland-Palatinate (57.0 km). It has its source in t ...

, some 19 km southeast of

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

Neighbouring communities

Homberg borders in the north on the town of

Stadtallendorf Stadtallendorf is a town in the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hesse, Germany. It lies about east of Marburg. In 2010, the town hosted the 50th Hessentag state festival. Geography Location Under the German system of ''Naturräume'', Stadta ...

(

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 northeast on the town of

Kirtorf Kirtorf () is a town in the northern Vogelsbergkreis in Hesse, Germany. Through the town runs the ''Deutsche Märchenstraße'', or German Fairytale Road, a touristic route joining many of the places commonly associated with the Brothers Grimm's tal ...

, in the southeast on the community of Gemünden, in the south on the community of

Mücke Mücke is a municipality in the Vogelsbergkreis in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Mücke lies from 200 to 350 m above sea level in the northwest foothills of the Vogelsberg Mountains on the upper reaches of the river Ohm, a tributary to the ...

, in the southwest on the town of Grünberg and the community of Rabenau (both in

Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...

district), in the west on the community of

Ebsdorfergrund Ebsdorfergrund is a municipality consisting of eleven villages in the southeast of Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. The community's municipal area extends over the ''Ebsdorfer Grund'' in the valley of the Zwester Ohm and the areas ar ...

, and in the northwest on the town of

Amöneburg Amöneburg () is a town in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. It lies on a mountain and is built around the castle of the same name, ''Burg Amöneburg''. Geography Location Amöneburg lies on a basalt cone that can be seen fr ...

(both in Marburg-Biedenkopf).

Constituent communities

The town of Homberg consists of not only the namesake main town, but also of the outlying centres of Appenrod, Bleidenrod, Büßfeld, Dannenrod, Deckenbach, Erbenhausen, Gontershausen, Haarhausen, Höingen, Maulbach, Nieder-Ofleiden, Ober-Ofleiden and Schadenbach.

Politics

Town council

The municipal elections held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: *

SPD 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 ...

11 seats * CDU 10 seats * FWG (citizens' coalition) 5 seats * FDP 1 seats

Coat of arms

Homberg's oldest known seal dates back to 1234, even before the town was granted town rights. Until the 16th century, the town'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 ...

generally showed a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

or town wall with the red-and-silver-striped Lion of Hessen, and in 1536, a new version suddenly showed the lion "sinister" – facing left (from the arms bearer's point of view). The arms in use today, which were adopted in the late 19th century, are based on this versio

Town partnerships

The town of Homberg maintains partnerships with the following places: * Thouaré-sur-

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

, near

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

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 ...

, since 1981 *

Stadtroda Stadtroda (Roda until 1925) is a town of 6,653 people (2017), located in Thuringia, Germany. Stadtroda lies on the river Roda, a tributary of the Saale. The former municipalities Bollberg and Quirla were merged into Stadtroda in January 2019. ...

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 ...

, since 1990

Transportation

Homberg lies in the area of the ''Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund'' (Rhine-Main Transport Network). The busline 5332 of the ''Kurhessen'' Regional Transport system connects Homberg with the nearest

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 ...

s at Burg- and Nieder Gemünden on the Vogelsbergbahn

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 ...

line and

Kirchhain Kirchhain () is a town in Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany. Geography Kirchhain is located in the heart of the state of Hesse in Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geographically, it is surrounded by the Amöneburg Basin on the southeast ...

on the Main-Weser line. The busline VB-71 run by the ''Verkehrsgesellschaft Oberhessen'' (Upper Hessen Transport Company) also goes to Gemünden, and line VB-13a offers a direct connection to

Alsfeld Alsfeld () is a town in the center of Hesse, in Germany. Located about north of Frankfurt, Alsfeld is in the center of Hesse and part of the densely populated Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. It is well known for its well-preserved old ...

railway station. The ''Ohmtalbahn'', which runs through Homberg (Burg- and Nieder Gemünden–Kirchhain) is nowadays only partly in service beginning at Nieder-Ofleiden, and only then for goods trains that serve a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

. The ''Homberg (Ohm)'' interchange on

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 5 lies about 10 km south of the town core, while 8 km to the north runs Federal Highway (''Bundesstraße'') 62.

References

External links

{{Authority control Vogelsbergkreis Grand Duchy of Hesse