Holzmaden is a town in

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

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 ...

that lies between

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

and

Ulm Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...

. Holzmaden is 4 km south-east from

Kirchheim unter Teck Kirchheim unter Teck ( Swabian: ''Kircha'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, in the district of Esslingen. It is located on the small river Lauter, a tributary of the Neckar. It is 10 km (6 miles) near the Teck castle, approximately ...

and 19 km south-east of

Esslingen am Neckar Esslingen am Neckar ( Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the District of Esslingen as well as the largest town in the district. Within Baden-Württemberg it is t ...

. The A 8 runs south from Holzmaden. The town and surrounding area are well known as the source of exceptionally well-preserved fossils from the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

period.

Demographics

1=census results

Mayors

* Christian Burkhardt (1945–1952) * Otto Vogt (1952–1982) * Jürgen Berner (1982–1998) * Jürgen Riehle (1998–2014) * Susanne Jakob (2014–2021)''Würdiger Abschied und Neubeginn''

Der Teckbote Der Teckbote is a German daily newspaper for the Swabian town of Kirchheim unter Teck. History The Teckbote was founded in 1832 under the title ''Wochenblatt für den Oberamtsbezirk Kirchheim unter Teck'' (''Weekly Newspaper for the district of K ...

, 7. April 2014. * Florian Schepp (since 2021) Holzmaden-rathaus

Infrastructure and facilities

The community is located north of the

Bundesautobahn 8 is an autobahn in southern Germany that runs 497 km (309 mi) from the Luxembourg A13 motorway at Schengen via Neunkirchen, Pirmasens, Karlsruhe, Pforzheim, Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg and Munich to the Austrian West Autobahn near Salzb ...

, halfway between Ulm and Stuttgart; the next junction is Aichelberg. The railway Kirchheim (Teck) Süd-Weilheim (Teck) connected Holzmaden to the railway network. Passenger traffic was discontinued in 1982 and freight in 1995. Holzmaden also has a primary school, two kindergartens, a community hall with integrally joined forming gym and a sports and leisure facility.

Associations and Organizations

The association's work is an essential factor in the social life in Holzmaden.

Notable people from Holzmaden

* Bernhard Hauff (1866–1950), founder of museum Hauff * Heinz Kälberer (born 1942), former Lord mayor of

Vaihingen an der Enz Vaihingen an der Enz is a town located between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe, in southern Germany, on the western periphery of the Stuttgart Region. Vaihingen is situated on the river Enz, and has a population of around 30,000. The former district-cap ...

Fossils

The ground in and around the city contains rich layers of well-preserved

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

(or Lagerstätten) of the

period. The fossils are found in the 180-million-year-old

Posidonia Shale The Posidonia Shale (german: Posidonienschiefer, also called Schistes Bitumineux in Luxembourg) geologically known as the Sachrang Formation, is an Early Jurassic (Toarcian) geological formation of southwestern and northeast Germany, northern Swit ...

and displayed in the local Museum Hauff as well as museums around the world. This locale is important for its frequent preservation of soft tissue, a rarity in fossils. Examples from this site include: *

Ichthyosaur Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, altho ...

s *

Plesiosaur The Plesiosauria (; Greek: πλησίος, ''plesios'', meaning "near to" and ''sauros'', meaning "lizard") or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared ...

s * ''

Steneosaurus ''Steneosaurus'' (from el, στενός , 'narrow' and el, σαῦρος , 'lizard') is a dubious genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Middle or Late Jurassic ( Callovian or early Oxfordian) of France. The genus has been used as a w ...

'' * ''

Platysuchus ''Platysuchus'' ("flat crocodile") is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) of southern Germany and Luxembourg. Taxonomy ''Platysuchus'' was originally described as a member of the genus ''Mystriosaur ...

'' *

Lepidotus ''Lepidotes'' (from el, λεπιδωτός , 'covered with scales') (previously known as ''Lepidotus'') is an extinct genus of Mesozoic ray-finned fish. It has been considered a wastebasket taxon, characterised by "general features, such as th ...

* Dapedius *

Ammonite Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...

* Pentacrinus colony (Sea Lily)

References

Mesozoic paleontological sites of Europe Esslingen (district) Jurassic paleontological sites {{Esslingen-geo-stub