Kirchheim is a municipality in
Hersfeld-Rotenburg
Hersfeld-Rotenburg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Werra-Meißner, Wartburgkreis, Fulda, Vogelsbergkreis, Schwalm-Eder.
History
In 1821, districts were created in Hesse, including the districts H ...
district in northeastern
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
The community lies on the south slope of the
Knüll
The Knüllgebirge or simply Knüll is a small mountain range in the northern part of Hesse, Germany, approximately south of Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It i ...
gebirge (range) in the valley of the brook Ibra and the Aula, which empties into the
Fulda
Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival.
History ...
near
Niederaula
Niederaula is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, 59 km south of Kassel.
Geography
Location
The community lies on the Fulda between the outliers of the Rhön, the Vogelsberg and the Knüllgebi ...
. The local mountain is the 636 m-high Eisenberg.
The nearest major towns and cities are
Bad Hersfeld
The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast ...
(some 10 km to the east),
Fulda
Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival.
History ...
(some to the south) and
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 ...
(some to the west). Kassel lies to the north.
Neighbouring communities
Kirchheim borders in the north on the community of
Neuenstein, in the east on the town of
Bad Hersfeld
The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast ...
, in the south on the community of
Niederaula
Niederaula is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, 59 km south of Kassel.
Geography
Location
The community lies on the Fulda between the outliers of the Rhön, the Vogelsberg and the Knüllgebi ...
, in the southwest on the community of
Breitenbach am Herzberg
Breitenbach am Herzberg (officially ''Breitenbach a. Herzberg'') is a municipality in southwesternmost Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in eastern Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The community lies at the foot of the Hirschberg (often also known a ...
(all in Hersfeld-Rotenburg) and in the west on the community of
Oberaula
Oberaula is a municipality in the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Schwalm-Eder district in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Oberaula lies in the Knüllgebirge, a low mountain range, in the Aula river valley and its neighbouring valleys.
The nearest towns ...
(in the
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Kassel, Werra-Meißner, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Vogelsberg, Marburg-Biedenkopf, and Waldeck-Frankenberg.
History
In 1821 districts were created ...
).
Constituent communities
Kirchheim’s ''
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'', besides the main centre, also called Kirchheim, are Allendorf, Frielingen, Gersdorf, Gershausen, Goßmannsrode, Heddersdorf, Kemmerode, Reckerode, Reimboldshausen, Rotterterode and Willingshain.
Climate
The mean yearly air temperature is and the average
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
is . On average each year, Kirchheim has 21.7 “summer days” (in which the daily high reaches or higher) and 107.2 “frost days” (in which the temperature dips down below ). The average yearly duration of sunshine is 1,410 hours.
Source: ''1200 Jahre Kirchheim'', see “Further reading”
History
About 810, Kirchheim had its first documentary mention in the ''Breviarium Sancti Lulli'' (“Saint
Lullus
Saint Lullus (Lull or Lul) (born about 710 AD in Wessex, died 16 October 786 in Hersfeld) was the first permanent archbishop of Mainz, succeeding Saint Boniface, and first abbot of the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey. He is historiographically conside ...
’s Summary”), a tithe directory kept by the
Hersfeld Abbey
Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue.
History
H ...
, under the name ''Kyricheim''.
Kirchheim was linked to the
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 ...
on 1 May 1906 when the ''Knüllwaldbahn'' (Bad Hersfeld–Treysa) was opened. From 1935, the community also had a link to 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'. ...
network when the three-way junction of the
A 7 (
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
–
Füssen
Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau cast ...
) and
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 ...
) was built here.
In 1974, building work began on the ''Seepark Kirchheim'' between the outlying centres of Reimboldshausen and Kemmerode. The Ibra was dammed up here to form a 10 ha lake. Only a year later, district road (''
Kreisstraße
A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...
'') 34 from Willingshain by way of the Eisenberg to Raboldshausen (outlying centre of
Neuenstein) was built. Once this link was in place, there followed in the same year the building of a mountain hotel, a holiday village (“Feriendorf am Eisenberg”) and a
transmission tower
A transmission tower, also known as an electricity pylon or simply a pylon in British English and as a hydro tower in Canadian English, is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line.
In electrical gri ...
.
On 22 August 1977, the
dam
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...
at the ''Seepark Kirchheim'' burst and washed the railway tracks out near Kirchheim. This was
Deutsche Bundesbahn’s reason for abandoning the line.
Amalgamations
Within the framework of municipal reform, the villages of Allendorf, Frielingen, Gershausen, Goßmannsrode, Kemmerode and Reimboldshausen merged themselves into Kirchheim with effect from 1 February 1971. With effect from 31 December 1971, Rotterterode followed. The other four villages were amalgamated by law on 1 August 1972.
Population development
*Before the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
18 men, in 1673 only 8
**In 1585 there were 50 households.
***In 1637 there were 14 households.
****Before the Thirty Years' War there were 35 households. After the war, in 1650 there were 9 families and about 1745 there were 25 families. At the first census in 1830 the community had 211 inhabitants.
Politics
Community council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
The community’s executive (''Gemeindevorstand'') is made up of eight members, with five seats allotted to the SPD and three to the CDU.
Mayor
Mayor Manfred Koch (SPD) was elected on 23 May 2004 with 55.2% of the vote.
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: Vert two bendlets argent, the chief Or sapiné.
The German blazon refers to the parting as ''Tannenspitzenschnitt'', or “firtree top cut”. The blazon also explains that the bendlets are a stylized representation 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'. ...
.
Economy and infrastructure
Transport
The community lies right at the three-way Autobahn
interchanges of Kirchheim and Hattenbach, putting the Autobahnen
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 ...
),
A 5 (Hattenbach–
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
) and
A 7 (
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
–
Füssen
Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau cast ...
) right nearby. Through the community also runs ''
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
'' 454 from
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 ...
to
Niederaula
Niederaula is a market community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, 59 km south of Kassel.
Geography
Location
The community lies on the Fulda between the outliers of the Rhön, the Vogelsberg and the Knüllgebi ...
.
References
Further reading
* Gemeindevorstand Kirchheim (publisher): ''1200 Jahre Kirchheim''. Bad Hersfeld 1983
External links
Community’s official webpage
*
{{Authority control
Hersfeld-Rotenburg