Lahn-Dill is a ''Kreis'' (
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
) in the west of
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 ...
. Neighboring districts are
Siegen-Wittgenstein,
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
Wetteraukreis
The Wetteraukreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis and Lahn-Dill-Kreis.
History
The distri ...
,
Hochtaunuskreis
The Hochtaunuskreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany and is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Neighbouring districts are Lahn-Dill, Wetteraukreis, district-free Frankfurt, Main-Taunus, Rheingau-Taunus ...
,
Limburg-Weilburg
Limburg-Weilburg is a Kreis (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Lahn-Dill, Hochtaunuskreis, Rheingau-Taunus, Rhein-Lahn, Westerwaldkreis.
History
*1867 the ''Oberlahnkreis'', capital Weilburg was created
*1886 the ...
,
Westerwaldkreis
The Westerwaldkreis ("District of Westerwald") is a district (''Kreis'') in the north-east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighbouring districts are (from north clockwise) Altenkirchen, Lahn-Dill, Limburg-Weilburg, Rhein-Lahn, the district-free ...
.
History
The southern district belonged to the Princes of Solms-Braunfels and the Free Imperial City of Wetzlar. The latter had to give up its imperial freedom in 1803 as a result of the Imperial Deputation, then as the county of Wetzlar, in favor of the newly created Grand Duchy of Frankfurt of the prince primate (in the old empire Reichserzkanzler) Karl Theodor von Dalberg. The former Solmsian territories came to the Duchy of Nassau in 1806 and in 1815 also to Prussia in an exchange. In 1816, the Prussian districts of Wetzlar and Braunfels were created, which were united in 1822 to form the district of Wetzlar. The district belonged to the Prussian Rhine Province as an exclave until 1932. Since the Middle Ages, the northern part of the district belonged to the principality of Nassau-Dillenburg, which was part of the French-occupied Grand Duchy of Berg between 1806 and 1813, and to the principality of Nassau-Orianen between 1813 and 1815, which was absorbed into the Duchy of Nassau in 1816. This formed the two offices of Herborn and Dillenburg. After the Prussian annexation of the Duchy of Nassau in September 1866, both offices were united to form the Dillkreis.
After World War II, the entire district area as it is today became part of the state of Hesse. In the course of the territorial reform in Hesse, the Lahn-Dill district was formed on January 1, 1977. The new district consisted of
the entire area of the dissolved Dillkreis with the cities of
Dillenburg
Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis.
The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday road ...
,
Haiger
Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger.
Geography
Location
Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern ...
and
Herborn as well as the municipalities of
Breitscheid,
Dietzhölztal,
Driedorf
Driedorf is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Driedorf lies from 416 to 642 m above sea level on a tableland in the high Westerwald.
Mademühlen
Mademühlen has about 1,000 inhabitants and lies in the ...
,
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 munic ...
,
Greifenstein
Greifenstein is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. Its administrative seat is Beilstein. Greifenstein covers 67.43 km² on the eastern slope of the Westerwald range. It was named for the castle of the same name in th ...
,
Mittenaar
Mittenaar () is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Mittenaar lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland. On Mittenaar's live more than 5,000 people. About 45 km of roads connect the various centres. More than half the mu ...
,
Siegbach
Siegbach is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
The community of Siegbach lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland in the valley of its namesake brook, the Siegbach, which empties into the Aar to the south at B ...
and
Sinn
In the philosophy of language, the distinction between sense and reference was an idea of the German philosopher and mathematician Gottlob Frege in 1892 (in his paper "On Sense and Reference"; German: "Über Sinn und Bedeutung"), reflecting the ...
the largest part of the dissolved district of Giessen with the towns of Allendorf (Lumda), Grünberg, Hungen, Laubach, Lich, Linden and Staufenberg as well as the municipalities of Buseck, Fernwald, Langgöns, Lollar,
Pohlheim
Pohlheim () is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hessen, Germany. It is situated 6 km south of Gießen
Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Gies ...
,
Rabenau and
Reiskirchen
part of the dissolved administrative district of Wetzlar with the towns of
Braunfels and
Leun
Leun is a small town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Leun lies some 10 km west of Wetzlar between the foothills of the northern Taunus and the Westerwald in the Lahn valley, at a height of 150 to 330 m ab ...
and the municipalities of
Aßlar,
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 ...
,
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 ...
(formerly Biedenkopf administrative district),
Ehringshausen
Ehringshausen is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Ehringshausen lies in the valley of the Dill between Wetzlar and Herborn.
Neighbouring communities
Ehringshausen borders in the north on the community ...
,
Hohenahr
Hohenahr () is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Hohenahr lies in the Lahn-Dill Highland at a height of between 260 and 440 m above sea level. Its constituent communities of Ahrdt and Mudersbach are on th ...
,
Hüttenberg
Hüttenberg is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Hüttenberg lies about 6 km southeast of Wetzlar and 10 km southwest of Giessen south of the river Lahn.
Neighbouring communities
Hüttenberg b ...
,
Schöffengrund
Schöffengrund is a municipality in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Schöffengrund lies only a few kilometres south of Wetzlar in the Hochtaunus Nature Park.
Neighbouring communities
Schöffengrund borders in the north ...
,
Solms
Geography
Location
Solms lies right in the Lahn valley at the mouth of the eponymous little river Solmsbach and is nestled between the foothills of both the Taunus and Westerwald at heights from 140 to 400 m above sea level. It is about 7& ...
and
Waldsolms
Waldsolms is a municipality located in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Waldsolms lies in the Hochtaunus Nature Park between Wetzlar and Usingen.
Neighbouring communities
Waldsolms is bordered on the north by the town of ...
.
The new district had an area of 1695 km² and included a total of 36 municipalities. The seat of the district administration became the simultaneously formed district-free city "Lahn". This was created by uniting the district-free city of Giessen with the city of Wetzlar, 13 other municipalities from the district of Wetzlar and the municipality of Heuchelheim from the district of Giessen.
Due to strong protests, mainly from the people of Wetzlar, the territorial reform was partially reversed. Effective August 1, 1979, the city of Lahn was dissolved again and the Lahn-Dill district was reorganized:
The restored city of Wetzlar and the newly formed municipality of Lahnau were incorporated into the Lahn-Dill district.
The municipality of Biebertal as well as all municipalities belonging to the district of Giessen until 1976 left the Lahn-Dill district and came to the newly established district of Giessen.
Since then, the Lahn-Dill district has comprised 23 towns and municipalities on an area of 1066.5 km².
Geography
The main rivers of the district are 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 ...
and the
Dill
Dill (''Anethum graveolens'') is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is the only species in the genus ''Anethum''. Dill is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food.
Growth ...
, which also gave it the name. It is mountain landscape with the
Westerwald
The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Massif ( or Rhenish ...
in the west, the
Taunus
The Taunus is a mountain range in Hesse, Germany, located north of Frankfurt. The tallest peak in the range is '' Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are ''Kleiner Feldberg'' (825 m) and '' Altkönig'' (798 m).
The Taunus range span ...
in the south, the
Lahn-Dill-Bergland in the east and the
Rothaargebirge of the
Sauerland
The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited.
The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in ...
in the north. The highest elevation with 671 m is near Rittershausen (part of
Dietzhölztal), the lowest with 135 is in the Lahn valley in Biskirchen (part of the town of
Leun
Leun is a small town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Location
Leun lies some 10 km west of Wetzlar between the foothills of the northern Taunus and the Westerwald in the Lahn valley, at a height of 150 to 330 m ab ...
).
Coat of arms
The coat of arms shows the
imperial eagle
The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of ...
in the top, a sign for the imperial city Wetzlar. The bottom part - taken from the arms of the previous Dillkreis - shows the lion of
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
and the horn of the princes of
Orange-Nassau, which later became the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
royal family.
Dillenburg
Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis.
The town lies on the German- Dutch holiday road ...
was the capital of the county of Nassau and later of Nassau-Orange.
Towns and municipalities
References
External links
Official website(German)
Official Online-Community(German)
{{Coord, 50, 39, N, 8, 22, E, region:DE_type:adm2nd, display=title
Districts of Hesse
Wetzlar
Taunus