Lennestadt (occasionally also ''die Lennestadt'') lies in 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 southeast
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
and is a community in
Olpe district. It is the district's most populous municipality.
Lennestadt itself is not an actual town but a community which comprises several towns and villages.
Geography
Lennestadt lies at the common point of the Ebbegebirge (in the west), Homert and Rothaargebirge (in the east) Nature Parks and is crossed by the river
Lenne
The Lenne is a tributary of the river Ruhr in the Sauerland hills, western Germany. It has caused flooding in recent years.
Having its source on top of the ''Kahler Asten'' near Winterberg in an intermittent spring at an elevation of , the Len ...
, a tributary to the
Ruhr. Besides the Hundem, which empties into the Lenne in the outlying centre of Altenhundem, the Veischede also feeds this river.
Lennestadt's position is 51° 03' to 51° 12' N, 7° 58' to 8° 15' E. The town's highest point is the Härdler (756 m), and its lowest is on the Lenne near Borghausen (239 m).
Neighbouring communities
Lennestadt borders in the north on the communities of
Eslohe
Eslohe is a municipality in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Eslohe is situated approximately 25 km south-west of Meschede.
Neighbouring municipalities
* Finnentrop
* Lennestadt
* Meschede
* Schm ...
and
Finnentrop
Finnentrop is a ''Gemeinde'' (municipality) in Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Finnentrop is situated in the Sauerland, near the forks of the rivers Bigge and Lenne. Finnentrop shares borders with Sundern and Esloh ...
, in the east on
Schmallenberg and
Bad Berleburg
Bad Berleburg (, earlier also Berleburg) is a town, in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of Germany's largest towns by land area. It is located approximately northeast of Siegen and northwest of ...
, in the south on
Kirchhundem
Kirchhundem is a German community in North Rhine-Westphalia. It belongs to the Olpe district.
Geography
Location
The community of Kirchhundem lies in the Olpe district's southeast in the south Sauerland and belongs to the so-called ''Bilste ...
, and in the west on the towns of
Attendorn
Attendorn () is a German town in the Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia. As of 2019 it had a population of 24,264.
History
The town's location was favoured by the good climate in the Attendorn-Elsper Limestone Double Basin (''Attendorn- ...
and
Olpe.
Constituent communities
![Lennestadt-Ortsteile-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Lennestadt-Ortsteile-2.svg)
Within Lennestadt's municipal area lie the following centres:
Altenhundem, Altenvalbert, Bilstein, Bonzel, Bonzelerhammer, Brenschede, Bruchhausen, Burbecke, Elspe, Elsperhusen, Einsiedelei, Germaniahütte, Gleierbrück, Grevenbrück, Habbecke, Hachen, Haus Hilmecke, Haus Valbert, Halberbracht, Hengstebeck, Hespecke, Kickenbach, Kirchveischede, Kracht, Langenei, Maumke, Meggen, Melbecke, Milchenbach, Oberelspe, Obermelbecke, Obervalbert, Oedingen, Oedingermühle, Oedingerberg (formerly Berge), Saalhausen, Sporke, Stöppel, Theten and Trockenbrück.
The fact that there is not a physical town of Lennestadt, but that Lennestadt is an aggregation of the smaller towns listed above, often leads to confusion among visitors.
History
The town of Lennestadt was founded on 1 July 1969 as legal successor to the ''
Amt
Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...
'' of Bilstein out of seven former communities and outlying centres.
The earliest traces of settlers in the current municipal area date to the Early Middle Ages. The centres of Elspe and Oedingen were first mentioned in a document in 1000 that
Emperor Otto III
Otto III (June/July 980 – 23 January 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu.
Otto III was crowned as King of G ...
had issued. This makes them the oldest places in Olpe district.
In the 19th century, parts of the current town area were characterized by
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
,
ironworking
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
and
metalworking
Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scal ...
.
Amalgamations
In 1975, Milchenbach was joined with Lennestadt. It had formerly belonged to the community of Lenne (now part of
Schmallenberg).
Population development
Politics
Town council
Mayor
Until 1997, Lennestadt's chief administrator bore the title ''Stadtdirektor'' (“Town Director”). The ''Bürgermeister'', or Mayor, was an honorary office and was mainly ceremonial. The current mayor is Tobias Puspas, of the CDU.
National and regional elections
Coat of arms
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 ...
were conferred on 31 December 1971. The gold and green bars in the background were taken from the arms formerly borne by the ''Amt'' of Bilstein. The wavy bend stands for the river Lenne, the town's namesake, and the rose comes from the outlying centre of Oedingen.
Town patron
Town council decided in 1995 to name Sir
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
as the town's patron. Since 2001, the town has been awarding the ''Thomas-Morus-Preis'' to citizens “who in their acts have let themselves be led by the convictions of their conscience and who without regard to possible personal disadvantages through bravery and moral courage have thereby become examples to the good of others and our society.”
Twin towns – sister cities
Lennestadt is
twinned with:
*
Otwock
Otwock is a city in east-central Poland, some southeast of Warsaw, with 44,635 inhabitants (2019). Otwock is a part of the Warsaw Agglomeration. It is situated on the right bank of Vistula River below the mouth of Swider River. Otwock is hom ...
, Poland (1992)
Culture and sightseeing
Theatre
The ''Kulturgemeinde Hundem-Lenne'', founded in 1946, offers a cultural programme in the ''Pädagogisches Zentrum'' (PZ, “Educational Centre”), a venue with 480 seats at the
Anne-Frank-
Hauptschule
A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...
in Meggen.
Museum
In Grevenbrück is found the town
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
, the ''Museum der Stadt Lennestadt'' in whose building the town's homeland and regional studies
library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
and the town
archive
An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...
are also to be found.
Since 1998, the ''Förderverein Bergbaudenkmäler Lennestadt'' (“Lennestadt Mining Monument Development Association”) has run the ''Bergbaumuseum Siciliaschacht'' (“Sicilia Mineshaft Mining Museum”) in Meggen, which recalls the town's mining tradition.
Buildings
Among well known buildings in Lennestadt are
Bilstein Castle (''Burg Bilstein''), the Peperburg castle ruins, many
timber frame
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
houses, the so-called ''Sauerlandpyramiden'', the ''Sicilia'' Mineshaft and the Hohe Bracht viewing tower. On ''
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'' ...
'' 55 between Oedingen and Eslohe, the ''Madonna der Straße'' (“Madonna of the Road”) roadside shrine is to be found.
Image:Museum der Stadt Lennestadt.jpg, Museum of Lennestadt
Image:Madonna der Straße.jpg, Madonna der Straße
Image:Burgruine Peperburg.jpg, Peperburg castle ruins
Image:Siciliaschacht.jpg, Siciliaschacht mining museum
Image:Alte Schmiede Altenhundem.jpg, Old smithy in Altenhundem
Image:St. Agatha Altenhundem.jpg, Church of St. Agatha in Altenhundem
Parks
A spa is to be found in the outlying centre of Saalhausen, which is a recognized ''Luftkurort'' (“air spa resort”).
Regular events
The
Elspe Festival
Elspe Festival is a theatre festival in Elspe (Lennestadt), Germany.
Since 1952/1964, Karl May's adventure novels about Winnetou are put on stage. The festival became hugely popular after 1976 when Pierre Brice, a French actor known for Apache ...
in
Elspe (Lennestadt)
Elspe is a small town in a region named Sauerland. Elspe has a total population of 2904 people with over 21 percent of its people being 65 years or older. Elspe is part of the town Lennestadt
Lennestadt (occasionally also ''die Lennestadt'') l ...
, based on the stories by
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May ( , ; 25 February 1842 – 30 March 1912) was a German author. He is best known for his 19th century novels of fictitious travels and adventures, set in the American Old West with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand as main pro ...
, attracts about 200,000 spectators every year. The festival area (12 hectares) includes an indoor festival hall, a copy of a
Western saloon
A Western saloon is a kind of bar particular to the Old West. Saloons served customers such as fur trappers, cowboys, soldiers, lumberjacks, businessmen, lawmen, outlaws, miners, and gamblers. A saloon might also be known as a "watering tr ...
and some restaurants.
Among the town's regular events is the traditional Schützenfest (“fair featuring shooting matches”) that is held in all of the bigger centres each year. Furthermore, every August there is a town festival lasting several days which since 2005 has been held together with the ''Sauerländer Straßenmusiker-Festival'' (“Sauerland Street Musicians’ Festival”) in Altenhundem.
Economy and infrastructure
Economy
Lennestadt is home to a variety of small and middle-sized businesses, mainly in the manufacturing field. Most prevalent are companies in the metal-working, machine building, automotive parts supply, and electrical industry.
Public institutions
Lennestadt's town hall is located in the central constituent community of Altenhundem.
The local court, the ''Amtsgericht Lennestadt'', is located in the outlying centre of Grevenbrück.
Transport
Local public transport
With its ''Altenhundem'', ''Grevenbrück (Westf.)'' and ''Lennestadt-Meggen'' stations, Lennestadt lies on the
Ruhr-Sieg line from
Hagen to
Siegen
Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...
.
Furthermore,
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
lines of the ''Verkehrsbetriebe Westfalen-Süd'' (VWS, “Westphalia-South Transport Services”) and ''Busverkehr Ruhr-Sieg'' (BRS, “Ruhr-Sieg Bus Transport”) run to Kirchhundem, Olpe, Hilchenbach, Finnentrop, Schmallenberg, Meschede and Attendorn.
= Historical
=
Until 1944 there was another railway connection to
Erndtebrück
Erndtebrück is a municipality in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Location
Erndtebrück situated on the river Eder in the Rothaargebirge, approx. 20 km northeast of Siegen.
Neighbouring com ...
by the Altenhundem–Birkelbach railway line, whose bridges, however, were blown up by retreating units of the German army in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Parts of the tunnels are still preserved.
The line to Wenholthausen was still run until the mid-1960s. At this time, Altenhundem was said to be a railway village.
Private transport
The Federal Highways (''
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'' ...
n'') B 55 and B 517 run through the town.
Cycle transport
Lennestadt is connected to the North Rhine-Westphalia Cycle Transport Network (''Radverkehrsnetz NRW'') and furthermore lies on the ''Lenneroute'' running from the Lenne's source on the
Kahler Asten Kahler may refer to:
Places
*Kahler, Luxembourg, a small town in the commune of Garnich
*Kahler Asten, a German mountain range
Other uses
*Kahler (surname)
*Kahler's disease, a cancer otherwise known as ''multiple myeloma''
*Kahler Tremolo System, ...
down to its mouth at the Hohensyburg (castle).
Media
The ''Westfalenpost'' and the ''Westfälische Rundschau'' each have a local edition in Lennestadt and appear as daily
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
s. As well, the advertising sheets ''Sauerlandkurier'' and ''Sauerländer Wochenanzeiger'' come out on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Lennestadt belongs to the ''Westdeutscher Rundfunk''
Siegen
Siegen () is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly sho ...
studio area. News from the South Sauerland is broadcast on
WDR 2
WDR 2 is a radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) public broadcasting organization in Germany. It focuses on contemporary pop and rock music for an adult audience and on information. It is also WDR's broadcast sport ev ...
and in local broadcasts on
WDR Fernsehen
WDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air television network owned and operated by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and serving North Rhine-Westphalia. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" television stations that are offered within the federal ...
.
Education
Lennestadt is home to many
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
s, one special school whose emphasis is on learning,
Hauptschule
A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...
n,
Realschule
''Realschule'' () is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), ...
n and two
Gymnasien. Both the Gymnasium der Stadt Lennestadt as well as the Gymnasium Maria Königin
are located in Altenhundem. Moreover, there is a
folk high school
Folk high schools (also ''Adult Education Center'', Danish: ''Folkehøjskole;'' Dutch: ''Volkshogeschool;'' Finnish: ''kansanopisto'' and ''työväenopisto'' or ''kansalaisopisto;'' German: ''Volkshochschule'' and (a few) ''Heimvolkshochschule;'' ...
and a professional college. Lennestadt furthermore lies in the feeder area of the
University of Siegen
The University of Siegen (german: Universität Siegen) is a public research university located in Siegen, North Rhine-Westphalia and is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a society of Germany's leading research universities. The Univers ...
.
Notable people
*
Karl Joseph Schulte
Karl Joseph Schulte (14 September 1871 – 11 March 1941), was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1920 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1921.
Biography
Karl Joseph ...
(1871–1941), Archbishop and Cardinal
*
Adolf Hennecke
Adolf Hennecke, (25 March 1905 in Meggen (Lennestadt) – 22 February 1975 in East Berlin) was an official of the German FDGB (''Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund'') and of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. He gave his name to the Hennecke mo ...
(1905–1975), activist in
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
*
Irmgart Wessel-Zumloh (1907–1980), painter and graphic artist
Honorary citizens
* Paul Tigges, writer
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Olpe (district)