Niddatal () is a town in the

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 distric ...

district in

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. It is located on the river Nidda, 6 km southeast of Friedberg and 22 km northeast of

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. The town is divided into four districts: Assenheim, Ilbenstadt, Kaichen, Bönstadt.

History

Assenheim

Assenheim was first mentioned as a township in 1139. Assenheim Castle existed between the years 1170 – 1780. Its ruins are still visible today.

Ilbenstadt

Ilbenstadt's first mention as an ''Eluistat'' was in 818. At the time, Ilbenstadt consisted of two cloisters. Its Church ''St. Maria, Petrus und Paulus'' was elevated to

Basilica Minor In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular b ...

status in 1929 by

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

Kaichen

Kaichen was founded by a ''Anshelmus de Cochene'' in 1231.Stadt Niddatal
Niddatal.de. Retrieved on 5 January 2014. Around 1400, Kaichen's first church was built and rebuilt in 1737 and a

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

was added. One of the most popular places in Kaichen is the ''Gericht zu Kaichen'' which was a court able declare to a death penalty.

Bönstadt

Bönstadt first was the property of the

counts of Falkenstein Counts of Falkenstein may refer to: *Counts of Falkenstein (Bavaria) *Counts of Falkenstein (Rhineland-Palatinate) {{disambiguation ...

, and later of

Isenburg-Büdingen Isenburg-Büdingen was a County of southern Hesse, Germany, located in Büdingen. It was originally a part of the County of Isenburg. There were two different Counties of the same name. The first (1341–1511) was a partition of Isenburg-Cleberg ...

, which made Bönstadt belong to Assenheim castle. Documentary, in former times Bönstadt had meant ''Benstad'' in 1184. In 1970, the townships of Assenheim, Ilbenstadt, Bönstadt and Kaichen merged to form modern-day Niddatal.Stadt Niddatal
Niddatal.de. Retrieved on 5 January 2014. As of January 2009, the town's population stands at 9,360.Stadt Niddatal
. Niddatal.de. Retrieved on 5 January 2014. The area is characterised by agricultural activities, but in its former past, trade played a fundamental role in the local economy.

Politics

Local elections in Niddatal have yielded the following results:

Sights

Ilbenstadt

''Basilica Maria St. Petrus und Paulus'' was donated by St. Gottfried von Cappenberg in 1123. St. Cappenberg was interred there in 1127 and Pope Pius XI elevated the Church to

status in 1929. Due to

secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

in 1803, its cloister was abrogated. After

World War II 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 ...

, the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Mainz The Diocese of Mainz, historically known in English as ''Mentz'' as well as by its French name ''Mayence'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was founded in 304, promoted in 780 to Metrop ...

repurchased the cloister from the state

. Today the church is a landmark of Ilbenstadt which is also visible because of the eternalisation on town emblem. Regionally, the church is also known as (cathedral of

Wetterau The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains. Bettina von Arnim writes of We ...

)

References

{{Authority control Wetteraukreis