Olsberg is a town in the

Hochsauerland Hochsauerlandkreis (meaning “High Sauerland District” in German) is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Soest, Paderborn, Höxter, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Olpe, M� ...

district, in

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 ...

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

It is situated on the river Ruhr, approx. 15 km east of

Meschede Meschede () is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Hochsauerlandkreis. Education One of the five branches of South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences (also: Fachh ...

. It is bordered by Arnsberg Forest Nature Park, on the northern fringe of the Rothaargebirge. The town's setting is dominated by heavily wooded ridges and valleys formed by the Ruhr and three of its tributaries. A notable feature situated within the town's limits are the Bruchhauser Steine, four large porphyry rocks located on a mountain near the village of Bruchhausen. The Langenberg, the highest mountain of north-west Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, is located on the eastern town border, the peak being just inside the town's limits.

Neighbouring towns and municipalities

Clockwise from the north, Olsberg is bordered by: *

Brilon Brilon (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Brailen'') is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, central Germany, that belongs to the Hochsauerlandkreis. Geography Brilon is situated on the Brilon Heights at an altitude of about 450 m on the up ...

Willingen Willingen (official name: ''Willingen (Upland)'') is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany, some 80 km west of Kassel. Geography Location Willingen is found in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in the Upland. Its main ...

* Winterberg * Schmallenberg *

Bestwig Bestwig is a municipality in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Bestwig is situated on the river Ruhr, approx. 10 km east of Meschede. It lies on the German Autobahn A 46. Bestwig has a railway station ...

Division of the town

The town of Olsberg comprises twelve villages. The town's core consists of Olsberg itself and Bigge, which have physically merged since the 1950s. *Antfeld *Assinghausen *Bigge *Olsberg *Bruchhausen *Brunskappel *Elleringhausen *Elpe/Heinrichsdorf *Gevelinghausen *Helmeringhausen *Wiemeringhausen *Wulmeringhausen

History

The town was formed on January 1, 1975 in the course of the municipal reorganization of North Rhine-Westphalia. Before that date all villages (except Bigge and Olsberg, which had been merged already been merged into a single municipality in 1969) have been independent municipalities.

Politics

The

town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second ti ...

is currently headed by mayor Wolfgang Fischer (CDU), re-elected in 2020. The composition of the town council is, since 2020:

Economy

Traditionally dominated by

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

(especially

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

) and small scale wood and metal

craft A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pro ...

, the town's economical base today relies on the

tertiary sector The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

, especially

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. Industry consists primarily of

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

and

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

Transport

Rail

The town has two train stations. * Olsberg railway station is situated on the railway line between Hagen and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

and receives a generally hourly service in both direction. * Bigge railway station is on the line between

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

and Winterberg and has a one train in each direction every two hours.

Bus

Buses connect the town core to the neighbouring villages and towns, generally with hourly services. Most bus services meet at Olsberg railway station to connect with train services.

Road

The

Bundesstraße 480 ''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 ...

runs through the town from north to south, and meets the

Bundesstraße 7 The Bundesstraße 7 (abbr. B7) is a German federal highway (Bundesstraße) that stretches from the Dutch border at Venlo in the West to Rochlitz near Chemnitz in the East. It is approximately long. Because of its western origin some stretches o ...

just north of the town in the village of Altenbüren. The current end of the A46 motorway is 5 km to the Northwest.

Town bypass

Construction on a southern

bypass road A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety. A bypass spec ...

started in 2005 and is scheduled for opening in 2010. It will take the Bundesstrasse 480 to a new route bypassing the town core to the west and the south.

Education

Children are allocated to four

primary schools 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 ...

according to their place of residence. Additionally there are three secondary schools, one of which caters for children with physical disabilities. While the town does not have a Gymnasium (higher education school), it maintains a

vocational college A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...

.College web site (German)
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International relations

Olsberg is twinned with: * Olsberg,

Canton of Aargau Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau (german: Kanton Aargau; rm, Chantun Argovia; french: Canton d'Argovie; it, Canton Argovia), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capit ...

(

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

) -- since 1974 *

Fruges Fruges (; vls, Frusje) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Situated some 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Montreuil-sur-Mer on the D928 road, set in a valley not far from the hist ...

(

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

) -- since 1965 *

Jöhstadt Jöhstadt () is a town in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the border with the Czech Republic, 10 km southeast of Annaberg-Buchholz, and 35 km northeast of Karlovy Vary. His ...

(Germany) -- since 1990

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Hochsauerlandkreis