Schlüchtern is a town in the

Main-Kinzig Main-Kinzig-Kreis is a Kreis (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Wetteraukreis, Vogelsbergkreis, Fulda, Bad Kissingen, Main-Spessart, Aschaffenburg, Offenbach and the district-free cities of Offenbach and Frankfurt ...

district, in Hessen, Germany. It is located on the river Kinzig, approximately 30 km southwest of

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 ...

. Schlüchtern has a population close to 16,000.

Location

Schlüchtern is located in the ''

Bergwinkel Bergwinkel is a region around the town of Schlüchtern in the county of Main-Kinzig-Kreis in East Hesse, Germany. It describes a small region of the Landrücken, in which the foothills of the Brückenau Kuppenrhön to the east, the Sandstone Sp ...

'', the area between the '' Mittelgebirge'' or low mountains of the Vogelsberg, Spessart and Rhön. Also the river Kinzig flows through the municipality, in southwest area of a hill called ''Landrücken''.

History

The town itself is mentioned in a document for the first time in 1278. However, since by the mid-12th century there was a family using that name, the town is likely older than that. The oldest documented local establishment was the Benedictine abbey of Schlüchtern. A foundation document allegedly signed by Charlemagne was discovered to be a medieval forgery. A possible first mention of the abbey dates from 819, but cannot be attributed without doubt to this location. The earliest mention that irrefutably referred to Schlüchtern Abbey dates from 993, when

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 ...

granted the abbey ''sluohderin'' to the Bishop of Würzburg. The abbey became influential and by the High Middle Ages had acquired substantial land holdings far beyond the Kinzig valley. However, by the late Middle Ages its power was already waning. The

Peasants' War This is a chronological list of conflicts in which peasants played a significant role. Background The history of peasant wars spans over two thousand years. A variety of factors fueled the emergence of the peasant revolt phenomenon, including: ...

and the Reformation accelerated its decline. The last (Protestant) abbot, Johannes Wankel, died in April 1609. Today, the abbey buildings continue to serve as a '' Gymnasium'' (school) and education facility for the regional Protestant church. The abbey church, rebuilt in

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

style in the 15th century, became a teachers' seminary in 1835/6. However, the

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

from

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

times has been preserved. An ancient trade route, the ''

Eselsweg The Eselsweg (English: "donkey trail") is a long-distance hiking trail that follows an ancient trade route through the ''Mittelgebirge'' Spessart, in the states of Hesse and Bavaria, Germany. It is 111 km long and leads from Schlüchtern in t ...

'' connected Schlüchtern to

Großheubach Großheubach (or ''Grossheubach'') is a market community in the Miltenberg district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Lower Franconia (''Unterfranken'') in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Location Großheubach lies on the right bank of the Main. T ...

/ Miltenberg on the river Main.

Town partnerships

* Jarocin, Poland *

Fameck Fameck (; german: Fameck) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Localities of the commune: Budange (a.k.a. ''Budange sous Justemont'') and in German: Büdingen unter Justberg, Edange (German: Edingen), Mor ...

, France

Infrastructure

Transport

Schlüchtern is connected to the Frankfurt Rhine-Main region by the A 66 and the Kinzig Valley Railway (''Kinzigtalbahn'') at

Schlüchtern station Schlüchtern station is a station for trains. It is in the town of Schlüchtern in the German state of Hesse on the Frankfurt–Göttingen railway. The station is classified by Deutsche Bahn (DB) as a category 4 station. History The station wa ...

, both connecting Frankfurt am Main and

Notable residents

Theodore Levitt Theodore Levitt (March 1, 1925 – June 28, 2006) was a German-born American economist and a professor at the Harvard Business School. He was editor of the ''Harvard Business Review'', noted for increasing the Review's circulation and popularizin ...

(born in Schlüchtern-Vollmerz) was an American economist and a professor at the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. He was editor of the '' Harvard Business Review'', noted for increasing the Review's circulation and popularizing the term globalization. In 1983, he proposed a definition for ''corporate purpose'': "Rather than merely making money, it is to create and keep a customer".Levitt, T (1983) The Marketing Imagination, New York: Free Press. * Reinhold Heil (born in Schlüchtern) is a musician and film and television

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

based in Los Angeles. He initially achieved success in Germany as a member of the post-punk and Neue Deutsche Welle bands

Nina Hagen Band Spliff was a Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) rock band, active in the 1980s. Three of the members were already playing together in the political rock cabaret ''Lokomotive Kreuzberg'' (founded 1972 in Berlin) before they were 'adopted' by Ni ...

and

Spliff A joint (), also commonly referred to as a "doobie" or "doob", is a rolled cannabis cigarette. Unlike commercial tobacco cigarettes, the user ordinarily hand-rolls joints with rolling papers, though in some cases they are machine-rolled ...

and later as a music producer. He is known for his frequent collaborations with Australian composer Johnny Klimek and director Tom Tykwer on films such as ''

Run Lola Run ''Run Lola Run'' (german: Lola rennt}, lit. "Lola Runs") is a 1998 German experimental thriller film written and directed by Tom Tykwer. The story follows a woman named Lola (Franka Potente) who needs to obtain 100,000 Deutschmarks in twenty min ...

'' and ''Cloud Atlas''.

References

External links

Website Schlüchtern (in German)
Towns in Hesse Main-Kinzig-Kreis {{Hesse-geo-stub