Wetter (Hessen) is a small town in Hesse,
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 ...
. The rather unusual designation Wetter (
Hessen-Nassau
The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944.
Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the ...
) stems from a time when the town belonged to the
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n province of the same name, and nowadays is only used by the
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
– even today, the railway station in town bears this name.
Geography
Wetter lies in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district on the western edge of the ''Burgwald'', a low range of hills, in the Wetschaft valley and neighbouring places about 14 km north of
Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
.
Neighbouring communities
To the north, Wetter borders on the town of
Rosenthal in
Waldeck-Frankenberg
Waldeck-Frankenberg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland.
History
The district was created in 1972 by merging t ...
district, to the east on the town of
Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954–1964), a ...
and the community of
Cölbe
Cölbe () is a municipality in Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse, Germany.
Location
Cölbe's municipal area lies on the southern edge of the ''Burgwald'', a low mountain range and part of the ''Hessisches Bergland'' (Hessian Highland), an ...
, to the south on the community of
Lahntal
The municipality of Lahntal is found in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in northwest Middle Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Lahntal lies on the upper Lahn about 83 km north of Frankfurt am Main and about 7 km northwest of Marburg. In the nort ...
, to the southwest on the community of
Dautphetal
Dautphetal is a municipality in Hesse, Germany, and is among the six larger municipalities of the 22 in Marburg-Biedenkopf district.
Geography
The municipality lies in the western part of the district about 37 km east of Siegen and about 15 ...
, and to the southwest on the town of
Biedenkopf
Biedenkopf () is a spa town in western Hesse, Germany with a population of 13,491 (2020).
Geography
Location
The town of Biedenkopf lies in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Ringed by mountains reaching up to above sea level – the ...
and the community of
Münchhausen am Christenberg
The municipality of Münchhausen is found north of Marburg on the northern edge of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. It has 3,286 inhabitants (2020) and has had its current boundaries since 1974. The municipality's area is roughly 41 km².
Geog ...
, all in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district.
Transport
North to south through the town's municipal area runs the Federal Highway (''Bundesstraße'') B 252 from eastern
Westphalia
Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants.
The territory of the regio ...
by way of
Korbach
Korbach (pronunciation: ˈkoːɐˌbax), officially the Hanseatic City of Korbach (German language, German: Hansestadt Korbach), is the district seat of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. It is over a thousand years old and is located o ...
and
Frankenberg and on to Göttingen (in the community of
Lahntal
The municipality of Lahntal is found in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in northwest Middle Hesse, Germany.
Geography
Lahntal lies on the upper Lahn about 83 km north of Frankfurt am Main and about 7 km northwest of Marburg. In the nort ...
). To divert heavy traffic away from places in the Wetschaft valley, a
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 ...
is planned.
The ''Burgwaldbahn'' railway line connects the town with Marburg and Frankenberg. The ''Kurhessenbahn'' which runs the line means to reopen the extension between Frankenberg and Korbach.
History
![Wetter - Kirche von Fuhrstraße](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Wetter_-_Kirche_von_Fuhrstra%C3%9Fe.jpg)
Wetter was already being mentioned in documents in the 8th and 9th centuries; it was mentioned in one such document under the same name that it still has today in 1108, and the "''Weistum'' of Wetter" was already displaying its town rights even as early as 1239.
Politics
Town council
As of municipal elections held on 26 March 2006, the seats on Wetter Town Council are apportioned thus:
Coat of arms
Wetter's civic
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
might be described thus: In Or on a three-knolled hill vert a fleur-de-lis twig vert with three blossoms argent flanked by two inescutcheons, dexter in azure the Hessian Lion rampant gules and argent sinister; sinister in gules the
wheel of Mainz
The Wheel of Mainz or ''Mainzer Rad'', in German, was the coat of arms of the Archbishopric of Mainz and thus also of the Electorate of Mainz (Kurmainz), in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It consists of a silver wheel with six spokes on a red bac ...
argent.
The two inescutcheons (smaller shields within the main one) hark back to the time when the Hessian
Landgrave
Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...
s held sway (the Hessian Lion), and to the Archbishops of
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
(the wheel of Mainz).
Constituent communities
![Warzenbach](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Warzenbach.jpg)
* Amönau
* Mellnau
* Niederwetter
* Oberndorf
* Oberrosphe
* Todenhausen
* Treisbach
* Unterrosphe
* Warzenbach
* Wetter
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
![Burg Mellnau](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Burg_Mellnau.JPG)
*The
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 ...
monastery church (13th century).
*Town Hall – in the upper floors slated
half-timbering
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 ...
with a spire skylight, built about 1680. The ground floor is massive. Recently expanded.
*Former
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
– (once a storeroom, since renovated and turned into an event room). Two-floor square half-timbered building with polygonal
ridge turret
A ridge turret is a turret or small tower constructed over the ridge or apex between two or more sloping roofs of a building. It is usually built either as an architectural ornament for purely decorative purposes or else for the practical housing ...
, late 19th century.
*Houses – The compact and picturesque townscape consists first and foremost of half-timbered houses with forward-facing gables, most of which have
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
roofs or
plaster
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
work. After several town fires, only a few buildings from before 1629 have still been preserved. Some houses exhibit Classicist doors.
*Remains of the mediaeval town wall with two towers.
The houses at the following addresses are worth mentioning:
*Markt 7 – Three-floor house with forward-facing gable and a corner
oriel window
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...
. On the stone ground floor a pretty
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
portal, marked 1570.
*Markt 8 – 17th century.
*Markt 9 – Three-floor house with forward-facing gable, presumably from the first third of the 16th century, second upper floor added about 1700.
*Markt 14 –
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
half-timbered building with ornamental carvings, presumably from the late 17th century.
*Krämergasse 14 – House with side gables with carved infilling boards, dated 1671.
*Krämergasse 10 – Two-floor half-timbered building, possibly from first quarter of the 16th century.
Regular events
Every seven years, the town holds its ''Grenzgangfest'', recalling a time when patrolling the town's boundaries was necessary to prevent neighbourly encroachment. The next ''Grenzgangfest'' is in 2022.
Sons and daughters of the town
![Hermann Vultejus in jungen Jahren](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Hermann_Vultejus_in_jungen_Jahren.jpg)
*
Friedrich Sylburg
Friedrich Sylburg (1536 – 17 February 1596) was a German classical scholar.
The son of a farmer, he was born at Wetter near Marburg. He studied at Marburg, Jena, Geneva, and, lastly, Paris, where his teacher was Henry Estienne (Stephanus), to ...
(1536-1596), publisher
*
Johannes Cuchlinus
Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, ''Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Yeh ...
(1546-1606), pastor and founding regent of the theological college at Leiden University
[Stanglin, K. (2007). Johannes Kuchlinus, the 'Faithful Teacher': His Role in the Arminian Controversy and His Impact as a Theological Interpreter and Educator, Church History and Religious Culture, 87(3), 305-326. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/187124107X232444]
*
Hermann Vultejus (1555–1634), German jurist
*
Oswald Croll
Oswald Croll or Crollius (c. 1563 – December 1609) was an alchemist, and professor of medicine at the University of Marburg in Hesse, Germany. A strong proponent of alchemy and using chemistry in medicine, he was heavily involved in writing book ...
(1560-1608), physician and pharmacist
*
Fred Steinfort
Friedrich W. "Fred" Steinfort (born November 3, 1952) is a former American football placekicker in the National Football League who played for five different teams from (1976–1983). He played college football at Boston College.
When Steinfort ...
(born 1952), American Football player
Partner towns
*
Deutschkreutz
Deutschkreutz ( hu, Sopronkeresztúr until 1899, ''Németkeresztúr'' yi, צעלעם, translit=Zelem hr, Kerestur) is an Austrian market town in the district of Oberpullendorf in the state of Burgenland.
Geography
Deutschkreutz lies in Middle ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
*
Oostrozebeke
Oostrozebeke (; vls, Ôostrôzebeke) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises only the town of Oostrozebeke proper. On January 1, 2018 Oostrozebeke had a total population of 7,849. The total ar ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
*
Reinsdorf,
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Marburg-Biedenkopf