Wixhausen is northernmost borough of the City of

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

in southern

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 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 ...

. Covering an area of 23.247 km², in 2006 it had 5,772 inhabitants and 1,310 houses. Its main claim to fame is the GSI heavy-ion research laboratory located there. The district of

Darmstadt-Arheilgen Arheilgen is a district in the north of the city of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany, incorporated in 1937. Arheilgen borders the Darmstadt district of Wixhausen to the North, to the West is the city Weiterstadt, to the East is the Darmstadt district ...

is just South of Wixhausen. The city of Erzhausen is just to the North of Wixhausen.

History

Wixhausen was already inhabited in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. The first signs of settlement in the Wixhausen district can be found around 1400 BC. 750/780 Wixhausen was then incorporated into the

Frankish Empire Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...

. Wixhausen was first mentioned by name in 1172 as "Wickenhusen", which means something like "settlement by the pond", since in the Middle Ages the area was traversed by several spring streams with small ponds. The baroque evangelical church built between 1774 and 1776 is worth seeing. It has a daily manually wound chime from 1517 in the Romanesque tower from 1150 (the oldest surviving structure in Darmstadt) and special windows (“Physikfenster” by Thomas Duttenhoefer, 1997). As part of the local government reform in Hesse, the municipality of Wixhausen was incorporated into Darmstadt in 1977.

Coat of arms

In gold a growing red, blue-tongued lion, with his right paw clasping the blue shaft of a flag squared with silver and red. Registered in the Hessian State Archives in 1962.

Boroughs of Darmstadt

Darmstadt has 9 official 'Stadtteile' (

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

). These are, alphabetically:Statistischer Ueberblick
('Statistical overview', from the official city website, in German) *

*Darmstadt-

Bessungen Bessungen is a district in the South of the city of Darmstadt in Hesse. History Until 1888, Bessungen was an independent municipality. The reputation as the oldest part of Darmstadt goes back to Bessungen being first mentioned in 1002. In fact, ...

Darmstadt-Eberstadt Eberstadt is the southernmost borough of Darmstadt in Hessen, Germany with a population of 23,728 (as of 2019). Geography In the north Eberstadt borders to the boroughs of Bessungen and Darmstadt-West, in the east and south to the municipaliti ...

*Darmstadt-

Kranichstein Kranichstein is a district in the city of Darmstadt. The town started with housing construction in the 1960s and now also has a number of residential high-rises. Often referred to as Darmstadt-Kranichstein. Geographical location Kranichstein is ...

*Darmstadt-Mitte ('Central') *Darmstadt-Nord ('North') *Darmstadt-Ost ('East') *Darmstadt-West ('West') *Darmstadt-Wixhausen

Transport

Wixhausen has a small rail station on the

Main-Neckar Railway The Main-Neckar Railway (german: Main-Neckar–Eisenbahn, MNE) is a main line railway west of the Odenwald in the Upper Rhine Plain of Germany that connects Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg via Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim. It was opened in 1 ...

, from which an S3 S-Bahn line, S-Bahn train has connections to the Darmstadt Station on regional services trains stops. Wixhausen and Arheilgen are both on the S3 line. The Darmstadt Station (Hauptbahnhof) has connections to

Trams in Darmstadt The Darmstadt tram network is a light rail system and the backbone of public transport within Darmstadt, a city in the federal state of Hesse, Germany. As of 2014, nine lines on four main routes () serve 162 stops, including 92 low-floor stops. ...

. Buses: Bus WX and 662 also serve Wixhausen. The main road through the town is the B3. The

Bundesautobahn 5 is a 445 km (277 mi) long Autobahn in Germany. Its northern end is the Hattenbach triangle intersection (with the A 7. The southern end is at the Swiss border near Basel. It runs through the German states of Hessen and Baden-Wü ...

freeway is to the West of town.

Gallery

Wixhausen evangelische Kirche 20110310.jpg, Wixhausen Baroque Protestant church (2011) DA-Wixhausen paroĥa domo Pfarrhaus 3.jpg, Clergy house (2012) DA-Wixhausen vilaĝa muzeo Dorfmuseum 1.JPG, Local museum (2012) Darmstadt-Wixhausener Bahnhof- Bahnhofsgebäude- Außenansicht 24.6.2012.JPG, Wixhausen Rail station (2012) GSI-Darmstadt-Südbau.jpg,

GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research The GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (german: GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung) is a federally and state co-funded heavy ion () research center in the Wixhausen suburb of Darmstadt, Germany. It was founded in 1969 as the ...

(2011) Bridge Over Little Creek Near Wixhausen.jpg, Bridge over little creek near Wixhausen (2009) Tramnetz da.jpg, Map of Darmstadt, with Wixhausen at the top (2006)

References

External links

wixhausen.de, Wixhausen web site
{{Authority control Darmstadt