Stadtallendorf is a town in the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are ...

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 betwee ...

. It lies about east 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 approximat ...

. In 2010, the town hosted the 50th Hessentag state festival.

Geography

Location

Under the German system of ''Naturräume'', Stadtallendorf lies in the

West Hesse Depression The West Hesse Depression (german: Westhessische Senke) is part of the West Hesse Highlands and Lowlands region in the north of the German state of Hesse. Like the East Hesse Depression, it is a series of separate depressions that form a natural c ...

zone (''westhessische Senkenzone'') which is divided into basins and ridges. With respect to these, the town lies on the Upper Hesse Ridge which separates the Amöneburg Basin in the west from the ''Schwalmbecken'' (another basin) in the east. On this ridge may also be found the Neustadt Saddle, abutted by the town's northeast edge. This upland is part of the divide between the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

and

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

watersheds.

Neighbouring communities

Stadtallendorf borders in the north 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 ...

(Marburg-Biedenkopf) and the community of Gilserberg ( Schwalm-Eder-Kreis), in the east on the town of Neustadt, in the southeast on the town of Kirtorf, in the south on the town of Homberg (Ohm) (both in the

Vogelsbergkreis The Vogelsbergkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Schwalm-Eder, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Fulda, Main-Kinzig, Wetteraukreis, Gießen and Marburg-Biedenkopf. History The district was created in ...

), and in the west on the towns of Amöneburg and Kirchhain (both in Marburg-Biedenkopf).

Constituent communities (Ortsteile)

* Niederklein * Schweinsberg (an der Ohm) * Erksdorf – This village of 1,000 inhabitants was amalgamated in the 1970s; the name comes from a long-ago settler named Eric von Erkersdorp. * Hatzbach * Wolferode

History

Stadtallendorf was given city rights in 1960; it had been known until then simply as Allendorf. During

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Stadtallendorf was a secret

munitions Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...

centre. The armament firms WASAG (''Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff Actien-Gesellschaft'', "Westphalian & Anhaltish Explosives A.G.") and DAG produced munitions and

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

s in two separate large facilities located in the woods nearby. At the time, it was one of the largest of all munitions production centres in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The Munition centre continued throughout the war without being detected by the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

. Labor was provided by both German and foreign forced laborers, including prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates, housed in about a dozen camps in the surrounding area. The 6 square kilometre premises where the wartime arms works were built were said to be one of Germany's biggest contaminated former industrial sites, in parts with high concentrations of chemical contaminants on residential properties. Since 1991, the premises have undergone a far-reaching cleanup; in March 2006, the job was officially declared done. According to information from the Hesse Environment Ministry, the cleanup cost

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

167 million. 154 tonnes of contaminants were dug out of the ground, 697 tonnes were dug out of a dump, and 3 tonnes of TNT – still capable of exploding – were unearthed.

Steinlager Allendorf

Steinlager Allendorf was a primitive American prison near the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

br>
where

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

general and staff officers (more than 200) such as

Franz Halder Franz Halder (30 June 1884 – 2 April 1972) was a German general and the chief of staff of the Army High Command (OKH) in Nazi Germany from 1938 until September 1942. During World War II, he directed the planning and implementation of Operati ...

and

Heinz Guderian Heinz Wilhelm Guderian (; 17 June 1888 – 14 May 1954) was a German general during World War II who, after the war, became a successful memoirist. An early pioneer and advocate of the "blitzkrieg" approach, he played a central role in th ...

and scientists such a
Wilhelm Schaefer
were interrogated after

Politics

Mayors

* Since 2012: Christian Somogyi (SPD)''Ergebnisse der Bürgermeisterwahlen 2005 und 2011''
Stadt Stadtallendorf. Accessed March 2, 2012.

Town council

As of the last municipal elections held on 27 March 2011, town council seats are apportioned thus:

Coat of arms

Stadtallendorf's civic

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

might be described thus: In azure, dexter a bear rampant sinister Or armed gules and langued Or, sinister a lion rampant striped per fess nine times in gules and argent (the Lion of Hesse), langued gules and armed Or, both holding a six-spoked wheel argent (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 ...

). The Hessian lion and the Wheel of Mainz stand for the town's old allegiances. Until secularization, Stadtallendorf belonged to the

Archbishopric of Mainz The Electorate of Mainz (german: Kurfürstentum Mainz or ', la, Electoratus Moguntinus), previously known in English as Mentz and by its French name Mayence, was one of the most prestigious and influential states of the Holy Roman Empire. In t ...

, and thereafter to

. The bear is a reference to an old name for the town, ''Allendorf im Bärenschießen'', once used to distinguish the town from other places called Allendorf, and now needless thanks to the town's newer name. The arms have been kept even as other communities have been amalgamated with the old Allendorf as part of Hesse's municipal reforms.

Town partnerships

Stadtallendorf maintains partnerships with the following towns: *

St Ives, Cambridgeshire St Ives is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England, east of Huntingdon and north-west of Cambridge. St Ives is historically in the historic county of Huntingdonsh ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

since 1989 * Coswig,

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 i ...

since 1993

Transport

Stadtallendorf station is served at hourly intervals by the

Mittelhessen-Express The Mittelhessen-Express is a train service operated by DB Regio AG in the German state of Hesse on the Main-Weser Railway and the Dill Railway, which was put into operation at the commencement of the 2007 timetable on 10 December 2006. After a ...

(SE 30).

Economy

The town is economically successful, as large factories such as Ferrero oHG mbH (confectionery), Fritz Winter GmbH & Co. KG (engine foundry), Hoppe AG (lock manufacturing), and others have chosen to build here. The town's transport connections are by road to the Federal Highways (''Bundesstraßen'') B 454 and B 62, and by rail to the railway station on the Main-Weser line. An extension to Bundes

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

49 is currently being discussed, but there have been ecological questions about the wisdom of such an undertaking: the ''Herrenwald'' (masters' woods) is home to the

Great Crested Newt The northern crested newt, great crested newt or warty newt (''Triturus cristatus'') is a newt species native to Great Britain, northern and central continental Europe and parts of Western Siberia. It is a large newt, with females growing up to ...

, which is on the list of protected species. In an area of 78.3 km² live approx. 21,600 inhabitants, 16,900 of those in the main centre, whose population is about 25% foreign.

Population

(in each case as of 31 December) * 1998 – 21,587 * 1999 – 21,643 * 2000 – 21,656 * 2001 – 21,671 * 2002 – 21,704 * 2003 – 21,708 * 2004 – 21,528 * 2006 – 21,540 * 2009 – 21,146

Pictures of Stadtallendorf and its outlying centres

File:Stadtallendorf Mosque1.jpg, The

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

File:Stadtallendorf Mosque2.jpg, Side view File:Stadtallendorf Ferreo Factory.jpg, The Ferrero Works File:Schweinsberg (Stadtallendorf) (05).jpg, Schweinsberg (Town) File:Erksdorf_church.jpg, Erksdorf File:Hatzbach church.jpg, Hatzbach File:Wolferode_church.jpg, Wolferode

Notable people

Johann Georg Estor in Professorengalerie

Johann Georg Estor Johann Georg Estor (6 June 1699 – 25 October 1773), was a German theorist of public law, historian and book collector. To his opinion the Roman Law is strange to the original German law-culture and must be considered as a foreign body. Life ...

(1699–1773), lawyer and genealogist, born in Schweinsberg district * Eike Immel (born 1960), formerly a football goalkeeper

Personalities who lived or worked in Stadtallendorf

Margot Käßmann Margot Käßmann (; born 3 June 1958) is a Lutheran theologian, who was '' Landesbischöfin'' (bishop) of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover in Germany. On 28 October 2009, she was elected to lead the ''Evangelical Church in Germany'', a ...

(born 1958), Protestant theologian and former bishop, grew up in Stadtallendorf * Michael Pelda (c. 1970) Employee at Fritz Winter, Famous Coke Dealer

References

External links

* {{Authority control Marburg-Biedenkopf