Waldkappel is a small town in the

Werra-Meißner-Kreis Werra-Meißner is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Göttingen, Eichsfeld, Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis, Wartburgkreis, district-free Eisenach, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, Kassel. History The dis ...

district in northern

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 Dar ...

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

Location

Waldkappel is located between

Hessisch Lichtenau Hessisch Lichtenau ( is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in eastern Hesse, Germany. In 2006, the town hosted the 46th Hessentag state festival. Geography Location Hessisch Lichtenau lies in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis 20 km southeast of ...

in the west and

Eschwege Eschwege (), the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh '' Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river W ...

in the east in the North Hesse Upland between the Meißner-Kaufunger Wald Nature Park neighbouring it to the north and the Stölzinger Gebirge (range) in the south, in the Wehre valley.

Neighbouring communities

Waldkappel borders in the north on the community of Meißner, in the east on the community of

Wehretal Wehretal is a municipality in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Wehretal lies roughly 50 km southeast of the North Hesse city of Kassel. It is found between Eschwege in the north and Sontra in the s ...

, in the south on the town of

Sontra Sontra is a small town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeastern Hesse, Germany. The air spa of Sontra is known as ''Berg- und Hänselstadt'', with ''Bergstadt'' referring to the time when there was bituminous shale mining (“mining” is ''B ...

(all three in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis), in the southwest on the community of

Cornberg Cornberg is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It is the district's smallest municipality. Geography Location The community lies between the towns of Bad Hersfeld to the south and Eschwege to the ...

and the town of

Rotenburg an der Fulda Rotenburg an der Fulda (officially ''Rotenburg a.d. Fulda'') is a town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany lying, as the name says, on the river Fulda. Geography Location The town lies south of the Stölzinger Geb ...

(both in

Hersfeld-Rotenburg Hersfeld-Rotenburg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Werra-Meißner, Wartburgkreis, Fulda, Vogelsbergkreis, Schwalm-Eder. History In 1821, districts were created in Hesse, including the districts H ...

) and in the west on the towns of

Spangenberg Spangenberg is a small town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Spangenberg lies in the Schwalm-Eder district some southeast of Kassel, west of the Stölzinger Gebirge, a low mountain range. Spangenberg is the demographic centrepoint o ...

(in the

Schwalm-Eder-Kreis Schwalm-Eder-Kreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Kassel, Werra-Meißner, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Vogelsberg, Marburg-Biedenkopf, and Waldeck-Frankenberg. History In 1821 districts were create ...

) and

(in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis).

Constituent communities

Waldkappel consists of 15 districts (Ger.: '' Stadtteile''), namely its administrative centre Waldkappel as well as Bischhausen, Burghofen, Eltmannsee, Friemen, Gehau, Harmuthsachsen, Hasselbach, Hetzerode, Kirchhosbach, Mäckelsdorf, Rechtebach, Rodebach, Schemmern and Stolzhausen.

History

Waldkappel was first officially mentioned in 1226 and was granted town rights in 1414. The town experienced its economic heyday in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

from lying on the old trade road ''durch die langen Hessen'', which ran from the

Wetterau The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains. Bettina von Arnim writes of ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

and on to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. Bearing witness to the town’s earlier, wealthier times is a Late Gothic church standing in the middle of the community. The

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

put an abrupt end to Waldkappel’s prosperity; the town could never again reach its former importance. In the course of municipal reform, the communities of Waldkappel, Bischhausen, Burghofen, Friemen, Gehau, Kirchhosbach, Mäckelsdorf, Rechtebach, Rodebach and Schemmern from the former Eschwege district merged. They were joined by Harmuthsachsen and Hasselbach from the former Witzenhausen district, as well as by Stolzhausen from the Melsungen district. In 1974, the greater community reached its full extent with the amalgamation of Eltmannsee and Hetzerode.

Politics

Town council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Town partnerships

Carhaix Carhaix-Plouguer (; br, Karaez-Plougêr ), commonly known as just Carhaix (), is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France.Finistère Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Rijnwoude Rijnwoude () was a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covered an area of of which was water. Rijnwoude was formed in 1991 as Rijneveld through the merger of the former municipalities of ...

, South Holland,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Through Waldkappel runs ''

Bundesstraße ''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'' ...

'' 7. The

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' ...

A 44 ( Kassel–

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

) is under construction.

Famous people

Peter Griess Johann Peter Griess (6 September 1829 – 30 August 1888) was an industrial chemist and an early pioneer of organic chemistry. Griess was influential in the formation of modern dyes, first formulating the diazotization reaction of arylamines. Li ...

(1829–1888), industrial chemist, born in Kirchhosbach * Christian Schütz (1526–1592),

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

theologian

References

{{Authority control Werra-Meißner-Kreis