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Biebergemünd is a municipality 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 Frankfu ...
district, in
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 Da ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. It has a population of over 8,000 and lies in the wooded hills of the
Spessart Spessart is a '' Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg at 586 metres above sea level. Et ...
.


Etymology

The name derives from the River
Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...
, which flows (''mündet'') into the Kinzig at Wirtheim.


Geography


Location

Biebergemünd is mostly located in the Hessian part of the
Spessart Spessart is a '' Mittelgebirge'', a range of low wooded mountains, in the States of Bavaria and Hesse in Germany. It is bordered by the Vogelsberg, Rhön and Odenwald. The highest elevation is the Geiersberg at 586 metres above sea level. Et ...
at elevations between 140 and 250 metres above NHN. Around 70% of the municipal territory is covered by forest. In the north, the municipality extends into the valley of the Kinzig river.


Neighbouring communities

The municipality's territory borders on the state of
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
in the south. The neighbouring communities are (from the north, clockwise):
Wächtersbach The town of Wächtersbach is part of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. In 1982, the town hosted the 22nd ''Hessentag'' state festival. Location Wächtersbach lies between the Spessart and the Vogelsberg Mountains in the middle Kinzig val ...
,
Bad Orb Bad Orb (; " Thermae on the Orb River") is a spa town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis district of Hesse, Germany. It is situated east of Hanau between the forested hills of the Spessart. Bad Orb has a population of over 10,000. Its economy is dom ...
, Jossgrund,
Flörsbachtal Flörsbachtal is a municipality in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hesse, Germany. It has a population close to 2,400. Flösbachtal contains both the oldest parish and the youngest settlement established in the Spessart hills. Located within the mu ...
, , and (three wooded '' gemeindefreie Gebiete'', Bavaria), Kleinkahl (Bavaria), Linsengericht and
Gelnhausen Gelnhausen () is a town, and the capital of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 40 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main, between the Vogelsberg mountains and the Spessart range at the river Kinzig. It is one of ...
.


Subdivisions

Villages that belong to Biebergemünd, (population numbers for 2013): * Bieber (2,228) * Breitenborn/Lützel (400) * Kassel (2,464) * Lanzingen (632) * Roßbach (755) * Wirtheim (1,911).


History

Pre-historic
hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...
s were located on several hills in the area. Those on the hills Burgberg (Bieber), Alteburg (Kassel) and Hainkeller (Lützel) are attributed to the
Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...
, or more specifically to the late
Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammer ...
and early
La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defi ...
s, circa 540 to 340 BC. Although the reason for this concentration of Iron Age settlements in this area is not known, it may be associated with the presence of ores and mining activities (see below). The area is mentioned quite early in documentary sources: in 886 the settlement ''Hegersfeld'' (Wirtheim) makes an appearance, followed by Wirtheim and Kassel in a gift by
Otto II Otto II (955 – 7 December 983), called the Red (''der Rote''), was Holy Roman Emperor from 973 until his death in 983. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto II was the youngest and sole surviving son of Otto the Great and Adelaide of Ital ...
in 976. Although Bieber is a very old settlement, it only appears in written documents in 1339 (as the seat of a court of the
Archbishop of Mainz The Elector of Mainz was one of the seven Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. As both the Archbishop of Mainz and the ruling prince of the Electorate of Mainz, the Elector of Mainz held a powerful position during the Middle Ages. The Archb ...
administered by the Counts of Rieneck). Originally a poor village of foresters, its fortunes improved with the establishment of mines (first mentioned in 1494).
Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
,
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...
,
lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...
and (later)
cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, ...
,
nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
,
bismuth Bismuth is a chemical element with the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. It is a post-transition metal and one of the pnictogens, with chemical properties resembling its lighter group 15 siblings arsenic and antimony. Elemental bismuth occurs ...
and
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
were mined in the area. Originally the Mainz authorities conducted the mining jointly with the
Lords of Hanau Lords may refer to: * The plural of Lord Places * Lords Creek, a stream in New Hanover County, North Carolina *Lord's, English Cricket Ground and home of Marylebone Cricket Club and Middlesex County Cricket Club People * Traci Lords (bor ...
, but after 1546 Mainz left Hanau in charge. The local mining industry peaked in the 18th century under the family von Cancrin. In 1925, the mines were closed. In 1736, Bieber fell to the
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Darmstadt) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a younger branch of the House of Hesse. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse betwe ...
along with the
County of Hanau The County of Hanau was a territory within the Holy Roman Empire, evolved out of the Lordship of Hanau in 1429. From 1456 to 1642 and from 1685 to 1712 it was divided into the County of Hanau-Münzenberg and the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg. ...
. It came to the
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: ...
in 1866. A local narrow-gauge track was built in 1885 to transport ore from the mines to the Kinzig valley at Gelnhausen. It covered a distance of around 23 km and was known as the ''Spessartbahn''. After 1895 the trains also transported passengers. The last passenger service was discontinued in 1951. The current municipality was created in the 1970s as part of the ' in three steps: In 1970, Wirtheim and Kassel merged to become "Biebergemünd". In 1971, Bieber, Roßbach, Lanzingen, Breitenborn and Lützel merged to become "Bieber". Finally, in 1974 Biebergemünd and Bieber merged to become the ''Großgemeinde'' Biebergemünd.


Economy

Biebergemünd is located on the , a marked
scenic route A scenic route, tourist road, tourist route, tourist drive, holiday route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty. It often passes by scenic viewpoint ...
for tourists. The largest single private employer is '' Engelbert Strauss GmbH & Co. KG'' (founded in 1948), a manufacturer of workwear. Its number of employees has almost quadrupled from 300 ten years ago. Its annual turnover is in the "500 million to 1 billion euro" bracket.


Arts and culture


Points of interest

The small ''Biebergrundmuseum'' in Bieber, opened in 2000, showed exhibits on local history. It closed on 3 May 2015, however. No date for reopening has yet been scheduled. Two signposted hiking trails, part of the European project ''Europäische Kulturlandschaft Spessart'' which point out cultural highlights and explain the ways in which human habitation has changed the landscape, are located in the municipality. The first focuses on the mining history of the area. The second highlights the Celtic presence at Kassel (at the prehistoric settlement known today as ''Alteburg''). The ''Alteburg'' is roughly 3 km east of Kassel. Its hill-top fortification covers an area of 5.1 hectares, with ramparts of up to 6 m height, surrounded by a moat. Access was by three gates. It mostly dates to the early Middle Ages, but made use of an earlier, Celtic hillfort.
Radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was de ...
has put the foundations in the range of 540 to 340 BC. The upper layers likely date from 705 to 905 AD. The Burgberg, ca. 2 km from Bieber, also features traces of pre-historic walls and ramparts. More prominent are the remains of early medieval walls of up to 5 m height with a moat 5 to 7 m wide and up to 1.5 m deep. The fortification covers an area of 4.9 hectares and when in use had two gates. The third
circular rampart A circular rampart (German: ''Ringwall'') is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering. T ...
is found on the Hainkeller, above the Lützelbach valley. It is a double ring fort that likely served as a local centre in the 4th and 3rd century BC. The distance between the inner and outer rampart averages 30 m. The inner circle covers an area of 2.4 hectares. The Gothic parish church of Bieber was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries and features a notable pulpit from 1797. The ''Burgbergkapelle'' St. Mauritius (chapel) on the Burgberg near Bieber dates to the 14th and 15th centuries. The interior is Baroque. The chapel stands close to the remains of a
circular rampart A circular ram