Höchst im Odenwald (officially ''Höchst i. Odw.'') is a municipality in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Geography

Location

Höchst lies 25 km east 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 the ...

, in the northern

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

at elevations between 175 and 400 m.

Neighbouring communities

Höchst borders in the north on the town of

Groß-Umstadt Groß-Umstadt (, , in contrast to " Little Umstadt") is a town in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg in the Bundesland (federal state) of Hesse in Germany. It is near Darmstadt and Frankfurt, in the southeastern part of the Rhine-Main Metropolitan ...

(

Darmstadt-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg is a Kreis (district) in the south of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Offenbach, Aschaffenburg, Miltenberg, Odenwaldkreis, Bergstraße, Groß-Gerau, and the district-free city of Darmstadt, which it surrounds. Histo ...

) and the town of

Breuberg Breuberg is a town in the Odenwaldkreis, Odenwaldkreis district of Hesse, Germany. It is 28 km east of Darmstadt and 20 km southwest of Aschaffenburg. Geography Location Breuberg lies in the northern Odenwald. Neighbouring communi ...

, in the east on the community of

Lützelbach Lützelbach (ˈ) is a municipality in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies in the northern Odenwald on the Hesse-Bavaria boundary in a richly wooded setting. Neighbouring communities Lützelba ...

, in the south on the town of

Bad König Bad König () is a town and resort ('' Kurort'') in the central Odenwald in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany, 29 km southeast of Darmstadt. Geography Neighbouring communities Bad König borders in the north on the communit ...

, in the southwest on the community of

Brensbach Brensbach is a municipality in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Brensbach lies in the northern Odenwald in the Gersprenz valley. Neighbouring communities Brensbach borders in the north on the towns of Groß- ...

and in the west on the community of Otzberg (Darmstadt-Dieburg).

Constituent communities

Höchst's ''

Ortsteil A village is a human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located ...

e'', besides the main centre, also called Höchst, are Annelsbach, Dusenbach, Forstel, Hassenroth i.Odw., Hetschbach, Hummetroth, Mümling-Grumbach and Pfirschbach.

History

The ''Höchster Becken'' ("Höchst Basin"), was permanently settled, as were other favourable locations, no later than the

New Stone Age The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide- ...

. Many

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

remnants as well as finds from

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

times bear witness to this. In the outlying centre of Hummetroth, a Roman

villa rustica Villa rustica () was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a farmhouse or villa set in the countryside and with an agricultural section, which applies to the vast majority of Roman villas. In some cases they were at the centre of a large ...

from the 2nd century was unearthed and may be visited as an

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

. It is known as the ''Römische Villa Haselburg''. Höchst had its first documentary mention in 1156. Its overlords in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

were, among others, the Lords of

, the Counts of Wertheim, the Lords of Eppstein and the Counts of Erbach. By the time that the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

was over, the community had nearly died out, recovering only very slowly. Through municipal restructuring in Hesse, the community of Annelsbach, which up to this time had been self-governing, was amalgamated in 1969. Following in 1971 were Forstel, Hummetroth, Pfirschbach, Hassenroth, Mümling-Grumbach, Hetschbach and Dusenbach. Since 1857, the valley of the Obrunnbach has been known as the ''Obrunnschlucht'' ("Obrunn Gorge") and has undergone changes due to tourism.

Politics

The municipal election held on 27 March 2011 yielded the following results: Elections in March 2016: *CDU: 7 seats *SPD: 10 seats *GRÜNE: 3 seats *FDP: 1 seats *KAH: 7 seats *WfH: 3 seats *Total: 31 seats Voter turnout 49,7 %

Mayor

At the mayoral election on 5 February 2006, Reiner Guth (KAH) was elected mayor with 64.3% of the vote. His opponent Jürgen Hild (SPD) got 35.7%. On 31 August 2011 Rainer Guth retired from his office for health reasons. He died on 11 October 2011. He was succeeded by the non-party member Horst Bitsch in a run-off election on 20 November 2011, who took office on 2 January 2012. He was re-elected in 2017.

Town partnerships

The community of Höchst im Odenwald maintains partnership arrangements with the following places:

Montmélian Montmélian () is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Montmélian station has rail connections to Grenoble, Modane, Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Chambéry. Geography Climate Montmélian ...

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population o ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

since 1966
Bělotín,

Olomouc Region Olomouc Region (; , ; ) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the north-western and central part of its historical region of Moravia (''Morava'') and in a small part of the historical region of Czech Silesia (''České Sl ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Höchst, like Hetschbach and Mümling-Grumbach, is connected by the Odenwald Railway (''Odenwaldbahn''; RMV Line 65) towards the north with

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

and, through a change of trains, to

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, towards the northwest directly with

and towards the south with Erbach and Eberbach in the

Neckar The Neckar () is a river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar ...

valley. Owing to the rising traffic volume on ''

Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), 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'' are labelled with re ...

'' 45, which runs north-south through the middle of Höchst, a bypass has been built to the west of the community to reduce through traffic on the roadway through downtown, which along some stretches is rather narrow. The first spadeful of earth was turned on 27 July 2005. The 2.8 km-long bypass has finally opened in December 2009. The building cost has been assessed at €22,800,000.

Education

Since 1964, Höchst has been home to the ''Ernst-Göbel-Schule'', a cooperative

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

with a Gymnasium upper level.

Regular events

*Each year in May, the four-day Apple Blossom Festival (''Apfelblütenfest'') takes place. On this occasion, an "Apple Blossom Queen" (''Apfelblütenkönigin'') is chosen. In 2007, the festival was held for the 56th time. *Another tradition is the ''Odenwälder Kartoffelmarkt'' (potato market). *Yearly, in November, the theatrical group TEGS stages a première of a play at the community centre.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

* Franz Polak (1909–2000), Roman Catholic clergyman

Sons and daughters of the community

* Karl Scherer (1862–1931), Member of the Parliament * Rose Nabinger (1958), jazz singer, text writer

References

External links

Community’s official site

Annelsbach

Mümling-Grumbach
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