Rosenthal is a small town in southeast

Waldeck-Frankenberg Waldeck-Frankenberg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland. History The district was created in 1972 by mergin ...

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

Rosenthal lies in the Burgwald range 11 km southeast of Frankenberg and 18 km northeast of

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Neighbouring communities

Rosenthal borders in the north on the community of Burgwald, in the east on the town of Gemünden (both in Waldeck-Frankenberg), in the southeast on the community of

Wohratal Wohratal is a municipality in Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hessen, Germany. Geography Wohratal lies between the ''Kellerwald'' (forest) in the east and the ''Burgwald'', a low mountain range, in the west, on the river Wohra. Among the bigger ne ...

, in the south on the towns of

Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" 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� ...

and Wetter, and in the west on the community of Münchhausen (all in

Marburg-Biedenkopf Marburg-Biedenkopf is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Waldeck-Frankenberg, Schwalm-Eder, Vogelsbergkreis, Gießen, Lahn-Dill, Siegen-Wittgenstein. History The district was created in 1974 when t ...

Constituent communities

Besides the main town, which bears the same name as the whole, the town of Rosenthal consists of the centres of Roda and Willershausen.

History

Rosenthal was founded in 1327 as a Mainz town and outpost in the dispute over the Hessian

fief A fief (; ) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of feudal alle ...

, but nevertheless passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1464. In 1688, the town achieved dubious fame by being the scene of Hesse's last witch burnings. In 1866, Rosenthal passed, along with the rest of the Electorate of Hesse, to

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Amalgamations

As part of Hesse's municipal reforms in the early 1970s, the heretofore independent communities of Roda and Willershausen were amalgamated with Rosenthal.

Politics

Town council

The town council's 15 seats are apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006: Note: ''Bürgerliste Roda'' is a citizens' coalition.

Mayor

At the mayoral election on 26 September 2021, Stefan Jakob was elected Rosenthal's mayor with an 82% share of the vote. Rosenthal-Rathaus-vorne-links

Coat of arms

Rosenthal's civic

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

might heraldically be described thus: In gules a six-spoked wheel argent surrounded per square by four roses Or with centres azure and sepals vert. This describes the arms shown in this article, and also seen at the town's official website. At least one source, howeve

describes a different composition with three stemmed roses growing out of the top of the wheel. The wheel is the

Wheel of Mainz The Wheel of Mainz or , in German language, 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 ...

, symbolizing the town's founders.

Literature

* Fritz Himmelmann: ''Heimatbuch der Stadt Rosenthal''

References

External links

{{Authority control 1327 establishments in Europe Populated places established in the 1320s Waldeck-Frankenberg