Bad Marienberg | |
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 Bad Marienberg | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Bad Marienberg within Westerwaldkreis district
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 Location of Bad Marienberg | |
  Bad Marienberg  Bad Marienberg | |
| Coordinates:50°39′07″N7°57′08″E / 50.65194°N 7.95222°E /50.65194; 7.95222 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Westerwaldkreis |
| Municipal assoc. | Bad Marienberg (Westerwald) |
| Subdivisions | 3 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Sabine Willwacher[1] (SPD) |
| Area | |
• Total | 9.95 km2 (3.84 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 470 m (1,540 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 6,279 |
| • Density | 631/km2 (1,630/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 56470 |
| Dialling codes | 02661 |
| Vehicle registration | WW |
| Website | www |
Bad Marienberg (Westerwald) (German pronunciation:[baːtmaˈʁiːənˌbɛʁk]ⓘ) is a town in theWesterwaldkreis inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany, and also the seat of the like-namedVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality.
The community lies in theWesterwald betweenLimburg andSiegen. From east to west through the town flows the riverNister, which is part of theSiegdrainage basin.
Bad Marienberg'sStadtteile are Eichenstruth, Langenbach and Zinhain.
In 1048, Bad Marienberg had its first documentary mention. It is likely that this same source gave rise to the name Westerwald, since the area around Bad Marienberg lies directly west ofHerborn. In 1258, Marienberg was described asMons sanctae Mariae. In the 18th century, the formerly separate communities of Obermarienberg, still an easily recognizable ring-shaped settlement around the parish church today, and Untermarienberg grew together.
Marienberg was part of the lordly domain in the Westerwald that was formed out of the threeGerichte (official regions) of Marienberg, Emmerichenhain and Neukirch, and which CountOtto I of Nassau won in 1255 in the Ottonian-Walramian hereditary division. After a further division in 1303, the area passed to Otto's son Henry III of Nassau-Siegen, making it part of Nassau-Dillenburg. From 1343 to 1561, the overlordship in the Westerwald was then held by the Nassau-Dillenburg-Beilstein branch of the family. After they died out, CountJohann VI of Nassau-Dillenburg ("the Elder") received the inheritance, thereby uniting these German lands – albeit only for a short time.
After further territorial exchanges within the Nassau dynasty through inheritances, Marienberg ended up, as part of the Beilstein lordly domain, under PrinceWilliam IV's governance. Once again, in 1742-1743, he succeeded in uniting all Ottonian lands within theHoly Roman Empire. Within theOrange German possessions now ruled from Dillenburg, Marienberg was at the latest by 1783 put under theAmt ofBeilstein. The parish of Marienberg counted roughly 450 souls in 1580 and included the villages of Bach, Bölsberg, Eichenstruth, Fehl, Großseifen, Illfurth, Langenbach, Marienberg, Hof, Pfuhl, Ritzhausen, Stockhausen, Unnau and Zinhain. The Counties ofSayn-Hachenburg andSayn-Altenkirchen both lay only a few kilometres away to the northwest.
Along with the lordly domain of Beilstein, the village fell in 1806 to the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Berg, in which, in 1808, it was grouped into theArrondissement of Dillenburg within theDépartement of Sieg. In 1815, Marienberg went to theDuchy of Nassau. TheAmt of Marienberg, which was newly organized in 1816, comprised 43 villages and 20 estates with 1,805 families and 7,085 persons.[3] At the same time, theAmt of Marienberg lay under the jurisdiction of the Dillenburg Criminal Court. In the course of a short-lived administrative reform, Marienberg was annexed in 1849 to the newly foundedLandkreis (rural district) of Hachenburg, before the old arrangement was brought back into force in 1854.
In 1866 the Duchy of Nassau passed toPrussia and became, as theRegierungsbezirk of Wiesbaden, part of the province ofHesse-Nassau. With the institution of rural districts after the Prussian model, Marienberg became in 1867 seat of the Oberwesterwaldkreis with theÄmter of Hachenburg, Marienberg and Rennerod. The last went to the newly created Westerburg district (which also got theAmt of Wallmerod as well as a few places from theAmt of Selters from the Unterwesterwaldkreis) in 1885-1886 on the occasion of administrative reform.
Although in 1890 Marienberg had only 707 (mostlyEvangelical) inhabitants and was officially said to be a village, it already had a considerable infrastructure at its disposal: the village had a provincial council office (Landratsamt), acourt (Landgericht Limburg an der Lahn), ataxation andland registry office, apost andtelegraph office, acredit union and an agency for theNassauische Landesbank. Moreover, there was atannery in the village, and nearby werebrown coal andironstone mines along withclay pits.
When the district of Westerburg was united with the old Oberwesterwaldkreis to form the new, bigger Oberwesterwaldkreis in 1932, Marienberg lost its function as an administrative seat to Westerburg. Having had town rights conferred on 1 April 1939, Marienberg then belonged to theFrench occupation zone and was part of the Upper Presidium of Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau.
Since 1947, the town has been part of theBundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate. On 10 August 1967 the town had the titleBad (literally "bath" – the title means that the town is a recognized spa) bestowed upon it, after already having received the title ofKneipp resort in 1961.
In 1972, Bad Marienberg, along with 17 otherOrtsgemeinden was grouped into aVerbandsgemeinde, which today is home to just under 20,000 inhabitants (as of 2007).
| Climate data for Bad Marienberg (1991–2020 normals) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 1.9 (35.4) | 2.9 (37.2) | 7.1 (44.8) | 12.1 (53.8) | 15.9 (60.6) | 19.0 (66.2) | 21.1 (70.0) | 20.8 (69.4) | 16.4 (61.5) | 11.3 (52.3) | 5.9 (42.6) | 2.7 (36.9) | 11.4 (52.5) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −0.2 (31.6) | 0.4 (32.7) | 3.6 (38.5) | 7.8 (46.0) | 11.6 (52.9) | 14.6 (58.3) | 16.6 (61.9) | 16.4 (61.5) | 12.6 (54.7) | 8.1 (46.6) | 3.7 (38.7) | 0.7 (33.3) | 8.0 (46.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −2.3 (27.9) | −1.9 (28.6) | 0.7 (33.3) | 4.0 (39.2) | 7.6 (45.7) | 10.6 (51.1) | 12.8 (55.0) | 12.7 (54.9) | 9.5 (49.1) | 5.6 (42.1) | 1.7 (35.1) | −1.2 (29.8) | 5.0 (41.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 99.5 (3.92) | 83.6 (3.29) | 86.0 (3.39) | 57.9 (2.28) | 79.2 (3.12) | 82.2 (3.24) | 104.5 (4.11) | 88.2 (3.47) | 86.3 (3.40) | 92.1 (3.63) | 94.8 (3.73) | 110.4 (4.35) | 1,064.6 (41.91) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 19.0 | 18.1 | 17.8 | 14.3 | 15.7 | 14.8 | 16.2 | 15.1 | 14.9 | 17.2 | 19.7 | 21.0 | 204 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 84.1 | 81.9 | 79.0 | 70.9 | 73.1 | 74.0 | 73.2 | 73.7 | 79.0 | 82.7 | 86.0 | 85.6 | 78.6 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 46.2 | 70.4 | 121.6 | 177.5 | 198.1 | 200.9 | 211.2 | 200.2 | 146.0 | 96.9 | 43.8 | 34.5 | 1,547.3 |
| Source:World Meteorological Organization[4] | |||||||||||||
The council is made up of 23 council members, including the honorary and presiding mayor (Bürgermeister), who were elected in a municipal election on May 25, 2014.
| CDU | SPD | Grüne | Total | |
| 2014 | 9 | 13 | 0 | 22 Seats |
| 2009 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 22 Seats |
| 2004 | 9 | 12 | 1 | 22 Seats |
The mayor is Sabine Willwacher (SPD), re-elected in 2019.[1]
Willwacher was first elected mayor of the city of Bad Marienberg on May 25, 2014. She is succeeding fellow party member Dankwart Neufurth, who had retired after running the office from 2004 to 2014.[5]
The town maintains partnership arrangements with the district seat ofMarienberg in theOre Mountains (Erzgebirge) and withPagny-sur-Moselle inFrance.
Within Bad Marienberg's town limits is a spa garden with a Kneipp centre and a bandshell where concerts are regularly held in the summer. Adjoining this is a new part of the park with a herb garden and a barefoot course.
Between Bad Marienberg and the outlying centre of Zinhain is theBasaltpark, a disusedbasaltquarry which is open to the public and laid out withhiking paths, information plaques about thegeology, and amuseum. Right near theBasaltpark is found theWildpark Bad Marienberg (wildlife park).
Between Bad Marienberg andNisterau Bach is the nature reserve ofBacher Lay.
Bad Marienberg is home to these worldwide operating companies:
KEMPF Fahrzeugbau[6]
LEBEK International Fashion Group[7]
MENK Apparatebau[8]
Right near the town runsBundesstraße 414 leading fromDriedorf-Hohenroth toAltenkirchen. The nearestAutobahninterchange isHaiger-Burbach on theA 45 (Dortmund–Gießen), roughly 22 km away.
Bad Marienberg is connected to theOberwesterwaldbahn railway (Limburg - Au (Sieg)) only by bus.Nistertal-Bad Marienberg station is situated in the village ofNistertal, 6 km away from Bad Marienberg.
The nearestInterCityExpress stop is therailway station at Montabaur on theCologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line, which is approximately 30 km away.
The nearest airport isSiegerland Airport about 15 km northeast of Bad Marienberg.
Since Siegerland Airport -as of June 2015- does not offer any scheduled passenger flights, the nearest international airports are Frankfurt andCologne Bonn Airport, both circa 100 km away.
Near Bad Marienberg,T-Systems runs atransmitter forVHF andtelevision which has a 174-m-high freestandingtubular steel mast.Südwestrundfunk (SWR) sends all four of its radio programmes from here. In the summer of 2008, the switchover fromanalogue TV transmissions toDVB-T is to be carried out.
Also, theDeutscher Wetterdienst runs aweather station right near this transmission facility in Bad Marienberg.
In Bad Marienberg is found the main branch ofEuropa-Haus of 128 others that have sprung up. It is sponsored through an endowment and serves as an education and meeting place.
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