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Dautphetal | |
|---|---|
_(004).jpg) The community Dautphe of Dautphetal | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Dautphetal within Marburg-Biedenkopf district  | |
  Dautphetal  Dautphetal | |
| Coordinates:50°50′N8°33′E / 50.833°N 8.550°E /50.833; 8.550 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Hesse |
| Admin. region | Gießen |
| District | Marburg-Biedenkopf |
| Subdivisions | 12Ortsteile |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2022–28) | Marco Schmidtke[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 72.03 km2 (27.81 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 533 m (1,749 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 220 m (720 ft) |
| Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 11,418 |
| • Density | 160/km2 (410/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 35232 |
| Dialling codes | 06466, 06468, 06420 |
| Vehicle registration | MR |
| Website | www.dautphetal.de |
Dautphetal is a municipality inHesse,Germany, and is among the six larger municipalities of the 22 in Marburg-Biedenkopf district.
The municipality lies in the western part of the district about 37 km east ofSiegen and about 15 km west ofMarburg in the upperLahn valley. It is characterized by thePalaeozoicRhenish Massif (Rheinisches Schiefergebirge). Indeed, this range's foothills from the west meet theWesterwald's from the south and theRothaargebirge's from the north here. Historically speaking, Dautphetal belongs to the so-calledHessisches Hinterland.
Since the community is to be found in the Rhenish Massif region, rock from the Palaeozoic Era can be found here. In Dautphetal, common minerals to be found includegreywacke,diabases,quartzites, andloam produced by weathering ofslate and diabase, but also partlylimestone.
The geological zone is known to the Hessian Environmental Atlas (Umweltatlas Hessen) asDill-Mulde[1].
Besides thecopper ore that can be found here, the municipal area also has deposits ofmanganese andiron ore.
Dautphetal's municipal area is classified under the German system ofnatural regions as follows:The Sackpfeifen foothills (with Wollenberg) (Sackpfeifen-Vorhöhen (mit Wollenberg)) (natural region 332.0) in the area north of the Upper Lahn Valley (Oberes Lahntal) falls under the main unitOstsauerländer Gebirgsrand. The natural region of the Upper Lahn Valley, 320.2, Bottenhorn Plateau (Bottenhorner Hochflächen, 320.01) as well as the Damshausen Hills (Damshäuser Kuppen, 320.10) belong to theGladenbach Uplands (Gladenbacher Bergland). The highest mountain in this area is the Nimerich (533 m abovesea level) northwest of the constituent community of Dautphe. The lowest point anywhere in the area is found on the river Lahn at Elmshausen, where the elevation is 225 m above sea level. East of the community's municipal lands at Damshausen lies the Rimberg (mountain, 498 m above sea level).
The Dautphetal area has a warm temperate rainy climate, lying as it does in the northerntemperate zone of the middle latitudes. The average daytime temperature in the summer is about 15-16 °C (in the Lahn Valley area about 16-17 °C) and in winter about -1 °C to 1 °C. The average yearly rainfall is about 800–1000 mm in Dautphetal, and in the Buchenau and Elmshausen area about 700–800 mm.
The biggest flowing waterway in Dautphetal is the river Lahn. This flows through the northern part of the municipal area from west to east. The smaller river Dautphe flows, just as all the smaller streams in the municipal area do sooner or later, into the Lahn.
Clockwise from the north, the following communities are Dautphetal's neighbours:The towns ofBiedenkopf andWetter (Hessen), the communities ofLahntal, the towns ofMarburg andGladenbach, the communities ofBad Endbach andSteffenberg as well as the community ofBreidenbach. All these communities likewise lie in the Marburg-Biedenkopf district.
Moreover, other centres can be named, such as the former group of homesteads belonging to Mornshausen and known as Die Amelose, and the two former iron ore smelting centres of Carlshütte (part of Buchenau) and Wilhelmshütte (part of Dautphe).
The constituent communities of Dautphe, Friedensdorf and Wilhelmshütte form, with over 4,000 inhabitants, the core of the greater community, which was brought about by the appropriate town planning.
The history of the greater community of Dautphetal still is not very long. It came into being only in 1974 with municipal reform, having formerly been a series of 12 independent villages until the HesseLandtag legislated new municipal divisions. This did not necessarily meet with everyone's approval. Ever since then, some of the communities amalgamated with others under the reform have experienced a kind of "local patriotism" in favour of the old communities.
Dautphetal's municipal area is divided into 12 constituent communities (Ortsteile)
| Community | Description |
|---|---|
| Dautphe | Dautphe is the community's oldest place and at the same time also the seat of the municipal administration. With more than 2,400 inhabitants, it is moreover the biggest of the 12 centres. It was first mentioned in 791. The Wilhelmshütte, earlier Kilianshütte, foundry was built in 1832. |
Allendorf.svg) | Allendorf am Hohenfels has roughly 690 inhabitants. Its first mention, asAldendorf, came in 1307 in connection with the Knights of Hohenfels. |
Buchenau.svg) | Buchenau was first mentioned in 1238. It lies in the outermost northeastern part of the greater community on Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) 62. With more than 2,000 inhabitants, it is one of the three biggest centres. The Carlshütte foundry was built in 1844. |
Damshausen.svg) | Its fewer than 230 inhabitants makeDamshausen the smallest of Dautphetal's constituent communities. The place was first mentioned under the namede Tagesmanneshusen in 1251. It is still veryagriculturally oriented. |
Elmshausen.svg) | Elmshausen's history can be dated back to about 1200 or 1220. It lies in the outermost eastern part of the greater community and is home to about 370 people. |
Friedensdorf.svg) | Friedensdorf forms along with Dautphe the community's heart. The place was first mentioned in 1220 and has about 1,500 inhabitants. |
Herzhausen.svg) | Herzhausen lies in a basin in the southern part of the community. Home to roughly 640 people, it was first mentioned in 1333. |
Holzhausen | Half-timbered houses with especially finepargeting are to be found inHolzhausen. The community's southernmost village was first mentioned in 1251, and its roughly 2,150 inhabitants make it the second-largest centre after Dautphe. |
Hommertshausen.svg) | InHommertshausen live about 770 people. It was first mentioned in 1325. |
Mornshausen.svg) | Mornshausen is among the central communities within the municipal area and is home to 850 people. The first mention of the place can be dated back to 1291. Die Amelose was first mentioned in 1515. |
Silberg.svg) | Silberg is in the westernmost reaches of the municipal area. With somewhat more than 500 inhabitants, it is the community's third-smallest centre. It was first mentioned in 1339. |
Wolfgruben.svg) | Wolfgruben with its over 700 inhabitants was first mentioned in 1257. |
From finds, it seems likely that the area covered by today's community of Dautphetal was already settled inantiquity as also witnessed by ringwall remains such as those on the Rimberg mountain or on the Hünstein (a megalithic monument). The first mention, however, was the naming of a Mark Dautphe in 791. This community is therefore the oldest documented place in the greater community. It was early on already the site of theZentgericht, the local court under the local counts. It was the lowest court, but it had within its bailiwick the villages of Allendorf, Buchenau, Damshausen, Dautphe, Elmshausen, Friedensdorf, Holzhausen, Hommertshausen, Mornshausen, Silberg and Wolfgruben (nowadays in Dautphetal) as well as Eckelshausen, Kombach, Katzenbach, Dexbach and Engelbach (nowadays inBiedenkopf).
InCharlemagne's time, the area covered by today's community of Dautphetal belonged to theOberlahngau (a noble domain). After the local noble line, theGisonen, died out, the area fell toThuringia. Under Sophie von Brabant,Ludwig IV's andSaint Elisabeth's daughter, the Hessian counties, which had come to the Thuringian counties through marriage, once more began their own development by 1264, and under their sonHenry I grew into the Landgravate of Hesse (Landgrafschaft Hessen). The Lords of Hohenfels, who alongside the Lords of Hollende were regarded as the local lords, had to forsake their rights in 1249 under pressure from Sophie. Hohenfels Castle was razed in 1293. Only meagre ruins are to be seen of it today.
Ownership of the domain remained under this line untilPhilip the Magnanimous's death in 1567, at which time the landgravate was divided among four lines, and the Dautphetal area then belonged toHesse-Marburg. After its line also died out,Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) andHesse-Darmstadt then fought over the territory, with the latter under its own landgrave eventually winning out, taking the so-calledHinterland in 1648. As a result of theAustro-Prussian War in 1866, the Biedenkopf district, formed in 1832 and in which lies what is today Dautphetal, was ceded toPrussia. This district was for a short time (1932–33) united with the Dillenburg district before the districts of Biedenkopf and Marburg were made to form the still functioning Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse's 1974 municipal reform.
What follows is an explanation of the population development of today's community of Dautphetal. What stands out is that the first small surge in population in the time of industrialization comes before another one right after theSecond World War which saw the population figure rise by almost 50%. This can be explained by the great number of refugees who came and settled in the area after the war, especially fromHungary. The town sisterhood withCikó in Hungary came to be not the least because of this. Since peaking in 2002 with 13,000 inhabitants, the figure has been stagnating.
Population figure development1:
| Date | Population | Date | Population | Date | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 December 18341 | 3,503 | 1 December 18951 | 4,520 | 30 June 19671 | 10,568 |
| 3 December 18401 | 3,742 | 1 December 19051 | 4,996 | 31 December 1998 | 12,821 |
| 3 December 18461 | 3,936 | 1 December 19101 | 5,421 | 31 December 1999 | 12,944 |
| 3 December 18521 | 4,055 | 16 June 19251 | 6,017 | 31 December 2000 | 12,987 |
| 3 December 18581 | 4,071 | 17 May 19391 | 6,499 | 31 December 2001 | 12,983 |
| 3 December 18641 | 4,060 | 29 October 19461 | 9,389 | 31 December 2002 | 13,007 |
| 1 December 18711 | 3,943 | 13 September 19501 | 9,408 | 31 December 2003 | 12,982 |
| 1 December 18751 | 4,272 | 25 September 19561 | 9,110 | 31 December 2004 | 12,925 |
| 1 December 18851 | 4,383 | 6 September 19611 | 9,604 |
1: Figures from before 1974 have outlying centres' figures added.
Source 1834 - 1967:Historisches Gemeindeverzeichnis für Hessen Heft 1, Die Bevölkerung der Gemeinden 1834 - 1967, Hess. Stat. Landesamt
Source after 1998:Statistik der Gemeinde Dautphetal
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2021) |
Community representatives were last chosen on 26 March 2006 for a five-year term. The SPD lost two seats while theFreie Wähler ("Free Voters", a citizens' coalition) gained three more and theBürgerliste Dautphetal ("Dautphetal Citizens' List") lost out utterly. Participation in the election fell by 8.5% from 59.3% in 2001 to 50.8%. Of 9,030 eligible voters, only 4,589 went to the polls. The next municipal election in Hesse will take place in March 2011.
| Parties and voter groups | Share (%) | Seats | |
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union | 41.5 | 13 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 42.6 | 13 |
| FW | Freie Wähler Dautphetal | 15.9 | 5 |
| total | 100 | 31 | |
At the last municipal election on 18 March 2001, the result was as seen at left. The number of seats had been reduced from 37 in 1997.
The greater community's first mayor in 1974 was Hans Hauswirth (CDU). He led the community for thirty years, leaving office only in 2004. On 21 March of that year, Bernd Schmidt of the Free Voters' Community became Dautphetal's new mayor.
Cikó, Hungary, since 1997.
Diesdorf,Saxony-Anhalt, partnership betweenEvangelical-Lutheran parishes in the two places.
Kazan,RussianTatarstan, partnership between Evangelical-Lutheran parish in Dautphetal and Russian-Evangelical parish in Kazan.
Theeconomy in Dautphetal is evenly split between industry and trade, while the services sector is a bit smaller. Historically, the one industry that has grown especially in strength and is particularly well represented is thesteel and moulding industry. Although Dautphetal with the Lahn valley and its widespread woodlands offers good potential forrecreation andtourism, it has hitherto not been exploited as such. Over the last few years, however, some small development has been seen in this field of endeavour, as witnessed by the membership of the regional Lahn-Dill-Bergland club.
The greatest employer in the community is the firm Roth Industries GmbH & Co. KG. This worldwide active business has all together more than 1,100 workers. After being founded in 1947 as a simple handicraft business, the firm has steadily grown and is nowadays represented inEurope,North andSouth America, and even inChina. Alongside household products (such as shower partitions), synthetic manufacturing and environmental technology (tank manufacturing), companies in machine building and aggregate manufacture are parts of the conglomerate.
Johnson Controls maintains a location in Friedensdorf. This company makes vehicle fuel tanks and car seats, employing 200 people to do so.
The firm Bamberger, formerly Europe's third-biggest manufacturer of enamelled-steel bathtubs, and with 200 employees one of the biggest firms in the community, was taken over by the Kaldewei company and in 2005 it was broken up.
In the 2001Middle Hesse Regional Plan, Dautphetal is designated a low centre in the rural area (in terms ofWalter Christaller'sCentral Place Theory). Dautphe and Friedensdorf, it is said in this plan, are the central communities. Furthermore, the greater community is part of theMarburg - Dautphetal - Biedenkopf - (Bad Laasphe) regional development belt. This belt's job is to open up the region, to make possible an exchange of goods and services between middle centres as well as to connect the region to the high centre of Marburg and to the long-distance transportation network. Building onpublic transport is thus given special importance.
Moreover, there exists a local transport and population belt,Dautphetal - Gladenbach, with a regional connective function. Together with Biedenkopf and Breidenbach, Dautphetal is described as a commercial hub.[2]
The main road in Dautphetal is Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) 62. This interregionally important road leads from easternNorth Rhine-Westphalia (Siegen) through Middle Hesse (Dautphetal, Marburg) and East Hesse (Alsfeld,Bad Hersfeld) to Thuringia (Bad Salzungen) thereby fulfilling the function of interregional transportation axis. Across the community's municipal area, it runs east-west, going through Buchenau. Bundesstraße 453, which is only 15 km long, branches off B 62 in the neighbouring community of Biedenkopf, leading in a southerly direction through the centres of Wolfgruben, Dautphe, Mornshausen and Herzhausen on its way to Gladenbach.
The nearestAutobahnen areBundesautobahn 45 about 30 km away to the west inDillenburg which goes towardsDortmund in one direction andFrankfurt am Main in the other, Bundesautobahn 485 in the southeast towardsGießen connected by the expresswaylike Bundesstraße 3 at Marburg (about 15 km away),Bundesautobahn 5 about 45 km to the east at Homburg leading toBasel in the south andHamburg in the north, andBundesautobahn 49 to the northeast connected by Bundesstraße 3 and leading toKassel. An extension to this last expressway towards Marburg is planned. However, transport, economic and planning interests on the one hand, and ecological and nature preservation concerns on the other have found themselves at odds, meaning that thus far, no acceptable route has been found for the new roadway.
Local public transportation is afforded by the two regional buslines 481 (RKH line 5301) and 491 (RKH line 5356), as well as by four local bus routes, MR-41, MR-52, MR-55 and MR-57, which are meant to improve connections within the community[3].
Local rail transport is afforded by theObere Lahntalbahn, aDeutsche Bahn line also designated as Line 43 of the Rhine-Main Transport Association, running fromErndtebrück inSiegen-Wittgenstein district to the town of Marburg by way ofBad Laasphe and Biedenkopf and serving the Dautphetal stations of Wilhelmshütte (Lahn), Friedendorf (Lahn) and Buchenau (Lahn). The last two named stations are conveniently placed for the Hesse cross-countrybicycle path (Hessischer Radfernweg) R 2.
On weekdays there are 21 journeys between 5:30 and 21:00, on Saturdays 13 between 6:45 and 19:00 and on Sundays 12 between 8:45 and 19:00. All trains allow bicycles.
In Marburg are connections to DB's long-distance rail network.
The immediate vicinity has two specialairfields at Bad Endbach-Bottenhorn and Eschenburg-Hirzenhain as well as a commercial airfield at Cölbe-Schönstadt. The nearest greater airport isFrankfurt International Airport atFrankfurt am Main.
Owing to its advantageous location in a low mountain range and its attendant greatforests and idyllic dales, the whole region is endowed with a substantial trail network. Its potential, however, was only recognized a few years ago and has been organizationally supported for a short time by the associationLahn-Dill-Bergland e. V.
Friedensdorf has since the 1950s been the site of anelectrical substation. There, high-voltage current at 110 kV is stepped down to the middle voltage of 20 kV. After the transformers' useful working life had come to an end, a 20 kV switchgear set and new open-air transformer fields were installed in 1998. The substation is run by E.ON Mitte.
In each of the bigger centres in the community is found akindergarten. Only Damshausen, Elmshausen and Silberg do not have their own. Holzhausen and Buchenau each also have aprimary school, the latter's having had until 2006 an attached orientation programme (Förderstufe) which was discontinued because the class-size threshold was no longer being met.
In Friedensdorf, alongside theDautphetalschule with its primary school andHauptschule andRealschule branch, itself with an orientation programme, there is theBurgbergschule, a school for learning and educational help. A school for the educable mentally handicapped with a department for those who also have physical handicaps is located in Hommertshausen. In Wilhelmshütte is found theJule-Spannagel-Schule for hard to educate youth.
Further schooling such as vocational schools and colleges (or the like) or professionalGymnasien are to be found in the surrounding towns of Marburg, Biedenkopf, Bad Laasphe or Gladenbach.
Technical colleges oruniversities are found in Marburg (Philipps University of Marburg), Gießen (Justus-Liebig-Universität andUniversity of Applied Sciences Giessen-Friedberg), Kassel (University of Kassel) and Siegen (University of Siegen).
In the field ofadult education, the district maintains two branches (Dautphetal and Dautphetal-Holzhausen) of theVolkshochschule Marburg-Biedenkopf.
Alongside many mostly Christian-based institutions like the Blue Cross (Blaues Kreuz), there are many other social institutions in Dautphetal. For one, there is theSeniorenzentrum Dautphetal which serves as anursing home and a residence for the elderly, and for another, there are theHinterländer Werkstätten, a recognized workshop for the handicapped. The Evangelical spiritual guidance centrehelp center e.V. has set itself the goal of helping youth in crisis on the basis ofChristian belief.
In Dautphetal, theOberhessische Presse and theHinterländer Anzeiger are the two dailynewspapers, with the latter taking the greater part of the market share. A local section for the old district of Biedenkopf is published by theOberhessische Presse from Marburg. Furthermore, there is a whole range of advertising flyers such asHinterland extra from theOberhessische Presse, theMAZ (Mittelhessische Anzeigen Zeitung, or Middle Hesse Advertising Newspaper) or theSonntag Morgenmagazin ("Sunday Morning Magazine") from publishing houses in Gießen.
In the community of Friedensdorf, the "Old Church" (Alte Kirche) has a weaving room, old photographs and a dialectal archive to visit. From time to time, there are also special exhibits.
TheHeimatmuseum Altes Rathaus at the old town hall in Buchenau shows exhibits particularly having to do with household and kitchen, especially from the 1920s to the 1950s.
In theMini-Museum „Backes Stibbcher“ in Dautphe, visitors can see a petit-bourgeois 3-room flat from the turn of the twentieth century housing typical exhibits from Dautphe's local history. Moreover, there are exhibits of Dautphe costume and old documents (photographs, maps, registers, family chronicles of Dautphe's oldest families, etc.).
The community of Dautphetal harbours an unusually high number of clubs. Near each centre, alongside the well over 30sport clubs dealing in everything fromfootball totennis,gymnastics,riding,motor sports and evenballoon flying, are atrombone choir and men's or women'schoirs. There are moreover, of course, other music clubs such assinging clubs, aJägerchor ("hunters' choir") or abrass band. The more than 12,000 inhabitants therefore have all together "almost 50 dance and music clubs" to choose from. In the field of animal, breeding or protection clubs, many fowl breeding as well as nature preservation and gardening clubs can be named. Last but not least, more than 40 culture- or homeland-related clubs are at the community's disposal.
_Fachwerk_1.jpg)
Most constituent communities' cores are made up ofhalf-timbered houses. Sometimes there are also little half-timberedchurches preserved, such as the ones in Hommertshausen and Silberg. TheKratzputzfachwerkhäuser in Holzhausen am Hünstein, half-timbered houses with pargeting (etched plasterwork), are actually protected monuments.
At the summit of the Rimberg stands the 24-m tall Rimberg Tower, dedicated on 30 April 1977. It is already the second tower to stand there, the last one having fallen victim to stormy weather. On a clear day there is a marvellous view, indeed a 360° panorama.
TheCarlshütte was built in 1844 as ironworks, and is likewise a protected monument. It came into being as a result of industrialization and its advantageous location between the Lahn, which delivered its energy and the nearbyiron ore deposits.
Other buildings:
Along with the many events organized by local village fraternities and sororities (Burschenschaften andMädchenschaften), the Christmas Market in Buchenau has grown to quite a size. A particular high point is theGrenzgangsfest, held every seven years in Buchenau and relating to an old custom that centuries ago was designed to limit encroachment on the village's woodlands by neighbouring communities. The nextGrenzgangsfest is in 2020.
Towns and municipalities in the district ofMarburg-Biedenkopf | ||
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