Lennestadt | |
|---|---|
 Bilstein Castle | |
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Lennestadt within Olpe district  | |
 Location of Lennestadt | |
  Lennestadt  Lennestadt | |
| Coordinates:51°7′25″N8°4′5″E / 51.12361°N 8.06806°E /51.12361; 8.06806 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Admin. region | Arnsberg |
| District | Olpe |
| Subdivisions | 48 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2020–25) | Tobias Puspas[1] (CDU) |
| Area | |
• Total | 135.59 km2 (52.35 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 410 m (1,350 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 25,275 |
| • Density | 186.41/km2 (482.79/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 57368 |
| Dialling codes | 02721, 02723, 02972 u. 02725 |
| Vehicle registration | OE |
| Website | www.lennestadt.de |
Lennestadt (German pronunciation:[ˈlɛnəʃtat]ⓘ,lit. 'Lenne Town'; occasionally alsodie Lennestadt) lies in theSauerland in southeastNorth Rhine-Westphalia and is a municipality inOlpe district. It is the district's most populous municipality.Lennestadt itself is not an actual town but a municipality which comprises several towns and villages.
Lennestadt lies at the common point of the Ebbegebirge (in the west), Homert and Rothaargebirge (in the east) Nature Parks and is crossed by the riverLenne, a tributary to theRuhr. Besides theHundem, which empties into the Lenne in the outlying centre of Altenhundem, theVeischede also feeds this river, nearGrevenbrück.
Lennestadt's position is 51° 03' to 51° 12' N, 7° 58' to 8° 15' E. The town's highest point is the Härdler (756 m), and its lowest is on the Lenne near Borghausen (239 m).
Lennestadt borders in the north on the municipalities ofEslohe andFinnentrop, in the east onSchmallenberg andBad Berleburg, in the south onKirchhundem, and in the west on the towns ofAttendorn andOlpe.
Within Lennestadt's municipal area lie the following centres:
Altenhundem, Altenvalbert, Bilstein, Bonzel, Bonzelerhammer, Brenschede, Bruchhausen, Burbecke, Elspe, Elsperhusen, Einsiedelei, Germaniahütte, Gleierbrück, Grevenbrück, Habbecke, Hachen, Haus Hilmecke, Haus Valbert, Halberbracht, Hengstebeck, Hespecke, Kickenbach, Kirchveischede, Kracht, Langenei, Maumke, Meggen, Melbecke, Milchenbach, Oberelspe, Obermelbecke, Obervalbert, Oedingen, Oedingermühle, Oedingerberg (formerly Berge), Saalhausen, Sporke, Stöppel, Theten and Trockenbrück.
The fact that there is not a physical town of Lennestadt, but that Lennestadt is an aggregation of the smaller towns listed above, often leads to confusion among visitors.
The town of Lennestadt was founded on 1 July 1969 as legal successor to theAmt of Bilstein out of seven former municipalities and outlying centres.
The earliest traces of settlers in the current municipal area date to the Early Middle Ages. The centres of Elspe and Oedingen were first mentioned in a document in 1000 thatEmperor Otto III had issued. This makes them the oldest places in Olpe district.
In the 19th century, parts of the current town area were characterized bymining,ironworking andmetalworking.
In 1975, Milchenbach was joined with Lennestadt. It had formerly belonged to the municipality of Lenne (now part ofSchmallenberg).
| Year | Pop. | ±% p.a. |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 27,846 | — |
| 1999 | 28,013 | +0.60% |
| 2000 | 28,026 | +0.05% |
| 2001 | 28,046 | +0.07% |
| 2002 | 28,072 | +0.09% |
| 2003 | 28,084 | +0.04% |
| 2004 | 27,953 | −0.47% |
| 2005 | 27,831 | −0.44% |
| 2019 | 25,308 | −0.68% |
| 2022 | 25 411 | — |
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2021) |
| Municipal election results, 25 May 2014 | |||||
| Party | Votes | ± as against 2009 | Seats | ||
| CDU | 50.6% | -9.0% | 20 | ||
| SPD | 30.5% | +2.4% | 11 | ||
| Grüne | 10.9% | -0.2% | 4 | ||
| Free Voters | 7.1% | +7.1% | 3 | ||
| Other | 0.9% | -0.3% | - | ||
Until 1997, Lennestadt's chief administrator bore the titleStadtdirektor (“Town Director”). TheBürgermeister, or Mayor, was an honorary office and was mainly ceremonial. The current mayor is Tobias Puspas, of the CDU.
| Time in office | Chief administrator | Honorary mayor (until 1997) |
| July 1969 to November 1969 | Erwin Krollmann (CDU),Commissioner for the Fulfilment of the Town Director’s Duties | Heinrich Hanfland (CDU),Commissioner for the Fulfilment of the Council Chairman’s Duties |
| December 1969 – 1989 | Erwin Krollmann (CDU) |
|
| 1989–1997 | Dr. Franz-Josef Kaufmann (SPD) | Hubert Nies (CDU) |
| 1997–2009 | Alfons Heimes (CDU) | |
| 2009–2020 | Stefan Hundt (CDU) | |
| 2020–incumbent | Tobias Puspas (CDU) | |
| Party | 2009 election | 2013 election | 2010 state election | 2012 state election |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | 42.3% | 47.7% | 46.2% | 37.7% |
| SPD | 27.2% | 31.3% | 32.0% | 37.6% |
| FDP | 13.5% | 4.5% | 5.4% | 6.6% |
| Grüne | 6.4% | 4.2% | 7.6% | 4.8% |
| Linke | 6.5% | 4.3% | 4.1% | 1.6% |
| AfD | - | 3.9% | ||
| Pirate Party | - | - | 0.8% | 6.2% |
| Other | 4.1% | 4.1% | 3.9% | 3.5% |
The town'sarms were conferred on 31 December 1971. The gold and green bars in the background were taken from the arms formerly borne by theAmt of Bilstein. The wavy bend stands for the river Lenne, the town's namesake, and the rose comes from the outlying centre of Oedingen.
Town council decided in 1995 to name SirThomas More as the town's patron. Since 2001, the town has been awarding theThomas-Morus-Preis to citizens “who in their acts have let themselves be led by the convictions of their conscience and who without regard to possible personal disadvantages through bravery and moral courage have thereby become examples to the good of others and our society.”[3]
TheKulturgemeinde Hundem-Lenne, founded in 1946, offers a cultural programme in thePädagogisches Zentrum (PZ, “Educational Centre”), a venue with 480 seats at theAnne-Frank-Hauptschule in Meggen.
In Grevenbrück is found the townmuseum, theMuseum der Stadt Lennestadt in whose building the town's homeland and regional studieslibrary and the townarchive are also to be found.
Since 1998, theFörderverein Bergbaudenkmäler Lennestadt (“Lennestadt Mining Monument Development Association”) has run theBergbaumuseum Siciliaschacht (“Sicilia Mineshaft Mining Museum”) in Meggen, which recalls the town's mining tradition.
Among well known buildings in Lennestadt areBilstein Castle (Burg Bilstein), the Peperburg castle ruins, manytimber frame houses, the so-calledSauerlandpyramiden, theSicilia Mineshaft and the Hohe Bracht viewing tower. OnBundesstraße 55 between Oedingen and Eslohe, theMadonna der Straße (“Madonna of the Road”) roadside shrine is to be found.
A spa is to be found in the outlying centre of Saalhausen, which is a recognizedLuftkurort (“air spa resort”).
TheElspe Festival inElspe (Lennestadt), based on the stories byKarl May, attracts about 200,000 spectators every year. The festival area (12 hectares) includes an indoor festival hall, a copy of aWestern saloon and some restaurants.Among the town's regular events is the traditional Schützenfest (“fair featuring shooting matches”) that is held in all of the bigger centres each year. Furthermore, every August there is a town festival lasting several days which since 2005 has been held together with theSauerländer Straßenmusiker-Festival (“Sauerland Street Musicians’ Festival”) in Altenhundem.
Lennestadt is home to a variety of small and middle-sized businesses, mainly in the manufacturing field. Most prevalent are companies in the metal-working, machine building, automotive parts supply, and electrical industry.
Lennestadt's town hall is located in the central constituent municipality of Altenhundem.
The local court, theAmtsgericht Lennestadt, is located in the outlying centre of Grevenbrück.
With itsAltenhundem,Grevenbrück (Westf.) andLennestadt-Meggen stations, Lennestadt lies on theRuhr-Sieg line fromHagen toSiegen.
Furthermore,buslines of theVerkehrsbetriebe Westfalen-Süd (VWS, “Westphalia-South Transport Services”) andBusverkehr Ruhr-Sieg (BRS, “Ruhr-Sieg Bus Transport”) run to Kirchhundem, Olpe, Hilchenbach, Finnentrop, Schmallenberg, Meschede and Attendorn.
Until 1944 there was another railway connection toErndtebrück by the Altenhundem–Birkelbach railway line, whose bridges, however, were blown up by retreating units of the German army in theSecond World War. Parts of the tunnels are still preserved.
The line to Wenholthausen was still run until the mid-1960s. At this time, Altenhundem was said to be a railway village.
The Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 55 and B 517 run through the town.
Lennestadt is connected to the North Rhine-Westphalia Cycle Transport Network (Radverkehrsnetz NRW) and furthermore lies on theLenneroute running from the Lenne's source on theKahler Asten down to its mouth at the Hohensyburg (castle).
TheWestfalenpost and theWestfälische Rundschau each have a local edition in Lennestadt and appear as dailynewspapers. As well, the advertising sheetsSauerlandkurier andSauerländer Wochenanzeiger come out on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Lennestadt belongs to theWestdeutscher RundfunkSiegen studio area. News from the South Sauerland is broadcast onWDR 2 and in local broadcasts onWDR Fernsehen.
Lennestadt is home to manyelementary schools, one special school whose emphasis is on learning,Hauptschulen,Realschulen and twoGymnasien. Both the Gymnasium der Stadt Lennestadt as well as the Gymnasium Maria Königinare located in Altenhundem. Moreover, there is afolk high school and a professional college. Lennestadt furthermore lies in the feeder area of theUniversity of Siegen.
Towns and municipalities inOlpe (district) | ||
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