Rotenburg an der Fulda


Rotenburg an der Fulda is a town in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany lying, as the name says, on the river Fulda.

Geography

Location

The town lies south of the Stölzinger Gebirge in the narrowest part of the Fulda valley. The town's lowest point lies at 180 m above sea level in the area near the two bridges across the Fulda linking Rotenburg's Old Town and New Town; these are the Alte Fuldabrücke and the Brücke der Städtepartnerschaften. The town's highest point is the 548.7 m-high Alheimer, lying on the town limit between Rotenburg and the neighbouring community of Alheim.
The nearest major towns are Bebra and Bad Hersfeld, The nearest cities are Kassel and Fulda.

Neighbouring communities

Clockwise from the north, these are Alheim, Spangenberg, Cornberg, Bebra and Ludwigsau. On the so-called Stölzinger Höhe in the northeast, above the outlying centre of Dankerode, Rotenburg has a boundary with the town of Waldkappel.

Constituent communities

Besides the main town, Rotenburg a.d. Fulda is made up of the outlying Stadtteile of Lispenhausen, Braach, Schwarzenhasel, Erkshausen, Seifertshausen, Dankerode, Atzelrode and Mündershausen.

History

In 769, the outlying centres of Braach and Lispenhausen, along with the now vanished village of Breitingen had their first documentary mentions in the Hersfeld Abbey’s directory of holdings. These consisted of six estates and 90 Morgen of land.
The Gisonen were the Abbey’s Vögte. They built the first security castle in the Fulda valley once they had come to hold the Vogtei. Around this castle arose a settlement. The Landgraves of Thuringia, who inherited the Vogtei from the Gisonen, built on the Alter Turm Rodenberg Castle, which today lies in ruins, but is believed to be the town’s namesake.
The settlement on the Fulda’s left bank, today’s Altstadt, had its first documentary mention as a town in 1248, and after the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession in 1264 the town belonged to the Landgraviate of Hesse. The old castle in the valley had supposedly been removed sometime after 1423. In 1470 arose the first Schloss Rotenburg. A great town fire destroyed the Old Town in 1478 along with the newly built Schloss. Between 1627 and 1834, Rotenburg was a residence town of the landgrave family of Hesse-Rotenburg, the so-called Rotenburger Quart.
In 1615, 57 houses burnt down in Braach, and in the Thirty Years' War, in 1637, the town and the town hall burnt. The fire was set by soldiers from the Isolani Regiment. In March 1882, the volunteer fire brigade was started as a club. In 1900 it acquired an equipment shed with a drying tower near the Fulda.
During the Second World War, the town was the location of a prisoner of war camp for officers. Rotenburg has belonged since 1972 to Hersfeld-Rotenburg district, before which it was the old Rotenburg district's seat. In 2003, the town earned unwanted fame through Armin Meiwes.
In 2004, the town earned a silver medal in the national contest Unsere Stadt blüht auf, and in 2005 it earned a gold medal with a special prize for the landscaping design of the Fulda floodplain.
In August 2007, the volunteer fire brigade staged the 20th Hessian Fire Brigade Day with an extensive programme of events on the occasion of its 125 anniversary of founding.

Religion

There are ten Evangelical churches in town, two Catholic churches and one New Apostolic.

Amalgamations

Through municipal reform in 1972, the above-named formerly self-administering communities were integrated into the town of Rotenburg an der Fulda.

Politics

Town council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:
The town's executive is made up of six councillors, including the mayor, with four seats allotted to the SPD and two to the CDU.

Mayor

The new mayor is 34-year-old Christian Grunwald, elected in 2012.

Coat of arms

The town's arms might be described thus: Argent at the nombril point a mount of three gules surmounted by a bough vert in fess arising from the bottom of which and growing in pale a sprig of three linden leaves vert.
The German blazon describes the “mount” as a Dreiberg, even though in the artistic rendering seen here, it does not have the same shape that this charge usually has in German civic coats of arms. See, for instance, Nentershausen's, Neuenstein's or Philippsthal's coat of arms.
The arms come from the early 17th century. The mound stands for the Rotenberg, a mountain on which once stood a castle. From these, the town got its name. The linden sprig comes from old guild seals, which bore a cloverleaf and a star. From this arose the linden sprig, which was adopted as a charge in the town's arms, putting the coat of arms in the “North Hesse Cloverleaf Arms Family” along with Kassel and Felsberg. The first example of the arms now valid in the town was in the Knights’ Hall, which was torn down in the late 18th century. The first examples on mediaeval town seals show a saint bearing a palm frond before a town gate. It most likely was meant to be the town's patron saint, James the Elder.

Town partnerships

There are friendship relations with the following towns:

Museums

The most important sights in the town are these following:
Rotenburg further has other historic churches and interesting houses. Even parts of the mediaeval town wall from the 12th and 13th centuries with two round towers are preserved.

Regular events

Especially important to the town and the whole area is the Herz-Kreislauf-Zentrum on the south slope above the town.
As at January 2006, 4,188 workers are employed in town, of which 989 jobs are offered by producing businesses, 2,143 by service providers, 367 by trade, 80 by forestry and agriculture and 609 by other fields of endeavour. There are 1,325 beds dedicated to tourism.

Established businesses

Rotenburg lies on Bundesstraße 83 and on the so-called Friedrich-Wilhelms-Nordbahn, which is nowadays part of the Mitte-Deutschland-Verbindung.

Media

Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine with its Lokalteil Rotenburg Bebra and the Kreisanzeiger published district-wide.

State institutions

There are ten schools in town, among them the Jakob-Grimm-Schule, which acts as an ancillary comprehensive school with a Gymnasium upper level. There is also the BKK Akademie, where there is training in social insurance law and related themes for those employed in the field.

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town

Grave of WWII British military persons imprisoned at Rotenburg.