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58-666: The nearest major towns and cities are Bad Hersfeld (28 km to the west), Eisenach (30 km to the northeast) and Kassel (80 km to the north). The town lies on the river Werra , surrounded by outliers of the Thuringian Forest , the Seulingswald and the Anterior Rhön , all mountain or hill ranges. The lowest point in town is found on the Werra floodplain at 210 m above sea level . The highest point within town limits

116-622: A Bronze Age grave from about 1200 BC has also been unearthed, as have finds from La Tène times about 400 BC. Hersfeld was first mentioned as a market centre in 1142 and as a town in 1170. At this time also came the Hersfeld Abbey's greatest importance in Imperial politics. In the centuries that followed, the Abbey's might ebbed as after the Great Interregnum (1254–1273) it could no longer enjoy

174-605: A former forester's house stands here). Clockwise from the north, these are Ludwigsau , Friedewald , Schenklengsfeld , Hauneck , Niederaula , Kirchheim and Neuenstein . The town's sheltered location in the Fulda valley with the surrounding Hessian and Thuringian low mountain ranges leads to a relatively high average yearly temperature in Bad Hersfeld of 8.7 °C and a rather dry climate with yearly precipitation averaging only 718.1 mm. The average yearly sunshine, therefore,

232-751: A reunion of soldiers from the Waffen-SS . Among the protest organizers were also the organizers of the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele . The area of the town of Bad Hersfeld today belongs to the Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck ("Protestant Church of the Electorate of Hesse-Waldeck", member of the Protestant Church in Germany ), and the largely coextensive Catholic Bishopric of Fulda. Besides

290-465: A wing of the cloister has been preserved (today a museum; chapter house preserved) and likewise great parts of the remnants of the town wall (South Gate, Halbschalenturm or "Half-Shell Tower"). The two Nordschulteiche (ponds) in the Leonhard Müller Complex are leftovers of the town moat. In this park is also found Saint Vitalis's Cross (the original can be seen in the museum). It stands on

348-683: Is divided into the Stiftsbezirk ("Monastery Zone") and the Unterstadt ("Lower Town") to the east. Between the two lies the oldest part of the Old Town. The spa is centred in a spot west of the Stiftsbezirk and is considered part of the main town. Furthermore, there are Kalkobes (a village that was amalgamated by the turn of the 20th century), Wehneberg (which arose from a lordly estate), Zellersgrund, Oberrode (an agricultural operation), Hof Hählgans (likewise an agricultural operation) and Mönches (now forsaken;

406-475: Is housed in the only wing of the former monastery complex that is still preserved, south of the monastery ruins themselves. Besides the departments for town and monastery history, the department for town handicrafts is also worthy of mention. In Konrad Duden ’s memory is a small museum right next door to the former Old Monastery School (on the New Market). Here Duden was active from 1876 to 1905 as principal, which

464-543: Is quite high at 1,385.4 hours. On average over the year, Bad Hersfeld has 34 "summer days" (that is, with temperatures reaching 25 °C or higher), 86 "frost days" (with the day's lowest temperature below 0 °C) and 22 "ice days" (with the day's temperature never rising above 0 °C). Bad Hersfeld's written history begins with the monk Sturm , who established a monastic settlement in Haerulfisfeld but later evacuated it to Fulda , and with Lullus , who reëstablished

522-472: Is the Lehnberg at 471 m above sea level. Clockwise from the north, these are Wildeck , Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Berka/Werra , Philippsthal (Werra) und Friedewald . Heringen's Stadtteile , besides the main centre, also called Heringen, are Bengendorf, Herfa, Kleinensee, Leimbach, Lengers, Widdershausen and Wölfershausen. In 1153, Heringen had its first documentary mention. The Fulda Abbey enfeoffed

580-531: Is why the school now bears his name. The Haus Mährisch Schönberg shows a local history collection from the formerly German district of Landkreis Mährisch-Schönberg in what was the Sudetenland (on the New Market). Since 2006 there has been a small savings bank museum at the main branch of the Sparkasse Bad Hersfeld-Rotenburg in which is displayed the history of the financial institution and

638-612: The American Revolution King George III of Great Britain hired the Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl along with other regiments from Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse . The Musketeer Regiment Prinz Carl was stationed both before and after their return from America at Hersfeld. In 1821, Hersfeld became the seat of Hersfeld district in the Electorate of Hesse . In the same century, Hersfeld was linked to

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696-642: The Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey in 769. Both had been missionary bishop Boniface's disciples. The monastery was enlarged between 831 and 850 and Lullus's remains were moved in 852 to another grave in the new basilica. During this ceremony his canonisation was announced by Rabanus Maurus . Since 852, the Lullusfest , the oldest folk festival in Germany, has been celebrated in the week of Saint Lullus's day, 16 October (his day of death). Martin Luther visited

754-716: The Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld. The Lion of Hesse appeared in the town's arms after the conquest in the Peasants’ War from Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse in 1525. The oldest known town seal, from 1256, shows the patron saint Wigbert . The smaller seal from the 14th century shows the patron Simon the Zealot and Jude the Apostle of the Benedictine abbey of Hersfeld with the Wheel of Mainz and

812-687: The German Patent Office ( Reichspatentamt ) were removed from Berlin and secretly stored in the deep Wintershall potash mine in Heringen. There they were discovered by the US Third Army in March 1945, and removed to the US. The German Patent Library was later restored to Germany, but the military geology materials of maps, reports and books, often stolen from other countries during the invasions, were retained by

870-588: The Holy Roman Emperor ’s support. Beginning in 1373, the Landgraviate of Hesse acquired influence over the town through defensive alliances. On Vitalisnacht (Saint Vitalis’s night, 27–28 April) 1378, the power struggle between the Abbey and the town reached its high point. Because of the German Peasants' War in 1525, great parts of the town and the Abbey passed to Hesse. In 1606, the last abbot died and in

928-529: The Inner German border . About 800 American soldiers manned the barracks and its three observation posts, designated OP Romeo, OP India and OP Oscar. They also conducted two patrols daily along the border trace. The Americans had no interest in civilians crossing the border. Theirs was a tactical mission to halt possible Warsaw Pact aggression. Bad Hersfeld lies in the Fulda Gap, a historical avenue used for armies of

986-601: The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Imperial Abbey, raised to Electorate, was awarded to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel . Hersfeld, now a worldly electorate, henceforth belonged to Hesse-Kassel. In 1439, great parts of the town were destroyed by fire. The oldest timber-frame house in town is the Küsterhaus (Sexton’s House") from 1452. Abbot Ludwig V (1571–1588) brought the town its last building boom for centuries in which he had

1044-707: The Permian . From this layer come the two mineral springs in Bad Hersfeld. This layer is also used in underground mining from the 400-metre level on down on the Werra (Heringen, Philippsthal) and on the Fulda (Neuhof bei Fulda), yielding potash . Today's main town spreads over the slopes of the Tageberg (323.5 m above sea level ), the Frauenberg (310 m), the Wehneberg (320 m) and

1102-577: The Thirty Years' War , in 1614, there were 725 households, putting the town's population at this time somewhere between 3,300 and 3,600. The town only reached this figure once again in the mid-18th century. The leftmost chart below shows the sharp drop in the town's population due to the Thirty Years' War. After the Thirty Years' War, the population figure rose only slowly, falling back in the wake of many wars, disease outbreaks and famines. Only beginning in

1160-461: The escutcheon , stands for the river Werra. The three fish come from the arms formerly borne by the Lords of Heringen ( Hering is German for “herring”). The mining tools are, of course, a traditional miner's symbol. This charge was added to the coat of arms in 2003, as potash had been being mined here for a hundred years. The old arms are shown at right. In 2007, partnership documents were signed with

1218-478: The railway network in 1866, and the town has also had an Autobahn link since 1938 (today Bundesautobahn 7 ) northwards via Kassel and Hamburg to Scandinavia and southwards via Kirchheim , Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria to Austria . The Bundesautobahn 4 coming from Kirchheim links eastwards via Dresden and Görlitz to Poland . The development into a spa town began when the Lullusbrunnen ( spring )

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1276-606: The Abbey's buildings expanded and converted in the "Weser Renaissance" style. These can still be seen throughout the Old Town, for instance the former mint and the Schloss Eichhof (palatial castle). During the Seven Years' War the French army used the former abbey church as a supply and food depot. In 1761, the French burnt the church and the monastery buildings down to destroy their supplies during their retreat, thus destroying one of

1334-601: The Fulda valley are found gravel and pebbles from the Holocene that are mostly of alluvial origin. There are layers of flood-deposited loess and loam of Pleistocene origin running through them. The gravel and pebbles are to a great extent made up of Middle Bunter , the most widespread stone here. In the west and east, this layer reaches from the Germanic Triassic on the Stellerskuppe (480.5 m above sea level ) and

1392-633: The Haukuppe (446.1 m above sea level) up to 400 m above sea level. In the east, on the Wippershainer Höhe (heights), the layer reaches up to 440 m above sea level. The Middle Bunter's lower limit is found at about 110 m above sea level. Newer mineral layers from the Triassic are found only in sporadic deposits and discontinuous layers within town limits. This is the Röt formation, which crops up in

1450-476: The Russian-American Demarcation Line in pairs of jeeps to avoid damage to the roads. Beginning in 1949, the town was called Bad Hersfeld, and as of 1963 it became a Hessian State Spa, which was municipalized in 2006. ( Bad is German for "bath", and is a title given towns by state governments in recognition of their spa status). In May 1983, 5,000 people in the town demonstrated against

1508-630: The Schloss Eichhof and the ruins – the Bruderhaus – of the former Johannesberg provost's house. Both buildings lie some 3 km from the Old Town and can also be reached on foot from the spa park. Potash works A potash works ( German : Aschenhaus , Aschenhütte or Potaschhütte ) was a subsidiary operation of a glassworks in the Early Modern Period . The latter needed potash , as well as quartz and lime as raw materials for

1566-492: The US as Nazi materiel . Most of these maps and books remain in the US Geological Survey Library today, with an obscure United States Army Corps of Engineers stamp on each that reads "Heringen Collection". Market rights were granted the community in 1526, and in 1977 came town rights to what was then a greater community (formed out of several smaller former communities). There are also successor buildings of

1624-468: The WGH. Manfred Wenk is the first ever WGH councillor. Mayor Daniel Iliev was elected in 2016 and 2022. The town's arms might be described thus: Azure a bend wavy sinister argent between a sledgehammer and a cross-peen hammer per saltire, and three fish of the last. The bend wavy sinister, that is, slanted wavy stripe beginning on the sinister (armsbearer's left, viewer's right) side and stretching down across

1682-580: The Wendeberg (291 m), further reaching into the valleys of the Meisebach and the Geisbach. From southwest to northeast it stretches some 4.5 km, and from northeast to southwest some 3.5 km. The Old Town in the Fulda valley has an oval shape and an area of some 40 ha. From west to east it stretches some 960 m and from south to north some 570 m. This can still clearly be seen today, as where

1740-571: The changes in the banking world in a great number of exhibits. In the Old Town are 216 buildings under monumental protection. On the west side of the Old Town are found the monastery ruins. They are Europe’s biggest ecclesiastical ruin, and are now used as a venue for the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele . In the monastery zone stands the Katharinenturm (tower), in which hangs the Lullusglocke , Germany’s oldest dated bell (cast in 1038 AD). Furthermore,

1798-638: The current election period. The executive ( Magistrat ) is made up of 7 councillors and the mayor. Three seats are allotted to the SPD, two to the CDU and one each to the FDP and FWG. The town's arms might be described thus: Party per pale azure the Lion of Hesse sinister armed Or and royally crowned, argent a Cross of Lorraine pattée gules, the bottom arm fleury. The arms used today have been borne since 1559. The "double cross" stems from

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1856-581: The double cross. In the Late Gothic town seal, this cross was the only charge . At Philip I's conquest, it was displaced by the Lion of Hesse. A stylized double cross also appears in the Bad Hersfeld town logo designed in 2008. It is supposed to be used for marketing and the Internet. The town has since 1962 yearly awarded the Hersfeld-Preis to actors of the current festival season. Another honour awarded by

1914-464: The following towns: It was in Heringen that the groundbreaking invention of the electrostatic salt separation facility ( elektrostatische Salz-Trennungsanlage , or ESTA) was first realized and further developed. After former mining director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Arno Singewald's research and inventions, the German potash-mining industry could introduce a thoroughly novel, environmentally friendly means of processing

1972-507: The headwaters of the many small brooks around the town. The Lower or Middle Muschelkalk that overlies it can only be found in a narrow, west-to-east running rift stretching between Heenes and Oberrode, north of the inner town. The newest mineral layer from the Triassic – the Lower Keuper (for example the so-called Lettenkohlensandstein ) – is only preserved in the region under a lava flow, which does not show itself above ground anywhere near

2030-454: The knightly estate of Vultejus. Between 1968 and 1972 the above-named centres were amalgamated into a greater community, which was granted town rights in 1977 by the Hesse Land government. The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: The town's executive ( Magistrat ) is made up of six councillors, with two seats allotted to the SPD, two to the CDU and 2 to

2088-428: The largest churches in Germany, and in 1807, the town was almost utterly destroyed by Napoleonic occupation troops, but was spared when it turned out that Baden Lieutenant Colonel Johann Baptist Lingg von Linggenfeld would only carry out Napoleon's orders "literally": he was supposed to set fire to the town on all four sides, and this he did by having four buildings, each standing away from others, set on fire. During

2146-597: The latter visible in the background of this image). The town's lowest point, at 195 m above sea level , is to be found in the area where the Solz empties into the Fulda, whereas the highest point within town limits is the Laxberg in the Knüllgebirge, at 408 m above sea level . The town can be said to belong both to Northern Hesse ( Nordhessen ) and Eastern Hesse ( Osthessen ). The nearest cities are Kassel , 52 km to

2204-498: The manufacture of glass . Potash acted as a flux in the production process, that is by mixing it with quartz sand it significantly reduced the melting point of the latter. To make potash the glassworks built potash huts or works in the vicinity, in which wood ash and vegetable ash was gathered by ash burners and initially washed in water and then vaporized; the whole process being known as leaching . Contemporary witness, teacher and local historian, Lukas Grünenwald, recorded

2262-492: The mid-19th century, as the town was spreading outside to old town walls and as the textile and machine building industries were growing did the population figure rise sharply. Between 1910 and 1913, it surpassed 10,000 and after the Second World War , sometime between 1946 and 1950, it reached the 20,000 mark. After eleven villages were amalgamated in 1972, the population reached some 27,000, and sometime between 1987 and 1994,

2320-504: The mined salts. Salt-saturated water is avoided when the ESTA is used. These facilities built at the potash works along the Werra have also seen to it that a river that was once thoroughly salted – by East German potash works – has been brought back to life. Bad Hersfeld The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld ( Bad is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city

2378-503: The monastery, on his way back from the Diet of Worms in 1521 and held a sermon in the abbey church on 1 May. About two years later, the town and the territory of the abbey was mostly Protestant . It has been shown, however, through archaeological digs that today's townsite has a considerably longer settlement history, with traces of habitation going back to the New Stone Age about 2000 BC;

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2436-589: The nobleman Heinrich von Heringen about 1170 with the place. The Heringen court comprised in the early 15th century not only the current town area but also the Thuringian centres of Vitzeroda, Gasteroda and Abteroda, all of which now belong to the Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Berka/Werra . In 1432, Margarethe von Heringen sold the court to the Landgraves of Hesse , thereby binding Heringen to Hesse. With

2494-436: The north, Gießen , 79 km to the southwest, Fulda , 36 km to the south and Eisenach , 45 km to the east. Through Bad Hersfeld runs the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße ("German Timber Frame Road"), a holiday road that showcases many of Germany's timber-frame houses and buildings. The Old Town stands on an alluvial or fluvial fan made of gravel and pebbles, which were washed up between Fulda and Geisbach. Also in

2552-414: The opening of the Wintershall potash works, which began mining in 1903, the community got its first industrial jobs. Later, the Neu-Heringen and Herfa-Neurode potash mines were built. The mine is today the world's biggest potash-mining area and has an area about the same as Greater Munich's. At the end of World War II, the libraries of the German Army's Military Geology Unit ( Wehrgeologenstellen ) and

2610-417: The past. Bad Hersfeld was the northernmost American border garrison and the first line of defense during the days of the Cold War . While small in numbers, the US forces were heavily equipped with a nuclear capability. They were primarily equipped with armored personnel carriers, artillery, and main battle tanks. They were augmented with combat engineers and an anti-aircraft missile site. However, they patrolled

2668-441: The recollections from his youth in Dernbach in the Palatinate region : These potash huts were small, rectangular stone houses with a parlour and kitchen and a wood store above them. In the corner of the kitchen a large, round iron cauldron used for potash boiling stood on the brick stove and a chimney rose from there up to the gabled roof . In the three walls opposite the entrance were small windows. The requisite wood ash

2726-427: The spot where the townsmen fought off the attack by the Sternerbund in 1378. Further remnants of the town fortifications stand in the Lower Town (east side of the Old Town), among them the Klausturm (a watchtower and prison) and the somewhat smaller Pulverturm ("Powder Tower") Furthermore, on Johannestor (a street) is found the Elisabeth-Hospital , endowed in 1239, with a Gothic chapel. Other Abbey buildings are

2784-415: The stove, until only the valuable, white potash was left. This was sold for a high price to the glassworks. The consumption of wood in the process of making potash was extremely high, which is why the glassworks were frequently established in areas of extensive forest (hence the term forest glass ). For example, the documents of the forest glassworks of Spiegelberg in the Swabian-Franconian Forest , which

2842-406: The town hosted the seventh Hessentag state festival. The town lies in the Hersfeld Basin formed here by the forks of the Fulda and the Haune. The inner town lies on the Fulda's left bank. Furthermore, the Geisbach and the Solz empty into the Fulda in the municipal area. In the southwest lie the Vogelsberg Mountains , in the northwest the Knüll and in the northeast the Seulingswald (ranges,

2900-424: The town is the Ulenroder Kruzifix , a cast taken of a bronze crucifix from the early 11th century that was found in the abandoned village of Ulenrode, which lay above Meckbach in what is now the community of Ludwigsau. Every summer, the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele (festival) are held. Outside the festival season, theatrical productions are given in the Stadthalle , an event venue. The Bad Hersfeld Town Museum

2958-405: The town moat once led around the town there is today a ringroad that leads traffic around it. Besides the main town – also called Bad Hersfeld – the town also has the outlying centres of Allmershausen, Asbach, Beiershausen, Eichhof, Heenes, Hohe Luft, Johannesberg, Kathus, Kohlhausen, Petersberg and Sorga. Further subdivisions in the main town are not officially Stadtteile . The Old Town itself

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3016-416: The town's population reached 30,000. Given the population structure and the forecast migration to urban agglomerations , the HA Hessen Agentur GmbH foresees that the district's population will shrink by 6% by 2020. This fall is therefore also foreseen within the same timeframe for the town. The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: The SPD and the FWG form one faction in

3074-469: The town. Owing to uplift in the Jurassic and Cretaceous , there are no mineral layers from these geological time periods. Volcanic rock from the Miocene can be found on the Haukuppe. Mineral layers that do not reach the surface here are the Lower Bunter, running from a depth of some 90 m underneath the town (about 110 m above sea level ) down to some 390 m farther down, and, following at yet greater depths, Upper and Lower Zechstein from

3132-421: The two big churches, various communities and free churches can be found in Bad Hersfeld, among them the State Church Community, the Protestant Free Church Community ( Baptists ), the Seventh Day Adventists and the Free Christian Community ( Pentecostal ). Further religious communities in Bad Hersfeld are the New Apostolic Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses . In 1918, Kalkobes was amalgamated and in 1928 so

3190-405: Was Herolfisfeld ) is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse , Germany , roughly 50 km southeast of Kassel . Bad Hersfeld is known countrywide above all for the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele (festival), which have taken place each year since 1951 at the monastery ruins. These themselves are said to be Europe's biggest Romanesque church ruin. In 1967,

3248-408: Was bought in all the villages far and wide and often laboriously carried home in sacks on hand carts and wagons on the then still poor roads. In the hut the ashes were first stored cold in grey wicker baskets, lined with linen, and stood on top of leaching vats. Water was poured over the ashes and they were thoroughly soaked until they were completely leached. The mother liquour was then boiled on

3306-515: Was tapped in 1904. In 1935 the barracks was built in the outskirts of Hersfeld (today Hohe Luft), by the Wehrmacht . In 1945, Hersfeld was once again spared utter destruction, when two officers who had been taken prisoner guaranteed the town's peaceful handover. The United States Army took over the Wehrmacht's barracks. Between 1948 and 1993 it was the McPheeters Barracks. Here served the 3rd Squadron, 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (1948 until 1972) and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (1972 until 1993) at

3364-448: Was the area that later became the outlying centre od Johannesberg ( Domäne Johannesberg und Bingartes ). In 1972, the centres named above under "Constituent communities" were amalgamated. Moreover, the districts of Hersfeld and Rotenburg were merged into one new district, Hersfeld-Rotenburg , and Bad Hersfeld became its seat. In 1525, 400 men lived in the town, and presumably this meant only householders – men with townsman's rights. Before

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