Burgwald
Encyclopedia
Location
Burgwald lies east of BattenbergBattenberg, Hesse
Battenberg is a small town in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. The town is noted for giving its name to the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the ruling House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and through it, the name Mountbatten used by members of the British royal family, a literal...
and roughly 30 km north of the university town of Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
. The community lies on the northwestern edge of the Burgwald range, Hesse's biggest contiguous woodland.
Neighbouring communities
Burgwald borders in the north on the town of FrankenbergFrankenberg, Hesse
Frankenberg an der Eder is a town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany.The mountain at a ford over the Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially important rôle under the Franks in the Saxon Wars...
, in the east on the community of Haina
Haina
Haina is a community in Waldeck-Frankenberg in northwest Hesse, Germany.-Location:Haina lies in Waldeck-Frankenberg south of Frankenberg and east of Burgwald at the southwest slope of the Kellerwald range...
, in the south on the town of Rosenthal
Rosenthal, Hesse
Rosenthal is a small town in southeast Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Rosenthal lies in the Burgwald range 11 km southeast of Frankenberg and 18 km northeast of Marburg.-Neighbouring communities:...
(all in Waldeck-Frankenberg), in the southwest on the community of Münchhausen
Münchhausen am Christenberg
The community of Münchhausen is found north of Marburg on the northern edge of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. It has 3,605 inhabitants and has had its current boundaries since 1974. The community's area is roughly 41 km².-Location:...
(Marburg-Biedenkopf
Marburg-Biedenkopf
Marburg-Biedenkopf is a Kreis in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Waldeck-Frankenberg, Schwalm-Eder, Vogelsbergkreis, Gießen, Lahn-Dill, Siegen-Wittgenstein.- History :...
), and in the west on the town of Battenberg
Battenberg, Hesse
Battenberg is a small town in the Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. The town is noted for giving its name to the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the ruling House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and through it, the name Mountbatten used by members of the British royal family, a literal...
and the community of Allendorf
Allendorf (Eder)
Allendorf is a municipality in Waldeck-Frankenberg in Hesse, Germany.- Location :Allendorf lies in the upper Eder Valley between Frankenberg and Battenberg west of the Burgwald range and east of the Breite Struth ....
(both in Waldeck-Frankenberg).
Constituent communities
The community is divided into Birkenbringhausen in the northwest, Bottendorf somewhat more towards the northeast, Burgwald and Wiesenfeld towards the centre, and Ernsthausen to the south.History
Burgwald is quite a new name for the main community. Until 1996, it was known as Industriehof.Amalgamations
As part of Hesse's municipal reforms on 1 July 1971, the communities of Birkenbringhausen, Ernsthausen and Wiesenfeld merged to form the greater community. On 1 January 1974, Bottendorf was amalgamated with Burgwald as well.Municipal council
The council's 27 seats are apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006 (each party's share of the vote is also shown, and figures in parentheses are for the 2001 election):- CDUChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
: 3 seats; 12.8% (5 seats; 17.0%) - SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
: 6 seats; 23.9% (10 seats; 31.4%) - GreensAlliance '90/The GreensAlliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
: 0 seats; 0.6% (0 seats; 0.0%) - FWG - Freie Wählergemeinschaft Birkenbringhausen: 5 seats; 17.2% (5 seats; 15.5%)
- BLE - Bürgerliste Ernsthausen: 6 seats; 21.3% (5 seats; 17.4)
- BLB - Bürgerliste Burgwald: 3 seats; 10.8% (2 seats; 6.8%)
- WGBo - Wählergemeinschaft Bottendorf: 4 seats; 13.4% (4 seats; 11.9%)
Note: The last three are citizens' coalitions.
Coat of arms
Burgwald's civic coat of armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
has some unusual divisions. The crenellated wall and the line of fir trees are, as the German blazon describes them, not charges, but rather divisions of the shield, although most observers would see a castle wall an a line of trees (things, rather than dividing lines). According to the blazon, the only charge is the cross of the Order of St. John in the shield's lowest division.
The shield's colours are blue, green and silver – blue for the sky, silver for a castle's battlements and the cross, and green for the treetops. The battlements refer to the Kesterburg (now called the Christenberg), a castle in the Burgwald range. The cross refers to local history, namely Wiesenfeld's. In 1238, this village was founded as a prospective Order of St. John centre.
Transport
Through the community runs Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B 252 connecting MarburgMarburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
and Korbach
Korbach
Korbach is the district seat of Waldeck-Frankenberg in northern Hesse, Germany. It is over a thousand years old and a former Hanseatic town. It is located on the German Framework Road.- Geography and geology :...
.
Birkenbringhausen, Wiesenfeld and Ernsthausen are stops on the Burgwaldbahn railway line from Frankenberg
Frankenberg, Hesse
Frankenberg an der Eder is a town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany.The mountain at a ford over the Eder north of the Burgwald range was for a long time a fortified place, playing an especially important rôle under the Franks in the Saxon Wars...
to Marburg. The stations in Burgwald are in the tariff zone of the North Hesse Transport Association (Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund; NVV).
Several signposted bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
paths cross the municipal area or lead right to it. West past Birkenbringhausen run the Hessian cycle path R8 and the Ederauenweg ("Eder floodplain way"), which runs alongside the Eder from its source in the Rothaargebirge to its mouth where it empties into the Fulda
Fulda River
The Fulda is a river in Hesse, Germany. It is one of two headstreams of the Weser . The Fulda is 218 km in length....
. East of Bottendorf, the Hessian cycle path R6 runs through the Burgwald range. The Lahn-Eder cycle path, running from Marburg to Frankenberg reaches the former district seat of Frankenberg from Ernsthausen in the south by way of the Bottendorf area.
Literature
- Ulrich Stöhr, Reinhold Briel, Johannes Briel (2003): Ernsthausen 1303-2003. Chronik zur 700-Jahr-Feier. Published by the community of Burgwald. Burgwald-Ernsthausen
Established businesses
- OSBORN International GmbH, manufacturer of technical brushes and tools for finishing surfaces.