Rosenthal is a small town in southeast Waldeck-Frankenberg

Waldeck-Frankenberg

Waldeck-Frankenberg is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Höxter, Kassel, Schwalm-Eder, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Hochsauerland.-History:...

 district in Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Location

Rosenthal lies in the Burgwald range 11 km southeast of 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...

 and 18 km northeast 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 :...

.

Neighbouring communities

Rosenthal borders in the north on the community of Burgwald

Burgwald

-Location:Burgwald lies east of Battenberg and roughly 30 km north of the university town of Marburg. The community lies on the northwestern edge of the Burgwald range, Hesse's biggest contiguous woodland.-Neighbouring communities:...

, in the east on the town of Gemünden

Gemünden (Wohra)

-Location:Gemünden lies roughly 22 km northeast of Marburg on the edge of the Burgwald range to the west and near the Kellerwald range rising to the northeast...

 (both in Waldeck-Frankenberg), in the southeast on the community of Wohratal

Wohratal

-Geography:Wohratal lies between the Kellerwald in the east and the Burgwald, a low mountain range, in the west, on the river Wohra....

, in the south on the towns of Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg, Hesse

-Location:Rauschenberg lies at the southern edge of the Burgwald, a low mountain range, near Marburg and Kirchhain.-Neighbouring communities:Rauschenberg borders in the north on the town of Rosenthal as well as on the communities of Wohratal and Gilserberg , in the east on the town of...

 and Wetter

Wetter, Hesse

Wetter is a small town in Hesse, Germany. The rather unusual designation Wetter stems from a time when the town belonged to the Prussian province of the same name, and nowadays is only used by the railway – even today, the railway station in town bears this name.-Geography:Wetter lies in the...

, and in the west 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:...

 (all in 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 :...

).

Constituent communities

Besides the main town, which bears the same name as the whole, the town of Rosenthal consists of the centres of Roda and Willershausen.

History

Rosenthal was founded in 1327 as a Mainz town and outpost in the dispute over the Hessian fief, but nevertheless passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse in 1464.

In 1688, the town achieved dubious fame by being the scene of Hesse's last witch burnings

Witch-hunt

A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...

.

In 1866, Rosenthal passed, along with the rest of the Electorate of Hesse, to Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

.

Amalgamations

As part of Hesse's municipal reforms in the early 1970s, the heretofore independent communities of Roda and Willershausen were amalgamated with Rosenthal.

Town council

The town council's 15 seats are apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006:

CDU Christian 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...	7 seats
Bürgerliste Roda	5 seats
FDP Free Democratic Party (Germany) The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...	3 seats

Note: Bürgerliste Roda is a citizens' coalition.

Mayor

At the mayoral election on 8 February 2004, Hans Waßmuth was elected Rosenthal's mayor with a 79% share of the vote.

Coat of arms

Rosenthal's civic coat of arms

Coat 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...

 might heraldically be described thus: In gules a six-spoked wheel argent surrounded per square by four roses Or with centres azure and sepals vert.

This describes the arms shown in this article, and also seen at the town's official website. At least one source, however,http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/r/rosentha.htm describes a different composition with three stemmed roses growing out of the top of the wheel.

The wheel is the wheel of Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

, symbolizing the town's founders.

External links