Vöhl
Encyclopedia
Vöhl is a community in 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:...

 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...

 not far southwest of Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

.

Location

Vöhl lies in the northern part of the Kellerwald
Kellerwald
The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany.Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park.- Geography :The Kellerwald lies in...

-Edersee Nature Park on the Edersee
Edersee
The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1908 to 1914 across the Eder river, near the small town of Waldeck in northern Hesse, Germany, it lies at the northern edge of the Kellerwald...

, a man-made lake.

Neighbouring communities

Vöhl borders in the north on the town of 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 :...

, in the east on the town of Waldeck
Waldeck, Hesse
Waldeck is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in northwestern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Waldeck lies on the Edersee, a man-made lake...

 and the community of Edertal
Edertal
-Location:Edertal lies roughly 30 km in a straight line southwest of Kassel. It is on the north and northwest edges of the Kellerwald range and stretches to the south shore of the Edersee and south and southwest of its dam...

, in the south on the towns of Frankenau
Frankenau
-Location:Frankenau lies in the Kellerwald range southwest of the Talgang . It is found on the southern edge of the Kellerwald-Edersee National Park on the upper reaches of the Lorfebach, a tributary to the Eder...

 and 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 in the west on the town of Lichtenfels
Lichtenfels, Hesse
Lichtenfels is a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in northwest Hesse, Germany.- Location :Lichtenfels lies at the northeast foot of the Rothaargebirge, some southwest of Kassel. It is not far from the western end of the Edersee in the southwest of the Waldecker Land...

 (all in Waldeck-Frankenberg).

Constituent communities

Vöhl consists of the following mostly quite small centres spread out northwestwards and southeastwards from the western end of the Edersee.
  • Asel – including Asel-Süd
  • Basdorf
  • Buchenberg
  • Dorfitter
  • Ederbringhausen
  • Harbshausen
  • Herzhausen
  • Kirchlotheim
  • Marienhagen
  • Niederorke
  • Obernburg
  • Oberorke
  • Schmittlotheim
  • Thalitter
  • Vöhl (administrative centre)

Asel

Asel is the only constituent community that lies on both sides of the man-made lake. It is thus divided into two parts:
  • Asel "proper" lies on a mountain north of the Edersee.
  • Asel-Süd lies on the northern slope of the Kellerwald, on the lake's south shore and right on the northern boundary of the Kellerwald-Edersee park.


Furthermore, Asel, just like Bringhausen a short way to the east, lies in a "dead end", at least from a traffic engineering
Traffic engineering (transportation)
For the engineering of communications and computer networks, see Teletraffic engineering.Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on roadways...

 point of view, meaning that it can only be reached from the western end of the lake from Herzhausen through Harbshausen, as barely any roads run through the hardly developed northern part of the Kellerwald.

Basdorf

Basdorf lies on a mountain north of the Edersee. Part of it is a holiday village called Trappenhart, built above the village proper.

Dorfitter

Dorfitter lies next to the circuit city Korbach. There live about 900 inhabitants.
Famous is the picture of the canvas in the church. It's the oldest in Hesse.

Marienhagen

Marienhagen is Vöhl's second biggest constituent community. Besides the lovely village heart built around the Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...

 church, there are also two "new town" areas. After the Second World War, many Germans who had been driven from lost territories to the east – most of them were from the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...

 – were integrated into Marienhagen. The current (16 August 2005) population is just below 1000.

Alongside the gymnastic
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...

 club founded by Fritz and Otto Lohof, Wilhelm Bauch, Karl Müller and others, there is a men's singing club, a women's choir, the volunteer fire brigade, a senior citizens' club, the pond association (Teichgemeinschaft) and the Club Saskatchewan 1972.

In 1959, a swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

 was built, after a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...

 had already opened in 1926. By the late 1960s, a ski-jumping arena and a downhill skiing run were inviting people to partake of winter sports.

Obernburg

Obernburg lies at the edge of the Kuhbach Valley on a hill. Its attractions include not only a little Protestant church but also the Drachenhöhle ("Dragon's Cave"). From the cave, lying on the village's outskirts, a secret passage leads under the pulpit in the church. In earlier times, this was used as an escape route.

Waterways

  • Eder
    Eder
    The Eder is a 177 km long river in Germany, and a tributary of the Fulda River. It was first mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus as the Adrana in the territory of the Chatti....

  • Edersee
    Edersee
    The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1908 to 1914 across the Eder river, near the small town of Waldeck in northern Hesse, Germany, it lies at the northern edge of the Kellerwald...

  • Itter (river)
  • Orke (river)
  • Asel (brook)
  • lake near Kirchlotheim

History

Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 finds have established that there has been continuous habitation in the area since the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...

.

In the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

, the border between the Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...

 and Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

 tribal homelands ran through what is now Vöhl, as still witnessed by the Sprachgrenze, or language border
Language border
A language border or language boundary is the line separating two language areas. The term is generally meant to imply a lack of mutual intelligibility between the two languages...

, running east to west between Central German
Central German
Central German is a group of High German dialects spoken from the Rhineland in the west to the former eastern territories of Germany.-History:...

 and Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...

 astride which the community sits.

Vöhl's municipal area is roughly coëxtensive with the old lordly domain of Itter, which in the High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

 developed in the former Ittergau. After the Lords of Itter died out, the area was split between the Landgraviate of Hesse and the Electorate 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...

.

After meanwhile being pledged to the Counts of Waldeck and the Wolff von Gudensberg family, the Itter domain became part of Hesse for good in 1589. Disputed as it was between Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...

 (or Hesse-Cassel) and Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was formed in 1567 following the division of the Landgraviate of Hesse between the four sons of Philip I, the last Landgrave of Hesse....

, in 1650, it passed once and for all to the latter and formed an enclave inside Waldeck territory. In 1821, as part of administrative reform, the Itter domain became the district of Vöhl, until in 1866 it passed 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...

 and was united with Frankenberg district in 1886.

Basdorf

About Basdorf's founding and the time thereafter up until the village's first documentary mention in 1206, nothing is clear. It seems likely that, owing to soil and water factors, Basdorf was an early settlement centre here in the tribal marches between the Chatti
Chatti
The Chatti were an ancient Germanic tribe whose homeland was near the upper Weser. They settled in central and northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony, along the upper reaches of the Weser River and in the valleys and mountains of the Eder, Fulda and Weser River regions, a district approximately...

 and the Cherusci
Cherusci
The Cherusci were a Germanic tribe that inhabited parts of the northern Rhine valley and the plains and forests of northwestern Germany, in the area between present-day Osnabrück and Hanover, during the 1st century BC and 1st century AD...

. Together with the other places in the Ittergau it would hence have held an important place with regards to through traffic and north-south trade.

Since the deaconate of Vöhl fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Mainz, it is assumed that the area around nearby Fritzlar
Fritzlar
Fritzlar is a small German town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, north of Frankfurt, with a storied history. It can reasonably be argued that the town is the site where the Christianization of northern Germany began and the birthplace of the German empire as a political entity.The...

, or rather the Büraburg
Büraburg
Büraburg is a prominent hill with historic significance, overlooking the Eder river near the town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse .In 723 AD the Anglo-Saxon missionary Winfrid – later called St...

, was Christianized
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...

 by Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...

 or his followers before Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

's years-long Saxon Wars
Saxon Wars
The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany...

, into which the local border region was drawn.

Documents surviving today show how Basdorf grew from a village of free farmers bit by bit into an estate of the Werbe Monastery and into a small part of the Berich Monastery. Furthermore, the documents show how the Ittergau, to which Basdorf belonged, many times became the object of its stronger neighbours' disputes.

In 1810 came the Kampf den Maikäfern – the "Struggle against the Cockchafer
Cockchafer
The cockchafer is a European beetle of the genus Melolontha, in the family Scarabaeidae....

s" – and its larvae, the white grubs. One leaflet sent throughout the village declared that every farmer was to decrease this pest as much as he could, sparing no effort to that end. It furthermore suggested feeding the dead cockchafers to chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

s, duck
Duck
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a monophyletic group but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not considered...

s and geese
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....

, with a warning that these birds should also get plenty of water, as cockchafers tended to make them very thirsty. Swine, too, enjoyed cockchafers, according to the leaflet.

In 1875, Basdorf's children were given a new school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...

 when a dismantled house was bought over in Asel and reassembled in Basdorf as a place for teaching the village's children. In 1878, the village bought a new hand-driven fire pump. In 1879, the men's singing club was founded by Johann Christian Bangert, whose thirst for adventure once led him on a 120-day sailing voyage to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and whose homesickness 20 years later led him back to Basdorf.

Basdorf farmers became milk suppliers to the Höringhausen Dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...

 in 1885, and in 1892, Basdorf became an independent parish with a branch in Oberwerba. In 1900, the postal coach connection came to an end. In 1919, electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 and running water
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...

 came to the village. In 1920, the streets were lit and a threshing community was founded. The Basdorf Gymnastic and Sport Club was founded in 1922.

In 1934, the volunteer fire brigade was founded.

In 1946, Basdorf took in 165 refugees from former German territories out of which they had been driven, thereby giving the school a reason to hire a further teacher in 1948. Between 1952 and 1986, Basdorf was connected to the sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...

 system. In 1960, the Basdorf Gymnastic and Sport Club was brought back to life as a football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and sport club. In 1964, school ended in Basdorf when all school functions were transferred to Vöhl (main town).

In the 1972 contest "Unser Dorf" ("Our Village"), Basdorf was deemed to be Hesse's second prettiest village. Basdorf became part of Vöhl in 1974.

In 2006 Basdorf celebrated 800 years of existence with a weeklong festival.

Amalgamations

On 1 February 1971, the communities of Dorfitter, Herzhausen and Thalitter merged into the community of Ittertal, and Vöhl formed with Asel and Basdorf a new community. On 1 January 1972, the community of Hessenstein was formed out of Buchenberg, Ederbringhausen, Harbshausen, Kirchlotheim, Niederorke, Oberorke and Schmittlotheim. The communities of Marienhagen and Obernburg for the time being remained independent.

On 1 January 1974, the communities of Hessenstein, Marienhagen, Obernburg, Ittertal and Vöhl merged into the greater community of Vöhl. The administrative seat is in the original village of Vöhl.

Municipal council

Vöhl's council is made up of 31 councillors, with seats apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 March 2006:
SPD
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 
11 seats
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...

 
8 seats
FWG 7 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
BI-Grüne Liste 2 seats

Note: FWG and BI-Grüne Liste are citizens' coalitions.

Coat of arms

Vöhl'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 argent a hill vert upon which a castle gules with tower dexter, the whole with roof azure, before the castle an inescutcheon in which in azure a lion rampant party per fess, above argent, below gules, crowned Or, armed argent and langued gules.

These arms were bestowed upon the community on 17 August 1977 with the Hessian Interior Minister's approval.

Partnerships

Mouchard
Mouchard
Mouchard is a commune in the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France.- Accommodation :Chez Bernard et Denise, Gite de France, - See also :* Communes of the Jura department* - References :*...

, département of Jura, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, since 1986 Basdorf, Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...

, since 1990

Culture and sightseeing

  • Maize labyrinth at the Edersee
  • Edersee
    Edersee
    The Edersee Dam is a hydroelectric dam constructed between 1908 to 1914 across the Eder river, near the small town of Waldeck in northern Hesse, Germany, it lies at the northern edge of the Kellerwald...

  • Schloss Waldeck (nearby stately home)
  • The neighbouring Kellerwald
  • Hof Lauterbach
  • Itterburg (castle ruins)
  • Gerichtslinde ("Court Linden") with memorial
  • Church in the middle of Basdorf
  • Half-timbered
    Timber framing
    Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

    buildings in Basdorf

External links

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