Bad Berleburg

Infobox German Location
Art = Stadt
Name = Bad Berleburg
image_photo = Bad Berleburg 8.jpg
Wappen = Wappen von Bad Berleburg.pnglat_deg = 51 |lat_min = 02 |lat_sec = 59
lon_deg = 08 |lon_min = 24 |lon_sec = 00
Lageplan =
Bundesland = Nordrhein-Westfalen
Regierungsbezirk = Arnsberg
Kreis = Siegen-Wittgenstein
Höhe = 350 - 789
Fläche = 275.33
Einwohner = 20440
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 57319
Vorwahl = 02751
Kfz = SI
Gemeindeschlüssel = 05 9 70 004
Gliederung = 23
Straße = Poststraße 42
Website = [http://www.bad-berleburg.de/ www.bad-berleburg.de]
Bürgermeister = Bernd Fuhrmann
Partei =

Bad Berleburg (earlier also Berlenburg) is a town, in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of Germany's largest towns by land area. It is located approx. 30 km northeast of Siegen and 35 km northwest of Marburg.

Geography

Location

Bad Berleburg lies in the northeast of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the middle of the Rothaargebirge, a low mountain range. The western town limit is also the boundary with the neighbouring district of Olpe. The town is also bordered on the north by the Hochsauerland district. The town's eastern limit is likewise the boundary with the "Bundesland" of Hesse. The town of Bad Laasphe borders on Bad Berleburg in the south, and the community of Erndtebrück in the southwest.

This is where this town of widely scattered centres is to be found, at the place where the river Odeborn empties into the Eder.

Constituent communities

Since 1975, each one of the following centres has been part of Bad Berleburg:

Population

(in each case at 31 December)

*1998 - 21,177
*1999 - 21,190
*2000 - 21,219
*2001 - 21,135
*2002 - 21,022
*2003 - 20,884
*2004 - 20,794

History

Archaeological finds confirm that the area covered by today's municipal area was settled as far back as the 7th century BC. On the castle hills at Aue, Dotzlar and Wemlighausen are traces of ringwall building from this time. There is, however, no evidence of settlement in the area for the time that follows, up to the 8th century.

The constituent communities of Arfeld and Raumland were mentioned in documents in 800 and 802 respectively. There are also documents from 1059 confirming the existence of Alertshausen, Beddelhausen, Elsoff and Schwarzenau. In 1174, the name "Widechinstein" was mentioned for the first time. The village of Berleburg is mentioned for the first time in 1258 in documents from the Grafschaft monastery (in this instance "Grafschaft" is a location rather than the German word for "county"), under the name Berneborg. The castle passed on 30 March 1258 to Count Siegfried I and the "monastery reeve" ("Klostervogt") Adolf von Grafschaft. In 1322, this double overlordship in Berleburg was ended by Widekind von Grafschaft when he forwent his rights to the town in Siegfried II's favour. Siegfried was the last of his noble line, and when he died, the inheritance went to his son-in-law, Salentin von Sayn. He founded the House of Sayn-Wittgenstein.

In 1488, and again in 1522, great fires roared through the town.

Until Count Ludwig the Elder's death in 1605, Berleburg was developing itself into a capital and residence town of the County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, which in the 18th century was a centre in Germany for the Inspiration Movement, which had grown out of radical pietism. Between 1726 and 1742, the well known Berleburg Bible was printed here. Christoph Sauer (1695-1758) lived at Schwarzenau for a few years before emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1724. There in 1743 he would print the first German-language Bible in North America with a press and Fraktur type formerly used by the Berleburg Pietists. Tolerance of religious dissenters ebbed by the mid-1750s.

Wittgenstein was placed under the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806. Under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, it was then ceded to the Prussian province of Westphalia in 1816.

When the "Rothaarbahn" railway was built to Berleburg in 1911, it brought with it the onset of industrialization, although it was limited to forest products at first. Other forms of industry did not come to town until after the Second World War.

The town was already acknowledged as a climatic spa in 1935 for its gentle and agreeably mild climate. After 1949, the "Klinik Wittgenstein" was built as a psychosomatic hospital.

In 1951, on private initiative, a Kneipp spa association was founded, which was the forerunner to the Wittgenstein spa institution ("Wittgensteiner Kuranstalt"; WKA). In the first year that the WKA Kneipp spa works were open, there were 11,000 overnight stays. Little by little, Berleburg became Germany's second largest Kneipp spa.

In 1971, once the town had been granted state recognition as a Kneipp spa, Berleburg was entitled to use the prefix "Bad" (lit. "bath") with its name, thereby becoming the town of Bad Berleburg, as it has been known ever since. In 1974 also came recognition as a curative spa.

In 1975, with the Sauerland-Paderborn Law, dealing with municipal reform, the surrounding "Amt" of Berleburg was abolished, and a great deal of it then became part of the town of Bad Berleburg, making the town North Rhine-Westphalia's second largest by land area. The communities of Hoheleye, Langewiese, Mollseifen and Neuastenberg were assigned to the newly established Hochsauerland district. They are today constituent communities of Winterberg. The communities of Balde, Birkelbach, Birkefehl, Leimstruth and Womelsdorf were transferred to the community of Erndtebrück. At the same time, the old district of Wittgenstein was dissolved and added to Siegen district.

In 1984, this district's name was changed to Siegen-Wittgenstein, as it is still called now.

Politics

Town council

The town council's 38 seats are apportioned thus, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 September 2004:Note: UWG is a citizens' coalition.

Coat of arms

The lion rampant is the mark of the House of Sayn, and the bear stands for the hunt. Some sources, on the other hand, say that it is a canting symbol ("Bear" is "Bär" in German, pronounced the same way as the first syllable of Berleburg). [http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/b/bad-berl.htm] The House of Wittgenstein is also represented by the pallets (vertical stripes) from their old arms.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

*"Courtyard of Schloss Wittgenstein- Tours are available to the public at differing times depending on the season for €4, in German only. Note: Do not pick the flowers in the park behind the Schloss."
*"Schloss Wittgenstein" – a Baroque stately home from 1733 with a museum about the princely house of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
* [http://www.riedesel.org/mannus.html#schul "Schulkapelle Sassenhausen"] (school chapel) – this half-timbered structure was built in 1703 as a church by Mannus Riedesel but was later adapted to house a school as well.
* [http://www.riedesel.org/mannus.html#ludwigsburg "Ludwigsburg"] – built for a side branch of the Sayn-Wittgensteins, it is richly embellished on the cornices and corner beams. Also the work of Mannus Riedesel.

Regular events

*"Wollmarkt" (wool market) – first Sunday in May
*"Stünzelfest", menagerie and fair – second Saturday in June
*"Berleburger Schützenfest" (marksmanship festival) – first weekend in July
*"Schützenfest des Schieß- und Schützenverein Wingeshausen 1928 e.V." (marksmanship festival) – fourth weekend in July
*"Schützenfest in Müsse des Schieß- und Schützenverein Müsse 1925 e.V." (marksmanship festival) – second weekend in August

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

The municipal area is crossed from north to south by Federal Highway ("Bundesstraße") 480, joining Bad Berleburg with Winterberg in the north and Erndtebrück in the south.

The "Rothaarbahn" railway reaches the town from the south, ending there. Until 31 May 1981 there was a connection from Bad Berleburg to Allendorf and Frankenberg by the Upper "Edertalbahn" and the "Ruhr-Eder-Bahn".

Sons and daughters of the town

* Johannes Althusius (1563-1638) legal scholar and politician from Bad Berleburg-Diedenshausen
* Jacob Nolde (1859-1916) attained great wealth in the United States in the hosiery industry and was an environmentalist largely responsible for the creation of Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center in Pennsylvania.
* Johann Friedrich Henschel (1931- ) born in Bad Berleburg-Schwarzenau, until 1995 vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.
* Gerhard Dickel (1938-2003) born in Bad Berleburg-Girkhausen, Church Music Director, cantor, organist and music professor in Hamburg.
* Paul Breuer (1950-) born in Bad Berleburg-Berghausen, Member of the Bundestag 1980-2003, since 2003 "Landrat" of the Siegen-Wittgenstein district.
* Norbert Dickel (1961- ) born in Bad Berleburg-Berghausen, German football player, stadium announcer for Borussia Dortmund
* Pia Wunderlich (1975- ) born in Bad Berleburg-Schwarzenau, German football player (since 1993 1. FFC Frankfurt)
* Tina Wunderlich (1977- ) born in Bad Berleburg-Schwarzenau, German football player (since 1994 1. FFC Frankfurt)

References

*cite web
url = http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/heritage/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=444188
title = Jacob Nolde
accessdate = 2007-01-30
author = John Nolde
publisher = Pennsylvania Department of Enivornmental Protection

External links

* [http://www.bad-berleburg.de/ Official site] de icon