Haiger

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Coordinates: 50°45′N 8°12′E

Haiger
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Gießen
District	Lahn-Dill-Kreis
Population	19,959 (31/12/2004)
Area	106.67 km²
Population density	187 /km²
Elevation	272 m
Coordinates	50°45′ N 8°12′ E
Postal code	35708
Area code	02771 / 02773 / 02774
Licence plate code	LDK
Mayor	Dr. Gerhard Zoubek (SPD)
Website	Stadt Haiger

Haiger is a town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger.

Contents 1 Geography 1.1 Location 1.2 Neighbouring communities 1.3 Constituent communities 2 Population 3 History 3.1 Knights of Haiger 3.2 Allendorf 4 Name 5 Politics 5.1 Coat of arms 5.2 Town partnerships 6 Culture and sightseeing 6.1 Museums 6.2 Buildings 6.3 Regular events 6.4 Culinary specialities 7 Economy and infrastructure 7.1 Established businesses 7.2 Media 7.2.1 Newspapers 7.3 Public institutions 7.4 Education 7.5 Sport 8 Reference 9 External links

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen at the eastern edge of the Westerwald range near where the three states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate all share a common point. It is furthermore the district's northernmost town. North of the constituent community of Offdilln rises the river Dill. The constituent community of Allendorf lies in a dale surrounded by wooded mountains, except on the west side. The river Haigerbach also flows through Allendorf, as once did a river called the Wupper, although this is nowadays channelled underground.

[edit] Neighbouring communities

Haiger borders in the north on the town of Netphen (Siegen-Wittgenstein district in North Rhine-Westphalia) and the community of Dietzhölztal, in the east on the community of Eschenburg and the town of Dillenburg, in the south on the community of Breitscheid (all in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis), and in the west on the communities of Burbach and Wilnsdorf (both in Siegen-Wittgenstein district in North Rhine-Westphalia).

[edit] Constituent communities

Besides the main town, also called Haiger, the town also consists of the outlying centres of Sechshelden, Langenaubach, Flammersbach, Allendorf, Kalteiche, Haigerseelbach, Steinbach, Rodenbach, Fellerdilln, Dillbrecht, Offdilln, Weidelbach, Oberroßbach and Niederroßbach.

[edit] Population

(in each case on 31 December)

• 1998 - 20,298
• 1999 - 20,212
• 2000 - 20,222
• 2001 - 20,201
• 2002 - 20,169
• 2003 - 20,191
• 2004 - 19,959
• 2005 - 19,942

[edit] History

Haiger is the oldest of the three towns on the Dill. Haiger's first documentary mention goes back to 778. The three valleys of the Haigerbach, Aubach and Dill, amongst which Haiger lies, helped afford the town an advantageous position for travel. Even famous personages such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing once visited the town, and are nowadays honoured in Haiger street names: Goethestraße, Schillerstraße, Lessingstraße. On 8 May 1729, Haiger's whole downtown core was burnt down in a great fire that swallowed all the buildings within the town's walls in a few hours. Even the town church burnt down to its bare walls. The quick financial help from the surrounding Electorates, towns and provinces, as well as Electress Isaballa's generous donation of 400 florins, helped assuage the great need.

[edit] Knights of Haiger

The von Haiger noble family ruled over the Haigermark. It was also known as the Land of the Free Men (predium liberorum virorum), likely owing to the Knights' free rule (without intervening overlords between the family and the emperor).

[edit] Allendorf

Since Allendorf has lain since days of yore on one of Germany's most important long-distance roads (Sieg-Cologne) and is one of Haiger's biggest outlying centres, the village has always enjoyed a special importance. First mentioned in a document on 12 March 1362, the village grew as a result of its advantageous location into a changing station for horses used for both the post and travel. This further gave rise to a great number of inns. The community was formed not only by this through traffic, but also by agriculture, which had great influence on the village's history.

Owing to industrialization in the late 19th century, small handicraft and industrial businesses set up shop in the village. A great number of the inhabitants at this time worked in coalmines, which stretched as far as the Siegerland.

[edit] Name

The town's name, Haiger, comes from Old Hessian. The great number of herons (German: Fischreiher) on the Haigerbach, Aubach and Dill helped give the town the name Reiherbach, or in Old Hessian Heigerahe. This name came from the words Heiger ( = Reiher) and Ahe ( = Bach; brook or waterway). Over the course of the centuries, the spelling changed many times: → "Heigrahe" → "Heigera" → "Heigere" → "Heigerin" → "Heigre" → "Heigeren" → "Hegere" → "Hegera" → "Heygere" → "Heyger" → "Heiger" → "Häger" → "Häyer". Eventually, this became Haiger. The bird in the coat of arms may likewise be a reference to the herons, although it might also be a corruption of what was once the Lion of Nassau (see Coat of arms below).

[edit] Politics

[edit] Coat of arms

Haiger's civic coat of arms was granted in 1908 and confirmed in 1934. The design goes back to a town seal used in the 15th century, although originally the town seal showed the Lion of Nassau (a golden lion) rising from a tower. The lion somehow changed into a jay, possibly as a misinterpretation. The jay nonetheless serves as a canting symbol (Häher is German for jay, and this resembles some older forms of the town's name). A structure has also grown up around the jay replete with spires, crosses, and apparently flying buttresses, too.[1]

[edit] Town partnerships

• Montville, France

This partnership came into being through an initiative by the Johann-Textor-Schule in Haiger which has been conducting school exchanges with the Collège Eugène Noël in Montville for about 20 years. This friendship became official in Montville in 1991 and in Haiger in 1992 with the sealing of a document to this effect, signed by both towns' mayors. Citizens, clubs and groups maintain lively contacts.

• Plombières-lès-Dijon (with Sechshelden)

In 1964, the villages of Plombières-lès-Dijon and Sechshelden – which was then an independent municipality – sealed this partnership whose origins are traceable to the thoughtfulness shown a former French prisoner of war taken in by some families in Sechshelden.

• Wolfsberg, Thuringia

[edit] Culture and sightseeing

[edit] Museums

• Heimatmuseum Haiger (local history)

On the occasion of the celebration of Haiger's 1200th anniversary of first documentary mention, this museum was established in 1978 in one of the loveliest half-timbered houses, built in 1724-1725, on the marketplace.

• Leinenmuseum Haigerseelbach (linen museum)
• Heimatstube Sechshelden

[edit] Buildings

• Stadtkirche Haiger: After the Kirchberg (Church Mountain) in Haiger was used, as it is assumed, for pagan purposes in pre-Christian times, a baptistery was built on the site once Christianity had come. The mighty tower served for defence and refuge. The church was a gift from King Konrad I on 14 April 914 together with the king's court Heigera and the market rights, given the Walpurgis Monastery.

In 1048, the new church building in the Romanesque style was consecrated by Archbishop Eberhard of Trier. More than 400 years later came further remodelling in the Late Gothic style: the flat wooden ceiling was replaced with a stone vault, and side naves and an altar area were built on.

The altar area from 1485 to about 1490 afforded Flemish painters enough room and opportunity to decorate three different fresco bands. They show in the lower band the story of Jesus's woe from His entry into Jerusalem until His Ascension, in the middle band the Twelve Apostles, and in the upper band, under the vault, Jesus as the Judge of Worlds, the Four Evangelists, the Veil of Veronica, and more.

Funds for this artistic decoration came from the last two Knights of Haiger, Hermann and his son Jost.

After the Reformation was introduced in 1578, the frescoes – presumably in 1588 – were whitewashed over. It is curious that this very thing, along with further whitewashings later on, was what preserved the wall paintings so well over the years. The town fire of 1729 also burnt the Haiger Church and would have destroyed the frescoes had they not been painted over.

About 1900, the whitewash in many places began to flake off. In 1902, next to the entrance to the vestry, parts of pictures came to light, and in 1905, the paintings were at last laid bare once again.

The last few weeks of the Second World War hit Haiger hard. One bomb fell beside the church, but luckily did not go off, leaving the frescoes available to interested church visitors even today.

[edit] Regular events

• Altstadtfest (Old Town Festival)
• Lukasmarkt (market; October)
• Pfingstmarkt (Whitsun Market)
• Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market; December)

[edit] Culinary specialities

Worthy of mention are the Neujahrsscheiben ("New Year's Slices"), or Naujohrn in the local dialect, baked traditionally in the constituent community of Allendorf between Christmas and New Year's. As a rule, these are round and made of rye meal, salt, pepper and water, although other kinds of dough may be used. They are baked in a special iron over an open fire. There are also the Fispeln, which unlike the usual Naujohrn are filled with pickled meat.

[edit] Economy and infrastructure

[edit] Established businesses

• Carl Cloos Schweisstechnik GmbH
• Hailo – manufacturing ladders, steam ironing systems, etc.
• Klingspor Schleifsysteme GmbH & Co. KG
• Pracht Spedition und Logistik GmbH
• Rittal GmbH & Co. KG, NL Haiger
• Loh Services GmbH & Co. KG (service and management company of Friedhelm-Loh-Group => Rittal)
• Schenker Deutschland AG, NL Haiger
• Weiss Chemie + Technik GmbH & Co.KG

[edit] Media

[edit] Newspapers

• Haigerer Zeitung
• Haigerer Kurier

[edit] Public institutions

• fire brigade
• German Red Cross rescue station
• town library

[edit] Education

• Budenbergschule (special school)
• primary schools (Haiger, Sechshelden, Langenaubach, Allendorf, Dillbrecht, Roßbachtal)
• Kindergarten, 3 in Haiger and 12 others in outlying centres.
• Johann Textor Schule (Realschule and Gymnasium stream up to level X)

[edit] Sport

• Eintracht Haiger football club
• TV 1885 Haiger

[edit] Reference

This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.

[edit] External links

• Haiger
• www.haigerseelbach.de Haigerseelbach
• Haiger at the Open Directory Project