Weilmünster

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Weilmünster


Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Gießen
District	Limburg-Weilburg
Population	9,508 source (12/2004)
Area	57,45 km²
Population density	123 /km²
Elevation	193 m
Coordinates	50°26′ N 8°22′ E
Postal code	35789
Area code	06472
Licence plate code	LM
Mayor	Manfred Heep
Website	www.weilmuenster.de

Weilmünster is a municipal in the district Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.

1 Geography
2 History

[edit] Geography

[edit] Geographic location

The market town Weilmünster is situated on the north leaning of the Taunus in the valley of the Weil, a confluence of the Lahn. Bigger towns and cities close by are Wetzlar (12.5 miles) in the northeast, Limburg (15.5 miles) in the west and Frankfurt (31 miles) in the southeast.

[edit] Neighbour municipalities and districts

Weilmünster borders in the north with Weilburg (district Limburg-Weilburg) and Braunfels, in the east with Waldsolms (both Lahn-Dill-Kreis), in the south with Grävenwiesbach, Weilrod (both Hochtaunuskreis) and Selters, as well as Villmar and Weinbach in the west (all three in the district Limburg-Weilburg).

[edit] Structure of the town

Weilmünster has twelve districts: Audenschmiede, Aulenhausen, Dietenhausen, Ernsthausen, Essershausen, Laimbach, Langenbach, Laubuseschbach, Lützendorf, Möttau, Rohnstadt and Wolfenhausen. About 150 years ago, Heinzenberg also belonged to Weilmünster, but today it is part of Grävenwiesbach.

[edit] History

[edit] Brief History of Weilmünster

Weilmünster first mentioned in 1217 as "Wilmunstre", already was a rather big village with own church at this time. There are clues, that the cloister in Fulda let this church erect in the 9th century. Today's church had been build at the begin of the 16th century, its square peel around 1300. Weilmünster belonged to Nassau, after the distribution of the estates in 1806 to Nassau-Weilburg. After 1866, it was part of the Prussian province Hesse-Nassau.

Industrialisation began early, at the end of the 16th Century, an Ironworks with blast furnace. As a consequence, foundries and other metal-working businesses were founded. Yet, this industrial development was only of short while. Outlying Weilmünster fell behind, when the streets in the Lahn valley where expanded and the Lahn canalised. The construction of the Weilstraße in 1860 was too late. As was the railroad connection, which was completed in 1908.

The Sanatorium for mental disorders (Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt Weilmünster) was founded in 1897. During the Nazi era mentally disabled were coercive sterilised and killed by systematically malnutrition or overdosed drugs. Between 1937 and 1945, more than 6,000 people died. Amongst these were all Jewish patients.

Preliminary proceedings against personnel of the sanatorium, accusing them of involvement in the euthanasia programme were stopped in 1953.

[edit] Coat of arms

"In silver a red church with two blue roofed steeples in side view, in a right-side blue with golden clapboards sprinkled upper corner a red-embattled golden Lion." The coat of arms in today's version had been awarded on the 1. July 1935 by the chief president of the province Hesse-Nassau und was approved by the Hessian Home Office on the 30. Sept. 1983. At the same time, with a separate certificate, the municipal Weilmünster was granted to call itself "market town".

The church in the coat of arms is an emulation of the protestant church in Weilmünster. The golden lion with the seven clapboards was the coat of arms of the former duchy Nassau. Verifiable, today's coat of arms was introduced as an official seal shortly after the Thirty Years' War.