Erbach im Odenwald

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Erbach im Odenwald


Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Darmstadt
District	Odenwald District
Population	13,696 (December 31, 2004)
Area	73.43 km²
Population density	223 /km²
Elevation	481 m
Coordinates	49°40′ N 09°00′ E
Postal code	64701–64711 (alt: 6120)
Area code	06062
Licence plate code	ERB
Mayor	Harald Buschmann (CDU)
Website	www.erbach.de

Erbach im Odenwald is a town in Hesse, Germany. It is the capital of Odenwald District and has a population of ca. 14,000.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Politics
4 Economy and infrastructure
5 Personalities
6 External link

[edit] History

Erbach is the former seat of the Counts of Erbach-Erbach. The Counts of Erbach ruled parts of the Odenwald from their castles until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806; family members still reside in Erbach and Michelstadt.

Erbach castle

[edit] Geography

[edit] Geographic position

Erbach has an elevation of 200 to 560 Meter in the Odenwald in the valley of the Mümling stream.

[edit] Neighboring localities

Erbach borders Michelstadt to the north, the market community Kirchzell (Miltenberg District in Bavaria) to the east, the community Hesseneck and the town Beerfelden in the south, and the community Mossautal in the west.

[edit] Town divisions

Erbach is divided into 12 parts (year of incorporation in parentheses):

Bullau (1972)
Dorf-Erbach (1972)
Ebersberg (1972)
Elsbach (1972)
Erbach (Odenwald) (to which belonged a settlement completely surrounded by the village of Erbach)
Erbuch
Erlenbach(1972)
Ernsbach-Erbuch (1972)
Günterfürst (1972)
Haisterbach (1972)
Lauerbach (1972)
Rossbach
Schönnen (1972 per Amtsverfügung)

[edit] Politics

[edit] Town representatives

The election of 18 March 2001 gave the following division of electoral seats:

CDU	14 seats
SPD	13 seats
ÜWG	7 seats
the Greens	3 seats

[edit] Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Erbach depicts a blue stream flowing on a red background from upper left to lower right. Three red stars representing the counts of Erbach (until 1806 regents of the Odenwald) are placed within the stream.

[edit] Twin cities

Erbach is twinned with:

Ansião in Portugal
Jičín in the Czech Republic
Königsee in Thuringia, Germany
Pont-de-Beauvoisin (Isère and Savoie), France

[edit] Economy and infrastructure

Francis I, the last ruling Count of Erbach (1754-1823), sponsored the carving of ivory, giving the town the sobriquet Elfenbeinstadt, or "Ivory Town". Many artisans worked in Erbach; their works and activities are on display in the town's Ivory Museum opened in 1966. Especially popular as working material was elephant and mammoth ivory. Because the ivory trade was banned in 1989, horns from similar animals are used in the town instead.

[edit] Traffic

Erbach is located on the roads Bundesstraße 45 and Bundesstraße 47 and the Odenwald Rail line (Frankfurt - Hanau - / Darmstadt - Erbach - Eberbach).

[edit] Local companies

Bosch Rexroth AG, Werk Erbach, Geschäftsbereich Electric Drives and Controls
Rowenta, Werk Erbach (production of irons)
Koziol GmbH (plastic optical fibre producer)

[edit] Education

Schule am Treppenweg (Grundschule)
Astrid-Lindgren-Schule (Grundschule)
Schule am Sportpark (Hauptschule and Realschule with orientation grades)
Schule am Drachenfeld (school for practical skills with a department for the physically disabled)

[edit] Personalities

Timo Boll, German table tennis player
Heinrich List, a farmer from Erbach. He concealed a Jew named Strauß from Michelstadt from the Nazis, but List was denounced, imprisoned, and murdered in a concentration camp in 1942.
Oka Nikolov, goalkeeper for Eintracht Frankfurt