Felsberg, Germany

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Felsberg


Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Kassel
District	Schwalm-Eder-Kreis
Population	11,237 (31/12/2004)
Area	83.27 km²
Population density	135 /km²
Elevation	162 m
Coordinates	51°8′ N 9°25′ E
Postal code	34587
Area code	05662
Licence plate code	HR
Mayor	Klaus Stiegel (SPD)
Website	Stadt Felsberg

Felsberg is a town in the Schwalm-Eder district about 20 km south of Kassel.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Constituent communities
2 History
3 Politics
- 3.1 Coat of arms
- 3.2 Town partnerships
4 Personalities
5 Reference
6 External links

[edit] Geography

The landscape around Felsberg is marked by hills and small lakes, as well as the remains of gravel quarrying. As part of the West Hesse Basin, it lies in a sunken area formed by volcanic activity in the Tertiary subera. The change from partly basaltic hills to smooth river valleys is striking. While the river valleys are covered in fluvial sediments, higher up can be found fertile loess beds. The river Eder flows through Felsberg's municipal area. Near Gensungen lies the Heiligenberg ("Saint's Mountain") with the ruins of Heiligenberg Castle.

[edit] Constituent communities

The town consists of 15 communities: Altenbrunslar, Altenburg, Beuern, Böddiger, Gensungen, Helmshausen, Hesserode, Heßlar, Hilgershausen, Lohre, Melgershausen, Neuenbrunslar, Niedervorschütz, Rhünda and Wolfershausen together with the historic Felsberg, to which the other, formerly independent communities were amalgamated on 1 January 1974.

[edit] History

The Felsburg above Felsberg, with its soaring white tower

That there were settlers in the Felsberg region as long ago as the last ice age is witnessed by the find of the 12,000-year-old so-called Rhünda Skull. In the first century, the Felsberg area was inhabited by the Chatti, a Germanic people. The only mention of the area from this time is a report about one of Germanicus's campaigns, when in the year 15 he destroyed Mattium (nowadays Maden), the Chatti's capital.

In the 8th century, the Felsberg region was part of the Frankish Empire, and this is when the town had its first documentary mention. It was also in this time that Christian missionary work was being done in the area by Saint Boniface, who in 723 felled Thor's Oak near Fritzlar, about 15 km west of Felsberg, thereby starting the Christianization of the peoples of northern Germany.

Within the town's municipal area lie the ruins of three castles, the Felsburg, the Altenburg in the constituent community of the same name, and the Burg Heiligenberg above the constituent community of Gensungen on the river Eder's opposite bank. The town is thus sometimes known as the Drei-Burgen-Stadt ("Three-Castle-Town"). The castles were built for their strategic location in the Middle Ages between the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Landgraviate of Thuringia or Hesse. The Heiligenburg belonged to Mainz. Both the Felsburg and the Altenburg 2 km away are distinguished by their "butter churn" towers. The Salzstraße ("Salt Road") ran through Felsberg from the river Werra, where the salt was mined, to the Rhineland.

In 1090, Felsberg was mentioned in a Mainz document under the name Velisberc, and again under the same name in 1209 in a goods directory from the Petrus Estate in Fritzlar. Felsberg's first documentary mention as a town came in 1286. The historic town core was once surrounded by an 830-m-long town wall, only parts of which are preserved today

In 1526, Felsberg became Evangelical under Philip the Magnanimous after a resolution by the Homberg Synod.

The Thirty Years' War brought widespread destruction to Felsberg.

In the Second World War, Felsberg was heavily damaged by aerial bombardment and the destruction of the Edertal Dam.

[edit] Politics

The town council has 37 members. The distribution of seats after the last municipal election on 26 March 2006 is as follows:

SPD	: 20 seats
CDU	: 9 seats
Greens	: 2 seats
FDP	: 2 seats
FWG (citizens' coalition)	: 2 seats
DFB	: 2 seats

The town executive (Magistrat) consists of 14 councillors and the mayor. Of those, 8 seats are held by the SPD, 3 by the CDU and one seat each by the Greens, the FDP and the FWG.

The mayor, Klaus Stiegel (SPD) was elected on 28 October 2001 with an 85.2% share of the vote.

[edit] Coat of arms

The town's civic coat of arms has been known since 1570, when it was displayed at the Schloss Rotenburg (a stately home in Rotenburg an der Fulda, built by Landgrave Ludwig II in 1540). It was also published in the Hessisches Wappenbuch ("Hessian Arms Book") by Wilhelm Wessel in 1633.

Heraldically, the arms might be described thus: Party per pale gules and argent, thereover a bend sinister vert, therein three trefoils argent.