Montabaur

Montabaur

Coat of arms
Montabaur

Coordinates: 50°26′15″N 7°49′33″E / 50.43750°N 7.82583°E / 50.43750; 7.82583Coordinates: 50°26′15″N 7°49′33″E / 50.43750°N 7.82583°E / 50.43750; 7.82583
Country Germany
State Rhineland-Palatinate
District Westerwaldkreis
Municipal assoc. Montabaur
Government
 • Mayor Klaus Mies (CDU)
Area
 • Total 33.61 km2 (12.98 sq mi)
Population (2013-12-31)[1]
 • Total 12,571
 • Density 370/km2 (970/sq mi)
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes 56410
Dialling codes 02602
Vehicle registration WW
Website www.montabaur.de
Schloss Montabaur

Montabaur (German pronunciation: [ˈmɔntabaʊɐ]) is a town and the district seat of the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. At the same time, it is also the administrative centre of the Verbandsgemeinde of Montabaur – a kind of collective municipality – to which 24 other communities belong. The town is known throughout the country for its strikingly yellow castle and its InterCityExpress railway station on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.

Geography

Location

Montabaur lies in the Westerwald, roughly 20 km northeast of Koblenz. About 13,000 people live in the city, while the district is home to about 40,000.

Constituent communities

Montabaur has seven outlying centres. In the north lies Eschelbach, and in the west lie Horressen and Elgendorf. Stretching south along the Gelbach valley are the pilgrimage centre of Wirzenborn, and, farther along still, Reckenthal, Bladernheim and Ettersdorf.

Neighbouring communities

Montabaur’s neighbours are, clockwise beginning in the north, Dernbach, Staudt, Heiligenroth, Großholbach, Girod, Steinefrenz, Heilberscheid, Isselbach, Stahlhofen, Untershausen, Holler, Niederelbert, Arzbach, Kadenbach, Neuhäusel, Nomborn and Hillscheid.

Town’s character

Montabaur’s Old Town (Altstadt) distinguishes itself with its Gothic Revival Roter Löwe (“Red Lion”) town hall, many timber-frame houses from the 16th and 17th centuries and the great Late Gothic Catholic parish church. The mediaeval town wall is preserved in parts, among them the so-called Wolfsturm (“Wolf’s Tower”).

The Montabaur Stadthalle (literally “town hall”, but actually an event venue) is intended for various functions such as sessions, conferences, concerts, theatre and events. The historic Wolfsturm is at the townsfolk’s disposal and can be hired for their own ends.

Castle

Schloss Montabaur was until 1945 the seat of the district administrator’s office of the old Unterwesterwaldkreis, and then seat of the Montabaur regional government. Today it is owned by the Akademie Deutscher Genossenschaften (“Academy of German Co-operatives”), which has expanded it for use as a 4-star conference hotel and schooling centre for the Raiffeisenbanken and credit unions. It stands well in sight on the Schlossberg (321 m above sea level).

History

Montabaur in 1918

The town has a history that can be traced back to the year 959, with the Montabaur fort castellum Humbacense. The Archbishop-Elector of Trier, Dietrich von Wied, who came back from a Crusade in the Holy Land about 1217, had the humbacense castle newly built and named it Mons Tabor for its similarity to Mount Tabor in Israel, said to be the place of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Out of this grew Montabaur. In 1291, King Rudolf von Habsburg (1218–1291) granted Montabaur, as well as Welschbillig, Mayen, Bernkastel and Saarburg, town rights, so that the village became a town with its own coat of arms and a town wall.

In 1802 with the dissolution of the Archbishopric-Electorate of Trier the princes of Nassau took power in Montabaur and annexed it to the Duchy of Nassau in 1806. With Prussia annexing Nassau in 1866 Montabaur became part of the Wiesbaden Region within the Province of Hesse-Nassau. In 1945 the western Allies partitioned the northwestern part of the Wiesbaden Region with Montabaur and annexed it to the new German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The partitioned part of the Wiesbaden Region then formed the Montabaur Region (as of 1946) seated in Montabaur. In 1968 the Montabaur Region, one of the originally five Regierungsbezirke of Rhineland-Palatinate, was dissolved and its territory annexed to the adjacent Koblenz Region.

Until early 2004, Montabaur was furthermore a Bundeswehr station with the Westerwaldkaserne, where the Raketenartilleriebataillon 350 (RakArtBtl 350) and, later, maintenance units were stationed.

Politics

Town council

The council is composed as follows:

Economy and infrastructure

Economy

United Internet is headquartered in Montabaur.[2]

Montabaur station

Transport

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

Gothic Revival Town Hall
Chancel at the Catholic Church of Saint Peter in Ketten
Schloss Montabaur seen from the south foot of Mons Tabor

Churches

The earliest forerunner of the building nowadays used as a Catholic parish church was a wooden church built in 940. In 959 followed another church building on this spot, this time with a stone foundation. Today’s church was built between the 12th and 14th centuries. The oldest parts of the building display Romanesque style elements, although the church’s overall character is Early Gothic. Peculiarities in the décor are a Doomsday painting above the quire arch and a stone Madonna, both remnants of the original décor, as well as a wooden Madonna from about 1450. The parish church has been lavishly renovated and now shines with a new radiance.
The churchyard’s former funerary chapel was built in 1300 and given timber-frame work on the sides and top in the 17th and 18th centuries, which housed the parish vicars’ dwellings. Today it is part of the house façade southeast of the parish church.

Cultural institutions

Leisure

Ais organizations

Sport clubs

Events

Education

Schools

Big municipal primary school of Montabaur (in 2006, 370 pupils, 16 classes) with a preschool kindergarten class, voluntary all-day school Monday-Thursday until 16:00 including lunch, homework supervision, supervised free time and many further educational offerings. Integrated foreign-language work in English and French. Partner school: École Louis Pasteur in Tonnerre, Burgundy.
The Peter-Altmeier-Gymnasium Montabaur was until 1999 an Aufbaugymnasium (a Gymnasium for former Realschule students who want to upgrade their secondary education with an Abitur). As of 1991, the first music students came into the fifth class; these first music students did their Abitur in 2000.

Adult education

Town partnerships

Montabaur maintains partnership arrangements with the following towns:

Furthermore, the Verbandsgemeinde of Montabaur has a partnership with an American town:

Notable residents

Sons and daughters of the town

People connected with Montabaur

References

  1. ↑ "Gemeinden in Deutschland mit Bevölkerung am 31. Dezember 2013". Statistisches Bundesamt (in German). 2014.
  2. ↑ "Contact." United Internet. Retrieved on 7 May 2009.
  3. ↑ "Mons-Tabor-Gymnasium Montabaur - Home". mtg-mt.de.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Montabaur.
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