Babenhausen, Hesse

Babenhausen (German pronunciation: [baːbn̩ˈhaʊzn̩]) is a town in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, in Hesse, Germany.

Babenhausen
Witch's tower
Coat of arms
Location of Babenhausen within Darmstadt-Dieburg district
Babenhausen Babenhausen
Coordinates: 49°58′0″N 8°57′0″E
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Darmstadt
District	Darmstadt-Dieburg
Subdivisions	6
Government
• Mayor	Achim Knoke (SPD)
Area
• Total	66.87 km^2 (25.82 sq mi)
Elevation	127 m (417 ft)
Population  (2019-12-31)[1]
• Total	16,940
• Density	250/km^2 (660/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	64832
Dialling codes	06073
Vehicle registration	DA or DI
Website	www.babenhausen.de

Geography

It is situated on the river Gersprenz, 25 km southeast of Frankfurt, and 14 km west of Aschaffenburg. South of its general borders, the mountain range of the Odenwald is situated about 15 km away. The landscape is rather flat due to the landscape forming process of the Gersprenz and other small rivers. Some sections along the Gersprenz are set aside as nature reserves with valuable plants and animals, e.g. the white stork or the kingfisher. The forests in the municipal area are mostly pine woods on ice-age dunes with heath fields. The sandy soil is regionally famous for growing white asparagus.

History

The town of Babenhausen includes a medieval core with a castle (12-13th century), numerous old houses and a large part of the city wall (1445). Babenhausen was chartered as a town in 1295. It belonged first to the Lords of Hanau-Münzenberg and was – after the last male descendant of this family died - inherited by the Lords of Hanau in the 13th century. In 1458 a minor line of them (first called Hanau-Babenhausen, later called Hanau-Lichtenberg) founded a county (they had received the title of Graf (Count) in 1429) on its own within the town and its district. In 1736 the last of the family died and the two potential inheritors, the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt and of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) nearly went to war over it. It took 35 years to settle the conflict and to arrange a compromise under which the town of Babenhausen came to Hesse-Kassel. But this was soon revised by the territorial rearrangements during and after Napoleonic times: From the beginning 19th century Babenhausen belonged to Hesse-Darmstadt. In the aftermath of World War II Babenhausen was the site of a UNRRA-sponsored DP camp.[2]

Church and market place

Population development

Number of inhabitants:

• 1786: 1,033
• 1800: 1,192
• 1861: 2,072
• 1890: 2,484
• 1900: 2,255
• 1939: 3,143
• 1948: 3,702
• 1970: 7,240
• 2012: 15,588
• 2014: 15,716

Politics

After the revision of districts and their borders in the state of Hesse in 1974 the following villages were added to the area of the town of Babenhausen.

1. Harreshausen, a small village just one km away from Babenhausen. It has its own castle. At its edge, the "Schöne Eiche" ("beautiful oak"), the mother tree of all pyramidal oaks grafted from it, a variant of the pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), appeared as a mutation about 1600.
2. Hergershausen, elected as the third most beautiful village in Hesse.
3. Harpertshausen
4. Sickenhofen
5. Langstadt

The US military installation in Babenhausen, Babenhausen Kaserne, formerly home of the 41st Field Artillery Brigade and two Patriot Missile units (D and E Batteries) of the 5th Battalion 7th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, was closed and returned to the control of the German government in 2007. In the early '60s, it was the home of the 1st Missile Battalion 38th Artillery (Corporal) and its supporting Ordnance Detachment, the 157th Ord Det.[3]

US Army Babenhausen Kaserne Gate 2013

Mayor

Achim Knoke (SPD) was elected mayor in September 2014 with 53.9% of the votes.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Wilhelm Grünewald (1859-1925), German politician (Progressive People's Party, DDP) member of Landtag (Hesse), member of the Weimar National Assembly
• Oskar Hock (1898-1976), German physician, NSDAP functionary, SS Brigade commander and major general of the Waffen SS
• Heinrich Klein (1932-1989) Gross-Umstadt), was from 1970 to 1976 District Administrator of the Dieburg district and 1976-1989 member of the Bundestag
• Johann Adam Oest (born 1946), German actor
• Heinrich Leonhard Kolb (born 1956), politician ( FDP), Member of the Bundestag 1990-2013

References

1. "Bevölkerungsstand am 31.12.2019". Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt (in German). July 2020.
2. Photo No. 56521, Archives of the Ghetto Fighters' House
3. I was there.