Holzkirchen
Municipality
Old and new town halls
Coat of arms
Location of Holzkirchen within Miesbach district
Holzkirchen Show map of Germany Holzkirchen Show map of Bavaria
Coordinates: 47°53′N 11°42′E / 47.883°N 11.700°E / 47.883; 11.700
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Oberbayern
District	Miesbach
Subdivisions	35 Ortsteile
Government
• Mayor (2020–26)	Christoph Schmid[1] (CSU)
Area
• Total	48.33 km2 (18.66 sq mi)
Elevation	691 m (2,267 ft)
Population  (2022-12-31)[2]
• Total	16,722
• Density	350/km2 (900/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	83607
Dialling codes	08024
Vehicle registration	MB
Website	www.holzkirchen.de

Holzkirchen is a market town in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of over 16,000 (2008) it is the largest town in the Miesbach district.

Holzkirchen is located on the Alpenvorland in the county of Miesbach.

History

Holzkirchen was established as a Markt in the 13th century.

Holzkirchen was the location of one of the main transmitting stations for Radio Free Europe. Transmissions started in 1951 and provided the people of Eastern Europe with news from Western Europe. The transmitters had a strength of up to 135 Kilowatts and was upgraded to 150 Kilowatts in 1967. The relay transmitters were decommissioned in 1990. Final decommissioning of the Holzkirchen array was in 2004.^[3] There were claims that the high-powered transmissions caused illnesses locally^{[citation needed]}. There were also claims that it was so strong that locals could hear the radio programmes through their faucets^{[citation needed]}. Subsequent to the relocation of RFE studios from Munich to Prague, the medium wave transmitter was shut down in 2001, following which the short wave transmissions continued on reduced power. The final transmissions were made in 2005, after which the transmission equipment was packed up to be sent to the Philippines and the masts were scrapped.

Nowadays Holzkirchen is well known as a location for pharmaceutical research and production. The European center of Sandoz and HEXAL are located in the industrial zone.

Public transport

Trains

The traffic hub Holzkirchen has with the railway line Munich–Holzkirchen and the railway line Munich East–Deisenhofen a good connection to Munich (including an S-Bahn connection (S3), which departs every 20 minutes). The Railway Line Holzkirchen–Lenggries (German) and the connection towards Schliersee are operated once an hour by the Bayerischen Oberlandbahn (BOB) and give direct connections to Tegernsee, Lenggries und Bayrischzell. On the railway line called Mangfallbahn to Rosenheim, services have been operated once an hour since December 2013 by the company called 'Meridian', which is a subsidiary of Transdev Germany (before Meridian, the railway line was operated by the DB Regio AG) via Bad Aibling. Mondays to Fridays Meridian operates nine services, which connect Rosenheim and Munich Central Station via Holzkirchen.

S-Bahn Mammendorf – Malching – Maisach – Gernlinden – Esting – Olching – Gröbenzell – Lochhausen – Langwied – Pasing – Laim – Hirschgarten – Donnersbergerbrücke – Hackerbrücke – Munich Central Station – Karlsplatz (Stachus) – Marienplatz – Isartor – Rosenheimer Platz – Munich East – St.-Martin-Straße – Giesing – Fasangarten – Fasanenpark – Unterhaching – Taufkirchen – Furth – Deisenhofen – Sauerlach – Otterfing – Holzkirchen Every 20 Minutes

Buses

The following routes of the Oberbayernbus and the MVV Buses stop at the station or at the Zentraler Omnibus-Bahnhof (ZOB).