Stadtallendorf is a town in the district of Marburg-Biedenkopf, Hesse, Germany. It lies about 18 km (11 miles) east of Marburg. In 2010, the town hosted the 50th Hessentag state festival.
Geography
Location
Under the German system of Naturräume, Stadtallendorf lies in the West Hesse Depression zone (westhessische Senkenzone) which is divided into basins and ridges. With respect to these, the town lies on the Upper Hesse Ridge which separates the Amöneburg Basin in the west from the Schwalmbecken (another basin) in the east. On this ridge may also be found the Neustadt Saddle, abutted by the town's northeast edge. This upland is part of the divide between the Rhine and Weserwatersheds.
Erksdorf – This village of 1,000 inhabitants was amalgamated in the 1970s; the name comes from a long-ago settler named Eric von Erkersdorp.
Hatzbach
Wolferode
History
Memorial of the camp „KZ-Außenlager Münchmühle“
Stadtallendorf was given city rights in 1960; it had been known until then simply as Allendorf.
During World War II, Stadtallendorf was a secret munitions centre. The armament firms WASAG (Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff Actien-Gesellschaft, "Westphalian & Anhaltish Explosives A.G.") and DAG produced munitions and explosives in two separate large facilities located in the woods nearby. At the time, it was one of the largest of all munitions production centres in Europe. The Munition centre continued throughout the war without being detected by the Allies.[3] Labor was provided by both German and foreign forced laborers, including prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates, housed in about a dozen camps in the surrounding area.
The 6 square kilometre premises where the wartime arms works were built were said to be one of Germany's biggest contaminated former industrial sites, in parts with high concentrations of chemical contaminants on residential properties. Since 1991, the premises have undergone a far-reaching cleanup; in March 2006, the job was officially declared done. According to information from the Hesse Environment Ministry, the cleanup cost € 167 million. 154 tonnes of contaminants were dug out of the ground, 697 tonnes were dug out of a dump, and 3 tonnes of TNT – still capable of exploding – were unearthed.
Stadtallendorf's civic coat of arms might be described thus: In azure, dexter a bear rampant sinister Or armed gules and langued Or, sinister a lion rampant striped per fess nine times in gules and argent (the Lion of Hesse), langued gules and armed Or, both holding a six-spoked wheel argent (the Wheel of Mainz).
The Hessian lion and the Wheel of Mainz stand for the town's old allegiances. Until secularization, Stadtallendorf belonged to the Archbishopric of Mainz, and thereafter to Hesse. The bear is a reference to an old name for the town, Allendorf im Bärenschießen, once used to distinguish the town from other places called Allendorf, and now needless thanks to the town's newer name. The arms have been kept even as other communities have been amalgamated with the old Allendorf as part of Hesse's municipal reforms.
Town partnerships
Stadtallendorf maintains partnerships with the following towns:
The town is economically successful, as large factories such as Ferrero oHG mbH (confectionery), Fritz Winter GmbH & Co. KG (engine foundry), Hoppe AG (lock manufacturing), and others have chosen to build here. The town's transport connections are by road to the Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 454 and B 62, and by rail to the railway station on the Main-Weser line. An extension to Bundesautobahn 49 is currently being discussed, but there have been ecological questions about the wisdom of such an undertaking: the Herrenwald (masters' woods) is home to the Great Crested Newt, which is on the list of protected species.
In an area of 78.3 km² live approx. 21,600 inhabitants, 16,900 of those in the main centre, whose population is about 25% foreign.
Population
(in each case as of 31 December)
1998 – 21,587
1999 – 21,643
2000 – 21,656
2001 – 21,671
2002 – 21,704
2003 – 21,708
2004 – 21,528
2006 – 21,540
2009 – 21,146
Pictures of Stadtallendorf and its outlying centres
^This, however, contradicts the statement by former French political prisoner and Nazi slave labourer Agnes Humbert in her book Resistance (Dutch version, p. 239, footnote:"After my liberation, I heard that the camp of Allendorf was totally evacuated and destroyed by air-bombardments. A former female guard whom I interrogated, assured me that there were no gas-chambers nor ovens there, but she admitted that the (nazi-)administration was horrible in all respects." note by drs. Carles Wolterman, Amstelveen, the Netherlands)
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