It was granted town rights in 1225, and until 1974 was a district seat.
The University of Kassel maintains a satellite campus in Witzenhausen, which offers an ecological agricultural sciences programme, putting Witzenhausen among Germany's smallest university towns. There is also a teaching institute (DEULA) for environment and technology, agriculture, horticulture and landscaping. The town is nationally known for the invention of the Biotonne biological refuse container, and is an important cherry-growing area, with a yearly Kesperkirmes or “Cherry Fair” (Kesper is a regional name for the cherry), at which a Cherry Queen (Kirschenkönigin) is chosen.
Geography
Location
Witzenhausen lies on the northeast slope of the Kaufunger Wald, which is surrounded by the Meißner-Kaufunger Wald Nature Park. The town is found at the mouth of the Gelster, where it empties into the Werra some 30 km east of Kassel, 16 km east-southeast of Hann. Münden, 25 km south of Göttingen and 23 km northwest of Eschwege.
HundelshausenChurch in ZiegenhagenWitzenhausen Town hallWitzenhausen – extract from the Topographia Hassiae by Matthäus Merian 1655Castle Berlepsch near Witzenhausen
In 1898, the Deutsche Kolonialschule für Landwirtschaft, Handel und Gewerbe (“German Colonial School for Agriculture, Trade and Industry”, also called the Tropenschule, or “Tropical School”) was founded to train people in agriculture for resettlement in Germany's colonies. The successor institution forms today a satellite campus of the University of Kassel, and includes a greenhouse complex dedicated to tropical crops (the Gewächshaus für tropische Nutzpflanzen).
Main sights
Buildings
Historic town centre with various important timber-frame houses:
Grau’sches Haus
Rotes Haus
Steinernes Haus
Sommermann’sches Haus
Meinhard-Wedekind’sches Haus
Persch’sches Haus
Liebfrauenkirche (church)
Historic Town Hall
Erlöserkirche (church)
Diebesturm (“Thief’s Tower”), Eulenturm (“Owls’ Tower”) and parts of the old town wall
Witzenhäuser Woche, partly in conjunction with German Queens’ Day (Deutscher Königinnentag), every 3 years (in 2007 more than 200 guest queens, princesses and kings).
Kesperkirmes, the “cherry fair” in the Old Town with election of the Cherry Queen and German cherry pip spitting championship.
Cherry Man (Triathlon)
Erntedank- und Heimatfest (“Harvest and Homeland Festival “), 20–25 August 2008, this year with Jürgen Drews as the star guest on Sunday in the festival tent at Joseph Pott Platz
In 2006 Witzenhausen was the starting point for the third stage of the Deutschland Tour
Christmas market
Economy and infrastructure
Witzenhausen suffers – like the whole Werra-Meißner-Kreis and a great part of North Hesse – from extremely high unemployment and its attendant loss of younger people to migration.
In Witzenhausen-Unterrieden, the last producer of chewing tobacco in Germany is still in business. An important employer in Witzenhausen is, with 430 employees all together, the corporation Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget (SCA). In Witzenhausen the SCA produces raw paper for corrugated cardboard for manufacturing packagings (SCA Packaging Containerboard) and hygiene products such as toilet paper (SCA Hygiene Products). Another important employer is the district and town hospital in Witzenhausen.
Witzenhausen has a railway station, Witzenhausen Nord, on the Eichenberg–Kassel section of the Halle-Kassel Railway. It is located above the town on the north slope of the Werra valley and is served by trains to Kassel, Göttingen, Erfurt and Halle. The former Witzenhausen Süd station stood southeast of the inner town and has been closed, like the whole of the Gelster Valley Railway between Eichenberg and –Großalmerode.
The outlying centre of Gertenbach has a further stop on the Halle-Kassel railway
Since 1979, Filton, St. Vallier and Witzenhausen have had a three-way partnership.
Between Witzenhausen and Filton, and between Witzenhausen and St. Vallier, there are regular student exchanges with the local comprehensive school. The partnership between Witzenhausen and St. Vallier came about by accident. St. Vallier's mayor's last name at the time was Witzenhausen, and when, on a visit to Germany, he spotted this name on a road sign, he drove to the town. Out of his visit sprang the partnership, which has lasted to this day.
Furthermore, there have been school exchanges between Witzenhausen and these two places since 2002:
100 Mile House, Canada (between the comprehensive school and the secondary school there)
