Riedstadt
Riedstadt, with its municipal area of 73.76 km² is Groß-Gerau district's biggest town by land area. It lies in Hesse, about 12 km southwest of Darmstadt. Riedstadt is shaped not only by its preserved rural structure, but by being near several cities, namely Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden and Mannheim; as its name suggests, it lies in the northeastern section of the Rhine rift. The community practises the structured settlement of environmentally friendly business operations. Local recreation sites near the community include the Kühkopf-Knoblochsaue nature reserve, the Bergstraße, the Odenwald, the Taunus. Riedstadt borders in the north on the community of Trebur and the town of Groß-Gerau, in the east on the towns of Griesheim and Pfungstadt, in the south on the town of Gernsheim and the communities of Biebesheim and Stockstadt am Rhein, in the west on the communities of Ludwigshöhe and Dienheim as well as the town of Oppenheim. Riedstadt consists of the centres Crumstadt, Goddelau and Wolfskehlen.
The community came into being on 1 January 1977 with Hesse's municipal reforms, which merged the independent communities of Goddelau, Erfelden and Leeheim. Erfelden was first mentioned in a donation document from the Lorsch Monastery in 779. In the Thirty Years' War, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden spent two nights at the mayor's house in 1631 while his troops were crossing the Rhine, his building master Matthäus Staud built the Schwedensäule at Erfelden. Goddelau was first mentioned in a donation document when Count Gundram donated his property "in Terminis Gotalohono" to Fulda Abbey. Over the centuries, the village was shaped by its handicraft activities. In 1588 there were 180 inhabitants in Goddelau; the house in which writer and revolutionary Georg Büchner would be born was built in 1665, still stands today. Leeheim was first mentioned in the Lorsch codex in 766 when a man named Dodo made a donation to the Lorsch Monastery. Near the earlier village of Camba, the Salian Conrad II was chosen to be German King in 1024.
Leeheim was shaped by several monastic properties, belonging to, among others, St. Alban's Monastery in Mainz; the overlords were the Wolfskehlers, the Katzenelnbogen family. In 1536, Leeheim became Evangelical, in the Thirty Years' War, more than 70% of the village was destroyed. In 1666 half the inhabitants lost their lives to the Plague. In earlier times, Leeheim developed itself from a farming village into a workers' residential village with recreational lands on the Riedsee, a nearby lake, a golf course. Wolfskehlen is Riedstadt's northernmost constituent community, it was first mentioned in the document Historia Episcopatus Wormatiensis in 1002 in which Emperor Heinrich II granted Bishop Burchard of Worms the rights in the Forest of Forehahi. In 1252, the Lords of Wolfskehlen, who had taken their name from the village, sold Neuwolfskehlen Castle to the Archbishop of Mainz. In 1539, Barbara von Wolfskehlen wed Eberhard von Gemmingen-Hornberg, who introduced the Reformation into Wolfskehlen.
In 1579, the Mainz Palatinate ceded its rights to the Landgraves of Hesse. During the Thirty Years' War, through the Plague the whole population was killed. From 1868 to 1878, the building of the Mannheim–Frankfurt railway brought the dissolution of the village's purely agricultural structure. After the Second World War, the village absorbed about 800 refugees; each time at 31 December 1998 – 20,050 1999 – 20,393 2000 – 20,576 2001 – 20,805 2002 – 20,984 2003 – 21,167 2004 – 21,362 2005 – 21,707 2006 – 21.728 2011 – 21.597 2014 – 22.530 2015 – 23.289 The mayor was since 1993 Gerald Kummer, SPD. He was reelected in 2005. In January 2011, Werner Amend was voted as the new mayor. In November 2016 Marcus Kretschmann was elected, who will come into office in April 2017. Municipal council consists of 37 seats. At the last election on 6th March 2016, the seats were apportioned thus: CDU 11 seats SPD 14 seats Linke 2 seats GLR 4 seats FW 6 seats Riedstadt maintains partnership links with the following places: Brienne-le-Château, since 1979 Sortino, Italy Tauragė, Lithuania Georg Büchner, German writer and revolutionary Peter Reuter, PhD in clinical biochemistry, MD, author of multiple medical dictionaries Guenther Roth, journalist, book author, leading American scholar on Max Weber In August 1984, the remains of an ice age mammal were unearthed at a gravel pit near Crumstadt.
At first thought to be a mammoth, it turned out on further analysis of the teeth, to be a young forest elephant. The bones are now in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. Official website Riedstadt at Curlie
Katzenelnbogen
Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small town in the district of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Katzenelnbogen is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde Katzenelnbogen. Katzenelnbogen originated as a castle built on a promontory over the river Lahn around 1095; the lords of the castle became important local magnates, acquiring during the centuries some key and lucrative customs rights on the Rhine. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen built Burg Neukatzenelnbogen and Burg Rheinfels on the Rhine; the male line of the German family died out in 1479, while the Austrian lineage continued, the county became disputed between Hesse and Nassau. In 1557, the former won, but when Hesse was split due to the testament of Philipp the Magnanimous, Katzenelnbogen was split as well, between Hesse-Darmstadt and the small new secondary principality of Hesse-Rheinfels; when the latter line expired in 1583, its property went to Hesse-Kassel, which added the inherited part of Katzenelnbogen to its side-line principality of Hesse-Rotenburg.
After the Congress of Vienna, this part of Katzenelnbogen was given to Nassau in exchange for property, taken away from it. In 1945, Hesse-Darmstadt was united with most of the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, which included the former Hesse-Kassel along with Nassau and the Free City of Frankfurt, to form the federal state of Hesse. Thus, Hesse now includes the larger part of former county of Katzenelnbogen. A smaller part of Nassau, including the old castle and village bearing the name of Katzenelnbogen, ended up as part of Rhineland-Palatinate. William III of England a Prince of Orange had the title Katzenelnbogen in his reign from 1689-1702 and today one of the titles of the King of the Netherlands is that of Count of Katzenelnbogen. In German, the name Katzenelnbogen translates to'elbow of the cat', arguably a malapropism. Historians speculated that the name derives from Cattimelibocus, a combination of two words: the ancient Germanic tribal name of the Chatti and Melibokus, a generic Roman name for "mountains".
The theory is based on the name Μηλίβοκον used by Ptolemy for a mountain range farther to the east, either the Harz, the Thuringian Forest, or both. Melibokon in a Latinised form would be Melibocus or Melibokus; the fact that the name, in any recognisable form, first appears in medieval documents suggests that it has no older, i.e. Roman, origin. In the history of wine, Katzenelnbogen is famous for the first documentation of Riesling grapes in the world: this was in 1435, when the storage inventory of Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a member of the Holy Roman high nobility, lists the purchase of vines of "Rieslingen". Graf-von-katzenelnbogen.de schloss-katzenelnbogen.de ngw.nl jewishencyclopedia.com
Flörsheim am Main
Flörsheim am Main is a town in the Main-Taunus district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the right bank of the River Main, opposite Rüsselsheim, 12 km east of Mainz and 21 km west of Frankfurt Flörsheim Weilbach Wicker Bad Weilbach Keramag/Falkenberg As of 31 July 2005 Flörsheim has partnerships with: Pyskowice, Poland since 2005 Pérols, France since 1992 Güzelbahçe, Turkey since 2011 Georg Badeck, former Member of Landtag, CDU, died 2004 Dr. Max Schohl, Jewish chemical factory owner and patron. Deniz Yücel and publisher, best known for his works in Die Tageszeitung and Die Welt. Abdelaziz Ahanfouf, former German-Moroccan football player, eight international matches for Morocco. 1949: Georg von Opel, car operator and sportsman 1955: Jakob Altmaier, German politician, MdB, local columnist under the pseudonym "Gänsekippelschorsch" In the fall the Flörsheimer Kerb is celebrated along the Main River. It was created in relation to the Kirchweihfest in the St. Gallus Church in Flörsheim, it is a small fair with a few booths to eat.
Furthermore, there is a weekend-long open-air concert. It is a little festival underneath the Main river's bridge. In 2007 it will be the 32nd festival. There is Flörsheims Carnival parade that goes through Flörsheim on Carnival Sunday, it attracts many thousands of spectators. In 2007 it attracted over 80,000 people; the Fraport subsidiary Fraport Immobilienservice und -entwicklungs GmbH & Co. KG has its head office in Flörsheim am Main. Ball-Sport-Club 1985 Flörsheim e. V. ESV Blaugold Flörsheim e. V.. V. Flörsheimer Carneval Verein 1928 e. V. Flörsheimer Narren Club 1962 Flörsheimer Ruderverein 08 e. V. Flörsheimer Sammlerverein Untermain e. V.. V. Reitsportverein Flörsheim 1927 e. V. Schützengesellschaft 1906 e. V. Flörsheim am Main SV 09 Flörsheim SV Edelweiß 1899 e. V. TV Wicker e. V. Ata Moschee, an Ahmadiyya mosque Official website There is literature about Flörsheim am Main in the Hessian Bibliography Cultural monuments in Flörsheim as a map or list denkxweb.denkmalpflege-hessen.de Flörsheim am Main at Curlie Flörsheimer Zeitung 1906–1932 digital
Kelsterbach
Kelsterbach is a town in Groß-Gerau district in Hessen and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It is located on Frankfurt's southwestern outskirts at a bend on the left bank of the river Main, right where a small brook, called the Kelster joins the river. After the Frankfurt–Mainz railway line was built, this mostly agricultural village was transformed by the great number of large factories that located here, bringing along with them a great upswing in the town's population. In the decades following the Second World War, many businesses that were related to Frankfurt International Airport moved to the town. Kelsterbach is home to 16,565 people; the town is an important centre for logistical service providers and chemical production. In 1952, it acquired the status of "town." The town lies on west of the Frankfurt City Forest. The original village centre known as the Lower Village borders on the bigger housing developments known as the Upper Village, which arose only after the railway and industrialization came early in the 20th century over the 17 m-high Kelsterbach Terrace, which stretches 8 km west from the Frankfurt City Forest.
The town is part of the Greater Frankfurt Region as well as the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region. Kelsterbach borders in the west on the Hattersheim am Main constituent community of Okriftel, in the north on the Frankfurt am Main constituent communities of Sindlingen, Höchst and Schwanheim, in the east and south on the airport lands, in the southwest on the town of Raunheim. Kelsterbach consists of only one constituent community; until a short time ago, Kelsterbach was deemed to be the place where Europe's earliest anatomically modern humans had been found. A Cro-Magnon skull that became known as the "Lady from Kelsterbach", reputedly dated to 32,000 years ago, vanished without a trace amid the scandal over the anthropologist Reiner Protsch, was a fake. From the Middle Stone Age, in the area of the Kelsterbach Terrace, microliths have been found. Whether this shows that there were people living there is unknown. Ceramic finds dated to all epochs of the New Stone Age do not conclusively indicate settlement in the area.
On the other hand, it seems that there were people living in what is now Kelsterbach in the Bronze Age. The first finds of value from this time were made as early as 1937. In 1972, as work was under way to build the Kelsterbacher Spange – a railway connection – at the edge of the Kelsterbach Terrace between Römerschneise and Schwedenschanze, several sets of Bronze Age finds were brought up. All the archaeological analysis considered as a whole has yielded the assumption that there was a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement some 10 to 15 m above the Main. From the early Iron Age, there are various traces of settlement to be found. Earlier finds gave cause to suppose that there had been a Roman settlement in the third century in the Kelsterbach Lowland. In 1970, bits of tile and coins found in the northeast part of the municipal area were enough to prompt extensive digs in 2004 and 2005 by the Goethe University's Institute for Archaeological Sciences. Brought to light in these digs was a building with a fountain, along with many incidental finds.
It has been called Kleinvilla, it is believed to date from 200 to 220 AD. Owing to the town's name, it is believed to have been founded by the Franks as Gelsterbach, it hardly seems that the scanty trickle of a rill that rises in the Frankfurt City Forest and flows through the town now could be Kelsterbach's namesake if in ages gone by its flow was greater. Kelsterbach's first documentary mention, as Gelsterbach, came, as it did for countless other places in Germany, in the Lorsch codex. For many centuries, Kelsterbach belonged to the Dreieich royal hunting woods, whose central authority lay at Hayn Castle; the kingly hunting rights were upheld through the transfer of power to the County of Katzenelnbogen. In 1479, Kelsterbach along with the whole County of Katzenelnbogen passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse, through division of inheritance in 1567, to Hesse-Darmstadt, whose history was shared thereafter by this rather insignificant farming village. Landgrave Ernst-Ludwig planned to use Kelsterbach's advantageous location for transport to expand the village into a town of craftsmen, to which end from 1699 to 1712, the majestically designed Neukelsterbacher Straße was built, lined with two-storey living and working buildings where Calvinist refugees were to be settled.
Manifold problems led to this project's failure. In the mid 18th century, Landgrave Ludwig VIII took over a private faïence factory to make it into a porcelain factory; the Meißen-trained porcelain painter Christian D. Busch was charged with its leadership; the best known porcelain artist working in Kelsterbach was Carl Vogelmann. The factory only lasted a few years. In the Darmstadt governmental region of Groß-Gerau founded in 1821, institutionalized as Groß-Gerau district by 1832, Kelsterbach was a bailiff's headquarters. From that time, Kelsterbach has had a common history with, has always found itself under the same administration as, the Groß-Gerau district; the village took a great step in its development when the railway carriage works was converted into the Vereinigte Kunstseidenfabrik Vereinigte Glanzstoff AG. This factory governed the village's – town's – development for the better part of the next hundred ye
Moselle
The Moselle is a river flowing through France and Germany. It is a left tributary of the Rhine. A small part of Belgium is drained by the Moselle through the Sauer and the Our; the Moselle "twists and turns its way between Trier and Koblenz along one of Germany's most beautiful river valleys." It flows through a region, influenced by mankind since it was first cultivated by the Romans. Today, its hillsides are covered by terraced vineyards where "some of the best Rieslings grow", numerous ruined castles dominate the hilltops above wine villages and towns that line the riverbanks. Traben-Trarbach with its art nouveau architecture and Bernkastel-Kues with its traditional market square are two of the many popular tourist attractions on the Moselle river; the name Moselle is derived from the Celtic name form, via the Latin Mosella, a diminutive form of Mosa, the Latin description of the Meuse, which used to flow parallel to the Moselle. So the Mosella was the "Little Meuse"; the Moselle is first recorded in Book 4 of his Histories.
The Roman poet Ausonius made it a literary theme as early as the 4th century. In his poem dated 371, called Mosella, published in 483 hexameters, this poet of the Late Antiquity and teacher at the Trier Imperial Court described a journey from Bingen over the Hunsrück hills to the Moselle and following its course to Trier on the road named after him, the Via Ausonius. Ausonius describes flourishing and rich landscapes along the river and in the valley of the Moselle, thanks to the policies of their Roman rulers; the river subsequently gave its name to two French republican départements: Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle. The source of the Moselle is at 715 m above sea level on the Col de Bussang on the western slopes of the Ballon d'Alsace in the Vosges. After 544 km it discharges into the Rhine at the Deutsches Eck in Koblenz at a height of 59 m above NHN sea level; the length of the river in France is 314 km, for 39 km it forms the border between Germany and Luxembourg, 208 km is within Germany.
The Moselle flows through west of the Vosges. Further downstream, in Germany, the Moselle valley forms the division between the Eifel and Hunsrück mountain regions; the average flow rate of the Moselle at its mouth is 328 m3/s, making it the second largest tributary of the Rhine by volume after the Aare and bigger than the Main and Neckar. The section of the Moselle from the France–Germany–Luxembourg tripoint near Schengen to its confluence with the Saar near Konz shortly before Trier is in Germany known as the Upper Moselle; the section from Trier to Pünderich is the Middle Moselle, the section between Pünderich and its mouth in Koblenz as the Lower Moselle or Terraced Moselle. Characteristic of the Middle and Lower Moselle are its wide meanders cut into the highlands of the Rhenish Massif, the most striking of, the Cochemer Krampen between Bremm and Cochem. Typical are its vineyard terraces. From the tripoint the Moselle marks the entire Saarland–Luxembourg border; the catchment area of the Moselle is 28,286 km2 in area.
The French part covers about 54 percent of the entire catchment. The German state of Rhineland-Palatinate has 6,980 km2, the Saarland 2,569 km2, Luxembourg 2,521 km2, Wallonia in Belgium 767 km2 and North Rhine-Westphalia, 88 km2; the three largest tributaries of the Moselle are, in order, the Saar and the Sauer. The Meurthe was the old upper course of the Moselle, until the latter captured the former upper reaches of the Meuse and took it over. However, the Meuse only delivered a little more water than the Meurthe at its confluence; the Saar is the biggest of all the tributaries as well as the longest. The Sauer is the largest left-hand tributary and drains the region on either side of the German-Luxembourg border; the largest tributary relative to the Moselle at its confluence is the Moselotte, about 40% greater by volumetric flow and thus represents the main branch of the Moselle system. At its mouth, the Moselle delivers 328 m3/s of water into the Rhine after flowing for 544 km. From the left Madon, Esch, Rupt de Mad, Fensch, Syre, Kyll, Lieser, Endert, Elz.
From the right Moselotte, Meurthe, Saar, Olewiger Bach, Ruwer, Feller Bach, Ahringsbach, Kautenbach, Lützbach, Altlayer Bach, Ehrbach. Towns along the Moselle are: in France: Épinal, Pont-à-Mousson and Thionville in Luxembourg: Schengen, Remich and Wasserbillig in Germany: Konz, Schweich, Bernkastel-Kues, Traben-Trarbach, Zell and Koblenz From Trier downstream the Moselle separates the two Central Upland ranges of the Eifel and the Hunsrück; the Vosges, the present source region of the Moselle, were formed about 50 million years ago. In the Miocene and Pliocene epochs the ancient Moselle was a tributary of the ancient Rhine. When, in the Quaternary period, the Rhenish Massif rose, the meanders of the Moselle were formed between the Trier Valley and the Neuwied Basin; the highest navigable water level is 6.95 m and normal level is 2.00 m at the Trier Gauge. High water: 11.28 m, Trier Gauge on 21 December 1993 10.56
Main (river)
The Main is a river in Germany. With a length of 525 kilometres, it is the longest right tributary of the Rhine, it is the longest river lying in Germany. The largest cities along the Main are Würzburg; the mainspring of the Main River flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse. Its basin competes with the Danube for water; the Main begins near Kulmbach in Franconia at the joining of its two headstreams, the Red Main and the White Main. The Red Main originates in the Franconian Jura mountain range, 50 km in length, runs through Creussen and Bayreuth; the White Main originates in the mountains of the Fichtelgebirge. In its upper and middle section, the Main runs through the valleys of the German Highlands, its lower section crosses the Lower Main Lowlands to Wiesbaden. Major tributaries of the Main are the Regnitz, the Franconian Saale, the Tauber, the Nidda; the name "Main" derives from the Latin Moenus or Menus. It is not related to the name of the city Mainz; the Main is navigable for shipping from its mouth at the Rhine close to Mainz for 396 km to Bamberg.
Since 1992, the Main has been connected to the Danube via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the regulated Altmühl river. The Main has been canalized with 34 large locks to allow CEMT class V vessels to navigate the total length of the river; the 16 locks in the adjacent Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Danube itself are of the same dimensions. There are 34 dams and locks along the 380 km navigable portion of the Main, from the confluence with the Regnitz near Bamberg, to the Rhine. No.: Number of the lock. Name: Name of the lock. Location: City or town where the lock is located. Year built: Year when the lock was put into operation. Main-km: Location on the Main, measured from the 0 km stone in Mainz-Kostheim; the reference point is the center of the lock group. Distance between locks: length in km of impoundment. Altitude: height in meters above mean sea level of the upper water at normal levels. Height: Height of the dam in meters. Lock length: Usable length of the lock chamber in meters. Lock width: Usable width of the lock chamber in meters.
Most of the dams along the Main have turbines for power generation. No.: Number of the dam. Name: Name of the dam. Height: Height of the dam in meters. Power: Maximum power generation capacity in megawatts. Turbines: Type and number of turbines. Operator: Operator of the hydroelectric plant. Tributaries from source to mouth: Around Frankfurt are several large inland ports; because the river is rather narrow on many of the upper reaches, navigation with larger vessels and push convoys requires great skill. The largest cities along the Main are Würzburg; the Main passes the following towns and cities: Burgkunstadt, Bad Staffelstein, Eltmann, Haßfurt, Volkach, Marktbreit, Karlstadt, Gemünden, Marktheidenfeld, Miltenberg, Erlenbach/Main, Seligenstadt, Hanau, Hattersheim, Flörsheim, Rüsselsheim. The river has gained enormous importance as a vital part of European "Corridor VII", the inland waterway link from the North Sea to the Black Sea. In a historical and political sense, the Main line is referred to as the northern border of Southern Germany, with its predominantly Catholic population.
The river marked the southern border of the North German Federation, established in 1867 under Prussian leadership as the predecessor of the German Empire. The river course corresponds with the Speyer line isogloss between Central and Upper German dialects, sometimes mocked as Weißwurstäquator; the Main-Radweg is a major German bicycle path running along the Main River. It is 600 kilometres long and was the first long-distance bicycle path to be awarded 5 stars by the General German Bicycle Club ADFC in 2008, it starts from either Creußen or Bischofsgrün and ends in Mainz. Roman camp at Marktbreit Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte, Main und Meer - Porträt eines Flusses. Exhibition Catalogue to the Bayerische Landesausstellung 2013. WBG. ISBN 978-3-534-00010-4. Main River Website on the River Main by the Tourist Board of Franconia. "Main". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. "Main". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914. There is literature about Main in the Hessian Bibliography Water levels of Bavarian rivers Wasser- und Schifffahrtsdirektion Süd Main Cycleway Historical map of the Main confluence at Steinenhausen from BayernAtlas
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia the State of Hesse, is a federal state of the Federal Republic of Germany, with just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden; as a cultural region, Hesse includes the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The German name Hessen, like the name of other German regions is derived from the dative plural form of the name of the inhabitants or eponymous tribe, the Hessians, short for the older compound name Hessenland; the Old High German form of the name is recorded as Hessun, in Middle Latin as Hassia, Hassonia. The name of the Hessians continues the tribal name of the Chatti; the ancient name Chatti by the 7th century is recorded as Chassi, from the 8th century as Hassi or Hessi. An inhabitant of Hesse is called a "Hessian"; the American English term Hessian for 18th-century British auxiliary troops originates with Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel hiring out regular army units to the government of Great Britain to fight in the American Revolutionary War.
The English form Hesse is in common use by the 18th century, first in the hyphenated names Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, but the latinate form Hessia remains in common English usage well into the 19th century. The German term Hessen is used by the European Commission in English-language contexts because their policy is to leave regional names untranslated; the synthetic element hassium, number 108 on the periodic table, was named after the state of Hesse in 1997, following a proposal of 1992. The territory of Hesse was delineated only as Greater Hesse, under American occupation, it corresponds only loosely to the medieval Landgraviate of Hesse. In the 19th century, prior to the unification of Germany, the territory of what is now Hesse comprised the territories of Grand Duchy of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau, the free city of Frankfurt and the Electorate of Hesse; the Central Hessian region was inhabited in the Upper Paleolithic. Finds of tools in southern Hesse in Rüsselsheim suggest the presence of Pleistocene hunters about 13,000 years ago.
A fossil hominid skull, found in northern Hesse, just outside the village of Rhünda, has been dated at 12,000 years ago. The Züschen tomb is a prehistoric burial monument, located between Lohne and Züschen, near Fritzlar, Germany. Classified as a gallery grave or a Hessian-Westphalian stone cist, it is one of the most important megalithic monuments in Central Europe. Dating to c. 3000 BC, it belongs to the Late Neolithic Wartberg culture. An early Celtic presence in what is now Hesse is indicated by a mid-5th-century BC La Tène-style burial uncovered at Glauberg; the region was settled by the Germanic Chatti tribe around the 1st century BC, the name Hesse is a continuation of that tribal name. The ancient Romans had a military camp in Dorlar, in Waldgirmes directly on the eastern outskirts of Wetzlar was a civil settlement under construction; the provincial government for the occupied territories of the right bank of Germania was planned at this location. The governor of Germania, at least temporarily had resided here.
The settlement appears to have been abandoned by the Romans after the devastating Battle of the Teutoburg Forest failed in the year AD 9. The Chatti were involved in the Revolt of the Batavi in AD 69. Hessia, from the early 7th century on, served as a buffer between areas dominated by the Saxons and the Franks, who brought the area to the south under their control in the early sixth century and occupied Thuringia in 531. Hessia occupies the northwestern part of the modern German state of Hesse, its geographic center is Fritzlar. To the west, it occupies the valleys of the Rivers Lahn, it measured 90 kilometers north-south, 80 north-west. The area around Fritzlar shows evidence of significant pagan belief from the 1st century on. Geismar was a particular focus of such activity. Excavations have produced bronze artifacts. A possible religious cult may have centered on a natural spring in Geismar, called Heilgenbron; the village of Maden, now a part of Gudensberg near Fritzlar and less than ten miles from Geismar, was an ancient religious center.
By the mid-7th century, the Franks had established themselves as overlords, suggested by archeological evidence of burials, they built fortifications in various places, including Christenberg. By 690, they took direct control over Hessia to counteract expansion by the Saxons, who built fortifications in Gaulskopf and Eresburg across the River Diemel, the northern boundary of Hessia; the Büraburg
