Германияның Хомберг қаласы: тарихы мен географиясы

Homberg is a small town in the northern part of Hesse, a state in central Germany, with about 15,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Schwalm Eder district. In 2008, the town hosted the 48th Hessentag state festival.

Homberg lies in the transitional zone between the West Hesse Depression, a sunken area dating from the Tertiary sub era, and the Knüll (or Knüllgebirge), a low mountain range. The town itself stretches over several hills underlain mainly with basalt. The river Efze flows from the Knüll through Homberg, later emptying into the river Schwalm. There exist small coal deposits in the immediate area.

Homberg was founded by the Hessian Thuringian Landgraves and had its first documentary mention as a town in 1231. The place had indeed been settled earlier, but Homberg still celebrated its 775th anniversary as a town in 2006. The town's name comes from the Hohenburg, the castle above Homberg. The castle well, at 150 m deep is Germany's third deepest castle well. In 1526, at the Marienkirche (church) under Hessian Landgrave Philip, the Homberg Synod took place, whereby Hesse became Protestant. In August 1640, the town was taken by Imperialist forces. In 1809, under Colonel Wilhelm von Dörnberg, the so called Dörnberg Uprising went forth from Homberg against King Jérôme, but was soundly defeated.

Like most German towns, Homberg was likely laid out according to a plan in Hohenstaufen times (1138–1254). Peculiarities in the way that Homberg was built, not apparent at first glance, hint at something recognizable as a town plan. Homberg is in itself a double town, consisting of the Old Town (Altstadt), first mentioned in a document in 1231, and Die Freiheit ("The Freedom"). Die Freiheit was an independent town, having been founded in 1356 and united with the Old Town in 1536. The Old Town itself consisted of three wards. Looking at the town map, the three main ways into the town through the former gateways can be recognized: Westheimer Tor, Obertor and Holzhäuser Tor (Tor = gate). The middle and end point of each of the street connections in the town is the marketplace, over which rises the town church, St. Marien, once surrounded by the town's cemetery. A regular plan is not to be seen in the town. However, in one way the town has something in common with many other towns founded in the Middle Ages that is only noticeable at second glance: when laying out the town's streets, the mediaeval town planner deliberately made them crooked and deliberately staggered intersections of streets and alleyways. In particular, building crooked streets was a way of giving them some aesthetic appeal, as with the Untergasse. Crookedness limits the streetscape optically, and at the end of the street is a T junction, with a view of houses opposite. In the Untergasse, this was the town's former brewhouse, standing on the corner of the Untergasse ("Lower Lane") and the Entengasse ("Duck Lane"). The Untergasse's original alignment was lost as a result of town renovations. It can now only be discerned by looking at houses' positions or by looking over the town. The same effect was achieved when the town planner staggered the side lanes or had them meet the main streets at a slanted angle. By deftly planning the town in this way, even drafts were avoided. Another way of doing this same thing was to build houses out of alignment with their neighbours, or even whole blocks out of alignment with the rest of the street. This can still very clearly be seen around Obere Westheimer Straße. Such a thing was also done on Untere Westheimer Straße, but the ravages of time have erased the effect.

The town's arms might be described thus: Azure in chief a lion passant and in base two lions combattant, all Or and all armed and langued gules. Homberg was granted town rights in 1231, and the first known seal dates from 15 years thereafter, namely 1246. Its tinctures, however, are unknown, and it only shows one lion. Another seal used as early as 1239, but known only from later examples, bore the barry (that is, horizontally striped) Lion of Hesse. In the 14th century, another charge in the arms’ base was a mount of three, but later on, this was somehow mistaken for a lion above two smaller ones. Furthermore, the smaller lions in base numbered three up until 1639, but ever since, there have been only two. For a short while in the early 16th century, the town used another coat of arms. This one might be blazoned: Argent three trefoils vert – that is to say, a silver escutcheon with three green three leafed cloverleaves on it in an inverted triangular pattern.

The most prominent sporting body in Homburg is the first team of the Tischtennisabteilung der Homberger Turnerschaft e. V. (table tennis department of the Homberg Turnerschaft), who are among the greats of German table tennis. They play in the 1. Bundesliga der Frauen ("First Federal Women's League"). Their biggest win thus far has been the European ETTU Cup on 31 March 2006 with the team of Wenling Tan Monfardini, Zhenqi Barthel and Yin Na. The opponent in the final was 3B Berlin. Zhenqi Barthel from the Homberg Turnerschaft won the singles title at the 74th National German Championships in Minden in 2006. She also won with her doubles partner Patrick Baum in mixed doubles. In women's doubles she came third with partner Desirée Czajkowski (Watzenborn Steinberg).

Homberg belongs to the North Hesse Transport Network, which provides bus transport to the town. Homberg is sometimes said to be the only district seat in Germany that is not on the railway network, but several other such towns exist, for example in Bavaria.