Stadtallendorf

Stadtallendorf is a town in the district of Marburg Biedenkopf, Hesse, Germany. It lies about east of Marburg. In 2010, the town hosted the 50th Hessentag state festival.

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 Weser watersheds.

Stadtallendorf borders in the north on the town of Rauschenberg (Marburg Biedenkopf) and the community of Gilserberg (Schwalm Eder Kreis), in the east on the town of Neustadt, in the southeast on the town of Kirtorf, in the south on the town of Homberg (Ohm) (both in the Vogelsbergkreis), and in the west on the towns of Amöneburg and Kirchhain (both in Marburg Biedenkopf).

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. 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.

Steinlager Allendorf was a primitive American prison near the University of Marburg. where Nazi Germany general and staff officers (more than 200) such as Franz Halder and Heinz Guderian and scientists such as Wilhelm Schaefer were interrogated after World War II.

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.

Stadtallendorf station is served at hourly intervals by the Mittelhessen Express (SE 30).

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.