Schwalmstadt

Schwalmstadt is the largest town in the Schwalm Eder district, in northern Hesse, Germany. It was established only in 1970 with the amalgamation of the towns of Treysa and Ziegenhain together with some outlying villages to form the town of Schwalmstadt.

Schwalmstadt lies in the Schwalm region in the western Knüll, a low mountain range. Through the town flows the river Schwalm. The nearest large towns are Kassel (about 50 km to the north), Bad Hersfeld (about 35 km to the east), Marburg (about 40 km to the southwest) and Fulda (about 70 km to the southeast).

Besides the core of Treysa, Ziegenhain and Ascherode, the town consists of the centres of Allendorf an der Landsburg, Dittershausen, Florshain, Frankenhain, Michelsberg, Niedergrenzebach, Rommershausen, Rörshain, Trutzhain and Wiera.

In the 8th century, Treise was owned by the Abbots of Hersfeld. The Counts of Cigenhagen were named in a document for the first time in 1144. In 1186, Treysa was taken over by the Counts and fortified. Treysa's landmark, the Martinskirche (Church of St. Martin), nowadays known as the Totenkirche (Church of the Dead), was built in 1230. Treysa was granted town rights sometime between 1229 and 1270, and the same rights were bestowed upon Ziegenhain in 1274. After the last Count's death in 1450, the county passed to Hesse. The Landgraves of Hesse had the castle in Ziegenhain remodelled into a stately home in 1470, and then between 1537 and 1548, Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse had it built into a fortification with a moat. In August 1945, the proceedings to establish the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) took place in Treysa in an event known as the Church Conference of Treysa. The meeting brought about the merger of the Lutheran, Reformed and United state churches. Two further church gatherings in May 1946 and June 1947 tried to start discussion about divergent perceptions of the Eucharist, and also dealt with Denazification. As part of Hesse's municipal reforms, the two towns of Treysa and Ziegenhain, along with their outlying villages, were united in 1970 into the Town of Schwalmstadt, and ever since then they have existed only as constituent communities of a larger municipality. In 1995, with the motto "Hessisch Willkommen", Schwalmstadt hosted the 35th Hessentag state festival.

In the Marburg State Archive, Rommerhausen is first mentioned under the name "Rumershusen" in 1243. In 1360 it was called "Romirshusin" and in 1365 "Rumershusen", but it has gone by its current name since 1419. On 3 April 1916 at 15:30, a cosmic lump of iron fell to earth in a woodlot near Rommershausen. This was later named, after the place where it was found, the Meteorite of Rommershausen, and it has gone down in German astronomic history as Germany's greatest verifiable observed meteorite impact. Rommershausen has been part of Schwalmstadt since the municipal reforms in the 1970s.

During the Second World War, Ziegenhain was home to a prisoner of war camp, Stalag IX A (one of the French prisoners there, François Mitterrand, later became President of France), and after the war, also to a displaced persons camp at the same facility. The camp is now the constituent community of Trutzhain. Some of the barracks still stand and have been converted into houses.

Schwalmstadt Town Council has 37 members. As of the municipal elections held in 2011, the council seats are apportioned thus:

Parties and voting blocks %2011 Seats2011 %2006 Seats2006 SPD SPD41.31542.516 CDU CDU29.61131.912 The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens14.458.43 FWG FWG (citizens' coalition)7.138.73 FDP FDP4.425.22 The Left Left Party3.113.41Total100.037100.037Voter turnout in %46.146.3

Mayor Wilhelm Kröll (SPD) was re elected on 7 May 2006 with a share of the vote of 61.4%. On 3 June 2012, Dr. Gerald Näser (CDU) was elected new mayor with 53% of the vote. His opponent was Dr. Fabio Longo of the SPD. The turnout was 54.1%. Näser took office on 1 October 2012. He died in 2016 and was temporarily replaced by Detlef Schwierzeck (SPD). In 2016, Stefan Pinhard was elected as the new mayor and took office on 1 December 2016.

Schwalmstadt's civic coat of arms might be heraldically described thus: Or a goat headed spreadeagle sable armed, langued and attired gules, surmounted by a roundel argent in which a mullet of six of the third. The heraldic elements are historical symbols from both former towns and the old County of Ziegenhain. Schwalmstadt's coat of arms bears a keen likeness to both Neukirchen's and Schwarzenborn's.

Schwalmstadt's local THW association was founded in 1961. The local association has, among other things, a technical team (Technischer Zug) with a positioning section (Fachgruppe Ortung).

Through Schwalmstadt run Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 254 (from Fulda by way of Schwalmstadt to Kassel) and B 454 (from Bad Hersfeld by way of Schwalmstadt to Marburg). In the neighbouring community of Neuental ends (or begins) the Autobahn A 49. The Main Weser railway from Frankfurt to Kassel runs through Schwalmstadt and serves two stations: Treysa and Schwalmstadt Wiera. There are hourly Regionalbahn trains from Kassel and the Mittelhessen Express from Frankfurt ending at Treysa. In addition to that, Regionalexpress trains and InterCity trains between Kassel and Frankfurt stop hourly in turn. At the station of Schwalmstadt Wiera there is an hourly connection to Frankfurt via the Mittelhessen Express. There was once a strategic railway running through the town between Berlin and Metz (the latter now in France), known as the Kanonenbahn, or "Cannons Railway".