Alzenau (; until 31 December 2006 officially Alzenau i.UFr.) is a town in the north of the Aschaffenburg district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany. Until 1 July 1972, Alzenau was the district seat of the now abolished district of the same name and has a population of around 19,000.
Geography
Location Alzenau is one of the eastern outliers of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and is crossed by the river Kahl. Most of its Gemeindeteile nestle on or between the slopes of the western outliers of the Spessart with its Hahnenkamm (436 m above Normalhöhennull). The closest hills to the town are Heilberg and Schanzenkopf.
With roughly 2,600 ha of woodland and 85 ha of vineyards, it has been referred to as Stadt im Grünen ("Town in the Green"). Alzenau is only a short drive on the A 45 or trainride on the Kahlgrundbahn from Aschaffenburg, Hanau or Frankfurt am Main.
Neighbouring municipalities Alzenau borders in the north on the municipalities of Rodenbach and Freigericht, in the east and southeast on the municipalities of Mömbris and Johannesberg, in the southwest on the municipality of Karlstein and in the west on the municipality of Kahl am Main.
Gemeindeteile
Alzenau's quarters are Albstadt, Hörstein, Kälberau, Michelbach and Wasserlos.
On 1 January 1972, Kälberau was amalgamated into Alzenau. Albstadt and Wasserlos followed on 1 July that same year, as did Hörstein and Michelbach three years later, on 1 July 1975.
Name The former epithet “in Unterfranken” (“in Lower Franconia”) distinguished it from another Alzenau (now Olszanka, Opole Voivodeship, Silesia), which since the Potsdam Agreement has been in Poland.
Until the 15th century, Alzenau was known as Wilmundsheim. When the Archbishop of Mainz built a castle on the other side of the Kahl, the name was changed to Alzenau, likely because the place lay allzu nahe (“all too near”) the castle.
History
The area was settled quite early on. There are traces of settlement and graves from Hallstatt times (Iron Age), graves from the Beaker culture (2600 BC) and crematory graves from the Old Urnfield times (about 1000 BC).
In 950 the municipality of Wilmundsheim on the Kahl's left bank had its first documentary mention.
In the 12th century, the Freigericht (“Free Court”) was established by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa comprising the settlements of Wildmundsheim, Hörstein, Mömbris and Somborn and it was excused taxes and obligatory service. The twigs in the town's coat of arms symbolize this heritage. The Märker, as the townsmen sometimes called themselves, had to defend their autonomy against local noble families’ ambitions; these included the Rannenbergs and the Rienecks, and further pressures came from the Archbishops of Mainz.
These last built Alzenau Castle (Burg Alzenau) on the Kahl's right bank, across from Wilmundsheim, between 1395 and 1399 to protect their local holdings. In 1401, the settlement below this castle was granted town and market rights by King Ruprecht of the Palatinate, although these could not be realized. A few years later, the old centre of Wilmundsheim was destroyed and it was melded with the settlement across the Kahl, whereupon it also took the castle's name.
In the course of striving for Imperial reform, Emperor Maximilian I enfeoffed both the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Counts of Hanau in 1500 with the joint lordship over the free court, for which the two fiefholders were together to appoint the Amtmann ("bailiff" or "governor"). Conflicts arose from the inhabitants’ insistence on their ancestral freedoms and the denominational antagonism between the Calvinist Counts of Hanau on the one side and the Catholic population and the Archbishop on the other.
The condominium lasted until the Counts of Hanau died out in 1736. The Archbishop of Mainz then took over the free court as its only surviving lord, but in 1740 had to cede the Amt of Somborn to the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel, who were the heirs to the County of Hanau, after a fierce legal battle. What was thereafter left of the free court was incorporated as the Amt of Alzenau into the Archbishopric of Mainz. The Wheel of Mainz in the town's arms still recalls this time today.
The Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 awarded the Amt of Alzenau to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1816, the Grand Duchy of Hesse ceded the Amt to the Kingdom of Bavaria, and Alzenau has since remained Bavarian.
In 1862, Alzenau was raised to district seat. With the building of the Kahlgrundbahn railway, the municipality – and thereby the whole Kahlgrund (the countryside along the river Kahl) – was linked to the railway network as of 1898. In 1951, Alzenau was granted town rights by the Free State of Bavaria.
In the course of municipal reform, the old Alzenau and Aschaffenburg districts were merged in 1972. The municipalities of Albstadt, Kälberau and Wasserlos were amalgamated. In the end, Alzenau took its current shape when the market municipality of Hörstein and the municipality of Michelbach were amalgamated in 1975.
Politics
Landräte (“Chief District Administrators”) of the former Alzenau district 1946–1949 Friedrich Huth 1950–1970 Heinrich Degen 1970–1972 Karl Lautenschläger
Town council
Alzenau's town council has 24 seats.
Alzenau town council electionsDateVoter turnoutCSUSPDFDPGrüneFW/PWGKL03.03.200258.4%12 seats6 seats2 seats2 seats2 seats –02.03.200858.8%11 seats5 seats2 seats3 seats2 seats1 seat
Coat of arms The town's arms might be described thus: Gules a wheel spoked of six argent, in base two twigs Or per saltire.
The German blazon reads “In Rot über zwei gekreuzten goldenen Zweigen ein sechsspeichiges silbernes Rad”. This describes the twigs as “golden”, although they are rendered here in silver.
In 1401, King Ruprecht raised Alzenau to town, but the town never exercised its rights (until 1951) and remained a market municipality. From 1309 comes the first documentary record. The contents of this document deal with the Freigericht (“Free Court”) with four court regions, the so-called Hohe Mark. Since the first half of the 13th century the royal hunting forest had been owned by the Archbishopric of Mainz. In 1395, the whole market municipality passed to the Archbishopric. This part of Alzenau's history is recalled by the six-spoked wheel – the so-called Wheel of Mainz – which was a charge borne by the Archbishops in their arms. The two twigs refer to the court officials who were chosen from among the townsmen to be on the court.
The arms have been borne since 1926.
Town partnerships Sint-Oedenrode, North Brabant, Netherlands Pfaffstätten, Lower Austria, Austria Thaon-les-Vosges, Vosges, France
Economy and infrastructure
The town also distinguishes itself with an unusually high number of resident businesses, most of which stem from high technology fields. In 1999, Alzenau was recognized as an “Economy-Friendly municipality” with a special award from the Bavarian Minister of State for Economy, Transport and Technology.
Agriculture, forestry, winegrowing In 1998, there were 62 people contributors to the social welfare funds employed in agriculture and forestry. In 1999, there were 82 agricultural businesses with a cultivated area of 1,429 ha, of which 1,096 ha was cropland and 257 ha was meadowland.
In the outlying centres of Michelbach, Wasserlos and Hörstein, Frankenwein (Franconian wine) is grown. In Albstadt, too, there was winegrowing until the late 19th century, as witnessed by the Gemarkung (traditional rural cadastral area) of Wingertsberg. Winegrowing was brought to Alzenau by the monks from the monastery in Seligenstadt. All in all, though, agriculture and forestry have lost importance for the municipality.
Transport Alzenau currently has three interchanges on the A 45 (Dortmund–Aschaffenburg), the newest being the Alzenau-Mitte interchange opened on 23 November 2007, after many years in planning, joining the linking road between Alzenau and Kahl to the Autobahn, thereby providing a better link to the industrial areas in Alzenau and Kahl.
The Kahlgrundbahn railway links the town with Kahl am Main and Hanau railway stations, where there are direct connections with the S-Bahn to Frankfurt am Main and long-distance trains.
The individual centres in the town are served by the City-Bus lines. One route runs hourly from Alzenau by way of Wasserlos and Hörstein as a regional bus on to Karlstein and to Dettingen railway station, where travellers can transfer to regional trains to Aschaffenburg and Würzburg.
Frankfurt Airport can be reached by car within 30 to 40 minutes.
Established businesses What follows is a selection of businesses resident in Alzenau: Alexander Shorokhoff GmbH, luxury mechanical watches ABB Automation Products Applied Materials GmbH Biotest Medizintechnik Buhler Leybold Optics Hyundai Motorsport GmbH, World Rally Championship team Mahle GmbH MSC Software Nukem Schott Solar AG Xella Nikon Metrology Europe NV
Sport and leisure facilities In each Gemeindeteil are found halls and sporting grounds for the many sport clubs. Available in each Gemeindeteil are playgrounds, and in some also football pitches, basketball hoops and skating facilities. In summer, the Waldschwimmbad (“Forest Swimming Pool”) and the Meerhofsee (lake) are open. Furthermore, the pool at the Edith-Stein-Realschule is open to the public a few evenings each week. The bodies of water that arose from the former brown coal works on the Kahler Seenplatte (“Kahl Lake Plateau”) lie nearby, from 5 to 10 km away.
The football club, FC Bayern Alzenau, is based in Alzenau.
Institutions
Administrative institutions and authorities Aschaffenburg Amtsgericht, Alzenau branch court Alzenau town administration Alzenau police force Aschaffenburg district administration office, Alzenau branch location and registration office Federal Agency for Technical Relief, Alzenau chapter
Educational institutions In 1999, the following institutions existed: Kindergartens: 9 places with 705 children Elementary schools: 4 with 81 teachers and 1432 students Realschulen: 1 with 45 teachers and 1000 students Hahnenkammschule zur Lernförderung (special education) Spessart-Gymnasium Alzenau with roughly 1500 students Städtische Musikschule Alzenau (municipal music school) Städtische Bibliothek Alzenau (municipal library) VHS Kahl-Alzenau-Karlstein (folk high school), Alzenau branch “Grünes Klassenzimmer” (“Green Classroom”) in the town forest
Health Alzenau-Wasserlos district hospital
Seniors Caritas Sozialstation BRK Seniorenheim
Youth Jugendtreff „Teestube“ (youth meeting place)
Sanitation Recycling yard 6 garden waste gathering centres
Nature An important part of the landscape in Alzenau is the large amount of area given over to Streuobstwiesen (meadow orchards), which with their tall, unclustered trees furnish an important habitat for species that have become rare, such as the red-backed shrike or the little owl. Planting tall-trunked fruit trees is financially promoted by the town. Also ecologically very important are the Sandmagerrasenflächen in the Alzenauer Sande conservation area, on which a few threatened and endangered wasteland species find their habitat.
Culture and sightseeing
At Alzenau Castle the Burgfestspiele (“Castle Festival Games”) and the AlzenauClassics are held in summer, and in autumn the Fränkische Musiktage (“Franconian Music Days”) within the framework of Bayerischer Rundfunk’s Musikzauber Franken (“Franconia Music Magic”).