Büdingen

Coat of arms	Map
	map of Germany showing Büdingen
Statistics
State:	Hesse
Regierungsbezirk:	Darmstadt
District:	Wetteraukreis
Area:	122.903 km²
Population:	23,047 (12/31/2004)
Population density:	188/km²
Elevation:	126 - 455 m
Postal code:	63654
Area/distance code:	+49 6042
Location:	50.3/50°18' N lat. 9.1/9°6' E long.
Municipal code:	06 4 40 004
Car designation:	`FB`
Arrangement of the city:	16 districts
Address of the city administration:	Eberhard-Bauner-Allee 16 63654 Büdingen
Website:	www.buedingen24.net
Politics
Mayor:	Erich Spamer

Büdingen is a city in the Wetterau in Hesse, Germany. It is known for its still good conditioned medieval stronghold and its fabulous timber-framed houses.

Geography

Geografische Lage

Büdingen is in the south of the Wetterau at the bottom of Vogelsberg mountain on a height of approx. 160 meters. The city is 15 km northwest of Gelnhausen and about 40 km east from Frankfurt am Main. Historically the city belonges to Oberhessen.

Geology

Büdingen is situated in a wet and swampy valley. The castle and the old town where bulid on centuries old oak planks, patched on beech piles. Therefore the water table has to been kept on high level so no air could reach these foundations.

Arrangement of the city

Since 1972 the city consists oft the formerly independent municaplities Aulendiebach, Büches, Büdingen (core or centre), Calbach, Diebach am Haag, Düdelsheim, Dudenrod, Eckartshausen, Lorbach, Michelau, Orleshausen, Rinderbügen, Rohrbach, Vonhausen, Wolf and Wolferborn.

In the same year the county (Landkreis) of Büdingen, estimated 1852, where joined with the county of Friedberg to the Wetteraukreis, where Friedberg becomes the new county capital.

History

Arround 700 the wooden St.-Remigius-Church was built by an unknown lord. At 847 "Büdingen" was firstly named in a document, but it is not clear, which Büdingen was meant, because there are some more smaller towns with this name in Germany and Lorraine. The St.-Remigius-Church was extended about 1050 to its todays state.

1131 the noblemen of Büdingen are firstly mentioned. They became Burggrafen of Gelnhausen in 1155. The "villa" (lat.: city) Büdingen was officialy mentioned in 1206. The noblemen of Büdingen died out with Gerlach II. before 1247.

Heirs were the noblemen of Hohenlohe-Brauneck, of Isenburg-Kempenich, of Trimberg, of Hohenlohe and of Isenburg. At Juli 26. 1330 Kaiser Ludwig der Bayer granted market rights to Luther of Büdingen.

With his edict of liberty from 1353, Burggraf Heinrich II. granted freedom and some independance to the people of Büdingen. In return now the people had to defend the city, so the marksmen society had been founded. This society allready exists today as one of the oldest rifle associations in Germany.

Since 1442 the masters of Büdingen are known as Grafen of Isenburg-Büdingen. After a local war, Graf Ludwig II. had been built an enormous new defencive wall belt with 22 towers arround the old stronghold between 1480 and 1510. These walls are still nearly complete and they are one of the most important medieval strongholds in Germany.

Town twinning

city	region / country	weblink
twin towns
Bruntál	Ostrava / Czech Republic	www.mubruntal.cz
Herzberg	Brandenburg / Germany	www.herzberg-elster.de
Gistel	West_Flanders / Belgium	www.gistel.be
Loudéac	Bretagne / France	www.ville-loudeac.fr
Tinley Park	Illinois / United States	www.tinleypark.org

Weblinks