Adenau is a town in the High Eifel in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is known as the Johanniterstadt because the Order of Saint John was based there in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. The town's coat of arms combines the black cross of the Electorate of Cologne with the lion of the lords of Nürburg

Nürburg

Nürburg is a town in the German district of Ahrweiler, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is also the name of the local castle, Burg Nürburg , which was built in the High Middle Ages. The town is best known for its 24 kilometer race track, the Nürburgring...

. The northern loop of the Nürburgring

Nürburgring

The Nürburgring is a motorsport complex around the village of Nürburg, Germany. It features a modern Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a much longer old North loop track which was built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains. It is located about...

 lies just outside the town.

The Breidscheid section of Adenau was a separate municipality until 1952. The lords of Breidscheid are mentioned in the 13th Century. The chapel of Breidscheid is dedicated to Saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

s Roch and Sebastian and was built in 1630 as a plague chapel.

History

Adenau is mentioned for the first time in 992, under the name Adenova. In 1162, Ulrich, Count of Are donated his manor to the Order of St. John (also called the Order of Malta). Adenau was the third oldest settlement of this order in Germany. The members of the order cared for paupers and pilgrims. Until 1518, the Komtur

Komtur

Komtur was a rank within military orders, especially the Teutonic Knights. In the State of the Teutonic Order, the Komtur was the commander of a basic administrative division called Kommende . A Komtur was responsible for the alimentation of the Knights by the yield from the local estates, he...

 of the order also served as the parish priest.

In 1816 Adenau became the seat of an independent district

Districts of Germany

The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....

. The District of Adenau was one of the poorest districts in Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

. In 1927 the Nürburgring opened, built on the initiative of local magistrate Dr. Creutz. In 1932 the district of Adenau was merged into the district of Ahrweiler

Ahrweiler

Ahrweiler is a district in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts Euskirchen, Rhein-Sieg and the city Bonn in the state North Rhine-Westphalia, and the districts of Neuwied, Mayen-Koblenz and Vulkaneifel.- History :The region was conquered by the Romans under...

.

Politics

The town council

Town council

A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

 consists of 20 councillors and the local mayor.

• CDU
  Christian Democratic Union (Germany)
  The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
  
  : 13 seats
• ÖDP: 3 seats
• FDP
  Free Democratic Party (Germany)
  The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
  
  : 2 seats
• SPD
  Social Democratic Party of Germany
  The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
  
  : 2 seats (situation: Local election
  Local election
  Local elections vary widely across jurisdictions. In electoral systems that roughly follow the Westminster model, a terminology has evolved with roles such as Mayor or Warden to describe the executive of a city, town or region, although the actual means of elections vary...
  
   on 13 June 2004)

Schools

In Adenau, there are three schools: a primary, a secondary (Realschule

Realschule

The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...

) and a high school (Gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

). The Erich Klausener Gymnasium
has 723 pupils and 46 teachers. The secondary school has 486 pupils.
(Hauptschule) The primary school has 240 pupils and 21 teachers.

The Hohe Acht

The Hohe Acht is a tertiary volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

, the highest peak in the Eifel

Eifel

The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....

, rising 747 m above sea level. It is immediately east of Adenau. The Kaiser-Wilhelm-tower has stood on the peak since 1909. The tower was built from 1908 to 1909 on the occasion of the silver wedding of Emperor Wilhelm II

William II, German Emperor

Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...

 and Empress Augusta Victoria

Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein was the last German Empress and Queen of Prussia. Her full German name was Auguste Victoria Friederike Luise Feodora Jenny von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.She was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess...

. The 16.3 m high tower was designed by architect Freiherr von Tettau and became a protected monument in 1987. The tower offers a magnificent view of the Eifel landscape.

Culture

The international rock festival Rock am Ring
is a major cultural event. Every year 80,000 or more people meet near Adenau to "rock". The event first took place in 1985, and was originally planned as a unique event. It was so successful, with 75,000 participants, that it was decided to make it an annual event. There has been one 2-year break since then after attendance numbers fell in 1988, after which the festival resumed in 1991 in a revised format with more emphasis on new acts. The camp associated with the festival is an important part of the experience.

Famous people

• Johann Nicola Baur (1808−1874) merchant and Prussian civil servant
• Erich Klausener
  Erich Klausener
  Erich Klausener was a German Catholic politician who was murdered in the Night of the Long Knives as the Nazis purged their opponents.- Biography :...
  
   (1885–1934), magistrate of the rural district of Adenau 1917–1919, shot by the Nazis in 1934
• Otto Wemper (1894–1969), forester, pioneer of reforestation of strip-mined sites, head of the Forestry Department at Adenau 1925–1940
• Max Funke (1895–1980), entrepreneur and inventor, founded Max Funke KG in Adenau 1951
• Bernhard Müller-Feyen (1931−2004), artist born in Adenau
• Marion von Haaren (born 1957), European correspondent with ARD
  ARD (broadcaster)
  ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...
  
  , educated in Adenau
• Torsten Jansen
  Torsten Jansen
  Torsten "Toto" Jansen is a German handballer, currently playing for Hamburg in the Bundesliga...
  
  , handball
  Team handball
  Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...
  
  er, born 1976 in Adenau
• Clemens de Lassaulx (1809–1906), forester in Adenau, the "father of the Eifel"
• Fabian Giefer
  Fabian Giefer
  Fabian Giefer is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Bayer Leverkusen.-Career:He made his Bundesliga debut on 6 November 2009 against Eintracht Frankfurt...
  
  , footballer, born 1990 in Adenau

External links

• Adenau official site
• Erich-Klausener-Gymnasium Adenau
• Adenau portrait with video, Südwestrundfunk
  Südwestrundfunk
  The Südwestrundfunk is a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany, specifically the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The company has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is an...