Baunatal
Encyclopedia
Baunatal is a town in the district of Kassel
, in Hesse
, Germany
. It is a comparatively young town which arose from fusion of the formerly independent municipalities
Altenbauna, Altenritte, Großenritte, Guntershausen, Hertingshausen, Kirchbauna and Rengershausen in 1966.
and is located to the west of the valley of the Fulda river. West and northwest the town borders on the Habichtswald
with the Baunsberg
(413,4 m above sea level
) in the north. Baunatal got its name from the Bauna river, which traverses the town from the northwest to the southeast until it flows into the Fulda near Guntershausen.
and the urban district of Kassel, in the east on the municipality of Fuldabrück
, in the southeast on the municipality of Guxhagen
, in the south on the municipality of Edermünde
and in the west on the town of Niedenstein
.
company in Altenbauna. In 1960, just one year after start of production, the number of employees exceeded 6,000. Due to this rapid development the residential area and housing demands were rising. As a consequence of this the three municipalities Altenbauna, Altenritte and Kirchbauna fused into Baunatal on 1 January 1964.
On 1 July 1966 with incorporation of Großenritte, Baunatal received town privileges
by the Government of Hesse
. First mayor of the new founded town was Horst Werner. At this time the number of inhabitants was 11,705 and the number of employees of the Volkswagen factory was about 13,400.
On 1 October 1971 the municipality of Hertingshausen joined Baunatal. On 1 August 1972 finally the municipality of Buchenhagen, which was a fusion of Guntershausen and Rengershausen, joined Baunatal. The population of Baunatal was about 19,300 in 1972. Currently the number of inhabitants is .
by tram
s and bus
es. The town also has its own bus network
called StadtBus Baunatal which is operated by the Regionalverkehr Kurhessen GmbH (RKH). In addition the quarters Rengershausen and Gunterhausen are connected to the national rail network
and provide connection to the Main–Weser Railway and the Frederick William Northern Railway by means of the RegioTram Kassel.
Baunatal is connected to the motorways A 7, A 44
and A 49
.
. She was one of the most important sources of the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm
. Dorothea Viehmann was born as Katharina Dorothea Pierson on 8 November 1755 in Rengershausen.
consisting of quartzite
was a site of ritual meetings during the 4th and 3rd century BC. A legend says that a giant threw the menhir from the nearby Hirzstein with intent to destroy the steeple of Kirchbauna.
factory, which is the second largest of the brand with 13,500 employees. The factory does not construct vehicles but rather delivers components and assemblies to other plants of the company. The sphere of business is mainly devided into the following parts: gear manufacturing
, foundry
, exhaust systems, car body pressing
, Original Teile Center (original parts center), Volkswagen coaching
. The premises have a total area of 2,404,737 m² and are directly connected to the rail network and the motorway A 49.
, France
(since 1983) Sangerhausen
, Germany
(since 1990) San Sebastián de los Reyes
, Spain
(since 1990) Vrchlabí
, Czech Republic
(since 1991)
In honour of the twinning to Baunatal there is an Avenida de Baunatal (english: Baunatal Avenue) in San Sebastián de los Reyes. One station of Line 10 of the Madrid Metro
is named after this Avenida. As the addition "Avenida" is typically omitted, the station is simply called "Baunatal".
Kassel (district)
Kassel is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Northeim, Göttingen, Werra-Meißner, Schwalm-Eder, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Höxter...
, in Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, 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 a comparatively young town which arose from fusion of the formerly independent municipalities
Gemeinde
Gemeinde is a German word for borough, commune, community, township, municipality, or in religious contexts, a parish or congregation ....
Altenbauna, Altenritte, Großenritte, Guntershausen, Hertingshausen, Kirchbauna and Rengershausen in 1966.
Geographic location
Baunatal directly borders on the south of KasselKassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
and is located to the west of the valley of the Fulda river. West and northwest the town borders on the Habichtswald
Habichtswald
For the town in Germany, see Habichtswald, Hesse.The Habichtswald is a small mountain range, covering some 35 km2 and rising to a height of 615 m, immediately west of the city of Kassel in northern Hesse in Germany....
with the Baunsberg
Baunsberg
Baunsberg is a mountain of Hesse, Germany....
(413,4 m above sea level
Normalhöhennull
Normalhöhennull or NHN is a standard reference level, the equivalent of sea level, used in Germany to measure height....
) in the north. Baunatal got its name from the Bauna river, which traverses the town from the northwest to the southeast until it flows into the Fulda near Guntershausen.
Neighbouring communities
Baunatal borders in the north on the municipality of SchauenburgSchauenburg, Hesse
Schauenburg is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated west of Kassel....
and the urban district of Kassel, in the east on the municipality of Fuldabrück
Fuldabrück
Fuldabrück is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated along the Fulda river, 8 kilometers south of Kassel. The municipality of Fuldabrück consists of the villages Bergshausen, Dittershausen, Dennhausen and Doernhagen....
, in the southeast on the municipality of Guxhagen
Guxhagen
Guxhagen is a community in Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany.-Geography:Guxhagen lies about 15 km south of Kassel between the Habichtswald Nature Park and the Meißner-Kaufunger Wald Nature Park on the river Fulda. It neighbors Edermünde, Felsberg, Fuldabrück and Körle...
, in the south on the municipality of Edermünde
Edermünde
Edermünde is a community in northern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Edermünde lies in the north of the Schwalm-Eder district not far southwest of Kassel. This is where the river Eder empties into the river Fulda...
and in the west on the town of Niedenstein
Niedenstein
Niedenstein is a small town and an officially recognized climatic spa in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, Germany.-Location:Niedenstein's main town lies in the southeast of the Habichtswald Nature Park right on the western slope of the Langenberge, a low mountain range reaching 557 m...
.
History
The Volkswagenwerk Kassel was build in 1957 on the former premises of the Henschel & SonHenschel & Son
Henschel & Son was a German company, situated in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicles and weapons....
company in Altenbauna. In 1960, just one year after start of production, the number of employees exceeded 6,000. Due to this rapid development the residential area and housing demands were rising. As a consequence of this the three municipalities Altenbauna, Altenritte and Kirchbauna fused into Baunatal on 1 January 1964.
On 1 July 1966 with incorporation of Großenritte, Baunatal received town privileges
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...
by the Government of Hesse
Politics of Hesse
The Politics of Hesse takes place within a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the Federal Government of Germany exercises sovereign rights with certain powers reserved to the states of Germany including Hesse...
. First mayor of the new founded town was Horst Werner. At this time the number of inhabitants was 11,705 and the number of employees of the Volkswagen factory was about 13,400.
On 1 October 1971 the municipality of Hertingshausen joined Baunatal. On 1 August 1972 finally the municipality of Buchenhagen, which was a fusion of Guntershausen and Rengershausen, joined Baunatal. The population of Baunatal was about 19,300 in 1972. Currently the number of inhabitants is .
Transportation
Baunatal is connected to the city of KasselKassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
by tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es. The town also has its own bus network
Public transport bus service
Bus services play a major role in the provision of public transport. These services can take many forms, varying in distance covered and types of vehicle used, and can operate with fixed or flexible routes and schedules...
called StadtBus Baunatal which is operated by the Regionalverkehr Kurhessen GmbH (RKH). In addition the quarters Rengershausen and Gunterhausen are connected to the national rail network
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...
and provide connection to the Main–Weser Railway and the Frederick William Northern Railway by means of the RegioTram Kassel.
Baunatal is connected to the motorways A 7, A 44
Bundesautobahn 44
is a German Autobahn. It consists of three main-parts and a few smaller parts. It begins in Aachen at the German-Belgian border and ends near Kassel. Before the German unification it was an unimportant provincial-motorway but after this event it became an integral part of the German highway-system...
and A 49
Bundesautobahn 49
is a federal motorway running through north Hesse. It connects Kassel with the Schwalm-Eder-Kreis, where it ends in Neuental. The motorway is planned to be extended to Gemünden with a connection to A 5.- Course :...
.
Town council
The local election held on 27 March 2011 yielded the following results:| Parties and voter communities | % 2011 |
Seats 2011 |
% 2006 |
Seats 2006 |
|
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
63.2 | 28 | 64.2 | 29 |
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 21.2 | 10 | 28.6 | 13 |
| GREENS | Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir... |
13.6 | 6 | 3.0 | 1 |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party 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... |
2.1 | 1 | 4.2 | 2 |
| Total | 100 | 45 | 100 | 45 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 49.8 | 42.9 | |||
Mayors
Mayors of Baunatal since 1 July 1966:- Horst Werner
- Martin Hesse
- Hans Joachim Pioch
- Heinz Grenacher
- Manfred Schaub (since 1 June 2005)
Stadtmuseum
The Stadtmuseum is a museum of local history located in Baunatal-Altenritte. The main focus of the museum is the history of the 20th century particularly with regard to the following topics: first railway contruction, history of the Henschel & Son arms factory, everyday life during nazism, history of the Volkswagen factory since 1957, urban development of Baunatal since 1966.Heimatmuseum Hessenstube
The Heimatmusesum is a museum of local history located in Baunatal-Altenritte. The museum delivers insight into living and working environment of people in the ancient villages of Baunatal from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The museum presents rural housing conditions, a historical smithy and historical work shops of joiners, shoemakers and woodturners.Dorothea Viehmann
Baunatal is the birthplace of the famous storyteller Dorothea ViehmannDorothea Viehmann
Dorothea Viehmann was born in Rengershausen. She was a farmer and storyteller and one of the most important sources of the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm...
. She was one of the most important sources of the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. Dorothea Viehmann was born as Katharina Dorothea Pierson on 8 November 1755 in Rengershausen.
Hünstein
The Hünstein is a cultural monument located in Baunatal-Großenritte. The menhirMenhir
A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...
consisting of quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
was a site of ritual meetings during the 4th and 3rd century BC. A legend says that a giant threw the menhir from the nearby Hirzstein with intent to destroy the steeple of Kirchbauna.
Industry
Baunatal is known for the VolkswagenVolkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
factory, which is the second largest of the brand with 13,500 employees. The factory does not construct vehicles but rather delivers components and assemblies to other plants of the company. The sphere of business is mainly devided into the following parts: gear manufacturing
Gear manufacturing
- Materials :The majority of gears are composed of carbon and low-alloy steels, including carburised steels. Among the carburised steels used in gears are 1018, 1524, 4026, 4118, 4320, 4620, 4820, 8620 and 9310. The intended gear use will dictate the material used in its creation...
, foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
, exhaust systems, car body pressing
Coachwork
Coachwork is the body of a horse-drawn coach or carriage, a motor vehicle , a railroad car or railway carriage. Usually reserved for bodies built on a separate chassis, rather than being of unitary or monocoque construction...
, Original Teile Center (original parts center), Volkswagen coaching
Vocational education
Vocational education or vocational education and training is an education that prepares trainees for jobs that are based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, and totally related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation...
. The premises have a total area of 2,404,737 m² and are directly connected to the rail network and the motorway A 49.
Sports
Baunatal hosts the following sports clubs and teams:- KSV BaunatalKSV BaunatalKSV Baunatal is a German association football club based in Baunatal, Hesse. The team was founded on 13 April 1964 out of the union of KSV Altenritte and KSV Altenbauna.- History :...
(e.g. football, handballTeam handballHandball 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...
) - GSV Eintracht BaunatalEintracht BaunatalEintracht Baunatal is a German association football club from the city of Baunatal, Hesse. The club was established in 1907 as Deutsche Turngemeinde Großenritter. On 14 September 1933, TG merged with Sportverein Eintracht Großenritter to become Turn- und Sport 1907 Großenritter...
(e.g. football, handball) - Pinguine Baunatal (Inline hockeyInline hockeyInline hockey, often referred to as roller hockey in the United States, is a sport similar to ice hockey but played with inline skates. Like its parent sport, skaters on two teams use hockey sticks to direct a disk-shaped puck into the opponent's goal; however, various details of the game, such as...
)
Twinnings
Baunatal is twinned with the following cities: VireVire
Vire is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.- History :In 1123, Henri I Beauclerc, King of England and Duke of Normandy, had a redoubt constructed on a rocky hill top, which was surrounded by the Vire river...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(since 1983) Sangerhausen
Sangerhausen
Sangerhausen is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz, without being part of it.It is situated southeast of the Harz, approx. 35 km east of Nordhausen, and 50 km west of Halle...
, 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...
(since 1990) San Sebastián de los Reyes
San Sebastián de los Reyes
San Sebastián de los Reyes is a municipality in the Community of Madrid in Spain. Founded in 1492, it is located 20 km north of Madrid. The city is twinned with Baunatal in Germany. It is geographically joined with neighboring Alcobendas and they share a common RENFE commuter line to Madrid Atocha...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(since 1990) Vrchlabí
Vrchlabí
Vrchlabí is a town in the Czech Republic in the Giant Mountains . Nowadays it has about 13,000 inhabitants. It is notable for having a large Škoda Auto factory located there.-External links:***...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
(since 1991)
In honour of the twinning to Baunatal there is an Avenida de Baunatal (english: Baunatal Avenue) in San Sebastián de los Reyes. One station of Line 10 of the Madrid Metro
Line 10 (Madrid Metro)
Line 10 of the Madrid Metro is in fact the product of two lines, the former line 8 from Fuencarral to Nuevos Ministerios and the former Suburbano from Alonso Martínez to Aluche, this section being named line 10 in the 1980s. In the 1990s, Madrid planned for these two lines to become one, but...
is named after this Avenida. As the addition "Avenida" is typically omitted, the station is simply called "Baunatal".