Gaggenau
Encyclopedia
Gaggenau is a town in the district of Rastatt
, in Baden-Württemberg
, Germany
. It is located some 8 km northeast of Baden-Baden
.
River in an extension of the Murg Valley at the Rastatt-Freudenstadt federal highway Bundesstraße 462 (Black Forest Valley road).
The highest point in the urban area is 750 m above sea level; the lowest point is 134 m above sea level. The urban area extends 10.6 km north to south and 10.3 km east to west, or approximately 109 square kilometers.
, Marxzell
(both in the District of Karlsruhe
), Bad Herrenalb
(District of Calw
), Loffenau
und Gernsbach
(both in the District of Rastatt
), Baden-Baden
(City District
), and Kuppenheim
, Bischweier
and Muggensturm
(all District of Rastatt).
, Freiolsheim, Hörden, Michelbach, Oberweier, Ottenau, Selbach and Sulzbach. Except for the core city and the districts of Bad Rotenfels and Ottenau, which have been combined into a single residential area for purposes of representation within the meaning of the Baden-Württemberg's municipal code, each district has its own area council and mayor / chairman. For each city district, the area council is elected by the district residents and consists of eight to ten members, with the chairperson of the council serving as mayor. The area councils hear and adjudicate on matters concerning their city district.
The district of Freiolsheim includes the original town of Freiolsheim, the village of Mittelberg and the hamlet of Moosbronn. The core area of Gaggenau includes the city of Gaggenau, the village Ottenau, and the hamlet Amalienberg. The Oberweier district includes the villages of Oberweier and Niederweier. The Bad Rotenfels district includes the original village of Bad Rotenfels and the hamlet of Winkel. The original villages of Hörden, Michelbach, Selbach and Sulzbach were retained as separate city districts.
, it came under the jurisdiction of the marquisate of Baden
in the 13th century, and was included in the territory claimed by the Margrave
of Baden-Baden in 1535, which held it until 1689. At that time, it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Kuppenheim
district of the Bishopric of Speyer
. It was eventually assigned to the jurisdiction of the Rastatt Office of the State of Baden, which later became the District of Rastatt.
In 1691, the area was at the center of the Palatinate War of Succession and was almost completely destroyed by the French forces. In 1772, Anton Rindeschwender established a successful glassworks factory below the village, and along with it a number of new residences and supporting businesses in the area.
The real industrial boom began in 1873 with the establishment of the Michael Flürscheims Ironworks, which resurrected an iron smelter originally established by the Margrave of Baden in the late 18th century. In 1895 the factory built the 5-hp automobile Orient Express and entered the new industry of automobile manufacture. In 1905 they renamed themselves the Gaggenau South German Automobile Factory GmbH. In 1907 the company was taken over by the company Benz & Cie of Mannheim until the merger of Daimler-Benz
AG in 1926.
Thus, the settlement grew, and Gaggenau was eventually raised to the status of city on 15 September 1922 because of its economic prosperity.
In September 1944, the Nazis built a detention camp in the Bad Rotenfels district. Six barracks were built to house about 1,600 men and women, mostly French prisoners, who were used as forced labor in the Daimler-Benz plants. About 500 of them were killed. A memorial plaque has been raised in the meadow where the barracks were located. Another memorial was raised in the Bad Rotenfels cemetery commemorating the murder of 27 of those prisoners by their Nazi captors.
In the Second World War, about 70% of the city was destroyed. On 10 September 1944, 140 B-17 bombers from the 8th battalion of the US Air Force bombed the automobile factory complex. Another battalion of 139 B-24 bombers bombed the area a second time on 3 October. The city and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war, and was completed with the construction of Gaggenau's Town Hall in 1958.
In 1969, in response to an effort to aggregate and consolidate municipal governments into districts of 20,000 or more, the state government of Baden-Württemberg
approved a petition by the town of Gaggenau to annex six of its surrounding communities, thereby doubling Gaggenau's population and increasing its area fivefold. Among the areas annexed was the former municipality of Rotenfels and the large swath of forest that ran along the Murg
River between the two municipalities. The annexations were performed over a period of six years.
Bad Rotenfels, Gaggenau and Ottenau together were combined into a single administrative "village" in accordance with the Municipal Code of Baden-Württemberg.
class="wikitable">
Year
Population
1945 ¹
4.500
September 1950 ¹
7.526
June 1961 ¹
12.537
May 1970 ¹
21.132
December 1975
28.846
December 1980
28.533
May 1987 ¹
28.116
December 1990
28.761
December 1995
29.531
December 2000
29.703
December 2005
29.709
¹ Census results
and was assigned to the Kuppenheim District under that Diocese. The Reformation
arrived in 1555, and over the next three and a half centuries, under a variety of rulers, the majority denomination of Gaggenau changed six times between Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran (Protestant) before finally settling to become a Catholic majority.
Until 1891, the only Catholic parish church for the entire region was the St. Lawrence parish church in Rotenfels. The present church dates from the Baroque era in the 17th century, with the interior dating from the 18th century. In 1891, the St. Wendelin chapel was consecrated in Gaggenau. Gaggenau received its own parish church of St. Joseph in 1899. The Catholic churches in the other districts of Gaggenau date to earlier times. All of the area parishes came under the newly-founded Archdiocese of Freiburg
in 1821/1827 and assigned to the Murgtal Office of the Dean. Today, the city of Gaggenau includes the following Catholic parishes: St. Joseph (Gaggenau); Gaggenau; St. Mary; Mary Help (Moosbronn-Freiolsheim); St. Johann Nepomuk (Hörden); St. Michael (Michelbach); St. John the Baptist (Oberweier); St. Lawrence (Bad Rotenfels); St. Nicholas (Selbach); St. Anne (Sulzbach); and St. Jodocus (Ottenau).
The Evangelical Lutherans (Protestants) were driven out in the 18th century but moved back in again to Gaggenau in the 19th century. They formed their own community and built their own church in 1891. This church was destroyed in the Second World War but rebuilt in 1953. The community, including all of the Protestants in the modern districts of Gaggenau and in Rastatt, belong to the Evangelical Church
district of Baden-Baden.
Besides the two major churches above, other Christian communities exist in Gaggenau, including the New Apostolic Church
and Jehovah's Witnesses
. Over 1,100 Muslims, mainly Turkish, also live in Gaggenau. The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (which belongs to the DİTİB, or the Diyanet Isleri Türk İslam Birligi) is located in the Bad Rotenfels district and has over 200 members.
In 1933, the Nazi policy of Gleichschaltung
effectively abolished local and state government and put all German territory under national administrative control. After the demise of the Nazi regime in 1945, state and local governments were re-established. In 1971, the office of Deputy Mayor was established.
Florus was elected as Mayor on 25 March 2007 in a runoff election. Florus won against candidates Alois Degler, Wolfgang Seckler and former Mayor Michael Schulz.
The current town seal began appearing on city reference documents in the 18th century, but was replaced in 1901 with a split design of a cogwheel (symbolizing industry in general) on one side and a glass beaker (for the local glassworks industry) on the other. In 1938, the emblem was changed again, this time with the Gaggenau Sester on top and a pruning hook below, in order to reflect the inclusion of the town of Ottenau. It was changed again in 1958 with the images rotated to be equally represented on the shield. Finally, as part of the municipal reform and additional village annexations of the 1970s, the emblem was restored to its original pre-20th-century design by the Interior Ministry of Baden-Württemberg.
in France since 1970 and with the City of Sieradz
in Poland since 2000.
The district of Bad Rotenfels has a number of historic buildings. The Baroque Catholic parish church of St. Lawrence in Bad Rotenfels was originally built in 1752-1766 by Ignaz Franz Krohmer. The church was the first parish in the Murg Valley and is therefore known as the mother church of the Murg. The current church building is actually the third version built, the most recent in the mid-1800s. In a 1902-1903 renovation, the facade of the church was updated with a neo-baroque facade.
Other churches in the current city include the St. Johann Nepomuk Hörden Catholic Church (Year 1894), the half-timbered Catholic Church of St. Mary in the Michelbach village from the 13th Century with later alterations, the late Gothic St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Oberweier, the Selbach Catholic Church from 1756, the neo-Romanesque church in Sulzbach from 1884 and the neo-Gothic parish church in Ottenau from 1906. In the upper village of Bad Rotenfels, at the turnoff to the hamlet of Winkel, the one-room St. Sebastian chapel was built from 1747-1752 with an open porch and roof turret and is smaller than the surrounding rural residences.
Bad Rotenfels is the home of the world-famous Rotenfels spa, built on top of the Bad (German: Bath) Rotenfels hot springs. The spa hosts thousands of visitors from around the world to enjoy its waters. The district also includes the Rotenfels Castle Academy, which is housed in the buildings and grounds of the former Rotenfels stoneware factory. The factory, built around 1801, housed a stoneware (porcelain) manufacturing plant until 1816. In 1818, Margrave Wilhelm of Baden decided to turn the property into a country chateau. From 1818 to 1827, the building was redesigned by Friedrich Weinbrenner into a prestigious building in classical portico style. It remained a country residence until the 1970s, when the Academy purchased the building for its use.
Gaggenau has created a park along the banks of the Murg River, which runs through its community. Gaggenau also includes a large park on the south side of the river against the forest which hosts a number of significant ruins and springs, including military fortifications dating back to the 16th century, as well as a memorial to a Nazi labor camp where some 1,600 prisoners were housed and used for forced labor. The park includes outdoor sports facilities and marked nature paths with historical markers.
The Rastatt-Freudenstadt (Murgtalbahn) line also runs through the city, having done so since the line was electrified in 2002. The Karlsruhe light rail line has also provided direct service to Gaggenau since that time.
, reports on local happenings and provides local editorials to Gaggenau through their local edition of Murgtäler. Their daily circulation figure is 11,000. The Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN), based in Karlsruhe, also provides local coverage of Rastatt and Gaggenau in their local edition with daily circulation figures of 10,000.
Gaggenau Week is a local weekly newsletter. It is distributed free of charge once per week to Gaggenau households, with a circulation of about 16,000 copies. This newsletter is published by Walnut Media, based in Weil. They maintain a field office in the city of Gaggenau.
The Badisches Tagblatt also publishes two local business news journals and a weekly magazine for the Rastatt / Murgtal areas called WHERE, delivered to households free of charge, with a special Murgtal weekend edition on Sunday. Circulation of WHERE is about 25,000 copies, the Sunday weekend edition approximately 73,000 copies.
Südwestrundfunk
serves as the regional television station, broadcast out of Karlsruhe
. It also provides reporting of local events in Gaggenau.
The Akademie Schloss Rotenfels has been established In the Rotenfels Castle since 1996. The Baden-Württemberg Academy of Fine Arts school and amateur theater are also located in the community.
Rastatt (district)
Rastatt is a district in the west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Karlsruhe, Calw, Freudenstadt and the Ortenaukreis. To the west it borders the French département Bas-Rhin...
, in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
, 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 located some 8 km northeast of Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
.
Geography
Gaggenau lies on both sides of the MurgMurg
The Murg is a river and right tributary of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Source:The river has numerous tributaries and is known as the Murg only from the point of confluence of the rivers Rechtmurg and Rotmurg in the community of Obertal, a part of Baiersbronn...
River in an extension of the Murg Valley at the Rastatt-Freudenstadt federal highway Bundesstraße 462 (Black Forest Valley road).
The highest point in the urban area is 750 m above sea level; the lowest point is 134 m above sea level. The urban area extends 10.6 km north to south and 10.3 km east to west, or approximately 109 square kilometers.
Neighboring Municipalities
The following cities and towns border the city of Gaggenau (clockwise from north): MalschMalsch
Malsch is a municipality in the district of Karlsruhe, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 15 km south of Karlsruhe, and 10 km east of Rastatt, at the eastern border of the Upper Rhine Plain....
, Marxzell
Marxzell
Marxzell is a municipality in the district of Karlsruhe in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Marxzell is located on the Alb and on the heights of the North Black Forest ....
(both in the District of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe (district)
Karlsruhe is a rural district in the north-west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Rhein-Neckar, Heilbronn,Enz, Calw, Rastatt, Germersheim, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis and the district-free city Speyer...
), Bad Herrenalb
Bad Herrenalb
Bad Herrenalb is a municipality in the district of Calw, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the northern Black Forest, 15 km east of Baden-Baden, and 22 km southwest of Pforzheim....
(District of Calw
Calw (district)
Calw is a district in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Karlsruhe, Enz, the district-free city Pforzheim, Böblingen, Freudenstadt and Rastatt.- History :...
), Loffenau
Loffenau
Loffenau is a town in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany.-Geography:Loffenau is located within a tributary valley of the "Murgtal" in the western slopes of the northern black forest.-Local attractions:...
und Gernsbach
Gernsbach
Gernsbach is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Murg, east of Baden-Baden in the Black Forest. Twin towns are Baccarat in France and Pergola, Marche in Italy....
(both in the District of Rastatt
Rastatt (district)
Rastatt is a district in the west of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are Karlsruhe, Calw, Freudenstadt and the Ortenaukreis. To the west it borders the French département Bas-Rhin...
), Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
(City District
City district
City district is a type of administrative division of Pakistan and Croatia.It is also the English translation of German Stadtbezirk and Swedish Stadsdel.-See also:*City Districts of Pakistan...
), and Kuppenheim
Kuppenheim
Kuppenheim is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Murg, 5 km southeast of Rastatt, and 8 km north of Baden-Baden....
, Bischweier
Bischweier
Bischweier is a municipality in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
and Muggensturm
Muggensturm
Muggensturm is a town in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
(all District of Rastatt).
City Arrangement
The city of Gaggenau today comprises the core downtown (original) area of Gaggenau and the eight districts of Bad RotenfelsBad Rotenfels
Bad Rotenfels is a district in the city of Gaggenau, district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located some 8 km northeast of Baden-Baden.- Origins in the Middle Ages :...
, Freiolsheim, Hörden, Michelbach, Oberweier, Ottenau, Selbach and Sulzbach. Except for the core city and the districts of Bad Rotenfels and Ottenau, which have been combined into a single residential area for purposes of representation within the meaning of the Baden-Württemberg's municipal code, each district has its own area council and mayor / chairman. For each city district, the area council is elected by the district residents and consists of eight to ten members, with the chairperson of the council serving as mayor. The area councils hear and adjudicate on matters concerning their city district.
The district of Freiolsheim includes the original town of Freiolsheim, the village of Mittelberg and the hamlet of Moosbronn. The core area of Gaggenau includes the city of Gaggenau, the village Ottenau, and the hamlet Amalienberg. The Oberweier district includes the villages of Oberweier and Niederweier. The Bad Rotenfels district includes the original village of Bad Rotenfels and the hamlet of Winkel. The original villages of Hörden, Michelbach, Selbach and Sulzbach were retained as separate city districts.
History
Gaggenau was first mentioned in local records in 1243 under the name "Gaggenaw". The present district of Bad Rotenfels is even older, having been mentioned in a royal donation letter in 1041. Gaggenau remained a small village until the 19th century: Originally part of the UfgauUfgau
Ufgau was a historical county of the Frankish duchy of Swabia, along the Oos River and the lower Murg, delimited to the south by the counties of Albgau and Ortenau...
, it came under the jurisdiction of the marquisate of Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
in the 13th century, and was included in the territory claimed by the Margrave
Margrave
A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...
of Baden-Baden in 1535, which held it until 1689. At that time, it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Kuppenheim
Kuppenheim
Kuppenheim is a town in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the river Murg, 5 km southeast of Rastatt, and 8 km north of Baden-Baden....
district of the Bishopric of Speyer
Bishopric of Speyer
The Bishopric of Speyer was a state, ruled by Prince-Bishops, in what is today the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was secularized in 1803...
. It was eventually assigned to the jurisdiction of the Rastatt Office of the State of Baden, which later became the District of Rastatt.
In 1691, the area was at the center of the Palatinate War of Succession and was almost completely destroyed by the French forces. In 1772, Anton Rindeschwender established a successful glassworks factory below the village, and along with it a number of new residences and supporting businesses in the area.
The real industrial boom began in 1873 with the establishment of the Michael Flürscheims Ironworks, which resurrected an iron smelter originally established by the Margrave of Baden in the late 18th century. In 1895 the factory built the 5-hp automobile Orient Express and entered the new industry of automobile manufacture. In 1905 they renamed themselves the Gaggenau South German Automobile Factory GmbH. In 1907 the company was taken over by the company Benz & Cie of Mannheim until the merger of Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
AG in 1926.
Thus, the settlement grew, and Gaggenau was eventually raised to the status of city on 15 September 1922 because of its economic prosperity.
In September 1944, the Nazis built a detention camp in the Bad Rotenfels district. Six barracks were built to house about 1,600 men and women, mostly French prisoners, who were used as forced labor in the Daimler-Benz plants. About 500 of them were killed. A memorial plaque has been raised in the meadow where the barracks were located. Another memorial was raised in the Bad Rotenfels cemetery commemorating the murder of 27 of those prisoners by their Nazi captors.
In the Second World War, about 70% of the city was destroyed. On 10 September 1944, 140 B-17 bombers from the 8th battalion of the US Air Force bombed the automobile factory complex. Another battalion of 139 B-24 bombers bombed the area a second time on 3 October. The city and surrounding area was rebuilt after the war, and was completed with the construction of Gaggenau's Town Hall in 1958.
In 1969, in response to an effort to aggregate and consolidate municipal governments into districts of 20,000 or more, the state government of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
approved a petition by the town of Gaggenau to annex six of its surrounding communities, thereby doubling Gaggenau's population and increasing its area fivefold. Among the areas annexed was the former municipality of Rotenfels and the large swath of forest that ran along the Murg
Murg
The Murg is a river and right tributary of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.-Source:The river has numerous tributaries and is known as the Murg only from the point of confluence of the rivers Rechtmurg and Rotmurg in the community of Obertal, a part of Baiersbronn...
River between the two municipalities. The annexations were performed over a period of six years.
Annexations
The following communities were annexed into the town of Gaggenau on the following dates. They were all administered under the office or district of Rastatt:- 1935: Ottenau
- January 1, 1970: Bad Rotenfels, with the hamlet of Winkel
- April 1, 1970: Selbach
- September 1, 1971: Freiolsheim with the hamlet of Moosbronn and the village of Mittelberg
- April 1, 1972: Oberweier with the villages of Upper and Lower Weier
- April 1, 1973: Sulzbach
- January 1, 1975: Hörden and Michelbach
Bad Rotenfels, Gaggenau and Ottenau together were combined into a single administrative "village" in accordance with the Municipal Code of Baden-Württemberg.
Population Development
Population figures for the respective territorial status. The figures are census results (¹) or official updates of the respective statistical offices (only primary residences):| class="wikitable"> | Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1450 | 100 |
| 1550 | 350 |
| 1650 | 160 |
| 1790 | 520 |
| 1833 | 1.071 |
| December 1880 ¹ | 1.522 |
| December 1905 ¹ | 2.400 |
| December 1910 ¹ | 3.120 |
| 1926 | 4.162 |
| 1935 | 6.600 |
| May 1939 ¹ | 7.741 |
¹ Census results
Religion
Gaggenau belonged to the Diocese of SpeyerDiocese of Speyer
The Diocese of Speyer is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is located in the South of the Rhineland-Palatinate and comprises also the Saarpfalz district in the east of the Saarland. The bishop's see is in the Palatinate city of Speyer.The current bishop is Karl-Heinz...
and was assigned to the Kuppenheim District under that Diocese. The Reformation
Reformation
- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...
arrived in 1555, and over the next three and a half centuries, under a variety of rulers, the majority denomination of Gaggenau changed six times between Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran (Protestant) before finally settling to become a Catholic majority.
Until 1891, the only Catholic parish church for the entire region was the St. Lawrence parish church in Rotenfels. The present church dates from the Baroque era in the 17th century, with the interior dating from the 18th century. In 1891, the St. Wendelin chapel was consecrated in Gaggenau. Gaggenau received its own parish church of St. Joseph in 1899. The Catholic churches in the other districts of Gaggenau date to earlier times. All of the area parishes came under the newly-founded Archdiocese of Freiburg
Archdiocese of Freiburg
The Archdiocese of Freiburg im Breisgau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Baden-Württemberg comprising the former states of Baden and Hohenzollern...
in 1821/1827 and assigned to the Murgtal Office of the Dean. Today, the city of Gaggenau includes the following Catholic parishes: St. Joseph (Gaggenau); Gaggenau; St. Mary; Mary Help (Moosbronn-Freiolsheim); St. Johann Nepomuk (Hörden); St. Michael (Michelbach); St. John the Baptist (Oberweier); St. Lawrence (Bad Rotenfels); St. Nicholas (Selbach); St. Anne (Sulzbach); and St. Jodocus (Ottenau).
The Evangelical Lutherans (Protestants) were driven out in the 18th century but moved back in again to Gaggenau in the 19th century. They formed their own community and built their own church in 1891. This church was destroyed in the Second World War but rebuilt in 1953. The community, including all of the Protestants in the modern districts of Gaggenau and in Rastatt, belong to the Evangelical Church
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
district of Baden-Baden.
Besides the two major churches above, other Christian communities exist in Gaggenau, including the New Apostolic Church
New Apostolic Church
The New Apostolic Church is a chiliastic church, converted to Protestantism as a free church from the Catholic Apostolic Church. The church has existed since 1879 in Germany and since 1897 in the Netherlands...
and Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
. Over 1,100 Muslims, mainly Turkish, also live in Gaggenau. The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (which belongs to the DİTİB, or the Diyanet Isleri Türk İslam Birligi) is located in the Bad Rotenfels district and has over 200 members.
Municipal
The council of the city of Gaggenau is made up of 26 seats. The June 2009 election was the 7th since the city adopted the city council model. The election results were as follows:- CDU 31.9% (-2.4), 9 seats
- SPD 26.76% (-0.24), 7 seats
- FWG 20.13% (-4.07), 5 seats
- FDP 12.08% (+3.28), 3 seats
- Greens 9.14% (+3.44), 2 seats
Mayor
When local government was established in the 16th century, a judge-advocate was appointed for life by the Margraviate Overseer to protect the Margrave's interests. By the end of the century, this judge-advocate had expanded to six people to govern the town. At that time, the Margrave of Baden or his representative appointed the jury magistrates as life appointments. In 1809, the office of Vogt ('Steward') was created, appointed by the Margrave. In 1832, a new state law transformed local government. The citizens of the community were to elect a Mayor, which replaced the Vogt; and a Council of 5-6 members.In 1933, the Nazi policy of Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung
Gleichschaltung , meaning "coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control and tight coordination over all aspects of society. The historian Richard J...
effectively abolished local and state government and put all German territory under national administrative control. After the demise of the Nazi regime in 1945, state and local governments were re-established. In 1971, the office of Deputy Mayor was established.
Stewards and Mayors
|
|
Florus was elected as Mayor on 25 March 2007 in a runoff election. Florus won against candidates Alois Degler, Wolfgang Seckler and former Mayor Michael Schulz.
Town Seal
The town seal of the city of Gaggenau consists of a white representation of a Sester (an old Roman unit of measure for liquids and grain) on a red background. The city flag is white and red.The current town seal began appearing on city reference documents in the 18th century, but was replaced in 1901 with a split design of a cogwheel (symbolizing industry in general) on one side and a glass beaker (for the local glassworks industry) on the other. In 1938, the emblem was changed again, this time with the Gaggenau Sester on top and a pruning hook below, in order to reflect the inclusion of the town of Ottenau. It was changed again in 1958 with the images rotated to be equally represented on the shield. Finally, as part of the municipal reform and additional village annexations of the 1970s, the emblem was restored to its original pre-20th-century design by the Interior Ministry of Baden-Württemberg.
Sister Cities
Gaggenau has been a sister city with the City of AnnemasseAnnemasse
Annemasse is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the border with Switzerland. It is the second town in the Haute-Savoie department with a population estimated to 29'450 in 2010.-Geography:...
in France since 1970 and with the City of Sieradz
Sieradz
Sieradz is a town on the Warta river in central Poland with 44,326 inhabitants . It is situated in the Łódź Voivodship , but was previously the eponymous capital of the Sieradz Voivodship , and historically one of the minor duchies in Greater Poland.It is one of the oldest towns in Poland,...
in Poland since 2000.
Theatre
The "Klag-Bühne" in Gaggenau is a nationally known venue for cabaret music and dinner theater. The theatre is located in the city's cultural center.Museums
- The Kast Museum in the HördenHordenHorden is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated on the North Sea coast, to the east of Peterlee, approximately 12 miles south of Sunderland. Horden was a mining village until the closure of the Horden Colliery in 1987. Main features include the Welfare and Memorial Parks and St...
district shows rafting, forest, hunting, history, fairy tales and legends. - There is a local history museum in the MichelbachMichelbachMichelbach is a small community in the Saarland, Germany, with about 1000 citizens. It is part of the municipality of Schmelz , and is situated in the district of Saarlouis. It's near the gate of the Hochwald region of the Saarland....
district. - The Unimog Museum is a private museum in the Bad Rotenfels district, owned by Daimler-BenzDaimler-BenzDaimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
, that celebrates the history of the UnimogUnimogUnimog is a range of multi-purpose auto four wheel drive medium trucks produced by Mercedes-Benz, a division of Daimler AG. The name Unimog is pronounced in German and is an acronym for the German "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät", Gerät being the German word for machine or device...
line of trucks manufactured by Daimler-BenzDaimler-BenzDaimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had...
.
Buildings
In Gaggenau proper, St. Mark's Evangelical Church was built in 1891, and St. Joseph's Catholic Parish was built in 1899 (replacing the original St. Wendelin chapel built in 1891). Both were heavily damaged in World War II and rebuilt after the war with significant design changes. The town hall was also destroyed along with most buildings in the city core during the air raids of the Second World War, and was rebuilt in 1957.The district of Bad Rotenfels has a number of historic buildings. The Baroque Catholic parish church of St. Lawrence in Bad Rotenfels was originally built in 1752-1766 by Ignaz Franz Krohmer. The church was the first parish in the Murg Valley and is therefore known as the mother church of the Murg. The current church building is actually the third version built, the most recent in the mid-1800s. In a 1902-1903 renovation, the facade of the church was updated with a neo-baroque facade.
Other churches in the current city include the St. Johann Nepomuk Hörden Catholic Church (Year 1894), the half-timbered Catholic Church of St. Mary in the Michelbach village from the 13th Century with later alterations, the late Gothic St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Oberweier, the Selbach Catholic Church from 1756, the neo-Romanesque church in Sulzbach from 1884 and the neo-Gothic parish church in Ottenau from 1906. In the upper village of Bad Rotenfels, at the turnoff to the hamlet of Winkel, the one-room St. Sebastian chapel was built from 1747-1752 with an open porch and roof turret and is smaller than the surrounding rural residences.
Bad Rotenfels is the home of the world-famous Rotenfels spa, built on top of the Bad (German: Bath) Rotenfels hot springs. The spa hosts thousands of visitors from around the world to enjoy its waters. The district also includes the Rotenfels Castle Academy, which is housed in the buildings and grounds of the former Rotenfels stoneware factory. The factory, built around 1801, housed a stoneware (porcelain) manufacturing plant until 1816. In 1818, Margrave Wilhelm of Baden decided to turn the property into a country chateau. From 1818 to 1827, the building was redesigned by Friedrich Weinbrenner into a prestigious building in classical portico style. It remained a country residence until the 1970s, when the Academy purchased the building for its use.
Parks
In the inner city and the suburbs are many wells and springs. The best known of these is the goose fountain, built at the train station in 1981 by Gudrun Schreiner. The fountain represents Gaggenau's founding legend that claims the city of Gaggenau was founded on a spot where geese gathered on a large pond. The town of Gaggenau was named from the cackling of the geese. Hörden also has an interesting fountain, the Fountain Rafters, designed to recall the traditional local craft of raftsmen. The gargoyles represent traditional characters of the Hörden Carnival: The Fürigen Barthel, the stillage and Domino. In the district and former town of Bad Rotenfels, an old draw-well tray was rediscovered by the lower acorn mountain road by the local heritage society and restored for public display.Gaggenau has created a park along the banks of the Murg River, which runs through its community. Gaggenau also includes a large park on the south side of the river against the forest which hosts a number of significant ruins and springs, including military fortifications dating back to the 16th century, as well as a memorial to a Nazi labor camp where some 1,600 prisoners were housed and used for forced labor. The park includes outdoor sports facilities and marked nature paths with historical markers.
Cemeteries
The original Rotenfels cemetery was located on the grounds of the St. Lawrence parish church. This cemetery was closed around 1820 and all of the graves and all but a representative handful of gravestones of famous town citizens (which were left on the church premises) were relocated to a new cemetery on a small island in the Murg River just south of the town center. The island is connected to the town via a bridge which spans a canal used to generate hydroelectric electric power. After the Second World War, this island cemetery was closed for further internments and the current cemetery was built between the town centers of Rotenfels and Gaggenau.Regular Events / Festivities
- May Market (now called "Gaggenau May Days"), arose from the former Bad Rotenfels annual fair and market
- Autumn Fair
- Artists and crafts market
- Nicholas Market
Transportation
Gaggenau is located on the Rastatt-Freudenstadt Highway 462 (Black Forest Valleys road). The nearest motorway junction is Federal Highway 5 at Karlsruhe-Basel in Rastatt.The Rastatt-Freudenstadt (Murgtalbahn) line also runs through the city, having done so since the line was electrified in 2002. The Karlsruhe light rail line has also provided direct service to Gaggenau since that time.
Local Industry
- Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz plant in Gaggenau, the largest employer in the city
- Dambach Group of Companies
- Grötz GmbH & Co. KG
- King Metal
- Kohlbecker Architects & Engineers
- KWH Automotive GmbH
- Gerhard Lang GmbH & Co. KG and scrap metal recycling company
- Lang GmbH & Co. KG Builders
- Florence Mash Protektorwerk
- Precitec KG
- PolyOne Th Bergmann GmbH
Local Media
The Murgtal Badisches Tagblatt (BT), based in Baden-BadenBaden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
, reports on local happenings and provides local editorials to Gaggenau through their local edition of Murgtäler. Their daily circulation figure is 11,000. The Badische Neueste Nachrichten (BNN), based in Karlsruhe, also provides local coverage of Rastatt and Gaggenau in their local edition with daily circulation figures of 10,000.
Gaggenau Week is a local weekly newsletter. It is distributed free of charge once per week to Gaggenau households, with a circulation of about 16,000 copies. This newsletter is published by Walnut Media, based in Weil. They maintain a field office in the city of Gaggenau.
The Badisches Tagblatt also publishes two local business news journals and a weekly magazine for the Rastatt / Murgtal areas called WHERE, delivered to households free of charge, with a special Murgtal weekend edition on Sunday. Circulation of WHERE is about 25,000 copies, the Sunday weekend edition approximately 73,000 copies.
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...
serves as the regional television station, broadcast out of Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
. It also provides reporting of local events in Gaggenau.
Education
The town of Gaggenau has one high school (Goethe Gymnasium), a secondary school (Realschule Gaggenau), and three elementary and secondary schools with vocational school (Eichelbergschule Bad Rotenfels, Hebelschule and Merkurschule) the Hans-Thoma- primary school and one elementary school in the suburbs for Selbach (Eberstein Elementary School), Hörden, Michelbach, Oberweier and Sulzbach. Furthermore, the school complex Dachgrub Bad Rotenfels, funded by Erich Kästner-Schule, was established by the district of Rastatt. The area also hosts the Carl Benz School, a vocational school.The Akademie Schloss Rotenfels has been established In the Rotenfels Castle since 1996. The Baden-Württemberg Academy of Fine Arts school and amateur theater are also located in the community.