Wanfried
Encyclopedia
Wanfried is a town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis
in northeasternmost Hesse
, Germany
. It is classified as a Landstadt, a designation given in Germany to a municipality that is officially a town (Stadt), but whose population is below 5,000. It literally means “country town”.
. It is found in the Werra
valley northeast of the Schlierbachswald (range). Northeast of Wanfried, beyond the Thuringian boundary, is the neighbouring Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal Nature Park.
The Hessian middle centre of Eschwege
lies only some 11 km upstream to the west. Other nearby towns of its kind are Mühlhausen
(some 25 km to the east) and Eisenach
(some 28 km to the southeast), both of which lie in Thuringia.
, and more particularly on its constituent community of Döringsdorf (in Thuringia
’s Eichsfeld district
), in the east on the communities of Hildebrandshausen
and Katharinenberg
(both in Thuringia’s Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis), in the southeast and the south on the town of Treffurt
(in Thuringia’s Wartburgkreis
) and in the west on the town of Eschwege
and the community of Meinhard
, and more particularly on its constituent community of Frieda (both in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis).
came to this area, it was already here. There were even already Christians here. He built the first churches. Even on the Hülfensberg he built a church and a monastery
. While gazing from the Hülfensberg, Saint Boniface supposedly said, according to legend, “Wann wird endlich Frieden schweben über dieser schönen Aue?” (“When will peace at last hover over this lovely floodplain?). Folk etymology holds that this yielded the local placenames Wanfried, Frieda, Schwebda and Aue.
As a place in a border area, Wanfried, which had already been mentioned by 813 under the names In wanen In Riden and Uuanenreodum, was often the object of territorial swaps and pledges by both the Hessian
and Thuringian Landgraves, whose spheres of interest came up against each other here. After the Battle of Wettin
(1264), the community mentioned at this time as Wenefridun was ceded to Thuringia. To expand his new Hessian Landgraviate, Henry I
bought the communities of Wanfried and Frieda and a few villages in the Eichsfeld
from the Thuringian Landgrave in 1306. A few years later, with and assault by Hermann II of Treffurt
, began the violent disputes over Wanfried’s ownership. Hermann managed to take the place in a surprise attack; however, he could not keep it in the long run. In 1336, Hermann’s castle, Normannstein was taken by a coalition of Hessian, Electoral Mainz
and Saxonian troops. After the booty had been shared out among the victors, the Hessian Landgrave Otto I
sought to link the new, isolated properties to his territory by a territorial corridor. To this end, he acquired in 1365 from the Lords at Völkershausen
their court rights over the villages of Altenburschla, Döringsdorf, Heldra, Helderbach, Rambach and Weißenborn. Before Wanfried passed for good to the Hessian Landgraves, there were once again conflicts with neighbouring Thuringia in the course of the Sternerkrieg (war), in the late 14th century.
Wanfried was raised to town on 30 August 1608 through Hessian Landgrave Moritz’s privilege, and was granted market rights, too.
In 1616, the town of Wanfried was named in the Verzeichnis der fürnembsten Städte Europas (“Directory of Europe’s Finest Cities”) as an important trading centre. As a starting point for shipping on the Werra, whose river system had been secured by locks at Eschwege
and Allendorf
, the town grew into a trading centre in which wares of all kinds were traded. After the goods had cleared the Auf der Schlagd customs office, they were consigned to the town’s warehouses, shortly thereafter to be shipped out again overland. The shippers brought mostly goods from the coastal cities bound especially for Thuringia and Bavaria, important destinations there being the trading centres of Leipzig
and Nuremberg
.
In the Thirty Years' War
, the town was sacked by Tilly’s troops on 25 June 1626. In 1627, Wanfried belonged to the domain of the Rotenburger Quart and as of 1667 was residence of the Catholic sideline of Hesse-Wanfried
. In 1667, Landgrave Karl moved into the palace here as founder of the line. Karl’s sons, Wilhelm and Christian, ruled here until their line died out in 1755. In accordance with the house agreement, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Wanfried then passed back to Hesse-Rotenburg. In 1834, Hesse-Rotenburg itself passed back to the main line of Hesse-Kassel
.
Wanfried’s former importance as an entrepôt is confirmed by a trader’s balance sheet from the time about the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th. At this time, goods shipped out amounted to 80,000 hundredweight
yearly, and the turnover came in at 132,000 hundredweight. Preferred goods were coffee
, sugar
, oil, spices, tobacco
, wool
len goods, wine
, honey
and fish. It was at this time that the stately trade houses arose on the market street, great townsmen’s houses, inns, hostels, a stock exchange and a brewery. In the latter half of the 19th century, shipping on the Werra shrank ever more in importance as inland goods transport shifted to the railways. Wanfried was linked to the rail network in 1902 by the Werratalbahn.
In the 19th century, the trading town of Wanfried saw a boom in its wealth. The walls and towers were razed and the old town hall was torn down. The town’s former glamour has been outlasted by the stately timber-frame
houses, which form an almost unbroken set.
The inhabitants have been overwhelmingly Protestant
since the Reformation
. The small Catholic parish (founded in 1908) grew greatly after the Second World War from all the refugees. The time from March through June 1945 in nazi-administered and American liberated Wanfried is described by Agnes Humbert from her viewpoint as a former French political prisoner and badly mistreated slave-labourer in her diary Notre guerre, souvenirs de Resistance (Tallandier Editions, 2004)(note: drs. Carles Wolterman, Amstelveen, Holland)
In 1945, at the Wanfried lordly seat, the Kalkhof, the Wanfried agreement
, a territorial swap between the American
and Soviet
zones of occupation along the so-called Whisky-Vodka Line (a local railway, not the border), was signed.
Under the pseudonym “Friedheim”, the small town on the zonal border cropped up in producer Niklaus Schilling’s feature films Willi-Busch-Report and Deutschfieber, produced respectively a few years before and in the year after German reunification
. Wanfried – or Friedheim – stood for a very quiet place about which not much was ever heard, but into which a local newspaper editor sought to bring some life by himself secretly initiating incidents on the border so that he could then report them in his paper.
The town of Wanfried celebrated its 400-year jubilee of the granting of town rights in 2008.
Heading the town council is Frank Susebach (SPD).
might be described thus: Gules a bordure argent surmounted by the bust of a knight armoured proper.
Even the oldest known seal, from 1578, showed the knight. It could be a rendering of Roland
, which was put in the arms as a sign of the lawcourt. It is also conceivable that the arms are canting
with the knight standing as a peacekeeper in this former, once constantly contested bordertown. Wahr’ ’n Fried would, after all, be a rather vernacular way of saying “Keep the peace” in German
, and it does sound rather like “Wanfried”.
, Finistère
, France
Schörfling am Attersee
, Upper Austria
, Austria
The outlying centre of Altenburschla has the following sister village: Villeneuve-les-Sablons
, Oise
, France
n 250 and 249.
(Elisabeth-Selbert-Schule), which since the 2006-2007 schoolyear has been functioning as a branch school of the Anne-Frank-Schule in Eschwege
.
Werra-Meißner-Kreis
Werra-Meißner is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Göttingen, Eichsfeld, Unstrut-Hainich, Wartburgkreis, district-free Eisenach, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Schwalm-Eder, Kassel.-History:...
in northeasternmost 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 classified as a Landstadt, a designation given in Germany to a municipality that is officially a town (Stadt), but whose population is below 5,000. It literally means “country town”.
Location
The town lies right on the boundary with ThuringiaThuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
. It is found in the Werra
Werra
The Werra is a river in central Germany, the right-source river of the Weser. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After 293 km the Werra joins the river Fulda in the town of Hann. Münden, forming the Weser....
valley northeast of the Schlierbachswald (range). Northeast of Wanfried, beyond the Thuringian boundary, is the neighbouring Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal Nature Park.
The Hessian middle centre of Eschwege
Eschwege
Eschwege , the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany.- Location :The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river Werra at the foot of the Leuchtberg northwest of the Schlierbachswald and east of the Hoher Meißner...
lies only some 11 km upstream to the west. Other nearby towns of its kind are Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Unstrut-Hainich district, and lies along the river Unstrut. Mühlhausen had c. 37,000 inhabitants in 2006.-History:...
(some 25 km to the east) and Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...
(some 28 km to the southeast), both of which lie in Thuringia.
Neighbouring communities
Wanfried borders in the north on the community of GeismarGeismar
Geismar is a Thuringian municipality in the district of Eichsfeld in Germany....
, and more particularly on its constituent community of Döringsdorf (in Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
’s Eichsfeld district
Eichsfeld (district)
Eichsfeld is a district in Thuringia, Germany, and part of the historical region of Eichsfeld. It is bounded by the districts of Nordhausen, Kyffhäuserkreis and Unstrut-Hainich, and by the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony .-History:In medieval times the Eichsfeld, which is larger than the...
), in the east on the communities of Hildebrandshausen
Hildebrandshausen
Hildebrandshausen is a municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich district of Thuringia, Germany....
and Katharinenberg
Katharinenberg
Katharinenberg is a municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich district of Thuringia, Germany.- References :...
(both in Thuringia’s Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis), in the southeast and the south on the town of Treffurt
Treffurt
Treffurt is a town in the Wartburgkreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 19 km northwest of Eisenach, and 18 km southwest of Mühlhausen in the Naturpark Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal nature park. Treffurt is well known for its old beautiful villas and...
(in Thuringia’s Wartburgkreis
Wartburgkreis
Wartburgkreis is a Kreis in the west of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are the districts Unstrut-Hainich, Gotha, Schmalkalden-Meiningen, and the districts Fulda, Hersfeld-Rotenburg and Werra-Meißner in Hesse...
) and in the west on the town of Eschwege
Eschwege
Eschwege , the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany.- Location :The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river Werra at the foot of the Leuchtberg northwest of the Schlierbachswald and east of the Hoher Meißner...
and the community of Meinhard
Meinhard
Meinhard is a community in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in Hesse, Germany.-Location:The community lies in the North Hesse Low Mountain Range landscape on the edge of the Werra valley, 3 km from the district seat of Eschwege....
, and more particularly on its constituent community of Frieda (both in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis).
Constituent communities
Wanfried’s Stadtteile are Wanfried (main town), Altenburschla, Aue, Heldra and Völkershausen.History
Wanfried is an ancient town. When Saint BonifaceSaint Boniface
Saint Boniface , the Apostle of the Germans, born Winfrid, Wynfrith, or Wynfryth in the kingdom of Wessex, probably at Crediton , was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century. He is the patron saint of Germany and the first archbishop of Mainz...
came to this area, it was already here. There were even already Christians here. He built the first churches. Even on the Hülfensberg he built a church and a monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
. While gazing from the Hülfensberg, Saint Boniface supposedly said, according to legend, “Wann wird endlich Frieden schweben über dieser schönen Aue?” (“When will peace at last hover over this lovely floodplain?). Folk etymology holds that this yielded the local placenames Wanfried, Frieda, Schwebda and Aue.
As a place in a border area, Wanfried, which had already been mentioned by 813 under the names In wanen In Riden and Uuanenreodum, was often the object of territorial swaps and pledges by both the Hessian
Landgraviate of Hesse
The Landgraviate of Hesse was a Landgraviate of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a unity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided between the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse.-History:...
and Thuringian Landgraves, whose spheres of interest came up against each other here. After the Battle of Wettin
Wettin, Saxony-Anhalt
Wettin is a small town and a former municipality in the Saalekreis district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, situated on the River Saale north of Halle. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the town Löbejün-Wettin. It is known for Wettin Castle, the ancestral seat of the House of Wettin, ruling dynasty of...
(1264), the community mentioned at this time as Wenefridun was ceded to Thuringia. To expand his new Hessian Landgraviate, Henry I
Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse
Henry I of Hesse "the Child" was the first Landgrave of Hesse. He was the son of Henry II, Duke of Brabant and Sophie of Thuringia.-Life:...
bought the communities of Wanfried and Frieda and a few villages in the Eichsfeld
Eichsfeld
The Eichsfeld is a historical region in the southeast of Lower Saxony and northwest of Thuringia in the south of the Harz mountains...
from the Thuringian Landgrave in 1306. A few years later, with and assault by Hermann II of Treffurt
Treffurt
Treffurt is a town in the Wartburgkreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Werra, 19 km northwest of Eisenach, and 18 km southwest of Mühlhausen in the Naturpark Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal nature park. Treffurt is well known for its old beautiful villas and...
, began the violent disputes over Wanfried’s ownership. Hermann managed to take the place in a surprise attack; however, he could not keep it in the long run. In 1336, Hermann’s castle, Normannstein was taken by a coalition of Hessian, Electoral Mainz
Archbishopric of Mainz
The Archbishopric of Mainz or Electorate of Mainz was an influential ecclesiastic and secular prince-bishopric in the Holy Roman Empire between 780–82 and 1802. In the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Archbishop of Mainz was the primas Germaniae, the substitute of the Pope north of the Alps...
and Saxonian troops. After the booty had been shared out among the victors, the Hessian Landgrave Otto I
Otto I, Landgrave of Hesse
Otto I of Hesse , Landgrave of Hesse.He was a son of Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse and his first wife Adelheid of Brunswick-Lunenburg. Following the death of his father in 1308, he inherited Upper Hesse, the "Land on the Lahn", which included Marburg, Giessen, Grünberg and Alsfeld...
sought to link the new, isolated properties to his territory by a territorial corridor. To this end, he acquired in 1365 from the Lords at Völkershausen
Völkershausen
Völkershausen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany.In 13 March 1989, it hosted an earthquake of magnitude 5.6, which was triggered by an explosion in the salt mine "Merkers". Much of the building, including the Church and the kindergarten, were damaged and had to be...
their court rights over the villages of Altenburschla, Döringsdorf, Heldra, Helderbach, Rambach and Weißenborn. Before Wanfried passed for good to the Hessian Landgraves, there were once again conflicts with neighbouring Thuringia in the course of the Sternerkrieg (war), in the late 14th century.
Wanfried was raised to town on 30 August 1608 through Hessian Landgrave Moritz’s privilege, and was granted market rights, too.
In 1616, the town of Wanfried was named in the Verzeichnis der fürnembsten Städte Europas (“Directory of Europe’s Finest Cities”) as an important trading centre. As a starting point for shipping on the Werra, whose river system had been secured by locks at Eschwege
Eschwege
Eschwege , the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany.- Location :The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river Werra at the foot of the Leuchtberg northwest of the Schlierbachswald and east of the Hoher Meißner...
and Allendorf
Bad Sooden-Allendorf
-Location:The spa town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf lies in the Werra valley near the Hoher Meißner, right on the boundary with Thuringia, almost at Germany’s geographical centre, 33 km east of Kassel.-Neighbouring communities:...
, the town grew into a trading centre in which wares of all kinds were traded. After the goods had cleared the Auf der Schlagd customs office, they were consigned to the town’s warehouses, shortly thereafter to be shipped out again overland. The shippers brought mostly goods from the coastal cities bound especially for Thuringia and Bavaria, important destinations there being the trading centres of Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
.
In the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, the town was sacked by Tilly’s troops on 25 June 1626. In 1627, Wanfried belonged to the domain of the Rotenburger Quart and as of 1667 was residence of the Catholic sideline of Hesse-Wanfried
Hesse-Wanfried
The mini-state Hesse-Wanfried existed from about 1700 to 1731. It was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in the area of the today's Land of Hesse...
. In 1667, Landgrave Karl moved into the palace here as founder of the line. Karl’s sons, Wilhelm and Christian, ruled here until their line died out in 1755. In accordance with the house agreement, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Wanfried then passed back to Hesse-Rotenburg. In 1834, Hesse-Rotenburg itself passed back to the main line of Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...
.
Hundredweight
The hundredweight or centum weight is a unit of mass defined in terms of the pound . The definition used in Britain differs from that used in North America. The two are distinguished by the terms long hundredweight and short hundredweight:* The long hundredweight is defined as 112 lb, which...
yearly, and the turnover came in at 132,000 hundredweight. Preferred goods were coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, oil, spices, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
len goods, wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
and fish. It was at this time that the stately trade houses arose on the market street, great townsmen’s houses, inns, hostels, a stock exchange and a brewery. In the latter half of the 19th century, shipping on the Werra shrank ever more in importance as inland goods transport shifted to the railways. Wanfried was linked to the rail network in 1902 by the Werratalbahn.
In the 19th century, the trading town of Wanfried saw a boom in its wealth. The walls and towers were razed and the old town hall was torn down. The town’s former glamour has been outlasted by the stately timber-frame
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
houses, which form an almost unbroken set.
The inhabitants have been overwhelmingly Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
since the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
. The small Catholic parish (founded in 1908) grew greatly after the Second World War from all the refugees. The time from March through June 1945 in nazi-administered and American liberated Wanfried is described by Agnes Humbert from her viewpoint as a former French political prisoner and badly mistreated slave-labourer in her diary Notre guerre, souvenirs de Resistance (Tallandier Editions, 2004)(note: drs. Carles Wolterman, Amstelveen, Holland)
In 1945, at the Wanfried lordly seat, the Kalkhof, the Wanfried agreement
Wanfried agreement
The Wanfried Agreement concerned a transfer of territory between the U.S. and Soviet occupation zones after World War II in Hesse, Germany, which took place after the determination of the main inner German border at the end of July 1945.In the U.S...
, a territorial swap between the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
zones of occupation along the so-called Whisky-Vodka Line (a local railway, not the border), was signed.
Under the pseudonym “Friedheim”, the small town on the zonal border cropped up in producer Niklaus Schilling’s feature films Willi-Busch-Report and Deutschfieber, produced respectively a few years before and in the year after German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. Wanfried – or Friedheim – stood for a very quiet place about which not much was ever heard, but into which a local newspaper editor sought to bring some life by himself secretly initiating incidents on the border so that he could then report them in his paper.
The town of Wanfried celebrated its 400-year jubilee of the granting of town rights in 2008.
Town council
The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:| Parties and voter communities | % 2006 |
Seats 2006 |
% 2001 |
Seats 2001 |
|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 44.7 | 10 | 40.8 | 9 |
| 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... |
50.0 | 12 | 59.2 | 14 |
| 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... |
5.3 | 1 | – | – |
| Total | 100.0 | 23 | 100.0 | 23 | |
| Voter turnout in % | 65.5 | 66.4 | |||
Heading the town council is Frank Susebach (SPD).
Mayors
Since October 2007, Wilhelm Gebhard (CDU) has been the mayor. He beat his opponent, Otto Frank (SPD), who held office from 1989 to 2007, with 51.7% of the vote.Coat of arms
The town’s armsCoat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
might be described thus: Gules a bordure argent surmounted by the bust of a knight armoured proper.
Even the oldest known seal, from 1578, showed the knight. It could be a rendering of Roland
Roland
Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...
, which was put in the arms as a sign of the lawcourt. It is also conceivable that the arms are canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
with the knight standing as a peacekeeper in this former, once constantly contested bordertown. Wahr’ ’n Fried would, after all, be a rather vernacular way of saying “Keep the peace” in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and it does sound rather like “Wanfried”.
Town partnerships
PlouescatPlouescat
Plouescat is a commune in the Finistère department in Bretagne in northwestern France. It is a seaside resort, complete with a casino and a large camping and caravanning site, adjacent to its beautiful extensive beach of fine, powdery sand...
, Finistère
Finistère
Finistère is a département of France, in the extreme west of Brittany.-History:The name Finistère derives from the Latin Finis Terræ, meaning end of the earth, and may be compared with Land's End on the opposite side of the English Channel...
, 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...
Schörfling am Attersee
Schörfling am Attersee
Schörfling am Attersee is a municipality in the district of Vöcklabruck in Upper Austria, Austria.-References:...
, Upper Austria
Upper Austria
Upper Austria is one of the nine states or Bundesländer of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
The outlying centre of Altenburschla has the following sister village: Villeneuve-les-Sablons
Villeneuve-les-Sablons
Villeneuve-les-Sablons is a small village in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.-References:*...
, Oise
Oise
Oise is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise.-History:Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, France
Museums
- Wanfried local museum at the Keudellsches Schloss
- Documentation centre for German postwar history
- Village museum in the outlying centre of Heldra
Buildings
- Schlagd, old harbour on the Werra with timber-frameTimber framingTimber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
warehouses - Keudellsches Schloss
- Wanfried Landgrave’s palace
- Historic Town Hall, built in the 17th century
- Harm'sches Haus from the time of river shipping
- Hotel "Zum Schwan", lavishly restored timber-frame house from 1690
- Old Post, former Thurn-und-Taxis postal house, built in 1751
- Aue lordly seat from 1576 and ruins of the Aue moatMoatA moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
ed castle - Ruins of an old fief house (in Völkershausen, Schlierbachswald)
- Hostel "Im Kleegarten" in Heldra, lavishly restored estate aus from the 17th century that has already won a number of prizes for monument protection
Natural monuments
- Plesse (479.6 m above sea levelSea levelMean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
), mountain with 60 m-tall light limestone rock face and the "Plesseturm" (tower), near Wanfried - Heldrastein (503.8 m above sea level; “King of the Werra valley”), mountain with 62 m-tall and 2 km-wide rock face and the "Turm der Einheit" (“Unity Tower”), near Treffurt
- HülfensbergHülfensbergThe Hülfensberg is a 448 m high, heavily wooded mountain in the Geismar municipality in the Eichsfeld district, Thuringia, Germany...
(448.2 m above sea level), richly wooded mountain and pilgrimagePilgrimageA pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
site near Geismar
Sport
- Schützenverein Wanfried 1568 (shooting club)
- VfL Wanfried; biggest sport club in Wanfried and second biggest club in the Werra-Meißner-KreisWerra-Meißner-KreisWerra-Meißner is a Kreis in the north of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Göttingen, Eichsfeld, Unstrut-Hainich, Wartburgkreis, district-free Eisenach, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Schwalm-Eder, Kassel.-History:...
- Wanfried is the district’s team handball stronghold.
Regular events
- "Schmandfest" (smetana festival) every August
- "Volks-, Schützen-, und Heimatfest" (folk, shooting and local history festival) yearly on the second weekend in July
- Christmas market on the second Saturday in December
- "Strohbärenfest" (“Straw Bear Festival”) in Heldra (on Ash Wednesday)
- Jazz-Matinee; Kalkhof in early summer
- Wanfrieder Lesung (“reading”); in summer
- Soapbox derby; yearly towards the end of summer holidays
- "Weinfest"; yearly on the third Saturday in September
- "Mountainbike-Orientierungsfahrt"; yearly on the second Saturday in October
Transport
Through Wanfried, which lies on the "Deutsche Fachwerkstraße" (“German Timber Frame Road”), run BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
n 250 and 249.
Education
The town has at its disposal one primary school (Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule) and one integrated comprehensive schoolComprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
(Elisabeth-Selbert-Schule), which since the 2006-2007 schoolyear has been functioning as a branch school of the Anne-Frank-Schule in Eschwege
Eschwege
Eschwege , the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany.- Location :The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river Werra at the foot of the Leuchtberg northwest of the Schlierbachswald and east of the Hoher Meißner...
.