Limburg an der Lahn (officially: Limburg a. d. Lahn) is the
district town of the Central Hessian district of Limburg-Weilburg
and, with around 35,000 inhabitants, its most populous city.
According to Hessian state planning, the city of Limburg fulfills
the function of a medium-sized center with an upper-central partial
function and, together with the neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate
city of Diez, forms a cross-border dual center with around 45,000
inhabitants. Due to its location, Limburg has a central function for
the sparsely populated western part of Hesse as well as for parts of
the Westerwaldkreis and the Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in
Rhineland-Palatinate.
The city is known nationwide mainly for
the diocese of the same name with its cathedral church, the late
Romanesque cathedral St. Georg, and the Limburg Süd train station on
the high-speed route Cologne-Rhine / Main.
There are four museums in Limburg:
Art collections of the city of
Limburg offering changing art exhibitions
Diocesan museum with
cathedral treasure, the Limburg Staurothek and Mariengarten
Marine
Museum Limburg
Pallottine Mission Museum
Due to the Second World War, only a few cities like Limburg survived the entire ensemble of medieval buildings almost intact. That is why the formerly walled town center between St. Georg Cathedral, Grabenstraße and the 600-year-old Lahn Bridge is now a listed building as the entire complex of the old town and the suburbs of Frankfurt.
Limburg Cathedral (Domplatz 2), formerly the collegiate and parish
church of St. George and Nicholas, since 1827 the cathedral and parish
church of the Diocese of Limburg; Built around 1190-1235, in addition to
the urban development effect, it is particularly significant because of
one of the best-preserved interior versions from the 13th century in
Germany.
Catholic town church and episcopal ordinariate
(Bischofsplatz 2-4/Roßmarkt 4-6), formerly the Franciscan church of St.
Sebastian with attached monastery; significant remains of equipment u.
a. Renaissance and Baroque epitaphs and organ case from 1686.
Former
hospital church of St. Anna with adjoining hospital (Hospitalstrasse 2),
formerly Wilhelmite monastery in Limburg; built in the 14th/15th
Century, restoration and baroque renovation after damage in the Thirty
Years' War in the 17th/18th Century; Valuable equipment remains,
including u. a. Stained glass from the third quarter of the 14th
century, organ case from 1749 and pulpit from 1753.
Evangelical
Lutheran St. John's Chapel (In der Erbach 2–3); built 1322–1324 as part
of the former local courtyard of the Eberbach Monastery; 1867-1903 used
as a synagogue.
Evangelical church and evangelical community center
(Bahnhofstraße 1), built 1864-1866 as a successor to the Wiesbaden
market church, damaged in 1944, 1973-1975 conversion and division.
Pallottine monastery church and parish church of St. Marien (Frankfurter
Straße 56), built in 1926/1927 according to plans by the architect Jan
Hubert Pinand under the influence of Dominikus Böhm, nationally
important Expressionist church with rarely completely preserved original
features.
Catholic parish church of St. Hildegard (Parkstraße); Built
in 1965-1967 according to plans by the architect Walter Neuhäusser, a
typical representative of the late phase of the international style with
a “flying roof”, which also houses the Crossover youth church.
Limburg Castle (built by Gerlach von Ysenburg in the early 13th
century)
"Huttig" (tower remains of the city wall, the course of
which is marked by Grabenstraße)
Old Lahn Bridge (from 1315, crossing
the Lahn via Publica)
New Town Hall (1898/99)
Old Gymnasium
Limburg at Freiherr-vom-Stein-Platz 1
In the old town there are numerous half-timbered houses, built from
the 13th to the 19th century. These have been carefully restored since
the start of the redevelopment of the old town in 1972. A special
feature are the medieval hall houses, which have a large hall on the
ground floor. The most famous houses in Limburg include:
Haus
Kleine Rütsche 4 (narrowest point of the historic trade route between
Frankfurt and Cologne, the width of which is written on Heumarkt in
Cologne)
House of the Seven Vices (Brückengasse 9, built 1567;
half-timbered house with carvings depicting the seven main vices of
Christianity)
Werner Senger House (oldest house in Limburg's old town
from the 13th century)
Houses at the fish market. In the 13th century
the name of the square was still Fismart (= thread, wool market) in the
Limburg dialect and was the trading center of the Limburg wool weavers.
First mentioned in 1317, it later served to sell fish.
Romans 2-4-6
(13th century half-timbered house)
Zum goldenen Hirsch (built around
1500, former inn)
Burgmannenhaus (built around 1544, today diocesan
museum)
Walderdorffer Hof (former aristocratic court of the Counts of
Walderdorff)
Villa Scheid (classified, upper-class residential
building)
The main German memorial in Limburg's main cemetery is dedicated to the soldiers who fell in the Battle of Stalingrad and died in subsequent captivity. It was designed by a former Stalingrad fighter and built in 1964.
The Stadthalle Limburg, named since 1996 after the former mayor and
honorary citizen of the city of Limburg an der Lahn, Josef Kohlmaier, is
used for shows, conferences, congresses and similar events. With the
entire region between Westerwald and Taunus, it has a catchment area of
almost 300,000 people. There is no similarly frequented multi-purpose
hall in the whole area. It counts over 150,000 visitors annually.
The cabaret "Thing", founded more than 25 years ago, moved after
some time from its initial domicile in the Staffel district to the
Josef-Kohlmaier-Halle, where its stage is located in the club rooms
today. The stage is supported by an independently operating association.
The program includes chanson, cabaret, literature and jazz as well as
folk, rock and performances by singer-songwriters. One focus is on
promoting young artists. Two or three events are offered per month. The
commitment of "Thing" was honored on December 6, 2003 with the
presentation of the "Culture Prize of Central Hesse".
With the Limburger Domsingknaben, Limburg has had a boys' choir since
1967, sponsored by the diocese of Limburg. From former singers of this
choir u. a. Founded the male vocal ensemble Camerata Musica Limburg in
1999. Its members are thus continuing the successful tradition of male
chamber choirs in Limburg.
Since 2012, Villa Scheid has been a
venue with the status of a cultural monument, especially for open-air
concerts in the summer months. With park-like grounds, this venue is
entirely privately owned. In addition to concerts, the program includes
u. also cabaret, an English garden party and art exhibitions.
One of the oldest Limburg sports clubs with supra-regional importance
is the Limburger Club for water sports 1895/1907 e. V. (LCW). The year
1895 in his name reflects the founding date of the Limburg Rowing Club
(LRV), from which today's club emerged. Today it is a training base for
the German Rowing Association (DRV).
The Limburger Hockey Club
(LHC) was founded in 1923 by members of the VfR 07 Limburg and is
represented with interruptions in both national leagues. Today it is a
hockey performance center and Olympic base. The club has won German
championship titles several times - in the youth field at regular
intervals to this day - and has produced a number of national players
and coaches.
One of the greatest achievements in the history of
the VfR 19 Limburg is the promotion of the basketball department to the
2nd Bundesliga in the 1997/1998 season, which was followed by relegation
again the following season. The first men's soccer team played from 1994
to 1997 in the then fourth-rate Oberliga Hessen. Since the 2019/20
season, TuS Dietkirchen has been playing in the fifth-rate Oberliga, now
known as the Hessenliga.
Chess has been organized in Limburg
since the 1930s. The chess club Lahn Limburg was founded on November 17,
1930 and in its long history has been able to celebrate promotion to the
highest division in Hesse (Oberliga Hessen or later Hessenliga) several
times. They last played in the 2005/2006 season in Hesse's top division.
In the 1980s, another chess club was able to establish itself in Limburg
with the chess club Königsflügel Lindenholzhausen.
In the
Rhineland-Palatinate neighboring town of Diez, the ice rink is the
training center of the ice hockey club nicknamed Rookie Rockets of the
EGDL (Eissport Gemein Diez-Limburg). The club, which plays successfully
in the Regionalliga West, was founded in 2004 and is therefore one of
the younger ones in Limburg. Forerunner clubs in the 1980s and 1990s
were the Diez-Limburg ice hockey club (ECDL) and the Limburger EG, which
played in the 1st ice hockey league in the 1997/1998 season, the
second-highest German division at the time.
The city center has
an open-air swimming pool, the one that opened in 1961 and is now called
Parkbad, with a 50-meter competition pool on the right bank of the Lahn.
The former municipal indoor swimming pool in the district of Offheim is
one of the few swimming pools in Germany that is independently run by a
non-profit association. In addition, the city of Limburg, together with
the city of Diez, the Kreishallenbad Weilburg GmbH and the
Rhein-Lahn-Kreis, is a shareholder of the Oranienbad in Diez. Another
former municipal indoor swimming pool in the Linter district was closed
on December 31, 2003 and converted into a bowling alley.
The Limburg dialect, which can be identified under different
forms of the “Platts” that is predominant in the “Nassauer Land”, is
one of the central Hessian dialects. In its pure form, it is
generally only spoken by the older generation that grew up in
Limburg or the nearest surrounding communities.
Individual
syllables have undergone minor changes over the years, sometimes
towards High German, which is why it is sometimes difficult to
distinguish the original Limburg dialect from regionally different
ones. However, even among younger residents of Limburg, in whose
parents' home the spoken dialect was influenced by Standard German,
a typical accentuation of what is spoken can be determined by
certain sounds. For the interested listener, a precise determination
of the Limburg origin of the other person is therefore quite
possible.
The trend towards speaking with dialect is also
declining in the Limburg region, as in many others. due to
population migration and the influence of modern media. For this
reason, dialect-related events are very popular as an attempt to
preserve the regional dialect for future generations.
A traditional Limburg dish is the Limburg Sacker. This is a breaded
cutlet seasoned with mustard, filled with sauerkraut, dried meat and
pickles and served with fried potatoes or bread. The name of this dish
goes back to the inhabitants of Limburg's old town, who in the Middle
Ages at the house at Kleine Rütsche 4, the narrowest point of the old
trade route from Cologne to Frankfurt, reloaded the passing wagons that
were laden with sacks too wide.
The Limburg bishop dumplings were
created for the first time by a Limburg restaurateur during the tenure
of Bishop Franz Kamphaus. These are potato dumplings stuffed with blood
sausage and liver sausage, served with sauerkraut and bacon sauce. The
traditional dish became nationally known through the increased promotion
of several restaurants in 2013, when the events surrounding the cost
development of the diocesan center St. Nikolaus under Kamphaus'
successor Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst became known and the number of
tourists skyrocketed.
The “Whisky Fair” trade fair is an annual spring event of national
importance.
On the last weekend in June, the Limburg Old Town
Festival attracts thousands of visitors to the city. Also in summer,
winegrowers present their products at the Rheingau Wine Days in the city
center.
Since 2007, the city of Limburg has been organizing the
summer night run every two years with the support of local clubs and
companies. This city run, which usually has over 1000 participants,
offers various disciplines for individual runners, families and
companies.
With the Summer Games, a city festival has been
established since 2005, which is held annually in the third week of
August. With the support of numerous companies and associations, it
developed into a large city festival in the region with over 50,000
visitors per year. In 2010, on the first Sunday in September, the 40th
anniversary of the Limburg flea market, which is well-known beyond the
region, is the largest city flea market in Hesse.
With the
Limburg Oktoberfest, one of the largest folk festivals in Central Hesse
takes place every year over several days on the market square and since
2011 has been increasingly based on the Munich original. From November
27th to December 30th the Christmas market opens on the Neumarkt and in
the old town.
By train
Take the ICE from Cologne or Frankfurt to Limburg Süd
station. Continue by bus to the city center (5 min).
The Limburg
(Lahn) train station is connected to the following regional railway and
regional express lines of DB Regio and the Hessian state railway,
including the HLB operating area Dreiländerbahn:
RE 20
(Main-Lahn-Express) Limburg - Bad Camberg - Niedernhausen - Frankfurt
(Main) Höchst - Frankfurt (Main) Hbf
RB 21 (Ländchesbahn) Limburg -
Bad Camberg - Niedernhausen - Wiesbaden-Erbenheim - Wiesbaden Hbf
RB
22 (Main-Lahn-Bahn) Limburg - Bad Camberg - Niedernhausen - Frankfurt
(Main) Höchst - Frankfurt (Main)Hbf
RB 23 (Lahn-Eifel-Bahn) Limburg -
Diez - Bad Ems - Niederlahnstein - Koblenz - Andernach - Mendig - Mayen
RE 25 (Lahntal-Express) Koblenz Hbf - Bad Ems - Diez - Limburg -
Weilburg - Wetzlar - Giessen
RB 29 (Unterwesterwaldbahn) Limburg -
Diez Ost - Montabaur - Wirges - Siershahn
RB 45 (Lahn Valley Railway)
Limburg - Weilburg - Wetzlar - Giessen - Alsfeld (Upper Hesse) - Fulda
RB 90 (Westerwald-Sieg-Bahn) Limburg - Westerburg - Nistertal/Bad
Marienberg - Hachenburg - Altenkirchen - Au(Sieg) - Betzdorf(Sieg) -
Siegen (-Kreuztal)
On the street
Motorized private transport
Limburg has good transport connections. The city can be reached via the
A3 motorway from the direction of Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. The B49
from Giessen/Wetzlar has no through roads and is partially 4-lane.
Limburg is located on one section each of the German half-timbered
road and the German avenue road
In Limburg an der Lahn,
environmental zones have been set up in accordance with the Fine Dust
Ordinance. If you don't have the appropriate badge, you risk a fine of
€100 when entering an environmental zone. This also applies to foreign
road users.
Entry ban for vehicles of pollutant groups 1+2+3 (Info
Federal Environment Agency)
The low emission zone has been in
effect in Limburg city center since 2018. The outer parts of the city
(Staffel, Linter, Lindenholzhausen, Eschhofen and Ahlbach) are excluded
from the environmental zone. The low-emission zone is controlled (also
in moving traffic!), violations are punished.
long-distance buses
Limburg can be reached by long-distance buses, which have a bus stop in
front of Limburg Süd station. Limburg is currently (as of April 2017)
served by Flixbus, while the Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD) e. V.
operated portal Busliniensuche.de.
By bicycle
Lahntal cycle
path
Hessian cycle route R7 from Philippsthal, Bad Hersfeld and
Vogelsberg
Hessian cycle route R8 from Herborn, Westerwald and
Taunus, Frankfurt
General German Bicycle Club (ADFC), regional
association Limburg-Weilburg
With canoe and paddle boat
The
Lahn is a popular canoeing and paddling area. The canoes can be hired
from numerous places in the upper reaches and can also be picked up in
Limburg. Below Limburg, the Lahn has hardly any gradients, since it is
dammed up too much for ship traffic. Thus, more muscle work is required
when canoeing.
Numerous city and regional buses of the Limburg city line, the Lahn-Dill-Weil transport company (VLDW) and the Rhein-Mosel-Bus operate in Limburg. Due to the location in the Limburg-Weilburg district, the tariffs of the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) apply, since 2017 the tariff of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Mosel (VRM) has been used as a transitional tariff for journeys from the Rhineland-Palatinate districts of Rhein-Lahn and Westerwaldkreis .
Limburg lies directly on the western border
of Hesse between the Taunus and Westerwald on both sides of the river
Lahn.
The city is relatively centrally located in a basin within
the Rhenish Slate Mountains, which is surrounded by the low mountain
ranges of the Taunus and Westerwald and is called the Limburg Basin.
Thanks to its fertile soil and its favorable climate, the Limburg Basin
forms one of the most productive agricultural landscapes in Hesse and
has also been of great importance in terms of transport geography as the
Lahn crossing since the Middle Ages. Within the basin, the otherwise
quite narrow valley of the lower Lahn shows some clear widening, so that
the average altitude of Limburg is only 117 meters.
A section of
the Staffel district is an exclave to the west outside of the urban
area. The Hessian community of Elz and the Rhineland-Palatinate local
community of Gückingen lie between the exclave and the main district of
Limburg.
The settlement area of the
city of Limburg extends beyond the city limits. The city of Diez in
neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate connects seamlessly to Limburg.
Surrounding towns and communities are the community of Elz and the town
of Hadamar in the north, the community of Beselich in the north-east,
the town of Runkel in the east, the communities of Villmar and Brechen
in the south-east, the community of Hünfelden in the south (all in
Limburg-Weilburg district), the Municipality of Holzheim in the
southwest and the city of Diez and the municipalities of Aull and
Gückingen in the west (all in the Rhein-Lahn district in
Rhineland-Palatinate).
The nearest larger cities, between 40 and
60 kilometers away, are Wetzlar and Giessen in the north-east, Frankfurt
am Main in the south-east, Wiesbaden in the south and Koblenz in the
west.
Limburg is located in the weather region of Central Hesse and thus in a moderate climate zone of the middle latitudes. Different microclimatic conditions result from the valley courses and different terrain heights. On the hills south and north of the Lahn Valley, it rains exactly the average value at 800 millimeters.
In the address, for example, locals and companies often mention
Blumenrod as another district, but this is only a residential area in
the south of the core city. The Blumenrod domain, a former farmstead
that was renovated and converted by the Free Evangelical Community of
Limburg (see also: Burgstall Blumenrod), gives the new settlement area
that was created in 1967 its name and is today's landmark. The same
applies to the bridge suburb on the other side of the Lahn from the core
city, which was already mentioned in 1564 under the name Keuch and
burned down almost completely in 1795 after the invasion of French
troops. Since 2002, the newest settlement area has been the ICE city of
Limburg.
Further subdivisions of the core city into settlement
areas are the Frankfurter Vorstadt, the Diezer Vorstadt and the
Nordstadt with its own community center. The inner and old town of
Limburg also belong to the demarcated settlement areas within the core
city, but have only an informal character in the city structure. This
also applies to the settlement area "Am Milestone", a small residential
area on the outskirts of the city that was created in the 1960s and has
developed its own settlement character due to its numerous, sometimes
very colorfully designed terraced houses.
The origin of the name Limburg is not fully understood. It probably
goes back to a castle founded there in Merovingian times. In the year
910 the place was mentioned for the first time under the name Lintpurc.
Two of the most common theses are:
The name was chosen due to its
proximity to the Linterer Bach, which has now dried up (Linda is the
Gallic word for water), which flowed into the Lahn at the Domfelsen.
Rather unlikely, but very popular is the connection with a dragon saga
(see Lindwurm) and the connection with the monastery of Saint George,
the "dragon slayer", founded in Limburg, since the monastery was only
mentioned after the castle was built and together with the first written
mention Limburg came into being.
In surviving documents, Limburg was
mentioned under the following place names (year of mention in brackets):
Lintburk (910) (Struck, Sources on the History of the Monasteries 1, No.
1)
Limburg (1062) (Struck, Sources for the history of the monasteries
1, no. 7)
Limburc (1122) (Struck, Sources on the history of the
monasteries 1)
Limpurg (1616) (engraved map of Nassau)
Archaeological excavations in 2012 uncovered important
traces on the current area of the newly built Lahntal motorway bridge.
On the one hand, a hamlet-like settlement from the Neolithic period was
discovered. Found shards of pots date from around 5000 BC. BC and are
thus the oldest discovered traces of a settlement in the Limburg area.
On the other hand, two Roman military camps from the time of Emperor
Augustus were uncovered on a total area of 14 hectares, which had not
been expected at this point due to the great distance to the Limes.
Comparable traces remained partially undiscovered during excavations in
1935 for the construction of the Reichsautobahn and were destroyed (see
Limburg Roman camp).
Earlier finds on the Limburg Toompea suggest
that it was built around 500 BC. BC carried a Celtic settlement. Its
center was on today's Cathedral Square.
Around the year 760, the
first Merovingian fortifications were built on what later became
Domberg. It was probably built to monitor a ford on the Lahn. At this
point in time, this transition is likely to have mainly absorbed traffic
on the Hohe Strasse between the areas around Mainz and Frankfurt in the
south and the iron processing area near Siegen, which ran from Limburg
via the Lange Meil. At that time, crossings in the direction of the
Rhine were probably further west in Diez and Staffel. A settlement
developed under the protection of the castle, from which the town later
developed.
The name "Limburg" first
appeared in a document in 910 and does not refer to a settlement, but to
a topographical feature, namely a mountain (mons) known as "Lintpurc":
Ludwig the Child left a farm in Oberrupten including accessories to the
count Konrad Kurzbold and lands for cultivation. Konrad was able to use
this property to equip the canon monastery of St. George, which he
founded in his castle on the limestone rock above the Lahn and which,
according to the document, is still to be built (there are no remains of
this castle today). The document issued about it is now in the main
state archive in Wiesbaden. The construction of the collegiate church,
today's Limburg Cathedral, probably began shortly after the issuance of
the charter. With the founding of the monastery, the place quickly
gained importance and benefited from the lively transfer of goods on the
Höhenstraße (Via Publica). With the monastery and the bailiwick rights
remaining in the family, the Konradiner had created a considerable power
base in Limburg.
In 940, at the request of Kurzbold and Bishop
Diethard von Hildesheim, the monastery received another documented
donation, this time from King Otto I. He gave him the property
previously owned by the nobleman Eberhard from Niederzeuzheim in order
to increase the maintenance of the clergy. The certificate was issued in
Quedlinburg. Shortly thereafter, Otto I took the Limburg monastery and
its possessions under his protection. This made anyone who dared attack
the monastery fear royal reprisals. He also decreed that after
Kurzbold's death, the Limburg monastery could never be given in fief or
transferred. These and similar legal acts meant that the Abbey and thus
Limburg were no longer legally and politically to be regarded as part of
Niederlahngau as early as the 10th century, but no later than the
beginning of the 12th century.
In the second half of the 10th
century, the Konradiner lost the title of Gaugrafen in Niederlahngau to
the House of Diez, which had probably only come to the region shortly
before, but remained in Limburg as Stiftsvögte. The people of Diez
expanded their immediately adjacent new headquarters in Diez into a
center of power. In the 11th century, Emperor Konrad II gave the
monastery of St. George not only vineyards but also the "Hof zu Kamp"
(today Kamp-Bornhofen). By the beginning of the 12th century at the
latest, the Georgsstift had a banned area that extended far beyond the
city, in which its bailiffs were responsible for enforcing the law and
thus exercising sovereign power. Limburg thus became the center of
territorial rule.
In the 11th century, the city expanded from the
approximately 1.8 ha large monastery and castle district down the castle
hill to the west and was fenced in with a city wall in the early 12th
century. This ran roughly along the southern edge of what later became
Erbacher Hof, on the eastern side of what later became Rosengasse, south
of today's Böhmergasse and east of today's Kolpinggasse back up to the
castle. The city wall enclosed, including the castle district, around 11
hectares.
A wooden bridge was built in 1160 as part of the
long-distance road from Cologne to Frankfurt am Main over the Lahn, and
tolls had to be paid for crossing it from 1227 at the latest until the
First World War. Throughout the city's history, it was one of the city's
most important sources of income. The priest Gottfried von Beselich has
been handed down as the builder. At the end of the 12th century, the
first buildings of today's Limburg Castle were erected. Probably in
1219, the castle and monastery bailiwick and thus also the rule over the
city of Limburg and the surrounding area passed to the Lords of
Ysenburg. This was preceded by a fairly complex and now no longer
clearly comprehensible process, which stretched from the Konradiners
through the houses of Gleiberg-Luxemburg, Peilstein and Leiningen to the
Isenburgers. The Isenburgers each received a third of the fief from the
Reich, the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Landgraviate of Hesse. In the
decades that followed, the new masters tried to restrict the rights of
Limburg's citizens and thus strengthen their exercise of power in the
city. On the other hand, there was resistance from the citizenry of the
settlement, which had meanwhile become large and economically important
and recognized as a city. The local branch of the Ysenburgs, who resided
at the castle from at least 1258 to 1406, subsequently became known as
the House of Limburg. Imagina von Isenburg-Limburg, the wife of the
German King Adolf von Nassau, came from this line.
For 1180 a
coinage in Limburg is guaranteed. In 1214, the town received city rights
from the Hohenstaufen King Friedrich II. The city belonged to the
Frankfurt family of city rights. In the event of disputes between the
city ruler and the citizenry or in the event of a disagreement between
the municipal lay judges, the Oberhof Frankfurt was called upon to act
as an arbitration body. A contract between the town and the lords of the
castle from the House of Isenburg dates back to 1279. The lords were
prohibited from judging the free citizens of the city, but this was
expressly confirmed for the places Elz, Brechen and Werschau, which
belonged to the monastery rule. They were also expressly granted the
right to defend and fortify the city.
The Franciscan order
settled in Limburg as early as 1232 and from 1252 had its own wooden
church on the Roßmarkt, which was dedicated to St. Laurentius. The
building was replaced by today's town church at the beginning of the
14th century. The Cathedral of St. George, built on the site of the old
collegiate church, was consecrated in 1235 and the start of construction
can no longer be precisely dated.
Beguines can be found in
Limburg from 1246. They were probably mainly women from the citizenry.
At the invitation of Gerlach I († 1298), the Limburg Wilhelmite
Monastery was first founded on the Lahn Island.
On May 14, 1289,
a devastating fire destroyed large parts of Limburg's city center, which
was immediately rebuilt. One of the built houses is the Römer 2-4-6,
probably the oldest free-standing building in Limburg today.
In
the 12th and 13th centuries, the city grew by two suburbs. One was
located, probably in connection with the settlement of the Franciscans,
in the area of today's Roßmarkt, south of the castle and accommodated
mainly simple craftsmen, probably also because of the damp and therefore
unfavorable building ground. In the following centuries, the
Laurentius-Kirchhof at this church developed into the largest civil
cemetery in the city. The other suburb stretched further west in an arc
in front of the city wall from east of today's Kornmarkt via Plötze and
Sackgasse to Löhrgasse.
For 1304 a
scholaster at the Georgsstift is proven for the first time. A later
source locates the house of the monastery school between today's
cathedral and the Michaelskapelle. A smaller Latin school is said to
have been housed there next to the monastery school. Not before 1484
there was a girls' school at the Nonnenmauer.
In 1317 the
Wilhelmite monastery was relocated to the suburbs at Diezer Tor due to
the constant risk of flooding. Furthermore, the Premonstratensian
monastery in Arnstein and the Cistercian monastery in Eberbach (Erbacher
Hof) maintained representative city courts. By 1341 at the latest, the
community of beguines had their own house, and they were last mentioned
in 1417. The two suburbs on the Rossmarkt and south-west of the castle
hill were included in the fortifications during the second wall
construction in 1225-1230 (today Grabenstraße). By the middle of the
14th century, three further suburbs had formed: on the right bank of the
Lahn the bridge suburb, which is still known today, at the Hammertor the
Frankfurt suburb and a settlement roughly in the area of today's
Neumarkt. Shortly before 1450, these and other areas in front of the
wall were surrounded by a moat with brick gates and towers. This rampart
stretched far in front of the actual city wall and ran roughly along
today's Schiede street. Compared to the merchant elite, the residents of
the suburbs were given no say in city affairs and were initially not
allowed to send representatives to the city council, but had to bear the
main financial burden of the community. Only in 1458 were they allowed
to send two representatives to the council. At that time, the castle
hill was built on not only the actual castle and the monastery,
including the associated ancillary buildings, but also farms belonging
to families of lower nobility.
The stone bridge over the Lahn was
built in 1315 and 1346, probably in two sections. The bridge suburb,
originally called Neustadt, came into being at the latest with the
construction of the stone bridge over the Lahn. The first major building
project was the old hospital with the hospital church (before 1310). The
Cistercian monastery Marienstatt had to buy four existing houses from
1340 to set up its Stadthof. Before 1359 the bridge suburb was protected
by a wall with a ditch. With the Keucher Pforte, the Dietkircher Pforte
and the Hanenpforte, it had three gates. A similar complex, the
Schiedegraben, had already been built in 1343/44 to protect the suburbs
on the left side of the Lahn.
In 1336, Emperor Ludwig IV of
Bavaria confirmed the lords of Limburg's possession of chamber slavery
over the town's Jews. A year later, the Jews were expelled from the
city. Only in 1341 were they allowed to settle in the city again by
royal order. The settlement met with resistance from the population and
was short-lived. As early as 1349 there were again pogroms and the Jews
were expelled from the city. In the course of this expulsion, the mikveh
and the Jewish festival house near the Eberbacher Hof were confiscated
and sold to the monastery. Jews settled in the city again in the second
half of the 14th century, but they were now restricted to the ghetto on
the Kornmarkt. The first mentioned synagogue and a new mikvah were also
built here.
In 1344 half of the town was pledged to Electoral
Trier. This process documents the gradual decline of the House of
Limburg. At that time, this was also heavily indebted to the Limburg
city council. Another city fire in 1342 (which was not as severe as the
first) and the plague (1349, 1356 and 1365), but above all the rise of
the territorial princes, also weakened the noble family. In connection
with this, the city became increasingly involved in local feuds. In 1359
she took part in the conquest of Villmar by Elector Trier, in 1360 in
the destruction of Gretenstein Castle. In October 1372, a Limburg army
destroyed Ellar, which had received city rights only two years
previously. The reason given was the stay of the robbers Crae and Buses
in the city. At the request of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen, the city of
Limburg was sentenced by the Supreme Court to pay compensation of 2,000
marks. However, since Limburg was only subject to the jurisdiction of
the city of Frankfurt, this judgment was never enforced. In 1380 the
lords of Staffel attack Limburg, and 20 houses in the Brückenvorstadt
are burned down by the Staffel. The town hall on the Fischmarkt was
probably built shortly after 1399 (today referred to as the "historic
town hall").
With the death of John II in 1406, the last male
representative of the House of Limburg died. After half of the city and
castle had already been pledged to him and the imperial feudal rule over
the city had passed to them in 1380, the Archbishop of Trier succeeded
in taking over the entire dominion. In 1420 it became the property of
the Electorate of Trier.
After Elector Trier pledged half of
Limburg to the knight Frank von Cronberg, who was unpopular with the
Limburg citizens as co-ruler, unrest broke out. Cronberg then ceded the
pledge to Landgrave Ludwig I of Hesse in 1435. After further divisions
of the possessions, from 1482 onwards only the Landgraviate of Hesse and
Electoral Trier shared them again.
In the Middle Ages, wool
weaving and the cloth trade were the dominant industries in Limburg. In
addition, wine-growing within the small town limits seems to have been
practiced with unusual intensity for the region. For 1600, however, a
decline of the industry is reported. During the 30-year war, winegrowing
in the city area seems to have died out completely.
In the context of the German Peasants' War in 1525 there
was also unrest among the Limburg population. After the Elector of Trier
had demanded that the city council expel a Lutheran preacher from the
city, a committee made up of citizens who were not eligible for council
presented the council with a 30-point list of demands on May 24. It was
mainly about financial co-determination and equal treatment with the
merchants in tax, trade and construction issues. In the days that
followed, these demands were reduced to 16 points in negotiations
between the committee and the council, which were then probably
negotiated with the elector. On August 5, however, Archbishop Richard
decreed that the council should withdraw all concessions made to the
citizenry. In addition, a ban on assembly was issued and the non-council
citizens should no longer be allowed to send their two representatives
to the council.
The Reformation led to further conflicts in the
city. Due to the affiliation to Electoral Trier, however, the city
remained Catholic. However, it hit the monasteries of the city. The
Wilhelmite monastery was dissolved after the death of the last prior in
1568 and the Franciscan monastery was closed between 1577 and 1582.
During the Thirty Years' War, Limburg was plundered and besieged in
1631 and 1635 by passing soldiers. Due to its convenient location, the
city was part of the marching routes, which is why the soldiers
preferred to quarter themselves with the population. Limburg was not
spared from the First Coalition War in the following century. During
their retreat in 1796, the French forces tried to prevent the Austrians
from crossing the Lahn during the so-called Battle of Limburg. During a
firefight, they burned down parts of the city.
In 1635 the
Limburg Franciscan Convent became part of the Thuringian Franciscan
Province, which had been newly established two years earlier, and
quickly developed into its centre, where the Provincial had his seat
until 1762 and the central novitiate for the province was established by
1811. In 1664, the Franciscans also opened a grammar school for the
city's youth, which was expanded in 1749.
The first written
instructions for the prevention of fires in connection with domestic
fireplaces in the Electorate of Trier on May 9, 1721 also led to
significant improvements in the construction of buildings in Limburg and
the surrounding area.
In the 1760s there was a fundamental reform
of the school system. The numerous corner schools were closed and, in
addition to the two schools that had existed since the Middle Ages, the
monastery school for boys and the nun school for girls, two more schools
were set up, both of which were financed from the city's hospital fund.
This is how the hospital school for boys and the maiden school for
girls, located in the hospital building, came into being. At the end of
the 18th century, the two girls' schools were merged, and the monastery
school, which had already been severely depleted by the dissolution of
the monastery, was added to the hospital school in 1817. 1813 ended the
existence of the Franciscan monastery. With that, the Franciscan grammar
school also ceased operations, leaving Limburg without a Latin school
and thus without any facility that would have enabled access to a
secondary school. In the years that followed there were several attempts
to found a private Latin school, but each was short-lived. Finally, in
1837, the parish priest Caspar Halm received the ducal approval to set
up a Latin school in the former rooms of the Franciscan high school. In
1846, after a previously unsuccessful attempt, a state secondary school
was founded, also in the hospital building, this time on the initiative
of the municipal school board. As a result, the private Latin school
dissolved. After the annexation of Nassau by Prussia, the junior high
school was converted into a higher public school based on the Prussian
school system by 1869. The school later became a grammar school, from
which a full high school diploma could be obtained for the first time in
1903. In 1872 a new building for the girls' school in Hospitalstraße was
completed. At a later date, another elementary school was set up not far
from the hospital school on Werner-Senger-Straße. Gymnastics lessons
took place in a hall on the Rossmarkt in the 19th century.
In
1806, Limburg fell to the newly founded Duchy of Nassau, which also
meant that the 900-year-old monastery was extinguished and the
collegiate church became a parish church. In 1818 the city wall was
taken down. In the same year, the first secondary school was set up, but
it probably did not actually start work until 1819 and was closed again
in 1824. In 1827, at the insistence of Duke Wilhelm von Nassau, the city
was made a Catholic bishopric, giving the parish church the rank of a
cathedral. In 1830 the city wall was breached at the Kornmarkt and later
completely demolished. The freedom movement of 1848 meant that the
Limburg Catholics made pilgrimages to the Maria Hilf Beselich pilgrimage
chapel for many decades and impressively proclaimed their faith there.
From 1862 Limburg was the junction of important railway lines before the
duchy and thus Limburg fell to Prussia in 1866 as a result of the German
War. From 1886, Limburg became the district town of the new district of
Limburg and the seat of the royal district administrator.
The
city's volunteer fire brigade was founded on February 6, 1867 and
elected the soap manufacturer Joseph Müller as its commander. On June 2,
1873, the Limburg fire brigade organized the first association meeting
of the fire brigade association for the administrative district of
Wiesbaden after its founding.
In 1892 the Pallottines came to
Germany for the first time and settled in Limburg. In 1895 the
Pallottine Sisters followed. Because the Walderdorffer Hof became too
small, the religious community acquired a site in 1896, on which they
first built their mission house and then, in 1926/1927, the Catholic
monastery church of St. Marien.
In 1900, the city administration
moved into the new town hall on Werner-Senger-Strasse.
Limburg was never a garrison town in the true
sense, but the location of several military supply and administrative
facilities. In 1889 a district command of the German army was
transferred from Weilburg to Limburg and remained there until 1918. On
April 24, 1910, strong winds forced the LZ 5 airship to make an
emergency landing on the Blumenrod estate on its return flight from a
parade in Bad Homburg in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The next morning it
tore itself free and flew unmanned in the direction of Weilburg, where
it crashed into a mountain. Derived from this event, the
"Zeppelinstraße", which runs through the Blumenrod district, which was
created in 1967, from east to west, got its name.
In 1904 the
Werner Senger School was expanded considerably. In 1908 the elementary
school building on Rossmarkt was given up, the elementary school there
was relocated to the extension of the old grammar school under the name
"Wilhelmitenschule" and in 1909 the first Limburg auxiliary school class
was added. During a bomb attack in early 1944, half of the Werner Senger
School building was destroyed.
After the end of the First World
War, Limburg was not occupied during the occupation of the Rhineland
from 1919 to 1923. Because it was the next unoccupied city of the Weimar
Republic, it became the "capital" and court seat of the Bottleneck Free
State.
Before city councilors and Limburg Mayor Krüsmann bowed to
the SA troops and resigned in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave a speech on
Neumarkt – later Adolf-Hitler-Platz – as part of his “Germany Flight”.
In 1938 a military district command was set up in the city, and shortly
before the end of the war the 13th SS railway construction brigade was
relocated to Limburg to maintain "station operations".
Between
1941 and 1944, twelve Limburg Pallottines were taken into protective
custody at the instigation of the Gestapo Frankfurt/Main, which had a
branch office in the Erbacher Hof from 1944, in order to be able to
appropriate the Pallottines' property. They were first taken to
Frankfurt and from there to the Dachau concentration camp, where two of
them died. The final expulsion of the Pallottines from Limburg was
prevented when the Limburg city pastor Heinrich Fendel, with the
participation of the cathedral chapter, church council and the
Pallottines, built a parish vicarage with the Marienkirche as the center
in 1943. Although the denomination was forced to leave the mission house
and church a year later, they returned immediately after the end of
World War II and have remained based on their estate to this day.
During the Second World War, Limburg was the target of eleven air
raids, primarily because of the railway works. The heaviest attack took
place in the morning hours of March 25, 1945, with a total of 40
fatalities. The following day, the first American troops moved into the
city.
From July 1945, Limburg, as a former part of the province
of Nassau, belonged to the American occupation zone and later became
part of the new state of Greater Hesse and finally Hesse.
In
1966, the Bundeswehr's "Central Depot Group", later Supply Command 850,
moved from Mainz to Limburg. It served the material supply, in
particular the III. Corps, and was accommodated in the former Scheid
factory. The supply command managed several depots with more than 3000
employees. In 1976, an equipment depot was also moved from
Lindenholzhausen to the headquarters of the supply command in Limburg.
In 1994 the Limburg Bundeswehr branch was dissolved.
In the
1960s, several residential and commercial areas were designated, which
allowed the core city to grow, especially to the north, north-east and
south. To the east and west, the building boundaries remained largely
unchanged. In September 1988, the Limburg Volunteer Fire Brigade
organized the 13th Hessian Fire Brigade Day with the participation of
more than 10,000 firefighters.
In 2010 Limburg celebrated the
1100th anniversary of its first mention. To mark this occasion, a
special postage stamp was issued in early January 2010, the motif of
which is a painting by George Clarkson Stanfield from 1862 showing the
Old Lahn Bridge with the outer bridge tower and the cathedral from the
north-west. The original is in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn.
The following list shows the
dominions and states in which Limburg an der Lahn was located and the
administrative units to which it was subject:
910: Frankish Empire,
Lahngau
before 1803: Holy Roman Empire, Electorate of Trier, Lower
Archbishopric, Limburg District
from 1803: Holy Roman Empire,
Principality of Nassau-Weilburg (by Reichsdeputationshauptschluss),
Limburg office
from 1806: Duchy of Nassau, Limburg office
from
1816: Duchy of Nassau, Limburg office
from 1849: Duchy of Nassau,
district office of Limburg
from 1854: Duchy of Nassau, Limburg office
from 1867: North German Confederation, Kingdom of Prussia, Province of
Hesse-Nassau, Administrative District of Wiesbaden, Unterlahnkreis
from 1871: German Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Province of Hesse-Nassau,
Administrative District of Wiesbaden, Unterlahnkreis
from 1886:
German Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, Province of Hesse-Nassau,
Administrative Region of Wiesbaden, District of Limburg
from 1918:
German Empire, Free State of Prussia, Province of Hesse-Nassau,
Administrative Region of Wiesbaden, District of Limburg
from 1944:
German Reich, Free State of Prussia, Province of Nassau, District of
Limburg
from 1945: American occupation zone, Greater Hesse,
administrative district of Wiesbaden, rural district of Limburg
from
1946: American occupation zone, Hesse, administrative district of
Wiesbaden, rural district of Limburg
from 1949: Federal Republic of
Germany, Hesse, administrative district of Wiesbaden, rural district of
Limburg
from 1968: Federal Republic of Germany, Hesse, administrative
district of Darmstadt, district of Limburg
from 1974: Federal
Republic of Germany, Hesse, administrative district of Darmstadt, rural
district of Limburg-Weilburg
from 1981: Federal Republic of Germany,
Hesse, Gießen district, Limburg-Weilburg district
According to the 2011 census, 33,583 people lived in Limburg an der Lahn on May 9, 2011. Among them were 4271 (12.7%) foreigners, of whom 1292 came from other EU countries, 2017 from other European countries and 962 from other countries.[26] Of the German residents, 18.4% had a migration background. On December 31, 2015, the proportion of foreigners was 15.2 percent (5,205 people). By 2020, the proportion of foreigners had increased to 18.6%. According to age, 5889 inhabitants were under 18 years old, 14,205 between 18 and 49, 5843 between 50 and 64 and 6648 inhabitants were older. The inhabitants lived in 15,252 households. Of these, 5676 were single households, 3756 couples without children and 4014 couples with children, as well as 1395 single parents and 414 shared apartments.
Limburg was already a small town at the beginning of the 19th
century. According to today's definition, the threshold was only crossed
with the incorporations, which caused the number of inhabitants to
skyrocket. With the exception of the period of National Socialism and
the end of the 1960s, it reached a temporary high in 2005 after steadily
increasing with 33,977 inhabitants. Between 2005 and 2010 the population
decreased slightly. This trend ended again in 2011 with an increase to
33,619 inhabitants in 2012. In 2018 the city already had over 35,000
inhabitants.
Due to the demographic development, forecasts by the
State Statistical Office in Hesse assume that the population will
increase well above the 34,000 mark in the medium term. In particular,
people over the age of 60 will move from rural areas to the city.
• 1885: 1736 Protestant (= 26.77%), 4573 Catholic (= 70.52%), 12
other Christian denominations (= 0.19%), 164 Jewish (= 2.53%)
inhabitants
• 1961: 4,739 Protestant (= 30.42%), 10,596 Catholic (=
68.02%) inhabitants
• 1987: 7,561 Protestant (= 26.0%), 19,196
Catholic (= 65.9%), 2,356 other (= 8.1%) residents
• 2011: 7,570
Protestant (= 22.6%), 16,250 Catholic (= 48.6%), 410 Orthodox (= 1.2%),
1,750 of other faiths (= 5.2%), 7,270 others (= 21.7). %) Resident
The city is the seat of the Bishopric of Limburg, which was founded in 1827. It still includes the territory of the former Duchy of Nassau, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg, the Hessian hinterland and the city of Frankfurt am Main.
The two Protestant parishes in Limburg belong to the Deanery of
Runkel in the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau. The congregation in
Limburg was formed in the early 19th century and was a branch
congregation of the evangelical church in Staffel. In 1831 the Duke of
Nassau gave her the chapel in Erbach, which was inaugurated in December
by the Staffel priest Georg Ninck. Because of the constant growth of the
Limburg congregation, a larger church was needed. This was consecrated
on May 29, 1866 and still stands near the Limburg regional train
station. It was not until 1879 that Limburg received the status of an
independent evangelical community.
From 1973 to 1975 the church
was rebuilt. Two false ceilings were drawn in for subdivision. The top
third remained church. The rooms of a neighboring community center were
set up in the middle third. Today there is a youth recreation center on
the ground floor.
The first Jews probably came to Limburg from France around 1190. A
Jewish community is mentioned in a document in 1278. In this year, the
servitude changed from the emperor to the lord of Limburg Castle. The
Jewish Quarter was located between the Kornmarkt and today's
Bischofsplatz and between Fleischgasse and today's Kolpingstrasse. It
was partially separated from the rest of the city by a wall. A synagogue
has been documented there since the first half of the 14th century. A
dance house, a school and a bathhouse (remains in the basement of the
Plötze 3 house can still be seen) were also present. In the early 14th
century, as a result of the "Battles of the Jews" in Frankfurt, almost
all Jews were expelled from the city. The community initially recovered.
When Limburg became electoral Trier in 1420, the expulsion of the Jews
began there, as in the entire archbishopric. Around 1450 the Jewish
community was wiped out again. A few Jews lived in Limburg in the
following centuries, but a larger community does not seem to have
formed. A basement at the fish market was used as a synagogue until the
18th century. When Ambrosio Spinola occupied Nassau areas around 1620,
another six Jewish families fled to Limburg, but were expelled by the
citizenry by 1629.
Only after the Thirty Years' War did a
permanent Jewish community form in Limburg again. In 1725 a special
Jewish order was issued. For 1754 six Jewish families are guaranteed. In
1852, 60 individuals of Jewish faith were registered, in 1910 there were
281. Some of the Jewish residents of Limburg in the 18th century must
have been very wealthy, as two of them were the city's top taxpayers. A
Jewish cemetery was established in the part of town now known as
"Schlenkert" and was used until 1820. After that, the still existing
cemetery on Schafsberg was set up. The responsible rabbinate was in
Diez. In 1868 the Jewish community bought the former chapel of the
Eberbach monastery from the Protestant community and converted it into a
synagogue. In 1903 the new synagogue in neo-Romanesque style on the
Schiede was completed. The place of worship offered 201 seats for men
and 104 for women and had an adjacent mikveh.
In 1932, 296 Jews
lived in Limburg. With the onset of persecution in the Third Reich,
their numbers quickly fell. In 1937 there were still 154 Jewish
residents, after the pogrom night in 1938, in which the synagogue was
also destroyed, there were still 86. Today, a bronze model that was
erected opposite the district court in 2015 commemorates the former
synagogue. At the end of September 1939, eight elderly Jewish residents
were still living in Limburg. There is evidence of emigration for around
80 Jewish Limburg residents. Nothing is known about the fate of the
rest. Most of them were probably murdered. In 1945 only three Jewish
Limburgers returned to their hometown. The poet and local historian Leo
Sternberg, who converted to Catholicism in 1933 and is the best-known
member of the city's Jewish community, died in exile in Yugoslavia in
1937.
There has been a Jewish community in Limburg again since
1998, with 200 members in 2009. The community consists entirely of
Russian immigrants. In February 2009, the new synagogue in the
Brückenvorstadt was inaugurated.
As in many other cities,
so-called stumbling blocks were installed in Limburg from 2013 to
spontaneously commemorate the Jewish victims of the National Socialists.
A slightly smaller mosque, the Fatih Mosque (“Conqueror Mosque”) of the Islamic Community of Millî Görüş (IGMG), named after Mehmed II, the conqueror of Christian Constantinople, is located on Eisenbahnstraße and was founded in 1990. The Bilal-i Habesi Mosque of the DITIB community has existed since 1980. Until the foundation stone was laid for a new building in 2008, it was set up as a temporary solution in a former sawmill. The new building on Blumenröder Strasse was opened on October 2, 2010 and, with a minaret about 18 meters high, is now the largest mosque in Limburg an der Lahn. The Bait-ul-Ahad Mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat community opened in May 2012 opposite the Limburg Police Station. In the summer of 2021, the Islamic cultural center of the Bosniak community with the Sandzak Mosque was completed on the Dietkircherhöhe.
Limburg is part of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region. The
retail trade is strongly represented, which is reflected i.a. reflected
in an above-average turnover, measured in relation to the number of
inhabitants. However, there is no dominant industry in Limburg, since in
addition to branches of a few corporations, mainly medium-sized
companies from a wide variety of industries are located. Characteristic
of this are also the commercial areas that were designated in the 1960s
and 1970s in the districts of individual districts.
Despite a
slight decline in the working-age population, the number of people
employed in Limburg increased significantly by 8.5 percent between 2000
and 2010, compared to the 0.5 percent increase in Hesse. Related to this
are newly created jobs and a surplus of commuters. In 2012, there were
16,063 commuters who were employed and subject to social security
contributions, and 6,401 commuters. The number of employees subject to
social security contributions in the same year was 20,471. This means
that 44 percent of the jobs in the Limburg-Weilburg district are in the
city of Limburg.
Limburg is a traditional transport hub. A wooden bridge over the Lahn
already existed in 1248, which was replaced by a stone bridge (Alte
Lahnbrücke) after the flood of 1306. Other road bridges are the
Lahntalbrücke Limburg (2016) of the A 3, the Lahnbrücke near Staffel and
the new Lahnbrücke from 1968. The federal roads cross the Lahn on the
new Lahnbrücke before they pass under the station forecourt and
Eisenbahnstraße in the city center in the Schiede tunnel. The Via
Publica crossed the navigable Lahn here as early as the Middle Ages.
Today, the A 3 and the B 8 cross the city and largely follow the course
of the Via Publica. The B 49 connects Limburg to the west with Koblenz
and to the east with Wetzlar and Gießen. The section between the
district border and Wetzlar is currently being expanded to four lanes.
The section to Obertiefenbach is also known as the Long Meil. The B 54
connects Limburg to the north with Siegen on the one hand and leads to
the south via Diez to Wiesbaden on the other. Wiesbaden can also be
reached via the B 417 (Hühnerstraße). A southern bypass of the B54 is
planned, but not without controversy.
Limburg has been one of
Hessen's cities with the highest levels of air pollution for years. The
2014 annual report of the HLNUG certifies that the city has the worst
value in a city comparison for the measured nitrogen dioxides on average
over the year. This circumstance is mainly attributed to the heavy
through traffic on the federal roads, which is why the city decided to
take measures to fulfill an air pollution control plan from the Hessian
Ministry of the Environment. Since January 31, 2018, there has been an
environmental zone in Limburg, which essentially includes the city
center.
The city bus lines were put into operation at the end of 1959. Until
the refurbishment of the Schiede Tunnel in 2008 and the associated
redesign of the station forecourt of the regional train station and
changes in traffic routing, the Central Bus Station North (ZOB Nord) on
Graupfortstraße was the hub of the city lines. With the construction of
the nearby central bus station West (ZOB West), this has lost importance
for the current six city lines, all of which run on weekdays and five on
Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. All city bus routes start and
end at ZOB West on the station forecourt. At the transition from
Holzheimer Straße to Eisenbahnstraße is the central south bus station
(ZOB Süd), which is connected to the station forecourt by a pedestrian
underpass. This bus station connects the Limburg Süd train station and
the city center with the ICE city via shuttle buses and a
call-collective taxi. Offheim is the only district outside the city
center with a direct connection to the city lines.
From 2015 to
2021, the public transport offer was supplemented by call-collective
taxis, which ran on three lines and thus in all parts of the city. At
the end of 2021, this driving service was replaced by the on-demand
shuttle LahnStar. For this purpose, the app developed by Ioki was
activated for the offer in Limburg.
In addition, five taxi
companies cover passenger transport in the area of private transport,
which are divided between a total of 18 taxi licenses issued by the city
of Limburg (as of February 2014). The central taxi rank is on the
station forecourt of the regional train station.
Limburg was connected to the railway network in 1862 with the
construction of the Lahn Valley Railway. The Limburg (Lahn) regional
train station has developed into a central transport hub. Other railway
lines are the Unterwesterwald Railway to Siershahn via Montabaur, the
Westerwald-Sieg Railway to Kreuztal via Westerburg, Hachenburg,
Altenkirchen, Au (Sieg) and Siegen, and the Main-Lahn Railway to
Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof. At the Niedernhausen station on the
Main-Lahn-Bahn you can change to the Ländchesbahn to Wiesbaden
Hauptbahnhof, and there are also continuous train connections from
Limburg to Wiesbaden Hauptbahnhof.
With the construction of the
Cologne–Rhine/Main high-speed line, the city received Limburg Süd
station, a long-distance station that was exclusively used by ICE
trains. The high-speed line crosses the Lahn with the Lahntal Bridge and
"disappears" north of the river in the Limburg Tunnel. There are direct
connections to Frankfurt, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Nuremberg and Munich as well
as to Cologne, Dortmund and Brussels-South, among others.
Since May 14, 2015, Limburg has been connected to the national long-distance bus network via the long-distance bus providers Flixbus and Onebus.de. There are connections from the bus stop at Limburg Süd station to Aachen, Bonn, Frankfurt, Frankfurt Airport, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Cologne, Cologne/Bonn Airport, Stuttgart Airport and Tübingen.
The Lahn is a federal waterway between Lahnstein and Gießen and falls
within the area of responsibility of the Koblenz Water and Shipping
Authority, whose Diez branch operates and maintains the Limburg lock.
However, since the expansion of the Lahn Valley Railway from Koblenz Hbf
to Wetzlar, its importance as a waterway has declined. The waterway is
mainly used for tourism by smaller motor boats, canoes and rowing boats
and the Limburg Coat of Arms passenger ship.
The nearest
commercial airport is Frankfurt Airport at a distance of 63 kilometers
via the A3. The journey time with the ICE from Limburg Süd long-distance
train station to Frankfurt Airport (long-distance train station) is 18
to 22 minutes, depending on the connection. Cologne/Bonn Airport is 110
kilometers away and can be reached by ICE in 35 to 46 minutes.
The Hessian long-distance cycle route R7 runs from its starting point in the Staffel district past the Limburg Cathedral and continues via the Dietkirchen district to Runkel. As far as Dietkirchen, it runs identically to the Lahntalradweg and the Hessischer Radfernweg R8, which branches off at the cycle and pedestrian bridge and continues through the districts of the districts of Eschhofen and Lindenholzhausen. There are cycle paths in the core city, but they do not form a continuous network. In places they are connected to each other by protective strips, which were set up more in the city center due to the lack of space.
The two hiking trails Lahnhöhenweg and Lahnwanderweg lead through Limburg. The city is also part of the Lahn Camino, a section of the pilgrimage route.
The Blechwarenfabrik Limburg was founded in 1872 as Josef Heppel
Blech-Emballagen-Fabrik and is still based in Limburg. Its company name
also expresses its long association with the region.
The history
of the former Buderus factory goes back to the year 1900. After being
sold twice in 2009, it was taken over by the MeierGuss Group as Buderus
Kanalguss GmbH. Since January 1, 2012, the company has continued as
MeierGuss Limburg GmbH. In terms of area, it is one of the largest
resident companies in Limburg. The listed water tower, built in 1928,
can be seen from afar. The Buderus brand name was emblazoned on the
tower until early 2014, when it was replaced by the MeierGuss logo.
The Limburg glassworks is one of the traditional companies in
Limburg. The federal state of Hesse has held shares in the company since
it was founded in 1947.
The city of Limburg owes the fountain
next to the town hall, one of its landmarks, to the company Tetra Pak
Produktions GmbH & Co. KG. Often referred to by locals as the
"Dandelion," the fountain was funded by the company in 1975.
From
1975 to 2018, Mundipharma GmbH, which previously had its operations in
Frankfurt am Main, had its headquarters in Limburg. In 1988, Harmonic
Drive SE relocated its company headquarters from the city of Langen
(Hesse) to Limburg.
In 1994, the group of companies, now renamed
SodaStream, set up their only German location in Limburg under the name
Soda-Club GmbH.
In 2003, Vectus Verkehrsgesellschaft mbH, based
in Limburg, was founded to operate the Westerwald-Taunus railway
network. It was a subsidiary of the Hessische Landesbahn and the
Westerwaldbahn GmbH and operated the regional train lines of the
Lahntalbahn between Limburg and Koblenz, the Unterwesterwaldbahn, the
Oberwesterwaldbahn and the Ländchesbahn between Limburg and Wiesbaden
Hbf from the timetable change in 2004 until the timetable change in
2014. Today these lines are operated by the DB Regio and the Hessian
State Railway operated.
Financial institutions based in Limburg
are the Kreissparkasse Limburg and the Volksbank Rhein-Lahn-Limburg. On
the occasion of their 125th anniversary in 1985, they donated a monument
that was erected on Europaplatz next to their main office to commemorate
Werner Senger and his legacy. The monument is now restored in the
Serenadenhof.
The following companies with an annual turnover of
more than 100 million euros are based in Limburg:
Auto Bach Group
St. Vincenz Hospital Society.
In Limburg, the Nassauische Neue Presse, a front page of the
Frankfurter Neue Presse, appears with a circulation of almost 25,000
copies. The local editorial office is located in the center of Limburg.
With the Lahn-Post, the publishing house for advertising papers
GmbH, an advertising paper has been published in Limburg for over 40
years. Until the insolvency of MedienErleben-Verlag GmbH in early 2013,
medienerleben.de – Die Zeitung appeared briefly once a week. From 2016,
the Limburger Zeitung, a new advertising paper, was published. included
news from the Limburg region. The publication was discontinued on May
31, 2017 for financial reasons.
Hessischer Rundfunk employs a
regional correspondent in Limburg.
There are eleven hotels in Limburg, including three 3-star and two
4-star hotels, and two guesthouses (as of January 2014).
The
number of tourists in Limburg has been increasing for years, as has the
number of overnight stays. According to a survey by the State
Statistical Office, the number of guests arriving in the accommodation
facilities in 2011 increased by 7.1 percent compared to the previous
year. In the high season, individual months achieved double-digit growth
rates and were thus above the national average of 4.1 percent. The
number of overnight stays in Limburg increased by 10.4 percent compared
to the previous year (3.1 percent in the national average). The increase
in business tourism has played a large part in this. With over 70
percent, the majority of visitors come from Germany.
There has
been a campsite on the right bank of the Lahn since 1965. Since 1981,
Limburg has been the landing stage for the Limburg passenger ship Wappen
von Limburg. The current ship entered service in 1987 and has been
operating under a new operator since 2012. The youth hostel on the
eastern edge of the city was inaugurated in 1964. Previously, this was
in the city center.
Limburg lies on the two holiday routes
Deutsche Fachwerkstraße and Lahn-Ferien-Straße. The Lahn cycle path on
the right bank of the Lahn and the Lahn hiking path on the left bank of
the Lahn also lead through Limburg.
Regionally significant public institutions in Limburg are the Limburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Limburg-Weilburg District Craftsmen's Association.
Limburg is the seat of the Limburg district court and the Limburg
district court, one of nine district courts in Hesse. Immediately next
to the district court are the Limburg public prosecutor's office and the
Limburg correctional facility, which only accommodates male prisoners.
With around 150 resident lawyers (as of 2013), Limburg is a
regionally important judicial location. Until December 31, 2011, the
city was the seat of the Limburg Labor Court; since then the Wiesbaden
Labor Court has been responsible.
The West Hesse Police
Headquarters is represented in Limburg by the Limburg-Weilburg Police
Headquarters and a regional criminal inspectorate. Subordinate police
stations are located in Limburg, Weilburg and Bad Camberg.
In addition to the Limburg-Weilburg district administration, the
Limburg-Wetzlar employment agency and the Limburg-Weilburg tax office
are based in Limburg. TÜV Hessen has a customer center in Limburg.
One of seven Hessian offices for soil management (AfB) is located
opposite the ICE train station. Its area of responsibility, with its
Hofheim branch and contact points in Bad Homburg, Eltville, Frankfurt,
Wiesbaden, Usingen and Bad Schwalbach, covers most of southwestern
Hesse.
schools
In addition to primary schools, Limburg has three
secondary schools and five secondary schools, which e.g. offer the
general higher education entrance qualification (Abitur) as a degree.
The current structure of the Hauptschule and Realschule is largely based
on a decision by the city council in 1966, which divided the core city
into three school districts for the southern part of the city
(Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe-School), the western part of the city
(Theodor-Heuss-School) and the Old and the bridge suburb
(Leo-Sternberg-School) divided.
The Marienschule, a private
grammar school, has existed since 1895 and is sponsored by the Sankt
Hildegard School Society. The sole shareholder is the diocese of
Limburg. The school was originally founded as an all-girls grammar
school, but since 2011 boys and girls have also been taught
monoeducation at the school. In addition to general vocational training
for socio-pedagogical and social care professions is also offered there.
The Tilemannschule, which has been housed in a new building on the
Schafsberg since the 1960s, is a grammar school specializing in
language, sports and music. It has been named after the Limburg town
clerk Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen since the 1950s. Like the
Marienschule, it has existed since the end of the 19th century.
The only Realschule outside the city center is the Eschilishov school,
which had a secondary school branch until the 2012/2013 school year. It
was founded in 1908. In 1999, the promotion of the gifted began in the
elementary school branch.
The Peter-Paul-Cahensly-School, named
after the Limburg merchant and honorary citizen, is a vocational grammar
school and technical school with a focus on business and construction
engineering. It was founded in 1910 as Limburg's first commercial
training school and in 1966 it moved into the former grammar school
building at the foot of the Schafsberg. The PPC school is now located in
southern Limburg, on Zeppelinstraße. In 2004, the Hessian Ministry of
Education awarded it the seal of quality for schools that support
particularly gifted students.
The Astrid Lindgren School educates
students with mental and physical disabilities, and the Albert
Schweitzer School educates students with learning difficulties and
social and emotional development disorders. Both schools are based on
the special school, some classes of which were attached to the
Wilhelmitenschule from 1909, became independent in 1928 and completely
took over the previous school building of the Wilhelmitenschule in 1965.
The Astrid Lindgren School, which has been independent since 1967,
essentially goes back to an initiative of the local branch of the
self-help group Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe. From 1969 onwards, a
school center was built in the then still independent neighboring
municipality of Eschhofen for the two current successor facilities of
the former special school. The buildings were inaugurated in 1974.
The Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe-School has borne this name since
1967. It emerged from the former "Primary School III" and the municipal
secondary school on Hospitalstrasse. The old building of the Goethe
School was initially completed in 1954 for the elementary school alone.
In 1965 an extension was started. In September 1967, the Realschule
students moved into the new building.
The Friedrich Dessauer
School has been a vocational school with various technical disciplines
since 1960. At this school, which has been independent since 2012, the
general technical college entrance qualification can be acquired, also
in the school types of business and business informatics. As part of a
cooperation with the Peter-Paul-Cahensly-School, the
Friedrich-Dessauer-School makes its specialist rooms and training
workshops available for their secondary school specializations of
construction technology, information technology and mechanical
engineering.
The Theodor-Heuss-School is a primary and middle
school and goes back to the former Wilhelmite School. In 1966 it
received its current name and its school building on Schafsberg.
In 1967 the Lahntal School Limburg (today: Leo-Sternberg-School) was
founded as a central school for the old and bridge suburbs as well as
the then independent municipality of Dietkirchen. It is elementary,
secondary and secondary school.
The Adolf Reichwein School was
founded in 1966 as a district vocational school and received its name a
year later. After constant expansion, it now includes technical colleges
for economics and social affairs, for example, technical colleges for
agriculture, health and social affairs and a vocational high school with
a focus on nutrition, health and education. The Adolf Reichwein School
has received multiple awards for its website.
StudiumPlus, based in Wetzlar, an institution of the Technical University of Central Hesse, has been operating a branch in Limburg since the 2016/2017 winter semester. Offers include dual courses in business administration, architecture, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and computer engineering.
Cathedral library
Diocesan Library
The St. Vincenz Hospital, located above the city on the Schafsberg,
is a specialist hospital with 16 specialist departments and over 500
beds. It goes back to a hospital on the banks of the Lahn that was
created in 1850 from a foundation and was run by Vincentian nuns. From
1950 onwards, the hospital, which had around 100 beds at the time,
gradually moved into a building on the Schafsberg, which was initially
intended to serve as a youth center and was then expanded into a
hospital. The building was completely demolished in 1958, the new
hospital opened in 1959 and most of the other buildings were constructed
by 1972. In 2013, more than 20,000 patients were treated in the clinic
for the first time and almost 1000 children were born.[50] The St.
Vincenz Hospital is also an academic teaching hospital of the Justus
Liebig University in Gießen, where projects such as For example, the
“Joint Care” therapy concept in orthopedics, which is unique in Germany
apart from Berlin, can be implemented.
The non-profit hospital
company St. Vincenz is the largest employer in the region with around
1,500 employees.[51] With the logistics and service center, Hessen's
most modern central pharmacy was put into operation in 2013 in the ICE
area, from which 24 surrounding clinics are supplied with
medicines.[52][53]
The district association Limburg e. V. of the
German Red Cross (DRK) is divided into the local chapters of Bad
Camberg, Elz, Frickhofen, Hünfelden, Limburg and Niederrupt. In 2012, a
roundabout on the Limburger Kapellenstraße was dedicated to the DRK.
The Limburg hospital also took over the hospital in Diez.
With the youth leisure center Limburg (JFS), the evangelical church
offers a supervised meeting place for young people. With table football,
an internet café and numerous events, the facility is not only
characterized by the church.
The Limburg Mothers' Center on
Hospitalstraße is a family meeting place for people with or without
children. The association is supported by the city of Limburg and the
state of Hesse and offers, among other things, a parent service that
arranges childcare, a wide range of courses for children and adults, a
mini-kindergarten and a café.
The City of Limburg participates in
the Notinsel project, in which suitable businesses commit themselves to
providing shelter and assistance to children in need.
Volunteer fire brigade Limburg an der Lahn, founded 1867 (since July
11, 1972 with youth fire brigade)
Ahlbach volunteer fire brigade,
founded in 1908 (since October 6, 1976 with youth fire brigade and since
April 2, 2011 with children's fire brigade)
Dietkirchen volunteer
fire brigade, founded in 1934 (since May 14, 1974 with youth fire
brigade)
Volunteer fire brigade Eschhofen, founded 1901 (since
October 13, 1975 with youth fire brigade)
Volunteer fire brigade
Lindenholzhausen, founded 1933 (since April 14, 1975 with youth fire
brigade)
Volunteer fire brigade Linter, founded 1935 (since November
18, 1970 with youth fire brigade and since May 7, 2011 with children's
fire brigade)
Volunteer fire brigade Offheim, founded 1898 (since
June 21, 1974 with youth fire brigade)
Volunteer fire brigade
squadron, founded 1880 (since January 1, 1980 with youth fire brigade)
Technical relief organization (THW), Limburg branch
Werner Senger (? – after 1369), merchant, alderman and donator of the
Limburg Hospital
Anton Busch (1763–1836), lay judge, councillor,
mayor and mayor
Heinrich Trombetta (1800–1859), merchant, MdL Nassau,
member of the preliminary parliament
Peter Joseph Hammerschlag
(1817–1888), merchant, MdL Nassau, born and died in Limburg
Hubert
Hilf (1820–1909), entrepreneur and politician, member of the Reichstag
Edmund Schmidt (1844–1916), Roman Catholic minister, Benedictine,
researcher of the Rule of Benedict
Josef Menges (1850–1910), explorer
of Africa
Alois Anton Führer (1853–1930), Sanskritist and clergyman
Anton Führer (1854–1929), teacher, headmaster, historian, honorary
citizen of the city of Rheine
Leo Sternberg (1876–1937), writer
Wilhelm Weirauch (1876–1945), lawyer and director general of the
Reichsbahn
Ludwig von Rößler (1877–1965), engineer and university
lecturer
Otfried Eberz (1878–1958), philosopher
Josef Eberz
(1880-1942), painter and graphic artist
Willy Hof (1880–1956),
industrialist and transport planner
Friedrich Laibach (1885–1967),
botanist
Gregor Rosenbauer (1890–1966), architect
Sebastian Wenz
(1890–1915), classical archaeologist
Claire Lepère (1892–1956),
German-Swiss writer
Heinz Wolf (1908-1984), district administrator,
honorary citizen 1975-2013. On June 24, 2013, the Limburg city council
decided to rescind its 1975 decision to award him honorary citizenship,
due to the depth of Wolf's involvement in the Nazi regime, which is now
known.
Hermann Kugelstadt (1912–2001), director
Gerhard Müller
(1912–1997), President of the Federal Labor Court
Kurt Kauter
(1913–2002), writer
Siegfried Schmitt (1915–1988), track and field
athlete
Alois Schardt (1926–1998), journalist, program director of
ZDF
Werner Wenz (1926–2019), surgeon
Eberhard Kunkel (1931–2019),
comic crime writer and publisher
Heinz Maibach (1933–2015), city
archivist and local historian
Senta Seip (* 1934), politician
(Greens), former member of the Hessian state parliament
Franz Josef
Hamm (born 1936), architect
Karl Winfried Seif (1943–2023),
politician
Klaus Kleiter (* 1944), national hockey coach
Franz
Häuser (* 1945), lawyer, professor, 2003-2010 Rector of the University
of Leipzig
Beatrix Vogel (born 1945), philosopher and publicist
Dieter Thomas (1947–2016), cabaret artist and co-founder of the
Frankfurt Fronttheater
Theo Geisel (* 1948), theoretical physicist
and university lecturer
Hans-Jürgen Irmer (* 1952), politician (CDU)
and former member of the Hessian state parliament
Hilde Barz-Malfatti
(1953–2020), architect
Peter Pörtner (* 1953), Japanologist and
university lecturer
Mathias Bröckers (born 1954), journalist and
author
Alexander Kirchner (* 1956), trade unionist, member of the
supervisory board of Deutsche Bahn
Christoph Prégardien (born 1956),
singer
Christoph Ullrich (* 1960), District President of the Gießen
district
Bernd Fuhr (born 1960), former soccer goalkeeper
Ute
Schneider (* 1960), book scholar and university lecturer
Christof
Müller (born 1961), fundamental theologian
Jürgen Schmidt (born
1961), Brigadier General of the German Armed Forces
Olaf Zimmermann
(* 1961), publicist and art dealer, managing director of the German
Cultural Council
Anke Olschewski (born 1962), table tennis player
Frank Puchtler (* 1962), politician (SPD), district administrator of the
Rhein-Lahn district
Mechthild Bach (* 1963/70), singer
Manfred
Königstein (* 1963), economist and university lecturer
Heinz
Voggenreiter (* 1963), aerospace engineer and university lecturer
Germar Rudolf (born 1964), convicted Holocaust denier
Veronika Winter
(born 1965), soprano
Daniela Philippi (* 1966), musicologist,
university teacher
Frank Schmidt (born 1966), politician (SPD)
Stefan Saliger (born 1967), hockey player and Olympic champion
Stephan Hartmann (* 1968), philosopher of science and university
lecturer
Holger Horz (* 1968), psychologist and university lecturer
Jörg Koch (* 1968), historian and local researcher
Marius Hahn (born
1971), lawyer, politician (SPD), mayor of Limburg an der Lahn
Henning
Türk (* 1974), historian, university lecturer
Michaela Hönig (*
1974), business economist, university lecturer
Claudia Bogedan (*
1975), social scientist and politician (SPD)
Karsten Dahlem (born
1975), actor, director and screenwriter
Wolfgang Müller (born 1975),
musician, singer and songwriter
Tamara Bach (born 1976), writer
Ikke Hipgold (born 1976), party hit singer, producer and entrepreneur
Julia Kleiter (born 1980), soprano
Christian Wendel (born 1980),
politician (CDU)
Moritz Hilf (1819–1894), builder of the Lahn Valley Railway, honorary
citizen since 1862
Andreas Schlitt (1833–1903), mayor, honorary
citizen since 1901
Peter Paul Cahensly (1838–1923), politician and
social reformer, honorary citizen since 1913
Joseph Heppel
(1849-1936), founder of Blechwarenfabrik Limburg, deputy and founder,
honorary citizen since 1919
Heinrich Fendel (1878–1965), parish
priest, honorary citizen since 1951
Friedrich Hammerschlag
(1888–1972), entrepreneur and local politician, honorary citizen since
1968
Georg Brötz (1889–1959), teacher, honorary citizen of the then
independent community of Eschhofen since 1954
Joseph Schneider
(1890–1974), mayor, honorary citizen since 1960
Clemens Bruckner
(1893–1976), pastor, honorary citizen of the then independent
municipality of Lindenholzhausen since 1970
Anna Ohl (1893–1987),
founder, honorary citizen since 1986
Wilhelm Breithecker (1897-1982),
pastor and person persecuted by the Nazi regime, honorary citizen of the
then independent municipality of Dietkirchen since 1970
Wilhelm Kempf
(1906–1982), bishop, honorary citizen since 1974
Josef Kohlmaier
(1921–1995), bailiff, politician, mayor from 1965 to 1985, honorary
citizen since 1985
Franz Kamphaus (* 1932), bishop, honorary citizen
since 2007
Tilemann Elhen von Wolfhagen (around 1347–after 1402), humanist,
author of the Limburg Chronicle, died in Limburg.
Georg Hilpisch
(1846-1928), canon, vicar general, church historian and editor, worked
and died in Limburg.
Marcus Krüsmann (1879–1964), Mayor of Limburg
from 1919 until the National Socialists came to power.
Gerda Weiler
(1921–1994), psychologist and teacher, worked as a teacher in Limburg
from 1948 to 1951 under the name Gerda Arndt.
Hildegard Schirmacher
(1924–2015; until 1997 Ernst Schirmacher), architect and urban planner,
lived, worked and died in Limburg.
Walter Neuhäusser (1926–2021),
architect, lived and worked in Limburg.
Ernst Eichinger (1929–2015),
German artist, deceased in Limburg, his last adopted home.
Robert
Rosenthal (* 1933), psychologist, professor at the University of
California, spent the first years of his life in Limburg, fled with his
parents from the National Socialists; The Rosenthal effect is named
after it.
Frederik Hetmann (1934–2006), writer, spent the last years
of his life in Limburg and died there.
Katharina Saalfrank (* 1971),
qualified teacher and music therapist, spent the first seven years of
her life in Limburg.