Main-Kinzig-Kreis is a Kreis (

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

) in the east of

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Darms ...

, Germany. Neighboring districts are

Wetteraukreis The Wetteraukreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis and Lahn-Dill-Kreis. History The dist ...

Vogelsbergkreis The Vogelsbergkreis is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Schwalm-Eder, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Fulda, Main-Kinzig, Wetteraukreis, Gießen and Marburg-Biedenkopf. History The district was created in ...

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which beca ...

Main-Spessart Main-Spessart is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the northwest of Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Lower Franconia and derives its name from the river Main and the wooded hills of the Spessart. Geography The district is bounded by (from the nor ...

Aschaffenburg Aschaffenburg (; South Franconian: ''Aschebersch'') is a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. The town of Aschaffenburg is not part of the district of Aschaffenburg, but is its administrative seat. Aschaffenburg belonged to the Archbishopric ...

, Offenbach and the district-free cities of Offenbach and

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

History

The district was created in 1974 by merging the former districts of Hanau, Schlüchtern, Gelnhausen and the former urban district of

Hanau Hanau () is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main and is part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its station is a major railway junction and it has a port on the ri ...

. It is basically the former territory of the county of

Hesse-Hanau Hesse-Hanau was a territory in the Holy Roman Empire. It emerged when the former county of Hanau-Münzenberg became a secundogeniture of Hesse-Cassel in 1760. When the reigning count, William IX, also became landgrave of Hesse-Cassel in 1785, t ...

Geography

The district is named after the two primary rivers: the

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

flows along the south-west corner of the district. The Kinzig, a tributary of the Main, flows through the district. According to the ''

Institut Géographique National An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

'' from 1 January 2007 until July 2013 the geographic centre of the European Union was located on a wheat field outside of Gelnhausen.

Economy

In 2017 (latest data available) the

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

per inhabitant was €34,185. This places the district 15th out of 26 districts (rural and urban) in Hesse (overall average: €45,107).

Towns and municipalities

Coat of arms

The coat of arms is a combination of the coat of arms of the previous districts which were merged in 1974. The swan in top comes from the defunct Hanau district, and is the old crest of the Counts of Hanau. The eagle in the left is taken from the town of

Gelnhausen Gelnhausen () is a town, and the capital of the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located approximately 40 kilometers east of Frankfurt am Main, between the Vogelsberg mountains and the Spessart range at the river Kinzig. It is one o ...

. The bars in the right are taken from the coat of arms of the Lords of Hutten, who owned the area around Bad Soden and Salmünster, formerly part of the defunct Schlüchtern district.

Partnerships

The oldest partnership was inherited from the previous district Hanau, and was formed in 1972 with the Croatian municipality of

Kutina Kutina is a town in central Croatia, the largest settlement in the hilly region of Moslavina, in the Sisak-Moslavina County. The town proper has a population of 13,735 (2011), while the total municipal population is 22,760. The settlement of Kut ...

– however it took till the 20th anniversary in 1992 that this partnership was officially signed. In 1986 the district parliament decided to start a developing project with the

Diriamba Diriamba is a city and a municipality in the Carazo department of Nicaragua, with a population of 64,757 (2020 estimate). It is located 41 km south of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Geography The city's elevation (just above 500 meter ...

region in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. Since 1990 the district has a partnership with the

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

n district

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

. Also in 1990 first contacts with the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...

n Rayon Istra were started, which resulted in an official partnership in 1992. In 1993 the partnership with the Hungarian

Komárom-Esztergom County Komárom-Esztergom ( hu, Komárom-Esztergom megye, ; german: Komitat Komorn-Gran; sk, Komárňansko-ostrihomská župa) is an administrative Hungarian county in Central Transdanubia Region; its shares its northern border the Danube with Slovak ...

was signed, with the first contacts also dating back to 1990. A friendship was signed in 1997 with the Russian city

Troitsk Troitsk (russian: Троицк) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. Modern localities ;Urban localities *Troitsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast; *Troitsk, Moscow, a town in Troitsk Settlement of Troitsky Adm ...

, together with the partnership of the city Wächtersbach with Troitsk. In 2000 a treaty of friendship was signed with the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

province

Belluno Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the ...

, as well as a partnership with the

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i city

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan ( he, רָמַת גַּן or , ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv and part of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. It is home to one of the world's major diamond exchanges, and many ...

. Main-Kinzig-Kreis is twinned with: *

, Israel since 1990 *

, Croatia

References

External links

* {{Coord, 50, 15, N, 9, 18, E, region:DE_type:adm2nd, display=title Districts of Hesse Vogelsberg Spessart