Altenkirchen () is a town in

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, capital of the district of Altenkirchen. It is located approximately 40 km east of

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and 50 km north of

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

. Altenkirchen is the seat of the ''

Verbandsgemeinde A (; plural ) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A is typically composed of a small group of Municipalitie ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld Altenkirchen-Flammersfeld is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district of Altenkirchen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' is in Altenkirchen. It was formed on 1 January 2020 by the merger o ...

Population development

Geography

* Lahrer Herrlichkeit, a landscape region in the collective municipality of Flammersfeld

Notable people

* Dirk Adorf (born 1969), race car driver * Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (born 1975), politician (SPD) * Dittmar Hahn (born 1943), former judge of the Federal Administrative Court * Claus Koch (born 1953), jazz musician *

Ernst Lindemann Otto Ernst Lindemann (28 March 1894 – 27 May 1941) was a German ''Kapitän zur See'' (Captain (naval), naval captain). He was the only commander of the battleship during its eight months of service in World War II. Lindemann joined the Germa ...

(1894–1941), an officer of the Imperial Navy and later the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

commander of the battleship '' Bismarck '' * Hermann Heinrich Traut (born 1866), librarian * Marie Gülich (born 1994), WNBA player.

Other personalities

The following figures are not native Altenkirchen people, but have worked or lived in the city: FW Raiffeisen

* Wilhelm Boden (1890–1961), former Prime Ministers of Rheinland-Pfalz * Ludwig Julius Budge (1811–1888), physician *

Bernhard Grzimek Bernhard Klemens Maria Hoffbauer Pius Grzimek (; 24 April 1909 – 13 March 1987) was a German zoo director, zoologist, book author, editor, and Animal Conservation, animal conservationist in postwar West Germany. During the Third Reich, he served ...

(1909–1987), zoologist, cooperated in 1938 with the District Veterinary Office in Altenkirchen to combat

bovine tuberculosis Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The members of this group are classif ...

François Séverin Marceau François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers (; 1 March 1769 – 21 September 1796) was a French general of the Revolutionary Wars. Early life Desgraviers was born on 1 March 1769 in Chartres, in the province of Orléanais, the son of a prosecutor. ...

(1769–1796), French general *

Krzysztof Meyer Krzysztof Meyer (born 11 August 1943) is a Polish composer, pianist, and music scholar, formerly dean of the Department of Music Theory (1972–1975) at the State College of Music (now Academy of Music in Kraków), and president of the Polish C ...

(born 1943), composer *

Hans Nüsslein Hans "Hanne" Nüsslein (; 31 March 1910 – 28 June 1991) was a German tennis player and coach and former World professional number 1 tennis player who won four professional Majors singles titles during his career. Biography Nüsslein was bo ...

(1910–1991), German tennis player, professional world champion in 1933, 1936, 1937 *

Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (30 March 1818 – 11 March 1888) was a German mayor and cooperative pioneer. Several credit union systems and cooperative banks have been named after Raiffeisen, who pioneered rural credit unions. Life Friedrich Wilh ...

(1818–1888), social reformer * Ewald Schnug sen. (1930–2013), Master Gardener, Bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit, First Alderman of Altenkirchen, Gamekeeper's ring leader, County hunting master * Ewald Schnug (* 1954), agricultural researcher, professor, Honorary-President of the International Scientific Center for Fertilizers

References

Altenkirchen (district) {{Altenkirchen-geo-stub