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Bebra () is a small town in
Hersfeld-Rotenburg Hersfeld-Rotenburg is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the east of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Werra-Meißner, Wartburgkreis, Fulda, Vogelsbergkreis, Schwalm-Eder. History In 1821, districts were created in Hesse, including the districts ...
district in northeastern
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 Da ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
.


Geography


Location

Bebra lies some south of
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...
on the
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 ...
. The town is easy to find on most maps thanks to its prominent location on the ''Fuldaknie'' ("Fulda Knee"). Ranges surrounding the town are the ''Stölzinger Gebirge'' (range) in the north, the
Richelsdorf Hills The Richelsdorf Hills (german: Richelsdorfer Gebirge) is the name given to a landscape in the German Central Uplands. The terrain is up to high and forms a landscape characterised by mining (copper shale Copper is a chemical element with th ...
in the east, the
Seulingswald The Seulingswald (also called the Sillingswald) is a hill range in the German Central Uplands which reaches heights of up to . It is part of the Fulda-Werra Uplands in the East Hesse Highlands within the Hessian county of Hersfeld-Rotenburg; s ...
in the southeast and the
Knüll The Knüllgebirge or simply Knüll is a small mountain range in the northern part of Hesse, Germany, approximately south of Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It i ...
in the southwest. The biggest neighbouring places are
Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to: * Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany * Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district * Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse *Rothenburg ob der Tauber Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town in the distric ...
and
Bad Hersfeld The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km south ...
.
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 ...
is about southwest of Bebra. Within Bebra's town limits, the Bebra, Solz, Lüder and Ulfe empty into the Fulda, while the Iba empties into the Ulfe.


Neighbouring communities

Clockwise from the north, these are
Cornberg Cornberg is a municipality in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. It is the district's smallest municipality. Geography Location The community lies between the towns of Bad Hersfeld to the south and Eschwege to the no ...
, Nentershausen,
Ronshausen Ronshausen is a municipality and a ''Luftkurort'' (“air spa”) in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany. Geography Location The community lies in the valley of the Ulfe, which in Bebra empties into the Fulda. It lies in t ...
, Ludwigsau and
Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to: * Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany * Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district * Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse *Rothenburg ob der Tauber Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town in the distric ...
.


Constituent communities

Bebra's 11 '' Stadtteile'' are, in alphabetical order, Asmushausen, Blankenheim, Braunhausen, Breitenbach, Gilfershausen, Iba, Imshausen, Lüdersdorf, Rautenhausen, Solz and Weiterode. Imshausen and Solz are the
Trott zu Solz The Trott zu Solz family is a Hessian noble family and a member of the Hessian Protestant ''Uradel'' and the . It is descended from the knight Hermann Trott, who was mentioned in 1253. The family seat is in Solz, where the family has a manor, a ...
family's seat.


History

The name Bebra came from ''Biberaho'' (“Village on the Beaver River”; ''Biber'' still means “beaver” in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
today). Later this became first ''Bibera'', and then today's name Bebra. In 786, the town had its first documentary mention in an estate directory of the
Hersfeld Abbey Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue. Hist ...
, which is confirmed as having been built in 769. The reason for the mention was that Bebra was donated to the Abbey to cover food demands, thus leading to the conclusion that the directory itself, and thereby Bebra's existence as well, go back a few years further than that. For the next several centuries the settlement was mainly a big farming village, even though important, heavily used roads already met at this spot quite early on. For one, there was the road to the east leading by way of
Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, sit ...
to
Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...
. For another, there was the postal road running along the Fulda valley linking the region with southern Germany. Nevertheless, at that time the area was dominated by
Rotenburg Rotenburg may refer to: * Rotenburg (district), Lower Saxony, Germany * Rotenburg an der Wümme, capital of the district * Rotenburg an der Fulda, near Kassel in Hesse *Rothenburg ob der Tauber Rothenburg ob der Tauber () is a town in the distric ...
, lying away, which enjoyed status as a small residence town. An upswing came Bebra's way when the
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
network in Germany was expanded, reaching even this region by the mid 19th century. Towards the end of the century, the town was one of Germany's most important railway junctions. On the one hand, the town's population thereby grew over about 70 years from some 1,300 to 5,063 by 1946. On the other hand, the town lost its formerly exclusively rural character with trade and businesses settling in town, among which the old
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regi ...
was the biggest employer. Town rights were granted Bebra on 20 September 1935 by the Chief President (''Oberpräsident'') of the Province of
Hesse-Nassau The Province of Hesse-Nassau () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1868 to 1918, then a province of the Free State of Prussia until 1944. Hesse-Nassau was created as a consequence of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 by combining the p ...
, Philipp, Prince of Hesse. The town's growth kept up – interrupted only by the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
– into the 1970s. Given the good transport connections, a large industrial area arose in town. During the time of the division of Germany, there was a
border checkpoint A border checkpoint is a location on an international border where travelers or goods are inspected and allowed (or denied) passage through. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. Access-controlled borders oft ...
in Bebra to handle both people and goods crossing between the postwar occupational zones and, later, between
West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
and
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bebra was the largest border checkpoint for rail transportation across East German territory between West Germany and
Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. As of the mid-1980s, Bebra was gradually losing importance as a railway junction, which led to a noticeable decline in goods traffic and thereby to fewer jobs at
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the ...
.


Religion

In Bebra's main town and its outlying centres stand 12
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exp ...
churches, one
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
church, one
Evangelical Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
church and one
Syriac Orthodox , native_name_lang = syc , image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg , imagewidth = 250 , alt = Cathedral of Saint George , caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...
church, with Free Evangelical and State Church communities represented in town.


Amalgamations

All constituent communities named above were amalgamated with municipal reform in 1972.


Population development

(¹ after amalgamation of 11 outlying centres)


Politics


Town council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results: The town executive (''Magistrat'') is made up of 8 councillors, with 5 seats allotted to the CDU and three to the SPD.


Mayor

*1995–2013: Horst Groß (CDU) *2013–2019: Uwe Hassl *2019–incumbent: Stefan Knoche


Coat of arms

The town's
arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...
might be described thus: Gules a beaver rampant, in the base two bendlets, thereover two bendlets sinister, the whole argent. Bebra's arms symbolize the town's change from a village to an important railway junction. The
tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemist ...
s recall the
Hersfeld Abbey Hersfeld Abbey was an important Benedictine imperial abbey in the town of Bad Hersfeld in Hesse (formerly in Hesse-Nassau), Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Geisa, Haune and Fulda. The ruins are now a medieval festival venue. Hist ...
’s coat of arms, Bebra having belonged to the Abbey’s oldest holding. The crossed bendlets (thin diagonal bars, and more aptly described as such than as “a saltire voided”, given the way they are meant to be shown) are an heraldic way of representing a railway junction, which was the town's main function when the arms were conferred in 1930, and had been since the middle of the foregoing century.


Town partnerships

*
Friedrichroda Friedrichroda () is a town in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, 21 km by rail southwest of the town of Gotha. It is surrounded by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous han ...
,
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 ...
since the early 1990s *
Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenar ...
,
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
since 1970


Culture and sightseeing


Museums

The railway museum in the historic
watertower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conjunc ...
shows the railway history that was so important to Bebra. Right next door is found a
narrow-gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
that runs on some days from April to September. The toy museum in the outlying centre of Solz offers a glimpse of toys from almost forgotten times.


Buildings

Besides the old town hall, various
timber-frame Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
houses, the town's parks and the ''Friedrichshütte'' are worthy of mention. There are a
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
and an
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exp ...
church as well, the latter of which was thoroughly restored after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. File:Bebra_Sonnenuhren.jpg,
Sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a fl ...
s File:Bebra_Schwengelpumpe.jpg, Reciprocating waterpump File:Bebra_Wasserhahn.jpg, watertap


Regular events

Early in the year there is an Easter Market, and in autumn there is a harvest and homeland festival. A Christmas Market is held not long before Christmas. Besides the town festival (''Stadtfest''), a fishermen's festival (''Fischerfest'') and a kite festival (''Drachenfest'') are held in the summer. Every other year there is also a trade show.


Economy and infrastructure

In the late 1980s, Bebra was losing its importance as a railway junction as
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
loomed and the town lost cross-border traffic. This led to widespread job loss among the inhabitants, as the railway had long been the town's biggest employer. An anecdote in Bebra has it that in the years after the war, people did not ask “Where do you work?” but rather “Where on the railway do you work?”. From the turn of the millennium, local politicians and Members of the
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
from the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district strove to have Bebra's
railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
expanded into a
marshalling yard A classification yard ( American and Canadian English ( Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard ( British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English ( Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a ra ...
.


Transport

Bebra is a classic
railway town A railway town, or railroad town, is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a railway station or junction at its site. North America During the construction of the First transcontinental railroad in the 1860s, tempora ...
at a junction of the Bebra–Fulda, Bebra–Göttingen,
Thuringian Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon sp ...
and Bebra–Kassel lines. Its station, besides a passenger station, includes a marshalling yard, making reaching the town by rail problem-free. The town belongs to the ''Nordhessischer Verkehrsverbund'' (“North Hesse Transport Association”, NVV). As a stop on the
InterCityExpress The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerl ...
east–west line, it has connections to the
Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/k ...
,
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
and
Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. In the west of town, ''
Bundesstraße ''Bundesstraße'' ( German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraße ...
'' 27 from the north and south meets ''Bundesstraße'' 83 coming from the west. The B 27 runs beyond town southwards reaching the A 4 ( Aachen
Görlitz Görlitz (; pl, Zgorzelec, hsb, Zhorjelc, cz, Zhořelec, East Lusatian dialect: ''Gerlz'', ''Gerltz'', ''Gerltsch'') is a town in the German state of Saxony. It is located on the Lusatian Neisse River, and is the largest town in Upper Lusa ...
) and A 7 ( Flensburg
Füssen Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau c ...
) near
Bad Hersfeld The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km south ...
after some . Bebra can also be reached from the east over the L 3251 state road.


Established businesses

*
Siemens VDO VDO is a German brand of Continental Automotive which makes automotive electronics and mechatronics for powertrains, engine management systems and fuel injection systems. A full range of Tachograph, Data Management, and Telematics products are p ...
Automotive AG * Plustec


Sons and daughters of the town

* August Vilmar (1800–1868), theologian, professor, ''Staatsrat'' (“State Councillor”) and literary historian * August von Trott zu Solz (1855–1938), politician, 1909–1917 education minister, cofounder of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute * Hannelore Eckhardt (born 1954), politician (SPD) * Michael Minkenberg (born 1959), political scientist


People connected to Bebra

*
Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer (16 July 1896 – 8 August 1969) was a German human biologist and geneticist, who was the Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Münster until he retired in 1965. A member of the Dutch noble Verschuer ...
(1896–1969), physician, human geneticist, twin researcher and leading eugenicist in the Third Reich. *
Adam von Trott zu Solz Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in ...
(1909–1944), jurist, diplomat and resistance fighter against Nazism. * Annika Becker (born 1981), pole vaulter *
Shkodran Mustafi Shkodran Mustafi (; born 17 April 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Segunda División club Levante. Mustafi began his career in the youth ranks of Hamburger SV and English club Everton, where he made o ...
(born 1992), professional football player and world champion in 2014


Twin towns – sister cities

Bebra is
twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...
with: *
Vrútky Vrútky (; german: Ruttek (rare); hu, Ruttka) is a town in northern Slovakia, close to the city of Martin. It lies in the historic Turiec region. Geography The town lies at the confluence of Váh and the Turiec, in the Turčianska kotlina, near ...
in
Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...
*
Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenar ...
in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...


References


External links

*
Town’s official webpage
{{Authority control Hersfeld-Rotenburg