Bindlach is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality ...

in the district of Bayreuth in Upper Franconia in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

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 ...

. The town is adjacent immediately north of the town of Bayreuth. The population count of December 2006 was 7197 inhabitants.

History

The name Bindlach is derived from the Slavic ''Pnetluky'' containing the verb ''tlouki'' which means "to chop". Thus Bindlach can be translated with "Village of the people chopping trunks" as the village is situated in an area rich with woods and a clearance had to be created prior to settlement. More recent research traces the name back to the

Old Saxon Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It ...

word ''Binutlaka'' meaning "Small, standing lake overgrown with

juncus ''Juncus'' is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants, commonly known as rushes. It is the largest genus in the family Juncaceae, containing around 300 species. Description Rushes of the genus ''Juncus'' are herbaceous plants that superfic ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...

supposedly resettled deported Saxons in the area. Archaeological excavations have produced

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

ic leftovers as well as remains from the

Urnfield culture The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

and the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

giving proof of settlement as early as 1300 BC. The first official mentioning in modern times occurred in a private charter Urkunde HU Bamberg 335 - Hauptstaatsarchiv München on April 6, 1178 as ''bintlvke''. Being part of the Prussian

Principality of Bayreuth The Principality of Bayreuth (german: Fürstentum Bayreuth) or Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (''Markgraftum Brandenburg-Bayreuth'') was an immediate territory of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern dyna ...

, Bindlach was ceded to France in 1807 following the

Treaties of Tilsit The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Napoleon and Russian Emperor Alexander, wh ...

. In 1810 it became part of the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

. The town as it is known today was formed in 1818.

Culture

Bindlach's Protestant church St. Bartholomew was built in the baroque style between 1766 and 1768 by Carl Phillip von Gontard and Rudolf Heinrich Richter. The altar with integrated pulpit and the organ are of extraordinary beauty.

Economy

The German clothing discount store chain NKD (retailer) is headquartered in Bindlach.

Infrastructure

Bindlach is situated on the Bayreuth–Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg line and is served by local trains. The

Autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...

A9 crosses through Bindlach at the western edge of the old part of the town, separating it from the newer parts built in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Bundesstraße 2 runs through the old part of the town linking Bayreuth and Bad Berneck. Bayreuth Airport is on top of the hills on the eastern side of town; despite the name on Bindlach territory.

Military

Overlooking Bindlach from the east, a large American military base was maintained on top of the hills east of Bindlach (Bindlacher Berg). Its official name was ''Christensen Barracks'' but it was jocularly called ''The Rock'' by the soldiers stationed there. The main function of the base was securing the borders to the

GDR 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 ...

and

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, both borders being only 70 km (43 mls) away. This was home to the 1st Squadron, 2nd ACR, (

2nd Cavalry Regiment (United States) The 2nd Cavalry Regiment, also known as the 2nd Dragoons, is an active Stryker infantry and cavalry regiment of the United States Army. The Second Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army Europe and Africa, with its garrison at ...

) from the late 1950s into the 1990s. The base closed down in the early 1990s after

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 ...

and the opening of the borders to the east.

Sources

External links

Bindlach's official Homepage

History of ''Bindlacher Berg'', the former site of the American military base (German text)

Private Homepage about Bindlach, mostly German text
{{Authority control Bayreuth (district)