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 Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

Upper Franconia Upper Franconia (, ) is a (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia, wh ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

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 ...

. The town is adjacent immediately north of the town of

. 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 Eur ...

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 superfici ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

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

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

ic leftovers as well as remains from the

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

and the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

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 () 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 dynasty. Since Burgrave Frederi ...

, Bindlach was ceded to France in 1807 following the

Treaties of Tilsit The Treaties of Tilsit (), also collectively known as the Peace of Tilsit (; ), were two peace treaties signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland, at the end of the War o ...

. In 1810 it became part of the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria ( ; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1806 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German Empire in 1871, the kingd ...

. 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) NKD is a German clothing discount store chain headquartered in Bindlach, Germany. With about 2,100 stores in Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Poland, an online shop and over 10,000 employees, NKD is one of the larg ...

is headquartered in Bindlach.

Infrastructure

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

Autobahn The (; German , ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. Much of t ...

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 The Bundesstraße 2 (abbr. B2) is a German federal highway, running some 1000 kilometres from the Polish border near Gartz to the Austrian border near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From north to south; it passes through major cities such as Berlin ...

runs through the old part of the town linking Bayreuth and

Bad Berneck Bad Berneck im Fichtelgebirge () is a spa town in the district of Bayreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the White Main river, in the Fichtel Mountains, 13 km northeast of Bayreuth. It lies in the northern part of the Bavarian pro ...

. 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 known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, 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 Second 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 a ...

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

German reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

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)