Gilserberg () is a municipality in the Schwalm-Eder district in Hesse,

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 ...

Geography

Location

Gilserberg lies at the foot of the

Kellerwald The Kellerwald is a low mountain range reaching heights of up to 675 m in the western part of northern Hesse, Germany. Its assets include Germany's largest contiguous beech woodland and it contains Hesse's only national park, the Kellerwald-Ederse ...

, a low mountain range, nestled in the Kurhessen Highland on Federal Highway (''Bundesstraße'') B 3, 60 km from

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

and 30 km from

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

Constituent communities

Together with the main centre, which also bears the same name as the whole municipality, the ten centres of Appenhain, Heimbach, Itzenhain, Lischeid, Moischeid, Sachsenhausen, Schönau, Schönstein, Sebbeterode and Winterscheid also belong to the community of Gilserberg.

History

Gilserberg had its first documentary mention in 1262.

Religion

Jewish community

There was a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish community in Gilserberg from the 18th century through to sometime after 1933. The Jewish population peaked about 1900 at 70 or more persons. The first

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

was supposedly built about the beginning of the 19th century. A newer one was festively consecrated on 12 January 1898. However, it was destroyed on Kristallnacht (9 November 1938). At least four of the community's Jewish residents were murdered in

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

death camps. All that is left nowadays in Gilserberg of the former Jewish community is a small Jewish graveyard.

Amalgamations

As part of Hesse's municipal reforms, the formerly independent communities of Gilserberg, Heimbach, Lischeid, Moischeid, Sachsenhausen, Schönau, Schönstein, Sebbeterode and Winterscheid voluntarily combined to form the community of Gilserberg on 1 January 1972. On 1 April of the same year, the communities of Appenhain and Itzenhain also joined, making the community complete.

Town partnership

* Rocheservière,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

References

External links

Gilserberg's website

{{Authority control Schwalm-Eder-Kreis Holocaust locations in Germany