The Gutsbezirk Reinhardswald () is an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in the Kassel district in the state of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

in Germany. It encompasses an area of and is thus the second largest village in Hesse by area after the city of

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. The Gutsbezirk Reinhardswald consists of nearly the whole area of the

Reinhardswald The Reinhardswald () is a range of hills up to and covering an area of over 200 km²
in the W ...

. It is administered by the leader of the local forest authority, seated in nearby

Reinhardshagen Reinhardshagen is a municipality in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 24 kilometers north of Kassel, and 21 kilometers west of Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central ...

, who is instated by the district and whose duties include taking in taxes, garbage disposal and maintaining the

civil registry Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events ( births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in diffe ...

Curiosities

Although the Gutsbezirk Reinhardswald is officially uninhabited, two people inhabit and operate the ''Tillyschanze''

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

, next to the observation tower of the same name above the city of Hann. Münden, located in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. The border between the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony runs between the restaurant and the observation tower. Until 2015, the territory had no postal code as it was forgotten about when the postal codes were assigned in 1993, and as such no mail was delivered to the inhabitants. The official address, as given by the authorities, was ''Tillyschanze 1, 00000 Reinhardswald''. In December 2015 the ''Tillyschanze'' received an address (''Bierweg 1, 34346 Hann. Münden'', despite not belonging to the community of Münden) and can now receive mail. Connection to the electricity and water network is provided by the city of Hann. Münden, who also built a road to the restaurant. The inhabitants had to privately contract a company from Lower Saxony to take care of garbage disposal. The two inhabitants have to vote in the nearby electoral district of Reinhardshagen, ten kilometers away from the restaurant.

References

''Kurioses: Der Forstgutsbezirk Reinhardswald – ein Kuriosum in Hessen!''
tillyschanze.de (in German) {{authority control Kassel (district) ! Forests and woodlands of Hesse Unincorporated areas of Germany