Weßling 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

Starnberg Starnberg is a Town#Germany, town in Bavaria, Germany, some southwest of Munich. It is at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the "Five Lakes Country", and serves as capital of the Starnberg (district), district of Starnberg. Recor ...

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 ...

History

Weßling was first mentioned in the 13th century, when it was passed to

Seefeld Castle Seefeld Castle () is a castle in Seefeld, Bavaria that has its origins in a 13th-century building but has since been extensively modified. Today it serves in part as a museum. A large park extends to the south of the castle. Building Seefeld cas ...

. In 1810 it was recorded to consist of 37 farms and in 1877 to have a population of 230. Since, starting from the 19th century, it was visited by several painters and sculptors (e.g. Carl Schuch,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

, Wilhelm Trübner), the town is regarded by some as an artists' colony. In 1903, when Weßling had a population of 350, the construction of a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

from Munich to Herrsching led to a moderately increased influx of population around Lake Weßling. The town of Oberpfaffenhofen, which is now part of Weßling, gained some importance as an industrial and research location in 1936, when an airport was built there by the aircraft manufacturer Dornier. In 1972 and 1976 the municipalities of Hochstadt and Oberpfaffenhofen respectively were incorporated into Weßling.

Geography

Weßling is located within the

Fünfseenland The Fünfseenland is the name for an area in Upper Bavaria between, and including, the Ammersee and Starnberger See, which contains the remainder of the great glacial lakes of the area ( Pilsensee, Wörthsee Wörthsee (Wörth lake) is a lak ...

( 'five lakes country'). The town completely encloses Lake Weßling, the smallest of the five lakes. Weßling is divided into three main districts: * Weßling * Oberpfaffenhofen, incorporated in 1976. * Hochstadt, incorporated in 1972.

Transport

Road

Weßling lies very close to 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 ...

(). On weekends and holidays the town often experiences heavy traffic due to visitors from nearby

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. A bypass, built in 2016 west of Weßling, did not improve these traffic issues. Currently there are five regional bus lines (X910 921 923 947 955) connecting Weßling to the surrounding towns and cities.

Rail

The town has one

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

served by the

Munich S-Bahn The Munich S-Bahn () is an Railway electrification system, electric rail transit system in Munich, Germany. "S-Bahn" is the German abbreviation for ''Stadtschnellbahn'' (literally, "urban rapid rail"), and the Munich S-Bahn exhibits characteris ...

(), which runs from

Herrsching Herrsching am Ammersee is a municipality in Upper Bavaria, Germany, on the east shore of the Ammersee, southwest of Munich. The population is around 8,000 in winter, increasing to 13,000 in summer. Situated at one terminus of the Munich S-Bahn li ...

to Munich airport.

Air

An airport is located in the district of Oberpfaffenhofen. Even though this is the third largest civilian airport in Bavaria, it is not served by any airlines. Instead it is used for research and industrial purposes.

Sport

The local sports club was founded in 1936. It is notable that the ice hockey division played in the highest German ice hockey league for five seasons. In 1958, SC Weßling, which played on natural ice, even qualified for the first season of the newly founded

Ice hockey Bundesliga The Eishockey-Bundesliga ("Federal Ice Hockey League") was formed in 1958 as the elite hockey competition in the Federal Republic of Germany, replacing the ''Oberliga (ice hockey), Oberliga'' in this position.Klein, p. 12 From the 1994–95 seas ...

Industry

Historically the aircraft manufacturer Dornier located at the airport in Oberpfaffenhofen was the biggest employer in Weßling and the surrounding region. In 2006 however, Dornier went bankrupt together with its parent company

Fairchild Aircraft Fairchild was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company based at various times in Farmingdale, New York; Hagerstown, Maryland; and San Antonio, Texas. History Early aircraft The company was founded by Sherman Fairchild in 19 ...

. Nevertheless, the local industry is still dominated by aerospace companies. Some of the largest and best known employers located around the airport in Oberpfaffenhofen are: *

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

* RUAG *

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

ground control center * OHB *

Lilium GmbH Lilium Aerospace GmbH is a German aerospace company which is the developer of the Lilium Jet, an electrically powered personal air vehicle capable of VTOL flight. History Lilium was founded in 2015 by four engineers and PhD students at the ...

Famous people

Born in Weßling

* Anton Besold, born in 1904, politician, member of German parliament * Anton G. Leitner, born in 1961, publisher * , born in 1931,

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player * , born in 1931, architect

Notable residents

Alois Alzheimer Alois Alzheimer ( , , ; 14 June 1864 – 19 December 1915) was a German psychiatrist, neuropathologist and colleague of Emil Kraepelin. He is credited with identifying the first published case of "presenile dementia", which Kraepelin later ide ...

, psychiatrist * Graham Waterhouse, composer * , painter * , painter

Gallery

File:Weßling Grünsink.jpg, Pilgrimage church in Grünsink File:Weßling_Seeansicht.jpg, Lake Weßling File:Galileo_Control_Centre_Oberpfaffenhofen.jpg, Galileo ground control center in Oberpfaffenhofen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wessling Starnberg (district)