Weißenfels
Weißenfels | |
---|---|
Location of Weißenfels within Burgenlandkreis district | |
Burgenlandkreis | |
Government | |
• Mayor (2022–29) | Martin Papke[1] (CDU) |
Area | |
• Total | 113.51 km2 (43.83 sq mi) |
Elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 39,041 |
• Density | 340/km2 (890/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 06667, 06688, 06652 |
Dialling codes | 03443, 034446 |
Vehicle registration | BLK, WSF |
Website | www.weissenfels.de |
Weißenfels (IPA:
History
Electorate of Saxony 1485–1656
Saxe-Weissenfels 1656–1746
Electorate of Saxony 1746–1806
Kingdom of Saxony 1806–1815
Kingdom of Prussia 1815–1871
German Empire 1871–1918
Weimar Republic 1918–1933
Nazi Germany 1933–1945
Allied-occupied Germany 1945–1949
East Germany 1949–1990
Germany 1990–present
Perhaps the first mention of the area, before the town itself was founded occurred in 806 CE, when
The settlement arose around a castle on a
Shortly afterwards however, the town took a steep rise in importance, when Duke
Augustus therefore from 1660 onward erected the Baroque Neu-Augustusburg Castle on a hill in Weißenfels as the seat of his ducal successors. Completed in 1680 it became the duchy's administrative as well as cultural centre until its dissolution in 1746. Composers like Johann Philipp Krieger and Georg Philipp Telemann worked here, the actress Friederike Caroline Neuber made her first appearances at Weißenfels. In 1702 Johann Sebastian Bach's application for the position of the organist in Sangerhausen (belonging to Weißenfels) failed, because the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels preferred the—rediscovered in 2010—composer Johann Augustin Kobelius.[5] In 1713 Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated his cantata Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd, BWV 208 to Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels.
The Lutheran theologian Erdmann Neumeister from 1704 on served as a deacon at the ducal palace's Trinity Chapel. Its pipe organ completed in 1673 has 22 stops. According to John Mainwaring, Duke Johann Adolf I of Saxe-Weissenfels himself discovered the musical talent of George Frideric Handel, when he heard the son of his physician Georg Händel playing on the organ. Bach wrote the Toccata and Fugue in F major (BWV 540) for it.
With the extinction of the Wettin Saxe-Weissenfels line in 1746, the town fell back to the Saxon Electorate and after the 1815 Congress of Vienna to the Prussian Province of Saxony. From 1816 on it was the capital of the Weißenfels district until its dissolution in 2007.
Population
Development of the town's population (from 1960 as at 31 December):
|
|
|
- Datasource since 1990: Statistical office of Saxony-Anhalt
1: 29 October
2: 31 August
3: 3 October
Incorporations
On 1 January 1995 Weißenfels absorbed the former municipality Borau.[6] Since an administrative reform on 1 January 2010, Weißenfels also comprises the former municipalities of Langendorf, Markwerben and Uichteritz. On 1 September 2010, the former municipalities of Burgwerben, Großkorbetha, Leißling, Reichardtswerben, Schkortleben, Storkau, Tagewerben and Wengelsdorf joined the town.[7] These 12 former municipalities are now Ortschaften or municipal divisions of Weißenfels.[8]
Politics
Seats in the municipal council (Stadtrat) as of 2014 elections:
Party/Group | Seats | |
---|---|---|
Christian Democratic Union |
13 | |
Citizens for Weissenfels/Rural Neighborhoods | 7 | |
The Left | 7 | |
Social Democratic Party of Germany | 6 | |
Alliance For Justice | 3 | |
National Democratic Party of Germany | 1 | |
Alternative for Germany | 1 | |
Alliance 90/The Greens | 1 | |
Free Democratic Party | 1 |
Economy
Since the 19th century industrialisation, shoe manufacture was Weißenfels' primary industry, until 1991 when the last factory shut down. Since then, the food processing industry has grown significantly. The main companies are:
- Frischli dairy
- Tönnies Fleischwerk, Europe's third biggest meat group, runs one of its three meat-processing plants in Weißenfels
- Mitteldeutsche Erfrischungsgetränke, the third largest mineral water company of Germany, has its seat in Weißenfels. Its brands include Leißlinger Mineralwasser and Saskia-Quelle.
The town has access to the A9 at the Weißenfels junction, near the interchange with the A38. Weißenfels station is a stop on the Thuringian Railway line from Halle to Erfurt/Jena.
Sports
Notable people
- Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), composer and organist
- Gottfried Reiche (1667–1734), trumpeter
- Johann Adolf II, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (1685–1747), Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels
- Anna Magdalena Bach (1701-1760), singer
- Joachim Wilhelm von Brawe (1738–1758), playwright
- Novalis, pen name of poet Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772–1801)
- Louise von François (1817–1893), writer
- Heinrich von Gossler (1841-1927), general
- Willy Kükenthal (1861–1922), zoologist
- Georg Kükenthal (1864–1955), botanist
- Horst P. Horst (1906–1999), photographer
- Benjamin Halevy (1910–1996), Israeli judge and politician
- Konrad Dannenberg (1912–2009), rocket scientist
- Johanna Elisabeth Döbricht (1692—1786), operatic soprano
- Hermann Eilts (1922–2006), diplomat and adviser to Kissinger on Mideast
- Gérard Tichy (1920–1992), Spanish actor
- Max Frankel (born 1930), American journalist, Editor in Chief of the New York Times
- Theresa Emilie Henriette Winkel (1784–1867), composer[9]
Twin towns – sister cities
Weißenfels is twinned with:[10]
- Kornwestheim, Germany (1990)
- Komárno, Slovakia (1995)
See also
- Saale-Unstrut wine region
References
- Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen-Anhalt, accessed 10 November 2022.
- Statistisches Landesamt Sachsen-Anhalt. June 2023.
- ^ Vickers, Robert H. (1894). History of Bohemia. Chicago: C. H. Sergel Company. p. 48.
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 500.
- ^ Gerald Drebes: Wiederentdeckung eines Konkurrenten von J. S. Bach, online: "Gerald Drebes - Wiederentdeckung des Bach-Konkurrenten Kobelius". Archived from the original on 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2015-03-10.
- Statistisches Bundesamt
- Statistisches Bundesamt
- ^ Hauptsatzung der Stadt Weißenfels Archived 2017-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, June 2019.
- ^ "Therese aus dem Winckel", Wikipedia (in German), 2021-04-13, retrieved 2021-04-26
- ^ "Städtepartnerschaften der Stadt Weißenfels". weissenfels.de (in German). Weißenfels. Archived from the original on 2019-12-30. Retrieved 2021-02-17.