Lahn, Hesse
Lahn was a city in Hesse, the 1977 to 1979 (31 months ) had stock. Most important part of the greater community of communities were the cities of Gießen and Wetzlar. To distinguish from the eponymous river, the river Lahn, it was also referred to as a city Lahn.
Creation and dissolution
The city was formed 1 January 1977 in the course of municipal reform in Hesse as a county-level city. She had approximately 156,000 inhabitants and was the same administrative headquarters of the newly formed association by the Dill circle with the counties of Giessen and Wetzlar Lahn- Dill district. The town encompassed the former county-level city of Giessen, the city of Wetzlar and the municipalities Atzbach, Dutenhofen, Garbenheim, Hermannstein, Heuchelheim ( Gießen district ), Krofdorf - Gleiberg, Launsbach, Lützellinden, Münchholzhausen, Nauborn, Naunheim, stone village, Waldgirmes and Wißmar. After civil protests dissolving the Village with effect from 1 August 1979 to again. Lasting result was the loss of the former district of freedom for casting.
Structure
In the inner structure of the urban area one had deviated from the rules of the Hessian Municipal Code ( HGO ). Instead, we were told on the basis of the North Rhine-Westphalian municipal constitution incorporated the territory into districts.
Lahn had 23 districts in six districts:
- Municipality casting ( 73,600 inhabitants) molding
- Klein- Linden
- Rödgen
- Wieseck
- Wetzlar
- Blasbach
- Garbenheim
- Hermannstein
- Nauborn
- Naunheim
- Stone village
- Krofdorf - Gleiberg
- Launsbach
- Wißmar
- Atzbach
- Dorlar
- Waldgirmes
- Allendorf
- Dutenhofen
- Lützellinden
- Münchholzhausen
- Heuchelheim
- Kinzenbach
Resistance and resolution
Hesse's then Prime Minister, the Giessen Albert Osswald ( SPD), the new city initially called the " work of the century ": It should strengthen the Central Hessian region compared to the two centers of Frankfurt and Kassel. However, because of the fierce public opposition to the merger, the city was dissolved on July 31, 1979 again. Since that time the former town area from the back resulting cities of Gießen and Wetzlar, and the three municipalities Heuchelheim, Lahnau and betting mountain. The Lahn- Dill-Kreis remained ( county seat was Wetzlar ), but lost the territory of the district of Gießen, which was re-erected. The former county- casting was county town of this district.
Not only is the reluctance of the population, particularly in the district of Wetzlar against the city of Lahn was a reason for the short life of the artificial city. Unlike many other cities combined, there was no clear central function of orientation. Lahn had two town centers, which coexisted and competed. Lahn- Giessen was administrative, university and shopping center, while Lahn- Wetzlar industrial center, shopping center and the old town (in the district of the Lahn north ) - south of the river Lahn - was a tourist destination. The two cores were separated by about 15 km, between ( today's communities and Heuchelheim Lahnau ) were more sparsely populated areas with village- dominated districts. All this made a networking and differentiation of functions very difficult.
On the part of the inhabitants of Wetzlar was feared to be structurally crushed by the time larger casting and degenerated into a " bedroom community ". Even the mailing address confirmed this feeling: The city received the Lahn Giessen postal code 6300; Letters to Giessen were with " 6300 Lahn 1" addressed letters to Wetzlar with " 6300 Lahn 2 ". The population was feared that the neighborhoods between Giessen and Wetzlar by a sharp increase in construction areas of her character had been robbed and the traffic load would have increased between the two cities.
The choice of city name " Lahn " in retrospect was perceived as little happy: First, was the combination of " Giessen- Wetzlar " had been planned, later was chosen " Lahn " so that the villages involved have been able to attach their names. However, many citizens felt the name as ahistorical. On many cars stuck the saying " When I see Lahn, I get a toothache ." " Under a Lotte in Lahn I can not imagine anything ," said former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, on Goethe's " Lotte in Wetzlar " ( Charlotte Buff ) hinting.
In the German Federal Railroad it was not possible to purchase a ticket to Lahn, since the existing railway stations retained their old names and the new town 's name was thus not included in the network map.
Especially for the SPD, which had driven the reform applies, the conflicts over the city of Lahn were not without consequences: In the local elections in March 1977, the central Hessian voters overturned numerous SPD politician from their town hall chairs and brought the Christian Democrats - said opponents of the city of Lahn - to power. In Lahn of the Union succeeded in local elections in Hesse in 1977 a landslide victory. The CDU achieved an increase of 30.2 percentage points and came on a total of 50.7 %. 1977 Wilhelm Runtsch (CDU ) was elected mayor of Lahn. He died on 20 August and was succeeded by Hans Görnert, by resolution of the city Lahn to 1986, Mayor of casting.
Already more than 31 months after its founding, the city Lahn was dissolved.
Loser at the end especially the city of Giessen: She lost her circle of freedom and received only the formerly independent municipality Lützellinden added since the city already at earlier times had some incorporations can make. To compensate, the government moved in 1981 to the regional council for Mittelhessen in Giessen. Wetzlar, however, emerged with the incorporation of eight surrounding communities who were already grown up already to three ( Dutenhofen, Münchholzhausen and Blasbach ) firmly with the city, rather emerge from the failed merger.
Motor vehicle license since 1990
Lahn received the letter L as a license plate. This letter was originally reserved for the case of a reunion for the city of Leipzig (see: Ostzonenverzeichnis the German license plate ). The procedure was considered by some critics as a provocation by the social-liberal government. Some even saw it as a de facto recognition of the division of Germany. After the dissolution of the newly formed Lahns Lahn- Dill-Kreis kept the first "L" mark. When the German reunification in 1990, but became a reality, the flag was, as originally planned, delivered to Leipzig. The Lahn- Dill-Kreis awards since the fall of 1990 the indicator LDK. 2012, the city of Wetzlar again received the vehicle marked " tool". According to a, but not representative study, the majority of the population wants for the area around Dillenburg around the DIL Plate ( such as during the time of former district Dillkreis ).
Old cars from Lahn and the Lahn- Dill district retained the L flag, so that they could be distinguished only on the basis of the identification numbers of those from Leipzig. To especially to outsiders, where no knowledge of the identification numbers could be provided, apart from residents of Leipzig, used some vehicle owners a sticker with the text " L - but not from Leipzig "
Curious thing
Although in 1979, disbanded again, the concept of the city Lahn lived in - even official - for some time continued atlases, the Forestry Office District Lahn, for example, still listed in the "Map of the Hessian forestry offices " with the state 1 January 1985.
Personalities
- Oliver Bayer ( b. 1977 ), politician of the Pirate Party and Information Science
- Christian Völk ( born 1977 ), ice hockey player
- Christian Ditter ( b. 1977 ), film director and screenwriter
- January Gorr (born 1978 ), handball coach
- Anne Köhler (born 1978 ), writer
- Paul Frank (born 1978 ), football player
- Jochen Schropp (born 1978 ), actor and presenter
- Konstantin Wolff (born 1978 ), singer
- Anne Lück ( born 1979 ), illustrator