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The Week in Germany: Culture

November 9, 2007

From Imperial City to Home of US Soldiers to Europe's Center: Gelnhausen's Momentous History

A view of the Marienkirche in Gelnhausen, Photo: dpa

The geographic coordinates 9 degrees 9 minutes east, 50 degrees 10 minutes 21 seconds north have a very special meaning for the people of Gelnhausen in central Germany.

Since January 2007, Gelnhausen has claimed the title of geographic center of the European Union. The exact center of the European Union can be found on the edge of the city in the most southerly point of the district of Meerholz - right in the middle of a field.

EU expansion may mean the Gelnhausen will have to give up its title someday. Luckily, Gelnhausen and its population of 22,000 have much more to offer visitors and can draw on 850 years of history. Thousands of Americans have already become intimately acquainted with the town, as it was home to a US military base for decades.

Punctuated by stately gothic church spires rising from amongst centuries-old half-timber houses built on the ruins of a medieval town, Gelnhausen’s old city is a complex pastiche of layered history. Just 40 kilometers East of Frankfurt, the compact town makes a perfect day trip from Frankfurt.

The city was founded by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa in 1170 - strategically positioned on the Via Regia, a trade route between the cities of Frankfurt and Leipzig.

A number of important trade routes crossed each other in Kinzig Valley between Spessart and Vogelsberg. Barbarossa ordered three villages on the northern incline of the valley to be united. He also had a network of roads and a city wall to be built as well.

After Gelnhausen received its city ordnance, Barbarossa then built an imperial castle on an island in the Kinzig River. The castle ruins are considered the best preserved of the palatinate period in Germany.

But Barbarossa's ambitions for Gelnhausen did not stop there. The emperor wanted to turn the city into a major point of trade, according to the historian Simone Plötz-Grünewald.

Traders in Gelnhausen were exempt from taxes and it was not long before the city enjoyed considerable wealth.

During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), however, Gelnhausen was sacked, as described by native son Johann Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in his novel “Der Abenteuerliche Simplicissmuss”. Its stately imperial buildings destroyed, it was years before poor farmers moved back into the nearly uninhabitable city and began building their half-timber houses on top of the ruins. Many of these houses still stand today, creaky, crooked, and charming.

From 1945 to the early 1990’s, thousands of American soldiers developed a connection to Gelnhausen while living at the Coleman Kaserne Barracks. A street was even named after one of the most prominent Solders to serve in Gelnhausen, former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Links:

Gelnhausen Official Homepage

German National Tourist Office

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