Ludwigsau

Ludwigsauis a municipality inHersfeld-Rotenburgdistrict in northeasternHesse,Germany.With an area of 112 km² it is Hesse's biggest community by land area.

Ludwigsau
Municipality
Coat of arms
Location of Ludwigsau within Hersfeld-Rotenburg district
Ludwigsau Ludwigsau
Coordinates:50°54′N09°46′E
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Kassel
District	Hersfeld-Rotenburg
Government
•Mayor(2018–24)	Wilfried Hagemann(Ind.)
Area
• Total	111.92 km2(43.21 sq mi)
Highest elevation	520 m (1,710 ft)
Lowest elevation	192 m (630 ft)
Population (2022-12-31)
• Total	5,569
• Density	50/km2(130/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00(CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00(CEST)
Postal codes	36251
Dialling codes	06670, 06621
Vehicle registration	HEF
Website	www.ludwigsau.de

Geography

Location

The community lies on theFuldain the triangle defined by the towns ofBad Hersfeld,BebraandRotenburg an der Fulda.The municipal area lies on the edge of theSeulingswald(range) and stretches along the Rohrbach and Endersbach (streams) into the easternKnüll(range). The Rohrbach empties into theFuldanear Reilos. The Rohrbach valley is also known as theBesengrund( “Broom Ground” or “Besom Ground” ), a reference to basket weavers and broom makers. In centuries gone by, these were common occupations.

View over parts of the community of Ludwigsau

Neighbouring communities

Ludwigsau borders in the north on the community ofAlheimand town ofRotenburg an der Fulda,in the east on the town ofBebraand the community ofRonshausen,in the southeast on the community ofFriedewald,in the south on the town ofBad Hersfeldand in the west on the communities ofNeuenstein(all in Hersfeld-Rotenburg) andKnüllwald(in theSchwalm-Eder-Kreis).

Constituent communities

Ludwigsau's 13Ortsteileare Beenhausen, Biedebach, Ersrode, Friedlos, Gerterode, Hainrode, Meckbach, Mecklar, Niederthalhausen, Oberthalhausen, Reilos, Rohrbach and Tann.

History

Schloss Ludwigseck

Within the framework of municipal reform in Hesse in 1972, two greater communities were founded in the Fulda valley, theBesengrundand the neighbouring valleys north ofBad Hersfeld.After a short time, these areas, along with further villages that until now had been self-administering, were melded into the greater community of Ludwigsau. The community's namesake is LandgraveLudwig I of Hesse,who had two castles built within what are now municipal limits, Schloss Ludwigseck and Ludwigsaue Castle (built in 1416). Of the later, no trace is to be found today. It stood, however, at the mouth of the Rohrbach, where it empties into theFulda.

Amalgamations

With effect from 31 December 1971, the community of Ludwigseck came into being through the voluntary merger of the formerly self-administering communities of Beenhausen, Ersrode, Hainrode and Oberthalhausen. At the same time, the community of Ludwigsau came into being through the voluntary merger of the formerly self-administering communities of Biedebach, Friedlos, Gerterode, Meckbach, Mecklar, Reilos, Rohrbach and Tann. Friedlos in particular was interested in a forcible merger with the district seat of Bad Hersfeld.

Since Niederthalhausen had come out against a merger with Ludwigseck, in the course of municipal reform on 1 August 1972 – after only seven months of existence – the community of Ludwigseck was dissolved and the whole municipal area, along with Niederthalhausen, was forcibly merged with the greater community of Ludwigsau.

Politics

Community council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Parties and voter communities		% 2006	Seats 2006	% 2001	Seats 2001
CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	38.8	12	38.3	12
SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany	61.2	19	61.7	19
Total		100.0	31	100.0	31
Voter turnout in %		61.1		63.6

The community's executive (Gemeindevorstand) is made up of eight members, with five seats allotted to the SPD and three to the CDU.

Mayor

• 1994–2018: Thomas Baumann (independent)
• 2018–incumbent: Wilfried Hagemann (independent)

Coat of arms

The community'sarmsmight be described thus: Argent two bendlets wavy sinister azure, the chief dexter a castle embattled gules, the base sinister a waterwheel of the last.

The waterwheel's 13 blades stand for the constituent communities (although the German blazon does not mention that there should be thirteen of them), and the castle stands for, not the community's namesake castle, but the other one, Schloss Ludwigseck. The two wavy bendlets stand for the riverFuldaand the Rohrbach.

Town partnerships

• Changé,Sarthe,France(nearLe Mans) since 1997
• Struth-Helmershof,Thuringia(now part ofFloh-Seligenthal,nearSchmalkalden) since 1990.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

• Schloss Ludwigseck, between Beenhausen, Ersrode and Sterkelshausen, built about 1400, today owned by the family von und zu Gilsa
• Fliers’ Memorial “In der Nonnenrod”

Natural monuments

• Fuldaaue ( “Fulda Floodplain” ) conservation area with renaturalized gravel pit (near Mecklar)
• Malchustal landscape conservation area (near Ersrode)
• The Gernkopf (417 m abovesea level,above Oberthalhausen)

Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Through the constituent communities of Mecklar, Reilos and Friedlos runsBundesstraße27. In Friedlos is a railway station on theBebra–Fulda railwayserved byCantus(Line R5 in theNordhessischer Verkehrsverbund). Mecklar station, which also included a big goods station, was closed in the 1980s, making the community somewhat hard to reach on public transport.

Established businesses

In the industrial area on the Fulda floodplain in Mecklar-Meckbach there has been since 2007 theDHL Exel Supply Chainwith its own building. There are three long-distance gas pipelines near Mecklar-Meckbach, and in the community itself is anelectrical substation.

This convinced the electrical firmIberdrolato build a gas and steam power plant here. Building work is to begin in 2009.

External links

• Constituent community of Gerterode(in German)