Schwalbach am Taunus

Geography

Location

The town is located between Taunus mountain range, about 10 km from the Kleiner Feldberg (825 m), and the River Main. Although the centre of the city of Frankfurt am Main is about 10 km from Schwalbach centre, the most southerly tip of Schwalbach (agricultural land) shares a one kilometre common boundary with Frankfurt (along the A66 Autobahn).

The original settlement, now known as Alt-Schwalbach, was built at the confluence of the Sauerbornbach and the Waldbach. Below the confluence, the stream is known as the Schwalbach.{{cite map

Before given over to human habitation, much of the area was heavily wooded - the northern tip of the municipality is still given over to woodland.

History

Although the written history of Schwalbach only goes back to 781 AD, archaeological discoveries made in 1961 to 1963 during the building of the town's centre indicate the existence of a Neolithic settlement (about 5000 BC). In Roman times Schwalbach was about 12 km from the limes (or frontier of the Roman Empire).{{cite map

The Rennstraße,{{cite web |trans-title=Ancient roads in the Taunus and neighbouring areas in Hessen from Roman and Carolignian times to the modern day. |access-date = 18 March 2012}} that linked Frankfurt to Königstein im Taunus as part of the ancient route between Frankfurt and Cologne dating from Merovignian times passed through Schwalbach; the modern-day Mutter Kraus restaurant was a seventeenth century coaching in on the route.

The first time Schwalbach was mentioned documentarily was in 781 AD, when a knight named Starcfrit and his mother Mechthilt made a gift to the cloister Lorsch at the Bergstrasse. This gift was 70 joch about 25 ha arable farm land, two farms and grassland in "villa Sualebach". For centuries Schwalbach was a small farming village with a population of 200, at most 300 inhabitants. It was always a dependency of one or another outside lord and in the year 1635 came into the lordship of Königstein, which in turn was owned by the Electorate of Mainz. In the castle of Schwalbach, the committed knights of the gentry execute their sovereignty and also jurisdiction as steward or sheriffs.

After the secularisation in 1803 and with the combined dissolution of the Electorate of Mainz, Schwalbach was incorporated into the newly formed Duchy of Nassau in 1806. In 1866, after the Austro-Prussian War, Schwalbach was incorporated into the province of Hesse-Nassau. In 1928 it became part of the Main-Taunus-Kreis district. In mid-19th century Schwalbach is still a village, whose population lives nearly solely out of the agriculture. In 1843 about 100 houses with 165 families and altogether 703 inhabitants were counted.

Not until the Franco-Prussian War from 1870/71, first changes were to bespoken in Schwalbach. Young men work as craftsmen in the industrial enterprises of the near suburbs of Frankfurt (Rödelheim, Höchst or Bockenheim). A slight increase of the artisan class, as well as a steady rise of the popularity of Schwalbach as an excursion destination for the citizens of Frankfurt is registered. From 1,500 in 1925 to 3,300 in 1956 the population figure increases steadily.

The Second World War made also a mark on Schwalbach am Taunus. Four aerial attacks claimed nearly 40 dead people. The grave aerial attack occurred on 25 September 1944.

Between 1960 and 1964 the limes development, located uphill from the confluence of the two stream feeding the Schwalbach provided homes for 11,000 people, a major factor in the town's population growing to 15,000 by 1970.{{cite book

The number of homes destroyed in the Second World War and the growing number of young families with children let start the idea to build a residential town in the countryside, next to the inner city, in Schwalbach. With the limes residential city an award-winning urban construction model has been implemented, which is served by line S 3 of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn and has churches, kindergartens, schools, sports fields, a public swimming pool and a lot of public green space. The population of Schwalbach is growing by leaps and bounds in those years. In 1970 about 14,000 inhabitants were counted. On May 9, 1970 Schwalbach preserved the municipal law. From the small farming village, which was often called “Little Schwalbach”, a modern city with many benefits came up.

Climate

| Schwalbach am Taunus{{cite web |trans-title=Weather in the Frankfurt am Main region |access-date = 15 April 2012}} |-1|3|43 |-1|5|40 |2|10|50 |4|14|42 |8|19|58 |11|22|65 |13|24|62 |13|24|66 |10|20|50 |6|14|53 |2|8|57 |0|4|55

Points of interest

• St. Pankratius, Schwalbach
• Arboretum Main-Taunus

International relations

Main article: List of twin towns and sister cities in Germany

Schwalbach am Taunus is twinned with:

• Poland Olkusz, Poland
• France Avrillé, France
• UK Yarm, United Kingdom
• Germany Schkopau, Germany

Honorary citizens

• 1954: J. Elmer Spyglass (1877–1957), US-singer and employee of the Consulate General of the United States, Frankfurt, lived from 1930 in Frankfurt and from 1944 until his death in Schwalbach.

• 1970: Georg Leber (1920–2012), German politician (Social Democratic Party of Germany), member of the German Bundestag, Federal Minister of Transport, Federal Minister of Post and Communications, and Federal Minister of Defence, inaugurated 1970 the Limes Railway.

Visual impressions

File:Schwalbach-limesstadt001.jpg|The Limesstadt File:S-Bahnstation Limes Schwalbach.jpg|S-Bahn station "Schwalbach (Limes)" at Limes Railway File:20150421 Mutter Krauss Schwalbach.jpg|Seventeenth century coaching inn, the Mutter Krauss File:Schwalbach kapelle 017.jpg|1894 built chapel File:Schwalbach haus 028.jpg|Former town hall File:Alte Schule 2017.jpg|Old school from the 19th century

References

• {{cite book |editor1-first = Heinz |editor1-last = Müller-Pilgram |editor2-first = Jürgen K L |editor2-last = Ravens
• {{cite web |access-date = 6 May 2012}}

References

1. (5 September 2022). "Ergebnisse der letzten Direktwahl aller hessischen Landkreise und Gemeinden". [[Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt]].
2. Farnung, Dieter: Schwalbach erleben - Die Historie von Schwalbach (''The History of Schwalbach'')
3. Plaque on the wall of the building - viewed on 16 April 2012
4. (10 July 2009). "Warm welcome for German twin town visitors". Darlington & Stockton Times.
5. Stone, Tom. [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10508742/ Ohio Negro Made an Honorary Citizen of West German Town], The Daily Reporter (Dover, Ohio) December 2, 1954, page 7, accessed April 23, 2017 at
6. [https://www.higman.de/spyglass.pdf James Elmer Spyglass - Honorary Citizen Of Schwalbach], author: C. Higman, date: 19 March 2002, retrieved 2 December 2024