Homberg (Efze)

Homberg is a small town in the northern part of Hesse, a state in central Germany, with about 15,000 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Schwalm-Eder district. In 2008, the town hosted the 48th Hessentag state festival.

Geography
Homberg lies in the transitional zone between the West Hesse Depression, a sunken area dating from the Tertiary sub-era, and the Knüll (or Knüllgebirge), a low mountain range. The town itself stretches over several hills underlain mainly with basalt. The river Efze flows from the Knüll through Homberg, later emptying into the river Schwalm. There exist small coal deposits in the immediate area.

Constituent communities
Homberg consists of the following communities:

History
Homberg was founded by the Hessian-Thuringian Landgraves and had its first documentary mention as a town in 1231. The place had indeed been settled earlier, but Homberg still celebrated its 775th anniversary as a town in 2006.

The town's name comes from the Hohenburg, the castle above Homberg. The castle well, at 150 m deep is Germany's third deepest castle well.

In 1526, at the Marienkirche (church) under Hessian Landgrave Philip, the Homberg Synod took place, whereby Hesse became Protestant.

In August 1640, the town was taken by Imperialist forces.

In 1809, under Colonel Wilhelm von Dörnberg, the so-called Dörnberg Uprising went forth from Homberg against King Jérôme, but was soundly defeated.

Town planning
Like most German towns, Homberg was likely laid out according to a plan in Hohenstaufen times (1138–1254). Peculiarities in the way that Homberg was built, not apparent at first glance, hint at something recognizable as a town plan. Homberg is in itself a double town, consisting of the Old Town (Altstadt), first mentioned in a document in 1231, and Die Freiheit ("The Freedom"). Die Freiheit was an independent town, having been founded in 1356 and united with the Old Town in 1536. The Old Town itself consisted of three wards.

Looking at the town map, the three main ways into the town through the former gateways can be recognized: Westheimer Tor, Obertor and Holzhäuser Tor (Tor = gate).

The middle and end point of each of the street connections in the town is the marketplace, over which rises the town church, St. Marien, once surrounded by the town's cemetery. A regular plan is not to be seen in the town. However, in one way the town has something in common with many other towns founded in the Middle Ages that is only noticeable at second glance: when laying out the town's streets, the mediaeval town planner deliberately made them crooked and deliberately staggered intersections of streets and alleyways. In particular, building crooked streets was a way of giving them some aesthetic appeal, as with the Untergasse. Crookedness limits the streetscape optically, and at the end of the street is a T-junction, with a view of houses opposite. In the Untergasse, this was the town's former brewhouse, standing on the corner of the Untergasse ("Lower Lane") and the Entengasse ("Duck Lane"). The Untergasse's original alignment was lost as a result of town renovations. It can now only be discerned by looking at houses' positions or by looking over the town.

The same effect was achieved when the town planner staggered the side lanes or had them meet the main streets at a slanted angle. By deftly planning the town in this way, even drafts were avoided. Another way of doing this same thing was to build houses out of alignment with their neighbours, or even whole blocks out of alignment with the rest of the street. This can still very clearly be seen around Obere Westheimer Straße. Such a thing was also done on Untere Westheimer Straße, but the ravages of time have erased the effect.

Town council
The town council is made up of 37 members.
 * CDU 12 seats
 * SPD 13 seats
 * FDP 2 seats
 * Greens 4 seats
 * Freie Waehler 6 seats

The town executive consists of 10 councillors and the mayor. Four seats are held by the SPD, three by the CDU, one by the Greens, one by the FDP and one by the Freie Waehler.

(as of municipal elections held on 27 March 2011)

Twin towns – Sister cities
Homberg is twinned with:

Coat of arms
The town's arms might be described thus: Azure in chief a lion passant and in base two lions combattant, all Or and all armed and langued gules.

Homberg was granted town rights in 1231, and the first known seal dates from 15 years thereafter, namely 1246. Its tinctures, however, are unknown, and it only shows one lion. Another seal used as early as 1239, but known only from later examples, bore the barry (that is, horizontally striped) Lion of Hesse. In the 14th century, another charge in the arms’ base was a mount of three, but later on, this was somehow mistaken for a lion above two smaller ones. Furthermore, the smaller lions in base numbered three up until 1639, but ever since, there have been only two.

For a short while in the early 16th century, the town used another coat of arms. This one might be blazoned: Argent three trefoils vert – that is to say, a silver escutcheon with three green three-leafed cloverleaves on it in an inverted triangular pattern.

Sport
The most prominent sporting body in Homburg is the first team of the Tischtennisabteilung der Homberger Turnerschaft e. V. (table tennis department of the Homberg Turnerschaft), who are among the greats of German table tennis. They play in the ''1. Bundesliga der Frauen'' ("First Federal Women's League"). Their biggest win thus far has been the European ETTU Cup on 31 March 2006 with the team of Wenling Tan-Monfardini, Zhenqi Barthel and Yin Na. The opponent in the final was 3B Berlin.

Zhenqi Barthel from the Homberg Turnerschaft won the singles title at the 74th National German Championships in Minden in 2006. She also won with her doubles partner Patrick Baum in mixed doubles. In women's doubles she came third with partner Desirée Czajkowski (Watzenborn-Steinberg).

Buildings
Stadtkirche St. Marien Homberg's town church, St. Marien's or St. Mary's, holds a special place in Hessian Protestantism: in 1526, Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous convened a synod in Homburg that sat in this church, marking the point in time when the Landgraviate of Hesse became Evangelical. Thus the church, one of the most important Gothic monuments in North Hesse, is sometimes called the Reformationskirche Hessens – the Reformation Church of Hesse.

What follows is something of the church's history:
 * A Frankish chapel is believed to have been built on the site before 900.
 * About 1000 a Romanesque church or chapel was built.
 * In the 12th century, a Romanesque basilica (or early hall church) was built.
 * In the first half of the 14th century, the structure was remodelled or expanded in late Gothic style as a hall church of the Hessian-Westphalian form.
 * In 1374, building began on the tower.
 * In 1640, the tower and hall were demolished by explosion, collapse and fire after the church was occupied by Imperial troops under Piccolomini.
 * From 1645 to 1746 the church was being built anew, as it says on the stone plaque on the tower above the gallery.
 * In 1709 the tower watchman's dwelling was built.
 * In 1893 an endowment made possible the fitting of a choir window depicting the Homberg Synod.
 * Since 1965, the church has been given its current shape through the removal of building done from the 17th to 19th centuries (pews, pulpit, galleries). A cloister has also been built.

Kirchhofslinde ("Churchyard linden") Before the church stands a linden tree that is more than 730 years old. Together with the church, the tree makes for a picturesque tableau over the marketplace. The poet Heinrich Ruppel dedicated the poem "Die Kirchhofslinde in Homberg" to the tree as his way of thanking those who had made donations for the tree's preservation after it had been burnt by a fire in its hollow. Also, Erich Kaiser, a "homeland researcher" (Heimatforscher) and writer, often mentioned the veteran tree in his writings.

Stalls, furniture van and house under the Kirchhofslinde In the spaces under the churchyard, stalls were built to serve as sales stands for butchers and bakers, as well as to serve as cookshops or meat storage.

At the former place of the so-called baker's stall, demolished in early 1820, a newer and notable building was built that Hombergers call the Möbelwagen ("Furniture Van").

The building next to the church to the right was built on the rubble of the former cookshop in 1719.

Rathaus (Town Hall) This was built in 1704 on the foundations of a former building built in the 15th century and destroyed in the Thirty Years' War. The tower was built after the Seven Years' War. The weather vane is from 1767. Since 1989, there has been a carillon. Beside the Gothic entrance at the stairway to Obertorstraße is the Homberger Elle (Homberg Ell), a mediaeval unit of measurement 57.4 cm long. Its importance reaches as far as Thuringia.

Remodelled in 1875 was the Simbelschanze ("Simpleton Lair"; Simbel is a Hessian dialect word) before the town hall. Its name comes from a tax levied the same year. The government had approved a tax on simpletons to cover rising expenditures.

Engel-Apotheke This was built in 1668 on the site of a former house, and is the biggest timber-frame house on the marketplace. Since 1701 it has been a pharmacy.

Fünffenster-Haus ("Five-Windowed House") In the early 19th century, a window tax was imposed, and so windows were limited to five on each floor.

Kyffhäuser-Museum This has permanent exhibits with the emphasis on the Kyffhäuserbund, an old warriors' association.

Krone ("Crown") This is a timber-frame house from 1480. Since 1721 it has been a guesthouse. The beams and roofwork are noteworthy. The bay windows were built in the 16th century.

Transport
Homberg belongs to the North Hesse Transport Network, which provides bus transport to the town.

Homberg is sometimes said to be the only district seat in Germany that is not on the railway network, but several other such towns exist, for example in Bavaria.

People associated with the town

 * Konrad Mutian (1470–1526), humanist
 * Hans Staden (1525–1576), mercenary and founder of the Brazilian research
 * August Vilmar (1800–1868), theologian
 * Max Hoffmann (1869–1927), diplomat and general
 * Theodor Burchardi (1892–1983), naval officer, last admiral in the Second World War
 * Heinz Jost (1904–1964), SS brigadier, Generalmajor of the police, war criminal
 * Günter Abel (born 1947), philosopher
 * Ulrich Holbein (born 1953), writer, lives near Allmuthshausen
 * Matthias Reim (born 1957), singer
 * Felicitas Woll (born 1980), an actress
 * Tobias Damm (born 1983), footballer