Lauda-Königshofen

Lauda-Königshofen is a town in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Tauber, 7 km southeast of Tauberbischofsheim, and 30 km southwest of Würzburg. Most of the roughly 300 houses in the traditional village of Königshofen date to between the 16th century and mid-19th century, and it is known for the 500+ year-old Königshöfer Messe, an annual festival that attracts 150,000 people over the 10-day festival. Lauda station is at a junction of the Franconia Railway and the Tauber Valley Railway.

Districts
The 12 districts with population (as of 2001): Area in km2 (as in 2006)

Twin towns

 * Boissy-Saint-Léger (France)
 * Paks (Hungary)
 * Rátka (Hungary)

Sports

 * FV Lauda, soccer
 * Lauda Hornets, American football

Notable natives

 * Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen, (1575–1622), Bishop of diocese Würzburg and Archbishopric of Bamberg
 * Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, (1760–1802), composer
 * Johann Martin Schleyer, (1831–1912), developer of artificial language Volapük
 * Albert Hehn (1908–1983), actor
 * Heinrich Ehrler, (1917–1945), Luftwaffe fighter
 * Karl Weid, (born 1921), the mayor from 1970s onwards
 * Jürgen Hehn, (born 1944), fencer, team world champion with his sword in 1973
 * Manuela Ruben, (born 1964), figure skater, Vice European Champion 1984
 * Thorsten Weidner, (born 1967), fencer, Olympic team champion with the foil 1992
 * Martin Lanig, (born 1986), football player

Notable enterprises
Among the business entities located in Lauda are two world-famous manufacturers of laboratory equipment:
 * Lauda, a manufacturer of thermostats.
 * Herzog, a manufacturer of crude oil and fuel testing equipment. The founder of the company, Walter Herzog, has moved to Lauda after World War II, and pioneered a few important innovations in the testing of oil and fuels, like first automatic flash point tester, first automatic distillation apparatus, and others.

Events

 * Keep It True, annual heavy metal festival
 * Königshöfer Messe, annual fair