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Großenlüder (or Grossenlueder) is a town in the Fulda district in eastern Hesse, Germany in the eastern foothills of the Vogelsberg mountain range.

Geographical location
Großenlüder's elevation ranges from 245 m to 420 m in the eastern foothills of the Vogelsberg mountains. The highest point in the town is Finkenberg, at 420 m, which until the 1990s was home to a US anti-aircraft missile installation. Großenlüder lies about 11 km west of Fulda.

The river Lüder runs through the town, and is the namesake of three places in the town. The river's floodplain contains a saltwater spring which was an important factor in the area's early settlement. Until 1997 this spring was leased to a spa called Bad Salzschlirf.

Neighboring towns
Großenlüder adjoins the town of Bad Salzschlirf in the north, the city of Schlitz to the northeast, the city of Fulda to the east, the town of Neuhof to the southeast, and the town of Hosenfeld to the southwest. To the west it abuts both the city of Herbstein and the town of Wartenberg.

Neighborhoods


The main neighborhood of the town, and its namesake, is Großenlüder. , the populations of all its neighborhoods are as follows:


 * Großenlüder: 3591
 * Bimbach: 2132
 * Müs: 1072
 * Kleinlüder: 1012
 * Uffhausen: 478
 * Eichenau: 143
 * Lütterz: 80

History


Großenlüder was first attested in, when the Archbishop of Mainz consecrated a chapel built by Abbot Eigel von Fulda. This chapel exists to the present day.

In the middle ages the town developed into an administrative center, becoming the seat of a court of the Fulda district. The local nobility were the Lüder and Döring families. Sir Wigand of Lüder is considered to be an ancestor of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Wigand is said to have settled near Möhra, the birthplace of Luther's father, and to have received the newly-founded seat of the Fulda Abbey as his fief. The Luther family believed to have derived their name from the noble name von Lüder. Wigand von LÜder appears seven times between 1302 and 1308 in documents pertaining to the purchase, sale, and leasing of the local estates Frankenstein and Salzungen.

The village of Großenlüder was surrounded by a wall and a moat. Around 1220 a second, larger church was erected, whose choir room survives to modern times. In the late middle ages the Fulda abbey took over jurisdiction of the Großenlüder court. In exchange, Großenlüder received a special position within the Fulda district.

In 1735 the baroque cathedral was dedicated. After the secularization of 1802, Großenlüder (along with the entire Fulda district) became part of the Principality of Orange-Nassau until 1806, when Napoléon Bonaparte annexed the province of Fulda.

Throughout the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 Großenlüder, along with the entire Electorate of Hesse, was part of the kingdom of Prussia and formed a jurisdiction for the entire Fulda district. Only in 1940 was the Lüder Court dissolved.

Annexations
On 31 December 1970, Großenlüder annexed the previously independent neighboring community of Eichena. On 31 December 1971 the communities of Kleinlüder and Uffhausen followed. Bimbach, Lütterz, and Müs were annexed on 1 August 1972.

Politics
The mayor of the town of Großenlüder is Werner Dietrich.

Sister cities
Sister cities of the town are Windischgarsten in Austria (since 1973) and Stadtlengsfeld, Thüringen, Germany (since 1990).

Transportation


The town lies along the railway route from Fulda to Alsfeld. It is accessible via Autobahn from the A 7 and A 5.

Großenlüder is accessible by train via the Vogelsberg Railway at stations in Großenlüder and Bimbach. The Oberbimbach station was closed in December 2006. The Bimbach neighborhood is also connected to the Fulda city bus network. The other neighborhoods have bus service (in combination with train service in Bad Salzschlirf or Großenlüder).