Marburg
Marburg (German pronunciation: [ˈmaːɐ̯bʊʁk] or [ˈmaʁbʊʁk] ) is a university town in the German federal state (Bundesland) of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (Landkreis). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximately 76,000.[3]
This article is about the city in Germany. For other uses, see Marburg (disambiguation).
Marburg
25 Ortsbezirke
123.92 km2 (47.85 sq mi)
412 m (1,352 ft)
173 m (568 ft)
77,845
630/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
06421, 06420, 06424
MR
Having been awarded town privileges in 1222, Marburg served as capital of the landgraviate of Hessen-Marburg during periods of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. The University of Marburg was founded in 1527 and dominates the public life in the town to this day.
Marburg is a historic centre of the pharmaceutical industry in Germany, and there is a plant in the town (by BioNTech) to produce vaccines to tackle Covid-19.[4]
History[edit]
Founding and early history[edit]
Like many settlements, Marburg developed at the crossroads of two important early medieval highways: the trade route linking Cologne and Prague and the trade route from the North Sea to the Alps and on to Italy, the former crossing the river Lahn here. A first mention of the settlement dates from 822 in the Reinhardsbrunner Chronik. The settlement was protected and customs were raised by a small castle built during the ninth or tenth century by the Giso. Marburg has been a town since 1140, as proven by coins. From the Gisos, it fell around that time to the Landgraves of Thuringia, residing on the Wartburg above Eisenach.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary[edit]
In 1228, the widowed princess-landgravine of Thuringia, Elizabeth of Hungary, chose Marburg as her dowager seat, as she did not get along well with her brother-in-law, the new landgrave. The countess dedicated her life to the sick and would become after her early death in 1231, aged 24, one of the most prominent female saints of the era. She was canonized in 1235.[5]
Politics[edit]
As a larger mid-sized city, Marburg, like six other such cities in Hessen, has a special status as compared to the other municipalities in the district. This means that the city takes on tasks more usually performed by the district so that in many ways it is comparable to an urban district (kreisfreie Stadt). Before 1974, the city was a district-free city.
The mayor of Marburg, Thomas Spies, in office since December 2015, and his predecessor Egon Vaupel (directly elected in January 2005), are members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. His deputy, the head of the building and youth departments, Nadine Bernshausen, is from Alliance '90/The Greens. Following the city parliament elections of March 2021, the majority in the 59-seat city parliament is held by a coalition of Green party (15 seats), SPD (14 seats) and Klimaliste (4 seats) members. Also represented are the factions of the Christian Democratic Union (13 seats), The Left (7 seats), the Free Democratic Party (2 seats), a CDU splinter group MBL (Marburger Bürgerliste – 2 seats), the BfM (Bürger für Marburg – 2 seats), Alternative für Deutschland (1 seat), and the Pirate Party (1 seat).[1]
Among the left wing groups are ATTAC, the Worldshop movement, an autonomist-anarchist scene, and a few groups engaged in ecological or human-rights concerns.
The city of Marburg, similar to the cities of Heidelberg, Tübingen and Göttingen, has a rich history of student fraternities or Verbindungen of various sorts, including Corps, Landsmannschaften, Burschenschaften, Turnierschaften, etc.
Green city[edit]
Many homes have solar panels and in 2008 a law was passed to make the installation of solar systems on new buildings or as part of renovation projects mandatory. 20 percent of heating system requirements ought to have been covered by solar energy in new buildings. Anyone who fails to install solar panels would have been fined €1,000. The new law, approved on 20 June 2008, should have taken effect in October 2008,[12] however, this law was stopped by the Regierungspräsidium Giessen in September 2008.[13]
(in German) + (in English)
