Steinbach (Taunus)

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Steinbach


Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Darmstadt
District	Hochtaunuskreis
Population	10,241 (31/12/2004)
Area	4.4 km²
Population density	2,328 /km²
Elevation	150-200 m
Coordinates	50°10′ N 8°34′ E
Postal code	61449
Area code	06171
Licence plate code	HG
Mayor	Peter Frosch (CDU)
Website	Stadt Steinbach

Steinbach is a town in the Hochtaunuskreis that borders in the east on Frankfurt am Main. Other neighbouring towns are Oberursel, Kronberg im Taunus and Eschborn. It is in the German state of Hesse.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Location
- 1.2 Neighbouring communities
2 Coat of arms
3 History
4 Economy
- 4.1 Transport
- 4.2 Educational institutions
5 Partnerships
6 Reference
7 External links

[edit] Geography

[edit] Location

Steinbach lies in the southern foothills of the Taunus.

[edit] Neighbouring communities

Steinbach borders in the north on the town of Oberursel, in the east on the district-free city of Frankfurt, in the south on the town of Eschborn (Main-Taunus-Kreis), and in the west on the town of Kronberg.

[edit] Coat of arms

Steinbach's civic coat of arms shows a harnessed spring with two spouts out of both of which is coming water, pouring into a vat. This heraldic charge is based on an actual spring that can be found at Pijnacker Square in the town.

Steinbach was granted these arms in 1964, and their origin is wholly modern, as the town had never had arms until this time, at least as far as was known. The vat originally surrounded the spring and served to hold the water for those who needed it. This struck some as rather an odd sight, and it earned the town the nickname Steinbach in der Bütt (Bütt, or more usually Bütte, being German for "vat").[1]

[edit] History

The Steinbach Spring at Pijnacker Square

Steinbach had its first documentary mention in 789 in the codex traditionum: "The Marca Steinbach goes as a donation to the Lorsch Benedictine Monastery".

From 1866 to 1945, Steinbach was a Hessian island within otherwise Prussian territory in the Vordertaunus (the part of the Taunus nearest Frankfurt): As the only community in Frankfurt's west, it belonged not to the Prussian-occupied Duchy of Nassau but to the Offenbach district in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, and as of the 1918 Revolution to the People's State of Hesse. Until 1945, therefore, the community bordered on "foreign" territory at every compass point.

Out of this community grew a small town – which only 50 years earlier did not even have 1000 inhabitants – when in 1972 Steinbach was granted town rights after municipal reform.

[edit] Economy

Steinbach has at its disposal a 14-hectare industrial park.

[edit] Transport

Steinbach is distinguished by not having a direct road link to Frankfurt. Through Oberursel-Weißkirchen/Steinbach station, however, it is joined to the RMV S-Bahn network. The bigger towns of Oberursel, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe and Frankfurt am Main can be reached on line S5.

Two buslines connect the town core and outlying residential neighbourhoods with the railway station on the Homburger Bahn and with neighbouring places.

A few kilometres away are interchanges with Autobahnen A 5 and A 66.

Frankfurt International Airport is 15 km away.

[edit] Educational institutions

Steinbach is home to the Geschwister-Scholl-Grundschule, a primary school named after Hans and Sophie Scholl, a brother and sister who were part of the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany.