Karben

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Karben


Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Administrative region	Darmstadt
District	Wetteraukreis
Population	21,602 (2004)
Area	43.94 km²
Population density	492 /km²
Elevation	110 m
Coordinates	50°13′ N 8°46′ E
Postal code	61184
Area code	06039, 06034
Licence plate code	FB
Mayor	Roland Schulz (SPD)
Website	karben.de

Karben is a town in Hesse,Germany. It is located 18 kilometres north of Frankfurt on the banks of the river Nidda in the Rhein-Main-Gebiet (Rhein-Main area). Karben as a unified city was founded in 1970, comprising some smaller villages (Klein-Karben, Gross-Karben, Okarben, Kloppenheim, Rendel, Burg-Gräfenrode, and Petterweil).

1 Infrastructure
2 City Partnerships
3 History
4 External links

[edit] Infrastructure

Karben has two railroad stations (Gross-Karben and Okarben) on Frankfurt's local transportation network (S-Bahn Line 6). It has access to the A661 autobahn and the highway B3. The town hall is located a newer district of Gross-Karben, as is a public swimming pool. The industrial district east of Gross- and Klein-Karben hosts several companies of national and international stature.

One of them is ACCURA Medizintechnik GmbH which serves many countries worldwide with high tech medical disposables for Cardiology, Radiology, Surgery and Intensive Care.

[edit] City Partnerships

The city of Karben is connected through partnership agreements with

[edit] History

The Karben area is rich in history. The village of Okarben was once location of a Roman military Castellum, forming a part of the Limes, the Roman imperial border defense network. Kloppenheim once belonged to an installation of the Teutonic Knights Order, who maintained a small palace there, which can still be visited. This also explains a Catholic majority in a village located in a mainly Protestant area. Gross Karben hosts two more manors which where inhabited by local landlords. The "Degenfeldsche Schloss" contains today a small museum on local history and a richly decorated chamber used for wedding ceremonies. The Leonhardi'sche Schloss was taken over by the newly created Freiherr von Leohardi family, who still inhabits the place. One more manor can be found in Burg-Gräfenrode (also known as Roggau) and was inhabited by an official for the Princes of Ysenburg und Büdingen who reigned most of the villages of Karben until the formation of the Deutsches Reich. Gross-Karben, Klein-Karben, Okarben, Burg-Gräfenrode and Rendel still have churches dating back from the Baroque period. Okarben experienced a face-change in the 19th century, when it started hosting workers for the newly established Main-Weser Railroad between Frankfurt and Kassel. The city has transformed itself from a bundle of independent villages living mostly of farming the rich soils of the Wetterau to a slowly integrating city providing housing for a growing population of commuters and space for several small and mid-sized enterprises, while maintaining a lot of its original rural charme.