St. Ives in Cambridgeshire

The ancient town of Slepe in the old county of Huntingdonshire

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Stadtallendorf
	Germany	Hessen State

 

Stadtallendorf is a very a young city, possessing municipal rights only since 1960.

 

Map showing the location of Stadtallendorf in Germany

 

The old chattische settlement "Berinscozo" (i.e. bear shot) is mentioned for the first time in the year 782 in a deed of donation to the monastery of Hersfeld. By the 13th Century it had become "the village in the bear shooting" or Stadtallendorf. 

At the beginning of the Second World War Stadtallendorf was still a small rural municipality with only 1,500 inhabitants. The arms economy and the war brought  - by force - a transformation, the village became the location for two major explosive factories, at that time probably the largest in Europe.

The first factory of over 500 hectares in the forest area to the south was operated on behalf of the Supreme Command of the Army (OKH) by the dynamite company, Alfred Nobel & CO, Troisdorf (DAG). The second factory covered approximately 420 hectares of the forest to the north, but this one was controlled by the Supreme Command of the Navy (OKM); it was operated by the Westfaelisch-Anhalti explosive company. These huge factories, with altogether 654 buildings, employed at one time over 25,000 staff.

Map of the City of Stadtallendorf today

 

After the war parts of the factories were destroyed, but this destruction was halted to allow the buildings to be used to accommodate thousands of refugees and to provide somewhere to work.

Small and middle range industrial operations developed and then large-scale enterprises with more than 1,000 or 2,000 employees were added. Within two decades Stadtallendorf developed it's industrial district of Marburg Biedenkopf. Luckily the city straddles one of the most important north south railway lines (Frankfurt - Marburg -  Kassel), and is well linked to the Federal Highways 62 and 454.

Since 1959 city Stadtallendorf with Hessen Barracks is one of the largest garrison towns of Hessen and with the award of municipal rights in the year 1960 the city experienced considerable growth in both importance and structure. The number of inhabitants amounts to today approximately 21,000.

The target of the development of the city construction is it to give to the individual housing developments around Stadtallendorf a vibrant city centre. By October 1980 the first section was finished. It covers a pedestrian precinct with a retail trade and a service area beside a market place with natural stone wells and generous parking facilities.

The attractiveness of the new city centre has continued to improve in recent years and continues today by settlement of additional specialist shops and services enterprises. Added in January 1983 the City Hall, a sports hall with 1,000 seats, the fire-brigade headquarters and 142 new housing units.

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