128-676: The Homburg Railway ( German : Homburger Bahn ) is an 18 km line from Frankfurt am Main to Bad Homburg in the German state of Hesse . It was opened in 1860 as one of the first railway lines in Germany . It is now part of the Rhine-Main S-Bahn line S5 to Friedrichsdorf . Early on, there was support in Homburg for an efficient transport connection from Frankfurt in order to increase patronage to its spa and casino. In 1850
256-559: A Free Imperial City and kept this distinction until 1803. For the town's protection, and to secure the Wetterau as an Imperial Province, he expanded high above Wetzlar the Imperial Castle ( Reichsburg ), which had most likely already stood in one form or another before then. The origin of the name "Reichsburg Kalsmunt" is not quite clear. The following explanation cannot be ruled out: Kals- = Karls and munt ≈ vassal, that is,
384-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
512-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
640-464: A warlock , a heretic and a blasphemer to a fiery death , which he suffered the next day in Wetzlar at the stake. Until 1250, most of the town fortifications, whose remains can still be seen today, were complete. By the middle of the 14th century, it is reckoned, the town's population was 6,000, making it by the standards of the time a "city". About 1350, the high point of the town's development in
768-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
896-638: A central function within the Holy Roman Empire and although it remained a tiny town it was regarded as one of its capitals. The court became the town's main employer; at the Empire's dissolution in 1806, it had a staff of about 150 including 20 judges, while a further 750 derived their income from it. In the summer of 1772, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was at the Reichskammergericht as a trainee. His novel The Sorrows of Young Werther
1024-775: A drop in population, to 1,500. A stroke of luck came Wetzlar's way in 1689 when the Holy Roman Empire 's highest court, the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court), was moved from Speyer to Wetzlar after Speyer had been devastated by the French in the War of the Palatinate Succession . Besides Vienna (residence of the Emperor) and Regensburg (seat of the Imperial Diet ) Wetzlar thus gained
1152-455: A good basis on which to develop the town further. In 1285 the "false emperor" Dietrich Holzschuh, called Tile Kolup , who claimed to be Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (who actually had already died in Italy in 1250) came to Wetzlar. When the rightful king, Rudolph I (r. 1273–1291), heard of this and came to Wetzlar, the city leaders seized Tile Kolup and handed him over. He was sentenced as
1280-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
1408-410: A horse-drawn omnibus provided an hourly service from Frankfurt to Homburg, but this soon was not enough to meet the needs of travellers. Projects to build railways failed in 1836, 1845, 1851 and 1856, caused by funding problems and the number of small states that the line would have to run through: the line as built was only 18 km long but it ran across the territories of four independent countries:
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#17327981609861536-573: A layer of rock that had been transported from another location during the period of mountain building known as the Variscan orogeny . The marine sedimentary rocks which resulted from this tectonic action now give the town its character as they were often used for building material. The town's founding date is not known. There were "Bandkeramiker" settlements right on the western town limits, partly from 5,000 years BC. Iron ore extraction and smelting in and around Wetzlar has been documented as early as
1664-646: A liege of the Frankish court. Thus it would seem to be a case of a building work from Charlemagne 's time ("Charlemagne" is " Karl der Große" – "Charles the Great" (740s–814) – in German ). Imperial coinage was struck at Kalsmunt. The commercial road, which crossed the Lahn at Wetzlar, the town's iron production, to which the Iron Market ( forum ferri ) still bears witness, the wool weaving mill and tanning seemed
1792-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
1920-648: A north–south line through Frankfurt Airport Regional station and could connect with the Bad Homburg line. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It
2048-1032: A number of innovative enterprises, particularly in the area of optics/precision mechanics, information technology and services. Additionally, areas in the Westend as well as the Hörnsheimer Eck and the Dillfeld are available for new businesses to set up. Wetzlar offers a wide variety of educational paths students can choose from. [1] Traditionally a child's education starts in one of Wetzlar's 18 nurseries. There are public and private nurseries and religiously influenced ones. Children will spend between one and four years in one of these day cares, until they move on to an elementary school. Wetzlar has around 12 elementary schools. This includes private schools and schools, who are dedicated to special needs children. Most elementary schools offer an afterschool day care program for students, whose parents are at work longer than
2176-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
2304-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
2432-535: A ringroad was built to the west of the Old Town (Altstadt), taking the load off the old stone bridge across the Lahn by building a further bridge. In the Second World War , the town, being an industrial stronghold, also became the target of heavy bombing, which destroyed much of the railway station neighbourhood and Niedergirmes. The historic Old Town, however, was mostly spared from the air raids . After
2560-676: A sports class, a science class or a regular class. If they join a special class they will enjoy benefits, such as a whole day dedicated to their chosen subject (science or sports) and different fieldtrips. Next to the Steinschule is the Schule an der Brühlsbacher Warte. It is a school for special needs children. It is specialized in helping children with disabilities learn basic and career relevant skills. After completing Grade 5 to Grade 10 students now make important future decisions. They can now choose an apprenticeship, higher education, work, take
2688-415: A spreadeagle sable armed, langued and crowned Or, over its wing dexter a cross pattée argent. The black Imperial eagle on a red background and with a golden crown stands for the town's former Imperial immediacy as a Free Imperial City (see History). The silver cross stands for the former Imperial City's right to mint coins. The arms are almost unchanged from those borne in the 12th century. A new version of
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#17327981609862816-504: A terminal station in Louisenstraße. At its opening it had 28 first to third class carriages and luggage and freight wagons and four locomotives with a 1B wheel arrangement , supplied by Henschel with works numbers 46 to 49. In 1870, a similar locomotive was procured from Henschel with the works number 290. The number of carriages had been increased to 36. Initially eight pairs of trains ran daily. The Prussian annexations after
2944-460: A year off and many more. Most students choose to pursue their education and go to one of Wetzlar's High Schools. Wetzlar is home to three upper secondary schools. The Käthe-Kollwitz Schule is a vocational center, which is specialized in nutrition, health, personal hygiene, and social affairs. The school is named after Mrs. Käthe Kollwitz (1919–1945), a German artist. The Thedor-Heuss-Schule Wetzlar
3072-401: A year, a market community came into being. The monastery's forerunners were surely part of the crystallization point at which believers, traders and craftsmen met, above all on holidays. The Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (r. 1152–1190) created a Reichsvogtei (roughly "Imperial Bailiwick"), and in 1180 put Wetzlar's citizens on the same level as Frankfurt 's. Wetzlar became
3200-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
3328-616: Is a ‘Fachhochschule’ or ‘kaufmännische Berufsschule’, which can be roughly translated into ‘commercial vocational school’. They primarily focus on health and economic education. It is named after the first Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Theodor Heuss (1884–1963). Named after the Johann Wolfang Goethe (1749–1832), a famous German writer and statesman, the Goetheschule Wetzlar it
3456-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
3584-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
3712-601: Is an uncompleted city ( Waldgirmes Forum ), which has been excavated since 1993. After their defeat in the battle of the Teutoburg Forest the Romans abandoned the area and withdrew to the Rhine border. The name "Wetzlar" had come into being most likely by the 3rd century to the 8th century. The last syllable "―lar" suggests that the town was in existence by the 3rd century. The ending may be Celtic or Frankish (in
3840-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
3968-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
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4096-400: Is exactly the national average. The wettest months are June and December, with 74 mm (2.9 in) and 73.3 mm (2.9 in), the driest month is February with 49.1 mm (1.9 in). Wetzlar had on 31 December 2005 a municipal census for the city of 52,741 inhabitants (of which 21,946 are male and 24,313 female), 31,022 of which came from the core city (Kernstadt) and 21,719 in
4224-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
4352-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
4480-570: Is inspired by real events which Goethe experienced in Wetzlar. In 1803 Wetzlar came under the rule of Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg , the Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and a close ally of Napoleon Bonaparte and thus lost its status as a free town. With the Empire's dissolution in 1806, the great court also met its end. It was replaced by a school of law founded by Karl von Dalberg in 1808, which not only continued
4608-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
4736-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
4864-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
4992-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
5120-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
5248-455: Is the biggest upper secondary school in Hesse with over 1000 students and ca. 110 staff members. It is well known for its varieties of subjects and extracurricular activities, such as multiple language exchanges and class fieldtrips. Before 2019 all three schools were sharing one facility that consisted of three smaller buildings connected by hallways, a shared auditorium and kiosk. Shortly before
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5376-646: Is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
5504-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
5632-433: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
5760-408: Is with over 6,000 inhabitants the largest municipality. Furthermore, there are 8 districts ( Stadtteile ) outside the core area. Five of them have long since been swallowed up in Wetzlar's main built-up area. All, however, became part of Wetzlar with the dissolution of the city of Lahn in 1979, excluding Blasbach, Dutenhofen and Münchholzhausen which have long belonged to the city. These are east of
5888-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
6016-621: The City Tunnel to Rödelheim. Line S6 uses Homburg line tracks as far as Frankfurt West instead of the parallel Main-Weser line . The Homburg line is integrated in the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) transport network. It is planned to extend line U2 of the Frankfurt U-Bahn from Bad Homburg-Gonzenheim to Homburg station. A project known as Regionaltangente West ( Regional Tangent West ) would build
6144-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
6272-555: The Bad Nauheim–Wiesbaden line ( Bäderbahn , Spa Railway ) between the spa (German: Bad ) towns of Wiesbaden , Bad Homburg and Bad Nauheim . A link between this line and Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof was opened on 15 March 1927 and is still used by trains connecting to the Taunusbahn to the north of Bad Homburg. The curve from Homburg to Höchst was demolished in 1963 during motorway construction. After repairs to war damage
6400-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
6528-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
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#17327981609866656-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
6784-674: The FORUM Wetzlar is the largest in central Hesse ( Mittelhessen ). It has around 110 shops and accommodates a large multi-storey car park of 1700 places. Retail trade is located mainly in the areas Bahnhofsstraße , Karl-Kellner-Ring and the historic old town. In the Bahnhofstraße, the Karl-Kellner-Ring and in the two shopping centres where almost all goods are available. The city is home to some internationally active and well known enterprises. The Buderus company
6912-757: The Free City of Frankfurt , the Grand Duchy of Hesse (Darmstadt), the Duchy of Nassau and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg . Nassau had concerns because it would increase competition with its own spas. The Electorate of Hesse-Kassel 's opposition forced the line to avoid Bockenheim , which was in Hesse-Kassel territory on the Main-Weser Railway , just outside Frankfurt. The locals called
7040-455: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
7168-554: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
7296-425: The Middle Ages was reached. Decades-long feuds with the Counts of Solms, who were trying to make Wetzlar into a Solms-domain city, threatened the vital commercial road. The Emperor supported the town, albeit vainly. The city plunged into debt and in 1387 it fell under forced administration; however, it was incorporated into the Swabian League of Towns . The town's decline led by the end of the Thirty Years' War to
7424-439: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
7552-457: The Rhine Province . Industrialization began once the Lahn was made into a navigable waterway. With the opening of two railway lines in 1862–1863 (the Lahntal railway from Wetzlar to Koblenz and the Cologne-Gießen Railway , the section through Wetzlar is now called the Dill Railway ), which met in Wetzlar, the town found itself connected to raw material and outlet markets, becoming an industrial town. The strategic Cannons Railway , which
7680-427: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
7808-422: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
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#17327981609867936-400: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
8064-400: The War of 1866 simplified the situation for the railway. The whole route now ran through Prussia, except for one small piece at Weißkirchen station. The closing of the casino by the Prussian state in 1872 led to a significant fall in passenger numbers. In 1873 and 1874 the Kronberg Railway was built by a private railway company: it branched off after Rödelheim to Kronberg. On 1 January 1880
8192-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
8320-412: The 52nd in 1975 and 2012 respectively). Wetzlar lies in the Lahn-Dill area in Middle Hesse on the river Lahn , not far downstream from where it changes direction from south to west in the heights near the mouth of the Dill . The town lies at a point that divides the low Hessian mountain ranges: south of the Lahn lies the Taunus ; north of the Lahn and west of the Dill the Westerwald begins; north of
8448-434: The 8 districts. Thus Wetzlar it the eleventh largest city in Hesse. The proportion of foreigners is 11.6% (6371 inhabitants), these are spread over 103 nations. The unemployment rate in the district of the employment agency without the offices of Dillenburg and Wetzlar Biedenkopf (which includes the city of Wetzlar, and 12 surrounding municipalities) was in July 2009 6.9%, which corresponds to 5698 unemployed. Wetzlar lies on
8576-441: The Celtic La Tène period. Iron processing has a tradition of around 2500 years there. There were also pit fields for copper, silver and gold in and around Wetzlar, albeit much later. In the proximity of Wetzlar there are also a few Roman remains, which were constructed during the reign of the emperor Augustus (reigned 27 BC – 14 AD). There was a military camp at Dorlar and some Roman roadwork. The most important finding however
8704-416: The Eichendorfschule are so-called Gesamtschulen. They offer all three branches of secondary school. The Freiherr-vom-Stein Schule is a gymnasium (A-Level). The Steinschule recently changed from a G8 program, graduation after Grade 9, to a G9 program, graduation after Grade 10. It has a special program dedicated to science and sports classes. When applying to the school, students can decide if they'd like to join
8832-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
8960-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
9088-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
9216-504: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
9344-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
9472-568: The Greens gained one. Voter participation fell from 45.9% in 2001 to 37.2%. Out of 38,918 eligible voters, 14,468 went to the polls. Hesse's next municipal elections will be held in March 2011. Note: FWG is a citizens' coalition. The majority of seats, and thereby the power, is held by a CDU-FWG-FDP coalition which holds, as also before the elections, 31 of the 59 seats. Wetzlar's civic coat of arms might heraldically be described thus: In gules
9600-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
9728-573: The Lahn and east of the Dill the Rothaargebirge begin. The highest point within town limits is the Stoppelberg at 401 m above sea level . Wetzlar's neighbouring towns and cities are Gießen (up the Lahn from centre to centre about 12 km), Koblenz 80 km (50 mi) down the Lahn, Limburg an der Lahn 40 km (25 mi) to the west, Siegen 50 km (31 mi) to
9856-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
9984-645: The Reichskammergericht's function of training constitutional lawyers, but also employed many of the former staff as teachers. A former legal trainee, Franz Stickel (1786–1848), was selected to translate the Code Napoleon that Dalberg introduced in his territories in 1810–11. After the Congress of Vienna , the area passed to Prussia in 1815, and in 1822 it became the seat of the newly formed district of Wetzlar, which later became an exclave of
10112-560: The River Lahn, at a point where its valley (which is still up to one kilometre wide) to the west becomes increasingly narrow and deep. The main part of the city is built on in part intensively folded , faulted and slated layers of shales, sandstone, quartzite and limestone. They were deposited in the Devonian and Carboniferous periods in a sea characterised by island chains, volcanoes and atolls that were pushed together and covered by
10240-598: The Second World War ended in 1945, Wetzlar found itself in the American occupation zone, and later, once new boundaries had been drawn, in the Federal State of Hesse . By the beginning of the 1950s, owing to the huge numbers of displaced people from lost territories and refugees flooding into the town, the population had doubled to 30,000. On 1 January 1977, as part of Hesse's municipal reforms, Wetzlar
10368-714: The StudiumPlus since April 25, 2001. StudiumPlus is a dual university degree, which is a cooperation between the TH Mittelhessen and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. The cooperation includes over 1000 partner companies in the region. The dual study currently consists of seven bachelor's degree programs such as business administration, engineering / mechanical engineering, engineering / electrical engineering, civil engineering, software technology, organizational management in medicine and industrial engineering as well as
10496-662: The city has acted as the hub of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis on the north edge of the Taunus . Tourists know the city for its ancient town and its medieval Catholic/Protestant shared cathedral of St. Mary . Notable architectural features include the Eisenmarkt and the steep gradients and tightly packed street layout of a medieval town. The building of the sandstone cathedral commenced in the 12th century in Romanesque style. In
10624-540: The coat of arms was to have been introduced in 2003, but it did not catch on. In the end, the "old" arms were kept. According to the figures of the Society for Consumer Research Wetzlar is one of the most attractive commercial locations in Germany. The city has a high centrality coefficient and a retail turnover of around EUR 10,000 per inhabitant. In Germany it takes third place among all cities with over 50,000 inhabitants. Wetzlar has two large shopping centres, of those
10752-584: The company Hensoldt AG (now Carl Zeiss ), part of the Zeiss group (over 2,000 people employed in peak times). Other well-known firms are Philips (with about 1,200 employed at times) or Siemens AG and Siemens VDO , since 2007 Continental AG or the Sancura BKK, a supraregional health insurance company, which is combined with the Taunus BKK. The Business park Spilburg , former barracks, became home to
10880-417: The core towns of Naunheim (3882), Garbenheim (2080), Münchholzhausen (2420) and Dutenhofen (3152). Nauborn (3721) is located south of the core area and Steindorf (1704) follows on from the west central area. North of the core area are Blasbach (994) and Hermannstein (3588) (population in brackets, as of December 31, 2007). Wetzlar has a year-round temperate seasonal climate of the middle latitudes. Between
11008-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
11136-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
11264-430: The different elevations there are different small climatic conditions. The daily mean temperature in summer is about 17 to 18 °C (63 to 64 °F) and in winter about 1 to 2 °C (34 to 36 °F). The average rainfall is 600 to 700 mm (24 to 28 in), slightly below the German national average. On the high ground to the south and north of the Lahn valley there is a rainfall of 800 mm (31 in) which
11392-731: The direction of the famous railway engineer Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg was carried out very quickly and on 10 September 1860 the first passenger trains ran, the first goods train on 6 October 1860. In Frankfurt it connected with the Main-Weser station ( Main-Weser-Bahnhof ) on the Gallusanlage (a section of the old Frankfurt wall), and ran along the Taunus Railway to the old vineyards ( Rebstockgelände ) west of Frankfurt, where it branched off to Rödelheim. It then went ran via Weisskirchen and Oberursel to Homburg, where it ended at
11520-634: The eastern edge of the Rhenish Massif . The substrate consists of geologically young sediments of the Lahn and much older Devonian and Carboniferous rocks of the two main geological units of the Massif, the Lahnmulde and the so-called Giessen nappe . The northwestern part of the urban area lies on the Lahntal silt , sand and gravel , which have only slightly hardened. They were deposited by
11648-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
11776-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
11904-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
12032-500: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Wetzlar Wetzlar ( German pronunciation: [ˈvɛt͡slaːʁ] ) is a city in the state of Hesse , Germany . It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center,
12160-544: The later Middle Ages the construction continued under a master plan in Gothic style . The church was never finished—one steeple still remains uncompleted. The cathedral suffered heavy damage in the Second World War from aerial bombing , but restoration took place in the 1950s. On the outskirts of town along the river stand the ruins of several stone towers. The town hosted the Hessentag state festival twice (the 15th and
12288-605: The latter case, most likely referring to wooden defences around the town). The Conradine Gebhard , Count in the Wetterau , and as of 904 Duke of Lorraine , had a Church of the Saviour consecrated in 897, which replaced earlier structures. In the early 10th century came the founding of the Marienstift ( monastery ). At some unknown time, Wetzlar was granted market rights , and thereby, the right to levy market dues. Within
12416-729: The line recovered its importance for handling commuter traffic to Frankfurt. On 23 May 1954 a regular interval half-hourly timetable was introduced, initially hauled by class 78 steam locomotives and class V 80 and later V 100 diesel locomotives. The extension to Friedberg was downgraded to a single-track branch line due to war damage and a loss of profitability. Following the completion of electrification on 26 September 1970 services were usually operated by trains hauled by class 141 electric locomotives. From 25 September 1977 S-Bahn services were operated by electric multiple units of class 420 terminating in Friedrichsdorf. Since 2003
12544-512: The line to 15.6 km from Frankfurt West. The old line through the vineyards was removed. In 1895, the Usingen line from Homburg via Friedrichsdorf to Usingen was opened and some years later extended to Weilburg and Wetzlar on the Lahntal railway . In Homburg a second terminal station ( Homburg Neu , new Homburg) was built in Louisenstraße, 200 to 300 metres from the first station, on
12672-535: The line with some exaggeration the "six nation railway". When, after tough negotiations, at the end of June 1859 an acceptable route was found and the Homburg casino agreed to finance it, all countries concerned granted a concession to the British railway entrepreneur, Sir Samuel Morton Peto and the Homburg Railway Company ( Homburger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , HEG) was founded. Construction under
12800-407: The most important companies in the area of microscopy is Leica Microsystems (formerly known as Ernst Leitz ), which in its peak times employed over 7000 people in the city. Small format (35 mm) photography was invented in Wetzlar, and Leica cameras are well known for their excellent quality. In addition there are cameras of the companies Leidolf and Minox , binoculars and telescopes made by
12928-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
13056-460: The new school year in 2019, the Goetheschule Wetzlar moved into a separate building. The old one was demolished, and the construction of the new school facility began. It is expected to be completed in 2021. The Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in Germany. The campus in Wetzlar is located in a redeveloped former military barracks area. The Zentrum Dualer Hochschulstudien (ZDH) has been offering
13184-419: The newer class 423 trains have operated on the line. The Homburg line is now used by S-Bahn S5 services between Frankfurt South and Friedrichsdorf , and Hessische Landesbahn RB 15 services on the Taunusbahn between Frankfurt and Friedrichsdorf and Brandoberndorf . S-Bahn line S3 ( Darmstadt – Bad Soden ) and line S4 (Darmstadt/ Langen – Kronberg im Taunus ) use the section of the Homburg line from
13312-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
13440-567: The northwest, Dillenburg 30 km (19 mi) to the north, Marburg 30 km (19 mi) to the northeast and Frankfurt am Main 60 km (37 mi) to the south. Wetzlar and Gießen are the two cores of this small (about 200,000 inhabitants) urban agglomeration in Middle Hesse. Along the valleys of the Lahn (east and west) and Dill (north) are heavily built-up neighbouring communities, whose built-up areas in some places merge with Wetzlar's. The low mountain ranges around Wetzlar to
13568-477: The northwest, northeast and south, on the other hand, are heavily wooded and very thinly populated. Wetzlar borders in the northwest on the town of Aßlar (Lahn-Dill-Kreis), to the north and northeast on the communities of Hohenahr (Lahn-Dill-Kreis) and Biebertal ( Gießen district), to the east on the communities of Lahnau (Lahn-Dill-Kreis) and Heuchelheim and the town of Gießen (both in Gießen district), to
13696-590: The past, now Airbus ), Pfeiffer Vacuum , Philips , Loh, Seibert, Hollmann, Minox and many others set up shop in the town. For more than one hundred years, the iron ore found in the Lahn-Dill area ( haematite ) was processed at the Sophienhütte ironworks . As of 1887, iron ore mines were being shut down one by one, interrupted only by the First World War , because foreign ore from strip mines
13824-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
13952-492: The railway was sold to Prussia because the company could not afford and did not want the changes to the line required for connection to the planned new Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof . It thus became part of the Prussian state railways . The line was diverted to connect at Bockenheim station (now Frankfurt West ), which had to be avoided in 1860, on the also nationalised Main-Weser Railway. The diversion, opened on 10 May 1884, shortened
14080-658: The school day. In addition to these programs, the city has public day care facilities that provide afterschool care. The afterschool program consists of warm meals, tutors who help with homework and playtime. Kita Marienheim is an example. After spending four years in elementary school, students are off to middle school. The middle (secondary) school system in Germany is quite extravagant, Wetzlar being no exception. There are three branches of middle school. The Gymnasium (comparable to A-Levels), Realschule (normal secondary school) and Hauptschule (lowest secondary school). Wetzlar has four secondary schools. The August-Bebel-Gesamtschule and
14208-421: The site of the current town hall. A link line between the two stations enabled shunting. Planning of a line to Friedberg began in 1868, although construction did not start until 1898 and the line was commissioned on 15 July 1901. It branched off the line to Usingen in Friedrichsdorf. In 1907, the old Homburg stations were replaced with the current station, creating a through line to Friedrichsdorf. In 1912, Homburg
14336-492: The south on the communities of Hüttenberg and Schöffengrund and to the west on the town of Solms (all in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis). The core area of Wetzlar with 30,684 inhabitants is divided into twelve boroughs ( Stadtbezirke ): Altstadt, Neustadt, Hauser Berg, Büblingshausen, Sturzkopf, Stoppelberger Hohl, Nauborner Straße, Silhöfer Aue/Westend, Altenberger Strasse, Dalheim, Dillfeld and Niedergirmes. Niedergirmes
14464-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
14592-407: The stock majority as well as close-downs and sales of various divisions have strongly changed the company in the meantime. However, it ranks among the largest enterprises in Hesse. Wetzlar is apart from Jena and Oberkochen a German centre for optics as well as the most important German location for the precision engineering industry. The manufactured products have gained worldwide reputation. One of
14720-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
14848-403: The three master's degree programs in process management, systems engineering and technical sales. Wetzlar is twinned with: Wetzlar also sponsors: The tightly woven ensemble of historic buildings and houses in the Old Town ( Altstadt ) with its half-timbered houses and stone buildings from Romanesque (Wetzlar Cathedral) to Gothic to Renaissance and Baroque is to a great extent as it
14976-475: The trouble" for Wetzlar inasmuch as the town gained eight new outlying communities in the deal, making both the town's area and population considerably greater than they had been. Moreover, Wetzlar has since this time been the seat of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis, which also came into being at the same time. Elections to the town council were last held on 26 March 2006 for a five-year term. The SPD lost one seat,
15104-593: The university town is one of the ten regional centers in the state of Hesse. A former free imperial city , it gained much of its fame as the seat of the Imperial Supreme Court ( Reichskammergericht ) of the Holy Roman Empire . Located 51 kilometers north of Frankfurt, at 8° 30′ E, 50° 34′ N, Wetzlar straddles the river Lahn and is on the German Timber-Frame Road , which passes mile upon mile of half-timbered houses. Historically,
15232-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
15360-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
15488-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
15616-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
15744-498: Was being offered at lower prices on the world market. In 1926, mining came to an end altogether. As part of the progressing industrialization, the town outgrew its mediaeval town limits. In 1903 came the amalgamation of Niedergirmes with its extensive industrial works and the railway station neighbourhood. By the end of the First World War, the population had risen to over 15,000. Owing to increasing transportation problems,
15872-529: Was completed from Berlin to Metz via Wetzlar in 1882, was also sometimes known as the Wetzlar Railway ( Wetzlarer Bahn ) or Berlin–Wetzlar Railway ( Berlin-Wetzlarer Bahn ). In 1869, in the municipal area alone, 100 ore mines were in operation. Wetzlar's first blast furnace , built by the brothers Buderus, went into service in 1872. As well, world-famous optical and precision mechanics companies such as Leitz ( Leica ), Hensoldt ( Zeiss Optronics in
16000-486: Was created in the year 1731 and is one of the oldest still existing (large) enterprises. As BBT Thermotechnik , now part of the Bosch group, Buderus was for many decades one of the largest employers in the central Hessian area with more than 10,000 persons employed in Wetzlar alone (worldwide over 16,000), working in the areas casting (with cement), high-grade steel and heating technologies. Economic changes, repeated shifts of
16128-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
16256-478: Was renamed Bad Homburg. Between 1907 and 1912 the entire route from Frankfurt to Friedrichsdorf and Friedberg was duplicated. On 1 September 1905, a link was opened at the request of Emperor Wilhelm II through the Frankfurt vineyards ( Rebstockgelände ), initially only for freight and special trains. It branched off the Homburg line south of Rödelheim towards Höchst and was used from 1908 by passenger trains on
16384-414: Was united with the neighbouring town of Gießen and fourteen outlying communities to form the city of Lahn . This district-free city had about 156,000 inhabitants. The amalgamation was very unpopular, and after persistent protests – not least of all from Wetzlar – the city of Lahn was dissolved on 31 July 1979, and Wetzlar once again became an independent town. The municipal reforms, however, had been "worth
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