page_title: Eschwege
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Eschwege / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: David-Ben-Gurion-Denkmal in Eschwege
context_page_description: Eschwege, the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh Hessentag state festival.
context_section_description: In 974, Eskinivvach had its first documentary mention. This name stems from an old Germanic language and means “Settlement near the ash trees at the water”. This origin is noteworthy for showing that the town arose before Franks overran the area, which was some time between 500 and 700. As far back as Merovingian times, a Frankish royal court arose here, which kept watch as a border defence over the ford (crossing) on the Werra leading into Thuringia, and which still stood in the 10th and 11th centuries. At this time, Saint Denis was still the foremost saint, having been the Merovingians’ main saint, to whom the church in the Old Town is consecrated.
  The first documentary mention is found in a document from Emperor Otto II, in which he bequeathed the royal court and the settlement to his wife Theophanu. Their daughter Sophia founded on the Cyriakusberg about 1000 a canonical foundation for women (in which women did not take vows, but nonetheless lived in a conventlike environment) consecrated to Saint Cyriacus, which existed until the introduction of the Reformation into Hesse in 1527. All that is left of it now, though, is the Karlsturm (tower). Market rights were granted about 1188, and town rights followed by 1249. It was in this time that the groundwork was laid for the cloth- and leathermaking that flourished on into modern times.
  Beginning in 1264, as a result of the Thuringian-Hessian War of Succession, Eschwege belonged, under Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse, to Hesse. On 12 May 1292, he offered King Adolf of Germany the town of Eschwege as an Imperial fief and was given it straight back along with the Imperial castle Boyneburg as an hereditary Imperial fief, thereby raising Henry to Imperial Prince, greatly strengthening his power in Hesse.
  In 1385, Landgrave Balthasar of Thuringia moved to town and in 1386 he built a castle. In 1433, the town passed back to the Landgraviate of Hesse. Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel expanded the castle into a palatial residence. From 1627 to 1632, this was Maurice's “old man’s seat” after he had abdicated, and from 1632 to 1655, Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Eschwege, a sideline in the so-called Rotenburger Quart of the house of Hesse-Kassel, was resident here, although he did not actually live in the town until some time after 1646. In the Thirty Years' War, Eschwege was sacked and widely laid waste by fire in 1637 by Imperial Croats under General Johann von Götzen. After Frederick's death in 1655, his (part-)landgraviate passed to his brother Ernst of Hesse-Rheinfels. After 1731, his grandson, Christian of Hesse-Wanfried transferred the residence of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Wanfried to Eschwege. After the Hesse-Wanfried male line died out in 1755, the landgraviate passed to the Hesse-Rotenburg line. Once their male line also died out in 1834, the whole Quart passed back to the main house of Hesse-Kassel.
  The town acquired in 1875 a railway link when the line from Bebra to Eschwege was built. Niederhone station (as of 1938, Eschwege-West) was the junction of two lines, the Cannons railway and the Bebra–Göttingen line.
  After the Second World War ended in 1945, Eschwege belonged to the United States Zone of Occupation. The US military administration set up a displaced persons camp to lodge Jewish citizens. This camp, in which up to 3,300 people lived at times, was dissolved in 1949.
caption: David Ben-Gurion-Monument at the site of the former UNRRA-Camp in Eschwege
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2015:04:11 14:45:43", "Image Artist": "Picasa", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9190", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6385", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:04:24 14:31:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:04:24 14:31:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7", "EXIF ApertureValue": "51/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "43", "EXIF SubSecTime": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "03", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "534", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "4272", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2848", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9042", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2136000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "356000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "74f3d53bfc5243186915734640b7b8e0"}