page_title: Fritzlar
section_title: Modern age
hierarchical_section_title: Fritzlar / History / Modern age
caption_attribution_description: View of Fritzlar, Hesse, Germany, from the Grey Tower; in the back is St. Petri Cathedral
context_page_description: Fritzlar is a small German town in the Schwalm-Eder district in northern Hesse, 160 km north of Frankfurt, with a storied history.
  The town has a medieval center ringed by a wall with numerous watch towers. Thirty-eight meters high, the "Grey Tower" is the highest remaining urban defense tower in Germany. The city hall, first documented in 1109, with a stone relief of St. Martin, the town's patron saint, is the oldest in Germany still in use for its original purpose. The Gothic church of the old Franciscan monastery is today the Protestant parish church, and the monastery's other buildings have been converted into a modern hospital. Many houses in the town center, notably around the market square, date from the 15th to 17th centuries and have been carefully maintained or restored. The town is dominated by the imposing Romanesque-Gothic Church of St. Peter from the 12th-14th centuries.
  In 1974, the town hosted the 14th Hessentag state festival.
context_section_description: In 1803, when all ecclesiastic states in Germany were abolished, Fritzlar was incorporated, together with Naumburg, as the nominal Principality of Fritzlar into the Electorate (principality) of Hesse-Kassel (Kurhessen or Hesse-Cassel).  In 1821 it became the administrative center of the district (Kreis) Fritzlar.  Hesse-Kassel in turn was annexed by Prussia in 1866, following the Austro-Prussian War in which the Elector had sided with Austria and Briain. In 1932 the district was merged with the neighboring district of Homberg to form the district of Fritzlar-Homberg.
  In 1974, the three districts of Fritzlar-Homberg, Melsungen and Ziegenhain were combined into the new district Schwalm-Eder, with its administrative seat in Homberg (Efze).
  Today, Fritzlar is a service and market center for the surrounding area, with schools, hospital, and a sizeable military garrison with airfield which is the homebase of the Luftbewegliche Brigade 1 (1st Air Mobile Brigade) and the Kampfhubschrauberregiment 36 Kurhessen (Attack Helicopter Regiment 36) of the German Army.
caption: View of Fritzlar from the Grey Tower
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