Idstein

Idstein is a town of about 25,000 inhabitants in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis in the Regierungsbezirk of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Because of its well preserved historical Altstadt, it is part of the Deutsche Fachwerkstraße, connecting towns with fine fachwerk buildings and houses. In 2002, the town hosted the 42nd Hessentag state festival.

Geography

Location

Idstein lies in the Taunus mountain range, about north of Wiesbaden. The town's landmark is the Hexenturm, a 12th-century bergfried and part of Idstein Castle.
The Old Town is found between the two brooks running through town, the Wolfsbach in the east and the Wörsbach in the west, on a high ridge reaching up to above sea level. This comes to an end in the Old Town's north end with the castle and palace crags, behind which the two brooks run together. On the Wolfsbach, remnants of the like-named, now forsaken village can still be made out. The estate agent Gassenbach in the town's south goes back to an old settlement called Gassenbach; for the last few years, it has belonged to the Domäne Mechtildshausen, an organic farming operation.
West of town, beyond the Wörsbach valley, lies another high ridge with peaks ranging from the Hohe Kanzel to the Roßberg and the Rügert to the Rosenkippel ; to the south, the Galgenberg forms another high area over to the Dasbach Heath. Just under the western heights run the Autobahn A 3 and the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.
On the other side of the Rügert are the constituent communities of Oberauroff and Niederauroff in the valley of the Auroffer Bach.
North of Idstein, the Wörsbach valley reaches into the Goldener Grund, fertile cropland that stretches all the way to the Lahn valley.

Neighbouring communities

Idstein borders in the north on the town of Bad Camberg and the community of Waldems, in the east on the community of Glashütten, in the southeast on the town of Eppstein, in the south on the community of Niedernhausen, in the southwest on the town of Taunusstein and in the west on the community of Hünstetten.

Constituent communities

The town is made up of a main town bearing the same name as the whole and eleven other, formerly independent villages:

Stadtteil	Inhabitants
Idstein	15605
Dasbach	326
Ehrenbach	303
Eschenhahn	773
Heftrich	1619
Kröftel	524
Lenzhahn	261
Niederauroff	390
Nieder-Oberrod	576
Oberauroff	322
Walsdorf	1535
Wörsdorf	3638

Until 1977, Idstein belonged to the Untertaunuskreis, which in the course of district reform was merged with the Rheingau-Kreis into the new Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis. With about 25,700 inhabitants, Idstein is the second biggest town in the district.

History

Idstein, which had its first documentary mention in 1102 as Etichenstein, was granted town and market rights in 1287 by King Rudolph of Habsburg. Besides the above-mentioned Hexenturm near the old Nassau castle, the town has a mediaeval town centre with many timber-frame buildings. The town's oldest preserved house was originally built in 1410.
From the documentary mention in 1102 until 1721, Idstein was, with interruptions, residence of the Counts of Nassau-Idstein and other Nassau lines. One of the Counts, Adolf of Germany, was, as a compromise candidate, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1292 to 1298, later falling in battle against the anti-king Albrecht I of Habsburg.
The Nassau Counts' holdings were subdivided many times among heirs, with the parts being brought together again whenever a line died out. This yielded an older Nassau-Idstein line from 1480 to 1509, later merging once again with Nassau-Wiesbaden and Nassau-Weilburg and, from 1629 to 1721, a newer Nassau-Idstein line.
In the 17th century, Count Johann of Nassau-Idstein persecuted witches in Idstein.
In 1721, Idstein passed to Nassau-Ottweiler, and in 1728 to Nassau-Usingen, thereby losing its status as a residence town, although it became the seat of the Nassau Archives and of an Oberamt.
Nassau-Usingen was united with Nassau-Weilburg in 1806 into the Duchy of Nassau, becoming a member of the Confederation of the Rhine. After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, Prussia annexed the Duchy as the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.
The residential palace from the 17th century is used by the Pestalozzischule as a school building. It was expanded with a new building below the palace.
From the late 18th century to the mid 20th, Idstein was the centre of an important leather industry. During the Second World War, many women became forced labour for work in the tanneries. In 1959, the dominant tannery in the middle of the town core was shut down for economic reasons. The lands right at the edge of the Old Town lay empty and were used until the 1980s as a carpark. Today, new shops and apartments surround the Löherplatz, which is now a marketplace.
The private Kalmenhof clinic in Idstein was drawn into the Nazi Euthanasia programme. Under Action T4, the Kalmenhof served as a way station for Hadamar killing centre. After the gassings at Hadamar came to an end in the face of public protests, especially from the churches, the Kalmenhof itself, in the course of Aktion Brandt, became a killing institute; patients here were murdered with poison injections.
Shortly after the war, reports of young wards being mishandled came to light.
Eleven formerly independent villages were merged as of 1971 into Idstein, under the framework of municipal reform.

Population development

Politics

Coat of arms

The town's arms might be described thus: Azure a round castle wall embattled with two portcullises open, the wall enclosing two towers, the whole Or, with peaked roofs gules, between the portcullises an inescutcheon azure with a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules among six billets Or.
The inescutcheon is the arms borne by the House of Nassau. The town's flag also bears this design set against orange and blue, Nassau's colours.

Twin towns – sister cities

Idstein is twinned with:

Heusden, Netherlands
Lana, Italy
Şile, Turkey
Uglich, Russia
Zwijndrecht, Belgium
Economy and infrastructure

Transport

Idstein has an interchange on the Autobahn A 3 north of Wiesbaden between Niedernhausen and Bad Camberg, and a railway station with direct connections to Limburg an der Lahn, Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden.
The building of a bypass, Bundesstraße 275, lessened the traffic in the historic Old Town. However, the traffic volume in the town core is still very high.
At intersections in the town core, roundabouts have improved the traffic flow, in some places noticeably. The Südtangente, which had been planned since 1981, was completed in 2009, reducing traffic in town further. It links two new development areas. Of the €9,000,000 for the project, roughly 60% was borne by the state of Hesse.

Local transport

Within Idstein town limits are two railway stations on the Main-Lahn Railway, Idstein and Wörsdorf. Hourly trains serving the Frankfurt/Wiesbaden–Niedernhausen–Limburg line run into the evening. In Niedernhausen there is also a transfer point with S-Bahn line S2 towards Dietzenbach through the Frankfurt and Offenbach S-Bahn tunnels.
The Idstein town bus serves 3 lines:

221 Railway station–Eisenbach–Taubenberg–Gänsberg–ZOB Schulgasse–Railway station
222 Railway station–ZOB Schulgasse–Gänsberg–Taubenberg–Eisenbach–Railway station
223 Railway station–Dasbach–Heftrich–Niederrod

The town bus is run by ORN. It uses mainly Midi low-floor buses built by MAN. Most journeys made by bus 223 are arranged in response to demand.
Moreover, many regional buses also serve Idstein, linking important areas not served by the town bus as they go.

220 Idstein–Niedernhausen–Oberjosbach
224 Idstein–Ehrenbach–Görsroth–Idstein
225 Railway station–ZOB–Nassauviertel–Hünstetten–Neuhof–
226 Railway station–ZOB–Nassauviertel–Wallrabenstein–Ketternschwalbach
227 Görsroth–Idstein
230 Idstein–Esch–Bad Camberg
233 Idstein/Bad Camberg–Esch–Wüstems
239 Idstein–Waldems
271 ZOB–Railway station–Am Wörtzgarten–Neuhof–Platte–Wiesbaden main railway station

Since timetable changes in July 2007, many journeys, particularly on weekends or in the evening, have been served by demand-responsive buses.
Bus services in the countryside around Idstein are likewise run by ORN, which contracts the work out to companies such as Omnibus Mester from Eppstein-Bremthal, Omnibus Weber, Paul-Reisen or Wahl-Reisen.

Established businesses

Roughly 200 small and midsize businesses, mainly in crafts and retail sales, characterize Idstein's business life; four out of every five have fewer than ten employees.
Among the bigger businesses in town are, for instance, Motorola Solutions Germany GmbH, Serviceware SE, Jack Wolfskin, DG-Verlag, ERNST SCHMITZ Logistics & Technical Services GmbH, Black & Decker Deutschland GmbH, INGENIUMDESIGN, Hochschule Fresenius gGmbH, Lebensmittelmärkte Uwe Georg e.K. and Titleist.
Another important employer and factor in the economy is the Landeswohlfahrtsverband Hessen with its SPZ Kalmenhof, an institution aiding youths and people with handicaps.
As an historically important and modern middle centre and the heart of the Idsteiner Land, Idstein has at its disposal a multi-faceted retail structure. Its location on the Frankfurt/Wiesbaden – Limburg railway and the A 3 and a great number of commuters put the great shopping centres in Limburg an der Lahn and Wiesbaden as well as those throughout the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region in direct competition with the local retailers.