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'Ilmenau' is a town located in the district of Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany. It is the biggest town in Ilm-Kreis district with 27,000 inhabitants, and additionally 7,200 students studying at the ''Technische Universität Ilmenau''. The surrounding area is marked by the Thuringian forest and its mountains. The highest mountain of Ilmenau is the ''Kickelhahn'' (German for rooster, which is also found in the coat of arms of Ilmenau), with a height of 861 metres. The highest mountains of the Thuringian forest are the ''Schneekopf'' (meaning ''snow-head'') with a height of 978 metres and the ''Großer Beerberg'' (982.9 meters), a few kilometres to the south-west of Ilmenau. Goethe also enjoyed staying in Ilmenau, mostly on holiday. The river flowing through Ilmenau is the Ilm.

Contents

Geography

Subdivisions

Near Cities

Vicinity

History

Development of number of inhabitants

Economy

Infrastructure

Sister cities

Notable Persons

External links

Geography

Subdivisions

There are five near villages belonging to the town of Ilmenau:

★ Oberpörlitz

★ Unterpörlitz

★ Heyda

★ Roda

★ Manebach

Near Cities

★ Erfurt, 40 km in north

★ Gotha, 40 km in northwest

★ Weimar, 50 km in northeast

★ Arnstadt, 25 km in north

★ Saalfeld and Rudolstadt, 35 km in east

★ Sonneberg, 50 km in southeast

★ Coburg, 60 km in south

★ Suhl, 20 km in southwest

★ Meiningen, 40 km in southwest

Vicinity

Around the city live nearly 80,000 people on an area of 540 km², who have Ilmenau as a centre of their work, school, shops and other supplies. Biggest towns and villages nearby are Gräfenroda (3,600 inhab.), Königsee (3,500 inhab.), Gehren (3,300 inhab.) and Langewiesen (3,200 inhab.).

History

Ilmenau was founded in the 13th century, it is first named in 1273. Since 1341 it has some town rights. Between 1660 and 1920 it belonged to Saxe-Weimar, earlier the majors about Ilmenau were the Käfernburger (from Arnstadt), the Schwarzburger (from Arnstadt, later Rudolstadt), and the Henneberger (from Meiningen).
Until 1870, Ilmenau stayed a small town of circa 3000 inhabitants, but then the industrial revolution reached the town. Some factories for porcelain (''Graf von Henneberg Porzellan'' since 1777), glasswares (the ''Sophienhütte'' since 1852) and toys developed. In 1879 the town got a railway connection to Erfurt (north), 1881 to Gehren/Großbreitenbach (south-east) and 1904 to Schleusingen (south-west).
The university was founded in 1894 as ''Thüringisches Technikum''. Now, it is the Technische Universität Ilmenau, where the ISWI took place every two years. The FIL European Luge Championships 1934 took place in the town.
1952 the district ''Kreis Ilmenau'' was founded. It had an area of about 380 km² with a population of circa 70,000 inhabitants. Ilmenau has been the capital of this district. In 1994 it was merged with ''Kreis Arnstadt'' in the North to the new district Ilm-Kreis with Arnstadt as capital.

Development of number of inhabitants

★ 1799: 2,001 ★ 1849: 2,791 ★ 1875: 3,760 ★ 1885: 5,483 ★ 1900: 10,419 ★ 1925: 13,614 ★ 1940: 17,279 ★ 1945: 21,862

★ 1961: 17,000 ★ 1977: 22,700 ★ 1981: 28,749 ★ 1987: 29,500 ★ 1995: 28,514 ★ 2000: 27,176 ★ 2005: 26,713

Economy

The economy of Ilmenau is marked by production of glasswares and some high-tec-industries like programming software. Ilmenau has a very strong economy compared with other Eastern German regions. The unemployment rate is still 16%, but it is getting smaller. The average earning is circa 14,000 Euros per head and year.
Ilmenau is the place of the Technische Universität Ilmenau with circa 7,000 students.

Infrastructure

Ilmenau is getting crossed by the federal highways 4 (Erfurt-Nürnberg), 87 (Ilmenau-Leipzig) and 88 (Eisenach-Ilmenau-Jena). Five kilometres to the north runs the motorway A 71 from Erfurt to Würzburg. There is still a railway to Erfurt while the other former railway lines to Schleusingen and Großbreitenbach are out of operation. The Nuremberg-Erfurt high-speed rail line nearby is under construction.

Sister cities

★ Blue Ash, Ohio

★ Homburg, Saarland

★ Wetzlar

★ Târgu-Mureş

Notable Persons

★ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

★ Karl Ludwig von Knebel

★ Paul Löbe

★ André Lange

★ Jan Behrendt

★ Stefan Krauße

★ Andrea Henkel

★ Jens Müller

★ Ernst Christian Wilhelm Ackermann

★ Fritz Sauckel

★ Fritz Reinhardt

★ Theodor Eicke

★ Andreas Libavius

★ Felix Weil

★ Corona Schröter

★ Peter Sendel

★ Andrea Henkel

★ Ute Oberhoffner

★ Wolfram Fiedler

External links