Altenstadt is a municipality in the district Wetteraukreis

Wetteraukreis

The Wetteraukreis is a Kreis in the middle of Hesse, Germany. Neighbouring districts are Landkreis Gießen, Vogelsbergkreis, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, district-free Stadt Frankfurt, Hochtaunuskreis, Lahn-Dill-Kreis.-History:...

, in Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It is situated in the Nidder valley, approx. 27 kilometers north-east of Frankfurt am Main

History

Altenstadt was part of the Limes

Limes

A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire.The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any...

, the former border of the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, that passes through the town. According to excavations, Altenstadt was a Roman garrison in the first half of the second century.

The first documented mention of Altenstadt took place only in the year 767, which makes Altenstadt the oldest municipality of Upper Hesse.

Division of the municipality

The municipality consists of 8 districts:

Altenstadt Heegheim Höchst an der Nidder Lindheim

Enzheim Oberau Rodenbach Waldsiedlung

Notable persons

One of the inhabitants of Altenstadt was the justice inspector Friedrich Kellner

Friedrich Kellner

August Friedrich Kellner was a mid-level official in Germany who worked as a justice inspector in Mainz and Laubach. During the First World War, Kellner was an infantryman in a Hessian regiment...

, who alternated his work-week between Laubach and Altenstadt during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Kellner recorded the misdeeds of the Nazis in a ten-volume diary which was on display in 2005 at the George Bush Presidential Library

George Bush Presidential Library

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library of George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States. It was dedicated on Nov. 6, 1997 and opened to the public shortly thereafter...

. A Canadian documentary, My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner

My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner

My Opposition - The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner is a 2007 documentary film about an orphaned American who went in search of his German grandfather and discovered a secret diary written during the time of the Third Reich. The film is a production of Abella Entertainment Ltd...

, was produced in 2006.

External links

• Official site
• Website of Lindheim
• Website of Enzheim
• Der Weltkrieg war vor deiner Tür Altenstadt and the former Airfield Altenstadt in World War II