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Ilmenau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 50°49′N 10°56′E

Ilmenau


Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Ilm-Kreis
Population	26,713 source (30th of June 2005)
Area	62.64 km²
Population density	426 /km²
Elevation	500 m
Coordinates	50°49′ N 10°56′ E
Postal code	98693
Area code	03677
Licence plate code	IK
Mayor	Gerd-Michael Seeber
Website	ilmenau.de

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.

1 Geography
2 History
- 2.1 Development of number of inhabitants
3 Economy
- 3.1 Infrastructure
4 Sister cities
5 Notable Persons
6 External links

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

Oberpörlitz
Unterpörlitz
Heyda
Roda
Manebach

Sign at the beginning of the town area

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

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.).

The town hall of Ilmenau

Main station

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.

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.

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

Oldest building of the university

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 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.