Marburg, Hesse, Germany

🇩🇪 Marburg is a university town in the German federal state of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district. The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn.

Having been awarded town privileges in 1222, Marburg served as capital of the landgraviate of Hessen-Marburg during periods of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. The University of Marburg was founded in 1527 and dominates the public life in the town to this day.

Marburg is a historic centre of the pharmaceutical industry in Germany, and there are plans for a plant in the town to produce vaccines to tackle Covid-19.

History Like many settlements, Marburg developed at the crossroads of two important early medieval highways: the trade route linking Cologne and Prague and the trade route from the North Sea to the Alps and on to Italy, the former crossing the river Lahn here. A first mention of the settlement dates from 822 in the Reinhardsbrunner Chronik. The settlement was protected and customs were raised by a small castle built during the ninth or tenth century by the Giso. Marburg has been a town since 1140, as proven by coins. From the Gisos, it fell around that time to the Landgraves of Thuringia, residing on the Wartburg above Eisenach.

**Geography

**Marburg lies on the river Lahn, 25 km north of Gießen. The federal road Bundesstraße 3 connects it with Gießen and Kassel. It is served by Marburg (Lahn) station (long-distance and local trains) and Marburg Süd station (local trains). The city is divided into the following 25 boroughs (Ortsbezirke): • Altstadt • Bauerbach • Bortshausen • Campusviertel • Cappel • Cyriaxweimar • Dagobertshausen • Dilschhausen • Elnhausen • Ginseldorf • Gisselberg • Haddamshausen • Hermershausen • Marbach • Michelbach • Moischt • Ockershausen • Richtsberg • Ronhausen • Schröck • Südviertel • Waldtal • Wehrda • Wehrshausen • Weidenhausen.