Where to Stay in Alsbach-Hähnlein, Hessen

What is Alsbach-Hähnlein known for?

Alsbach-Hähnlein is a small residential municipality of the Hessian Bergstraße. Alsbach's hillside village keeps its horseshoe plan of two streets, the Hauptstraße and the Kirchstraße, which follows the Viehwegsbach, with fields and gardens between them still visible in places. The loess slopes face west and south-west, which favoured vines and fruit.

Hähnlein's name has nothing to do with a cockerel, and it comes from Hagen, a settlement in the woods.

What are the main landmarks in Alsbach-Hähnlein?

Alsbach-Hähnlein has two listed Protestant churches, the Evangelische Kirche Alsbach and the Evangelische Kirche Hähnlein, both cultural heritage monuments in Hesse. The Alsbacher Schloss goes back to the lords of Bickenbach. They built it as Burg Bickenbach.

In Hähnlein the Hainer Hof, the core of the later village, became the Rettungshaus and later the Bürgermeisterei, the mayor's office.

What is the history of Alsbach-Hähnlein?

The oldest part of Alsbach-Hähnlein, Alsbach, is first recorded in the Lorsch Codex in the 8th century. Its streams probably helped decide where the village was founded. In 1240 the lords of Bickenbach built the Alsbacher Schloss, as Burg Bickenbach.

Hähnlein follows in 1333, as Hennechen. A branch line, since closed, once joined Seeheim, Jugenheim, Alsbach and Bickenbach. On 1 February 1907 a station opened on the Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg line, renamed Hähnlein-Alsbach in 1934.

Sudeten German expellees settled the dune west of Alsbach from 1947 and set up the curtain factory Wölfel & Co., and Sandwiese was founded there in 1949. Under Hesse's municipal reform, Alsbach and Hähnlein merged on 1 January 1977 under the name Alsbach, which became Alsbach-Hähnlein on 1 January 1978.

Where is Alsbach-Hähnlein?

Alsbach-Hähnlein lies on the Bergstraße in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district of southern Hesse. Alsbach sits on the slope down to the Rhine plain, with the Hasselbach along its northern edge and the Viehwegsbach through its centre, both running almost parallel from east to west. The municipality borders Bickenbach to the north, Seeheim-Jugenheim to the east, Bensheim and Zwingenberg in the Bergstraße district to the south, and Gernsheim in the Groß-Gerau district to the west.

In the Alsbach area, large woods are protected as part of the Kniebrecht, Melibocus and Orbishöhe conservation site. Sandwiese lies west of Alsbach.

What is Alsbach-Hähnlein like?

Alsbach-Hähnlein keeps a calendar of village festivals: the Görschelfest on Ascension Day, a Marktplatzfest in June, the Kerb parish fair in September or October and a Christmas market in November or December. The Museum in der Anstalt is a regional museum for the municipality and for the Hessian Bergstraße and the Hessian Ried. Alsbach-Hähnlein holds two nature reserves.

The Altneckarlachen of Alsbach, Hähnlein and Bickenbach are a wetland with rare plants, part of the EU bird reserve Hessische Altneckarschlingen, and Im Dulbaum near Alsbach protects dry, chalky sand and steppe grassland in a former sand pit.

How do you get to Alsbach-Hähnlein?

Alsbach-Hähnlein has a tram terminus in Alsbach. Trams run there from Darmstadt via Eberstadt, Seeheim and Jugenheim. Regional trains from Frankfurt via Darmstadt stop at the Hähnlein-Alsbach station on the Frankfurt am Main to Heidelberg line.

Buses link Alsbach with Zwingenberg, Bensheim and Heppenheim, and Bickenbach and Alsbach with Hähnlein.