Kranichstein

Kranichstein
Kranichstein
Stadtteil of Darmstadt
	Location of Kranichstein within Darmstadt
	Kranichstein Kranichstein
	Coordinates: 49°53′54″N 8°40′37″E / 49.89833°N 8.67694°E
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Darmstadt
District	Urban district
City	Darmstadt
Area
• Total	6.555 km2 (2.531 sq mi)
Elevation	140 m (460 ft)
Population (2011-03-31)
• Total	11,833
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	64289
Dialling codes	06151
Website	www.darmstadt.de

Kranichstein is a district in the city of Darmstadt. The town started with housing construction in the 1960s and now also has a number of residential high-rises. Often referred to as Darmstadt-Kranichstein.

Geographical location

Kranichstein lies in the Northeast of Darmstadt center. It is bordered to the north by Darmstadt-Wixhausen, and to the west is Darmstadt-Arheilgen.

History

The primeval history is close geographical to Arheilgen. See history of Arheilgen.

Middle Ages

On 6 May 1399 appears the first mention of Einsiedel-Rod at Messel way and was later named after its owner Cranich to Dirmstein, which Kranichstein derived his name: Kranich-Rod or Kranich-Rotth. Kranichstein is also the name of Jagdschloss Kranichstein, a hunting lodge started in 1578, by Landgraf Georg I. of Hessen-Darmstadt. Just east of Kranichstein, is one of the few preserved Baroque hunting lodges in Germany. Today the facility houses a hunting museum and a hotel with restaurant. Landgrave Ernst Ludwig (1667–1739) and Louis VIII (1691–1768) also made use of the Kranichstein hunting lodge.^[2]

Modern times

In 1968, the Darmstadt relatively large urban development project "Kranichstein" was started, the designs were by Ernst May . The draft plans saw an expansion of the city by 18,000 new residents. The city plans had a system of the civil parks, with artificial hills and several ponds that were created with clay pits, also the Brentano lake. Kranichstein is known for its passive houses, (Passivhaus in German) this refers to voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, reducing its ecological footprint

Transportation

Kranichstein is serviced by the public transport streetcars line 4 and 5 with service to the downtown Darmstadt. Additionally, there is a bus connection with the lines H and U to the downtown Darmstadt. Kranichstein has train service to Darmstadt main station and to Wiesbaden and Mainz Hauptbahnhof on regional train line 75, called the Rhein-Main-Bahn RB 75.^[3] Rail routes: RB 15703, RB 15707, RB 15708, RB 15712, and STR 5 also serve the Kranichstein rail stop, with Busline A Darmstadt. Bus line H and U serve the town.

Darmstadt-Kranichstein Railway Museum is as very large railway museum with some operational historical working Steam locomotives.