Holzkirchen, Upper Bavaria

Holzkirchen
Holzkirchen
Municipality
	Coat of arms
	Location of Holzkirchen within Miesbach district
Country	Germany
State	Bavaria
Admin. region	Oberbayern
District	Miesbach
Subdivisions	35 Ortsteile
Government
• Mayor	Olaf von Löwis of Menar (CSU)
Area
• Municipality	48.33 km2 (18.66 sq mi)
Elevation	691 m (2,267 ft)
Population (2023-12-31)
• Municipality	16,719
• Density	350/km2 (900/sq mi)
• Metro	15,804
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	83607
Dialling codes	08024
Vehicle registration	MB
Website	www.holzkirchen.de

Holzkirchen (Central Bavarian: Hoizkiacha) is a market town in Bavaria, Germany. With a population of over 16,000 (2008) it is the largest town in the Miesbach district.

Holzkirchen is located on the Alpenvorland in the county of Miesbach. It was established as a Markt in the 13th century.

Holzkirchen was the location of one of the main transmitting stations for Radio Free Europe. Transmissions started in 1951 and provided the people of Eastern Europe with news from Western Europe. The transmitters had a strength of up to 250 Kilowatts. There were claims that the high-powered transmissions caused illnesses locally ^{[citation needed]}. There were also claims that it was so strong that locals could hear the radio programmes through their faucets ^{[citation needed]}. Subsequent to the relocation of RFE studios from Munich to Prague, the medium wave transmitter was shut down in 2001, following which the short wave transmissions continued on reduced power. The final transmissions were made in 2005, after which the transmission equipment was packed up to be sent to the Philippines and the masts were scrapped.

Nowadays Holzkirchen is well known as a location for pharmaceutical research and production. The European center of Sandoz and HEXAL are located in the industrial zone.