Wanfried

Wanfried
Coat of arms
Wanfried
Location of Wanfried within Werra-Meißner-Kreis district
Coordinates: 51°11′N 10°10′E / 51.183°N 10.167°E / 51.183; 10.167Coordinates: 51°11′N 10°10′E / 51.183°N 10.167°E / 51.183; 10.167
Country	Germany
State	Hesse
Admin. region	Kassel
District	Werra-Meißner-Kreis
Government
• Mayor	Wilhelm Gebhard (CDU)
Area
• Total	46.9 km2 (18.1 sq mi)
Population (2015-12-31)
• Total	4,131
• Density	88/km2 (230/sq mi)
Time zone	CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Postal codes	37281
Dialling codes	05655
Vehicle registration	ESW
Website	www.wanfried.de

Wanfried is a town in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis in northeasternmost Hesse, Germany. It is classified as a Landstadt, a designation given in Germany to a municipality that is officially a town (Stadt), but whose population is below 5,000. It literally means “country town”.

The town lies right on the boundary with Thuringia. It is found in the Werra valley northeast of the Schlierbachswald (range). Northeast of Wanfried, beyond the Thuringian boundary, is the neighbouring Eichsfeld-Hainich-Werratal Nature Park.

The Hessian middle centre of Eschwege lies only some 11 km upstream to the west. Other nearby towns of its kind are Mühlhausen (some 25 km to the east) and Eisenach (some 28 km to the southeast), both of which lie in Thuringia.

Wanfried borders in the north on the community of Geismar, and more particularly on its constituent community of Döringsdorf (in Thuringia’s Eichsfeld district), in the east on the communities of Hildebrandshausen and Katharinenberg (both in Thuringia’s Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis), in the southeast and the south on the town of Treffurt (in Thuringia’s Wartburgkreis) and in the west on the town of Eschwege and the community of Meinhard, and more particularly on its constituent community of Frieda (both in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis).

Wanfried’s Stadtteile are Wanfried (main town), Altenburschla, Aue, Heldra and Völkershausen.

Wanfried is an ancient town. When Saint Boniface came to this area, it was already here. There were even already Christians here. He built the first churches. Even on the Hülfensberg he built a church and a monastery. While gazing from the Hülfensberg, Saint Boniface supposedly said, according to legend, “Wann wird endlich Frieden schweben über dieser schönen Aue?” (“When will peace at last hover over this lovely floodplain?). Folk etymology holds that this yielded the local placenames Wanfried, Frieda, Schwebda and Aue.