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Revision as of 07:43, 22 February 2007
Hof is a city located on the banks of the Saale in the northeastern corner of the German state of Bavaria, in the Franconia region, hard by the Czech border and the forested Fichtelgebirge and Frankenwald upland regions.
The city of Hof is enclosed by, but does not belong to the Bavarian district of Hof; it is nonetheless the district's administrative seat.
The city's most important work of art, the Hofer altar, dates from about 1465 and is exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich today. The Heidenreich organ in the parish church of St. Michaelis, completed in 1834, is considered one of Bavaria's finest.
Hof is known for two local "delicacies", namely Schnitz, a kind of hotpot, and sausages boiled in a portable, coal-fired brass cauldron, which are sold in the streets by the sausage man (Wärtschlamo in the local dialect). There is also a particularly strong beer (Schlappenbier), which is available only on the first Monday after Trinity Sunday (Schlappentag). This tradition dates back to the establishment of the town militia which forced all shooters to take part in a special shooting training each year. To avoid penalties, a lot of shooters rushed out to the training area in the morning of the very last possible day, without even enough time to get dressed and thus still wearing their clogs (Schlappen) .
Geography
The city's structure
The city of Hof consists of the following districts in particular:
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Surroundings
Hof is located in between the areas of the Frankenwald (Franconian Forest), the Fichtelgebirge and the Vogtland.
History
Hof was originally called Rekkenze and established around the year 1080. The settlement was first mentioned 1214 and became a town in 1319. After a rather uneventful history, the town became Prussian in 1792, French in 1806 and finally Bavarian in 1810. In 1823, the town was virtually destroyed by a fire. In 1945, it suffered minor destruction due to aerial attacks. From 1945 to 1990 Hof lay very close to the border between East Germany and West Germany. In 1989 thousands of East German citizens, who had demanded the right to travel or emigrate to West Germany and had been allowed to do so, first arrived on western soil at Hof's railroad station, having been placed on a special train and officially "expelled" by the East German government.
Population development
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Politics
Mayors (First Mayors and Lord Mayors)
(since the introduction of the Bavarian Municipal Code in 1818)
| 1818-1846: | Georg Friedrich Samuel von Oerthel |
| 1847: | Johann Adam Laubmann |
| 1848-1849: | Christoph Theodor Schroen |
| 1849-1857: | Moritz Ernst Freiherr von Waldenfels |
| 1857-1882: | Hermann von Münch |
| 1883-1903: | Carl von Mann |
| 1904-1916: | Paul Bräuninger |
| 1916-1919: | Heinrich Neupert |
| 1919-1933: | Dr. Karl Buhl |
| 1933-1941: | Dr. Richard Wendler |
| 1945-1946: | Dr. Oskar Weinauer |
| 1946-1948: | Hans Bechert |
| 1948-1949: | Dr. Kurt Schröter |
| 1950-1970: | Hans Högn (SPD) |
| 1970-1988: | Dr. Hans Heun (CSU) |
| 1988-2006: | Dieter Döhla (SPD) |
| 2006 to present date: | Dr. Harald Fichtner (CSU) |
Sister Cities
Hof has established connections to its following sister cities around the world
Culture
Periodic events
- Hof International Film Festival
Wim Wenders once said HOF was short for Home of Films. In 1967, student Heinz Badewitz, together with his back then band members, organized a 2 and a half hours movie theater night in Hof showing a few motion pictures. They called this event the 1st Hof Short Film Festival. They had the idea after disappointing results at the Obberhausener Short Film Festival. Also, Munich (the city where they studied at the time) had too tough terms and conditions and the rents had been to high to start a project of that kind there. This gave way for the Hof International Film Festival. Heinz Badewith led the Festival from there on and the project grew up over the years. Now, after 4 decades, the Festival is one of the most renowned in all of Germany. Newcomer directors and producers get to premier their debut motion pictures here. The Hof International Film Festival became a trend-setting event for the German movie industry.
- Schlappentag
(see above in the general description)
- Hof Volksfest
The term Volksfest means fair or folks festival. The Hof Volksfest is the biggest of its kind in the area. It takes place end of July / beginning of August every year. It begins always at the last friday of July with a big parade through the downtown district heading to and finishing at the festival area. The festival is partly a big amusement park with a wide variety of attractions and all kinds of local food and beer specialties, and partly a big beer tent area. Most of the latter is taking place in a big concert hall but the vibes are very similar as to in a beer tent. Every night, different local bands play mostly traditional bavarian music to entertain the mostly regional original crowd.
Trivia
Hof is also known as Bavarian Siberia because temperatures are usually several degrees lower than in most other parts of Bavaria, particularly in winter, and because civil servants were often transferred to Hof as a punishment.
Wargamers might know Hof from the game Hof Gap published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1980. The game, which simulates the early stages of WWIII in Germany, was not well received in Hof itself.
An interesting note about the city coat-of-arms of Hof is that it is a red shield with two white towers against which leans a black shield with a gold lion. 322 miles away the city of Heimbach where Hengebach castle is located (former seat of the dukes of Julich) the city coat-of-arms is almost the reverse: a black shield with a red roof on a white tower against which leans a gold shield with a black lion. Although Hof is 322 miles away from Heimbach, the two cities do have some interesting associations. The castle of Hengebach in Heimbach is actually located in the section that was the former village of Schmidt and there lived a branch of the baronial dynasty of von Schmidt auf Altenstadt until they emigrated in 1749 and the seat of the barons von Altenstadt was very near Hof, in a part of the municipality of Gattendorf known as Kirchgattendorf, where the ruins of the von Altenstadt castles can be seen today. But the coincidences do not stop there: the family arms of the von Schmidts auf Altenstadt were a swan and the city arms of Gattendorf are a swan.
External links
