History
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Stone Age[edit]
Until a short time ago, Kelsterbach was deemed to be the place where Europe's earliest anatomically modern humans had been found. A Cro-Magnon skull that became known as the "Lady from Kelsterbach", reputedly dated to 32,000 years ago, vanished without a trace amid the scandal over the anthropologist Reiner Protsch, and was likely a fake. From the Middle Stone Age, in the area of the Kelsterbach Terrace, microliths have been found. Whether this shows that there were people living there is unknown.
Even ceramic finds dated to all epochs of the New Stone Age do not conclusively indicate settlement in the area.
Bronze and Iron Ages[edit]
On the other hand, it seems likely that there were people living in what is now Kelsterbach in the Bronze Age. The first finds of value from this time were made as early as 1937. Then, in 1972, as work was under way to build the Kelsterbacher Spange – a railway connection – at the edge of the Kelsterbach Terrace between Römerschneise and Schwedenschanze, several sets of Bronze Age finds were brought up. All the archaeological analysis considered as a whole has yielded the assumption that there was a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement some 10 to 15 m above the Main.
From the early Iron Age (700–450 BC), there are likely various traces of settlement to be found.
Roman era[edit]
Earlier finds gave cause to suppose that there had been a Roman settlement in the 3rd century AD in the Kelsterbach Lowland. In 1970, bits of tile and coins found in the northeast part of the municipal area were enough to prompt extensive digs in 2004 and 2005 by the Goethe University's Institute for Archaeological Sciences. Brought to light in these digs was a building with a fountain, along with many incidental finds. It has been called Kleinvilla ("Small Villa"), and it is believed to date from 200 to 220 AD.
Middle Ages[edit]
Owing to the town's name, it is believed to have been founded by the Franks as Gelsterbach (gelster = loudly rushing). It hardly seems likely that the scanty trickle of a rill that rises in the Frankfurt City Forest and flows through the town now could be Kelsterbach's namesake, even if in ages gone by its flow was considerably greater.
Kelsterbach's first documentary mention, as Gelsterbach, came, as it did for countless other places in Germany, in the Lorsch codex (about 850). For many centuries, Kelsterbach belonged to the Dreieich royal hunting woods, whose central authority lay at Hayn Castle (now a ruin at Dreieichenhayn, a constituent community of Dreieich). The kingly hunting rights were upheld even through the transfer of power to the County of Katzenelnbogen. In 1479, Kelsterbach along with the whole County of Katzenelnbogen passed to the Landgraviate of Hesse, and through division of inheritance in 1567, to Hesse-Darmstadt, whose history was shared thereafter by this rather insignificant farming village.
Contemporary art era[edit]
Neo-Baroque Catholic Heart of Jesus Church.
Landgrave Ernst-Ludwig planned to use Kelsterbach's advantageous location for transport to expand the village into a town of craftsmen, to which end from 1699 to 1712, the majestically designed Neukelsterbacher Straße (New Kelsterbach Street) was built, lined with two-storey living and working buildings where Calvinist refugees were to be settled. Manifold problems led to this project's failure. In the mid 18th century, Landgrave Ludwig VIII took over a previously private faïence factory to make it into a porcelain factory. The Meißen-trained porcelain painter Christian D. Busch was charged with its leadership. The best known porcelain artist working in Kelsterbach was Carl Vogelmann. The factory only lasted a few years.
St. Martin's Evangelical Church.
In the Darmstadt governmental region of Groß-Gerau founded in 1821, which was already institutionalized as Groß-Gerau district by 1832, Kelsterbach was a bailiff's headquarters. From that time, Kelsterbach has had a common history with, and has always found itself under the same administration as, the Groß-Gerau district.
The village took a great step in its development when the railway carriage works was converted into the Vereinigte Kunstseidenfabrik ("United Rayon Factory"), later Vereinigte Glanzstoff AG. This factory then governed the village's – later town's – development for the better part of the next hundred years. At the time the factory went into operation, Kelsterbach had a population of roughly 3,000. The factory lasted until 2000 when it finally fell victim to globalization. There are great worries now as to what to do with the factory's old lands, a vast area right in the middle of town.
In the second half of the 20th century, the town lost quite a bit of its area to the gradually expanding airport on its southern limit. This development continues, bringing the town's independence ever more into question, as Kelsterbach is being more and more cut off from the rest of Groß-Gerau district.
In 1974, amalgamation with Frankfurt, which had been looming as part of Hesse's district reforms, was staved off for the time being when the town joined the Umlandverband Frankfurt, an intercommunal association.
Kelsterbach was granted town rights in 1952, together with Raunheim.
