Lauda-Königshofen
# Lauda-Königshofen

Lauda-Königshofen is a town in the Main-Tauber district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated on the river Tauber, 7 km southeast of Tauberbischofsheim, and 30 km southwest of Würzburg. Most of the roughly 300 houses in the traditional village of Königshofen date to between the 16th century and mid-19th century, and it is known for the 500+ year-old Königshöfer Messe, an annual festival that attracts 150,000 people over the 10-day festival. Lauda station is at a junction of the Franconia Railway and the Tauber Valley Railway.

## Districts

The 12 districts with population (as of 2001): Area in km² (as in 2006)

| Lauda | 5.745 | 12.55 |
| - | - | - |
| Königshofen | 2.815 | 13.81 |
| Gerlachsheim | 1.888 | 8.75 |
| Unterbalbach | 1.634 | 5.18 |
| Oberlauda | 742 | 6.96 |
| Oberbalbach | 698 | 7.99 |
| Heckfeld | 470 | 14.68 |
| Beckstein | 372 | 2.88 |
| Sachsenflur | 351 | 5.98 |
| Messelhausen | 336 | 8.16 |
| Marbach | 262 | 1.31 |
| Deubach | 118 | 6.22 |

## Twin towns

* Boissy-Saint-Léger (France)
* Paks (Hungary)
* Rátka (Hungary)

## Sports

* FV Lauda, soccer
* Lauda Hornets, American football

## Notable natives

* Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen, (1575–1622), Bishop of diocese Würzburg and Archbishopric of Bamberg
* Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, (1760–1802), composer
* Johann Martin Schleyer, (1831–1912), developer of artificial language Volapük
* Albert Hehn (1908–1983), actor
* Heinrich Ehrler, (1917–1945), Luftwaffe fighter
* Karl Weid, (born 1921), the mayor from 1970s onwards
* Jürgen Hehn, (born 1944), fencer, team world champion with his sword in 1973
* Manuela Ruben, (born 1964), figure skater, Vice European Champion 1984
* Thorsten Weidner, (born 1967), fencer, Olympic team champion with the foil 1992
* Martin Lanig, (born 1986), football player

## Notable enterprises

Among the business entities located in Lauda are two world-famous manufacturers of laboratory equipment:

* Lauda, a manufacturer of thermostats.
* Herzog, a manufacturer of crude oil and fuel testing equipment. The founder of the company, Walter Herzog, has moved to Lauda after World War II, and pioneered a few important innovations in the testing of oil and fuels, like first automatic flash point tester, first automatic distillation apparatus, and others.

## Events

* Keep It True, annual heavy metal festival
* Königshöfer Messe, annual fair
