Furth im Wald

Town in Bavaria, Germany

(2020–26) Sandro Bauer^[1] (CSU)Area • Total67.00 km² (25.87 sq mi)Elevation407 m (1,335 ft)Population • Total9,032 • Density130/km² (350/sq mi)Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET) • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)Postal codesDialling codes0 99 73Vehicle registrationCHAWebsitewww.furth.de

Furth im Wald (in Czech Brod nad Lesy, resp. Bavorský Brod) is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near the Czech border in the Bavarian Forest, 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) northeast of Cham, and 17 kilometres (11 miles) southwest of Domažlice. The city is known as Drachenstadt (Dragon City), a reference to Furth im Wald's annual Drachenstich (Slaying of the Dragon) play. The Drachenstich, originally part of a Corpus Christi procession, was first mentioned in 1590. As one of the oldest folk plays in the German language, each year actors re-enact the legend of Saint George slaying the dragon.^[3] In 2010, the play became notable for using the world's largest walking robot, an animatronic dragon called Tradinno.

Twin towns

Furth im Wald is twinned with:

• Ludres, France
• Furth bei Göttweig, Austria
• Domažlice, Czech Republic

Gallery

Photographs from the Drachenstich^[4]

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Sons and daughters of the town

• Aloys Fischer (1880–1937), educator
• Helmut Sturm (1932–2008), painter, member of the group SPUR, from 1980 to 1982 guest professor at the Berlin University of the Arts
• Willibald Utz (1893–1954), officer, most recently Generalleutnant in the Second World War

References