founded in the Middle Ages that is only noticeable at second glance: when laying out the town's streets, the mediaeval town planner deliberately made them crooked and deliberately staggered intersections of streets and alleyways. In particular, building crooked streets was a way of giving them some aesthetic appeal, as with the Untergasse. Crookedness limits the streetscape optically, and at the end of the street is a T-junction, with a view of houses opposite. In the Untergasse, this was the town's former brewhouse, standing on the corner of the Untergasse ("Lower Lane") and the Entengasse ("Duck Lane"). The Untergasse's original alignment was lost as a result of town renovations. It can now only be discerned by looking at houses' positions or by looking over the town. The same effect was achieved when the town planner staggered the side lanes or had them meet the main streets at a slanted angle. By deftly planning the town in this way, even drafts were avoided. Another way of doing this same thing was to build houses out of alignment with their neighbours, or even whole blocks out of alignment with the rest of the street. This can still very clearly be seen around Obere Westheimer Straße. Such a thing was also done on Untere Westheimer Straße, but the ravages of time have erased the effect. Politics Town council The town council is made up of 37 members. CDU 12 seats SPD 13 seats FDP 2 seats Greens 4 seats Freie Waehler 6 seats The town executive consists of 10 councillors and the mayor. Four seats are held by the SPD, three by the CDU, one by the Greens, one by the FDP and one by the Freie Waehler. (as of municipal elections held on 27 March 2011) Twin towns – Sister cities Homberg is twinned with: Coat of arms The town's arms might be described thus: Azure in chief a lion passant and in base two lions combattant, all Or and all armed and langued gules. Homberg was granted town rights in 1231, and the first known seal dates from 15 years thereafter, namely 1246. Its tinctures, however, are unknown, and it only shows one lion. Another seal used as early as 1239, but known only from later examples, bore the barry (that is, horizontally striped) Lion of Hesse. In the 14th century, another charge in the arms’ base was a mount of three,