Hessian counties, which had come to the Thuringian counties through marriage, once more began their own development by 1264, and under their son Henry I grew into the Landgravate of Hesse (Landgrafschaft Hessen). The Lords of Hohenfels, who alongside the Lords of Hollende were regarded as the local lords, had to forsake their rights in 1249 under pressure from Sophie. Hohenfels Castle was razed in 1293. Only meagre ruins are to be seen of it today. Hesse-Darmstadt and Prussia Ownership of the domain remained under this line until Philip the Magnanimous's death in 1567, at which time the landgravate was divided among four lines, and the Dautphetal area then belonged to Hesse-Marburg. After its line also died out, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) and Hesse-Darmstadt then fought over the territory, with the latter under its own landgrave eventually winning out, taking the so-called Hinterland in 1648. As a result of the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Biedenkopf district, formed in 1832 and in which lies what is today Dautphetal, was ceded to Prussia. This district was for a short time (1932–33) united with the Dillenburg district before the districts of Biedenkopf and Marburg were made to form the still functioning Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Hesse's 1974 municipal reform. Population development What follows is an explanation of the population development of today's community of Dautphetal. What stands out is that the first small surge in population in the time of industrialization comes before another one right after the Second World War which saw the population figure rise by almost 50%. This can be explained by the great number of refugees who came and settled in the area after the war, especially from Hungary. The town sisterhood with Cikó in Hungary came to be not the least because of this. Since peaking in 2002 with 13,000 inhabitants, the figure has been stagnating. Population figure development1: 1: Figures from before 1974 have outlying centres' figures added. Source 1834 - 1967: Historisches Gemeindeverzeichnis für Hessen Heft 1, Die Bevölkerung der Gemeinden 1834 - 1967, Hess. Stat. Landesamt Source after 1998: Statistik der Gemeinde Dautphetal Politics 2006 municipal election Community representatives were last chosen on 26 March 2006 for a five-year term. The SPD lost two seats while the Freie Wähler ("Free Voters", a citizens' coalition) gained three more and the Bürgerliste Dautphetal ("Dautphetal Citizens' List") lost out utterly. Participation in the election fell by 8.5% from 59.3%