Gladenbach [] is a town in Hesse, Germany, in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Geography Location The town of Gladenbach lies on the eastern edge of the Westerwald in the Hessian Highland (Bergland). This part of the Lahn-Dill Highland is often also called the Gladenbach Uplands. This has arisen from the great degree of correspondence between today's municipal area and the area covered by the historical Amt of Blankenstein, the eastsoutheastern part of the so-called Hessian Hinterland and the later, albeit now former, Biedenkopf district. Within the bounds of the community's southern centres of Weidenhausen, Erdhausen, Gladenbach and Mornshausen runs the river Salzböde, which rises in Bad Endbach and flows through the municipal area, then running farther eastwards through the communities of Lohra, Fronhausen and Lollar, where it empties into the Lahn at Odenhausen. Farther north in Gladenbach, mostly west–east through the centres of Runzhausen, Bellnhausen, Sinkershausen, Frohnhausen and Friebertshausen runs another river, the Allna, which flows onwards to Weimar, likewise emptying into the Lahn. The two waterways are separated from each other by high ridges which even make for a local drainage divide where smaller streams are concerned. Nonetheless, the town of Gladenbach as a whole is commonly said to lie in the Salzböde valley. An important east–west traffic thoroughfare in Gladenbach is the Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) 255 crossing the municipal area from Marburg through the constituent communities of Weimar and Lohra, leaving the municipal area at Weidenhausen in the area of the Zollbuche ("Customs Beech" – it once marked the border between Hesse-Darmstadt and Hesse-Nassau) southwestwards towards the community of Bischoffen in Lahn-Dill district. The highway runs thence alongside the Aartalsee (a reservoir) on to Herborn, ending at Montabaur. Bundesstraße 453 ends within the town of Gladenbach after running through the community of Dautphetal to the north and Gladenbach's constituent community of Runzhausen. The Aar-Salzböde-Bahn, a single-track railway line that ran through the municipal area along the Salzböde valley, has been in desuetude since 1995, and owing to a level crossing being torn up at Weidenhausen, meagre maintenance and the resulting overgrowth by bushes and trees, the line has also largely fallen apart. Neighbouring communities In the north, Gladenbach borders on the community of Dautphetal, in the northeast on the town of Marburg, in the east on the community of Weimar, in the southeast on the community of Lohra (all in Marburg-Biedenkopf), in the southwest on the community