German hamlet becomes the center of Europe and says: show me the geld
GELNHAUSEN, Germany – Some think the center of Europe is in Brussels. Others, more financially inclined, say London. But according to meticulous calculations by French experts, geographically speaking the European Union's center has shifted – with Romania and Bulgaria joining the bloc this week – to a wintry wheat field outside a small town in Germany.
City officials in Gelnhausen happily erected three white flagpoles to mark the new center, locating them some 30 yards away from the exact spot so as not to trample on crops. City official Michael Schwaab said the town, population 23,000, hopes to add a sandstone monument and benches at the site to help market the distinction. Gelnhausen already attracts upward of 50,000 tourists a year, he said.
After all, it's just regaining earlier glories: the 12th-century Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa of the Hohenstaufen dynasty built a residence in Gelnhausen, making it a center of sorts for the Hohenstaufen empire.
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