The Oechselhäuser company from Berlin was awarded the contract by the town of Eschwege to build a gasworks, and on October 21, 1878, the new gas pipeline was put into operation in some streets in Eschwege. By-products of gas production, such as tar and coke, were sold at the time.

11 years later, in 1889, a second gas tank with a capacity of 1,000^m3 was purchased to complement the existing 600^m3 tank.

In 1914, a coke crushing and sorting plant was built, although due to the shortage of coal in the war year 1917/18, the street lighting had to be switched off and the sale of coke had to be stopped.

In 1939, a small chamber furnace was built to replace the existing nine retort furnaces.

An air raid on Eschwege in February 1945 also hit the gasworks hard, and in April of that year gas operations had to be shut down. After World War II, the gas plant experienced a strong upward trend.

In 1964, a gas cracking plant was built which could be operated with liquid gas. Due to ever-increasing production and sales figures, the plant soon reached the limits of conventional gas production. However, the connection to the long-distance gas pipeline in 1970 meant that further gas capacities were available and the municipal gas network could be further expanded.

The expansion of the gas network also progressed in the Eschwege districts and the region. In 1986, Niederhone was connected to the gas network, and Waldkappel-Bischhausen in 1994. In 1997, the high-pressure pipeline was laid to supply Oberdünzebach, and in 1998 and 1999, gas supply began in Oberhone as well as in Ober- and Niederdünzebach.

In 2000, the old gas plant was completely demolished and one year later the gas transfer stations were enlarged and the construction area "Höhgraben" was developed. From 2002 onwards, the expansion of the gas supply in Ober- and Niederdünzebach as well as in Waldkappel-Bischhausen was also consistently continued.

As a result of the construction of the new Eschwege light rail station, the gas supply lines were renewed in many streets in the vicinity of the station from 2004 to 2009.

In 2015, the heating system of the gas transfer station "Gaswerk" was renewed and equipped with a moisture-controlled system. This saved 45% of the energy previously required at this location.

In 2010 and 2011, we also renewed the medium-pressure gas pipeline running along the Werra River between our premises in Niederhoner Strasse and our Schlossmühle hydropower plant over a length of 1.16 km by means of a relining process in which new pipes were inserted into the existing ones.

As secure supply and the satisfaction of our customers are our top priorities, we continue to invest consistently in the expansion and maintenance of our networks today and in the future.

According to a list compiled by the former mayor Heinrich Vocke, there were a total of 93 wells in Eschwege on August 31, 1888. However, the water quality, the condition of the wooden pipes at the time and the zeal of the "pipe masters" in charge meant that the town council had its work cut out for it at the time.

So it was decided, not least for hygienic reasons, to bring in additional water from the southern fields and to lay an "iron pipe" in the town area. The new wells were then constructed in 1890 on the "Springröhre" and the pipes were laid from the wells to the city limits. The first water pipe laying was started in Eschwege on March 15, 1892.

From 1909 to 1912 three new wells were developed on the "Herrenrasen" and in 1911 an elevated tank with a volume of 600^m3 was built near the "Galgen" on Reichensächser Straße. During this time, dowsers were also used to find new water sources around the city.

The growing number of inhabitants as well as the economic development due to the settlement of military and industry led to an increasing demand for water, so that in 1936 three more wells were installed on the "Hirtenrasen", the eastern border of the completed airfield of the Luftwaffe. Due to the sudden increase in population after World War 2, three more wells were installed here and the existing elevated tank was expanded.

In the 1950s, further increases in water demand triggered the "New Water Supply" project, which resulted in an immense surge of investment. In the course of this, drilling and continuous pumping tests took place in the Frieda valley, near Aue, in the Schindeleich as well as in the Schlierbach. Furthermore, until the end of the 60s, the generous extension and reconstruction of the new and old water extraction plants took place.

Due to the incorporation of today's districts Albungen, Eltmannshausen, Nieder- und Oberdünzebach and Niddawitzhausen in 1972 as well as Oberhone in 1974, the water extraction and distribution facilities now also belonged to the assets of the Eschwege municipal utility.

In 1978, the interconnected pipeline between Wehretal-Hoheneiche and Waldkappel-Bischhausen was built up to the elevated tank at the "Hessenring". In addition, deep wells were constructed in the district of Oetmannshausen in Wehretal.

The water delivery in 1986 amounted to 1,509,000^m3 and decreased to approx. 1,297,000^m3 by 1996. The established interconnected system began to prove its worth.

Since 1988, the water pipe network and the transport pipelines have been continuously expanded, new development areas have been opened up, the general water planning for Eschwege has been completed and new water protection areas have been established. In addition, the new construction of Eschwege's city train station led to the renewal of water supply lines in the entire area surrounding the station.

As the protection and excellent quality of our drinking water has always been particularly close to our hearts, we have been supporting farmers in the region since 1988 as part of the "Groundwater protection-oriented advice for agriculture" program. In this way, we are doing our part to reduce the nitrate input into the groundwater layers for the Aue and Großer Höllgraben water protection areas that originates from agriculture.

Another measure to improve water quality was the installations to remove arsenic originating from the Buntsandstein, which were installed in the Aue and Großer Höllgraben wells and in Waldkappel-Bischhausen in 2003, 2004 and 2006.

In 2009, for reasons of groundwater protection, we also reclaimed the "Jeppeheide" well, which supplied Eschwege with drinking water for centuries, and the "Springröhre" well, which dates back to 1890. Both wells had been out of operation since the 1950s and only fed the spillways on the Cyriakusbach, which were also called "Springröhre".

After the old Eschwege tanner and fulling mills were dissolved and shut down, the town of Eschwege obtained the rights to the water power wheels of the Werra.

In 1905, the city council decided to build an electric power plant, whereupon the diesel power plant was erected on the "Werdchen" as the main plant (one engine with 140 hp). The hydroelectric power plant "Schabe" (two turbines with 60 hp each) on the Werra, which still exists today, was built by the city at that time as an auxiliary plant. On December 20, 1906, the diesel engine was finally put into operation, followed by the turbines in the "Schabe" on January 20, 1907.

The first private customers were supplied with electrical energy on January 19, 1907 - the beginning of electricity supply in Eschwege.

Due to the increasing demand for electricity, a second diesel generator with 300 hp was purchased for the power station in 1909 , and a third turbine with 200 hp was installed in the "Schlossmühle" hydroelectric plant in 1911/1912. In the same year, the powerhouse at the "Werdchen" received another diesel engine with 600 hp. The growth rates in electricity output rolled over accordingly.

After the expansion of the electricity plant, the power supply around Eschwege also began in 1913. Schwebda, Frieda and Aue were the first towns to be connected to the power grid.

Over the years, the demand for electricity increased continuously, so that in 1929 a fourth diesel engine with 1,200 hp was installed in the powerhouse of the electricity plant on the Werdchen. This also became necessary against the background that the purchase of long-distance electricity began to emerge at this time and so-called "electricity supply reciprocity agreements" were concluded.

The 2nd World War also had a considerable impact on the power supply. For example, complete area shutdowns caused immense difficulties for the Eschweger Stadtwerke.

In the 1950s and 60s, the surrounding local networks were taken over and the costly conversion to three-phase current was also completed in 1962.

To further improve the security of supply for our customers, we built a new substation in Waldkappel in 1988/89.

In 1993, we newly commissioned our hydroelectric power plant "Schlossmühle" with a Kaplan tube turbine. In the following year, the hose weir at the "Great Weir" started operation.

Since then, the plants have been continuously adapted to technical progress and through extensive renovations, such as the computer center of the hydropower plants, we continue to produce 100% green electricity at this location.

The secure provision of the network infrastructure is and remains an important cornerstone of our supply mission.

In 2003, the grid voltage in our medium-voltage grid was converted from 15 kV to 20 kV. Since then we have continued to invest in transformers and switchgear. In the past 10 years we have also replaced 30% of our medium-voltage overhead lines with underground cables. In addition to increasing the security of supply for our customers, we are thus also making a contribution to bird protection.

We use an overarching network control system to control our electricity, natural gas and water supply systems. This monitors the functions of network operation, controls processes and localizes faults in network operation. In addition, we digitized the plans of all our supply lines starting in 2001 and entered them into a computer-based graphical network information system. Line measurements were initially carried out using a total station and are now carried out using GPS-supported measurement.

In 2006, the performance leadership of Stadtwerke Eschwege GmbH was once again increased by merging the electricity, natural gas and water divisions at Niederhoner Straße 36. Modern administration and technical buildings were put into operation and since then our customers can reach all contact persons on site in our customer center.

We then converted the historic building that housed our old E-Werk into the "Kulturfabrik E-Werk" in 2008-2009 with the appropriate subsidies. This is managed by the Kulturfabrik e.V. association and the former machine hall and other parts of the building are used as an event hall, conference rooms and as a registry office.

In 2010, we received the Hessian Monument Protection Award for this project, with the jury paying special tribute to our commitment to the "more than exemplary renovation".

Smart grids form the basis for the efficient, non-discriminatory integration of a large number of distributed generators. Qualitative grid expansion is also the most favorable flexibility option in the long term from an economic point of view in order to meet fluctuating supply and demand.

The modernization and expansion of our electricity distribution network, which has already been stepped up since 2010, is urgently needed in order to be able to integrate the advancing decentralized energy generation by renewable energy plants into the electricity network in a future-proof manner. In addition, this further development also makes sense against the backdrop of being able to better coordinate customers' energy requirements and existing energy capacities. This modernization of our distribution networks also offers us further potential for intelligent network control.

On October 13, 1953, the Eschwege town council decided to build an open-air swimming pool "Am Schwalbenpfad". This was then completed on July 10, 1957 with a construction sum of 450,000 DM and welcomed around 4,000 bathers on the opening day.

This was followed in the 1960s by the construction of the indoor pool, which cost around DM 3.3 million and was opened on May 3, 1968. Even before the official opening, many thousands of visitors came to see the new pool during an open day.

In 1987, the Eschwege public utility company then took over the swimming center with outdoor and indoor pools as well as the sauna area and solarium from the district town of Eschwege.

The Tourist-Information Eschwege was successfully operated from 2000 to 2018 in the form of a tourism special-purpose association as a regional tourist office. This replaced the tourist office of the district town of Eschwege, which had existed since 1987 and later became the Tourist-Information Eschwege.

Following the withdrawal of the municipalities of Meinhard and Wanfried, the Tourismus-Zweckverband Eschwege was dissolved on December 31, 2018. Instead of founding its own company, Tourist-Information Eschwege was integrated into Stadtwerke Eschwege GmbH as the Leisure Tourism Marketing division on 01.01.2019.

The strategic goal of tourism is just as important for the development of the district town of Eschwege in terms of improving the quality of life as it is for generating purchasing power by attracting guests and retaining customers on the basis of attractive offers with excellent service.

The work of the tourist information is divided into a sovereign and a commercial area. The sovereign area includes, for example, the operation of the Tourist Information with a professional guest service, the development of tourist infrastructure, internal marketing in the form of consulting services for hosts and leisure businesses, as well as quality improvement, for example, through the classification of private accommodation or hiking and biking trails in and around Eschwege.

The district town of Eschwege is still responsible for the sovereign tasks to achieve the strategic goal of tourism. These sovereign tasks are transferred from the district town of Eschwege to Stadtwerke Eschwege GmbH by means of an act of entrustment. The district town of Eschwege also continues to be responsible for the sustainability of the tourist infrastructure.

The commercial area of the tourist information is characterized, among other things, by the sale of souvenirs, tickets and vouchers, room bookings on a commission basis, the sale of package and travel arrangements as well as own events such as city tours or tour guides.