Binningen, Rhineland-Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Binningen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...

 belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...

, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell
Cochem-Zell
Cochem-Zell is a district in the north-west of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Neighboring districts are Mayen-Koblenz, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bernkastel-Wittlich, and Vulkaneifel.- History :...

 district
Districts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....

 in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden (Verbandsgemeinde)
Treis-Karden is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Cochem-Zell, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Treis-Karden....

, whose seat is in the like-named municipality
Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde to which it also belongs...

.

Location

The municipality lies in the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....

 and indeed, calls itself the “Gateway to the Eifel”. Roughly 6 km away flows the river Moselle.

History

In 1246, Binningen had its first documentary mention in connection with the Rosenthal Cistercian Convent, although it is believed that the village’s history actually stretches back much further. In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 it was part of the Electorate of Trier. The biggest landholder was the Convent, which stood in the nearby Pommerbach valley.

Beginning in 1794, Binningen lay under French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 rule, during which the Rosenthal Convent was dissolved, sold off and torn down. In 1815 Binningen was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

 at the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

. The church in Binningen was built in 1855 and is named after the two patron saints, Saint Remigius
Saint Remigius
Saint Remigius, Remy or Remi, , was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, . On 24 December 496 he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks...

 and Saint Maximus. Between 1995 and 2002, the whole church was thoroughly renovated both inside and out.

Since 1946, Binningen has been part of the then newly founded state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

 of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

.

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by majority vote
Plurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...

 at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

Coat of arms

The municipality’s arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 might be described thus: Argent a cross gules between in chief two bishop’s mitres of the second garnished Or, in base dexter a rose vert and in base sinister a fleur-de-lis azure.

The ordinary
Ordinary (heraldry)
In heraldry, an ordinary is a simple geometrical figure, bounded by straight lines and running from side to side or top to bottom of the shield. There are also some geometric charges known as subordinaries, which have been given lesser status by some heraldic writers, though most have been in use...

, namely the red cross, refers to the Electorate of Trier, whose Prince-Archbishops and Electors were the local overlords until the French occupation in Napoleonic times
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, which began in 1794. The other charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...

s each have their own specific meanings. The two bishop’s mitres refer to the local church’s two patron saints, Saint Remigius
Saint Remigius
Saint Remigius, Remy or Remi, , was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, . On 24 December 496 he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks...

 and Saint Maximus, who were both mentioned in 1556, and who are still revered and displayed at the church in Binningen. The green rose stands for the Rosenthal Cistercian Convent, which was a landholder in the village as early as 1246. The blue fleur-de-lis refers to Karden – Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden
Treis-Karden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde to which it also belongs...

’s coat of arms also bears this charge, among others – whose collegiate foundation held an important estate in Binningen up until the 18th century.

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
  • Saint Remigius
    Saint Remigius
    Saint Remigius, Remy or Remi, , was Bishop of Reims and Apostle of the Franks, . On 24 December 496 he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks...

    ’s and Saint Maximus’s Catholic Church (Kirche St. Remigius und Maximus), Hauptstraße – Gothic Revival
    Gothic Revival architecture
    The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

     quarrystone aisleless church
    Aisleless church
    An Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...

    , 1855-1857, architect, V. Statz, Cologne
    Cologne
    Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

    .
  • Friedhofstraße, graveyard – basalt
    Basalt
    Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

     wayside cross from 1735.
  • Hauptstraße 31 – estate complex; quarrystone building with half-hipped roof, partly timber-frame
    Timber framing
    Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

    , 18th/19th century.
  • Hauptstraße 35/37 – castle
    Castle
    A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

     remnant (?), whole complex; plastered building, 17th century (?).
  • Rosenthaler Weg, Jewish
    Judaism
    Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

     graveyard (monumental zone) – roughly 90 grave steles.
  • Chapel
    Chapel
    A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

    , on Landesstraße (State Road) 108/Kreisstraße (District Road) 29 – plastered building, Crucifixion
    Crucifixion of Jesus
    The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...

     scene inside.
  • Chapel, near the Eltzerhöfe northeast of the village – with small ridge turret, from 1857.
  • Ruins of the Rosenthal Convent, in the Pommerbach valley, southwest of the village – Cistercian convent founded in 1169, new building in 1786-1787, torn down after 1802; besides the former cloister
    Cloister
    A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...

    , the former convent mill is preserved.

Dialect

In Binningen, a Moselle Franconian dialect is spoken. It is believed that sooner or later this dialect will die out, as so few parents now bring their children up speaking it. Under school’s and the media’s influence, already most children in Binningen can no longer speak it. However, most can still understand it, since their elders still mainly talk to each other in this local speech.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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