Frauenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Frauenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld
district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Baumholder
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
, and the Hunsrück
.
, in the west on Sonnenberg-Winnenberg
, in the north on Idar-Oberstein
and in the east on the Baumholder
military reserve.
) and through
the Nahe, running by way of Oberbrombach
, Siesbach
and Allenbach
to the Moselle. Archaeological
finds have established that there was a human presence in the Frauenberg area as early as 500 BC or thereabouts. On the Nahekopf (a hill overlooking Frauenberg) once stood a Celtic ringwall, and it is said that the castle itself was built on the ruins of a Roman
fort.
About 1330, Frauenberg had its first documentary mention. It was in this year that Countess Loretta (or Lauretta) von Sponheim moved into the Frauenburg; the castle served her as a widow’s seat. Under this Sponheim
castle’s protection arose the village of Tal-Frauenberg (Tal is German
for “dale” or “valley”). By virtue of the Sponheims’ good relations with the then German emperor, Louis the Bavarian
, Tal-Frauenberg was granted town rights in 1332, at which time also arose the Amt of Frauenberg, which encompassed not only Tal-Frauenberg, but also Reichenbach, Ausweiler, Winnenberger-Hof, Hammerstein (nowadays an outlying centre of Idar-Oberstein
), Homricher-Hof, Nohen
and Rimsberg
.
However, nothing like a town, as the word is nowadays understood, ever grew out of Tal-Frauenberg. The village merely held more importance than other places in the area because it was the seat of a castle, which itself consisted of a manor house, a castle chapel
, the comital mill, a tithe barn and a stone bridge over the Nahe. There was also a Sponheim Amtmann
living there.
In 1570, when the village was home to some eight families, the Amt of Frauenberg was dissolved and merged with the Amt of Birkenfeld. The Frauenburg was thus forsaken and left to fall into ruin, having lost its military importance with territorial changes and the rise of firearms, serving thereafter only as a refuge where the local people could flee and seek shelter in times of war.
The parish of Reichenbach mentioned in 1655 that after the Thirty Years' War
(1618-1648), no-one was living in Tal-Frauenberg. The Niederbrombach
church book mentioned in 1673 that French
soldiers had attacked the castle, where inhabitants of surrounding villages had sought refuge. Several men were apparently killed. It is furthermore likely that the castle itself was heavily damaged in this attack.
In 1682, there were once again people living in Tal-Frauenberg, although it was only three families. In 1761, Tal-Frauenberg was stricken by a great flood
, brought on by several heavy storms. The flooding destroyed most of the houses and made the ones it left standing unfit for use. The population by this time was made up of 20 families – some 100 persons, who were now all homeless. Thus it was that the Hochfürstlich Sponheimische Gemeinschaftliche Regierung (the Sponheim government) at Trarbach
decided to found two new villages. A group of 11 families were to be settled in Neu-Frauenberg (neu is German for “new”), while the other nine families were to be settled on the Sonnenberg (mountain). The government required that both new villages be built halfway up the slopes at their respective locations, to forestall any threat from flooding such as that that had destroyed Tal-Frauenberg. This was duly done, and to this day, both centres lie on slopes.
Land had to be shared out at the new locations, and this was done by drawing lots
. Farm lots were measured and pegged out. At Neu-Frauenberg, each one measured 4 × 4 Ruten, while at Sonnenberg they measured 10 × 4 Ruten, a Rute being the local version of the linear rood; a square Rute at that time ranged from 32 to 39 m². The new arrangement’s consequences were that they only slowly recovered and began growing, and poverty and hardship reigned for a long time. By 1816, there were 19 families living in Frauenberg.
Of the old village of Tal-Frauenberg, three houses are still standing in the ruins.
After the Congress of Vienna
in 1815, Sonnenberg belonged to the Principality of Birkenfeld, an Oldenburg territory, whereas Frauenberg belonged to the Principality of Lichtenberg
, held by Saxe-Coburg
, with its capital at Sankt Wendel
. This put the two sister villages in two separate states and made the river Nahe, which at the time the two new villages had been established had been designated the municipal boundary, into a border
.
In 1834, Frauenberg became Prussia
n. Economic progress in the village came only with the onset of the Industrial Revolution
. Sometime around 1850, the two grinding mills on the river Nahe west of the village came into being, but these were torn down between 1931 and 1935.
With the opening of the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen
–Saarbrücken
) in 1860 – single-tracked until 1882 – came transport links for the first time between the Nahe Valley and both the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and the Saarland
. In 1880, Sonnenberg station came into service, whereupon many Frauenbergers found work in Idar-Oberstein, the Saarland and the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region. This also brought about population growth: by 1910 there were 51 families. After the First World War, electricity came to Frauenberg, allowing many agate
, gem
and diamond
cutters to set up their workshops at home.
The upshot from the First World War, of course, was the Treaty of Versailles
, which stipulated, among other things, that 26 of the Sankt Wendel district’s 94 municipalities – including the like-named district seat
but not including Frauenberg – had to be ceded
to the British
- and French-occupied
Saarland. The remaining 68 municipalities then bore the designation “Restkreis St. Wendel-Baumholder”, with the first syllable of Restkreis having the same meaning as in English, in the sense of “left over”. As the last element of the name suggests, Baumholder was the seat of this “leftover” district. This situation persisted until 1937 when St. Wendel-Baumholder was merged with the Oldenburg territory of Birkenfeld to form today’s Birkenfeld district. With this, Sonnenberg and Frauenberg were once again united under the name Birkenfeld, as they had once been centuries earlier. In 1938, Frauenberg lost roughly 40 ha of its municipal area to the new military reserve.
The municipality of Frauenberg originally belonged to the Amt administration of Baumholder, but since 1969, it has been one of the 14 Ortsgemeinden in the Verbandsgemeinde of Baumholder. Unlike other municipalities in the Verbandsgemeinde, Frauenberg’s population has undergone steady growth since the war, rising from 356 in 1950 to some 500 in 1986. This owes itself mainly to relatively strong activity in the building sector beginning in 1972 and the municipality’s favourable location only 7 km from Idar-Oberstein.
In 1979, Frauenberg brought the first modern biological sewage treatment plant in the Verbandsgemeinde into service. The village’s expansion also occasioned the updating of sewerage with new, bigger pipes.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
might be described thus: Per bend sinister chequy gules and argent and vert issuant from base a castle Or masoned and windowed sable and sinister a countess proper crowned of the fourth and crined of the fifth couped at the midriff.
The “chequy” part of the shield is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim
and the Oberamt of Birkenfeld.
The two charge
s in base are canting
for the origin of the municipality’s name, a woman (Frau) and a castle (Burg). The woman, of course, is the one who moved into the castle, Countess Loretta (or Lauretta) von Sponheim, and the castle was called Frauenburg (not Frauenberg with an E, which is pronounced differently and means “Woman’s Mountain” rather than “Woman’s Castle”).
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
Along the left bank of the Lahn River, sandstone hills rise and extend to the edge of the community of Ebsdorfergrund, culminating in a natural peak upon which stand the ruins of the Castle Frauenberg. In 1248 Sophie von Brabant, daughter of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and widow of Duke Heinrich von Brabant, came to Marburg to claim her late husband’s Thuringian inheritance. Sophie had the castle built in 1252 on the basalt peak that became commonly known as the Frauenberg, or, the woman’s peak. By the year 1489 the castle lay in ruins and the site was used as a quarry.
Today the site remains are a popular destination, enjoyed for the grand panorama. On clear days one has an incomparable view in all directions and can spot nearly forty villages and cities before the horizon. The vista can reach as far as the mountains Hohe Meissner or Feldberg in Taunus. Frauenberg is one of a total of seven Huguenot villages in Hesse that were founded between 1686 and 1706.
41 and to the south runs the Autobahn A 62
(Kaiserslautern
–Trier
). There is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen
–Saarbrücken
) in Idar-Oberstein.
has since the early 1970s been unknown in Frauenberg. The loss of a great deal of farmland to the military reserve in the time of the Third Reich
and the rather vast proportion of the municipal area (roughly 65%) covered by forest have not favoured agriculture.
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 Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld (district)
Birkenfeld is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Sankt Wendel , Trier-Saarburg, Bernkastel-Wittlich, Rhein-Hunsrück, Bad Kreuznach and Kusel.- 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 Baumholder
Baumholder (Verbandsgemeinde)
Baumholder is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Birkenfeld, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Baumholder....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Baumholder
Baumholder is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, in the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France...
.
Location
The municipality lies on the upper Nahe between the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and FranceFrance
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...
, and the Hunsrück
Hunsrück
The Hunsrück is a low mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the river valleys of the Moselle , the Nahe , and the Rhine . The Hunsrück is continued by the Taunus mountains on the eastern side of the Rhine. In the north behind the Moselle it is continued by the Eifel...
.
Neighbouring municipalities
Frauenberg borders in the south on ReichenbachReichenbach, Birkenfeld
Reichenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Baumholder, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies on...
, in the west on Sonnenberg-Winnenberg
Sonnenberg-Winnenberg
Sonnenberg-Winnenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, in the north on Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a Große kreisangehörige Stadt , it assumes some of the responsibilities that for smaller municipalities in the district are assumed by the district administration...
and in the east on the Baumholder
Baumholder
Baumholder is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, in the Westrich, an historic region that encompasses areas in both Germany and France...
military reserve.
History
In early historical times, a road from Ausweiler – a now vanished village that was evacuated to make way for the military reserve in 1937 – passed by the Frauenburg (castleCastle
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...
) and through
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...
the Nahe, running by way of Oberbrombach
Oberbrombach
Oberbrombach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Siesbach
Siesbach
Siesbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:Siesbach lies in the...
and Allenbach
Allenbach
Allenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
to the Moselle. Archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds have established that there was a human presence in the Frauenberg area as early as 500 BC or thereabouts. On the Nahekopf (a hill overlooking Frauenberg) once stood a Celtic ringwall, and it is said that the castle itself was built on the ruins of a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
fort.
About 1330, Frauenberg had its first documentary mention. It was in this year that Countess Loretta (or Lauretta) von Sponheim moved into the Frauenburg; the castle served her as a widow’s seat. Under this Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
castle’s protection arose the village of Tal-Frauenberg (Tal is German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for “dale” or “valley”). By virtue of the Sponheims’ good relations with the then German emperor, Louis the Bavarian
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....
, Tal-Frauenberg was granted town rights in 1332, at which time also arose the Amt of Frauenberg, which encompassed not only Tal-Frauenberg, but also Reichenbach, Ausweiler, Winnenberger-Hof, Hammerstein (nowadays an outlying centre of Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a Große kreisangehörige Stadt , it assumes some of the responsibilities that for smaller municipalities in the district are assumed by the district administration...
), Homricher-Hof, Nohen
Nohen
Nohen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Rimsberg
Rimsberg
Rimsberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies...
.
However, nothing like a town, as the word is nowadays understood, ever grew out of Tal-Frauenberg. The village merely held more importance than other places in the area because it was the seat of a castle, which itself consisted of a manor house, a castle 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,...
, the comital mill, a tithe barn and a stone bridge over the Nahe. There was also a Sponheim Amtmann
Amtmann
Amtmann can be :*a feudal, administrative and/or gubernatorial title, such as Bezirksamtmann . Amtmann, ammann and amman were a kind of bailiff in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and in Brussels....
living there.
In 1570, when the village was home to some eight families, the Amt of Frauenberg was dissolved and merged with the Amt of Birkenfeld. The Frauenburg was thus forsaken and left to fall into ruin, having lost its military importance with territorial changes and the rise of firearms, serving thereafter only as a refuge where the local people could flee and seek shelter in times of war.
The parish of Reichenbach mentioned in 1655 that after the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
(1618-1648), no-one was living in Tal-Frauenberg. The Niederbrombach
Niederbrombach
Niederbrombach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Birkenfeld, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies...
church book mentioned in 1673 that 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...
soldiers had attacked the castle, where inhabitants of surrounding villages had sought refuge. Several men were apparently killed. It is furthermore likely that the castle itself was heavily damaged in this attack.
In 1682, there were once again people living in Tal-Frauenberg, although it was only three families. In 1761, Tal-Frauenberg was stricken by a great flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
, brought on by several heavy storms. The flooding destroyed most of the houses and made the ones it left standing unfit for use. The population by this time was made up of 20 families – some 100 persons, who were now all homeless. Thus it was that the Hochfürstlich Sponheimische Gemeinschaftliche Regierung (the Sponheim government) at Trarbach
Traben-Trarbach
Traben-Trarbach on the Middle Moselle is a town in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde and a state-recognized climatic spa .- Location :...
decided to found two new villages. A group of 11 families were to be settled in Neu-Frauenberg (neu is German for “new”), while the other nine families were to be settled on the Sonnenberg (mountain). The government required that both new villages be built halfway up the slopes at their respective locations, to forestall any threat from flooding such as that that had destroyed Tal-Frauenberg. This was duly done, and to this day, both centres lie on slopes.
Land had to be shared out at the new locations, and this was done by drawing lots
Sortition
In politics, sortition is the selection of decision makers by lottery. The decision-makers are chosen as a random sample from a larger pool of candidates....
. Farm lots were measured and pegged out. At Neu-Frauenberg, each one measured 4 × 4 Ruten, while at Sonnenberg they measured 10 × 4 Ruten, a Rute being the local version of the linear rood; a square Rute at that time ranged from 32 to 39 m². The new arrangement’s consequences were that they only slowly recovered and began growing, and poverty and hardship reigned for a long time. By 1816, there were 19 families living in Frauenberg.
Of the old village of Tal-Frauenberg, three houses are still standing in the ruins.
After 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,...
in 1815, Sonnenberg belonged to the Principality of Birkenfeld, an Oldenburg territory, whereas Frauenberg belonged to the Principality of Lichtenberg
Principality of Lichtenberg
The Principality of Lichtenberg was a small state of the German Confederation owned by a branch of the Saxe-Coburgs which was sold to Prussia and incorporated into the Rhine Province in 1834...
, held by Saxe-Coburg
Saxe-Coburg
Saxe-Coburg was a duchy held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in today's Bavaria, Germany.After the Division of Erfurt in 1572, Coburg was part of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach, ruled by the Ernestine duke John Casimir jointly with his brother John Ernest. In 1596...
, with its capital at Sankt Wendel
Sankt Wendel
St. Wendel is a municipality in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier.- Geography :...
. This put the two sister villages in two separate states and made the river Nahe, which at the time the two new villages had been established had been designated the municipal boundary, into a border
Border
Borders define geographic boundaries of political entities or legal jurisdictions, such as governments, sovereign states, federated states and other subnational entities. Some borders—such as a state's internal administrative borders, or inter-state borders within the Schengen Area—are open and...
.
In 1834, Frauenberg became 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...
n. Economic progress in the village came only with the onset of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. Sometime around 1850, the two grinding mills on the river Nahe west of the village came into being, but these were torn down between 1931 and 1935.
With the opening of the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
–Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
) in 1860 – single-tracked until 1882 – came transport links for the first time between the Nahe Valley and both the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region and the Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
. In 1880, Sonnenberg station came into service, whereupon many Frauenbergers found work in Idar-Oberstein, the Saarland and the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region. This also brought about population growth: by 1910 there were 51 families. After the First World War, electricity came to Frauenberg, allowing many agate
Agate
Agate is a microcrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.-Etymology...
, gem
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
and diamond
Diamond
In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...
cutters to set up their workshops at home.
The upshot from the First World War, of course, was the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, which stipulated, among other things, that 26 of the Sankt Wendel district’s 94 municipalities – including the like-named district seat
Sankt Wendel
St. Wendel is a municipality in northeastern Saarland. It is situated on the river Blies 36 km northeast of Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, and is named after Saint Wendelin of Trier.- Geography :...
but not including Frauenberg – had to be ceded
Cession
The act of Cession, or to cede, is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty...
to the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
- and French-occupied
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
Saarland. The remaining 68 municipalities then bore the designation “Restkreis St. Wendel-Baumholder”, with the first syllable of Restkreis having the same meaning as in English, in the sense of “left over”. As the last element of the name suggests, Baumholder was the seat of this “leftover” district. This situation persisted until 1937 when St. Wendel-Baumholder was merged with the Oldenburg territory of Birkenfeld to form today’s Birkenfeld district. With this, Sonnenberg and Frauenberg were once again united under the name Birkenfeld, as they had once been centuries earlier. In 1938, Frauenberg lost roughly 40 ha of its municipal area to the new military reserve.
The municipality of Frauenberg originally belonged to the Amt administration of Baumholder, but since 1969, it has been one of the 14 Ortsgemeinden in the Verbandsgemeinde of Baumholder. Unlike other municipalities in the Verbandsgemeinde, Frauenberg’s population has undergone steady growth since the war, rising from 356 in 1950 to some 500 in 1986. This owes itself mainly to relatively strong activity in the building sector beginning in 1972 and the municipality’s favourable location only 7 km from Idar-Oberstein.
In 1979, Frauenberg brought the first modern biological sewage treatment plant in the Verbandsgemeinde into service. The village’s expansion also occasioned the updating of sewerage with new, bigger pipes.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority votePlurality 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 armsCoat 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: Per bend sinister chequy gules and argent and vert issuant from base a castle Or masoned and windowed sable and sinister a countess proper crowned of the fourth and crined of the fifth couped at the midriff.
The “chequy” part of the shield is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
and the Oberamt of Birkenfeld.
The two 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 in base are canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
for the origin of the municipality’s name, a woman (Frau) and a castle (Burg). The woman, of course, is the one who moved into the castle, Countess Loretta (or Lauretta) von Sponheim, and the castle was called Frauenburg (not Frauenberg with an E, which is pronounced differently and means “Woman’s Mountain” rather than “Woman’s Castle”).
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-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:
- Railway bridge on the Nahe Valley Railway – three-arch bridge built of sandstoneSandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
quarrystones set with brick over the Nahe valley, about 1860 - Frauenburg ruin, south of the village on a narrow mountain spur (monumental zone) – small, regular complex, possibly from the early 14th century; girding wall, four round corner towers, round tower in northeast wall, twin-halled cellar, partial moat, nested walls
Along the left bank of the Lahn River, sandstone hills rise and extend to the edge of the community of Ebsdorfergrund, culminating in a natural peak upon which stand the ruins of the Castle Frauenberg. In 1248 Sophie von Brabant, daughter of St. Elizabeth of Hungary and widow of Duke Heinrich von Brabant, came to Marburg to claim her late husband’s Thuringian inheritance. Sophie had the castle built in 1252 on the basalt peak that became commonly known as the Frauenberg, or, the woman’s peak. By the year 1489 the castle lay in ruins and the site was used as a quarry.
Today the site remains are a popular destination, enjoyed for the grand panorama. On clear days one has an incomparable view in all directions and can spot nearly forty villages and cities before the horizon. The vista can reach as far as the mountains Hohe Meissner or Feldberg in Taunus. Frauenberg is one of a total of seven Huguenot villages in Hesse that were founded between 1686 and 1706.
Transport
To the north runs BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
41 and to the south runs the Autobahn A 62
Bundesautobahn 62
is an autobahn in southwestern Germany, connecting the A 1 with the A 6. It also connects numerous communities throughout the central Hunsrück mountains...
(Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is a city in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate forest . The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, and from Luxembourg.Kaiserslautern is home to 99,469 people...
–Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
). There is a railway station on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
–Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
) in Idar-Oberstein.
Economy
The jewellery industry is still an important sector of the municipality’s economy, subject though it may be to structural changes to which small and family-run operations have fallen victim. AgricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
has since the early 1970s been unknown in Frauenberg. The loss of a great deal of farmland to the military reserve in the time of the Third Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the rather vast proportion of the municipal area (roughly 65%) covered by forest have not favoured agriculture.