Gollenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Gollenberg 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
.
.
, and Ellenberg
, in the west on Rinzenberg
and in the north on Oberhambach
.
.
Gollenberg’s history is tightly bound with Birkenfeld’s. That town’s church books and official records contain many references to Gollenberg. The years 1642, 1650 and 1686 brought the villagers disaster. The hardship during the 17th century can perhaps be best seen in the sharp drop in the number of households in Gollenberg. In 1615 there were 19 of these, but by 1655, this had fallen to 5. It is likely that it was at this time that the village of Höhweiler, which once lay within what are now Gollenberg’s limits, vanished.
Gollenberg is among the villages whose municipal areas were carved out of what was once Birkenfeld’s municipal area. It is known that there were boundary disputes in 1766 with Rinzenberg, Schwollen
and Hambach, and in 1770 with Birkenfeld and Schmißberg
as well, suggesting that municipal separation from Birkenfeld was complete by this time.
In 1815, the Congress of Vienna
assigned the Birkenfelder Land to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, who took charge of his new holding on 16 April 1817, naming it the Principality of Birkenfeld. On 1 April 1937, under the Greater Hamburg Act, the old principality was absorbed into Prussia, which was still a distinct entity during the Third Reich
. Since 1946, it has been part of the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
On 17 March 1945, Gollenberg once again suffered. Anti-aircraft
batteries (“Flak”) left over from an otherwise destroyed regiment set themselves up around Gollenberg. Along with them came a mortar
detachment and many small-calibre anti-aircraft weapons. Advance detachments of infantry
and military engineers arrived as well. Gollenberg soon resembled an army camp.
Towards 16:00, when artillery
bombardment began on the municipal woodlands, in which the detachments and all vehicles were located, as was a supply depot that had not yet been emptied, it was decided to shift the combat vehicles to a new position in another wood, the Schönenwald.
Well into the afternoon, the weather thwarted any Allied
air attacks, but when the clouds broke up, Allied fliers were already there. The combat vehicle drivers who already found themselves in the village, simply drove up to the houses to take cover. This resulted in a 20-minute-long fighter-bomber
attack in which eight Allied aircraft dived at their targets, both dropping bombs and firing their on-board weapons. All too many times, they hit the village’s houses instead, and it was not long before flames were leaping up from them. Jerrycan
s and munitions
were also exploding, aggravating the already dangerous situation. By nightfall, five properties lay in rubble and ashes. At two properties, the commercial building burnt down, and two sheds fell victim to the flames. Luckily, no lives were lost. At four properties, the fires were put out in time. Even the livestock was saved.
On 22 May 1952, the double municipality of Gollenberg-Ellenberg, which had been in existence since 1 April 1934 was dissolved, and the two separate municipalities of Ellenberg
and Gollenberg were reconstituted.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Per bend sinister chequy gules and argent, and vert issuant from base a mount of three Or.
The “chequy” pattern on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side is a reference to the village’s former allegiance to the “Hinder” County of Sponheim
, while the gold “mount of three” (hill with three knolls) on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side – a charge
known in German heraldry as a Dreiberg – is a canting
charge referring to the municipality’s name in its former forms of Goldenberg (“Golden Mountain”) and the like.
The arms have been borne since 27 June 1963.
269 and to the south the Autobahn A 62
(Kaiserslautern
–Trier
). Gollenberg is linked to the railway network by the station at Neubrücke, an outlying centre of Hoppstädten-Weiersbach
. This station, on the Nahe Valley Railway (Bingen
–Saarbrücken
), is 45 minutes from Saarbrücken and less than two hours from Frankfurt
.
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 Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld (Verbandsgemeinde)
Birkenfeld is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Birkenfeld, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Birkenfeld....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Birkenfeld
Birkenfeld is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...
.
Location
The municipality lies on the edge of the Schwarzwälder Hochwald (forest) in the HunsrückHunsrück
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
Gollenberg borders in the south on BirkenfeldBirkenfeld
Birkenfeld is a town and the district seat of the Birkenfeld district in southwest Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde.-Location:...
, and Ellenberg
Ellenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Ellenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, in the west on Rinzenberg
Rinzenberg
Rinzenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and in the north on Oberhambach
Oberhambach
Oberhambach 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.Oberhambach is a tourism...
.
History
In 1415, Gollenberg had its first documentary mention under the name Gulderberg. By 1440 this had become Golderberg, by 1540 Guldenberg. By 1580, this had become the form still used today, Gollenberg. The village belonged to the “Hinder” County of SponheimCounty 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...
.
Gollenberg’s history is tightly bound with Birkenfeld’s. That town’s church books and official records contain many references to Gollenberg. The years 1642, 1650 and 1686 brought the villagers disaster. The hardship during the 17th century can perhaps be best seen in the sharp drop in the number of households in Gollenberg. In 1615 there were 19 of these, but by 1655, this had fallen to 5. It is likely that it was at this time that the village of Höhweiler, which once lay within what are now Gollenberg’s limits, vanished.
Gollenberg is among the villages whose municipal areas were carved out of what was once Birkenfeld’s municipal area. It is known that there were boundary disputes in 1766 with Rinzenberg, Schwollen
Schwollen
Schwollen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Hambach, and in 1770 with Birkenfeld and Schmißberg
Schmißberg
Schmißberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
as well, suggesting that municipal separation from Birkenfeld was complete by this time.
In 1815, 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,...
assigned the Birkenfelder Land to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, who took charge of his new holding on 16 April 1817, naming it the Principality of Birkenfeld. On 1 April 1937, under the Greater Hamburg Act, the old principality was absorbed into Prussia, which was still a distinct entity during 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...
. Since 1946, it 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 ....
.
On 17 March 1945, Gollenberg once again suffered. Anti-aircraft
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
batteries (“Flak”) left over from an otherwise destroyed regiment set themselves up around Gollenberg. Along with them came a mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
detachment and many small-calibre anti-aircraft weapons. Advance detachments of infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
and military engineers arrived as well. Gollenberg soon resembled an army camp.
Towards 16:00, when artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
bombardment began on the municipal woodlands, in which the detachments and all vehicles were located, as was a supply depot that had not yet been emptied, it was decided to shift the combat vehicles to a new position in another wood, the Schönenwald.
Well into the afternoon, the weather thwarted any Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
air attacks, but when the clouds broke up, Allied fliers were already there. The combat vehicle drivers who already found themselves in the village, simply drove up to the houses to take cover. This resulted in a 20-minute-long fighter-bomber
Fighter-bomber
A fighter-bomber is a fixed-wing aircraft with an intended primary role of light tactical bombing and also incorporating certain performance characteristics of a fighter aircraft. This term, although still used, has less significance since the introduction of rockets and guided missiles into aerial...
attack in which eight Allied aircraft dived at their targets, both dropping bombs and firing their on-board weapons. All too many times, they hit the village’s houses instead, and it was not long before flames were leaping up from them. Jerrycan
Jerrycan
A jerrycan is a robust fuel container originally made from pressed steel. It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel. The development of the Jerrycan was a huge improvement on earlier designs, which required tools and funnels to use.-Uses:Today similar...
s and munitions
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
were also exploding, aggravating the already dangerous situation. By nightfall, five properties lay in rubble and ashes. At two properties, the commercial building burnt down, and two sheds fell victim to the flames. Luckily, no lives were lost. At four properties, the fires were put out in time. Even the livestock was saved.
On 22 May 1952, the double municipality of Gollenberg-Ellenberg, which had been in existence since 1 April 1934 was dissolved, and the two separate municipalities of Ellenberg
Ellenberg, Rhineland-Palatinate
Ellenberg is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Gollenberg were reconstituted.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 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.
Mayor
Gollenberg’s mayor is Ralf Simon, and his deputies are Holger Sander and Karin Fetzer Fuchs.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In schräglinks geteiltem Schild vorne rot-silbern geschacht, hinten ein goldener Dreiberg in Grün.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 in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Per bend sinister chequy gules and argent, and vert issuant from base a mount of three Or.
The “chequy” pattern on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side 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...
, while the gold “mount of three” (hill with three knolls) on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side – a 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...
known in German heraldry as a Dreiberg – is a 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 –...
charge referring to the municipality’s name in its former forms of Goldenberg (“Golden Mountain”) and the like.
The arms have been borne since 27 June 1963.
Transport
To the west runs BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
269 and to the south 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....
). Gollenberg is linked to the railway network by the station at Neubrücke, an outlying centre of Hoppstädten-Weiersbach
Hoppstädten-Weiersbach
Hoppstädten-Weiersbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
. This 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....
), is 45 minutes from Saarbrücken and less than two hours from Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
.
External links
- http://www.swr.de/landesschau-rp/hierzuland/-/id=100766/nid=100766/did=3840964/1yi5wxk/Brief portrait of Gollenberg with film at SWR FernsehenSWR FernsehenSWR Fernsehen is a German regional television channel targeting the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is produced by Südwestrundfunk and is one of eight regional "third channels" broadcast by the ARD members....
] - Municipality’s official webpage