Hohenfels-Essingen
Encyclopedia
Hohenfels-Essingen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Gerolstein
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
, a part of the Eifel
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth. Hohenfels-Essingen lies in the Hangelsbach valley framed by the Feuerberg (588 m), the Alter Voß (588 m, with “Liberation Beech”) and the Mühlenberg (585 m, with its well known millstone quarries).
finds, Hohenfels was already settled in Roman
and Frankish
times and in 948, it had its first documentary mention. Essingen was first mentioned in a document in 1193 as an estate belonging to the Sankt Thomas
Monastery.
. Roman troops found natives who worked at cropraising, but who were so small in number that they only occupied a relatively small area. With the systematic opening of the land with military roads and the attendant onset of regional and even national trade opportunities, land clearing was begun in these lands, which were particularly good for cropraising. The land each side of the roads was overlaid with a network of estates
that were run both as state and private enterprises. Some of the most important Roman roads ran over the northern heights of Hohenfels and through the Kyll
valley north of Trier
.
In the district Im Keller (“In the Cellar”) in Hohenfels, the remnants of a portico
villa were found during building excavations in 1957. Only about 200 metres away in 1914 in the rural cadastral area Auf Grafenfeld in Hohenfels, two Roman graves were unearthed and salvaged for the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.
The great Germanic
taking of the land between 400 and 600 destroyed Roman culture and brought the area into the “army kings’” (Heerkönige) hands. The people who had lived here until now – Romanized Celts and Romans – either fled or were subdued. The Frankish
kings dealt the formerly Roman estates out to their warriors. In Hohenfels, an old settlement founded by the Franks can be found right near the Roman portico villa. In Auf Grafenfeld, a great burying ground from Frankish times was unearthed and explored in 1912: 125 Frankish graves from the 4th to 8th centuries.
, the Mühlenberg was riven with galleries in which millstones were being produced. As protection, in particular against Swedish
troops, these galleries and caves were expanded and then used to shelter livestock. For a water supply, great basins were hewn in lava blocks, which could hold up to 300 litres of water. Water was to be had from a spring
outlet on the mountain’s south slope.
After the Thirty Years’ War, the land had been laid waste and the people impoverished. Moreover, there were sicknesses like the Plague and cholera
. From this time come seven wayside crosses hewn from basalt
in the vicinity of Hohenfels. Each Sunday, the whole village would make a pilgrimage
by the crosses, asking for an end to the Plague. In the 1960s, the crosses were put up by the municipality along the way to the grotto on the Mühlberg. Further destruction was brought in 1688 by the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), in which castles, churches and monasteries were destroyed.
, the French
came into the Eifel
. Hohenfels was then owned by the Count of Metternich, who was stripped of his holdings in 1808. The Hohenfels mill, which also belonged to the Count, was sold for 1,200 francs (then equivalent to 380 Taler). Likewise, each one of the Count’s landholdings was auctioned off one by one.
In November 1817, the Eifel was annexed to the state of Prussia
and thenceforth belonged to the newly founded Rhine Province
with its seat in Düsseldorf
. In the 19th century, an average of 140 people lived in Hohenfels. The main livelihood was smallholding
s. There were also family businesses in curbstone and millstone making, and in making roadbuilding materials. These products were shipped out over the Eifel by teams of horses and sold. Some of the millstones were shipped to Belgium
and thence throughout the world. These family businesses ceased during the First World War.
In 1860, the Eifel’s biggest lava
deposit – the Feuerberg in Hohenfels – was leased by the municipality for lava mining. The lava was used for road and railway building.
troops were in the village. Later on came French
occupational troops as part of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland
.
In the 1920s, basalt
mining began beneath the Mühlenberg. In the area around Hohenfels, a firm from Mayen
was making runner stones and shipping them worldwide. In 1928 above the cadastral area of “Wahlend”, a gravelworks was built, remaining in operation until 1974. For a time, more than 100 people were employed here.
In the course of administrative reform, the two self-administering municipalities of Hohenfels and Essingen were merged on 1 January 1968 into a single municipality.
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: Argent a sword bendwise sinister gules, the point to chief, between an urn azure and a millstone vert.
The red sword stands for the execution place of the Electoral-Trier Amt of Daun between Hohenfels and Essingen on the old Roman road, marked on the map of the Amt of Daun in 1683 with a gallows symbol. The blue urn refers to the great Frankish burying ground with 125 graves and the important finds therefrom. The green millstone refers to the Hohenfels millstone quarry, already widely known in the Middle Ages
, and further for the landscape in both constituent centres, which is characterized by volcanism, and where there is even today lava and basalt quarrying.
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 Vulkaneifel 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 Gerolstein
Gerolstein (Verbandsgemeinde)
Gerolstein is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Vulkaneifel, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Gerolstein....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Gerolstein
Gerolstein is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde. Gerolstein is headquarters to a large mineral water firm, Gerolsteiner Brunnen...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the VulkaneifelVulkan Eifel
The Vulkan Eifel is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the Vulkan Eifel are its typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic tuffs, lava...
, a part of 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....
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth. Hohenfels-Essingen lies in the Hangelsbach valley framed by the Feuerberg (588 m), the Alter Voß (588 m, with “Liberation Beech”) and the Mühlenberg (585 m, with its well known millstone quarries).
History
As witnessed by archaeologicalArchaeology
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, Hohenfels was already settled in 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....
and Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
times and in 948, it had its first documentary mention. Essingen was first mentioned in a document in 1193 as an estate belonging to the Sankt Thomas
Sankt Thomas
Sankt Thomas is a village in the district Bitburg-Prüm, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Eifel. The name refers to the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket....
Monastery.
The Romans and the Franks
In the late 2nd century, the Romans came into the west EifelEifel
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....
. Roman troops found natives who worked at cropraising, but who were so small in number that they only occupied a relatively small area. With the systematic opening of the land with military roads and the attendant onset of regional and even national trade opportunities, land clearing was begun in these lands, which were particularly good for cropraising. The land each side of the roads was overlaid with a network of estates
Villa rustica
Villa rustica was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a villa set in the open countryside, often as the hub of a large agricultural estate . The adjective rusticum was used to distinguish it from an urban or resort villa...
that were run both as state and private enterprises. Some of the most important Roman roads ran over the northern heights of Hohenfels and through the Kyll
Kyll
The Kyll , noted by the Roman poet Ausonius as Celbis, is a 142km long river in western Germany , left tributary of the Moselle. It rises in the Eifel mountains, near the border with Belgium and flows generally south through the towns Stadtkyll, Gerolstein, Kyllburg and east of Bitburg...
valley north of 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....
.
In the district Im Keller (“In the Cellar”) in Hohenfels, the remnants of a portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...
villa were found during building excavations in 1957. Only about 200 metres away in 1914 in the rural cadastral area Auf Grafenfeld in Hohenfels, two Roman graves were unearthed and salvaged for the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier.
The great Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
taking of the land between 400 and 600 destroyed Roman culture and brought the area into the “army kings’” (Heerkönige) hands. The people who had lived here until now – Romanized Celts and Romans – either fled or were subdued. The Frankish
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
kings dealt the formerly Roman estates out to their warriors. In Hohenfels, an old settlement founded by the Franks can be found right near the Roman portico villa. In Auf Grafenfeld, a great burying ground from Frankish times was unearthed and explored in 1912: 125 Frankish graves from the 4th to 8th centuries.
15th to 17th centuries
Even before the Thirty Years' WarThirty 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....
, the Mühlenberg was riven with galleries in which millstones were being produced. As protection, in particular against Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
troops, these galleries and caves were expanded and then used to shelter livestock. For a water supply, great basins were hewn in lava blocks, which could hold up to 300 litres of water. Water was to be had from a spring
Spring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
outlet on the mountain’s south slope.
After the Thirty Years’ War, the land had been laid waste and the people impoverished. Moreover, there were sicknesses like the Plague and cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
. From this time come seven wayside crosses hewn from 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...
in the vicinity of Hohenfels. Each Sunday, the whole village would make a pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
by the crosses, asking for an end to the Plague. In the 1960s, the crosses were put up by the municipality along the way to the grotto on the Mühlberg. Further destruction was brought in 1688 by the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession), in which castles, churches and monasteries were destroyed.
18th and 19th centuries
As a result of the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the 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...
came into 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....
. Hohenfels was then owned by the Count of Metternich, who was stripped of his holdings in 1808. The Hohenfels mill, which also belonged to the Count, was sold for 1,200 francs (then equivalent to 380 Taler). Likewise, each one of the Count’s landholdings was auctioned off one by one.
In November 1817, the Eifel was annexed to the state 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...
and thenceforth belonged to the newly founded Rhine Province
Rhine Province
The Rhine Province , also known as Rhenish Prussia or synonymous to the Rhineland , was the westernmost province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822-1946. It was created from the provinces of the Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg...
with its seat in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. In the 19th century, an average of 140 people lived in Hohenfels. The main livelihood was smallholding
Smallholding
A smallholding is a farm of small size.In third world countries, smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent and farming practices become more efficient, smallholdings may persist as a legacy of...
s. There were also family businesses in curbstone and millstone making, and in making roadbuilding materials. These products were shipped out over the Eifel by teams of horses and sold. Some of the millstones were shipped to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and thence throughout the world. These family businesses ceased during the First World War.
In 1860, the Eifel’s biggest lava
Lava
Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...
deposit – the Feuerberg in Hohenfels – was leased by the municipality for lava mining. The lava was used for road and railway building.
20th century to present
After the First World War, in November 1918, AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops were in the village. Later on came 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...
occupational troops as part of the Allied occupation of the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
.
In the 1920s, 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...
mining began beneath the Mühlenberg. In the area around Hohenfels, a firm from Mayen
Mayen
Mayen is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, there are five further settlements which are part of Mayen, they are: Alzheim, Kürrenberg, Hausen-Betzing, Hausen and Nitztal...
was making runner stones and shipping them worldwide. In 1928 above the cadastral area of “Wahlend”, a gravelworks was built, remaining in operation until 1974. For a time, more than 100 people were employed here.
In the course of administrative reform, the two self-administering municipalities of Hohenfels and Essingen were merged on 1 January 1968 into a single municipality.
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 German blazon reads: In Silber ein schräglinkes, rotes Schwert, begleitet oben von einer blauen Urne, unten von einem grünen Mühlstein.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: Argent a sword bendwise sinister gules, the point to chief, between an urn azure and a millstone vert.
The red sword stands for the execution place of the Electoral-Trier Amt of Daun between Hohenfels and Essingen on the old Roman road, marked on the map of the Amt of Daun in 1683 with a gallows symbol. The blue urn refers to the great Frankish burying ground with 125 graves and the important finds therefrom. The green millstone refers to the Hohenfels millstone quarry, already widely known 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...
, and further for the landscape in both constituent centres, which is characterized by volcanism, and where there is even today lava and basalt quarrying.
Culture and sightseeing
- The grotto at the Mühlenberg
- Millstone caves
- Basalt deposits
- Hiking trails
Essingen
- Saint Hubert’s Catholic Church (branch church; Filialkirche St. Hubertus), Bergstraße 10, biaxial aisleless churchAisleless churchAn 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...
, 1886. - Bergstraße 1 – Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), from 1783, old cobbles in yard.
- Bergstraße 2 – house from 1816, commercial building, some old cobbles in yard, whole complex.
- Wayside cross, southwest of the village on the road to RockeskyllRockeskyllRockeskyll is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, cast-ironCast ironCast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
crucifix, about 1900. - Wayside cross, west of the village at a hairpin bend in the road, a basaltBasaltBasalt 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...
beam cross from 1749 (?).
Hohenfels
- Catholic church, Gerolsteiner Straße 6, four-axis Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
aisleless church from 1894. - Before Am Mühlenberg 6 – wayside cross, basalt shaft cross from 1687.
- Schulstraße, graveyard, warriors’ memorial 1914-1918, CrucifixionCrucifixionCrucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
group, praying soldier, from 1922. - Wayside cross, north of the village at the Mühlenberg at the lower hairpin bend, basalt shaft cross from 1719.
Clubs
- Freizeit- und Sportverein Hohenfels-Essingen e.V. (sport and leisure)
- Verschönerungsverein Hohenfels-Essingen 1895 e.V. (beautification)
- Riding club
- Möhnenclub (CarnivalCarnivalCarnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
group)
External links
- http://www.swr.de/hierzuland-rp/archiv/2004/10/17/index.htmlBrief portrait of Hohenfels-Essingen 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....
] - Tourist information
- Hohenfels-Essingen’s millstone quarries