Leienkaul
Encyclopedia
Leienkaul is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell
district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kaisersesch
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
just southeast of Laubach
. Leienkaul’s elevation is 500 m above sea level
.
site, Leienkaul is quite a new settlement as places in this part of Germany go. It was founded only in the late 18th century by slate
miners and their families who wanted to live near the pits where they earned their livelihood. These were found on the east side of the Kaulenbach (brook) and in the upper reaches of the Sesterbach within neighbouring Laubach’s
municipal limits. The new village’s name was drawn from one used for a rural cadastral area, Auf den Leyenkaeulen, which comes from the early Germanic
word Lei (also spelt Lay or Lai), meaning “stone” or “crag” and the dialectal word Kaul for “mine” or “pit”.
Work in the pits was for those living in the nearby villages the main source of income. Soil conditions in Müllenbach
and Laubach were particularly bad for cropraising and livestock raising. Stony and even craggy land with little deep soil made for very hard work and scant harvests, which could not feed local families, which tended to be big. Agriculture
thus became quite secondary and was considered mainly women’s and young children’s work. The men and older boys, meanwhile, worked twelve-hour shifts, six days a week, in the slate pits, and after each shift, they went to work in the fields as well. The state of the population’s general health at that time was beyond desolate. Medical help was very uncommon through all this poverty and extraordinarily hard and dangerous work, leading to a life expectancy
among adults of roughly 50 to 60 years and an infant mortality rate of 40% right up to the age of five. Many young people also died of tuberculosis
.
So went life here when the first slate miner built himself a house near the “Colonia” pit on the Kaulenbach. Many others followed his example: men from Müllenbach, Laubach and other nearby villages, and miners from the Moselle valley and the Hunsrück
who moved to the Eifel. Eventually even Belgian
migrants came from the Ardennes
and there were also French
newcomers who had fled their homeland to escape the Revolution
. Their descendants can still be recognized by their now Germanized French surnames, among which are Buschwa, Allar, Gorges, Lefev, Gilles and Regnier.
The first open slate pits were on the Sesterbach. Later, mining began to thrust its way into the mountain in the Sesterbach valley, the Endertbach valley and at the Kaulenberg Stollen (Stollen here meaning “gallery”, such as is found in a mine, not the commonly understood meaning
in English
). Some of the pits were in private ownership, although often 100 or more persons from one family were shareholders, which made for lasting poverty not only among the workers, but sometimes even among the business owners. Wages for this extremely hard work were quite low, and owners’ profits from these enterprises were only slight owing to high transport costs; slates were hauled by horse as far as Klotten
, where they were loaded onto boats on the Moselle. Smaller operations had to be given up and these were bought up by stone dealers from Klotten and Cochem
. By about 1900, there were only three major slate mining businesses left, namely “Maria Schacht”, “Colonia Schacht” and “Müllenbacher Dachschieferwerk (Härewiss)” (Schacht means “shaft” or “pit”, and Dachschieferwerk means “roof slate works”).
By 1898, the Eifel Railway from Mayen
to Gerolstein
had been running for three years and the workload at the slate pits in Leienkaul became a bit lighter. “Maria Schacht” and “Colonia Schacht” now transported their slates with machine power. “Colonia” laid a tramway to Müllenbach on which slates were transported in small, horse-drawn trams. “Maria Schacht” built a tramway of its own in 1907 and 1908 leading to the railway tracks at the Masburger Wald (forest) and running behind the “Wolfsburg”. At the same time, the “Müllenbacher Dachschieferwerk” built a railway powered by a diesel engine
, which transported slates out of the Kaulenbach valley and up the steep Kaulenberg.
In 1922, the “Maria Schacht” pit complex was sold for 1.5 million Marks to the Brothers Rother. In 1928, “Colonia” and “Härewiss” were shut down. Many young people left Leienkaul to seek jobs elsewhere.
Since 1946, Leienkaul has been part of the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
On the night of 8 to 9 January 1959, nature put an end to all slate mining in Leienkaul. Meltwater from snow breached the three pits of the one mining operation that had remained open, “Maria Schacht”, and within one night flooded the whole operation, destroying tools, machines and explosives. The flood
was too much even for the pumps that had been installed to keep the pits free of water. This catastrophe threw all the Koulemänner (“pitmen”) out of work, and they had to seek jobs elsewhere.
The abrupt end to the slate-mining era only kept Leienkaulers down for a short while. It was not long before the former miners found new work with the Bundeswehr
, which in the early 1960s sought more personnel for its bases at Büchel
and Ulmen
. Others found jobs in the service sector.
Until 12 June 2004, Leienkaul was a constituent community of Laubach
, but on that day, it became a separate municipality, and now has its own mayor and municipal council.
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
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 Kaisersesch
Kaisersesch (Verbandsgemeinde)
Kaisersesch is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Cochem-Zell, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Kaisersesch....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Kaisersesch
Kaisersesch is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs.- Location :...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the 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....
just southeast of Laubach
Laubach, Cochem-Zell
Laubach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kaisersesch, whose seat is in the like-named town...
. Leienkaul’s elevation is 500 m above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
.
History
Although the Maria Martental Monastery in the municipality is believed to have been founded about 1141 by the Springiersbach Monastery, soon thereafter becoming an important pilgrimagePilgrimage
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...
site, Leienkaul is quite a new settlement as places in this part of Germany go. It was founded only in the late 18th century by slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
miners and their families who wanted to live near the pits where they earned their livelihood. These were found on the east side of the Kaulenbach (brook) and in the upper reaches of the Sesterbach within neighbouring Laubach’s
Laubach, Cochem-Zell
Laubach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kaisersesch, whose seat is in the like-named town...
municipal limits. The new village’s name was drawn from one used for a rural cadastral area, Auf den Leyenkaeulen, which comes from the early Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
word Lei (also spelt Lay or Lai), meaning “stone” or “crag” and the dialectal word Kaul for “mine” or “pit”.
Work in the pits was for those living in the nearby villages the main source of income. Soil conditions in Müllenbach
Müllenbach, Cochem-Zell
Müllenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Laubach were particularly bad for cropraising and livestock raising. Stony and even craggy land with little deep soil made for very hard work and scant harvests, which could not feed local families, which tended to be big. Agriculture
Agriculture
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...
thus became quite secondary and was considered mainly women’s and young children’s work. The men and older boys, meanwhile, worked twelve-hour shifts, six days a week, in the slate pits, and after each shift, they went to work in the fields as well. The state of the population’s general health at that time was beyond desolate. Medical help was very uncommon through all this poverty and extraordinarily hard and dangerous work, leading to a life expectancy
Life expectancy
Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...
among adults of roughly 50 to 60 years and an infant mortality rate of 40% right up to the age of five. Many young people also died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
So went life here when the first slate miner built himself a house near the “Colonia” pit on the Kaulenbach. Many others followed his example: men from Müllenbach, Laubach and other nearby villages, and miners from the Moselle valley 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...
who moved to the Eifel. Eventually even Belgian
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...
migrants came from the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
and there were also 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...
newcomers who had fled their homeland to escape the Revolution
French 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...
. Their descendants can still be recognized by their now Germanized French surnames, among which are Buschwa, Allar, Gorges, Lefev, Gilles and Regnier.
The first open slate pits were on the Sesterbach. Later, mining began to thrust its way into the mountain in the Sesterbach valley, the Endertbach valley and at the Kaulenberg Stollen (Stollen here meaning “gallery”, such as is found in a mine, not the commonly understood meaning
Stollen
A Stollen is a loaf-shaped cake containing dried fruit, and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when called...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
). Some of the pits were in private ownership, although often 100 or more persons from one family were shareholders, which made for lasting poverty not only among the workers, but sometimes even among the business owners. Wages for this extremely hard work were quite low, and owners’ profits from these enterprises were only slight owing to high transport costs; slates were hauled by horse as far as Klotten
Klotten
Klotten is a winemaking centre and an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, where they were loaded onto boats on the Moselle. Smaller operations had to be given up and these were bought up by stone dealers from Klotten and Cochem
Cochem
Cochem is the seat of and the biggest place in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With just under 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem falls just behind Kusel, in the like-named district, as Germany's second smallest district seat...
. By about 1900, there were only three major slate mining businesses left, namely “Maria Schacht”, “Colonia Schacht” and “Müllenbacher Dachschieferwerk (Härewiss)” (Schacht means “shaft” or “pit”, and Dachschieferwerk means “roof slate works”).
By 1898, the Eifel Railway 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...
to Gerolstein
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...
had been running for three years and the workload at the slate pits in Leienkaul became a bit lighter. “Maria Schacht” and “Colonia Schacht” now transported their slates with machine power. “Colonia” laid a tramway to Müllenbach on which slates were transported in small, horse-drawn trams. “Maria Schacht” built a tramway of its own in 1907 and 1908 leading to the railway tracks at the Masburger Wald (forest) and running behind the “Wolfsburg”. At the same time, the “Müllenbacher Dachschieferwerk” built a railway powered by a diesel engine
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
, which transported slates out of the Kaulenbach valley and up the steep Kaulenberg.
In 1922, the “Maria Schacht” pit complex was sold for 1.5 million Marks to the Brothers Rother. In 1928, “Colonia” and “Härewiss” were shut down. Many young people left Leienkaul to seek jobs elsewhere.
Since 1946, Leienkaul 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 the night of 8 to 9 January 1959, nature put an end to all slate mining in Leienkaul. Meltwater from snow breached the three pits of the one mining operation that had remained open, “Maria Schacht”, and within one night flooded the whole operation, destroying tools, machines and explosives. The 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...
was too much even for the pumps that had been installed to keep the pits free of water. This catastrophe threw all the Koulemänner (“pitmen”) out of work, and they had to seek jobs elsewhere.
The abrupt end to the slate-mining era only kept Leienkaulers down for a short while. It was not long before the former miners found new work with the Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
, which in the early 1960s sought more personnel for its bases at Büchel
Büchel
Büchel is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Ulmen
Ulmen
Ulmen is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – to which it also belongs.-Constituent communities:...
. Others found jobs in the service sector.
Until 12 June 2004, Leienkaul was a constituent community of Laubach
Laubach, Cochem-Zell
Laubach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kaisersesch, whose seat is in the like-named town...
, but on that day, it became a separate municipality, and now has its own mayor and municipal council.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Mayor
Leienkaul’s mayor is Burkhard Klinkner, and his deputies are Bruno Ferdinand and Helmut Welter.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:
- Maria Martental Monastery (monumental zone) – founded in 1141, in ruins by 1678, newly built in 1681, possibly with a chapelChapelA 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,...
, in 1791 converted to a secular knightly foundation, destroyed in 1794; in 1934 from the predecessor of today’s pilgrimage church, a rectangular 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...
with a ridge turret, architects Max Melsheimer, DarmstadtDarmstadtDarmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
, and Anton Falkowski, MainzMainzMainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
, portal, marked 1737, porch 1968-1974, décor; behind the church: in the substructural walls new stone, marked 1562; bronze image of MaryMary (mother of Jesus)Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
with a haloHalo (religious iconography)A halo is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art. They have been used in the iconography of many religions to indicate holy or sacred figures, and have at various periods also been used in images of rulers or heroes...
; Way of the Cross, 20th century; cross on the old Nuns’ Chapel; wayside chapel, 1930s; so-called Napoleonsbrücke (“Napoleon’s Bridge”), marked 1725, widened in 1938; commercial building with half-hipped roof, 18th century, BaroqueBaroque artBaroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western...
coat of armsCoat of armsA 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...
; graveyard - Slate heap, Grubenstraße (monumental zone) – tailingTailingsTailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...
heap - On Kreisstraße (District Road) 14, going towards Breitenbruch – water cistern; rusticatedRustication (architecture)thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
-block cube, marked 1915 - On Kreisstraße 14, going towards Breitenbruch – 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...
wayside cross, 17th century (?) - Siedlung am Meilenstein (“Settlement at the Milestone”) – milestoneMilestoneA milestone is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at intervals of one mile or occasionally, parts of a mile. They are typically located at the side of the road or in a median. They are alternatively known as mile markers, mileposts or mile posts...
; basalt obelisk, marked 1834