Lingerhahn
Encyclopedia
Lingerhahn is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district
) in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Emmelshausen
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
between Emmelshausen
and Kastellaun
, right on the Schinderhannes
-Radweg (cycle path) and not far from the Autobahn A 61
(Pfalzfeld
interchange
).
in Lingerhahn amounts to 758 mm, which falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 54% of the German Weather Service’s weather station
s, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in February. Precipitation varies only slightly. Only at 4% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.
villa rustica
were unearthed. These remnants amounted to “plates made of fired clay as well as clay pipes and remnants of ashes”, although according to witnesses, coins were also found. Right nearby, a road, which had already existed before Roman times, led from the Rhine to the Moselle (today’s Hauptstraße, continuation: “Karrenstraße”).
.
By 1275, though, Lingerhahn belonged to the parish of Schönenberg (Sconinburg). This parish was named after a hill (hence the ending —berg, although this word is usually taken to mean “mountain”) between Kisselbach
, Riegenroth
and Steinbach upon which the parish church stood. At this time, the tithe lord was Hermann von Milewalt. He had been granted the tithing rights by the collegiate chapter
at Saint Martin’s in Worms
against payment of yearly interest (“15 Cologne
solidi”).
In 1375, there was a tour of inspection in the greater parish of Boppard, to which the parish of Schönenberg belonged. In the description of this event, the Imperial
notary Detmarus von Langenbeke from Cologne noted that the Hunsrück region was found to be widely devastated; whole villages were empty. This was, of course, the upshot from the Black Death
, which was rife in Europe
in the mid 14th century. According to chroniclers, more than a fourth of the Hunsrück’s population died of this sickness.
As a reward for his help in electing the German king, Baldwin of Luxembourg acquired in 1309, 1312 and 1314, first from his brother Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg
and later from Louis the Bavarian
the Imperial cities of Boppard
and Wesel
(now Oberwesel) and the Gallscheider Gericht (“Gallscheid Court”) at Emmelshausen as a pledge. The judicial zone of the Gallscheid Court, named after an execution place within Emmelshausen’s limits – Galgenscheid or Galgenhöhe, the first six letters of each being German
for “gallows
” – encompassed a great area, within which was, among other places, Lingerhahn. In the Court’s 1460 boundary description, Lingerhahn was described as Linyngerhane slacken. This epithet slacken, which means “slags”, might well have meant the rubble mounds that can still be found today about a kilometre east of Lingerhahn (to the left before the Pfalzfeld
turnoff on Landesstraße [State Road] 214/216). These are indeed slag
mining
and smelting
that was once done here. In 1435, Peter and Johann von Schöneck were enfeoffed with the court district.
(1618-1648), Lingerhahn was occupied by troops of the Swedish
king Gustav II Adolf
and all but utterly destroyed by them as well. In the nearby village of Pfalzfeld, the Schultheiß
reported food and livestock thefts and destruction of crops by soldiers. Another eyewitness spoke of abuses and murders. The war’s far-reaching consequences can be seen in Lingerhahn’s population figures: in 1563, Lingerhahn was home to 18 families (or family “heads”, at least), whereas by 1663, there were only seven.
After the destruction, the village had to be built all over again from the ground up. This was done at a new location. The village’s original site is described in the Lingerhahn school chronicle as being “more easterly”. Another clue about the old village comes from the cadastral toponym “Im Weiher”. This is a rural area some 200 m north of Lingerhahn on the road to Hausbay
. The name means “In the Pond”, and it could refer to the old village’s fire pond.
was annexed
to the French Republic
. The former administrative divisions, the Princely Electorates and Counties, were swept away and replaced with newly created départements. These were subdivided into arrondissements, which in turn were subdivided into cantons. Lingerhahn was grouped into the canton of Saint Goar in the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle
. After the agreements concluded at the Congress of Vienna
in 1815, the Rhineland was ceded to the Kingdom of Prussia
and Lingerhahn then belonged to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Pfalzfeld in the newly created district of Sankt Goar in the Regierungsbezirk
of Coblenz (as it was then spelt).
– namely 1848 – did not pass Lingerhahn by. On the morning of 25 March 1848, it was reported to Mayor Müller that parishioners from Lingerhahn, “where there are many poor people and pedlars”, were preparing to storm the mayor’s office in Pfalzfeld. He called his security watch together and had the men armed with rifles. Gendarmes from neighbouring places also hurried to help. At 14:00, the Lingerhahners appeared, armed with pistols and rifles, led by a rider on a white horse, which was supposed to represent Napoleon
. Behind him were the Lingerhahn parish priest’s brother and brother-in-law as well as a few members of the parish council. Thereafter came the armed “army force” and at the end some women with empty baskets. Calls such as Vivat Napoleon! and Vivat die Republik! became loud.
When the mayor asked them what they wanted, they answered “Freedom and equality. There exists no more Prussian state. We hereby secede
from the Mayoralty.” There ensued a brawl from which some came away wounded, some badly, and during which Prussian symbols, such as official signs and two Sovereign Eagles, were torn down.
Then, with a threat that they would come back at night with reinforcements, the armed crowd withdrew. Pfalzfeld was put under the protection of a division of the 26th Infantry Regiment and remained unmolested, while Lingerhahn once again formally seceded from Prussia, proclaimed a republic and no longer reported events that by law they had to report, such as births and deaths. Punishing these wayward people was out of the question owing to low troop strength. It was simply hoped that the impending work needing to be done in the fields would bring the citizens back to their senses. Nothing further is known about this event. It seems that nothing much else happened.
These insurrectionists might well have meant to destroy the mayor’s office, and thereby all the deeds – particularly the land survey – as well, whereupon they would then have divided the land up among themselves. They might also have hoped for plundered booty.
The instigators of this small uprising seem to have been Father Schmoll, the Lingerhahn priest, and his brother, who had already drawn attention to himself by speaking out against the state. One remark that he is known to have made was: “already about 6 or 7 March it came out in Cologne that there was a religious war, that everybody should stick together.” The district chairman commented on a report of this in the margin: “Father Schmoll […] is notorious, not seldom from drinking, for his habit of being eccentric.”.
This, as well as yearning for Imperial times or the French Republic, can all likely be traced back to regional disputes in which denominational motives surely played a great role. The formerly Electoral-Trier, thoroughly Catholic Lingerhahn was bigger, and therefore in its own people’s opinion at least, more important than Pfalzfeld with its mixture of denominations and its two-fifths Protestant
minority, who with their likewise former allegiance to Hesse tended rather to look towards the Evangelical
Sankt Goar
.
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 fess abased vert an endorse between a chapel affronty and a wall on top of which a spring issuant from which a stream of water, all argent, and Or a fess gules.
The base of the arms refers to the former Gallscheider Gericht (“Gallscheid Court”) through the arms then borne by the Lords of Schöneck (“Or a fess gules”, or a red horizontal stripe on a gold field). The chapel
represents the first, thatched, church mentioned in the municipality’s 1719 stock book. The wall stands for the quarrystone and brick cellar walls of a Roman villa within municipal limits. The spring
supposedly furnished water for those who lived in this building and was only channelled into a drain in the 1950s. The endorse (narrow vertical stripe) symbolizes Karrenstraße, a road in the municipality that has existed since pre-Roman times.
’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 Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (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 Emmelshausen
Emmelshausen (Verbandsgemeinde)
Emmelshausen is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is in Emmelshausen....
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Emmelshausen
Emmelshausen is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the central 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...
between Emmelshausen
Emmelshausen
Emmelshausen is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, to which it also belongs...
and Kastellaun
Kastellaun
-Climate:Yearly precipitation in Kastellaun amounts to 755 mm, which falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 53% of the German Weather Service’s weather stations, lower figures recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in June. In that...
, right on the Schinderhannes
Schinderhannes
Johannes Bückler , nicknamed Schinderhannes, was a German outlaw who orchestrated one of the most fascinating crime sprees in German history. He was born at Miehlen, the son of Johann and Anna Maria Bückler. He began an apprenticeship to a tanner, but turned to petty theft. At 16 he was arrested...
-Radweg (cycle path) and not far from the Autobahn A 61
Bundesautobahn 61
is an autobahn in Germany that connects the border to the Netherlands near Venlo in the northwest to the interchange with A 6 near Hockenheim. In 1965, this required a re-design of the Hockenheimring....
(Pfalzfeld
Pfalzfeld
Pfalzfeld is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
).
Climate
Yearly precipitationPrecipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
in Lingerhahn amounts to 758 mm, which falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 54% of the German Weather Service’s weather station
Weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for observing atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind...
s, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is February. The most rainfall comes in June. In that month, precipitation is 1.6 times what it is in February. Precipitation varies only slightly. Only at 4% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.
Roman times
North of Lingerhahn in 1873, in the cadastral area known as “Mohr”, remnants of a RomanAncient 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....
villa rustica
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...
were unearthed. These remnants amounted to “plates made of fired clay as well as clay pipes and remnants of ashes”, although according to witnesses, coins were also found. Right nearby, a road, which had already existed before Roman times, led from the Rhine to the Moselle (today’s Hauptstraße, continuation: “Karrenstraße”).
Middle Ages
In 1245, Lingerhahn had its first documentary mention: “Cunradus und Friedericus von Liningerhagen” cropped up as witnesses in a trial. It can also be gathered from this document that Lingerhahn then belonged to the parish of HalsenbachHalsenbach
Halsenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
.
By 1275, though, Lingerhahn belonged to the parish of Schönenberg (Sconinburg). This parish was named after a hill (hence the ending —berg, although this word is usually taken to mean “mountain”) between Kisselbach
Kisselbach
Kisselbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Riegenroth
Riegenroth
Riegenroth is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Simmern, whose seat is in the like-named town...
and Steinbach upon which the parish church stood. At this time, the tithe lord was Hermann von Milewalt. He had been granted the tithing rights by the collegiate chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
at Saint Martin’s in Worms
Worms, Germany
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Rhine River. At the end of 2004, it had 85,829 inhabitants.Established by the Celts, who called it Borbetomagus, Worms today remains embattled with the cities Trier and Cologne over the title of "Oldest City in Germany." Worms is the only...
against payment of yearly interest (“15 Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
solidi”).
In 1375, there was a tour of inspection in the greater parish of Boppard, to which the parish of Schönenberg belonged. In the description of this event, the Imperial
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
notary Detmarus von Langenbeke from Cologne noted that the Hunsrück region was found to be widely devastated; whole villages were empty. This was, of course, the upshot from the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, which was rife in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in the mid 14th century. According to chroniclers, more than a fourth of the Hunsrück’s population died of this sickness.
As a reward for his help in electing the German king, Baldwin of Luxembourg acquired in 1309, 1312 and 1314, first from his brother Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg
Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VII was the King of Germany from 1308 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1312. He was the first emperor of the House of Luxembourg...
and later from 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....
the Imperial cities of Boppard
Boppard
Boppard is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, lying in the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It belongs to no Verbandsgemeinde. The town is also a state-recognized tourism resort and is a winegrowing centre.-Location:Boppard lies on the upper Middle...
and Wesel
Oberwesel
Oberwesel is a town on the Middle Rhine in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, whose seat is in the town.-Location:...
(now Oberwesel) and the Gallscheider Gericht (“Gallscheid Court”) at Emmelshausen as a pledge. The judicial zone of the Gallscheid Court, named after an execution place within Emmelshausen’s limits – Galgenscheid or Galgenhöhe, the first six letters of each being 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 “gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
” – encompassed a great area, within which was, among other places, Lingerhahn. In the Court’s 1460 boundary description, Lingerhahn was described as Linyngerhane slacken. This epithet slacken, which means “slags”, might well have meant the rubble mounds that can still be found today about a kilometre east of Lingerhahn (to the left before the Pfalzfeld
Pfalzfeld
Pfalzfeld is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
turnoff on Landesstraße [State Road] 214/216). These are indeed slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
and smelting
Smelting
Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...
that was once done here. In 1435, Peter and Johann von Schöneck were enfeoffed with the court district.
Destruction in the Thirty Years’ War and reconstruction
In 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....
(1618-1648), Lingerhahn was occupied by troops of the 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....
king Gustav II Adolf
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...
and all but utterly destroyed by them as well. In the nearby village of Pfalzfeld, the Schultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
reported food and livestock thefts and destruction of crops by soldiers. Another eyewitness spoke of abuses and murders. The war’s far-reaching consequences can be seen in Lingerhahn’s population figures: in 1563, Lingerhahn was home to 18 families (or family “heads”, at least), whereas by 1663, there were only seven.
After the destruction, the village had to be built all over again from the ground up. This was done at a new location. The village’s original site is described in the Lingerhahn school chronicle as being “more easterly”. Another clue about the old village comes from the cadastral toponym “Im Weiher”. This is a rural area some 200 m north of Lingerhahn on the road to Hausbay
Hausbay
Hausbay is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
. The name means “In the Pond”, and it could refer to the old village’s fire pond.
Modern times
In 1784, Lingerhahn had 36 citizens. In 1798, the RhinelandRhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
was annexed
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
to the French Republic
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
. The former administrative divisions, the Princely Electorates and Counties, were swept away and replaced with newly created départements. These were subdivided into arrondissements, which in turn were subdivided into cantons. Lingerhahn was grouped into the canton of Saint Goar in the Department of Rhin-et-Moselle
Rhin-et-Moselle
Rhin-et-Moselle is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the rivers Rhine and Moselle. It was formed in 1798, when the left bank of the Rhine was annexed by France. Until the French occupation, its territory was divided between the Archbishopric...
. After the agreements concluded at the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
in 1815, the Rhineland was ceded to the Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
and Lingerhahn then belonged to the Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Pfalzfeld in the newly created district of Sankt Goar in the Regierungsbezirk
Regierungsbezirk
In Germany, a Government District, in German: Regierungsbezirk – is a subdivision of certain federal states .They are above the Kreise, Landkreise, and kreisfreie Städte...
of Coblenz (as it was then spelt).
Troubles in March 1848
The Year of RevolutionRevolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
– namely 1848 – did not pass Lingerhahn by. On the morning of 25 March 1848, it was reported to Mayor Müller that parishioners from Lingerhahn, “where there are many poor people and pedlars”, were preparing to storm the mayor’s office in Pfalzfeld. He called his security watch together and had the men armed with rifles. Gendarmes from neighbouring places also hurried to help. At 14:00, the Lingerhahners appeared, armed with pistols and rifles, led by a rider on a white horse, which was supposed to represent Napoleon
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. Behind him were the Lingerhahn parish priest’s brother and brother-in-law as well as a few members of the parish council. Thereafter came the armed “army force” and at the end some women with empty baskets. Calls such as Vivat Napoleon! and Vivat die Republik! became loud.
When the mayor asked them what they wanted, they answered “Freedom and equality. There exists no more Prussian state. We hereby secede
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
from the Mayoralty.” There ensued a brawl from which some came away wounded, some badly, and during which Prussian symbols, such as official signs and two Sovereign Eagles, were torn down.
Then, with a threat that they would come back at night with reinforcements, the armed crowd withdrew. Pfalzfeld was put under the protection of a division of the 26th Infantry Regiment and remained unmolested, while Lingerhahn once again formally seceded from Prussia, proclaimed a republic and no longer reported events that by law they had to report, such as births and deaths. Punishing these wayward people was out of the question owing to low troop strength. It was simply hoped that the impending work needing to be done in the fields would bring the citizens back to their senses. Nothing further is known about this event. It seems that nothing much else happened.
These insurrectionists might well have meant to destroy the mayor’s office, and thereby all the deeds – particularly the land survey – as well, whereupon they would then have divided the land up among themselves. They might also have hoped for plundered booty.
The instigators of this small uprising seem to have been Father Schmoll, the Lingerhahn priest, and his brother, who had already drawn attention to himself by speaking out against the state. One remark that he is known to have made was: “already about 6 or 7 March it came out in Cologne that there was a religious war, that everybody should stick together.” The district chairman commented on a report of this in the margin: “Father Schmoll […] is notorious, not seldom from drinking, for his habit of being eccentric.”.
This, as well as yearning for Imperial times or the French Republic, can all likely be traced back to regional disputes in which denominational motives surely played a great role. The formerly Electoral-Trier, thoroughly Catholic Lingerhahn was bigger, and therefore in its own people’s opinion at least, more important than Pfalzfeld with its mixture of denominations and its two-fifths Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
minority, who with their likewise former allegiance to Hesse tended rather to look towards the Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
Sankt Goar
Sankt Goar
Sankt Goar is a town on the left bank of the Middle Rhine in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Sankt Goar-Oberwesel, whose seat is in the town of Oberwesel....
.
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.
Mayor
Lingerhahn’s mayor is Andreas Nick, and his deputies are Thomas Kreis and Waltraud Schweitzer.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: Über erhöhtem goldenen Schildfuß, darin ein roter Balken, in Grün durch einen silbernen Pfahl gespalten, vorne eine silberne Kapelle, hinten eine silberne Mauer mit einer sprudelnden Quelle.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 fess abased vert an endorse between a chapel affronty and a wall on top of which a spring issuant from which a stream of water, all argent, and Or a fess gules.
The base of the arms refers to the former Gallscheider Gericht (“Gallscheid Court”) through the arms then borne by the Lords of Schöneck (“Or a fess gules”, or a red horizontal stripe on a gold field). The 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,...
represents the first, thatched, church mentioned in the municipality’s 1719 stock book. The wall stands for the quarrystone and brick cellar walls of a Roman villa within municipal limits. The 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...
supposedly furnished water for those who lived in this building and was only channelled into a drain in the 1950s. The endorse (narrow vertical stripe) symbolizes Karrenstraße, a road in the municipality that has existed since pre-Roman times.
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:
- Saint Sebastian’s Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Sebastian), Ringstraße 34 – quarrystone 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...
, design 1913/1914, architect Ludwig Becker, 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...
, building undertaken 1923/1924, transeptTranseptFor the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...like smaller hall marked 1773