Mermuth
Encyclopedia
Mermuth is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
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 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...

. Mermuth distinguishes itself by its quiet location off any thoroughfare; it can only be reached over a short branch road that leads nowhere else. The municipal area is framed by the two stream valleys each side, the Ehrbach and Baybach valleys, both of which can be reached over pathways from the village. The two entrances into the Ehrbach gorge are especially charming. In a wooded area north of the village stands the mediaeval
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...

 Rauschenburg, a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 ruin.

Mermuth lies roughly 9.5 km southwest of the Rhine at 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 6 km southsoutheast of the Moselle at Brodenbach
Brodenbach
Brodenbach is a municipality in the district of Mayen-Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany....

. The municipal area measures 490 ha and the municipality’s elevation is 340 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

Mermuth may well be one of the Hunsrück’s oldest settlements. The name is traced back to the Celtic
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...

 words merre (“water”) and munt (“hole”). archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 finds confirm early settlement.

Beginning in 1794, Mermuth lay under 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...

 rule. In 1815 it was assigned 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...

 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,...

. 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 ....

.

Also worthy of mention is the Mermuther Feiertag (“Mermuth Day of Celebration”). It has been held for many generations in the Virgin Mary’s honour. According to oral tradition, a pledge was made, after the village had been beset by a whole series of fires over a short time – some caused by troops in the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

 – to keep this day to secure the protection of the “Mother of God”.

Municipal council

The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority vote
Plurality 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 chairwoman.

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: Schild durch eingeschweifte grüne Spitze, darin eine goldene Kapelle, gespalten, vorne in silber ein rotes Balkenkreuz, hinten in Silber drei rote Schnallen schrägrechts aneinandergereiht.

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: Tierced in mantle dexter argent a cross gules, sinister argent three arming buckles bottony conjoined in bend of the second, and in base vert a chapel affronty Or.

The red cross on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side refers to the Bishopric of Trier. The 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...

 on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side, the buckles, recalls the lordship of the family Boos von Waldeck, although here, the tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...

s are reversed to the way they appear in the family’s arms. On the green field between the two sides of the “mantle” partition stands a gold 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,...

, which is meant to refer to the local peculiarity of the Mermuther Feiertag in the Virgin Mary’s honour. The chapel, built in 1735, is owned by the municipality. The green field symbolizes the green meadows, cropland and woods found within Mermuth’s limits.

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

The following are listed buildings or sites 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 ....

’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
  • Saint Mary’s
    Mary (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...

     Catholic 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,...

     (branch chapel; Filialkapelle St. Marien), Kiefernweg/corner of Lindenstraße – aisleless church
    Aisleless church
    An 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...

    , about 1770
  • Hauptstraße 15 – timber-frame
    Timber framing
    Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...

     Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), partly solid, sided or slated, 19th century
  • Kiefernweg 5 – estate complex, whole complex of buildings; timber-frame house, partly solid, half-hipped roof, 18th century, quarrystone barn, 19th century
  • Kiefernweg 7 – building with half-hipped roof, sided with timber framing, early 19th century
  • Rauschenburg Castle ruin, north of the village – built in 1332 by Archbishop Baldwin of Trier as an counterdefence against the nearby castles of Schöneck, Waldeck and Ehrenburg, destroyed as early as 1456; typical occupational castle with concentric
    Concentric castle
    A concentric castle is a castle with two or more concentric curtain walls, such that the outer wall is lower than the inner and can be defended from it. The word concentric does not imply that these castles were circular; in fact if taken too literally the term "concentric" is quite misleading...

     wall complex (five-sided outer wall and wedge-shaped, jutting inner wall), on the west side a round keep
    Keep
    A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...

    and on the east side remnants of a three-floor residential building

External links

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