Neuerkirch
Encyclopedia
History
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 from the New Stone Age bear witness to settlement on the site where the village now stands. In 1302, Neuerkirch had its first documentary mention. Neuerkirch “on that side” of the Külzbach long belonged to the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Palatinate-Zweibrücken
Palatinate-Zweibrücken is a former state of the Holy Roman Empire. Its capital was Zweibrücken.-Overview:→ History before 1394 see main article County of Zweibrücken→ History before 1444 see main article County of Veldenz...
, while Neuerkirch “on this side” of the Külzbach belonged to Palatinate-Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern was one of the collateral lines of the Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach.The Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach was divided into four lines after the death of Rupert III in 1410, including the line of Palatinate-Simmern with its capital in Simmern. This line...
and Electoral Palatinate. Beginning in 1794, Neuerkirch 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 1814 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,...
. After the First World War, Neuerkirch was temporarily occupied by the French once again. Until 1938, the two villages each side of the Külzbach remained administratively separate. Since 1946, Neuerkirch 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 ....
.
Since June 1989, the municipality has been running the Kulturhistorisches Museum (Museum of Cultural History). The museum is based on the Hunsrückmuseum’s collection in Simmern. After a three-year preparation phase it was opened to the public. The museum’s goal is to document farming equipment and machines, old handicraft occupations along with their tools and village life as it was in days of yore. The museum underwent a considerable expansion owing to many Hunsrück inhabitants’ willingness to make certain objects relating to historical village culture available to the museum to be put on display. The dwelling and commercial buildings in which the museum is housed belong to the municipality of Neuerkirch.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority votePlurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Coat of arms
The municipality’s armsCoat 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 pale sable a lion rampant sinister Or armed, langued and crowned gules and Or a bend sinister wavy, the top abased and the bottom enhanced, between a church, the tower to sinister, and a hammer and sledge per saltire, all azure.
In 1979, municipal council decided to introduce a municipal coat of arms. 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 dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side refers to Neuerkirch’s former allegiance to the Duchy of Zweibrücken (at least in the case of the Neuerkirch “on that side”, which was part of the Amt of Kastellaun). The “bend sinister wavy” (wavy slanted stripe) stands for the Külzbach, the local brook that once marked the boundary between the two Neuerkirchs, the one “on this side” and the one “on that side”. The church is a canting
Canting arms
Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...
charge, referring to the last syllable in the municipality’s name (“church” in 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....
is Kirche, but this often appears without the last vowel in placenames). The crossed 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...
tools refer to the silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
smelter on the municipal limit.
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:
- EvangelicalEvangelical Church in GermanyThe 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...
church, Hauptstraße 2 – 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...
, shortly after 1728, conversion after 1821; whole complex of buildings with graveyard - Alterkülzer Straße 2, 2a – timber-frameTimber framingTimber 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...
house, partly solid or slated, 19th century, stable-barn wing, marked 1738; whole complex of buildings - Alterkülzer Straße 7 – L-shaped estate, whole complex of buildings; timber-frame house, earlier half of the 18th century; former barn, 19th century
- Hauptstraße 8 – bakehouse and municipal building; timber-frame building, partly solid, 1930s
- Hauptstraße 5, 6, 6a, “Hauptstraße” (monumental zone) – three characteristic timber-frame buildings in the village centre: no. 5 timber-frame Quereinhaus (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street) with knee wall, early 19th century; no. 6 former timber-frame barn, 19th century; no. 6a former barn (now museum); timber-frame building, partly solid or slated, 19th or 20th century
- Külzbachstraße 6 – estate complex, whole complex of buildings, about 1910; building with half-hipped roof
- Laubacher Straße 3 – former Quereinhaus, timber-frame, 19th century
Regular events
On the second Sunday in July, the traditional artistic craftsman’s and farmer’s market is held in the historic village centre. In the museum and on the square outside the sponsorship association, together with partner organizations, sees to it that there is a variety of cultural offerings with, among other things, the Oldtimer-Show and the Open-Air-Kino (cinema).Economy and infrastructure
Until the 19th century, Neuerkirch’s livelihood was characterized by ore, zincZinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
mining, among others, as well as the processing of these metals, although the actual mining and smelting took place within neighbouring Alterkülz
Alterkülz
-History:Alterkülz belonged until 1417 to the “Further” County of Sponheim, and locally to the Amt of Kastellaun. After this line of the Sponheims died out, the village went with Kastellaun to the “Hinder” part of the County....
’s limits. Still remaining from the old Grube Eid mine are tailing heaps, a charge in the municipal arms and a few unique articles now in the local museum.
Neuerkirch lies on the old Hunsrückbahn (railway) right-of-way; the railway formerly linked Simmern and 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...
. The local railway station was Külz, which stood at the municipal boundary with Külz
Külz
Külz 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.-Location:Külz is a rural residential...
; it has now been torn down. The right-of-way is now part of 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), which is heavily used, notably by visitors to the area.
The once dominant industry of agriculture has all but disappeared. Remaining today is only one fulltime farming operation, while there are also several worked as a sideline.
Jobs in the village are furnished by a carpentry and crane business, a metal construction business, a construction firm, a farmer’s kitchen, a carpentry shop, a fabric shop, an insurance agency, an architectural office and a veterinary practice. All other workers commute to jobs elsewhere.
In planning at the moment by the municipality in collaboration with the project development firm juwi
Juwi
The Juwi Holding AG is a company which builds renewable power supply facilities.Founded by Fred Jung and Matthias Willenbacher in 1996, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany....
is a wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
with up to ten Enercon
Enercon
Enercon GmbH, based in Aurich, Germany, is the fourth-largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world and has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-nineties. Enercon has production facilities in Germany , Sweden, Brazil, India, Canada, Turkey and Portugal...
type E-82 wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s on the rise northeast of Neuerkirch.
The municipality of Neuerkirch, in collaboration with four other municipalities, runs a kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
located in neighbouring Alterkülz
Alterkülz
-History:Alterkülz belonged until 1417 to the “Further” County of Sponheim, and locally to the Amt of Kastellaun. After this line of the Sponheims died out, the village went with Kastellaun to the “Hinder” part of the County....
.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Johann Jakob Röhrig (1787–1856), village schoolteacher and compiler of an important memoir work about his involvement in the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
in 1813 and 1814.
Famous people associated with the municipality
- Richard Oertel (1860–1932), born in HornHorn, GermanyHorn is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, clergyman and from 1912 to 1918 an elected member of the National Liberal PartyNational Liberal Party (Germany)The National Liberal Party was a German political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. It was formed by Prussian liberals who put aside their differences with Bismarck over domestic policy due to their support for his highly successful foreign policy, which resulted in the unification of...
in the Preußisches Abgeordnetenhaus (Prussian Parliament), and later, in 1919 and 1920 an elected member of the German People's PartyGerman People's PartyThe German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
(DVP) in the Weimar National AssemblyWeimar National AssemblyThe Weimar National Assembly governed Germany from February 6, 1919 to June 6, 1920 and drew up the new constitution which governed Germany from 1919 to 1933, technically remaining in effect even until the end of Nazi rule in 1945...
and from 1920 to 1924 a member of the first Weimar ReichstagReichstag (Weimar Republic)The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
.
Further reading
- Gustav Schellack, Willi Wagner: Neuerkirch ein Dorf im Hunsrück – Vergangenheit und Gegenwart; Schriftenreihe des Hunsrücker Geschichtsvereins, 17; Neuerkirch 1986