Rheinböllen
Encyclopedia
Rheinböllen is a town in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district
) in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde
, and also belongs to it.
southwest of the Middle Rhine
at Bacharach
in the southeast Hunsrück
. The town is found in the transitional zone between (to the east) the Binger Wald (Bingen Forest) and (to the south) the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück that since 2005 has belonged to the Naturpark Soonwald-Nahe.
in Rheinböllen amounts to 695 mm. This falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 39% of the German Weather Service’s weather station
s are lower figures 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 2% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.
ei Rheinböllen may well once have belonged, before it passed to the Counts Palatine. The past teacher and local historian Junges traced Bollen to an old word meaning “hill” or “height”, leading to the interpretation of the name as meaning “Rhine Heights” (an apt description of the location, up on the Hunsrück). Through the ages, the name for Rheinböllen has taken many spellings: Rinbul, Rinbulle, Rynbuhel, Reynbullen, Rymbul, Rymbulen, Rynbule, Rinbelle, Bollen, Bullen, Rinbulde, Rheinbullen.
. Shortly after 1900, workmen digging near the railway station found a sharpened, polished stone axe, the earliest evidence of human habitation in what is now the town. Archaeological
finds in the area of the Altdorf (“Old Village”, a triangle formed by the streets Simmerner Straße, Poststraße and Bahnhofstraße) point to Celtic beginnings. The Romans later drove a road through the settlement.
Street names used today, such as Wehr (“Defence”) and Hinterster Graben (“Hindmost Moat”) bear witness to a girding wall that once stood around the village. Rheinböllen was secured with two wall moats. An illustration from 1620 shows palisades on the wall, which itself had a defensive tower built into it.
Rheinböllen was the main centre in the so-called “Old Court” (Altes Gericht), the ancient core of Comital-Palatine lordship on the Hundisrück. Ellern
, Erbach
(in part), Dichtelbach
and Kleinweidelbach, too, might also have been part of it. This “Old Court” likely had arisen by 1142, when Hermann von Stahleck was awarded the County Palatine by his brother-in-law, King Conrad III
. The places within this landholding all lay in the archdeaconry of the Mainz Cathedral Provost’s office, and thereby likely in the Nahegau
. In the east, it bordered on Saint Peter’s Parish, Bacharach, to which Rheinböllen definitely belonged, at least ecclesiastically.
After Hermann von Stahleck’s death, Emperor Barbarossa
transferred the County Palatine in 1156 to his stepbrother Konrad, who also held rights to estates in the Nahegau, to which Rheinböllen also almost certainly belonged.
The oldest known document about the town is a lease, dated 1 May 1309, concluded by Johann von dem Stein, serving as the Burgrave
at Böckelheim, and the Schultheiß
of Rheinböllen. The Burgrave held two fields in the Bischofsfeld as a Palatine fief, and transferred them to the municipality.
Rheinböllen was apparently a town once before. In 1316, the settlement was recorded as being an oppidum, the Latin
word used in Roman
times for any centre resembling a town, and in historical records made as late as the 13th and 14th centuries, it was still appearing in this meaning, describing mediaeval
towns.
Emperor Louis the Bavarian
and his elder brother Rudolf shared between themselves ownership of the Rhenish Palatinate. To curry the Rhenish princes’ favour, Louis pledged, right after his regency began in 1314, the Altes Gericht together with Castle Fürstenberg and the settlements of Diebach and Manubach
to Archbishop of Mainz Peter. Two years thereafter, Louis transferred half the village to Archbishop of Trier Baldwin, and another four years later to King John of Bohemia, Baldwin’s nephew, whereupon the other half of the village was now given to the Archbishop. The settlement was a main centre in the County Palatine – and was likely at that time said to be a town – until 1359, through a pledge of 1,800 Florentine guilders, Simmern became part of the holding and was later raised to seat of the Amt.
As early as the 12th century, Rheinböllen supposedly had a marketplace within its walls. There is evidence that Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine granted market rights between 1314 and 1347. Markets have been part of Rheinböllen ever since. Livestock markets were still being held at the outbreak of the Second World War on the “Sauwasen” (the plot of land where the primary school now stands), and each year, there is still a craft market on Kermis Tuesday.
Rheinböllen’s landholders changed often in the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the 1338 Palatine Partition among Rudolf II, Rupert the Younger and Rupert the Elder, the lordship over Rheinböllen changed once again: the two Ruperts – their name was “Ruprecht” in German
– became the new lords. In the same year, King Louis forwent all claims to, among other things, the “half” of Rheinböllen, referring the pledgeholders, John of Bohemia and Archbishop Baldwin, to Count Palatine Rudolf and the two Ruperts. In 1352, Rupert I, Elector Palatine enfeoffed the Electorate of Trier with half of Rheinböllen.
The court at Rheinböllen existed already by 1359 and was held on the plot of land where the Catholic church now stands. On the neighbouring “Henkersbitz” (Henker is German for “hangman”) stood the gallows
. In 1886, when excavation was being done for the church that was to be built there, workers unearthed, among other things, bones and skulls – all that was left of those hanged on the “Henkersbitz”.
About 1400, the Counts Palatine had enfeoffed several knightly families with parts of their Rheinböllen holdings, namely the families Knebel von Katzenelnbogen, von Crampurg, von Leyen, Futtersack von Steeg, Breitscheit von Richenstein and Hune von Bacharach. Even a family called the Knights of Rymbulle (Rheinböllen) crop up in documents from 1361 to 1389, although it is unknown whether or in what way they were linked with the town. Squire
Dietrich von Rymbulle was also the fiefholder of the Sponheim
Castle Kastellaun.
Two centuries later, Rheinböllen belonged to Electoral Palatinate and had 48 hearths (for which, read “households”). At that time in history, about 1600, many Electoral-Palatine lordships owned meadows within town limits: Anthonius Kratz von Scharfenstein, Antonius Waldbott zu Bassenheim, Friedrich Hundt von Seilen, Christoph von Stein, Hans Henrich von Schmidtburg zu Gemünden, Michel von Kallenfels, Hans Knebel von Katzenelnbogen, Hans Christoph von Grorode, the family von Koppenstein and Hans Caspar von Sponheim.
At the end of the Middle Ages
, Rheinböllen was a postal station on the route between Innsbruck
and Mechelen
, nowadays in Austria
and Belgium
respectively. An 18th-century geographical description explains that the road coming from Bacharach went through the market town. The reader furthermore learns something about the Electoral woodlands, the iron-ore mining in the Ledenwald (forest) and the Guldenbach (brook), which has this name only from Rheinböllen on down, being called the Volkenbach farther upstream.
By the late 17th century at the latest, Rheinböllen was a Schultheiß
erei together with Dichtelbach
and Erbach
. In the 18th century, Electoral Palatinate posted the local tollkeeper who collected the road tolls.
In 1794, Emperor Napoleon
annexed the Rhine’s left bank, which would remain French
for two decades. The Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Rheinböllen thereby became the Mairie (also “Mayoralty”) of Rheinböllen. The brewer and innkeeper Johann Jakob Mades served as maire (mayor). In 1804, the French emperor visited the Hunsrück in person, and young citizens from Rheinböllen, Dichtelbach, Ellern, Mörschbach
and Kleinweidelbach had to ride out to meet him.
When allied troops crossed the Rhine on New Year’s Night 1813-1814 near Kaub
, France’s hegemony in the region fell, and the Rhineland
became Prussia
n. On the day that followed, New Year’s Day 1814, Prince William, Field Marshal Blücher
and Field Marshal Gneisenau rested at the Evangelical
rectory for a few hours.
After the Congress of Vienna
, the earlier Mairies of Argenthal and Rheinböllen, along with Liebshausen
, were merged to form the Prussian Amt of Rheinböllen. Friedrich Mades, Johann Jakob Mades’s son, became the mayor and served in that capacity until his death in 1851 – 35 years all together.
Less than a century later, the village lived the blackest day in its history. On 16 March 1945, the Second World War was in its death throes, at least in Europe. On this morning, a handful of SS
men rather ill-advisedly decided to try to hold off the American
advance on Rheinböllen, and to that end, destroyed an American tank
. By way of response, the remaining tanks, supported by artillery
, let loose a furious barrage on Rheinböllen. Some 25 properties did not survive the onslaught and were utterly destroyed. All that was left standing of the Evangelical
church was the surrounding wall. The Catholic church’s tower, too, was struck, but somehow managed to stay standing. Amazingly, only one citizen was killed, but thirty families were left homeless on this day.
After the war, Rheinböllen’s skyline changed lastingly owing to steady growth. In rapid succession, one building zone after another sprang up, and the population rose sharply. In 1946, the year when Rheinböllen became part of the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
, there were 1,283 inhabitants. By 1985, this had risen threefold (3,661). The figure is now just under 4,000.
On 1 January 1969, one section of the municipality of Daxweiler
with 70 inhabitants was transferred to Rheinböllen. On 17 March 1974, the hitherto self-administering municipality of Kleinweidelbach with 113 inhabitants was amalgamated with Rheinböllen. On 5 September 2009, Rheinböllen was raised to town by the Rhineland-Palatinate state government.
, Rheinböllen was among the places in the Simmern district that had considerable Jewish populations. The earliest trace of Jewish settlement in the town goes back to the mid 19th century. In 1842, seventeen “Israelite” (so the document styles them) children were attending the Catholic school
. The oldest gravestone that can be deciphered at the Jewish graveyard on the road to Bacharach
gives 11 September 1867 as Gottlieb Rauner’s date of death. About 1900, there were eight Jewish families in town, all of whom earned livelihoods in retail business or trade. Older people in Rheinböllen can still remember names such as Hessel, Michels, Süßmann, Keller, Grünewald and Kann. The only Jewish
institution in the municipality was a small synagogue
on Bacharacher Straße. It is preserved. The memorial plaque there tells of the time in the town’s history that was brought to an abrupt end by the Nazis.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
The town’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Sable, issuant from base a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules.
Rheinböllen was the main centre in the so-called “Old Court” (Altes Gericht), the old Comital-Palatine holding on the Hunsrück. The lion “issuant from base” (a lion rampant is usually centred in the field with his whole body showing) is a “diminutive” of the Palatine Lion first borne by the House of Wittelsbach after they were enfeoffed with the County Palatine of the Rhine in 1214.
The arms have been borne since 18 May 1966.
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
At the Kulturhaus in Rheinböllen (KiR, “Culture House in Rheinböllen”), there are regular cultural festivities. Rheinböllen also has a waterpark and a 500-hectare game farm.
. The Puricelli Foundation was formerly an orphanage
with a lovely Gothic Revival
chapel. The endowment came from Mr. and Mrs. Puricelli.
The Foundation’s goal is to maintain its institution and building, which in great part are under monumental protection and worthy of being considered monuments and stand as cultural icons far beyond their home region (especially the chapel with its fixtures and paraments), and, for public and social purposes, especially accommodating and caring for the elderly, those who need care and the handicapped, to put itself at their disposal, as well as to present the whole complex’s importance to art history and cultural history with its equipment and furnishings.
On 1 November 2006, the Franziskanerbrüder, Betriebs u. Beschäftigungs gGmbh (“Franciscan
Brothers, Operation and Activity Not-for-Profit Corporation
”) took over sponsorship of the nursing home in Rheinböllen. The institution serves as a home for those with physical illnesses. Its name is Puricelli-Stift Rheinböllen.
event in Rheinböllen is the XMAS-DANCE-PARTY (so called even in German) staged by JuKu e.V. (Jugend- und Kulturverein – “Youth and Culture Club”). This event is always held shortly before Christmas
at the Kulturhaus in Rheinböllen and each year has about 1,000 guests.
on the Autobahn A 61
and is 15 km by road from Bacharach
on the Rhine, and also roughly 50 km from both Mainz
and Koblenz
.
munitions depot
, which lies south of town at the foot of the Hochsteinchen, has an area of 130 ha and 120 attendants. It has a siding on the Hunsrückquerbahn (railway). On 1 April 2004, the complex was downgraded from main munitions depot to depot/storage facility. Within the framework of the Bundeswehr’s structural reform, the depot is to be fully shut down in 2011.
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 is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde
Rheinböllen (Verbandsgemeinde)
Rheinböllen is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is in Rheinböllen...
, and also belongs to it.
Location
Rheinböllen lies some 10 km as the crow fliesAs the crow flies
"As the crow flies" or beelining is an idiom for the shortest route between two points; the geodesic distance.An example is the great-circle distance between Key West and Pensacola, at either end of the U.S...
southwest of the Middle Rhine
Middle Rhine
Between Bingen and Bonn, Germany, the Rhine River flows as the Middle Rhine through the Rhine Gorge, a formation created by erosion, which happened at about the same rate as an uplift in the region, leaving the river at about its original level, and the surrounding lands raised...
at Bacharach
Bacharach
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds....
in the southeast 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...
. The town is found in the transitional zone between (to the east) the Binger Wald (Bingen Forest) and (to the south) the Soonwald, a heavily wooded section of the west-central Hunsrück that since 2005 has belonged to the Naturpark Soonwald-Nahe.
Constituent communities
Rheinböllen has two outlying Stadtteile: Kleinweidelbach and Rheinböllerhütte.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 Rheinböllen amounts to 695 mm. This falls into the middle third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. Only at 39% 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 are lower figures 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 2% of the weather stations are lower seasonal swings recorded.
Name
The prefix Rhein— suggests some kind of historical dependence on Bacharach, to whose VogtVogt
A Vogt ; plural Vögte; Dutch voogd; Danish foged; ; ultimately from Latin [ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire was the German title of a reeve or advocate, an overlord exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice...
ei Rheinböllen may well once have belonged, before it passed to the Counts Palatine. The past teacher and local historian Junges traced Bollen to an old word meaning “hill” or “height”, leading to the interpretation of the name as meaning “Rhine Heights” (an apt description of the location, up on the Hunsrück). Through the ages, the name for Rheinböllen has taken many spellings: Rinbul, Rinbulle, Rynbuhel, Reynbullen, Rymbul, Rymbulen, Rynbule, Rinbelle, Bollen, Bullen, Rinbulde, Rheinbullen.
History
The Rheinböllen region was settled as early as the Stone AgeStone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
. Shortly after 1900, workmen digging near the railway station found a sharpened, polished stone axe, the earliest evidence of human habitation in what is now the town. 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 in the area of the Altdorf (“Old Village”, a triangle formed by the streets Simmerner Straße, Poststraße and Bahnhofstraße) point to Celtic beginnings. The Romans later drove a road through the settlement.
Street names used today, such as Wehr (“Defence”) and Hinterster Graben (“Hindmost Moat”) bear witness to a girding wall that once stood around the village. Rheinböllen was secured with two wall moats. An illustration from 1620 shows palisades on the wall, which itself had a defensive tower built into it.
Rheinböllen was the main centre in the so-called “Old Court” (Altes Gericht), the ancient core of Comital-Palatine lordship on the Hundisrück. Ellern
Ellern
Ellern 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 Rheinböllen, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies in...
, Erbach
Erbach, Rhineland-Palatinate
Erbach 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 Rheinböllen, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies in...
(in part), Dichtelbach
Dichtelbach
Dichtelbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Kleinweidelbach, too, might also have been part of it. This “Old Court” likely had arisen by 1142, when Hermann von Stahleck was awarded the County Palatine by his brother-in-law, King Conrad III
Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.-Life and reign:...
. The places within this landholding all lay in the archdeaconry of the Mainz Cathedral Provost’s office, and thereby likely in the Nahegau
Nahegau
The Nahegau was in the Middle Ages a county, which covered the environs of the Nahe and large parts of present-day Rhenish Hesse, after a successful expansion of the narrow territory, which did not reach the Rhine, to the disadvantage of the Wormsgau...
. In the east, it bordered on Saint Peter’s Parish, Bacharach, to which Rheinböllen definitely belonged, at least ecclesiastically.
After Hermann von Stahleck’s death, Emperor Barbarossa
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick I Barbarossa was a German Holy Roman Emperor. He was elected King of Germany at Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March, crowned King of Italy in Pavia in 1155, and finally crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV, on 18 June 1155, and two years later in 1157 the term...
transferred the County Palatine in 1156 to his stepbrother Konrad, who also held rights to estates in the Nahegau, to which Rheinböllen also almost certainly belonged.
The oldest known document about the town is a lease, dated 1 May 1309, concluded by Johann von dem Stein, serving as the Burgrave
Burgrave
A burgrave is literally the count of a castle or fortified town. The English form is derived through the French from the German Burggraf and Dutch burg- or burch-graeve .* The title is originally equivalent to that of castellan or châtelain, meaning keeper of a castle and/or fortified town...
at Böckelheim, and 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...
of Rheinböllen. The Burgrave held two fields in the Bischofsfeld as a Palatine fief, and transferred them to the municipality.
Rheinböllen was apparently a town once before. In 1316, the settlement was recorded as being an oppidum, the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word used 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....
times for any centre resembling a town, and in historical records made as late as the 13th and 14th centuries, it was still appearing in this meaning, describing 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...
towns.
Emperor 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....
and his elder brother Rudolf shared between themselves ownership of the Rhenish Palatinate. To curry the Rhenish princes’ favour, Louis pledged, right after his regency began in 1314, the Altes Gericht together with Castle Fürstenberg and the settlements of Diebach and Manubach
Manubach
Manubach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...
to Archbishop of Mainz Peter. Two years thereafter, Louis transferred half the village to Archbishop of Trier Baldwin, and another four years later to King John of Bohemia, Baldwin’s nephew, whereupon the other half of the village was now given to the Archbishop. The settlement was a main centre in the County Palatine – and was likely at that time said to be a town – until 1359, through a pledge of 1,800 Florentine guilders, Simmern became part of the holding and was later raised to seat of the Amt.
As early as the 12th century, Rheinböllen supposedly had a marketplace within its walls. There is evidence that Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine granted market rights between 1314 and 1347. Markets have been part of Rheinböllen ever since. Livestock markets were still being held at the outbreak of the Second World War on the “Sauwasen” (the plot of land where the primary school now stands), and each year, there is still a craft market on Kermis Tuesday.
Rheinböllen’s landholders changed often in the 14th and 15th centuries. Under the 1338 Palatine Partition among Rudolf II, Rupert the Younger and Rupert the Elder, the lordship over Rheinböllen changed once again: the two Ruperts – their name was “Ruprecht” 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....
– became the new lords. In the same year, King Louis forwent all claims to, among other things, the “half” of Rheinböllen, referring the pledgeholders, John of Bohemia and Archbishop Baldwin, to Count Palatine Rudolf and the two Ruperts. In 1352, Rupert I, Elector Palatine enfeoffed the Electorate of Trier with half of Rheinböllen.
The court at Rheinböllen existed already by 1359 and was held on the plot of land where the Catholic church now stands. On the neighbouring “Henkersbitz” (Henker is German for “hangman”) stood the 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...
. In 1886, when excavation was being done for the church that was to be built there, workers unearthed, among other things, bones and skulls – all that was left of those hanged on the “Henkersbitz”.
About 1400, the Counts Palatine had enfeoffed several knightly families with parts of their Rheinböllen holdings, namely the families Knebel von Katzenelnbogen, von Crampurg, von Leyen, Futtersack von Steeg, Breitscheit von Richenstein and Hune von Bacharach. Even a family called the Knights of Rymbulle (Rheinböllen) crop up in documents from 1361 to 1389, although it is unknown whether or in what way they were linked with the town. Squire
Squire
The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...
Dietrich von Rymbulle was also the fiefholder of the Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
Castle Kastellaun.
Two centuries later, Rheinböllen belonged to Electoral Palatinate and had 48 hearths (for which, read “households”). At that time in history, about 1600, many Electoral-Palatine lordships owned meadows within town limits: Anthonius Kratz von Scharfenstein, Antonius Waldbott zu Bassenheim, Friedrich Hundt von Seilen, Christoph von Stein, Hans Henrich von Schmidtburg zu Gemünden, Michel von Kallenfels, Hans Knebel von Katzenelnbogen, Hans Christoph von Grorode, the family von Koppenstein and Hans Caspar von Sponheim.
At the end of 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...
, Rheinböllen was a postal station on the route between Innsbruck
Innsbruck
- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...
and Mechelen
Mechelen
Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...
, nowadays in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and 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...
respectively. An 18th-century geographical description explains that the road coming from Bacharach went through the market town. The reader furthermore learns something about the Electoral woodlands, the iron-ore mining in the Ledenwald (forest) and the Guldenbach (brook), which has this name only from Rheinböllen on down, being called the Volkenbach farther upstream.
By the late 17th century at the latest, Rheinböllen was a 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...
erei together with Dichtelbach
Dichtelbach
Dichtelbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Erbach
Erbach, Rhineland-Palatinate
Erbach 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 Rheinböllen, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies in...
. In the 18th century, Electoral Palatinate posted the local tollkeeper who collected the road tolls.
In 1794, Emperor 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...
annexed the Rhine’s left bank, which would remain 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...
for two decades. The Bürgermeisterei (“Mayoralty”) of Rheinböllen thereby became the Mairie (also “Mayoralty”) of Rheinböllen. The brewer and innkeeper Johann Jakob Mades served as maire (mayor). In 1804, the French emperor visited the Hunsrück in person, and young citizens from Rheinböllen, Dichtelbach, Ellern, Mörschbach
Mörschbach
Mörschbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
and Kleinweidelbach had to ride out to meet him.
When allied troops crossed the Rhine on New Year’s Night 1813-1814 near Kaub
Kaub
Kaub is a town in Germany, state Rhineland-Palatinate, district Rhein-Lahn-Kreis. It is part of the municipality Loreley. It is located on the right bank of the Rhine, approx. 50 km west from Wiesbaden. It is connected to Wiesbaden and Koblenz by railway. Population 1100...
, France’s hegemony in the region fell, and 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....
became 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...
n. On the day that followed, New Year’s Day 1814, Prince William, Field Marshal Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt , Graf , later elevated to Fürst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington.He is...
and Field Marshal Gneisenau rested at 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...
rectory for a few hours.
After 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,...
, the earlier Mairies of Argenthal and Rheinböllen, along with Liebshausen
Liebshausen
Liebshausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, were merged to form the Prussian Amt of Rheinböllen. Friedrich Mades, Johann Jakob Mades’s son, became the mayor and served in that capacity until his death in 1851 – 35 years all together.
Less than a century later, the village lived the blackest day in its history. On 16 March 1945, the Second World War was in its death throes, at least in Europe. On this morning, a handful of SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
men rather ill-advisedly decided to try to hold off the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
advance on Rheinböllen, and to that end, destroyed an American tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
. By way of response, the remaining tanks, supported by artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, let loose a furious barrage on Rheinböllen. Some 25 properties did not survive the onslaught and were utterly destroyed. All that was left standing of 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...
church was the surrounding wall. The Catholic church’s tower, too, was struck, but somehow managed to stay standing. Amazingly, only one citizen was killed, but thirty families were left homeless on this day.
After the war, Rheinböllen’s skyline changed lastingly owing to steady growth. In rapid succession, one building zone after another sprang up, and the population rose sharply. In 1946, the year when Rheinböllen became 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 ....
, there were 1,283 inhabitants. By 1985, this had risen threefold (3,661). The figure is now just under 4,000.
On 1 January 1969, one section of the municipality of Daxweiler
Daxweiler
Daxweiler is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany....
with 70 inhabitants was transferred to Rheinböllen. On 17 March 1974, the hitherto self-administering municipality of Kleinweidelbach with 113 inhabitants was amalgamated with Rheinböllen. On 5 September 2009, Rheinböllen was raised to town by the Rhineland-Palatinate state government.
Former Jewish presence
Until the time of the “Thousand-Year Reich”Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Rheinböllen was among the places in the Simmern district that had considerable Jewish populations. The earliest trace of Jewish settlement in the town goes back to the mid 19th century. In 1842, seventeen “Israelite” (so the document styles them) children were attending the Catholic school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
. The oldest gravestone that can be deciphered at the Jewish graveyard on the road to Bacharach
Bacharach
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds....
gives 11 September 1867 as Gottlieb Rauner’s date of death. About 1900, there were eight Jewish families in town, all of whom earned livelihoods in retail business or trade. Older people in Rheinböllen can still remember names such as Hessel, Michels, Süßmann, Keller, Grünewald and Kann. The only Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
institution in the municipality was a small synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
on Bacharacher Straße. It is preserved. The memorial plaque there tells of the time in the town’s history that was brought to an abrupt end by the Nazis.
Population development
What follows is a table of the town’s population figures for selected years since the early 19th century (each time at 31 December):
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|
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Town council
The council is made up of 20 council members, who were elected by proportional representationProportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
CDU | FWG | Total | |
| 2009 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 20 seats |
Mayor
Rheinböllen’s mayor is Siegfried (“Siggi”) Herrmann, and his deputies are Hans-Werner Hawig, Siegmund Kappel and Erich Rott.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Schwarz ein wachsender goldener, rotgezungter und -bewehrter ¾ Löwe.The town’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: Sable, issuant from base a lion rampant Or armed and langued gules.
Rheinböllen was the main centre in the so-called “Old Court” (Altes Gericht), the old Comital-Palatine holding on the Hunsrück. The lion “issuant from base” (a lion rampant is usually centred in the field with his whole body showing) is a “diminutive” of the Palatine Lion first borne by the House of Wittelsbach after they were enfeoffed with the County Palatine of the Rhine in 1214.
The arms have been borne since 18 May 1966.
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:
Rheinböllen (main centre)
- 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, Bacharacher Straße 10 – BaroqueBaroque architectureBaroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...
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...
, 1764/1765, extension 1845/1846, tower substructure possibly mediaevalMiddle AgesThe 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...
; balustrade wall around the church, 18th century; at the head of the quire the Utsch-Puricelli family tomb with Carl Puricelli’s ClassicistClassicismClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
tomb; monumental zone with possible former rectory and schoolSchoolA school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
(Marktstraße 13) - Saint Erasmus’sErasmus of FormiaeSaint Erasmus of Formiae was a Christian saint and martyr who died ca. 303, also known as Saint Elmo. He is venerated as the patron saint of sailors...
Catholic Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Erasmus), Kirchgasse 4 – Gothic RevivalGothic Revival architectureThe Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
hall churchHall churchA hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....
, brick, 1870–1872; monumental zone with Catholic rectory (Kirchgasse 5) and former school (Kirchgasse 3) - (Before) Am Markt 1 – fountain, ClassicistClassicismClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
sandstoneSandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
pylon, 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...
basin, 1840 - Am Markt 1 – old town hall; Gothic Revival brick building, 1873
- Bacharacher Straße 8 – possible former rectory; 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, 1730–1733 - Bacharacher Straße 11, former orphanage, Puricelli’sche Stiftung (monumental zone) – group of buildings enclosed by a wall: gate marked 18??; former orphanageOrphanageAn orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
, Gothic Revival quarrystone building, 1862–1864; 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,...
of the Immaculate ConceptionImmaculate ConceptionThe Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
, three-naved quarrystone building, 1887/1888, rich Gothic Revival décor; former hospital, quarrystone building; timber-frame administration building, garden (see also below) - Kirchgasse – cross, 18th century
- Kirchgasse 3 – former schoolSchoolA school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
; great timber-frame house, partly solid or slated, 1780 - Liebshausener Straße, graveyard – quarrystone chapel, 19th century; Gothic Revival Puricelli tomb, Utsch tomb, about 1860; tomb for ?, about 1844; block with vase and cloth; Illades tomb, about 1851; Smirdainiskow tomb, cast-iron, Rheinböllen Ironworks, latter half of the 19th century; fountain basin, cast-iron, Rheinböllen Ironworks, latter half of the 19th century
- Simmerner Straße/corner of Poststraße – Puricelli tomb chapel; Gothic Revival brick building, marked 1891
- Wehrstraße 8 – wellhouse, brick building; cast-iron hand pump, Rheinböllen Ironworks, latter half of the 19th century
- Hochsteinchen lookout tower, south of town on the “Hochsteinchen” – iron construction, 1893
- JewishJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
graveyard, Auf dem Rockenberg (monumental zone) – founded in 1845, some 20 gravestones from 1852 to 1935
Kleinweidelbach
- Kleinweidelbach 7, bakehouse and community centre – quarrystone building, 18th century
Rheinböllerhütte
- Rheinböllen Ironworks (monumental zone) – formerly the most important ironworks in the Soonwald, known from the 9th century, foundry witnessed from 1598, in late 18th century taken over by the Brothers Puricelli; group of buildings from the 1830s/1840s and 1880s/1890s (new management house, old storage hall, gatehouse/magazine, so-called casino, houses, former gardener’s house and bridge) as well as the family Puricelli’s Saint Mary’sMary (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...
and Saint Michael’sMichael (archangel)Michael , Micha'el or Mîkhā'ēl; , Mikhaḗl; or Míchaël; , Mīkhā'īl) is an archangel in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic teachings. Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Lutherans refer to him as Saint Michael the Archangel and also simply as Saint Michael...
Crypt Chapel (see next entry) - Teves-Straße – family Puricelli’s crypt chapel (Gruftkkapelle St. Maria und St. Michael der Familie Puricelli); quarrystone aisleless church, 1857, expansion with triconch apsesTetraconchA tetraconch, from the Greek for "four shells", is a building, usually a church or other religious building, with four apses, one in each direction, usually of equal size. The basic ground plan of the building is therefore a Greek cross...
and crossingCrossing (architecture)A crossing, in ecclesiastical architecture, is the junction of the four arms of a cruciform church.In a typically oriented church , the crossing gives access to the nave on the west, the transept arms on the north and south, and the choir on the east.The crossing is sometimes surmounted by a tower...
tower, 1906, architect Eduard Endler, CologneCologneCologne 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... - Teves-Straße 6-8 – house, latter half of the 19th century
- Teves-Straße 20 – gatehouse/magazine; one-floor quarrystone building with clocktower, about 1830/1840; bridge, about 1840
- Teves-Straße 21 – Late Classicist two-winged building, 1860
- Teves-Straße 24 – so-called casino; former plastered house, hewn-stone building with knee wall, latter half of the 19th century
- Teves-Straße 30 – former gardener’s house; one-floor building with hipped mansard roofMansard roofA mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper that is punctured by dormer windows. The roof creates an additional floor of habitable space, such as a garret...
, timber framing plastered, 18th or 19th century; quarrystone barn, partly timber-frame, half-hipped roof, 19th century; bridge, mid 19th century
At the Kulturhaus in Rheinböllen (KiR, “Culture House in Rheinböllen”), there are regular cultural festivities. Rheinböllen also has a waterpark and a 500-hectare game farm.
Puricelli Foundation
The Puricelli’sche Stiftung (Puricelli Foundation) was built between 1864 and 1891 and today stands under monumental protection, and is also protected by the Hague ConventionHague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict
The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict is an international treaty that requires its signatories to protect cultural property in war. It was signed at The Hague, Netherlands, on May 14, 1954, and entered into force August 7, 1956...
. The Puricelli Foundation was formerly an orphanage
Orphanage
An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
with a lovely Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
chapel. The endowment came from Mr. and Mrs. Puricelli.
The Foundation’s goal is to maintain its institution and building, which in great part are under monumental protection and worthy of being considered monuments and stand as cultural icons far beyond their home region (especially the chapel with its fixtures and paraments), and, for public and social purposes, especially accommodating and caring for the elderly, those who need care and the handicapped, to put itself at their disposal, as well as to present the whole complex’s importance to art history and cultural history with its equipment and furnishings.
On 1 November 2006, the Franziskanerbrüder, Betriebs u. Beschäftigungs gGmbh (“Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Brothers, Operation and Activity Not-for-Profit Corporation
Nonprofit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
”) took over sponsorship of the nursing home in Rheinböllen. The institution serves as a home for those with physical illnesses. Its name is Puricelli-Stift Rheinböllen.
Regular events
In Rheinböllen, regular events such as Christmas markets and a kermis (church consecration festival) are held. The biggest discoDisco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
event in Rheinböllen is the XMAS-DANCE-PARTY (so called even in German) staged by JuKu e.V. (Jugend- und Kulturverein – “Youth and Culture Club”). This event is always held shortly before Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
at the Kulturhaus in Rheinböllen and each year has about 1,000 guests.
Economy and infrastructure
Rheinböllen has its own interchangeInterchange (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...
on 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....
and is 15 km by road from Bacharach
Bacharach
Bacharach is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Rhein-Nahe, whose seat is in Bingen am Rhein, although that town is not within its bounds....
on the Rhine, and also roughly 50 km from both Mainz
Mainz
Mainz 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...
and Koblenz
Koblenz
Koblenz is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck and its monument are situated.As Koblenz was one of the military posts established by Drusus about 8 BC, the...
.
Rheinböllen munitions depot
The BundeswehrBundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
munitions depot
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
, which lies south of town at the foot of the Hochsteinchen, has an area of 130 ha and 120 attendants. It has a siding on the Hunsrückquerbahn (railway). On 1 April 2004, the complex was downgraded from main munitions depot to depot/storage facility. Within the framework of the Bundeswehr’s structural reform, the depot is to be fully shut down in 2011.
Sons and daughters of the town
- Friedrich Wilhelm Utsch (1732–1795), hereditary forester to the Elector of Mainz; said to be the Jäger aus Kurpfalz (“Hunter from Electoral Palatinate”), a well known folksong.
Famous people associated with the town
- Leonhard Goffiné (1648–1719), PremonstratensianPremonstratensianThe Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré, also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines, or in Britain and Ireland as the White Canons , are a Catholic religious order of canons regular founded at Prémontré near Laon in 1120 by Saint Norbert, who later became Archbishop of Magdeburg...
Canon and religious folk writer; was pastor in Rheinböllen in the 17th century