Willebadessen
Encyclopedia
Willebadessen is a town in Höxter
district and Detmold
region in North Rhine-Westphalia
, Germany
.
(the southern extension of the Teutoburg Forest
) about 25 km southeast of Paderborn
, and is crossed by the little river Nethe, which rises in the neighbouring community of Bad Driburg-Neuenheerse
, emptying eventually into the Weser near Höxter
-Godelheim.
Borlinghausen was first mentioned in a document on 8 December 1065 under the name Burchartinchusen in German King, later Emperor, Henry IV's
(1050–1106) time, which was also marked by his "Walk to Canossa
" in 1077. In the aforesaid year, Henry donated to his old teacher, the Archbishop Adalbert
of Hamburg-Bremen, a forested lordly estate in the gau of Engern. The document in question laid out the boundaries of the estate in question quite thoroughly, mentioning several local centres, including Burchartinchusen.
It is believed that the village's founder was a man named Burchard, since its name would seem to be Old High German for "at Burchard's houses".
Over the centuries, the village has undergone several name changes: Burchartinghusen (1102), Burchardinchuson (1120), Borgardinchusen (1232), Borninghusen (1584), Bornighusen, Borlinghusen, and finally Borlinghausen, locally pronounced "Burnechousen".
Borlinghausen's beginnings were sometime before the first documentary mention, in Saxon
times between 500 and 800, at which time it formed the western part of the "Mark Löwen". It was in this time that most places with names ending in —hausen came into being. The Mark Löwen in turn belonged to the Hessian-Saxon Gau.
Emperor Charlemagne conquered the Duchy of Saxony
in the years 772 to 804. The Gaue (roughly, regions) that had been in force until then were each placed under a count and were thereafter known as counties (Grafschaften). The Emperor demanded suzerainty
over the marches, and the counts' power grew ever greater with their burdens. Charlemagne forced the Saxons, under threat of death, to convert to Christianity
and have themselves baptized
.
For 800 years, Borlinghausen was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn after Count Dodiko of Warburg
donated his estate to Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn about 1000. This only ended with Prussia
n secularization in 1803.
In 1376, a knight from Epe held the Borlinghausen estate as a fief from the Counts of Waldeck
.
In 1411, after the lordly Spiegel
family's Borlinghausen line had died out, the Counts of Waldeck handed the fief to their kin, Gerd von Spiegel zu Peckelsheim, including the village, the castle
and the church fief.
Johann von Spiegel zu Peckelsheim, after his death in 1559, bequeathed his estate to his four sons Georg, Werner, Raban and David. This included Schweckhausen, Borlinghausen, Holtheim and Ikenhausen, as well as farms and other agricultural lands, tithe
s and other rights in Peckelsheim, Drankhausen, Willegassen, Löwen
and Körbecke. This bequest was divided among the sons in 1577, and Borlinghausen passed to Werner, who had already taken his father's old position as Hereditary Marshal of the Prince-Bishop of Paderborn
. In 1587, Werner ended work on the moat-ringed stately home that was being built in Borlinghausen. He died in 1594 and was succeeded by his son, who had not yet come of age.
By 1755, the Hereditary Marshal was Johann Heinrich von Spiegel, who had been in the service of the Duchy of Brunswick
, and who in this year founded the local shooting club. He was succeeded in 1789 by his only son Karl Franz Theodor von Spiegel.
Under the Treaties of Tilsit
on 9 July 1807, Prussia had to cede all its territory west of the Elbe
to the French
Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte. Out of this was made, among other entities, the Kingdom of Westphalia
, which the Emperor gave his younger brother, Jérôme Bonaparte
; Borlinghausen was in this kingdom.
The Baron of Spiegel-Borlinghausen became King Jérôme's chamberlain, and his son a captain in his army in 1813. Each community was given a maire, and the Baron was given this post in Borlinghausen, which now belonged to the Canton
of Peckelsheim in the District of Höxter in the Department of Fulda. After the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig
from 16 to 19 October 1813, the French were forced to flee.
In 1822, Karl Josef von Spiegel inherited the Borlinghausen Estate and bequeathed it to his only child Marie Louise who wed Franz Karl Freiherr von Elmendorff in 1835. She sold the Borlinghausen Estate four years later to the Protestant banking family Bierbaum from Braunschweig
who had lent her 44,000 Thaler
s seven years earlier so that she could pay her mother and uncle off. This brought an end to the Spiegel overlordship after five centuries.
In 1860, Julius Bierbaum sold the Borlinghausen Estate to Oswald Freiherr von Wendt, a former Catholic lieutenant colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army, who had the Borlinghausen Church of Saint Mary Help of the Christians built. The Baron's coat of arms can still be seen over the entrance – three helms.
In the First World War, 63 Borlinghausen townsfolk joined the Imperial forces, 22 of them seeing active duty, and 13 of these losing their lives.
In the Second World War, 88 Borlinghausen townsfolk joined the Nazi
forces, 23 of them losing their lives and 5 going missing in action.
In 1965, Borlinghausen celebrated its 900th anniversary of first documentary mention.
farm was mentioned. Sometime between 1000 and 1100, a stone church consecrated to Saint Liborius
was built in Eissen on the initiative of the Bishopric of Paderborn, to which the church was subject. The church became the parish church, with Eissen as the parish.
In 1447, Bohemia
n mercenaries destroyed the village of Sunrike between Eissen and Borgentreich
on their retreat from the siege of Soest
. In 1632, Eissen, too, along with many other places in the region, was sacked by Hesse-Kassel
(or Hesse-Cassel) troops in the Thirty Years' War
. In that same war, the Imperial forces along with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
and Ottavio Piccolomini moved into winter quarters in the Princely Bishopric of Paderborn, bringing about hunger
, illness
, pestilence
and death
to the whole area. Before the war ended, the Warburger Land was once again sacked by Hesse-Kassel troops, and occupied, in 1641-1647.
There was also fighting in the area during the Seven Years' War
. Furthermore, from 1 December 1758 until Easter
1759, four squadrons of Hessian dragoon
s were billeted in Eissen and neighbouring places. From autumn 1760 to early summer 1761, 42 people (12% of the population) died from the war's effects.
In 1812, two men from Eissen lost their lives in Napoléon Bonaparte's disastrous Russian campaign after having been impressed
into his Grande Armée. Later in the 19th century, one Eissener did not come back from the Franco-Prussian War
in 1871, and three further men later died, likely from their wounds.
On 6 May 1879, a great fire burnt 47 houses down in 20 minutes. The conflagration had been started by a twelve-year-old schoolboy who had been in a goat stall secretly trying a cigar stub that he had found.
On 1 October 1876, Eissen was joined to the railway network on the Scherfede-Holzminden
line, and was given its own station.
In the First World War, 30 Eissen townsfolk lost their lives. In the Second World War, 71 Eissen townsfolk fell.
On 1 April 1945, a Wehrmacht
infantry company entrenched itself at the southern edge of the village, which drew fire from advancing US
troops coming from Hohenwepel. The church and the Kornhaus were thereby heavily damaged and 47 properties were utterly destroyed. The whole of Eissen was damaged, but only two villagers were wounded and none killed. At the end, 14 German and 3 American soldiers had fallen, and 65 Wehrmacht soldiers had become prisoners of war
. The rest withdrew along the railway line towards Borgholz.
On 2 June 1984, passenger service on this railway line was discontinued, leaving Eissen without rail transport.
, namely from Lo or Loh (an old German word for forest) and Venn (marsh or wetland; the word is cognate
with the English word fen
), describing a boggy wood. This later shifted to Löwen – German for "lions" – but it seems unlikely that the name has anything to do with the big cats.
Owing to the fires, very few historic buildings are to be found in Peckelsheim.
Factional chairman: Hubertus Gockeln
Factional chairman: Manfred Feierabend
shows two figures, namely Saint Vitus and Bishop Dietrich of Paderborn. Formerly, in arms granted in 1908, Mary holding the baby Jesus
stood where the Bishop is now. Furthermore, three towers sprouted from the top of the two Gothic
doorframes. This coat of arms was based on the town's oldest known seal, from 1318, and the seal itself had been based on one used by the local convent
that had founded the town, perhaps explaining its religious theme; Vitus and Mary were the two patron saint
s.
The new arms with the Bishop, and without Mary and the towers, were granted on 17 February 1977. The knobs over the doorways have also been rearranged so that there are now thirteen – one for each constituent community.
Willebadessen also has a railway halt from which trains run two-hourly to Warburg and Münster
.
Höxter (district)
Höxter is a Kreis in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Holzminden, Northeim, Kassel, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Hochsauerland, Paderborn, and Lippe.-History:...
district and Detmold
Detmold (region)
The Regierungsbezirk Detmold is one of the five Regierungsbezirke of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the north-east of the state...
region in North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, 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...
.
Location
Willebadessen lies on the eastern edge of the EggegebirgeEggegebirge
The Eggegebirge is a range of low, forested mountains in the very east of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.-Geography:The Eggegebirge extends from the southern tip of the Teutoburger Wald range near Horn-Bad Meinberg southwards to the northern parts of the Sauerland near Marsberg...
(the southern extension of the Teutoburg Forest
Teutoburg Forest
The Teutoburg Forest is a range of low, forested mountains in the German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia which used to be believed to be the scene of a decisive battle in AD 9...
) about 25 km southeast of Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...
, and is crossed by the little river Nethe, which rises in the neighbouring community of Bad Driburg-Neuenheerse
Bad Driburg
Bad Driburg is a town and spa in Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, pleasantly situated on the Aa and the historic railway Soest-Höxter-Berlin....
, emptying eventually into the Weser near Höxter
Höxter
Höxter is the seat of the Höxter district, and a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia on the left bank of the river Weser, 52 km north of Kassel in the centre of the Weser Uplands...
-Godelheim.
Constituent communities
- Altenheerse
- Borlinghausen
- EissenEissenEissen is a Westphalian village with 718 inhabitants in North Rhine-Westphalia and part of the town of Willebadessen, district Höxter in the administrative region of Detmold.-Name:Eissen has passed through a long evolution...
- Engar
- FölsenFölsenFölsen is a small village in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with about 200 inhabitants.- Attractions :Fölsen is the head church of Niesen and Helmern. It has a small Pub placed at the village square and a historic church...
- Helmern
- Ikenhausen
- Löwen
- Niesen
- Peckelsheim
- Schweckhausen
- Willebadessen
- Willegassen
Borlinghausen
Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...
(1050–1106) time, which was also marked by his "Walk to Canossa
Walk to Canossa
The Walk to Canossa refers to both the trek itself of Henry IV of the Holy Roman Empire from Speyer to the fortress at Canossa in Emilia Romagna and to the events surrounding his journey, which took place in and around January 1077.-Historical background:When, in his early...
" in 1077. In the aforesaid year, Henry donated to his old teacher, the Archbishop Adalbert
Adalbert of Hamburg
This article is about Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen. For other uses, see Adalbert .Adalbert of Hamburg-Bremen was a German prelate, who was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen from 1043 until his death...
of Hamburg-Bremen, a forested lordly estate in the gau of Engern. The document in question laid out the boundaries of the estate in question quite thoroughly, mentioning several local centres, including Burchartinchusen.
It is believed that the village's founder was a man named Burchard, since its name would seem to be Old High German for "at Burchard's houses".
Over the centuries, the village has undergone several name changes: Burchartinghusen (1102), Burchardinchuson (1120), Borgardinchusen (1232), Borninghusen (1584), Bornighusen, Borlinghusen, and finally Borlinghausen, locally pronounced "Burnechousen".
Borlinghausen's beginnings were sometime before the first documentary mention, in Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
times between 500 and 800, at which time it formed the western part of the "Mark Löwen". It was in this time that most places with names ending in —hausen came into being. The Mark Löwen in turn belonged to the Hessian-Saxon Gau.
Duchy of Saxony
The medieval Duchy of Saxony was a late Early Middle Ages "Carolingian stem duchy" covering the greater part of Northern Germany. It covered the area of the modern German states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Saxony-Anhalt and most of Schleswig-Holstein...
in the years 772 to 804. The Gaue (roughly, regions) that had been in force until then were each placed under a count and were thereafter known as counties (Grafschaften). The Emperor demanded suzerainty
Suzerainty
Suzerainty occurs where a region or people is a tributary to a more powerful entity which controls its foreign affairs while allowing the tributary vassal state some limited domestic autonomy. The dominant entity in the suzerainty relationship, or the more powerful entity itself, is called a...
over the marches, and the counts' power grew ever greater with their burdens. Charlemagne forced the Saxons, under threat of death, to convert to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and have themselves baptized
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
.
For 800 years, Borlinghausen was part of the Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn after Count Dodiko of Warburg
Warburg
Warburg is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is in Höxter district and Detmold region...
donated his estate to Bishop Meinwerk of Paderborn about 1000. This only ended with 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 secularization in 1803.
In 1376, a knight from Epe held the Borlinghausen estate as a fief from the Counts of Waldeck
Waldeck (state)
Waldeck was a sovereign principality in the German Empire and German Confederation and, until 1929, a constituent state of the Weimar Republic. It comprised territories in present-day Hesse and Lower Saxony, ....
.
In 1411, after the lordly Spiegel
Spiegel (surname)
Spiegel is a surname of German origin. In German language Spiegel means mirror.Spiegel is an ancient German Christian surname. Family tradition says it was taken from a town or lake named Spiegel. There is a small community south of Munich named Spiegel...
family's Borlinghausen line had died out, the Counts of Waldeck handed the fief to their kin, Gerd von Spiegel zu Peckelsheim, including the village, the 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...
and the church fief.
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
s and other rights in Peckelsheim, Drankhausen, Willegassen, Löwen
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
and Körbecke. This bequest was divided among the sons in 1577, and Borlinghausen passed to Werner, who had already taken his father's old position as Hereditary Marshal of the Prince-Bishop of Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...
. In 1587, Werner ended work on the moat-ringed stately home that was being built in Borlinghausen. He died in 1594 and was succeeded by his son, who had not yet come of age.
By 1755, the Hereditary Marshal was Johann Heinrich von Spiegel, who had been in the service of the Duchy of Brunswick
Brunswick-Lüneburg
The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , or more properly Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg, was an historical ducal state from the late Middle Ages until the late Early Modern era within the North-Western domains of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, in what is now northern Germany...
, and who in this year founded the local shooting club. He was succeeded in 1789 by his only son Karl Franz Theodor von Spiegel.
Under the Treaties of Tilsit
Treaties of Tilsit
The Treaties of Tilsit were two agreements signed by Napoleon I of France in the town of Tilsit in July, 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland. The first was signed on 7 July, between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon I of France, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman...
on 9 July 1807, Prussia had to cede all its territory west of the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
to the 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...
Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte. Out of this was made, among other entities, the Kingdom of Westphalia
Kingdom of Westphalia
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a new country of 2.6 million Germans that existed from 1807-1813. It included of territory in Hesse and other parts of present-day Germany. While formally independent, it was a vassal state of the First French Empire, ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte...
, which the Emperor gave his younger brother, Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, French Prince, King of Westphalia, 1st Prince of Montfort was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him king of Westphalia...
; Borlinghausen was in this kingdom.
The Baron of Spiegel-Borlinghausen became King Jérôme's chamberlain, and his son a captain in his army in 1813. Each community was given a maire, and the Baron was given this post in Borlinghausen, which now belonged to the Canton
Canton (subnational entity)
A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared to other administrative divisions such as counties, departments or provinces. Internationally the best-known cantons, and the most politically...
of Peckelsheim in the District of Höxter in the Department of Fulda. After the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
from 16 to 19 October 1813, the French were forced to flee.
In 1822, Karl Josef von Spiegel inherited the Borlinghausen Estate and bequeathed it to his only child Marie Louise who wed Franz Karl Freiherr von Elmendorff in 1835. She sold the Borlinghausen Estate four years later to the Protestant banking family Bierbaum from Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
who had lent her 44,000 Thaler
Thaler
The Thaler was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in various currencies as the dollar or tolar. Etymologically, "Thaler" is an abbreviation of "Joachimsthaler", a coin type from the city of Joachimsthal in Bohemia, where some of the first such...
s seven years earlier so that she could pay her mother and uncle off. This brought an end to the Spiegel overlordship after five centuries.
In 1860, Julius Bierbaum sold the Borlinghausen Estate to Oswald Freiherr von Wendt, a former Catholic lieutenant colonel in the Austro-Hungarian Army, who had the Borlinghausen Church of Saint Mary Help of the Christians built. The Baron's coat of arms can still be seen over the entrance – three helms.
In the First World War, 63 Borlinghausen townsfolk joined the Imperial forces, 22 of them seeing active duty, and 13 of these losing their lives.
In the Second World War, 88 Borlinghausen townsfolk joined the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
forces, 23 of them losing their lives and 5 going missing in action.
In 1965, Borlinghausen celebrated its 900th anniversary of first documentary mention.
Eissen
Between 1001 and 1010 came Eissen's first documentary mention under the name Aieshusun in the Corvey Abbey's donation register. About 1080 a monasteryMonastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
farm was mentioned. Sometime between 1000 and 1100, a stone church consecrated to Saint Liborius
Saint Liborius
Liborius of Le Mans was the second Bishop of Le Mans. He is the patron saint of the cathedral and archdiocese of Paderborn in Germany. The year of his birth is unknown; he died in 397, reputedly on 23 July.-Le Mans and Paderborn:...
was built in Eissen on the initiative of the Bishopric of Paderborn, to which the church was subject. The church became the parish church, with Eissen as the parish.
In 1447, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n mercenaries destroyed the village of Sunrike between Eissen and Borgentreich
Borgentreich
Borgentreich is a municipality in Höxter district in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Geography :Borgentreich lies roughly 20 km south of Brakel and 10 km northeast of Warburg....
on their retreat from the siege of Soest
Soest, Germany
Soest is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Soest district. After Lippstadt, a neighbouring town, Soest is the second biggest town in its district.-Geography:...
. In 1632, Eissen, too, along with many other places in the region, was sacked by Hesse-Kassel
Hesse-Kassel
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel or Hesse-Cassel was a state in the Holy Roman Empire under Imperial immediacy that came into existence when the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided in 1567 upon the death of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. His eldest son William IV inherited the northern half and the...
(or Hesse-Cassel) 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....
. In that same war, the Imperial forces along with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria was an Austrian military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, and a patron of the arts.-Biography:...
and Ottavio Piccolomini moved into winter quarters in the Princely Bishopric of Paderborn, bringing about hunger
Hunger
Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...
, illness
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
, pestilence
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
and death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
to the whole area. Before the war ended, the Warburger Land was once again sacked by Hesse-Kassel troops, and occupied, in 1641-1647.
There was also fighting in the area during the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
. Furthermore, from 1 December 1758 until Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
1759, four squadrons of Hessian dragoon
Dragoon
The word dragoon originally meant mounted infantry, who were trained in horse riding as well as infantry fighting skills. However, usage altered over time and during the 18th century, dragoons evolved into conventional light cavalry units and personnel...
s were billeted in Eissen and neighbouring places. From autumn 1760 to early summer 1761, 42 people (12% of the population) died from the war's effects.
In 1812, two men from Eissen lost their lives in Napoléon Bonaparte's disastrous Russian campaign after having been impressed
Impressment
Impressment, colloquially, "the Press", was the act of taking men into a navy by force and without notice. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to...
into his Grande Armée. Later in the 19th century, one Eissener did not come back from the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
in 1871, and three further men later died, likely from their wounds.
On 6 May 1879, a great fire burnt 47 houses down in 20 minutes. The conflagration had been started by a twelve-year-old schoolboy who had been in a goat stall secretly trying a cigar stub that he had found.
On 1 October 1876, Eissen was joined to the railway network on the Scherfede-Holzminden
Holzminden
Holzminden is a town in southern Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Holzminden. It is located directly on the river Weser, which here is the border to North Rhine-Westphalia.-History:...
line, and was given its own station.
In the First World War, 30 Eissen townsfolk lost their lives. In the Second World War, 71 Eissen townsfolk fell.
On 1 April 1945, a Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
infantry company entrenched itself at the southern edge of the village, which drew fire from advancing US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops coming from Hohenwepel. The church and the Kornhaus were thereby heavily damaged and 47 properties were utterly destroyed. The whole of Eissen was damaged, but only two villagers were wounded and none killed. At the end, 14 German and 3 American soldiers had fallen, and 65 Wehrmacht soldiers had become prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
. The rest withdrew along the railway line towards Borgholz.
On 2 June 1984, passenger service on this railway line was discontinued, leaving Eissen without rail transport.
Löwen
The origin of the name Löwen (earlier Lovene) seems to be similar to that of the town of VenloVenlo
Venlo is a municipality and a city in the southeastern Netherlands, next to the German border. It is situated in the province of Limburg.In 2001, the municipalities of Belfeld and Tegelen were merged into the municipality of Venlo. Tegelen was originally part of the Duchy of Jülich centuries ago,...
, namely from Lo or Loh (an old German word for forest) and Venn (marsh or wetland; the word is cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
with the English word fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...
), describing a boggy wood. This later shifted to Löwen – German for "lions" – but it seems unlikely that the name has anything to do with the big cats.
Peckelsheim
Peckelsheim had its first documentary mention in Corvey Abbey documents in the 10th century. It was granted town rights on 31 July 1318. The town was burnt down several times by town fires, but always built anew afterwards, even keeping its original town layout today, which can still be seen in the way the streets are arrangedOwing to the fires, very few historic buildings are to be found in Peckelsheim.
Main sights
Buildings
- Convent buildings of the former BenedictineBenedictineBenedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Convent in Willebadessen, founded in 1149 - Moat-ringed stately home in Borlinghausen
- Lookout tower "Bierbaums Nagel" in the forest in the Eggegebirge near Borlinghausen
Natural monuments
- Giant thousand-year-old oakOakAn oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
in Borlinghausen on the way to Helmern, legendarily planted by CharlemagneCharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800... - Teutoniaklippen (cliffCliffIn geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...
s) in Borlinghausen on the edge of the Eggegebirge - Karlsschanze in Willebadessen
Town council
Town council's 26 seats are apportioned as follows, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 September 2004:- CDUChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
18 seats
Factional chairman: Hubertus Gockeln
- SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
7 seats
Factional chairman: Manfred Feierabend
- GreensAlliance '90/The GreensAlliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
1 seat
Coat of arms
Willebadessen's civic coat of 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...
shows two figures, namely Saint Vitus and Bishop Dietrich of Paderborn. Formerly, in arms granted in 1908, Mary holding the baby Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
stood where the Bishop is now. Furthermore, three towers sprouted from the top of the two Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
doorframes. This coat of arms was based on the town's oldest known seal, from 1318, and the seal itself had been based on one used by the local convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
that had founded the town, perhaps explaining its religious theme; Vitus and Mary were the two patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
s.
The new arms with the Bishop, and without Mary and the towers, were granted on 17 February 1977. The knobs over the doorways have also been rearranged so that there are now thirteen – one for each constituent community.
Transport
Willebadessen lies on highways L828 (Scherfede-Horn Bad Meinberg) and L763 (Kleinenberg-B252). Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B252 also runs right by Peckelsheim and Niesen.Willebadessen also has a railway halt from which trains run two-hourly to Warburg and Münster
Münster
Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...
.
Literature
- Karl Hengst (Herausgeber): Willebadessen gestern und heute. Bonifatius Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-89710-104-1