Winkels is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 of the municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Mengerskirchen

Mengerskirchen

-Neighbouring communities:Mengerskirchen borders in the north on the community of Greifenstein , in the east on the community of Löhnberg, in the south on the communities of Merenberg and Waldbrunn , and in the west on the communities of Neunkirchen, Elsoff and Oberrod .-Constituent...

 in the district of Limburg-Weilburg

Limburg-Weilburg

Limburg-Weilburg is a Kreis in the west of Hesse, Germany. Neighboring districts are Lahn-Dill, Hochtaunuskreis, Rheingau-Taunus, Rhein-Lahn, Westerwaldkreis.-History:...

 in Middle Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

. It has 967 permanent and 38 temporary residents (as of 31 December 2006).

The village lies at the foot of the Westerwald

Westerwald

The Westerwald is a low mountain range on the right bank of the River Rhine in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhine Massif...

 not far from the Lahn

Lahn

The Lahn River is a -long, right tributary of the Rhine River in Germany. Its course passes through the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Hesse , and Rhineland-Palatinate ....

 in a valley. It is enclosed by wooded and bare Basalt

Basalt

Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...

-hills along the highway from Weilburg

Weilburg

Weilburg is, with just under 14,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg.- Location :...

 to Rennerod

Rennerod

Rennerod is a town in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Rennerod, a kind of collective municipality...

.

History

Winkels was first mentioned in the year 1237 as Winkelsece in court documents. In the immediate area the castle Eigenberg (locally known as the "Maienburg") was erected. In the year 1331 it became the seat of the knights called the Lehnsmänner von Mudersbach. Under the command of the knights, locals were made to provide the castle owners with supplies and both manual and animal labour.

For many centuries the residents of Winkels had to walk long distances to the next church, in Mengerskirchen. In 1879 they began to build their own small church which was completed in 1880. Originally called the Strieder Chapel after the then mayor Strieder, it was extended in 1947 and today carries the name Mariä Geburt (Birth of Mary).

Agriculture in the stony grounds around the hills of the Westerwaldes was always difficult and the residents lived a poor and hard life. Only after the industrial revolution started and the menfolk could travel to nearby towns and cities to earn extra money, did the situation improve somewhat. Many "Winkelser" citizens were skilled builders and worked as stonemasons, bricklayers or carpenters in Westfalen, or in Siegerland

Siegerland

The Siegerland is a region of Germany covering the old district of Siegen and the upper part of the district of Altenkirchen, belonging to the Rhineland-Palatinate adjoining it to the west.Geologically, the Siegerland belongs to the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge...

 or in Bergische

Bergisches Land

The Bergisches Land is a low mountain range region within the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, east of Rhine river, south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by woods, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over 20 artificial lakes...

 during the spring and summer months, leaving the old, the women and children to plough and work the fields. In the long Winter months they occupied themselves with home-work and many were skilled weavers, filter-makers or potters. There were once two very large ovens to bake the pottery products of this small village.

After the 2nd World War there were significant shifts in the population, in part due to displaced persons relocating. From the mid-1950s there was a significant decrease in farming. The majority of the residents today commute to work in nearby and some more distant towns and cities such as Weilburg, Limburg

Limburg an der Lahn

Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn....

, Wetzlar

Wetzlar

Wetzlar is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. Located at 8° 30′ E, 50° 34′ N, Wetzlar straddles the river Lahn and is on the German Timber-Framework Road which passes mile upon mile of half-timbered houses. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis on the north edge of...

, Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

 and Frankfurt. Also two local clay pits opened up to extract a rare quality clay from the ground. Several small workshops and factories have settled into the area providing work for local men and women.

The former independent village of Winkels, as part of the Oberlahnkreis, combined with the neighbour town of Mengerskirchen and a few other small villages during the state ordered Federal Boundaries Reform Act on 1 January 1971.

Major Anniversary

Winkels celebrated its 750th year birthday on the 7th to 10 August 1987. Among some of the many important state and city representatives attending, was the Mayor of Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 (Berlin celebrating it's 700 year birthday later that same year) attended, as did a group of Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 citizens and the mayor of the north Holland Partner town Berkhout

Berkhout

Berkhout is a town in the northwest Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Koggenland, North Holland, about 5 km west of Hoorn.In 2001, the town of Berkhout had 956 inhabitants...

, and the Mayor of Bad Kissingen

Bad Kissingen

Bad Kissingen is a spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and is the seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is a world-famous health resort.- Town structure :...

 (as a representative from a town suburb that also carries the name Winkels).

Infrastructure and Facilities

• Kindergarten
  Kindergarten
  A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
  
  
• Volunteer Fire Brigade Winkels founded 1928 (incl. a Young Fire Fighters Club founded 30. März 1985)

Clubs and Organisations

• Athletic- and Sport Club
  Sports club
  A sports club or sport club, sometimes athletics club or sports association is a club for the purpose of playing one or more sports...
  
   (1898) Winkels
• Male Choir
  Choir
  A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
  
   Männergesangverein-Frohsinn (1895)
• Schützenverein
  Schützenverein
  A Schützenverein is in German language countries a voluntary association featuring sport-shooting either on Olympic levels or historic weapons....
  
   (Hunting and marksmen Club) St. Sebastian (1963)
• Brass Band
  Brass band
  A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
  
   (1953) Winkels
• Women's- and Mothers Club

Places of interest

• 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...
  
   Maienburg (Eigenberg)
• Church of Winkels, built 1880
• The Waldsee Lake

Partner Town

Berkhout

Berkhout

Berkhout is a town in the northwest Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Koggenland, North Holland, about 5 km west of Hoorn.In 2001, the town of Berkhout had 956 inhabitants...

 in Holland (52°38′N, 5°0′E) is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland

North Holland

North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...

.
It is a part of the municipality of Wester-Koggenland

Wester-Koggenland

Wester-Koggenland is a former municipality of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. The municipality ceased to exist on 1 January 2007 when it merged with Obdam to form the new municipality of Koggenland....

, and lies about 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Hoorn

Hoorn

-Cities :* Purmerend * Enkhuizen * Alkmaar * Amsterdam * Lelystad * Den Helder * Leeuwarden -Towns :* Edam...

.

External links

• A private homepage about the village of Winkels (in German, but with lots of historical pictures)