Dhronecken
Encyclopedia
Dhronecken is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich
district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
and Saarbrücken
, on the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring
’s orders), 9 km from the Autobahn A 1 towards Morbach
. In the Dhronecker Mulde (hollow), the Kleine Dhron forms where two brooks meet. This river flows down a dale to the small river Dhron, which then empties into the Moselle.
Dhronecken belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Thalfang am Erbeskopf
, whose seat is in the municipality of Thalfang
.
to Lorraine
(Hallstatt culture
), and who spread only in later centuries into what is now France
. Burying grounds and, even more so, hill fortifications bear witness to those times. The Hunnenring
– not far away, near Otzenhausen – is a mighty example.
victory over the Celtic tribes in 51 BC, the place that is now Dhronecken became part of a Roman
province called Belgica Prima. In that time, a Roman sanctum came to be near Dhronecken. Also worth noting is the widespread settlement of Sarmatians
between the Dhron and the Nahe, as they were non-Germanic people from the Russian steppes. With the Germanic
migration period
, the Roman occupation came to an end after many Celtic uprisings and the first Germanic invasions.
’ rule. Their kings divided the land into Gaue (“regions” or “districts”; singular: Gau), putting Dhronecken into the Triergau and thereby under the Bishop of Trier, as confirmed about the year 800 by documents issued by the kings Pepin and Charlemagne
.
, there was a splintering into smaller territories, and Troneck – as it was then known – became part of the Mark Thalfang (Talevangero marca). At the onset of the modern age, Troneck was the seat of the Waldgrave
s and the main town of the Mark Thalfang.
After the French Revolution
, the Rhine’s left bank, and thereby Dhronecken too, were ceded to France
in 1794 and 1795. Through a law from 26 March 1798, the French abolished feudal
rights in their zone of occupation. After French rule ended, the village passed in 1814 to the Kingdom of Prussia
.
Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state
of Rhineland-Palatinate
.
hero Hagen von Tronje
, as he is described in the foremost edition of the saga as “Hagen von Troneg” (with further examples in the dative case
: von Tronege Hagene, geborn von Tronege, helt von Tronege, von Tronegaere). Hence, in the multi-volume standard work of Germanic ancient history, it says: Research identifies Hagen’s origins, foremost, with the Castle Troneck in the Hunsrück, but also other places claim this, as certain (that is, solid) clues are missing. Now, in the year 752, a mediaeval document mentions for the first time the (river) Dhron as “Drona” (The Latin form “Drahonus” in Ausonius’s Mosella poem, late 4th century, is said to be unreliable), which together with the location at the forks, the corner (“corner” is Ecke in German) of two brooks, gave the mediaeval castle (Troneg/Troneck) its name. Possibly the writer of the Nibelungenlied, about the year 1200, believed that he had found the ancient-historical Hagen’s homeland in Troneck and places of the region (Hunoldispetra, Balderingin, Metz).
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
About 1300, a knight named Conrad von Tronecken is mentioned in writing for the first time, and then somewhat later the Feste Troneck (fortification), which, however, is probably much older. Having been destroyed several times, by Cologne, Imperial and French troops, and then finally by an earthquake, only remnants are left now, although a corner tower can still be climbed.
On the old castle’s foundations in modern times, commercial buildings were built, and also a bigger, tall building – called the Schloss – which is today used as a forester’s office. Also, a barn with beam construction serves as a community centre for the municipality of Dhronecken. The attractively laid-out castle gardens have been continuously planted and tended since 1985.
Below the castle is found a nature play area on both sides of a brook. A ford with stepping stones, a forumlike playing and gathering place on a slope, made out of mighty stone blocks, wooden footbridges over wetlands left in their natural state, playing houses, a suspension bridge and a monorail are the great attractions not only for children, but also for adults.
Haus des wild- und rheingräflichen Verwalters der Burg Dhronecken
The “House of the Wild- and Rhine-Comital Administrator of Castle Dhronecken” was, as shown by dendrological analysis, built in the Baroque
style. It belonged to Castle Dhronecken’s comital administrator, Friedrich Christian Heusner, who was at the same time an Amtmann and judge.
Since 1981 this house has been under monumental protection, thereby allowing it to be so well restored that from outside, it has regained its original appearance, and inside, in the Säulenhalle (“Hall of Columns”), the turned
, four- to five-metre-tall oaken columns have been preserved.
What brings this house to the cultural-historical fore is its balcony made of turned oak logs and with oaken balustrades. The builder F. Ch. Heusner’s family came from Franconia, where, having taken Italy as a model, balconies standing on columns were quite widespread. In the present, because most in Germany were wooden, only a very few have been saved from then. Besides Ulm ("3-Kannen-Anlage"), the balcony in Dhronecken could well be one of the biggest.
Decker Mühle
A sawmill
that is still functional today, the Decker Mühle was first mentioned, according to the Dhronecken chronicle, about 1750.
Watertower
This was built about 1900.
Municipalities of Germany
Municipalities are the lowest level of territorial division in Germany. This may be the fourth level of territorial division in Germany, apart from those states which include Regierungsbezirke , where municipalities then become the fifth level.-Overview:With more than 3,400,000 inhabitants, the...
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich
Bernkastel-Wittlich
Bernkastel-Wittlich is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Vulkaneifel, Cochem-Zell, Rhein-Hunsrück, Birkenfeld, Trier-Saarburg and Bitburg-Prüm.- History :...
district
Districts of Germany
The districts of Germany are known as , except in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein where they are known simply as ....
in Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Location
Dhronecken lies between TrierTrier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
and Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
, on the Hunsrückhöhenstraße (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the Hunsrück built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
’s orders), 9 km from the Autobahn A 1 towards Morbach
Morbach
Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
. In the Dhronecker Mulde (hollow), the Kleine Dhron forms where two brooks meet. This river flows down a dale to the small river Dhron, which then empties into the Moselle.
Dhronecken belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Thalfang am Erbeskopf
Thalfang am Erbeskopf
Thalfang am Erbeskopf is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Bernkastel-Wittlich, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat of administration is in Thalfang....
, whose seat is in the municipality of Thalfang
Thalfang
The climatic spa of Thalfang is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
.
Early times
Dhronecken lies in what is known to be the oldest tribal heartland of the Celts, whose lands, about 500 BC, stretched from the Middle DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
to Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
(Hallstatt culture
Hallstatt culture
The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
), and who spread only in later centuries into what is now France
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...
. Burying grounds and, even more so, hill fortifications bear witness to those times. The Hunnenring
Celtic circular wall of Otzenhausen
The Celtic circular fort at Otzenhausen is one of the biggest fortifications the Celts ever constructed.It was built by Celts of the Treveri tribe, who lived in the region north of the fort. The fort is located on top of the Dollberg, a hill near Otzenhausen in Germany, about 695 m above sea level...
– not far away, near Otzenhausen – is a mighty example.
Roman times
With Caesar’sJulius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
victory over the Celtic tribes in 51 BC, the place that is now Dhronecken became part of a 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....
province called Belgica Prima. In that time, a Roman sanctum came to be near Dhronecken. Also worth noting is the widespread settlement of Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
between the Dhron and the Nahe, as they were non-Germanic people from the Russian steppes. With the Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
migration period
Migration Period
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, the Roman occupation came to an end after many Celtic uprisings and the first Germanic invasions.
Frankish times
Then began the FranksFranks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
’ rule. Their kings divided the land into Gaue (“regions” or “districts”; singular: Gau), putting Dhronecken into the Triergau and thereby under the Bishop of Trier, as confirmed about the year 800 by documents issued by the kings Pepin and Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne 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...
.
Middle Ages to present
In the course of the Middle AgesMiddle 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...
, there was a splintering into smaller territories, and Troneck – as it was then known – became part of the Mark Thalfang (Talevangero marca). At the onset of the modern age, Troneck was the seat of the Waldgrave
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113....
s and the main town of the Mark Thalfang.
After the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, the Rhine’s left bank, and thereby Dhronecken too, were ceded to France
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...
in 1794 and 1795. Through a law from 26 March 1798, the French abolished feudal
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
rights in their zone of occupation. After French rule ended, the village passed in 1814 to the Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
.
Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
.
Connection with the Nibelung saga
Dhronecken might be the hometown of the NibelungNibelung
The German Nibelungen and the corresponding Old Norse form Niflung is the name in Germanic and Norse mythology of the royal family or lineage of the Burgundians who settled at Worms....
hero Hagen von Tronje
Hagen (legend)
Hagen or Högni is a Burgundian warrior in tales about the Burgundian kingdom at Worms. Hagen is often identified as a brother or half-brother of King Gunther .In the Nibelungenlied, he is called Hagen of Tronje...
, as he is described in the foremost edition of the saga as “Hagen von Troneg” (with further examples in the dative case
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
: von Tronege Hagene, geborn von Tronege, helt von Tronege, von Tronegaere). Hence, in the multi-volume standard work of Germanic ancient history, it says: Research identifies Hagen’s origins, foremost, with the Castle Troneck in the Hunsrück, but also other places claim this, as certain (that is, solid) clues are missing. Now, in the year 752, a mediaeval document mentions for the first time the (river) Dhron as “Drona” (The Latin form “Drahonus” in Ausonius’s Mosella poem, late 4th century, is said to be unreliable), which together with the location at the forks, the corner (“corner” is Ecke in German) of two brooks, gave the mediaeval castle (Troneg/Troneck) its name. Possibly the writer of the Nibelungenlied, about the year 1200, believed that he had found the ancient-historical Hagen’s homeland in Troneck and places of the region (Hunoldispetra, Balderingin, Metz).
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected by majority votePlurality voting system
The plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
Burg DhroneckenAbout 1300, a knight named Conrad von Tronecken is mentioned in writing for the first time, and then somewhat later the Feste Troneck (fortification), which, however, is probably much older. Having been destroyed several times, by Cologne, Imperial and French troops, and then finally by an earthquake, only remnants are left now, although a corner tower can still be climbed.
On the old castle’s foundations in modern times, commercial buildings were built, and also a bigger, tall building – called the Schloss – which is today used as a forester’s office. Also, a barn with beam construction serves as a community centre for the municipality of Dhronecken. The attractively laid-out castle gardens have been continuously planted and tended since 1985.
Below the castle is found a nature play area on both sides of a brook. A ford with stepping stones, a forumlike playing and gathering place on a slope, made out of mighty stone blocks, wooden footbridges over wetlands left in their natural state, playing houses, a suspension bridge and a monorail are the great attractions not only for children, but also for adults.
Haus des wild- und rheingräflichen Verwalters der Burg Dhronecken
The “House of the Wild- and Rhine-Comital Administrator of Castle Dhronecken” was, as shown by dendrological analysis, built in the Baroque
Baroque architecture
Baroque 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...
style. It belonged to Castle Dhronecken’s comital administrator, Friedrich Christian Heusner, who was at the same time an Amtmann and judge.
Since 1981 this house has been under monumental protection, thereby allowing it to be so well restored that from outside, it has regained its original appearance, and inside, in the Säulenhalle (“Hall of Columns”), the turned
Woodturning
Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects on a lathe . Woodturning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a stationary tool is used to cut and shape it...
, four- to five-metre-tall oaken columns have been preserved.
What brings this house to the cultural-historical fore is its balcony made of turned oak logs and with oaken balustrades. The builder F. Ch. Heusner’s family came from Franconia, where, having taken Italy as a model, balconies standing on columns were quite widespread. In the present, because most in Germany were wooden, only a very few have been saved from then. Besides Ulm ("3-Kannen-Anlage"), the balcony in Dhronecken could well be one of the biggest.
Decker Mühle
A sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
that is still functional today, the Decker Mühle was first mentioned, according to the Dhronecken chronicle, about 1750.
Watertower
This was built about 1900.