Dornburg is a community in 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...

 in 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:...

 district in 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...

, 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...

.

Neighbouring communities

Dornburg borders in the north and west on communities in the Westerwaldkreis

Westerwaldkreis

The Westerwaldkreis is a district in the east of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...

 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 ....

, with the other neighbours all lying in Limburg-Weilburg. Among them is the town of Hadamar

Hadamar

Hadamar is a small town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany.Hadamar is known for its Clinic for Forensic Psychiatry/Centre for Social Psychiatry, lying at the edge of town, in whose outlying buildings is also found the Hadamar Memorial...

, historically the seat of a county.

Constituent communities

Dornburg’s Ortsteile are Frickhofen (administrative seat; celebrates its 1,200-year jubilee in 2009), Langendernbach, Dorndorf (state-recognized health resort), Thalheim and Wilsenroth (state-recognized air spa)

History

The “Dornburg”, which gave the community its name after its forerunner communities were amalgamated in 1974, is a roughly 396-m-high elevation upon which are found the remains of a ringwall site from La Tène

La Tène culture

The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....

 times (5th to 1st century BC). Within it lay a Celtic settlement rather like a town. On the Blasiusberg was a heathen worship

Worship

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The word is derived from the Old English worthscipe, meaning worthiness or worth-ship — to give, at its simplest, worth to something, for example, Christian worship.Evelyn Underhill defines worship thus: "The absolute...

 place. The Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 chapel

Chapel

A 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,...

 built there later served until 1734 as the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 church for eleven of the area’s villages.

The founding of the five villages that now make up the community of Dornburg goes back in some cases more than 1,200 years. Wilsenroth had its first documentary mention in 879 under the name Welsenderode – meaning the area cleared by Willesind – as did also Langendernbach when Count Gebhard in the Lahngau

Gebhard, Count of the Lahngau

Gebhard was a mid-9th-century count in the Lahngau and the first documented ancestor of the dynasty later known as the Conradines. He was a "leading man of the [East] Franks" and a brother-in-law of Ernest, margrave of the Bavarian Nordgau...

 donated property here to the St. Severus Monastery

Monastery

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...

 in Gemünden

Gemünden, Westerwaldkreis

Gemünden is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...

.

Dorndorf’s first documentary mention under the name Torndorph stems from the year 772. Frickhofen (Fridechuba, roughly estate surrounded by peace) was founded sometime between 802 and 812.

In 1636, the Plague ravaged Dornburg. In Dorndorf only a single family survived.

Within the framework of administrative reform in Hesse on 1 February 1971, the community of Dornburg came into being through the amalgamation of the formerly autonomous villages of Frickhofen, Dorndorf and Wilsenroth, and then shortly thereafter Thalheim as well. Langendernbach left amalgamation to the last possible moment, the deadline on 1 July 1974. It nevertheless joined the community.

Community council

The municipal election held on 26 March 2006 yielded the following results:

Parties and voter communities		% 2006	seats 2006	% 2001	seats 2001
CDU	Christian Democratic Union of Germany	61.7	19	55.1	17
SPD	Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...	24.1	8	27.0	8
FWG Dornburg	Freie Wählergemeinschaft Dornburg	14.2	4	10.3	3
DBL	Dornburger Bürgerliste	–	–	7.7	3
Total		100.0	31	100.0	31
voter turnout in %		51.2		60.8

Community executive

The Gemeindevorstand consists of the mayor (Bürgermeister) and 10 deputies (Beigeordneten). Here, too, the CDU currently holds an absolute majority.

Sightseeing

• The Blasiuskapelle, first mentioned about 803, in Frickhofen’s community area, was until 1746 the midpoint of the parish of Frickhofen. The chapel was consecrated to the Archangel Michael.
• The Parish Church at Frickhofen was built in 1732. From the original church only the steeple
  Steeple (architecture)
  A steeple, in architecture, is a tall tower on a building, often topped by a spire. Steeples are very common on Christian churches and cathedrals and the use of the term generally connotes a religious structure...
  
   and the quire
  Quire (architecture)
  Architecturally, the choir is the area of a church or cathedral, usually in the western part of the chancel between the nave and the sanctuary . The choir is occasionally located in the eastern part of the nave...
  
   have been preserved. These parts of the building were expanded in 1955 and 1956 to make the church bigger. The church has at its disposal a great 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...
  
   altar
  Altar
  An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
  
   of the Hadamar school.
• The neo-Romanesque Pfarrkirche St. Matthias (St. Matthew’s Parish Church) stands at Langendernbach along with its “800-year-old linden”.
• The Pfarrkirche St. Margaretha Dorndorf (St. Margaret’s Parish Church, Dorndorf) is built on the foundations of a castle tower from the 10th century.
• The Hofhaus in Langendernbach
• Jewish cemetery in Frickhofen’s community area
• Memorial to victims of both World Wars in Wilsenroth
• Local history museum in Wilsenroth
• The “Dornburg” with remains of an old Celtic oppidum with a circular rampart
  Circular rampart
  A circular rampart is an embankment built in the shape of a circle that was used as part of the defences for a military fortification, hill fort or refuge, or was built for religious purposes or as a place of gathering....
  
  
• The Ewiges Eis (“Everlasting Ice”) at the foot of the Dornburg in Dorndorf’s community area. Here air currents under the mountain’s loose basalt scree in the winter freeze moisture into ice. The air is thereby dried and warmed, rises and keeps the upper surface of the scree slope snowless. In summer the air current shifts and warm air from above flows into the slope, is sharply cooled and comes out the bottom end as a cold air current. The good isolation through the basalt scree ensures that the layer of ice, which can reach up to eight metres in depth in the ground, never quite thaws even in summer. This phenomenon is unique in Hesse. It was discovered in 1839 by basalt quarrymen. Today it can be viewed from two man-made galleries originally built by a brewery in 1869 as a cool place to store beer.

Culture

In Dornburg there are various cultural offerings, mostly under the responsibility of local clubs. There is also a village museum in Wilsenroth that affords the visitor a glimpse of the local history and a chance to remember or learn what it was like to live, work and celebrate festivals in a Westerwald village in days of yore.

Further reading (culture)

• Mützel - Der kleine Hase: Kinderbuch von Thomas Stähler (2. Tenor der Gesangsgruppe „Ohrenschmaus“ Frickhofen)
• St. Martinskirche Frickhofen - 50 Jahre - ; Hrsg.: Pfarrgemeinde St. Martin, Verfasser: Stefan Grüssinger

Transport

Through Langendernbach runs Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße

Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...

54 (Siegen

Siegen

Siegen is a city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia.It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg region...

 - 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....

).

Bildung

In Dornburg are found primary schools in the constituent communities of Dorndorf, Langendernbach, Thalheim and Wilsenroth. Frickhofen is home to the Mittelpunktschule St. Blasius with primary school, Hauptschule

Hauptschule

A Hauptschule is a secondary school in Germany and Austria, starting after 4 years of elementary schooling, which offers Lower Secondary Education according to the International Standard Classification of Education...

 and Realschule

Realschule

The Realschule is a type of secondary school in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia , Denmark , Sweden , Hungary and in the Russian Empire .-History:The Realschule was an outgrowth of the rationalism and empiricism of the seventeenth and...

 sections.

Public institutions

• Frickhofen Catholic Kindergarten
• Langendernbach Catholic Kindergarten
• Wilsenroth Catholic Kindergarten
• Dorndorf Catholic Kindergarten
• Thalheim Catholic Kindergarten
• Frickhofen Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1895
• Langendernbach Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1897
• Wilsenroth Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1928
• Dorndorf Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1928
• Thalheim Volunteer Fire Brigade, founded 1909

Further reading

• Randolf Fügen: Highlights in Mittelhessen. 1. Auflage. Wartenberg Verlag, Gudersberg-Gleichen 2003, ISBN 3-8313-1044-0.
• Hermann-Josef Hucke (Redaktion) (Hrsg.): Großer Westerwaldführer. 3. Auflage. Verlag Westerwald-Verein e.V., Montabaur 1991, ISBN 3-921548-04-7.

External links

• Community’s webpage