Fehl-Ritzhausen
Encyclopedia
Fehl-Ritzhausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
– in the Westerwaldkreis
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
.
between Limburg
and Siegen
. The river Nister, which is within the Sieg
’s drainage basin
, flows from east to west through the municipal area. Fehl-Ritzhausen belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Marienberg
, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town
.
and convent
of the Marienstatt Cistercian Monastery
in Velde (=Fehl) and Graynsiven (=Großseifen
). The first mention by name of Roitzhusen comes from 27 October 1340; in his will, the knight Eberhard Daube von Selbach bequeathed to his widow Sophia a pension out of the village tithe
s that were owed him.
Both communities’ origins stretch, if anything, much further back into time, as the namings in the documents suggest. The placename ending –hausen hints at a possible founding in the 9th or 10th century. The Ritz – earlier also Roitz – part of the name most likely comes from Rode (“clearing” in German
), which was often used as a word from the 9th to 12th centuries to describe settlements established on cleared woodland. Even older is Fehl. The name comes from the German word Feld (“field”), a word customarily used in the 6th century to describe settlements built on open land (“Gefilde”) or next to waterways. Indeed, Fehl’s inhabitants did settle on a waterway – the river Nister – whereas to the north, the Ritzhauseners lived under the Scheidchen castle
’s protection, which shielded them from, among other things, the northwest wind which brought snow
.
Belonging to the parish of Marienberg, 4 households were counted in Fehl in 1589 and 8 in Ritzhausen with all together some 50 persons. Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War
, the population had sunk to 18. Fehl and Ritzhausen were first mentioned as two communities belonging together in 1592. In 1732, separate naming appears again, before an administrative reform within the County of Nassau-Beilstein once again united the two. Indeed, the Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik des Herzogthums Nassau from 1823 speaks explicitly of Fehl und Ritzhausen as zwei Dörfern, but nevertheless characterizes the two as a double community, listing their population figures as one – 213 Seelen (“souls”).
When brown coal pits opened in Höhn
in 1746 and four years later in Stockhausen
, Fehl-Ritzhauseners were offered another way to earn an income. Their home village was connected to the postal
network in 1775, leading immediately to postal coaches and messengers making the village a base. Further important links to a broader civilization came with the community’s electrification
in 1917 and, ten years earlier, the railway link through the Westerwaldquerbahn, which brought along with it a station in 1906-1907. The branchline from Fehl-Ritzhausen to Bad Marienberg, however, was abandoned in 1971. Exactly ten years later came the end for the Westerburg–(Fehl-Ritzhausen)–Rennerod stretch of the line. Since then, regular bus
traffic has kept the community linked with the surrounding area.
Fehl-Ritzhausen managed to keep itself mostly unscathed by the destruction wrought by the Second World War. In late 1944 and early 1945, however, there were three Allied
air raids
on the community, their main target being the railway station. The enemy’s bomb
s only caused slight damage, and there was no loss of life among the officially reported 521 inhabitants (as of 1939). All the more painful was the loss of 38 men from Fehl-Ritzhausen, who as Wehrmacht
soldiers fell in battle or went missing. Already in the First World War, the community had paid a high price in blood, losing 22 men. Some local families, such as Neeb, Schell, Schürg, Stalp and Steup were struck a second time in the Second World War. Owing to local men’s induction into the forces, there was a dearth of workers, and in both world wars, French
and Russia
n prisoners of war
were brought in to do labour.
On 27 March 1945, the community was occupied by United States
troops without resistance.
414 leading from Driedorf
-Hohenroth to Hachenburg
. The nearest Autobahn interchange
is Haiger
/Burbach on the A 45
(Dortmund
–Hanau
), some 22 km away. The nearest InterCityExpress
stop is the railway station at Montabaur on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde is an administrative unit in the German Bundesländer of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt.-Rhineland-Palatinate:...
– 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 ....
, 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
The community lies in the WesterwaldWesterwald
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...
between 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....
and 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...
. The river Nister, which is within the Sieg
Sieg
The Sieg is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany named after the Sigambrer. It is a right tributary of the Rhine and 153 kilometres in length....
’s drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
, flows from east to west through the municipal area. Fehl-Ritzhausen belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Bad Marienberg
Bad Marienberg (Verbandsgemeinde)
Bad Marienberg is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district Westerwaldkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the Verbandsgemeinde is in Bad Marienberg....
, a kind of collective municipality. Its seat is in the like-named town
Bad Marienberg
Bad Marienberg is a town in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, and also the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality.- Geography :...
.
History
Fehl-Ritzhausen celebrated the 700th jubilee of its existence from 27 to 29 April 2007. The constituent community of Fehl had its first documentary mention on 6 January 1307 when Count Heinrich III of Nassau-Siegen and his wife Adelheid confirmed the existing revenue for the abbotAbbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
and 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...
of the Marienstatt Cistercian 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 Velde (=Fehl) and Graynsiven (=Großseifen
Großseifen
Großseifen is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...
). The first mention by name of Roitzhusen comes from 27 October 1340; in his will, the knight Eberhard Daube von Selbach bequeathed to his widow Sophia a pension out of the village tithe
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 that were owed him.
Both communities’ origins stretch, if anything, much further back into time, as the namings in the documents suggest. The placename ending –hausen hints at a possible founding in the 9th or 10th century. The Ritz – earlier also Roitz – part of the name most likely comes from Rode (“clearing” 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....
), which was often used as a word from the 9th to 12th centuries to describe settlements established on cleared woodland. Even older is Fehl. The name comes from the German word Feld (“field”), a word customarily used in the 6th century to describe settlements built on open land (“Gefilde”) or next to waterways. Indeed, Fehl’s inhabitants did settle on a waterway – the river Nister – whereas to the north, the Ritzhauseners lived under the Scheidchen 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...
’s protection, which shielded them from, among other things, the northwest wind which brought snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
.
Belonging to the parish of Marienberg, 4 households were counted in Fehl in 1589 and 8 in Ritzhausen with all together some 50 persons. Towards the end of 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....
, the population had sunk to 18. Fehl and Ritzhausen were first mentioned as two communities belonging together in 1592. In 1732, separate naming appears again, before an administrative reform within the County of Nassau-Beilstein once again united the two. Indeed, the Handbuch der Geographie und Statistik des Herzogthums Nassau from 1823 speaks explicitly of Fehl und Ritzhausen as zwei Dörfern, but nevertheless characterizes the two as a double community, listing their population figures as one – 213 Seelen (“souls”).
When brown coal pits opened in Höhn
Höhn
Höhn is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...
in 1746 and four years later in Stockhausen
Stockhausen-Illfurth
Stockhausen-Illfurth is an Ortsgemeinde – a community belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.-Location:...
, Fehl-Ritzhauseners were offered another way to earn an income. Their home village was connected to the postal
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
network in 1775, leading immediately to postal coaches and messengers making the village a base. Further important links to a broader civilization came with the community’s electrification
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
in 1917 and, ten years earlier, the railway link through the Westerwaldquerbahn, which brought along with it a station in 1906-1907. The branchline from Fehl-Ritzhausen to Bad Marienberg, however, was abandoned in 1971. Exactly ten years later came the end for the Westerburg–(Fehl-Ritzhausen)–Rennerod stretch of the line. Since then, regular bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
traffic has kept the community linked with the surrounding area.
Fehl-Ritzhausen managed to keep itself mostly unscathed by the destruction wrought by the Second World War. In late 1944 and early 1945, however, there were three Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
air raids
Airstrike
An air strike is an attack on a specific objective by military aircraft during an offensive mission. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters, and others...
on the community, their main target being the railway station. The enemy’s bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
s only caused slight damage, and there was no loss of life among the officially reported 521 inhabitants (as of 1939). All the more painful was the loss of 38 men from Fehl-Ritzhausen, who as 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:...
soldiers fell in battle or went missing. Already in the First World War, the community had paid a high price in blood, losing 22 men. Some local families, such as Neeb, Schell, Schürg, Stalp and Steup were struck a second time in the Second World War. Owing to local men’s induction into the forces, there was a dearth of workers, and in both world wars, 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...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n 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...
were brought in to do labour.
On 27 March 1945, the community was occupied by United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
troops without resistance.
Community council
The council is made up of 12 council members who were elected in a municipal election on 7 June 2009.Transport
North of the community runs BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
414 leading from Driedorf
Driedorf
-Location:Driedorf lies from 416 to 642 m above sea level on a tableland in the high Westerwald.-Mademühlen:Mademühlen has about 1000 inhabitants and lies in the "Hessischer Westerwald" protected area and in the European protected area network Natura 2000...
-Hohenroth to Hachenburg
Hachenburg
-Geography:The town lies in the Westerwald between Koblenz and Siegen, roughly 10 km west of Bad Marienberg on the river Nister. Hachenburg is the administrative seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Hachenburg, a kind of collective municipality .-The castle and the town:The castle , former seat of...
. The nearest Autobahn interchange
Interchange (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...
is Haiger
Haiger
Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger.-Location:Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern edge of the Westerwald range, near where the three states of...
/Burbach on the A 45
Bundesautobahn 45
is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Dortmund in the west with Aschaffenburg in the southwest. It is colloquially known by its byname Sauerlandlinie, which derives from the Sauerland, the landscape which said autobahn is running through between the cities of Hagen and Siegen. Many people think of...
(Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
–Hanau
Hanau
Hanau is a town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km east of Frankfurt am Main. Its station is a major railway junction.- Geography :...
), some 22 km away. The nearest InterCityExpress
InterCityExpress
The Intercity-Express or ICE is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany and neighbouring countries. It is the highest service category offered by DB Fernverkehr and is the flagship of Deutsche Bahn...
stop is the railway station at Montabaur on the Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line.