Nieder Kostenz
Encyclopedia
Nieder Kostenz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district
) in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
in the Kyrbach valley, 2 km west of Kirchberg
. The rural residential community has an area of 4.12 km², of which 1.19 km² is wooded.
. Over the years, various spellings of the name appear on the historical record:
finds in the area, however, grave goods
such as bronze
rings and belt plaques, iron
lance heads, iron combat knives and coins from Roman
Emperor Vespasian
’s time, bear witness to Celtic-Roman settlement in the area. There have been other Roman finds, too: foundation walls from a Roman settlement, a water duct, tiles and potsherds.
Julius Caesar
’s writings identify the Hunsrück and neighbouring regions as the realm of the Treveri
, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic
stock, from whom the Latin
name for the city of Trier
, Augusta Treverorum
, is also derived. Nieder Kostenz’s current site was in Caesar’s time part of the Imperial
province of Germania Superior
.
By AD 496, the Franks
were locally the undisputed rulers. Nieder Kostenz belonged to the Nahegau
.
came to lead the Nahegau. Mechthild, the last daughter of the Counts of Dill (or Dyll), wed Count Maginhard of Sponheim in 1124, thus putting Nieder Kostenz, which had hitherto belonged to Dill, under the Counts of Sponheim. In 1233, the parts of the County of Sponheim on the Rhine’s left bank were split between two lines of the comital house, with the two resulting parts known as the “Further” and “Hinder” Counties. Nieder Kostenz found itself in the former, ruled by the Kreuznach line, which died out in its male line in 1414. The heir was Countess Elisabeth of Sponheim. Her county, however, did not remain entirely with her or her heirs. She ceded one fifth to Electoral Palatinate in 1416, and after her death, the remaining four fifths passed to the Sponheim-Starkenburg line, with Electoral Palatinate receiving a further fifth of the “Further” County in 1422. Once the Starkenburg line had died out in 1437, three fifths of the “Further” County went to the County of Veldenz and Baden
. When the Counts of Veldenz, too, died out, they were succeeded by Palatinate-Simmern
. Under the 1509 treaty, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1422 was transferred to Simmern; from 1610 to 1659, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1416 also belonged to Simmern. From 1673 on, however, only Electoral Palatinate and Baden were still involved in the “Further” County of Sponheim. When Badish holdings were shared out in 1515, the share of the “Further” County of Sponheim went to the Margrave of Baden. These various parts of the County of Sponheim were long jointly ruled, with the “Further” County considered to be a condominium
jointly held by Electoral Palatinate and Baden, with the former holding a three-fifths share and the latter holding a two-fifths share. On 24 August 1707, the “Further” County was sundered in a treaty between Electoral Palatinate and Baden-Baden, and in 1771, the Margraves’ share passed to Baden.
Counts of Sponheim had their seat in Bad Kreuznach
. Nieder Kostenz was in the Amt of Kirchberg and more locally in the Pflege (literally “care”, but actually a local geopolitical unit headed by a Pflegeschultheiß
) of Kostenz. This was further divided during Badish rule into three smaller Pflegen, Belg, Denzen and Nieder Kostenz. Through all these divisions, administration was never divided, only the earnings from these lands. The rulers were joint lords (Gemeinherren). In 1707, however, this arrangement came to an end after three centuries; the “Further” County passed to Baden, remaining with it, even after a further division in 1776, until 1794.
(who would soon also become Frederick III, Elector Palatine) on 16 July 1557, the Reformation
was introduced into the Principality of Simmern. This automatically changed the subjects’ faith to make it the same as their ruler’s
.
In the Thirty Years' War
, first the Spaniards
, and then later the Swedes
plundered and starved the region around Nieder Kostenz. Oral lore has it that there was a great famine
in the area between 1635 and 1642. Moreover, many people fell victim to the Plague. King Louis XIV’s
French
troops occupied the Palatinate and the Hunsrück in 1673, resulting in further plundering and laying waste. After Charles II, Elector Palatine
died childless, war broke out yet again – the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession). This time, Louis XIV felt he had a right to make certain claims to the Palatinate because the late Charles’s only sister, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
(“Liselotte”), was married to the French king’s brother, the Duke of Orléans
.
In 1688, de facto religious freedom was introduced, and the available churches were allotted to either Catholic or Evangelical
congregations, or in some cases, the two denominations would have to share a simultaneous church
.
. The farmers were made to undertake seed exchanging. Potato
raising was forced. Cropraising was expanded and the yields were improved by introducing the three-field system
. Presently, there was an attempt to move away from the simple pastoral economy to indoor breeding. The mean cattle and horse breeds were improved. It was forbidden to thatch
roofs. It was also in Badish times that there were considerable improvements to infrastructure. Many roads were sealed, public building projects were undertaken and churches were built.
. Nieder Kostenz became a Mairie (“Mayoralty”) to which the following places also belonged: Kappel, Kludenbach
, Metzenhausen
, Ober Kostenz
, Reckershausen
, Schwarzen
, Todenroth
and Würrich
. French
became the official language, the Code civil des Français
became the law of the land and a civil registry was introduced, in addition to the similar function that was still being performed by the Church. Also, the French Republican Calendar
was introduced, although the Gregorian calendar
was reintroduced in 1806
n administration that began in 1816 was not the only change brought about by the downfall of Napoleon’s
empire and its dismemberment by the Congress of Vienna
. There were changes for agriculture, too. One goal was to dismantle the extensive pastoral economy. Heath
and coppice lands were to be forested. The municipality, though, did not want to forsake the rights that it had won in the 17th century, as witnessed by two suits recorded in court documents in the Koblenz State Archives. In Dillendorf
’s and Nieder Kostenz’s submission in the case against the Prussian government, Dillendorf wanted to prove to the government that it had held grazing rights
in the Dillwald (forest, now called the Brauschied) since the 17th century, and that it had the right to burn forest and use woodlands for haymaking. In the other court case from 1816, the villages of Kappel, Kludenbach, Todenroth, Metzenhausen, Nieder Kostenz, Ober Kostenz and Schwarzen fought against having to give up grazing rights, including the right to graze swine on acorns in the Hinterwald (forest). Nieder Kostenz had to forgo grazing rights at that time, although some other villages were allowed to keep them for a while.
Prussia forested the Dillwald, thus greatly limiting grazing. Moreover, Napoleon had sold a great deal of land off formerly held by local lords while he was in power, leaving rather little for the local farmers. This forced them to turn more towards intensive farming
. This, however, meant that greater capital
had to be sunk into the endeavour, something that many poorer families, and those with many children, simply could not manage. Furthermore, because land was being shared out among heirs in bequests, plots were becoming ever smaller, until it reached the point at which the land could no longer be subdivided.
Meanwhile, agents were trying to get people to settle in South America
, especially in Brazil
, which was willing to make available to any settler 70 to 80 ha of land, which was quite an inducement. Many young couples who had nothing to their name but their willingness to work felt forced to leave the Hunsrück forever and emigrate, either to South America or to the industrial centres, to seek the livelihood that eluded them at home.
, six men from Nieder Kostenz took part; eight took part in the Franco-Prussian War
(1870–1871). None of these was either wounded or killed. The time following this war is known as the Gründerzeit
– the Founders’ Time. It was in 1871 that the German Empire
was founded. It was also in 1871 that the Kirchberg Savings and Loan Association was founded by, among others, Philipp Quaer II, who was from Nieder Kostenz, and who was later also the Association’s chairman. The old pastoral economy, in which livestock was tended by herdsmen in the forest and on the heath, came to an end sometime around the turn of the 20th century. By that time, there was not only a paid herdsman, but also a herdsman’s barn. This was later converted into a bull stable in 1901 and 1902; until 1894, it had had a thatch. In 1875, a cloudburst in the Kyrbach valley led to a great flood. The bridge in the village was heavily damaged while the one on the provincial road was partly swept away. As in many villages in the Hunsrück, an “Emperor’s Oak” was planted in Nieder Kostenz on Kaiser Wilhelm I’s
one hundredth birthday, 22 March 1897 (he had been dead for nine years by this time). It still stands today.
facility was installed. The municipality subsidized it.
. The absence of so many men during the First World War made itself keenly felt in the constant labour shortage. Women, children and the elderly were pressed into service to help in the farm fields. The state required all agricultural produce to be handed over, but for the minimum needed for a farming family’s personal consumption. This process was overseen by the police, who sometimes also searched houses or barns seeking hoards of food. A typical village meal at this time consisted of potato
es, bread
, milk
and vegetables. In 1916, though, the potato harvest was bad because of late blight
(the same disease that caused the Potato Famine in Ireland
). At the time, no way was known to fight the blight. Luckily there was enough food to avoid a famine.
When the western front collapsed and the war had been lost in 1918, Nieder Kostenz had to host German troops many times during their retreat. Beginning in December, American
, and then later French, troops came. The Americans were well supplied with food. The French, on the other hand, seized food. Aside from a couple of stolen chickens, however, there were no incidents.
After the French withdrew, the war was over for Nieder Kostenz. The warriors’ memorial was built in 1933 in honour of those who had fallen in the Great War.
in Germany in 1923, the year brought one good thing to Nieder Kostenz: electricity
. More important than electric light, though, was the advent of electric motor
s, which began to be used for all kinds of machinery formerly powered by horses, oxen and cows, such as threshers. The inflation, however, did mean that it was quite a while before everyone who needed these motors had them. In the 1920s, there was almost no industry in the area besides agriculture. People in Nieder Kostenz fed themselves mainly from their own harvests. Besides a few handicraftsmen, such as cobblers, bricklayers, smiths and millers, almost everyone worked the land. In the winter, four to eight weeks’ work as a lumberjack could be had for extra earnings. The first industry was the sawmills. These were steam
-driven and fired with waste wood and sawdust.
The winter of 1928-1929 was quite harsh; even the Rhine froze over, and there was a great deal of snow. This was also the time of the onset of the Great Depression
, and this began to make itself felt in Nieder Kostenz, too. There was unemployment, with the numbers of jobless rising each year. In Nieder Kostenz, stone quarrying was introduced as “emergency work”.
After 1933, when Adolf Hitler
came to power, wireless communication was expanded. Even the first cars and motorcycles began to disturb the rural idyll. Between 1934 and 1939, three quarries were opened. Since several local riverbeds and some farm lanes were being cobbled, there was a great demand for quarrystone, and the quarries yielded high-quality stone. In 1939, Nieder Kostenz created, together with Dillendorf and Hecken a coöperative potato steaming facility.
began as early as 2 September 1939 – the day after Nazi Germany
invaded Poland. In late November 1939, troops were quartered in Nieder Kostenz; a logistics unit from Hamburg
wintered in the village. Army units were being brought from Poland
to be redeployed along the western border. In the first winter of the war, a farming family from the Saarland
was lodged in Nieder Kostenz after having to be evacuated from just behind the Siegfried Line
. After the Battle of France
had been won, 13 French
prisoners of war
came to Nieder Kostenz. They were put to work on the farms. In 1942, five Soviet
and two Polish girls were brought to the village to work. In 1939 and 1940, a watch was established at the railway bridge.
Heavy bomber squadrons were seen flying by ever more often beginning in 1944. They twice dropped bombs on Nieder Kostenz. On 19 July 1944, six bombs fell in the rural area called Alwies, but nobody was harmed. On 8 September 1944, six heavy bombs were dropped, targeting the railway bridge, but they all missed. Beginning in the autumn, the railway and the bridge were attacked ever more often by fighter-bombers
. On 6 October 1944, four fighter-bombers attacked the bridge, once more without success. Of the eight bombs that they dropped, two fell on the railway station, heavily damaging the waiting hut. When the bridge was attacked yet again in early 1945, one bomb struck the first arch in the bridge, causing heavy damage; this was later repaired.
In the war’s dying days, an American
fighter was shot down by German Flak
; it crashed in the Brauschied (wood). When the Americans were advancing from the Moselle over the Hunsrück in March 1945, Nieder Kostenz was spared the throngs that beset some nearby places. The road now known as Bundesstraße
50 between Nieder Kostenz and Kirchberg lay for a while under American shell
The Americans dissolved the German administration and administrative organs were provisionally named. Nieder Kostenz next found itself under French occupation.
of Rhineland-Palatinate
. In the autumn of that year, the first municipal election since the Nazis’ Machtergreifung
was held in Nieder Kostenz. Rationing was ended and a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, was introduced.
In 1948, Nieder Kostenz was still a village characterized by smallholder agriculture
. Then came Flurbereinigung
; the new consolidated fields could now be worked more intensively and more productively. The process was moreover accelerated by the mechanization
that was coming to farming.
Also coming to Nieder Kostenz were people who had lost their homes to either aerial bombing of cities during the war or deportation
in the wake of the Potsdam Agreement
. To deal with this matter, the municipal council decided to build a “refugee house”. Building work began in the summer of 1952. A year later, the house, with its two dwellings, was ready for use. In 1953, a third dwelling was built into the attic.
In the early 1960s, a new bylaw abolishing compulsory labour was passed. After a 13-year pause, the kermis was held once again in 1961, staged by the men’s singing club.
Between 1966 and 1975, administrative restructuring was undertaken in Rhineland-Palatinate
. The Simmern district grew to encompass lands all the way to the Rhine, and on 7 June 1969, its name was changed to Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis; Simmern
, once the district’s namesake, kept its position as the district seat. Also, the old Amt of Kirchberg became the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg
. Thus, for Nieder Kostenz, the centres of local administration did not change; they were still at Simmern and Kirchberg
as they had been before.
Between 1989 and 1991, Bundesstraße 50 was realigned, bypassing Kirchberg, Sohren
and Büchenbeuren
. For Nieder Kostenz, this threw up an embankment that cut the Schlemmersmühle (mill) off from the rest of the village. The mill now finds itself between these earthworks and the old railway right-of-way.
In the early 1990s, it became possible once again, after many years, to build new housing in the village when a new building area was opened up. Until this happened, it had been customary for one child from the family to inherit the house and for the others to seek housing in neighbouring villages.
with seven wind turbine
s was built within Nieder Kostenz’s limits. Between 2001 and 2004, the village thoroughfare – Landesstraße (State Road) 195 – which links Nieder Kostenz with Bundesstraße 50 and Ober Kostenz
, was thoroughly modernized along with the municipality’s other streets.
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Per pale chequy of ten azure and Or and argent a bend sinister wavy enhanced, the end towards chief abased, of the first, below which a waterwheel spoked of eight sable.
The “chequy” pattern on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side recalls the “Further” County of Sponheim
, whose counts were between 1248 and 1437 Nieder Kostenz’s lords and landholders. Their arms bore the same pattern throughout the escutcheon in the same tincture
s. The charge
s on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side represent the Kyrbach, the local brook, in the case of the bend sinister wavy, and the village’s three old mills, in the case of the waterwheel; these mills are the once Sponheim-owned Eichenmühle, mentioned as early as 1438, the Bastenmühle (or Schlemmersmühle) and the Minnigsmühle (or Ulrichsmühle).
The arms have been borne since 10 June 1985.
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
and Hermeskeil
.
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 Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (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...
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg
Kirchberg (Verbandsgemeinde)
Kirchberg is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is in Kirchberg.The Verbandsgemeinde Kirchberg consists of the following Ortsgemeinden :...
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Kirchberg, Rhein-Hunsrück
-History:Archaeological finds make it clear that by 400 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, had settled here...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the central HunsrückHunsrück
The Hunsrück is a low mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the river valleys of the Moselle , the Nahe , and the Rhine . The Hunsrück is continued by the Taunus mountains on the eastern side of the Rhine. In the north behind the Moselle it is continued by the Eifel...
in the Kyrbach valley, 2 km west of Kirchberg
Kirchberg, Rhein-Hunsrück
-History:Archaeological finds make it clear that by 400 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, had settled here...
. The rural residential community has an area of 4.12 km², of which 1.19 km² is wooded.
Municipality’s name
The placename Nieder Kostenz first cropped up in 1310 in the Sponheimisches Gefälleregister, a taxation register kept by the County of SponheimCounty of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
. Over the years, various spellings of the name appear on the historical record:
- 1310 – Costencia
- 1321 – Nydder-Costentzen
- 1361 – Nyder-Costentzen
- 1365 – Nyddern-Costentz
- 1399 – Nedercostencien
- 1411 – Nydercostencien
- 1414 – Nydern-Costenz
- 1762 – Nieder Costentz
- 1775 – Niedercostentz
- 1835 – Niedercostenz
- 1950 – Niederkostenz
- 1976 – Nieder Kostenz
Prehistory and protohistory
When Nieder Kostenz actually arose and when the first settlers came are things that nobody can answer with any certainty. A great many archaeologicalArchaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
finds in the area, however, grave goods
Grave goods
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods are a type of votive deposit...
such as bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
rings and belt plaques, iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
lance heads, iron combat knives and coins from 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....
Emperor Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
’s time, bear witness to Celtic-Roman settlement in the area. There have been other Roman finds, too: foundation walls from a Roman settlement, a water duct, tiles and potsherds.
Julius Caesar
Julius 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....
’s writings identify the Hunsrück and neighbouring regions as the realm of the Treveri
Treveri
The Treveri or Treviri were a tribe of Gauls who inhabited the lower valley of the Moselle from around 150 BCE, at the latest, until their eventual absorption into the Franks...
, a people of mixed Celtic and 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...
stock, from whom the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
name for the city of Trier
Trier
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....
, Augusta Treverorum
History of Trier
Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate, whose history dates to the Roman Empire, is often claimed to be the oldest city in Germany. Traditionally it was known in English by its French name of Treves.- Prehistory :...
, is also derived. Nieder Kostenz’s current site was in Caesar’s time part of the Imperial
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
province of Germania Superior
Germania Superior
Germania Superior , so called for the reason that it lay upstream of Germania Inferior, was a province of the Roman Empire. It comprised an area of western Switzerland, the French Jura and Alsace regions, and southwestern Germany...
.
By AD 496, the Franks
Franks
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...
were locally the undisputed rulers. Nieder Kostenz belonged to the Nahegau
Nahegau
The Nahegau was in the Middle Ages a county, which covered the environs of the Nahe and large parts of present-day Rhenish Hesse, after a successful expansion of the narrow territory, which did not reach the Rhine, to the disadvantage of the Wormsgau...
.
The Counts of Sponheim
Bit by bit, the Gaugrafen, the counts who headed the Gaue, ceased to be mere royal officials and became more autonomous. In the 11th century, the Counts of SponheimCounty of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
came to lead the Nahegau. Mechthild, the last daughter of the Counts of Dill (or Dyll), wed Count Maginhard of Sponheim in 1124, thus putting Nieder Kostenz, which had hitherto belonged to Dill, under the Counts of Sponheim. In 1233, the parts of the County of Sponheim on the Rhine’s left bank were split between two lines of the comital house, with the two resulting parts known as the “Further” and “Hinder” Counties. Nieder Kostenz found itself in the former, ruled by the Kreuznach line, which died out in its male line in 1414. The heir was Countess Elisabeth of Sponheim. Her county, however, did not remain entirely with her or her heirs. She ceded one fifth to Electoral Palatinate in 1416, and after her death, the remaining four fifths passed to the Sponheim-Starkenburg line, with Electoral Palatinate receiving a further fifth of the “Further” County in 1422. Once the Starkenburg line had died out in 1437, three fifths of the “Further” County went to the County of Veldenz and Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
. When the Counts of Veldenz, too, died out, they were succeeded by Palatinate-Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern
Palatinate-Simmern was one of the collateral lines of the Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach.The Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach was divided into four lines after the death of Rupert III in 1410, including the line of Palatinate-Simmern with its capital in Simmern. This line...
. Under the 1509 treaty, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1422 was transferred to Simmern; from 1610 to 1659, the fifth ceded to Electoral Palatinate in 1416 also belonged to Simmern. From 1673 on, however, only Electoral Palatinate and Baden were still involved in the “Further” County of Sponheim. When Badish holdings were shared out in 1515, the share of the “Further” County of Sponheim went to the Margrave of Baden. These various parts of the County of Sponheim were long jointly ruled, with the “Further” County considered to be a condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
jointly held by Electoral Palatinate and Baden, with the former holding a three-fifths share and the latter holding a two-fifths share. On 24 August 1707, the “Further” County was sundered in a treaty between Electoral Palatinate and Baden-Baden, and in 1771, the Margraves’ share passed to Baden.
Counts of Sponheim had their seat in Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach
Bad Kreuznach is the capital of the district of Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is located on the Nahe river, a tributary of the Rhine...
. Nieder Kostenz was in the Amt of Kirchberg and more locally in the Pflege (literally “care”, but actually a local geopolitical unit headed by a Pflegeschultheiß
Schultheiß
In medieval Germany, the Schultheiß was the head of a municipality , a Vogt or an executive official of the ruler.As official it was...
) of Kostenz. This was further divided during Badish rule into three smaller Pflegen, Belg, Denzen and Nieder Kostenz. Through all these divisions, administration was never divided, only the earnings from these lands. The rulers were joint lords (Gemeinherren). In 1707, however, this arrangement came to an end after three centuries; the “Further” County passed to Baden, remaining with it, even after a further division in 1776, until 1794.
The Reformation and the Thirty Years' War
Under a decree issued by Frederick, Duke of Palatinate-SimmernFrederick III, Elector Palatine
Frederick III of Simmern, the Pious, Elector Palatine of the Rhine was a ruler from the house of Wittelsbach, branch Palatinate-Simmern-Sponheim. He was a son of John II of Simmern and inherited the Palatinate from the childless Elector Otto-Henry, Elector Palatine in 1559...
(who would soon also become Frederick III, Elector Palatine) on 16 July 1557, the Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
was introduced into the Principality of Simmern. This automatically changed the subjects’ faith to make it the same as their ruler’s
Cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio is a phrase in Latin translated as "Whose realm, his religion", meaning the religion of the ruler dictated the religion of the ruled...
.
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....
, first the Spaniards
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and then later the Swedes
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
plundered and starved the region around Nieder Kostenz. Oral lore has it that there was a great famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
in the area between 1635 and 1642. Moreover, many people fell victim to the Plague. King Louis XIV’s
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
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...
troops occupied the Palatinate and the Hunsrück in 1673, resulting in further plundering and laying waste. After Charles II, Elector Palatine
Charles II, Elector Palatine
Charles II was Elector Palatine from 1680 to 1685. He was the son of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine and Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel.Charles was a strict Calvinist. In 1671, his aunt Electress Sophia of Hanover arranged his marriage to Princess Wilhelmina Ernestina, daughter of King Frederick III...
died childless, war broke out yet again – the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession). This time, Louis XIV felt he had a right to make certain claims to the Palatinate because the late Charles’s only sister, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine was a German princess and the wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France. Her vast correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV...
(“Liselotte”), was married to the French king’s brother, the Duke of Orléans
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
Philippe of France was the youngest son of Louis XIII of France and his queen consort Anne of Austria. His older brother was the famous Louis XIV, le roi soleil. Styled Duke of Anjou from birth, Philippe became Duke of Orléans upon the death of his uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans...
.
In 1688, de facto religious freedom was introduced, and the available churches were allotted to either Catholic or Evangelical
Evangelical Church in Germany
The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of 22 Lutheran, Unified and Reformed Protestant regional church bodies in Germany. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding because of the denominational differences. However, the member churches share full pulpit and altar...
congregations, or in some cases, the two denominations would have to share a simultaneous church
Simultaneum
A shared church, or Simultankirche, Simultaneum or, more fully, simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in Europe in the wake of the Reformation...
.
Badish times
Margrave Charles Frederick set himself to improving economic circumstances. Since the Hunsrück was then purely farmland, he strove to further agricultureAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
. The farmers were made to undertake seed exchanging. Potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
raising was forced. Cropraising was expanded and the yields were improved by introducing the three-field system
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...
. Presently, there was an attempt to move away from the simple pastoral economy to indoor breeding. The mean cattle and horse breeds were improved. It was forbidden to thatch
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
roofs. It was also in Badish times that there were considerable improvements to infrastructure. Many roads were sealed, public building projects were undertaken and churches were built.
French rule
Under the treaty of 22 August 1796, Baden ceded all its holdings on the Rhine’s left bank to France. Nieder Kostenz belonged to the Department of Rhin-et-MoselleRhin-et-Moselle
Rhin-et-Moselle is the name of a département of the First French Empire in present Germany. It is named after the rivers Rhine and Moselle. It was formed in 1798, when the left bank of the Rhine was annexed by France. Until the French occupation, its territory was divided between the Archbishopric...
. Nieder Kostenz became a Mairie (“Mayoralty”) to which the following places also belonged: Kappel, Kludenbach
Kludenbach
Kludenbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Metzenhausen
Metzenhausen
Metzenhausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Ober Kostenz
Ober Kostenz
Ober Kostenz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Reckershausen
Reckershausen
Reckershausen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Schwarzen
Schwarzen
Schwarzen is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Todenroth
Todenroth
Todenroth is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town.-Location:The municipality lies in...
and Würrich
Würrich
Würrich is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
. French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
became the official language, the Code civil des Français
Napoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code — or Code Napoléon — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified...
became the law of the land and a civil registry was introduced, in addition to the similar function that was still being performed by the Church. Also, the French Republican Calendar
French Republican Calendar
The French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871...
was introduced, although the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
was reintroduced in 1806
Prussian rule
The new PrussiaPrussia
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 administration that began in 1816 was not the only change brought about by the downfall of Napoleon’s
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
empire and its dismemberment by the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
. There were changes for agriculture, too. One goal was to dismantle the extensive pastoral economy. Heath
Heath
-Habitats:* Heath or heathland, low-growing woody vegetation, mostly consisting of heathers and related species* Heaths in the British National Vegetation Classification system...
and coppice lands were to be forested. The municipality, though, did not want to forsake the rights that it had won in the 17th century, as witnessed by two suits recorded in court documents in the Koblenz State Archives. In Dillendorf
Dillendorf
-Constituent communities:Dillendorf’s Ortsteile are the outlying village of Liederbach and the main village, also called Dillendorf.-History:There are more than 80 barrows along the Via Ausonia, and there have been quite a few archaeological finds from Late La Tène times along with gold coins left...
’s and Nieder Kostenz’s submission in the case against the Prussian government, Dillendorf wanted to prove to the government that it had held grazing rights
Grazing rights
Grazing rights is a legal term referring to the right of a user to allow their livestock to feed in a given area.- United States :...
in the Dillwald (forest, now called the Brauschied) since the 17th century, and that it had the right to burn forest and use woodlands for haymaking. In the other court case from 1816, the villages of Kappel, Kludenbach, Todenroth, Metzenhausen, Nieder Kostenz, Ober Kostenz and Schwarzen fought against having to give up grazing rights, including the right to graze swine on acorns in the Hinterwald (forest). Nieder Kostenz had to forgo grazing rights at that time, although some other villages were allowed to keep them for a while.
Prussia forested the Dillwald, thus greatly limiting grazing. Moreover, Napoleon had sold a great deal of land off formerly held by local lords while he was in power, leaving rather little for the local farmers. This forced them to turn more towards intensive farming
Intensive farming
Intensive farming or intensive agriculture is an agricultural production system characterized by the high inputs of capital, labour, or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area....
. This, however, meant that greater capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
had to be sunk into the endeavour, something that many poorer families, and those with many children, simply could not manage. Furthermore, because land was being shared out among heirs in bequests, plots were becoming ever smaller, until it reached the point at which the land could no longer be subdivided.
Meanwhile, agents were trying to get people to settle in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, especially in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, which was willing to make available to any settler 70 to 80 ha of land, which was quite an inducement. Many young couples who had nothing to their name but their willingness to work felt forced to leave the Hunsrück forever and emigrate, either to South America or to the industrial centres, to seek the livelihood that eluded them at home.
German Empire
In the 1866 Austro-Prussian WarAustro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
, six men from Nieder Kostenz took part; eight took part in 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...
(1870–1871). None of these was either wounded or killed. The time following this war is known as the Gründerzeit
Gründerzeit
' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
– the Founders’ Time. It was in 1871 that the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
was founded. It was also in 1871 that the Kirchberg Savings and Loan Association was founded by, among others, Philipp Quaer II, who was from Nieder Kostenz, and who was later also the Association’s chairman. The old pastoral economy, in which livestock was tended by herdsmen in the forest and on the heath, came to an end sometime around the turn of the 20th century. By that time, there was not only a paid herdsman, but also a herdsman’s barn. This was later converted into a bull stable in 1901 and 1902; until 1894, it had had a thatch. In 1875, a cloudburst in the Kyrbach valley led to a great flood. The bridge in the village was heavily damaged while the one on the provincial road was partly swept away. As in many villages in the Hunsrück, an “Emperor’s Oak” was planted in Nieder Kostenz on Kaiser Wilhelm I’s
William I, German Emperor
William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...
one hundredth birthday, 22 March 1897 (he had been dead for nine years by this time). It still stands today.
20th century
In 1905, the municipality built a livestock scale. In late 1986 it was sold, as slaughter cattle were being sold at the price of dead meat and the scale had become unprofitable. On 20 June 1906, at the smith Friedrich Klein’s house, a public telephoneTelephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
facility was installed. The municipality subsidized it.
The First World War
Thirty-seven men from Nieder Kostenz had to go to war. Two of them fell, and one went missingMissing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
. The absence of so many men during the First World War made itself keenly felt in the constant labour shortage. Women, children and the elderly were pressed into service to help in the farm fields. The state required all agricultural produce to be handed over, but for the minimum needed for a farming family’s personal consumption. This process was overseen by the police, who sometimes also searched houses or barns seeking hoards of food. A typical village meal at this time consisted of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es, bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
, milk
Milk
Milk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
and vegetables. In 1916, though, the potato harvest was bad because of late blight
Phytophthora infestans
Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete that causes the serious potato disease known as late blight or potato blight. . Late blight was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines...
(the same disease that caused the Potato Famine in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
). At the time, no way was known to fight the blight. Luckily there was enough food to avoid a famine.
When the western front collapsed and the war had been lost in 1918, Nieder Kostenz had to host German troops many times during their retreat. Beginning in December, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and then later French, troops came. The Americans were well supplied with food. The French, on the other hand, seized food. Aside from a couple of stolen chickens, however, there were no incidents.
After the French withdrew, the war was over for Nieder Kostenz. The warriors’ memorial was built in 1933 in honour of those who had fallen in the Great War.
Weimar times
Despite the rampant inflationInflation in the Weimar Republic
The hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic was a three year period of hyperinflation in Germany between June 1921 and July 1924.- Analysis :...
in Germany in 1923, the year brought one good thing to Nieder Kostenz: electricity
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...
. More important than electric light, though, was the advent of electric motor
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
s, which began to be used for all kinds of machinery formerly powered by horses, oxen and cows, such as threshers. The inflation, however, did mean that it was quite a while before everyone who needed these motors had them. In the 1920s, there was almost no industry in the area besides agriculture. People in Nieder Kostenz fed themselves mainly from their own harvests. Besides a few handicraftsmen, such as cobblers, bricklayers, smiths and millers, almost everyone worked the land. In the winter, four to eight weeks’ work as a lumberjack could be had for extra earnings. The first industry was the sawmills. These were steam
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
-driven and fired with waste wood and sawdust.
The winter of 1928-1929 was quite harsh; even the Rhine froze over, and there was a great deal of snow. This was also the time of the onset of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and this began to make itself felt in Nieder Kostenz, too. There was unemployment, with the numbers of jobless rising each year. In Nieder Kostenz, stone quarrying was introduced as “emergency work”.
After 1933, when Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power, wireless communication was expanded. Even the first cars and motorcycles began to disturb the rural idyll. Between 1934 and 1939, three quarries were opened. Since several local riverbeds and some farm lanes were being cobbled, there was a great demand for quarrystone, and the quarries yielded high-quality stone. In 1939, Nieder Kostenz created, together with Dillendorf and Hecken a coöperative potato steaming facility.
The Second World War
Forty-two men from Nieder Kostenz served in the Second World War, eleven of whom fell. RationingRationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, or services. Rationing controls the size of the ration, one's allotted portion of the resources being distributed on a particular day or at a particular time.- In economics :...
began as early as 2 September 1939 – the day after Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invaded Poland. In late November 1939, troops were quartered in Nieder Kostenz; a logistics unit from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
wintered in the village. Army units were being brought from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
to be redeployed along the western border. In the first winter of the war, a farming family from the Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
was lodged in Nieder Kostenz after having to be evacuated from just behind the Siegfried Line
Siegfried Line
The original Siegfried line was a line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany as a section of the Hindenburg Line 1916–1917 in northern France during World War I...
. After the Battle of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
had been won, 13 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...
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...
came to Nieder Kostenz. They were put to work on the farms. In 1942, five Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and two Polish girls were brought to the village to work. In 1939 and 1940, a watch was established at the railway bridge.
Heavy bomber squadrons were seen flying by ever more often beginning in 1944. They twice dropped bombs on Nieder Kostenz. On 19 July 1944, six bombs fell in the rural area called Alwies, but nobody was harmed. On 8 September 1944, six heavy bombs were dropped, targeting the railway bridge, but they all missed. Beginning in the autumn, the railway and the bridge were attacked ever more often by fighter-bombers
Strike fighter
In a current military parlance, a strike fighter is a multi-role combat aircraft designed to operate primarily in the air-to-surface attack role while also incorporating certain performance characteristics of a fighter aircraft. As a category, it is distinct from fighter-bombers...
. On 6 October 1944, four fighter-bombers attacked the bridge, once more without success. Of the eight bombs that they dropped, two fell on the railway station, heavily damaging the waiting hut. When the bridge was attacked yet again in early 1945, one bomb struck the first arch in the bridge, causing heavy damage; this was later repaired.
In the war’s dying days, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
fighter was shot down by German Flak
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
; it crashed in the Brauschied (wood). When the Americans were advancing from the Moselle over the Hunsrück in March 1945, Nieder Kostenz was spared the throngs that beset some nearby places. The road now known as Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
50 between Nieder Kostenz and Kirchberg lay for a while under American shell
Shell (projectile)
A shell is a payload-carrying projectile, which, as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage sometimes includes large solid projectiles properly termed shot . Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used...
The Americans dissolved the German administration and administrative organs were provisionally named. Nieder Kostenz next found itself under French occupation.
After the war
Since 1946, Nieder Kostenz has been part of the then newly founded stateStates 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 ....
. In the autumn of that year, the first municipal election since the Nazis’ Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
was held in Nieder Kostenz. Rationing was ended and a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, was introduced.
In 1948, Nieder Kostenz was still a village characterized by smallholder agriculture
Smallholder Agriculture
-Lifestyle farming:The term is also used to enhance the lifestyle and worldview of smallholders as an integrated process that retains a link to nature...
. Then came Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung
Flurbereinigung is the German word used to describe land reforms in various countries, especially Germany and Austria. The term can best be translated as land consolidation. Another European country where those land reforms have been carried out is France...
; the new consolidated fields could now be worked more intensively and more productively. The process was moreover accelerated by the mechanization
Mechanised agriculture
Mechanized agriculture is the process of using agricultural machinery to mechanize the work of agriculture, massively increasing farm output and farm worker productivity...
that was coming to farming.
Also coming to Nieder Kostenz were people who had lost their homes to either aerial bombing of cities during the war or deportation
Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II...
in the wake of the Potsdam Agreement
Potsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
. To deal with this matter, the municipal council decided to build a “refugee house”. Building work began in the summer of 1952. A year later, the house, with its two dwellings, was ready for use. In 1953, a third dwelling was built into the attic.
In the early 1960s, a new bylaw abolishing compulsory labour was passed. After a 13-year pause, the kermis was held once again in 1961, staged by the men’s singing club.
Between 1966 and 1975, administrative restructuring was undertaken 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 ....
. The Simmern district grew to encompass lands all the way to the Rhine, and on 7 June 1969, its name was changed to Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis; Simmern
Simmern
Simmern is a town of 8,000 inhabitants in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, the district seat of the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, and the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde...
, once the district’s namesake, kept its position as the district seat. Also, the old Amt of Kirchberg became the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg
Kirchberg (Verbandsgemeinde)
Kirchberg is a Verbandsgemeinde in the Rhein-Hunsrück district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its seat is in Kirchberg.The Verbandsgemeinde Kirchberg consists of the following Ortsgemeinden :...
. Thus, for Nieder Kostenz, the centres of local administration did not change; they were still at Simmern and Kirchberg
Kirchberg, Rhein-Hunsrück
-History:Archaeological finds make it clear that by 400 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, had settled here...
as they had been before.
Between 1989 and 1991, Bundesstraße 50 was realigned, bypassing Kirchberg, Sohren
Sohren
Sohren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town...
and Büchenbeuren
Büchenbeuren
Büchenbeuren is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Kirchberg, whose seat is in the like-named town...
. For Nieder Kostenz, this threw up an embankment that cut the Schlemmersmühle (mill) off from the rest of the village. The mill now finds itself between these earthworks and the old railway right-of-way.
In the early 1990s, it became possible once again, after many years, to build new housing in the village when a new building area was opened up. Until this happened, it had been customary for one child from the family to inherit the house and for the others to seek housing in neighbouring villages.
21st century
In 2000 and 2001, a wind farmWind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
with seven wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s was built within Nieder Kostenz’s limits. Between 2001 and 2004, the village thoroughfare – Landesstraße (State Road) 195 – which links Nieder Kostenz with Bundesstraße 50 and Ober Kostenz
Ober Kostenz
Ober Kostenz is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, was thoroughly modernized along with the municipality’s other streets.
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.
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In gespaltenem Schild vorne das blau goldene Schach, hinten in Silber unter einem blauen schrägliegenden Wellenbalken ein schwarzes Wasserrad.The municipality’s arms
Coat 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...
might in English heraldic
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
language be described thus: Per pale chequy of ten azure and Or and argent a bend sinister wavy enhanced, the end towards chief abased, of the first, below which a waterwheel spoked of eight sable.
The “chequy” pattern on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side recalls the “Further” County of Sponheim
County of Sponheim
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire which lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century...
, whose counts were between 1248 and 1437 Nieder Kostenz’s lords and landholders. Their arms bore the same pattern throughout the escutcheon in the same tincture
Tincture (heraldry)
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms. These can be divided into several categories including light tinctures called metals, dark tinctures called colours, nonstandard colours called stains, furs, and "proper". A charge tinctured proper is coloured as it would be...
s. The charge
Charge (heraldry)
In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...
s on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side represent the Kyrbach, the local brook, in the case of the bend sinister wavy, and the village’s three old mills, in the case of the waterwheel; these mills are the once Sponheim-owned Eichenmühle, mentioned as early as 1438, the Bastenmühle (or Schlemmersmühle) and the Minnigsmühle (or Ulrichsmühle).
The arms have been borne since 10 June 1985.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-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 ....
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
- Catholic ChapelChapelA 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,...
of the Visitation (Kapelle Mariae Heimsuchung), Kapellenweg – BaroqueBaroque architectureBaroque 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...
aisleless churchAisleless churchAn Aisleless church is a single-nave church building that consists of a single hall-like room. While similar to the hall church, the aisleless church lacks aisles or passageways either side of the nave separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns...
, 1752; whole complex of buildings with graveyard - Hauptstraße 9 – bakehouse, 18th century
- Railway bridge, south of the village, south of BundesstraßeBundesstraßeBundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
50 – sandstoneSandstoneSandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
bridge on the Hunsrückquerbahn; about 1908
Transport
Nieder Kostenz was a stop on the now disused Hunsrückquerbahn between LangenlonsheimLangenlonsheim
Langenlonsheim is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the river Nahe, approx. 6 km north-east of Bad Kreuznach and 9 km south of Bingen am Rhein...
and Hermeskeil
Hermeskeil
Hermeskeil is a town in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated in the Hunsrück, approx. 25 km southeast of Trier...
.