Riesweiler
Encyclopedia
History
Riesweiler might have had a RomanAncient 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....
past, for it lies on an old Roman road. In 1135, Riesweiler had its first documentary mention. According to historical researchers, though, Riesweiler must already have existed by 995, when the oldest royal estate, “Denzen” was donated by King Otto III
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto III , a King of Germany, was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected King in 983 on the death of his father Otto II and was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 996.-Early reign:...
to his stalwart, Bezelin. Already in this time, the name Riesweiler (then in the form Riswillri) was cropping up.
The Eremitage Maria Reizenborn near Riesweiler, reconstructed since 1980, was from the 12th to 14th century a resting place on Saint James’s Way
Way of St. James
The Way of St. James or St. James' Way is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried....
, the pilgrimage
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...
route to Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
, the section of which running from Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
by way of Bingen
Bingen am Rhein
Bingen am Rhein is a town in the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.The settlement’s original name was Bingium, a Celtic word that may have meant “hole in the rock”, a description of the shoal behind the Mäuseturm, known as the Binger Loch. Bingen was the starting point for the...
to 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....
crossed the Soonwald ridges between Stromberg
Stromberg (Hunsrück)
Stromberg is a municipality in the district of Bad Kreuznach, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the eastern edge of the Hunsrück, approx. 10 km west of Bingen....
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...
.
The oldest directory of Riesweiler’s inhabitants goes back to 1567. It is a taxation register, and is also the oldest document of this kind dealing with Riesweiler. It lists the taxpayers’ names, and the amounts that they had to pay.
The 17th century brought Riesweiler neediness and hardship. Two wars, 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....
and the Nine Years' War (known in Germany as the Pfälzischer Erbfolgekrieg, or War of the Palatine Succession) brought misery, calamity and, for a while, at least, and end to a once blossoming land. At this time, there were 37 houses in Riesweiler.
Monastic lordship was followed by Electoral Palatinate’s rule. Beginning in 1794, Riesweiler lay under 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...
rule. In 1814 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
at 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,...
.
In the summer of 1813, a fire broke out in Riesweiler that all but destroyed the village. How the fire started and how many houses and buildings were lost was unfortunately not written down. It has been established, however, that only a few houses were left standing, and 55 people were injured in the fire.
In the time of 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 early 19th century, many people from Riesweiler turned their backs on the village and emigrated.
The First and Second World Wars also left their mark on Riesweiler. In the Second World War, many buildings were destroyed in artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
barrages. Grimmer still was the toll taken on the villagers themselves. Almost every household lost a relative, a loved one or a friend. All together, the two wars claimed 76 lives locally, 19 of whom were listed as missing
Missing 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...
.
Since 1946, Riesweiler has been part of the then newly founded state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
.
After the Second World War came reconstruction. Municipal councils at the time quickly recognized the importance of a “growing” village. As early as the 1960s, new building zones were being laid out. At the same time, efforts were brought to bear on modernizing the village centre and building a multipurpose hall, the Soonblickhalle, which was dedicated in 1979.
In the 1980s, a further building zone was laid out, and attention was directed at building a bypass road, which was finished in the early 1990s, affording Riesweiler some relief from through traffic, especially heavy vehicles.
With the building of cycle paths, which are all linked to the Hunsrück cycle path network, and the provision of guest rooms, Riesweiler has grown into something more than simply a local recreational area.
Since the late 1960s, Riesweiler has employed a fulltime municipal worker whose job is not simply to oversee and maintain municipal institutions, squares and paths, but also to render services in the municipality.
Population development
What follows is a table of the town’s population figures for selected years since the early 19th century (each time at 31 December):
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Municipal council
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by proportional representationProportional representation
Proportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.
The municipal election held on 7 June 2009 yielded the following results:
| SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany... |
WG | Total | |
| 2009 | - | 12 | 12 seats |
| 2004 | 5 | 7 | 12 seats |
Mayor
Riesweiler’s mayor is Thomas Auler, and his deputies are Siegfried Auler and Alfred Hottenbacher.Coat of arms
The municipality’s armsCoat 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 be described thus: Per fess an endorse argent between sable a lion’s head erased Or langued gules and gules a fleur-de-lis of the first, and argent a tree eradicated vert.
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:
- EvangelicalEvangelical Church in GermanyThe 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...
church, Jahnstraße 2 – 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...
, marked 1763; whole complex of buildings with graveyard - At Gemündener Straße 4 – ClassicistClassicismClassicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
door - At Soonwaldstraße 6 – Classicist door
- Eremitage Maria Reizenborn (monumental zone) – foundation remnants of the pilgrimage church and hermitage, 18th century; spring enclosure (see also below)
Eremitage Maria Reizenborn
High up in the forest is the Räzebore – a dialectal variant of the name “Reizenborn” – a monument to a hermit. In an outdoor forest church above the hermitage, well attended church services are held in summer under the open sky. According to one theory, the original Celtic inhabitants already had a worshipping place at this springSpring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
(the —born part of the name) in pre-Christian times ringed with stone god figures. After Christianization in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the monumental heads of the idols that remained were taken on orders from Archboshop of Mainz Willigis
Willigis
Saint Willigis was Archbishop of Mainz from 975 until his death as well as a statesman of the Holy Roman Empire.-Life:...
sometime about 1000 and incorporated into the walls of Riesweiler’s first church, and into its successor buildings as well. One of the sculptures can be seen outside in the west gable, while inside, two others bear the gallery as brackets. Typologically, these ancient works in stone are immediately related to the god figures from Mont Beuvray (Bibracte
Bibracte
Bibracte, a Gaulish oppidum or fortified city, was the capital of the Aedui and one of the most important hillforts in Gaul. It was situated near modern Autun in Burgundy, France. The material culture of the Aedui corresponded to the Late Iron Age La Tène culture,In 58 BC, at the Battle of...
) and the idols from a Celtic sanctuary in the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
’s headwaters, now kept at the Musée archéologique in Dijon
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
.
Transport
Transport links to the national road network are afforded by BundesstraßeBundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
50, which runs by the village only a few hundred metres away. Riesweiler’s cycle paths are linked to the Hunsrück cycle path network. The Schinderhannes
Schinderhannes
Johannes Bückler , nicknamed Schinderhannes, was a German outlaw who orchestrated one of the most fascinating crime sprees in German history. He was born at Miehlen, the son of Johann and Anna Maria Bückler. He began an apprenticeship to a tanner, but turned to petty theft. At 16 he was arrested...
-Soonwald-Radweg (cycle path) runs through the village on its way from Gemünden
Gemünden, Rhein-Hunsrück
Gemünden is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
to 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...
.
External links
- Municipality’s official webpage
- http://www.swr.de/hierzuland-rp/archiv/2005/04/09/index.htmlBrief portrait of Riesweiler with film at SWR FernsehenSWR FernsehenSWR Fernsehen is a German regional television channel targeting the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is produced by Südwestrundfunk and is one of eight regional "third channels" broadcast by the ARD members....
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