Schönbach, Rhineland-Palatinate
Encyclopedia
Schönbach is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality
belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde
, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district
in Rhineland-Palatinate
, Germany
. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun
, whose seat is in the like-named town
.
, a part of the Eifel
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
Near Schönbach runs the Autobahn A 1.
under Schönbach is made up of greywacke
, a mineral of the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge
(Rhenish Slate
Mountains), which formed 360,000,000 years ago out of the ooze on the floor of the Devonian
Sea. Often found in this stone are fossil
s of long extinct marine animals. Volcanic activity began aeons later, after an uplift
had already laid the former seabed bare. The most recent volcano
es, the maar
volcanoes, are only about 9000 years old.
s and later settled, as witnessed by the ringwalls on the Hommerich and the Steineberger Ley, local peaks. There are barrows
in Schönbach dating from this time, as well. Finds made there, such as “fat-bellied” urns, small bowls, bronze
rings, neck ring
s and iron
lance
heads, date the barrows to the 7th century BC. Research has yielded information that these people were Celts, more specifically 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.
In Roman
times, which began in 51 BC when Julius Caesar
subdued the Celts, Roman roads sprang up in the Eifel
, and many buildings appeared, one of which was at the foot of the Kreuzberg in Schönbach. A springwater
parlour has also been brought to light. According to the State Museum in Trier
, it is Roman. A Roman grave was also unearthed during Flurbereinigung
. It yielded two well preserved urns, now in the State Museum.
Next came the Franks
, who ended Roman hegemony in the Eifel in the 5th century AD. Placenames ending in —heim and —hof were given places that arose as a single household, whereas groups of houses – villages – were given names ending in —dorf, —hausen, —bach, —feld, —born, —roth, —rat, —scheid, —berg or —bruch.
Christianity
first arrived in the region even in Roman times, although the Franks were not Christian when they first settled. It is known that Frankish King Clovis I
converted
to Christianity after his victory at the Battle of Tolbiac
(Zülpich
). Furthermore, the preamble to the Salic law
, the Franks’ law written in the 5th or 6th century, reads: “Long live Christ, Who loves the Franks! May He keep their empire and fill its leaders with the light of His grace.” Clearly, the Franks had become a Christian power.
Later on in the Middle Ages
, the village’s namesake brook, the Schönbach, formed the border between the Electorates
of Cologne and Trier, thus splitting the village between these two bodies.
In 1364, Schönbach had its first documentary mention on the Sunday after Saint Vitus
’s Day (15 June). The document itself, thus dated, deals with Arnold von Daun’s yearly payment of 7 Gulden to Burkhard von Vinstigen, Lord of Schönecken, and his wife Blanchflor from his half of an estate at Schonnbach; he also enfeoffed Burkhard with this holding.
The Thirty Years' War
spared no village in the Eifel. What was not felled by the sword was beaten by hunger and sickness – the Plague. In 1563, before the war, Schönbach had 17 houses. In 1654, after the war, only 5 hearths remained.
After the Thirty Years' War, Schönbach belonged to the Electoral-Trier Amt of Daun (actually beginning in 1357). The Electorate of Cologne, however, continued to hold the Amt ecclesiastically until 1801.
In 1716, a chapel
was built in Schönbach. It stood until 1968.
In the wake of the French Revolution
in 1789, German armies invaded France
, but were not only repulsed, but also overwhelmed on their own soil. This put an end to the Electorate of Trier and indeed, all lands on the Rhine’s left bank then found themselves under French rule as a result of the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio
. Schönbach became part of the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Sarmersbach in the Canton
of Daun, which in turn was part of the Arrondissement of Prüm in the Department of Sarre. Napoleonic
administrative reform grouped Schönbach parochially with Utzerath
, Allscheid and Hörscheid
, thus ending the parochial division that had prevailed in Schönbach. French rule ended with the Congress of Vienna
in 1814 and Waterloo
the following year, which put a definitive end to Napoleonic times
.
The late 18th and 19th centuries were lean years in the Eifel
. Farmers owned little enough livestock without the sicknesses that struck both cattle
and swine in these years, which not only decimated herds but also raised the price of meat. Furthermore, a column of 40,000 Russia
n troops who passed through the needy region in May 1814 on their way back home to Russia did not help matters. The Kingdom of Prussia
acquired not only new territory under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, but also no dearth of new problems. Worst of all was the Year Without a Summer
– 1816 – which almost drove the Eifel into famine
.
Between 1870 and 1890, railways began to crisscross the Eifel, but none ever came to Schönbach. The nearest stations were in Utzerath
and Ulmen
.
In 1882, sixteen children in Schönbach – and many more in the district as a whole – died in an outbreak of scarlet fever
, literally decimating the village, whose population had been 160.
The turn of the 20th century brought Schönbach some measure of relief from the usual neediness. This was a time that saw the rise of industry in the cities, and this replaced the customary emigration
to places overseas with migration to industrial areas within Germany itself. Many from the region found work there and remitted their earnings to the still struggling Eifel.
The early 20th century brought the First and Second World Wars, each sweeping away an old order and replacing it with a new one. After the Second World War, 21 new houses were built in Schönbach and 13 other buildings were remodelled or expanded. Streets were paved and a new freezer building was built. A new chapel
was built to replace the old one built in 1716. On 2 February 1959, work began on Flurbereinigung, the rearrangement of rural property boundaries, which over the centuries had become such a tangle that agriculture
had become rather inefficient owing to the splintered bits of property that had arisen over time. Heading the board that oversaw this undertaking was Peter Hab and the treasurer was Rudi Röder, both from Schönbach. The work resulted not only in a redistribution of lands among the landowners, but also in woods and hedgerows being removed. New hedgerows were planted in some places as windbreaks, and as habitat for birds and hedgehog
s. A new drainage
system was also laid out.
The municipality’s arms
might in English heraldic
language be described thus: Argent a bend sinister wavy azure between a cross gules and an inescutcheon of the same charged with nine bezants, three, three and three.
The wavy bend sinister refers to the municipality’s namesake brook, the Schönbach. The red cross refers to Schönbach’s former allegiance to the Electorate of Trier as part of the Amt of Daun from 1357. The inescutcheon charge
d with nine bezants (golden disks, or in this case balls or orbs, as the German blazon has it) is Saint Quirinus’s attribute, thus representing the municipality’s patron saint.
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 Vulkaneifel 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 Daun
Daun (Verbandsgemeinde)
Daun is a collective municipality in the Vulkaneifel district of Rhineland-Palatinate. The seat of the Daun Verbandsgemeinde is in the municipality of Daun.- Constituent municipalities:# Betteldorf# Bleckhausen# Brockscheid...
, whose seat is in the like-named town
Daun, Germany
Daun is a town in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the district seat and also the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun.- Location :...
.
Location
The municipality lies in the VulkaneifelVulkan Eifel
The Vulkan Eifel is a region in the Eifel Mountains in Germany, that is defined to a large extent by its volcanic geological history. Characteristic of the Vulkan Eifel are its typical explosion crater lakes or maars, and numerous other signs of volcanic activity such as volcanic tuffs, lava...
, a part of the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth.
Near Schönbach runs the Autobahn A 1.
Geology
The bedrockBedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
under Schönbach is made up of greywacke
Greywacke
Greywacke or Graywacke is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix. It is a texturally immature sedimentary rock generally found...
, a mineral of the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge
Rheinisches Schiefergebirge
The Rhenish Massif is a geologic massif in western Germany, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg and northeastern France.The Rhenish Massif consists of the Belgian and French Ardennes, the German Eifel and east of the river Rhine the Sauerland and Siegerland. The Mosel and Hunsrück hills form its...
(Rhenish Slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
Mountains), which formed 360,000,000 years ago out of the ooze on the floor of the Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
Sea. Often found in this stone are fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s of long extinct marine animals. Volcanic activity began aeons later, after an uplift
Tectonic uplift
Tectonic uplift is a geological process most often caused by plate tectonics which increases elevation. The opposite of uplift is subsidence, which results in a decrease in elevation. Uplift may be orogenic or isostatic.-Orogenic uplift:...
had already laid the former seabed bare. The most recent volcano
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
es, the maar
Maar
A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater that is caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption, an explosion caused by groundwater coming into contact with hot lava or magma. A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow crater lake. The name comes from the local Moselle...
volcanoes, are only about 9000 years old.
History
Traces of early human habitation have been found locally, including stone tools, sometimes ground, dating from the New Stone Age, which began about 4000 BC. They passed through the dale as hunter-gathererHunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s and later settled, as witnessed by the ringwalls on the Hommerich and the Steineberger Ley, local peaks. There are barrows
Tumulus
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...
in Schönbach dating from this time, as well. Finds made there, such as “fat-bellied” urns, small bowls, 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, neck ring
Neck ring
Neck rings are formed with one or more spiral metal coils of many turns worn as an ornament around the neck of an individual. In a few African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn usually to create the appearance that the neck has been stretched. Padaung women of the Kayan people begin to wear...
s and 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
Lance
A Lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, stout and heavier than an infantry spear, and unsuited for throwing, or for rapid thrusting. Lances did not have tips designed to intentionally break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the...
heads, date the barrows to the 7th century BC. Research has yielded information that these people were Celts, more specifically 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.
In 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....
times, which began in 51 BC when 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....
subdued the Celts, Roman roads sprang up in the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
, and many buildings appeared, one of which was at the foot of the Kreuzberg in Schönbach. A springwater
Spring (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...
parlour has also been brought to light. According to the State Museum in 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....
, it is Roman. A Roman grave was also unearthed during 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...
. It yielded two well preserved urns, now in the State Museum.
Next came 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...
, who ended Roman hegemony in the Eifel in the 5th century AD. Placenames ending in —heim and —hof were given places that arose as a single household, whereas groups of houses – villages – were given names ending in —dorf, —hausen, —bach, —feld, —born, —roth, —rat, —scheid, —berg or —bruch.
Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
first arrived in the region even in Roman times, although the Franks were not Christian when they first settled. It is known that Frankish King Clovis I
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...
converted
Religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...
to Christianity after his victory at the Battle of Tolbiac
Battle of Tolbiac
The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks under Clovis I and the Alamanni, traditionally set in 496. The site of "Tolbiac", or "Tulpiacum" is usually given as Zülpich, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 60km east of the present German-Belgian frontier, which is not implausible...
(Zülpich
Zülpich
Zülpich is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany between Aachen and Bonn. It belongs to the district Euskirchen.The town is commonly agreed to be the site with the Latin name of Tolbiacum, famous for the Battle of Tolbiac, fought between the Franks under Clovis I and the Alamanni; the...
). Furthermore, the preamble to the Salic law
Salic law
Salic law was a body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century...
, the Franks’ law written in the 5th or 6th century, reads: “Long live Christ, Who loves the Franks! May He keep their empire and fill its leaders with the light of His grace.” Clearly, the Franks had become a Christian power.
Later on 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 village’s namesake brook, the Schönbach, formed the border between the Electorates
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
of Cologne and Trier, thus splitting the village between these two bodies.
In 1364, Schönbach had its first documentary mention on the Sunday after Saint Vitus
Vitus
Saint Vitus was a Christian saint from Sicily. He died as a martyr during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in 303. Vitus is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the Roman Catholic Church....
’s Day (15 June). The document itself, thus dated, deals with Arnold von Daun’s yearly payment of 7 Gulden to Burkhard von Vinstigen, Lord of Schönecken, and his wife Blanchflor from his half of an estate at Schonnbach; he also enfeoffed Burkhard with this holding.
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....
spared no village in the Eifel. What was not felled by the sword was beaten by hunger and sickness – the Plague. In 1563, before the war, Schönbach had 17 houses. In 1654, after the war, only 5 hearths remained.
After the Thirty Years' War, Schönbach belonged to the Electoral-Trier Amt of Daun (actually beginning in 1357). The Electorate of Cologne, however, continued to hold the Amt ecclesiastically until 1801.
In 1716, a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was built in Schönbach. It stood until 1968.
In the wake of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
in 1789, German armies invaded France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, but were not only repulsed, but also overwhelmed on their own soil. This put an end to the Electorate of Trier and indeed, all lands on the Rhine’s left bank then found themselves under French rule as a result of the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio
Treaty of Campo Formio
The Treaty of Campo Formio was signed on 18 October 1797 by Napoleon Bonaparte and Count Philipp von Cobenzl as representatives of revolutionary France and the Austrian monarchy...
. Schönbach became part of the Mairie (“Mayoralty”) of Sarmersbach in the Canton
Cantons of France
The cantons of France are territorial subdivisions of the French Republic's 342 arrondissements and 101 departments.Apart from their role as organizational units in certain aspects of the administration of public services and justice, the chief purpose of the cantons today is to serve as...
of Daun, which in turn was part of the Arrondissement of Prüm in the Department of Sarre. Napoleonic
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...
administrative reform grouped Schönbach parochially with Utzerath
Utzerath
Utzerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town...
, Allscheid and Hörscheid
Hörscheid
Hörscheid is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, thus ending the parochial division that had prevailed in Schönbach. French rule ended with 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 1814 and Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
the following year, which put a definitive end to Napoleonic times
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
.
The late 18th and 19th centuries were lean years in the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
. Farmers owned little enough livestock without the sicknesses that struck both cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
and swine in these years, which not only decimated herds but also raised the price of meat. Furthermore, a column of 40,000 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 troops who passed through the needy region in May 1814 on their way back home to Russia did not help matters. 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...
acquired not only new territory under the terms of the Congress of Vienna, but also no dearth of new problems. Worst of all was the Year Without a Summer
Year Without a Summer
The Year Without a Summer was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities caused average global temperatures to decrease by about 0.4–0.7 °C , resulting in major food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere...
– 1816 – which almost drove the Eifel into 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...
.
Between 1870 and 1890, railways began to crisscross the Eifel, but none ever came to Schönbach. The nearest stations were in Utzerath
Utzerath
Utzerath is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town...
and Ulmen
Ulmen
Ulmen is a town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the like-named Verbandsgemeinde – a kind of collective municipality – to which it also belongs.-Constituent communities:...
.
In 1882, sixteen children in Schönbach – and many more in the district as a whole – died in an outbreak of scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
, literally decimating the village, whose population had been 160.
The turn of the 20th century brought Schönbach some measure of relief from the usual neediness. This was a time that saw the rise of industry in the cities, and this replaced the customary emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to places overseas with migration to industrial areas within Germany itself. Many from the region found work there and remitted their earnings to the still struggling Eifel.
The early 20th century brought the First and Second World Wars, each sweeping away an old order and replacing it with a new one. After the Second World War, 21 new houses were built in Schönbach and 13 other buildings were remodelled or expanded. Streets were paved and a new freezer building was built. A new chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
was built to replace the old one built in 1716. On 2 February 1959, work began on Flurbereinigung, the rearrangement of rural property boundaries, which over the centuries had become such a tangle that agriculture
Agriculture
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...
had become rather inefficient owing to the splintered bits of property that had arisen over time. Heading the board that oversaw this undertaking was Peter Hab and the treasurer was Rudi Röder, both from Schönbach. The work resulted not only in a redistribution of lands among the landowners, but also in woods and hedgerows being removed. New hedgerows were planted in some places as windbreaks, and as habitat for birds and hedgehog
Hedgehog
A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...
s. A new drainage
Drainage
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface and sub-surface water from an area. Many agricultural soils need drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.-Early history:...
system was also laid out.
Municipal council
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.Coat of arms
The German blazon reads: In Silber durch schräglinke, blaue Wellenleiste geteilt; oben ein rotes Balkenkreuz, unten ein roter Schild belegt mit 9 (3 : 3 : 3) goldenen Kugeln.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: Argent a bend sinister wavy azure between a cross gules and an inescutcheon of the same charged with nine bezants, three, three and three.
The wavy bend sinister refers to the municipality’s namesake brook, the Schönbach. The red cross refers to Schönbach’s former allegiance to the Electorate of Trier as part of the Amt of Daun from 1357. The inescutcheon 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...
d with nine bezants (golden disks, or in this case balls or orbs, as the German blazon has it) is Saint Quirinus’s attribute, thus representing the municipality’s patron saint.
Buildings
- Across the street from Borngasse 5 – timber-frameTimber framingTimber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
house, 17th/18th century. - Schönbachermühle (mill), east of the village on the Ueßbach