Ellar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ellar
Coat of arms of the former municipality of Ellar, later adopted by Waldbrunn
Coordinates: 50 ° 30 ′ 33 ″  N , 8 ° 5 ′ 35 ″  E
Height : 272  (270–292)  m above sea level NHN
Area : 6.21 km²
Residents : 1346  (Jan. 2012)
Population density : 217 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation : July 1, 1974
Postal code : 65620
Primaries : 06436, 06479
View of the center of Ellar
View of the center of Ellar

Ellar is a district of the municipality of Waldbrunn (Westerwald) in the Limburg-Weilburg district in Central Hesse with around 1300 inhabitants. However, the place, which was granted city rights in 1372 , never developed into a real city.

geography

Aerial view from the south

Ellar is located in the southern Westerwald , about 18 km north of Limburg an der Lahn , 14 km west of Weilburg and 12 km east of Westerburg . The adjoining places are, starting from the north, clockwise: Hausen , Fussingen , Lahr , Hintermeilingen (all municipality of Waldbrunn) Steinbach (town of Hadamar ) Hangenmeilingen and Dorchheim (municipality of Elbtal ). Ellar is located in the Lasterbachtal, above about 270 m above sea level. NN, surrounded by partially wooded basalt ridges. Coming from Hausen, the Lasterbach flows through the village towards Dorchheim; below Ellar it is also known as Steinbach. It flows into the Elbbach near Dorchheim . To the west, the Lasterbachtal is open to the Elbbachtal. The Heidenhäuschen ridge with the mountains Remelsberg / Rommelsberg (398 m above sea level), Spitzberg (331 m above sea level) and Mühlhölzchen (314 m above sea level) extends south of Ellar . To the east of Ellar, between Hintermeilingen and Lahr, there is a ridge consisting of the mountains Oberholz (331.0 m above sea level), Bühl (303.3 m above sea level), Steinkopf (329.8 m above sea level) and Honigberg (311.5 m above sea level).

geology

Basalt block on the heather house

The place is in the transition area between the Oberwesterwald and the Limburg Basin in the Oberwesterwald hill country. Geologically, the subsoil consists of Upper Devonian slate , greywacke and quartzites . This layer is about 320-300 million years old; Tertiary deposits formed above it, especially during the Miocene period around 20 million years ago . These consist mainly of basalts and clays , but also of lignite , phosphorite , copper ores , pyrite , iron ores and manganese ores . The top soil layer, approx. 3–15 meters, and the topsoil are heavily loess . These layers formed around 10,000 years ago during the last ice age.

climate

The annual mean temperature is 7.4 to 7.6 ° C. The mean annual rainfall is around 750 to 760 millimeters, which is slightly less than in the Oberwesterwald and significantly higher than in the Limburg Basin. Due to the medium altitude between the Lahn valley and the high Oberwesterwald, there are fewer than 40 foggy days per year.

history

Due to its urban character, the history of the place has been passed down comparatively well in the late Middle Ages and early modern times. Thanks to the work of the local historian Walter Rudersdorf (approx. 8,000 publications and 60 years of historical and regional lectures) Ellar has one of the best-documented local histories in the Westerwald.

development

The place lies in a probably pre-Germanic settlement area. During construction work on the Kerkerbachbahn in Fussingen, an urn from around 1000 BC was found. Found. Ceramic shards from the Hallstatt period (level C) around 700 BC were found on Lindenberg near Hausen . Christ found. Finds of the Dornburg and the Heidenhäuschen are known that prove a Celtic settlement during the La Tène period . The place name probably comes from the Indo-European word "* pelâg / pelâr" (belonging to the swamp) and refers to the formerly swamped creek basins in the vicinity of the place. The first written mention is dated to the year 807. At that time, a Starcher in the Allarher or Allanaher Marka gave the Lorsch Monastery a farm. The document is only preserved through two high medieval copies that use two different spellings for the place. The assignment of the certificate is controversial. Some historians refer to Allna near Marburg or Aal near Lahnstein . For Ellar, the fact that the document is closely related to documents about other places west of Weilburg speaks for itself . The spelling Ellar has been used since the 14th century, other historically used spellings are Eller, Ellair, Ellahr, Ellor, Ellir .

The "old" office of Ellar

Ellar is the historical central place of the Ellarer Mark and the office of Ellar that emerged from the Mark . Originally, the Ellarer Mark included probably the producers around the Heidenhäuschen: Lahr, Frickhofen and Niederzeuzheim. Cent Elsoff was probably attached to the office at a later date, before 1337. The term "Vierzentisches Amt" or "Herrschaft Vier Zente" was also used for the Office Ellar. Ellar belongs within the office of Ellar to the Zent Lahr. Towards the end of the Carolingian era , the area belonged to the Niederlahngau of the Duchy of Franconia . The seat of the regional court for the office of Ellar was the Remelsberg, the seat of the central court was the Steinkopf between Lahr and Ellar. There were several Huben courts in the center. The district court went to the County of Diez as early as the 13th century . The Counts of Diez pledged the area several times, most recently in 1367; they ceded the office of Ellar to the County of Katzenelnbogen . At the end of the efforts of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen, Ellar was granted Limburg city rights in 1372. After the end of the succession dispute in the county of Nassau-Hadamar, the house of Nassau-Dillenburg received a third of the Ellar office with the arbitration award in Bacharach on July 28, 1408, the rest remained with the county of Katzenelnbogen. With the extinction of the Katzenelnbogen house, a long-lasting dispute arose between the Counts of Nassau-Dillenburg and the Landgraviate of Hesse . The landgraves took possession of the Katzenelnbogen inheritance. With the Frankfurt treaty there was a settlement in the Katzenelnbogen succession dispute in 1557. The Ellar office now belonged to Nassau-Dillenburg. When the house of Nassau-Dillenburg was divided in 1607, the office of Ellar was added to the newly founded county of Nassau-Hadamar. Despite the Edict of Restitution, the Nassau-Ottonian rulers remained in possession of their lands after Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar converted to the Roman Catholic denomination in Vienna in 1629 . In 1650 the county was elevated to a principality .

Modern sovereignty

Map from 1828 of the Hadamar Office in the Duchy of Nassau

After the house of Nassau-Hadamar died out in 1711, the principality was divided several times between the remaining Ottonian lines of the House of Nassau . The Office of Ellar was also affected by this division. The two cents Frickhofen and Lahr were combined with the Mengerskirchen Office to form the Mengerskirchen-Ellar Office with its seat in Mengerskirchen . Ellar fell to the House of Nassau-Dillenburg in 1717, from 1739 to the House of Nassau-Diez, 1742/43 to the House of Nassau-Siegen (Catholic) and again in 1743 to Nassau-Diez (Orange-Nassau) as the last Ottonian line. In an administrative reform of the Oran-Nassau areas in Germany, the Office Ellar with the Ellar office was restored in 1790. In 1806 Ellar was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Berg . The place belonged to the Mairie Lahr in the canton Hadamar. This belonged to the Arrondissement Dillenburg and thus to the Département Sieg . After Napoléon Bonaparte's defeat in the Battle of Leipzig , the Oran-Nassau sovereignty was restored in 1813. The House of Orange-Nassau exchanged their property in the Westerwald at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 with the Kingdom of Prussia for Luxembourg . On the same day, the Kingdom of Prussia handed over the area to the Duchy of Nassau in exchange for areas around Wetzlar and Koblenz . When the offices in the Duchy of Nassau were reorganized on July 1, 1816, the Ellar Office was combined with the Hadamar Office. Hadamar was the official seat.

After the annexation of the Duchy of Nassau, the place belonged again from 1866 to the Kingdom of Prussia and there to the province of Hessen-Nassau and the administrative district of Wiesbaden . In 1866, the Prussian district and provincial order abolished the Nassau office. Ellar belonged to the Oberlahnkreis and from 1886 to the newly founded Limburg district . In 1945 the place was assigned to the US-American zone of occupation and thus it became part of Hesse; he belonged to the Wiesbaden district. When it was dissolved in 1968, it became part of the Darmstadt administrative district and in 1981 it became part of the Gießen administrative district . In 1974 the place finally became part of the newly created district of Limburg-Weilburg .

The gentlemen "von Ellar"

The noble family of the gentlemen "von Ellar" was resident in Ellar. It is a sideline of the “Sprikast zu Waldmannshausen ” family. Like them, the von Ellar had a sashed cupboard with a star above it in the coat of arms. The von Ellar were mainly in the service of Haus Katzenelnbogen and Haus Isenburg . A representative of the family was first mentioned in 1348, Heinrich the Elder of Ellar. Other important representatives of the von Ellar family were:

  • Gerhard Crae von Ellar (before 1366–1374) sealed documents from the Counts of Katzenelnbogen several times as a witness. Together with a knight Busse, he was considered a notorious robber in the city of Limburg. The Limburgers took this as an opportunity in October 1374 to burn down the town of Ellar. Allegedly Crae von Ellar was hanged in Limburg in 1374. Crae is probably the model of the knight "Ruprecht von Ellar", who appears in several regional sagas.
  • Junker Heinrich von Ellar the Young (1370-1420) was first mentioned in 1370 as a Nassau-Weilburg castle man in Weilburg. In 1386 he received an electoral trier fief in Niederbruch . In 1389, the Lords of Runkel gave him a castle loan at Runkel Castle . In 1393 he is occupied as a bailiff of the Lord of Limburg as well as an electorate bailiff in Niederbruch. In 1396 he was also mayor of Runkel.

Territorial history and administration

The following list gives an overview of the territories in which Ellar was located or the administrative units to which it was subordinate:

Local history

Until the city charter is awarded

In the Middle Ages, Ellar was between two high streets. To the east of the village, the Hohe Strasse ran from Mainz via Limburg to Siegen . At Ellar the road followed the watershed between the Kerkerbach and the Lasterbach. Presumably this street was already laid out as the Königsstraße during the Carolingian era. The old country road ran through the forest to the west of the village. This also linked Limburg with victories. At the junction the roads met a Hohe Strasse from Frankfurt via Weilburg to Cologne . There was a customs post for the old country road through the forest near Ellar on the Lasterbach bridge of the Gadelheim mill . Ellar Castle probably originally served as a street fortress for the trunk roads. From the year 1590 the house Nassau used this street for a permanent mail line between the residences Dillenburg , Herborn , Hadamar and Diez . With the construction of the new Mainzer Landstrasse (today Bundesstrasse 54 ) from 1780, the old roads in the Ellar area lost their importance, and the collection of customs duties was discontinued. The population lived mainly from the yield of agriculture on the rather poor soils. Sheep breeding played an important role for a long time . Agriculture had been organized in the three-field economy since the Middle Ages . The location in the Lasterbachtal made it possible to build numerous mills. The oldest mill, the Upper Gadelheim Mill, is mentioned as early as 1324 . The Middle Gadelheimer Mühle was first mentioned in 1691. The Ellarer Mill (Jeuckenmühle) was built in 1693, it burned down in 1938 and was not restored. In 1716 the construction of the Lower Gadelheimer Mill followed . With the Neumühle , the fifth mill was built on site in 1805.

City of Ellar

Ellar Castle
Remains of the city wall and the hunger tower

On June 10, 1372 the place received Limburg city ​​rights through Emperor Charles IV at the endeavor of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen . Two years later, in early October 1374, troops from the city of Limburg penetrated the city of Ellar and burned it down. The reason given was the stay of the robbers Crae and Busse in the city. At the efforts of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen, the city of Limburg was sentenced by the Supreme Court to pay compensation of 2,000 marks. However, since Limburg was only subject to the jurisdiction of the city of Frankfurt, this judgment was never enforced. Despite being granted city rights in 1372, Ellar was only able to develop into a minority . From the 15th to the 17th century, the term stains was common. Above all, the exemption from numerous taxes was important for the residents. As the central place of the office, Ellar was the seat of public administration. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen maintained an office, a cellar and a customs office here . These facilities were transferred to the Landgraviate of Hesse and existed until 1557. From 1435 on, the Nassau counts also had an office and a cellar in Ellar. Limited urban development began in the first half of the 15th century. The following are documented: stone Lasterbach Bridge (1408), city wall and towers (1413), St. Maximus chapel (1419), two city gates with porter (1428), fair (1430), first public inn (1431) and forge (1462). There should have been space for around 30 houses within the city walls. Several witch trials are documented for the years 1512 and 1520 ; an unknown number of women were executed. The court records state: "Item hayt some wybers burned at Ellar" . Greden, Rörich's Johanns wife from Ellar, was the only “witch” known by name to be executed in 1609. Her trial cost 71 gulden 18 1/2 Albus, which the victim had to pay.

After the re-establishment of the County of Nassau-Hadamar, a comprehensive hall book was created. The description for Ellar from 1616 has been preserved. There is an overview of the financial situation. Furthermore, the community baking house is mentioned for the first time in this description and the organization of the extinguishing was described. In 1614, a plague epidemic raged in Hintermeilingen, Ellar and Lahr. In the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) economic life came to a standstill. Soldiers marching through caused considerable damage to the population with their looting. The poor supply led to the spread of epidemics. In 1619 Bavarian and Habsburg soldiers looted the place. In 1622/23 the troops of the imperial general Johann t'Serclaes von Tilly took winter quarters in the Westerwald. Holstein troops were housed in the office of Ellar . After their summer campaign, they returned in the winter of 1623/24. In 1627 imperial troops occupied the counties of Diez, Dillenburg and Hadamar. Under the leadership of General Görzenich, the soldiers systematically plundered the area. An emergency alliance of the counts expelled Görzenich from the region. In 1627 the plague raged among the starving population. In 1628/29 soldiers of the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg , whose headquarters were in Runkel , plundered the locations of the Office Ellar. In 1632/33 there was severe devastation by Swedish troops. The soldiers stole all the horses and all the cattle. In the summer of 1634 there were looting by Hessian troops under General Peter Melander , and in the autumn of that year the place was sacked by Spanish troops. In 1635 Spanish imperial troops under Philipp von Mansfeld occupy the region. The headquarters were in Niederzeuzheim . The court seal, which has been used since 1491, was stolen during looting. In the following years the office of Ellar was administered from Hadamar; In Ellar, due to the war, proper administration and jurisdiction were no longer possible. In 1636 imperial and Swedish associations crossed the place, as a result of the chaos of war, the plague broke out again among the suffering population. In 1638 there were again imperial troops in town. In 1640 the Swedish troops took up quarters in the Amt Ellar. There were two soldiers for every inhabitant. A fire broke out during looting, which burned most of the village of Ellar. In 1646 the place was sacked again by imperial troops.

During the Thirty Years' War, three residents of Ellar joined the Swedish service as soldiers. As a result of the destruction, the place was called a village again. In 1679, Ellar had not yet reached the population it had before the war began. However, the village retained city tax privileges until the 19th century.

Orange-Nassau (1711-1918)

In 1736 the Ellar peasants took part in the “lace dispute”, an uprising against the new sovereign in Dillenburg. The cause was the war tax that Prince Christian von Nassau-Dillenburg had imposed on the villages. The farmers chased the seizure officers out of the villages. About 1,600 farmers gathered for an army camp at the Seeweiher near Mengerskirchen. The peasants brought the Franciscan Cornelius from Hadamar as field preacher. They had taken cattle and movable property to other rulers across the nearby borders. There were occasional clashes between the farmers and soldiers from Dillenburg and soldiers from Weilburg who had rushed to reinforce them. At the same time, the farmers called the Reich Chamber of Commerce . However, on June 13, 1736, the court confirmed Prince Christian von Nassau-Dillenburg in his rights and sentenced the farmers to a fine. Prince Christian von Nassau-Dillenburg had to ask the Prince of Nassau-Weilburg for help to enforce the sentence. The peddling began in the early 18th century . The trade routes stretched from the Rhineland to Saxony and Switzerland . Pottery, linen and clothing were mainly traded. From 1730 the authorities tried to steer this trade in an orderly manner with the “shopkeeping regulations for the parishes of Frickhofen and Lahr” . In the 19th century, the traders from Ellar and Fussingen maintained a joint base in St. Gallen , Switzerland. For the year 1751 62 houses are occupied in Ellar. In 1780 a land consolidation was carried out; then the introduction of the improved three-field economy followed. In particular, the cultivation of root crops such as beets and potatoes was greatly expanded.

The long 19th century (1792-1918)

During the coalition wars, troops marched and billeted again from 1792 onwards. In 1795 French troops looted the places in the Amt Ellar. According to a list by the bailiff Creutzer, the damage caused in Ellar from 1795 to 1800 amounted to 66,805 guilders 25 Albus. Two people from Ellar were doing French military service.

The Ludwig-Bös-Haus, built in 1860/61, today a local museum

For the year 1804, 74 houses are occupied for Ellar. During the affiliation to the Grand Duchy of Berg, numerous new legal systems came into being. The ban on thatched roofs (1810) had the greatest impact on the townscape; in the event of a fire, this should prevent a fire from spreading to other buildings. The introduction of chimney sweeps also served as fire protection. With the school reform in the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1810, the school was handed over to the civil parish and a year-round school was set up. On September 13, 1811, the mill ban was lifted; In addition, there was a comprehensive tax reform. The school chronicle, which has been kept since 1819, provides an overview of the events during the membership in the Duchy of Nassau. The choral society was first mentioned in 1840. In October 1848 the German Revolution reached the Westerwald. At first there were only riots and tax refusals. It was only when the military tried to seize the taxes that open resistance broke out. In the widespread riots on February 5, 1849 in Hadamar, citizens from Ellar probably also took part. In 1861 a new school building was built. With the end of the Duchy of Nassau, the village was occupied by a Prussian officer and 37 soldiers from August 25 to August 27. With the transition to the Kingdom of Prussia, the situation in the place changed only slowly. In 1875 the municipality bought its own fire engine, and in 1884 a village fire destroyed several buildings. With the opening of the station on the Oberwesterwaldbahn in nearby Frickhofen on October 1, 1886, the transport connections were further improved. In 1894 a post office opened in Ellar . In 1900 the community built a new bakery, and in 1905 the schoolhouse was extended and extended. In 1907 the first local telephone was installed in the post office. From 1908 the Lahr train station was located on the Kerkerbach Railway near Ellar. In the hostilities of the First World War , 14 residents died in combat operations, one was reported missing.

Most recent (from 1918)

After the First World War , the border of the demilitarized strip of the Rhineland ran through Ellar, in accordance with the Peace Treaty of Versailles . The neighboring villages to the east were occupied by German troops, the west by Allied troops. There were no soldiers in Ellar itself. In 1921 a power grid was built in Ellar. In the same year, the power post line from Ellar to Limburg started operations. The Lay quarry opened in 1926 . In 1928 there were two major fires in the village, in which several buildings burned down. With the construction of the water supply in the village in 1930, living conditions were significantly improved. Unemployment peaked in 1930 with 50 unemployed. In 1933 the National Socialists came to power . The district administrator of the Limburg district, Gerhard von Breitenbach , deposed the Ellar mayor Johannes Jost under pressure from the NSDAP , although he knew that he was violating current Prussian law. Preparations for war were evident in Ellar. In September 1936 the place was in an extensive maneuver area . From November 30, 1939 to January 29, 1940 soldiers of the 10th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht were housed in the village in preparation for the western campaign . Further troop marches followed until May 10, 1945. During the Second World War , British bombers dropped seven high explosive bombs and approximately 35 incendiary bombs on Ellar on August 29, 1941. On December 22, 1943, a British Halifax II-A bomber was shot down over the Heidenhäuschen in an aerial battle . On March 27, 1945 soldiers of the 1st US Army occupied the place. This ended the Second World War for Ellar. A total of 45 residents were killed and 15 residents were reported missing.

The advancing technical development led to a gradual departure from agriculture. After the land consolidation (1955–1959), the three-field economy practiced since the Middle Ages ended, it was replaced by the crop rotation economy. In addition, several resettler farms were created. In the 1950s and 1960s the place was heavily modernized, for example the construction of the new Lasterbach Bridge (1956/57), the Lasterbach regulation (1958), regular garbage collection (1960), and the construction of a new kindergarten (1961) . In 1961, 13% of the residents of Ellar were displaced, the proportion was slightly lower than in the entire Limburg-Weilburg district of 19%. With the general economic upturn , tourism picked up from the 1960s . A traffic and beautification association had already been founded in 1953. On April 12, 1973, the place was given the title of resort . In 1980 he joined the Ferienland Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus initiative . On October 24, 1984, all parts of the community of Waldbrunn (Westerwald) were awarded the title of state-approved climatic health resort .

Ellar Elementary School

As part of the regional reform in Hesse , the state government approved the merger of the communities Ellar and Hintermeilingen into one community with the name Ellar with effect from December 31, 1970 . At the end of the territorial reform, the municipalities of Ellar and Waldbrunn were merged by law on July 1, 1974 into a municipality with the name Waldbrunn , whose name was changed to Waldbrunn (Westerwald) on January 1, 1977 . Shortly before, on February 23, 1974, a new town hall was completed in Ellar. It was no longer needed and was converted into a school. In 1975 the building was expanded to include a multi-purpose hall. The school was able to move into the building in 1977. The community baking house was demolished in 1976, and a fire station was added in 1980 . A joint sewage treatment plant was built in 1994 for the towns of Hausen and Ellar. In the 1960s, measures were taken to preserve and renovate the castle ruins. The castle festivals have been held here every year since 1977. The culture and history association established the castle forge museum in 1988, which was expanded in 1993 to include the local history museum in the Ludwig-Bös-Haus.

population

Population development

 Source:

year households
1489 15th
1512 28
1608 27
1612 34
1624 30th
1679 32
year households
1751 55
1804 75
1820 122
1840 122
1851 169
1866 184
Ellar: Population from 1566 to 2012
year     Residents
1566
  
 74
1751
  
 230
1789
  
 399
1810
  
 501
1830
  
 522
1834
  
 520
1840
  
 526
1846
  
 574
1852
  
 614
1858
  
 640
1864
  
 683
1871
  
 705
1875
  
 711
1885
  
 693
1895
  
 670
1905
  
 669
1910
  
 663
1925
  
 677
1939
  
 692
1946
  
 896
1950
  
 879
1956
  
 864
1961
  
 881
1967
  
 940
1970
  
 933
1986
  
 1,130
2005
  
 1,489
2012
  
 1,346
Data source: Historical municipality register for Hesse: The population of the municipalities from 1834 to 1967. Wiesbaden: Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, 1968.
Other sources:

The proportion of foreigners is around 6%.

Religious affiliation

 Source: Historical local dictionary

• 1885: 03 Protestant (= 0.43%), 665 Catholic (= 95.96%), 25 Jewish (= 3.61%) residents
• 1961: 27 Protestant (= 3.06%), 845 Catholic (= 95.91%) residents

religion

The predominant denomination is Roman Catholic, around 62% of the population belong to this faith. With the carol singers , flapper boys and the Corpus Christi procession, the community in the village has an impact beyond the local church. Numerous wayside shrines and crosses characterize the townscape and the district.

About 16% of the population belong to the Protestant church . The next Protestant churches are in Frickhofen and Hadamar. Approx. 20% of the population belong to other religious groups or are non-denominational.

Christian community

The place belonged to the original parish of Lahr. Ellar had a Gothic chapel (first mentioned in 1419), which was consecrated to St. Maximinus , Bishop of Trier. Maximinus was also the patron saint of the Ellar District Court. At the end of the Middle Ages a chaplain subordinated to the pastor of Lahr performed his duties at the chapel . From 1536 the Reformation began in the county of Nassau-Dillenburg. The Counts of Dillenburg prescribed the Lutheran faith. Around 1557, the sovereign Johann VI. from Nassau-Dillenburg to Calvinism , which led to another change of religion. On April 1, 1576, Eberhard Artopaeus became pastor in Lahr. Initially Lutheran, he later became a staunch Calvinist and the central figure of the Reformation in the parish of Lahr. As a school inspector he worked beyond the boundaries of his parish. Artopaeus founded the parish school in Lahr in 1582. In the building by the church, lessons were held for all children from the parish during the winter months. For the children from Ellar this meant a trip to school of about 50 minutes. When Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar returned to Catholicism in 1630, Eberhard Artopaeus retired at the age of 88 after 54 years of service. With the implementation of recatholicization were Jesuits commissioned.

After the princes of Nassau-Hadamar died out, the residents of Ellar became subjects of the Calvinist princes from other Nassau family branches. Prince Wilhelm IV of Nassau-Diez in particular wanted to promote Calvinism more intensively from 1743 onwards. The Catholic residents refused to change their religion again. They circumvented the baptism ban by baptizing the children in nearby countries. In 1743 a school was set up in Ellar. Like the school in Lahr, it was a pure winter school, which was also under the supervision of the pastor of Lahr. With the school reform in the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1810, the school was handed over to the civil parish and a year-round school was set up. From 1833 the gradual separation of the Catholic Ellar parish from the parish of Lahr began. At the beginning a joint branch with Hausen was built. Ellar became the seat of the chaplain. In 1838 a separate cemetery was designated for Ellar, so that funerals no longer had to take place in Lahr. In 1839 the Expositur was raised to an independent parish . Until the completion of the St. Maximinus Church in Ellar in 1844, the services were held in the Hauser Chapel, after which they were moved to Ellar. The freedom movement of 1848 meant that the Ellar Catholics made a pilgrimage to the pilgrimage chapel Maria Hilf Beselich for many decades and impressively proclaimed their faith there.

In 1908 the parish of Ellar built a new rectory. This was placed under monument protection by the Hessian State Office for Monument Preservation for historical and artistic reasons in February 2009. Three years later, the Dernbach sisters founded a branch in Ellar. In the year it was founded, the order set up a kindergarten in Ellar on June 18. The branch of the Dernbach sisters had to close in 1972 due to a lack of young people. When the parish Hausen-Fussingen was founded in 1919, Hausen was separated from the parish Ellar-Hausen; this had the consequence that the parish only included the place Ellar. When the National Socialists came to power , there were cuts in religious life. The Catholic organizations were banned on November 25, 1937. After the Second World War , the Catholic organizations were rebuilt. With effect from September 1, 2005, the parishes of Lahr / Hintermeilingen, Hausen / Fussingen and Ellar were merged to form the “Pastoral Room Waldbrunn”, which had already been cared for by a pastor due to a lack of priests. The pastor's office is the rectory in Lahr.

Jewish community

Jewish cemetery on the outskirts

Jews living in Ellar are documented for the first time in 1635. During the reconstruction phase after the Thirty Years' War , their numbers increased and were sufficient for the establishment of a minyan . In 1717 the Jewish community was founded in Ellar. Its members came from Ellar, Lahr, Frickhofen , Hausen, Waldernbach and Langendernbach . The community built a synagogue , a school and the Jewish cemetery in Ellar . The Jewish families were not allowed to own any land and were mostly cattle dealers or shopkeepers.

Between 1823 and 1913, the community succeeded in employing its own religion teacher for the children. He had to teach in Ellar, Hausen, Lahr, Frickhofen and in the neighboring municipality of Reichenborn . In 1843 the Jewish community in Ellar had a total of 124 members. Again and again parishioners from other places tried to establish independent parishes. These efforts initially failed due to the limited financial circumstances. In addition, the Nassau government banned the "corner worship services" in Frickhofen, Langendernbach and Lahr. In 1885 the Jewish residents of Frickhofen and Langendernbach succeeded in founding their own community. However, until 1913 they still used the cemetery in Ellar.

During the Great Depression in the late 1920s, much of the Jewish population moved to the cities. Of the 29 community members in 1912, only 17 lived in the village in 1927. By 1938 their number had dropped to three families. On November 11, 1938, during the Night of the Reichspogrom, the Synagogue in Ellar was devastated and several Jewish shops and households were looted. The members of the Jewish community were severely physically abused. Subsequently, some people, including a Christian who helped two Jews to hide, were taken into "protective custody". In the weeks that followed, the last of the Jewish families left Ellar. Several members of these families were killed in concentration camps . The building of the badly damaged synagogue was classified as worthless by a state-appointed trustee and given away to the neighbors.

politics

The place belongs in elections to the German Bundestag for constituency 178, Rheingau-Taunus - Limburg , in elections to the Hesse state parliament for Constituency 21, Limburg-Weilburg I . With the territorial reform, the municipal administration was transferred to the municipality of Waldbrunn (Westerwald).

Local advisory board

The local council of five members, headed by the mayor Stefan Simon (2008), has the right to make suggestions and to be heard by the local council in matters affecting the locality. The election of the local advisory board is based on the Hessian municipal electoral law . This provides for cumulation and variegation . The next local election will take place in 2021. The local elections on March 6, 2016 brought the following results for the local council:

Parties and constituencies Seats
2016 		Seats
2011 		Seats
2006 		Seats
2001
CDU Christian Democratic Union of Germany 3 3 3 3
SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany 2 2 2 2
total 5 5 5 5

coat of arms

On February 28, 1964, the municipality of Ellar in what was then the district of Limburg , administrative district of Wiesbaden , was awarded a coat of arms with the following blazon : split shield, in front in gold a blue-armored red lion turned to the left, behind in blue between golden shingles a red-armored golden lion. The coat of arms was adopted by the municipality of Waldbrunn (Westerwald) after the regional reform .

Culture and sights

societies

The cultural village life is supported by the associations, which are shaped by the traditionally Catholic milieu. There are associations such as the “Catholic Workers Movement” (founded on January 6, 1901) and the women's community (founded in 1909). There are also numerous secular associations such as the “ VdK ” (1949), the “Transport and Enhancement Association” (1953) and the “Culture and History Association” (1977). The “ Freiwillige Feuerwehr Ellar” (founded on March 11, 1929) and its “ Youth Fire Brigade ” (February 10, 1968) are responsible for youth work. The "Brass Orchestra of the Volunteer Fire Brigade Ellar" has been operating since 1931; other musical associations are the "MGV Concordia Ellar 1840 eV" (first mentioned in 1840), the "Church Choir Ellar" (founded in 1941) and the "Children's Choir" (1980).

Sports

The place has a sports hall and an artificial football pitch. Several clubs like the "Sportverein 1920 eV" (founded November 1st, 1920) and the "Schützenverein Burg Falke" (founded 1968) organize sporting encounters. The "Sportverein 1920 eV" was together with the "DJK SV Schwarz-Weiß eV, Hintermeilingen" sponsor of the football team "SG Ellar / Hintermeilingen" until 2014. The 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons were played by SV Ellar after the DJK Hintermeilingen had stopped playing, alone again. From the 2016/17 season, the new club FC Waldbrunn was formed from the five sports clubs in the municipality of Waldbrunn. This club forms three senior teams that compete for points in the B-Class, in the regional upper league Limburg-Weilburg and in the group league Wiesbaden. Furthermore, the Waldbrunn tennis club holds its encounters on the tennis courts in the “Am Oberholz” sports center.

Natural monuments

The multi-peak plateau "Heidenhäuschen" extends south of the village over a length of about 3 km in a north-south direction. The Remmelsberg forms the striking northern edge of the Limburg Basin there. The wooded "Heidenhäuschen" has an extensive sea of ​​blocks of olivine basalts . On February 7, 1927, a 114.23 hectare nature reserve was established here. Another basalt block sea exists with the "Wildweiber Church" west of Hausen and northwest of Ellar.

museum

Castle blacksmiths

The Ellar Museum extends over two buildings. The actual museum is in the Ludwig-Bös-Haus (built 1860/61). The building houses a comprehensive documentation of regional culture, customs and geology . The museum has fossils from almost all geological epochs. One of the special exhibits is a copy of the “Rider Tournament” found in Ellar Castle. This is a Gothic sculpture depicting a jousting knight with a horse. Presumably it is a fantasy figure. The museum also has a copy of the urn found near Fussingen from around 1000 BC. BC (both originals are in the Wiesbaden Museum ). The museum has an extensive collection of leaflets that the Allies dropped on Germany during the Second World War. The Geological State Office of North Rhine-Westphalia has classified the geological collection as "nationally important". The second building of the museum is the "Alte Schmied" / "Burgschmiede". Here you will find a functioning historical forge and a collection of historical agricultural and handicraft tools from over 300 years.

Buildings

Ellar castle ruins

The castle ruins (see also Ellar Castle ) are located above the village on the slope of the Oberholz mountain and, together with the church, determine the appearance of Ellar. The base of the roughly rectangular castle is about 21 x 27 meters. It was first mentioned in 1323. It was no longer used from around 1550, and in 1590 it fell into ruins. Renovation work has been going on in the castle since 1957, which is being expanded into an event location.

Ellar Church

Choir side of the church

The current parish church of Ellar was built in 1843/44. The church is consecrated to Maximinus von Trier . The benedication took place on November 24, 1844. The Limburg bishop Peter Josef Blum took the consecration on June 4, 1849 . In 1942 a new organ was installed in the church. In 1992/93 the church was extensively renovated. The church stands on the slope of the Oberholz mountain and, together with the castle ruins, defines the appearance of Ellar. The church is a Romanizing, classical hall building with a choir and central tower in the discontinued westwork. The mission chapel on the south side was converted into a memorial. Inside the church has three high altars . The main altar was built around 1720, until 1867 it was in the St. Maximilianus Church in Düsseldorf . In the center of the altar there is a picture of St. Maximinus. The right side altar is a Baroque altar from the Hadamar school from the previous chapel. It shows figures of the saints St. Maximinus (Martin Volck after 1740), St. Barbara (Martin Volck after 1740), and St. Margareta (Martin Volck after 1740), Paul with sword and book, Peter with key and book (1873) and Antonius the Hermit (Martin Volck). The left side altar, also known as the “Marienaltar”, was acquired in 1863 by the church in Kiedrich . The altar is in the early classical style of the 18th century. During the restoration in 1962/63, baroque style elements were removed. In the center of the altar is a crescent moon Madonna (early Baroque around 1610), flanked by the figures of the four evangelists Johannes , Lukas , Markus and Matthäus . These baroque figures were donated around 1870.

The church bell consists of three bells:

  • Maximinus bell (strike: f sharp, cast steel bell , cast in Bochum 1920); the bell bears the inscription: "Sancte Maximine, ora pro populo in Ellar" (Saint Maximinus, pray for the residents of Ellar)
  • Marienglocke: (Strike: a, cast steel bell, cast in Bochum 1920); the bell bears the inscription: "Maria vocor, divina loquor, fugo daemonia" (my name is Maria, proclaim the divine, flee the devilish)
  • Josef bell (strike: h, cast by Rincker in Sinn 1953); the bell bears the inscription: "Sancte Joseph, ora pro nobis" (Saint Joseph pray for us)

There is a statue of the "Mother of Mercy" near the church. The stone figure, which comes from Ukraine , was erected on November 22, 1995.

Castle blacksmiths

Castle blacksmiths

The historic castle forge is one of the preserved half-timbered buildings. The building now houses a fully functional forge and the collection of historical agricultural implements in the local history museum. The building was built before the Thirty Years War. A wayside shrine built around 1840 stands on its gable side. The forge has been a listed building since 1979.

city ​​wall

Parts of the city wall have been preserved.

Starvation tower

Adjacent to the city wall is a hunger tower that was restored in the 1990s.

Jewish Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery on Oberholz was used between 1717 and 1939. It served as a burial place for members of the Jewish community from Ellar, Hausen, Waldernbach, Lahr, Frickhofen and Langendernbach. Numerous gravestones with partly Hebrew inscriptions have been preserved. The cemetery is on the outskirts, on a sloping slope on the Oberholz mountain; it was renovated in 2000.

Regular events

The most important village festivals are the fair on Pentecost weekend, the castle festival on the first weekend in August and the slaughter festival on the first Saturday in November. The event Waldbrunn on the Road / Waldbrunn uf de Baa has been held annually since 2002 . The streets in Waldbrunn and the neighboring towns are closed to motor vehicle traffic for cycling, hiking and skating days. The event is accompanied by an extensive supporting program.

Culinary specialties

The local dishes include: B. the pan . These are baked eggs with bacon, blood and liver sausage. The dip cake made from grated potatoes with diced ham and fried eggs is also a traditional dish, and is eaten with Äppelmok ( apple sauce ) as a side dish . Another traditional dish is egg cheese, a dessert made from cracked eggs with milk and sugar, which requires special dishes to be prepared with the egg cheese strainer. Traditional drinks are cider and grain brandy , but beer is now the predominant one. As in other places, Brocksel was prepared on New Year's Eve , a dish made from gingerbread, brown rock candy and Dauborn schnapps.

Economy and Infrastructure

The local craft and service businesses exist. Most of the employed commute to Limburg and the Rhine-Main area.

The place has a village community center.

traffic

There are no highways through the town. The next connection point to the federal highway 49 is in Obertiefenbach , to the federal highway 54 in Dorchheim. There are regular buses to Limburg, Hadamar, Rennerod and Mengerskirchen. The distance to Frankfurt Airport is around 80 km. Since the closure of the Kerkerbach Railway in 1958, there has been no railway line in the immediate vicinity of the village. The next train station, the Oberwesterwaldbahn , is in Frickhofen. The Hessian R8 cycle path runs through Ellar . The place offers an extensive network of signposted hiking trails.

education

In Ellar there is the Catholic kindergarten “St. Maximinus ". The place has a primary school . The secondary school St. Blasius in Frickhofen serves as a secondary and secondary school . The next grammar school is in Hadamar, and secondary schools in Limburg an der Lahn are also attended.

Fire protection

The volunteer fire brigade Ellar has been providing fire protection and general help in the area since March 11, 1929 (from February 10, 1968 with its youth fire brigade ) .

Personalities

  • Wilhelm Breithecker (born January 31, 1897 in Ellar; † July 4, 1982 in Ellar), August 1, 1929 Regens am Konvikt Montabaur, February 1, 1939 Catholic. Pastor in Dietkirchen , first arrested March 7, 1939 for the secret continuation of the Bund New Germany; Concentration camp imprisonment in Berlin Sachsenhausen and Dachau from July 3, 1939 to March 28, 1945 (together with Emil Hurm, pastor of Hausen); February 5, 1947 Dean of Dietkirchen, retired December 1, 1970; Honorary Citizen of Limburg (Dietkirchen)
  • Hermann Heep (born January 7, 1955 in Ellar; † December 23, 2006 in Weilmünster ), German graduate engineer and historian. 1992–2006 first chairman of the Ellar Cultural and History Association and co-initiator of the restoration of the Ellar Jewish cemetery. Author of the Chronicle of the KAB Ellar for the 100th anniversary in 2001.
  • Joe Bausch (born April 19, 1953 in Ellar), German doctor, screenwriter and actor, among others in the role of forensic doctor Dr. Joseph Roth in "Tatort" .
  • Angela Maria Schneider-Forst (born May 19, 1963 in Ellar), politician, from 1996 to 2006 member of the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament

literature

  • Hermann-Josef Hucke (Ed.): Great Westerwaldführer . 3. Edition. Verlag Westerwald-Verein eV, Montabaur 1991, ISBN 3-921548-04-7 .
  • Hellmuth Gensicke: State history of the Westerwald . 3. Edition. Historical Commission for Nassau, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-922244-80-7 .
  • Walter Rudersdorf: In the shadow of Ellar Castle . Ed .: Municipality of Ellar / Westerwald. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1967.
  • Walter Rudersdorf: Waldbrunn / Westerwald. From farming village to climatic health resort . Ed .: Community of Waldbrunn Westerwald. 1st edition. Geiger-Verlag, Horb 1986, ISBN 3-89264-015-7 .
  • Armin M. Kuhnigk: The 1848 Revolution in the Province . 2nd Edition. Camberger Verlag Lange, Camberg 1980, ISBN 3-87460-028-9 .
  • Hessischer Rundfunk (Ed.): Hessen à la carte, Spicy from the Westerwald . No. 7 . Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt June 22, 1988.
  • Dr. Peter-Josef Mink: The Jewish community Ellar . Kissel Verlag, Beselich-Heckholzhausen 2007.
  • Literature about Ellar in the Hessian Bibliography
  • Search for Ellar in the archive portal-D of the German Digital Library

Web links

Commons : Ellar  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inhabitants of Waldbrunn Westerwald HW ( Memento from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 20 kB)
  2. ↑ a b c Ellar, Limburg-Weilburg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of May 6, 2018). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  3. ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. State of Hesse. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  4. ↑ Amalgamation of the communities Ellar and Hintermeilingen in the Limburg district to form the community "Ellar" on January 5, 1971 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1971 No. 3 , p. 110 , point 109 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 5.5 MB ]).
  5. ↑ Law on the reorganization of the Limburg district and the Oberlahn district. (GVBl. II 330-25) of March 12, 1974 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): Law and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Hesse . 1974 No. 5 , p. 101 , § 3 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 809 kB ]).
  6. ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 370 and 384 .
  7. ^ A b Walter Rudersdorf: Waldbrunn / Westerwald. From farming village to climatic health resort . Ed .: Community of Waldbrunn Westerwald. 1st edition. Geiger-Verlag, Horb 1986, ISBN 3-89264-015-7 .
  8. ↑ a b Report on the Ellar rectory in the Nassauische Neue Presse ( memento of February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: Rhein-Main-Wiki , accessed on January 7, 2013
  9. ↑ a b Population statistics ( memento from November 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 20 kB) of the community of Waldbrunn (Westerwald) (as of January 2012), accessed on January 7, 2013
  10. ^ Franz-Josef Sehr : 250 years pilgrimage chapel Maria Hilf Beselich . In: Yearbook for the Limburg-Weilburg district 2017 . The district committee of the district of Limburg-Weilburg, Limburg-Weilburg 2016, ISBN 3-927006-54-8 , p. 137-141 .
  11. ↑ Rules of Procedure of the Local Advisory Board (Access: September 21, 2007; PDF; 62 kB)
  12. ^ Approval of a coat of arms of the municipality of Ellar, district Limburg, administrative district Wiesbaden dated February 28, 1964 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1964 No. 11 , p. 347 , item 318 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 3.5 MB ]).