Ahrem (Erftstadt)

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Location of Ahrem in Erftstadt

Ahrem is a district of Erftstadt in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis , North Rhine-Westphalia . The place has 1138 inhabitants (as of March 31, 2018) The mayor is Alfred Zerres (as of August 31, 2016).

location

Ahrem is a street village and is located south of Lechenich . The federal highway 265 runs between Lechenich and Ahrem . The Rotbach flows through the village .

history

Franconian rough-walled bottle, excavation find 1974

Ahrem is one of the settlements in the Erftstadt area, the history of which, like that of most local places, goes back a long way into the past.

Prehistory and Roman times

About 400 meters south of the town center of Ahrem there was an Iron Age settlement, which could be proven by ceramic finds. The Roman period also left its traces in the place and its surroundings, as is proven by numerous ceramics and grave goods assigned to this era . During the construction of a gas pipeline in 2005, the old Römerstrasse at the southern exit of the town , now called Agrippa Strasse Cologne – Trier , was exposed and examined. The originally about 20 m wide street had a drainage ditch on both sides. Roman cremation graves with grave goods, including a white matron figure, from the 2nd and 3rd centuries were found along the street .

Middle Ages and Modern Times

Ahrem was called Arnhem in the Middle Ages. The place name comes from the Franconian times and refers to a settlement of the Arn or Arno. This Franconian foundation should have been permanent. Uncovered grave goods from the 6th and 7th centuries on a burial ground discovered in 1974 confirmed that Ahrem was also settled during this period.

Field map of the 18th century with Lechenich and Ahrem

The place was first mentioned in 1256 as "Airnhem" in a document from Archbishop of Cologne Konrad von Hochstaden , who exchanged his possessions in Ahrem for goods from the St. Aposteln Monastery in Lechenich. In 1293, 15 families were recorded who were obliged to pay taxes to the Archbishop of Cologne . The Ahremer belonged to the citizenship of the city of Lechenich. They were considered "citizens by heart" because they lived outside the city ​​walls . For the first time in 1517 they were mentioned together with the citizens of the city of Lechenich. The gainful employment of the residents of Ahrem consisted mainly in the management of smallholdings. For this they had to pay land leases to the archbishop as well as sovereign taxes. The mayors, who were invited to the Lechenich city council meetings, collected the sovereign taxes (Simpeln). In addition, tithe was payable to the monastery of St. Apostles. For the everyday life of the residents of Ahrem there were set rules that they had to strictly observe and adhere to. Who did not follow the regulations, illegally gathered wood, section Reiser or the secret grass or ears theft was caught had, after an official interrogation with a Brüchtenstrafe expected. A part of the “Eilau”, a bush heathland area between Bliesheim, Friesheim and Lechenich, owned by the St. Mariengraden Abbey in Cologne, was available to the residents for use as pasture . The residents paid half a malt of wheat a year for the hereditary lease granted . In the armed conflicts of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Ahrem population was heavily burdened by billeting, forage deliveries and monetary payments. When the property was recorded in 1660, Ahrem consisted of 44 houses. 39 of them were owned by farmers , everything else was owned by the nobles or the church .

Apollonia Chapel, 1691

A small half-timbered chapel was built in the immediate vicinity of the Hermeshof , which was consecrated in honor of St. Apollonia . The owner of the farm, the mayor of Cologne , Herr von Imstenrath, not only gave his consent for the chapel to be built on his property, but also made a donation for the construction of the same. This is evidenced by the inscription above the lintel with the following content:

With the approval and assistance of the mayor of Elmsrath, the local community built it up in 1691 .

On the feast day of this saint (February 9), pilgrims from the neighboring communities in Ahrem stopped at the chapel. From there she went to the Franciscan monastery in Lechenich , where a tooth of the saint was venerated as a relic . They combined their prayers to St. Apollonia with the request for protection from toothache. The figure of the saint, which stood inside the chapel, was a so-called dressing figure, and (as with some especially venerated statues of the Virgin Mary) was adorned with precious garments on festive days. Today the statue found its place in the Ahrem parish church of St. John the Baptist.

Noble and spiritual property

In the Middle Ages, the Archbishop of Cologne was the largest landlord in Ahrem. The archbishop had given several estates to aristocrats who, with the consent of the archbishop, could dispose of the fiefs themselves.

Maximinenhof

An important aristocratic court, which also included an oil mill , was located at the northern end of the village. With him in 1410 Gerhard Voss von Lechenich was enfeoffed by Archbishop Friedrich von Saar Werden. The farm then passed to the Haes von Konradsheim family and from them to the von Eyll family. Degenhard von Eyll sold the farm in 1641 to the Augustinian convent of St. Maximin in Cologne, after which the farm was named Maximinenhof ever since . The Maximinenhof remained leased to the Schick family for several generations until secularization .

  • Maximinenkreuz from 1780

  • Main road

  • The old Hermeshof

  • Old framework

Hermeshof

Archbishop Friedrich von Saar Werden enfeoffed Nikolaus von Meller with another courtyard surrounded by moats in the center of the village. After him, members of the noble family von Merode were enfeoffed. The Cistercian Sisters of the Sion Monastery in Cologne have been documented as owners since 1463 . When the Cologne licentiate zum Pütz, Offermann von St. Brigida zu Cologne, acquired and leased the farm in 1650, the taxes to be paid by the Ahremers to the Hermeshof went to the Cologne orphanage up to secularization. Another owner of the "Pützhof" was the mayor of Cologne , Johann von Imstenrath.

Archbishop's Mill

The archiepiscopal grain mill located on the Rotbach was referred to in the directory of archiepiscopal income in 1293 as "mill called Mike". Since 1371 it was in the feudal possession of the Voss von Lechenich and their heirs, the Haes von Konradsheim. For the meal rights they paid a fee to the archiepiscopal winery in Lechenich. After a dispute with Archbishop and Elector Ferdinand , who did not tolerate the required mill pressure for the town of Ahrem, the Elector compared himself in 1627 with the Haes of Konradsheim that the mill fell back to the Elector and was leased by the winery in Lechenich. It remained a spell mill for Ahrem until secularization .

  • Mühlenhof and Rotbach from the north

  • Mill courtyard, detail

  • Mühlenhof from the south

Courtyard of the Cologne Cathedral Chapter

The Cologne Cathedral Chapter , whose Ahrem Court was mentioned as early as 1423, was also one of the landlords in Ahrem . In 1587, 15 court jury members belonged to the court court of the cathedral chapter. According to the court records of 1728 and 1729, only two Ahremers owned the house and farm that belonged to the court court of the cathedral chapter. The remaining farm estates were in the possession of more than 50 people, most of whom only owned small parcels . The parcels were so insignificant that the court of the cathedral chapter in Ahrem was not mentioned in the secularization.

Changes to the townscape in the 19th and 20th centuries

Map section Lechenich / Ahrem around 1808

Over the centuries, the place developed into a street village along today's Mühlenstrasse and Bachstrasse, from which small side streets branched off. In 1801 there were nine streets in Ahrem (with French names). At that time Ahrem had 64 houses and a population of 280, including 65 children under the age of 12. Two of the residents were tenants of large estates, 16 described themselves as farmers and 18 as day laborers . Of the 16 resident traders , six were linen weavers . The remaining households were considered poor.

The municipality of Ahrem was part of the new administrative district established under French rule in 1798/1800, the Mairie Lechenich in the canton of Lechenich . After 1815 it still belonged to the mayor's office in Lechenich (referred to as an office since 1927). This continued until the municipal administrative reform and the formation of the city of Erftstadt in 1969.

The construction of the two provincial roads Neuss - Kerpen- Lechenich in 1854, and Lechenich - Derkum (-Euskirchen) in 1857 with the route over Gennerstraße in Ahrem, brought about a significant improvement in the previous regional transport links to the town. Agriculture remained decisive for Ahrem. With the intensification of lignite mining at the end of the 19th century, however, more and more Ahremers earned their living in the pits or briquette factories of the Rhenish lignite companies in the area. In addition, they continued to farm for their own use.

school

In 1822, Ahrem received a school for children aged six to 10. A former linen weaver, whose knowledge an examination board had found to be good, gave the lessons in his private home. The older students attended the school in Lechenich. In 1868 a new school was set up in Ahrem for all age groups of school-age children and in 1882 a second classroom was added. This two-class school existed until the school reform in 1968. Since then, the primary school students have attended one of the Lechenich primary schools, the southern school, and the older students the secondary schools in the Lechenich school center.

St. John the Baptist

St. John the Baptist

Main article: St. John the Baptist

The place, which had belonged to the parish of Lechenich for centuries , received its own church in 1891 at the popular request of the population, which was built as a single-nave church in neo-Gothic style according to plans by the Cologne cathedral builder Franz Schmitz . The Ahremers then used the income from the lease income from the "Ahremer Heide" to build their own church. In 1886 two Ahrems families donated a building plot to the church, but it was located directly on the main road. Due to this situation and because of the small width of the property, the church is not one decided faces east to build.

After the laying of the foundation stone in 1889, a brick building was built , which is aligned lengthways with the gable front and its portal to the street on its east side. The high gable facade was given a large round window with neo-Gothic tracery above the entrance , followed by a niche at the top. As a crowning the front ended in the beginning of the ridge diagonally mounted skylights . This had a lantern that was open on four sides and ended with a pointed helmet and a weather vane attached to it .

The nave had five buttresses tapering halfway up each side , the thickness of which was measured to absorb the pressure of the interior vaulting of the church. In the resulting structure of the building, the spaces in between were used with the introduction of high, pointed-arched windows. The gable roof , which is now slate-covered , was provided with a dormer on each side . The end of the nave was joined on the west side by a semicircular (5/8) choir , which was suspended in height and a sacristy was added at a later date . The choir annex also received a decorated dormer, which, like the truncated tent roof, was covered with slate.

The parish's plan to build a church tower failed due to the financing of the project. A request from the church council to the Archbishop's General Vicariate in 1968 to receive a grant for this purpose was refused in 1969. Church tax subsidies for the construction of new church towers were no longer approved. Reference was made to the 1964 grant for the renovation of the ridge that had been granted.

The parish's already existing savings for the church tower were then used for a new altar , which corresponded to the new liturgical recommendations of the Second Vatican Council . The confessional and the pulpit , which is now at ground level, have been preserved from the original furnishings, which had been changed several times over the years . The splendid mosaic pictures under the windows in the choir were designed in 1940 by the Cologne artist Hans Hansen .

The way of the cross of the church, created in 1954 by the artist Hubert Dürnholz (* 1882), deviated from the often preferred Nazarene style at the request of the Ahrem parishioners . Dürnholz, a representative of Expressionist church painting, responded to the wishes of his clients and designed the sequence of images with reference to the events of World War II. The saints standing on the pillars on consoles could be acquired by Ahremer community members.

  • Nave and choir

  • Figure of St. Apollonia (1691)

  • neo-Gothic confessional

  • Depiction of Saint Sebastian

graveyard

In 1907 the growing village got its own cemetery on the southwestern edge of the town, so that burials no longer had to take place in the Lechenich cemetery in Heddinghoven .

Ahremer Heide

The "Ahremer Heide" is a municipal property that came from the possession of the St. Mariengraden Abbey in Cologne and had been secularized. In 1820 the heads of the Ahrems household bought around 23 hectares of heathland from the Prussian state . In 1860 this land was converted into arable land and leased. At times the Lechenich community claimed the land and leased it for their benefit. After years of legal dispute, the community of Lechenich ceded the property rights to the Ahremern in 1883 and transferred the accrued lease to them. The municipality of Lechenich made it a condition that the Ahremer Heide had to remain under the supervision of the administration as indivisible municipal assets. In 1912, the royal general commission in Düsseldorf confirmed the ownership of the Ahrem Heide to the town of Ahrem as an indivisible community member property.

Today the income from the “Ahremer Heide” is mainly used for the local non-profit associations . Most of these funds were used to finance the homes of the most important clubs, the shooting club of the St. Johannes Schützenbruderschaft founded in 1925 and the sports club of the football club “SSV Rot-Weiß Ahrem” founded in 1960. The assets are managed by the Ahremer Heide Board of Trustees , which is elected by local voters and consists of five members. The chairman is the mayor of the city of Erftstadt or a representative appointed by him.

Large courtyards and mill after 1800

As a result of the secularization in 1802, the house and courtyard buildings, oil mill and associated lands of Maximinenhof were expropriated and sold in 1807. After the death of Johann Schicks (son of the previous tenant), who had acquired the farm in 1827, the owners changed several times. In 1918 the courtyard buildings were demolished, only the oil mill remained. The Maximinenkreuz, which was moved to the cemetery, still reminds of him.

  • Inscription as a chronogram

  • Hermeshof, stepped gable from the post-war period

  • Mill inflow from the south

In the 19th century, a rope mill was installed in the mill buildings, in which ropes were woven from straw. After 1880, the mill building was expanded into a wool blanket factory with looms , fulling , dyeing and laundry, which was engaged in the production of wool blankets for soldiers and horses at the front during the First World War . After the war ended, production ceased and the building served as a storage room. A few years ago the former mill was converted into a residential building. The street name "Am Maximinenkreuz" and the cross erected by the tenants of the Maximinenhof, the inscription of which contains a chronogram that shows 1780 as the year of construction , still reminds of the courtyard .

The "Pützhof" was called "Hermeshof" in the 1801 census , an incorrect spelling of "Henneshof" after the tenant Johann Hennes. The farm has been in the family of the current owners for over 150 years. The listed residential building, a half-timbered building from 1689, received an extension in 1948. The moats formerly fed by the Rotbach were filled in in 1966. Today the owner runs a tree nursery outside the village that is connected to a nursery .

The electoral mill was expropriated in the secularization of 1802 and in 1807 all the buildings were sold to the previous tenant. The mill, modernized at the end of the 19th century, was in operation as a grain mill until 1917, then as a grist mill until the end of the Second World War. The heirs of the last miller sold the building in 1985 to the current owners, who carried out extensive restorations.

Today's Ahrem

View from the south

With the influx of many new residents, who make up more than a third of today's residents, Ahrem's population has grown steadily. The newcomers are integrated into the village community and, like the long-time residents, also participate in the lively club life. The town offers hardly any income opportunities to its working residents, almost all of them commute between their place of residence and an external job.

The Klüntershof is part of today's townscape. The listed property is no longer used for agriculture. Agriculture is hardly important in Ahrem. There are five farmers in the village, all without a dairy farm, while equestrian sports are strongly represented in Ahrem with four riding stables. There are also several larger businesses and a bakery branch. Basic medical care is guaranteed by a doctor based in Ahrem. The Catholic kindergarten set up in Ahrem is run together with the St. Kilian day care center in Lechenich as an institution of the St. Kilian parish. In the vicinity of the former parsonage a parsonage was built in 2002, in which events of the parish take place, but it can also be used by private organizers. Ahrem is connected to the local transport network by bus line 807. This is mainly used by older residents, as Ahrem does not have any shopping facilities. The younger, motorized Ahremers do the necessary shopping for their daily needs by car or, for smaller purchases, by bike.

Sport in Ahrem

In addition to equestrian sports, there is also the SSV Rot-Weiß Ahrem in town. Founded in 1960, it is primarily a football club. The club has over 400 members and soccer is played in 14 teams. The game is played on the “Am Laacher Hof” sports facility on a grass pitch. In 2010 the covered "Westkurve" was inaugurated for the 50th anniversary of the club.

literature

  • Cornelius Bormann : Ahrem - a small place with a long past. Yearbook of the city of Erftstadt. Erftstadt 1991.
  • Bernhard Schreiber: Archaeological finds and monuments of the Erftstadt area. Erftstadt 1999.
  • Karl Stommel : The French population lists from Erftstadt . City of Erftstadt 1989
  • Karl and Hanna Stommel: Sources on the history of the city of Erftstadt. Volume 1-5. Erftstadt 1990–1998.
  • Hanna Stommel: Ahrem local history. (1.1) In: Frank Bartsch, Dieter Hoffsümmer, Hanna Stommel: Monuments in Erftstadt. AHAG, Lechenich 1998.
  • Paul Huhnen: 100 years of the parish church of St. Johannes DT Ahrem. Long Legs 1991.
  • Petra Tutlies, Claus Weber: Archeology in Erftstadt . Reports on excavations, observations and finds from the years 2005 to 2016. Yearbook of the city of Erftstadt 2018. Erftstadt 2017. ISSN 2567-708X.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.erftstadt.de/web/infos-zu-erftstadt/die-stadt-in-zahlen
  2. ↑ Bernhard Schreiber: Archaeological finds and monuments of the Erftstadt area. P. 123.
  3. ^ Archeology in the Rhineland . Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, pp. 76-78.
  4. ↑ Petra Tutlies, Claus Weber: Archeology in Erftstadt. Reports on excavations, observations and finds from the years 2005 to 2016. In: Yearbook of the City of Erftstadt 2018. Erftstadt 2017. P. 96
  5. ↑ Bernhard Schreiber: Archaeological finds and monuments of the Erftstadt area. P. 124.
  6. ↑ HAStK inventory of St. Aposteln Document No. 3/51, published in K. and H. Sources for the history of the city of Erftstadt. Volume 1 No. 93.
  7. ↑ HAStK Best. Auswärtiges 170b, published in Stommel: Sources for the history of the city of Erftstadt. Volume 1 No. 178.
  8. ↑ HASTK . Stock Domstift Certificate No. 3/1978, published in Stommel: sources. Volume 3 No. 1559.
  9. ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht, file 51
  10. ↑ HSTAD inventory Electorate of Cologne II in 1904, published in Stommel: sources. Volume 3 No. 2063.
  11. ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht File 53 (mayor's accounts)
  12. ↑ HAStK inventory clerical department 38b, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 5, No. 2964.
  13. ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht, File 49, Brief Protocols
  14. ↑ HAStK inventory clerical department 166a, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 2 No. 968.
  15. ↑ Archive Schloss Gracht, File 52
  16. ↑ HSTAD Electorate of Cologne II in 1117, published in Stommel: sources. Volume 4 No. 2566 and No. 2570.
  17. ↑ HSTAD Electoral Cologne feudal Generalia 1 page 157, published Stommel: sources. Volume 2 No. 861.
  18. ↑ Archive Zwolle (NL) holdings of Kasteel Rechteren inv.nr.1453 and inv. No. 1466, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 4 No. 2286 and Volume 5 No. 2352a.
  19. ↑ KAStK levels at St. Maximin record 6, published in Stommel: sources. Volume 5, Item 2962.
  20. ↑ HSTAD Electoral Cologne feudal Generalia 1, p 156, published in Stommel: sources. Volume 2, No. 836.
  21. ↑ HSTAD Kurköln Lehen Spezialia 129 Certificate No. 1
  22. ↑ HAStK inventory of the Sion monastery repertories and manuscripts 1, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 2, No. 1088.
  23. ↑ HAStK inventory of poor administration No. 150–154, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 5 No. 2499a.
  24. ↑ HAStK Best. Auswärtiges 170b, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 1 No. 178.
  25. ^ Archive Harff inventory Konradsheim Akt 51, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 4 No. 2320.
  26. ↑ HAStK inventory Domstift file 3c, published in Stommel: Sources. No. 911
  27. ↑ HSTAD inventory Kurköln II 1904, published in Stommel: Sources Volume 4 No. 2063.
  28. ↑ HAStK inventory Domstift file 15, published in Stommel: Sources. Volume 3 No. 1842 and Volume 5 No. 2856.
  29. ^ K. Stommel: The population lists from Erftstadt 1798–1801. Erftstadt 1989, pp. 11-21.
  30. ↑ City Archives Erftstadt Protocol book of the municipality of Lechenich Le No. 2010.
  31. ↑ a b City Archives Erftstadt Lechenich 2031 (local council minutes)
  32. ↑ a b Parish archives St. Kililan Lechenich I. Part Department 1 Volume 3 Ahrem
  33. ^ Paul Huhnen: 100 years of the parish church of St. Johannes DT Ahrem. Long Legs 1991.
  34. ↑ City Archives Erftstadt Lechenich 2011, 2012, 2013, 2031 (local council minutes)
  35. ↑ Michael Breuer: Ahrem yesterday and today. In: 1997 Annual Report of Raiffeisenbank Erftstadt. Pp. 22-30.
  36. ↑ a b W. Schieder (ed.): Secularization and mediatization in the four Rhenish departments, Canton Lechenich. P. 461.
  37. ↑ C. Bormann: Yearbook of the City of Erftstadt 1991. P. 98–100.
  38. ↑ C. Bormann: Yearbook of the City of Erftstadt 1991. pp. 100-102.

Web links

Commons : Ahrem (Erftstadt)  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '  N , 6 ° 46'  E