Bell (Hunsrück)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′  N , 7 ° 25 ′  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Rhein-Hunsrück district
Association municipality :	Kastellaun
Height :	420 m above sea level NHN
Area :	23.53 km 2
Residents:	1431 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	61 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	56288
Area code :	06762
License plate :	SIM, GOA
Community key :	07 1 40 009
Community structure:	6 districts
Association administration address:	Kirchstrasse 1 56284 Kastellaun
Website :	www.bell-hunsrueck.de
Local Mayor :	Manfred Kochems
Location of the local community Bell (Hunsrück) in the Rhein-Hunsrück district

Bell (Hunsrück) is a local community in the middle of the low mountain range of the Hunsrück in the Rhein-Hunsrück district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the community of Kastellaun .

geography

location

The district of Bell with 458 inhabitants (as of December 31, 2012) is located about one km from Kastellaun and the Hunsrückhöhenstrasse on the edge of the basin of the streams that form the Mörsdorfer Bach, which flows past Balduinseck Castle into the Flaumbach and with it pours into the Moselle near Treis . The romantic Mühlental can only be hiked.

Community structure

Population figures, main residence as of December 31, 2012; Community structure according to the State Statistical Office.

District	associated living spaces	Residents
Bell	Bell station, Forsthaus, Ramserhof, Rothenbergerhof	458
Dog home	-	145
Krastel	Heidhof	141
Leideneck	-	258
Völkenroth	Blümlingshof, Greiserhof	276
Wohnroth	Birkenhof	161
All in all		1,439

Neighboring places

book	Uhler	Kastellaun
Wohnroth , Krastel and Mastershausen		Laubach
Völkenroth	Dog home	Hasselbach

history

During the excavations of the Beller chariot grave , an arrowhead and a stone ax were discovered, which suggest an early settlement in the Neolithic.

Bell is a very old settlement, even if the first documentary mention in the register of annual taxes to the Archdiocese of Trier , the liber annalium , dates back to 1220. Even the name is pre-Germanic, "Bell" in Celtic refers to a hill or settlement on the heights. Grave finds near Bell, particularly Bell's chariot grave , show that the area was inhabited by Celts early on .

A Roman manor east of the church (explored in the middle of the 19th century and secured as a “ground monument”) and a Franconian manor, directly adjacent to the south (the field name “In den Hupfeldern”, the fields belonging to the courtyard, proves it; The development of the new building area there, the foundations of this old development were exposed), give an idea of ​​the importance of the place in the time of the Frankish conquest. In addition, Bell was the parish location to which the places from Leideneck to Horn and Alterkülz , even the later castle and residence town of Kastellaun and today's capital of the association, belonged. The neighboring places with the endings on -heim and -bach (Hundheim, Michelbach ) belong to the places of the first Germanic conquest of the Franks (500-700) in the migration , so they are much younger than the "place on the hill". Places with place names in -roth belong to the early medieval clearing period. Bell is also close to the Celtic, later Roman, Höhenstraße ( Römerstraße , the Hunsrückhöhenstraße ).

Only in the Middle Ages under the rule of the Counts of Sponheim Bell reappears in history . Count Simon II gives Kastellaun , the small town near his castle , 1305 city law and obtains by King Henry VII , the brother of. Baldwin of Luxembourg , Archbishop to Trier, 1308 the market law; however, as early as 1309, the future emperor Heinrich also granted Bell market rights.

Modern times

Bell suffered badly from the war and the military occupation. It was particularly bad in the Palatinate War of Succession to Louis XIV's reunification policy . With the occupation of the Left Bank of the Rhine by French revolutionary troops in 1794 , Bell became French, and in 1815 Bell was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna .

The Simmern – Kastellaun section of the Hunsrück Railway, on which Bell is located, was opened on October 28, 1901. Bell station ( line kilometer 13.1) went into operation with a little delay in February 1902.

At the end of the Second World War , Bell was spared from destruction when the Americans marched in on March 13, 1945, thanks to the courageous seizing and hoisting of a white flag on the church tower by citizens of Bell and their pastor Rolffs.

Bell has been part of the newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 1946 .

As part of the Rhineland-Palatinate territorial and administrative reform that began in the mid-1960s, today's municipality was transformed from the previously independent municipalities Bell (Hunsrück) (then 378 inhabitants), Hundheim (123), Krastel (173), Leideneck (233), Völkenroth (233) and Wohnroth (145) were newly formed.

First mention of the other districts

Wohnroth is mentioned for the first time in 1220 in the so-called Liber annalium of the Archdiocese of Trier. Hundheim, Krastel, Leideneck and Völkenroth were first mentioned in 1310 in the slope register of the county of Sponheim .

Population development

Population growth at Bell from 1815 to 2017 according to the table below

The development of the population of Bell in relation to today's municipal area; the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 1,284 1835 1,543 1871 1,577 1905 1,647 1939 1,506 1950 1,588

year Residents 1961 1,432 1970 1,322 1987 1,290 2005 1,521 2011 1,470 2017 1,437

Church history

With the introduction of the Reformation in the county in 1557, Kastellaun and Alterkülz became independent with their dependent communities. Leideneck separated in 1854 and shared a pastor with Kappel , but has been connected to Bell again in a parish office since 1976. The last parishes to leave Bell were in 1926 Spesenroth , which joined Kastellaun, and in 1947 Hasselbach , which is now part of the Alterkülz parish . Since January 1, 2016, the parish of Bell-Leideneck-Uhler has consisted of the previously independent parishes of Bell, Leideneck and Uhler , which had been parishioners since 2009.

Bell Church

The age of the Bell Church cannot be precisely determined. According to the Romanesque style of the tower, it will date from the 11th to 13th centuries. The nave is much younger. It was rebuilt in 1728 "from the foundations". The old rectory was built in 1716 to replace an older building and stood until 1959.

Bells

The three bells are remarkable. The oldest, little Maria, dates from 1313, and is one of the oldest bells in the Hunsrück with the bells from Sohren and Büchenbeuren . This bell has a diameter of 79 cm, a height of 77 cm and weighs 250 kg.

The great Maria was cast in 1459 by the bell founder Thilmann from Hachenburg . It has a diameter of 126 cm, a height of 110 cm and a weight of 900 kg. In 1694, soldiers of Louis XIV stole this bell. A brave citizen of Beller named Braun ran after the troops, persistently negotiated with the general of the troops, whereupon he had the bell unloaded again. The crown broke off. In addition to Mr. Braun's courageous actions, he was one of the few Catholic citizens of the Bell community. Out of gratitude, the presbytery at that time decided that at funerals of members of the Braun family and their descendants, the bells of Bell's church should accompany the way to the final resting place. Otherwise, only the town hall bell was rung at funerals of Catholic citizens. This decision was last implemented in 2005. Albert Braun died as the last descendant on July 31, 2005 in Kastellaun.

The third bell in the church tower was melted down during the First World War. It was replaced in 1928. After only 14 years, she suffered the same fate as her predecessor in World War II. The current bell dates from 1957 and weighs 441 kg, has a diameter of 90 cm and a height of 88 cm. The whole village came together when the bell was pulled on a taut rope from the street, through a sound hatch, into the tower.

Chalice

The chalice from 1483 bears the name of the pastor at that time, "Steph 'de Bernkastel".

politics

Municipal council

The municipal council in Bell consists of 16 council members, who were elected in a personalized proportional representation in the local elections on May 26, 2019 , and the honorary local mayor as chairman. The 16 seats are distributed among a total of six groups of voters .

mayor

The local mayor is Manfred Kochems. In the local elections on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office with 85.10% of the vote.

Districts

Each of the six districts of Bell forms a local district with a local advisory board and a local councilor .

Bell district

The local council consists of three local council members. In the local elections on May 26, 2019, the advisory board members were elected by majority vote.

Mayor is Andreas Bauer. In the local election on May 26, 2019, he was elected with 91.70% of the vote.

Culture and sights

Bell Market

On the penultimate Wednesday in July, the local community of Bell holds its traditional Beller market every year on the market site on Hunsrückhöhenstrasse B 327 .

The market with its centuries-long tradition as a farmers' market and cattle trading center is now a popular event for tourists and a meeting place for the population of the entire region. It attracts many thousands of visitors every year. On average, 400 market traders, showmen and restaurateurs offer guests a mixture of market trade and fairground attractions. Many local traders also take part.

Leisure and Tourism

Bell observation tower

• Right next to the market square and the SG Bell sports field is the Bell Animal Adventure Park, which opened in 2014, with four Siberian tigers, huskies and other dogs, reptiles, forest and farm animals with a petting zoo. Although it is located away from the main tourist flows, the park is of national and economic importance for the surrounding area. The park is the successor to a theme park with a fairytale forest.
• Political and cultural events known beyond Bell take place on the stage of the Bell-Vue restaurant.
• Only a few hundred meters away from Bell, along the former Beller train station, the Schinderhannes cycle path leads past the route of the old Hunsrück Railway .
• Bell can be used as the starting point for a hike on the 20th stage of the Saar-Hunsrück Climb to Mörsdorf and the longest suspension rope bridge in Germany over the Mörsdorfer Bachtal .
• To the northeast of the village, at an altitude of 463  m, is the approximately 10 m high Bell observation tower . Previously, the community's elevated tank with a capacity of 80 m ³ had been at this point since 1929 . It was in operation until 1962 and was converted into an observation tower in 2007/08 , with the water basin under the hill next to the tower serving as an extinguishing water reservoir for the fire brigade ever since.

Buildings

→ Main article : List of cultural monuments in Bell (Hunsrück)

Economy and trade

Until the 1950s, mining was carried out in the Ilse manganese ore mine on the Beller district, near the Beller train station .

See also : List of mines in the Hunsrück

In terms of commercial operations there are: a car and truck workshop, an electrical installation company, a goldsmith's shop and on the road to the Beller Bahnhof / Hunsrückhöhenstraße intersection, a civil engineering and road construction company. In addition to the Bell-Vue, Bell also has an inn with a boarding house.

Web links

Commons : Bell (Hunsrück)  - Collection of images

• History of the Beller Markt
• Bell in the SWR television program Hierzuland
• Literature about Bell in the Rhineland-Palatinate State Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Official Journal of the VG Kastellaun ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 4.8 MB) 
3. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2019 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 56 (PDF; 3 MB).
4. ↑ Wolfgang Welker: First insights into the Michelsberg culture in the Hunsrück - newly discovered Neolithic stone axes from the Vorderhunsrück. In: Adventure archeology. No. 8, 2007, pp. 26-31 ISSN  1615-7125
5. ↑ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Collection of the published official gazettes of October 26, 1901. Volume 5, No. 51, Announcement No. 478, p. 356f and ibid. Of November 2, 1901, No. 52, Announcement No. 494, p. 365.
6. ^ Eisenbahndirektion Mainz (Ed.): Collection of the published official gazettes from February 1, 1902. Volume 6, No. 6. Announcement No. 54, p. 33.
7. ↑ Official municipality directory 2006 ( Memento from December 22, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (= State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 393 ). Bad Ems March 2006, p. 170 f . (PDF; 2.6 MB). Info: An up-to-date directory ( 2016 ) is available, but in the section "Territorial changes - Territorial administrative reform" it does not give any population figures.  
8. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
9. ↑ Parish of Uhler canceled ( memento of the original from February 13, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ^ The Regional Returning Officer RLP: Municipal Council Election 2019 Bell. Retrieved October 7, 2019 . 
11. ^ The regional returning officer RLP: direct elections 2019. see Kastellaun, Verbandsgemeinde, second line of results. Retrieved October 7, 2019 . 
12. ^ The Regional Returning Officer RLP: Local Advisory Council election 2019 Bell. Retrieved October 7, 2019 . 
13. ^ The Regional Returning Officer RLP: direct elections 2019. see Kastellaun, Verbandsgemeinde, third line of results. Retrieved October 7, 2019 . 
14. ↑ Homepage of the park
15. ^ Regionalgeschichte.net , accessed on November 15, 2016