Eckendorf

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Eckendorf (disambiguation) .

Eckendorf Union Free Parish County Coordinates: 50 ° 35 ′ 30 ″  N , 7 ° 3 ′ 28 ″  E
Height :	200 m above sea level NHN
Area :	3.74 km²
Residents :	395  (Oct 30, 2013)
Population density :	106 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation :	March 16, 1974
Postal code :	53501
Area code :	02225
Location of Eckendorf in Rhineland-Palatinate
At the Swistbach near Eckendorf

Eckendorf is a district of the community -free municipality Grafschaft in the Rhineland-Palatinate district of Ahrweiler . The Eckendorf district currently has 395 inhabitants. Eckendorf was an independent municipality until it was incorporated into the newly formed municipality Grafschaft on March 16, 1974.

geography

The village is in the north of the municipality. The state border between Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia runs along the border with the neighboring towns of Adendorf and Fritzdorf .

Geographically, the area around Eckendorf belongs to the Voreifel . The foothills of the Lower Rhine Bay reach up to this point . The Rhine flows past ten kilometers to the east, and after four kilometers to the west, the first heights of the Eifel begin . The western part of the district is flat or slightly inclined towards the Swist . East of the Swist, the terrain rises from 195 meters above sea level on the outskirts to 260 meters on the hill. The size of the district is 374 hectares. The yield indicators of the arable soils are between 55 and 65. The district is drained by the Swist , which rises near Kalenborn, and the Essigbach coming from Gelsdorf , which flows into the Swist west of Adendorf.

history

Prehistory and early history

The oldest traces of settlement are two circular settlement sites (90 and 120 meters in diameter) from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (6000–2000 BC) in the southeastern part of the district . Adjacent chamber corridors typical of the time can be seen in aerial photographs .

In Roman times , the county's fertile loess soils were covered with a network of individual farms. The oldest evidence so far is a tombstone found by Beller from around 50 AD. There were also several settlement areas on the elongated southern slope east of Eckendorf.

middle Ages

Around 450 AD, Roman rule on the Rhine collapsed. The Franks , who were now increasingly flowing into the country, built numerous new settlements. As a rule, they do not use the Roman buildings, but prefer to build their wooden houses near water. So it happened on the western edge of the Swist. The new settlement is first mentioned on December 2, 770 as Eccandorph . The name is derived from the male given name Ecco (the village where Ecco lives).

In the following centuries the place was only mentioned in documents from foreign owners. The property donated to Lorsch Abbey in 770 was given to the Cassius Foundation in Bonn in 830/831. In the year 893 the Prüm Abbey also owned four yoke of land, in 1099 the Brauweiler Abbey owned one acre of land. A Heidolf von Godesberg gave the Rolandswerth Monastery, founded in 1126, 15 acres of farmland, whose ownership was confirmed in 1143.

In 1281 the Archbishop of Cologne Siegfried von Westerburg allegedly founded a Johanneskapelle in Eckendorf. It is not known to which parish the place belonged at that time. The first characteristics of an independent parish can be found in the naming of its own clergyman (1314) and a cemetery (1365).

In 1446 the church is dependent on the Bonn Cassius Foundation. The monastery drew tithes in Eckendorf , carried part of the church construction work and occupied the pastoral position. Church patrons, according to a bell cast in 1531, were Saints Cosmas and Damian . They were already there in 1469, because a brotherhood named after them was founded at that time . The parish was part of the Burdekanat together with the other surrounding churches of the Cassiusstift and the parishes of the city of Bonn .

Before the emergence of the territorial states, Eckendorf belonged to the sphere of influence of the Counts of Are-Nürburg and later to the separate part, the County of Neuenahr , which had its center in the castle built around 1225. The affiliation of Eckendorf to this county is expressly mentioned for the first time in 1343. The county itself was a fiefdom of the Electorate of the Palatinate , which was transferred to the Margrave of Jülich in 1344 as a subfief. After disputes over inheritance in the course of which Neuenahr Castle was destroyed in 1371 or 1372, the Archbishop of Cologne claimed co-rule over the county for himself. Since then, this area has been under two lords for around 200 years, until the Duchy of Jülich took full ownership of the fief again in 1546 .

Eckendorf was touched by two regional roads early on. One led from Muffendorf am Rhein to the west. It is mentioned in the year 973 and was perhaps already there in Roman times. The second was the coronation road running from Aachen to Sinzig , a trunk road that later led to Frankfurt am Main (called Aachen-Frankfurter Heerstraße by research). It already existed towards the end of the 8th century and ran through the middle of the village around 1800. A customs post is mentioned on this road in 1194 . There was a watchtower at the top, called Scheid, and a post office horse changing station nearby. In 1337 a water pipe with a sink was built on the edge of the village to refresh the numerous pilgrims . An infirmary for the sick still existed in 1718. The road provided the farmers of Eckendorf with regular additional income through pre-stressing services on the two and a half kilometers long ascent between the village and the hill with an altitude of 70 meters.

On this hill, which is still called Auf dem Scheid today, the districts of Eckendorf, Fritzdorf, Leimersdorf and Ringen meet. This is where the high court and the old meeting place of this domain (first mentioned in 1404) were located. A gallows is mentioned in 1524. Perhaps there was a place of worship here in prehistoric times, because the famous Fritzdorfer gold cup from 1600 BC was found nearby . Possibly it was a dedication given to the ground.

In this district there was also a single courtyard called Grevelo or Scheidshof . In 1276 it was owned by Count von Neuenahr as a fief of Count von Jülich. He went under between 1417 and 1449. While this corridor is free from forests today, a 208 acre forest grew here in 1484 . According to an oral tradition recorded in 1756, the Scheidländereien should have belonged to a monastery in ancient times . The place on which the monastery stood was then called Scheidshof . However, the monastery is not documented in writing. To the south of this area there was a heather area, the so-called Greveler Heide , which was viewed by the people as a witch's dance place until the 19th century .

Early modern age

A 400 year old cross in the churchyard commemorates a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela

Until well into modern times there are no sources about the life and fate of the village population. In the 15th century, 80 residents lived here for over 14 years, in 1600 the place had around 24 houses. The foundations of life were agriculture and animal husbandry . More precise information on the agricultural conditions is only available in 1811 from a report on the mayor's office in Gelsdorf , to which six villages belonged, including Eckendorf. At that time mainly grain was grown , namely rye , barley , oats , but also the high-quality wheat , which did not thrive in the neighboring Eifel regions, also clover , rape , peas , vetches , little beetroot and carrots, a lot of white cabbage and savoy cabbage , little Cauliflower , winter cabbage and kohlrabi , as well as flax for making linen . The potato was only added as a new fruit in the years before 1770, but it had quickly become the staple food. Apples , pears and, less so, plums were planted as fruits .

Crafts and trades were only poorly trained in accordance with the needs of the rural population. The blacksmith , mentioned in 1484, is one of the oldest village craftsmen . A grain mill, the so-called roede mill, was located on the Swist in 1498. The windmill, which is now on the Scheid, in the Fritzdorfer area, was founded in 1842. It only worked for around 70 years.

In 1659 there was a change of territorial affiliation of the village. In an exchange of territory between the Duke of Jülich and the Baron von der Leyen , the village came under the rule of Adendorf , which it remained until it was dissolved during French rule in 1798.

The village received its first school in the 17th century. The school building stood in the churchyard until the 19th century. During the Palatinate War of Succession , the place was cremated twice, on January 9, 1690 and July 7, 1691 by French soldiers. The village was slow to recover from this disaster. It wasn't until 1713 to 1714 that the church, which had survived both village fires, was repaired. A sacristy was also added. In 1710, the cemetery around the church was given a wall made of rubble stones , which was replaced by a concrete wall in 1967. The rectory, which burned down in 1722, was then replaced by a new building, whereby the roof was already covered with tiles, probably for the first time on a building in this place, because it was only from this time that roof tiles began to replace the thatched roofs.

In October 1794 French revolutionary troops occupied the villages in this area. An era came to an end. In the following years the old rulership structures were dissolved and in 1798 the area was restructured regardless of previous territorial affiliations. Eckendorf came to Mairie Gelsdorf ( Canton Ahrweiler , Arrondissement Bonn , Department Rhin-et-Moselle ). In 1802 the Archdiocese of Cologne was dissolved and Eckendorf was added to the newly established Diocese of Aachen . In 1803 the monasteries and monasteries were dissolved, including the Bonn Cassius monastery, which was important for Eckendorf. In 1808 the parish lost its independence and was assigned to Gelsdorf.

Under Prussian rule

After the victories of the allies over Napoléon Bonaparte , the left Rhine area fell to Prussia in 1815 . The administrative structure created in French times was partially retained during the reorganization in 1816. The municipality Eckendorf now belonged to the mayor Gelsdorf in the Kreis Ahrweiler , Koblenz . The French municipal constitution remained in force until 1846. Only then did the municipalities combined in a mayor's office receive their own municipal council and greater independence. In the church sector, the Aachen diocese was abolished in 1821 and Eckendorf was assigned to the Trier archdiocese . In 1840 the place regained its independence as a parish.

The birth surplus of the 18th century continued into the 19th century, but the population did not increase. In 1819, 350 people lived in Eckendorf. By 1851 the population should have increased by 142 people, but in fact there were only 335 inhabitants. Since the country could no longer feed everyone, young people had moved away. After America just emigrated in the 1860s. Their houses were demolished.

In order to gain more land, 79 acres of wasteland , 72 of which were on the heather, were reclaimed from 1837 . After 1847, the remainder of the above-mentioned Scheidbusch, which now only comprised 47 Prussian acres, was cleared for the production of arable land. This meant that there was no longer any forest in the district.

Up until that time, the connections between the villages were simple unpaved dirt roads that were difficult to drive on in wet weather. In order to facilitate the movement of goods, the Prussian administration made great efforts to develop supra-local connections (highways). Thus, from 1847 to 1848 the Meckenheim-Gelsdorf road, around 1854 the Rheinbach-Ahrtal road and from 1854 to 1857 the Rheinbach-Mehlem road were widened and paved. With these new roads, the old Aachen-Sinzig trunk road lost its importance. In the middle of the 1850s, it was narrowed to the normal width of a field path in the neighboring communities and the excess land was transferred to the neighboring communities. In Eckendorf, however, it remained in full width. The grass now growing here was used by the poor inhabitants of the village.

The municipal routes from Eckendorf to its neighboring villages were not expanded until much later, namely the route to Gelsdorf in 1860, to Fritzdorf in 1868, to Adendorf in 1885 and finally to Vettelhoven in 1907. In the 1850s and 1860s, the village streets were also professionally upgraded with gravel for the first time . The gutters were paved.

As a result of the industrial development now beginning, the need for iron ore grew . Therefore, the land was systematically searched for new deposits. Small ore mines were built in many places, including Eckendorf. The concession was granted in 1851, but after eight years operations were stopped due to unprofitability.

During this time there was a change in the way the houses were built and the image of the village began to change. The wooden construction, which has been common since the beginning of the village, was abandoned in favor of stone construction with field fire bricks. The first building was probably the new school built in 1842 in today's Schulstrasse. The parsonage, built from 1855 to 1857, and all the farms now built were also made from this new material. The brick building period ended around 1900 when pumice stones were manufactured in large numbers for less than bricks in the Neuwied area .

A change in roofing had already begun in the 18th century. The thatched roofs, which were cheap to produce and suitable for use, had gradually been displaced due to the risk of fire due to official requirements, but in the 1870s there were still three thatched houses in Eckendorf.

In the empire

After the establishment of the Empire in 1871, an economic boom began here, as elsewhere. This was reflected in increased construction activity. In the public area around 1875 it was a syringe house for storing the fire engine. In 1893, the medieval church was demolished and a new brick building was built in the same place by the architect, builder and contractor Anton Becker (1853–1899), who was born in Lüftelberg. The building was paid for when it was completed in 1894. An organ followed in 1901 (the first ever). During these years, the two innkeepers in the village built dance halls. Up to now there was only a room for dancing on the upper floor of an inn.

Agriculture experienced a considerable development boost . The three-field economy and the traditional Flurzwang had been given up in the county and probably also in Eckendorf before the middle of the 19th century and replaced by an alternating economy , but without a fixed crop rotation . The amalgamation of the plots in the years 1905 to 1910 led to a more rational cultivation of the fields, because numerous inheritance divisions had split the properties into numerous small and very small plots that were spread across the entire district. Was then treated with a drainage their yield capacity increase of 193 hectares wet surfaces.

Ever since the trade press heavily advertised guano as a fertilizer in the 1850s, this so-called artificial fertilizer has prevailed after it had previously been fertilized almost exclusively with manure and liquid manure . At the end of the 1870s, a guano warehouse was set up in the village. From it later a trade in agricultural products and a grain receiving point arose, which was moved to the outskirts in 1976.

So far, the so-called dog plow, harrow and roller, all made of wood , have been used for cultivating fields . The grain was sown by hand and threshed with the flail . Now, within a short time, new machines and devices came onto the market. In the middle of the 1880s the first farmer worked with the iron balance plow, at the end of the 1870s there was the first grain cleaning machine in the village, in 1886/87 the first grain mower, in 1898 the first seed drill , in 1901 the first self-tie . In the 1870s, steam threshing machines were occasionally used in the village.

Since 1884, many sugar beets have been cultivated in the district , which have since played a prominent role in Eckendorf. They were all delivered to the sugar factory in Euskirchen . The formerly widespread beet variety Eckendorfer Yellow does not derive its name from this village, but from the town of the same name in Westphalia . With the construction of a dairy in the neighboring village of Vettelhoven in 1895, the previously difficult marketing of milk and butter improved noticeably.

In 1905/06 a water pipe was built and in 1912 the village was connected to the electricity network. The new communication technologies now connected Eckendorf with the outside world: in 1879 a telegraph station was set up in the neighboring town of Gelsdorf, and in 1905 Eckendorf was connected to the telephone network .

At that time (1907) Eckendorf was still predominantly structured in agriculture and in essential areas self-sufficient. Agriculture was practiced in 48 out of 64 households. In terms of trade, craft and trade there were: blacksmiths, saddlers , shoemakers , bricklayers and three other builders , two innkeepers , bakers , two shopkeepers, merchant, two egg dealers and a peddler .

With the outbreak of the First World War , the economic upturn was suddenly slowed down. The empire was coming to an end. Shortly before the war, out of attachment to the imperial house, the villagers planted an imperial linden tree in the center of the village on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is probably the oldest tree in the whole district.

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

In 1914, before the outbreak of war, was, after decades of efforts to build the railway line Liblar begun -Ahrtal. The route led west past Eckendorf; a train station was planned between Eckendorf and Gelsdorf. Much of the substructure was already finished when the victorious powers of the First World War forbade further construction in 1930. In 1936 the first long-distance cycle route in the Rhine Province was established on this railway line .

Even in the last years of railway construction, the profitability of this route was questioned, as motorization started noticeably at this time. In 1925 the last stagecoach line in the Ahrweiler district, which extended to the neighboring town of Gelsdorf, ceased operations. In March 1931 Eckendorf was connected to the Bonn-Ahrtal bus line. The first farmer in Eckendorf bought a tractor in 1933.

In the 1920s and 1930s, village life was boosted by the establishment of the following clubs: 1926 church choir, 1928 sports club (re-established), 1930s parament club, 1933 drum corps. After there had previously only been one compulsory fire brigade, a voluntary fire brigade was established before 1927 .

In 1936 the streets were given official names for the first time, and the houses in the village that had previously been simply numbered were now numbered street by street.

The village survived the Second World War without major damage. Some bombs only hit barns in the field area. The church windows were damaged in a low-flying attack. In 1944 a German fighter plane crashed east of the village. Twelve men in the village died as soldiers . In the early hours of March 7, 1945, the first heads of the American troops marched through Eckendorf. A few hours later the Americans managed to cross the Rhine by taking the only undestroyed bridge over the Rhine near Remagen .

Conversion from a farming village to a housing estate

After the war, a group of refugees from the east and displaced persons were settled here, including some Protestants. The local population had been purely Catholic until then. Only a few Jews lived in the village in the 18th century.

As a result of the boom in the German economy (German economic miracle ) and progress in technical and scientific fields, prosperity rose sharply from the 1960s onwards . Rapid change in all areas brought about a complete upheaval in all village conditions within a few decades. No area was excluded, starting with children's games, the adult world of work, customs, church life and the language , the Ripuarian dialect , which is no longer spoken by the youngest generation. The radical structural change meant that Eckendorf lost its self-sufficiency in almost all areas of life. Self-sufficiency was given up, craft shops, general stores and inns disappeared.

In agriculture, motorization and mechanization accelerated work considerably. Yields improved due to increased use of artificial fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides . Tractors are now replacing horses and oxen as draft animals. The last field horse was sold in 1957. The first combine harvester was purchased in the same year . At the same time, changed framework conditions forced the farmers to enlarge their farms, to intensify and to specialize. With the relatively small arable land, fruit growing turned out to be the best alternative. Since then, orchards have increasingly covered the fields. One farmer specialized in growing asparagus with part of his land . The last dairy cows were sold in 1991. Despite all efforts, the farmers' incomes fell, so that more and more businesses had to give up. Four full-time farms remained.

As a result of the intensification of agriculture and the many interventions in the landscape, there was a sharp decline in species in the flora and fauna. In order to counteract this negative development, the Nature Conservation Union applied for the designation of a nature reserve in the Swistbachaue between Eckendorf and Adendorf in 1981. This meadow area, which was finally placed under protection in 1986, is today one of over 20 nature reserves in the Ahrweiler district. Its extension is around 1,000 meters and its size is 26 hectares.

With the increased prosperity and as a result of the restructuring in agriculture, brisk construction activity began in the 1960s. Old houses have been replaced by new buildings, and almost all houses have been converted and extended. The farmers enlarged their farm buildings, some moved to the edge of the village. From the 1970s onwards, foreigners began to settle there, as the prices for building land here were far below those in the Bonn area, because with the appointment of Bonn as the provisional federal capital , the places in the city's soft landscape had already grown significantly. In order to meet the increased demand for building land , a first large building area was designated in 1985 on the southern edge of the village . In the meantime, many new buildings have also been built on the other edges of the village. Nevertheless, the village was able to preserve its village character through only a moderate designation of building land and the preservation of many old buildings in the center.

At the same time, the infrastructure was improved and expanded. At the end of the 1960s, the village received a sewer system and then the streets were gradually paved. In 1969 a fire station was built , which was later expanded to include a hall, as the last of two dance halls had been closed in 1967. The fair and other festivals have been celebrated in the fire station since 1978 .

Since the old churchyard was no longer sufficient with the increased population, a civil cemetery was created on the outskirts in 1969. A playground and football field for children and young people was built at Swistbach in 1981 .

From 1959 Eckendorf was administered ecclesiastically from Gelsdorf and Leimersdorf, and since then a retirement chaplain has lived in the village. The parsonage has been rented to private individuals since 1993, and today the responsible parsonage is Gelsdorf. With the formation of the large municipality Grafschaft in 1974, the municipality Eckendorf lost its political independence and was downgraded to a local district. In the same year the school in Eckendorf was closed. In 1975 a kindergarten opened in Gelsdorf , which has since been attended by the children from Eckendorf. Before there was no kindergarten in Eckendorf. Eckendorf also lost its post office in 1975. A private gynecological clinic founded in 1983 was closed five years later.

After the old village businesses had perished, new businesses were created that were adapted to the times. Today there are 25 commercial enterprises, which usually consist of one person and all of which have only been founded since the 1980s. They belong to the retail, energy supply, services, insurance, advertising, construction engineering, sound engineering, IT and Internet sectors.

With the general strong increase in individual traffic, the volume of traffic increased enormously. In order to cope with the growing local and long-distance traffic, a north-south motorway ( A 61 ) and a motorway from the Eifel to Bonn ( A 565 ) were built. Both were opened to traffic in 1975. The Autobahn 61 runs along the southwestern edge of Eckendorf, on the route of the unfinished railway line, the other one passes a few hundred meters north of the district boundary.

politics

District

Eckendorf is one of eleven districts in the Grafschaft municipality. It is represented by a local council and a local mayor .

Local advisory board

The local advisory board consists of five members who were elected in the local elections on May 26, 2019 in a personalized proportional representation, and the honorary mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the local advisory board:

choice	SPD	CDU	Green	FWG 1	WGJ 2	total
2019	1	-	1	-	3	5 seats
2014	1	3	-	1	-	5 seats
2009	1	4th	-	-	-	5 seats

¹ Free group of voters

² Young voters group

Mayor

Johannes Jung (CDU) became mayor of Eckendorf in 2014. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office for another five years with a share of 80.77% of the votes.

Jung's predecessor as mayor, Josef Krupp, did not start again in 2014 for reasons of age.

Sights and village structure

Status: July 2007

• Church , built 1893–1894 by the architect Anton Becker, born in Lüftelberg in 1853
• Rectory , built 1855–1857
• Fire station, 1968 start of construction, 1978 extension to a village community center
• Municipal cemetery, inaugurated in 1969
• Playground and soccer field , established in 1981
• Youth home "Phantasien", founded in 1990
• Nature reserve on the edge of the village, placed under protection in 1981
• 4 full-time farmers (arable and fruit growing)
• 25 registered businesses, including Raiffeisen-Markt (land trade), alternative practitioners, cosmetic foot care, legal practice
• Associations: church choir, Möhnenverein, gymnastics group

See also: List of cultural monuments in the county

literature

• Ferdinand Fuchs (Ed.): 100 years around the church tower . Festschrift on the occasion of the centenary laying of the foundation stone of the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian in Eckendorf. Meckenheim 1993.
• Peter Hammerschlag: Documentary and oral information about Eckendorf and its immediate surroundings , manuscript Koblenz 1936.
• Reinhold Otzisk: On the building history of the Catholic parish church St. Cosmas and St. Damian in Eckendorf . Thesis Lantershofen 1988.
• Peter Schug: History of the parishes of the deaneries Adenau, Ahrweiler and Remagen belonging to the former Ahrgaudekanat in Cologne . Trier 1952.
• Karl August Seel: Stone axes and ground monuments in the Eckendorf district . In: Heimat-Jahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler 1986, ISSN  0342-5827 , pp. 56-63.

Web links

Commons : Eckendorf  - Collection of Images

• Short portrait with a film about Eckendorf bei Hierzuland , SWR television
• Literature about Eckendorf in the Rhineland-Palatinate state bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Population statistics for the municipality of Grafschaft, as of October 30, 2013.
2. ↑ Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 164 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
3. ^ Main statute of the county county. (PDF) § 2 and 3. Gemeinde Grafschaft, June 18, 2019, accessed on July 31, 2020 . 
4. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local Advisory Council election 2019 Eckendorf. Accessed July 31, 2020 . 
5. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local Advisory Council election 2014 Eckendorf. Accessed July 31, 2020 . 
6. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local Advisory Council election 2009 Eckendorf Accessed July 31, 2020 . 
7. ^ The Regional Returning Officer for Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal election 2014, election of the local councilor
8. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Grafschaft, non-association municipality, sixth row of results. Accessed July 31, 2020 . 
9. ↑ In four places there are new faces at the top. In: Blick Aktuell. Krupp Verlags GmbH, Sinzig, May 27, 2014, accessed on July 31, 2020 .