Elves (turn)

Elves municipality Contact Coordinates: 51 ° 5 ′ 18 ″  N , 8 ° 10 ′ 28 ″  E
Height :	510 m
Residents :	484  (Jun. 30, 2016)
Postal code :	57482
Area code :	02762

Elben is a district of the municipality of Wenden in the Sauerland , located in the Olpe district in North Rhine-Westphalia .

geography

The place is located around three kilometers northeast of Wenden within the Ebbegebirge nature park in a valley basin bordered by mountains at the foot of the Elberscheid . The K 12 runs through the village and the Elbe flows, which flows into the Wende in the neighboring village of Gerlingen . Neighboring places are Dahl (Olpe) , Gerlingen, Möllmicke , Schönau , Thieringhausen and Wenden.

history

The village of Elben is probably one of the oldest settlements in the municipality of Wenden. Their name is traced back to the stream that flows through the valley.

Another reason for the settlement was that iron ore was exposed here in some places. Slag finds, which go back well before the documented time, testify to iron extraction in the Elbe valley; as are field names such as “Am alten Berg”, “Elberscheid”, “Lamicke” and “Krähenberg”. The ore was smelted in small furnaces made of stone and clay, then forged into bars and transported by cart to Olpe, where the products were sold to the "Pannenklopern" (broad smiths). The iron ore was also brought to the Bergisches Land, where blade steel was made from it.

The oldest evidence of iron extraction are archaeologically excavated iron slag. These remnants of iron mining in medieval “ racing fire huts ” date from the “forest forge times” of the 11th to 14th centuries.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

The federal motorway 4 runs about 600 meters north of the village, the next junction is the Olpe-Süd motorway junction about three kilometers to the west .

Personalities

Sons and daughters of the place

• Caspar Klein (1865–1941), bishop and first archbishop of Paderborn
• Maurus Kaufmann (1871-1949), the first abbot of the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem

literature

• Karl Heinz Kaufmann: On the history of the village of Elben. In: Focus of the community Wenden. April / May 1994, No. 126.

Web links

• Association website , association for village community tasks Elben / Scheiderwald e. V.
• Elves in the Westphalia Culture Atlas
• On the history of the village of Elben

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wenden municipality: population statistics , accessed on November 15, 2016
2. ↑ Cf. Manfred Sönnecken : Research on medieval racing fire smelting in the Olpe district. Results of site inspections and excavations. (= Series of publications of the district of Olpe No. 6). Olpe 1982, pp. 33-36.