Greimerath (near Trier)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 34 '  N , 6 ° 41'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Trier-Saarburg
Association municipality :	Saarburg-Kell
Height :	430 m above sea level NHN
Area :	12.12 km 2
Residents:	944 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	78 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	54314
Area code :	06587
License plate :	TR, SAB
Community key :	07 2 35 033
Association administration address:	Schlossberg 6 54439 Saarburg
Website :	www.greimerath-hochwald.de
Local Mayor :	Edmund Schmitt (FWG)
Location of the local community Greimerath in the district of Trier-Saarburg

Greimerath is a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Saarburg-Kell association.

geography

Greimerath, view.

Greimerath lies at the foot of the Black Forest high forest, right on the border with Saarland and belongs to the Saar-Hunsrück Nature Park .

Greimerath also includes the Erlenhof, Ferdinandshaus, Marienhof and Panzhaus residential areas .

Neighboring communities

The neighboring communities of Greimerath are Britten , Serrig , Zerf , Mandern , Weiskirchen , Bergen and Scheiden (Saar).

climate

Greimerath on a picture postcard from 1980

The annual precipitation is 991 mm. This is a high value in the upper quarter of the values ​​recorded in Germany. Lower values ​​are registered at 84% of the measuring stations of the German Weather Service . The driest month is April, with the most rainfall in November. In November there is 1.5 times more rainfall than in April. The rainfall is fairly evenly distributed over the year. Lower seasonal fluctuations are recorded at 29% of the measuring stations .

history

A protective wall at the "Köpfchen am Kälberborn" comes from Celtic times. Grave sites and burial mounds from Roman times were found, as well as a circular tombstone (around 300 AD), which came into the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier in 1889 .

Greimerath was first mentioned in 981 as Grimolderode in a deed of donation from Archbishop Egbert von Trier to the St. Paulin Abbey. The Trier monastery remained the landlord of the district until 1802, when the French troops marched in.

19th century

Emigrant pass from Mertes Nikolaus from Greimerath (1919)

During the 19th century, the living conditions in Greimerath, as in the entire Hochwald, were very poor. The residents had to get by more badly than right as self-sufficient. The only source of income was the "Grube Louise" opened in 1843 by the Böcking brothers, where iron ore was mined. The economic hardship led to a wave of emigration to Brazil and North America . The village chronicle mentions 30 emigrants by name who undertook the weeks of exhaustion to travel to North America in the 1850s.

20th century

Greimerath, parish church of St. Nikolaus.

At the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the hardship of the First World War, many residents of Greimerath emigrated to France .

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the construction of a new church. Greimerath became an independent parish in 1863, and from 1894 a savings collection was set up so that on May 27, 1914 the new parish church “St. Nikolaus ”could be consecrated.

Two months later the First World War broke out . This event led to new poverty, as compulsory taxes had to be paid for the front. Even one of the new bells had to be handed in. Far worse for the village community was the loss of 25 young men who lost their lives on the front lines.

As a result of the Versailles Treaty , Greimerath was under French occupation until 1930 . The state neglected the border areas, which together with crop failures and animal diseases meant that even schoolchildren had to be given leave to work in order to secure the livelihood of the families.

The situation improved in 1932/33 with the construction of the Greimerath-Saarhausen road via Hundscheid and the reopening of the ore mine.

At the beginning of the Second World War , on September 4, 1939, evacuees from the Saargau passed through Greimerath and had to leave their cattle there. At the same time, several regiments were stationed in Greimerath. The first bombing raid on Greimerath, in which cattle and two houses were damaged, took place in the night of August 7, 1941. The situation became precarious from August 1944, when the Siegfried Line was restored and up to 12,000 people were housed in Greimerath. The approaching front became clear from October when V2 rockets were fired in Hundscheid.

At the beginning of 1945 Greimerath was spared attacks because a main first aid station was set up in the school and was protected by the Geneva Convention . Only with the fall of the " Orscholzriegel " on February 20, 1945 did the medical regiment withdraw, so that from February 22, 1945 Greimerath was under artillery fire and bombardment. The residents fled into their cellars, but had to leave them at risk of death to feed the cattle.

About 70 Greimerathers who had fled to the parish cellar had luck in misfortune. A bomb fell in front of the gate, but it did not detonate.

The final act began with heavy fire on March 12, 1945 and ended with the occupation by American troops the following day. There were only minor skirmishes in the village. As later became known, Greimerath escaped complete destruction because a bombardment due to mine throwers in Brittener Strasse was prepared, but no longer carried out.

48 soldiers and 21 civilians were killed in Greimerath. 6 people are missing, 2 more died in 1946 while clearing mines.

On July 18, 1946, Greimerath, together with 80 other communities in the districts of Trier and Saarburg , was annexed to the Saar area , which was separated from the rest of the French occupation zone in February 1946 and which was no longer under the Allied Control Council at the time . On June 6, 1947 this territorial outsourcing was withdrawn to 21 municipalities, so Greimerath came to the 1946 newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate .

Population development

The development of the population of Greimerath, the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 300 1835 587 1871 594 1905 650 1939 828 1950 873

year Residents 1961 953 1970 1,073 1987 1,054 2005 1,061 2011 1,019 2017 957

politics

Municipal council

The local council in Greimerath consists of twelve (until 2019 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 distribution of seats in the local council:

choice	SPD	CDU	FWG	total
2019	3	4th	5	12 seats
2014	5	6th	5	16 seats
2009	3	6th	7th	16 seats
2004	4th	7th	5	16 seats

• FWG = Free Voting Group Greimerath e. V.

coat of arms

	Blazon : “In the left divided field there is a growing bishop figure in a golden robe and a golden miter, in the left hand holding a golden bishop's staff and in the right carrying 3 loaves of bread, representing St. Nicholas. In the lower part in silver the black miner's symbol Schlegel und Eisen. On the right a silver lifting hoe in red. "

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Greimerath is connected to the B 407 in the east and to the B 268 in the west . The next motorway junctions are at Reinsfeld and Trier . The nearest train station is in Serrig .

education

In Greimerath there is a primary school with its own sports hall and a kindergarten with all-day care.

Regular events

Mardi Gras

• The foolish session starts on November 11th. with the passing of the old and the enthronement of the new prince couple.
• The first fool's event, the cap meeting , heralds the start of the fool's reign with the battle cry “Greimerath Alle Hopp”, and the symbolic handover of the keys to the local mayor takes place.
• On Shrovetide Sunday, the Youth Assistance Council conducts the children's and youth cap meeting .
• The Rose Monday parade is an integral part of the village scene.

May Festival

The youth community organizes the traditional May festival on April 30th and May 1st on the village square. The highlight is the erection of the maypole .

Fair

On the last weekend in May, the local associations alternately organize the parish fair .

Personalities

• Uwe Backes (* 1960), political scientist

See also

Two of the designated cultural monuments in Greimerath: St. Nikolaus parish church on the left. Right: A typical Hochwälder Quereinhaus

• List of cultural monuments in Greimerath
• List of natural monuments in Greimerath
• List of stumbling blocks in Greimerath

literature

• Ernst Wackenroder : The art monuments of the Saarburg district . (= Paul Clemen (Hrsg.): Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz , Volume 15, III. Department). L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1939 (reprint of the Academic Bookshop Interbook, Trier 1982), pp. 87–90.

Web links

Commons : Greimerath (near Trier)  - collection of images

• Website about the local community Greimerath
• Local community Greimerath on the website of the Saarburg-Kell association
• To search for cultural assets of the local community Greimerath in the database of cultural assets in the Trier region .
• Link catalog on Greimerath at curlie.org (formerly DMOZ )
• Historical version of the OpenStreetMap with corridor names and historical places highlighted

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2019 ^{[ Version 2020 is available. ]} . S. 124 (PDF; 3 MB).
3. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate: My village, my city. Retrieved July 15, 2019 . 
4. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections
5. ↑ Entry on the coat of arms of the municipality of Greimerath in the database of cultural assets in the Trier region ; accessed on June 21, 2018.