Herschbach

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coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the local community Herschbach
Herschbach
Map of Germany, position of the municipality Herschbach highlighted

Coordinates: 50 ° 35 '  N , 7 ° 44'  E

Basic data
State : Rhineland-Palatinate
County : Westerwaldkreis
Association municipality : Selters (Westerwald)
Height : 280 m above sea level NHN
Area : 15.73 km 2
Residents: 2800 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 178 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 56249
Area code : 02626
License plate : WW
Community key : 07 1 43 029
Association administration address: Am Saynbach 5–7
56242 Selters (Westerwald)
Website : www.herschbach.de
Local Mayor : Axel Spiekermann ( CDU )
Location of the local community Herschbach in the Westerwaldkreis
map

Herschbach (dialect: Herschbisch ) is a municipality in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the community of Selters (Westerwald) .

geography

Geographical location

Herschbach is located in the Dierdorfer Senke, which is embedded in the hilly low mountain range of the lower Westerwald halfway between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main . The district is home to three nature reserves and an 800-  hectare community forest. In the immediate vicinity is the Westerwald lake district , in which the Holzbach, which flows through the district, has its source .

Surrounding cities and communities

Immediate neighboring communities are (starting clockwise from the north): Mündersbach (3 km), Schenkelberg (3 km), Hartenfels (3 km), Rückeroth (1 km), Marienrachdorf (3 km) and Freirachdorf (2 km). The nearest towns are Selters (Westerwald) (6 km south), Dierdorf (7 km west) and Hachenburg (14 km north). Koblenz (35 km southwest), Siegen (51 km northeast) and Bonn (60 km northwest) are the nearest large cities.

history

From the beginning to industrialization

The discovery of a “string-adorned West German mug”, a replica of which is exhibited in the Westerwald Landscape Museum in Hachenburg , points to a human existence in this area around 4,000 years ago. The written tradition of the place Herschbach begins - according to the current state of research - with the first documentary mention in the year 1248, in which the Archbishop of Cologne Konrad von Hochstaden certifies that his brother-in-law Heinrich II. Von Isenburg -Grenzau on all claims about Herschbach in favor of the Countess Mechthild von Sayn waived. It can be assumed that this area was settled earlier, as a place called Hergispach appears in the Engerser Chronik 963 . The place name develops over 1267 Herincsbach, 1348 Hergyszbach and 1536 Niederherszbach to today's Herschbach. Despite the document from 1248, Herschbach came to the county of Isenburg-Arenfels as an Electoral Cologne fief before 1310 , which also owned Arx Hergispach Castle, first mentioned in 1320 . In 1353, Emperor Charles IV granted Herschbach city ​​rights , whereby the prerequisites for this had already been created and Herschbach was designated as an oppidum or city from 1343 . In 1367 or 1371, Herschbach was besieged and conquered by Kuno II von Falkenstein , Archbishop of Trier . When the Arenfels line became extinct, Herschbach came in equal parts to Wilhelm I of Isenburg-Braunsberg-Wied and Salentin IV of Nieder-Isenburg, whose son Salentin V became the sole owner in 1392. As a result, Herschbach was pledged several times, including the owners / pledges Gerhard II von Sayn-Sayn , Philipp I von Katzenelnbogen , the Landgraviate of Hesse , Kurtrier and Wilhelm von Flodorf .

Herschbach was largely spared from the turmoil of the Thirty Years War 1618-1648, but the villages of Oberherschbach and Dorfborn were destroyed except for the Oberherschbach chapel, so that its inhabitants sought and found refuge in the fortified settlement of Herschbach. The castle in the midst of its ponds was a foster home for handicrafts. Today's streets Obertor and Untertor mark the dimensions of the so-called Städtgen at that time . This designation can be understood as an indication that the development of the place remained somewhere between village and town. The town charter granted in 1353 (see above) had to be renewed again and again, but this did not happen again in the course of the 17th century and the settlement had forfeited the right to call itself town and was henceforth called a town . The in 1664 with the extinction of the von Isenburg-Grenzau kurtrierisch become official Herschbach included the parishes Herschbach, Horhausen , Marienrachdorf and Peterslahr . The regular street pattern that can still be found in the town center today was created after the great fire of 1795, caused by the turmoil of the coalition wars, when 97 buildings fell victim to the flames, in the course of reconstruction. The medieval fortifications were also razed in order to gain building materials and new building sites. With the end of the electoral state, Herschbach fell to the Principality of Nassau-Weilburg in 1803 as part of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss conclusion , which in turn became part of the Duchy of Nassau in 1806 . The part of the office of Herschbach that remained with the Duchy of Nassau after the Congress of Vienna was transferred to the office of Selters in 1816 . In 1866 the duchy was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the course of the German War and then converted to the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau . Herschbach was assigned to the newly formed Unterwesterwaldkreis within the province in 1867 and belonged to the Wiesbaden administrative district .

The quartzite boom of the golden Herschbacher years

When the Siershahn – Altenkirchen railway line was opened in 1884 , new perspectives opened up for the mining of high-quality freshwater quartzite , as it was cheaper to transport it. With the opening of the Kleinbahn Selters – Hachenburg  AG based in Herschbach, the scheduled dismantling began in 1900 in the districts of Herschbach, Rückeroth , Freirachdorf and Marienrachdorf . With the further upward development of the iron industry, the Herschbach quartzite became one of the most popular raw materials for the refractory industry. The quartzite mining was the main source of income in the area for many years. In 1939 625 workers from Herschbach and the neighboring communities were employed in the quarries.

Recent developments

After the Second World War , Herschbach belonged to the French occupation zone , in the northern part of which the state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established in 1946 , which in 1949 became part of the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany .

In the 1950s, the extraction of quartzite was stopped because the decreasing thickness of the quartzite banks made profitable mining impossible. Remains of the "quartzite boom of the golden Herschbacher years," is a profound change in the landscape by now some of them already with low forest -covered tailings domes and Halden. Many disused pits are used as fish ponds. Unland, dilapidated loading ramps and impassable terrain are still reminiscent of the Herschbach quartzite basin. This also had a major impact on the dissolution of the Selters-Hachenburg small railway and the demolition of the rails by 1960. Beyond the old railway embankment north of the village, the Neu-Herschbach development area was built . After the quartzite mining ended, the municipal administration tried to attract companies from other industries, which they succeeded. For example, Deutz AG opened a component factory in Herschbach.

In the course of the administrative reform of Rhineland-Palatinate, which began in the second half of the 1960s, the Selters (Westerwald) community was newly formed on April 22, 1972 , and Herschbach has been an independent community since then. In 1974 the Unterwesterwaldkreis and the Oberwesterwaldkreis were united to form the new Westerwaldkreis , to which the association has belonged ever since. On January 1, 1976, the community name was changed from "Herschbach (Unterwesterwald)" to "Herschbach".

population

The population on January 31, 2018 was 2,774 residents with main residence and 80 residents with secondary residence (total: 2,854 inhabitants). Of these, 49.7% are male and 50.3% female. The proportion of foreigners is 8.18%. This is dominated by residents of Turkish origin. The decade of age with the largest number of people is between 50 and 59 years.

The majority of the population belongs to the Christian church; 52.7% are Roman Catholic and 19.2% Protestant . 21.7% of the population have no denomination or belong to another religious community.

In terms of marital status, 36.3% are single, 46.9% married, 7.5% widowed and 8.7% divorced.

Population development

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

Population development of Herschbach from 1815 to 2017 according to the table below
year Residents
1815 888
1835 1,088
1871 1.009
1905 1,140
1939 1,476
1950 1,545
1961 1,657
year Residents
1970 2,031
1987 2,337
1997 2,704
2005 2,890
2011 2,810
2017 2,771

After strong growth in the post-war period up to around the middle of the 2000s, the typical picture of many rural communities in Germany emerged: a general slight population decline with simultaneous aging.

politics

Municipal council

The local council in Herschbach consists of 20 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 municipal council:

choice SPD CDU FLH total
2019 4th 8th 8th 20 seats
2014 5 9 6th 20 seats
2009 4th 11 5 20 seats
2004 3 11 6th 20 seats
  • FLH = Free List Herschbach e. V.

mayor

Axel Spiekermann (CDU) became the local mayor of Herschbach in 2014. In the local elections in 2019, he was re-elected in the runoff election with 58.51 percent.

Spiekermann's predecessor Edgar Deichmann (CDU) had held the office for 22 years.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of Herschbach
 Blazon : "oblique left divided by silver and red, covered by gold-nimbed Laurentius of Rome in a black cloak, silver undergarment and silver shoes, in the right a red fire grate, in the left holding a silver book."

Parish partnership

In December 1978 a delegation from Pleudihen-sur-Rance visited with the mayor E. Playout, who had been elected the previous year and who also intended to establish a parish partnership with a parish in England or Germany, at the initiative of a citizen from Pleudihen who was after met a Herschbach prisoner of war housed on a farm near Pleudihen during the Second World War and met him again in 1977 on a campsite in Pleudihen, the municipality of Herschbach. The Herschbach return visit took place in May 1979 to seal the partnership with this place.

In September 1979 the official partnership ceremony took place in Herschbach. The partnership documents were signed by the mayors at the time, E. Playoust and Franz Beuler, at an extraordinary council meeting.

The first school and youth exchange took place in 1981. Since then, these activities have been continued annually.

On January 25, 2001, 25 friends of the partnership met to found an association. The association supports the partnership committee of the local community and brings in ideas to take away the people's skepticism about the partnership between the Breton community of Pleudihen-sur-Rance and Herschbach. However, youth work is the primary goal of the association, because "the youth is the guarantee for the continuation of the partnership and thus also for peace in Europe", said the association chairman at the time.

Culture and sights

Buildings

Marienheim Monastery
monastery
The Marienheim monastery was built on the foundation walls of the Arx Hergispach moated castle , which was demolished in 1880 and which last served as the Nassau chief forester. In 1903 the Dernbach sisters moved into the monastery and last served as a retirement home for the sisters of the order of poor servants of Jesus Christ .
In 1995 the Marienheim monastery, which until then still housed the Catholic kindergarten St. Anna, celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 2013 it was abandoned and the remaining sisters moved out. Since 2015 there has been an issuing point for the Westerwaldkreis- Tafel . The monastery was demolished in early 2020.
Parish Church of St. Anna
In place of the chapel named St. Anna since 1486 and consecrated in 1664 , court architect Johannes Seiz built today's baroque parish church of St. Anna from 1765–1768, which was consecrated by the Archbishop and Elector of Trier Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony . Johann Wilhelm Schöler built his largest organ for the Herschbach parish church in 1773/74. The organ prospectus - along with some pipe substance - has been preserved to this day.
The St. Anna parish church , which was renovated between 2007 and 2009, is a listed building and forms the center of Herschbach with the historic town hall and the redesigned market square. The parish receives support from the Kirchbauverein Herschbach in maintaining the church.
Parish Church of St. Anna
Evangelical parish hall
The evangelical Andreas congregation only had a house of worship built in 1989, as until the end of the Second World War almost exclusively Catholics lived in Herschbach.
Lawrence Chapel
The Laurentius Chapel can be found in the abandoned town of Oberherschbach, which today houses the community cemetery. Due to its early Gothic construction, it is estimated to be around 800 years old. It was first mentioned as a chapel in 1487. In the month of May, pilgrimages to the painful Mother of God take place here.
Festhalle Haus Hergispach
In the early 1980s, the local community of Herschbach had the Haus Hergispach festival hall rebuilt . It has a capacity of around 700 people and is used for all kinds of events.
historical town hall
The town hall of Herschbach used to be an elementary school and was later converted into the town hall. The town hall was renovated in the mid-1990s. It forms the historic town center with the parish church and the market square.
Herschbach town hall

music

In Herschbach there is a music association (Musikverein Herschbach), a minstrel march (minstrel march Herschbach), a men's choir ( MGV Frohsinn) and a gospel choir (Gospel Voices St. Anna) that organize festivals and church services. The choirs Quartettverein Frohe Sänger Westerwald and the church choir Cäcilia Herschbach are no longer active .

sport and freetime

Herschbach has a sports facility ( artificial turf ) built in 2009 , a two-storey sports hall, a tennis facility, an outdoor pool, a campsite, a fitness studio, a fitness trail , a barbecue hut, several restaurants, some with a bowling alley or with regular music events, and some hiking trails in the surrounding forests of Herschbach, some of which are part of the Nordic Walking Park Westerwald in the Selters community community.

Several sports and leisure clubs offer numerous opportunities for leisure activities: soccer (game community SG Herschbach / Schenkelberg ), tennis ( TC Blau-Weiß Herschbach tennis club ) and table tennis ( TTC Herschbach table tennis club ). The dance groups of the Karnevalsgesellschaft KG Herschbach and the dance sport community TSG Westerwald / Mittelrhein dance in . Waiting is in the Geislers Geier darts club . The health resort and tourist office offers numerous hikes throughout the year. He also uses and looks after the fishing ponds and ponds in the former quartzite pits , in addition to the ASV Westerwald / Herschbach fishing club .

Regular events

  • Rose Monday procession
  • Spring market
  • Big tent fair
  • Autumn market
  • Martin's celebration
  • Nostalgic Christmas market

carnival

The Rose Monday procession 2014 pulls through the town center

The Herschbach Carnival is very important in Herschbach's club life. Even if the Herschbach Carnival Society (KG) was "only" founded in 1912, there are still records of earlier carnival celebrations. The session is traditionally opened on the Saturday before November 11th with the prince proclamation of the KG in the festival hall, before an active session carnival (gentlemen's meeting of the Foolish Knights Westerwald, Möhnenball of the Möhnenverein Fidelio as well as local Carnival, gala meeting and children's meeting) in the following period up to the foolish days der KG) is maintained and several hundred visitors attend the individual events. The carnival hustle and bustle is accentuated by other events such as the hut fun of the minstrel march, the traditional storming of the kindergarten and the primary school by the KG on heavy Thursday, the invasion of the town hall on the same day by the Möhnen as well as the children's prince reception and the associated small parade on Tulip Sunday. The annual Rose Monday procession as the highlight of the session is one of the largest in the region with over 2,000 participants, spread over around 100 procession numbers, and up to 15,000 visitors, which earned Herschbach the title of the local carnival stronghold. For this purpose, the Herschbach Carnival Society maintains its own large wagon building hall in which the motif wagons for the train are built. A special feature here is the use of up to 30,000 self-made paper roses per car, which are used to decorate the car. In September of the local congregation's anniversary year 1998, the RKK day took place in Herschbach. 123 affiliated associations with around 7,500 people were involved in the move and around 12,000 spectators attended.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Economy and health

Basic equipment for daily needs is guaranteed with a post office, several grocery stores, gas stations, butchers, bakeries, banks, pubs and restaurants. General practitioners, dentists and a pharmacy also provide basic medical care. Various industrial, craft and service companies complete the commercial picture of Herschbach.

education

There are secondary schools in the neighboring communities of Dierdorf ( Gymnasium , Realschule plus , both voluntary all-day schools) and Selters ( integrated comprehensive school ).

Ammunition depot

In the 1980s, the Bundeswehr built a bunker area on Bundesstrasse 8 , which was abandoned a short time later. Today the numerous bunkers can be rented.

Wind farm

In the summer of 2006, twelve were wind turbines of the type Enercon E-70 completed on the Hartenfelser head. These supply around 12,500 households and save 28,500 tons of CO 2 per year. The wind farm is one of the largest wind farm projects in a forest location that has been implemented in Germany. There are two wind turbines in the Herschbach district.

Born in Herschbach

See also

literature

  • The local community of Herschbach published the Chronicle of Herschbach 1248–1998 in 1998 on the occasion of the 750th anniversary .
  • Bernhard Hemmerle: Various contributions to the history of Herschbach (municipality and parish).

Web links

Commons : Herschbach  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
  2. ↑ Hermann-Josef Hucke: place names in the Westerwaldkreis in their dialect pronunciation as well as local nonsense. ( Memento from January 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). 2010, p. 17 (PDF; 132 kB).
  3. ↑ Winfried Himmerich: Legends and stories from Herschbach, 1st episode. ( Memento from January 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). 1982, pp. 4-6 (PDF; 11.4 MB).
  4. ^ A b Manfred Schenkelberg and Winfried Himmerich: Chronicle of Herschbach 1248–1998. 1998, p. 203.
  5. ^ Christian Daniel Vogel: Limburg Chronicle. 1828, p. 65 f. ( Google eBook ).
  6. ^ FW Kirchbaum: Memories on the history of the castle, the village and the Sayn abbey. Journal for local history of Coblenz and the surrounding area, 1920, 1st year, issue 9, p. 139 ( Landesbibliothekszentrum Rheinland-Pfalz ).
  7. ^ Entry by Jens Friedhoff on Herschbach i. Westerwald in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute, accessed on August 17, 2016.
  8. ↑ Nassauische Annalen: Yearbook of the Association for Nassau antiquity and historical research. Volumes 9-10, 1868, p. 293 ( Google Books ).
  9. ↑ Chronicle of the Herschbach volunteer fire brigade until 1993. pp. 1–3 (PDF; 766 kB).
  10. ↑ Official municipality directory (= State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate [Hrsg.]: Statistical volumes . Volume 407 ). Bad Ems February 2016, p. 187 (PDF; 2.8 MB).
  11. ↑ Municipal statistics . Association municipality Selters / Westerwald. Local community Herschbach. At: ewois.de. Deadline: January 31, 2018.
  12. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
  13. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal elections 2014, city and municipal council elections
  14. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections
  15. ↑ Blick Aktuell: Axel Spiekermann is running again. Krupp Verlags GmbH, Sinzig, April 1, 2019, accessed on June 10, 2020 .
  16. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, direct elections, Selters / Ww., Verbandsgemeinde
  17. ^ NR-Kurier: Thanks for your voluntary commitment. Edgar Deichmann. MVV Medienverlag Westerwald-Sieg UG & Co. KG, Wissen, June 18, 2014, accessed on June 10, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Community partnership with the community of Pleudihen-sur-Rance. ( Memento from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  19. ↑ Katrin Maue-Klaeser: A landmark disappears: the demolition of the Marienheim monastery has begun. In: Rhein-Zeitung.de. February 6, 2020, accessed March 20, 2020 .
  20. ^ Chronicle KG Herschbach 1912 eV
  21. ↑ WW-Kurier: Magnificent Rose Monday procession in Herschbach
  22. ^ Regional Association of Carnival Cooperations: Die Bütt, special edition. 2005, p. 21 (PDF; 6.8 MB).
  23. ↑ No Westerwald autobahn - area Maxsain to Schenkelberg. ( Memento of October 28, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
  24. ↑ Hartenfelser Kopf wind farm. ( Memento from September 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  25. ↑ Large Singer Lexicon, Volume 4