Kirchberg (Lahn)

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South side of the church

The Lollarer Kirchberg rises east of the Lahn opposite the village of Ruttershausen , to which it belongs today. Kirchberg and Ruttershausen form a district of the city of Lollar in the district of Gießen . Lollar is located between the university towns of Gießen and Marburg , 10 km north of Gießen, 22 km south of Marburg.

The Kirchberg is first mentioned in a document from 1227. Presumably there was a pre-Christian place of worship and court there, which was then converted into a Christian place of worship during the Christianization of Hesse in the 8th century. This church became the mother church of the Kirchberg parish, to which, among other things, the places Ruttershausen, Staufenberg, Lollar, Mainzlar, Daubringen, Wißmar, Salzboden and today's desolations Heibertshausen, Einshausen and Dickenbach belonged. In addition, Kirchberg was the seat of a central court early on , and documents can prove that it was a court in 1237 in the County of Ruchesloh .

The historically significant Evangelical Church in Kirchberg was built from 1495 to 1508 as a late Gothic hall church on the Kirchberg and houses valuable pieces of furniture. Parts of a previous Romanesque building, especially the tower, were used. The bells date from 1310, 1380 and 1432.

location

Kirchberg and Staufenberg Castle (G. Weber, 1844)

Opposite Ruttershausen, on the eastern bank of the Lahn, the steep cliff of the Kirchberg rises directly from the Lahnaue. The natural, cultural and political-geographic location makes the Lahntalenge of Kirchberg a clear demarcation between the Marburg and Giessen Lahntal.

The opposite Ruttershausen is likely to have existed in Franconian times as a safeguard for the old Herborn-Amöneburg high-altitude road crossing the river here on a ford, which led between Altenberg and Lützenberg through to Ruttershausen-Kirchberg and on via Staufenberg, where it connected to the " Langen Hessen ”found.

Until the construction of the railway in 1846/47, the Lahn flowed in an arch directly past the foot of the Kirchberger Kopf, so that between this and Ruttershausen there was a wide floodplain, from which the village on the Niederterrasse was often flooded during floods. By cutting the loop of the river through the railway line, a new, straight course was achieved; the Kirchberg has since been separated from the Lahn by the railway line. As a result, the once prominent location of the Kirchberg no longer comes into its own today, which probably predestined it as a place of worship and worship in Franconian times.

history

Before it was first mentioned in documents in 1227

The lower Lumda and Salzbödetal with the Lahntalenge from Ruttershausen – Kirchberg formed a Hundreds District or a " Zent " in Franconian times , the name of which is no longer known and which later became "Zent Kirchberg". As the lowest administrative unit, the Zent lived on as the " Zentgericht Kirchberg" (later Lollar) until modern times. Probably the old covered centering the places Rutter Hausen, Lollar, Mainzlar, Daubringen, Odenhausen, saline soils, Wißmar, today deserted villages (ie abandoned villages) One Hausen, Dick Bach, Neudorf, Ernsdorf, Burscheid, later Friedelshausen, Heibertshausen and castle settlement Staufenberg were added . The Lahn divided the central district into two almost equally large areas, but it was hardly a traffic obstacle, as you could easily cross it on fords in many places when there was not flood.

It is known that the first Christian missionaries tied to the customs and cult places of their Germanic ancestors in order to reduce resistance to the new faith. That is why churches were often built on the site of older cult buildings. The first wooden chapel is said to have been built by Iro-Scottish monks under Lullus , a pupil of Boniface , between 770 and 780 on the hill later called Kirchberg. There is no proof of this.

The old Zent Kirchberg was initially part of the Oberlahngau with the administrative seat Amöneburg . Around the year 1000 the Kirchberg area belonged to the county of Gleiberg , which had emerged from the old Gau and had split into independent territories since around 1150. The Kirchberg parish was probably established by the Archdiocese of Mainz , and for a long time belonged to the Archdeaconate of Mainz. Thus, the Kirchberger river narrow early formed a Mainz locking bar between the former county of Gleiberg and the later territory of the Hessian landgraves with their headquarters in Marburg.

In its importance for settlement and territorial development as the earliest parish center on the northern boundary of the Giessen basin , Kirchberg is the counterpart to Grossen-Linden for the southern Giessen basin. The territorial disputes over this key point between Mainz and Hesse shifted to one between Hesse and Nassau in the 14th century.

The county of Gleiberg - to which the Zent Kirchberg belonged - fell to the Merenbergers in 1158 . These had a widow's seat in Odenhausen and owned goods in Odenhausen, Ruttershausen and Neuendorf (see also Burgstall Kirchberg ).

From the first mention to the Reformation

  • 1227 In a court document dated March 2, 1227 the plebanus (parish priest ) Reinherus de Kyrberg signs as a witness in a legal dispute. This is the first time Kirchberg is mentioned in a document, and the existence of a parish seat there is also confirmed. In terms of church organization, Kirchberg belonged to the Amöneburg dean's office in the archdeaconate of the provost of St. Stephan in the Archdiocese of Mainz and was the center of a sending district. The Sendkirchen are usually the oldest layer of the parish organization. The time when the Kirchberg parish was founded is not known.
  • 1237 In the 13th century Daubringen, Lollar, Mainzlar, Ruttershausen, Staufenberg Odenhausen, Salzboden, Wißmar and several later abandoned villages (deserts) belonged to the Kirchberg parish. In 1237, Kirchberg is documented as the seat of the court (central court) in the county of Ruchesloh . Historically, Kirchberg becomes tangible within ten years - 1227 and 1237 - both in its ecclesiastical function as a sending church and center of a parish as well as in its secular significance as a central court.
  • 1327 Kirchberg has achieved a prominent importance compared to other parishes. The pastor at the time had the rank of dean. Almost exactly 100 years after its first documentary mention, the church in Kirchberg received a special award in 1327: a sealed letter of indulgence on parchment from Pope Johannes XXII. exhibited in Avignon. (A 40-day indulgence is granted for attending church services and praying the Ave Maria three times over the night bell.)
  • 1333 The county of Gleiberg - and with it Kirchberg - falls to Count Johann von Nassau-Weilburg .
  • 1366 Johann von Nassau had a castle built near Kirchberg : to protect his property, also to monitor the Hessian landgrave's connecting road between Gießen and Marburg and to secure his own northern official and messenger route to Treis and Londorf. Heinrich II. Von Hessen, "the iron one", saw the new castle near Kirchberg as a threat. As early as 1372 he attacked the castle, destroyed it and made "20 well-fortified men" prisoners. (Remnants of the masonry of the castle were found during the straightening of the Lahn in 1846.) In 1367 a school was built in Kirchberg for the first time, but it only lasted a few years and was probably also destroyed in the destruction of 1372.
  • 1396 The places Wißmar, Odenhausen and Salzboden no longer belong to the Kirchberg district, it only includes Lollar, Ruttershausen, Mainzlar and Daubringen. The Zent got more and more into the territorial politics of the Hessian landgraves, who tried to cut the connection routes of their adversary, the Archbishop of Mainz, to his possessions in Ohm and Eder.
  • 1450 According to the synodal register of the Archdeaconate St. Stephan in Mainz, the Send District (Sedes) Kirchberg comprised the settlements Burscheid, Daubringen, Dickenbach, Heibertshausen, Kirchberg, Lollar, Mainzlar, Odenhausen, Ruttershausen and Wißmar as well as salt soils in the 15th century. The ecclesiastical significance of Kirchberg can thus assert itself much better than the secular one of the main court, which is shrinking more and more and whose seat is finally being relocated to Lollar.
  • 15th and 16th centuries. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Kirchberg court was under the joint rule of the Landgraviate of Hesse and the County of Nassau-Weilburg ( Common Land on the Lahn ). As a parish, Kirchberg was endowed with the following rights and functions: pastoral care ( cura animarum ), baptism ( baptisterium ), burial ( cimiterium or sepultura ) and tithing. The strong interest in Kirchberg can only be justified with the higher ecclesiastical position of the church, with the function and tradition as a sending place and as an early parish church. Kirchberg, with its cemetery, was the burial place for all places in the parish.
West portal of the church with building inscription from 1495, double coat of arms of the cockroach and Rau
  • 1495–1508 Today's late Gothic two-aisled hall church in Kirchberg is built. Parts of the Romanesque predecessor building, in particular the tower and nave, are used, as are the bells from the 14th and 15th centuries. The builders and donors were Burgmanns of Staufenberg Castle: the management was the cockroach from Staufenberg , and Messrs. Rau came along von Holzhausen , von Rolshausen , Milchling von Treis , von Trohe and the Counts of Ziegenhain , whose six-pointed star has been preserved twice on the building. (See also the description of the late Gothic hall church.)

16.-18. century

  • 1526 The impetus for the introduction of the Reformation in Kirchberg is to be seen in close connection with the Reformation of the Landgraviate of Hesse by Philip the Magnanimous in the years since 1526. Since Kirchberg was administered jointly by Hesse and Nassau ( common land on the Lahn ), the influence of Count Philip III. von Nassau-Weilburg, which began in his county only after 1532 with the introduction of the Reformation. Pastor Heiderich Grebe (approx. 1485 to approx. 1536) is named as the “Reformer of Kirchberg”.
  • 1532 An infirmary for the sick of the Kirchberg court is built in the Pfarrwäldchen. The farm, which now belongs to the Geißler family, is also mentioned early on.
  • 1570 The main court in Kirchberg becomes the court Lollar-Kirchberg , the place of jurisdiction is relocated to Lollar.
  • 1576 The plague rages in the Kirchberg parish. Only Daubringen, Lollar, Mainzlar, Ruttershausen and Staufenberg belong to the parish.
  • 1585 The common land on the Lahn is divided between Hessen-Marburg and Nassau-Weilburg. The Kirchberg-Lollar court then becomes the sole property of Hessen-Marburg.
  • 1591 Wilhelm Dilich published his synopsis descriptionis totius Hassiae with 50 pen drawings of Hessian cities that year . Below is a view of Staufenberg with the Kirchberg, Lahn and Ruttershausen in the foreground. On this drawing, which is also the oldest view of Kirchberg, you can already see a bridge over the Lahn and in Ruttershausen the tower of the aristocratic estate.
  • 1604 After the death of Landgrave Ludwig IV , the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg is divided between his two nephews, the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Darmstadt . The Kirchberg court has belonged to Hessen-Darmstadt since then. As a result, protracted armed conflicts (" Hessenkrieg ") between Hessen-Kassel and Hessen-Darmstadt are carried out over the Upper Hesse heritage .
  • 1618–1648 The Thirty Years' War also hits the Kirchberg parish with devastating consequences. The plague raged in the parish, in 1629 so massive that the dead were no longer registered, in 1635 more than 250 people died of it. In 1636 Swedish troops camped here, in 1640 Bavarian troops inflicted great damage on the surrounding villages.
View from 1655. In the center of the picture today's Ev. Church and the Michaelis Chapel, demolished in 1658 - the latter recognizable by the higher tower
  • 1645–1648 Towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, the dispute over the Upper Hessian legacy culminates in the regional Hessian War. Except for a few buildings, Ruttershausen is cremated and the rectory on the Kirchberg is devastated. In the course of this armed conflict, the Gleiberg Castle was also destroyed (1646) and on May 27, 1647 the Staufenberg Upper Castle "was thrown over the heap and cremated". The population of the parish is decimated by the consequences of the war.
  • 1658 The Michaeliskapelle in the cemetery was demolished. It had a taller tower than the church. After the introduction of the Reformation (1527) the chapel was abandoned.
Rectory
  • 1708 The current rectory was built.
  • 1756–1763 The Seven Years' War also hits Upper Hesse hard. In August 1757 an army of 15,000 men marched through the Kirchberg parish. In 1758 there was a skirmish in front of the Tiefenbach. In 1759 the French lay opposite each other on the left bank of the Lahn and the English and Brunswick on the right bank of the Lahn for over four months. Although there is no fighting, the damage is great.
  • 1794–1814 In the course of the French Revolutionary Wars, later the Napoleonic Wars, the various warring factions repeatedly marched through and billeted over the years. After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig (October 1813), Napoleon's brother Jerôme ("King Lustig") stayed in the former inn "Zum Adler" in Kirchberg (house name "Wirtsbauer") while fleeing from the troops of the allies.

19th and 20th centuries

  • 1805–1849 With Johann Georg Ludwig Klingelhöffer (1772–1854) Kirchberg has its most important pastor in the 19th century.
  • 1846 Construction of the Main-Weser Railway begins. The Lahn near Ruttershausen-Kirchberg will be straightened for the construction of the railway and since then has no longer flowed directly to Kirchberg, but in a straight line past Ruttershausen. The first train arrives in Lollar in 1850.
  • 1901 A wooden bridge over the Lahn built in 1853 is torn down and replaced by the stone bridge that still exists today.
  • 1914–1918 During the First World War , a total of 30 young men from Ruttershausen and Kirchberg fell on the front lines. With the abolition of the monarchy and the abdication of the Grand Duke, Kirchberg now belongs to the People's State of Hesse that emerged from the Grand Duchy.
  • 1946 After the end of the Second World War , the denominational composition of the population changed, and most of the newly admitted people were Catholic. The Protestant congregations made their churches available to their Catholic brothers in faith for worship and baptisms.
  • 1946 The first displaced persons and refugees arrive. They will initially be quartered in Ruttershausen and in specially built makeshift homes in Kirchberg. Kirchberg now belongs to the state of Hesse that was newly formed by the American military government.
  • 1949 The parish assistant position "Kirchberg II with seat Lollar" is upgraded to a parish, as Lollar now had 4,000 inhabitants. A church council of its own first decided to build a rectory on Daubringer Straße.
  • 1950 During the reorganization of the Evangelical Church of Hesse and Nassau, a new dean's office in Kirchberg was created as part of the visitation district of Upper Hesse, which has only the name in common with the old parish, because it includes not only the lower, but also the middle Lumdatal and the Wiesecker Talschaft.
  • 1976 On August 31, 1976, an independent parish in Kirchberg-Rutterhausen is established.
  • 1988 In Ruttershausen, the community center of the Protestant parish in Hellenbergstrasse is inaugurated.
  • 1991 The "Querspange", a new connection between Ruttershausen and the core city of Lollar, is completed. It bridges the railway line and the Lahn. The old level crossing between Ruttershausen and Kirchberg is closed, the Kirchberger Lahnbrücke largely loses its importance.

Historical forms of names

In documents that have been preserved, Kirchberg was mentioned under the following place names (the year it was mentioned in brackets):

  • Kyrberg , de (1226) [Kopiar Gudenus, Codex diplomaticus sive anecdotorum 2 p. 634 = Falck, Mainzer Regesten 1, no. 545, p. 299]
  • Kyrberg , de (1227) [Kopiar Gudenus, Codex diplomaticus sive anecdotorum 2 p. 53 f. No. 34 = Falck, Mainzer Regesten 1, No. 573, p. 312]
  • Kirchberg , in (1329) [Wyss, document book of the Deutschordens-Ballei 2, no. 533]

Territorial history and administration

The following list gives an overview of the territories in which Kirchberg was located and the administrative units to which it was subordinate:

Attractions

literature

history
  • Ernst Schneider: The Kirchberg parish. Self-published, Lollar 1964.
  • Jutta Martini: The Protestant Church in Kirchberg through the ages. Ev. Pfarramt Kirchberg I, Staufenberg 2002.
  • Reinhold Huttarsch, Michael Müller: Lollar on both sides of the Lahn. City of Lollar, Lollar 1984.
  • Lollar City Council: 750 years of Lollar. 1242-1992. City of Lollar, Lollar 1992.
Excursion and travel guides
  • Willi Schulze, Harald Uhlig: Gießen geographic excursion guide. Volume II. Brühlscher Verlag, Giessen 1982.
  • G. Ulrich Großmann: Dumont art travel guide Central and South Hesse. Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne 1995.
  • Peter Weyrauch : The church on the Kirchberg. In: The churches of the old district of Gießen. Casting 1979.

Web links

Commons : Kirchberg (Lahn)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kirchberg, District of Giessen. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of November 4, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  2. ^ Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. State of Hesse. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
  3. ↑ Wilhelm von der Nahmer: Handbuch des Rheinischen Particular-Rechts: Development of the territorial and constitutional relations of the German states on both banks of the Rhine: from the first beginning of the French Revolution up to the most recent times . tape 3 . Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1832, OCLC 165696316 , p. 6 ( online at google books ).
  4. ↑ Latest countries and ethnology, Volume 22 , p. 413 , Weimar 1821
  5. ↑ Evangelical Church Kirschberg on the website of the Evangelical Church Community Ruttershausen

Coordinates: 50 ° 40 ′  N , 8 ° 43 ′  E