Merzig-Wadern district
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Coordinates: 49 ° 30 ' N , 6 ° 41' E |
| Basic data | |
| State : | Saarland |
| Administrative headquarters : | Merzig |
| Area : | 555.17 km 2 |
| Residents: | 103,243 (Dec. 31, 2019) |
| Population density : | 186 inhabitants per km 2 |
| License plate : | MZG |
| Circle key : | 10 0 42 |
| NUTS : | DEC02 |
| Circle structure: | 7 municipalities |
| Address of the district administration: |
Bahnhofstrasse 44 66663 Merzig |
| Website : | |
| District Administrator : | Daniela Schlegel-Friedrich ( CDU ) |
| Location of the Merzig-Wadern district in Saarland | |
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The district Merzig-Wadern is the westernmost and largest area district of Saarland and the with the lowest population density . Merzig-Wadern is also known as the “green district” of the Saarland. Its large forest area has mainly contributed to this reputation. The district emerged from the Merzig district founded in 1816 in the Prussian Rhine province .
geography
location
The district comprises three landscapes: the Saargau along the Saar , which flows through the western district area in the direction of Trier when coming from Saarlouis , here is also the famous Saarschleife near Mettlach , the foothills of the Hunsrück in the north of the district and that to the Saar-Nahe-Bergland in Prims-Blies hill country belonging to the east.
The only wine-growing region in Saarland is in the municipality of Perl on the Upper Moselle.
Neighboring areas
The district borders in a clockwise direction in the north, starting with the districts of Trier-Saarburg (in Rhineland-Palatinate ), St. Wendel and Saarlouis (both in Saarland). In the south-west it borders on the French department of Moselle and in the west on the Luxembourgish canton of Remich , where the Moselle forms the natural border. Since the Moselle forms the Saarland part of the Community German-Luxembourgish sovereign territory over a length of around ten kilometers , which does not belong to the district, strictly speaking it borders on this area and therefore not directly on the Luxembourgish canton of Remich on the left of the Moselle.
history
Until 1792, the area of today's Merzig-Wadern district was mainly divided between the Electorate of Trier , the German-speaking part of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Dagstuhl dominion . Individual communities belonged to the Duchy of Luxembourg as well as to the Wild and Rhine Counties . After 1792 the area came to France and was incorporated into the Saar department in 1798 . There it belonged to the arrondissements of Birkenfeld , Saarbrücken and Trier . The Lorraine part became French as early as 1766 and belonged to the Moselle department in 1790 .
In 1815, after the Congress of Vienna , the area of today's Merzig-Wadern district came under Prussian administration. In 1816 Prussia divided its provinces into administrative districts and districts. The Prussian district of Merzig was formed from the mayorships of Besseringen , Hausbach , Haustadt , Hilhaben , Losheim , Merzig , Wadern , Wahlen and Weierweiler . This is how the Merzig district came into being within the Trier administrative district of the Grand Duchy of Lower Rhine province (1822 Rhine province ). In 1817 the district received the communities Keuchingen and Dreisbach from the Saarburg district.
The territorial situation changed when, as a result of the Treaty of Versailles coming into force in 1919, the Saar area was placed under a special administration of the League of Nations. This Saar area also included most of the Merzig district, which was then informally referred to as the “Merzig Stammkreis”. The part remaining in Prussia and thus in the Trier administrative district, the so-called Merzig-Wadern district , took its seat in Wadern. After the League of Nations administration ended on March 1, 1935, the old territorial conditions were not restored. The "Saar area" came under direct Reich administration, and so the Merzig district and the remainder of Merzig-Wadern remained administratively separate.
After the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933 in the German Reich the region Merzig-Wadern as the whole came Saar because of the Saarland special status a key role as a haven for the Nazis persecuted German and as a hub for the smuggling of anti-racist propaganda to the German Reich. After the clear vote in the Saar vote on January 13, 1935 in favor of an annexation to the German Reich , this was carried out on March 1 of the same year. As a result, as in all of Germany, there was massive persecution of opposition members and citizens of the Jewish faith in what is now the Merzig-Wadern district, but there was also resistance to National Socialist crimes.
For fear of persecution in the Third Reich , many of the 300 or so Jewish citizens of Merzig-Wadern fled abroad around 1935, around a hundred of them were murdered as part of the National Socialist persecution. The Merzig synagogue , inaugurated in 1840, was destroyed in the Reichskristallnacht 1938, the synagogue built in Hilringen in 1850 was sold after the dissolution of the Jewish community in 1936.
On October 1, 1946, the Merzig district was reunited with most of the remainder of the Wadern district, designated by the French occupying power since 1945 , to form the Merzig-Wadern district , which also includes the communities of Büschdorf , Nohn , Tünsdorf and Wehingen-Bethingen from the Saarburg district kicked.
When the district of Saarburg was reclassified from the Saar area to Rhineland-Palatinate on June 7, 1947 , it gave the communities Besch , Borg , Eft-Hellendorf , Faha , Keßlingen , Münzingen , Nennig , Oberleuken , Oberperl , Orscholz , Perl , Sehndorf , Sinz , Tettingen-Butzdorf , Weiten and Wochern to the district of Merzig-Wadern.
In the course of the district reform in Saarland , the district received the municipalities of Buweiler-Rathen and Kostenbach from the St. Wendel district on January 1, 1974, and in return lost the Michelbach municipality to the Saarlouis district. After the municipal reform has been completed, the Merzig-Wadern district still comprises seven municipalities, including two towns. The largest city in the district is the district town of Merzig, the smallest municipality is Weiskirchen .
Population development
| year | Residents | source |
|---|---|---|
| 1816 | 21,693 | |
| 1847 | 32,196 | |
| 1871 | 35,551 | |
| 1885 | 39,674 | |
| 1900 | 44,835 | |
| 1910 | 51,252 | |
| 1939 | 39,439 | |
| 1960 | 90,100 | |
| 1970 | 101,100 | |
| 1980 | 100,600 | |
| 1990 | 101,900 | |
| 2000 | 106,000 | |
| 2010 | 104,843 |
religion
The vast majority of the population is Catholic. Each civil parish in the district has at least one Roman Catholic parish. All parishes belong to the Diocese of Trier .
The Protestant population of the district belonged to the Evangelical Church in Prussia since 1817 (renamed the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union from 1922 ; APU) and there since 1922 to the Church Province of the Rhine Province with the Provincial Consistory in Koblenz . In 1947 the ecclesiastical province became an independent regional church as the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , to which the Protestant parishes in the district are assigned.
politics
District council
The district council is the local representative body in the Merzig-Wadern district. The citizens decide on the composition every five years.
The district elections on May 26, 2019 led to the result shown on the right and the following distribution of seats:
- Overview of the results of past district council elections
| Parties and constituencies | % 2019 |
Seats 2014 |
% 2014 |
Seats 2014 |
% 2009 |
Seats 2009 |
% 2004 |
Seats 2004 |
% 1999 |
% 1994 |
% 1989 |
% 1984 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDU | Christian Democratic Union of Germany | 40.3 | 14th | 44.7 | 16 | 43.5 | 15th | 53.5 | 19th | 47.6 | 41.6 | 38.6 | 44.5 |
| SPD | Social Democratic Party of Germany | 28.8 | 10 | 32.6 | 11 | 29.6 | 10 | 37.0 | 13 | 42.3 | 41.0 | 43.2 | 41.1 |
| GREEN | Alliance 90 / The Greens | 11.1 | 4th | 5.3 | 1 | 5.7 | 2 | 5.1 | 1 | 2.8 | 5.7 | 4.5 | 4.9 |
| AfD | Alternative for Germany | 7.5 | 2 | 5.9 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| THE LEFT | THE LEFT | 6.9 | 2 | 5.9 | 2 | 9.6 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| FDP | Free Democratic Party | 5.4 | 1 | 3.0 | 1 | 7.2 | 2 | 4.4 | 0 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 5.5 |
| PIRATES | Pirate Party Germany | - | - | 2.8 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| FWG | Free group of voters | - | - | - | - | 4.5 | 1 | - | - | 4.3 | 4.9 | 6.2 | 3.6 |
| NPD | National Democratic Party of Germany | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0.9 | 0.5 | 1.9 | - |
| REP | The Republicans | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2.5 | - | - |
| total | 100 | 33 | 100 | 33 | 100 | 33 | 100 | 33 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
| voter turnout | 65.7% | 57.8% | 63.1% | 63.9% | 66.6% | 79.4% | 84.9% | 84.1% | |||||
District administrators
- 1816–1825 Heinrich Ferdinand Philipp Werner
- 1825–1829 Joseph Schönberger
- 1829–1840 Franz Damian Görtz
- 1840–1848 Jakob Fuches
- 1848–1850 Karl Coupette (acting)
- 1850–1868 Constantin von Briesen (1821–1877)
- 1869–1875 Rudolf Johann Peter Bolton de Lasalle von Louisenthal
- 1875–1890 Emerich Karl Knebel
- 1890–1894 Harry Böninger
- 1895–1912 Bruno Eichhorn
- 1912-1919 Karl Haniel
- 1919–1930 Rudolf Klein (from 1920 without waders)
- 1930–1945 Karl Roth
- 1945 Luitwin von Boch-Galhau
- 1945–1946 Walter Ollinger
- 1946–1952 Wilhelm Bur
- 1952–1985 Kurt Matthias Linicus ; senior district administrator in Saarland, CDU
- 1985–2004 Michael Kreiselmeyer, CDU
- 2004 – today Daniela Schlegel-Friedrich , CDU
In the direct election of the district administrator on October 23, 2011, incumbent Daniela Schlegel-Friedrich was able to prevail clearly against her challenger Markus Rausch (SPD, 29.81%) with 70.19% of the votes cast.
coat of arms
Blazon : “Quartered: 1 in silver a continuous red cross; 2 a red sloping bar in gold, covered with three mutilated silver eagles; 3 in gold a red wolf tang set at an angle; 4 in a field divided nine times by silver and blue, a gold-armored and gold-crowned, double-tailed red lion. "
The red cross stands for the Archdiocese of Trier , the silver eagle for the Duchy of Lorraine and the double-tailed red lion for the Duchy of Luxembourg .
The district also uses a logo in its external presentation.
Economy and Infrastructure
economy
Medium-sized (craft) and service industries predominate in the district, the industrial area focuses on the ceramic and pharmaceutical industry as well as mechanical and plant engineering. The ceramic manufacturer Villeroy & Boch is one of the largest employers in the Lower Saar: from Merzig , Mettlach and Losheim am See the whole world is supplied with ceramic products from the areas of tableware, sanitary & wellness, kitchen and tiles.
traffic
The western district area is crossed by the federal motorway 8 Saarlouis to the Luxembourg border. Furthermore, the district is opened up by federal and state roads. The most important federal highways are the B 51 Saarbrücken – Trier and the B 268 Trier – Saarbrücken , which run along the Saar .
The Trier – Saarbrücken railway runs parallel to the Saar, with stations and the like. a. in Merzig , Mettlach and Beckingen . In addition, the municipality of Perl is connected to the rail network by the Perl- Trier line running parallel to the Moselle .
The former Merzig - Büschfeld small railway line is occasionally used for museum railroad trips between Merzig and Niederlosheim . There were repeated considerations to take this route back under regular traffic, but all projects were rejected again.
The eastern areas, v. a. the city of Wadern are accessed via the federal motorway 1 , which does not run in the district.
Trivia
On May 25, 2009, the district received the title “ Place of Diversity ” awarded by the federal government .
Social - social projects
schools
Elementary schools
- Dreiländereck Perl primary school
- Langwies primary school in the Mettlach community
- Orscholz primary school
- Nicolaus Voltz Primary School Losheim
- Bachem-Britten primary school
- Elementary school elections
- Elementary School Düppenweiler
- Elementary school Beckingen
- Reimsbach primary school
- Elementary School Kreuzberg (Merzig)
- Merzig-Besseringen primary school
- Elementary school Merzig-Brotdorf
- Merzig-Hilhaben primary school
- Primary school Saargau (Schwemlingen)
- Primary School St. Josef (Merzig)
- Primary school St. Martin Wadrill-Steinberg with the locations Wadrill and Steinberg
- Primary school Nunkirchen with the locations Nunkirchen and Bardenbach
- Lockweiler Elementary School
- Konfeld primary school
High schools
- Gymnasium am Stefansberg (GaS)
- Upper level grammar school of the BBZ 'Merzig subdivided into the departments of health and social affairs and economics
- Peter-Wust-Gymnasium (PWG)
- Hochwald-Gymnasium Wadern
Community schools
- Orscholz Community School
- Peter Dewes Community School Losheim am See
- Friedrich Bernhard Karcher School Beckingen
- Christian Kretzschmar School Merzig
- Graf-Anton-Schule Wadern
- Weiskirchen oak leaf school
Special schools
- Special school learning Losheim
- Schule zum Broch, special school for mental development in Merzig-Merchingen
- Special school for people with learning disabilities Merzig-Brotdorf
- Special school learning Wadern-Noswendel
Job-related schools
- BBZ-Merzig
- BBZ-Hochwald
Senior office
The senior citizen's office promotes work with and for older people and offers a range of services, including the senior senior district telephone.
Volunteering
The volunteer exchange has been the point of contact for almost 900 clubs and many other volunteers in the Merzig-Wadern district since 2001. It places volunteers interested in social institutions, advises on issues relating to the formation of associations, non-profit status, insurance, public relations, organizes events to honor volunteer work and offers training in all areas of voluntary work. In order to support voluntary and civic engagement even better and more effectively, the district of Merzig-Wadern has set up a club portal in which the clubs, voluntary organizations and initiatives in the district of Merzig-Wadern are provided with a platform for an Internet presence free of charge.
Cultural foundation
The Merzig-Wadern District Cultural Foundation was founded in 1988. Its purpose is to preserve and maintain cultural assets in the Merzig-Wadern district and to make them accessible to the general public in a suitable manner. Three institutions are managed by the cultural foundation:
- The Roman Villa Borg Archaeological Park
- Montclair Castle
- Museum Schloss Fellenberg
In addition to its own institutions, the cultural foundation for the Merzig-Wadern district also supports cultural monuments in the district's towns and cities.
Sports funding in the district
The Merzig-Wadern district mainly supports youngsters and mass sports. The district runs its own sporting events and projects that promote health and prevention and actively involves clubs. The Merzig-Wadern district promotes events of supraregional importance and organizes annual sporting events:
- Ceremony for young athletes
- Saarland school running championships
- Sports and games festival for the primary schools
- Sports forum
Communities
The district town of Merzig , the city of Wadern and the communities of Perl , Losheim am See , Weiskirchen , Beckingen and Mettlach are in the district of Merzig-Wadern .
(Population figures as of December 31, 2019)
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Former parishes
Most of the former municipalities in the district lost their independence on January 1, 1974:
- Düppenweiler , Erhaben , Hargarten , Haustadt , Honzrath , Oppen , Reimsbach and Saarfels became part of the Beckingen community.
- Bachem , Bergen , Britten , Hausbach , Mitlosheim , Niederlosheim , Rimlingen , Rissenthal , Scheiden , Wahlen and Waldhölzbach became part of the Losheim am See community.
- Ballern , Besseringen , Bietzen , Brotdorf , Büdingen , Fitten , Harlingen , Hilringen , Mechern , Menningen , Merchingen , Mondorf , Schwemlingen , Silwingen and Wellingen became part of the city of Merzig.
- Bethingen , Dreisbach , Faha , Nohn , Orscholz , Saarhölzbach , Tünsdorf , Wehingen and Weiten became part of the Mettlach community.
- Besch , Borg , Büschdorf , Eft-Hellendorf , Keßlingen , Münzingen , Nennig , Oberleuken , Oberperl , Sehndorf , Sinz , Tettingen-Butzdorf and Wochern became part of the municipality of Perl.
- Bardenbach , Büschfeld , Dagstuhl , Gehweiler , Krettnich , Lockweiler , Morscholz , Münchweiler , Niederlöstern , Noswendel , Nunkirchen , Oberlöstern , Steinberg , Wadrill and Wedern became part of the town of Wadern.
- Konfeld , Rappweiler , Thailen and Weierweiler became part of the Weiskirchen community.
- Michelbach became part of the community of Schmelz in the Saarlouis district.
The following municipalities were dissolved or renamed before 1974:
- Fickingen was renamed Saarfels in 1923 .
- Keuchingen was incorporated into Mettlach on October 1, 1936.
- Obermorscholz and Untermorscholz merged on October 1, 1937 to form the municipality of Morscholz .
- Oberthailen and Unterthailen were merged to form the municipality of Thailen in the 1930s .
- Wehingen-Bethingen was split up on January 1, 1957 into the two communities Bethingen and Wehingen .
Protected areas
There are 22 designated nature reserves in the district (as of February 2017).
The "green" circle
Merzig-Wadern, the “green” district of Saarland, has around 21,000 hectares of forest. With the nature reserve “Wolferskopf” in the area of the district town of Merzig and the community of Beckingen, the largest contiguous nature reserve in the Saarland belongs to the district of Merzig-Wadern.
Premium hiking trails
In the Merzig-Wadern district, hikers can use 24 premium hiking trails, for example the Saar-Hunsrück-Steig and the Traumschleifen .
tourism
Visitors and guests of the Merzig-Wadern district will find many opportunities to spend their free time. The best known and most famous sight is the Saarschleife near Mettlach - Orscholz . Sport, culture, nature and the border triangle offer a wide range of tourist attractions: the Wolf Park and the Werner Freund Expedition Museum in Merzig, various facilities in the Gardens without Borders , the monumental grave mound in Perl-Nennig, the Cloef atrium in Orscholz, the Old Tower in Mettlach, the adventure center of Villeroy & Boch, the copper mine in Düppenweiler, the railway museum in the locomotive shed in Losheim, the fine mechanics museum Fellenbergmühle in Merzig, the local museum in Wadern. Several times a year, steam locomotive-powered museum train rides take place on the former line of the Merzig-Büschfelder-Eisenbahn.
The sculptor project Stones on the Border is a special attraction of contemporary art . Every year sculptors from different countries are invited to work on the border stones.
License Plate
On January 1, 1957, the district was assigned the distinctive sign MZG on the occasion of the accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany . It is still issued today.
literature
- Heinz Bauer: Prussia an der Saarschleife, district administrators, administration and representatives of the people in the Merzig district 1816–1945, A contribution to the history of the Merzig-Wadern district, Merzig 1999.
- Heinz Bauer: Revolution at the Saarschleife, a chronicle of the revolution 1848/1849 in the Merzig-Wadern district, ideas, events, people, Merzig-Wadern 2002.
- Constantin von Briesen : Documented history of the Merzig district in the Trier government district, Saarlouis 1863.
- Johann Heinrich Kell: History of the Merzig District, Saarbrücken 1925.
- Johann Heinrich Kell: History of the City of Merzig and the Merziger Land, Merzig 1958.
- H. Niessen: History of the Merzig District, Merzig 1898.
- Martin-Peter Scherzinger (Red.): The district of Merzig-Wadern in the picture, Merzig 1988.
- Hubert Schommer u. a. (Ed.): 175 years of the Merzig-Wadern district, 1816–1991, Heimatbuch 1991, ed. from the district of Merzig-Wadern in connection with the Association for Local History in the district of Merzig-Wadern, Merzig 1991.
Web links
- Official website of the Merzig-Wadern district
- Literature on the Merzig-Wadern district in the Saarland bibliography
Individual evidence
- ↑ Saarland.de - Official population figures as of December 31, 2019 (PDF; 20 kB) ( help ).
- ↑ a b Against forgetting - places of Nazi terror and resistance in the Merzig-Wadern district (PDF; 2.7 MB), Action 3rd World Saar , November 2010.
- ↑ Alemannia Judaica synagogues in Saarland , Alemannia Judaica , page accessed May 2014.
- ↑ Official Journal of the Saar Regional Council , year 1946, No. 47, p. 198: "Order on the administrative organization of the Saar area" from October 1, 1946 ( Saarland University )
- ↑ Official Journal of the Administrative Commission of the Saarland , year 1946, No. 55, p. 237: "Supplement to the order on the administrative organization of the Saar area" of November 8, 1946 ( Saarland University )
- ^ Official Journal of the French High Command in Germany , year 1947, edition 77, p. 768. Order No. 215 of June 7, 1947: "Connection of municipalities to the districts of Merzig-Wadern and St. Wendel"
- ^ Federal Statistical Office (ed.): Historical municipality directory for the Federal Republic of Germany. Name, border and key number changes in municipalities, counties and administrative districts from May 27, 1970 to December 31, 1982 . W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 804 f .
- ^ Contributions to the statistics of the Königl. Prussian Rhineland. 1829, p. 20 , accessed November 11, 2017 .
- ^ Description of the administrative district of Trier. 1849, p. 297 , accessed November 11, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Community encyclopedia for the Kingdom of Prussia 1885
- ↑ a b c d Michael Rademacher: German administrative history from the unification of the empire in 1871 to the reunification in 1990. merzig.html. (Online material for the dissertation, Osnabrück 2006).
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook for the Federal Republic of Germany 1972
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook for the Federal Republic of Germany 1981
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook for the Federal Republic of Germany 1992
- ↑ Statistical Yearbook for the Federal Republic of Germany 2002
- ↑ Results of district elections 2019 - Merzig-Wadern district , accessed on June 12, 2020
- ↑ District elections 1984 to 2009 in Saarland
- ^ Result of the district elections 2014
- ↑ Saarland.de - Official population figures as of December 31, 2019 (PDF; 20 kB) ( help ).
