Long hedge

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Long hedge
Market town Villmar
Coordinates: 50 ° 23 ′ 22 "  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 53"  E
Height : 232 m above sea level NHN
Area : 3.03 km²
Residents : 217  (Jun 30, 2020)
Population density : 72 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation : December 31, 1970
Postal code : 65606
Area code : 06474

Langhecke is the smallest part of the municipality of Villmar in the Limburg-Weilburg district in Central Hesse .

Geographical location

The place is located in the eastern Hintertaunus , around two kilometers southeast of the Lahn , six kilometers east of Villmar and 15 kilometers east of the district town of Limburg an der Lahn .

The district is stretched in a northeast-southwest direction. In the west, the district of the core town of Villmar joins, in the northwest the Villmarer district Aumenau , in the northeast Blessenbach , district of the municipality Weinbach , in the east Wolfenhausen (municipality Weilmünster ), in the south Münster (municipality Selters ).

The place itself is about 240 meters above sea level and is a crescent-shaped street village in a valley of the Dernbach that runs from east to northwest. The highest point is the 303 meter high Schulberg northeast of the village. Overall, the district is characterized by steeply rising mountain ranges in the immediate vicinity of the village. Most of the area is covered by mixed forest. There are a few agricultural meadows to the east of the village. There is hardly any arable land. A former slate quarry northwest of the village characterizes the landscape.

history

Langhecke was first mentioned around 1380 as the forest name "Langinheckin", but was probably not yet populated at that time. It later developed into a miners' settlement as a result of the silver , copper , lead , iron and slate deposits found there. This means that the place should be one of the youngest new settlements in the wide area. The slate still characterizes the place today, recognizable by the large heaps at the end of the village towards Aumenau. The house roofs covered with slate are also typical.

Until at least 1713 the place consisted of two settlements that were separately taxable. The workers in the metal mines lived in the higher-lying town of “Zechenhaus”, while the slate workers lived in the actual “Langhecke” settlement. School lessons were first given in Langhecke around 1700, and the first school building was built in 1754. Until 1970 there was a school of its own in town.

Since Langhecke, itself an Electorate of Trier , was in the border area to several Nassau principalities, to the County of Wied and to Kurmainz , the surrounding forest area began to become a retreat for several bands of robbers in the 1870s . This development intensified in the Revolutionary Wars , when the further developed French administration to the left of the Rhine drove numerous bands of robbers to the right-hand side of the Rhine. In 1813, the government in Weilburg even issued an order to let the village, which had meanwhile become Nassau, become extinct, by prohibiting marriage and decreeing the demolition of empty houses. On July 15, 1815, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the site to find out more about mining activities.

Church (left), parish hall (partially covered) and rectory (right)

Until 1812, the Langheck parish was a branch of the Villmar parish. After that a parish vicarie was established. It was not until 1873 that a wooden church was built. The parish vicarie did not last long. From 1884 Langhecke was supplied by the parish of Haintchen , later by priests from Limburg. Only in 1901 did the place have its own pastor again. The wooden church was already in serious disrepair by 1900. But it wasn't until 1952 that the foundation stone was laid for a new church building, which was completed a year later. In 1964 the parish vicarie was merged with Aumenau and raised to an independent parish. The originally purely Catholic place was mixed in about half of its denominations, particularly due to the immigration of expellees after the Second World War. In 1985 a Catholic parish center was opened at the church.

In 1839 the place became an independent municipality after Villmar had previously resisted the inclusion of Langheckes. Previously, the affiliation between Weyer, Villmar and Niederbruch had been controversial, at times even between different territories to which the three places belonged. The three municipalities, as well as Wolfenhausen and Münster, had to give up pieces of forest that became the Langhecker district. However, the places of origin reserved the legal property of these areas. As a result, the community had hardly any space that could be used by itself. When a new development area was to be designated in 1964, Langhecke first had to buy the required forest area from the community of Niederbruch. When the community was founded, Langhecke had 228 inhabitants; around 1890 there were around 500.

As part of the regional reform in Hesse , the municipalities of Villmar, Falkenbach, Langhecke and Seelbach merged on December 31, 1970 on a voluntary basis to form the new municipality of Villmar. Local districts according to the Hessian municipal code were not established.

Territorial history and administration

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

Mining

Old slate mine at the end of the village in the direction of Aumenau
Slate union building on the outskirts towards Aumenau

In 1591, a slate mining in the Niederrechener district is mentioned, which was probably the slate pits assigned to Langhecke today. In 1615 the use of silver from long hedge for the minting of Kurtrier coins can be proven for the first time. Clear reports of ore mining in the "Langhecke" forest are from 1644. Copper, silver and iron were extracted and smelted there. From 1660 to 1703 the ore mining was stopped; presumably the ingress of water in the deep ore mines could not be brought under control. In the following decades it continued with small interruptions. The last time silver was mined in Langhecke in 1789 and copper in 1912.

Slate mining only began to take on a larger scale after the Thirty Years' War in the crisis of ore extraction, as it could be operated in open-cast mining with little effort . The village of Langhecke only came into being at this point, because the miners settled in the immediate vicinity of the slate pits. At first the settlement belonged to the Electorate of Trier . Until the early 18th century, the settlement grew significantly with the influx of more miners. In 1722, 24 Käutner, i.e. independent operators of slate pits, are recorded. A crisis phase then set in, which is mainly due to the fact that the neighboring Principality of Nassau-Usingen opened its own slate quarries and prohibited the import of Langhecker slate. Kurtrier reacted to this with a ban on the export of iron ore to Nassau-Usingen, which resulted in the cessation of iron ore mining in Langhecke by the middle of the 18th century. Nevertheless, the place seems to have developed into an independent settlement during this phase. For 1740 only four Käutner are recorded, but around 20 people with other professions.

Consistent mine supervision by the Electorate of Trier administration was only introduced in 1767. It became clear that the “wild” mining, the likewise unregulated accumulation of overburden from the first century and the lack of facilities for the groundwater drainage threatened further operations. In addition, the Käutner had sold large parts of the extracted slate for their own account without paying taxes to the sovereign. In the following years the details of the mine supervision were changed several times. Overall, an upswing in slate mining can be seen in Langhecke. In 1787 there were again 15 Käutner. Between 1790 and 1806 there were repeated disputes about the Zervaß family, especially in the last years of the Electorate of Trier, when the state began to disintegrate. The family forcibly appropriated several pits and terrorized the population. This ended in 1806, after George Zervaß of Villmarer charcoal burners had been burned both eyes.

During the politically uncertain development of the Napoleonic Wars , slate mining was subject to strong fluctuations. In total, however, it slowly increased, which can be attributed to the increasing replacement of straw roofs by slate roofs and the increased navigability of the Lahn from 1810 onwards . With the consolidation of the Duchy of Nassau , founded in 1806, the economic situation continued to improve. In 1827 the duchy had the mining administration reorganized. In 1827 there were eight, in 1830 ten and in 1834 15 slate pits near Langhecke. A brief crisis followed from 1834 to 1837, after Nassau only belatedly joined the German Customs Union. After productivity peaked in 1846, the following crisis years led to a decline. In 1866, the year of the Prussian annexation of the duchy, only six mines were still working. In the following years, however, production skyrocketed. From 1872 the Georgsstollen was driven further, which should serve to better discharge the groundwater.

From 1848 ownership began to shift fundamentally. As early as 1862 there was no longer any private mining site besides the mayor's pit. All other chews were owned by the companies of Rath & Co. , which mined around 90 percent of the Langhecker slate, and A. Herr & Co. with almost ten percent. In 1857 the individual operators had joined together to form the “roofing slate union”. The main shareholders of the company came from Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Höchst. The union made large-scale investments in the pits and facilities. In 1875 the first steam engine was installed in Langhecke. In 1877 the founders' crash hit the slate mining in Langhecke. At the end of the year, the roofing slate union laid off almost half of its 101 employees. Production initially consolidated at a low level. In 1892 only two mines were still in operation. Both were owned by the union. From this point in time the production increased again slightly, but without reaching the level of before 1877.

During the First World War , the drafting of workers in 1917 led to the complete cessation of mining. After the war, new, electrically operated mining facilities were used. Production started again in 1921, but was stopped for a few months during the Great Depression of 1923/24. In the following years there were repeated phases of shutdown. From 1939 to 1946 production was completely idle. The last phase of dismantling followed from 1946, which turned into overexploitation in 1949 . The underground tunnel structure was destroyed and in 1954 the last slate was mined in Langhecke. In the following year the tunnel openings were walled up.

population

Population development

Langhecke: Population from 1834 to 2020
year     Residents
1834
  
 215
1840
  
 245
1846
  
 301
1852
  
 310
1858
  
 322
1864
  
 340
1871
  
 456
1875
  
 442
1885
  
 441
1895
  
 408
1905
  
 358
1910
  
 332
1925
  
 276
1939
  
 266
1946
  
 396
1950
  
 410
1956
  
 353
1961
  
 346
1967
  
 308
1970
  
 310
1980
  
 ?
1990
  
 ?
2000
  
 ?
2011
  
 231
2012
  
 240
2015
  
 230
2020
  
 217
Data source: Historical municipality register for Hesse: The population of the municipalities from 1834 to 1967. Wiesbaden: Hessisches Statistisches Landesamt, 1968.
Further sources:; after 1970 Villmar municipality ( web archive ,); 2011 census

Religious affiliation

 Source: Historical local dictionary

1885: 089 Protestant, 253 Catholic residents
1961: 140 Protestant and 206 Catholic residents

Culture and sights

Cultural monuments

See the list of cultural monuments in Langhecke

societies

Infrastructure

The Langhecke volunteer fire brigade , founded in 1934 (since January 12, 1997 with youth fire brigade), provides fire protection and general help.

literature

Web links

Commons : Langhecke  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Langhecke, Limburg-Weilburg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of March 23, 2018). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  2. ↑ a b Figures - data - facts, population figures in brief. In: Internet presence. Villmar market town, accessed on February 2, 2020 .
  3. ^ Association of municipalities to form the municipality of "Villmar", Oberlahnkreis on January 6, 1971 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): State Gazette for the State of Hesse. 1971 No. 4 , p. 140 , point 168 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 6.3 MB ]).
  4. ^ 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. 373 .
  5. ^ 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).
  6. ↑ Selected data on population and households on May 9, 2011 in the Hessian municipalities and parts of the municipality. (PDF; 1 MB) In: 2011 Census . Hessian State Statistical Office;
  7. ↑ Langhecke Volunteer Fire Brigade , accessed in October 2016.