Münchweiler on the Rodalb

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 49 ° 13 '  N , 7 ° 42'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Southwest Palatinate
Association municipality :	Rodalben
Height :	296 m above sea level NHN
Area :	27.18 km 2
Residents:	2845 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	105 inhabitants per km 2
Postcodes :	66981, 66955 (Beckenhof)
Area code :	06395
License plate :	PS , ZW
Community key :	07 3 40 032
Association administration address:	Am Rathaus 9 66976 Rodalben
Website :	www.muenchweiler.de
Local Mayor :	Timo Bäuerle ( CDU )
Location of the local community Münchweiler an der Rodalb in the district of Südwestpfalz

Münchweiler an der Rodalb is a municipality in the district of Südwestpfalz in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Rodalben , within which it is the second largest local community in terms of population.

geography

location

The community of Münchweiler an der Rodalb is located in the Palatinate Forest in the so-called Graefensteiner Land . In the southwest is the Münchweilerhof , which has now almost grown together with the core east and in the northwest the Riegelbrunnerhof . Geologically, the community belongs to the so-called Rehberg strata . The next larger cities are Pirmasens in the west and Rodalben in the north-west . Neighboring communities are - clockwise - Merzalben , Wilgartswiesen , Hinterweidenthal , Ruppertsweiler , Lemberg , Pirmasens, Rodalben and Clausen .

Elevations and waters

The 473 meter high Bauwalder Kopf extends northeast of the settlement area . To the southeast of this is the 423 meter high Rotenstein . The Palatinate main watershed runs through the middle of the municipality. The Rodalb runs in a south-north direction and touches the western edge of the settlement. In the northeast it takes on the Merzalbe from the left . In the far east beyond the watershed, the Lauter forms the boundary with Wilgartswiesen.

history

prehistory

Archaeological finds show that people settled in the area of ​​Münchweiler an der Rodalb as early as the Neolithic Age .

middle Ages

The village of Münchweiler emerged in the 7th or 8th century when monks from the Benedictine monastery of Hornbach, founded by Bishop Pirminius , built a single farm on a cleared area in the Rodalb valley. The oldest written mention of it comes from 1179. For a long time the place was called "Mönchweiler" due to its founding history. This later resulted in "Münchweiler".

During the Middle Ages and the early modern period , the Rodalb divided the settlement. A smaller part belonged to Lemberg in the Lemberg office of the same name in the Zweibrücken-Bitsch county and there in the Lemberg official school . The greater part belonged to the Baden office of Graefenstein .

Early modern age

With regard to the part located in the Lemberg office, the following developments occurred in the following centuries: Count Jakob von Zweibrücken-Bitsch died in 1570 as the last male member of his family. The Lemberg office was inherited by his daughter, Ludovica Margaretha von Zweibrücken-Bitsch , who was married to Count Philipp V von Hanau-Lichtenberg . Her father-in-law, Count Philipp IV. Von Hanau-Lichtenberg , gave the strict Roman Catholic Duke Karl III by introducing the Lutheran creed immediately . of Lorraine, the opportunity to intervene militarily, as the latter had suzerainty over the Bitsch rule, which was also part of the inheritance . In July 1572 Lorraine troops occupied the county. Since Philip IV was unable to cope with the overwhelming power of Lorraine, he chose the legal route. In the subsequent process before the Reich Chamber of Commerce, Lorraine was able to prevail with regard to the Bitsch rule. The Office of Lemberg, on the other hand, including Münchweiler, was awarded to the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg .

1736 died with Count Johann Reinhard III. the last male representative of the Hanau family. Due to the marriage of his only daughter, Charlotte (1700–1726), with the Hereditary Prince Ludwig (VIII.) (1691–1768) of Hesse-Darmstadt , the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg fell there. Most recently, the municipality was the seat of a sub-office within the Lemberg office.

Since the 19th century

House built in 1913 in Münchweiler an der Rodalb

In the course of the French Revolution , the area on the left bank of the Rhine - and thus Münchweiler as well - fell to France in 1794. From 1798 to 1814, when the Palatinate was part of the French Republic (until 1804) and then part of the Napoleonic Empire , the place was incorporated into the canton of Pirmasens and was subordinate to the Mairie Rodalben . After the end of Napoleonic rule, Münchweiler was initially added to Austria in 1815. A year later the place moved to the Bavarian Rhine district . From 1818 to 1862 he was a member of the Pirmasens Land Commissioner ; from this the district office of Pirmasens emerged.

In 1939, Münchweiler was incorporated into the district of Pirmasens (from 1997 district of Südwestpfalz ) . After the Second World War , the municipality within the French occupation zone became part of the then newly formed state of Rhineland-Palatinate. In the course of the first administrative reform in Rhineland-Palatinate , the municipality was assigned to the newly created Verbandsgemeinde Rodalben in 1972 .

population

Population development

The values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 760 1835 617 1871 775 1905 1,236 1939 2.132 1950 2,308 1961 2,619

year Residents 1970 2,934 1987 2,889 1997 3.124 2005 2,997 2011 2,897 2019 2,845

religion

On the catholic side, the community belongs to the diocese of Speyer and there is subordinate to the deanery of Pirmasens , the evangelicals to the Protestant regional church of the Palatinate .

politics

town hall

Municipal council

The municipal council in Münchweiler consists of a total 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	FWG	total
2019	4th	16	-	20 seats
2014	3	13	4th	20 seats
2009	3	12	5	20 seats
2004	2	14th	4th	20 seats

• FWG = Free Voting Community Gräfenstein e. V.

mayor

Timo Bäuerle (CDU) became local mayor of Münchweiler on August 20, 2019. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was elected for five years with a share of 86.23% of the vote. Bäuerle's predecessor was Georg Denz (CDU).

coat of arms

	Blazon : "In gold a silver post, inside on a curved green floor a black-clad bareheaded monk, holding a red book with silver fittings with both hands, three red rafters on the right, a red sloping beam on the left."
	Foundation of the coat of arms: The monk symbolizes the founding of Münchweiler by monks of the Hornbach monastery . The three rafters represent the Hanau-Lichtenberg house , which ruled over the district to the left of the Rodalb for centuries. The sloping beam is the Baden coat of arms; the Baden lordship of Graefenstein ruled over the district to the right of the Rodalb.

Culture

Cultural monuments

Cross-house under monument protection

There are a total of eight objects on site that are listed .

nature

There are a total of two natural monuments in the municipality . The 2400 hectare core zone of the Wieslauter headwaters of the Palatinate Forest Nature Park is also partly in the Münchweiler area.

Clubs and organizations

There were regular derbies between the three soccer clubs of VfB Turbine Münchweiler, SV Münchweiler 85 and FC Münchweiler, with large numbers of visitors. In the meantime, FC Münchweiler and VfB Turbine Münchweiler joined forces under the name FC / VFB Münchweiler with a first team in the A class and a second team in the C class. In April 2018, the three football clubs FC, VfB and SV 85 merged to form the FV Münchweiler football association.

There are also numerous other sports clubs in Münchweiler, such as gymnastics, tennis and badminton clubs. There is also the local women's choir Ex-semble and a local branch of the Palatinate Forest Association .

Economy and Infrastructure

Economic development

The forest was formative for the medieval inhabitants . The agriculture alone could not feed the people, because the little fertile sandy soil did not allow good yields. From the twelfth to the 14th century iron was mined in the pits near Münchweiler in the northwestern municipality .

For the poor residents of the forest village of Münchweiler, the economic situation did not change significantly until the end of the 19th century. When the first shoe factory was founded in 1888 by three brothers named Wadle, numerous local residents found work and wages. The construction of the Landau – Zweibrücken railway through the village between 1872 and 1875 gave a further boost to economic development. With the construction of the railway, in connection with the emerging local shoe industry, a development began that improved the financial situation of many families and ended decades later should make the poor forest village an up-and-coming industrial community.

This development was facilitated by structural change that began after the Second World War . Due to the shoe factories, agriculture lost its importance and the place became a purely industrial community.

In order to counteract the mono-industry, the community developed an industrial site on the southwestern edge of the village at the end of the 1960s. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the community has been the seat of WAWI-Schokolade's companies WAWI Euro GmbH and WAWI Gesellschaft für Auslandsbet. China GmbH division . The general crisis in the shoe industry that began in the same decade did not spare the place, factories were forced to lay off workers, others stopped production altogether. In addition, the American armed forces gave up the hospital in the summer of 1993. It was only in 2004 that two investors from Pirmasens acquired the approximately 45 hectare hospital site. The hospital was almost completely demolished by October 2005. Residential and commercial areas are planned on the site, and the first building sites have already been developed. A special area for leisure and recreation is to be created in the rear part of the site. In addition, the local transport company QNV Queichtal Nahverkehrsgesellschaft GmbH has its headquarters in Münchweiler.

The community belonged to the business area of ​​the Raiffeisenbank Münchweiler-Ruppertsweiler , which in 1990 and several other mergers in the following period merged into the VR-Bank Südwestpfalz Pirmasens-Zweibrücken .

traffic

rail

Münchweiler (Rodalb) station

Münchweiler has been connected to the rail network since 1875 by the Landau – Rohrbach railway line . The Münchweiler Tunnel on the route passes the Palatinate main watershed and is the longest tunnel along the route.

The Münchweiler (Rodalb) train station is located on the northwestern edge of the settlement. Between Hinterweidenthal and Pirmasens Nord , Münchweiler was the last train station that had goods traffic until it was stopped in 1996. The US military hospital in Münchweiler an der Rodalb, which has since been demolished, had a siding. As in Annweiler, train crossings regularly take place in the station, as it is the only possible crossing between Wilgartswiesen and Pirmasens Nord due to the demolition of several neighboring stations . In 2007 it was renewed after the island platform had been replaced by a side platform in 2004. It is served by regional trains on the RB 55 line, which run between Landau and Pirmasens . The existing station building no longer plays a role for rail operations. The public transport system is in the transport association Rhein-Neckar integrated.

Street

Level crossing in Münchweiler; at this point the district roads 36 and 89 merge

The connection to the road network is via the federal road 10 ( Landau - Pirmasens - Zweibrücken ) running south of the settlement area in an east-west direction with its own junction. From the B 10, the state road 496 branches off to Merzalben and Leimen and from the latter the state road 497 to Rodalben. The district road 36 connects the community with Ruppertsweiler and Lemberg and the district road 89 connects the Riegelbrunnerhof. District road 88 , which runs south of the municipal area, is only a few hundred meters long ; it connects the state road 496 and the district road 89 with each other.

military

Another milestone in the history of Münchweiler was the construction of a 1,000-bed Münchweiler Army Hospital by the US Army in the early 1950s, as well as the Münchweiler Family Housing Area , which was built from 1950 to 1957 and comprised a total of 99 residential units. This made the place part of the Pirmasens Military Community, which has since been dissolved . The HHD, which is subordinate to the 59th Ordnance Brigade , the 197th Ordnance Battalion and warheads of the VII Corps were housed on site.

The construction of the hospital and the presence of the US soldiers left visible traces in the village and caused some changes in the way of life of the residents. The American armed forces became an important employer in Münchweiler, alongside the shoe industry , before they gave up their presence in the community in the early 1990s. Until then, there was also an American Forces Network soldier station on site .

tourism

Fritz Claus Hut

To the south of the settlement area is the Fritz-Claus-Hütte , which is operated by the Münchweiler local branch of the Palatinate Forest Association. In addition to the lead from Hornbach to Wilgartswiesen running Pirminius bike path and that of Kaiserslautern leading to Hinterweidenthal Palatinate Forest Tour two bicycle paths through the community.

The Nahegau-Wasgau- Vogesen long-distance hiking trail marked with a white cross runs through Münchweiler . There is also a hiking trail that is marked with a green cross and that runs from Freinsheim to Erlenkopf and one that is marked with a green-yellow bar and that runs from Kirchheimbolanden to Hirschthal . In addition, the community has a high-altitude hiking trail with a length of 16 kilometers. In addition, the Palatinate Forest Path runs for a short distance through the extreme north of the Münchweiler district and the Donnersberg-Donon long-distance hiking trail, marked with a red bar, through the extreme east of the municipality.

Kindergartens and schools

There are two kindergartens in Münchweiler: the Catholic kindergarten St. Georg and the Kindergarten Max and Moritz, as well as the primary school Schillerschule.

Personalities

Honorary citizen

• Stephan Schnäbele (1926–2015) was made an honorary citizen in 1996 because of his voluntary work

Sons and daughters of the church

• Erich Dauenhauer (1935–2018), economist and author
• Hugo Dausmann (* 1942), football player
• Hans Fix (* 1947), linguist and Scandinavian scholar
• Josef Pirrung (1949–2011), football player
• Tobias Christ (* 1976), soccer referee

People who worked on site

• Fritz Claus (1853–1923), priest, dialect poet and singer, lived on site from 1861 to 1864
• Dieter Luther (* 1953), cook, operator of the Krone restaurant in the community

literature

• Official directory and statistics of the royal Bavarian administrative district of the Palatinate . Speyer 1870 ( limited preview in Google book search).
• Friedrich Knöpp: Territorial holdings of the County of Hanau-Lichtenberg in Hesse-Darmstadt . Ed .: Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt . Darmstadt 1962 (signature: N 282/6).
• Alfred Matt: Bailliages, prévôté et fiefs ayant fait partie de la Seigneurie de Lichtenberg, du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg, du Landgraviat de Hesse-Darmstadt . In: Société d'Histoire et d'Archaeologie de Saverne et Environs (ed.): Cinquième centenaire de la création du Comté de Hanau-Lichtenberg 1480 - 1980 = Pays d'Alsace 111/112 (2, 3/1980) . 1980, p. 7-9 .

Web links

Commons : Münchweiler an der Rodalb  - Collection of images

• Internet presence of the community Münchweiler an der Rodalb
• Literature about Münchweiler an der Rodalb in the Rhineland-Palatinate state bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ Knöpp, p. 10; Matt, p. 9.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Werner Dillenkofer, Münchweiler
4. ↑ Directory of officials .
5. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate: My village, my city. Retrieved July 29, 2019 . 
6. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Local elections 2019, city and municipal council elections
7. ^ View into the Graefensteiner Land: Constituent meeting of the Münchweiler municipal council. Linus Wittich Medien GmbH, notifications for the Verbandsgemeinde Rodalben, edition 25/2019, accessed on April 4, 2020 . 
8. ^ The State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Rodalben, Verbandsgemeinde, penultimate line of results. Retrieved April 4, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Premiere for FV Münchweiler. In: The Rhine Palatinate . August 10, 2018, accessed March 29, 2019 . 
10. ↑ "Proximity to the citizen" is always practiced. In: rheinpfalz.de. Retrieved February 22, 2020 .