Niederselters

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Niederselters
Selters (Taunus) municipality
Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 8 ″  N , 8 ° 13 ′ 34 ″  E
Height : 161 m above sea level NHN
Area : 7.99 km²
Residents : 3198  (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 400 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation : July 1, 1974
Postal code : 65618
Area code : 06483

Niederselters is a district of the municipality of Selters in the Limburg-Weilburg district in Central Hesse . From the 17th century onwards, Niederselters gained national fame through its abundant mineral springs, which were bottled under the name Selterswasser and exported all over the world. The village is the main town and the administrative seat of the newly created community of Selters (Taunus) in 1974.

geography

Niederselters is located in the so-called Goldener Grund in the valley of the Emsbach of the eastern Hintertaunus .

The district of Niederselters borders on Oberbruch in the north, Eisenbach in the east, Oberselters in the south and Dauborn in the west . The A3 runs along the western edge of the district . At the edges of the district there are several smaller pieces of forest, while the rest consists of agricultural and settlement areas. The place itself is in the valley at around 170 meters above sea level, while the terrain around it rises to up to 260 meters.

history

Former electoral barracks, today the town hall of the municipality of Selters

The settlement was built at the point where the early medieval Hessenstrasse crossed the Emsbach. It was first mentioned in a document in 772 under the name Saltrissa in a deed of donation from the Lorsch monastery . The formulations of this document suggest that at this point in time the place had an indefinable central point function for a wider radius. However, this was probably lost around the year 900 at the latest. Later Niederselters was assigned to the Aumenau district court until 1366 , then to the Dauborn court of the County of Diez .

From 1048 at the latest, Niederselters was under the rule of the Lords of Molsberg , who had received it as a fief from the Archdiocese of Trier . Presumably, this rule is based on an old royal estate , which Niederselters the count rule in the low Lahngau and later the county Diez was not subject to the full extent. In all documents before 1279, it is not possible to distinguish between Nieder- and Oberselters. In 1334 a Hubengericht with its seat in Niederselters can be found for the first time . In 1365 the Archdiocese of Trier bought back the land and feudal lordship over Niederselters and Niederbruch in part from the now impoverished Molsbergers, and in 1368 completely. This served to secure his influence against the House of Nassau , which increasingly succeeded the declining Counts of Diez. In the following decades Kurtrier gradually acquired further rights and people in Niederselters from various owners. Traditions from the following centuries document continued legal disputes between Nassau and Kurtrier over the respective influence in the place. With the Diez Treaty of 1564, Nassau renounced all rights in Niederselters and Niederbruch, so that from then on, Kurtrier was the unrestricted sovereign of Niederselters.

In the 13./14. In the 19th century, the structure of a round village , which is still clearly recognizable today , developed. Fortifications existed by 1590 at the latest. A drawing from 1686 shows this in the form of a ditch with a fence and a gate. The trench and fence were apparently laid down shortly afterwards, the gate probably shortly after 1783.

A Heimberger has survived for 1355 , who was probably chosen by the Lower Elder family at that time. One mayor is mentioned for the first time in 1559, and two for the first time in 1579. From 1722 at the latest, the office of mayor was always held by two people.

In terms of the church, Niederselters belonged to the parish of Eisenbach from 1340 at the latest. This was an essential element of the differentiation from the neighboring village of the same name, which belonged to the parish Camberg and was increasingly referred to as Oberselters. Also in 1340 a chapel in Niederselters is mentioned for the first time, which at that time received a permanent clergyman. It was consecrated to Saint Christopher by 1453 at the latest. Between 1526 and 1569, the chapel was released from the parish of Eisenbach and elevated to a church, making the Niederselters an independent parish. In 1659 the choir tower of the church collapsed and was rebuilt in 1686 at the latest. In 1717 this church building was torn down. In the autumn of the same year, what is now known as the "Old Church" was completed. The newly built parish church of St. Christophorus took over its function in 1909. In 1990 the old church, threatened with decay, was renovated. Since then it has served as an event and cultural center. The hotel "Zum doppelten Adler" opposite the new church dates back to the 17th century and is now used as a parish home.

A school of its own existed in 1618 at the latest. The building was in the back alley. It also served as a bakery in the 18th century and as a town hall in 1855.

In 1363 viticulture is mentioned for the first time in the district, which was probably given up around the middle of the 17th century. A mill existed from 1396 at the latest. Lead was mined near the town in 1618 at the latest , but this was probably given up again in the 17th century. In 1790 there were few successful test excavations for iron ore. With the beginning of the use of the mineral well, the haulage and hospitality industry took off considerably.

As part of the regional reform in Hesse , the community of Niederselters was merged on July 1, 1974 with three other previously independent communities to form the new community "Selters (Taunus)".

The former Electorate of Trier barracks was expanded in 1994 by an annex and serves as the town hall of the municipality of Selters.

History of the mineral spring

Seltersbrunnen 1873, on the left the cast iron glass pavilion built in 1857 above the spring
Restored well temple in Niederselters

A report by the scholar Tabernaemontanus from the year 1584, which confirmed that the abundant and mineral-rich springs on the other side of the Emsbach had a mythical universal healing effect, was followed by the economic rise of Niederselters. The Limburg chronicler Johannes Mechtel reports for 1609 that there was a new well fitting in Niederselters, which separated sweet and sour water. During the European wars of the 17th century, the use of the spring seems to have largely come to a standstill. Foreign spa guests are only recorded again after the Peace of Nijmegen in 1679. From 1678 onwards, the Electorate of Trier had a park laid out around the fountain and in the late 17th century set up a pre-industrial factory to fill the water . The earthenware jugs in which the water was expelled came from the production of the traditional pottery district Kannenbäckerland . The close relationship between the water production in Niederselters and the region in the Westerwald as well as the local carter system and the shipping on the Lahn, over which the filled jugs were transported, was to remain in the following centuries. Disputes about prices for jugs, their quality, business with other buyers and transport costs have been handed down several times. The spa operation in Niederselters remained insignificant compared to the shipping of the water.

From 1705 onwards, the well was leased, but the sovereign continued to exert a strong influence on the use of the water. Between 1715 and 1722, construction work and tree planting were carried out according to the plans of the court architect Philipp Honorius von Ravensteyn , who was the Elector of Trier , in order to improve the hygienic conditions at the well and the appearance of the entire place. Since 1720 there is evidence of a military well guard, for which the commander of the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress was responsible. The reason for this is likely to have been the increased claims made by the House of Nassau on the fountain. In the middle of the 18th century there were repeated disputes between Kurtrier and Nassau, in which both the border between the two territories, which ran close to the fountain, played a role, as well as competition with the newly discovered Nassau spring at Diez , customs and blockades of the Lahn shipping through Nassau.

In 1734 an early mass was set up at the church in Niederselters in order to enable the water bottling staff, some of whose work began at 4 a.m., to attend mass on Sundays and public holidays. In 1742 further construction work was carried out on the well system. In 1753 the elector took the fountain into the administration of the court chamber , in 1755 he appointed a fountain doctor to ensure the hygiene during the bottling process and to look after the spa guests. In the second half of the 18th century, shipping made an annual profit of up to 50,000 Reichstalers. In 1776 a new building campaign began. Among other things, a partly two-storey half-timbered building is being built for well management, guard and storage of pitch to close the jugs. In addition, three avenues were laid out and the local section of the new country road between Limburg and Bad Camberg was laid out. From this time, customers in Scandinavia, Russia, North America, Africa and Batavia, today's Jakarta , are proven. In particular to protect the spring, a barracks was built in the village from 1789 to 1792, which was manned by a 25-man hunter unit .

In 1784 a mineral spring broke in the neighboring but Nassau Oberselters , which led to a decrease in the amount of water in Niederselters. In the following years there were initially written disputes between the two principalities. In 1794 Nassau first had the source drilled and then Kurtrier had an 800-man military unit with two cannons deployed in front of Oberselters, forcing the Oberselters source to be filled in. After both places were incorporated into Nassau-Weilburg in 1803 , the Oberselterser reopened their source, which again sparked disputes between the two places. In the following year Oberselters had to close the spring again. Mineral water has only been extracted and marketed there since 1870.

Mineral water jug ​​from the spring in Niederselters from the 19th century

In Niederselters the economic success of the springs in Nassau-Weilburg continued. They were directed by the well director Heinrich Ludwig Schimper, who had been working there since Kurtrier times. The spa operation was discontinued on the instructions of the Weilburg court chamber and the park was largely built on with houses, the position of the late well doctor Dr. Coels was deleted. The aim was to ensure undisturbed bottling, but above all to direct the spa guests to Bad Ems and the future Wiesbaden residence. In order to further promote sales, the road between Niederselters and the official seat of Limburg was built by forced labor, sometimes under the threat of armed violence. After a sovereign Nassau state emerged in the course of the unification of Nassau-Usingen and Nassau-Weilburg as a result of the Rhine Confederation Act in 1806, all mineral springs of the Duchy of Nassau were centrally managed in Wiesbaden. This was reflected in the appearance of the jugs by replacing the "NW" for "Nassau Weilburg" that had been read there since the takeover by Nassau by "HN" for "Duchy of Nassau". In 1830, the administration of all Nassau mineral fountains in Niederselters was combined in the ducal fountain comptoir. The shipping of water became the largest source of income for the Duke's private budget and generated profits of more than 100,000 guilders at times. After the annexation of Nassau by Prussia in 1866, the water became Königlich-Selters . Until 1871 the fountain was the top-selling fountain in Germany, but lost this position to Apollinaris with the establishment of glass bottles as a means of transport for mineral water. From 1894 to 1945, the Siemens Erben company leased the well. In 1907 the well house that still exists today was built. After the end of the monarchy in 1918, the source was called Staatsquelle Niederselters .

The state of Hesse, as the legal successor to Prussia, leased the source to the Lehnig company from Eschwege after the Second World War. In 1970 the company bought the plant from the state of Hesse and shortly thereafter sold it to the French brewery Kronenbourg . In 1976 the Herrenhausen brewery from Hanover became the owner, in 1990 a subsidiary of the Binding brewery , which was already selling a mineral water of the same name from a much younger spring in Selters an der Lahn and which then also relocated its lemonade production to Niederselters. The supraregional distribution of the name-defining seltzer from Niederselters was discontinued, in 1999 the bottling at the fountain in Niederselters ended completely. The municipality of Selters has owned the spring since 2001, but as a result of a non-competition agreement with Binding AG, it is only allowed to serve house drinks there , i.e. H. Pour the well water on site.

On June 26, 2011, the restored "Selters Mineralbrunnen", consisting of the historical well temple, the Selterswassermuseum , the house drink facility, the park, the event rooms and the crèche was inaugurated. The mineral fountain is part of the overall Geopark Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus concept . House drinks are also granted there again.

Territorial history and administration

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

Population development

Occupied population figures are:

  • 1659: 19 men
  • 1683: 37 fireplaces
  • 1738: 82 men and six widows
  • 1787: 636 inhabitants
  • 1885: 93 Protestant, 1,379 Catholic inhabitants
Niederselters: Population from 1834 to 2017
year     Residents
1834
  
 974
1840
  
 1,140
1846
  
 1,290
1852
  
 1,376
1858
  
 1,375
1864
  
 1,471
1871
  
 1,351
1875
  
 1,596
1885
  
 1,472
1895
  
 1,339
1905
  
 1,387
1910
  
 1,455
1925
  
 1,525
1939
  
 1,515
1946
  
 2,089
1950
  
 2.121
1956
  
 2.153
1961
  
 2.131
1967
  
 2,317
1970
  
 2,345
2002
  
 3,222
2012
  
 3,178
2017
  
 3,147
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: Selters community ( Internet archive )

Culture and sights

societies

  • DLRG local group Selters eV
  • Friends of the Central School Goldener Grund
  • Freiwillige Feuerwehr Niederselters eV, founded in 1884 (since January 1st 1971 with youth fire brigade)
  • History association "Goldener Grund" Niederselters
  • Catholic church choir "Cäcilia" Niederselters
  • Culture and History Association of Niederselters eV
  • Athletics Sportgemeinschaft Goldener Grund eV
  • Men's choir "Eintracht" 1862 eV Niederselters
  • Men's choir "Liederkranz" Niederselters 1897 eV
  • NABU bird protection group Niederselters eV
  • Fruit and horticultural association Niederselters 1971 eV
  • Racing pigeon breeding association "Sturm und Regen" eV
  • Sports club 1924 eV Niederselters
  • Taunusclub branch association Niederselters
  • Tennis Club Selters 1976 eV
  • Gymnastics Club Niederselters 1905 eV
  • VdK local group Niederselters
  • Association of Hundefreunde Goldener Grund eV
  • Traffic and Beautification Association Niederselters 1902 eV

Buildings

  • Old mineral well
  • Mary's Grotto
  • historical town hall
  • Fountain girl

  • Bridge over the Emsbach

  • Tower of the old church

  • Old church, seen from the northwest

  • Church of St. Christophorus from Brunnenstrasse

  • Church of St. Christophorus, seen from the northeast

  • Altar of the parish church of St. Christophorus

  • "Brunnenmaiden", memorial for the workers of the mineral spring

Economy and Infrastructure

Facilities

  • The voluntary fire brigade of Niederselters, founded in 1884 (since January 1st, 1971 with youth fire brigade ), provides fire protection and general help.
  • Central School Goldener Grund (elementary, secondary and secondary school)
  • Catholic public library of the Catholic parish "St. Christophorus"
  • Catholic kindergarten of the Catholic parish "St. Christophorus"

Freetime activities

  • sports ground
  • BBQ area
  • Children's playgrounds
  • Hiking trails
  • outdoor pool

traffic

The village has a stop at the Niederselters train station on the RMV line 20 ( Main-Lahn-Bahn ). Only regional trains stop here. In addition, Niederselters is on federal highway 8 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Niederselters  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Selters (Taunus) at a glance: Population figures HW , accessed on March 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ Law on the reorganization of the Limburg district and the Oberlahn district. (GVBl. II 330-25) of March 12, 1974 . In: The Hessian Minister of the Interior (ed.): Law and Ordinance Gazette for the State of Hesse . 1974 No. 5 , p. 101 , § 8 ( online at the information system of the Hessian state parliament [PDF; 809 kB ]).
  3. ^ 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 GmbH, Stuttgart and Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-17-003263-1 , p. 370 .
  4. ↑ Cf. Ulrich Eisenbach: Economic and social history of the Lower Elbe well operation up to the end of the Duchy of Nassau. Historical commission for Nassau  : Wiesbaden 1982. ISBN 978-3-922244-55-4 .
  5. ↑ a b From the Heilbrunnen in Niederselters a blessing gushed into the Princely House of Nassau. Home to Lahn and Dill No. 448 at the end of January 2002. Supplement to the Solms-Braunfelser Zeitung.
  6. ↑ NNP of June 27, 2011: "Monument for a World Water"
  7. ^ Website of the Seltzer Water Museum
  8. ↑ a b c Niederselters, Limburg-Weilburg district. Historical local dictionary for Hessen. (As of March 22, 2018). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  9. ^ 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).
  10. ↑ Information on the Niederselters outdoor pool