Obermiebach (Much)

Obermiebach Much parish Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 0 ″  N , 7 ° 25 ′ 52 ″  E
Height :	290–305 m above sea level NHN
Residents :	9  (Dec 31, 2013)
Postal code :	53804
Area code :	02245
Location of Obermiebach in Much

Obermiebach ( Hommersch O'evermi'ebich) is a village in the municipality of Much in the Rhein-Sieg district in the administrative district of Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia ( Germany ).

Geographical location and description

Obermiebach is located around 4.5 km (as the crow flies ) north-northwest of the core town of Much near Drabenderhöhe , a village in the nearby town of Wiehl . The Locher Siefen rises above the village , which is called Miebach in the lower course and is the northwestern source stream of the Wahnbach . The highest point at Obermiebach, which is about 290 to 305  m above sea level. NHN is located at 383.4  m above sea level. NHN on the nearby in the forest area tail located Heckberg . The hamlet consists of 3 residential buildings and several stables and is characterized by agriculture.

history

The small hamlet was probably founded as a clearing yard during the expansion phase between 1000 and 1100.

Obermiebach was first mentioned in a document in 1559 in the list of “horse and barge services in the Windeck district” as “Offer Medebach”. Thys Johengen and Hynrich are named as taxpayers. Obermiebach had 2 households at that time. In 1653 the place is referred to in the Much church registers as "Over Meybach" and in 1664 as "in der Meybach".

The place name comes from the Siefen Miebach, who walks past the outskirts. In the Obermiebacher Flur this is known as Locher Siefen and only from the middle course of the stream in the former Pfaffenscheider Flur does it become a Miebach.

In the word Miebach there is the Old High German meit , which means small or crippled. The place name is therefore derived from the "small" stream.

Originally there was probably only one place in Miebach. When a second town was founded, the distinction between Ober- and Niedermiebach arose. Which of the two settlements is the place of origin cannot be precisely determined. Both settlements existed in 1559. However, one can assume that Obermiebach is this place of origin, as it is located in a protected spring basin and the stream also runs directly past the hamlet. The old Niedermiebach is a bit away from the watercourse. Obermiebach also carried the designation “in der Meybach” without the addition “Ober”. Niedermiebach has always been mentioned in the church records as "in the Nieder Meybach". The spoken dialect is the homburger Platt ( hommersch ), as it is also spoken in Drabenderhöhe. One also says next to O'evermi'ebich, "in de Mi'ebich".

The former mill, which stood there directly on the lower reaches of the Miebach, was only built much later in the second half of the 19th century.

The old trade route on the Brüderstraße from Cologne to Siegen ran above the town at the height between Heckberg and Löher Kopf.

Residents

The first inhabitants of Obermiebach recorded in the Much church registers were the family of Christian and Adelheid Frings. Christian Frings is mentioned as early as 1653 and died in 1666. The family was Catholic and belonged to the Mucher parish. Christian Frings must have been quite wealthy, as he was able to exempt himself from the tithe obligation to the noblewoman and liege of Mucher's tithe, Ermund von Wylich zu Combach, with a one-off payment in 1661 . Since then, Obermiebach has been a Freihof.

His son Rörich Frings married Gertrud in 1671, the daughter of Moritz Scherer, shift supervisor of the iron mine in Oberkaltenbach, and Maria Margaretha von Markelsbach, an heiress of the aristocratic court at Gerlinghausen.

The Kauert family appeared in Obermiebach for the first time in 1663. A Peter Kauert is the godfather of Albert Kauert from Verr. Peter Kauert is presumably a brother of the surveyor and jury member Dietrich Kauert, who, together with his father and mountain bailiff Christian Kauert, is the founder of the widely ramified Kauert family and who influenced the fortunes of mining in Oberberg.

In the Bergische homage list from 1731, the three heads of household, the alder Moritz Willmund, Gerhard Frings and Johannes Kauert are named.

Evangelical families can be found in Obermiebach since the 17th century. The aforementioned Peter Kauert came from the evangelical Kauert family from Büddelhagen. A Heinrich Niederhof from Obermiebach was buried in Drabenderhöhe in 1729. He seems to have moved from Niederhof near Drabenderhöhe. After all, a Johannes Kauert lives in Obermiebach in 1724. He is a son of the mine director Peter Kauert, who founded the mine “the fifteen lion piles” in Oberkaltenbach. The descendants of the Kauert family still live in Obermiebach today.

The house of the Willmund, Frings and Kauert families still exists today and has an entrance portal with a round arch in which the year 1763 is engraved.

religion

In 1687 there was a denominational conflict between the Lordship of Homburg and the Catholic parish of Much. The incumbent Pastor Rose reported that Catholics who had been hindered in practicing their religion often moved to Much. In order to give those who stayed behind in Homburg the opportunity to meet the demands of their faith, the pastor Rose got Duke Johann Wilhelm von Berg through that the Protestants in the parish of Much do not seek baptisms, copulations or funerals from a Protestant pastor in the county of Homburg were allowed to demand the same from a Catholic clergyman as long as the Homburg Catholics were denied. Corresponding instructions were sent from Windeck to the mayor Saur in Much on April 24, 1687. Violation threatened the Protestant with a fine of 40 florins. The residents of Scheidt and Obermiebach protested and then turned to the Homburg synod, which replied on July 27, 1687 that the Homburg preachers knew nothing of such a ban in the county of Homburg. The matter developed so that the pastor of Much and the Homburg preachers insisted on their fees at baptisms and funerals. This gave rise to mutual accusations each time. At least around 1700 it had been achieved that the Catholics in Homburg could be provided with the sacraments of the death. The directive later had the consequence that mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics were avoided. The Protestant residents of Scheidt and Obermiebach must at least have defied the instruction and later successfully enforced it, since baptisms, weddings and funerals from this time are recorded in the church register at Drabenderhöhe. Presumably, however, also played a role that the Reformed pastor of Drabenderhöhe, Johannes Haas, had his residence in Pfaffenscheid, which politically belonged to the parish Much and thus prevailed against Pastor Rose and his possible attempt to recatholize the Reformed in the Much parish .

Due to the topographical conditions, the hamlet always remained very small with few inhabitants and houses. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the place was mixed denominational Protestant Reformed and Roman Catholic. The Catholics belonged to the Mucher and the Evangelicals to the Drabenderhöher parish. The Catholics emigrated and it remained a purely evangelical place. The population figures show: In 1809 30 people lived in the village, 6 of them Reformed. 1817 25 people, 1828 28 people, 1843 34 people in 5 houses, all Protestant, 1861 40 people, all Protestant, 1868 35 people, 1885 27 people in 6 households. In 1900 there were 24 people in 7 households (heads of household: Eduard Kauert, Christian Lutter, Johann Peter Prinz, Peter Prinz, Wilhelmine Prinz, Albrecht Witscher, Wilhelm Witscher). In 2009 there were still 12 people living in 3 households in Obermiebach. Politically, Obermiebach belonged in a peripheral location to the Duchy of Berg, Amt Windeck and Miebach also became the name of the honor in which the hamlet was located. Honschaft is the term used to describe the tenth districts of the churches in which localities are grouped together for tax purposes. After the dissolution of the old territorial areas, the French made Obermiebach a Mairie in 1808 and later a Prussian mayor and an exclusively Catholic community of Much. But the Protestant residents always felt connected to the Protestant neighboring community of Drabenderhöhe. Therefore, the residents of Obermiebach, as well as the neighboring towns of Scheidt and Pfaffenscheid and the Miebacher Mühle, applied for a settlement from Much and incorporation into Drabenderhöhe on December 5, 1924.

The head of households in Obermiebach, Christian Lutter, Albrecht Witscher, August Kauert, Peter Krämer and Albrecht Lutter supported and signed the application.

In 1932, after 8 years with many disputes between the communities of Drabenderhöhe on the one hand and the communities of Much and Engelskirchen on the other, the districts Scheidt, Pfaffenscheid and Drabenderhöhe were politically united into one place. Obermiebach was not taken into account by this solution and this meant a very unsatisfactory situation for the residents. In 1933, Dr. Hermann Lutter, Mayor of the municipality of Drabenderhöhe, again to the matter and tried with arguments to reach out to Obermiebach and the mill. This was unsuccessful, however, because the new National Socialist government had no interest in further border changes and the municipality of Much, as in previous years, vehemently opposed giving up further areas and residents to Drabenderhöhe. This condition has been preserved until today.

Mining

The mining in the area was characteristic of the families living in Obermiebach. Not far away are the former Silberkaule pits in the rear and Aurora between Oberdorf and Niedermiebach. Archaeological investigations have shown that the Silberkaule with lead, zinc and iron ore mining was already in operation in the Middle Ages. There was evidence of a miners' settlement there . The shafts destroyed the now superfluous Landwehr , which had been built to protect the Silberkaule. Mining was mainly done through shafts. The only tunnel that was used for ventilation and drainage of the pits opened in the area of ​​the former mining settlement Silberkaule. The ore was smelted in the Verrer Hütte on the upper Loopebach. Ceramic finds date this raft furnace to the 16th century. In the 17th century the mining operation was given up for the first time. After 1870 the "Silberkaule" was put back into operation. A mine that reached about 200 meters into the ground was built - with three shafts, conveyor tunnels and ore processing. The mine was an important employer for half a century. A small mining settlement developed in which whole families lived. But since the ground no longer seemed to hold any treasures towards the end of the 19th century, it was closed again. When the mining operations were stopped, the Obersteigerhaus in Silberkaule was moved to Obermiebach in 1896. The Aurora mine was commissioned as a Bley and silver mine, the narrow Kaule, in 1745 by Conrad Pütter, a foundry owner from Unterkaltenbach. The Essen mine director W. Niesen, representative of the Aurora union , operated the mine around 1850, which he had opened up with a tunnel and shaft. Although he built another tunnel over the years of operation and sank an additional shaft, Niesen went bankrupt with his company in 1877. After a short shutdown, mining on Aurora was resumed in 1880 by the English West Prussian Mining Company . Around 100 miners were employed at the Aurora mine until it was closed in 1889. After another shutdown, mining at Wellerscheid started again around 1898/99. A mining boom was experienced under director W. Thilmany. Extensive work underground and above ground made the mine the largest employer and taxpayer in the community. More than 200 miners worked on the plant at peak times. In 1913 the mine had to cease operations.

Holy House

The holy house is at the crossroads to Niedermiebach.

According to oral tradition, it was built in the 16th century, i.e. at the time of the Reformation, and consecrated to St. Donatus . Drabenderhöhe is said to have been a Catholic when the regular liturgical processions took the faithful to Niedermiebach from here. During one of these processions, the pastor declared that he was converting to the Protestant faith. This happened at the place where the holy house was built in memory of it as a reminder.

This landmark was later threatened by the mining of the neighboring Aurora Pit. Tunnels from the nearby lead mine were driven in all directions, which then partially destroyed the holy house by shifting the surfaces. In 1908 it was repaired again. It was built in brick, received a deep arched niche and a gable roof. In 1980 there was another renovation by the residents.

Hiking and biking trails

The A3 and A7 hiking trails lead past the northern outskirts.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Our Much from A – Z - Obermiebach ( Memento from November 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

swell

• Church book of the community Drabenderhöhe
• Archives of the Much community
• Population according to information from the municipality of Much
• Main State Archive Düsseldorf, Jülich-Berg II - Privy Council and Secret Chancellery