Reichenberg (Rhineland-Palatinate)

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 10 '  N , 7 ° 46'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Rhein-Lahn district
Association municipality :	Loreley
Height :	190 m above sea level NHN
Area :	3.23 km 2
Residents:	171 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	53 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	56357
Area code :	06771
License plate :	EMS, DIZ, GOH
Community key :	07 1 41 114
Association administration address:	Dolkstrasse 3 56346 St. Goarshausen
Website :	www.reichenberg-rlp.de
Local Mayor :	Karl Heinz Goerke (independent)
Location of the municipality of Reichenberg in the Rhein-Lahn district

Reichenberg is a municipality in the Rhein-Lahn district in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Loreley , which has its administrative headquarters in St. Goarshausen .

geography

Reichenberg is located near the Loreley approx. 2 km as the crow flies from the Rhine . The place extends in a valley around the castle Reichenberg . The three brooks Hasenbach (Bogeler Bach), Reitzenhainer Bach and Forstbach cut through the district. In the southern part of the district there is a slightly undulating field at a height of 270 to 320  m above sea level. NHN .

Almost 20% of the district is forested, 75% is used as arable land and grassland. The location covers approx. 0.14 km².

The community belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley .

history

Katzenelnbogen rule (1319–1479)

The first documentary mention took place in 1319 in connection with the building permit for the castle. There was a valley settlement of craftsmen, day laborers and workers. City rights were granted in 1324. Due to the early death of the client, Count Wilhelm I, in 1331, the original building plans were not carried out. In the partition agreement of 1352, the settlement in the valley (dale) was awarded to the son Wilhelm II . In 1380 the chapel was added and the altar consecrated to the church that still exists today. On July 28, 1479, Philip I the Elder, the last count of Katzenelnbogen, died. Reichenberg fell to the Landgraves of Hesse.

Hessian rule (1479–1806)

The lines Hessen-Kassel, Hessen-Darmstadt and Hessen-Rothenburg determined the fortunes of Reichenberg from then on. At the end of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the castle was besieged and stormed in 1647. The church was not rebuilt until 1737. The Reichenberg children went to school in Patersberg until 1841 . In November 1806, the area of ​​the former Lower Counties and later Hessian offices, such as Reichenberg (also known as Thalreichenbach), was occupied and administered by French troops ( pays réservé ). This state of affairs lasted until the Wars of Liberation .

Duchy of Nassau (1816–1866)

In 1816 Reichenberg came to the Duchy of Nassau and was now administered according to the Duchy-Nassau municipal code. From 1848 the administration was in the hands of the municipal council. Minutes and lists of citizens are available from this time. From 1846, today's B 274 was built as "Chaussee 2 ter Classe" from St. Goarshausen through the Hasenbach valley towards Bogel . After the end of the German-German War between Prussia and Austria in 1866, the duchy and thus Reichenberg were annexed by Prussia.

Prussia (1867-1918)

After the Duchy of Nassau was dissolved in 1866, Reichenberg became part of the Kingdom of Prussia . It became part of the Prussian province of Hessen-Nassau in the administrative district of Wiesbaden . In 1899 the Nassauische Kleinbahn, built from 1898 onwards from St. Goarshausen, reached Reichenberg. In 1904 the new school was inaugurated in Untertal. Until 1965 the Reichenberg children went to this one-class elementary school . Today the building is used as a village community center. In 1913 Reichenberg received electric light. Eight fellow citizens died in the First World War.

Weimar Republic

After the end of the First World War, first American and then French troops occupied the Rhineland. Reichenberg also belonged to this zone of occupation. The French withdrew in the autumn of 1929.

In 1921 a simple memorial was built west of the evangelical castle church in which the names of the eight fallen soldiers are carved. In 1923 part of the fields of the Offenthal state domain was given to farmers from Reichenberg. In 1927 the construction of the water pipeline in Reichenberg began.

1933 to 1945

According to the new municipal constitution law that came into force on December 15, 1933, the mayor decided that the municipal council only had an advisory function and did not meet publicly. The democratic administrative reforms that had been laboriously achieved since 1848 were rendered obsolete by this law. Despite various Allied attacks with incendiary and high-explosive bombs in 1943, the crash of an American B-25 bomber near Hof Offenthal in 1944 and the bombardment, especially of the castle hill, by American artillery units from the other side of the Rhine in 1945, there were none to complain about great destruction or losses in the civilian population. However, a total of 18 Reichenbergers did not return from the Second World War . A plaque that was placed in front of the existing memorial commemorates them.

On 26./27. March 1945 Reichenberg was captured by US troops.

After 1945

Aerial view of Reichenberg.

In the course of the land consolidation in 1953, the field was reorganized. The urban area was not touched because of the difficult ownership situation. In 1965 the one-class elementary school was closed . The children first went to St. Goarshausen, and later to the newly built center school in St. Goarshausen-Heide. In the course of the administrative reform in 1972 Reichenberg was assigned to the Loreley community, which has since taken over the administrative business. In the same year the visible landmark of the castle, the second castle tower, collapsed. In 1980/81 the former school was converted into a village community center. The local population performed more than 2000 hours of voluntary work. The municipal council decided on street names in 1982, replacing the consecutive numbering of houses that had existed until then. 1983 Reichenberg received a coat of arms. The depiction only makes historical reference to the Katzenelnbogen count house with its heraldic animal and the original view of the castle. In 1997 Reichenberg was canalized, with the exception of five outdoor plots, since then the wastewater has been fed to the sewage treatment plant in the Pulsbach. The chronicle "Reichenberg village and castle in the Taunus" was completed by Karl Willi Hebel at the end of 2000 and published by the community. On January 1, 2003, an exchange of land between the municipalities of Bornich and Reichenberg came into force, which created the necessary conditions for the independent leasing of the Reichenberger Jagd.

Population development

Since Reichenberg had little room for expansion due to its location in a narrow valley below the castle, the population developed only very slowly and reached a peak of just under 300 inhabitants.

population

The current population is 173 (February 29, 2020).

age structure

The average age has risen dramatically in recent years. The proportion of residents aged 60 and over is now over 40%.

The following overview shows the age structure as of February 29, 2020:

Age from - to	0-9	10-19	20-39	40-59	Over 60	total
population	3	16	33	51	70	173
Percentage	1.7	9.2	19.1	29.5	40.4	100.0

politics

Municipal council

The local council in Reichenberg consists of six council members, who were elected in the local elections on May 26, 2019 in a majority vote, and the honorary local mayor as chairman. In the constituent meeting on July 5, 2019, the municipal council elected Bettina Klein as a further alderman. She has no voting rights in the Council.

mayor

Local mayor of Reichenberg has been Karl Heinz Goerke (independent) since 2004. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was re-elected with 77.48% of the vote.

Economy and Infrastructure

Reichenberg is on the B 274 between Sankt Goarshausen and Nastätten . The county road 90 leads through the community itself. The next motorway connection can be reached via the ferry St. Goarshausen - St. Goar in Pfalzfeld . The A 61 leads in the north towards Koblenz / Niederrhein and in the south to the Hockenheimring .

The next train station is in St. Goarshausen. Buses mainly run as school or kindergarten buses to the schools in St. Goarshausen and Nastätten . There are also regular call line trips (ALFA) that have to be ordered two hours in advance.

The cycle path from St. Goarshausen to Zollhaus leads past Reichenberg on the former small railway embankment.

Reichenberg is characterized by agriculture. However, only one conventional and one organic full-time farm still exist. There are also two larger part-time businesses. Various independent service providers work mostly from home. Otherwise there are no jobs in Reichenberg.

Reichenberg has no shop or restaurant. Daily necessities have to be bought in St. Goarshausen or Nastätten. This also applies to medical care.

Culture and sights

Reichenberg Castle

In a document dated August 10, 1319, Archbishop Baldewin von Trier authorizes Count Wilhelm I of Katzenelnbogen to build a castle on the "richenberch" mountain. The castle Reichenberg served the Wegsicherung of the older Katzenelnbogen Rheinfels (1245) in the county. Due to the early death of Count Wilhelm I and the partition contract of 1352, the castle never reached the originally planned size.

Reichenberg Castle on an old postcard from 1899

Reichenberg Castle before 1964

Reichenberg Castle 2004

Protestant church

In the first phase of construction of the castle there was already a chapel room in the extended shield wall. At its current location, the church was built in 1380 under Wilhelm II . As early as 1538, the church became the property of the Protestant parish, but ownership of the outer walls ended. In the Thirty Years War the church was almost completely destroyed. In 1737/38 it was restored to its proper condition, a plaque with a Latin inscription still tells of this renovation. In 1792 the church above the altar received the present organ, but this was moved to the opposite side in 1963 during the last major renovation.

Evangelical Church from the West

Evangelical Church from the southeast

Interior with organ gallery

Renovation in 1737/38

Roman road

Hessenstrasse or Römerstrasse runs through the district . It led from Trier via a Rheinfurt near St. Goarshausen to Kassel . In the vicinity of the refuge, a short stretch has been exposed and given a marker.

exposed piece

Clue stone

See also

• List of cultural monuments in Reichenberg

literature

• Magnus Backes: Reichenberg Castle in the Taunus (Rheinische Kunststätten issue 2/1971), Neuss, 1971.
• Karl Willi Hebel: Reichenberg village and castle in the Taunus (publisher of the Reichenberg municipality), Reichenberg, 2000.
• Rainer Kunze: Castle policy and castle construction of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen (German Castle Association, issue 3), Braubach 1969

Web links

Commons : Reichenberg  - Collection of Images

• Internet presence of the municipality of Reichenberg
• Local community Reichenberg on the website of the Verbandsgemeinde Loreley
• regionalgeschichte.Net of the Institute for Historical Regional Studies at the University of Mainz e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} EWOISneu online municipal statistics of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal statistics AGS 0714109114. Retrieved on April 13, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Local election Rhineland-Palatinate 2019, local council .
4. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Loreley, Verbandsgemeinde, 16th line of results. Retrieved November 2, 2019 . 
5. ↑ s. more History of the castle on the website of the community Reichenberg and Burg Reichenberg bei Burg directly ; accessed January 27, 2017.
6. ↑ s. further: history of the church on the website of the community Reichenberg ; accessed January 27, 2017.