Rixen

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Rixen (disambiguation) .

Rixen City of Brilon
Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 40 ″  N , 8 ° 30 ′ 22 ″  E
Height :	458 m above sea level NN
Area :	2.51 km²
Residents :	105  (Dec 31, 2019)
Population density :	42 inhabitants / km²
Incorporation :	1st January 1975
Postal code :	59929
Area code :	02961
Location of the village of Rixen within the urban area of ​​Brilon
Aerial view

Rixen

The village of Rixen is a north-western district of the city of Brilon in the North Rhine-Westphalian Hochsauerlandkreis , Germany . The municipality, which was independent until the end of 1974, had 105 inhabitants as of December 31, 2019, according to the city administration.

geography

Rixen is about 4.5 km northwest of the city center on the old trade route between Brilon and Soest , the so-called Soestweg. The place itself is located on a small watercourse that flows into the Glenne about 750 m west of the village . It is surrounded at an altitude of 460 to 494  m above sea level. NN lying village of up to 519 m high elevations.

Neighboring towns are Scharfenberg , about 2 km to the northeast, Esshoff, 2.8 km to the south-west, and Altenbüren , located 2.9 km to the south . The city center of Brilon is about 5 km southeast of Rixen. An extensive forest area extends northeast of Rixen, behind which lies the Rüthen district of Kallenhardt, 6.7 km as the crow flies .

history

Rixen was directly on the Soestweg , an old trade route between the cities of Soest and Brilon, which were important in the Middle Ages . The place was first mentioned in a document in 1313 as Richwardinchusen in the property register of the Count of Arnsberg. A Tilmann von Richwardeshusen is mentioned as a judge in Brilon 1347. In the following years the place was desolate several times . It is documented that the place belonged to the Briloner Mark in 1482 and that all meadows and fields that were cultivated were subject to a fee to Soest because of the Brilon Church. The Thirty Years War also forced the residents to leave their village in 1634. After that the village lay desolate for 18 years. Three householders settled in 1652, by 1837 the settlement had grown to 17 houses with 106 inhabitants through farming and cattle farming.

Rixen was originally owned by the Counts of Arnsberg . The place was lent to the Counts of Honrode from near Soest. The sex is extinct.

After the dissolution of the Electorate of Cologne , Rixen came together like the rest of the Duchy of Westphalia in 1802 to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and in 1816 to Prussia . In 1837 Rixen was assigned to the Thülen office as an independent municipality .

From January 1945 there were air raids in Rixen almost every day. On March 25, 1945 a staff of the Organization Todt (OT) was transferred to the village and Rixen now resembled an army camp. When the capture of Brilon by US troops was reported on March 29, the OT column left shortly afterwards in the direction of Paderborn, only to return soon, as US tanks were discovered on the Möhneburg – Alme road. During the night they marched off towards Rüthen. On March 30th, a company of the Volkssturm Freikorps Sauerland from the Arnsberg-Neheim area appeared to defend Rixen. At the same time, German soldiers, German evacuees and foreign prisoners scattered through the village. The next day, 30 Wehrmacht soldiers reinforced the Volkssturm. On the first day of Easter, April 1st, two US motorcycles drove briefly into the village and then disappeared again without the Volkssturm guard responding. On the second day of Easter, light US artillery bombarded the area around the village. At 3 p.m. the Volkssturm withdrew in the direction of Esshoff. Around 3:30 p.m. US troops with tanks reached Rixen, where they drove across the field to avoid the roadblocks. The German soldiers opened fire with the machine gun and also used bazookas. The armed forces were forced out of the village until darkness fell. Some German soldiers were taken prisoner. Several buildings were also damaged or caught fire. US units stayed in the village for a week and shelled the forest to the north, as US troops suspected tanks and Waffen SS there . It was not until April 8 that US soldiers combed the forest to the north with tanks and later moved away. A number of prisoners from the Wehrmacht, Volkssturm and Reich Labor Service were made. Because of the adjacent large forest area with hiding places, US strips repeatedly appeared in the village. That is why there was no looting of former prisoners in Rixen as in many other villages in the Sauerland. A guard of three, later two, men with clubs was also allowed to be set up in the village. This guard was given white armbands and U.S. ID cards.

In the Second World War , three people from Rixen died as soldiers, and one died in 1942 in Soviet captivity.

After the end of the war, the influx of refugees from the eastern regions became a major problem. In 1945 the entrepreneur Schröder founded a factory in two halls. In the short term, around 25 jobs were created in the then 160 inhabitant village. Almost every family had a member of Schröder's wages and salaries. Even after the currency reform , sleeve and ironing boards , insoles made of felt, forest moss and cork were still made. Retail companies such as Kaufhof and Karstadt were among the buyers.

In the course of the municipal reorganization in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rixen lost this independence and on January 1, 1975 became a district of Brilon.

politics

coat of arms

Blazon : In blue, five silver roses arranged in a wreath with red clusters and sepals. Description: The five roses are taken from the coat of arms of the Lords of Honrode, who were fiefdoms of the Counts of Arnsberg in Rixen. The feudal sovereignty of the Counts of Arnsberg is indicated by the colors blue and silver. The official approval took place on February 23, 1954.

Culture and sights

Hubertus Chapel

Hubertus Chapel

The chapel, inaugurated in 1987, designed by the sculptor and painter Ernst Suberg from Elleringhausen , is well worth seeing . After Suberg's death, his son Jürgen continued the work. The chapel was financed almost exclusively by donations and contributions by the people of Rixen.

Resurrection Cross

The new Resurrection Cross, erected on the Woltenberg in 1992, was designed by the sculptor Jürgen Suberg from a single oak trunk and is therefore connected to the Hubertus Chapel already mentioned. The cross is a fork and victory cross. The V-shaped rising arms symbolize the symbol for Victorie (victory). This is a traditional form from Romanesque art. Christ is depicted in a victorious manner.

literature

• Hugo Cramer: The district of Brilon in the Second World War 1939–1945 - reports from many employees from all over the district. Josefs-Druckerei, Bigge 1955.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Population statistics on December 31, 2019. (PDF) City of Brilon, December 31, 2019, accessed on March 27, 2020 (10.8 kB).  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Topographic map 1: 25,000
3. ↑ Heinz Hillebrand: Briloner Heimatbuch, Volume II
4. ^ Josef Rüther: Local history of the Brilon district. P. 369
5. ↑ Heinz Hillebrand: Briloner Heimatbuch, Volume II, p. 21
6. ^ Heinz Hillebrand: Briloner Heimatbuch, Volume II, p. 22
7. ↑ List of goods from the years 1281-1313
8. ^ Hugo Cramer: The district of Brilon in the Second World War 1939-1945 . 1955, section Rixen, pp. 61-63.
9. ^ Hugo Cramer: The district of Brilon in the Second World War 1939-1945 . 1955, honor roll section Rixen, p. 243.
10. ↑ Bernd Schulte: From the archives of the Sauerland, volume 1. Podszun Verlag, Brilon, ISBN 3-923448-78-3 , pp. 23, 24
11. ^ 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. 332 .
12. ^ Eduard Belke, Alfred Bruns, Helmut Müller: Communal coats of arms of the Duchy of Westphalia. Arnsberg 1986, ISBN 3-87793-017-4 , p. 180
13. ↑ Briloner Heimatbuch, Volume II, p. 25

Web links

• Information from the city of Brilon