Rocherath-Krinkelt

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Rocherath-Krinkelt
Rocherath-Krinkelt (Liège)
Rocherath-Krinkelt
Rocherath-Krinkelt
State : BelgiumBelgium Belgium
Region : Wallonia
Province : Liege
District : Verviers
Municipality : Büllingen
Coordinates : 50 ° 26 '  N , 6 ° 18'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 26 '  N , 6 ° 18'  E
Residents: 907 pop.
Height: 640  m
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Church “St. John the Baptist ”in Rocherath-Krinkelt

Rocherath-Krinkelt is a double village , it has been part of the municipality of Büllingen , in the German-speaking community of Belgium , since the municipal merger in 1977 . Rocherath has 499, Krinkelt 409 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2016).

geography

The village, which consists of the districts Rocherath (in the dialect Róchert ) and Krinkelt ( Krénkelt ), is located in the Belgian part of the Eifel , not far from the German border at an altitude of about 650  m . Rocherath is, roughly on a par with the neighboring village of Mürringen, one of the two highest villages in Belgium. From northwest to east it is surrounded by large forest areas. Very close there is the NATO - military training area Elsenborn and the places Wirtzfeld , Mürringen , Büllingen and on the German side courtyards and Hollerath . Rocherath-Krinkelt is located in the German - Belgian nature park Hohes Venn-Eifel , whose valleys - especially the Schwalmbachtal , also known as Perlenbachtal , and the Oleftal - are designated nature reserves. The so-called daffodil meadows bloom here in spring .

history

Krinkelt is the older part of the twin village, probably founded around the 8th or 9th century. From the 12th century, some people from Krinkel settled in the nearby forest, especially when the Europe-wide plague epidemic also reached the northern Eifel in the middle of the 14th century . Further clearing soon resulted in a new village that was named Rocherath, probably based on the plague saint Rochus of Montpellier († 1327). Over the years, the “twin villages” soon grew together into a community.

The Roche Rather and Krinkelter had the castle Bütgenbach Frondienste afford was to these 1,689 destroyed by French troops. As residents of the Büllingen court, they still belonged to the feudal lordship of Sankt Vith , which in turn was part of the Duchy of Luxembourg until 1794/95 (which was under the Habsburgs from 1482, who ruled from Spain from 1555 and from Austria from 1713). After 20 years of service to France ( Département Ourthe ) was the area from the Vienna Congress slammed the Kingdom of Prussia ( administrative district of Aachen , circle Malmedy ), which in turn was in 1871 part of the German Empire.

After the First World War, Rocherath-Krinkelt came through the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 together with the cantons of Eupen and Malmedy as reparation to the Kingdom of Belgium (Province of Liège). During the Second World War, the local residents became German citizens again for more than four years, with all the consequences. From September 1944 the Belgian authorities took possession of the region again, but had to evade at short notice when the front returned from December 18, 1944 to January 31, 1945 ( Ardennes offensive ). In this short period of time, more than two thirds of all homes and the church were destroyed. Numerous residents lived in emergency shelters until the 1950s. As a result of the fighting, five US soldiers received the Medal of Honor .

At the local level, Rocherath-Krinkelt is administered from the neighboring village of Büllingen - except in the years 1922 to 1940 and 1944 to 1976 - when Rocherath-Krinkelt and the neighboring Wirtzfeld formed an independent municipality.

From a church perspective, the local region has been part of the Archdiocese of Cologne from the beginning . The Büllingen parish existed on site as early as the 9th century and was looked after by the Benedictines of the Stablo-Malmedy Abbey . From the 15th century it had its own pastor. Rocherath and Krinkelt have been an independent parish since 1803. Parish patron is St. John the Baptist . Until 1819 the new parish was under the diocese of Liège , then it came back to Cologne for around 100 years (Malmedy deanship from 1827). It has belonged to Liège again since 1921 (Büllingen deanery since 1968).

Buildings

Memorials in honor of the US divisions "Indianhead" (2nd ID) and "Checkerboard" (99th ID)

The chapel, built in 1704, was replaced in 1907 by a large neo-Gothic church, which was built on the old cattle market and was badly damaged in the winter of 1944/45 as a symbol of the fierce fighting at the front in and around Rocherath-Krinkelt. The neo-Romanesque church of St. John the Baptist , designed by the Verviers consortium of architects Gaston Marchot and Robert Busch, was built in its place from 1953 to 1954 . The German-Dutch artist Frans Griesenbrock made the large mural in the chancel and ten years later the Raeren artist André Blank made the new windows for the church. It stands at an altitude of 645  m , making it the highest church in Belgium.

Opposite the church are two memorial stones that commemorate the losses of the 2nd and 99th US Infantry Divisions in the defense of Rocherath-Krinkelt in December 1944. The Hasselpatt memorial north of the village on the edge of the forest , in which the remains of buried positions of the enemies of the time are shown, commemorates the victims of both sides.

Personalities

literature

  • Arnold Ortmanns: The Franconian royal court Büllingen . Aachen 1904.
  • William CC Cavanagh: Krinkelt-Rocherath: The Battle of the Twin Villages . Christopher Publishing House, Norwell, Mass. 1986, ISBN 0-8158-0435-0 (English).
  • Karl Gommes, Johannes Weber, Alfons Velz: Altes Land at work. The Königshof Büllingen in the rearview mirror of the time . Ed .: Festival committee “1200 years of Büllingen”. Aktuell-Verlag, St. Vith 1990.

The Rocherath-Krinkelt history group also published:

  • Hubert Jenniges, Karl-Joseph Drösch, Bernie Schmitz: community of fate in the shadow of the forest of three men . Insights into the past of Rocherath-Krinkelt . Self-published, Rocherath-Krinkelt (Büllingen) 1993, p. 290 .
  • In constant change. Rocherath-Krinkelt Parish, 1803–2003 . Eupen 2003, p. 380 .

Web links

Commons : Rocherath-Krinkelt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Households and residents of the municipality of Büllingen since January 1st, 1978. (PDF; 266 kB) (No longer available online.) Municipality of Büllingen, September 27, 2016, p. 7 , archived from the original on January 6, 2017 ; accessed on January 6, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.buellingen.be
  2. ^ All 20 Battle of the Bulge Medal of Honor Recipients . In: Joedemadio's WW2 History & Battlefield Blog . January 11, 2017 ( joedemadio.com [accessed April 9, 2017]).
  3. 100th birthday of André Blank: Rocherather church window. In: BRF Regiolnalnachrichten. February 24, 2014, accessed January 6, 2017 .