Siershahn

coat of arms	Germany map
	Coordinates: 50 ° 29 '  N , 7 ° 47'  E
Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Westerwaldkreis
Association municipality :	Wirges
Height :	290 m above sea level NHN
Area :	4.42 km 2
Residents:	2887 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	653 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	56427
Area code :	02623
License plate :	WW
Community key :	07 1 43 070
Association administration address:	Bahnhofstrasse 10 56422 Wirges
Website :	www.wirges.de
Local Mayor :	Alwin Scherz ( CDU )
Location of the local community Siershahn in the Westerwaldkreis

Siershahn is a municipality in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Wirges .

history

Local history

• Clay finds from the La Tène period around 400 BC Chr.
• first documented mention in 1211 as Sigarshagen

Agriculture dominated in Siershahn well into the 19th century, until the town established itself as a transport hub for the transport of clay and clay products from the Kannenbäckerland with the construction of the railway (1884) . The mine operators who mined clay around Siershahn had to undertake to build a stone and plate factory in Siershahn that processed two thirds of the clay mined in the surrounding area. Only residents of Siershahn were allowed to be employed as factory workers. So the little place grew rapidly. Between 1871 and 1905 the population doubled from just under 600 to over 1000. In 2008 the town had almost 3000 inhabitants.

In 1989 the Brexbachtalbahn , which opened in 1884 and connected the Westerwald with the Rhine Valley from Siershahn, was shut down. Since then, the clay has been transported by truck and via the Siershahn-Limburg railway line. By 2009, the first section of the Brexbachtalbahn from Siershahn to Grenzau was reactivated by an association of "rail enthusiasts". It leads through the beautiful valleys of the Brexbach and Masselach and is used exclusively for historical trips. In the end, the route should be accessible again to the original terminus in Engers (near Neuwied).

"Am Berggarten" prison camp

On May 13, 1945, the American occupation forces began expanding the “Am Berggarten” prison camp. Approx. 100 acres of agricultural land between Poststrasse and the Autobahn - including the Keramchemie plant - was surrounded by two-meter-high barbed wire fences. In the camp, 25,000 to 30,000 prisoners (former soldiers - including numerous disabled people, amputees - but also numerous civilians) were crammed into the open air.

On July 8, 1945, the camp was handed over to the French occupying forces. How the outside world experienced the camp is shown in a report by the “Count of Meran”, who visited the Keramchemie plant management on August 27, 1945: “ A look into the criss-cross fenced in with barbed wire and walkways surrounded by watchtowers , was a glimpse into misery and desolation. The earth from the railroad tracks to the top of the mountain was moved by people lying in the mud of the earth that had been turned into a swamp by the frequent downpours. An inferno that whoever saw it will never forget. It is unimaginable what hunger, disease and desperation caused thousands to experience on bare ground back then, and many people never left the camp alive. Shots rang out nonstop and it was life-threatening to approach the barbed wire. "

At the beginning of August 1945 the liquidation of the camp began. All those under 17 and over 40 years of age and not belonging to a Waffen SS or police formation were released. All the others were divided into marching blocks of 500 or 1000 men each and driven onto trucks and transported away. At the beginning of September 1945 the warehouse was half emptied, and daily truck transports went to the nearby Rhine meadow camp in Andernach . Soon afterwards they were loaded onto cattle wagons for onward transport to France.

In 1961, the state government, in cooperation with the Volksbund “Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge” (German War Graves Commission), set up a war cemetery for the dead of the camp at the Siershahn cemetery.

Population development

The development of the population of Siershahn, the values ​​from 1871 to 1987 are based on censuses:

year Residents 1815 391 1835 495 1871 580 1905 1,076 1939 1,736 1950 2,072

year Residents 1961 2,395 1970 2,650 1987 2,606 1997 2,679 2005 2,859 2019 2,887

religion

Most of the residents are Catholic. In the center of the village is the Catholic parish church Herz Jesu, which was completed in 1907.

The Catholic order of the poor servants of Jesus Christ ( abbreviation : ADJC ; also: Dernbacher Schwestern ) maintained the so-called St. Raphaelshaus in the village from October 24, 1926 to June 1, 1963. The sisters worked in outpatient nursing, in kindergarten and in the sewing school.

Around 350 residents are Protestant. 1961–1963 a Protestant church was built in Siershahn. On Easter Sunday 2009 the Evangelical Martin Luther Congregation said goodbye to its church in Siershahn with a last service. Since the structural quality of the church building was poor, the church leadership decided in August 2011 to demolish the church, which took place in spring 2012. There are also meeting rooms for the Alevi Community of Koblenz.

politics

Community center

Municipal council

The municipal council in Siershahn consists of 20 council members, who were elected in the local elections on May 26, 2019 in a personalized proportional representation, and the honorary local mayor as chairman.

The distribution of seats in the municipal council:

choice	CDU	FWG	BLS	total
2019	11	9	-	20 seats
2014	11	7th	2	20 seats
2009	9	8th	3	20 seats
2004	8th	8th	4th	20 seats

• FWG = Free Voting Group Siershahn e. V.
• BLS = Bürgerliste Siershahn e. V.

mayor

Alwin Scherz (CDU) became the local mayor of Siershahn on July 6, 2009. In the direct election on May 26, 2019, he was confirmed in his office for another five years with 63.70% of the vote.

Scherz's predecessor as local mayor was Gustav Böckling from 1987 to 2009.

coat of arms

The description of the coat of arms reads: “In a red and silver divided shield a wheel with eight spokes in confused colors (the center of the wheel on the dividing line equidistant from the side edges and from the lower edge of the shield), accompanied by two silver linden leaves at the top right and left Point in the respective corner of the shield. "

Culture and sights

Clay Mining Museum

Monuments

See the list of cultural monuments in Siershahn and the list of natural monuments in Siershahn .

Museums

• Clay Mining Museum

Economy and Infrastructure

Established businesses

The largest and most traditional company in Siershahn is STEULER-KCH GmbH , which has been managed by Steuler Holding GmbH from Höhr-Grenzhausen since 2010 (until 2010: Keramchemie or KCH Group GmbH ). After the Second World War , the factory premises were part of the Am Berggarten prison camp .

Educational and educational institutions

• Overberg Elementary School
• Mountain Garden School
• Catholic kindergarten

Public buildings

• Siershahn community center
• Grill hut at the water tower
• Multipurpose hall
• sports ground

traffic

• Road traffic

The next motorway junction is Ransbach-Baumbach on the A 3 Cologne - Frankfurt am Main , about two kilometers away. Siershahn has several bypass roads so that the trucks don't drive through the town as they used to.

Railcar departing from Siershahn station for Limburg

• Rail transport

Siershahn is located on the Unterwesterwaldbahn , on which the RB 29 line of the Hessian State Railway runs every hour according to the Rhineland-Palatinate cycle .

• There is a connection to long-distance rail traffic at Montabaur station on the high-speed route Cologne – Rhine / Main and in Koblenz Hauptbahnhof on the left Rhine route .
• From the bus station Montabaur / FOM there are regional bus connections in the direction of Koblenz, Westerburg , Rennerod , Bad Marienberg , Limburg and Hachenburg as well as long-distance bus lines to Cologne and Frankfurt.

Siershahn used to be an important railway junction between Limburg , Altenkirchen , Gießen and Cologne . With the exception of the connection to Limburg (RB 29) mentioned above and the Engers – Au railway line, which is partly operated by tourism , all rail connections have been shut down in the course of time.

Web links

• The local community Siershahn on the website of the Verbandsgemeinde Wirges

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, municipalities, association communities ( help on this ).
2. ↑ State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate - regional data
3. ^ Membership numbers of the Martin Luther parish in Wirges . Retrieved March 3, 2011.
4. ↑ History of the Protestant Church Siershahn . Retrieved March 3, 2011.
5. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal Council Election 2019 Siershahn. Retrieved July 1, 2020 . 
6. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: Municipal elections 2014, city and municipal council elections
7. ↑ ^{a b} Günther Endlein: On the way to the modern Siershahn. Local community Siershahn on the website of the Verbandsgemeinde Wirges, 2011, accessed on July 1, 2020 . 
8. ^ The State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. see Wirges, Verbandsgemeinde, ninth line of results. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .