Sommerau (on the Ruwer)

Basic data
State :	Rhineland-Palatinate
County :	Trier-Saarburg
Association municipality :	Ruwer
Height :	194 m above sea level NHN
Area :	1.04 km 2
Residents:	68 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density :	65 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code :	54317
Area code :	06588
License plate :	TR, SAB
Community key :	07 2 35 129
Association administration address:	Untere Kirchstrasse 1 ; 54320 Waldrach
Mayoress :	Lydia Hemmerling
Location of the local community of Sommerau in the Trier-Saarburg district

Sommerau ( Moselle Franconian : Summera ) is the smallest local community of the Ruwer association in the Trier-Saarburg district in Rhineland-Palatinate . The castle ruin Sommerau is located in the village . The Ruwer with the Sommerau waterfall is a tributary of the Moselle .

history

Sommerau with castle ruins seen from Wingertsberg.

The place Sommerau was mentioned for the first time in 1271 in a document in which the Trier citizen Johann Walram exchanged the place, which appears in the document as "Sernauwe", for other possessions, which go to the Benedictine Abbey of St. Matthias in Trier.

On June 12, 1303 Johann Walram received a parchment deed from Archbishop Diether von Nassau (~ 1250–1307), to whom he sold his house and his castle Sommerau with all the surrounding goods for 300 pounds of small gymnastic roses . In addition, Walram receives the house and castle back as an Electorate of Trier fiefdom for himself and his heirs (the female succession and that of side relatives is also agreed, but an after-fief is excluded). As witnesses and guarantors, Johann von Rimberg, Hermann von Helfenstein and Peter von Eich, Schultheiss zu Koblenz, as well as the St. Pauline scholastic Theoderich and Johann's brother Friedrich seal the contract.

An important point of the contract document is - at least from the Archbishop's point of view - the right of opening granted to him. This means that Sommerau Castle is always open to the archbishop or his officials for both peaceful and military purposes. In the future, the archbishop will not only be able to fall back on his seven state castles - including the Grimburg and Saarburg - but also on an increasingly dense network of open feudal castles as indispensable pillars of his rule. Nassau's successor Baldwin of Luxembourg (1307–1354) in particular uses this system of castle acquisition to further shape and consolidate his Electorate of Trier territory.

With the enfeoffment, Johann Walram and his heirs become vassals of the archbishop and elector with corresponding obligations (including military ones). On the other hand, there is of course the chance of promotion to high-ranking court posts.

However, the additional agreement due to a possible claim for damages against Johann Walram falls out of the scope. The cause is the previous feud between Count Heinrich von Luxemburg and the city of Trier. Count Heinrich von Luxemburg, who later became Emperor Heinrich VII , planned the construction of a permanent building, presumably intended as a customs post, on an island in the Moselle near Grevenmacher. Citizens of Trier (including Johann Walram) attacked, razed the new building and devastated several farms on Luxembourg territory. In the summer of 1300 Count Heinrich carried out a successful counterattack against Trier and the surrounding area.

In the peace treaty concluded in 1302 between the city of Trier and the Count of Luxembourg, a settlement of claims is agreed, to which Johann Walram is also obliged to pay 200 pounds of Luxembourg denarii. Walram has the archbishop assure him that he will assume half of this damage amount in the event that he is actually used to pay.

Population development

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

year	Residents
1815	29
1835	51
1871	60
1905	80
1939	98
1950	111

year	Residents
1961	91
1970	80
1987	64
1997	70
2005	79
2019	68

politics

Municipal council

The local council in Sommerau consists of six council members, who in the local elections on 26 May 2019 a majority vote were elected, and the volunteer local mayor as chairman.

Local mayor

until 2019: Doris Scherf
from 2019: Lydia Hemmerling

coat of arms

Blazon : "The head of the shield is divided by a tin cut from silver over red, including a red anchor cross in silver."

Justification of the coat of arms: A long rocky hill with the ruins of the castle of the same name rises directly on the Ruwer near Sommerau . The castle was probably already in place at the end of the 13th century. As a reference to them, a pewter cut is included in the municipal coat of arms in the shield head. In 1389, the Elector Werner von Falkenstein from Trier decreed that the castle should come to the brothers Johann and Heinrich von der Fels after the death of Johann Walrave . The castle and chateau subsequently remained in the possession of the von der Fels for centuries. Your coat of arms, a red anchor cross in silver, is therefore shown on the lower shield of the Sommerau municipal coat of arms .