Steimelhagen

Steimelhagen municipality Morsbach Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 6 ″ N , 7 ° 41 ′ 7 ″ E
Height :	292 (270-300) m
Residents :	468 (Dec. 31, 2007)
Postal code :	51597
Area code :	02294

Steimelhagen is a district of Morsbach in the Oberbergisches Kreis in southern North Rhine-Westphalia within the administrative district of Cologne .

Location and description

Steimelhagen is located in a rural, wooded area at the southern end of the Oberbergisches Kreis (North Rhine-Westphalia). The cities of Waldbröl and Wissen (10 km each) as well as Gummersbach (34 km), Siegen (48 km) and Cologne (75 km) can be reached in a maximum of one hour by car.

Steimelhagen is (after the main town Morsbach and Lichtenberg) the third largest village in the municipality. The core of the original village lies in a hollow on a slight hillside, which is open to the south and southwest. From the old town center, the landscape forms two valleys, the smaller one flows into the southwest, at Ölmühle, the larger one in the south, near Kaltau, into the valley of the Holper Bach. From the southern outskirts there is a panoramic view of the Westerwald rising to the south of the Sieg. When the weather is clear, the Bad Marienberg transmission tower can be seen in the distance.

About one and a half kilometers east of Steimelhagen is the so-called "Landstein", which marks the border between North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate and thus also the districts of Oberberg and Altenkirchen. Neighboring districts of Steimelhagen are Appenhagen in the north, Volperhausen in the east, Zinshardt in the south, Ölmühle in the southwest and Holpe in the west.

history

The Höhenstraße, which comes from the north, from the direction of Appenhagen, turns east and leads towards Wissen, is said to have served Napoleon as a military road. According to research by the local researcher Josef Heer, this path was already part of a 28 km long long-distance path from the time of the Merovingian kings (500–700) and connects to the even older trade route Trier, Bonn, Olpe, Paderborn, Lübeck near Oberzielenbach. This "Via regia" called "Königsstraße" leads via Wallershausen, Appenhagen, Steimelhagen, Hagdorn, Streitholz, Wissen, Kirchseifen, "Gebück" near Brunken / Burbach over the "Schwedengraben" to Hachenburg.

In addition to extensive agriculture, there was intensive mining in and around Steimelhagen. The Steimelhagener Berg contained a lot of iron ore. The last witnesses to this era, which ended in the 1920s, are the facilities of the former “Georg und Sonne” mine (in the direction of Volperhausen), at least two now filled shafts north and east of the village, or the field name “Neu Glück”. There, above the village of Kaltau, only a sunken tunnel mouth can be seen.

First mention

In 1464 the place was mentioned for the first time, namely "Homburger Grenzweise "

The spelling of the first mention was Steymelhaen .

Meaning of the name: The second part of the village name is easy to explain: The word Hag comes from the Old High German language and describes, among other things, an enclosure, enclosure, fence. It can mean a forest enclosed (for example with thorn hedges and fences), a pasture area or a place.

There is no definite explanation for the name Steimel, but there are different interpretations. It is noticeable that it often occurs as a family, place and field name along the entire course of the Sieg and Teil der Agger. Interpretation 1: Place where there were once sacrificial stones and stone marks (cult place). Interpretation 2: Name of a stone hill Interpretation 3: Derivation from Steinmüller (Steinmill, Stehmel)

leisure

Association

Village community Steimelhagen

swell

^ Klaus Pampus: First documentary naming of Oberbergischer places (= contributions to Oberbergischen history. Sonderbd. 1). Oberbergische Department 1924 eV of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein, Gummersbach 1998, ISBN 3-88265-206-3 .