Waldgrehweiler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
coat of arms Germany map
Coat of arms of the local community Waldgrehweiler
Waldgrehweiler
Map of Germany, position of the municipality Waldgrehweiler highlighted

Coordinates: 49 ° 40 '  N , 7 ° 45'  E

Basic data
State : Rhineland-Palatinate
County : Donnersbergkreis
Association municipality : North Palatinate Country
Height : 240 m above sea level NHN
Area : 7.75 km 2
Residents: 209 (Dec. 31, 2019)
Population density : 27 inhabitants per km 2
Postal code : 67822
Area code : 06364
License plate : KIB, ROK
Community key : 07 3 33 079
Association administration address: Schulstrasse 16
67821 Alsenz
Website : www.nordpfälzerland.de
Local Mayor : Helmut Brand
Location of the local community Waldgrehweiler in the Donnersbergkreis
Obermoschel Niedermoschel Unkenbach Finkenbach-Gersweiler Waldgrehweiler Schiersfeld Sitters Alsenz Oberndorf (Pfalz) Mannweiler-Cölln Winterborn (Pfalz) Kalkofen (Pfalz) Niederhausen an der Appel Münsterappel Oberhausen an der Appel Gaugrehweiler Seelen Rathskirchen Teschenmoschel Bisterschied Ransweiler Stahlberg Bayerfeld-Steckweiler Sankt Alban (Pfalz) Gerbach Würzweiler Ruppertsecken Dielkirchen Katzenbach (Donnersbergkreis) Schönborn (Pfalz) Dörrmoschel Reichsthal Gundersweiler Gehrweiler Imsweiler Rockenhausen Höringen Schweisweiler Falkenstein (Pfalz) Winnweiler Lohnsfeld Wartenberg-Rohrbach Münchweiler an der Alsenz Gonbach Sippersfeld Breunigweiler Imsbach Börrstadt Steinbach am Donnersberg Ramsen (Pfalz) Kerzenheim Eisenberg (Pfalz) Göllheim Dreisen Standenbühl Lautersheim Biedesheim Ottersheim Bubenheim (Pfalz) Zellertal Einselthum Immesheim Albisheim (Pfrimm) Rüssingen Weitersweiler Marnheim Bennhausen Jakobsweiler Dannenfels Bolanden Kirchheimbolanden Mörsfeld Kriegsfeld Oberwiesen Orbis Morschheim Ilbesheim (Donnersbergkreis) Bischheim (Donnersberg) Rittersheim Stetten (Pfalz) Gauersheim Landkreis Bad Kreuznach Landkreis Alzey-Worms Landkreis Kusel Landkreis Kaiserslautern Landkreis Bad Dürkheimmap
About this picture

Waldgrehweiler is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate . It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Nordpfälzer Land , which has its administrative headquarters in the municipality of Rockenhausen and an additional administrative office in Alsenz .

geography

Waldgrehweiler is located in the North Palatinate Mountains north of the Palatinate Forest . Northeast is Finke-Gersweiler , east Ransweiler , south Bisterschied and to the west lies the cup Bacher district Gangloff.

View of Waldgrehweiler
Waldgrehweiler town center with town house and bell tower

Waldgrehweiler also includes the Grashof, Windhof and Wolfsmühle residential areas .

Grass yard
Wind farm and cemetery in the background
Wolf Mill

history

Traces of the early settlement are provided by a single discovery from the Neolithic period in the “Auf dem Eschen” tub and the remains of a Roman brick factory on the road connecting to Ransweiler. The area borders on two important early historical high-altitude trails (Roman roads) that offer a connection to France, Mainz, Bad Kreuznach, the Hunsrück and the Kaiserlauter area. The Franconian town, founded in the 7th century as part of the Nahegau , came into the possession of the Counts of Veldenz in 1236 .

From 1444 the village belonged to the Duchy of Pfalz-Zweibrücken . However, the farm estates in the village were shared by smaller gentlemen; from 1408 to 1515 the Randecker, from 1515 to 1778 the Steinkallenfelser and from 1778 to 1792 Freiherr Gayling Altheim von Bettendorf. The tithe was held by the Langwerth von Simmern from 1492 to 1730 .

After 1792 French revolutionary troops occupied the region and annexed it after the Peace of Campo Formio (1797) . From 1798 to 1814 Waldgrehweiler belonged to the French department of Donnersberg and was assigned to the canton of Rockenhausen . Due to the agreements reached at the Congress of Vienna (1815) and an exchange contract with Austria , the region became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1816 . From 1818, the community of Waldgrehweiler was assigned to the Kirchheim district commissioner in the Bavarian Rhine District, later to the Kirchheimbolanden district office, from which the Kirchheimbolanden district emerged in 1938 .

This fell victim to the first communal territorial reform with great protest, eleven communities were ceded to the Bad Kreuznach district, two to the Kaiserslautern district and the Donnersbergkreis was established together with Kirchheimbolanden.

The imminent municipal territorial reform planned the merger of the Verbandsgemeinde Alsenz-Obermoschel - to which Waldgrehweiler belongs - with the Verbandsgemeinde Meisenheim (Bad Kreuznach district) and the remaining municipalities of the Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg community to be dissolved into a large regional body and thus a change to the Bad Kreuznach district. The citizens of Waldgrehweiler and their council have voted against it since 2012 and are calling for a change of the local community to the neighboring community of Rockenhausen in the Donnersbergkreis.

Jewish history

Little is known about the origin of the Jews in Waldgrehweiler, but Gerdon was named as early as 1718, and he had to pay six guilders protection money. On January 23, 1790, the main book of the community only mentions a Jewish household "by the name of Jud Manes Abraham". The number of Jewish residents increased in the 19th century. In 1801 there were eight people and thus 2.3 percent of the total population. In the following year, all the Jews in town disappeared. In 1809, the second-hand goods dealers Abraham and Salomon Schmidt, the cattle dealers Abraham and Isaac Strauss and the dealer Salomon Strauss were listed as Jewish heads of household. In 1825 44, 1837 37, 1843 42 and 1848 47 Jews were registered in eleven families.

In 1836 a representative of the local Jews was sent to the district synod in Speyer in order to create a uniform Jewish teaching and worship order. In 1853 the Jewish community reached its all-time high with 49 members. On March 25, 1854, the Kirchheimbolanden Land Commissioner listed an independent Jewish community in Waldgrehweiler. But at the turn of the century, the number of Jewish members decreased rapidly. In 1875 the number fell to 28 believers. In 1880 there were 32 Jews.

In 1893 the Jewish community of Waldgrehweiler was dissolved due to the reduced number of community members and the believers in the community of Teschenmoschel were added. They found their religious center in the synagogue there. The two Torah scrolls from the synagogue were transferred to Teschenmoschel. The synagogue was bought by two Jewish private men for 1,425 marks and later sold on.

The responsible Finkenbacher Pfarrbuch names only five Jews in 1900 and eight in 1905 in Waldgrehweiler. Exact figures up to the time of the Second World War are not available. Frieda Hamburger, née Schlachter (born 1885), Rosa Kling, née Strauss (born 1861), Max Pfahler (born 1924), Ludwig Schlachter (born 1879) and Martha were among the Jews who were born in the village and who lived for a long time Wald, born Kling (born 1890) victim of National Socialism. The last Jewish fellow citizen of Waldgrehweiler “Hannchen” (Johanna) Weil, b. Frank (born 1875).

Storm disaster 2014

On the afternoon of September 20, 2014, a storm came in with heavy rain, squalls and hail over the northern Palatinate . The first fire brigades began at 3:30 p.m. in Ransweiler , Waldgrehweiler and Finkenbach-Gersweiler to secure endangered buildings and sites with sandbags.

A few days earlier, most of the fields had been re-cultivated and the rain washed away mud that was moving downhill. The tidal wave reached Waldgrehweiler around 5:30 p.m. In the center of the village, on Kerwefestplatz at the community center, the masses of water from Ransenbach and Moschel met. The local situation was flooded within minutes. Water levels between 1.40 and 1.72 meters above street level were recorded.

Around 45 residential buildings plus outbuildings of the 214-inhabitant community were flooded by the flood. Many lost much of their property. Several houses became uninhabitable. The victims found accommodation with relatives, rented apartments or in vacant buildings in the community. Even months later, not all citizens had returned to their homes and apartments. Six bridges were damaged or totally destroyed. Subsequent extrapolations showed that around six million cubic meters of precipitation had fallen over the small catchment area in a short time. Precipitation amounts between 160 and 220 liters per square meter were measured privately in 15 minutes. In order to repair the first damage, fire brigades, the Red Cross and THW from several districts were on duty for up to ten days. A community canteen and clothing store were set up in the community center. The village suffered total damage of around 2.6 million euros.

On August 28, 2015, the renovated town center with the community center, bell tower, youth room, community archive and children's playground was ceremoniously reopened in the presence of Prime Minister Malu Dreyer.

politics

Municipal council

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

Local mayor

The local mayor is Helmut Brand. In the local election on May 26, 2019, he was re-elected in office with a share of 86.61% of the vote.

coat of arms

Coat of arms of Waldgrehweiler
Blazon : "In silver over a green three-mountain five green fir trees."

Culture and sights

In the center of the village are the listed bell tower from 1927, the community center, the building of the former milk collection point and the youth room. At the so-called “Judeneck” or “Klostereck” exit in the direction of Ransweiler, there was once the Jewish center of the community with the synagogue. The oldest surviving buildings in the community are located here. There are also four old half-timbered houses in Mühlstraße, Hauptstraße and Inselstraße, but most of them are plastered.

See also: List of cultural monuments in Waldgrehweiler

Economy and Infrastructure

The L 379 and L 385 intersect in the village. There is a connection to long-distance traffic via the A 63 in the southeast and the A 61 in the northeast.

In Waldgrehweiler there is a primary school with 4 school classes. It is operated in cooperation with the neighboring community of Rockenhausen, which sends around 90 percent of the students. In return, the people of Waldgrehweiler visit the common kindergarten in the neighboring community of Bistigart (VG Rockenhausen).

Village renewal

In 2014, Minister of the Interior Roger Lewentz awarded the recognized village renewal community of Waldgrehweiler the gold medal of the state competition “ Our village has a future ” in the main class for its special merits . The community center created in over 30,000 voluntary hours of work, the conversion of the former milk collection point into a youth room, the preservation of historical buildings such as the former cattle scale, the water house, the fire station and the bell tower in the center were particularly well received. The self-development of the new building area and the road improvements were also admired. Many small things such as the design of the village square, the entrances and bus stops, a retaining wall and the creation of the community garden with bakery, outdoor seating, sanitary facilities and a small warehouse were admired by the specialist commissions. The strong and committed village community received special recognition with its motto “Standing still is going backwards”.

In 2015, Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken presented the community with a special ecology award for exemplary ecological performance . Here, the preservation of the special cultural landscape through the maintenance and creation of orchards , grazing on the slopes of the meadow valleys, the certified forest and the creation of biotopes was honored. The protection of natural monuments, such as the peace linden tree on the village square, the sycamore maple on the cattle scale or the cemetery linden tree were important points in the assessment. At the Bürgergarten, a newly created wing points out the former viticulture history, a gravel bed with planting reminds of the former Jewish community at the "Judeneck" and fruit trees and bushes invite you to snack at the resting place of the Moscheltalradweg. The new development area is adorned with a whole row of trees and the entrances have been landscaped. The community operates its own photovoltaic systems, with private ones. The wind farm on the Roßberg is lined with several wind turbines and the local street lighting has been converted to LED technology. There are several small and large initiatives in favor of nature and the environment. Endangered animal species such as the eagle owl, the red kite, the black stork, kingfisher, oriole as well as gray heron, long-eared bats and adders are native there.

Tourism and tourism

On the outskirts of Waldgrehweiler, opposite the Windhof, the community has designated a parking lot for hikers and mobile homes. Appropriate sanitary facilities have been built in the historic water house. Various signposted hiking trails also start from here. At the Bürgergarten at the end of the village in the direction of Finkenbach-Gersweiler, a near-natural rest area with a small fruit tree educational trail has been set up for the Moscheltal cycle path, which ends in Waldgrehweiler. Fruit trees and bushes invite you to snack. A holiday apartment is to be built in the neighboring building of the community center.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. State Statistical Office of Rhineland-Palatinate - population status 2019, districts, communities, association communities ( help on this ).
  2. State Statistical Office Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Official directory of the municipalities and parts of the municipality. Status: January 2019 [ Version 2020 is available. ] . S. 140 f . (PDF; 3 MB).
  3. Storm: Damage millions in the Moscheltal. In: The Rhine Palatinate. September 22, 2014, accessed April 14, 2020 .
  4. Five years of floods in the Moscheltal - Waldgrehweiler and the good thing about the flood. SWR aktuell, September 20, 2019, accessed on April 14, 2020 .
  5. ^ The Regional Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: City Council Election 2019 Waldgrehweiler. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  6. The State Returning Officer Rhineland-Palatinate: direct elections 2019. Retrieved on August 27, 2019 (see Nordpfälzer Land, Verbandsgemeinde, 31st line of results).