Westrich
The (historically also the ) Westrich (also Westerreich ) is a region in southwest Germany and northeastern France , the name of which has been documented as Westerich and Westerrich since the 13th century .
geography
The Westrich has no clearly defined boundaries. It roughly includes the western Palatinate , the eastern and southern Saarland , the eastern Lorraine and the so-called Crooked Alsace , namely the part of the Lower Alsace that lies west of the Vosges . The Rhineland-Palatinate districts of Südwestpfalz , Kaiserslautern and Kusel as well as the Saarland Saarpfalz district are located in its German part . On the French side, the eastern parts of the Moselle department and the area in the northwest of the Vosges ( Saargemünd , Saarburg-Salzburg and Zabern arrondissements ) belong to Westrich .
It is not clear whether the area north of the North Palatinate Uplands and south of the Nahe , which mainly belongs to the Baumholder community in the Birkenfeld district, is part of the Westrich region. The residents themselves also refer to their homeland as Westrich. The situation is similar with the city of Kaiserslautern , which lies on the eastern border , so to speak .
The region is characterized by the mixture of different landscapes : low mountain ranges (such as the North Palatinate Uplands), fertile plateaus (e.g. the Westrich plateau ) and humid lowlands (including the Landstuhler Bruch ). The Westrich is drained completely towards the Rhine via left (western) tributaries, the most water-rich of which are the Moselle and Nahe.
history
The name is a combination of Middle High German wester (west) and rîch (empire, country, world, area, rule) with the meaning "land in the west, west". That is why "the Westrich" was the common form until the 19th century. Comparable formations are Westerwald , Westerburg and Westerland . The phonetic advancement in New High German to Westerreich did not prevail, as the î became short in the unstressed position and the diphthongization to ei was omitted. The locations of the 13th to 16th centuries range from the Haardt in the northeast to the Franco-German language border in Lorraine in the southwest. The Hunsrück remains in the north-west and Alsace in the south-east . The newly formed term Westrich left these two older landscape names untouched. The so-called settlement area enclosed a varied landscape and numerous small territories of the Holy Roman Empire . One of the outstanding personalities in Westrich was the rebellious knight Franz von Sickingen in the early 16th century .
Early cartographic representations can be found on the Eichstätter edition of the Cusanus map (dated 1491, there "Westrich") and with many details on the Lorraine-Westrich map by Martin Waldseemüller (there Latinized "Vastum Regnum").
Through the use of the names German-Lorraine , Moselle -Est, Krummes Alsace, Palatinate Forest and Saarland , newly formed in the 19th and 20th centuries , the use of the name Westrich was pushed back, and the area designated by it shrank to its present size. The name is rarely found on current maps, but appears as a vague, apolitical and nostalgic designation in the title of several periodicals , in the name of historical societies and in the name of an annual meeting of German and French historical societies.
While there is broad consensus in modern literature regarding the name interpretation and the historical development of the term, there are different views on the naming motif. The name Westrich is often understood as a remote perception of the area, as a name that arose in the Rhine Valley to designate the low mountain range to the west of it. This was previously referred to in a slightly different extension with the Latin name Vosegus , which was further developed in Middle High German to Wasich . Thus, Westrich could also be understood as a folk etymological development of Wasich (similar to the Wasgau , Wachsgau and Wasgenwald formations ).
coat of arms
The Westrich did not form a political unit - even at the time the term was used many times in the late Middle Ages and the early modern period - and consequently did not have a coat of arms . In keeping with the fashion of the time, the Westrich was given a fantasy coat of arms, a shield, seven or eight times diagonally divided by blue and gold. With no real political background, the Westrich was depicted on the quaternion eagle as part of a fictional imperial constitution.
The Westrich coat of arms can be found on the colored woodcut of the quaternion eagle by Jost de Negker (printed in 1510 in Augsburg) or in the head of the Lorraine-Westrich map by Martin Waldseemüller (printed in 1513 in Strasbourg), also executed as a colored woodcut. The Westrich coat of arms also found its way onto the imperial eagle tankards via the widespread motif of the quaternion eagle .
Cities
Important cities in Westrich or on its edge are u. a.
in Germany:
- Baumholder
- Blieskastel
- Homburg
- Kaiserslautern
- Kusel
- Landstuhl
- Pirmasens
- Ramstein-Miesenbach
- Zweibrücken
in France:
literature
- Johann Philipp Crollius : Prolusio de Westrasia . Zweibrücken 1751, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 12-bsb10002604-1 (first monograph on Westrich).
- Eva Schillo-Segatz: "Pfälzer Westrich": Concept for the regionalization of tourism, development and marketing of a region . Dissertation. Saarbrücken 2009, urn : nbn: de: bsz: 291-scidok-31969 .
- Dieter Zenglein: The Westrich, a mysterious and “multifaceted” landscape name . In: Westricher Heimatblätter . Volume 41. Kusel 2010, p. 4-22 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Westrich in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Historical association for the Saar region: Frequently asked questions: Westrich . Retrieved December 25, 2018 .
- ^ Roland WL Puhl: The districts and counties of the early Middle Ages in the Saar-Mosel area . Dissertation. Saarbrücken 1999, ISBN 3-930843-48-X , p. 396 ff .