Aschbach () is an ''
Ortsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically compose ...
'' – a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
belonging to a ''
Verbandsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative unit in the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically composed of a small group of villages or towns.
Rhineland- ...
'', a kind of collective municipality – in the
Kusel
Kusel (; written ''Cusel'' until 1865) is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Kusel-Altenglan ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and is also the district seat.
The well-known operatic tenor Fritz Wunderlich was ...
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It belongs to the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
Geography
Location
The municipality lies on the north side of the Königsberg, a mountain in the
North Palatine Uplands
The North Palatine Uplands (german: Nordpfälzer Bergland), sometimes shortened to Palatine Uplands (''Pfälzer Bergland''), is a low mountain range and landscape unit in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and belongs mainly to the Palat ...
, in the narrow valley of the like-named brook, the Aschbach, some 260 m above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
. The Aschbach rises on the north slope of the Hahnenkopf, a lesser peak in the Königsberg group, and flows northnorthwestwards towards the
Glan. The elevations around the village reach more than 500 m above sea level in the Königsberg area, but otherwise between 300 and 400 m above sea level elsewhere. These are some selected local peaks:
*Hahnenkopf 535 m
*Leienberg 524 m
*Steinchen 435 m
*Rodlingsberg 315 m
The municipal area measures 446 ha, of which 18 ha is settled and 80 ha is wooded.
Neighbouring municipalities
Aschbach borders in the north on the municipality of
Offenbach-Hundheim
Offenbach-Hundheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wol ...
, in the east on the town of
Wolfstein, in the south on the municipality of
Eßweiler, in the southwest on the municipality of
Oberweiler im Tal, in the west on the municipality of
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
and in the northwest on the municipality of
Nerzweiler
Nerzweiler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
...
. Aschbach also meets the municipalities of
Lohnweiler
Lohnweiler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
...
and
Rutsweiler an der Lauter at single points in the northeast and southeast respectively.
Municipality’s layout
The village lies mainly as a street village – by some definitions, a thorpe – along ''
Landesstraße
''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...
'' 368, which links the Eßweiler Tal (dale) with the
Lauter
Lauter may refer to:
People
* Lauter (surname)
Places
*Lauter, Saxony, town in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany
* Lauter, Bavaria, village in the district of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
Rivers
* Lauter (Baunach), tributary to th ...
valley and crosses the Aschbach valley. Branching from this thoroughfare are several streets, mostly southwards. The oldest part of the built-up area can be found in the area at the bridge across the Aschbach. Most of the buildings come from the 19th century and the earlier half of the 20th century. Newer building characterizes the village's west end, especially. The first schoolhouse (Hauptstraße 5) was built in 1789, while a further one with two classrooms was built at the turn of the 20th century. The graveyard lies on a sidestreet in the village's east.
History
Antiquity
The
prehistoric
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
finds from the Aschbach area are among the most important in the Kusel district. As early as 1884 to 1886, Regional Engineer Göring from
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
had three
barrows opened up. Many objects of worship and everyday use were unearthed, four neckrings, about 15 armrings, six footrings, several rings, many
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
pieces, urn shards and
flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
arrowheads. An exact itemization of the finds was compiled long ago by Fritz Kleinschmidt. The barrows dated from the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
, about 1500 BC. Also unearthed by archaeologists was an ironworks next to the path between the hiking car park and Kreuzfeld, south of the former
baryte
Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...
quarry. Other finds from early historical times, namely from
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
times, came to light between Aschbach and Nerzweiler, with what was supposedly the foundations of a
Roman bath with six rooms.
Middle Ages
Aschbach shares a great deal of its
mediaeval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
history with all other villages in the Eßweiler Tal (dale), for in many ways, they together form a unit. Besides Aschbach itself, these were
Hundheim (Neuenglan),
Hachenbach,
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
,
Nerzweiler
Nerzweiler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
...
,
Horschbach
Horschbach is an '' Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kusel-Altenglan, wh ...
,
Oberweiler,
Elzweiler
Elzweiler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kusel-Altenglan, whose ...
,
Eßweiler and the now vanished villages of Letzweiler, Niederaschbach, Nörweiler, Mittelhofen, Zeizelbach, Füllhof, Neideck and Lanzweiler. It is certain that these villages lay within the Free
Imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imperial, Nebraska
* Imperial, Pennsylvania
* Imperial, Texa ...
Domain around the Royal
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
Lautern. In the 9th century, likely not long before 870, the noble lord Hererich was enfeoffed with the Eßweiler Tal and shortly before his death, he bequeathed it to
Prüm Abbey
Prüm Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey in Prüm, now in the diocese of Trier (Germany), founded by the Frankish widow Bertrada the elder and her son Charibert, Count of Laon, in 721. The first abbot was Angloardus.
The Abbey ruled over a va ...
. The ecclesiastical hub of this area was at first the ''Hirsauer Kirche'', a church near Hundheim, which at this time still bore the name ''Glena'' or ''Glan'', or possibly ''Neuenglan'' (''Nieuwen Glena''), in contrast to
Altenglan
Altenglan is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kusel-Altenglan. Alten ...
(''Gleni''). This ''Glena'' became the seat of a ''Hund'', which, despite the word's meaning in
Modern High German (“dog”), was actually an official with an administrative function over the whole dale for the actual owners. Thus, the administrative seat of Glan at the place where the brook emptied into the river Glan now acquired the name Hundheim.
In 1150, the ''
Edelfrei
The term ''edelfrei'' or ''hochfrei'' ("free noble" or "free knight") was originally used to designate and distinguish those Germanic noblemen from the Second Estate (see Estates of the realm social hierarchy), who were legally entitled to atonem ...
er'' Reinfried founded the Offenbach Monastery together with a kinswoman named Mathilde. The founders transferred the small monastery at Offenbach together with the holdings that they had bequeathed to it to Saint Vincent's Abbey in
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
. Among these holdings was one owned by Reinfried in Aschbach, explaining why the village, along with others, was named in the founding document. From a document made out about 1200, the reader gathers that Emmerich von Löwenstein received from the Counts of Zweibrücken as a fief for service rendered one third of the
tithe
A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...
s at Aschbach. In 1377, two inhabitants of ''Ober Aspach'', among many other guarantors, vouched for the nobleman Gerhard von Lauterecken, who swore an oath of loyalty to the
Count of Veldenz together with his wife and sons Henne and Heinzmann on pain of having to pay one thousand ''Gulden'' if the oath were ever broken. The two men in question were Dyle Baltzen's son Godel and a man named Gerhard.
Even before 1222, Prüm Abbey lost its holdings in the Glan valley, although the circumstances under which this happened are unknown. After this time, the only feudal lords named are the fourteen who exercised special rights in the Eßweiler Tal and who were entitled to draw a share of the tithes, namely:
#
Junker
Junker ( da, Junker, german: Junker, nl, Jonkheer, en, Yunker, no, Junker, sv, Junker ka, იუნკერი (Iunkeri)) is a noble honorific, derived from Middle High German ''Juncherre'', meaning "young nobleman"Duden; Meaning of Junke ...
Mühlenstein von Grumbach as the Rhinegraves’
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain. W ...
;
# The
County Palatine of Zweibrücken;
# Offenbach Monastery;
# Remigiusberg Monastery;
#
Tholey Abbey
Tholey Abbey (german: Abtei Tholey) in Tholey, in the district of Sankt Wendel in Saarland, is a Benedictine monastery dedicated to Saint Maurice. It is part of the Beuronese Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation.
History
As early a ...
;
# Enkenbach Convent;
# The
Sulzbach Knights of Saint John Commandry
In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...
;
# The Church of
Zweibrücken
Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river.
Name
The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...
;
# The Church of
Sankt Julian
Sankt Julian (often rendered St. Julian) is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemei ...
;
# The Church of
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
;
# The ''Stangenjunker'' of
Lauterecken
Lauterecken () is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein, to which it also belongs. Lauterecken bears the nickname ''Veldenzstadt'', after the comital family t ...
;
# The family Blick von Lichtenberg;
# The Lords of Mauchenheim;
# The Lords of Mickelheim.
Obviously the feudal lords kept different administrative seats. The
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves (Latin: ''comites silvestres'') descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113.
When the (a countship named after the river Nahe) split into two parts in 1113 ...
s and Rhinegraves of Kyrburg, as holders of
high jurisdiction
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents.
Low just ...
, were overlords to the Lords of Mühlenstein (later Cratz von Scharfenstein) at the ''Hirsauer Kirche'' and at the Springeburg (
castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
). The
Counts of Veldenz
The County Palatine of Veldenz was a principality in the contemporary Land Rhineland-Palatinate with full voting rights to the Reichstag. The county was located partially between Kaiserslautern, Sponheim and Zweibrücken, partially on the Mose ...
, as lords of the dale's “poor people” (as of 1444 the
Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
), chose Nerzweiler as their seat. Nerzweiler was always named in documents between 1350 and 1446 as the seat of the Nerzweiler ''
Amt
Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...
''. Indeed, in the 14th century, as witnessed by a 1393 Veldenz letter of bestowal, the two villages of Oberaschbach and Unteraschbach belonged to this ''Amt'' of Nerzweiler. Count Friedrich III of Veldenz bequeathed the ''Amt'' to his wife, Margarethe von Nassau-Saarbrücken, to provide for her in case of
widow
A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died.
Terminology
The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...
hood (an arrangement called a ''
Wittum Wittum (), Widum or Witthum is a medieval Latin legal term, known in marital and ecclesiastical law.
Provide for a widow at the wedding
The term referred initially to steps taken by a husband to provide for his wife if she became a widow. The wi ...
''). After 1446, Hundheim appeared once again as the only administrative seat. Hinzweiler acquired its own church in 1451 and thereby took over from Hirsau as the Eßweiler Tal parish's ecclesiastical hub. Having a great number of feudal lords obviously led to greater freedoms than in other regions, where unified power and governmental structures prevailed. Questions of law were governed in the Eßweiler Tal by a series of ''Weistümer'' (singular: ''Weistum'';
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
with
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
''wisdom'', this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and early modern times) that were already in force in the Middle Ages, although only in the early 16th century were they put into writing. These have been preserved down to the present day and are now held to be prime examples of mediaeval jurisprudence.
Aschbach was a relatively rich village in the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
. In 1477, twelve families had to pay both the May tax (''Maibede'') and the autumn tax (''Herbstbede''). That was almost every family living in the village. By way of comparison, in the then somewhat smaller village of Nerzweiler, only two families paid taxes.
Modern times
In 1526, the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
was introduced into the Eßweiler Tal. In the course of the 16th century, the
Plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
raged in the dale, and the villages were depopulated. In Aschbach itself, apparently only 12 people survived the
epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
. With regard to manorial relations, there was a change due to this situation in 1595 that saw
high jurisdiction
High, middle and low justices are notions dating from Western feudalism to indicate descending degrees of judicial power to administer justice by the maximal punishment the holders could inflict upon their subjects and other dependents.
Low just ...
, hitherto held by the
Waldgrave
The noble family of the Waldgraves or Wildgraves (Latin: ''comites silvestres'') descended of a division of the House of the Counts of Nahegau in the year 1113.
When the (a countship named after the river Nahe) split into two parts in 1113 ...
s and Rhinegraves for some 250 years, transferred to the
Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
. In return for this, Count Palatine Johannes I of Zweibrücken let the Rhinegraves have the village of Kirchenbollenbach near (and now a constituent community of)
Idar-Oberstein
Idar-Oberstein () is a town in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. As a ''Große kreisangehörige Stadt'' (large city belonging to a district), it assumes some of the responsibilities that for smaller municipalities in ...
. High jurisdiction and lordly rule over the “poor people” were thereby in one lordship's hands, although the other feudal lords still had the same rights to their shares of the tithes in the various villages as before. In 1614, Count Palatine (Duke) Johannes II of Zweibrücken traded his
serfs
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
in
Teschenmoschel for Baron Johann Gottfried von Sickingen's serfs in
Schallodenbach and the Eßweiler Tal. Aschbach also suffered in the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
. While only the odd person survived this war in other villages, Aschbach already once again had 11 families in 1675 (27 years after the war ended). It may be assumed that losses were less heavy here than they were farther up the
Glan valley. There may indeed have been newcomers among those 11 families who had come to settle. A new, fundamental change in the territorial arrangement came to pass in 1755. It was then that Duke Christian IV transferred the Offenbach Monastery, along with the villages of Aschbach, Hundheim, Nerzweiler, Hinzweiler and Oberweiler, and the ''Hirsauer Kirche'', to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach, who had exercised high jurisdiction in these villages until 1595. The actual count at this time was Rhinegrave Karl Walram von Grumbach. Aschbach thereby remained under Rhinegravial rule until the old
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
order was swept away in the events of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
.
Recent times
In French Revolutionary and
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
ic times, the German lands on the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
’s left bank were
annexed
Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...
by
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, which brought about the abolition of all hitherto existing borders and the founding of new French
departments. Roughly, the river
Glan formed the boundary between the Departments of
Sarre and
Mont-Tonnerre
Mont-Tonnerre was a department of the First French Republic and later the First French Empire in present-day Germany. It was named after the highest point in the Palatinate, the ''Donnersberg'' ("Thunder Mountain", possibly referring to Donar, ...
(or Donnersberg in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
). Aschbach was grouped, along with the villages of Nerzweiler, Hinzweiler, Hachenbach and Gumbsweiler, into the ''Mairie'' (“Mayoralty”) of Hundheim. After Napoleon's defeat at
Waterloo in 1815, a new entity came into being under the terms of the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
after a transition period. It was the Bavarian ''Rheinkreis'', a new
exclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
in the
Palatinate ruled by the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
; it later came to be called the ''bayerische Rheinpfalz'' (“Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate”). Aschbach now belonged to the ''Bürgermeisterei'' (“Mayoralty”) of Hundheim in the Canton (District) of Lauterecken and in the ''Landkommissariat'' (later ''Bezirksamt'', and later still ''Landkreis'', or district) of Kusel. Further changes came with the 1968 regional and administrative reform in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
. Since 1971, the ''
Ortsgemeinde
A Verbandsgemeinde (; plural Verbandsgemeinden) is a low-level administrative division, administrative unit in the Germany, German States of Germany, federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt. A Verbandsgemeinde is typically compose ...
'' of Aschbach has belonged within the
Kusel
Kusel (; written ''Cusel'' until 1865) is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Kusel-Altenglan ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and is also the district seat.
The well-known operatic tenor Fritz Wunderlich was ...
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
to the
''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Wolfstein.
Population development
Aschbach was quite a small village throughout the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, but had broad and fertile fields, which meant that the inhabitants had to pay more in taxes than those in neighbouring villages of comparable size. Nevertheless, the village's livelihood was threatened, foremost by
epidemic
An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics ...
s, but also by wars. Neighbouring Niederaschbach's destruction by marauding soldiers of the
Count of Armagnac
The following is a list of rulers of the county of Armagnac:
House of Armagnac
*William Count of Fézensac and Armagnac ?– 960
* Bernard the Suspicious, First count privative of Armagnac 960– ?
* Gerald I Trancaléon ? –1020
* Bernard ...
proves that the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
was not the only war that could burn whole villages down and utterly lay them waste. The village's people earned their livelihood mainly from
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, although those who wished could seek work at one of the many
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
,
quicksilver,
baryte
Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...
and
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
mines both right nearby and a bit farther afield. Right near Aschbach itself were a baryte pit and a chalk quarry. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, some of the village's inhabitants travelled the world as ''Wandermusikanten'', performing music in many different countries. In 1909, there were 73 of these ''Wandermusikanten'' in Aschbach. Among the most famous was Rudolf Mersy, who was known as the ''Aschbacher Mozart'' (for more information, see the
West Palatine travelling music tradition
The West Palatine travelling music tradition (german: Westpfälzer Wandermusikantentum) were part of a tradition established by travelling musicians from a region of West Palatinate in Germany that is now called Musikantenland ("Musicians' Land"). ...
'' (''Musikantentum'') and the two relevant sections of the
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
article).
Living in Aschbach in 1609 were 85 persons in 17 families. In a 1743 statistical work, of 19 “family fathers” – household heads – 17 were said to be free subjects and 2 were ''Hintersassen'' (roughly, “dependent peasants”). Among those working in handicrafts, who only worked the land as a secondary occupation, were one
shoemaker
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear.
Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...
, two
linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
weavers
Weaver or Weavers may refer to:
Activities
* A person who engages in weaving fabric
Animals
* Various birds of the family Ploceidae
* Crevice weaver spider family
* Orb-weaver spider family
* Weever (or weever-fish)
Arts and entertainment
...
, one
tailor
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
and one
bricklayer
A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman and tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. ...
. Essentially, this vocational structure held true well into the 20th century. Most of the inhabitants nowadays must earn a living outside the village. In the late 18th century,
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s settled in Aschbach. In 1825 there were 29 Jews among the village's 314 inhabitants. The population figure rose quite swiftly beginning in the mid 18th century, reaching a peak of 452 in the latter half of the 19th century. The subsequent drop lasting until the turn of the century was due mainly to
emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...
. There was an upswing again lasting until the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but ever since, the population has been gradually shrinking, a trend that seems likely to continue into the future. Coming along with this drop in population has been definite growth in the numbers of elderly villagers.
The following table shows population development over the centuries for Aschbach:
Municipality’s name
The first syllable of the name Aschbach, according to researchers Dolch and Greule, comes from the
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
word ''Ask'', meaning (and cognate with the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
word) “
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
” (the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
cognate was ''æsc''), or perhaps from the word ''Aspa'', meaning “
(quaking) aspen” (this is also cognate with its English counterpart; in Old English it was ''æspe''). Whatever the first syllable's origin might have been, the second syllable is the common German placename ending ''—bach'', which means “brook”. According to this theory, the name Aschbach could mean “place near the ashes/aspens”. The village might have arisen in the 8th or 9th century. As early as 1150, the village's name appeared as ''Hasbach'' in the Offenbach Monastery's foundation document. Further mentions of the name rendered it Asbach (about 1250), Oberasbach (1377) or Haspach (1594). The current form, Aschbach, only appeared in the 19th century.
Vanished villages
The former village of Niederaschbach, which was always named in old documents as one of the Eßweiler Tal villages, lay northwest of today's village of Aschbach, which itself was once known as Oberaschbach (''Ober—'' and ''Nieder—'' are cognate with English “over” and “nether”, and mean “upper” and “lower”, respectively). Johannes Hofmann had this to say about Niederaschbach in 1595 (the village had already been forsaken by that time): “In this Aschbach Ground, a rifle shot from the Glan, lay the village of Niederaschbach, of which only old walls are now to be seen. Was a great village, which, as the old people say, was made to suffer a war and a fire by the old ''Gerken'', or Armagnacs as they call themselves.” The Armagnacs were a cohort of
mercenaries
A mercenary, sometimes also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any o ...
under the French
Count of Armagnac
The following is a list of rulers of the county of Armagnac:
House of Armagnac
*William Count of Fézensac and Armagnac ?– 960
* Bernard the Suspicious, First count privative of Armagnac 960– ?
* Gerald I Trancaléon ? –1020
* Bernard ...
Bernard VII, who in the early 15th century waged a
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
against the
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy (french: duc de Bourgogne) was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by France in 1477, and later by Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Spain from the House of Habsburg ...
,
John the Fearless
John I (french: Jean sans Peur; nl, Jan zonder Vrees; 28 May 137110 September 1419) was a scion of the French royal family who ruled the Burgundian State from 1404 until his death in 1419. He played a key role in French national affairs during ...
, and later
Philip the Good
Philip III (french: Philippe le Bon; nl, Filips de Goede; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) was Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonge ...
. After the war, the troops marauded their way to the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
. They were beaten in 1444 in a battle near
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
by a
Swiss
Swiss may refer to:
* the adjectival form of Switzerland
* Swiss people
Places
* Swiss, Missouri
* Swiss, North Carolina
*Swiss, West Virginia
* Swiss, Wisconsin
Other uses
*Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports
*Swiss Internation ...
army, suffering great losses in the process. Thus, it is assumed that Niederaschbach (in 1393 called Nieder Aspach) was utterly destroyed a few years before that battle.
Within what are now Aschbach's municipal limits were once two other villages, Nörweiler and Mittelhofen. Both lay northeast of today's village of Aschbach and were likewise both mentioned in Johannes Hofmann's 1595 description of the Eßweiler Tal. According to that, Mittelhofen lay between Aschbach and Nörweiler. While Nörweiler was mentioned only in Hofmann's writings, Mittelhofen was further mentioned in a 1544 document. Both these villages vanished long before the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
.
Religion
Originally, the ''Hirsauer Kirche'', a church near Hundheim (pictured in the
Offenbach-Hundheim
Offenbach-Hundheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wol ...
article), was the ecclesiastical hub for all the villages in the Eßweiler Tal. After a church was also built in
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
in 1451, Hinzweiler bit by bit took over this function. This actually brought about competition between the two churches. As early as 1526, the
Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken introduced the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
into the church of the ''
Oberamt'' of Meisenheim, replacing
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
belief with
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
’s teachings so that bit by bit, church services in the Eßweiler Tal, too, began to be conducted in accordance with the Reformation. The Offenbach Monastery, to which the Hinzweiler church was subject, at first opposed Reformist efforts. In 1555, though, the Rhinegraves of Grumbach, too, introduced the Reformation, and in 1588, the Offenbach Monastery was dissolved.
After the Counts Palatine of Zweibrücken had become the sovereign feudal lords over the Eßweiler Tal in 1595, believers
had to conform with the current religious developments in the County Palatine, and thus
converted, following the precept of ''
cuius regio, eius religio
() is a Latin phrase which literally means "whose realm, their religion" – meaning that the religion of the ruler was to dictate the religion of those ruled. This legal principle marked a major development in the collective (if not individual ...
'', to
John Calvin
John Calvin (; frm, Jehan Cauvin; french: link=no, Jean Calvin ; 10 July 150927 May 1564) was a French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system ...
’s
Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
Reform may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
* Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group
* ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine
*''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...
teachings. After the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
had ended, Hinzweiler had managed to make itself “mother church” to the whole dale, a state of affairs unchanged to this day.
Denominationally, Aschbach inhabitants were, in earlier times, overwhelmingly Reformed, that is to say, Calvinist. The Reformed and
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
Churches, however, united in 1819 in the Palatine
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Union.
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
settled in Aschbach in the late 18th century. For a time, their share of the population even reached 10%. In later times, there were only a few Catholic
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
in Aschbach. In the early 19th century, there were roughly five. Even today, their share of the population is not great. In 1961 there were 13 (roughly 5%). To this day, Catholics attend worship at the church in
Offenbach.
In 1825, Aschbach had 280 Protestants, 5 Catholics and 29 Jews. In 1961, these figures were 369, 13 and 0 respectively.
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by
majority vote
A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster
arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
might in English
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
language be described thus: Or a lion rampant gules armed and langued azure, on a chief wavy of the third an ash leaf slipped palewise, the stem to dexter, of the first.
The main
charge
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
, the lion, is a reference to the village's former allegiance to the Rhinegraves of Grumbach. The charge on the
chief
Chief may refer to:
Title or rank
Military and law enforcement
* Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force
* Chief of police, the head of a police department
* Chief of the boa ...
, the ash leaf on a blue field, is said to refer to the
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
trees on the brook.
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...
’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:
* Hauptstraße 14 – ''Quereinhaus'' (a combination residential and commercial house divided for these two purposes down the middle, perpendicularly to the street), 1798
* Pitzerstraße 1 – barn,
timber-frame
Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...
building, partly solid, 17th century (?)
Regular events
The municipality celebrates its
kermis
Kermesse, or kermis, or kirmess, is a Dutch language term derived from 'kerk' (church) and 'mis' (mass) that became borrowed in English, French, Spanish and many other languages, originally denoting the mass said on the anniversary of the foundat ...
(church consecration festival) on the second weekend in September.
Economy and infrastructure
Economic structure
Of the many mines that were run in bygone days in the broader area around the Königsberg and the Herrmannsberg, only two were right near Aschbach, a
baryte
Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...
pit and a
chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...
mine. Otherwise, the most important part of the economy was originally
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, besides the area's well known ''Wandermusikantentum'' (see Population development above). The structure of agricultural operations has changed fundamentally since the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Most members of the workforce must nowadays seek a living outside the village. In Aschbach itself, though, can be found a variety of shops. There is also a branch of the ''Volksbank Kaiserslautern'' in Aschbach.
Transport
Aschbach lies on ''
Landesstraße
''Landesstraßen'' (singular: ''Landesstraße'') are roads in Germany and Austria that are, as a rule, the responsibility of the respective German or Austrian federal state. The term may therefore be translated as "state road". They are roads t ...
'' 368, which links
Hinzweiler
Hinzweiler () is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstei ...
(on ''Landesstraße'' 273) with the road running through the
Lauter
Lauter may refer to:
People
* Lauter (surname)
Places
*Lauter, Saxony, town in the district of Aue-Schwarzenberg, Saxony, Germany
* Lauter, Bavaria, village in the district of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany
Rivers
* Lauter (Baunach), tributary to th ...
valley (''
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
'' 270), which runs to Aschbach's east. The Kusel and Kaiserslautern
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
interchanges each lie some 30 km away. Serving
Wolfstein-Reckweilerhof, about 8 km away, is a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
on the ''
Lautertalbahn
The Lauter Valley Railway (german: Lautertalbahn) is a branch line in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It runs from Kaiserslautern along the Lauter river to Lauterecken. The railway, which was opened in 1883, has only regional importan ...
''.
Education
The educational establishment experienced a general upswing beginning in the time of the
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, but this ended with the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
. Little is known today about the beginnings of school in Aschbach. A record from 1784 tells of a school authority candidate named Ludwig Klein from
Brenschelbach who was running a winter school (a school geared towards an agricultural community's practical needs, held in the winter, when farm families had a bit more time to spare) in Aschbach. Year-round schooling came along only in the earlier half of the 19th century, when Aschbach belonged to the
Kingdom of Bavaria
The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...
. In 1819, the municipality hired the candidate Ludwig Berger from Wiesbach as schoolteacher. Classes were held in summer and winter at the house at Bachstraße 7. In 1827, the municipality acquired the house at Bachstraße 5, and there had the village's first schoolhouse built, which in 1831 had a belltower added to it. In 1900, a new schoolhouse was built, and for the time being, the bells stayed at the old schoolhouse. In 1942, however, during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, they were taken away for munitions production. In 1950, the newer schoolhouse (now 50 years old) also got a belltower, leaving it to the municipality to acquire new bells. In 1970, the now defunct ''
Regierungsbezirk
A ' () means "governmental district" and is a type of administrative division in Germany. Four of sixteen ' ( states of Germany) are split into '. Beneath these are rural and urban districts.
Saxony has ' (directorate districts) with more res ...
'' administration had the school closed for good, after a time during which only
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
pupils had been taught there. The schoolhouse stood empty for a few years before the municipality eventually sold it to a private citizen. Primary school pupils and
Hauptschule
A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...
students nowadays attend their respective schools in
Wolfstein. The nearest
Gymnasium is one in
Lauterecken
Lauterecken () is a town in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein, to which it also belongs. Lauterecken bears the nickname ''Veldenzstadt'', after the comital family t ...
.
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
Rudolf Mersy (b. 2 October 1867; d. 30 May 1949 in Aschbach) – Folk musician and composer, born in Aschbach, spent his childhood as a travelling musician's son in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, beginning in 1885 lived once more in his home village, only to go travelling again later (
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
). The last decade of his life was spent back in his homeland. Mersy composed more than 600 pieces of music and his contemporaries called him the ''Aschbacher Mozart''.
Sons and daughters of the town
/ref>
References
External links
Aschbach in the collective municipality’s webpages
{{Authority control
Municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
Kusel (district)