Dhronecken is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – 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

Bernkastel-Wittlich Bernkastel-Wittlich (German: ''Landkreis Bernkastel-Wittlich'') is a district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Vulkaneifel, Cochem-Zell, Rhein-Hunsrück, Birkenfeld, Trier-Saarbur ...

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 ...

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 ...

Geography

Dhronecken lies between

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

and

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; french: link=no, Sarrebruck ; Rhine Franconian: ''Saarbrigge'' ; lb, Saarbrécken ; lat, Saravipons, lit=The Bridge(s) across the Saar river) is the capital and largest city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken is S ...

, on the ''Hunsrückhöhenstraße'' (“Hunsrück Heights Road”, a scenic road across the

Hunsrück The Hunsrück () is a long, triangular, pronounced upland in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of the Moselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and the Rhine (east). It is continued by the Taunus mountains, past ...

built originally as a military road on Hermann Göring’s orders), 9 km from the

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'. ...

A 1 towards

Morbach Morbach is a municipality that belongs to no ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is also a state-recognized climatic resort (''Luftkurort''). G ...

. In the Dhronecker Mulde (hollow), the Kleine Dhron forms where two brooks meet. This river flows down a dale to the small river Dhron, which then empties into the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...

. Dhronecken belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Thalfang am Erbeskopf, whose seat is in the municipality of

Thalfang The climatic spa (''Luftkurort'') of Thalfang is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the sea ...

History

Early times

Dhronecken lies in what is known to be the oldest tribal heartland of the

Celts The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

, whose lands, about 500 BC, stretched from the Middle

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

to Lorraine (

Hallstatt culture The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Western Europe, Western and Central European Archaeological culture, culture of Late Bronze Age Europe, Bronze Age (Hallstatt A, Hallstatt B) from the 12th to 8th centuries BC and Early Iron Age Europe ...

), and who spread only in later centuries into what is now

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 ...

. Burying grounds and, even more so, hill fortifications bear witness to those times. The ''Hunnenring'' – not far away, near Otzenhausen – is a mighty example.

Roman times

With Caesar’s victory over the

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

tribes in 51 BC, the place that is now Dhronecken became part of a

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 ...

province called

Belgica Prima Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany. In 50 BC, af ...

. In that time, a Roman sanctum came to be near Dhronecken. Also worth noting is the widespread settlement of Sarmatians between the Dhron and the Nahe, as they were non-Germanic people from the Russian steppes. With the Germanic

migration period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...

, the Roman occupation came to an end after many Celtic uprisings and the first Germanic invasions.

Frankish times

Then began the

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

’ rule. Their kings divided the land into ''Gaue'' (“regions” or “districts”; singular: ''Gau''), putting Dhronecken into the Triergau and thereby under the Bishop of Trier, as confirmed about the year 800 by documents issued by the kings Pepin and

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

Middle Ages to present

In the course of 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 ...

, there was a splintering into smaller territories, and Troneck – as it was then known – became part of the ''Mark Thalfang'' (''Talevangero marca''). At the onset of the modern age, Troneck was the seat of 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 the main town of the ''Mark Thalfang''. After 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 ...

, 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, and thereby Dhronecken too, were ceded to

in 1794 and 1795. Through a law from 26 March 1798, the French abolished

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 ...

rights in their zone of occupation. After French rule ended, the village passed in 1814 to the Kingdom of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

. Since 1947, it has been part of the then newly founded state of

Connection with the Nibelung saga

Dhronecken might be the hometown of the

Nibelung The term Nibelung (German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''nebel'', meaning mist. The te ...

hero Hagen von Tronje, as he is described in the foremost edition of the saga as “Hagen von Troneg” (with further examples in the

dative case In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...

: ''von Tronege Hagene'', ''geborn von Tronege'', ''helt von Tronege'', ''von Tronegaere''). According to a multi-volume standard work of Germanic ancient history, : Research identifies Hagen’s origins, foremost, with the Castle Troneck in the Hunsrück, but also other places claim this, as certain (that is, solid) clues are missing. Now, in the year 752, a mediaeval document mentions for the first time the (river) Dhron as “Drona” (The Latin form “Drahonus” in Ausonius’s Mosella poem, late 4th century, is said to be unreliable), which together with the location at the forks, the corner (“corner” is ''Ecke'' in German) of two brooks, gave the mediaeval castle (Troneg/Troneck) its name. Possibly the writer of the ''Nibelungenlied'', about the year 1200, believed that he had found the ancient-historical Hagen’s homeland in Troneck and places of the region (Hunoldispetra, Balderingin, Metz).

Politics

The municipal council is made up of 6 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-WebsterKommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
/ref>

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

Burg Dhronecken About 1300, a knight named Conrad von Tronecken is mentioned in writing for the first time, and then somewhat later the ''Feste Troneck'' (fortification), which, however, is probably much older. Having been destroyed several times, by Cologne, Imperial and French troops, and then finally by an earthquake, only remnants are left now, although a corner tower can still be climbed. On the old castle's foundations in modern times, commercial buildings were built, and also a bigger, tall building – called the ''Schloss'' – which is today used as a forester's office. Also, a barn with beam construction serves as a community centre for the municipality of Dhronecken. The attractively laid-out castle gardens have been continuously planted and tended since 1985. Below the castle is found a nature play area on both sides of a brook. A ford with stepping stones, a forumlike playing and gathering place on a slope, made out of mighty stone blocks, wooden footbridges over wetlands left in their natural state, playing houses, a suspension bridge and a monorail are the great attractions not only for children, but also for adults. ''Haus des wild- und rheingräflichen Verwalters der Burg Dhronecken'' The “House of the Wild- and Rhine-Comital Administrator of Castle Dhronecken” was, as shown by dendrological analysis, built in the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

style. It belonged to Castle Dhronecken's comital administrator, Friedrich Christian Heusner, who was at the same time an '' Amtmann'' and judge. Since 1981 this house has been under monumental protection, thereby allowing it to be so well restored that from outside, it has regained its original appearance, and inside, in the ''Säulenhalle'' (“Hall of Columns”), the turned, four- to five-metre-tall oaken columns have been preserved. What brings this house to the cultural-historical fore is its balcony made of turned oak logs and with oaken balustrades. The builder F. Ch. Heusner's family came from Franconia, where, having taken Italy as a model, balconies standing on columns were quite widespread. In the present, because most in Germany were wooden, only a very few have been saved from then. Besides Ulm ("3-Kannen-Anlage"), the balcony in Dhronecken could well be one of the biggest. ''Decker Mühle'' A

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

that is still functional today, the ''Decker Mühle'' was first mentioned, according to the Dhronecken chronicle, about 1750. Watertower This was built about 1900.

References

External links

{{Authority control Bernkastel-Wittlich