Erden

Erden is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a '' Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bernkastel-Wittlich district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

Geography

Location

Erden lies on the Moselle’s right bank surrounded by vineyards in the great bow in the river between Bernkastel-Kues and Traben-Trarbach, where the valley spreads out into very flat country bordering on the Hunsrück. Over on the opposite bank, steep slopes lead up to the Eifel.

Erden belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Bernkastel-Kues, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Nearby communities

Neighbouring places are Lösnich and Zeltingen-Rachtig, and across the river, Ürzig. The nearest middle centres are Bernkastel-Kues, some 8 km away, as the crow flies, and the district seat, Wittlich, some 10 km away. To Trier it is about 38 km.

Climate

Erden lies in a transitional zone between temperate oceanic climate and continental climate; compared to other regions in Germany, a very mild and sunny climate prevails here. In nearby Brauneberg on 11 August 1998, a record temperature of 41.2 °C in the shade, the highest ever air temperature recorded in the Federal Republic, was confirmed.

The barrier formed by the Eifel shields Erden from west winds, putting it in a rain shadow and sometimes subjecting it to a föhn effect. At the same time, the warming of the air is favoured by the only slight exchange of air with the surrounding area. Tied in with this is the high humidity due to ongoing evaporation of water from the Moselle, which, especially in summer, makes at times for heavy and muggy weather, and which also brings many storms along with it.

History

La Tène and Roman times

As early as 500 BC, in La Tène times, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, settled in Western and Central Europe. Celtic graves bear witness to this. In Roman times, what is now today's municipality might well have been within the territory of the provincial capital, Trier; presumably, as state domain, it was involved in the town's provisioning. Across from Erden were found two ancient winepressing facilities, one of which was Germany's oldest such Roman facility. Onto this in the 4th century AD was built a smokehouse, a so-called ''fumarium'', to age wine more quickly with smoke. This is confirmed by digs done by the ''Rheinisches Landesmuseum'' in Trier.

Middle Ages

In Francia, Erden remained a kingly estate and belonged to the ''Fiscus'' of Kröv, which after being transferred from the king's control in the 13th century to the Counts Palatine of the Rhine was pledged, ending up in the hands of the Counts of Sponheim. About 774 or 775, the name Erden appeared for the first time in writing: ''in pago Muslense super fluvio Muselle in monte Ardinigo'', it says in a document from the Abbey of Echternach. “Erden” means “high” or “steep”.

The splintering of the ''Fiscus'' of Kröv was parallelled by one in Erden, where in the Early Middle Ages the Bishop of Toul, or rather his Abbey of Saint-Èvre de Toul, acquired extensive holdings. These might well have stemmed from the Pippinids, who had holdings in the Moselle country, and they were sold in 1266 to the '' Vögte'' of Hunolstein. In Carolingian times, the Royal Abbey of Echternach appears, provided with holdings in Erden. Following in the High and Late Middle Ages were the Cistercian Himmerod Abbey and other monasteries and foundations, among them Machern Monastery, Springiersbach Monastery, Ören, St. Maximin's Abbey, Ravengiersburg and others. The Sponheims’ share of the landholdings in Erden was surely the biggest, though the Counts gave parts thereof out as castle fiefs. Sponheim was also the liege lord of the ''Vögte'' of Hunolstein, and asserted, through the blood court, hegemony over the ''Kröver Reich'' (a kingly estate named for Kröv) until the late 18th century, and then only when the ''Vögte'' of Hunolstein sold their holdings to the Archbishopric of Trier. Quite handsome holdings that had come from the Imperial estate were also held by a knightly family that named itself after Erden, but these passed in 1347 to the St. Paulin Foundation in Trier.

Ecclesiastically, Erden's ''Aperkapelle'', a chapel whose founding might have gone back to the Abbey of St. Èvre, belonged to the parish of Lösnich, which by way of the Abbey of Mönchengladbach and the Counts of Sayn fell in the 13th century to the Teutonic Knights. The parish seat was moved in the late 13th century to Rachtig. Saint Èvre's patronage of Erden was by the 17th century forgotten. Since then, Saint Anne has been held to be patron saint. The abolition of church tithes by the French Revolution brought about Erden's shift from membership in the Rachtig parish league and the acquisition of its own pastor.

Modern times

After the transitional period under the French, which brought along with it the dissolution of the old structures, Erden, and the ''Kröver Reich'', too, passed to the district of Bernkastel in the '' Regierungsbezirk'' of Trier, themselves part of Prussia’s Rhine Province. Since 1946, Erden has been part of the then newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

Politics

The council is made up of 8 council members, who were elected by majority vote

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