Otterberg is a town in the district of

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 ...

in the German state of

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 ...

with about 7,350 (as of 6/2006) inhabitants. It is situated approximately north of

. Otterberg is the seat of the ''

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- ...

'' ("collective municipality")

Otterbach-Otterberg Otterbach-Otterberg is a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") in the district Kaiserslautern, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' is in Otterberg. It was formed on 1 July 2014 by the merger of the fo ...

History

The following events occurred, in each year: *1143 The

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

was established. *1168 Construction of the monastery began. *1254 The church was inaugurated on May 10. *1380 The monastery was in steady decline beginning about 1380 until the 15th century. *1504 During the

Bavaria-Landshut Bavaria-Landshut (german: Bayern-Landshut) was a duchy in the Holy Roman Empire from 1353 to 1503. History The creation of the duchy was the result of the death of Emperor Louis IV the Bavarian. In the Treaty of Landsberg 1349, which divided u ...

War of Succession, the monastery was plundered. *1525 During the

German Peasants' War The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt (german: Deutscher Bauernkrieg) was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of intense oppositio ...

(Bauernkrieg); the insurgent peasants fell on the remainder of the monastery. *1556 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 to the area. *1559 The remaining monks were instructed to convert. *1561 The last Abbott Wendelin Merbot left the monastery. *1564 The monastery was left open. The gates of Otterberg were opened. *1579

Pfalzgraf A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an ord ...

Johann Casimir John Casimir, Count Palatine of Simmern (German: ''Johann Casimir von Pfalz-Simmern'') (7 March 1543 – Brockhaus Geschichte Second Edition) was a German prince and a younger son of Frederick III, Elector Palatine. A firm Calvinist, he was a lea ...

invited religious refugees from the

Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the Ha ...

to settle Otterberg and there was active settlement by the

Walloons Walloons (; french: Wallons ; wa, Walons) are a Gallo-Romance ethnic group living native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of France. Walloons primarily speak '' langues d'oïl'' such as Belgian French, Picard and Walloon. Walloo ...

. They used the stones of the monastery complex for the building of their houses, so that today only the abbey church and the chapter hall remain. *1581 Gained

town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

from

(''Count-

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

'')

. *1582 to 1593 Many previous residents of Otterberg were in

Frankenthal Frankenthal (Pfalz) ( pfl, Frongedahl) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. History Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, af ...

. *1618 to 1648 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 ...

severely affected the area. *1650 Existing church records in Otterberg begin. *1689 Many residents of Otterberg arrived in Holzappel under the leadership of Charles Faucher after a long period of wandering after fleeing Otterberg due to the

War of the League of Augsburg The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Kingdom of France, France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by t ...

which lasted from 1688 to 1697. *1708 Joint use of the church by the

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

and

Catholics 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 ...

led to problems. The solution was to add a wall inside the church so that the Catholic part (in the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

) was separated from the Protestant part (in the nave). *1979 During a very extensive restoration project, this wall was removed. The church is now shared by both church communities.

Objects of interest

* Monastic church: Part a former

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

, this abbey church is the second largest in the Palatinate (after the

Speyer Cathedral , native_name_lang = German , image = Speyer_dom_11.jpg , imagesize = 280px , imagelink = , imagealt = , landscape = , caption = , pushpin ma ...

). The church was built between 1168 and 1254. The monastery reached its peak around the year 1340 and declined around 1561. In 1579 groups of refugees of the reformed faith arrived from the

and from northern

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 ...

Personalities

Sons and Daughters of the City

Guillaume de Felice Guillaume may refer to: People * Guillaume (given name), the French equivalent of William * Guillaume (surname) Other uses * Guillaume (crater) See also * '' Chanson de Guillaume'', an 11th or 12th century poem * Guillaume affair, a Cold War espi ...

, 4th Comte de Panzutti (1803–1871), a Savoy nobleman, theologian and abolitionist *

Johann Heinrich Roos Johann Heinrich Roos (29 September 1631, Otterberg – 3 October 1685, Frankfurt) was a German Baroque era landscape painter and etcher. Biography His family had emigrated to Amsterdam due to the Thirty Years' War in 1640.