Reipoltskirchen 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), Kusel Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the seat of the Kusel-Altenglan ''Verbandsgemeinde'' and is also the district seat.
The well-kno ...
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
Reipoltskirchen lies in the Odenbach valley in the north of 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 ...
at an elevation of some 200 m on a slight broadening of the valley floor. The mountains on either side of the valley climb rather steeply upwards, reaching more than 300 m above sea level on the right (east) bank and more than 400 m above sea level on the left (west) bank (Steinkopf 403.3 m, Platte 361 m, Galgenkopf 303 m). While the Ingweilerhof lies in the dale, along with the main centre, Ausbacherhof and Karlshof are to be found on the heights that stretch out between the Odenbach valley and
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 to the west. The municipal area measures 652 ha, of which roughly 7 ha is settled and 250 ha is wooded.
Neighbouring municipalities
Reipoltskirchen borders in the north on the municipality of
Becherbach, in the northeast on the municipality of
Nußbach, in the southeast on the municipality of
Hefersweiler, in the south on the municipality of
Relsberg
Relsberg 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.
Ge ...
, in the southwest on the municipality of
Einöllen
Einöllen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a type of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
G ...
, in the west on the municipality of
Hohenöllen
Hohenöllen 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 in the northwest on the municipality of
Cronenberg.
Constituent communities
Reipoltskirchen's ''
Ortsteil
A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, community, larger than a hamlet (place), hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population t ...
e'' are the main centre, likewise called Reipoltskirchen, and the outlying centres of Ausbacherhof, Ingweilerhof and Karlshof.
Municipality’s layout
Reipoltskirchen's main centre stretches along the left bank of the stream on roads that climb up to the western heights. A few houses in the southeast of the village stand on the far bank and are linked with the village centre by the bridge carrying the ''
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 ...
'' 382. The oldest settled neighbourhood lies in the northeast of the village. Standing here are the church and the rectory as well as the old
lowland castle
The term lowland castle or plains castle (german: Niederungsburg, Flachlandburg, Tieflandburg) describes a type of castle that is situated on a lowland, plain or valley floor, as opposed to one built on higher ground such as a hill spur. The cla ...
of
Reipoltskirchen, a
water castle
A water castle is a castle whose site is largely defended by water. It can be entirely surrounded by water-filled moats (moated castle) or natural waterbodies such as island castles in a river or offshore. The term comes from European castle st ...
which is ringed by the stream and also an artificial watercourse. At the end of this
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...
also stands the former
mill
Mill may refer to:
Science and technology
*
* Mill (grinding)
* Milling (machining)
* Millwork
* Textile mill
* Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel
* List of types of mill
* Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...
whose
waterwheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...
s were driven by water coming out of the moat. The old school and the forester's house likewise stand in this northerly neighbourhood. The graveyard is to be found north of the village between the through road and the brook. Most of the houses come from the 19th century, as does the church. A newer schoolhouse from 1906 stands in the village's south end on Hirtenstraße. Likewise on that street stands the ''Johann-Heinrich-Roos-Halle'', a multipurpose hall. The castle's origins are uncertain. It may have arisen in the late 12th century, but is first recorded in 1267. It was a round complex that was surrounded by the moat and walls on a manmade hill. Still well preserved is the 18 m-tall ''
bergfried
''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German ...
'' with its very thick walls and flat roof. In recent times, the moat has been filled back up with water. For years, the Kusel district has been having extensive renovation work carried out, which is now almost finished. The Ingweilerhof, south of the village, right on the road near the municipal limit with Hefersweiler, was in bygone days a village in its own right. Nowadays it is a great walled rectangle with houses, a
chapel
A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...
and commercial buildings that come from the 18th century. Housed at this estate is a seniors’ home. Likewise formerly a village in its own right was the Ausbacherhof lying southwest of the village on the road to
Einöllen
Einöllen is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a type of collective municipality – in the Kusel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' Lauterecken-Wolfstein.
G ...
. The Karlshof, though, lying near the
Hohenöllen
Hohenöllen 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.
...
municipal area, is a newer centre founded in the 19th century.
History
Antiquity
Reipoltskirchen was settled quite early on. The latest archaeological find was unearthed one kilometre south of Reipoltskirchen, an old
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 ...
house, that is to say, a
villa rustica
Villa rustica () was the term used by the ancient Romans to denote a farmhouse or villa set in the countryside and with an agricultural section, which applies to the vast majority of Roman villas. In some cases they were at the centre of a large ...
, believed to have been built between about AD 100 and 200, with its associated stabling and lodging for servants. This villa may have arisen from a foregoing
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 ...
settlement. In the 6th and 7th centuries, at the time when 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, ...
, a
Germanic tribe, were taking over the land, a Frankish settlement arose in the Odenbach valley roughly where the Nußbach (formerly the Hahnenbach) empties into the Odenbach. It was called ''Hundheim am Steg''.
Middle Ages
Sometime about 980, a Frank named Richbald built a church about a kilometre northwest of Hundheim am Steg. Over the years, a settlement grew up around it and took the name ''Richbaldeskirchen'', after the man who had built the church. This earliest church is believed to have been wooden, but it was replaced by a sturdier building in the 10th or 11th century. This church had its first documentary mention in 1222 in
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 ...
’s book of souls as ''Kirche mit Leichenhof'' (“church with graveyard”). The people who settled there cleared land and farmed, although apparently the land did not yield up plentiful harvests.
It is likely that the region around Reipoltskirchen was originally 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 (''Reichsland''). An unknown king or emperor may have transferred the village to Prüm Abbey, which in the 12th century then transferred its holdings in the ''Reichsland'' to secular lords as a ''
Vogt
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
ei''.
Other than ''Meffridus de Ripoldeskirchen'' whose name cropped up in a document, no Lords of Reipoltskirchen are known to history. More is known about the families Bolanden and Hohenfels. Werner I of Bolanden, an Imperial
ministerialis
The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire.
The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...
, founded the Hane Monastery near
Bolanden
Bolanden is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe aft ...
in 1129. Werner II endowed the Rodenkirchen Monastery. Philipp III of Bolanden (d. 1220) had
Castle Ehrenfels built on the
Rhine
), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source1_coordinates=
, source1_elevation =
, source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein
, source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland
, source2_coordinates=
, so ...
. His son Philipp IV wed Elisabeth von Hohenfels, and thenceforth the House of Hohenfels was always seen as a branch of the House of Bolanden. One of Philipp's sons, Dylmann (Theoderich), was Imperial Treasurer and called himself Dylman von Hohenfels. His own son, Heinrich, in turn is held to be the founder of the Reipoltskirchen line. He bore the double title ''Heinrich von Hohenfels und Herr zu Reipoltskirchen'' (Heinrich of Hohenfels and Lord at Reipoltskirchen), and he was also known for participating in
Emperor Henry VII's journey to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
.
According to Father Michael Frey's (1788–1854) ''Beschreibung des Rheinkreises'' (“Description of the Rheinkreis”, that is, the Palatinate during the time after 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 ...
when it was
Bavarian), it was sometime about 1181 that the lowland castle was built. This
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 ...
belonged as a
fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...
from Prüm Abbey in the
Eifel
The Eifel (; lb, Äifel, ) is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the southern area of the German-speaking Community of ...
to the Lords of Bolanden. Known to have been among the earliest ''
Burgmann
From the 12th century in central Europe, a ''Burgmann'' (plural: ''Burgmannen'' or modern term ''Burgmänner'', Latin: ''oppidanus'', ''castrensus'') was a knight ministeriales or member of the nobility who was obliged to guard and defend castles. ...
en'' are Meffried von Reipoltskirchen (about 1196) and Jakob Boos zu Reipoltskirchen (1209). The castle eventually passed by inheritance to the Lords of Hohenfels, had its first documentary mention in 1276 and beginning in 1297, it became the seat of the lordly sideline founded by Heinrich von Hohenfels, Lord of Reipoltskirchen.
Sometime between 1194 and 1198, or perhaps even as early as 1189/1190, Reipoltskirchen had its first documentary mention in a directory of landholds kept by Count Werner von Bolant, whose family seat – a castle – stood in Bolanden on the
Donnersberg
The Donnersberg ("thunder mountain") is the highest peak of the Palatinate (german: Pfalz) region of Germany. The mountain lies between the towns of Rockenhausen and Kirchheimbolanden, in the Donnersbergkreis district, which is named after the m ...
. He was
Emperor Barbarossa's ministerialis
The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a class of people raised up from serfdom and placed in positions of power and responsibility in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire.
The word and its German translations, ''Minis ...
and one of the wealthiest knights of his time. This directory is today kept at the ''Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv'' in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
. In it is found a listing of the extensive and widely scattered fiefs held by Werner, among which is an entry reading “''Mefridus de Ripoldeskirchen habet a me in beneficio in Rameswilre V. mansos predii.''” The confusion about the date arises from the fact that the directory contains no explicit dates in its text. Complicating matters is the directory's division into four parts, each of which likely dates from a different time. Wilhelm Sauer suggested for the third and most extensive part, which contains the mention of Mefridus de Ripoldeskirchen, the 1194-1198 dates. The authors Martin Dolch and Albrecht Greule concurred with this assessment in their 1991 work ''Historisches Siedlungsnamenbuch der Pfalz'', although writer Albrecht Eckhardt had reckoned its date as something more like 1189/1190 in 1976, with which Volker Rödel later agreed in 1980. The key to pinpointing the date lies in the year when Werner II died. Is the “Werner von Bolanden” mentioned in the records between 1193 and 1198 Werner II or his grandson Werner III (Werner II's son Philipp predeceased his father in 1187)? Whatever the truth is, it seemingly cannot be inferred with any certainty from this old directory (especially since the writing in it suggests that it is a copy of the original from about 1250/1260), but what is certain at least is that 1198 is the latest possible date for this document. Thus, the municipality celebrated its 800th anniversary of first documentary mention in 1998. The Lordship of Reipoltskirchen, which belonged to the
Upper Rhenish Circle
The Upper Rhenish Circle (german: Oberrheinischer Reichskreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1500 on the territory of the former Duchy of Upper Lorraine and large parts of Rhenish Franconia including the Swabi ...
, remained
Imperially immediate
Imperial immediacy (german: Reichsfreiheit or ') was a privileged constitutional and political status rooted in German feudal law under which the Imperial estates of the Holy Roman Empire such as Imperial cities, prince-bishoprics and secular prin ...
until its
occupation
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
in 1792 by
French Revolutionary troops.
The first “Knight of Reipoltskirchen” to appear in the historical record is Heinrich von Hohenfels und Reipoltskirchen, who was mentioned in 1297, and who died in 1329 and was buried at the Zion Monastery Church (''Klosterkirche Sion'') in
Otterberg
Otterberg is a town in the district of Kaiserslautern in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate with about 7,350 (as of 6/2006) inhabitants. It is situated approximately north of Kaiserslautern.
Otterberg is the seat of the ''Verbandsgemeinde ...
. Also in 1297, Count Heinrich sold his uncle, the Count of Zweibrücken, the Urbach estate (Ausbacherhof). The historical record mentions the castle for the first time. In Reipoltskirchen, a new sideline of the Lords of Bolanden took its seat, with Heinrich von Hohenfels as the founder. It was soon afterwards calling itself after its two castles: the Lords of Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen. In 1304, Count Heinrich bought from the noble knight Johann von Metz the villages of
Finkenbach and Breitenborn (Gersweiler) along with the patronage rights at the church there. In 1350, the Hohenfelses came to Reipoltskirchen after their castle seat on the Donnersberg was destroyed. They were forbidden to build their castle anew once they had shown themselves to be
robber knights and
highwaymen
A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to fo ...
. The line of succession through 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 ...
was Konrad I, Konrad II, Eberhard I, Eberhard II, Johann I and Wolfgang. All but the last bore the title Lord of Reipoltskirchen. Wolfgang also styled himself Lord of Hohenfels, Rixingen and Forbach, which went to show how greatly the lordly house had expanded its holdings. It was about 1500, through marriage, that the Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchens acquired shares of the counties of Forbach and Rixingen in
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
. Furthermore, sons had been founding sidelines, but by the Late Middle Ages, only two such lines remained, the Lords of Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen and the
Lords of Falkenstein, and even this latter house died out with
Archbishop of Trier
The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' (IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.[Franz von Sickingen
Franz von Sickingen (2 March 14817 May 1523) was an Imperial Knight who, with Ulrich von Hutten, led the so-called "Knights' Revolt," and was one of the most notable figures of the early period of the Protestant Reformation. Sickingen was nickn ...]
’s army for a time. By exchange in 1553 with
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 ...
-Rhinegrave Philipp Franz von Daun he acquired against the faraway village of
Hochstätten
Hochstätten is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a Municipalities of Germany, municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Bad Kreuznach (district), Bad Kreuznach Districts of Germany, district in Rhineland ...
in the
Alsenz
Alsenz () is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Alsenz has an area of 12.88 km2 and a population of 1,647 (as of December 31, 2020).
Culture and sights
In the centre of the village is the Re ...
valley the nearer villages of
Nußbach and
Schönborn, along with a half share in the village of
Rudolphskirchen. He further acquired rights to the ''Hundheimer Hufe'' (see
Vanished villages below) and the village of
Seelen in
Palatinate-Zweibrücken.
In 1548, 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 Reipoltskirchen, Rixingen and Forbach by
Count Philipp von Leiningen-Westerburg. The neighbouring Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken had already adopted the new belief in 1546.
Between 1560 and 1570, 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 Reipoltskirchen, presumably by Count Johann II von Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen (1538–1568). In 1600, a
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 ...
clergyman is mentioned. Johann II's son Wolfgang Philipp outlived him by only eight years. Wolfgang Philipp's wife Amalia remarried, and her new husband was Count Philipp I of Leiningen-Westerburg, who now became his stepson's regent. Philipp saw to it that the Reformation was introduced into all his own and his wife's holdings. As for the stepson, Johann III von Hohenfels-Reipoltskirchen, for whom Philipp had acted as regent, he took power upon his stepfather's death in 1597 and was the last in his noble line (Imperial ministerial family of the Lords of Bolanden), and died in
Forbach
Forbach ( , , ; gsw, Fuerboch) is a commune in the French department of Moselle, northeastern French region of Grand Est.
It is located on the German border approximately 15 minutes from the center of Saarbrücken, Germany, with which it const ...
in 1602 childless and unwed. He was only 25 years old. The sole heir was Countess Amalia at Leiningen-Westerburg, born Countess at Falkenstein. The shares in the counties of Forbach and Rixingen were soon lost. On 25 October 1608 Countess Amalia died at the age of 62 and was buried in the Reipoltskirchen church. An artistically worked tomb is to be found in the sacristy. In 1603, Amalia bequeathed the Lordship of Reipoltskirchen to her two brothers Sebastian and Emich von Falkenstein, who both died heirless, the former in 1619 and the latter in 1628. So instead, under the terms of her will, her sister Sydonia's (also called Sidonie) two sons, Johann Casimir and Steino von Löwenhaupt, inherited the estate, and also the County of Falkenstein. The Lordship of Reipoltskirchen was thus sundered, with the elder brother bequeathing his half to his sons Ludwig Wirich and Karl Moritz, who would then each hold one fourth of the Lordship, thereby splitting it into three pieces. Steino von Löwenhaupt's daughter Elisabeth Amalie wed Count Philipp von
Manderscheid, thereby giving the House of Manderscheid ownership rights to Reipoltskirchen. Ludwig Wirich von Löwenhaupt's share of the Lordship remained whole and in his family's ownership until his grandsons Nils von Löwenhaupt (1708-1776) and Kasimir von Löwenhaupt shared it. In Karl Moritz's line, one fourth of the Lordship was split among three grandsons, Karl Emil, Franz Königsmann and Gustav Otto. These three brothers first pledged this holding to one of their officials, and then later, in 1722, sold it to a count, Franz Wilhelm Kaspar Baron of Hillesheim (d. 1748). He was a high official to the
Elector Palatine
The counts palatine of Lotharingia /counts palatine of the Rhine /electors of the Palatinate (german: Kurfürst von der Pfalz) ruled some part of Rhine area in the Kingdom of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire from 915 to 1803. The title was a kind ...
and lived in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
. Nils and Kasimir at first kept ownership of their thirds.
Sydonia's younger son Steino bequeathed his half by way of his daughter Elisabeth Amalie to the Lordship of
Manderscheid, who kept it until 1730, when Wolfgang Heinrich Count at Manderscheid and Blankenheim, Baron at Hohenfels and Reipoltskirchen and Lord at Keyl sold the half share for a price of 30,500
Rhenish guilder
The Rhenish ''gulden'' or Rhenish ''guilder'' (german: Rheinischer Gulden; la, florenus Rheni) was a gold, standard currency coin of the Rhineland in the 14th and 15th centuries. They weighed between 3.4 and 3.8 grams ().
History
The Rhenish ...
s, likewise to the Counts of Hillesheim, who thus had acquired three fourths of the original Lordship. Meanwhile, Nils and Kasimir from the older line of Löwenhaupt sued to get the fourth of Hillesheim, which had been sold by the younger line, back. They won the case, although not until 1754, six years after the Baron of Hillesheim had died. The count's widow, a born countess of Gleichen and Hatzfeld, had to give the fourth from the Löwenhaupt line back. Thus, there were once again two parts of the old Lordship of Reipoltskirchen, one half held by the brothers Nils and Kasimir of Löwenhaupt and the other by the widow Hillesheim.
In 1618, 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 ...
broke out; by the time it was over in 1648, the whole land had been laid waste, and there were almost no inhabitants left in it. In 1628, both through a failure of the House of Manderscheid to produce a male heir and by marriage, Reipoltskirchen became subject to an administrative arrangement called an ''Erbgemeinschaft'' or a ''
Ganerbschaft
A ''Ganerbschaft'' (plural: ''Ganerbschaften'' in German), according to old German inheritance law, was a joint family estate, mainly land, over which the co-heirs (''Ganerben'') only had rights in common. In modern German legal parlance it corresp ...
''. This meant that the Lords of Manderscheid-Keil and the Counts of Löwenhaupt-Rasburg each held a share in the lordship and ruled the estate jointly as a kind of joint inheritance. In the midst of the Thirty Years' War, on
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
(29 September) 1631,
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. to leave his former post in Konken
Konken 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 se ...
. After a court case in 1850, he had first been transferred to Lauterecken, and then in 1854 to Reipoltskirchen. Here he had great difficulties getting himself named the permanent teacher. In 1858, he went to Adenbach. Between 1869 and 1879, four schoolteachers served in only this short time. The last of these was Jakob Braun, who then stayed for a longer time. He was sent on a one-year leave of absence in 1878 because of a “chest complaint”. Braun, too, met with some difficulty in the village, once being blackmail
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
ed by a forest ranger who had witnessed the teacher's son forging
Forging is a manufacturing process involving the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. The blows are delivered with a hammer (often a power hammer) or a die. Forging is often classified according to the temperature at which i ...
the school inspector's signature. Braun's successor in 1891 was Jakob Cassel, formerly of 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 ...
. He stood out for the broadminded, and to the villagers even sacrilegious, views that he uttered. It was said that he denied the Resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
and refused to impart religious instruction. By 1895, he had been replaced by Friedrich Dembelein from Wassertrüdingen __NOTOC__
Wassertrüdingen is a town in the district of Ansbach, Middle Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. It is between the Hesselberg, the only Franconian mountain with a view on the Alps, the wooded heights of the Oettinger Forest and the foothills o ...
, but he was transferred to Dörnbach in 1901. There then followed yet another era of constant teacher turnover. Today, schoolchildren attend school in Wolfstein.
Transport
Serving nearby Heinzenhausen
Heinzenhausen on the Lauter 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 Laut ...
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 Lauter Valley Railway (''Lautertalbahn'', Lauterecken-Kaiserslautern). Reipoltskirchen itself lies on ''Kreisstraße
A Kreisstraße (literally: "district road" or "county road") is a class of road in Germany. It carries traffic between the towns and villages within a '' Kreis'' or district or between two neighbouring districts. In importance, the ''Kreisstraße ...
n'' 41 and 42 and ''Landesstraße'' 382.
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
*Elias Grünebaum (1807–1893)
::A rabbi and Jewish theologist, Grünebaum studied in Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
and Munich and was a pupil of the philosopher Schelling Schelling is a surname. Notable persons with that name include:
* Caroline Schelling (1763–1809), German intellectual
* Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher
* Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858–1945), American educat ...
. He compiled many books and other written works, and is held to be a liberal reformer of German Jewry
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
. For more than 50 years, he headed the Rabbinical Region of Landau.
*Jakob Grünebaum
::Elias’s uncle, likely born in Reipoltskirchen, Grünebaum emigrated
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 ...
sometime about 1850 to the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. His sons founded bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
s and businesses in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
that still exist today under the name Greenebaum.
*Emil Heuser (1851–1928)
::An historical researcher and porcelain
Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainl ...
expert, Heuser participated as an engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
in building railway
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 ...
s in Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
(actually the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
) in 1874-1880 in the Edirne
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...
area, and thereafter worked as a chief railway administrator at the ''Pfälzische Eisenbahn''. In 1901 he published a guide to the Palatinate. He participated as a captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
in 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 ...
and was accorded high distinction. Retired as of 1920, he worked as curator of the Historical Museum of the Palatinate (''Historisches Museum der Pfalz'') and publisher of the magazine ''Historisches Museum der Pfalz''. He also published many articles, mainly about Palatine history.
*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.