Schöneberg is a village and a municipal division (''

Stadtteil A quarter is a section of an urban settlement. A quarter can be administratively defined and its borders officially designated, and it may have its own administrative structure (subordinate to that of the city, town or other urban area). Such a ...

'') of the town of Hofgeismar in the district of Kassel in northern

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

, Germany. West of the village, there are the ruins of a castle dating from the 12th century that bears the same name.

Geography

Schöneberg is a ''straßendorf'', a village that straddles a main road. Schöneberg lies on the western edge of the

Reinhardswald The Reinhardswald () is a range of hills up to and covering an area of over 200 km²
in the

and is home to 600 residents. The German

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'' ...

83 between Kassel and Bremen runs through town."Museumsrallye - Hugenotten- und Waldenserorte: Schöneberg"
Deutsches Hugenotten-Museum, official website.

Bad Karlshafen Bad Karlshafen () is a baroque, thermal salt spa town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It has 2300 inhabitants in the main ward of Bad Karlshafen, and a further 1900 in the medieval village of Helmarshausen. It is situated at the con ...

, Germany. Retrieved February 3, 2011

History

Castle

To exert their power and influence, and for protection, in the early part of the 12th century, the archbishops of Mainz in the

Diemel The Diemel is a river in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a left tributary of the Weser. Route The source of the Diemel is near Willingen, in Sauerland. The Diemel flows generally northeast through the towns Marsberg, Warburg, an ...

and upper

Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...

area built a fortress on top of a mountain high, just west of where the village stands today. Today, the castle stands in ruins.

Lords of Schöneberg

The lords of Schöneberg appeared in the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...

in northern

and bore the title

nobilis ''Nobilis'' is a contemporary fantasy tabletop role-playing game created by Jenna K. Moran, writing under the name R. Sean Borgstrom. The player characters are "Sovereign Powers" called ''the Nobilis''; each Noble is the personification of an ...

Dominus Dominus or domini may refer to: * Dominus (title), a title of sovereignty, clergy and other uses Art, entertainment, and media * Dominus (band), a Danish death metal band * Dominus (DC Comics), an alien character in DC Comics * Dominus (Mar ...

. Their domain stretched through scattered seats from Schöneberg to the

Reinhardswald The Reinhardswald () is a range of hills up to and covering an area of over 200 km²
in the

. The castle was built by Count Hermann II of

Winzenburg Winzenburg is a village and a former municipality in the district of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2016, it is part of the municipality Freden. It comprises four smaller communities, including the village of Winzenburg, whi ...

.Friedhelm Biermann
" Die Adelsherrschaften an Ober- und Mittelweser des 13. und 14. Jahrhunderts: im Kräftespiel zwischen einer neu formierten welfischen Hausmacht und expandierenden geistlichen Territorien"
(PDF) Westfälischen Wilhelms - Universität zu Münster (Westfalen). Dissertation (2005). Page 407. Retrieved February 5, 2011. In the 12th century, the archbishopric of Mainz hired them to guard and defend Schöneberg castle.Albert Fraustadt
''Geschichte des Geschlechtes von Schönberg Meissnischen Stammes''
Google Books. Volume 1, Verlag von Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig (1869) After the death of Hermann II,

margrave of Meissen This article lists the margraves of Meissen, a march and territorial state on the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire. History King Henry the Fowler, on his 928-29 campaign against the Slavic Glomacze tribes, had a fortress erected on a ...

, they were given

fiefdom 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 overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form of f ...

rights as well and the castle became their

family seat A family seat or sometimes just called seat is the principal residence of the landed gentry and aristocracy. The residence usually denotes the social, economic, political, or historic connection of the family within a given area. Some families ...

. The counts of Dassel held Schöneberg as a

from circa 1220 to 1273."Förderverein Museum »Grafschaft Dassel« unterwegs"
''Einbecker Morgenpost'' (May 15, 2010) Retrieved February 4, 2011 Hofgeismar De Merian Hassiae

In the 13th century, the counts tried to extend their territory. As a part of their strategy, they founded villages in the

Reinhardswald The Reinhardswald () is a range of hills up to and covering an area of over 200 km²
in the

, between the Diemel river and the

Solling The Solling () is a range of hills up to high in the Weser Uplands in the German state of Lower Saxony, whose extreme southerly foothills extend into Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. Inside Lower Saxony it is the second largest range of hills ...

. At the same time, conflicts emerged with the archbishops of Mainz and prince-bishops of Paderborn, as well as with the

landgraves of Hesse The Landgraviate of Hesse (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen) was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. It existed as a single entity from 1264 to 1567, when it was divided among the sons of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. History In the early Midd ...

. At the urging of the people of Hofgeismar, Ludolf VI sold Schöneberg castle to the archbishopric of Mainz in 1272 and with it, the

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

over numerous localities, which were later

abandoned Abandon, abandoned, or abandonment may refer to: Common uses * Abandonment (emotional), a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded * Abandonment (legal), a legal term regarding property ** Chi ...

. The sale ended the reign of the counts of Dassel over the Reinhardswald, which they had had for decades. This caused a dispute between Ludolf VI and his brother, Adolf V, who was firmly against the sale and refused to approve it. The deed of sale was prepared in 1273 and Ludolf VI put it in writing that he would continue to fight him, if he did not relent. The lords then moved to

Trendelburg Trendelburg () is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany with a population of 5,282 on 30 September 2009. It is situated on the river Diemel, north of Kassel. The town is twinned with Pocklington, England. Trendelburg is located o ...

castle. A lack of heirs caused them to disappear in the beginning of the 15th century.

Village

The village of Schöneberg was founded in 1699 by French

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

s. Charles I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel gave them land around Hofgeismar to build new settlements after they had been expelled from France by the

Edict of Fontainebleau The Edict of Fontainebleau (22 October 1685) was an edict issued by French King Louis XIV and is also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes (1598) had granted Huguenots the right to practice their religion without s ...

in 1685. Likewise, were

Waldensians The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...

also welcomed to settle in the region after they were expelled in 1698 by

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

The village of Schöneberg came into being after Charles I picked a site for a new colony to be built on the land of a former village, which was first mentioned in historical documents in 965. Building began in 1700.

Paul du Ry Jean Paul du Ry (1640 – 21 June 1714) was a French architect and Huguenot refugee who was responsible for a number of baroque buildings in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Origins Jean Paul du Ry came from a family of French architects. His father was ...

, also a Huguenot and refugee, was responsible for planning. In 1685, Charles I appointed him court architect. The

half-timber 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 ...

ed church was built from 1705-06. David Clément was the

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

until his death. Clément dies on January 29, 1725 in Hofgeismar. From 1686, Clément had been pastor of the French Reformed Church congregation at the Neustädter church in Hofgeismar. There were 24 founding families in Schöneberg. Because of the high mortality rate of children at that time, their numbers did not show significant increase until the 1779

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, when a total of 124 people in 28 families were counted. The main income of the village was from farming, but over the course of time, other trades and businesses were established, including a brickworks, a few potteries, two tailors, two shoemakers, a

hosier Hosiery, also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the feet and legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also known generically as h ...

and a soap maker. In 1730, the route of the Bremen

post road A post road is a road designated for the transportation of postal mail. In past centuries, only major towns had a post house and the roads used by post riders or mail coaches to carry mail among them were particularly important ones or, due ...

was moved from passing through a neighboring village to passing through Schöneberg, apparently to improve travel to new baths at Hofgeismar. This change may have altered the development of the village. By the time of the 1779 census, there were already 12 German families living in Schöneberg, as well as 16 French households. The special status accorded to villages founded by French religious refugees was abolished by a landgrave regulation in 1822.

Sources

* Albert Fraustadt
''Geschichte des Geschlechtes von Schönberg Meissnischen Stammes, Vol. 1''
Google Books. Verlag von Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig (1869) beginning p. 566 * Kreis Hofgeismar, ''Handbuch des Heimatbundes für Kurhessen, Waldeck und Oberhessen III,'' Marburg/Lahn (1966) p. 192 * Rudolf Knappe, ''Mittelalterliche Burgen in Hessen,'' Gudensberg-Gleichen (1995) * Jochen Desel, ''Französische Dörfer - deutsche Zuwanderer 1669-1779: 300 Jahre Kelze und Schöneberg,'' Band II, Hofgeismar (1999)

References

External links

City of Hofgeismar, official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schoneberg Villages in Hesse