Tholey () is a municipality in the district of Sankt Wendel, in

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is situated approximately west of Sankt Wendel, and north of

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

History

Local history

The first traces of settlement in the area of today's Tholey go back to the Celts. Multiple archaeological finds show an extended occupation by the Romans. In medieval times, much of today's Saarland was tributary to the Abbey of Tholey. To protect the abbey a castle was constructed on the nearby Schaumberg. Tholey was under control of

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

and of the Archbishop Prince-elector of Trier. Tholey is located on the edge of the Schaumberg, the highest mountain in Saarland and the Hunsrück range. The name has been derived from the Celtic ''*dol(wo)'' meaning "outstanding", a derivation found also in the name of the neighboring Dollberg hill and in Lorelei (originally Dorley), related to the German ''toll'' or ''doll''. " Ley" is a Celtic and Germanic word meaning "cliffs." Tholey is thus "the village on the outstanding cliffs". Given the nearby

Gallo-Roman Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...

settlement '' Wareswald'' alternate derivations of the names Tholey and Theley have been proposed from the Latin word for bricks, ''tegula'' or from ''Castrum teulegium'' – Linden Fort. As part of the Saarland's territorial and administrative reforms in 1974 the nine previously independent communities Bergweiler, Hasborn-Dautweiler, Lindscheid, Neipel, Scheuem, Sotzweiler, Theley, Tholey, and Überroth-Niederhofen were consolidated under the name Tholey.Neugliederungsgesetz – NGG vom 19. Dezember 1973, § 37, veröffentlicht i
Amtsblatt des Saarlandes 1973, Nr. 48, S. 857
(PDF Seite 29; 499 kB)

Church history

According to legend, around 610 Saint Wendelin of Trier became the founder and first abbot of the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

abbey of Tholey. In 1794 the monastery was plundered and burned by the French and the congregation was dissolved. In 1949 an offshoot of Benedictine monastery of Beuronese Congregation returned and began restoration.

Jewish history

A Jewish community existed in Tholey from the Eighteenth Century to about 1940. The first Jewish family was identified in 1729. By 1843 88 Jewish people lived in Tholey (9% of the total population of 952 people), by 1895 there were 91. A synagogue was dedicated on December 4, 1863, by District Rabbi Kahn from Trier. A Jewish religious school existed since 1876. In 1925 the Jewish community numbered 50 people; in 1935, 41. Because of the increasing disenfranchisement in the Nazi period and due to the economic boycott many moved to other cities or emigrated. After the deportation at least 20 Jewish inhabitants, either born in Tholey or long-time residents, were murdered. The synagogue was sold in 1937 and later demolished, and a house constructed on its foundation in the Triererstraße.

Climate

People

* Johannes Kühn (1934-2023), writer, born in Tholey

References

{{Authority control Sankt Wendel (district) Holocaust locations in Germany