Rothselberg
Rothselberg | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 49°32′46.30″N 7°35′32.55″E / 49.5461944°N 7.5923750°E | |
Country | Germany |
State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
District | Kusel |
Municipal assoc. | Lauterecken-Wolfstein |
Government | |
• Mayor (2019–24) | Rainer Mohr[1] |
Area | |
• Total | 8.74 km2 (3.37 sq mi) |
Elevation | 343 m (1,125 ft) |
Population (2022-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 623 |
• Density | 71/km2 (180/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 67753 |
Dialling codes | 06304 |
Vehicle registration | KUS |
Rothselberg is an
Geography
Location
Rothselberg lies at the foot of the 546 m-high Selberg in the North Palatine Uplands. The village's elevation is some 340 m above sea level and it lies on the ridge between the Talbach and Lauter valleys. Near the village rises the Breitenbach, which flows into the Jettenbach about 3 km away to the northwest in Eßweiler. At the foot of the Selberg rises the Lammelbach, which flows through the Löffelmannsgraben and empties into the Lauter near the Schmeißbachermühle (a former mill[3]). To the west, towards Jettenbach, the land rises up, peaking at the Eisenstein (460 m above sea level), while to the south, towards Kollweiler, it also rises, reaching the peak of the Galgenberg (“Gallows Mountain”) at 431 m above sea level. The municipal area measures 875 ha, of which 170 ha is wooded and 20 ha is built up.[4]
Neighbouring municipalities
Rothselberg borders in the northeast on the municipality of Rutsweiler an der Lauter, in the east on the municipality of Kreimbach-Kaulbach, in the southeast on the municipality of Frankelbach, in the southwest on the municipality of Kollweiler, in the west on the municipality of Jettenbach and in the northwest on the municipality of Eßweiler. Rothselberg also meets the municipalities of Erzenhausen and Sulzbachtal at a single point in the south.
Constituent communities
Rothselberg's
Municipality’s layout
The houses around the old
History
Antiquity
The Rothselberg area has been rich in
Middle Ages
In 1377, Rothselberg had its first documentary mention. The
Modern times
Rothselberg remained in the Electorate of the Palatinate until feudalism was abolished in the course of the French Revolution. Electorate of the Palatinate further pledged the village for a while (mid 16th century) to the County of Sickingen. During the Thirty Years' War, the village was destroyed. The population was decimated not only by this war but also by the Plague. After the war ended, the village was settled once again. Only in the 18th century did the population once again rise at any great rate. It cannot be determined with any certainty when Rothselberg became the centre of a court region. Goswin Widder, though, wrote in 1788: “The court of Roth-Seelberg along with the villages that are counted as part of it, Rußweiler, Kaulbach, Kreimbach and Frankelbach, has posted to it one Schultheiß and four Schöffen (roughly “lay jurists”). It bears in its seal a springing wolf.”[10]
Recent times
During
Population development
The Rothselberg villagers originally all earned their livelihoods at agriculture, and even by 1933, fully 43% of them still did. Nowadays, only a small minority work the land. In earlier times there were also day labourers and forestry workers. Since that time, the great majority in the village has come to be workers who must commute to jobs elsewhere, mainly to Wolfstein and Kaiserslautern. In contrast with other out-of-the-way villages in the Western Palatinate, transport links are relatively favourable because the village lies near Wolfstein and Kaiserslautern, and there has been no great drop in population as there has been in comparable villages whose transport links are not quite as favourable.
In the late 18th century, 52 families lived in Rothselberg, amounting to 332 inhabitants. By 1825 this had grown to 589 inhabitants, all cleaving to the
The inhabitants’ voting patterns in earlier years exhibited a moderate conservative tendency, but since then, there has been a strong swing to support for the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
The following table shows population figures for Rothselberg over the centuries, and in some instances breaks the population down by religious affiliation:[12]
1825 | 1835 | 1871 | 1905 | 1939 | 1961 | 2007 | |
Total | 589 | 704 | 778 | 801 | 695 | 793 | 722 |
Catholic | – | 30 | |||||
Evangelical |
589 | 763 |
Vanished villages
According to author J. G. Widder, in the late 18th century, there were still 11 “minor estates” lying within Rothselberg's limits, which likely meant small, manageable agricultural areas upon which possibly only one farmhouse stood. A place named Ahlenkirchen was still being named in 1742. This village lay in the area where the reservoir for the former local waterworks was built in 1906.[13]
Municipality’s name
Over the ages, the village has borne the following names in documents: Rode (1377), Rodeselberg (1400), Rade am Seelberg (1419), Rodeseleberg (1420), Rode (1437/1438), im Rich zu Rodeselberg (1455), zu Röde (1500), Rottselberg (1555), Rodtselberg (about 1600), Rodt Selberg (1684), Roth am Selberg (1822), Rothseelberg (1824). The name's meaning is simple enough to discern: it denotes a village on land that was cleared relatively late near the Selberg, a mountain within the municipality's limits just north of the actual village.[14]
Religion
Rothselberg belonged to the
Politics
Municipal council
The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by
Mayor
Rothselberg's mayor is Rainer Mohr, and his deputies are Peter Baumhardt and Jürgen Hemmer.[17]
Coat of arms
The German blazon reads, according to one source: In Gold auf grünem Boden ein schwarzer Wolf, an einem aus dem rechten Schildrand hervorbrechenden natürlichen Felsen anspringend. According to another, it reads: In Gold auf grünem Boden ein schwarzer Wolf, der über einen weißen Felsstein springt.[18] These two blazons would yield the same arms, but they are expressed somewhat differently.
The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Or on ground vert a wolf salient sable langued gules over, issuant from dexter base, a stone argent.
As Widder attests above, the former court bore a springing wolf in its seal. This was adopted as a charge in the municipality's new coat of arms. A wolf in a similar attitude can be seen in nearby Kreimbach-Kaulbach’s arms. As also mentioned above, this municipality (originally two villages) belonged to the same court region until the French Revolution. The arms have been borne since 8 August 1988, when they were approved by the now defunct Rheinhessen-Pfalz Regierungsbezirk administration in Neustadt an der Weinstraße.[19]
Culture and sightseeing
Buildings
The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[20]
- Protestant parish church, Hauptstraße 60 – Late Gothic quire, 14th century, and belltower 1433/1434, quire and nave converted in 1754–1756; wall painting fragments from the earlier half of the 14th century; bell 1496 by Johannes Otto, Kaiserslautern; before the church a warriors’ memorial by Rudolf Henn, Kaiserslautern
Regular events
Rothselberg holds its
Clubs
Rothselberg currently has the following clubs:[22]
- Fire brigadepromotional association
- Youth promotional association
- Kindergarten promotional association
- Nursing association
- Countrywomen's club
- “Reerer Biker” motorcycle fans’ club
- Sellberg-Chor (choir)
- Sellberg-Verein (“Sellberg Club”)
- Local SPD association
- Sport club
Economy and infrastructure
Economic structure
Originally, Rothselberg was a purely agricultural village in which there were also the customary craftsmen. Today, agriculture plays only a lesser role in the village's economy. Rothselberg is said to be a rural residential community for people from the most varied of occupations and is now making an effort to further its tourism industry.[23]
Education
From Kramer's book, Schulwesen im Herzogtum Zweibrücken (“Schooling in the Duchy of
Transport
Two kilometres to the east of Rothselberg runs
Famous people
Sons and daughters of the town
- Wilhelm Weißmann (b. 18 June 1856; d. 27 December 1937 in Alsace-Lorraine, one of the few “Old Germans” (that is, the ones who had moved from other parts of Imperial Germany to Alsace-Lorraine after the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt) whom the French authorities allowed to remain in the region once France had taken it back over after the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
References
- ^ Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Kusel, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 2 August 2021.
- Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz. 2023.
- ^ Entry about the Schmeißbachermühle
- ^ Location
- ^ Constituent communities
- ^ Municipality’s layout
- ^ Antiquity
- ISBN 3-88462-163-7, Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1999
- ^ Middle Ages
- ^ Modern times
- ^ Recent times
- ^ Rothselberg’s population development
- ^ Vanished villages
- ^ Municipality’s name
- ^ Religion in Rothselberg
- ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
- ^ Rothselberg’s executive
- ^ Different blazon
- ^ Description and explanation of Rothselberg’s arms
- ^ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Kusel district
- ^ Regular events
- ^ Clubs
- ^ Economic structure
- ^ Education
- ^ Transport
External links
- Rothselberg in the collective municipality's webpages (in German)
- Website of Förderverein historische Dorfkirche Rothselberg e.V.(historical village church promotional association) (in German)
- Historical information at regionalgeschichte.de (in German)