Thallichtenberg

Coordinates: 49°33′28″N 7°21′05″E / 49.55778°N 7.35139°E / 49.55778; 7.35139
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Thallichtenberg
Municipality
Coat of arms of Thallichtenberg
Coat of arms
Location of Thallichtenberg within Kusel district
Thallichtenberg is located in Germany
Thallichtenberg
Thallichtenberg
Thallichtenberg is located in Rhineland-Palatinate
Thallichtenberg
Thallichtenberg
Coordinates: 49°33′28″N 7°21′05″E / 49.55778°N 7.35139°E / 49.55778; 7.35139
CountryGermany
StateRhineland-Palatinate
DistrictKusel
Municipal assoc.Kusel-Altenglan
Government
 • Mayor (2019–24) Annika Süssel[1]
Area
 • Total5.72 km2 (2.21 sq mi)
Elevation
287 m (942 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[2]
 • Total546
 • Density95/km2 (250/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
66871
Dialling codes06381
Vehicle registrationKUS

Thallichtenberg 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 seat is in Kusel
.

Geography

Location

The municipality lies in the Kusel Musikantenland in the Western Palatinate. The municipal area measures 571 ha, of which 163 ha is wooded. Thallichtenberg lies roughly 300 m above sea level northwest of Lichtenberg Castle (382 m above sea level) in a broad hollow between the Burgberg (“Castle Mountain”) and the so-called Prussian Mountains (Preußische Berge), which here, on the heights of the Wolfsbösch, reach 572 m above sea level. Down in the dale, the village site abuts the Pfeffelbach (brook), which here turns from its south-to-north direction of flow towards the east, forming a narrow gorge between the Burgberg and the Niederberg within Ruthweiler’s limits. Several small brooks (Löschbach, Bisterbach, Kurzer Bach) flow into the Pfeffelbach within Thallichtenberg.[3]

Neighbouring municipalities

Thallichtenberg borders in the north on the town of Baumholder, in the northeast and east on the municipality of Körborn, in the southeast on the municipality of Ruthweiler, in the south on the municipality of Pfeffelbach, in the west on the municipality of Berschweiler bei Baumholder and in the northwest on the municipality of Mettweiler.

Constituent communities

Also belonging to Thallichtenberg are the outlying homesteads of Burg Lichtenberg and Berghof.[4]

Municipality’s layout

The village of Thallichtenberg shows the attributes of a typical clump village, with streets spreading out in a starlike shape from the midpoint into the dales through which the smaller brooks flow and over the heights in between. The road leading to the castle branches off from the village thoroughfare at the village's southern end. About halfway up, on both sides of the road, lies the graveyard. The former Jewish graveyard, which now stands under monumental protection, can be found in the municipality's northwest near the sporting ground. New building areas have been laid out mainly in the north. On the heights far out of the village, below the Wolfsbösch and near the Breitsesterhof, which belongs to Baumholder, lies the Berghof, one of Thallichtenberg's outlying homesteads.

Geoskop at Lichtenberg Castle

Institutions of national importance are housed within the old castle complex, the Musikantenlandmuseum, for instance, which deals with the history of travelling musicians from this region, and also the Geoskop (museum of primitive times), a branch location of the

youth hostel, the herb garden, a well visited inn with a nice view and a registry office. The castle complex, with a length of 425 m, is one of Germany's biggest. Areas in both the Palatinate and the Saarland can be seen from the top of the keep.[5]

History

Antiquity

In the late

New Stone Age, nomads were found in the area around what is now Thallichtenberg, as archaeological finds from neighbouring places bear witness. The immediate area, though, was quite heavily settled in Gallo-Roman times. An article by Daniel Hinkelmann in the first postwar edition of the Westricher Heimatblätter was headlined “Three Roman Estates in the Thallichtenberg Municipal Area” (Drei römische Gutshöfe auf der Gemarkung Thallichtenberg). A Roman bathing facility had already been unearthed about the middle of the 18th century in the municipality. Pictures of this were published in Strasbourg in 1751 by the magazine Alsatia illustrata. This bathing facility had likely been part of a Gallo-Roman estate, a villa rustica. Another villa rustica was discovered in 1964 by a farmer who was ploughing. It was unearthed in 1967 under the leadership of the archaeologist Wolfgang Binsfeld from Trier by Daniel Hinkelmann and Karlheinz Schultheiß in collaboration with members of the Lichtenberg Castle Local History Club (Heimatverein “Burg Lichtenberg”).[6] An even bigger Gallo-Roman complex was discovered by the local historian soon afterwards not far from this last one. This one was excavated in 1970, with Dr. Binsfeld once again overseeing the work, and was precisely documented and later filled in again.[7]

Middle Ages

The village of Thallichtenberg might have been founded only once the castle was built in the early 13th century. Thallichtenberg, and also a number of villages that have since vanished, only appear in documents dating from after the castle's completion. It would therefore seem that a number of places sprang up in the area around Lichtenberg Castle, of which Thallichtenberg is the only one that still exists. The village of Ruthweiler at the foot of the castle, though, was likely already standing at the time when work on the castle began. At the first documentary mention of Lichtenberg as Castrum Lichtenberg in 1214, only Lichtenberg Castle is mentioned, and no village named Lichtenberg. When the

Palatinate-Zweibrücken. From 1444 on, Frutzweiler thus lay in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken.[8]

Modern times

From Zweibrücken times it is clear that only the part of Thallichtenberg that lay on the brook's left bank was counted as one of the villages within the

Oberamt administration moved to new offices on Landschaftsstraße in Kusel.[9]

Recent times

In 1799, there was a great fire at Lichtenberg Castle that burnt most of the buildings, after which – as before the blaze – the castle was subject to plundering. Thallichtenberg and the castle belonged at the time of French

Second World War, experienced continued work under the Kusel district's administration.[11]

Population development

Until the

Oberamt officials. Many of these feudal castle dwellers’ family names can still be found today in the region around the castle. For its part, the village of Thallichtenberg was characterized by agriculture, though already in the 18th and 19th centuries, men were working in mines and quarries in the area. Only a few villagers work the land nowadays. Tourism is now a growing industry. First and foremost, Thallichtenberg today is a residential community for people from all walks of life, most of whom earn their livelihoods outside the village. According to a 1609 Oberamt of Lichtenberg church Visitation protocol, 111 people lived in the dale (Thallichtenberg) and 61 at the castle. It is not known how many people survived the Thirty Years' War; it would not have been many. Since the castle itself was never overrun by invaders, it might have offered more security. It could therefore be that more people survived here than down in the dale. The population only began building again in the 18th century, and the trend held until the early 20th century, when the people living at the castle were also no longer counted separately. After a temporary fall in the population about 1960, a new rise set in towards the end of the century. Such fluctuations did not characterize population development at the castle itself. Throughout feudal
times, the figure was always about 60, and in the “nailers’ times”, always about 80. Today some 10 people live permanently at the castle.

The following table shows population development over the centuries for Thallichtenberg. Separate figures are shown for “Thal” (Thallichtenberg) and “Burg” (castle). Since 1960, however, castle dwellers have not been counted separately, and figures for the municipality as a whole are given under “Thal”; there have been about 10 dwellers at the castle (included in the “Thal” total) in recent times:[12]

Year 1609 1648 1819 1843 1861 1895 1926 1960 2000 2007 2008
Thal 111 – 334 402 469 532 683 632 681 662 621
Burg 61 ? ? 60 8 83 78 ~10 ~10 ~10 ~10

Municipality’s name

The village's name, Thallichtenberg, has its origin in the castle's name, Lichtenberg. This fortification was held to be a castle on a light (in colour, that is) mountain, or Burg auf dem lichten Berg in

German-speaking Europe, some 20 castles with the name “Lichtenberg” are known. The castle's name first appears in documents in 1214. One from 1377 says “in dem Dayle zu Lichtenberg”, and one from 1480 “im Dale zu Liechtinberg” (both these examples show forms of Tal rather more similar to the word's English cognate). Another document in 1445 read “zu Dalen”, and indeed, it is still customary nowadays to refer to Thallichtenberg as de Dal in the local speech. The distinction between Thallichtenberg and Burglichtenberg became necessary once a new village had arisen within the castle ruins in the 19th century, and then also because for a long while, the seat of a Prussian Amtsbezirk was there.[13]

Vanished villages

Within what are today Thallichtenberg's municipal limits once lay a whole series of villages, most of which vanished even before the Thirty Years' War. In 1371, a village named Berweiler (Berwilre) was mentioned, which was described in 1588 by Johannes Hoffmann as “ehemalige Dorfstadt” (“former village-town”); it might have lain west of Thallichtenberg. To Thallichtenberg's north lay Bistert, likely in the area of the road that today leads to

Counts of Veldenz; it was so nearby that knights from the castle long made it their residence. Lastly, there was a village called Warneshoben that cropped up in documents about 1300. This probably lay to Thallichtenberg's southwest.[14]

Religion

Throughout

Jews also settled in Thallichtenberg, earning their livelihoods from trade and crafts. Buried at the Thallichtenberg Jewish graveyard, which nowadays stands under monumental protection, were Jews from the villages in the castle area and also from the town of Kusel.[15]

Politics

Municipal council

The council is made up of 12 council members, who were elected by

majority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairwoman.[16]

Mayor

Thallichtenberg's mayor is Annika Süssel.[1]

Coat of arms

The German blazon reads: In geteiltem Schild oben in Silber ein wachsender, rotbewehrter und -bezungter, blauer Löwe, unten von Grün und Silber dreifach geteilt, auf den grünen Balken fünf silberne Kugeln 3:2.[17]

The municipality's arms might in English heraldic language be described thus: Per fess argent a demilion azure armed and langued gules and barry of four vert and argent, the bars charged with five roundels of the first, three and two.

The

Counts of Veldenz, the local rulers until 1444. The roundels, called Kugeln in German
, suggesting a spherical shape (whereas the English term “roundels” suggests a flat shape), appear in several coats of arms once borne by Burgmannen at Lichtenberg Castle.

The arms have been borne since 1963 when they were approved by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior.[18]

Culture and sightseeing

Buildings

Lichtenberg Castle monumental zone
Burgstraße 18: Evangelical church

The following are listed buildings or sites in Rhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[19]

  • Jewish graveyard (monumental zone) – older part laid out in 1725, newer part in 1845; 140 gravestones, beginning from 1747
  • Lichtenberg Castle (monumental zone) – built by Count Gerlach III of Veldenz, first mentioned in 1214, burnt down in 1799; girding walls, gateway arch and wall remnants of the Lower Castle begun about 1200, keep with inner ringwall of the Upper Castle begun about 1270 with 16th-century battery tower and two palatial buildings, earlier half of the 14th century and earlier half of the 15th century, Evangelical church and state scrivener’s office from the 18th century; Palatinate’s biggest castle complex
  • Evangelical church, Burgstraße 18 – rectangular plastered building with ridge turret
    , 1755-1758, ridge turret’s pointed spire 1874

Regular events

The municipality celebrates a May Day Festival (Maifest) on 30 April and 1 May, while Kirchweih, the church consecration festival, is held on the second weekend in August.[20]

Clubs

There are several clubs in Thallichtenberg, currently an

fire brigade promotional association, a mixed choir, a countrywomen’s club, the Burg Lichtenberg – Thallichtenberg Pensioners’ Club, the Lichtenberg Chess Club, the Edelweiß Shooting Club, an SPD local association and the Burg Lichtenberg Gymnastic and Sport Association.[21]

Economy and infrastructure

Economic structure

At the time of the feudal lordship, the villagers were to a great extent dependent on the castle, which was for them an important basis on which livelihoods were earned. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the castle served the cutlers and nailers as a dwelling place. Even today, it is regarded as an important income earner, although now its use as such comes from tourism and the many thousands of visitors that that draws to the castle each year. Apart from that, agriculture was also held to be the most important source of income in earlier times. It must be borne in mind, too, that in farming households, especially in winter, wool was spun, and many looms were to be found in houses. Farmers drove their horsecarts to town, particularly to Oberstein, and to market in Sankt Wendel to sell their wares. Within Thallichtenberg's limits were no collieries, but there may have been some nearby. Tourism now offers some opportunities. Thallichtenberg is otherwise a commuter community.[22]

Education

Education history

In 1577, for the first time, a schoolmaster's name appeared in the historical record. He taught at the Lichtenberg Castle

Second World War
by a compromise. In 1928, the municipality of Thallichtenberg built its own schoolhouse on the road to Baumholder.

Schooling today

Since Thallichtenberg's transfer to the Kusel district in 1969,

Realschule, Berufsbildende Schulen (vocational training schools) and Förderschulen (special schools), are represented in Kusel.[23]

Transport

To the south runs the

Kaiserslautern and Kusel, named Glantalbahn after a former railway line that shared a stretch of its tracks with the Landstuhl–Kusel railway, including the former junction at Glan-Münchweiler. Formerly, Thallichtenberg itself had a railway connection on the Kusel-Ottweiler railway line (Ostertalbahn), which ran from 1936 to 1969. The right-of-way nowadays serves as a hiking and cycling path.[24]

Famous people

Sons and daughters of the town
  • View of the village
    View of the village
  • View through a window
    View through a window

References

  1. ^ a b Direktwahlen 2019, Landkreis Kusel, Landeswahlleiter Rheinland-Pfalz, accessed 3 August 2021.
  2. Statistisches Landesamt Rheinland-Pfalz
    . 2023.
  3. ^ Thallichtenberg’s location
  4. ^ Thallichtenberg’s constituent communities
  5. ^ Thallichtenberg’s layout
  6. ^ Heimatbuch des Landkreises St. Wendel, XVIII. Ausgabe, 1979/1980, p110[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ Thallichtenberg’s ancient history
  8. ^ Thallichtenberg’s mediaeval history
  9. ^ Thallichtenberg’s modern history
  10. ^ Merger
  11. ^ Thallichtenberg’s recent history
  12. ^ Thallichtenberg’s population development
  13. ^ Thallichtenberg’s name
  14. ^ Vanished villages in Thallichtenberg
  15. ^ Religion in Thallichtenberg
  16. ^ Kommunalwahl Rheinland-Pfalz 2009, Gemeinderat
  17. ^ Description of Thallichtenberg’s arms Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ Explanation of Thallichtenberg’s arms
  19. ^ Directory of Cultural Monuments in Kusel district
  20. ^ Regular events in Thallichtenberg
  21. ^ Clubs in Thallichtenberg
  22. ^ Thallichtenberg’s economic structure
  23. ^ Education in Thallichtenberg
  24. ^ Transport in Thallichtenberg

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thallichtenberg.
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