Abtweiler | |
|---|---|
 Coat of arms | |
Location of Abtweiler within Bad Kreuznach district
| |
 Location of Abtweiler | |
  Abtweiler  Abtweiler | |
| Coordinates:49°44′43″N07°39′29″E / 49.74528°N 7.65806°E /49.74528; 7.65806 | |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| District | Bad Kreuznach |
| Municipal assoc. | Meisenheim |
| Government | |
| • Mayor(2019–24) | Peter Michel[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 5.76 km2 (2.22 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 226 m (741 ft) |
| Population (2023-12-31)[2] | |
• Total | 189 |
| • Density | 32.8/km2 (85.0/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Postal codes | 55568 |
| Dialling codes | 06753 |
| Vehicle registration | KH |
| Website | www.abtweiler.de |
Abtweiler is anOrtsgemeinde – amunicipality belonging to aVerbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in theBad Kreuznachdistrict inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It belongs to theVerbandsgemeinde of Meisenheim, whose seat is in thelike-named town.
Abtweiler lies in theNaheland, a small part of theNorth Palatine Uplands between the riversNahe andGlan up a side valley of the Glan. It is a linear village (by some definitions, a “thorpe”) in the south of the district, and lies on the left side of the lower Glan valley. It lies betweenMeisenheim andBad Sobernheim. The countryside is mainly characterized by cropfields and woodland, along with somemeadow orchards.[3]
As at 31 December 2012, the various uses of Abtweiler's 5.76 km² of land broke down thus:[4]
| Use | % |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | 70.8 |
| Woodland | 23.1 |
| Open water | 0.1 |
| Built-up/Transport | 6.0 |
| Other | 0 |
Abtweiler borders in the north on the town ofBad Sobernheim on the riverNahe, in the east on the municipality ofRehborn, in the south on the municipality ofRaumbach and in the west on the municipality ofLauschied.
Also belonging to Abtweiler are the outlying homesteads of Hühnerhof (also called “Hienerhof” or “Hingelshof”)[5] and Sankt Antoniushof (also called “Danteshof”).[6]
As one of the biggest intermontane LateVariscan basins, theSaar–Nahe Basin formed in the transitional time betweenNamurian andWestphalian in thePennsylvaniansubperiod roughly 317,000,000 years ago. What lies at the surface of it today comprises an area of only some 100 by 40 kilometres. Indeed, the basin itself is actually only part of a much greater formation, in broad areas overlain with newer deposits, called the Lorraine-Saar-Nahe-HesseTrough. InRhineland-Palatinate, outcrops ofPermian-Carboniferous rock can be found in the northernPalatinate and the Nahe Uplands (where Abtweiler lies), stretching over to theBingen-Alzey area. In its central area, the basin has thick Permian-Carboniferoussedimentary andvolcanic rock (thusigneous) deposits up to 8 km thick, of which roughly 4.5 km comes from the Pennsylvanian and more than 3 km comes from theRotliegend.[7]
In the early time of its active development, from thePennsylvanian on into the LowerRotliegend (Glan Subgroup, Meisenheim Formation), fluviolacustrine sedimentation conditions prevailed in theSaar–Nahe Basin. The basin lay, according topalaeomagnetic investigation, just north of theequator in thetropics at this time, so that under warm and moist climatic conditions, the lacustrine deposits especially, with their heavy amounts of organic remnants, ended up forming manycoal seams, especially in the Pennsylvanian. Towards the end of the Rotliegend (Disibodenberg Formation), the extensive, at times basinwide lakes were filled in by advancingdeltas, and by the end of the Glan Subgroup (beginning with the Oberkirchen Formation), the predominant deposit conditions were fluvial in what were now dry-warm climatic conditions. Along with its attendant, sometimes heavy, intrusive and effusive-extrusivemagmatism – involvinglavas andtuffs being pushed up, their place taken by bothacidic andbasicintrusions – it lasted until the middle of the Nahe Subgroup, when it came to an end with thequartziteconglomerate deposition found in the Wadern Formation. Preserved today from the last phase of thePermian-Carboniferous sedimentation in the Saar–Nahe Basin are the Standenbühl Formation'salluvial-fan anddry-lake (playa) sediments, represented by the Kreuznach Formation's fluvial-aeoliansandstones found regionally on the basin's northwest edge nearBad Kreuznach.[7]
The Glan Subgroup comprises a period in theSaar–Nahe Basin’s developmental history characterized by a manifold shift back and forth between fluvial and lacustrine deposition conditions.Lithostratigraphically dividing this time’s geological deposits, which are several thousand metres deep in this continental basin, is often problematic. Particular difficulties arise with the ordering of the minerals in the so-called “edgefacies” on the basin's northwest edge. The deposits around Abtweiler are mainly grouped into this time. They comprise mainly the Jeckenbach Subformation, the Odernheim Subformation, the Disibodenberg Formation, the Oberkirchen Formation and the Thallichtenberg Formation, along with deposits in the dales ofQuaternary origin.[7]
The Jeckenbach Subformation's deposits (mainlysilty minerals), part of the Meisenheim Formation, which in turn belongs to the Glan Subgroup, are found mainly south of Abtweiler (around Castle Raumberg). This great subformation's lithostratigraphical division is based on several almost basinwidesandstone and lake sediment horizons. To be named here are the MeisenheimBed, the Breitenheim Bed and the Jeckenbach Bed as well as the Hoof seams. Atzbach (1980) puts the thickness in this type region nearJeckenbach west ofMeisenheim at 600 m.[7]
In the Odernheim Subformation, too – the uppermost section of the Meisenheim Formation – silty minerals predominate. Those deposits are found mainly south of Abtweiler, near the village's outskirts. The subformation begins with a moderately to coarsely sandy, and in many placesdetritus-bearing, horizon, Bed R-5. It is capped off by the darkmudstones in the Humberg Bed. Meyer and Schnabel (1988) put theOdernheim am Glan type region's thickness at 155 m. The subformation contains several indicative horizons that are important for lithostratigraphic classification in wide areas of theSaar–Nahe Basin. Foremost among these are fluvial-deltaic, coarselyclastic horizons as well as lacustrine deposits with dark mudstones. To be named here are the Rehborn, Odernheim, Kappeln and Humberg Beds, layered into which are many, mostly thinlimestone and cinder tuff horizons.[7]
The Disibodenberg Formation's deposits are found mainly east and west of Abtweiler. They furthermore form the Sankt Antoniushof's geological foundation. During the time of the Disibodenberg Formation, named after the oldDisibodenberg Monastery on theNahe north ofOdernheim am Glan, the long relatively uniform sedimentation conditions in theSaar–Nahe Basin now changed. Vast, deep lakes no longer existed. Now prevalent was a fluvial-limnic or deltaic environment. Consequently, the more than 200-metre-thick entity was made up mostly of an alternating sequence of grey siltstones and fine sandstones. Also still cropping up, albeit seldom, were dark mudstoneinclusions from local lakes. Within the Disibodenberg Formation, no cross-regionally meaningful indicative lithostratigraphic horizons can be identified. The formation's bottom limit is defined as the Humberg Bed's upper limit. The formation ends on the base of the first, red,conglomeratic layer, which itself is grouped with the later Oberkirchen Formation.[7]
The Oberkirchen Formation's sediments are markedly distinguished from the strata both above and below them. They can be found north and northwest of Abtweiler, towards the Hühnerhof. Prevailing here are beds of red to grey-red, coarsely sandy to conglomeraticarkoses up to several metres thick. Interstratified therein are horizons of reddish finesandstone and to some extent also greysiltstones andclaystones. These fine-grained horizons are mostly only thinly developed. The arkoses, which exist as detritus (particularly veinquartz,quartzite,lydite,metamorphic rocks andvolcanic rocks) as well as bits more than a centimetre across, almost always containing weatheredfeldspars, are deposits in channels of a many-branched river system that flowed across theSaar–Nahe Basin from southwest to northeast. The fine-grained sediments mainly representfloodplain and horseshoe lake deposits. The Oberkirchen Formation, named after an outlying centre of the municipality ofFreisen in theSaarland, contains minerals that are exposed in the Saar–Nahe Basin on both sides of the Palatine Saddle from southwest to northeast.[7]
Thefacies and distribution of the Thallichtenberg Formation, named afterThallichtenberg, were investigated by Konrad in 1969 on the Palatine Saddle's southeast flank. The deposits, mainly made up of grey and red fine-grained sediments (finesandstone,claystones andsiltstones) from a fluvialfloodplain environment of the Thallichtenberg Formation, can be found north and northwest of Abtweiler, towards the Hühnerhof. Cropping up locally are lacustrine deposits, some with biogeniclimestone horizons, and coarse, fluvial layers. While thicknesses of up to 260 m are reached in the basin's southwest, this entity to the northeast is very much thinner.[7]
The onset ofvolcanism within the basin, the beginning of the volcanic synrift phase, was also the foundation of the Nahe Subgroup. At the same time, undersemiarid conditions, fluvial-alluvial sedimentation conditions were dominant in the Saar–Nahe Basin which, according to Stollhofen (1991), was brought about by a marked drop in the rate ofsubsidence. The minerals deposited in this phase of the basin's development are grouped into the Donnersberg Formation, whereas all the Nahe Subgroup's subsequent formations are assigned to the basin's post-rift phase. It was mainly thermal subsidence and sediment compaction that took place. The area of sedimentation sometimes reaches beyond the bounds of the active basin edges. The Donnersberg Formation's deposits are the Freisen layers (red, light grey and detritus-bearingarkoses andsandstones, as well as red-purple to greenclaystones with sporadictuffinclusions) present south of the Hühnerhof and theandesites found under the Hühnerhof itself (Nappe II –gabbroporphyritic partly with very big inclusions ofplagioclase,clinopyroxenes and viridescentolivines in partly intersertally, partly intergranularly structured ground masses).[7]
In 1128, Abtweiler had its first documentary mention asAbwilre- in pago Nachgowe (Nahegau) in a document fromMainz for the monastery at theDisibodenberg. According to this,Archbishop of MainzRuthard (1089-1109) had donated to the monks an estate inHene (now the outlying centre of Hühnerhof) and fourMorgen ofvineyards, which were rented. The other outlying centre, the Sankt Antoniushof, had already had its first documentary mention, in 1107.[8]
A record from 1333 stating that the Hühnerhof inHene had to make a contribution to the building of achapel inApwilre. Also, the forest then belonged jointly to the villages of Abtweiler andStaudernheim. Thus, at this time, Abtweiler had its own chapel, which belonged to the greater parish on the Disibodenberg. TheLate Gothic building that still stands today dates from the 15th century. In 1338, the people fromApwilre had to deliver wood to build a bridge across theNahe near Staudernheim. Another record from 1342 tells the reader that “Hegene und Apwilre” were parochially united withSaint Nicholas’s Parish Church (Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus) “auf dem Berge” (“on the mountain”, that is to say, theDisibodenberg).[9]
After theReformation, in 1560, authority over the church passed with the dissolution of the monastery on theDisibodenberg toWolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken. Abtweiler, however, remained a branch ofOdernheim am Glan until at least 1575. Then, sometime between 1604 and 1612, it was bound with the parish of Boos. After 1585, there was a self-administeringLutheran parish in Abtweiler. In 1772, there were 20 families living in the village. They worked 444Morgen of cropland and paid 561Rhenish guilders in rent and other levies. After the House of Steinkallenfels died out in 1778, its share of the lordship went to the Lords of Hunolstein. This local lordship was swept away with the advance ofFrench Revolutionary troops into the region.[10]
After 1815, the church community was parochially united with Staudernheim.[11] From 1815 to 1866, the village belonged to theOberamt of Meisenheim in the Landgraviate ofHesse-Homburg, with which it passed toPrussia in 1866.
Archbishop of MainzRuthard (1089-1109) donated to the monks an estate inHene (now the outlying centre of Hühnerhof) and fourMorgen ofvineyards, which were rented. By 1426, the Rhinegraves had granted the now forsaken village ofHene to Wilhelm of Kallenfels, who in turn gave it to the knight Sir Friedrich of Löwenstein. In 1507, it was an hereditaryfief bequeathed to his issue, Johann of Löwenstein. In 1659, the place passed back to theWaldgraves and Rhinegraves of Dhaun, but as soon afterwards as 1662, it was once again a fief. AWeistum (cognate withEnglishwisdom, this was a legal pronouncement issued by men learned in law in theMiddle Ages and early modern times) from 1576 laid out the village's limits with the Hühnerhof, which itself later belonged toPalatinate-Simmern.[12]
The “Danteshof”, as it is also called (but in either case, a definite article is used with the name, as also for the Hühnerhof), was in theMiddle Ages a village with achapel and a court ofSchöffen (roughly “lay jurists”), led by aSchultheiß. It was among the oldest settlements in theNahe-Glan area, presumably having arisen soon after theFranks took over the land on the fertile soils of the extensive mountain heath. The impetus for the founding of thishamlet – the 1107 document mentioned above did describe it as such, using theGerman wordWeiler – without a doubt came from the nearbyDisibodenbergBenedictine Monastery, the great missionary hub and stronghold of the ecclesiastical cultural pioneers in theNahegau. Important for and full of information about the Sankt Antoniushof's history is the 1375 SchönenbergWeistum, which is recorded in the DisibodenbergCartulary, now kept inDarmstadt. Twenty years later, records were speaking of an estate calledAnthisberg. In 1659, theAnthesberg got, in the person of Henrich Schappert, an hereditary tenant. Schappert – his wife's name was Magdalene – was the forefather of the family Schappert, whose current members still live at the “Danteshof” even today. In 1959, the Schapperts marked the 300th anniversary of their rise to prominence and their arrival at the Sankt Antoniushof, which occasioned a festival.[13]
Abtweiler's population figures have not shown much growth sinceNapoleonic times, and indeed, since the middle of the 20th century, they have been shrinking. The figures in the table from 1871 to 1987 are based oncensuses:[14]
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Abtweiler'schurch had its first documentary mention in the 14th century. According to the 1333 agreement, the income from the forest, which was shared half and half byStaudernheim andHene (Hühnerhof), was to be used to build thechapel inAppwilre. In 1342, this chapel was named as belonging underBlessed Nicholas’s Parish Church (Pfarrkirche “Beati Nycolai”) on theDisibodenberg. Going by the building’s form, however, the church that stands today can only be dated as far back as the 15th century, since the quire and the nave are mentioned one after the other after a short interruption. After theReformation, the church belonged as a branch toOdernheim, and in 1604 – possibly after the village passed to the House of Steinkallenfels – toBoos. Later, Abtweiler was temporarily a parish in its own right, but was now and then served together with Odernheim,Lauschied and Staudernheim, with which it was united in 1815, an arrangement that has not changed. The right to appoint the parish priest was held until 1560 by the Disibodenberg Monastery, and thereafter by the Dukes ofPalatinate-Zweibrücken.[15] As at 31 August 2013, there are 211 fulltime residents in Abtweiler, and of those, 141 areEvangelical (66.825%), 40 areCatholic (18.957%), 1 isLutheran (0.474%), 1 (0.474%) belongs to another religious group and 28 (13.27%) either have no religion or will not reveal their religious affiliation.[16]
The council is made up of 6 council members, who were elected bymajority vote at the municipal election held on 7 June 2009, and the honorary mayor as chairman.[17]
Abtweiler’s mayor is Peter Michel.[1]
The German blazon reads:Durch rot und silber geschachtete Balken schräggeteilt, oben in schwarz ein goldenes Patriarchenkreuz, unten in grün ein herschauender, rot gezungter, silberner Löwenkopf.
The municipality’sarms might in Englishheraldic language be described thus: A bend countercompony argent and gules between in chief sable a cross patriarchal Or and in base vert a lion’s head erased affronty of the first langued of the second.
The parish and village of Abtweiler belonged to theDisibodenberg Monastery, which was founded in 1108 by theBenedictines, representing whom is thecharge on the sinister (armsbearer’s left, viewer’s right) side in chief (high up), thepatriarchal cross. In 1259, the Benedictines were relieved of their monastery by theCistercians, whose device is the bend (slanted stripe) with the countercompony (two-row chequered) pattern. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the village of Abtweiler belonged to the Barons (Freiherren) of and at Stein-Kallenfels. Their tombs are preserved in the church quire at Abtweiler. The lion’s head on the dexter (armsbearer’s right, viewer’s left) side in base is drawn from an heraldic device that they bore.[18]
The following are listed buildings or sites inRhineland-Palatinate’s Directory of Cultural Monuments:[19]
A drive through Abtweiler will inevitably bring the visitor to the village’s Late Gothicchurch, built in the 15th century. Besides two important 15th-century wall paintings, there is also an outstanding ceiling painting in the quire. Also to be seen are six tombs of the baronial Family Steinkallenfels from the 17th and 18th centuries. The church itself has had an important and eventful history, which is detailed above underReligion. From weekly church services to weddings, christenings,Confirmations and burials, the church still plays a great role in the village’s everyday life.[20]
The Abtweiler church has a peal of three bells. The oldest one was poured in 1700 by an unknown bellfounder, and indeed, it bears no inscription. It is made ofiron. The other two are much more recent, having been poured in 1924 by the Bochumer Verein (actually a mining and steelworking company inBochum, despite the usual meaning of theGerman wordVerein – “club”). These are made ofsteel. One of these two bells bears the inscription “Den Menschen zum Segen” (“To the people as a blessing”), while the other bears the inscription “Gott zum Segen” (“To God as a blessing”).[21]
The church’sorgan was built by the Brothers Stumm, whose business headquarters were inRhaunen-Sulzbach. The organ itself was built in 1857, although its current outward appearance is the result of work done in the 1960s. It was also renovated between 1988 and 1998. The organ’sstops are described as “woodenprincipal 8, salicional,mixture threefold,gedackt,octave,perfect fifth and flute.[22]
The following clubs are active in Abtweiler:[23][24][25][26][27]
ThePermian-Carboniferous deposits described above underGeology have of course been important to mankind and its industry in the past, and still are now. In thePalatinate,mining has a long tradition, and there is evidence that in a few areas, it even stretches back toCeltic times. The most varied of mineral wealth has been brought to light in this region. They are products ofvolcanic activity, deposits from rivers and lakes, and even the sea (for theSaar–Nahe Basin has not always been on land), which once covered much of the Palatinate. Hundreds of locations of former mining operations are known today. Countless galleries, shafts, open pits, tailing heaps, prospecting diggings, building ruins and even smelter ruins bear witness to the almost two-thousand-year quest for mineral wealth.[28]
Running to Abtweiler's south isBundesstraße 420. ServingStaudernheim is arailway station on theNahe Valley Railway (Bingen–Saarbrücken).
