| Hunsrück | |
|---|---|
 Location of the Hunsrück in Germany | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Erbeskopf |
| Elevation | 816.32 m above NN |
| Coordinates | 50°00′N7°30′E / 50.000°N 7.500°E /50.000; 7.500 |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 124 km (77 mi) |
| Geography | |
| Country | Germany |
| Region | Rhineland-Palatinate |
| Parent range | Rhenish Slate Mountains |
| Geology | |
| Orogeny | Central Uplands |
TheHunsrück (German pronunciation:[ˈhʊnsʁʏk]ⓘ) is a long, triangular, pronouncedupland inRhineland-Palatinate,Germany. It is bounded by the valleys of theMoselle-Saar (north-to-west), the Nahe (south), and theRhine (east). It is continued by theTaunus mountains, past the Rhine and by theEifel past the Moselle. To the south of the Nahe is a lower, hilly country forming the near bulk of thePalatinate region and all of the, smaller,Saarland. Below its north-east corner isKoblenz.
As the Hunsrück proceeds east it acquires north-south width and three notable gaps in its southernridges. In this zone aremulti-branch headwaters including the Simmerbach ending atSimmertal on the southern edge. This interior is therefore rarely higher than 450 metres (1,480 ft) above sea level. Peaks and escarpments are principally: the(Black Forest) Hochwald, theIdar Forest, theSoonwald, and theBingen Forest. The highest mountain is theErbeskopf (816 m; 2,677 ft), towards the region's south-west.
Notable towns areSimmern,Kirchberg, andIdar-Oberstein,Kastellaun, andMorbach.Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is at the centre of the upland, equidistant betweenMainz,Trier and Koblenz, co-named after the village ofHahn.
Slate is still mined in the mountains. Since 2010, the region has become one of Germany's major onshorewind power regions. Largewind farms are nearEllern and Kirchberg. Nature-based tourism is widespread. In 2015, a newnational park was inaugurated. The pedestrianGeierlay suspension bridge opened in the same year. The climate sees mists that rise most mornings. More rain than the German average is caused by a combination of anoceanic influence andrelief precipitation.
Culturally, the region is best known for itsHunsrückisch dialect and through depictions in theHeimat film series. The region saw greatemigration in the mid-19th century, particularly toBrazil.
The heart of the Hunsrück is formed by the Hunsrück Plateau and theSimmern Bowl. In the northwest the Hunsrück is bounded by theMoselle river and in the east by theRhine. Its northeasternmost tip is thus formed by theDeutsches Eck. TheNahe – on the edge of theBingen Forest, theSoonwald and theLützelsoon – borders the mountains to the south. The LowerNaheland is not part of the Hunsrück, but belongs to theUpper Rhine Plain. TheIdar Forest, theHochwald and theWildenburger Kopf adjoin the Hunsrück to the southwest. Here theUpper Nahe Hills rise in the shadow of the Hunsrück. TheOsburger Hochwald,Schwarzwälder Hochwald and the riversSaar andRuwer form the western perimeter. Its southern continuation is formed by theWestrich and theNorth Palatine Uplands.
The low mountain range is around 100 km long (SW to NE) and an average of 25 to 30 km wide (NW to SE). Its perimeter is a heavily incisedpeneplain with elongated ridges in the south (theHochwald,Idar Forest,Soonwald andBingen Forest).[1] The range, which begins at the Saar in the southwest and, with breaks, reaches as far as the Rhine, climbs to its highest point in theHochwald at theErbeskopf (816.32 m), the highest peak in the Hunsrück and in theRhenish Massif west of the Rhine. It continues to the NE as the Idar Forest with its highest peaks,An den zwei Steinen (766.2 m) and theIdarkopf (745.7 m). Its northeasternmost part is formed by the Soonwald (highest mountain: theEllerspring, 656.8 m), the Lützelsoon (Womrather Höhe, 599.1 m) and the Bingen Forest (Kandrich, 638.6 m). All these ranges form an almost unbroken belt of forest.[2] – To the east of the Rhine the crest of the Hunsrück is continued by theTaunus.
Geomorphologically the Hunsrück bears great similarities to theEifel, theTaunus and theWesterwald, which are also part of theRhenish Massif.
The Hunsrück hill road runs from west to east fromSaarburg toKoblenz. ARoman military road, the so-calledVia Ausonia also once ran through the mountains in an east-west direction and linkedTrier withBingen.
In many primary schools in the Hunsrück children are taught the boundaries of the Hunsrück using the following rhyme:"Mosel, Nahe, Saar und Rhein schließen unsern Hunsrück ein." ("Moselle, Nahe, Saar and Rhine enclose our Hunsrück")
The following table lists the highest mountains and hills of the Hunsrück by sub-range (Osburger and Schwarzwälder Hochwald, Idar Forest, Haardt Forest, Soonwald, Bingen Forest and Lützelsoon) and height in metres abovesea level (NN):
| Name | Height (metres) | Location (Natural region) | County | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erbeskopf | 816.32 | Schwarzwälder Hochwald | Bernkastel-Wittlich | Highest mountain in the Hunsrück,viewing tower |
| An den zwei Steinen | 766.2 | Idar Forest | Bernkastel-Wittlich,Birkenfeld | |
| Rösterkopf | 708.1 | Osburger Hochwald | Trier-Saarburg | Rösterkopf transmission tower |
| Haardtkopf | 658.0 | Haardt Forest | Bernkastel-Wittlich | Haardtkopf Transmitter |
| Ellerspring | 657.5 | Soonwald | Bad Kreuznach | Ellerspring Transmission Tower |
| Kandrich | 638.6 | Bingen Forest | Bad Kreuznach | Transmitter |
| Womrather Höhe | 599.1 | Lützelsoon | Bad Kreuznach,Rhein-Hunsrück |
Despite, in places, intensive agricultural or timber use, the Hunsrück remains a landscape with abiodiversity, because many elements of the landscape can only be extensively utilised or even not used at all.
The plant world of the Hunsrück is rich and varied. In the Soonwald there are over 850 species offerns and flowers. The traditional forest monocultures are increasingly giving way, especially as a result ofwindthrow damage, tomixed woods, supporting a greater variety of plant species.
Although the Hunsrück is not classified as a bird reserve, it is home to a wide variety of bird species:woodpeckers,birds of prey andsong birds may be seen at all times of the year. Even the rare and shyblack stork nests in the forests. The Hunsrück is rich in mammals;red deer,roe deer andwild boar are intensively hunted. Larger predators include a few examples ofEuropean wildcat or even theEurasian lynx.Red fox,European badgers andpine martens are more commonly encountered.[citation needed]
The best known mammal in the Hunsrück has become thebarbastelle. It achieved notoriety when the presence of this rare species of bat delayed construction on the runway extension at Hahn Airport.[3]
In the numerous wet areas,amphibians, like thefire salamander, andinsects have found ideal habitats. Meanwhile, in areas covered bydry grassland or scree, numerousreptiles like theslowworm andsmooth snake have found a home. Theviper does not occur in the Hunsrück.[citation needed]
Finds such asstone axes indicate that the Hunsrück has been settled since theNew Stone Age. Older discoveries, which prove that the area was either settled or crossed during theOld Stone Age, are rare.Middle Palaeolithic (ca. 200,000–400,000 B.C.) surface finds fromWeiler bei Bingen are an exception. By contrast theGravettian (ca. 30,000–20,000 B.C.) sites in Heddesheim (in the municipality ofGuldental) andBrey (in the municipality ofRhens) are the first settlements in the area around the Hunsrück. Other significant sites include the rather more recent Old Stone Age site ofNußbaum[4] near Bad Sobernheim and the encampment of Late Palaeolithic deer hunters in Boppard,[5] which was first discovered in 2001 by the ARRATA Archaeology Society. In 2014, Late Palaeolithicrock carvings similar to those from southern France and Spain were found in the Hunsrück. They were portraits of animals, especially horses, about 25,000 years old carved into a 1.2 m² slab of slate.[6]
The oldest witnesses from the New Stone Age are dated to no later than theMiddle Neolithic, relics of the so-calledRössen culture (whose sites includeBiebernheim andReckershausen). The majority of finds, especially of stone axes date, however, to theLate Neolithic and belong to theMichelsberg culture. Up to 2007, numerous oval stone axes were discovered, especially in the Fore-Hunsrück (Morshausen,Beulich andMacken). Likewise, finds of flint arrowheads point to a Late Neolithic (inter alia atBell) and very Late Neolithic (Hirzenach) settlement.[7] Other finds from theBronze Age prove that there was continual settlement (especially documented by graves and grave goods). A greater process of settlement took place in the EarlyIron Age (Hallstatt period) with theLaufeld culture and in theLa Tène period (5th– 1st century B.C.) with theHunsrück-Eifel culture, which has been linked with theCelts. Examples of this culture include the coach grave of Bell, theWaldalgesheim prince's grave, thecircular rampart of Otzenhausen, thePfalzfeld obelisk, the upland settlement ofAltburg in the Hahnenbach valley and the numerous fields oftumuli. At that time, the Hunsrück was the tribal area of theTreveri.
Between about 50 BC and AD 400 theRomans opened up the Hunsrück by building a dense network of roads. The best known relic of this is theVia Ausonia. Numerous finds of Roman farms (Villa Rustica), settlements, like thevicusBelginum, and military structures point to an almost total settlement of the region by the Romans.
The final years of the 4th century saw the decline and fall of theWestern Roman Empire. TheFranks conquered the Roman territories and began to divide them up. This was the start of the great western and central Europeanempire of Francia. In the mid-8th century this was divided intogaus underCarolingian rule. The northern part of the present Hunsrück foreland belonged to theTrechirgau, the southern part to theNahegau. The Trechirgau was managed by the so-calledBertholds, the Nahegau by theEmichones. The capital of the Trechirgau,Trigorium, was inTreis. [8]
TheHundesrucha is mentioned for the first time in a 1074 deed fromRavengiersburg Abbey.[9]
In the Middle Ages, the Hunsrück was territorially fragmented between thecounts Palatine of the Rhine, the archbishops ofTrier, the counts ofSponheim and the successors of theEmichones (theWildgraves, theRaugraves and the counts ofVeldenz). There were also a number of smaller dominions. Due to the multitude of dominions, many castles and customs stations were built, mainly between 11th to mid 14th century, which still shape the landscape today.
In 1410 thePrincipality of Simmern emerged as a territory ruled by a side line of the counts Palatine. In the following years, Simmern became the most important residence of a noble family in the Hunsrück. UnderDuke John II the town achieved supra-regional importance for a short time.
After theThirty Years' War,Louis XIV of France made reunification demands on several principalities in the Palatinate, the Hunsrück and the Eifel. He had his troops invade and thus precipitated theNine Years' War. In 1689 Kirchberg, Kastellaun, Simmern and the town and castle of Stromberg were set on fire. Then came the chaos of war, which led to theWar of the Spanish Succession and which ended in 1713.
In the following years, trade and commerce grew. In the Hunsrück the first industry was set up by the families of Hauzeur, Pastert and Stumm. They ran mining, processing and ore smelting businesses. These, in turn, spurred the manufacture of implements for the house, farming and handicrafts: ovens, pans, boilers, weights, spades, nails, hammers, anvils, looms, spinning wheels and ammunition (cannonballs and shells weighing from 2 to 30 pounds). Leaders in the iron processing industry were the family of Stumm. Their progenitor, Christian Stumm, was ablacksmith inRhaunensulzbach. Two of his sons were important entrepreneurs. Johann Nikolaus Stumm (1668-1743) was asmeltery owner and his sons, Johann Ferdinand,Friedrich Philipp andChristian Philipp Stumm, bought theNeunkirchen ironworks on 22 March 1806, part of today'sSaarstahl AG.Johann Michael Stumm (1683-1747) was the founder of anorgan building workshop.
The notorious robbers, Johannes Bückler (known asSchinderhannes) andJohann Peter Petri (Black Peter) brought insecurity to the Hunsrück in the late 18th century.
In 1792, as a result of theFrench Revolution and the seizure of power byNapoleon, French troops once again invaded the territories west of the Rhine and annexed them during theFrench period. After the defeat of Napoleon atWaterloo in 1815, most of the Hunsrück was reallocated at theCongress of Vienna toPrussia'sRhine Province. Parts of today'sBirkenfeld and the northern Saarland belonged to the OldenburgPrincipality of Birkenfeld until 1937.
The economic situation in the Hunsrück became serious during the years 1815-1845. A poor harvest in 1815 was followed by theyear without a summer in 1816; grain prices rose rapidly and 1817 became a year of famine.
In September 1822, the Brazilian government sentGeorg Anton Schäffer to Germany to recruitmercenaries andcolonists. He arrived in 1823, as a representative of EmperorDom Pedro I of Brazil, and visited theHanseatic cities,Frankfurt and many of the German courts.[10] This mission sparked the first major wave of German emigrants toBrazil. Many of them were recruited by Schäffer from the Hunsrück, the northern and western parts of present-daySaarland and theWestern Palatinate.
The first immigrants from the Hunsrück settled in 1824 in what is now the Brazilian state ofRio Grande do Sul, near the city ofSão Leopoldo. Not until 1830 did the number of emigrants to Brazil begin to fall.[11]
The 1840s in Europe were marked by inflation,crop failures and a degree of social unrest, so that again (especially in 1846 and 1861) many people in Hunsrück decided to leave in two more waves of emigration, especially toNorth America andBrazil.[12]
In August 1846, it was announced inDunkirk, that free passage to Brazil would no longer be possible. At this time there were over 800 people waiting there. Prussia refused to give any assistance to the impoverished and helpless emigrants. They were transported from France in three warships toAlgeria and settled in the villages of Stidia and Sainte-Léonie.[13] Most of their descendants returned to France after theAlgerian War in 1962.[14]
As a result of the increasing neglect and deprivation of parts of the population in Germany during the era ofindustrialization, anInner Mission association was founded at the initiative of the Simmern pastor, and later superintendent,Julius Reuss, in Simmern, with the aim of building a rescue centre in the Hunsrück for children living in poverty. In 1851, an area between Simmern and Nannhausen, theSchmiedel, was acquired. There, the first building was erected as a "mother house" (Mutterhaus ordomus materna), which opened on 13 September 1851 with a householder and twelve boys. Even today, the head offices of theSchmiedel organization remain on the site.
After theFranco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the foundation of theGerman Reich underPrussia's leadership, the so-calledGründerzeit began. Its success did not impact the Hunsrück until later, which is why many job seekers and even entire families went looking for work in theRuhr area and migrated there.
The Protestant pastor, later Prussian Landtag MP,Richard Oertel, founder of the Hunsrück Farmers' Union in 1892, andAlbert Hackenberg, acting pastor inHottenbach from 1879 to 1912, successfully worked to improve the economic, social and technological conditions in the Hunsrück region. They achieved this through the creation ofdairy cooperatives, postal agencies and, in particular, throughadult education.
TheFirst World War, the Occupation Period andinflation also had a serious impact on the economy of the Hunsrück and its inhabitants, but there were not the political tensions that arose in many places in the German Reich.
A pioneer ofindustrialisation in the Hunsrück was entrepreneur,Michael Felke. In 1919 he founded theFelke Möbelwerke, a company that produced and sold furniture in Central Europe until the late 1990s. It was one of the first major employers in the region.
In 1938 and 1939, the German army became interested in the Hunsrück region as a strategic deployment route to the German-French border and theSiegfried Line, building the Hunsrück Highway, 140 kilometres long, in just 100 days. Supply depots and airfields were built in the woods on both sides of the road. In theSecond World War and post-war period, two places in the Hunsrück rose to notoriety:Hinzert concentration camp andBretzenheim POW camp, the so-called "Field of Misery".
In 1946, most of the Hunsrück became part of the new state ofRhineland-Palatinate, with small elements aroundNonnweiler going to the Saarland.
During theCold War until the early 1990s, the Hunsrück was home to numerous military airfields, ammunition dumps, command positions and missile sites. The most famous wereHahn Air Base, Pferdsfeld Air Base, the Börfink Command Bunker and thePydna Missile Base.
In 1986/87, as a result of theNATO Double-Track Decision, 96cruise missiles, fitted withnuclear warheads, were to be stored at Pydna. On 11 Oct 1986, on the market place in Bell, what was probably the largest demonstration in the Hunsrück's history took place. Around 200,000 people, 95% of whom were not from the Hunsrück, peacefully protested against the deployment of the missiles. At the end of the day the "Hunsrück Declaration" was read out which called for a reversal of the security policy. This did not happen, however, the Cold War ended two years later anyway, and the missile based was closed on 31 August 1993, the land being acquired by the Kastellaun garrison authority.
Likewise the US airbase at Hahn was transferred in 1993 to the German authorities and became a civilian facility,Frankfurt-Hahn Airport. The airport has expanded steadily since that time.
In the early 1980s, the film directorEdgar Reitz shot the first part of his trilogyHeimat in the Hunsrück, a large part of it inWoppenroth, also known asSchabbach. In 2012, Reitz returned to the Hunsrück for the shooting of his filmDie andere Heimat - Chronik einer Sehnsucht in the village ofGehlweiler. The film focuses on theVormärz era in the mid-19th century and the waves of emigration from the Hunsrück to Brazil.
The German television drama seriesHeimat, directed byEdgar Reitz, examined the 20th-century life of a small fictional village in the Hunsrück.
The electronic music festivalNature One is held at thePydna missile base inKastellaun.
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