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Bruchweiler
Bruchweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Herrstein-Rhaunen, whose seat is in Herrstein.
The municipality lies on the south slope of the Steingerüttelkopf, which at 756 m above sea level is one of the highest peaks in the Hunsrück. Much of the local countryside is wooded, and Bruchweiler's elevation of 555 m above sea level makes it one of Rhineland-Palatinate's highest municipalities. Bruchweiler also lies on the Deutsche Edelsteinstraße (“German Gem Road”).
Yearly precipitation in Bruchweiler amounts to 831 mm, which is rather high, falling into the highest third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 69% of the German Weather Service's weather stations, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in December. In that month, precipitation is 1.4 times what it is in April. Precipitation varies only slightly, with rainfall quite evenly spread over the whole year.
About 500 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, settled here. Their area of settlement was framed by the rivers Ahr, Rhine and Nahe. All indications are that it was these Treveri who built the ringwalls at the Wildenburg as a refuge castle when, in the last century before the Christian Era, they were beset first by Germanic tribes and then later by the Romans, who under Julius Caesar’s leadership enjoyed a number of successes that led to Roman hegemony throughout the Treveri's homeland. It became the Roman province of Belgica, whose boundary ran from somewhere near the Stumpfer Turm, where the important Celtic-Roman centre of Belginum lay, southwards to the ridge of the Idar Forest, along the ridge for a way before turning southwards again somewhere between Sensweiler and Wirschweiler, whence it ran to the Idarbach, crossed it by way of the Ringkopf, then running down the Siesbach to the river Nahe. While the lands west of this line formed Belgica, the lands to the east, including Bruchweiler, belonged to the Roman province of Germania Superior, whose capital was at Mogontiacum (Mainz). In later centuries, the border alignment mentioned above became the boundary between the Nahegau and the Moselgau (a territory that stretched along the Moselle), and after the 843 Treaty of Verdun, the boundary between Middle Francia and East Francia, two of the three entities into which Charlemagne’s old empire was split by that treaty.
Roman rule lasted 450 years in the Bruchweiler area. Interesting archaeological finds were made within Bruchweiler’s limits in 1922, and again in 1947 and 1948. All together, six cist graves, each measuring some 50 ×50 cm, with grave goods, were unearthed, dating from the late 2nd or 3rd century. In 1885, a trove of 26 coins was found on the Wildenburg Heights, among them some with Emperor Maximinus Thrax’s (ruled 235-238) effigy. Even earlier, in 1839, on the terracelike area southwest of the forester’s house, a Roman bath complex had been dug up, leading to the conclusion that there must have been a Roman settlement there.
In Late Roman times, about AD 350, a watch and signalling station may have been built by the Romans on the high quartzite cliffs with their broad view over the countryside to guard against Germanic incursions. In the 5th century, Roman hegemony was destroyed by the Franks, who were thrusting into the area from the east. Little is known about Frankish times in the Bruchweiler area, although placenames nearby ending in —rath, —roth, —rodt or —ert are undoubtedly Frankish foundings, referring as they do to the Franks’ customary practice when settling new land, namely clearing the woods (German still uses the verb roden to mean “clear”). The Franks were also instrumental in the introduction of Christianity into the area. When Charlemagne introduced the Gau system, Bruchweiler found itself in the Nahegau. Heading the Gau was a gaugrave (Gaugraf i.e."Gau count"), who was the king's official, and who could, as such, be replaced at any time. However, in a rather short time, gaugrave came to be more and more an hereditary post held by Gaugraf families. Beginning in 960, one such family cropped up in the Nahegau: the Emichones. Beginning in the mid 11th century, the Emichones were known to hold the countship and its attendant fief as heritable property, and they were also Imperially immediate princes. The Emichones were related to the Frankish Imperial dynasty, the Salians, whose family holdings lay in the Middle Rhine area. As a result of the fief law decreed by Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, all fiefs, great and small, became heritable property.
Also belonging to the Emichones’ main line beginning in 1103 were the Wildgraves. After several partitions of the Waldgraviate – to which belonged Schmidtburg, Kyrburg, Dhaun and Grumbach – Bruchweiler, and Kempfeld, too, passed in 1282 to Gottfried von Kyrburg. In 1328, the Wildenburg (castle) was built by Friedrich von Kyrburg. After the Schmidtburg, Dhaun and Kyrburg Waldgraves died out in the male line, the whole Waldgraviate passed to the last Wildgrave's son-in-law, Rhinegrave John III (whose last comital seat was Rheingrafenstein Castle near Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg) as an inheritance. Thereafter, his noble house called itself “Wild- and Rhinegraves”. Even after several lines emerged as the result of division of inheritance, this comital house remained one of the most powerful lordly houses between the Moselle and the Nahe, until Napoleon annexed the lands on the Rhine’s left bank in 1798 after the French Revolution.
As for the local people themselves, in Frankish-Early German times, they were all free peasants with the same rights. However, under the Heerbanngesetz (“Army Ban Law”), all free peasants had to perform long defence drills and military service, which made tending their fields properly ever more difficult. To free themselves from military service, many free peasants transferred their farms to a lord's ownership so that the lord could then enfeoff the peasant with the same farm. Although this released the peasant from military service, it did mean that he then had to pay tributes to his lord.
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Bruchweiler
Bruchweiler is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Birkenfeld district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde Herrstein-Rhaunen, whose seat is in Herrstein.
The municipality lies on the south slope of the Steingerüttelkopf, which at 756 m above sea level is one of the highest peaks in the Hunsrück. Much of the local countryside is wooded, and Bruchweiler's elevation of 555 m above sea level makes it one of Rhineland-Palatinate's highest municipalities. Bruchweiler also lies on the Deutsche Edelsteinstraße (“German Gem Road”).
Yearly precipitation in Bruchweiler amounts to 831 mm, which is rather high, falling into the highest third of the precipitation chart for all Germany. At 69% of the German Weather Service's weather stations, lower figures are recorded. The driest month is April. The most rainfall comes in December. In that month, precipitation is 1.4 times what it is in April. Precipitation varies only slightly, with rainfall quite evenly spread over the whole year.
About 500 BC, the Treveri, a people of mixed Celtic and Germanic stock, from whom the Latin name for the city of Trier, Augusta Treverorum, is also derived, settled here. Their area of settlement was framed by the rivers Ahr, Rhine and Nahe. All indications are that it was these Treveri who built the ringwalls at the Wildenburg as a refuge castle when, in the last century before the Christian Era, they were beset first by Germanic tribes and then later by the Romans, who under Julius Caesar’s leadership enjoyed a number of successes that led to Roman hegemony throughout the Treveri's homeland. It became the Roman province of Belgica, whose boundary ran from somewhere near the Stumpfer Turm, where the important Celtic-Roman centre of Belginum lay, southwards to the ridge of the Idar Forest, along the ridge for a way before turning southwards again somewhere between Sensweiler and Wirschweiler, whence it ran to the Idarbach, crossed it by way of the Ringkopf, then running down the Siesbach to the river Nahe. While the lands west of this line formed Belgica, the lands to the east, including Bruchweiler, belonged to the Roman province of Germania Superior, whose capital was at Mogontiacum (Mainz). In later centuries, the border alignment mentioned above became the boundary between the Nahegau and the Moselgau (a territory that stretched along the Moselle), and after the 843 Treaty of Verdun, the boundary between Middle Francia and East Francia, two of the three entities into which Charlemagne’s old empire was split by that treaty.
Roman rule lasted 450 years in the Bruchweiler area. Interesting archaeological finds were made within Bruchweiler’s limits in 1922, and again in 1947 and 1948. All together, six cist graves, each measuring some 50 ×50 cm, with grave goods, were unearthed, dating from the late 2nd or 3rd century. In 1885, a trove of 26 coins was found on the Wildenburg Heights, among them some with Emperor Maximinus Thrax’s (ruled 235-238) effigy. Even earlier, in 1839, on the terracelike area southwest of the forester’s house, a Roman bath complex had been dug up, leading to the conclusion that there must have been a Roman settlement there.
In Late Roman times, about AD 350, a watch and signalling station may have been built by the Romans on the high quartzite cliffs with their broad view over the countryside to guard against Germanic incursions. In the 5th century, Roman hegemony was destroyed by the Franks, who were thrusting into the area from the east. Little is known about Frankish times in the Bruchweiler area, although placenames nearby ending in —rath, —roth, —rodt or —ert are undoubtedly Frankish foundings, referring as they do to the Franks’ customary practice when settling new land, namely clearing the woods (German still uses the verb roden to mean “clear”). The Franks were also instrumental in the introduction of Christianity into the area. When Charlemagne introduced the Gau system, Bruchweiler found itself in the Nahegau. Heading the Gau was a gaugrave (Gaugraf i.e."Gau count"), who was the king's official, and who could, as such, be replaced at any time. However, in a rather short time, gaugrave came to be more and more an hereditary post held by Gaugraf families. Beginning in 960, one such family cropped up in the Nahegau: the Emichones. Beginning in the mid 11th century, the Emichones were known to hold the countship and its attendant fief as heritable property, and they were also Imperially immediate princes. The Emichones were related to the Frankish Imperial dynasty, the Salians, whose family holdings lay in the Middle Rhine area. As a result of the fief law decreed by Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, all fiefs, great and small, became heritable property.
Also belonging to the Emichones’ main line beginning in 1103 were the Wildgraves. After several partitions of the Waldgraviate – to which belonged Schmidtburg, Kyrburg, Dhaun and Grumbach – Bruchweiler, and Kempfeld, too, passed in 1282 to Gottfried von Kyrburg. In 1328, the Wildenburg (castle) was built by Friedrich von Kyrburg. After the Schmidtburg, Dhaun and Kyrburg Waldgraves died out in the male line, the whole Waldgraviate passed to the last Wildgrave's son-in-law, Rhinegrave John III (whose last comital seat was Rheingrafenstein Castle near Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg) as an inheritance. Thereafter, his noble house called itself “Wild- and Rhinegraves”. Even after several lines emerged as the result of division of inheritance, this comital house remained one of the most powerful lordly houses between the Moselle and the Nahe, until Napoleon annexed the lands on the Rhine’s left bank in 1798 after the French Revolution.
As for the local people themselves, in Frankish-Early German times, they were all free peasants with the same rights. However, under the Heerbanngesetz (“Army Ban Law”), all free peasants had to perform long defence drills and military service, which made tending their fields properly ever more difficult. To free themselves from military service, many free peasants transferred their farms to a lord's ownership so that the lord could then enfeoff the peasant with the same farm. Although this released the peasant from military service, it did mean that he then had to pay tributes to his lord.
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